The mindscape games (on hiatus/possibly discontinued)

The ratings.

Virgil's POV:

    The next couple of weeks were around the same, get dressed, exercise, learn statistics and tips from the mentors for the games, then repeat. Lola and Chad somehow managed to get a few friends on their side, though I doubt they would continue that alliance into the games. All I really cared about was keeping my skills hidden on their radar. It was getting really hard since they were constantly on my heels without causing trouble. I was so fed up with it which eventually leads us to the present with Luna sitting on the couch watching me go off on a rant while pacing back and forth quickly.
    "I just don't get it! What does it take to get them off my back?! Like seriously! Stop focusing so much on me and figure out other people's weaknesses!" I cried and grumbled insults under my breath. Reina entered not long later and held out a glass of iced water for me, I took it muttering a thanks and refreshed my scratchy throat from the amount of talking I did with a big gulp.
"Because as far as they can see, you're the toughest target in there. If they can find a way to take you down then they believe they have a better chance at winning" Luna explained which made me twitch nervously. Nice to know I have a giant target on my back already. I thought to myself and groaned. "Now I know district four's behavior, they are cocky, stubborn, and prideful bastards. They won't take help from anyone if they've decided you're an enemy. I remember almost losing my life once to one of their tributes because I found him injured and offered medical assistance." She continued and pulled up the side of her shirt slightly showing us a long and thin scar on her side just above her hip. "He managed to give me this pretty badass battle scar, before I regretfully fought him off and had to kill him to stay alive" she finished and covered the faded wound. "My point is, district four will do everything, and I mean everything they can to try and take you down. So either pray they get taken down at the start, you find a bow with arrows, or you have friends to help you" Luna explained to me and I nodded. "Tomorrow is your guys's ratings right?" She asked and Reina nodded her head to confirm. "Since you two are going last, especially you Virge, the sponsors are going to be bored and not really paying attention. you HAVE to make yourself stand out" she emphasized "that's all I got, go to bed squirts so you're rested for tomorrow" Luna stated before ruffling up both of our hair and shooed us off to our own rooms.

*le time skip*

I woke up a little earlier than usual today, and decided in my free time I'd submerge myself in the artificial forest land scape like I was back home listening for my next kill. I sighed slipping into a soothing head space and trained my ears like I used to back home. I picked up every single sound, a small twig branch snapping, the crinkling of leaves as a mouse scattered across it. The far and quiet cry of a jay, the distinctive chirps from the different birds in the trees, a small creek off in the distance with its water running peacefully and undisturbed. I could stay here and listen for hours, but sadly today had other plans for me.
"Virgil~! Breakfast is ready~!" Ginny sang bringing my meditation crashing down. I anticipated on waiting a while before actually getting food, until my stomach said otherwise and growled at me. Heaving a defeated sigh I hopped off the bed and made my way to the dining table, Reina had already started to help herself to the healthy, carb filled, and protein packed food, while I grabbed a plate and began helping myself as well. "So~... you two have your skills test today! Are you excited?!" She asked or more of squealed at us.
"I don't see any reason to BE excited, but if that's how I'm supposed to feel than sure" I responded sarcastically and started to eat whatever I put on my plate. Luna snickered at my remark and she got a little louder when looking at Ginny's appalled face.
    "I like this kid" Luna commented while pointing at me and continued to laugh quietly. She stopped immediately though after Ginny smacked the back of her head, although a smile still tugged at her lips.
    "And that... is what I wished to discuss, potential sponsors are going to be there AND watching you," she said while over enunciating the word and. "You have to be at your best behavior! Respectful, obedient, and skilled with your weapon the moment they set eyes on you" She continued and looked at us seriously. "Your very survival might come down with what happens today so be aware" Ginny finished her lecture and sighed putting a smile back on her face. "That's all, eat up and get ready! Me and Luna wish you great luck" she quickly added and Luna raised her hand slowly. "...Yes... Luna?" Ginny asked after letting out a loud sigh and looked at her with a murderous glint in her eyes.
    "I'm confused, when did I wish them luck- Ow! Haha! Sorry I'm sorry! I'm joking Gin I'm sorry I swear!" Luna heaved while being interrupted halfway through with another slap to the head. We all finished breakfast not much later and I started to get ready while mentally going over everything I would need to do. Aim which is obvious, not wear myself out to much if they give me certain obstacle tracks to do. Be smart which is pretty clear, and like Luna said 'you HAVE to make yourselves stand out'. Then all the rest was up to the sponsors. Taking a deep breathe I walked with Reina to where the training room was, Logan, Patton, and Roman were all waiting nearby and beamed up when they saw me.
    "Hey guys, how'd your turns go?" I asked and they all seemed proud of themselves which must've meant it went well.
    "Really well, we wanted to wait till you guys got here to wish you good luck" Roman answered my question and I smiled sweetly at them.
    "Aw thanks guys, that's really sweet of you" I complimented back and couldn't help but blush a bit at the kind gesture.
    "Of course! But we should get back now, we'll see each other's scores tonight when they're broadcasted yeah?" Patton added and I nodded.
    "Yep, see you guys later!" I said goodbye to them while they waved as they walked back to the elevator. We entered into the waiting room just before the training room and we were the only two in here. Sitting by the door we waited and I noticed Reina's hands fidgeting wildly and her eyes were wide and darting around the room. "Hey..." I said softly and placed my hand on top of hers, she jerked her head over to meet my eyes and I felt bad for just how panicked she looked. "You're going to do great" I reassured her and she shook her head while looking at me like I was crazy.
    "No I'm not!" She hissed "all I can do is paint and hide, no ones going to want to sponsor a coward!" Reina continued.
    "You're not being a coward, you're doing whatever it takes to survive and being resourceful. Not to mention you have strength on your side too remember?" I reminded her from one of the days in training where she was being teased by guess who! District four, and I convinced her to throw the big ball weight and to think if it was just like a big flour bag back at the bakery. She heaved that thing like there was no tomorrow, and if she had thrown it a bit harder or in a different angle she would've hit someone with it. She nodded, seeming to calm down a little and sighed.
    "Thanks, I thought I would have an anxiety attack right there" she admitted and I smiled.
    "No problem, anxiety pals?" I asked and held up my fist,
    "Anxiety pals" she agreed and returned my fist bump.
    "Reina Storm, district 6" the intercom blared and I patted her on the back as she got up and disappeared behind the door.... 5 minutes passed... Now 10 minutes... 30, how long was this going to take? When almost an hour passed Reina came out of the door shaking a little from nerves. She had some paint smudged on her that she missed while wiping it off probably, but what relieved me was the genuine smile she had on her face, sure it was small and shaky, but it was genuine.
    "I'd say that went surprisingly well" she commented and I gave her a thumbs up.
    "Virgil Shade, district 6" the intercom announced again and I slowly stood up.
    "Good luck in there Virge, show them what The lilac flame is all about" she encouraged and I smiled to her before going into the room myself. There was an observatory deck off to the side and hovering overhead. There was only a glass paned balcony while the rest was completely open. The sponsors were all busy chatting themselves away and digging into a buffet table at the back.
    "Virgil Shade!" I announced and they silenced themselves to look down to me "from district 6" I continued and looked at what was in front of me. They must have monitored us from our strengths, because in front of me was a bow rack with a quiver next to it full of arrows, along with a far reaching target a little distance away. I picked up the bow and swung the quiver around my shoulders. Pulling an arrow from the quiver I pulled back the bow string and aimed at the middle target and took in a deep breath. However on my exhale right as I released I heard the clatter of silverware that startled me. I lost focus for just a second and the arrow missed its target for the bullseye by a bit. My heart sank as I darted my gaze to look at the sponsors who seemed unimpressed and went back to chatting away. Determined to prove myself I loaded again and this time the arrow sunk in the direct middle. I looked to them for confirmation, but quickly realized that the shot was useless because no one even saw it and continued to chat away like I wasn't there. 'Stand out' I heard Luna's voice echo through my head. How do I get their attention? I thought to myself and examined the room, the bullseye was useless which was pretty clear... so... what to shoot....? Stand out, stand out, stand out. It just kept repeating on loop. My eyes quickly fixed on the roasted pig in the back with an apple in its mouth. There was two representatives in front of it with a narrow space in between them that had a direct shot for the apple itself. Not to mention the difficulty only raised since from where it was raised up, to get that shot I had to also shoot it through the small gap between the glass panes for the balcony railing. Will I regret this? Probably. Will I mess up and hurt someone? Probably. Does that mean I'm not going to do it? Absolutely not. I thought to myself and reached back for another arrow, taking another aim I allowed the background noise of laughter, talking, and silverware against dishes fade into background noise and focused on my target. Letting go of the arrow it whizzed sharply between the balcony glass panes gap, between the two sponsors, impaled the apple, and hit the wall keeping it firmly in place. Everything went completely silent and I could see some shocked faces among ones of terror. I lowered my stance and stood up straight. "Virgil Shade, from district 6" I repeated and calmly put the quiver full of arrows away along with the bow back in its place before leaving them there still stunned. Among one of the faces in the crowd, I recognized it to be president Sanders. He was at the tribute parade as well, and I couldn't shake out of my head the way I swore his cold eyes pierced into me, and me alone. It was that same cold and unreadable gaze like before, except just now he held an amused smirk that was barely visible. He smiled like what I just did wasn't to create a point, but was like a show purely for his entertainment. Just thinking more about it made me shiver to my core. When I reached the Suite however I was met with an even scarier expression. Ginny frowning deeply and angrily, she looked so frustrated I wouldn't be surprised if smoke started to come out of her ears. She yanked me inside and dragged me to the living room where both Reina and Luna were.
    "Mind telling us what on EARTH you just pulled?!" She cried and I just sighed not wanting to deal with her right now.
    "I'm meant to show my skills right? So that's what I did. That was just to prove a point" I said calmly and I noticed her eye begin to twitch crazily.
    "That wasn't proving anything! What you just did is MAHOGANY!" She basically screamed and I flinched at her tone.
    "GINNY!" I heard Luna shout sternly, Reina, Ginny, and myself all turned to look at her surprised. This was the first time I think any of us heard her raise her voice. "That. Is. Enough." She said slowly and turned to me. "Virgil noticed that he wasn't getting any attention which was unfair, so he improvised and made himself stand out. Now I don't know if that stunt'll work, but we'll find out tonight when the results are broadcasted. Shouting at the poor kid isn't going to change anything so I suggest you give the damn boy a break, he's been working his ass off twice as much than everyone else" Luna lectured Ginny this time. And Ginny huffed, and pouted clearly annoyed and upset. "That was a nice shot though Virgil, I have no idea how you managed to pull that off "Luna complimented and I gave her a weak smile.
    "When you suggested to us that we needed to stand out since we were being scored last I just kept remembering that and it somehow came to my mind" I explained and shrugged.
"Well..." Luna started an trailed off looking at her watch "we have around an hour before the broadcasts start so you two get changed and washed up. We'll call you when it's on" Luna told us, me and Reina nodded, and waved goodbye before leaving the room.
"Is it just me, or is that the first time Luna's ever raised her voice?" Reina asked and I nodded.
"I thought the same thing too, and from the looks of Ginny's expression it was the first time for her too" I added and Reina chuckled. "They act so much like a couple sometimes I forget that they aren't" she joked and I snickered with her. We went our separate ways and since I didn't do anything much that challenged me, I didn't need to shower and just changed into something more comfortable. There was a light knock on my door after around 10 minutes and I opened it up to Reina holding up a deck of uno cards.
    "Where on earth did you get an uno deck?" I asked and she quieted me down and entered my room closing the door behind her.
    "Well... lets just say I wasn't completely empty handed when we boarded the train to the capitol" she answered smugly and I laughed in disbelief. "I managed to sneak it past all the spa workers too somehow, I just never found a time to play it with someone." She added and then displayed it like a luxury item "so what do you say? Shuffle these bad boys and play a couple rounds?" She asked and I gripped her shoulders and looked at her seriously.
    "You're insane if you think you even have to ask" I told her and she grinned even wider. We sat across from each other on my unnecessarily large ass bed and I started to shuffle them together.
    "My aunt gave that deck to me when she was saying goodbye, said that it would be something to remember her by and to remind myself to try and stay happy" Reina confessed and zoned out watching me continue to shuffle the deck.
    "That's a thoughtful gift" I responded and she nodded with a smile.
    "Yeah, did your brother give you anything when he said goodbye?" She asked and I hesitated. Do I show her the pin? It wasn't even anything dangerous or crazy, but why did I feel so hesitant about it anyways?
    "Yeah... he did, well it was more like he re-gifted something I got for him." I started and shuffled around pulling the pin delicately out of the drawer. "It was the day of the qualifications. And I went hunting to keep my mind off of worrying too much for Janus since it was his first year being old enough... and I saw the first deer I'd seen in months. Me and Remy sold it for 45 cons which was a lot. I wanted to get something for Janus for his first year but everything at the market was too expensive. Just as I was running out of hope looking through the scraps I could afford I spotted this pin" I continued and held the pin in my palm for her to see. "The stand owner noticed me looking at it and told me it was a symbol of the light sides. A group of people who used to rule the capitol and districts together in harmony before the mind games." She looked to me surprised and wide eyed to ask if I was serious.
    "You mean a time where there wasn't a president, like president Sanders?" She asked and I nodded.
    "They each had a role, there was creativity, the master of imagination and motivation, Logic the master of reality, truth, and common sense. Morality the master of kindness, empathy, and drive to make others do right, and last there was Anxiety, the master of fear, paranoia, tendency to fight or flight, and the one who knew when his others or himself had reached their limits. There is also the dark sides such as Deceit the master of lies and deception along with creativity's twin, Intrusive Thoughts, the master of madness and chaos. The last dark side is long forgotten from history from what I remember the shopkeeper telling me. But they all ruled together" I explained to her as she examined the engraved accessory.
"How come we never learned about this?" She asked and I shrugged.
"I don't know, she insisted I take it for free though and I gave it to Janus right before we left telling him that when he was scared to look at the pin and be filled with hope. When he was saying goodbye he gave it back telling me to think of him and to be filled with hope too" I explained and put the pin away. "I haven't parted with it since." I finished and started to deal out the cards. We played a round or two until we heard Ginny calling for us because it was starting. We put the cards away and I couldn't sit down on the couch in the living room and had to stand from how nervous I was.
"Hello ladies and gents of the capitol! Today we have the mind games tributes all ranked and here to broadcast to you all today! The tributes will be ranked on a scale of 1 being the least skilled and harmless, to 15 the most dangerous and skilled. Lets get right into it folks!" Ceaser announced and Romans face pulled onto the screen. "First we have Roman Prince, district 1's male tribute, and dare I say the most dashing out of them all, I mean look at him guys!" Ceaser joked and a recording of laughter and applause played "The game keepers rated Roman Prince... a 9! Very high folks very high! Then we have Nora West the female tribute for district 1, now is it just me but does district 1 always have such stunning people? Good lord! Nora has been rated... a 7 folks! Still pretty high up there!" He went through the districts and I remembered Patton got a rank of 5 which wasn't the best, he might be seen as an easier target. While Logan was ranked a 9 like Roman. Lola and Chad were both ranked an 8 which was still pretty high. "Finally our last two tributes of the night from district 6! Virgil Shade their male tribute, or should I say The lilac flame, has received a rank of!..." I bit my nails in anticipation and my eyes bugged out of my head at the number that displayed on the screen "holy smokes! That is the highest score I've ever seen, everyone, I don't believe this! Virgil has been ranked a number 12! The highest score we've seen all night and in a long time!" Ceaser announced. I covered my mouth in shock as the despair set in, this wasn't a moment of victory, this painted the target a brighter red on my back for everyone to see. "And for Reina Storm... a 10! My word! District six is not fooling around this year!" Ceaser continued, I tuned everything out after that and stumbled my way backwards until I collapsed on the sofa shaking wildly. Luna turned the TV off not long after and I saw blurry blobs surrounding me and loud muffled voices talking to me. It took my mind a moment to catch up with me, for me to realize I had gone into a full-blown anxiety attack. I gasped trying to get air in my lungs that were starting to burn from lack of air and tears streamed down my face.
"Virgil breathe!" Reina's voice broke through everyone else's. I now felt her hand on my shoulder and her crouched in front of me. "In for 3, hold for 3, and breathe out for 3 ok? Follow me" she instructed and I shakily tried to follow the breathing exercise. It took awhile but I finally calmed down fully and just hiccuped from recently crying. "Are you ok?" She asked seriously and I shook my head.
"I already have a target on my back, what am I supposed to do now?" I asked and I looked around to observe all three of their faces. Ginny looked sad and looked at me pitifully. Luna held concern and understanding, while Reina just looked worried.
"Hey just because you got a target on your back doesn't mean that you won't be able to kick ass and fight off your own. You were scored that high for a reason" Reina tried to reason with me but I just shook my head and stood up.
"They ranked me that high on purpose, because I rebelled... I'll see you guys tomorrow, I'm going to bed" I said quietly and moved over to my room. I submerged myself in the comforter and started to sob my eyes out quietly. I'm so sorry Janus, I might have just screwed up my chances.