Disclaimer: I do not own either The Hunger Games nor Dead Poets Society.
A.N. If you are unfamiliar with The Hunger Games I would suggest watching the trailer for the film, that should fill you in enough to understand this. Also in terms of chronology this takes place between the 25th and 50th Games.
To the Victor the Spoils
Chris Noel: District 1
She wants to die. Covered in burns lying in a cave Chris Noel wishes fervently to die. She knows it's hopeless anyways, years of combat training mean nothing for someone from District 1 when the arena is mostly water. The District 4 tributes have been having a field day with all the gifts the sponsors have been sending. Her district partner however has deluded himself into thinking they still have some sort of chance and won't let her just off herself quickly. Ridiculous considering that if they do manage to make it too the final two he'll slit her throat without a second though. So when she steals the poison from their blow darts and coats her lips with it she's envisioning a dramatic murder-suicide of the tributes of District 1. Instead what she discovers is that she is in fact very much not dead while her poor partner in fact is within 5 seconds limpid on the floor of the cave. That's when the first parachute falls. Running to the mouth of the cave Chris rinses off her mouth madly praying the poison hasn't gotten into her bloodstream before diving for the parachute. Someone has sent her burn salve. The next morning Chris leaves the cave head held high lips glistening unnaturally in the dimness of artificial dawn. The games are over by dusk Chris gasping victoriously on the ground beside her last victim a pretty golden boy from 4. The poison finally beginning to leach into her system before she's lifted into a hovercraft antidotes crammed down her throat.
Shining red lips are the hottest thing in the Capitol that year.
Chet Danbury: District 2
His arena is a cold deserted wasteland reminiscent of the cities he'd seen in his textbooks at school. Not that he spent a lot of time looking at his textbooks. There's no food to forage, no animals to hunt other than rat muttations that devoured 6 of the tributes on the first night and he's not sure he should eat those. None of the many parachutes he's been sent have contained food, only weapons each more sharp and deadly than the last. He hacks and slashes his way through the skeletal city for 6 days hoping one of his sponsors will take pity on him and send him something, anything he can use to curb the vast pit of agony that has sprung up where his stomach used to be. It's only when he's prowling through the rusted remains of a playground that he finds the answer to his problem, a deflated hunk of what he first thinks is some sort of synthetic fabric they dreamed up in 8 is actually leather. Leather equals cow, and there in a field in a pretend deserted city Chet eats a football, as he learns it is called during his post game interview. And as yet another victor from District 2 he soon becomes known as the Boy who ate a Football. He doesn't know if he's disappointed or relieved.
Steven Meeks: District 3
For a long time Steven Meeks, the scrawny knobby kneed kid from District 3 was the youngest winner of the Games. He was quick and deadly fashioning traps and snares that both captured and killed in the swampy arena. Steven doesn't let himself feel too guilty, his traps weren't cruel like the ones the Capitol designs but quick and efficient. Essentially painless. And this knowledge is what keeps him sane after his Games. That and his insomnia, can't have nightmares if you can't sleep. That all changes when he becomes a mentor at 17, only a few months older than one and younger than the other. The boy is hopeless, a merchant's son who's never had to do much thinking or surviving and the girl is the kind who would have been subjected to screwing something together on an assembly line. But he desperately wants them to survive. Steven shows them all the tricks he used, how to build a simple trap and encourages them to spend as much time as possible at the survival stations. In the end it's all in vain. The boy (he doesn't allow himself to think of them by their names) runs into the belly of the Cornucopia despite all his warnings and is the first to be slaughtered by a girl from 7. Someone cheers behind him, they must have had a bet he'd be first out. The girl runs into the woods avoiding the carnage but dies that night after eating poisonous mushrooms. One of the older mentors pats him on the back and says "Better luck next time, eh?"
The next year he volunteers to mentor for District 12 since they don't have a Victor of their own. Because at least when they die he won't have to go home and face the broken hollow shells of their parents.
Todd Anderson: District 4
When he's reaped no one volunteers. Because they aren't seeing Todd, the quiet lonely boy who never learned how to swim, all they see is Jeffery; The Golden Perfect Tribute, the one who was supposed to come home. It's such a shame, everyone thinks, no one could have accounted for that blonde girl from District 1 and her poison kisses, like a siren out of an old fisherman's tale. So Todd is shipped off to the Capitol where everyone from his mentor to his stylist expect him to act, think and talk like Jeffery and are sorely disapointed when he misses the mark. The only person who manages to surprise him is the siren girl, who nods at him from across the training centre before hurrying her own tributes into the elevator. Well her and the arena which is a broiling desert with so many dangers lurking under the sand that 16 tributes are killed off on the first day. Years of running along shoreline making him quick and nimble on the sand until he manages to get a hold of a crossbow, and for the first time in his life Todd realizes how badly he wants to live and to keep on living for a long time. To finally learn how to swim, and to eat seaweed bread, and fall in love, and to learn all of the fisherman's tales and tell them to his children. And Todd focuses on that, or he'll have to remember the scared look on the face of the girl from District 9, or the way the boy from 1 gasped out his last breaths.
So instead he thinks of the sea. Because the waves drown out the screaming in his mind
Richard Cameron: District 5
The Capitol doesn't seem to know how it feels about Richard Cameron. On the one hand they love the sharp eyed schemer who managed to hold together a tangled and confusing web of alliances and double crosses which made for an especially exciting Games. But on the other hand they disliked his hands off approach, letting others kill while he orchestrated behind the scenes. His only death bludgeoning a sleeping tribute with a rock while the last two battled it out ultimately killing one another. But Cameron didn't need the Capitols approval, he didn't need anyone's approval he's better than all of them. And he's definitely better than the tributes that they send in every year for him to mentor. Year after year they fail to learn anything from his example, making failed alliances that betray them, dying at the Cornucopia trying to vain to battle off Careers, making stupid mistakes that cost them their lives. He doesn't feel sorry for any of them. Or at least that's what he tells himself as he sits alone in his house in the Victor's Village and drinks until everything is painted with a rosy glow and he can forget.
Gloria Alderton: District 6
She's the first volunteer District 6 has ever seen, swaggering up to the stage where the stupid Capitol escort gapes at her and the 13 year old girl who was drawn originally beginnings to cry with relief before fleeing back into the crowd. She didn't know the kid, but she's glad that it was someone young, someone who still had a chance. Not like Gloria who only volunteers because living in the lap of luxury for a few weeks before getting an easy way out seems like the perfect escape route. Because she's been broken on the inside for a long time, selling herself out to any Peacekeeper who wants a warm body or a pair of lips. She's not supporting anyone else, everyone else died off long ago so she's letting herself go, letting herself be free. Gloria never imagines she might come home but on the second night while she sits in front of her campfire reminiscing about her brief time in the Capitol, waiting for someone to come and kill her everything changes. The tributes from 1, 2, the boy from 4 and the girl from 10 come crashing through the bush, obviously drawn to her fire. Gloria stands, she has a knife on her, only to be used if they try to make it slow, she wants to die but she doesn't want it to be long or painful. Only instead of killing her they ask if she'll join their ragtag gang of bandits. They call it something else of course but she'll call it what she likes in her own head. She agrees, they'll end up killing her as soon as it gets down a few more but at least she won't starve or die of dehydration in the meantime. On that first night the girl from 10 wakes her up and walks her away from the rest of the group, however instead of quickly gutting her like she did to that dummy in training she shoves her against and tree and pushes her tongue into Gloria's mouth. Before she can formulate what she's doing she slits her throat with the knife she has stashed in the waist band of her pants. As the canon booms she tells the rest of her newly formed alliance she had tried to kill her. They nod understandingly, someone as innocent and sweet from a nowhere district like 6 would never have the guts to kill someone otherwise.
And that's what the last boy still believes as she stabs him in the stomach and he dies with his hands on her breasts.
Years later she's contemplating whether she could kill someone like that again while a Gamemaker shoves his tongue in her mouth. The thought of it is what keeps her sane.
Neil Perry: District 7
Everyone loves Neil Perry, the Sweetheart Victor of District 7 shining so brightly in the snowcaped mountains, the bodies of several tributes littered around him bleeding out on the snow, brilliant red. Always a hand to shake, always a pretty lady to dance with, and always a photo to smile for. They never sell his body, not like some of the others are. But they sell him in other ways, his face plastered on billboards and the constantly changing flickering landscape of Capitol television. Every year for the Games they bring him in as a commentator even when District 7 has been eliminated and his own kids are dead and gone, bodies being flown back home. They tried once to offer his body but no one wanted it, they wanted their shining innocent sweet boy from the charmingly quaint woods of District 7. The boy who swore never to kill anyone and to protect his fellow tribute, a sweet young girl with big dark eyes. And he didn't, not until a pack of tributes killed her and he chopped them down, like the woodsman from a fairy tale, saving the damsel in distress from the Big Bad Wolf. Only it was too late and the fact haunts him, lingers behind every smile.
He moves to District 4 where it never snows and a broken boy teaches him new stories.
Knox Overstreet: District 8
Losing was never an option, with 3 little sisters and his mother at home to feed he didn't need to win as much as he just couldn't lose. Couldn't leave them alone in the factories struggling to put together enough for all 5 of them without his father. So he transforms himself, goes from the goofy clumsy boy to a man who will fight and kill to defend and free his family from a life of poverty and fear. It's the first year they use tracker jackers in the arena and he only has a vague memory of certain events. And even if he did have all of his memories he probably would have pushed them into a small dark corner of his mind where he would never venture. He's relieved when he steps off of the train and his mother and sisters are waiting at the station, his youngest bouncing up and down clutching a bouquet of flowers she made out of scraps of cloth. They all act like he's only been away on a fun trip and the only thing his sisters want to know is what the Capitol was like. He answers all their questions as best he can but is confused by their lack of concern about the Games. It isn't until he returns to his house, a small 1 bedroom apartment constantly cluttered with scraps of fabric, buttons, and needles from the work his mother brings home from the factory, that he realizes what has happened. The television that was mounted into the wall for the mandatory viewing of the Hunger Games has a large chunk missing out of it that looks suspiciously like a fist. His mother never says anything and neither does Knox. But when they move into their new house in the Victor's Village his sisters are excited to finally have television again complaining they never got to see Knox in his famous sewing needle speedo.
Tina Dire: District 9
Years later after Johanna Mason wins her Games by convincing everyone she's nothing but a simple little girl who could never hurt a fly people are reminded of the unlikely Victor years before from 9. The main difference of course being that Johanna was only pretending to be a weakling, whereas Tina really was just a stupid little girl who had the odds in her favour. Or at least that's what she lets people think.
Gerard Pitts: District 10
He's one of only two Victors who never killed a single tribute, an almost unheard of feat as most tributes who refuse to kill are either done away with quickly by their fellow opponents or a conveniently timed natural disaster courtesy of the Gamemakers. Gerard avoids this fate by being an interesting tribute if not a particularly blood thirsty one. He somehow manages to train a few of the most dangerous mutts ever released into an arena. A cross between a moose and mountain lion huge and horned with claws and a particularly nasty venomous bite. Using jerky from a pack he steals from a dead tribute before her body is taken by the hovercraft he manages to get on friendly terms with a few of them. When it's down to the last 3 tributes they send out herds of them stampeding in to kill off some of them or get them all together for the final battle. However the Gamemakers underestimate Gerard's ability to sway the beasts and he manages to get in front of them and calms them down with some sort of cattle call. The other two tributes however are pushed together and ultimately kill one another. While watching his recap Gerard charms some and confuses others explaining that the behavior of the mutts was similar to bulls and that he's named the largest one Quental and the smaller one Hecken.
Needless to say the Gamemakers scrap those particular mutts.
Ginny Danbury: District 11
The camera's love her. The charming warrior princess from 11 both inside and outside the arena. Running across the flatland, her sword flashing in the sun as she took down adversary after adversary. A perfect match to the lovely Neil Perry from 7, everyone's golden boy. And there it is, the simple fact that what they want is what they will get. A courtship broadcast live to the Capitol, every smile, every kiss, every moment perfectly choreographed. But Ginny has always been a good actress and they eat it up in prepackaged little chunks. Their wedding is to be the highlight of the year, a spectacle to tide the Capitol over until the next Hunger Games begin and Ginny is more terrified than she ever was for her Games. They whisper together in the relative safety of body buffing and fittings. She tells him about her family and the way a sunset in District 11 looks. He whispers back the bittersweet story he learned about the beautiful Persephone and Ginny has hope. Hope which made her a Victor, hope which will triumph over the powers which bind her to another and into the hands of the Capitol audience, their own form of Gamemakers. The day is a spectacle, ridiculous, romantic, and personal in a way that neither of them are. Their vows so moving most of the audience is in tears. A lie that is more real to millions of people than the truth ever could be.
The commentators notice how touching it is that Victor Todd Anderson from District 4 is brought to tears.
Charlie Dalton: District 12
He's been cheating the system for a long time. Using his older brothers identification card to work shifts at the mine for the last two years to make enough money to support himself and his grandparents. Everyone's sympathetic and no one says anything when they see him show up for shifts under a dead man's name. It's not like any of the Peacekeepers in 12 care. So at least when his name is called at what would have been his last reaping he knows he might have some kind of chance, something no one from 12 has had, well ever. They've never had a Victor and in all the years Charlie can remember watching the Games no one from 12 has even made it into the top 8. It also probably doesn't help that because of this mentors are constantly shuffled into the position pretty much against their will, or at least that's what it always seems like. He thinks he maybe lucked out this time because his mentor, the winner a few years ago from District 3, talks a lot about harnessing their natural abilities and genuinely seems to want to keep them from getting killed. Either that or he's a really good liar but he has a sincere face so Charlie doesn't think so. He ends up playing up his natural cockiness, which involves putting him in the original sexy miner costume, a helmet, gloves, and a very carefully placed tool belt, but the crowd loves it and he plays it up winking and blowing kisses to everyone. Charlie spends his last night lying on the floor of Steven's room practising tying ropes to make snares and trying to pretend he's not nervous and failing miserably at both. "Is it worth it?" He whispers in the darkness. He's seen the sadness behind his eyes and the various states of broken Victors on television and lingering around the training centre. There's a long pause and he thinks maybe Steven is asleep when finally he hears a reply; "If you have something to come back for."
That solidifies it for Charlie, he's going to win because for the first time in his life he has something worth surviving for.
A.N. I was greatly inspired by the work of aimmyarrowshigh who is absolutely brilliant and I suggest you read anything and everything of her's whenever you have a chance.
