A Candle in the Wind

ARA FONTAINEFormer academy student, niece to District Four Victor Marina Zale, and determined to make her own path in the world.

[adrianafontaine]

serenity-garcia‌:

“Well, at least I will show them how it’s done,” she said with a smirk. There was always the actual spar, but sometimes it was fun to add in a spar with words. Serenity adjusted her ponytail, her hands clenched into loose fists, down in a ready stance. “I hope you don’t think I’ll go easy on you.”

Serenity started to move slightly to the right to find any holes in her stance or any kind of opportunities. She tested Adriana first, throwing a quick jab to her shoulder, but prepared for any reaction that Adriana could have. 

“Speak for yourself,” Adriana told her with a laugh. She was certain she could hold her own. “I wouldn’t want you to go easy on me. All I ask is no shots to my knee please.” Typically she wouldn’t set limits, but she couldn’t do that pain or rehab for a third time. “If I tear my ACL a third time, I am just going to cut the leg off.” It was a joke, but part of her was serious.

Adriana brought her hands up in anticipation of Serenity’s first move. She stepped back to allow her jab to slide past her shoulder. In counter, she swept her leg from the side hoping to knock her fellow trainer off her feet.

[adrianafontaine]

ashtendewitt‌:

It was the first place people would assume to punch, so it caught her off guard when the young woman told her otherwise. Brow furrowed, she tilted her head to the side slightly, curious. “Not the face,” she repeated slowly. But then the woman made a demonstration of throwing quick jabs toward her stomach.

Ashten tensed, but let herself relax when the punches fell short. She nodded, taking in everything the woman told her. Abdomen, maybe even a kick. Her gaze followed the woman’s movements, as if taking in multiple dance moves for a routine. Not that Ashten was a dancer at all. “Makes sense,” she agreed, considering the face had been the first spot she had assumed to hit. Basically, go for anything else.

“Sure, yeah.” she replied, “if you’ve got time. I don’t wanna take you away from training your kids.” She didn’t recognize the woman from anyone on Seven’s Team. But if she was willing to offer some pointers, then she’d gladly take them.

“I have time,” Adriana assured her. “Besides, to be honest, tributes from District Four don’t always need much guidance on fighting.” If they came from the academy, they knew their way around a fight or any weapons she could show them. Her tributes were her priority, but Adriana wasn’t so cold hearted she would ever turn down a tribute that asked her for help.

She lead Ashten over to the mats. “Lets just do some basics? I mean do you know anything about fighting?” Tributes had various experience with fights and taking care of themselves. “I admit I don’t know much about how things are in District Seven.”

[adrianafontaine]

echohuxley‌:

“Do they do anything other than eat and party?” Echo questioned her with a shake of her head.  “Bonfires sound really fun.  I don’t think they do much of that here, but honestly I’m not up on the whole Capitol scene more than I need to be.”  It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing Echo liked being involved with.  She’d much rather be home tinkering on her next invention or even playing some video games.  What was wrong with that?

Sighing, she ran her fingers through her hair.  “Honestly, Adriana, I tend to mind my own business here.  I don’t like being here more than I have to be and I’ve usually got some sort of work related thing to do.  That’s why I end up at most of the parties I go to.”

“Probably not,” Adriana admitted. Capitolites didn’t have to worry about most things the rest of them had to. They had time to do nothing but party and have fun. Adriana wasn’t sure if she would like that kind of life style or not.

She raised an eyebrow. “I get that, but don’t you want to try new things? Not necessarily a party or whatever...” Adriana was sure there were plenty of other cool things to see in the Capitol. Things they could only dream about in the Districts. “I mean don’t they have like museums and parks and stuff here? Though I admit if they have an indoor rock climbing thing, I totally want to try it.”

[adrianafontaine]

ashtendewitt‌:

Ashten glanced down at her fists, which she realized she had her fingers wrapped around her thumb. Slowly, she unfurled her fingers and clenched them again, this time with her thumb laying against her fingers. She was well aware there was no room for kindness in the Arena. If she wanted to get back home, she would have to do whatever it took to do so, even going as far as to kill. Throwing a punch was probably a baby step, but Ashten needed to learn how to defend herself, let alone how to fight, aside from swinging an axe.

“The face?” she asked, glancing toward the younger woman. She lifted a hand to her face, pointing toward her own nose, “The nose?”

Adriana shrugged a bit. “Yeah, if you know where to put it. Hit the jaw in the right place and it’s lights out. Though...” She paused a moment. “There are a lot of strong bones in the face. Hit them wrong and you’ll break your hand.  It’s not the first place I’d recommend throwing a punch.” Adriana admitted to the tribute.

“Instead...” Adriana brought her own hands up in demonstration. “Short jabs to the abdomen,” she mocked punched the girl in the stomach. “Can deliver a hell of a kick too. The kidneys,” she motioned to the kidney area. “Can really knock a tribute down. A blow to the outside of a knee can blow out a knee.” Adriana looked at Ashten a moment. “Besides the first place people are going to protect is their face. A couple quick body jabs might be more effective.”

“Want to take a try with the dummy?”

[adrianafontaine]

serenity-garcia‌:

Adriana had a point. She had a feeling that Primrose and Rory weren’t going to be down for a while or if they were they wouldn’t want to get into it right away. She could let them have a little look around and make sure they were a bit more comfortable before jumping at them with all she had. “I mean you’re not wrong.”

Serenity gave her a small grin, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Okay Adriana, let’s do this.” 

She walked over to the closest mat, dropping her training bag on the ground by the bench. Serenity shed her hoodie, ready to sweat and train with Adriana. She bounced slightly from foot to foot in anticipation. “So, what do you want to do Adriana? Spar, practice with mitts or dummies?”

Go big or go home, right? In the academy she heard it every day, after all, there was no half way in the arena. “Lets spar.” She hadn’t actually sparred with another in a long time. These days all she did was things like running, cardio, and practicing here and there with some of her academy friends. By her age, most of them had moved onto other things considering they hadn’t been chosen for the arena.

“Alright, I’m ready.” She said as she tied her hair up and took a deep breath. “We’ll show these tributes how it’s done.”

[adrianafontaine]

echohuxley‌:

Echo’s brow rose when Adriana spoke.  What sort of trouble was she thinking of getting into?  While she was curious, Echo also didn’t want to make things worse for District Three.  There had been enough shit for them since Pixel’s win and she didn’t want to add to that.

“What sort of adventure are you thinking about?” she asked curiously.  It was plain as day that Echo’s interest was piqued, but she also wasn’t ready to blindly agree without knowing a little bit of the details.

What was she thinking? Adriana had a few ideas but she wasn’t sure how much trouble they should risk getting into. Not that she wanted to do something scandalous, but she wanted to have some fun. “I am sure we can sneak out and find something to do. It’s not like I want to burn the entire place around. What do you think people our age do around here anyhow?”

Adriana thought about her own question a moment. “You know other than eat and party.” Though that probably took up most of their time. “Back home it’s all beaches and bonfires and just hanging out. Doubt that’s much their style here.”

[adrianafontaine]

echohuxley‌:

“You’re telling me I need fun when you don’t know what the fun is?” Echo asked with a laugh.  “Oh c’mon, Adriana, I think you can do better than that.”  Though she was right.  If they didn’t enjoy themselves now they wouldn’t have any free time until their tributes launched, or in Echo’s case, until her tributes were dead.  She didn’t want to think like that, but she also didn’t want to get her hopes up.

“I’m sure we can find something fun to do.”

Adriana had to laugh at Echo’s remark. “Well, I have always been a go with the flow kind of girl.” Planning wasn’t part of her usual style because her plans never went right anyhow. This was the Capitol, there had to be something for them to do other than training and games related things.

“I mean I am sure you don’t want to go to training to train right?” Though if Echo wanted to learn something, Adriana would teach her. “I was thinking we need to do something more fun...” She chewed her lip a moment while she thought about it. “What do you say we go on a little adventure of our own tonight after everyone is sleeping?”

[adrianafontaine]

serenity-garcia‌:

Serenity was pumped. She loved the first day of training. She was fresh, she was ready, and she didn’t have to deal with any other crap other than training. It was freeing in a place full of crap. It was easy for her to wake up early, throw on her training gear, grab an energy bar and make her way to the Training Centre before most of the other inhabitants of the Tower were waking up. 

When she got downstairs, she wasn’t surprised to see some of the other trainers here and Serenity set off to walk through the stations, categorizing them into which ones were important for Prim and Rory. She hoped that they would be present and she could give them pointers to help them survive. Serenity wanted to give them the best chance she could. 

She was halfway through the stations when she heard Adriana and Serenity turned to give her a half-smile. “I don’t have set plans, but I’m hoping they start to arrive soon. But, I can’t make them come find me, you know?” 

Serenity pulled at her ponytail, tightening it against her head. “Were you thinking of taking me up on the training already?”

Adriana nodded because the thought had crossed her arms. “I mean why not? Training has just begun so there is plenty of time.” Tributes were just getting their feet wet without the pressure of the arena looming over her head. In another day or so when it was getting down to the wire, they were going to want a lot more training time and instruction as they made their final preparations for launch. “I am not sure when I’ll get more time than I have now.”

“Don’t worry though, I am ready.” She teased lightly. It was nice to have a reason to train again other than simply so she could look presentable as a trainer. “I have been refreshing my skills so you don’t make me look like a total fool.”

[adrianafontaine]

ashtendewitt‌:

As much as Ashten wanted to take up the axes, she had a feeling it was best to steer clear of them until the private training sessions. That was when her best skills would be put to the test, and she didn’t need to draw too much attention to herself just yet, especially from the competition. So she had wandered around the different stations– navigation, first aid, camouflage. Things that didn’t seem terribly important until the Tribute was dying because they didn’t know how to stitch up a wound or blend into their surroundings. 

But she knew she needed a back up in case she didn’t get an axe in the Arena. Something that would be a good substitute. So she found herself at the hand-to-hand combat station, stretching to warm herself up before she would find a sparring partner or a free trainer. Ashten started to head toward the mat when she spotted someone approaching. “Got any tips for throwing a decent punch?”

@ttwstarters

Adriana looked at the tribute a moment trying to recall which District she had come from, but she drew a blank. It wasn’t a Career one, obviously, because they all got the basics on day one of the Academy. “Yeah, make sure you mean it.” It seemed like a stupid point to make, but if you didn’t want to cause harm to someone, chances were you wouldn’t give it your all. Being kind in the arena didn’t make turn you into a Victor. “And don’t tuck your thumb under your fingers unless you want to break it. You can’t do much with a broken thumb because you can’t grab anything.” Adriana told the girl as she showed her the proper positioning of the hand when throwing a punch.

“Do you know the proper place to throw a punch?” She asked.

[adrianafontaine]

It was finally training day and Adriana was excited. This was where she was actually useful to the tributes other than kissing up to Sponsors, which she never liked anyhow. There was a whole list of things she wanted to make sure District Four’s tributes got to experience. For now however, that could wait. Someone else had caught her eye.

“It’s training day!” She told Serenity with a cocked eyebrow. Not that long again they had promised they would have their little sparring match and do some training together. Adriana had made sure she was in as top shape as she could be for this moment. “Or do you have plans with your tributes?”

@serenity-garcia​

[adrianafontaine]

“You look like you could use some fun in your life,” Adriana told Echo as she sat down beside her and looked at her from over the top of her water bottle. She hadn’t seen Echo in a while, but she was glad they had this time to see each other.

Adriana chewed her lip a moment. “I don’t claim to know what the fun is, but we can find something. I need a new adventure.” Sure the games and a new batch of tributes were an adventure, but that wasn’t the kind of adventure she wanted to have. “You know before things get real around here. What do you think?”

@echohuxley​

[adrianafontaine]

marinazale‌:

“I will,” she assured her.  “Promise.”  Having Adriana around was always helpful and Marina liked having a face from home there for her to lean on.  It was refreshing and comfortable, even if she worried about her niece more than she should.

But at the mention of Thalia, Marina shook her head.  “No she didn’t!  That’s amazing.  I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time,” she told her niece, chuckling a little when she twirled.  “You’re going to be an absolutely beautiful model, Adriana.”  If it was something Adriana wanted to do then she hoped she’d enjoy herself.  Marina trusted Thalia enough to know she wouldn’t let Adriana do anything that wasn’t completely appropriate.

She shrugged. “I am sure it’ll be fun. Not sure it’s something I’ll want to do forever, but you never know if you don’t try, right?” Adriana was all about trying new things, after all, it was what she had wanted to come to the Capitol for. “There will also be boys there so...” She gave her aunt a grin partly because she was kidding and partly because she was serious. There had never been time for dating in the academy.

“Anyhow, we better get settled in. The Parade is soon!”

[adrianafontaine]

vesperantonius‌:

“I’m sure your kids will do fine,” she assured her. Four was one of the Districts with The Academy, one of the Career Districts. And while they may not have always allied with the Careers, they still had the training on their side. Misty had gotten far the previous year and Lincoln was still their newest Victor. Four seemed to be doing pretty well all around.

She let out a small hum and nodded, “They have been. Hopefully it’s our year and if not, maybe it’ll be yours.” Vesper had seen how well the other Districts had been doing, that there were less Career Victors in recent years. And she couldn’t help but have a small amount of satisfaction at that, despite the many deaths over the years. “We’ll have to see what this year brings. Rumor has it, there’s kind of a trend in the Arenas they’ve been picking. Between natural Arenas and then indoor Arenas.”

She shrugged because time would tell. “It’ll be someone’s year.” Whose it would be remained to be seen. Adriana tried not to focus on it too much, because if she learned anything last year, it was that attachment was a hard bond to break. Misty had been a nice girl, but she hadn’t felt attached to her in a way that would absolutely shatter her. “Hard to tell anything for a Reaping so we’ll see here in a few days.”

The arena, Adriana had thought about that a lot. Last year District Four had seemed to have the advantage, but they had only been on the water to start and end the games. “I mean least my swimming lessons helped a few tributes last year.” She paused for a moment. “I think they’re going to surprise us this year. Like it’s going to be something totally out of the blue and unpredictable. Not sure what else they could do indoors? Then again, I’m not a gamemaker so who knows. What do you think?”

[adrianafontaine]

marinazale‌:

“I know, but don’t say that around him.  I’m sure he’s going to be a wreck.”  It was bad enough that it looked like he was hit for speaking out at the reaping before the feeds cut out.  She didn’t know what sort of state he’d be in when the train from Twelve arrived.  “I don’t know.  I’ll find him once Twelve’s train comes in.”

She shifted Waverly in the baby sling and nodded.  “That’s a deal, but if you want to babysit you’re gonna need to master the diaper change sooner or later.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.” Adriana promised, not that it matter. She only talked to Jackson here and there. Not that she would point that out to any Victor that wasn’t her aunt, because it wasn’t her position to remind them of how things worked with the games. “If you need any help with anything, let me know.” There wasn’t much for her to do until training started other than chat and catch up with her friends.

Adriana made a face. “I am working on it. I only got peed on once so I feel like that’s something that needs to be celebrated.” Adriana told her aunt with a laugh. “Oh! Did Thalia tell you she’s letting me go to one of her fashion shows? I might even be able to model something.” It wasn’t necessarily something she wanted to do for a living, but it could be fun to try it out. New adventures were something she wasn’t ever going to turn down. “What do you think? I could totally do it.” She told her aunt giving her a little twirl.

[adrianafontaine]

vesperantonius‌:

“Glad you’re just as excited as I am,” she replied with an equally less than enthusiastic tone. As soon as the news went around about the more frequent quells, Vesper felt a weight sink in her chest. It was bad enough that it was every twenty-five years, but knowing that The Capitol was that thirsty for blood also wasn’t that surprising. “I might have been, too,” she admitted, “but once you’ve been on the other side and see how things are run… yeah, you learn.”

“Mine are, too. Had about five minutes to see them before they were swept up in all the excitement. Hoping they’ll do well this year, though.” Vesper needed to move on from last year and how quickly Finley and Dairyann had gone. This year was a new year, as wrong as that sounded. “About where I’m at right now, too. And trying to avoid the hype around The Birchelor. Because being a Trainer for Ten means I have to know all the juicy details about Birch and Lael’s love life.” 

Adriana had to nod because it was the truth. Then again, having witnessed the games on a more personal level and having a new baby cousin had a way of changing your mind too. This wasn’t something she would want for Waverly. Adriana had learned a lot of things at the Academy, but it didn’t mean they had to use those skills for killing. Yet, she was still here and she wasn’t required to keep her job like the mentors so what did that say about her?

“What does it say though that I am still here?” She asked not really expecting an answer. “I hope they do better than they did last year! I hope mine do as well.” Misty had finished third after all, which was respectable. District Four had a lot of luck lately though, so Adriana didn’t count on anything. You never knew what was going to happen. “I mean really if you think about it, a lot of other Districts have been doing well. Could be District Ten’s turn to bring home a Victor.”

[adrianafontaine]

marinazale‌:

“Because if I know Jackson as well as I think I do, he won’t stop until that Everdeen girl is either the victor, or dead.”  There wouldn’t be time for something else.  Even a simple dinner together might be time he would rather be spending talking to the sponsors.  She understood that, but it was a little disappointing.

Marina smiled.  “That works.  You’re always welcome to baby cuddles.  She’s a little sleepy right now, but if you want you can help me take her upstairs, I need to feed her and put her down for a nap.”

“Admirable, but it’s not likely she’ll win.” Not that Adriana wished death on anyone, she would never, but only one kid got to come out. District Twelve had no better a track record than some of the other non-Career or non-District Three tributes. “You would think he would want to take a break from it all for a few hours to spend an evening with his family.”

Adriana was happy for the change of the topic, because it was really none of her business. If they wanted their date night, she was more than happy to babysit her cousin. “Sure. Though diaper changes are all you mom.” She swore there was an art to it she didn’t possess.

[adrianafontaine]

vesperantonius‌:

“Gotta be,” she scoffed with a hint of a smirk on her face. Even though she had been training with District Ten for more than a few years now, she still couldn’t get used to the hustle and bustle of The Capitol around Games season. Probably because their tones were obnoxiously excited, morbidly eager. And the crowds of people were full of bright colors. 

Vesper watched the group pass them by, excited chattering among each other and hardly minding the two women standing on the sidelines. “Just wait until next year with the new quells.” Though there was anything but enthusiasm in her tone. “I’m all right, watching out for my Tributes. Ten’s one of the last Districts to come in. How about you?”

Adriana made a face. “I can’t wait,” she said with false enthusiasm, because when you were in the Capitol you were supposed to look forward to such thing. “You know, I would have been thrilled to hear such thing when I was in the academy.” The Quarter Quell had happened in her prime volunteer period and she would have volunteered then had she not been injured. “I would like to think I’m older and wiser now.”

“My tributes are down getting prepped for the parade.” It was one of the perks of being in District Four, it didn’t take that long to get to the Capitol. “Not much else for me to do other than mingle. I haven’t had the pleasure of running into sponsors, but I think I can wait to talk to them? I have to see what they can do in training.”