A/N
Chapters 1 through 9 are canon-compliant, with lots of details added that didn't contradict canon. This chapter is an AU with the same POD as Gale's Hunger Games, in Annie's POV.
Chapter
The 73rd Games had gone fairly normally, as normally as such a twisted pageant could go, with another Career victor – Maria of Two. I didn't have to watch 'my' tribute die, being taken off mentoring thanks to a tough first year and an abundance of District Four victors to rotate with. The outer district victors didn't have such relief – no wonder they tended to drink like fishes or partake of some other drugs.
The 74th Games were quickly shaping up to be anything but normal, right from the reapings.
After two volunteers for those Games, District Four drew none for the next one. Well, with our volunteers getting six feet of sand three years running, it seemed particularly sensible for them to lose their nerve. I had won after being randomly reaped with no willing volunteers, or so the general populace of District Four believed. That lent confidence to the sixteen year old Pearl and twelve year old Alex, but was that misplaced?
I tried not to become too attached to them, admittedly easy for me, especially since I didn't have to mentor them. My people skills or lack thereof made me a poor mentor anyways, especially when talking to potential sponsors that may well be amongst the people who hurt my Finn so. Indeed, Finnick said that some of the people he had to fuck or get fucked by were sponsors. It wasn't just two activities for people who had more money than they knew that to do with – some people sponsored tributes they wanted to get from Snow as a victor.
The reapings were held at different times throughout the day. District folk were too occupied with their own to watch the others live even if they cared to, which for good reason they didn't. However, Capitol media was only too happy to broadcast the highlights, with idiotic commentary.
The girl from District Two was volunteering at fifteen. After Finnick won at fourteen, perhaps this Clove wanted the special touch of being another young victor. Some people wanted to stand out even amongst their fellow Careers and victors generally. Eighteen year olds like the young man from Two were the Career norm, but slightly younger volunteers like the pair of seventeen year olds from One weren't quite unheard of. Volunteers from the outer districts were absolutely unheard of, which was more than understandable, and yet District Twelve had produced two! An Everdeen for another, a Hawthorne for another. In this everyone saw loud and clear what love did for sisters and brothers, and even I was no exception. Snow probably noticed how strong his family-threat leverage would be should one of those two win.
The girl from One was very pretty although in a different way than her recent predecessor. While Sapphire was full-figured, Glimmer was fairly petite. I was excluded from either conventional definition, yet some saw my beauty anyway. Katniss seemed like she could have a similar unconventional attractiveness in addition to the obvious appeal of her stunt with her sister. As for the boys, Cato of Two was definitely what this country generally recognized as handsome. Gale of Twelve had a chance of seeing that brother again, having even a drop of the same swarthy appeal Finnick had. Thresh of Eleven was darker still, and was certainly one of the biggest and strongest of this year's tributes. However, the initial Reaping look was often deceiving – simply being big didn't always translate well to an arena, and there were always some smaller tributes with something lurking in the depths. Like me. I wasn't sure who I wanted to join us if not one of the District Four kids.
District Twelve surprised everybody at the Reaping. Their stylists surprised everyone once those tributes were delivered to the Capitol. The first eleven pairs of tributes rode in wearing the usual impressive – or unimpressive – district-themed costumes. Twelve was usually one of the latter, with its minors in miner outfits and covered in coal dust. Not this year. Katniss and Gale rode in dressed all in black and lit on fire. It was clear they were imitating burning lumps of coal. I suppose it was done with flame retardant fabric.
I didn't think about the technical details much, since firefighting wasn't a big concern in District Four thanks to the abundance of seawater. It was one of the uses of water where the salty stuff was acceptable – Three or Six just had to make the pumps corrosion-resistant, and regular water had to be used for electrical fires because saltwater carried electricity so well.
I did think about the impact. The crowd in the Capitol drank it up. Games broadcasts usually didn't show other districts' reactions until the friends and family of the final eight were interviewed, but the people watching with me here in District Four sat stunned. Twelve had followed up its extraordinary volunteerism with an extraordinary performance in the Tribute Parade.
The tributes ate dinner together as their first meal in the Training Center. A Capitol staffer was going over some instructions for the benefit of both the tributes and the audience. I was used to that spiel and had tuned it out. Apparently so had Cato. "Hey lady, cut the crap, I'm starving," he snapped.
Gale was evidently more annoyed about Cato's complaint than he was about waiting for the food, answering with "You have no idea! Try feeling empty even after tesserae and get back to me on that!" The analysts had correctly guessed that the two of them would be key enemies, and the fight was getting off to an early start. Gale clearly had his district partner and several other outer-district folks on his side with that dose of truth.
They were soon let loose on the food. Gale and Cato got into another verbal scuffle when the young man from Twelve went over to the Careers' section of the eating tables.
When they all got into the training gym the third morning, Katniss' archery skills were the main surprise. Otherwise it was the usual Career showboating and a smattering of success, struggling and hopelessness amongst the others. Cato got into a regular nonverbal scuffle with his counterpart from Six, who had supposedly taken his knife. The girl from Eleven actually had it, and smirking as she hid in the rafters holding it. Clever little Rue was getting along rather well with Katniss. There seemed to be a big alliance of non-Careers shaping up; I hoped my inner-district fellows were taking them seriously.
Late morning on the fifth day, Katniss raced her new friend Rue through the climbing structures. Katniss jumped off after winning and caught Rue when she followed. They ended public training on a high note as they had with the tribute parade.
The fifth afternoon was devoted to each tribute giving individual private demonstrations to the group of Gamemakers, as opposed to observing parts of the crowd earlier in the week. That was part of keeping the tributes' strategies secret; there were a lot of conversations between tributes and mentors that were also not broadcast. Those performances were rated, the scores being an indicator of the tribute's ability or lack thereof. The training scores could directly affect the results by being a major influence on sponsors.
Most of the sixth day was another lull in broadcasting the tributes themselves – this was always a welcome break for those sick of the Games and sick of watching them. The private scores were announced right before public interviews that evening. The Careers all came close to the high end of the 1 to 12 scale, although our kids from District Four didn't come as close as I would have liked. Both of the District Eleven tributes did relatively well, but District Twelve again finished strong – Katniss had apparently shot her way to an 11 of all things, and Gale netted himself a high score as well.
Like her predecessor Sapphire, Glimmer did not tolerate being catcalled. The only thing I' flash you is a blade, she must've wanted to tell the Capitol audience. She fell back on "I have a boyfriend, you know." And if he doesn't whoop you, I will.
Apparently he was here with her. Cato had already said he was the son of a fallen tribute who had left a pregnant girlfriend at home. The arrogance of both of them! Here he was supporting the system that had taken his father. Even as a fellow Career, that's hard to understand. And then Cato goes and falls in love with his competition. He goes public about Glimmer after days and Finnick can't go public about me after years? Seems fishy.
The Games had looked like they'd come down to traditional Career advantages versus the sentimental appeal of the pair of Twelve. Now Glimmer and Cato had both going for them.
I liked how clever Marissa of Five was, but I worried if that would do her any good. Rue was a little heartbreaker. Thresh made it clear what he thought of being here, brushing off Caesar's charm with simple yes-or-no answers.
Katniss was trying to appeal to the audience because she knew she had to but was having trouble. I of all people would understand. Caesar was friendly as usual though, used to working with difficult tributes, and brought out comments about the food and the clothes, at which point she showed off her dress.
Then she struck back at Cato's announcement. Apparently she was also in love with one of her fellow tributes, having long since known her district partner. Gale was only too glad to confirm this, before anchoring the obvious family loyalty point. As with his outburst at the opening dinner, he was making it clear how bad life could be in the most abused of the districts.
In retrospect it was obvious, how close each couple was during public training and how they looked at each other – glances of desire I would know from Finnick that he dearly wished he could give me more often. Perhaps the food on her plate wasn't the only sausage Glimmer had that first night – if those two fell in love so quickly, they may well have started fucking nearly as soon. So there seemed to be some truth to both couples, but since it meant a good show, did the Capitol care whether it was an act?
I think seeing this year as just a high-water mark in Games showmanship would be selling it short. Even I felt the emotional deluge. Two couples torn apart, or kept together as they went to tribute cemeteries together. At least one who really would die to save their younger sibling from that fate. The Career districts besides mine had great hope of another victory, and District Twelve of its first victory in nearly a quarter century, but more than what district would win the Games, there were the beginnings of hope for changing the Games themselves.