AN: Hello, all. I'm trying my hands at the Hunger Games fandom (which I don't own, by the way), and reviews are loved (*hints*). This isn't my usual style, what with this being so short. My apologies to all of you who were expecting updates for other stories. Many thanks to Acacia Thorn for being my beta, because it was her reaction to the first drabble I wrote that convinced me to write down the rest. Warnings: lots of death, and one tiny swearword. Also, kudos and cookies to anyone who can pinpoint who Aili is, what Game Delorn, Leander, and Xene took part in, who Shine's siblings are (they are legit, named characters), and what in eternus somnus means. With that, HallowedHallsOfWriting, aka Juliet, now presents to you:
––– fragility –––
Snapshots of an antipathetic documentary. Or, ten losers in ten different lives.
.:in eternus somnus:.
"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
–– Joseph Stalin
.:in eternus somnus:.
10. Kestry was always too emotional, too soft for the Games, and when she comes across the mangled body of the two youngest tributes, she breaks apart. She shouts at the audience, asks them if that (was it worth it is this what you wanted are you laughing now?) was enough – then ground shifts, trees crack, and she's not even surprised when a redwood crashes down to crush her body.
9. Thad is seventeen and he believes he'll live forever. He's confident (i'll make it i'm invincible i'll win!), but dusk finds him at Cornucopia, dead like all other mortals.
8. Iona is dying. Her vision is fading and she can only dimly hear her partner saying he'll find something to heal her. She reaches out and pleads (please don't leave me i don't want to die alone) because she is afraid and he stays. He stays, and her eyes see his one last time. They really are bea –
7. Delorn is just a boy, but he has the will to survive. This keeps him from dying by others' hands, but it's not enough to fight nature and win, so he goes down in a heavy wave of water (swim i have to swim goddamn but i wish i was from district four it can't end this way...) kicking and screaming the whole way.
6. Shine is just a little girl, the baby of her family, but her mother was a victor and so was her father and her two siblings, and she grows up on those stories (no one in our house ever talked about my brothers and sisters that didn't make it with anything but shame.). She volunteers at age twelve at her family's insistence. She steps in the arena on a Sunday afternoon and the sun rises on Monday to find her bloody carcass. What's left of it, at least.
5. Leander is not, and has never been, a stunningly gorgeous boy, but he's moderately handsome, skilled, and talented. All this lands him a spot as a Career. He's district partners with the girl he adores, a little fourteen-year-old fisherman's daughter who only has eyes for their mentor. He is standing there, looking at her, when her soft brown eyes turn terrified, and he spins to see the blade of an ax swinging at him with the District 3 girl at the hilt. It slices off his head, and the last thing he hears before he dies is, over the clash of the battle that just broke out, his pretty brown-haired girl (oh gods annie i'm sorry i'm so so sorry...) screaming.
4. Caladium is a rare beauty, all slight frame and dark skin and big, big eyes. She uses her beauty as a tool, and makes her way around the arena, seducing those in her path while slitting their throat (i never wanted to do this but it's the only way forgive me?) when they are close enough. The second to last boy slits hers first.
3. Xene is smart – too smart. He is outspoken and angry and if he was dumb, no one would listen, but he found a way to survive the poison in the forest outside Cornucopia. For that, they will take him out, and he knows (i am never going to get out of this arena if only for everything i said...) it. When they are down to the final three, he expects death soon. He is not surprised when the small island he's been staying on erupts and the carnivorous squirrels feast on his charred body.
2. Aili never wanted to be a part in this (i'd end my life but i am too proud to die by my own hand). It's a relief, to her, when the berries she snuck turned out to be poison.
1. Pax isn't the dead one – it's his one friend, his only friend, that dies. They partner up at the beginning of the games, killing, never sparing, and all goes smoothly until a bitter tribute with vengeance on their mind shows up. She leaps at them and a dagger is sailing toward his heart when it hits his partner in the gut. The other tribute dies shortly after by his hand when he sees his ally slump to the ground. She opens, then closes her eyes and she dies with a peaceful smile on his face, leaving him. He yells at her corpse (you liar you broke your promise you broke it you broke it you broke it!). And when he becomes the last man standing, he knows that no one wins these games. To those who know the shy, awkward boy-cum-killer, it's hardly a surprise when his body is found dashed to pieces on the rocky cliff five minutes from his house in the villa.
.:in eternus somnus:.
Fides of vita est fragilis. The assurance of life is fragile.
Here, the strings are cut quickly, and the waiting lines are long.