Day Ten
District Six: Knowledge

"Good evening, Capitol! And welcome to your nightly recap of the Second Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events. I'm Harli Saleman."

"And I'm Dorian Muir. We're really getting down to the wire now, aren't we, Harli?"

"We really are! With just a few days of competition left to go, the pressure is truly on for our competitors to make a name for themselves. The line between first and second is slim, but it is no longer good enough to place fourth or fifth in popularity; you have to make a splash or risk getting the boot."

"Honestly, I think it's too late for them to make a splash as the popularity section of the Events is functionally over.

"That's true! For those of you with voting privileges, tonight is the last night to vote for your favorite of the remaining teams. Popularity will not be taken into consideration after tomorrow; once there are three teams left, the two who do not win immunity will, obviously, enter straight into the elimination challenge. So make sure to vote tonight so that your voices can be heard!"

"Now, let's get into today's action! It seems to me that, for the first time in these Events, the power is squarely in the Outer Districts' hands."

"That does seem to be the case! The Careers have gone on quite a bit of a losing streak, with three of the last four teams eliminated coming from those districts. And I have to say, two of those eliminations really surprised me."

"Me as well. The Ones losing to the Twos didn't come as such a shock especially given Pax Altomare's fascination with butterflies, but I was very surprised to see Four lose to Twelve of all districts. And the Capitol likely should not have lost this one to Eleven either."

"I'm not so sure about that," Harli argued. "Well, I agree about District Four; there's no way they didn't throw that challenge. But I wouldn't write Eleven's win off as the Capitol pair throwing to them, as friendly as they're getting. Remember that it was, effectively, a memory challenge. And both Xayah and April seemed to be pretty good at memorizing things."

"That's also true. Do you think we've passed the point where the Careers can expect to ram through challenges, landing on top?"

"Well, I think so, though it's hard to say. Noel and Mack, the only remaining Careers, probably will not be a complete slam dunk for every challenge, not that they were before. But they are trained, and likely trained in a wide enough variety of areas that they should expect to contend rather and place comparatively highly.

"Though, of course, a high placement does not guarantee safety in these Events. It's win or you're in danger of going home."

"And tomorrow, half of our teams will be in that position! But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves."

"We do this nearly every night," Dorian smirked. "Somehow we always end up talking about the results before we even touch on the morning challenge."

"So let's back up a bit and start from the beginning."

The screen behind Harli and Dorian shifted to an overhead view of one of the Arena's challenge zones. A large triangle had been drawn on the ground, broken up into five levels, the widest one with five spaces, the next widest with four, and so on and so forth until the peak, which just had one space. In each of the five spaces on the widest row stood one of the five remaining teams, one member holding a whiteboard and a marker and the other holding a small velvet bag.

"Today's challenges honored District Six and its value of knowledge. As the district responsible for both the education curriculums in all of our districts but also for higher education and research, it is safe to say that the citizens of Six are some of the most knowledgeable in all of Panem.

"For the morning challenge, our competitors were tested on their general knowledge, both what they should have learned in school and also some general facts about Panem and the districts. After each round of seven questions, the team with the fewest correct answers was eliminated and the rest of the teams got to take a step forward into the next level of the pyramid. Ties go to sudden death. As the competitors moved up through the pyramid, the questions got progressively harder, until there was just one team remaining."

"We're not even going to try to beat around the bush with this one or build suspense by revealing the lower-placing teams first," Dorian explained. "It almost goes without saying that the team from Six absolutely dominated this challenge, getting just a single question wrong across all of their rounds, due to a rounding error on Sigmund's part on a math question in the second-to-last stage. Their exceptional performance was more than enough to award them their first challenge victory of the Events, as well as the Medallion of Knowledge."

"Coming in second place, also unsurprisingly in my view, was the pair from the Capitol. They made a valiant effort, sending the final round into sudden death, but ultimately the Sixes just knew more trivia about the districts than the Capitol pair did."

"Now, the next two placements I honestly would have expected to be reversed, Harli. But somehow, the pair from Two came in third and the pair from Nine in fourth."

"It surprised me in the moment as well, Dorian. But in retrospect, I can understand how Noel and Mack – well, really just Mack – pulled out the win. Mack is a full two years older than the kids from Nine, and they are in different school systems with different opportunities. Berk and Nova did better than Noel and Mack in round 1, so I think it was just a matter of what the Nines had the opportunity to learn."

"Ah, I see where you're coming from. It didn't matter which of them placed where in the grand scheme of things as neither team won, but I did find it interesting."

"Finally, in fifth place, was the team from Eleven. If this challenge had happened with more teams remaining, I expect that they would have placed above at least a couple of the other teams, but unfortunately, that was the hand they were dealt."

"I think that's a great way to explain their luck through the whole day of competition: unfortunately, that was the hand they were dealt. After using their Medallion of Power yesterday, they once again ended up in the elimination challenge because of popularity, facing off against the Capitol team sent in by Sigmund and Ella."

"In the elimination challenge, the teams were tasked with searching through a large number of very similar-looking medallions to find the ones that exactly matched the three example medallions selected by the Gamemakers. As you might expect, this challenge took quite a bit of time, with both teams taking very different strategies. Mettius and Titania chose to split up, each focusing on one of the three medallions they had to find and then coming together to work on the third. Meanwhile, Xayah and April chose to work together to find one artifact at a time. Whether because Xayah and April had better memories or a better strategy, they managed to narrowly eke out a victor, sending Mettius and Titania back to the Capitol."

"As always, we'll end our recap by going over our medallion tracker." The camera shot switched to just Harli, and a graphic appeared on the screen which displayed the image of a medallion on the left side of a table and the district that held it on the right.

"After their elimination today, the pair from the Capitol chose to will two of their medallions, namely the medallions of Leadership and Commitment, to the pair from Two; combined with their medallions of Discipline and Trust, this puts the team from Two solidly at the top of the standings for the first time. Mettius and Titania chose to give their other medallion, the Medallion of Perseverance, to the pair from Eleven, giving the girls their first and only medallion. Tied in the middle are the teams from Nine and Six, who have three medallions each. Sigmund and Ella added the Medallion of Knowledge today to their medallions of Teamwork and Trust. Nova and Berk still have the same three they had yesterday: the Medallion of Heart, which they were willed by the pair from Twelve, the Medallion of Friendship, and the Medallion of Courage."

The screen shifted back to the image of Harli and Dorian. "An interesting day of competition all around," Dorian remarked. "I feel bad for the girls from Eleven, ending up in the elimination challenge a second straight day."

"And I wouldn't be surprised to see them land there again tomorrow," Harli replied somberly, "as there's not much that can be changed about their popularity score. What was more surprising to me was the fact that Sigmund and Ella chose to send in the team from the Capitol, not Two, to the elimination challenge. After all, the Twos have been running the game in a lot of ways."

"See, I thought their decision was a good one," Dorian countered. "Firstly, I doubt the Sixes know the extent to which Noel has been controlling things. More importantly, though, we've seen time and time again that the team that targets Noel ends up being targeted. With just four teams left and therefore so little margin for error, I can understand why the Sixes would want to avoid being Noel's targets for as long as possible."

~.~.~

"So, what are you thinking?" Sigmund asked, pacing back and forth across the main room of his and Ella's house.

"I don't know," Ella admitted. "I don't like having to make this decision."

"Neither do I. I have no interest in making enemies. But we have to pick someone."

"We do."

Though he knew the answer, Sigmund asked, "Who's even left at this point?"

"Well, us. Capitol, Two, Nine, Eleven."

"So not Nine. Or Eleven."

"Yeah. But which of the other two? Or, well, which of them should be our first choice?"

"Hm." The two fell silent for a moment, taking the time to weigh their options. Finally, Sigmund suggested, "I think the pair from Two is less of a threat."

"You think?"

"Look, the only time we've gone into the elimination challenge thus far has been when Mettius and Titania won their challenge. Noel and Mack have won twice and we've been safe both times. I have no idea why, but they're not targeting us. And if they're not targeting us, we have no reason to target them."

"What happens if the Capitol team ends up sent in on popularity? What do we do then?"

"Do you really think the Capitol kids will end up sent in on popularity?"

"Fair point."

"Plus, if we can, I want to keep Mack safe. I like him." Sigmund suddenly stopped pacing and turned to face Ella. "Do you think this is the right decision?"

"If this is your instinct, then I trust you."

"Thank you." Sigmund paused again. "We just have to hope, if Noel and Mack win again, that my instincts are right."

~.~.~

"That's a fair point. I would think they might be willing to take a risk on sending in the Twos with the Nines still in the game as well."

"I guess there's no way to know for sure what they were thinking."

"That's very true. After the break, we'll continue our analysis of today's events, and give you a sneak peek of tomorrow's challenge. We'll be right back."

Mettius Dunebreaker:

Mettius has gone through quite a few arcs in my mind! I was debating giving em a more villainous arc at one point, having em be a bit more forceful in eir relationship with Xayah, but as the story evolved that felt less and less like the move, especially with Noel and Pax I. there to take on villain arcs. It also allowed me to create a true bond between the Capitol and Eleven teams which I really enjoyed! Thank you so much to The Voice of Night Vale for Mettius!

Titania Pyrrhos:

Ren, what a lovely character! Titania has such a dynamic backstory and a lovely personality. I still remember being ecstatic when I figured out that I could create a bond between Titania and Xayah, and I would have loved to explore their relationship a bit more. Perhaps as IDIDE3 mentors? Thank you so much to Little Knight Mik for Titania!

~.~.~

Another week, another chapter! I hope you all enjoyed this one! We're really getting close to the end and I'm hyped for it! I have some big plans coming up and I'm stoked for y'all to see them! What did you think of this chapter? We've got just four teams left – any winner predictions?

Anyway, I realized I never formally explained my plans for after this so I figure I'll do it here: I am planning on doing an IDIDE3! I was considering opening subs on June 6th, which is the day that the Victor should be revealed, and also a week before the final epilogue goes live, but I realized that there would be some spoilers on the form and in the worldbuilding. I'm still going to put some of that information on my profile on the 6th, but I won't formally open the story or release the form until the 13th, when that final epilogue goes live. This plan is subject to change because it's still a month out, but at this point, that's my plan.

Thank you all for your support through this process! I'm so happy you're around to see what I have in store!

-goldie031