A few important notes before I start that I forgot to mention at the end of last chapter.
The sound of the trumpets I'm thinking of is from Into the Woods. They're the trumpets that play right before the Agony scene. If you know what I'm talking about, great! If not, google it. You'll find it eventually. And if you really can't find anything, make something up!
Secondly, it is a pain to notate location in this Arena. The system I came up with is pretty easy, I think. On each floor, a tribute can be in one of 13 general locations: the four corners (upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left); the four hallways that make up the sides of the square (upper, lower, left, and right); the four diagonal hallways (upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left); and the Great Hall complex, which is in the center of the square where the four diagonal hallways intersect. As I mentioned last chapter, the Great Hall is the only room in the castle that spans all three floors in height, though there are balconies on the second and third floor that overlook the great hall.
Finally, another note about sponsoring. If a tribute you're sponsoring dies, whether they're your own or one you've decided to sponsor, you may choose to sponsor another tribute in their place; however, unless you have three of your own tributes alive in the Games, you may not sponsor more than two at a time. Please let me know via PM if you'd like to sponsor any tribute.
Now, finally, on to the Games!
Silver Flower, 16, District Eight
Location: Upper Right Hand Corner, Third Floor
As the announcements from Dorian finished up, Silver felt her heart beat faster and faster. She wasn't sure she was ready for this; her hope was to at least be able to save one person before she died. Her parents had imbued a philosophy in her since she was younger: he who saves one life, it is as if he has saved an entire world. She at least hoped that she'd be able to fulfill that mantra once before she died.
As the timer counted down, Silver glanced around her room. She had decided not to change out of the purple dress she was wearing; she really liked how it felt, and she kind of wanted to feel pretty during her time in the Arena. So, she took the purple pack she'd been given and put the extra outfit, a pair of black cargo pants and a purple t-shirt that had been left on the bed in the room, in the middle pocket of three. She was pleased to find the food and water supply in the back pocket, and in the front-most pocket, six kakute, little spike rings that fit on her fingers and were pretty deadly when used right.
Finally, the countdown hit zero, and Silver heard the lock on her door click open. She grabbed open the door handle and pulled it open, trying to get her bearings in an arena she hadn't exactly been expecting. She found herself in a long hallway; looking to her left, she could vaguely see what looked like a balcony looking over a great room. To the right was the intersection of her hallway and two others, clearly a corner; she also noticed a stair case going down at the corner. Silver figured that there was some form of Cornucopia in that great hall, and so decided to go downstairs to the second level to see if she could get into the Great Hall from there. If not, she decided to return to the staircase and go down another level until she could get to what was inevitably the main source of supplies for the Games.
Silver ran down the stone spiral staircase to the second floor. When she came onto the floor, she identified easily the diagonal hallway slightly to her left that looked just like the one on the floor above, as well as the two other intersecting hallways in front of her and directly to her left. She paused for a moment and squinted.
Silver didn't need to squint. She knew exactly what she saw in front of her, even though it took a second for it to register.
Little Lavender Aroma and her knife, charging full-speed at her.
It took everything in her to resist instinct. Lavender might be little, but she was more deadly than many of the older tributes in the Games. Silver turned around and ran, turning to the hallway that was now slightly to her right. Then, she froze again; now it was Carissa Lovarre, sword in hand, directly in front of her. Silver turned around again, trying to get to the third of the three hallways that intersected at the corner, but her way was blocked by Carissa.
The last thing she saw was the older Career's sword being stabbed into her heart.
Carissa Lovarre, 18, District Two
Location: Upper Right Hand Corner, Second Floor
BOOM!
Carissa was a little bit shaken up. She was surprised, admittedly, to have gotten the first kill of the Games. And she was surprised by how easily she had done it. Carissa understood that, to get out of the Arena, she need to kill, but she didn't expect it to be that simple and easy.
But now she was one step closer to the fame and glory she'd always desired.
"Carissa! Is that you?"
"Lavender?" called Carissa.
"Oh, it's so good to find an ally!" Lavender exclaimed, giving the much older girl an awkward hug. "I was worried I wouldn't find anybody else, but I'm glad I found you, especially because of our Final Two deal."
Carissa sized up the younger girl. She was holding a throwing knife in each hand, and, like Carissa, had changed into the pants and white shirt provided. She seemed excited, and energized, ready to cause some damage; that was the kind of ally Carissa was looking for.
"So what's the plan now, Carissa?" asked Lavender, as carefully took Silver's pack off of her dead body.
"Let's walk around this floor and see if we can find some of the other Careers. If you're here, they're probably here too."
The two girls looked down the diagonal hallway; they didn't see anybody else, so they decided to start by going to their left. The walked slowly; while it would be good to find other Careers, they at least had each other, which was a good start.
"This is a bit unusual," remarked Carissa.
"What do you mean?" Lavender replied.
"Well, usually Careers hunt tributes from the Outer Districts. Rarely do they hunt other Careers."
Weave Flasherett, 17, District Eight
Location: Lower Right Hand Corner, First Floor
As the countdown finished, Weave burst out the door of her room. She knew she'd need to move quickly, and she really wanted to find her allies, Elysia and Dania, if they were both in the Games. Then, they'd be able to figure out their next move.
Weave found herself right around the intersection of three hallways; one straight ahead, one due right, and one slightly to her right, at a diagonal. She saw one person in the hallway straight ahead of her, in a white shirt, meaning that she was from One; the girl was retreating from Weave, but she still didn't want to go near her. Weave took a step towards the hallway slightly to her right, but immediately stopped as a door opened and Kylis from Nine came out. The two girls locked eyes. Weave turned to run away, but the sound of Kylis's voice stopped her.
"Hey, you're Dania's ally, right?" asked Kylis.
"Yeah," Weave replied, backing away from the other girl, who was at least half a foot taller and also probably stronger than her.
"You want to find her then, yes?"
"Yes…"
"Well, I want to find her as well. Do you want to work together?"
"Sure," said Weave shyly. "I was planning on going down this hallway; there's a Career in that one to our left, so going to the right is probably the best plan."
"That's fine with me. I'm literally just interested in finding Dania."
The two girls began to walk down the hallway towards what the audience would recognize as the upper right hand corner of the castle. As they were walking, they saw a girl walking towards them in a red shirt. Weave breathed a huge sigh of relief; she might not have the best eye, but she knew exactly to whom that light brown pixie cut belonged. "Elysia!" she yelled, waving at the other girl.
"Hey, Weave!" replied Elysia slowly. The two picked up their pace to meet in the middle; Kylis dragged behind a little bit, but followed suit.
"I'm glad I found you," Weave said. "Have you seen Dania?"
"All I've seen is Eloise. She went down that hallway, and she's hoping to maybe find Peach or Cheyenne from her district." Elysia pointed behind her, then due left. "I came from that hallway on the diagonal over there." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Why is Kylis with you?"
"She wants to find Dania as well," Weave whispered back. "Plus, a strong ally might not be a bad idea. Do you see how tall she is?"
"Good point. But I think we should be careful; if we find Dania, I don't want to lose both of them."
Finally, Kylis caught up to the other two. "Let's keep moving, but I think we should pick a room on this hallway to stay in for the night once the anthem plays." The younger girls nodded, and the group moved out, desperate to find the other girl.
Ferrari Benz, 15, District Six
Location: Upper Left Hand Corner, First Floor
Ferrari burst out of her room, only to find herself face-to-face with Cheyenne from Ten. The two girls locked eyes, then Cheyenne turned and ran the other way, down the diagonal hallway leading to the Great Hall.
Ferrari would normally be OK with facing another tribute, but she wasn't super interested in running after Cheyenne. She wanted to turn to her left, to run towards the lower left hand corner, but caught a glimpse of a girl in a forest-green shirt with bright red hair. She had no interest in dealing with Freida, but when she looked down the hallway straight ahead of her, she saw a girl with golden brown hair wearing a blue shirt and the cargo pants.
Now she was a bit stuck. Down one hallway was the girl who she had just let run away, and it would look pretty weird if she ran after her again. Down the second hallway was a Career. And down the third hallway was Freida.
To cut her losses, Ferrari decided to run towards Freida; she figured that the girl had slightly better odds of not killing her. But instantly, Freida threw an axe at Ferrari's head. The girl from Six ducked, turned, and ran down the other hallway towards the Career. Eventually, she caught up with her; the girl certainly didn't look like your typical Career, and seemed pretty nervous.
Hmm, thought Ferrari. A nervous Career could be a good ally for me, at least until I can find Nadina.
"Hey! Watch out!" Ferrari exclaimed. "Freida's coming, and she has axes."
"Oh boy. Thanks for letting me know. Come on!" The other girl led Ferrari to a room in the hallway, which turned out to be the room she'd launched from. "What's your name?" she asked, as she slammed the door behind her.
"I'm Ferrari. District Six."
"Nanami, Four." The girls shook hands. "Why did you warn me?"
"You're a Career, and you must be strong. I need a good ally."
Nanami thought for a second; Ferrari was certainly interested in knowing what was running through her head. "You have a lot of faith in me, just from knowing that I'm from a Career district. What if I'm actually incapable of killing, and I'm super scared?"
"Then I can be brave for you."
Nanami held out her hand to Ferrari. "You have a deal, at least with me. I can't guarantee what'll happen when we meet up with the other Careers, though."
Narcissa Wilder, 18, District Eleven
Location: Upper Left Hand Corner, First Floor
After changing out of the dress into the provided secondary outfit, Narcissa had decided to give it a few moments before leaving her room.
After all, she didn't really need to move. They'd never said that she had to. Narcissa was perfectly content sitting around, eating the food given to her in her pack and waiting for something to happen.
Not three minutes after the lock to her door had clicked open, she heard a cannon. The reality of the situation hit her; she decided to start moving towards some sort of other food source. After all, she was kind of running out. She also needed to find her ally, Elizah, so that she'd have a better shot in the Games.
Plus, with her luck, nothing could possibly go wrong.
Narcissa took her pack and slowly opened the door. She looked to her left first, and thankfully saw a familiar face: Amaryllis Horne, from her own district! "Hey, Amaryllis!" Narcissa called, running towards her.
A look of fear suddenly overtook Amaryllis's face. She froze, unable to move. Narcissa turned around and saw what had struck fear into Lis's heart.
Ravi Waterford was running right at them.
Narcissa instinctively took action. She grabbed Amaryllis's shoulders and threw the other girl between her and Ravi. Amaryllis screamed and squirmed at Narcissa's touch, but the taller girl kept her district partner tightly in front of her. Narcissa figured that, as long as she kept the other girl in front of her, Ravi would be so wrapped up in killing Amaryllis that she would be fine.
When Ravi got to the pair from Eleven, however, Narcissa realized the flaw in her plan. With one flat hand strike to the nose, the Career took Amaryllis out; the shorter girl slumped to the floor, at which point Ravi broke her neck for good measure.
BOOM!
Before Narcissa could react and run – not that running would have done much good, as she wasn't nearly as fast as Ravi – the Career had her hands on Narcissa as well. Ravi pulled her hand back; as her flat hand approached Narcissa's temple, a last thought ran through her head.
So this is what it's like for things to not go your way.
Arieyn Occisor, 17, District One
Location: Lower Hallway, First Floor
BOOM!
Arieyn kept walking calmly as the third cannon of the day went off. She was comfortable in her position; in her pack, she'd been given a blowgun and a bag of poison darts, meaning that she could probably take out any other tribute.
Granted, she wasn't sure exactly which poison was on the darts, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be good for anyone; at worst, it would incapacitate the tribute, allowing an ally to actually take them out.
An ally like Vixyn.
Arieyn had exited her room and found herself smack in the middle of a long hallway. She decided to move to her right, towards what the audience would recognize as the lower left hand corner of the square. She hoped Vixyn would be there; as the pack leader, Vixyn had the best understanding of everyone else, and was the safest person to be with.
Plus, she was pretty cute; red hair was Arieyn's weakness. And she was nice, once you got past the tough exterior. Arieyn didn't know if Vixyn felt the same way about her, but she certainly hoped it was the case.
Focus, Arieyn, she thought, as she kept making her way down the corridor. Careers aren't supposed to feel things. If you win, she can't.
As Arieyn kept walking down the seemingly endless corridor, she saw a figure slowly descending the staircase; the girl with dirty blonde hair seemed a bit dazed, almost as if she had no idea what was happening. Arieyn knew exactly who it was: Drenaline Fisher, from Six.
Arieyn pulled out her blowgun and a dart, but then paused for a second. As strong as her poison was, she was still a bit too far away from Drenaline for the dart to hit, and if she lost track of where it was, she could end up stepping on it and poisoning herself, or totally losing the dart, which could also come back to bite her. And if she ran to get to Drenaline, she could lose the biggest advantage she had: the element of surprise. Drenaline was so dazed at this point that she wasn't moving, but if Arieyn ran towards her, Drenaline could easily slip up the stairs, out of her range. The best choice, decided Arieyn, was just to keep going slowly, and shoot once she got in range.
As she watched Drenaline wander around the corner aimlessly, a double-bladed axe flew out of another hallway and impaled Drenaline in the skull. Arieyn's heart skipped a beat.
Only one person had that kind of good aim with a double-bladed axe.
Thank goodness.
"Nice shot, Vixyn," called Arieyn, as she picked up her pace a little bit to reach the corner. Vixyn met her, coming out of the diagonal hallway that met with the two straight hallways there.
"Thanks! Oh, it's so good to find another Career, and a Pack Lead at that. But let's keep moving; we probably have more people to find. There have been four kills so far; I'd bet all of them are by Careers."
Vixyn quickly cut Drenaline's pack off of her back and tied it on to her own. Then, the girls turned to the third hallway that had intersected with the ones they'd come from; they were pretty sure that nobody else was in the hallways they'd come from, so they decided to go down the third one in the hopes of finding someone else. They were instantly rewarded; Ravi Waterford was visible all the way on the other end of the hallway, cutting the packs off of two dead bodies.
"Ravi!" yelled Vixyn.
"Hey guys!" Ravi replied. She got both packs, picked them up, and then walked over to the other Careers to allow the hovercraft to pick up the other two bodies. "Nice kill, Vixyn."
"Thank you." Vixyn smiled.
The three girls sat on the floor, combining the food and water they'd found into their packs; as all three Careers had changed out of their dresses, they had all three pockets of their packs to work with, as opposed to just the front two. Ravi had also taken Amaryllis's pitchfork from her hand, which was the only weapon they'd gotten between the three girls; despite there not being too much food left in Narcissa's pack, there were also some materials to make traps in it, which Vixyn took. The ceilings in the castle were too high to hang traps from them, and they weren't sure if they'd be able to use traps at all, but the materials were good to have. "Especially if there's no Cornucopia this year, we need everything we can get," Vixyn pointed out. Once they were done, they discarded Drenaline's pack, as the straps had been cut, but kept the two brown packs from the District Eleven tributes, just in case they needed more packs, as their straps hadn't been cut. Finally, the three girls stood up, ready to go.
"Which way, Vixyn?" asked Ravi.
"If three of us all launched on this floor, I'm guessing that there are no more Careers here. The staircase near where I killed Drenaline didn't go down at all, so let's go up. Maybe we'll find someone else on the second floor."
So the girls set out, mostly on a mission, but ready to kill if need be.
Other Important Things We Didn't See:
-Peach and Cheyenne both launched onto the third floor, Cheyenne on the upper left diagonal hallway and Peach on the lower left diagonal hallway. They both ran in towards the Great Hall and quickly found each other, as they'd emerged on the same balcony. The girls decided to stay on the balcony for the night, and would hunt for Eloise the next day; they weren't thrilled to be allied together, but each knew they didn't have another option.
-The Ferrari/Nanami alliance eventually met up with Blaze in the upper right hand corner of the third floor. Blaze accepted Ferrari into the alliance, and the three decided to go back to Nanami's room and look for the rest of the Careers the next day.
-Pix, Nyx, and Tistera would stay in their rooms for the night; none of them wanted to risk getting caught in the carnage, and decided instead to wait for the next day to get moving or, in Pix's case, find her allies.
Alliance List:
The Careers (But They're Splintered!): Arieyn, Ravi, Blaze, Lavender (D1); Carissa, Vixyn (D2); Nanami (D4)
-The Final Two Deal, also The Middle Pack: Lavender (D1); Carissa (D2)
-The Upper Pack: Arieyn, Ravi (D1); Vixyn (D2)
-The Low Pack + The Brave One: Blaze (D1), Nanami (D4), Ferrari (D6)
The Gender-Benders: Honey-as-Drew, Muire, Pix (D3)
#FindDania: Elysia (D6), Weave (D8), Kylis (D9)
District Ten: Peach, Cheyenne, Eloise
-Missing: Eloise
Loners: Freida (D7), Tistera (D10), Nyx (D12)
Eulogies
24th Place: Silver Flower, District Eight, Killed by Carissa Lovarre
Oh, Silver! You were just the sweetest, most well-meaning girl ever, who found herself at the wrong end of a sword. Silver was so dedicated to the younger girls, and in protecting them; even though they were worried about having her in the alliance, she really didn't mean any harm. I had lots of fun writing for her, and I know she will keep protecting the little kids killed in other Games all the way up in Heaven. Thanks SilverflowerxRavenpaw for this super fun tribute!
{Family Fact: Silver's parents, Gold and Bronze, opened up an orphanage in Eight in Silver's memory. The orphanage took in kids of all ages, though it was geared towards the little ones, and helped them get a footing in the district and get jobs before they aged out of the Reaping.}
23rd Place: Amaryllis Horne, District Eleven, Killed by Ravi Waterford
Amaryllis was such a fascinating tribute! I had never written someone out of the binary before, and it was an interesting experiment for me to put myself in the shoes of someone so different from myself. I know we didn't get to see too much from her, but trust me when I say that she managed to find herself; in her private interview, she was open with Garnet about her gender identity and sexuality, and while she didn't want to die, she realized that if she did, she wanted to be herself. Thanks, i believe in nargles too, for such a dynamic, loaded girl!
{Family Fact: Amaryllis's family became closer after her death, Sage becoming closer to his mother Iris. The other Iris, Amaryllis's sister, in particular took a leading role in helping the family deal with her death, and became an advocate for non-binary rights in Panem.}
22nd Place: Narcissa Wilder, District Eleven, Killed by Ravi Waterford
So fun fact: Narcissa was actually submitted as a parody, anti-Sue tribute. I decided to see if I could incorporate a parody tribute into the story and make her as well-liked as the other tributes. It turns out that she was one of the more well-liked girls in the story, especially because of her prankster nature. I really enjoyed this challenge, and I'd say you guys liked her too! Thanks, Twili Prince, for such a fun challenge, and I hope you submit to future stories.
{Family Fact: Narcissa's parents had been used to spoiling her, but didn't really have the passion to do so with anyone else. They missed their daughter, and made a shrine to her in their house. Eventually, they were able to have another child, that they named Narcissa Segunda Wilder, who, in their eyes, never quite measured up to her sister, but came close.}
21st Place: Drenaline Fisher, District Six, killed by Vixyn Kearne
Drenaline! You were so sweet but also kind of hopeless. Waning someone off of morphine or morphling was difficult, to say the least, and she actually snuck a morphine needle into the arena. Maybe she'll find more peace now, away from her abusive family. I struggled a bit to portray her, but I hope I did her justice. Thanks, 66samvr, for Drenaline; I know you still have Weave to root for, so good luck!
{Family Fact: Drenaline's father actually felt remorse once she died; after all, she was the last remnant of her mother. He regretted the abuse that he'd committed, and would repeatedly bring flowers to her grave.}
Well, that's our first few hours of carnage! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I know I didn't mention Honey-as-Drew and Mu, and that I didn't show the anthem, but that's because I'll be focusing on them next chapter. I also know that I didn't actually get to show everything that happened here, but the more sections I tried to write, the more forced it seemed. I figured it would be better for me to summarize a little bit and not make things feel quite as forced, and I promise I'll focus on those other girls at some point. I can also promise that no girl will die without actually being seen in a POV.
So what did you think about the chapter? Did any of the deaths or the new alliances surprise you? Was the writing style OK and clear? What about the end-of-chapter sections (Other Important Things We Didn't See, Alliance List, Eulogies)?
Next chapter, as I said, we'll focus on Mu and Honey-as-Drew, and see the impact of something you guys definitely know is coming. I can't wait to see you then!
Thank you all for all of your support!
-goldie031