Explosions In The SKY [Mat]

Explosions In The SKY [Mat] Dec 24, 2011 15:57:55 GMT -5

Post by Kerrash on Dec 24, 2011 15:57:55 GMT -5

I will have to pull my heart away

Cause if I never leave I'll ruin yesterday

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" I'm ripping your posters off the wall
I'm moving the boxes into the hall
I stop when I hear a drumbeat call

Ella was all done for the day. She looked around the arena with a sigh of relief. Ben had decided to give her a full day of hard training, and she barely had any time for a break. Half of her was glad, because she knew that if she were to be a tribute for the games, she would need to be in top shape. However, it was always hard whenever Ben failed to give her any breaks. She was thirsty again, and she couldn’t help but seek out the first available source of water. Ella knew that if this were the real Games, there would not be enough water to go around, and so in some ways, she was glad Ben pushed her this hard. However, she couldn’t help but collapse in a chair outside of the arena with a nice cold glass of ice water. She thirstily drank it as Ben approached her. “I’ll give you the rest of the night off. But tomorrow, we’re going to work on your stamina with lack of supplies. Drink up, because believe me, you’ll miss it.” With that he walked away. Ella could just imagine him walking out of the building and getting into his shiny new car. She knew he’d leave her at the arena to fend for herself on terms of getting home, but hey, she didn’t exactly mind it. She enjoyed the walk and frankly, she could only spend so much time with Ben before she began to get annoyed. Personally, she thought the feeling was mutual, because she never saw him going out of his way to talk to her if it had anything to do with something other than the games. Stretching, she pulled her knees up and put her feet on her chair, wrapping her arms around her legs. She pressed her cheeks down onto her knees and took slow deep breaths.

“Bye.” She muttered mostly to herself. She always imagined the fame and fortune of the life of a victor, but so far, she felt far from it. She lived in a large house with Ben, but she never was treated like someone who deserved to live there. If anything, she was almost like Ben’s slave. The children of the house weren’t much different either. They all had strict schedules that involved mostly training, and then very monitored eating, and of course sleeping. There really wasn’t a chance for fun, or school really. Ella missed school. When the reaping came around and they found out that she wasn’t going to be a tribute, she would get to enroll in school for a little while. But as soon as the training season started, it was goodbye school for Ella. She kind of liked it at the school. She knew most kids didn’t and some of them even resented it, but she couldn’t help but feel like whatever she was learning that day was fun. It might be because she didn’t get to go to school every day, and so when she actually got to learn she took it as a privilege. Most kids viewed school as some sort of chore, but she loved it. But she loved this too. Looking into the arena, she watched some of the other Careers before her. She loved being in there and learning about everything there is to learn. She loved throwing spears and dodging attacks, but she especially loved her moves with knives. She was quick, and she had taken a liking to knife combat since an early age. In there she felt alive, and she wouldn’t trade it for the world. Sighing, she watched as some of the other careers came into the room she was in. They were done for the day as well, and she could tell that they were tired. The feeling was mutual. Ella blinked sleepily at them, but she knew that she couldn’t get to comfortable. Outside snow had covered the floor, and she knew that it would be a hard trip home. Ben never gave her a ride home even in the strongest of storms, so Ella really wasn’t surprised, but she still was feeling nervous. Storms scared her.

Looking at the many careers passing her, she suddenly felt anxious. They looked like they all had a place to go, and she knew that the cars outside were theirs. Few careers walked home like she did, but she was hoping she could find one who would be willing to walk with her. Ben would murder her if he knew that she tagged along in a car, and she wasn’t ready to risk that. She was tired, and when she got home she wanted to go to bed. Most of the careers lived in her neighborhood anyway. All the trainers liked to live in the same upper class establishment. Looking around, she tried to find a familiar face. “Is anybody walking home tonight?” She asked the passing careers. Some looked at her like she was crazy before going out to their cars while others ignored her all together. Damn. Maybe this was hopeless.

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And I'll know that nobody, nobody's listening
And that's easy for me and it's better for the soul
And it's better for you and it's better for all ”

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Explosions In The SKY [Mat] Jan 2, 2012 1:31:19 GMT -5

Post by Gamemaker Lauren Kinkade on Jan 2, 2012 1:31:19 GMT -5

I'm a slacker, go whichever way the wind blows
Those just tuning in I'm just letting' you know
That I'm a slacker

Matador hadn't been quite up to par in training lately, and it was easy to blame it on exhaustion, but it went deeper than that. He'd had more colds and a touch of the flu in the past year than he cared to count, and that just wasn't normal - or acceptable. He needed to be in peak shape to train, train, train, to make sure he looked good enough so the Caelums had a chance at volunteering him for the Quell. As it presently stood he was only making about half his sessions, and definitely wasn't performing even then.

He knew it, he felt it, and there was nothing he could do it about it because Matador couldn't explain why he kept getting sick, he just did. They tried changing his diet, his training schedule, his sleep schedule - his family even imported some fancy enhancing drugs from Six that helped for awhile and then backfired tremendously. He had been so sick he hadn't gone to school, couldn't even think about eating solid foods for days. That had been the end of experimenting, and he seemed to be leveling off, or at least learning to deal with the symptoms of sickness.

He shouldn't have stayed at the center as late as he did, given that it was winter now, and colds came from the weather, or some crap like that. But he had, because he had felt better than usual, willing to push himself another mile in his cardio exercises, do another set in the weight training. It was a different crowd later at night - not necessarily more determined or more lazy than the morning crowd, just different. He was pretty sure he liked it better, but then an empty training center was always preferable to a full one.

He was bundled up in layers, despite the sweat still clinging to his body. His pale blue sweater peaked out around his neck, above the cushy black jacket his mother insisted he wear, to ward off the cold. As though that were the problem, given that he'd been just as sick in the summer. It was a lot of effort to argue, though, so he just shrugged it on after his sessions, pulled up the hood when it was snowing, and trudged on.

He moved at a good clip, his shoulders hunched up to keep his ears warm. As he passed by the front of the center, he got caught up in the flood of Careers exiting, rolled his eyes and leaned against the fence to wait out the rush. When it had mostly cleared, a striking girl trotted out like it was her first time at the center, though he'd seen her before. She looked lost, but that wasn't really Matador's problem. "Yeah, I am." Mat swung his gaze over her as he pushed away from the iron post, his chin just visible over the line of his jacket. He walked until he was right in front of her, and then paused, a lazy smile dawdling on his lips. "Oh, you wanted someone to walk with you. That way?" He pointed in the direction of his home, and then returned to his clipped pace.

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