Victor #36:
Name: Beetee Latiers
District: 03
Age During Games: 15
Games: 036
Death: Hunger Games 088, Kacey
There are some things that can't be understood. It doesn't take a genius to know that, but the very statement often sends brilliant minds into lengthy discussion, oftentimes losing their minds. Why some people in District 3 grow taller than 6 feet when the general population barely cracks five foot six, how some careers were so stupid to walk into traps when they were so damn obvious, why everything needs a label when it's just a meaningless word to describe something, just some of them for thought. For the mind of young Beetee, he couldn't understand, just simply couldn't, and try what the government tried to 'help' him with, he still didn't.
He doesn't understand why the elder of the Latiers boys died
Router Latiers was reaped for Hunger Games 30. Before that he worked in one of those arcade machine makers, for amusement parks and resort hotels. He was in the middle of leading seven others in an arcade machine based off of Gerrian Tomion's failed attempts to save his cousin when he was reaped. At 16 years old, he was one of the older tributes, but about the same size as the District 5 boy that year, who was a year younger. Router got a 5 for his training score, but it didn't do much good when he fell to the District 7 boy in the bloodbath.
In Beetee's eyes, his brother was observant, he saw the spear coming at his stomach, Router was flexible, he could have bent over. Beetee doesn't understand the notion about 'deer in the headlights'. He doesn't understand fight or flight. Not yet, and he wouldn't understand it as the girl from District 11 threw her boomerang at the 7 boy during the feast, the blade shouldn't have been enough to cut his throat. He wouldn't understand fight or flight until he would be reaped 6 years later at 15 years old.
For that matter, why were both of them reaped?
Their parents were rich, like in the top 20% of the Districts, in a District where only the bottom 20% took out tesserae, therefore most of the tributes came from them. He didn't need to take out tesserae, he was an average District 3 boy with 3 slips in the ball compared to the possible thousands that could have fit. He doesn't know that both his parents are children of Dark Day dissidents, the ones who tried to wire several televisions for the Capitol and elsewhere to deliver messages to the fellow rebels. But that was years ago and they have since been living comfortably. Beetee doesn't understand the concept of 'Sins of our Fathers,' and he never will, even after he leaves the arena 2 weeks since he rises on the platform.
Why were the games being held that year?!
It's the most infuriating question, Calcutta Weld, Pocanifure's mother, 'a noob' in politics, gets the vote. She takes power during the meager mid-winter months, and Pocanifure is hugging Burell even tighter than she normally does. "Pocanifure," he asks his escort. "What makes you think your mother is a terrible president?"
"I DO NOT THINK THAT!" she shouts. Beetee's thankful that all the rooms in the train are soundproof, and that the peacekeepers are occupied in another train for now. Pocanifure has a loud voice, very loud, and it's gotten quieter over the years, but still the ear piercer. "SHE IS THE BEST PRESIDENT EVER! I LOVE MY MOM AND SHE IS THE BEST PRESIDENT! HER MODUS OPERANDI IS THE BEST THING EVER! MENTAL INSTABILITY IS A CRIME THAT HINDERS THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE GLORIOUS NATION THAT IS PANEM AND SHE IS DOING HER BEST TO QUASH IT!"
That poor woman...and poor Burell. Burell has basically functioned as her stuffed animal since she started mentorng. Moreover, if her main plan is to enhance the advancement of Panem, then why kill who could very well be the most brilliant minds. Come on Beetee, if you were so brilliant then you wouldn't even be in this mess he scoffs to himself. But, maybe, if he were to escape, then Panem could expand. Maybe, if he were to make it out.
Everyone in District 3 is a prodigy, so why is he considered smart?
This shouldn't help him stand out at all, especially in the likes of Burell Mysten, their only victor. Every District 3 teenager takes courses in technology and wiring. It helps them in the arena when they get the chance, often times scoring a kill because of just plain dumb luck, but every District 3 student knows how to make a bomb.
Supposedly it has to deal with the advances in the curriculum brought by Burell, and the most skilled are shipped off to other Districts and the Capitol for necessary land clearing and demolition. The stylists take advantage of this, and dress him as a lighter and his partner, a girl named Gladys as a bomb. He feels ridiculous with flames on his head, he doesn't even work with bombs.
No, like some other 5% of the teenage population, he's skilled at wiring. He knews how to convert joules to kilowatts in his head-a kilowatt is a joule divided by the product of period and a value of 1000- and where to immediately ground a bolt. They have several stations devoted to electricity that year, odd, but Burell notes that they can sometimes adjust the training facility for needs of the arena. It doesn't help harassment from the careers, a bunch of snobs and dastards. It could work in his favor...a girl several years ago won because the careers were total oafs. He'd have to thank her if he made it out. If he saw her, and if she saw him.
Why would he escape the bloodbath at the expense of 10 others?
His interview was quiet, he spoke in the expansive and long-winded terms ingrained for the students of District 3. He was a walking thesaurus that night as he dodged most of Caesar's attempts at banter. Certainly he'd be a forgettable tribute, and they'd put him next to one of the careers, maybe Corinth, the boulder tossing male champion of District 2, or Marian, the lethal vixen of District 1, or Andrew, the hurricane from District 4.
To his surprise, he's not next to anyone of note, just between the young tributes of District 9 and the spoiled District 5 girl. They're set on a hill too, most of the careers are set near the top of the hill, but the mouth of the cornucopia is facing the bottom, straight in front of the boys from District 10 and 7 and Gladys and the girl from District 11. The gong rings after 60 seconds, as usual, and he runs to the midfield of the cornucopia. He grabs two backpacks before a stray crate knocks him to his feet and sends him tumbling. He would later find out that Haiyan of District 4 would have been throwing the crates in a rage after letting the girl from District 11 slip.
He'd recover after a nearly 50 feet tumble, and run back to the top of the large hill, probably the remains of an old observatory, and he'd camp under the metal awning for several days. For the first night, it was restless as he saw a sea of 10 faces travel across the sky. Districts 1 and 2 didn't lose anything. Gladys perished, as did Haiyan, oddly enough. Then both tributes from District 5, the girl from District 7, both from District 8, both from District 9 and the boy from District 11.
What caused the careers to pick the boy from District 12?
Normally the District 12, the kids are young, starved, and besides the wrestling team (with little to no participants, from what Burell tells him) they aren't strong at all, and the boy looks somewhat strong, despite him having that 'seam' look. At best, Beetee determines that the boy, who can't be a year older than he is, stuck around after the death of the girl from District 4, or caused her death, and he was let in. The arena's down to seven, Beetee and the careers, and he spies on them, locates their plan of attack. In the arena they sweep the former area of the main telescope, then the old hardware locations, then the maze of stairways, then the grounds before settling in the cornucopia.
His time is limited. As soon as they leave the the old hardware storage, he sets his trap. If he isn't careful, it'll kill him if they don't die the next day. They sweep 1 hours in the main expanse, two in the hardware storage, 4 in the maze of stairways, and 5 in the grounds. They aren't smart, considering that they waste half of the day in total for their sleep, or whatever it is bloodthirsty killers can do. The trap involves wiring the floor, it'll take 18 valuable hours to rip apart the floorboards, luckily he's been working on it and three eighths of the floor tiles have been removed in the weeks he took devising the plan.
The computers have wires stemming from them, a lot of wires how could the ancient americans survived with this much of a fire hazard?! They would help spread the current to the walls, locking the door, and preventing all routes of escape. If it deploys...and it does.
How was he the only one out of 7 teenagers to survive?
District 12, steamed off and running in a hurry stumbles into the hardware and computer room, falling on the wires, accidentally completing the current for the next day's trap. Beetee can hear his screams as the boy writhes in pain, convulsing from the numerous wires flailing about. He dies, but not after he lures the careers over. The wires for the escape routes were not complete, and the careers mistake his flailing in pain on the floor as Beetee's direct actions. Well, yeah, but then again, it was by proxy. They step onto the tiles, the boy from District 1 falls onto a computer and completes the escape route current, his blond hair leaves his head smoky and charred, blackening his pale skin to a dark obsidian.
Beetee's scared, trapped in a room with 5 alive killers and an electric current, he dodges from rubber cabinet to rubber cabinet, clutching at the condoms that he uses as a buffer to protect himself. Just who let Pocanifure near the sponsor desks? The girl from District 2 tries to throw a knife, it lodges in the wood paneling and explodes in a spark. Andrew takes to the windows to escape, forgetting the sparks that periodically jump from it. He falls with one hand still on the bars, and his body convulses against the paneling of the wall.
Beetee's nimble, and he tries to jump from one cabinet to another, but falls on Corinth and Marian. The girl from District 2 has since died in a spark shot, a while ago, and Beetee falls unconscious, sure he'd never wake up again. The next time he wakes up, Burell smiles at him tiredly and Pocanifure clutches at him like a teddy bear. It's his first reminder he's alive, but how?
It's odd how the best of friends come from the strangest places, isn't it?
The first career he talks to is Mags Saros, one of the first career girls to win, and one of the eldest in the room. He asks her this question as they mull about the lounge, drinking and observing and making notes on the technology of District 4 gps systems. "We're a bunch of weird people huh?" she jokes. "Granted, all of us don't get along with everybody, I'm not on good terms with Mullen, but other than that, my relationships are peachy."
"But why though?" he inquires.
"You're only 15, and you just need to know that some things can't be explained. Lupus over there, were-teddy bear as we call him, promotes all of this. Likes the family network we all have. Fierce, but we're family. And we're glad to have you as one of us," she explains. Beetee still doesn't understand them, but the warmth from the room certainly is irreplaceable, and quite frankly, the best thing he's felt since leaving the arena.
Why are they switching presidents again?
They make the announcement when he reaches District 6. Pocanifure is shocked, but she hasn't really been close to her mom, and it doesn't affect her as much as it should. Either way, when he reached the Capitol, Loquell Hearth is by no means a push over. He's surprised at Beetee though, and lets him off with light words of encouragement and the opportunity to collaborate with Mullen Jolts, District 5's only victor. He accepts, and he doesn't know that Calcutta Weld has perished after a nightly swim.
He asks the question again only a year later. Hearth is president for a mere 9 months, and news travels to him in an e-mail, and the new president, a man about his father's age with snake like eyes and an odd sneer. Coriolanus is also a decade younger than both Weld and Hearth, very much in his prime. What follows in the first year of Snow's term is harder work, a little more limits here and there, security added to the walls of the District. Under his tense security is when Beetee first meets the Groundworkers, subterranean rebels. They train him in hacking, a far cry from wiring, and he catches quick, Beetee's a fast learner.
He's the first person to find computer signals from District 13's former location.
Who would be dumb enough to accept that he died in a faulty wiring accident?
The news travels as fast as it does to bring a new victor home. An electric fire, contained in his bedroom, Beetee found charred and limp on the floor. "Quite the terrible accident," Snow mourns. He's quashed a rebellion by crippling the leaders, and their spokespersons-the victors a little over a decade ago, and Beetee was "An invaluable person who will be sorely missed. His great mind inspires us all to move on," or Snow says.
Wiress, a little crazy but District 3's best mentor, knows otherwise. She knows that Beetee's too smart to fall for his own traps, for his own mistakes, Beetee is a legend gone too fast, and it's about time Wiress picks up the slack.
Like her mentor before her, she discovers more of District 13.
Hey guys, Hopps here
One more canon victor checked off the list. Beetee's trap is something elusive. I don't know if the one described here could work, but very exciting, no? Regardless, tell me what you think of my rendition of Beetee Latiers of Hunger Games 36, District 3's second. I tried to mix in some politics here and there, but I don't think it merged, so that's probably going to wear it down..(scream).
After the 30's, the careers will end up winning a little bit less, like I've said, about one victor per career district per decade. With the way I have it planned out, District 2 will eventually end up with the most, then District 4 (though not for a while) then District 1. This will also incorporate post hunger games 74 totals, so..yeah. Also, I'll be doing an SYOT for Hunger Games 150. More information on that, when it comes to it.
Hopping out
Hopps
P.S. Bikaran, thank you for the input. Districts 8 and 10 are coming soon, and District 10 has a tribute name you submitted. Thanks again