Rarity Belcourt, District 1
"Human man you loosen my mind,
Loosen my hand from the beckoning knife." -
Big Thief, Humans
"I'm telling you, the aliens took her!"
"For the last time, Woof," Gajin Nakamura sighed, "Aliens don't exist."
"It was them or the government," Woof Casino, victor of the Seventeenth Hunger Games offered.
Gajin glanced at the third man at the table - Luka Starkwain, victor of the Fourteenth Hunger Games and staunch supporter of the Capitol. Normally, after someone mentioned the government, Luka would launch into one of his usual speeches about how they were so good at managing crime. But he just stared into his beer, defeated.
"She's fine," he whispered, "She's probably just angry. Nothing bad could've happened to her. We're in the Capitol. Bad things don't happen here."
"It's been twenty-four hours, Luka," Gajin said, gently, "I think something did happen."
"Maybe she's just really, really angry?" Luka said, uncertainly.
"Maybe..." Gajin said, thinking back to the argument.
Rarity Belcourt and Luka Starkwain had always been rivals, of a sort. Both young, both popular, both gorgeous and both very politically involved. They could've been very close friends if they hadn't had such different views on politics.
After President Ravinstill had died and an election loomed on the horizon, Gajin had watched his fellow victors throw their support behind different parties, causing the animosity between Luka and Rarity to grow and grow. Gajin could see what it was about Rarity that irritated Luka. Politics aside, she was too loud and crass to be anything but annoying. But what had tipped Luka over the edge hadn't had anything to do with politics. It had been when Rarity had borrowed his jacket without asking.
"Do you think I was too harsh?" Luka asked.
Gajin thought back to the argument, the way Luka had yelled, "That jacket was a gift from my girlfriend, you alcoholic brat!"
"I... don't think she liked being called an alcoholic brat," Gajin offered. He decided not to mention the different emotions he'd experienced during that particular outburst. His absolute joy at realising that, even when he was extremely angry, Luka Starkwain did not swear...
And the disappointment that had followed when he'd realised that Luka had a girlfriend.
"Did Rarity have a drinking problem?" Woof asked. Gajin wasn't surprised at all that Woof, out of all the mentors didn't know about Rarity's alcoholism. He was the newest mentor in the Control Centre and Rarity had worked hard to hide her drinking problem. Gajin himself had only known because he'd been around during Rarity's first year as mentor, when the wounds from her games that had forced her into the bottle were at their most fresh.
And Luka had only known because Gajin had whispered it in his ear last year...
"She did," Luka muttered, "She was real touchy about it - Gosh darn it! Why are we referring to her in the past tense? She's probably fine. What could've happened to her?"
Gajin, tactfully, decided not to tell Luka what he thought could've happened to a pretty, vulnerable young woman wandering around a city at night. Woof... didn't really know what tact was.
"Alien abduction," Woof said, "I've seen it. Well, I haven't seen it, but how do you explain my brother?"
Luka sighed with exasperation, rolling his eyes.
"I hope she's okay," he said, his voice ragged, "Rarity's annoying but she doesn't deserve anything worse than a stern talking-to. She's a victor. She's earned the Capitol's mercy. What if something bad has happened? What if she's gone and put herself in danger because of something I'd said? And over what? A jacket that she'd borrowed and given back... This is all my fault, isn't it? Do you think they'll punish me?"
Gajin Nakamura stared into the famously blue eyes of the victor of the Fourteenth Hunger Games, eyes that, four years ago, had led him to admit to himself that he was gay. Eyes full of tears. In a perfect world, Gajin would be able to stand up, take Luka's face in his hands and wipe those tears away.
But Gajin knew that the world wasn't perfect and his spinal cord, severed by the boy from Four's sword, was more likely to repair itself and let him walk again than Luka Starkwain was to fall in love with another man.
So Gajin did what he could and tried to comfort his friend with words.
"You couldn't help it," he said, gently, "She did the one thing that you just couldn't stand. I think every victor has something like that, that they just can't stand. We just need to learn to stop doing these things in the Control Centre."
"So, we need... rules?" Luka asked, blue eyes lighting up.
"Exactly!" Gajin cried, grateful that he was on the same wavelength as Luka.
"Rules!" Luka beamed, pumping his fist in the air. Gajin may have blushed. He had a weakness for fellow rule-followers, especially ones with angelic good looks.
Rule Number One: He thought to himself, Luka Starkwain is straight. Accept it.
"Let's do it in chronological order," Gajin said, beginning to draw out the list on a napkin, "That way, nobody will be offended by whoever comes first. First we've got Surf, Nate, Brock, Romulus, Emerald, Sal and Mags. That'll make me Rule Number Eight."
"What's Rule Number Eight?" Luka asked.
Gajin didn't even need to hesitate. He'd heard enough of kids at his school turning his identity into an insult.
"Rule Number Eight: Watch your language!"
I decided to skip forwards to the Eighteenth Hunger Games to deal with Rarity's disappearance and its aftermath. That means you get a sneak preview of a few victors who haven't won yet. I probably didn't make this chapter Rarity-centric enough but hopefully you got a decent picture of her. She's unlikely to have survived the events of this chapter (being an outspoken rebel in Panem is never safe, especially not in election year) but she can rest in peace knowing that her disappearance made a real difference for the other victors. That's right. This is the origin story of Gajin's Wall of Rules!
Which brings us onto the man himself, my first LGBT+ victor (unless one of the first eleven comes out at some point, which is a possibility). I hadn't planned for Gajin to be gay. Sometimes I write a character and know from the start what their sexuality is and a lot of the time I start writing a character and then figure out what their sexuality is when I get to know them a bit better (for example, I didn't plan for Fawkes coming out as bi in his interview). I figured out that Gajin was gay when I tried to picture him in a relationship with someone and only saw him getting a massive unrequited crush on Luka. I guess it lends a little bit of backstory to why he hates swearing so much - because swear words and slurs are used so often to target and insult people.
The Wall of Rules couldn't have been achieved without Gajin's fellow urban men. We'll get more from both of them later. Luka in particular is a pretty big character, probably one of my favourite victors of all time. I put a few references to him in The Bride and The Widow, including one which could reveal the identity of his mysterious girlfriend but, if you don't remember them, it's not that big a deal. All will be revealed next chapter...