A/N: Yay, this chapter is finally finished. And I also got accepted into my college of choice! :D (In case you guys are curious, I'm going to study Economics: Pre-law track, with a minor in computer science. Btw I don't plan on going to law school, I just figured that in pre-law I might pick up some good debate/arguing tips.)
Anyways, enough about that. I hope you guys had a merry Christmas, happy New-Years, Martin Luther King day, Hanukkah, Kwanza, etc whatever you like to celebrate. I also hope you like this chapter. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia, the Hunger Games, Wiress, Beetee or Caesar Flickerman.
My room is, thankfully, not red. It's mostly white but there is also many blues and silvers and golds. The first thing I see is a gigantic bed. I sit on the big green and blue and white bed. besides the door I just came in, there are two other doors, one on each side of the bed. All of the doors have crystal doorknobs, that reflect the light from the flat light-bulb above my head. on the one side of the bed I am sitting on, nearer to the wall, is a metallic thingamajig, with lots of buttons, like a control panel, positioned so that you could push buttons while laying down.
I push a random button, and suddenly the wall to my left turns see-through, like a giant window. All I can see are green and brown blurs that must be trees.
Geeeez, what a day, and it ain't even over yet! I lay back on the surprisingly soft bed, so unlike the thing I slept on last night.
... But wait, how can a society be so horribly lopsided? Okay, I might not be one to judge but just how big is this Capitol anyways? Imagine that it's just one city, and if all eleven of the other districts are as big as district three... And heck, the TRAIN-CAR that they use to send a bunch of kids off to fight to the death rivals the glamor of my WHITE HOUSE. If that's not messed up, I don't know what is. I mean, what does THEIR stuff look like? And now lets compare this to what I saw in district three, the houses looked like houses from the middle ages. Peacekeeper bastards shoot people for little reasons, no cars, little food.
*rumble*
Speaking of which I'm starving! What time is it? I stand up and look around for a clock, conveniently there is a little silver alarm clock on the nightstand on the opposite side of the bed, it's 3:08 PM... dang, I'll go down half an hour early but I need to find something to do till then.
I walk over and open a random door, the one on the side of the nightstand, and see a mirror and a sink. Walking forward to observe my appearance in the mirror, I look... bad. I have not been crying or anything, thankfully, but I look, upset, somewhat depressed. I find myself shaking my head even though it makes no sense. This place really is inexplicably lopsided. Okay so my place is not exactly the best when it comes to that stuff either, but heck, Hunger Games anyone? And Routa apparently can't even get any glasses that fit her. I've never seen red-necked glasses before.
Speaking of glasses, I take mine off and look at the thing Telle had given me earlier, it looks like a binder-clip, only smaller, it's purple, with blue polka dots, it kinda looks hand-painted. Unclipping it from Texas, I turn it over, to see a carefully painted white horse, a yellow background covering most but not all of that side of the clip thing. I don't have a clue what it could mean, but believe it or not people, I know better. It must be important in some way, I just won't know what.
I clip it back onto Texas and put them back on, as I make a decision.
I need to win these games. Not just for me, or my friends back home. Not just for Telle, Codin, Jessica, Cackle. After I win, get out of this, I will set things right, here and now. I will take down the Capitol.
My friends back home in my own time will just have to do without the hero for a while.
After I took a quick shower, pushed a few buttons, eat a candy bar that apparently appears when I push a certain button, got shaving cream squirted in my face(from nowhere!) and the bed flipped over while I was sitting on it,(seriously, what's the point in THAT button?!), I got pissed off and went down to the dining room at 3:40 PM.
"Oh, hey Alfred", Ariana greets me as I walk into what is apparently the dining room, "you're early."
"I got bored."
The car's walls and carpets are red, with silver stripes, and strange purple patterns on top. Directly in front of me is a big brown-ish table, with fancy brown-ish and silver chairs, there is a chandelier above the table, on the right side of the car, a little bit out of the way, is a big TV with some shoe commercial on, and various chairs and bean bag type things near it, that's where Arianna, and Routa are sitting.
Arianna says from her purple beanbag on chair legs, "They're going to start showing the reapings soon, come join us!"
Well, admittedly I don't really have anything better to do but I can't help but ask as I sit down on a bean bag chair next to Routa Who is sitting on a couch near Ariana, "Why would we want to watch the reapings again anyways?"
"To see what we're up against," Routa barely glances my way when she says this.
"Oh," I guess that kinda makes sense. The shoe commercial apparently ends and I hear the voice of a middle aged man talking from the big TV.
"Welcome back lady's and gentlemen to our special full coverage of the 72nd annual Hunger Games!"
Dang, this thing really is made out to be some kind of game show. The screen scrolls through several shots of a giant city before I see the face of the middle aged man wearing a fancy black-ish suit and has bright green hair and... eyelids? Well, the dude with the green eyelids is the one talking.
I take a glance towards Ariana and Routa, neither of them seem really fazed, they are probably used to it after all, since they are forced to watch it every year back home. It's a good thing that I'm used to watching horror movies and stuff, it would be totally embarrassing if I threw up or something.
The camera zooms out as he continues talking till we are able to see his black leather-like boots, "This year's Hunger Games are already heating up, lots of action and surprises in this years reapings, let's go to the recaps!" cheering is heard as the scene changes to that of another crowd of people in front of a temporary stage much like the one at our reaping. Fancy letters appear at the top corner of the screen spelling out 'District One: luxury district.'
A skinny pale blonde girl wearing a big sparkly dress takes a piece of paper out of a big bowl, "Emerald Harrow."
"I volunteer as tribute!"
After that we also hear a female voice, presumably a newscaster, "As usual the first tribute to kick off this year's hunger games is a volunteer from District One, always tough and always with class."
"Ah, yes, though if this girl's face expression is any indicator, there is more than what we see behind this tribute, I'm sure we'll see some great things from her," the dude with green eyelids is still here.
The blonde girl who calls herself Sparkle Kateson comes up to the stage. The only thing intimidating about her is her face expression, and the fact that she volunteered of course.
Pretty much the same thing happens with the dudes; a name is called, somebody else volunteers, though the newscaster people chatter this time about the kid's good looks and confidence. For a kid, this Perf something guy looks like some kind of athlete. Unlike the girl, he looks less hostile, and even waves to the camera.
"hey," Jessica already told me about careers, but it's kinda hard to believe, "So, these guys trained for this their whole lives right?"
Routa just nods, without looking away from the screen.
"Yes, they are very strong opponents," Ariana looks kinda sad as she says this, "They all usually team up too, if you are on your own and they catch you, you're almost as good as dead."
Ariana seems to be hesitating, glancing at Routa for a moment, "They sometimes let non-carreres join them, if you can impress them."
"I volunteer as tribute!" can be heard from the TV. An extremely tough looking boy with brown hair and a mole on his cheek volunteered from district 2.
"So, wait, you said they team up and... do they hunt people down and stuff?"
"That's right, your a fast learner."
Uh-huh, eh, wait, is Arianna trying to insult me? I can't tell, her expression does seem genuine... Whatever, "I don't want to join them then. The whole idea is just nuts!"
Ariana just smiles and nods, "That's just fine, but watch out for them, they won't hesitate to kill."
I look at the screen again in time to see a redhead girl that looks like she could be a football player say her name is Tigris Hammerhand. "My money's on this girl," the lady newscaster exclaims excitedly.
"Oh? Already placing bets?" the dude newscaster questions. And I'm still thinking of those green eyelids.
"A little early I know, but I have a feeling that she's going to be one of my personal favorites already."
The screen changes and the words 'District 3' can be seen at the top corner, waving around in a fancy animation. That's our district right? Yeah it is I knew that! So we get to watch ourselves get reaped now...
I watch again as Tami calls out Codin's name, and we see closeups of Codin moving slowly through the crowd, other people collectively parting to clear his way to the main walkway. Of course I volunteer, the newscaster people gasp in shock, "Well well well, look at this, not only does district 3 have it's first volunteer in many years but this one really looks like a winner don't you think Shurely?".
"Yes indeed," the woman's voice, apparently Shurely, is heard, "definitely a pleasant surprise to throw into this years Hunger Games, if I didn't know better I would say that he's a career, do you suppose he knows the little boy? Codin was it?"
They called me a career? Really!? Huh, I guess that's why Routa was wary of me.
"Ah, yes we are seeing a bit of interaction but it is unclear whether they actually know each other, either way this man is quite the charmer. I'm sure he's going to get quite a few sponsors,"
It's kind of weird and ominous listening to newscasters talk about me like that, but they also said that I would get a lot of sponsors, as far as winning goes that's good! I just hope those sponsors don't expect me to join the careers, the hero does not need any career alliance, nope, I'm good. By now the camera has zoomed in on me on the stage and I hear myself say my human name, "Alfred Jones... future victor". I can see where they are getting the me being a career thing now. Huh.
Watching Telle get reaped takes painfully long, the fact that the newscasters were talking about how she was just another plain outlying district tribute was not helping either, to the credit of the dude newscaster though, when the lady newscaster asked him if he thought Routa was bloodbath material, he did say, "Well, I think it is too early to tell that right now Shurely, remember this is district 3 we are talking about, they may not always look like much but they have been known to produce some of the smartest tributes and victors in Hunger Games history, I mean you remember Beetee's spectacular win don't you?" "uh-huh." "and a mere two years ago we had a girl win from here as well," "uh-huh," "Ironically that girl had more brawn than most of the boy victors of district 3," "ah, hahaha, yes that's always cool to see lets go tomboys! I consider myself to be quite the tomboy myself, though I still don't understand why that girl refuses to just wear a proper dress, doesn't she know jeans are not only informal but waaaaay out of style, you won't believe it, she wore jeans to her own victory tour," "Yes, and word on the street is she threatened her stylist with a knife she hid in her bra"
"Who are they talking about?" I ask, cuz whoever it is sounds like a bad-ass.
Ariana sighs, "Ashy, she did not come though, she hates leaving the district."
Oh, oh well then. By this time the view on the TV has changed to a seaside town, apparently district 4, the male newscaster says something about the name-picker girl's shoes before she calls out a name. Again, some name is called, and somebody volunteers. Some girl. Since when do dudes care about shoes anyways?
Same thing happens with the boys. The camera shows us who volunteered... wait... holy shit! He looks like me! If it weren't for the lack of Nantucket and Texas, I'd think him to be my identical twin or something. Some other dude with blonde hair and blue eyes, also bearing a resemblance but a little shorter and a slightly lighter shade of blonde hair, appears to be very mad and tries to stop him.
"You know you can't fight me, you couldn't beat me with Eleven of your little buddies helping you out. I could take you in a heartbeat."
"I see we have some tension before the stage don't we folks?"
The second boy, still outraged, "Try me weirdo, who do you think you are anyways, VOLUNTEERING in THESE games in MY district?"
The first boy whispers something that I can't hear while I wonder what the heck is going on. That last thing that the second boy said sounded a little weird, I dunno, could be just me.
The next thing that I know the first volunteer dodges the second boy's punch, and then he gives the second boy his own punch.
"Ohhh and I think he is out for the count," the male TV announcer says, "Quite impressive show of strength for our district four male volunteer."
"Hush, let's hear his name,"
He looks, so much like me... and he's pretty damn tough too. Weird. The camera is zooming in on him now, we look very similar, but there are subtle differences, suggesting that he's either a relative or he just simply happens to look like me...
"Titus Jones"
Shit. What are the chances of some random person looking like me AND having the same last name? Who the hell is he?
"Especially, watch out for THAT one"
Cackle's voice scared the SHIT out of me! He was right above me too, when the hell did he get here!? Not cool man!
Cackle continues, "I can see it in his eyes, if luck was not an element of the Hunger Games, I'd say you both are as good as dead.
"hey!" I say indignantly, as confident as I could while having moments ago been scared nearly to death, "I could take him!"
In fact, I totally was not scared at all, nuh-uh. I glance around the room while I try to look brave and heroic. Ariana's solemn, so is Cackle, and Beetee whom was apparently watching from the doorway. Routa had a pale face and stuff, "and also, dude, you scared the shit out of this little girl here. Not cool man, not cool."
"Unless I was hallucinating, I think that you appeared to be more scared than I did."
"Was not!"
"I agree with the little girl," Cackle chimes in "Stop arguing on this subject or else."
Before I could respond to this, Routa stands up on the couch and says to me, "I apologize that I did not make this clear before, but when I said "I'm cool with you," that basically just means that I am not going to lump you in with the careers character wise. I can take care of myself just fine. I would not want any allies in these games anyways."
What am I chop liver? Come to think about it, what about everyone else? Just being lumped in with the careers, or not, and that's it? Damn I hate this thing.
"On the contrary," Beetee walks over and joins in, "You both would have the best chance if you teamed up, neither brain nor brawn alone can win the Hunger Games."
"First of all, you don't even know any of my strengths. Second of all, an ally would just be too much for me to deal with in these games," she turns to me, "Would you want to end up killing your own ally in the final fight?"
Actually, no, "Of course not!"
"It would just save us both a lot of trouble if we not ally. That is all," she sits back down and continues watching the reapings on TV. Yeah, come to think of it, Routa is making a lot of sense... But...
"Gah, wonderful," Cackle exclaims as he sits down on an armchair on the other side of the couch, "We've got another pair of moral kids."
Hey, what's that supposed to mean!? Before I could come up with a response, Ariana speaks up, "I don't see the problem with that Cackle, now shut up so we can finish watching the reapings."
To my surprise, Cackle merely grumbled and complied. Ariana is awesome. I can chew out Cackle about not being very heroic minded later, how much of the reapings did I miss, why do I want to watch this again, oh yeah, see what I'm up against, I guess...
The words 'District 7' are at the top of the screen, and a redhead lady wearing all black and red clothing had apparently already picked a name and was walking to the center of the stage with it. She says a girl's name, and, surprise surprise, another girl volunteers from near the back of the crowd of kids.
"Well, well, well, we have another volunteer from an outlying district isn't that something?" The announcer woman says as an older teenage girl wearing blue and green overalls, and that has blonde hair and blue eyes walks up onto the stage. Promptly, she introduces herself as "Sarah Oaktree."
The redhead lady picks another name from the other bowl of names, and reads another name.
"I volunteer!"
"Oh, another one?" the newscaster woman exclaims.
A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes of seemingly the same age as the girl walks up to the stage. Suddenly, the girl on the stage yells out, "Are you stupid Five, really now!?"
What, huh?
"And the female tribute seems just as surprised at this as we are Shurly."
"but why did she say five?" The female announcer asks.
"your guess is as good as mine," the dude responds.
The boy volunteer waits till he gets to the top of the steps before he replies to this strange question, "I could say the same about you sis."
That succeeded in making his apparent sister look even more angry. But she lets him walk over to the center of the stage where the escort is to introduce himself, "Neutron Oaktree."
Well, that was a little weird.
"I see we have a very interesting brother sister thing going on here in district 7," The male announcer says.
"Oh yes.." The female announcer begins.
I decide to zone out the rest of their dumb conversation to ask, "Does this happen often?"
"Not at all," Ariana replies.
Beetee adds, "I saw something like this in district 2 once, but that's it, and the attitude was very different."
Huh, weird.
The next scene we see on the screen seems a little murkier than before, the top of the screen shows 'District 8: textile district'.
A shorter, dark skinned brunette does this district's name-picking, wearing purple and pink, she picks out a name, Cloth Winder-well, very unoriginal name, and it takes forever for the tall brunette kid to decide to come out from the crowd.
Another girl about the same age as Routa is reaped. She looks a bit more confident than the dude, but that's not saying much...
The scene changes to another, similar looking district, 'District 9: Grain District'.
The escort is a dude this time, wearing a purple tuxedo, and black hair.
The girl that is reaped, Barely, seems frightened, but she tries to smile and shyly gives the camera a little wave when she gets to the top of the stage. The newscaster people are talking about how sweet she is... frankly they are just getting annoying now, I wish that there was a 'turn off commentary' button somewhere. Come to think of it there probably is, but I'm not going to draw that kind of attention asking about it.
The dude picker has picked a name from the other bowl, and thus another boy is reaped, a boy that's slightly chubbier than the rest. He has a much different attitude than Barely though, he pouts and puts his hands on his hips. "Quite an uncouth attitude don't you think?" the female newscaster says, and the male replies, "He does have a certain attitude, we'll see if that takes him anywhere in the arena."
The scene changes again, how many more of these do I have to watch? The top of the screen shows 'District 10: Livestock District'. Which means there are two more districts after this.
The picker girl is another blonde bimbo wearing pink, and... oh god her eyes are pink too. Pink girl picks out the boys name, "Lucas Jonson". The called boy comes out of the group of the youngest looking kids near the front. He had brown hair, brown eyes, wearing an old, worn-looking white suit. About the same age as Codin... Nobody volunteers. The entire district is silent. Apart from the annoying newscasters of course.
An older girl is reaped, her name is Pasture, where do these people get these names? She is very skinny too.
District Eleven: Food District, lots of people, lots of trees, two more kids reaped. Two more kids that are going to have to die.
We clearly see a few tears slide down the girl's face as she takes her place on the stage.
Everyone else so far has at least tried to dress formally, except for the D7 girl, and the D11 dude here, his name is Leaflet. He's wearing an old, dirty white T-shirt and blue-jean shorts. The screen stays on this district a bit longer than the others, so that we can see the boy put his arm around his district partner after she makes a suffocating crying sound, and he stares strait ahead.
I wish that I could be like that guy. Most of the people here seem to be just doing what the capitol want's them to, but not him. I did not really question it when Camerome told me to wear that suit. And in general I did put on a winning attitude. I need to be the victor. But part of me wishes I could have done more of what he did, show the Hunger Games as they really are... He's just another reason that I need to succeed I guess.
District Twelve: Coal District.
The girl that is reaped has really long hair, she crosses her arms and doesn't bother to hide the fact that she's upset, she doesn't cry like the last one, but you can tell that she is not pleased.
A name is picked from the boys bowl, by the picker-lady with the crazy hairdo.
"I volunteer!"
Oh, another volunteer? Some kid near the back whom has dark blonde hair, blue eyes, Caucasian complexion, and wearing a simple black and white suit walks up to the stage. He seems neither lanky, nor particularly bulky. Most of the bulk that he has seems to be in his arms and around his shoulders. But it can't quite compete with most of the career kids. He walks up to the escort and introduces himself. "Andy Pine"
"Just what are you trying to do?"
A blonde haired, blue eyed girl eyes her estranged sibling with a serious and uncertain look, "Answer me number five."
"Aw, come on sis," Apparently, Number Five, replies casually, "I could ask you the same question, we can discuss it fully when we can talk without being spied on, we don't know how much contact he will have with his intelligence network"
The girl walks in front of Number Five to halt him, so she can look strait into his eyes, "and where, exactly, can we do that?"
Number Five, expression still as casual and unfazed as ever, "We'll figure something out," he walks around his sister, while she spends a few moments fuming.
"By the way," the girl comments spitefully as they continue their short walk to their own dining car, "nice name, Nuetron. I'm surprised that you have not been arrested for escaping your district. How obvious can you get? You could might as well put a tattoo over your forehead that says, 'I'm from District five'"
"Well you called me five in front of everyone."
"That's easy to justify, they can just assume it's a nickname, unlike neutron, numbers are fairly universal. If anyone asks, tell them we came from a big family and our parents just call us by the number in which we were born."
"Your logic never ceases to amaze me."
A/N: R&R. ;)
