I think that this chapter's title is pretty clever. It's a lyric from the song "Alone Together" by Fall Out Boy. I hope you like it.
All right. We're finally in the Capitol! It's time for the chariot ride! This is going to be the longest chapter yet in the story, but it won't be the longest by the time this is over. By a vote of 3-2, you guys wanted the Bloodbath to be in the same chapter as the countdown, so I'm doing that. We'll see if that will beat my current record of 7,105 words.
Okay. Let's get to it.
As the moon rose over the Capitol, it was getting to be time for the annual chariot ride. Twelve chariots, each pulled by two magnificent white stallions, were waiting in the enormous courtyard of the Training Center. Two adolescents were standing in each chariot, dressed in costumes for the parade.
This was the first, besides the reapings, that the Capitol would see the tributes. This was important, because this could determine which tributes would have the best chances of getting sponsors at a critical time. Sponsors could be the difference between life and death in the arena, so the stylists had a very important job. There was a lot of pressure to come up with the best-looking costumes.
The tributes would have thirty minutes to walk around before they had to get back to their chariots. They all posed for the camera, and then they were free to go wherever they wished, within the massive rectangle.
"This costume makes me look even more awesome than I already am" Horatio said.
Elegance looked at her district partner. Horatio was so absolutely arrogant that she swore to herself that, the first chance she got, she would kill him in his sleep. The train ride up here had been a nightmare. Horatio was constantly talking about how he was going to be the greatest victor of all time. Like, please, Elegance thought, chill out. The odds are still against your victory.
The Capitol won't want you to win.
That was an important thing to remember. The Capitol audience sometimes had just as much control as the Gamemakers did. The Gamemakers wanted a good story. They preferred a lovable underdog to an extremely conceited Career from District 1.
Not that Horatio didn't have any reason to be arrogant. Their costumes were pretty awesome, Elegance had to admit.
Horatio wore a long, golden toga that shone in the night. The stylists had been careful to cover his private parts, but his bare chest was fully visible. The toga only really went around his waist, but that was modest enough for sponsors to like.
Elegance was adorned in a long, flowing purple dress (according to the stylists, it was #421C52 to be exact). On her head was a tiara made out of grape vines. Horatio also had a crown on his head. Together, they looked like they were king and queen of the Wine Country. And, tonight, they kind of were.
"There's still time, Horatio. Do you want to check out the other chariots?" Elegance asked her district partner. According to the digital clock on the square's JumboTron, they had twenty-nine minutes and eleven seconds before the parade would start. Plenty of time to scope out who else they might decide to include in their Career alliance, she figured.
"Yeah, El. Let's do it".
"Don't call me El. It sounds like, "L". My name's not Lily, Lucy, Luke, or anything like that".
"Luke is a guy's name" Horatio said.
"The point is", Elegance huffed, "that I want to be called by my legal name. Elegance. If you've got a problem with that, you're free to leave the Career alliance".
Horatio stayed silent.
"Good" Elegance said. "Let's see who else there is".
Margaret was dressed as a blacksmith, which was appropriate, given her father's occupation. There were small anvils above her breasts on the black dress she was wearing.
She looked over at her district partner. Hades, he had told her his name was. He was dressed as the ancient Greek god, wearing a burgundy toga, with a golden staff that reached up towards the sky and curved into a U shape. He looked very forbidding in this outfit, which Margaret didn't really like the look of.
Margaret didn't think she trusted Hades fully. But that was how things would have to go. Every year, an alliance made of tributes from Districts 1 and 2, and often 4, controlled the game before eventually turning on each other.
Just then, they saw the two tributes from District 1 approaching. The girl was wearing a beautiful purple dress, while the boy was wearing a golden toga and a grapevine crown.
"Hey" the girl said. "My name is Elegance Elysia".
"Margaret" the District 2 girl said back.
Together, they shook hands, just like they had with their district partners. As they looked into each other's eyes, they realized something: they both had insufferably arrogant district partners.
The boy introduced himself as Horatio Jewel. Just like Hades, Horatio had cruel, dark eyes that crackled with abusive power. It was hard to tell which one was more vicious from this angle.
"Well, guys" Elegance said. "I appreciate the niceties, but we've got a lot of ground to cover. Let's get moving".
Her fellow Careers wordlessly agreed with her. They then started walking back down the line of chariots.
"We look good in these robot suits!" Leo said.
Siliconia didn't like the outfits their stylists had put them in. Her and Leo were wearing extremely cheesy robot heads, with just their eyes visible. Their mouths looked excited in a fun way, which could not have been further from the way she was feeling inside. It had only been a little more than a day since she'd left District 3, but she already missed her family terribly. And she would never see them again.
"This'll sure get us some sponsors!" Leo shouted, more loudly this time.
Siliconia wasn't sure if her district partner was being sarcastic or not. That was the craziest part about Leo, and Siliconia didn't know if she liked him or not.
"Pull yourself together" she said. "The Careers are coming".
It was true. The four tributes from Districts 1 and 2 were walking towards the District 3 chariot.
"Look at them!" Margaret cooed. "These kids are so cute! Let's not put them in our alliance" she said.
"I'll second that" Hades said.
"Me too" Horatio said.
"Elegance?" Margaret asked the other girl.
"I...".
"You what, Elegance?"
"I just think that strength in numbers is important. The more, the merrier".
"Yeah, but only as long as you can trust them!" Hades grumbled loudly.
The two children in robot costumes looked at each other, enjoying the show. They had known all along, of course, that there was no way they would be allowed to join the Careers. That just didn't happen, especially considering how young Siliconia was. A twelve-year-old was only a liability in these Games. They all knew that.
"Look, Elegance, she's twelve. She ain't got shit in terms of chances of winning these Games". That was Horatio talking.
"I guess you're right" Elegance said glumly.
"I hope this makes us look good" Anna said.
"I think this is a pretty fashionable costume" Eli said back to his district partner.
Eli was dressed in a teal tuxedo, with a fishing rod in his hands. He was pretty impatient for the chariot ride to start. He wanted to show the Capitol that he wasn't just some genius inventor from the fishing district, but that he could fight, too. That was what his whole angle was going to be based on. And Eli had what he thought was a clever plan. But, of course, he wasn't going to tell anybody this.
Eli's plan was that he was going to be in the Career pack, just like most District 4 tributes did. But he was also going to be in an alliance with people from outer districts as well. He knew that it was risky. It gave him twice as many people to backstab him, but it also gave him twice as much leeway in terms of survival. But everything changed in the Hunger Games. The basic principles of survival didn't apply to him here, because in those, the goal was for everyone to survive. In the Hunger Games, only one person could survive. He wasn't going to go to other chariots now, though. If the other Careers saw him going off to talk to too many people from non-Career districts, they might suspect something was up. This, in turn, might cause them to target him for playing both sides.
Right now, though, he wasn't worried about this. He was just hoping that his ocean-colored tux would attract some sponsors. It was almost impossible to win the Games without a sponsor, or an ally who had one. And Eli knew that he had to impress the people of the Capitol, because sponsor gifts were incredibly expensive, so much so that most citizens of the Capitol would have to pool their money in order to buy a meal for one tribute. That was one expensive meal.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Eli had heard that saying many times before, but now he finally understood what it really meant.
Two feet to Eli's right stood Anna Hardy, who was wearing a skirt made out of seaweed, with seashells clamped over her breasts. She looked like a fashion model who'd just been for a swim through a seaweed reef. Eli thought that looked pretty awesome, but it might not endear as many sponsors as his teal tux.
Just then, the other Careers came up to the chariot.
"My name's Elegance and I'm from District 1" one of the girls sang, to the tune of "Stressed Out" by Twenty-One Pilots.
"Nice, elegant name" Anna snickered. Eli could already tell that there was going to be some tension between those two girls. It was only a matter of time.
But Elegance didn't seem to mind the pun. "Yeah, I like my name" she said.
"So...are you guys for the Career alliance, just like usual?" Hades asked Eli and Anna.
"Yes" Anna said.
Eli didn't hesitate before saying "Totally". At least not out loud. If the other Careers knew that that wasn't the only alliance he was planning on being in, Eli would soon be a dead Trout.
"Wow! We're really shining tonight!" Ira laughed. He always tried to joke around as much as possible. It helped him deal with the harsh reality of his life, which was likely to be over within a week or two. And it was a meaningful pun; the two tributes from District 5 were dressed up as lightbulbs.
Savanna didn't laugh, though. She still looked very upset. Ira had always figured that, if he was ever in the Hunger Games, he would have as little as possible interactions with his district partner as possible. But now, he knew that he wanted to cheer this girl up.
"What's wrong, Savanna?" he asked her.
"Mind if I don't talk about it?"
But Ira kept pressing her, telling her that it didn't make it any better to keep all of your feelings bottled up. You should always tell someone, even if that person might try to kill you next week. Finally, Savanna let him know.
"Four days ago...my father...I don't know how to say this...got beaten up real badly in a street fight. He's still in an induced coma, in the hospital. We don't know if he'll be okay" Savanna disclosed to Ira, sobbing the other time.
"Look, Savanna, I understand" Ira said. "But if you want to win these Games, you have to try to keep it together".
"I'll do my best" Savanna said.
The Careers passed right on by District 5 and moved on to District 6.
Vixen and Apollo were dressed up as railway conductors. This was not necessarily in line with what District 6's residents did. Despite what their district might have produced, the citizens of Panem's most populous district did not actually enjoy traveling. Not one bit. They just built the means for the rich Capitolites to travel.
Apollo was impressed with his outfit. Unlike most of his peers, he had always dreamed of being a train conductor. He'd always wanted to be the person who shouted, "All aboooooooooaaaaard!" And he wanted to look really cool in the hat, standing by the controls. He still occasionally fantasized about this, but he didn't like to admit it to himself.
And now that had been stolen away from him. Just like the apple strudel, and everything else the Gunner family cherished so much.
But there was still a chance he could get it all back. He just had to make the Capitol's citizens like him during the chariot ride. And then he'd get all the sponsors he needed. That was the mindset he had to have.
Vixen, meanwhile, was thinking, maybe if I run fast enough, I can get out of here...
But of course, that was impossible.
The Careers passed right by District 6 as well.
District 7's outfit was probably the one that best represented the district so far.
Isabella York was dressed up as a tree, with pool noodles for arms, and brown plating all around her body. This was embarrassing for her. She had asked for something else, but her stylist had simply said, Sorry, this is what we feel represents District 7 the best. So Isabella had been forced to live with it.
Conker, on the other hand, was dressed up as a squirrel.
He'd been told that the reason he'd been given this name was after the main character of a raunchy Nintendo 64 game from 2001, a super-long time ago, called Conker's Bad Fur Day. This outfit could not have endeared him to the citizens of the Capitol.
Ah, well, at least I'm not a fucking tree, he thought.
The Careers briefly looked at District 8, considering adding them to their alliance.
"Should we?" Margaret asked. "That girl looks strong".
"I volunteered" Miri said. "I'm a Career, just like you guys. I might be even more of a Career than you guys, because there's no academy where I'm from to train".
Immediately after she said this, however, Miri wished she could take those words back. That was probably the last thing she should say if she wanted to be in the Career alliance. Instead, this would probably make her a target of theirs.
"We'll think about it, girl. What's your name, by the way?" Horatio asked.
"Miri Ellara" the girl from District 8 said.
"Nice to meet you, Miri", Elegance said, "I'm Elegance. Elegance Elysia. District 1".
"Elegance", Margaret said, "you are far too friendly. Let us move on!"
Vair and Miri watched the Careers go. They were both dressed as thimbles, which was very embarrassing for Vair. He wanted to keep some of his dignity intact even as he entered into the Capitol's control.
"This will not get us sponsors" Vair said.
Ted and Aurora, the two tributes from District 9, were wearing costumes that were almost as humiliating as District 8's costumes.
They were both dressed as large ears of corn, with kernels all over the place. In place of their arms, there was the green stalk all over the place, just like there would be on a real ear of corn. Neither of them looked happy, not that they had any reason to be. They were in the fucking Hunger Games. That wasn't exactly a cause to celebrate.
"Dude", Hades said as they passed the District 9 chariot, "do you realize who that is? Margaret? Horatio?"
"No" Margaret said.
"It's Black Shade" Hades said. "He's the most notorious criminal in all of District 9. He's the guy who was dragged onto the stage for being Black Shade. You see, the Peacekeepers didn't know his real name, so that's why they called him that. His real name's Ted, though. Theodore Shaw".
"Wow" Elegance said. "There's no way that we're letting him in our alliance. Right, guys?" she said, as if she was the leader of the whole Career alliance.
In reality, though, Elegance didn't feel worthy of being a Career. She had felt so much regret at volunteering, and she was so scared of snakes, and squeamish about blood. All because of her past. But she didn't want to tell Margaret that, let alone Hades or Horatio. If so, they might decide she was no longer worthy of being a member of their alliance. They could kill her in the Bloodbath.
Now that she was actually in the Capitol, it was far worse. She knew that she was well and truly in their clutches, now. Why had she thought that volunteering for the Hunger Games was a good idea? She would die just like her sister.
Olivia...she thought wistfully. Chances were good that, if there was an afterlife, Elegance would be joining her sister soon.
Eventually, the Careers upped and left District 9 behind.
"Dude" Horatio said. "We're almost out of time". He pointed towards the JumboTron, which said that they only had six minutes until the parade started.
The Careers continued on their walk down the line.
Cam and Bryson were wearing very cheap cow costumes. It looked like something out of a second-grade play, not something you would dress teenagers in when they were about to be sent off to their deaths.
"This sucks" Bryson said, which was one way to break the silence.
"I agree" Cam said. "But we just have to get through tonight while salvaging as much dignity as possible for the sake of getting sponsors. After all, you didn't think you could win the games without sponsors, did you?"
Back on the ground, the Careers looked at these District 10 kids, with their lame-ass cow costumes. They didn't say anything. They could pretty much write of Districts 11 and 12, since their tributes were always so underfed that they never had any chance at all of being good fighters.
So, the Careers didn't bother checking the last two chariots. Besides, it was time to head back to their own chariots. So they did.
It was time. This was the moment the Capitol audience had been waiting for.
It was time for the tribute parade. As always, the chariots were arranged in numerical order by district. Career districts 1 and 2 would go first, then 3, 4, 5, and so on. As stated above, this was a very important ritual. A good first impression could be the difference between first place and fifth place. And that was important, because in the Hunger Games, there was no fifth-place prize. There wasn't even a second-place prize.
It was all or nothing. You either won, or you died.
The first chariot was District 1. Horatio was in his toga and crown of grapevines, while Elegance was sporting her purple dress and tiara. The crowd loved them, as they always did for the tributes from the luxury district. After all, this was the district that was the closest to the Capitol lifestyle. As they passed the stands filled with gaudily dressed Capitol citizens, people took pictures and threw flowers. Most of them ended up getting crushed by the feet of the white stallions.
District 2 came along. They weren't that attractive to look at. At least, Margaret wasn't. She was dressed as a typical District 2 blacksmith. Apparently, her father, Walter Malachi, was one of them. How very interesting, and yet very, very boring at the same time.
Hades, on the other hand, had a far more interesting costume. He was dressed up like Hades, the god from Greek mythology, complete with burgundy toga and curved staff. He smiled for the cameras, clearly trying to win more sponsors. It was probably going to work for now, but little did the Capitolites know, Hades did not have a very pleasant personality. No one would want to sponsor him.
District 3's tributes for this year were dressed to look like stereotypical robots. It looked like a kindergartener had drawn their faces. Almost everyone in the stands laughed like crazy at the pitifully embarrassing costume. Leo and Siliconia would be lucky to survive the Bloodbath, most people thought. Neither of them really looked as though they were fit to compete in the Hunger Games. It was basically a naive twelve-year-old girl and a severely ADHD mechanic.
District 4's Eli Trout, the boy genius and famous inventor, was in a beautiful teal tuxedo. Most of the women in the Capitol wanted to date him right then and there. Complete with his fishing rod, he looked like an extremely wealthy fisherman, going out for a fancy banquet while trying to catch one more fish for sport.
Anna was far less enticing. She wore a seaweed skirt and a seashell bra. People would have felt sorry for her had it not been part of her strategy.
Anna was going to try to flirt with the guys to get ahead. In her mind, that was the best way to get ahead.
District 5's costumes were what really caused the people to laugh. Savanna and Ira were dressed as lightbulbs. They flickered on and off to the beat of the horse's hooves on the ground. Again, Head Gamemaker Johan Bainbridge, watching from a small platform located high above the courtyard, really felt sorry for them.
District 6 was just as childish, and it looked like someone's Halloween costume. Apollo and Hannah were both dressed as train conductors. This caused some people to squeal with delight and amusement at just how adorable this was.
District 7's Isabella and Conker were dressed as a tree and a squirrel, respectively. The people in the bleachers snickered as they rode past, but it was clear from looking at the tributes's expressions that they had absolutely no shame at all.
As for District 8...well, they were dressed as thimbles. Enough said. Same thing for the corn ears of District 9.
Finally, District 10 came up. Bryson and Camille were both wearing third-grade-play quality cow costumes. Lame, and they were unlikely to get sponsors based on that alone. Camille would have needed at least a ten from the Gamemakers. But the scores didn't come until later.
District 11's tributes, Wheat and Ember, were both stark naked and covered in fertilizer. Some people laughed and some people gasped, but it was clear that these District 11 tributes would not be forgotten anytime soon. They looked so humiliated.
And finally, District 12. Both tributes, Ash and Madison, were dressed in miner's outfits, which was pretty much what they did every year for the coal-mining district. It rarely, if ever, deviated from that. The audience was disappointed, but they understood.
The horses turned the corner to head towards the president's palace.
"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen" said the voice of President Coriolanus Snow. He was wearing his normal white rose on his upper left chest, looking just as repelling as usual, with his gray hair and bloodstained lips.
"These are the tributes who will represent the districts in the sixty-third annual Hunger Games. You just saw Horatio Jewels and Elegance Elysia from District 1, Hades Blackett and Margaret Malachi from District 2, Leo Nale and Siliconia Bradley from District 3, Elias Trout and Anna Hardy from District 4, Savanna Charlton and Ira Wilson from District 5, Apollo Gunner and Hannah Ford from District 6, Conker B. Furrday and Isabella York from District 7, Vair Armani and Miri Ellara from District 8, Theodore Shaw and Aurora Baylor from District 9, Bryson Holstein and Camille Whey from District 10, Wheat Corky and Ember Hayfields from District 11, and, last but not least, Ash Cole and Madison Quarry from District 12. Let's give it up for this year's tributes!"
The whole crowd cheered. When the cheering finally died down, a good five minutes later, President Snow leaned backwards and said, "Man, that was a mouthful".
And that was their first night in the Capitol.
Okay. I finished this at 9:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, sitting in the living room of my family's house in Maine. It's the longest chapter yet of Labyrinth, at a grand total of 4,391 words.
I would LOVE people to review this chapter. It's not the last chapter before the Games, obviously, not even close. But we're getting there. I expect just four more, because I'm erring on the side of longer chapters. One for training, one for the individual sessions with the Gamemakers, one for revealing the scores, and one for the interviews with Caesar Flickerman. These chapters will be much longer than what I have written so far for this story, so I think that updates will be far less frequent. Still, though, that gong will go off within the next few weeks, assuming I don't get beaten up in a street fight (not likely where I live).
Also, if you'd vote in my poll for favorite character, that'd be great.
Even as I'm typing this, I can barely keep my eyes open. Ever since I got back from camp, I've been staying up very late and waking up early. It's time for me to go to bed.
Good night, everyone. This is SnowLucario, out.