Chapter Text
Buzzing - Voltaea
Voltaea’s conversation with Alara had run so long that she’d completely skipped breakfast. Her mind was elsewhere - too many thoughts, too many questions, too much to do - and by the time breakfast had crossed it again she was already walking to the elevator with Alara’s hand around her waist and her song-like voice whispering last-minute advice in her ear. The anger she had woken up with had shifted into something more like excitement - she listened to me. She didn’t even get angry. Now if I can just get everyone else to do the same today…
They stand side-by-side waiting for the elevator to pick them up as Orville’s chirps along to a potential sponsor over the phone behind them, having already taken Coulomb downstairs. She can feel her whole body buzzing with energy - much stronger than the feeling the patch gave her before. Alara had quietly warned her she might have some kind of crash later, but right now it’s the furthest thing from her mind. The elevator makes its familiar announcement - Ding - the doors open in front of them and they step inside, Alara waving over her shoulder to the staff behind them as they’re sealed inside. She turns to face Voltaea the second they’re out of sight with a sly smirk on her lips - “We have about a minute to say a proper goodbye for the day, if you’re feeling so inclined.” Oh?
She’d been worried yesterday about being seen - today she’s not even sure she’s capable of fear. I think she likes me more when I’m not afraid. I think… I might like me more that way too. Voltaea throws her arms around Alara and pulls her into a tight embrace, looping her fingers through her curls to tip her face upward - she barely registers the motion of the elevator as their lips crash together with so much force that she forgets to breathe until they part again. Alara smiles at her - she doesn’t want the moment to end, but - Back to training, focus! There must be something productive we can talk about. She forces her thoughts back to strategy, though her body is still catching up. “I… have more questions about the flamethrower traps.” We never got to talk about the fuel systems!
Alara just laughs, it makes every hair on her neck stand at once - “Of course you do, darling. But we’re just about out of time.” She shifts to the other side of the elevator as it descends into the training room, leaning back against the glass. Voltaea notices her shaking more than usual, but the elevator doors interrupt her before she has a chance to ask about it.
“I’ll make you proud today.” She whispers, as much to herself as it is to Alara. Her mentor says something she misses entirely from behind her as she walks out onto the floor, already scanning the competition. It’s like once she sets her mind to something everything else falls away entirely, for better or for worse - it’s almost too much focus. She spots Coulomb without their allies - we beat them here? I guess we did get an early start. He’s chatting animatedly with one of the survival skills trainers as they work to build what looks like… a shiny trash sculpture? She can't tell from this distance. He stops for a moment to wave at her, she returns it before looking back around the room - Two, Eight, Eleven, no one I need to see yet. Nothing to do but wait with Coulomb.
Suddenly tensing at the idea of having to wait , Voltaea takes a deep breath to calm herself. She makes her way to Coulomb’s side, trying to look more casual than she feels. He smiles when he turns to greet her, but his eyes look tired - he’s not sleeping well. She tries not to think about the fact that she wouldn’t be either if her circumstances were different, but it still crosses her mind. “Hey V, I thought I’d get started since I didn’t know when you’d be up.”
“What’re you making?” Up close, it mostly just looks like they’ve coated a box in foil and propped it open with sticks.
“It’s a solar oven! In case we have to cook something but we can’t make a fire for some reason.” He’s trying to sound chipper, but she can hear the note of exhaustion in his voice. “I’m almost done, then we can do something else while we wait for Bashir and Sarah if you want.” The trainer goes back to walking him through the process and she leans against the wall to watch. It feels unnatural to be standing so still, so she shifts back and forth on her feet and taps her fingertips against the wall behind her. Her eyes snap to the elevator across the room when she hears the faint ding of its arrival. Marcelus steps out, flipping his hair dramatically before looking around much like she had. He walks up to the tributes from Two, interrupting their sparring at the hand to hand combat station. She can’t make out what they’re saying, but he leaves as quickly as he came, looking defeated - The careers are fragmented, it’s not just Cymbria who has an issue with him.
Coulomb leaps up from the floor and her attention snaps back to him. “Okay! Finished! Wanna see how it works?” Not really, I just want to move.
He gives her a genuinely excited smile, and she caves immediately. “Of course.” Voltaea crouches next to the oven and lets him babble on about the way he put it together, and his idea to use the oven to prevent their camp from being trackable by smoke from the fire - it’s not a bad idea, if we’re going to hide out - though she’s not sure what kind of conditions they’ll be facing when they get there. She’s distracted once again by the elevator opening, this time carrying both tributes from Four and Cymbria. Her legs scream at her to stand up and approach her, if only to have something to do - not yet, I should wait for the others. The boy from Four immediately beelines for Marcelus, leaving the other two behind - so they’re friendly, at least. The girls look around before leaning in and whispering to each other - Cymbria looks frustrated, but she can’t see her sidekick’s face.
“V, are you still listening?” Coulomb’s hand waving directly in front of her face snaps her back to her immediate surroundings.
She nods to him - “Sort of.” She lies, “I just noticed our new arrivals.”
He looks over briefly before turning back slightly disappointed - “Oh, I was hoping it was our friends. Anyway, I was asking what you wanted to do next?”
Every muscle in her body is itching to move now - the longer I hold still the worse it gets - “Let’s go climb something.”. It’s not that she needs to practice that particular skill - just that it’s the only way she can think of to get rid of the excess energy buzzing through her. She spares a quick glance at the elevator - they’re still arguing - before taking off towards the climbing wall, Coulomb’s footsteps scrambling behind her.
The instructor is digging through a box of harnesses when they arrive - Too much waiting around - Voltaea heads straight for the wall without the gear. “V, shouldn’t you have a rope?” Coulomb calls out from behind her.
The question sets her teeth on edge - ugh, don’t make me wait again! She takes a deep breath to calm herself and shakes her head, “Better practice this way - I’ll see you up top!”
She pulls herself up onto the structure with ease, a familiar static drowning out the noise of the room around her as she focuses on the climb. By the time she reaches the top, there’s a pleasant burn in her muscles - a welcome relief from the buzzing urge to move she’d felt all morning. She looks down and sees Coulomb has only made it a third of the way, having waited for safety equipment. As she looks around at everyone else, she notices Cymbria and her sidekick making their way over to their station. She waves up at Voltaea with a serpentine smirk on her face, Nerisse chats with the instructor - I guess she wants to talk sooner rather than later.
Coulomb reaches the top just as Cymbria slips into her harness, sweat pouring off his brow - “Ok, made it.” He sighs heavily, shifting himself onto the wide top ledge next to Voltaea. He drops his voice to a whisper - “I think those girls followed us over here, what should we do?”
“We talk to them. I want to know what they know about the other careers.” Like are they even a threat now without a decent alliance? Should I be more worried about the others? She thinks back to yesterday - where Coulomb had happily told their allies his whole life story before they’d even agreed to team up - “Don’t trust them, though, okay?”
“I won’t.” They watch the two tributes scale the wall - well, mostly Cymbria. Nerisse keeps slowing herself down by looking at the ground below her every few feet, panicking herself - afraid of heights. Good to know. Cymbria ignores both her partner and the audience of two above her, climbing with purpose and reaching the top before the other girl has even made it half-way up - I was still faster. The thought makes her smile.
Cymbria slides onto the ledge next to Coulomb and taps him on the shoulder - “Time to go. I need to talk to your friend here.”
“I… um…” He looks up at Voltaea, questioning.
“You can climb down.” She glares at Cymbria, her tone slightly mocking - “Maybe see if her friend needs any help - she doesn’t seem like she’s very good at this.” Coulomb nods to her before shifting himself to climb back down the wall.
“Go back down, Nerisse, you’re embarrassing us both!” It’s not hard to get under her skin, is it? Cymbria calls out to her partner who goes bright red, hanging in place for a few shocked moments before rappelling down on the rope. “I was hoping to catch you before everyone else got here.”
Voltaea shrugs, trying to seem nonchalant while her heart thunders out of rhythm at the back of her skull - “You caught me, what do you want?
“Have you thought at all about teaming up?” Straight to the point then.
“I don’t think your allies would like you going behind their backs to ask me.” She’s not entirely sure they are Cymbria’s allies at this point, but it seems as good a time as any to probe for that information.
“They’re too caught up in their own bullshit to even notice me talking to you. And if you hadn’t already noticed, they’re all separated into their own little groups” She gestures around the room to the others. “- none of them are even bothering to pretend we’re training together today. Not a team I want to stake my life on.”
Voltaea pushes her a bit further, “How do I know you’re not just going to turn around and betray us too?”
“You don’t. But I think you can recognize that there’s safety in numbers.” Cymbria points across the room to where the tributes from Eight, Eleven, and Twelve all sit together - “Right now they have the numbers - I saw them with Six and Nine yesterday too. That’s ten people against four, as you stand right now. And two of your allies are like twelve years old.”
She has a point - some of the tributes in the outer district alliance seem capable enough, with the sheer numbers they have it does put them at an advantage, especially if there’s no stronger group to challenge them. Let her think you trust her. If you want her to be useful, you have to give her something tangible - Alara’s words from last night echo in her thoughts - “Your math checks out.” She pauses, Cymbria smiles at her - “Look. I don’t know about being allies, but we could make a truce?” She reaches out her hand to shake Cymbria’s, leaning against the wall to keep her balance - “We won’t attack you, you won’t attack us. We’ll just focus on the others until the numbers even out.”
Cymbria reaches out to shake - “Done.” She grips Voltaea’s hand so hard she can hear a slight crack from one of their knuckles shifting - show off. “Now that we’re friends -” I wouldn’t say we’re friends… acquaintances of convenience, maybe. “What do you think the odds are that your traps work well enough to snag one of the dangerous ones?” She points to the tributes from Two, still wrestling with each other at the other side of the room.
So those are the ones you’re actually afraid of, that makes sense. “I mean, they’ll work on anyone who sets them off. The odds they do that are better if I know how to catch them off guard, though.” That seems to be all it takes to get Cymbria talking - she’s observant too, but she talks too much . Cassia has a bum left shoulder - Cymbria says she noticed it yesterday the one time they sparred, she can’t lift that arm above her head without flinching. Cassia had still beat her, but she’s convinced if she noticed it earlier she would have found a way to exploit it. That’s only going to help if we’re fighting head to head, and that’s the last thing I want. Tiber has anger issues, she’d watched him club Marcelus yesterday without hesitating - Easy to bait, if I’m close enough to make him angry.
Cymbria is even more over-eager to give her information about Marcelus. Heavy sleeper, snores, fights left-handed, good with a sword but not much else, eats with his mouth open, perpetually distracted, never thinks - half of it is just her listing petty annoyances, but all of it makes Voltaea think he’s an easy target if she wants to take him out. I wouldn’t mind being the one to do it - but that’s probably exactly what she wants. District unity plays better with the crowd than betrayal.
A loud, familiar voice echoes out through the training hall - “Little buddy! You beat us down here today!” Voltaea looks down to see Sarah bounding across the room to where Coulomb stands below, Bashir in tow behind her.
Still too loud! “We should probably climb down before she decides to come up here.” Voltaea mutters, spinning herself around to step onto the holds below. “I’ll talk to them about our truce.”
“I’d hope so. I’ll be very upset if your friend tries to put an axe through my skull.” Cymbria laughs coolly - it sounds sarcastic but there’s an edge of threat in the words that makes her ears ring. If she wanted to do that, there wouldn’t be any try about it. I’ve seen her throwing skills. Voltaea thinks better of saying that out loud.
“I’ll make sure she doesn’t.” Voltaea starts climbing down, Cymbria rappelling to keep in line beside her - cheater. “We can meet up again after lunch if you want, but I should talk to my allies without you first.”
Cymbria rolls her eyes but she doesn’t protest - “Alright, after lunch it is.” They continue the descent, Voltaea moving more quickly as they go. She hears Sarah’s voice boom out from below her, but she’s too focused on climbing faster to focus on what she’s saying. Her palms are starting to sweat heavily, she has to stop briefly to wipe them on her pantlegs so she doesn’t lose her grip - am I nervous? I haven’t been climbing that much… not enough for this. Cymbria reaches the ground first - Voltaea lets herself drop the last five feet or so, just to show she can.
Sarah runs to her with her arms outstretched like she’s going for a hug. Don’t be a flirt, darling - Shit - Alara’s words echo in Voltaea’s head again and she holds out a hand to stop her approach “Don’t hug me right now, I’m sweating like crazy.” That part is true, at least. She hadn’t noticed it until the way down, but she’s practically drenched now - It’s never this bad, even working on a hot day. What’s wrong with me?
Sarah stops short, frowning at her - more concerned than angry looking - “Oh, shit, yeah you are. You feeling alright, Sparky? You look pale. Like more than normal.” Voltaea looks down at herself - her skin is clammy, less flushed than she’d expect it to be after a long climb - I do look pale.
“I feel great, actually.” Not entirely a lie, she does feel energized - focused, in control. But her heart hasn’t stopped th-thumping against the base of her skull since she got here, and the edge she had this morning seems to be fading slightly as the day wears on. Then I need to make some use of it while I still have it - “We should go talk to the traps guy. I want to see if he got us those other materials he mentioned.”
“Okay, yeah. Good idea.” Sarah leans in to whisper in her ear, briefly looking over her shoulder at Cymbria as she walks off to find her sidekick - “What were you talking to dead-eyes about up there, anyway?”
Voltaea motions for the group to follow her and starts walking towards the trap station “I made a deal with her - we don’t go after her, she won’t come after us.” Sarah opens her mouth to say something, but Voltaea cuts her off - “I know I said we weren’t going to trust her - and I don’t. She’ll kill us if we let her get too close. But it was enough to get her talking. She was more than happy to tell me everything she knows about the career pack - besides her and her sidekick, anyway.”
“Do you think it’ll hold for a while? Like is she gonna try and stab us in the bloodbath, or you think she’d wait.”
“I think she wants us to take out her competition so she doesn’t have to. The way she was talking, she's especially nervous about the Twos, and the big alliance the kids from Eight have going.” I hope I’m reading this right. “So… probably not? I mean, if she kills us right away we can’t help her out, right?”
Sarah shrugs at her, “That makes sense… I’m still gonna keep an eye on her. Just in case.”
“Probably smart.” As they approach the trap station, the trainer waves to them - he turns to grab something from a metallic case on the ground next to him.
“I was hoping you’d show back up” The trainer turns around with a huge grin, hiding whatever he pulled from the case behind his back - “I had to pull all the strings I know to get one of these. But I think you guys might have a lot of fun with it.” He pulls out a disc-shaped metal object from behind him and Voltaea can’t help but gasp when she realizes what it is -
“Is that a land mine?” She’s seen glimpses of the ones the Gamemakers put around the cornucopia. Two years ago she watched a boy trigger the mines during mandatory viewing of the start of the games. He’d jumped off the platform early and the resulting explosion exposed some of the other, half-buried ones long enough for her to see what they looked like before the cameras cut away. There was also an incident she’d read about during her research where a tribute had tried to repurpose one of the mines and blown herself up in the process - so she’d written off the idea of using them for her own devices. It seemed like too much of a risk then. But now? If he’s going to teach us how they work? Her mind swirls with the possibilities.
“Yep - totally inert, so don’t be too worried.” I’m not worried, this is perfect! “It’s the same model they use in the arena.” He holds it out to let them all get a closer look - Voltaea is the only one who steps closer. “If you want, I’ll show you how to activate it. It still has all the parts besides the bomb.”
Voltaea reaches for the device and the trainer lets it drop into her hands - it’s heavier than I thought it would be. She turns to her comrades, beaming - “There’s so much we could do with these if we get our hands on a few!”
Sarah gives her a strange grimace, before looking over to the trainer to ask - “Is it safe to touch these once they’re shut off?”
“Yeah. I mean. Sort of. So long as you don’t drop it, shake it around, or put it near an open flame.” Got it, carry them carefully. Voltaea has too many ideas on how to use a portable explosive to let the warning deter her from trying. “You’ll also want to make sure they’re actually off before you go near one. The ones by the cornucopia are on a timer, but I’ve seen it fail in testing. Just look for the blinking red light on the side - that means it’s on. No light, no worries.”
“That doesn’t sound safe at all.” Coulomb mumbles from behind her, Voltaea ignores his protest - safe isn’t going to help me win.
“Yeah, I’ll be honest - I’m with the kid on this. That seems like a lot of risk for, what - a couple kills that’ll happen either way?” Sarah puts a hand on Voltaea’s shoulder and she shrugs it off angrily - Why is everyone questioning me today?
To her surprise, given how quiet he usually is, it’s Bashir who comes to her defense - “I think it’s a good idea to learn how this stuff works. We don’t know what the Gamemakers are going to throw at us - anything we learn here could come in handy there, you never know.” Voltaea smiles at him, he gives her a performative frown in response - “Don’t look so happy - If you want to mess with mines for fun you’re going to have to dig them up yourself. That’s not gonna be my job.”
“Deal.” She turns back to the others, twitching with excitement. “Are you guys gonna stick around? You could practice the snare we worked on yesterday if you don’t want to mess with the mine.”
“I mean. It’s not live - and I’m not NOT curious how it works.” Sarah says, seemingly a bit less nervous now - “I’m not gonna help you dig them up either, though. We can help with tripwires but you’re on your own with the explod-y stuff.”
“Fine, but I’m gonna use whatever I can to get us ahead, help or no help.” Voltaea snaps at her, a little harsher than she intended - she tries to soothe her growing frustration by pushing her nails into her palm. She looks back at the trainer - “Tell me everything you know about how this thing works.”
He pulls a screwdriver out of his belt and hands it to her - “Here, take this. You’ll need something thin enough to fit in the slot on the side to flip the reset switch.” He points at a small opening and she lifts the mine to look into it - there’s a button. She slides the screwdriver in to press it - nothing happens. Voltaea opens her mouth to say something but the trainer holds up a finger - “Give it two minutes, there’s a safety delay.” She waits, fidgeting anxiously until a red light flashes to light on top of the device. There’s a distinct, faint hum of electricity that comes with it - not loud, but enough that she’s confident she can check if the mine is active by the sound it makes - that’s perfect!
“So once that light is on, don’t go anywhere near the thing. Anything that moves over the sensor on top will set it off.” She nods along intently - “Usually they activate these remotely, so they can space them out and bury them. You won’t have that luxury - You have to work fast once you hit the switch.” I can be fast when I need to be.
He goes into more detail about how the mines work - the explosion is designed to be condensed in an upward direction, so it doesn’t set off too many others nearby if someone blows it stepping off their platform. The sensors are designed to detect motion but they’re also sensitive to weight - so they’ll trigger for a small person, but not something like a bird landing on top. The timer only works with remote setup. The manual reset just sets the mine to active - there’s no disarming it to his knowledge. Voltaea is itching to get a closer look at the inside to see how it all works, and before he can launch into another explanation she blurts out - “Can I take this apart?”
He gives her a long look, like he’s weighing the risks of letting her disassemble his toy - “Sure. There’s a table behind me you can use - just don’t lose any parts. I’m supposed to bring this back in one piece.”
“Fair,” she’s buzzing with excitement, already rising to her feet. She shoots a look at the others over her shoulder - “You guys should find something to do, this might take me a while and there’s not much you can do to help.” And I don’t want to hear your muttering about how dangerous this is anymore. I’m going to make it work.
Sarah sighs - she looks more bored than frustrated now, at least. “Alright, we’ll make a snare over here while you do that - I think I remember most of what you showed us. Maybe. A little, at least.”
“I remember, I’ll show you again.” Coulomb says softly - Voltaea gives him a cheerful thumbs up before turning back to the workbench and laying the mine out on top. The screwdriver slips out of her hand, palms sweating like crazy still - she wipes her hands on her pantlegs again and picks it back up.
I’m just excited, I’m doing fine, just keep going.
She tells herself this as she begins unscrewing the panel on the underside of the mine, but her fingers won’t stop twitching. Every joint feels electric. Every inch of her feels sticky and every breath comes too quickly. The back of her teeth seem to itch as she works and she grinds them together to stop the sensation. Am I broken? Is it because I forgot to eat? She nearly forgets to breathe until the screwdriver clatters down again and she realizes the mine is already open, every screw lined up neatly at the top of the table - like her body decided to just run with the task at hand while her mind was occupied.
The guts of the device are simpler than she expected - an empty space where the explosives would be, a battery, neatly color-coded wires leading to the sensors on top and a small antenna tucked into the center - maybe for remote access? She taps a few of the components gently with the back of her nail - Click, click. It’s a nice sound, soothing almost - she picks up the screwdriver again and tries to remove the battery to get a better look at it - If I just loosen this…
“V, are you still working on that?” Coulomb’s voice cuts through the static in her ears.
She jolts. “How long have I been working?” Her vision snaps up to the trap trainer, now deep in conversation with Sarah and Bashir over their finished snare. Coulomb’s hovering over her shoulder, trying to look casual. He’s not very good at faking casual.
He looks at the clock on the wall - “It’s been almost forty-five minutes, we’re gonna break for lunch pretty soon.”
That can’t be right… She glances down. Her hands are blackened with grease. How did I get so distracted? There’s a tiny burn mark at the tip of her finger from where she’d touched the battery, she hadn’t even noticed it hurt. Her stomach growls angrily and the screwdriver slips from her grip once again - “Fuck!” She swears, too loud - Coulomb flinches and she tries to give him a reassuring look that just comes off wrong . It doesn’t help. The lights in the room are too loud now too - too bright. It’s like everything she’d been blocking out is suddenly charging back twice as angry as before. And why do I feel tired? Isn’t this stuff supposed to keep me from feeling tired?
Coulomb tugs at her arm - “Let’s just go eat something, okay? We can work on more stuff after lunch.”
She sighs, food is probably the best thing she can do for herself now with how much her hands are shaking - maybe it’ll help? “Alright, you’re right. I haven’t eaten yet today.”
“I know, that was dumb.” He states bluntly, Voltaea can’t help but laugh - it’s unexpected coming from Coulomb . He doesn’t seem to see the humor because his face is still contorted with concern when she looks back at him. “It’s not funny. You’re being weird today, V. Are you sure you feel okay?”
“I’ve told you guys like three times that I’m fine!” She’s not fine - she feels less fine with every minute that passes. Something Alara told her this morning worms its way back to the front of her mind - ‘You’re probably going to have a bit of a crash, darling.’ Her thoughts spiral as the realization hits her like a runaway truck - Oh no, is that what this is? Is that why I feel awful? Why didn’t she warn me how bad this would be?! Why wouldn’t she give me something to stop it? Did I mess up this morning? I’m not going to be able to work if this gets worse… I’m going to fail. I’m going to look stupid.
Coulomb sighs and tugs at her arm again - clearly unconvinced by her assertion of fine-ness. “We’ll grab the others and go eat, alright?” Defeated - No, not defeated, just not willing to argue any more about this - she follows his lead. As they walk over towards Sarah and Bashir, a dull ache starts to throb at the base of her skull.
Gods, this is going to be the longest fucking day.