temple of reflection | { lance / dars } blitz

Life in the Capitol awed her as much as it unnerved her.

Two may have fallen on hard times in recent years, a generation of no victory bonus hitting those that had grown up accustomed to wealth and ease harder than most, and yet even in its golden ages she had no doubt that her home paled in comparison to a tenth of the splendor that a lucky portion of Panem's population got to experience year in and year out, such ideas like want and desire barely skimming the surface of pampered minds. She'd heard rumors, of course, but few in Two had traveled to experience this wonder for themselves and lived to tell the tale.

But it wasn't all just shock and awe, and what made it worse for her is that she could see the levels of opulence, the casual way that each and everything tempted one with their decadence. She'd grown up thinking Cricket Antoinette a fool for abandoning her home and becoming an architect in the very game that had nearly destroyed her on the whims of the Capitol itself.

She still didn't like it, but the blissfulness of ignorance had been wiped clean from her eyes, replaced with a reluctant but undeniable understanding.

At least the training centers had been good. Even there, she'd enacted her strategy - when she threw weapons at training dummies or sparred with trainers, she'd always had been careful not to use every trick in her arsenal, showcase everything she could do - for around her were twenty three sets of eyes looking, observing, taking in her every move and doing what they could to counter.

Sure, Two's record may have slumped in the last two decades, but reputation remained intact nevertheless. And because of that fact alone, she had to remain ever vigilant.

So when she passed by her on her way out from a sparring session, a whisper on her lips speaking sweet nothings, there was no surprise that crossed her face, simply a pause in her footsteps and a raise of one eyebrow.

"We're the strongest ones here," said Myrcella Hudson, her counterpart from One. "It'd be a pity if we weren't the last two. That would be a show."

The other girl was everything that she was not - blonde, pretty, almost dainty in a sense, a picturesque representation of everything she had ever heard about One and its inhabitants. This was not someone who had known hunger and suffering, at least not in the way she had, but there was no denying that out of her five fellow Careers, this one would be the one to watch out for.

Of course, that wasn't saying much, given the fact that Myrcella's district partner was a dumb brute, Four's boy was athletic but lacked a threatening air, and their girl was, to be quite honest, forgettable. Hisidro had intrigued her back on the train, however, and now this girl intrigued her in much of the same way.

She wasn't stupid; she knew what the girl's purpose in stopping her was. But she wasn't that trusting, even if she was quite possibly her biggest rival within the building at the moment.

"Perhaps," she responded lightly. "But it isn't the show I care about so much as the ability to get there." She paused, dark eyes locking with the other's lighter brown. "I know girls like you - always thinking three steps ahead, always possessing a plan."

Arms crossed, half a smirk crossed her face, "So what's yours, Myrcella Hudson?"

What's your grand scheme in this game of blood and bones?