Diana Merrygold's Story

Diana raced home, she was so late. On the up side she was pretty clean so when she got home she merely pulled her dress on over the clothes she was already wearing and sat down to brush her hair. Jace came into the room closely followed by their father, they each shared smiles and headed out to the square. Diana held Jace's hand tightly, he was eleven this year, she wasn’t going to lose him. It was the same as usual and she was hardly paying attention, lost in her own thoughts.
"Diana Merrygold."
Diana looked up to her name immediately, she'd been called. Suddenly she was shocked her legs could hold her up. Was this really happening? She began to move forward, knowing the protocal but she didn't get very far. Jace was latched onto her arm, and was staring up at her fiercly. A look that clearly said, 'You’re not going'. She tugged harder, trying to push him off before the Peacekeepers got involved. Her father reached forwards and pulled Jace off, holding onto the wriggling child as Diana finally made her way to the stage. She forced a smile onto her face, the games wouldn't change who she was, and Diana Merrygold smiled. The boy was called up and she had to focus on keeping her smile in place. Of course it would be kind Nickolas Bray with his five siblings. She knew him, she'd caught him going outside a number of times, not that she had much room to talk. They were escorted into the Justice building and within moments Jace was storming in, looking furious with everything.
"Hey," Diana said gently, "Quit that, or you’re going to scare everyone into believing you’re a Career."
"You can’t go!" He yelled, again latching himself to her arm, "I'll come with you. I can be your token!"
"I don't think they allow that," Diana replied. She looked up at her dad. This must be hard for him, losing mother and now her. They hugged tightly, kissed, said their farewells, and discussed how they could easily continue to get by. Then they were being escorted away and she was taken onto the train. She watched Nickolas closely, as she walked behind him. So she noticed when he looked over into the District 12 train. That was the girl, but she wasn't supposed to know that. She looked away from the window quickly. On the train she didn't know what to do with herself and she merely sat down and nibbled on a piece of cake. Then she remembered her promise that the games wouldn’t change her and she loaded up two plates, putting one down on a table in front of Nickolas.
"We have to keep our strength up," She said, gesturing to the plate, "No point letting this food go to waste. Besides, you'll get to talk to her at training." She added without thinking. She'd followed him once, but she wasn't supposed to know. What were the chances he hadn't noticed?

Nicholas listened to the capitol person, still not quite sure if it was a boy or girl, but leaning towards boy. He was explaining how the train worked, talking to him as if he was a child, which he obviously was not. As the escort finished, Nicholas found himself looking out the door and saw Diana Merrygold.

He had seen her earlier, at the reaping, but it hadn't really registered that it was her. They hadn't really been close friends in the growing up years, but they had always gone to the same school, had many classes together, and some times sat together during lunch, but they had never been real friends, their interests being so different.

"We have to keep our strength up," he heard her say, placing a plate in front of him as he sat down. "No point letting this food go to waste. Besides, you'll get to talk to her at training." He glanced back to the door, hearing their special knock, and bit his lip. "Sorry I don't like cake. Thanks." He gave her a sweet smile, then turned to the door, opening it and grabbing Amabelle's arm.

He swiftly dragged her into his personal room and locked the door behind them, pulling her in for a tight embrace. "Why are you here?" He muttered out, thinking about how neither of them would be safe now that they were in the games. "Why are you a tribute? You shouldn't be." He dropped the embrace, beginning to pace the small compartment.

"You weren't suposed to come. You were suposed to say back in the seam, safe, and away from all of this." He said, not in an angry way, but certainly not pleased. He looked as if he might punch the wall or burst out into tears any second.

Diana watched as Nicholas and the girl fled to his private room, probably best. The Capitol escort came forward and she gave him a smile.
"Nicholas has gone to his room for a little while, it's probably best to leave him and let the shock wear off," she lied smoothly. After he agreed she stopped listening to him, but he said something about going for a lie down himself, then he was gone. Now she was bored, getting up she went to investigate the doors. As she thought, they were locked at one side and the door the District 12 tribute came through wasn't. She'd probably picked the lock. Well, she hadn't relocked them. Curiously Diana wandered back into the District 12 part. There should be a boy in here somewhere, he may not be very accommodating, she would be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Still she moved through the train easily, inspecting every little thing to see if it was different to her carriage and nibbling on one of their pieces of bread. After she'd looked around here maybe she'd try getting into the District 10 carriage, had other tributes every tried this? Still, she was pretty safe, tributes weren't allowed to fight before the arena, but not everyone followed that rule.

Joseph lied in his bed, one arm thrown over his eyes. He hadn't taken off the black denim pants and boots, along with the maroon button up shirt yet. Why would he want to wear the stupid Capitol's clothing? Feeling restless and numb, her stood up and began pacing the room.

He still couldn't believe his name had been chosen. What had he done to deserve this? With his name only in there, what?, 7? Maybe 8 times? His mind was whirring with conspiracies. There must have been a mistake. There must have been something wrong. He could deny

However, over all else, what lingered in his mind was that he was going to have to kill Amabelle. He was going to have to kill any of the girls. He understood that tributes had done it before him, and that in the moment he could probably do it. But these were kids. They hadn't even gotten a chance to live yet, and they were all sent to die? And what about the Careers? They had been trained their entire lives to kill off the poor little tributes from the other Districts. The Capitol couldn't like it that much if the precious Capitol puppets from District 1 and 2 all died and a little victor from District 12 tricked them, just like Haymitch had. He breathed out his mouth heavily, and shook his head. "Let's just keep focused on staying alive, shall we?" he asked himself and went to the door, his stomach rumbling. As he opened it, he caught a glimpse of a girl, wandering around their District car. With a bit of a frown, he closed his door behind him, examining her. She definitely wasn't a Capitol slave. An Avox maybe? He scratched the back of his neck, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, not aggressively, but with a cool edge to his voice, raising an eyebrow.

Diana nearly jumped out of her skin, she hadn't been paying attention. She looked towards the voice and found a boy standing there watching her. Wait, was it all right to call him a boy? He looked old enough to have finished the reaping’s didn't he? But he wasn't wearing Capitol clothes, maybe she was just to use to all the petite people from District 11.
"Hi," She said, having regained her presence of mind, "I'm just looking around. I'm from District 11, Diana Merrygold. Nice to meet you." She offered her hand to him as she said it. She should be polite, then again they were both tributes. What was the introduction procedure with someone you could be fighting to the death with in the near future? Who knows, but this seems like a good start, so long as he didn't crush her hand, but District 11 and 12 weren't really known for being overzealous about the games.

Joseph stared at this girl. She was small, rather pretty, actually. He sighed and figured he might as well be kind of polite. He reached his hand out and took hers into a firm handshake, that he thought would crush her hand if he wasn't careful. He gave it one firm shake, and nodded his head. "I'm Joseph." he said in a gruff voice. "I'm the male tribute from District 12. Nice to meet you, I guess." He said and brushed past her, walking to the window where the buffet of food had been put. She was very pretty, now that he had looked at her closer, but he couldn't afford to think like that. When it was apparent that she wasn't going anywhere, he gestured to the food.

"Want some?" he asked. In all honesty, he didn't really know what to do in social situations. How to hold a party, how to make a friend. He got by on intimidation, to hide the fact that he's actually not that great at talking to people. He cleared his throat. "I can't believe how much food they're giving us here." he added, and shrugged his shoulders.

"I know!" Diana replied, walking over to him, "It actually tastes pretty good to, but I can't eat too much of it. It's all pretty rich and I don't want to make myself sick. Still, a little bit's ok." She looked over the food on his table, recognising some from her section. She looked over at some little cup cakes with icing flowers on top.
"Oh, these ones are good," She said excitedly, picking up the cake. She looked over at Joseph, he seemed a little uncomfortable. Without thinking she plucked the flower from her cake and offered it to him.
"You should try this, it's really good," She said with a smile.

((No worries.))

"Why would you send me back?" she shot back at him, hissing in pain as he pushed her and she ran into the dresser against the wall, "So I can go back to getting violated by my father, and let my brother stand around and do nothing. They don't meed me. No one back home needs me. You have a family. A family that loves you. A family that needs you. No one needs me." a tear leaked out of her eye and she furiously wiped it away. There would be no tears. "If you keep me alive, you die, and I can't live with that for one single day." she said, her voice hoarse as he picked up her hands.

"Nicholas, please..." she turned to pleading but suddenly, a thought dawned on her. "What if..." she mumbled, "Nicholas what if it's no mistake we're here?" she looked up at him and met his eyes, "What if they knew? About us? And made sure we would be tributes, to make an example of us?"

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Joseph gave a tiny smile, taking the flower from her hand and putting it into his mouth. It was sweet, and coated his mouth with a thick substance. He gathered up saliva in his mouth, swallowing the last of it down as it stuck to his throat.
"You trying to fatten me up so I'm easy to kill?" It was supposed to be a joke, and he chuckled a little bit at it, but he worried that she would be offended. But what was the point of lying? They could pretend to be friends, for a little while, and that's fine, but at the end of it, they were all going to die. All but one.

"No," Diana replied honestly, Joseph didn't seem too bad, though that made her kind of sad, "No point really is there? Besides I'd rather not start out on my own, so it'd be nice to make at least one friend, or ally, if you prefer. And, personally, I'd rather avoid the Careers. They're scary." She wasn't sure what made her say all that, but she was always looking for friends back home. Of course she wouldn't be surprised if he told her to go away, she knew it was a bad idea to have friends in the ring and she didn't exactly look like she would last long. She was a realist, some of the time at least.
"Hey, if you want me to leave I can," She offered, nibbling on her cake uncomfortably. Maybe she really wasn't suited for any of this? Suddenly she was desperate to go home and be working in the trees again. She missed Jace. The shock must be wearing off.

((What... the fuck... Sorry all. I posted like two days ago and I guess it didn't post...? I dunno. I haven't gotten a chance to check til now because the new quarter has started at college, so, sorry again!!!))
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((Yeah, that's part of it, the other part is in this post. :D))

"I will never, ever move to the capitol to become something like a slave to that horrid President Snow," she said roughly, even the simple thought of her moving to the Capitol and painting herself up like a class a freak made her feel sick. "My father can't live without me... I can't live without you," Amabelle said firmly, but gave up on the subject. They would just have to see what happened, she guessed. But for now, she didn't want to go on through these petty arguments over whose life was more important to preserve.

"It'll make us targets," she replied, "OR, it'll make people afraid, or want to join us." she lifted an eyebrow, nodding her head a few times. "I don't want to hide anymore, Nicholas. Our entire childhood of being friends, and now I love you..." she kissed his cheek, "If these are our last days together. Either one or both of us are going to die in that arena. If we have to be separated--" her voice cracked and she wiped one of her eyes, "I want to spend--" she lost it again, and looked down, before taking a deep, deep breath. She opened her mouth to start again, but she suddenly froze, staring off into space.

"Nicholas..." she said absently, "Nicholas, what if we don't have to die?" she said, turning her eyes to look at his face. "What if we can make it out...? Alive?"

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A friend... an ally. Joseph ran his hand through his hair, before his face breaking into the first smile that had appeared since his name had been called during the reaping. "You want to be an ally with me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Really?" He didn't really have friends back home. He went to school, went to work, and went home to see his family. But outside of that he was kind of like a loaner.

"No, no," he said, "I don't want you to leave." He shoved the rest of the cake into his mouth, before walking over and holding out his big hand for her to shake, "Partners?" he asked. Maybe even he could get Amabelle to join them, he'd always liked that girl, even though he didn't know her very well.

Diana immediately picked up the smile, even before he started speaking.
“Partners,” She agreed happily, shaking his hand again, “And why wouldn’t I want to team up with you?” She almost turned the handshake into a hug before remembering that hugs from random people tended to make others uncomfortable. Oh well, handshakes were good too.
“Hey, any idea how long till we get to the Capitol?” She asked suddenly, looking out the window, then she remembered something, “Possibly more importantly, how much trouble do you think we’d get in if a someone caught me in the District 12 section?” She wasn’t overly worried, because as a tribute they were actually fairly safe. Until the actual games started. On the other hand, the Capitol people may be funny looking, but they were also kind of scary. Not that she’d tell anyone.

But, of course, nothing was that easy with Amabelle. She rolled her eyes at him and crossed her arms. "Fine," she said, almost sounding angry. "I'm going to find a way to fix this, with or without your help." she said after a long pause. The shock of the fact that she was here was beginning to wear off and she was in danger of losing herself to her emotions, which put her in a very unstable state. She started to walk toward the door. "If you don't want to help me, fine," she said. Outbursts like this were not uncommon for Amabelle, her temper was short, and she knew that Nicholas knew that.

"You're so hell-bent on dying? This doesn't have to be like this anymore. We can do something about it. I know there's something we can do." Amabelle reached her hand out and yanked the door open, "I'll see you at dinner," before slipping through the door and making her way over to the District 12 car, slamming the door behind her.

What she saw made her jump in surprise. She didn't expect to see anyone in there.

"Oh, hello Joseph," she said, not awkwardly, but warily. She looked at the girl in the room with him. "And you are?" she asked in the most friendly way she could.

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"Well, I dunno," he answered as he dropped her hand. He thought she was very charming, far more socially inept than him, and she was not bad on the eyes. "There aren't a lot of victors from District 12." He continued to answer her question, "Well, we have dinner tonight. I think we should be there by tomorrow sometime. I think. Our prep teams and stylists are coming in to meet us in the morning, or am I wrong?" their Capitol escort hadn't told them the schedule yet. He figured that was a discussion for dinner.

He glanced up in alarm when Amabelle came storming in. "What's got you so hyped up?" he asked her, trying to be a bit more friendly to her. He looked at Diana questioningly, as if asking her if it would be all right for him to add her to their group. So far, he knew, though, that if it came down to the two girls and himself, he would win. It was a shame to put it that way, but it was true. He just might make it out of this after all.

"Hi, I'm Diana, from District 11," Diana offered, slightly wary of the girl, who looked kind of pissed off, "You ok? Is Nicholas being all self-sacrificial? I heard he can be like that, from some other girls, but only if it's someone really important to him. Like his siblings. Don't stay pissed off to long ok? It's just the way he is, he means well, probably. I don't actually know him that well. I'm rambling aren't I? I'll shut up now."
She clamped her mouth shut, but gave Joseph a small nod when she noticed his look. She didn't mind, more people was good, and from the two people she'd met who knew this girl it seemed like she'd be pretty nice. Of course you couldn't always judge people by the company they kept. She also wasn't sure how accommodating she'd be, maybe she should leave. The constant state of unease was not something she wanted to get used to.

Amabelle's face immediately changed from angry to as welcoming as she could make it. She resisted her urge to tell the girl that she probably knew him better than this girl did, but she didn't say anything, because that would have been rude. When she noticed the look Joseph gave her, he knew all about her temper from school, she understood that as a sign to shut up and be nice. "I'm Amabelle," she said, giving a firm handshake, "Nice to meet you. And no, it's nothing, just... well it's been hard on everyone." she lied smoothly and gave a smile. She listened to Diana mention rambling, and immediately shook her head. "You're gonna need a lot more confidence than that." she said and winked her eye. "Don't worry about it. We don't judge."

She flickered her eyes from Diana's face to Joseph's face as Diana nodded to him. They were keeping something from her. Maybe she should just leave... "Well it was nice meeting you, see you at--"

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"Amabelle," Joseph' deep, strong voice cut her off. "Would you like to be our ally? In the arena?" He watched as Amabelle's face went from surprised to thoughtful and, finally, her face broke into a smile. "I'd love to," she said.

Joseph gave a sigh of relief, for more than one reason. One, he was glad she was joining. She wasn't so bad, again, he knew he'd reminded himself about that ten times by now, and even more often as he had heard her temper outbursts and loud mouth in school. More people were good anyways. Two, if she had found out they were in an alliance and didn't decide to join, that might be dangerous for him and Diana.

Diana smiled, this was going well. Plus, it was nice to finally know Amabelle's name. It was nice to know she was going to have some help in the arena that wasn't from Careers, which, if she'd been desperate, she may have tried. She'd been telling the truth when she said they were scary though, they were raised to kill people after all.
"So, I'm thinking I'm going to look over the Reaping's," She said suddenly, becoming slightly more serious, "It'd be nice to know something about the people we're up against before we get there." She headed towards the door but didn't leave yet.
"See you guys latter," She said hesitantly, she kind of wanted to ask if there was anything she should tell Nicholas but the smart part of her said not to get involved.

"Maybe we'll be dressed as cows. Again." A quick smile came to Bridget's face, but immediately, she got rid of it. "I'm kind of excited though. About the clothes." She gazed out the window, a distracted look coming to her face as she spoke. "I want something for them to remember me by. Even after I die. I don't just want to be known as 'that district 10 girl', I want something big."

She turned her eyes back to look at Ian's. "But that's ridiculous isn't it?"

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Nicholas's head turned as Diana walked in. Did she hear me punch the wall? he thought, hoping not. But then again the train walls were thick, so probably not. "Hey." he said, walking over to the food cart and surveying it for anything of intrest. "How was your visit?" She must have met with Amabelle, and what they had discussed he did not know, but he wanted to find out.

"It was, pretty cool actually," Diana replied, searching the compartment to find a pencil and paper. Once she found them she turned to Nicholas again, "Hey, you don't mind if I watch the Reaping’s do you?" She was already at the tv, all she needed was to figure out how it worked, it was far more deluxe than the ones back home, and to see if he was ok with it. If not she could just go watch it in her room. Either way she was going to sit down and watch the Reaping’s. Really it should have been the first thing she did, but then she wouldn't have met Joseph. That would definitely have been a downer. Besides the fact that she'd been chosen to participate in these stupid games, she was actually pretty happy with the way things were going.

Nicholas shook his head, a bright smile coming to his face as he followed Diana to the couch. "I'm fine with it, as long as I can watch them too." He knew that bonding wasn't suposed to happen, that Diana would be taking down notes about things she probably wouldn't want him to see as she plotted out his death. Why that didn't bother him, he didn't know, but probably because he was forced to do the same.

"So, are we starting with district 1, or district 12?" he asked, walking to the television, watching Diana try and work on it. I've seen one of these he thought, remembering the time he was allowed into the mayors house to help. The mayors daughter had a thing for him, even though she was a few years younger, and had always made sure her father called on him to work, to earn the money and to see him more often. But she no longer liked him, and that was his own fault.

Diana smiled back at Nicholas, until she noticed the clock on the other side of the wall.
"Well, maybe after the dinner," She said turning to look at the door to her room with slight horror, "We wouldn't want to miss that now would we? I can't believe I have to wear their clothes." She grumbled the last part under her breathe, heading towards the door already. She was careful to shut the door behind her, and was immediately grateful, as when she open the cupboard her jaw nearly hit the floor. Why did they have so many clothes? Why had they given her so many clothes? Why were they basically all dresses?
For a moment she just stared grumpily at the rows of dresses before pulling herself together. If she was going to get back to Jace she needed to look good. Thankfully the dresses were easy to move through. She pushed through a number of brightly coloured dresses that hurt her eyes if she looked at them too long and pulled out a few different ones. They ranged from green to blue. The first thing she did was remove all the revealing ones, severely lessening her choice. Eventually she chose an emeral green one with a simple design that was light and flowed over her legs. She pulled a pair of shorts on as well, simply because it made her more comfortable. She organised her hair so that it was out of her face but still pretty loose and showy. She didn't go anywhere near the makeup, she'd never liked the stuff.
Organised she left her room and decided to wait for Nicholas. She still needed to get used to her dress anyway, and her shoes which she actually quite liked. They were a nice shade of brown, with a little bit of heel and did up with ribbons tied up her legs. She liked them, but they were still odd because she was used to much more stable shoes.
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Spark was dresses in a Capitol tux. He didn't like it, it was stiff and uncomfortable. He added his belt though, he wasn't sure what would be made of that but he wasn't about to leave it behind. Besides that, his Reaping toy was still in the pouch attached to it and that in itself was comforting. He'd still seen nothing of the female tribute, whoever she was-he probably should have paid more attention-so he headed off without her. The cameras were on him almost immediately and, amazingly, he got through it pretty calmly. They were fairly basic questions. He imagined it'd be worse at the actual interview, that's when they'd ask him the personal questions, that's the one he had to be ready for. One of the people commented on his belt, and, lost in the questions as he was, he answered with an easy smile.
"A reminder of why I need to get home. I have to give the tools back sometime right?" He got a few laughs from the camera crew before they moved on. It was a good thing they did, he was fighting the urge to start pulling the cameras apart like he had a number of other things back in his compartment. He sat himself in one of the closest seats, without even thinking about the other two tributes in the room.

Nicholas nodded his head to Diana, heading into his own room and closed it silently, yet completely, behind him. Turning to the closet, he pulled off his shirt, beginning to rummage through the suits of different colors. He chose a simple black tux, pulling it on, and accented it with a red bow tie. He turned to the mirror, eye his reflection, thoughts pouring into his mind. What approach should I for with the reporters, he thought, tying the bow tie.

I'm not mysterious or silent, that's for sure... I guess I'll just ask Diana. He knew that she was his opponent, and maybe she would give him bad advice, but she didn't seem like the type, so, Nicholas made his way out of his room, and was surprised to find Diana already dressed, and ready to go. And boy did she look pretty. He shook of the thoughts of that, and gave his smile. "So, what approach are you going for?" He said.

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Bridget watched Ian entered his compartment, and without hesitation, she entered hers. The sight of the moving land through the train window made her light headed, so Bridget walked over and closed the shades, quickly turning to the closet. Inside, she honestly couldn't believe her eyes. Dresses of every size, shape and color came into view. She remembered Ian's words, 'If you want to stand out better start now,' and an idea came to her mind.

A smirk came to her face. She searched quickly through the dresses, finding a strapless, florescent pink dress with a short cut off line, and a poof starting around the waist, casting a bubble a foot around her in all directions. A quick glance at the mirror nearly sent her gagging, but she was determined for this to work. Bridget grabbed a length of ribbon from the top of the make up table, and tied her hair up in it, leaving a nice big bow visible.

Bridget plopped herself down into the chair infront of the makeup and gazed her eyes upon all the different shades of colors. She picked up the brush, holding it in her hand awkwardly, and placed it into a light gold, picking some up. She spread it lightly over her eyelids, dropped the brush, and picked up a eyelash curler. What is this, she thought, turning it around in her hands, and after a few minutes of trying to use it to clip her nails, and trying to use it to plump her lips, she discovered what it was and curled her eyelashes, putting brown mascara on afterwards. And, to finish off the look, she took a light pink lipstick and put it on her lips, rubbing them together.

Bridget stood up and looked at her self in the mirror, realizing that she was missing something, but not sure what it is. Shoes! She pranced back over to the closet, grabbing a nice pair of white high heeled flip flops, and slipped them on, already feeling the points where blisters would occur. Then, grabbing the pearl bracelet that sat on her bed side table, the token she had snuck on, she walked to the door, twirling the handle to open it, but finding it jammed. She banged it with her hand, and finding no avail, she gave a small yell.

"Uh hello? Help?" She said, banging the door again. It was just jammed, she could tell, and it probably just needed a strong bang from the outside.