Being Taken Over by Fear (Xavier)

[Vanessa West]

Xavier and Vanessa seemed to be a good team so far. They had not only proved they were on the same page as far as what they wanted, feared, and felt, but they were getting along as well. Hopefully Katniss (she knew she would be chosen, seeing as she was the only female victor for District 12) wasn’t going to try and kill them. Even though Vanessa’s archery was remarkable, Katniss’ was even better. She was the best archer in Panem. If things had been going as well as they had for Vanessa and Xavier so far, maybe they would be able to get an alliance started with District 12. ”I feel the exact same way. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in this,” Vanessa gratefully said with a genuine smile of gratitude at Xavier.

”Let’s try to stay high. Are you good at climbing trees? The careers are usually too big to climb,” Vanessa said, thinking back on the past Games that she had watched. ”The biggest question is whether or not we risk the Bloodbath for supplies.” The Bloodbath took out sometimes up to half of the tributes, and they needed to evaluate what weapons or supplies were worth risking being taken down on the first day were worth.

“That would be most helpful,” Vanessa said with a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’d help you with your archery, but you said it was one of your strengths. I feel bad not being able to teach you anything.” It was nicer without the mentor, escort, and victors, even though Vanessa wanted to meet up with them. She needed to get to know her ally. ”Me too. They aren’t exactly nice, and it gives us a chance to get to know each other before we jump right into training.”

[Xavier Sullivan]

Xavier wondered if they would be alone for a while, it meant that the two could work out a good plan now and not having to do that later or during the games. Xavier felt that they were now getting alone and he hoped that the two of them would become close friends, he just hoped that they didn’t have to do anything to ruin the alliance they had made though the gamemakers might try something to ruin it. Xavier nodded in reply to Vanessa, if they stick together they wouldn’t have to face anything alone. “We’re in this together. We have more chances as a team than we have doing this alone.” Xavier explained.

Xavier turned his attention back to Vanessa as she spoke about climbing and being on high ground. Being on high ground also meant that their arrows would have an easier time hitting people on the ground if they tried attacked them. “I’m alright at climbing did a bit of it when I was escaping the peacekeepers a few months back. I’m not an expert at it or anything.” Xavier replied back. The bloodbath had supplies in it that they would most certainly need to survive in the games. “If we try and get supplies and then run from the bloodbath the moment we pick them up we can make weapons like bows and spears to survive until we find better ones.”
Xavier explained his own thoughts to Vanessa. “Or one of us gets the supplies while the other makes a dash towards the weapons and tries to grab as much as they can and bolt out. The person getting the weapons would need to be extremely fast.” Xavier explained further, he looked up to Vanessa to see if she had any ideas as well. Xavier smiled. “Yeah that would be great. I’m average in archery sometimes I miss my targets altogether.” Xavier replied back.

[Vanessa West]

“
Vanessa and Xavier were in this together. Xavier had reassured her of that. It relaxed Vanessa and it made her appreciate him even more than she already did. He already had her complete trust. She had to trust him. Like he said, they would do better as a team, and Vanessa needed him. He needed her as much as she needed him. Together they could do it. They could go all the way. ”We have each other’s backs. I only just met you, but you already have my complete faith,” Vanessa quietly said. She smiled a small smile at Xavier. ”We’ll make it if we stick together.”

“We’ll have practice climbing to make sure we can do it with any supplies we might be carrying. The higher we are, the safer we are from other tributes,” she said after a moment of thought. Then they would have less chance of encountering another tribute, which lowered the chances of having to kill someone or be killed. Vanessa wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an arrow at someone if they were charging at her or Xavier with a sword or knife, but she would have a horribly hard time trying to live with herself afterwards.

“I vote for weapons. But we need to make sure we run in the same direction when we leave the starting area,” Vanessa responded with a nod. It was good that they had this alone time. They needed it to get to know each other. They were getting the chance to form an emotional bond, which would be more motivation for helping each other survive other than needing the other person for their own survival. And then they were helping each other with the weaknesses that were the other’s strengths. “I can definitely help you with that. I’ll be able to help you with your archery.”