~Gio: Joker~
Life as a Victor is… Hectic, to say the least. I've been swarmed with people asking me questions about my life. I spend every day reaching out to people. Anywhere I can help, anything I can do, I do it. I'm always there to serve others, to help them through their grief. I don't like to see them so sad. I know that I can't do much to help them, but it still bothers me.
When Ichabod asked me about having a Victor's talent, I told him that I like to journal and keep records of what goes on, but he said that was lame and instead he arranged for me to have some pictures that I totally drew sent. I don't think I was very convincing, but I don't care. Why does anyone care, anyways?
I'm sent off to be a mentor for the 37th Games. I work alongside Braxton, who really isn't fond of me after we butted heads during my Games. He gives me some advice but ultimately leaves me on my own to mentor a 14-year-old that I barely know.
Each reaping makes me more and more nervous for my sister.
The next year, 38, I mentor with Tess, the other Victor from 3. She takes the girl, who's thirteen. The boy is 17, Abri's age.
"…You're leaving me with the boy? He… He has potential though…" I glance over at where he makes observations about his surroundings, all of which go right over my head.
"Mhm. You're going to bring out that potential, Gio."
"Y-You have too much faith in me," I say, my voice starting to shake. "I can't do it… I can't bring him home! This is only my second year!"
"Yes, it is. But you're the young blood, you're the spark that started the circuit up again for this District. You're the young blood, you're still popular, you can understand them. You can bring out the best in them, just like you did with your allies all that time back. Just like you do with that Victor from the 35th Games. He won't even talk to any of us. Gio, this is your true Victor's talent. Lifting them up. Giving them hope. Making them believe in themselves. That's something you do for them that Braxton and I will never be able to do."
"I'm just a weepy kid," I protest, but she shakes her head.
"You give them a reason to believe in the impossible. As a wise young Victor once said in his Victor's interview, anything is possible."
Atty's words come back to me. It's been two years since I lost him, but I can still hear his voice. After all, his spirit still eats all my sweets! I sniffle and nod, and she pats me on the back. "C'mon, now. Dry up your eyes and give this kid some hope." I nod, wiping the tears away and putting on a brave face as we go out to where the tributes and Ichabod sits.
Tess takes the girl to another car and I take a seat in front of my tribute, my hands shaking. "Hello," I say. "My name is Gio. I'm going to do anything I can to help you."
He shakes my hand. "Beetee Latier. I'm going to do anything I can to get back home."
~.~.
I stand in front of the mirror, adjusting a bowtie around my neck nervously. I'm going to a Victor party for a tribute I mentored. I have to look my best. It'll probably be another instance of Ritter hiding in the corner and sticking his tongue out smugly at me when I'm forced to talk to people. But this time I really think it's going to be different because-
"Gio!" I turn around and my breath is taken away. "How do I look?"
"Beautiful." I smile. This time, Abri's going to go with me. She's dressed up in her best, her hair up and her make-up done just right. My sister's so good with fashion and the like. She looks so good, the attention probably won't be on me for too long.
She loops her arm around mine. "Are you sure they won't mind that I'm coming with you?"
"Nope. And if they do mind, they won't mind for long because they can't say no to pretty people."
She laughs shaking her head. "You're a real sap, you know that?"
"I know." We walk out to the train together, Tess soon joining us.
"You clean up well, don't you?" she says, ruffling my hair.
"Hey!" I squeak. Abri giggles as we step on the train.
"I told you that you could do it, Piccozzi," Tess says as we pull out, going full speed ahead to the Capitol. "And I'm always right."
"As if." But I can't think of an instance when she was terribly wrong.
"So, are you going to mingle with the Capitolites?" Tess asks Abri.
"I suppose I'll have to. But-"
"But, she's making eyes at some boy from District 2."
"Don't say it with that tone," she says, crossing her arms. "He's really nice!"
"You're lucky your brother's such a good wingman," I tell her. "Even if I might've been getting his number for myself, have you considered that?"
"He's so not your type."
"He's closer to my age though."
"So? You're just jealous because you haven't had time for love."
"Oh, so it's love now?" I give her a little shit grin.
She blushes and pouts. "Well, it's- it's- hell, how should I know?! It's not like we talk on the telephone every night."
"Aw, I'm just teasing you," I laugh. "For today, though, pretend that Patro doesn't exist and be all flirty with them, alright? That's what the crowd wants."
"Right."
"There it is," Tess says, looking out the window. Abri immediately goes over to look, dragging her dress along with her.
"Oh, wow…" she gasps, looking at the colorful city. "It's even more beautiful in person…"
We get off the train and meet up with some of the others. Together, the three of us go to the President's Mansion.
~.~.
Three years after everything happened. It's the anniversary of that fateful day when Atty died. I'm still in low spirits since Ori's death date came around. Every single anniversary of my Arena I relive the day over and over again. And today is a particularly hard one.
I wake up at three in the morning, sweating and knowing that I'm not going back to sleep until I do fifty laps. I make myself get out of bed and go to the kitchen, one foot at a time. I pour myself a glass of water, and notice something on the table.
My Mom must not have picked up all the dinner dishes. I go over, looking for something to do to stop thinking about Atty and the pain I felt on that day. I pick the object up and realize it's not a dish, not even close. It's ticking quietly, feels very familiar in my palm.
No.
It's impossible.
No way!
Anything is possible.
I flip the object over in my hand. It's really it. It's Atty's watch. Atty's pocket watch. It got here somehow. How did this happen!? Someone put the watch here, and it wasn't me. By now, though, I can't hold the tears in. I let out a sob, my legs give out from under me, the glass of water I'd gotten hitting the floor and shattering.
How?! How the hell did this get here?! And why!? I thought it would've been buried with him! I can't make myself move. I'm sent back to that night in the Arena, when the full moon was high and reflecting off of the water, back to when all I could do was stay there, curled up in a ball and sobbing. I'm taken back, I'm 17 again, there are threats on my life again, there are tributes out for my blood again, I've lost everything again, Ori's gone again, Atty's gone again, I'm all alone again under the moonlight and I'm going to have to fight Pontifex or Tristabelle if I want to get home to-
"Gio!" The light comes on, but I don't move. I can't look up. I let out another sob, feeling the watch tick in my hand and remembering that Atty is gone and Ori is gone. The pain comes flying back to me. Everything hurts, I'm injured again, bleeding again, I can feel the cuts and wounds I'd gotten, I'm trapped again.
I feel arms wrap around me just then and realize that no, I'm not in the Arena anymore. I'm here, in my District, safe and sound, I have a home and I have money and I have everything I could've ever wanted. Abri's here, she's well-fed, she's safe from harm and from reapings. She's here, we're here, we're a family again, Mom and Dad are happier and don't have to work anymore, Simon's done well for himself… I'm the Victor. The tributes aren't really gone, they're still here. Atty's still here, he got the watch to me somehow after all. I knew there was something beyond here. Something supernatural.
"What happened?!" I'm sure she knows that today's three years since Atty and Ori died. Has it really been three years? It feels like two weeks.
"The w-watch…" I choke out. "Atty's watch!"
"What about it?" she asks.
"It's here… It was on the t-table…" I sob, wishing my sister didn't have to see me like this.
"Wh…What?" she looks at me. "No…"
"Yes!" I show her. It's Atty's watch, I know it's Atty's watch. I choke with sobs.
"I guess he's really looking after you then."
"O-Of course…" I sob. "They're all still here… B-But… I was taken back…" I release another sob, cursing myself for doing so in front of my little sister. "I was taken back, in the Arena… It was so real… I could feel the slash wounds… I could see the moon, feel the sand, the breeze, I could hear the ocean…
This is the first time Abri's seen me cry. I've been suffering silently, keeping on a brave face, and now all of that's been torn down. Now she sees that her brother really is as weak as everyone always said he was.
"Oh, Gio…" she keeps her arms around me. "Gio, Gio, Gio…"
I feel choked. I can't say anything to her. I can't even get out an apology for her having to see me like this. Instead I just stay there, curled up in a ball, sobbing, her arms around me. This is what the Games have done to me. I know that my tributes are watching, still. Rooting for me, still. But it still hurts that they're gone.
Eventually, Abri is able to coax me up and together we walk back to my bedroom.
"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" she asks me, biting her lip.
"Yeah," I say, my voice wobbling.
"Alright." She kisses the top of my head. "Night."
"Night."
She leaves. I'm about to get up to do my laps when I see the watch in my hands, and watch the gears move. Each second perfectly in time, each one following the other, a set of gears working together perfectly to tick off each second. I blink more tears out of my eyes, letting the ticking of the watch calm me into a sleep.
~.~.
I decide that the best way to crush my fears and maybe stop the flashbacks is to do the dumbest thing I've ever done in my entire life.
I go back there.
The Arena's made to be a museum for the Capitolites, with holograms of us reenacting all the major scenes. I go on the midnight tour, alone. I go on the path laid out for us and watch everything happen again as if they were there in real life. I watch the fights, I watch Ori be mauled by the mutts, follow hi on his desperate search for Atty and me, and see my much younger self in front of my eyes. I follow the tour, watching everything, until we arrive at the beach, where the full moon comes out like it did on the day of Atty's death.
I go off the trail, taking off my shoes to step in the water. The tide is calm. I still have a fear of it picking up and washing me away, just like it did before, but I know I have to face the fear. I feel the water against my feet, listening to the calmness of the waves and remembering how peaceful it was. I suck in a breath, the tears coming to my eyes.
"Oh, Mr. Piccozzi!" I hear a very familiar voice call, and freeze.
"Solitaire."
She strides across the shore to me, not even caring that her red dress trails after her in the water. "What are you doing here at this time of night, my little Joker?"
"I had to come back. I guess I thought that by coming back here, I'd be able to let go a bit. …Why are you here so late?"
"I left Yin with the kids," she says, with a sigh.
Oh yeah, Solitaire and Yin were married a couple years back, and they had a pair of twin boys. Solitaire named them after her two biggest Arena successes up to date; Deck, after my Games, and Singe, off of the 37th Games, which was a volcano. The Capitol's been following Deck and Singe as much as it's been documenting Solitaire and Yin's relationship.
"I decided to come back to… To relive a fond memory."
I freeze up upon hearing her say those words. "A… A fond memory?"
"You have to remember that your Games was my biggest success as a Head Gamemaker."
I look out in the water and suddenly the stillness is shattered. This isn't viewed as a sanctuary of the lives lost, and I was horribly naïve to believe that's how anyone saw it but me!
"You're here reliving a fond memory!? People died here! People broke down here! Teenagers broke down, became completely different people than they were ever meant to be! I've been scarred by this place, it's the cauldron of every nightmare I've had since entering it! And you're here to relive a fond memory!?" By the end of it I'm yelling at the top of my lungs, tears dropping out of my eyes.
"Gio-"
"How dare you stand where he stood! How dare you stand where Ori stood, where Tuesday and Tia stood, where Pontifex and Janie stood, where Tristabelle stood, how dare you stand where I stood! More suffering has happened in this hellhole than your entire Capitol will ever experience, and you stand here reliving a fond memory!? What kind of a person thinks fondly of the suffering that happened here!?"
"Don't say something you'll regret, little Joker," she says, her voice pointed.
"How dare you stand where Atty stood! How dare you stand in the very same ocean that consumed him by your hand! How dare you come back to the site of where you murdered 23 children and look at it as a fond memory! How horribly sick do you have to be!?"
"Watch your mouth. Remember that in the scheme of things you are the Joker. You're the silly little card that does absolutely nothing but is for some reason in the deck anyways. Your Ace is gone now! You are not in control here, just like you weren't in control of the raging rapids and mutts that took your allies! You're not in control of them, I am. I'm still the dealer. And you would find it most suitable if you didn't say another word to me."
"You have no power. It's all in the hands of the President. You can't change anything at all. You can't even try now, you have two children and a husband that you love dearly." I step out of the water and put my shoes back on. "In the grand scheme, you're just as powerless as me."
Yes, I decide. That was definitely what I needed. I go to the observation deck they installed after the Games ended while Solitaire quickly exits. Now it really is just me. I lean against the railing of the observation deck and look at it. The Arena is serene and quiet, the breeze is gentle, the trees rustle, the sky is clear, the moon and the stars shine brightly…
I release a heavy sigh. No, I'll never be able to forget them completely. After all, I still have the tributes' ghosts haunting me and making things more interesting. I never want to forget them, of course. They're what make me who I am.
But, there are some parts about my time in the Arena that I could stand to let go of. I guess I never let them go because I thought if I did I'd forget the people that helped me along the way. But I could afford to lose those memories.
Yes, visiting the place that has become my hell actually did help. It gave me some closure, which is very important to me.
I ride the elevator back down, taking one last breath of the scent of the Arena. Then, I head out the exit, hoping to leave the horrors behind forever.
~.~.
My house in the Victor's Village has not been this incredibly noisy in a very, very long time.
"Uncle Gio! Uncle Gio!" Pyrrhus runs in, waving around little plastic hovercraft. "Lookie!"
"Oh wow, how nice!" I say, smiling.
"Unca Gio!" Tel starts pulling over a chair to stand on to add blocks to the tower he was building. I rush over.
"No no no! Don't do that, you might be hurt!" I move the chair and put the two-year-old back on the ground. Pyrrhus, the oldest at 4 years old, runs around, giggling delightedly and making noises to accompany his hovercraft while I help Tel stack more blocks on his tower.
"Where Mama?" babbles Tel, smiling proudly at the tower he built with my help.
"Mommy and Daddy are at the hospital right now. That's where they're going to meet your new baby sibling," I tell them.
"I wanna meet them now!" Pyrrhus says.
"It'll be sooner than you think," I promise him, ruffling his hair.
I pick up Tel, smiling at his eyes, chocolate brown just like his mother's. The fuzz on his head is dirty blond, just like his father's.
"How about while we wait we have some ice cream?" I ask, and that causes Pyrrhus to drop his toy.
"Yeah!"
"Yeah yeah yeah!" Tel says enthusiastically, so I take my nephews to the kitchen and get them each a bowl of ice cream. Tel is still a messy eater, which kind of bugs me, but I keep reminding myself that after ice cream it'll be bath time, and I get to clean him off.
After the boys are both squeaky clean (and after a while of me chasing a naked and sopping wet Tel around the bathroom with a towel), it's finally bedtime. I let them into the guest bedroom.
"Uncle Gio, will you tell us a bedtime story?" Pyrrhus asks, looking at me with big eyes that I can't say no to.
"Oh, alright." I climb into bed with them and they snuggle close to me.
I consider what kind of story I should tell them before I get the perfect idea. "Okay. Here's the story about a boy named Atticus." They both seem interested. "Atticus was a normal boy. He was 18 years old and he had black hair and blue eyes. Not just blue eyes… The brightest blue eyes in the entire world that could glow in the dark!" They gasp. "Yes, Atty was normal… Except for the fact that he had a secret. A secret he couldn't afford for anyone to find out."
"What was the secret, Uncle Gio!?"
"He was… A werewolf." They gasp. "Nobody knew that Atty was a werewolf. Not until Atty met two new friends. Ori was one of them. He had a beautiful smile and shaggy hair that was black and had streaks of red in it. The other one was named Gio. Gio had really, really curly hair!"
"You have really, really curly hair Uncle Gio!" he sounds delighted.
"Atty didn't want to make new friends though. Because he was afraid of them finding out that he was a werewolf. He kept the secret hidden for a long time, but Gio and Ori were a couple of very clever kids. One day, Gio and Ori decided to tell Atty that they knew he was a werewolf. Atty was very scared that they knew this, though. But Gio and Ori promised Atty that they would protect him and his secret." My heart is full of a full range of emotions. Tel's gentle breaths tell me he's asleep, but Pyrrhus is still listening. "Gio, Atty, and Ori were suddenly thrown into a horrible place. There were lots of other people there too, and they were all very sad. Gio, Ori, and Atty were very scared together. What would happen to them!? But then, one day, in the horrible place, out came the full moon. Atty couldn't hide his secret anymore! Atty started howling, and before Gio and Ori's eyes, he transformed into a hairy black wolf!"
Pyrrhus stares with wide eyes. "Atty realized that he was very strong when he was in his wolf form. So he had Gio and Ori hop on his back, and together they all escaped that bad place. The end."
"Uncle Gio, what happened after that? What happened when they all found out his secret?"
I consider. "Gio and Ori didn't mind that Atty hid it from them because they understood that he was very scared. Even though he was a werewolf they continued to be best friends. They loved Atty very much. Gio, Atty, and Ori…"
My eyes dot with tears that I blink away.
"They were a team. And they will always stick together."
~.~.
A/N: For the record it is February 7th as I am typing this. Yes, I'm torturing myself and waiting a whole twenty-one days to put it out, because it's the PRINCIPLE OF THE THING.
I thought I put this before, but Patro and Pyrrhus aren't mine. They belong to my friend Wetstar, who has a partial SYOT you should submit to and it's gonna be awesome!
Okay, time for the emotional sappy stuff now. Because I CAN'T BELIEVE IT THIS IS THE END! WHEN I POST THIS CHAPTER I'LL BE CHANGING THE STATUS OF THIS STORY TO COMPLETE! It's been one hell of a ride and I'm going to miss this story so much. If you want more, feel free to check out my 84th Games story, Silhouettes! And soon (AKA after I'm done with the reapings in Silhouettes), I'm going to be making a partial SYOT for the 42nd Games as well! And if you want one with just my characters, Wings of Freedom is still being updated regularly!
So, first of all I'd like to thank all the people that submitted tributes. They were all so creative and they were all unique as well. I hope you enjoyed reading about them and seeing them change and grow. I thank you for your tributes. They were each so interesting and unique and I hope I'll see you guys and your characters on our HG Roleplay forum soon!
Thank you to my reviewers, the ones that stuck by me through this whole journey. You guys were the missing puzzle piece that made this story be the stand-out! It's through your support that I grew as an author and that made this story so awesome! So thank you for always being there to let me know what you think! Also, a big thanks to everyone who was there to bounce headcanons off of me and for me to bounce some off of them! Having each of these characters be so three-dimensional really helped this story be a success.
So yeah, thanks for everyone who's still reading. Because damn, this is one huge Author's Note. Aren't you impressed that I haven't used that many lines of all-caps?
OKAY BUT NOW IT'S FEBRUARY 28TH ALSO IT'S LIKE MIDNIGHT I DID NOT MEAN TO STAY UP THIS LATE WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME BUT HERE COME THE ALL-CAPS. I AM SO EMOTIONAL AND IT ISN'T HELPING THAT THE SONG THAT SHARES THE STORY'S TITLE IS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND. BUT THIS STORY MADE SO MANY FRIENDSHIPS AND THERE WILL BE NONE LIKE IT. IT'S SO SPECIAL AND I'M STILL NOT READY TO LET IT GO. SO MUCH FOR THE ALL CAPS THING.
It's going to be really bittersweet for me to say goodbye to this story. It has so many laughs and amazing memories tied to it. Not to mention the friends I made through the process. If I ever meet any of you IRL, you'll each get the card I had with your tribute's name on it btw.
I'm not putting scores on this chapter but I'll still keep them updated so don't worry about that.
Wow, that's all I have to say. I think I'm stalling because I don't want to say goodbye to this story yet. No, Celtic, be strong.
Last Chapter Question (and it's a long one): Tell me honestly: What did you like about this story from the SYOT standpoint (did I give the characters enough spotlight and make them memorable, was I fair about the placements, etc.)? What would you suggest I change (and please don't say "have not one of your tributes win" for this. Because for my partials, one of mine is going to win no matter what)? Is there anything you wish I had done differently? Could I expect you to submit a tribute for 42?
Well, that's it. All I have to say. Thanks to everyone who kept up with the story, and I hope to see you all again very soon with new tributes for Masque: The 42nd Hunger Games!
~Celtic (AKA Duck. But hey, you have to admit that epilogue was SO FUCKING CUTE, was it not?!)