empty gold

silvia danby district 8 status: alive

[thebabyboyofdistrictnine-blog]

soften the blow || open

[thebabyboyofdistrictnine-blog]

Skene shrugged a little bit, smiling brightly at her laugh, pleased that she hadn’t gotten angry as him when he managed to take her down. “Maybe? Most of the technique he showed me was– you know, defensive stuff, blocking, but– I can try,” he said. He waited for a moment, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet and eyeing her open stance and judging the space between them carefully. He jumped forward suddenly, hooking his arm around the back of one of her knees and yanking, trying to send her to the ground once more.

[silviadanby-blog]

Silvia let out a surprised yelp, letting her knee bend as he pulled, but it went straight into him and she caught herself with her hands. She was in an odd position, bent in half over him, but she kicked her leg free, not caring too much in the moment if she injured him or not. She straightened herself up in the moment, stepping back to get out of reach of him.

[thebabyboyofdistrictnine-blog]

soften the blow || open

[thebabyboyofdistrictnine-blog]

Skene ducked away from the halfhearted blow easily, grabbing her wrist and stepping out of the way, using her momentum to let her body carry itself towards the floor. Her upset balance allowed Skene to kick her legs out from under her, and he beamed at the trainer as the girl was sent tumbling to the floor. “Are you good?” he asked, offering his hand to help her up.

[silviadanby-blog]

Silvia let out a laugh in response, the realization of Skene’s skill coming through. She’d been sure not to underestimate him in the mental game, but it turned out that her (slightly) larger frame had turned into a physical disadvantage, especially since she’d been taught the same tactics. She took his hand though she didn’t actually use it to get to her feet, then took a step to square up again. “D’you want to start this time?”

[thebabyboyofdistrictnine-blog]

soften the blow || open

[thebabyboyofdistrictnine-blog]

“You can’t go easy on me,” Skene said with a small frown, raising his arms a little. “I’m not gonna learn anything if you refuse to fight me the way people will in the arena. It’s okay!” He raised his eyebrows and nodded in invitation for her to strike him, bouncing on the balls of his feet. 

[silviadanby-blog]

“Well, we’ll ease into it,” Silvia countered, her smile faltering only slightly. She eyed him for a moment, then took a swing, not really doing much for aim, though it seemed to be heading toward his neck.

[chr1stylroqq-blog]

He turned his head over to the blonde he had spoken to briefly on the train, dropping the instruction manual into a pile of twigs and leaves. “Easier read than done,” he answered, picking under his fingernails. His polish had already chipped and he only had them done a few days ago! This was a disaster. “It’s just like, the chemistry isn’t happening. You know? Like, honestly, I can tell you the equation to get this dumb thing started but like, ugh, what use is it to me to actually learn how to do it? Honestly.”

[silviadanby-blog]

“I know what you mean,” Silvia smiled, finding it interesting that he even knew what chemistry was. From what she’d gotten from both the twins, they didn’t have much room in their heads for anything besides Capitol things, but this piqued her interest. “If it helps, it’s just as hard to explain it. It’s just something you have to know, which is frustrating. But I’d suggest starting with basics, maybe? Rubbing two sticks together seems dumb but it’s really a practice makes perfect type of thing.”

[novaesox-d10-blog]

For the umpteenth time, the sticks toppled out of Nova’s hands, rolling onto the floor. Nova sighed, trying to control her frustration as she brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Looking up, she smiled at the blonde. “You’d be willing to do that?” She asked, slightly surprised at the kind proposal. “Thank you, that’d be really helpful.” As long as she could follow the girl’s tips, she’d be alright - or so she hoped. “What’s the most important thing to know then?”

[silviadanby-blog]

“Sure," Silvia said automatically, actually taken aback at the girl’s surprise. Some of the others were defensive, but they mostly seemed at least friendly enough to give a tip or two. It was just creating fire, anyway. It would take far more intelligence to know when it was safe to make one. “Um, okay, so you’re sort of...holding the sticks wrong, first of all. You can’t be afraid of the spark. That’s the most important thing, I think. It’s scary, but you can’t shy away from what you’re trying to do.”

[thebabyboyofdistrictnine-blog]

soften the blow || open

The hand to hand combat station looked interesting. From his vantage point sitting atop one of the trees in the forest and peering over to look at all the different stations, Skene could see one of the trainers coaching a tribute he didn’t know through a series of blows– kicks, punches, and the like– and from the looks of it, the dummy was getting rather beat up. After the other tribute had left, Skene clambered down the tree and over to the station, looking up at the trainer. “Can you show me how to do that too?”

After what seemed like forever of going through forms and the trainer adjusting the tightness of his fists and the angle of his fists and how to block and protect himself (which the trainer insisted would be best for Skene’s…particular body type), he was pushed into the small area designated for the tributes to fight, and another tribute entered the ring at about the same moment. He put his hands up the way he had been shown, trying his hardest not to back out of the circle. 

“Hello,” he said with a weak little smile. “Are you gonna punch me?”

[silviadanby-blog]

“Not if I can help it,” Silvia said with a short laugh, though she knew they’d have to get to it eventually. The small boy was her biggest competition when it came to the cute factor, that was for sure, but she wasn’t about to treat him like dirt. He was sweet, so she would be, too. “I don’t know if they’ll let us out of here if we don’t, though,” she said lowly through her raised fists, hoping outsiders couldn’t hear the conversation. “So, is it okay if I go first? I won’t go for the face.”

[silviadanby-blog]

“‘s really pretty simple,” Silvia said in a friendly tone after watching the other person reading the instructions on the fire-making station. Since Silvia’s younger brother lost the (expensive) lighter the Danby family had always used to light their fireplace, she had become a pro at lighting fires. It was different here, but the idea was the same, and she’d adjusted in no time at all, just finalizing her technique. “I can show you some tricks if you want?”

[kallista2elestren]

She couldn’t even imagine what was life in other Districts, that’s why seeing that someone didn’t know how to use a weapon seemed so strange for her. At Two everyone knew at least how to use a knife, but it only made sense since they were in charge of weaponry. “Twirling the knife? It’s not that hard, you just have to let it drop and the raise it again.” She explained to the girl as she showed her the movement.

[silviadanby-blog]

Watching Kallista’s hand carefully, Silvia tried recreating the motion with the knife in her own hand. It wasn’t what she had meant, but it certainly was an intimidating move, and if this is what people with experience with knives did, this is what she’d do. She had to be convincing in her deadliness, though not overly so. Just not hopeless. After she’d done it a few times-- only knicking herself once-- Silvia eyed the dummies scattered around them. “Do you think there are any tricks to throwing them? I don’t know, something to make it stick? Earlier I saw someone trying and they all just came crashing down,” she chuckled, keeping the tone light.

[4xhonora]

     “Are you kidding me?” Honora growled, coming across a little more harsh than she had intended. No, the girl had no problem with this blonde in particular, and in fact would consider her a friendly face by this point. What was the matter though was the fact each knife that Honora had thrown failed to hit the target. Surely that by now, statistics would have said she’d hit one of them, even if by accident. The light weight knifes felt oddly balanced in her hand, and Honora missed the long heaviness of a spear. Those she could throw. These dinky little things? It was ridiculous, and she gave Silvia an unpleasant frown. 

[silviadanby-blog]

“Better than me, at least,” Silvia backtracked, her friendly smile turning to a sympathetic one. “But, they say practice makes perfect, don’t they? So we’ll both get better with time.” As if either of them had time. 

[kallista2elestren]

The training center was not like she would have imagined, she thought it would be like the Peacekeepers training center but this one seemed to be more modern and all the weapons seemed to be new. Kallista looked back at the girl, sometimes she forgot that some of the tributes never had touched a sword or a knife, at least not with fighting purposes. “You should start training, it’s not easy to learn. If the swords are not for you, you can try daggers or something lighter." 

[silviadanby-blog]

“Daggers,” Silvia echoed, nodding her head. It wasn’t even worth it to pretend like she knew what it was aside from a vague picture in her mind, except for maybe what she once smuggled to one of the rebels in Eight. That was one of the most nervewracking trades of her life, but now that seemed like a cakewalk compared to what was inevitably the rest of her life. “What would you call what you were just doing?”

[wishtorn]

She was breathless, heart hammering in her chest, all her muscles tense as she practiced until the slashing became a repetitive motion, something she could do in her sleep. Frey had planned not to do much combat training, hoping to keep her proficiency with an axe under wraps, a secret from the other tributes, but God knew she needed an ally or two, and she figured the best way to do that was to show off a little. Looking up, she met the gaze of a fellow tribute. “ —… Staring’s usually considered rude, y’know.”

[silviadanby-blog]

Silvia’s raised eyebrows quickly lowered, but she smiled anyway. “Sorry, I’m just impressed!” More like floored-- but at least now Silvia knew that Frey wasn’t someone to get into close range fights with. If it ever came to that, anyway. “Lumber, right? That explains how you can even swing something like that and not hurt yourself. I wanted to try swinging the sword earlier, but I think I’d pop my shoulder out.”

[kallista2elestren]

Kallista furrowed at her question, there was no way she could be this good without prior knowledge. She thought for a second what to tell the girl, the truth or a lie. She didn’t want to reveal all her skills. “I’ve been practicing all day and it’s not the first time I grabbed a knife.” She said, looking at her as she ran her finger down the knife blade again, testing its sharpness.

[silviadanby-blog]

Ah, so Silvia’s suspicions were confirmed. “That’s awesome,” she said with a smile. Silvia paid close attention to how the knife felt in her hand, weighing it and even noting that there was a distinct balance-- probably what made it sail so perfectly through the air. She remembered her father talking about knives over scissors once, and though cutting fabric wasn’t exactly the same as injuring someone, the memory stuck until she looked back at Kallista. “I’d like to figure it out myself, honestly. I’m not nearly as practiced as you are, but I think it’s probably my best bet, right? I mean, because I’m not even sure I can lift a sword, let alone swing it.”

[blonderph]

Knives were something that Ashley felt unfortunately comfortable with. She had decent enough accuracy, almost always getting within a few inches of the target’s center – thankfully, with the poison she hoped she could make, that would’ve matter if she didn’t get them right in the heart, just enough to break skin. Growing up in a butcher’s shop forced you to be comfortable with knives, and meat cleavers weren’t exactly hard to throw, as she’d learned.

The knives provided for them weren’t cleavers or much like anything else in her father’s shop, but the same principle applied. With a well aimed, albeit lucky, throw, Ashley landed the knife’s blade right next to the heart of the dummy. 

Glancing over at the other, Ashley smiled an equally friendly smile, though she didn’t particularly believe the other had seen her do anything. It wasn’t Ashley’s place to call her out on it, though, because there was no way she’d make an enemy over something so trivial. 

“Thank you,” the brunette was pleased that at least someone had seen her do something mildly cool. “Did you want to try?” 

[silviadanby-blog]

“I don’t know,” Silvia said truthfully, chuckling. She picked up a heavier knife, eyebrows knitting together as she tried to figure out what to do with it. “How much do you know about this stuff? I mean, you just seem pretty familiar-- but maybe you’ve just been at this station longer than I have.”

[kallista2elestren]

Kallista had been trying to acquire new skills all day, and it was finally to take a break. Instead of going to watch TV she decided to go to the knives station. She took two knives, handling them with a sense of familiarity. She started to slowly spinning the knives before throwing one of the knives to the target, hitting it in the head. She took a deep breath as a smile overtook her features. She was ready to pick another knife when someone spoke. “I’m great, actually.” She said, not caring if her tone or comment sounded arrogant. It was the truth.

[silviadanby-blog]

“You are,” she agreed easily, not at all offended or phased by the girl’s tone. Confidence was acceptable when you have the skill, and Silvia would never tear someone down for that-- not to their face, at least. “Have you practiced here a lot? Or is this prior knowledge?” Silvia asked, picking up a small knife from the table and instantly liking the rush.

[silviadanby-blog]

After probably at least 45 minutes at the hammock station where Silvia had decided to take a mental break (it was easy and the weaving reminded her of home), she thought it was finally time to try her hand at the knives. She’d been eyeing them for a while, but now since most people had moved onto swords or something much bigger, she had taken this as her chance. She stepped up, fingers grazing the handle of a small one as she watched the person in front of her picking up theirs, presumably done or preparing to start again. “You’re not bad,” Silvia spoke in a friendly tone, though she hadn’t actually seen anything they’d done.

[cxspianfitz-d12-deactivated2016]

“No, pretty sure that does apply here. There are a couple here that I can spot that stand out among the others.” He didn’t want to name them out of respect, so he left that up to the girl to learn herself. “What about you, I’m guessing you had an easy childhood growing up?”

[silviadanby-blog]

Silvia let her eyes scan the crowd through the glass, now picking up on what Caspian was talking about. It was easy to miss them when you pass all fashion choices off as Capitol-crazy and move on, but some were certainly trying harder with less material than others. Choosing not to comment, Silvia bit her lip thinking about her past. “It wasn’t easy, but it certainly wasn’t as hard as some in Eight. As things go, Eight is a fairly lucky district, though. I mean, from what I’ve heard, anyway.” She hoped the vague middle ground would satisfy him. “You said you had the same, didn’t you?”

[hxxll-o]

“I surely hope not. Can you imagine if we suddenly got thrown into the Arena dressed like this?” He waved a hand over his outfit, “I really don’t know if the Capitol citizens are ready to see what true desperation and hunger for survival will really looks like, but then again, I don’t either. I just really hope there’s water in the Arena.”

[silviadanby-blog]

“I wouldn’t put it past them.” Silvia chuckled, imagining herself running for her life in her platform shoes. “How can anyone call themselves ready for something like that,” Silvia said quietly, then, returning to her normal speaking volume, “There has to be water. I think they want us to fight, not shrivel up from dehydration.”