I'm a huge fan of The Hunger Games, but I have become an even bigger fan of Hunger Games fan fiction. When I go back and read Suzanne Collins' original novels, I imagine the world and characters created on this platform.
This story is a tribute (pun unintended but appreciated) to some of these stories. It imagines the 74th Hunger Games from the perspective of the Victors created by Oisin55 in The Victors Project. If you have never read this story, it ismy all-time favorite HG fan fiction, in which Oisin55 tells the story of all 75 Hunger Games Victors. I also build on characterizations of the 74th HG tributes created by Caisha702, PK9, and Be-Nice-To-Nerds. These are all authors who have entertained and inspired me. I hope this story does their works justice.
If not clear already, I own none of these characters.
It has been some time since Mags has graced the mentors' Control Center with her presence. She is an icon among the Victors and throughout all Panem. But as the rumblings in the districts have slowly gotten louder in recent years, Mags thought it best to lower her profile. She announced her official retirement as mentor after the 68th Games, and over the past few years she has even affected becoming mute to further throw suspicion away from her. And she's turned over leadership of the rebellion, at least the Victor's side, to Beetee and Seeder. Theirs will be the generation that will need to break the Capitol's stranglehold over Panem.
But then yesterday evening, Mags had one of her greatest "Victor's premonitions" ever. Indeed, it had been almost forty years since Mags had such a powerful premonition, when Coriolanus Snow played her and grabbed absolute power. But this premonition was different. All the others carried the sting of her Games—the smell of fish oil mingled with burning flesh, accompanied by a sharp pain in her slashed breast. This premonition also filled her nostrils with the smell of fire, but now it is overlaid with the freshness of a sea breeze, and both them become overwhelmed by a strong blowing wind. And it came right after the boy from District 12 declared his love for his district partner. As they showed her shocked face on screens across Panem, Mags became overwhelmed and nearly passed out. So the next day, Mags collected herself and made her way to the Control Center, to be here among her fellow Victors, to see what this premonition meant.
She only told a few about her premonition. Beetee, because it's best to keep him in the loop. Finnick, so he won't think she's just here to look over his shoulder (though it's nice to kill two birds with one stone). And Haymitch, because she has the strong sense that his typical mentoring shoddiness will not cut it this year.
Mags's presence sends a quiet shock wave through the Control Center, but only for a moment. Everyone has to be on their A-game, and their eyes quickly turn back to their designated screens. So as Mags takes a seat towards the back, the familiar (and, among the Victors, universally despised) voice of Claudius Templesmith rings out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"