Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Trains & Talks

Less than a minute after the voices of Cashmere and Gloss, the infamous sibling victors of the 64th and 63rd games, respectively, cease being audible the door leading in and out of my room opens up. Cashmere, the blonde and surprisingly Glimmer-like victor appears in the doorway, leaning against it and smiling at me. 

As I look at her I feel my mind filling with snippets of moments from her own life. As she looks at me I can feel memories welling up within her tied to her own battles during the games that she won. I can feel the weight they place on her heart, her mind, and her very soul. The power of “Soulseer” is not to be underestimated…

“Hey there kiddo.” She utters, greeting me rather confidently. She is a tall woman who has stunning golden-blonde hair and a piercing, hawk-like gaze. She has a much stronger auric glow of light around her, like a sort of arcane curtain that wraps around her and keeps her safe. I do not know the details of her fate, as my “Future-Knowledge” only extends to the end of this particular Hunger Games, but I can tell that her fate must be important from the powerful layer of plot armor she possesses. 

I have no doubt that the woman appraising me notices how my features are similarly animalistic to her own so I feel rather interested in her as she saunters over to a seat on the other side of the small room. She has a sort of intensity that others I have interacted with do not, even at a glance.

“I don’t know how much you know about the structure of the games, so I wanted to introduce myself a bit early. I am your mentor, can I assume you know enough to know what that means?” She asks me, making direct eye contact with me all the while. I silently smile and nod at her. I actually do understand the bare basics of the structure of the games enough to know about my “team”. 

“Each tribute has a ‘Team’ of sorts. This team consists of an escort, a stylist, and a mentor. Dewda is my escort, and she is also Glimmer’s escort. Each escort covers both of the tributes from their district.” I begin, speaking rather authoritatively on this. I don’t even need my enhanced intellect and memory for something this, from my perspective anyway, simple. 

“Ideally each tribute would have a unique mentor and stylist. While I am, admittedly, unfamiliar with the inner workings of the Capitol, I don’t know of any situations in which two tributes have had to share a stylist. On the other hand… Mentors are unique because they are victors, and so there are plenty of moments in which the poorer districts may not have two unique mentors or even any mentors at all.” I explain, analytically. When I am done speaking Cashmere mockingly claps at my explanation but I can see the mild interest in her gaze. 

“I see you at least have a grasp of the basic facts. That’s good, because while you have some more time than the tributes from the other districts will it’s not enough for it to be a huge advantage.” She tells me, cynically. Nevertheless, her facade of disinterest does not fool me, I can easily hear her curiosity in her voice. 

She studies me quite sharply and I enjoy the sensation of being in her gaze. I sensed her carefully applying each feature of mine to a memory I could tell was likely monstrous in its scope and sharpness. 

When I was younger I’d have never imagined that there’d come a day when I’d be standing in front of Cashmere. She was a celebrity that I had always liked but that my brother refused to introduce me to, saying that if I wanted to meet her I’d need to do so through my own power. 

Annoyingly even now I hadn’t met her utilizing my own skill but instead through a combination of fiat-backed luck and a reputation I had only partially earned myself. I wanted to impress the statuesque woman so doing so through perks alone feels… not great. 

There’ll come a day when I have made my perks my own. On that day I may approach Cashmere differently than I’ll do today when I am still clearly borrowing the powers given to me by a creature I cannot even remotely begin to understand. For now, though, I’ll do what I can to extract whatever advantages I can gain from Cashmere’s guidance. 

“My brother is mentoring Glimmer. We determined who would mentor who based on what we predicted might matter the most for either of you.” Cashmere explains, casually. As she does she pulls out a thin knife and points it at me. 

“You know what I think you’re gonna need help with?” She asks me, curiously. I look at her and wonder what she’ll say, before she smirks at me and points the knife away. 

“I’ve heard about you from your friends and even your brother. I’m not too worried about you having the power to survive in the games. I’m worried about you having the power to get sponsors and make allies, which are skills you won’t be able to practice even with a sword in hand.” She explains, causing me to look at her skeptically. 

The reason I look at her skeptically is that I have a number of perks which are designed for exactly the sort of thing she says she’s “worried” about. And I freely used those perks to effectively conquer my school! I can sense the deception she is attempting to pull, and it fails to work on me. 

Now that I’ve spent a few moments in her presence I am slowly beginning to become attuned to her. I can slowly see through her attempt at deception. I smirk at her and motion to lean in close to the woman before beginning to whisper something.

“In that case… What do I need to do in order to make allies and gain sponsors?” I ask, my voice a low whisper that she feels brush against her body. Cashmere is sitting dangerously close to me and I can feel her heart begin to beat quite rapidly as my words hit her. 

“Well… You need to be likeable, of course.” She says, breathily. I chuckle as she says that and look her in the eyes. We lock eyes before I begin to speak again. 

“It’s just the two of us here… Do you really think I need advice on being likeable?” I ask, confidently. I know how people work, and how they react to things. Including me. I know that even discounting my appearance people like me and find me attractive. I could even discount my perks and know that my confidence and control, prior to my ascension, was enough for people to like me. 

I could physically see the blood rush to Cashmere’s face. I had an unfair ability to elicit these kinds of reactions from people but it was still fun for me to do this sort of thing. 

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Some of the perks I possessed focused on seemingly simple things. Among those perks were perks I had gained from a “Generic” jump named “Looky Looky”. It was a simple perk, but its simplicity was part of its charm. It just made me incredibly attractive, enough so that I was actually physically distracting to those with weaker wills, passively. That effect grew in potency if I focused on it like I was right now. 

“It’s okay… I know the effect I have on people.” I say, after watching Cashmere begin to stammer and smiling gently at her. This causes her to look at me annoyedly and softly laugh. 

“That confidence might be offputting to people!” She warns, perhaps rightfully, but I smile at her warning and brush it off. 

“How I act in private need not be how I act in public.” I tell her, while continuing to look into her eyes. She quickly starts to look away and I let out a quiet chuckle. At the same time I also do something out of curiosity, I activate a perk from the same “Jump” as the “Looky Looky” perk; “Deep Pockets Scan Activated”. 

This power fills my mind’s eye with a set of text boxes not unlike the ones I see whenever I activate “Observe”. The contents of this box are far more interesting to me than the contents of “Observe”, and reveal things like Cashmere’s relationship status as well as her net worth. This power is designed for those who aspire to seduce their way up a social ladder, and I am quite fond of it. 

Cashmere’s networth was measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, a vast amount of money and more so than even I could truly imagine. It exceeded that of my own brother, which I knew because I had previously used this very same power on him in the days following its awakening. 

“I know how to get what I want. I will be the winner of the Games this year.” I tell her, speaking confidently and self-assuredly regarding my ambitions. I am certain I am correct. As I speak the train rumbles around the two of us and begins to steadily push itself down the tracks towards the Capitol. We are officially on our way to the Capitol!

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The train ride is not a long one. During it I am lectured on the history of the Games by Cashmere. It turns out that during her time as a victor she has worked hard to extensively research the admittedly ghoulish competition I am a contestant in. 

It only takes us an hour or so before we can see the gleaming lake on which the Capitol of Panem stands. It is a city situated on an island in the middle of a vast lake, and it is a gorgeous city even if my exact circumstances for arriving here are a bit macabre. As I watch the city loom larger and larger and transition from the background to the foreground I begin to become able to hear distant activity even over the roar of the train. 

Cashmere quickly leads me to a shared traincar where Gloss and Glimmer are waiting for us. I exchange polite nods with her and smile more authentically at Gloss, the powerfully built victor of the 63rd Games.

The train car we are in is opulently set up and the main features are several ornate tables from which we were probably intended to eat meals had the ride been longer. The distance from District 1 to the Capitol is less than 250 miles, so I know that I have been on the train for less than an hour, though not much shorter than that. 

We are swiftly approaching a train station I can clearly see in the distance. As we begin to get closer to it I go and sit down at one of the ornate tables and motion for Glimmer to join me. She looks at me in confusion and I chuckle. 

“We’re getting really close to the Capitol. If either of us is to survive the games... We’d benefit from appearing unified and united so I think you should join me and we should greet our audience together.” I explain, cryptically. Truthfully… I know what this “Katniss” girl will plan to do to garner the sympathy of the people of the Capitol. 

I fully plan to strip her of the advantages of her approach, but I don’t want to tip off anyone, even my mentor and escort, this early. It’ll be easier for Glimmer to take advantage of my meta-knowledge than it will be for me, since everyone naturally sympathizes with women, so I’ll keep my plot a secret for now. 

I point at the seat on the table across from me and smirk at Glimmer. She studies me curiously, and as we make eye contact I gain access to more of her memories than I previously had had access to. I can see more of the violence she inflicted on her classmates, that same violence that was so psychologically powerful that it kept anyone from trying to take her spotlight earlier today. 

She is still for a bit, before nodding at me and sitting across from me. As she does we reach the very outskirts of the gleaming metropolis and I shift my facial expression from one of calculations and scheming into one of awestruck wonder and childish joy at the very same time as people become able to see us through the windows of the train. 

The thing begins to slow down enough for the people excitedly parked outside of the train depot to not be colorful blurs, As it does I begin to joyfully wave at the people, taking a leaf out of Peeta Mallark’s book and playing up the assumption that all tributes are children and not warriors who happen to be young. This show shocks Glimmer, but to her credit she quickly recovers and also looks at the train’s windows, mimicking me to a lesser extent. 

Internally I smile a bit at this. It seems that my fellow tribute is not bad at the acting that we need to do. If we work together… I am sure we can steal Katniss and Peeta’s thunder and make their lives in the arena a bit harder before we kill them.

The train slowly slows to a complete stop. When it does, Cashmere and Gloss ask the two of us if we’re ready to meet the people of the Capitol. Without saying a word or breaking character both of us subtly nod at our mentors. 

The cavalcade of noises outside of the train intensify as the door leading in and out of the vehicle opens. It is time for us to greet our adoring audience, and to take advantage of the fact that we have just a bit more time here than anyone else.

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