Victor #54:

Name: Chaff Remick

District: 11

Age during Hunger Games: 18

Games: 054

Death: 105, Beacon

"I very well should talk to Lumin about the bar. If only we can get more people to back off of the bar then we'd be able to have more conversations," Seeder Firest tiredly says over the bar.

In the four years since my victor, I have established my position firmly at the bar, in the corner where the countertop meets the wall before seguing into beautiful pictures of all fifty four victors. Yes, I threw up on mine a year after my victory, but the copies that they made all meet up to the original's quality, and i'd say exceeds it more often than not. "Relax Seeder, I think your mom instincts are shining through," I guffaw.

"I am old enough to be your mother, and I will act like it if you don't make conversation with someone else BESIDES Tody in the next 15 minutes," she tells me. I roll my eyes again as Seeder leaves me to my drinks for a brief moment. I end up staring at the bottom of a frothy mug as I hesitate on drinking it for a while, just sitting there for a static moment, lamenting the quick deaths of District 12...again. Alimenia, Hawk, Travers, Hydrangea, Jakub, Synthia, and most recently Drafters and Daisy. All gone, Tody and I have failed for the fourth time in a row, and the doctors say that his health is declining. I just hope he doesn't leave me anytime-

I am jolted out of my thoughts by the sudden presence of a victor, the most recent one. The most glaring tell that he is the newest victor is his lack of his left hand. He's kind of fidgety while he takes a seat at the bar with the remains of his left arm almost flailing about when he orders a soft drink. "Try something harder, should keep you rested," I joke aloud.

And of fucking course he hears me. Chaff Remick of District 11, a man born to the harvesters and ox handlers of District 11, who has met toe to toe and doesn't even boast. Somehow, I believe Seeder's description of Legume's tribute while I talk to the very victor. "Legume and Seeder really say that I shouldn't…" he trails off, voice quavering nervously even as he tries to assert himself.

"Momma Seeder and Daddy Legume shouldn't lead your life you know," I speak up. I call the avox bartender and summon a drink that I've had. "It's brewed from District 9 directly and seasoned with rainbow sprinkles, I've named it the happy sedative." Jokingly I point to a menu with the drinks on it, pointing to a picture of said drink with the label "Cupcake Squeeze." "It's pronounced Happy Sedative."
Chaff manages to smile lightly and begins to laugh before shutting up. "So, is it normal to be, kind of nervous with victors?"

"If you think that you're going to end up with your neck snapped then honestly you're pretty mistaken. You're surprisingly compsed for one of us, but what the fuck do I know? I'm probably drunk as hell."

He laughs again, looking at a checkerboard pattern ingrained at the bar's surface. "Have any hobbies?" He asks quietly.

"Besides wine tasting and dreaming of witty comebacks for years to come? Not really."
"I play a lot of chess in district 11, I'm pretty good if you ask me. I think it'll be my talent you know? Wanna play for a moment?"
"You don't happen to need those fancy pieces, I used to play with seeds. Bartender?" The olive skinned Avox comes as soon as he's summoned. With a quick glance of the menu Chaff is able to point out a series of drinks o get us started, all in identical shot glasses. "So 16 of these, four of these, these, and these, then two each of these two," he quickly explains before the avox needs. I notice the bartender coming back with 16 spritzer shots, four shots of vodka, four shots of margaritas, four shots of pina colada, two shots of mojitas, and two shots of white russian. Even with one hand he sets up the board efficiently and starts thinking.

"So how do you play?" I ask, interested.

"The first row of drinks, the spritzers...they are your pawns. Expendable units. They can move up to two spaces forward for their first movement, but then only move forward one. The ones at the edges of the table are rooks-the pina coladas, they can move forward and left to right. I should mention that all pieces cannot jump over each other, with one exception. The knights, the margaritas, they are able to jump over pieces by being able to move two spaces forward and one space sideways in an l form there fore…"

Being the drunkard I am, I tune out most of the rules, but I know that I must capture the king, playing an offensive and defensive game in order to win. "Don't forget, if you lose you drink whatever is left on the field while whoever wins drinks everything captured," Chaff adds quickly.

"Sounds pretty good to me, I guess I move first." He nods in approval before gesturing me to move ahead. I hover a hand over one of the spritzers in the front and move it two spaces forward. "Reality settling in fine for you?"

Contemplatively he moves one of his spritzers forward two spaces before he answers. "Just letting it sink in. I don't think home is ever going to be the same again, really. Five others could be in my place can't they?"

I move one of my pieces forward one space before nodding in approval. Soon my mouth is agape when he moves his queen diagonally to the right and has the ability to capture my sazerac my next move. "Fool's mate… it's never happened with my friends, but I won. You know the conditions," he says quickly.

"Yeah I do. But about your thing, you need to move on from the past. Just find something to get your mind off of things, and keep moving to the future. That's the only way I can put it…"

There's a lull in the conversation as I note him looking about awkwardly while I take shot after shot of drink. He's talking to himself, like most of us do, and then olive's in the back of my head again, chiding me for not talking to this new victor, offering a hand. While I tell her to shut up, i do admit that making friendly with District 11 means future allies for District 12 and potential victors from both of our Districts. "Wanna play again?" I ask aloud.

"Yeah, sure," he replies. I can barely pay attention as he muses over how to move, taking shots out of separate glasses to the side, with the ehadache I'm currently sporting I end up thinking about a bit too much-my arena, Geode, Valerie, Maysilee, Olive… "Haymitch, it's your move."

Quickly I shake my head and grab the rightmost margarita. "That's a valid move, is it?"

"Yep," he says politely, if a little gruff. He really had no room to talk during his hunger Games only five days ago, and he was pretty stoic during his interview two days ago. I move one of my pawns up two spaces in order to free up my rook, or pina colada for moving. His arena, endless hills of grass that rolled forever backwards and forwards, featured no room for talking when there was no wind to mislead the direction of conversations. "Check,"Chaff says abruptly.

Looking down at the chessboard indicates that he has captured one of my knights and opened up for his queen to attack my king. I can either move to capture his rook with my bishop or protect with that very bishop, but put it in the way of the queen. I move to attack the rook, seemingly satisfied. The play exchanges favor a little while longer before he loses both of his rooks and has a bishop and pawn cornering a knight and with my king safely out of reach. He begins to move his pawn forward a space..and it's only then I realize that he's hit the end of the board. "That's a queen for me, thank you very much," he slyly grins.

"Fuck…" I curse aloud. I have to resist throwing all shots off of the playing field in frustration as he moves his queen to capture one of my bishops on patrol for offensive pieces. I move my king upright diagonally as it's the only space to go before he moves his queen to counter it. "FUCK!" I shout, realizing that I lost. "Good game though."

He smiles cheekily before sweeping up the 12 captured pieces and downing them one after the other. I finish my 20 shots quicker than he does and step down from the bar stool. He quickly follows, and I meet him face to face. He's easily six feet, one of the taller victors, and towers over me by a couple of inches, but naturally meek since he's just walked out of the hardest shit in his life. "So what do you do after your drinks?"

"Pass out? Check up on Tody? Check in with Momma Seeder? I don't know, I like that stupid trash that they play on Capitol Radio though, it's more tolerable when drunk," I reply with a slur. "Or maybe read one of the books, like the bad ones by that old broad who used to host that shit...what was her name? Horse Cherry rider?"

"Ponycherry?"

"The name is still stupid, but her erotica is more tolerable when drunk. Do you read often?"

To my surprise he bows his head slightly downward and shakes it ever so subtly. "Spent a lot of time talking with my friends and family. There are quite a bit of us in our housing block, and there's always conversation, and I've never seen a need to read books when there's so much more people to talk to. School doesn't help when there's 54 people per classroom and another 12 adults who still have to get caught up," Chaff says dejectedly. "I don't read really well, never have."

I place a gentle hand on his shoulder and take him to the library on the upper level of the victor's lounge. It's a more peaceful section, without much noise and less of the main bulk of victors up there. I hold out a book for him, a simple one but actually pretty interesting, and hand it to him. "When your'e a victor you can order any of these books here home. They'll send it over for parcel days," I explain kindly. "Takes a lot out of your mind."

Chaff nods slowly and holds onto the book I've handed to him tightly. It's a notebook about exploring distant planets across different terrains facing new threats every novel. Sure it's a cash grab, but at least it's diverse. "My father, he's tried reading books before, he says that you get lost in them, manage to lose everything just to focus on the future. Maybe if i bring her some…"

"Who is she?"

"My sister," he says quickly. "Twin sister, about to be married to one of the farm managers, going to escape the housing block with me. That's every goal of District 11's citizens, escape their housing blocks, Legume, Seeder, and Tscharner are the only ones to have done that by entering the hunger games and actually returning. No one is suicidal enough to enter the games voluntarily, so most of us are stuck in the houses."

I put an arm around him as he sighs wistfully, gazing longingly at his arm. I've been losing my ability to be sober after quite a fair bit of drinks, but I'm able to compose myself so I can actually talk to this guy. "No volunteers from Districts 12 and 11, many in the careers, one or two in 7,8, and 9 each, and maybe one in Districts 3, 5, 6, or 10. We're all doing well though, we must be doing something right if some of us can come home from anywhere."

"You're more composed than the drunkard that Tscharner makes you out to be," he notes.

"I have my moments, but I've never really liked Tscharner. Did you happen to have a favorite victor before the Hunger Games? Mine was Sullivan, we didn't see much of him, but I loved the way he wielded the hatchet."

"I kind of liked Crate, she seemed really rational during her games, and I was a big fan of you."

"Feeling starstruck, aren't you, kid?"

"Used to be, but now I'm comfortable with talking to you as an equal actually," he chuckles. "I hope you don't mind me killing Drafters accidentally."

"It's the games, it's an accident, it was the bloodbath, and it was better than him being killed by the careers. I should thank you for his quick death, he was a good kid though."

"I'm not sure if I should apologize for that four girl or that five boy or that 9 girl or 1 boy… should I?"

"They understand, we try our best not to blame the victor for getting out against our tributes. Besides, 18th, 13th, 10th, 5th and 2nd shouldn't be too bad, should they?"

"I suppose. Hey, if it isn't too personal, can you tell me about your games?"

"Sure," I say without hesitation. "I just need a couple of more drinks, and then I'll be good, that fine?"

"Maybe if I share with you they'll be more tolerable."

Hey Guys, hopps here

District 11 is always a District I happen to struggle with, and it's my least favorite District to write about, though I can't say that it's my least favorite District...I don't really have one. But I hope I did Chaff some semblance of justice when it came to his chapter, and that his conversation with Haymitch was interesting

Coming up next, a District 3 victor, and their first female victor, and the only girl before Hunger Games 75, featuring someone that I've wanted to revisit when to came to District 3

Hopping out

Hopps