don't engage, strike by night.

atop the crags and cliffs the air is thin, so we'll find a mountain path on down the h i l l . meet me where the snowmelts flows. it is there, my dear, where we'll begin again. rowan nightfall, district 10.

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore‌:

After Lysetta had gifted her the ukulele, Winnie’s training day had gone remarkably better than the one before it. Suddenly it was as though she was revitalized, filled with energy that came from having something to fight for. She had felt most of her fight deflate from her when the officials back home took her guitar, and it was a good feeling to get some of it back. 

As the afternoon continued, Winnie had set up camp at the traps and snares station, working carefully with a patient trainer and a few coils of wire to work on some simple traps. Tension and balance were things she understood, and wire was not foreign to her, but it was the act itself of making traps that she wanted to understand. She was a quick study, and hummed to herself as she worked. “Loop it under, then over, then around the corner, fasten it tight and tip it off…” she softly sang under her breath, committing each unique loop to memory.

Winnie looked up after finishing one of the tougher snares and spotted Rowan approaching. She waved him over with a huge smile and hurried forward to meet him with a quick kiss. “Want to see what I made?” she asked softly, taking him by the hand back to her collection of traps. // @ofvigilcnce

Rowan was beginning to feel like he was suffocating. Being forced to stay in this building for a prolonged period of time was torturous. He craved the forest, craved the feeling of tree roots on the bottoms of his feet, craved fresh air. But whenever he found himself at the front door of the building or on the roof, he found a peacekeeper shoving him back inside or a trainer telling him off for being someplace he wasn’t supposed to be.

Freedom was something that was a luxury around here.

So, if he wasn’t allowed to leave, he figured he would find Winnie, and that he did, finding her working on something in some corner of the training room in classic Winnie fashion. She wasn’t going to give up, he loved that about her.

“Yes, show me, show me, you incredibly talented human person, you.”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore:

“Let’s hope the Arena is a giant fruit bowl so I won’t starve,” she muttered, taking another bite of the soft pumpkin muffin in front of her. “I know Ten isn’t exactly crawling with an all-star team, but Ro, we have to at least try. If you get any genius ideas about how to somehow make this city love us in a week, I’m all ears.” 

Rowan’s little bucket list brought a smile to her face. She knew he wanted to do everything, and they’d likely never get the time, but she had to help him the way he helped her. “I think that can all be arranged. Count me in for the fondue thing, and also, I’d really like to try pizza. I hear a lot of good things about pizza.” Winnie folded down the paper of her muffin to enjoy another bite. “We’ll live as if we’ll die tomorrow every day until it’s true.”

“I won’t let you starve, don’t worry,” he said, adding to the ever growing list of promises he didn’t know if he was able to keep. “Winnie, if the Capitol can feel even half of the love that I have for you, we have nothing to worry about. Just be your usual, charming, kind, adorable, lovely self, I’m sure the rest is going to follow.”

His eyes brightened at her words, grabbing another piece of muffin in the process. “I hear there’s two types of fondue; chocolate and cheese, I don’t know which one I’m more excited about. I think we’ll eat as if we’ll die tomorrow every day until it’s true, I can’t wait to stuff my face,” he said, stuffing his face a bit more with the muffin carefully balanced on his stomach.

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

lysettaprior:

The moment he said favour, Lysetta pulled out her notepad and jotted down the request. She wrote down a couple of names that might be able to get her one. Lysetta wasn’t sure if she would be allowed to do this, but she couldn’t let these kids down. “I can definitely try. It might take a little while, but I can see what I can do.” She tucked her pen behind her ear and the notepad back in her bag. She looked at Rowan and saw a little tension. With a tilt of her head, she asked, “Are you doing okay? You seem a little rattled.” 

For a moment, Rowan watched her write things down, before letting himself get distracted by the music again. It was frustrating, to feel so helpless in this situation, so he promised himself to take control of everything he cloud in his life before it was too late. Making Winnie has happy as possible was one of those things. “I’m fine, I guess, just worrying about everything, you know? It’s a whole lot all at once that I didn’t ask for.”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

stellinaminuet:

“I hardly ever do anything embarrassing,” Stellina said with confidence. “And when I do, I own it.” Maybe it was one of the few benefits that came with a childhood spent constantly afraid of messing something up. “Assault,” she replied casually. “I wanted it to be murder, but some do-gooder came and pulled me off the assface before I had chance to get that far.” She tried to maintain her nonchalant facade, but her facial expressions and tone betrayed how bitter she still was over the incident.

This seemed like someone to watch, someone to pay attention to as training and the games went on. The type of person who didn’t admit their shortcomings wasn’t the type of person Rowan wanted to find himself in the arena with. “Who was the lucky victim?”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

glittercaulder:

Glitter hadn’t even heard the song until the boy pointed it out.  She shifted Tetra on her hip and expertly removed the compass necklace from her daughter’s grip without breaking her focus on the boy.  “It’s good,” she agreed, though only half paying attention.  “I might have heard it.  I don’t really remember.”

Rowan sighed, pausing for a moment to let it finish before the music shifted to some other song by some other artist, something he didn’t recognize. “That was my girlfriend’s song,” he said, looking up at the speaker. “She wrote that, but that was someone else singing it. It was stolen. They took a poor girl’s song, added a shitty beat to the background, and are passing it off on their own. That’s bullshit.”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

lysettaprior:

Lysetta felt a bump on her shoulder and turned around to see one of her tributes. A smile formed on her face and she felt a little relief that she could actually talk to Rowan. “Nope, only a little bump that probably won’t turn into anything. We didn’t really get to talk on the train, but I’m Lysetta, your Escort. I hope you’re doing okay so far.”

Rowan would recognize her anywhere, the woman who, probably unintentionally, ruined both his and Winnie’s life with the pick of one name from a bowl. He wasn’t normally one to hold grudges, but when it came to Winnie, he held them like his life depended on it. She owed him one. “I’m doing fine, but I do have a favor to ask of you. Do you think you could get me a guitar? Or a ukulele? Either will do.”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore:

“Ghost flies are an epidemic lately, you know,” Winnie teased. She scrunched her nose back at him as he brushed her hair back. “Perhaps we’ll train an army of them to come help us. They’ll be like our superpowers. The Adventures of Fly Boy and Fly Girl.” Winnie broke a piece off of an unfamiliar muffin and bit into it, grinning. “I think this one is pumpkin. It’s almost as good as the blueberry,” she added as she offered him another piece.

Winnie thought about it for a moment. There were, of course, so many things she wished they could do that they didn’t have time for. Marriage, kids, white picket fences. “I’d like my guitar back,” she said, letting her finger twirl a strand of Rowan’s hair. “Doesn’t have to be mine, just similar. Or my ukulele. I want to make sure we take the time and sing together, all of our songs. I don’t ever want to forget them as long as I’m in there.” Winnie didn’t expect that she’d have a life after this. She hoped she would, but she’d be foolish to expect it. Even with Rowan by her side, she was timid and weak and awkward. Not exactly prime skills you need to win a fight. 

“Let’s hope the arena is a giant fruit bowl, maybe then we’ll have some shot of getting you out of there,” he said back to her, taking the piece and also another one of the muffins on the plate and resting it on his stomach, carefully fiddling with the wrapping on it absentmindedly as he continued to speak.

“Consider it done” he said, not exactly knowing how he was planning on getting her a guitar with absolutely no money to his name and no family support and no clue where the closest music shop would be once they got there, but if it was something she wanted, it was something he would get for her, hands down, no questions asked. “You know what I’ve always wanted to do?” he asked, quirking his eyebrows at her. “I wanna learn how to juggle. I also want to ride a segway, I wanna find out what the fuck fondue is and how on earth it’s used in today’s society, and I want to see you smile at least two hundred more times. Think we can manage all that?”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore:

“Yes, you’d hurt a fly and then apologize,” she teased, ruffling through his hair before smoothing it back into place. She let her fingers drift over his lips, across his forehead, reaching down to toy with the collar of his shirt. She couldn’t help but agree with him when he made a face at her, that he was possibly the cutest thing she’d ever seen. “You are, you absolute weirdo. And that’s why I love you.” 

Winnie let her cheek rest into his hand, pressing a quick kiss into his palm. “Then we better make sure we soak up all the time we have left,” she agreed, returning to her smooth, even brushes through his hair. “And all the muffins they have.” She still hoped to keep things lighthearted, offering him another piece of blueberry muffin before she took a bite of it herself. 

Rowan tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and out of her face, scrunching his nose at her. “Listen, Jerry the fly had a family. Don’t be mad at me for acknowledging that. I still have nightmares about him coming back from the grave to haunt me, it’s serious business.” His eyes closed for a minute as her hands brushed different parts of his body, letting his thumb gently stroke her cheek. He wished he could have stayed in this moment forever, no death looming over their heads.

He bit the piece of muffin out of her hand, happily eating it before addressing her once more. “What’s the one thing you’ve always wanted to do? Tell me, I’ll make sure we do it before we get sent into the arena.”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore:

Winnie stroked his hair as he laid his head in her lap, looking down at Rowan. This had to be harder on him. It seemed like a fast decision for him, dare she say an easy one, to agree to die for her. But she knew that it couldn’t be easy for him. Accepting your death is not easy, and Rowan didn’t volunteer to win. 

She let herself pay attention to their surroundings more, to the rich bedspread, the paintings, the thick curtains tucked into perfect golden hooks to let the sunshine in. “I can’t believe they are letting criminals on a train full of so much fancy stuff,” she commented suddenly. “It’s like they’re asking to be robbed. I doubt everyone is as non-threatening as we are.” 

Rowan brought her attention back to him and she laughed, rolling her eyes a little. “You look like a baby bird,” she teased, popping a piece of muffin into his mouth before tapping the end of his nose with her finger. “Please don’t choke on me, seriously.” Her smile faltered a little, remembering that it likely wouldn’t be long before she did lose him. But she busied herself with the muffin. She couldn’t handle that yet. Not again. 

“What ever do you mean?” he said, feigning offense at her words. “I am very threatening, especially when it comes to food and you.” However much he wished this wasn’t the case, her point of view on the whole thing was true. Everyone else they were going up against was probably far more threatening and violent than they were.

Who was going to take a pair of musicians, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, seriously when it came to fighting to the death? Probably not many people.

After the piece landed in his mouth, he made a fish face at her, before chewing and laughing at the same time. “I’m the cutest baby bird you’ve ever seen and you know it,” he said, sticking his tongue out at the feeling of her finger on his nose. “I won’t, you’ve got me for as long as I am here to be given, I promise,” he said, before reaching up and touching his palm to her face.

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

jaxcod:

‘‘I’m sure that’s one solid strategy to win the Games,’‘ Jax wagged his eyebrows, nodding sarcastically and frankly, a little bit bored. ‘’Well, good luck. Just pray somebody doesn’t fatally bump into you right back, I guess.’’

“Hey, as long as you don’t share the strategy with someone else, it should be smooth sailing from here. I’m Rowan, Rowan Nightfall, district 10, nice to meet ya,” he said, for lack of anything else to say.

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore:

It was easier to focus on her family than on the cameras. Wyatt was right up front, a smile pasted onto his face to try and calm his baby sister, and she appreciated it. It’s not goodbye, Wyatt had said calmly, it’s just see you later. And as the train sped off into the fields of Ten, she had to believe that he was right. 

Winnie pressed her lips together in a tight smile, watching Rowan awkwardly lumber around with the muffins tucked under his shirt. She followed him along, trying to catch herself up in the little bits of joy they were finding on this terrible day. Muffins. A private room. A sunny day. If she could keep doing this, there might actually be something to live for at the end of the day. 

“I think…” Winnie examined the tray carefully before placing it down on the bed, taking a blueberry muffin between calloused fingers. “I’ll start here, and see where the day takes me.” She peeled away the wrapper and took a bite, her eyes widening with the flavour. “Oh my gosh, Ro, you’ve got to try this one. It’s amazing. These blueberries are nothing like the wild ones. They’re huge.”

Rowan watched Winnie’s face brighten up, and he felt grateful. He didn’t know if it was the food or the motion of the train or something he had done, but whatever it was that was getting her smiling, he was thankful for it. He moved the tray to the side, lying down on her lap and looking up at her. 

From this moment forward, every time he looked at her would have to be treated like that last, and he knew that, so this time, he decided to start memorizing her eyes. The way they sparkled when she was happy, the way the skin around them crinkled when she smiled. For a moment, he was lost, and then he focused back on the matter at hand.

“Feed me, Ace,” he said, holding his mouth open, barely able to keep a straight face.

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

stellinaminuet:

“Do you apologise to the floor too when you get out of bed in the morning?” she asked, reaching up to wipe the laughter tears from her eyes. “I won’t tell anybody. Although if we come out through those tubes into the arena and we’re in a house of mirrors I am going to piss myself.” She’d been a little unsure how she was going to fill her time between her arrival and the training centre opening up to tributes, but so far she seemed to be having no trouble at all doing just that. Amusements seemed to be falling into her lap. “What on earth do you have a criminal record for, Manners?” she asked curiously. “You walk into a peacekeeper or something?”

“No, but I do apologize to doors when I shut them too hard,” he said sarcastically, quirking his eyebrows at her. “Alright, alright, just know the moment you do something embarrassing, I’m going to be there to laugh about it, and it is going to be glorious.” He watched as she stood, realizing he could have offered her a hand, but knowing that she probably would have taken it as an insult. “Trespassing,” he said, shoving his hands in his hoodie. “What’d they get you for?”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore:

Winnie let herself relax, eyes drifting closed as she focused on Rowan’s soft voice and his words, the words she’d written and shared with him a couple years ago providing an attempt at comfort and familiarity in a situation so draining and tired. Winnie hummed along with him toward the end, gently adding a hint of harmony to his words, before the door creaked open and Winnie opened her eyes to see the officials had come to bring them to the train. 

But she could stand, now, and she did, holding Rowan’s hand tight in hers and drying tears with the back of her hand. They boarded the train, Winnie shyly ducking her head from the cameras. As soon as they were on board, Winnie started looking for places to hide. From anyone who wanted to give them unsolicited advice. She just wanted to sit with Rowan, maybe actually smile for the first time in hours. 

“Can we take those muffins and go hole up somewhere?” Winnie said, eyeing a tray of assorted pastries, then eyeing the doors out of the main living car. 

Rowan held onto Winnie’s hand like it was the most important thing in the world because right now, it was. He wasn’t surprised that his parents weren’t at the front of the crowd to send him off, he wasn’t sure if his dad had even woken up from his adventures the night before yet, but Winnie’s family was as close to the front as they could get, and he gave them all knowing half-smiles as the two sped onto the train.

He looked to his left and his right after she spoke, seeing if their mentor or escort or whatever was anywhere to be found. But it didn’t seem like they were and those pastries looked so good, that he nodded, grabbing the tray, hiding it under his shirt and waving for her to follow him to the next train car. The first door he opened was a bedroom, a room he assumed to be one of theirs, so he carefully waddled over to the bed, removing the tray from under his shirt and presenting it to her before plopping on to the bed. “What’s your guilty pleasure going to be today, Ace? Blueberry? Chocolate Chip?” A fake gasp. “Banana nut?”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

juno-tamble:

“Juno.” She felt a little thrill at the realization that all the new arrivals, the people she would be spending her next week with, didn’t know her one bit. They didn’t have the Tamble family tragedy weighing on their notions of her. It made her almost happy. “Hacktivist. What’d they get you on Rowan?”

He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the label she had given herself. Hacktivist. Now that was something you didn’t hear every day, especially in a rural district like ten, a district in which the only tech people owned was shitty, old, and barely working. “Trespassing,” he said, briefly mulling over whether or not he should tell her the full story. He decided not to. “Got too close to government property for their comfort, it was bullshit if you ask me, but it still landed me in the bowl.”

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

osirisantos:

“Great.” Osiris nodded, “Someone as lost as I am.” He chuckled lightly. The boy looked around the same age as he was, and he didn’t recognise him as one of the newer Victors, so he figured he had to be a tribute, too. He’d planned not to get attached to any of them, but his quest for food far outweighed his quest to remain isolated in that moment, and so he agreed. “Sounds like a plan.” He nodded again, starting down the hall in the direction he’d been heading.

“You’d think they’d give us a tour or something, maybe hand us a complimentary fruit beverage and a lei on the way in. But no, we’re left to wander these halls without so much a map to guide us. If I wasn’t already pissed at the government for making us fight to death in the first place, this would probably put them on my shit list.” He stopped in his tracks for a moment, looking at the peacekeeper behind him. “Is this thing recording me? Am I gonna get put on a treason watch list? Ah, to hell with it, I’ll be dead in a few weeks anyway, gotta live a little, right? I’m Rowan, from 10,” he said, as he started walking again.

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

winniesycamore:

“Okay,” Winnie said in a small voice. She tried to feel around in her head for things to remind her of where she was, just like they’d practiced over and over in the middle of the night, after nightmares, outside the crowded market. Rowan’s arm pressed into her shoulder, his fingers rubbing her arm, his soothing and calm voice. The way his chest moved. The feeling of his jacket against her cheek. The rough carpet. The hum of the lighting fixture, the way it flickered just a little. She quietly felt everything with her fingers, her ears, her eyes, trying to time her breathing to Rowan’s. If he was still holding on, she just had to match him. And she would be okay, too.

“Can you sing to me?” she asked softly, her voice still wavering. Her words were deliberate, slow, recovering. “Before we have to go?” She leaned heavy into his body, letting him fully support her. The hard conversations could come later. She knew what all of this meant. He didn’t volunteer to kill her. He volunteered to help her live. She knew that. Even though it ached. 

Rowan had dealt with sad things in his life on his own. He didn’t have a family structure to lean on, didn’t have someone else to share his sadness with, until he found her. Now, there was nothing he had to deal with alone. Now, they could share everything, the happy and the sad, they could pick up the broken pieces that were dropped along the way.

Never did he think that there would be this many pieces of her that he would have to pick up, but he would search the carpet ten times over if it meant that Winnie could be whole once more.

Rowan simple nodded his head as an answer to her question, continuing to rub her arm softly as he started to sing. “I will stay by you, even when we fall.” It didn’t sound right without her harmony on top of it, as if nothing he did would be right without her supporting him through it. “I will be the rock, that holds you up and lifts you high so you stand tall.” He saw someone enter into their room from the corner of his eye, silently warning him it was almost time to leave. “No matter where you are, no matter where you are, I’ll be there,” he sang, before government officials burst into the room and interrupted them completely, telling them it was time to go.

[ofvigilcnce-blog]

glittercaulder:

Glitter had just arrived.  She had Tetra on one hip and Neptune following along beside her when she walked through the lobby.  She needed to get the two children she brought these Games settled in before finding her tributes and figuring out things.  So far so good, she hadn’t seen Hunter.  Though she was looking down at Neptune while he signed a request for hot chocolate when they got upstairs.  It was then that she was jostled and she looked at the tribute.  “It’s fine.  Just pay more attention or you’ll walk into someone’s knife within five minutes of the launch.”

The song kept playing, and Rowan felt like he had to swallow the anger that was building within him. He could take it out on dummies during training or on people who tried to threaten Winnie during the games, there was nothing productive he could do with the anger right now. However, as much as he wanted to ignore it, as long as Winnie’s song being sung by someone else was playing over the speakers, it could not be ignored. “Yeah, sorry, this song just caught my attention. It’s good, right? You ever hear it before?”