Chapter 25: Indigo Weaver

The Hunger Games, Special Edition! : President Ravinstill Announces Quarter Quell

Capitol (AP) – President Commodus Ravinstill made a special address from the Presidential Mansion Saturday night, regarding the upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary of the conclusion of the Dark Days and our pageantry of repentance known as the Hunger Games. Aides close to the President told us ahead of the broadcast that the President had something special in mind for this year's arena.

In his remarks, Ravinstill revealed a mechanism secretly written into the Charter of the Games that had never before been used… until now.

"This is a time for observance, and a time for repentance," the President stated on national television. "When the Treaty of Treason was drafted, a special stipulation was written into the Games Charter. It decrees that every quarter of a century, there will be a Quarter Quell, to remind the districts of the tragedy of rebelling and to make extra sure that the war which darkened our doorstep just twenty-five short years ago is never again repeated."

President Ravinstill then went on to say that this new Quarter Quell would involve an extra special twist involving the districts and this coming summer's tributes. As the nation watched with baited breath, the President took out a sealed envelope from within an ornate wooden box. Procuring a card from the envelope, the President went on to state the following:

"On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder that it was their choice to initiate violence, the districts will be made to hold a special election, and vote on the tributes who will represent it."

This first of what some are calling 'The Reading of the Card' has naturally left many in both the Capitol and the districts alike confused. Will there be a Reaping this year?

"Of course, there will still be a Reaping," says Marcus Aurelius, the President's Secretary for Communications. "The only difference is it will not be up to the escort to choose the tributes."

The implications are clear: for the first time in decades, the once-wayward districts will be given a small taste of self-governance. It shall be in the hands of the people to choose their tributes. Except how shall it be conducted? This coming spring should give us an answer.

Election Influence: Districts Say Capitol media is Influencing Tribute Selection Process.

District 2 (The Patriot Times) – Agamemnon Harding – 'Aga' to his friends – wiped the sweat off his brow as he waited in line at the voting booth. He has a broad forehead and a firm jaw line, and was eager to talk with us just before ducking into this polling place down the street from the Justice Building to cast his ballot.

"Them other districts are saying the media is filling their heads with propaganda," he relayed to us in a thick drawl. "Capitol's apparently telling them to cast off the weak and send their worst lots in. I don't believe it. Ain't been happening that way here. Kids from the Institute, we've been seeing them out doing this…. canvassing, or whatever the younger generation's calling it."

As I looked around, I could see several blonde-haired blue-eyed young patriots of stocky build, passing out campaign buttons and bumper stickers with their own faces on them. Marshall Paul is one of these. He's only 16, and when he tries to stump for votes, he tells me he often hears from his neighbors about how they like his enthusiasm, but they think he's still too young yet for the arena.

"Some of the little old ladies think I'd be better suited as Mayor, not as a Victor."

He laughs when I ask him whether he thinks it's true that the Capitol is encouraging other districts to get rid of their more troublesome children. "Hey, if the outliers want to throw their untermensch…." (A native Two word meaning 'unclean') "… into the arena… that's their business. Just makes things easier for me when I step off the plate."

On a whim and a sanctioned passport – a hard find these days – I headed off to District 8 to find out for myself if the rumors are true.

Eight is about the farthest you can get from the loyal, patriotic streets of Two. There are some slums that look like they've never come out of the Dark Days. Some of the fiercest fighting happened here during the war, and from what I could gather, Capitol resentment here runs deep, though outward expression of it is muted. I stop Broomhilde, a little old lady tottering home with some groceries, steps away from the train station. At my question about Capitol propaganda, she wrinkles her nose like she's smelled something bad, before glancing about furtively.

"Oh, it's all true," she tells me. "Those Capitolites are always blaring in our ears on mandatory programming, over the radio, urging us to send in our most wretched." Her voice dips lower as she hisses to me. "Personally, I think it's a great idea! I already cast my ballot – for that girl whose mama slept with the Deputy Head Peacekeeper a year or so back. That'll teach the slut to consort with elite scum!"

Mingling around the polling places here, the voting booths are rather disorganized; many voters I saw were perplexed about what to do.

Not that it's all that hard. Jute Dunwiddie, the District Clerk here, gave me a tour of the machines and even let me cast a mock ballot. The holo-technology is state-of-the-art. Your Voter ID is recognized by thumbprint. Then the screen lets you scroll through the names of all of Eight's eligible children; there must be thousands! I ended up selecting two kids at random.

"A lot of voters come through here just give up and do it that way," Jute laughs. "Though I've heard talk of organized campaigns. There's some chatter about this girl whose mother I guess got involved with a high-level Peacekeeper… I don't know much about it – before my time here and way above my pay grade!"

Will the districts be organized enough to send in two favorites (or, unfavorites, depending on your point of view) for this summer's Games? Can they be organized enough to govern themselves, if only in this one decision and for a moment?

We'll soon find out.

Taking Out The Trash – 1st Quarter Quell Opens in a Garbage Dump

Capitol (AP) – In a continuation of the theme that districts dispose of their least desirable, the twenty-four tributes in these historic Games were lifted quite literally into a garbage dump early Monday morning.

Ludwig von Revere, the boy from 6 who police tell us has a rap sheet for sexual assault and who is known in the drug slums there as a serial rapist, gave a dazzling opening display with three kills, leading many to wonder if District 6, who only achieved their very first Victor just last year, might actually shock us yet again and become the first district to rack up consecutive wins.

Marshall Paul, who won election to the Reaping after a glowing profile blurb about him from our friends in the District 2 Patriot Times, gallingly moved to engage the much bigger District 6 heavyweight, driving him off into the piles of rubble. The Patriot District is looking to finally notch up their unprecedented fifth winner this season after a six-year drought.

But it was the stunning Indigo Weaver who performed the cadenza of the morning, dropping a legitimate contender in the boy from 10 before making off with a backpack and disappearing along this burning barge.

By high noon, the Cornucopia Bloodbath had ended with six kills, a record low.

If many of the districts did send in their 'undesirables,' these low-class tributes at least are scrappy and know how to fight!

HISTORIC: District Pairs round out Quell's Final Eight

District 8 (Daily Rag) – In a stunning turn of events, the Final Eight of the 1st Quarter Quell was set in the wee hours of Sunday morning on this, the thirteenth day of the Games. Our own Indigo Weaver was caught and ravished by the Ludwig brute from Six before she surprised all by garroting him. The Square before the Justice Building was subjected to a tawdry, lewd display of sex before the Serial Rapist from Six's end.

With the cannon, the Hunger Games entered territory never before seen: a quartet of intact district pairs reaching the Final Eight, including our homeland's very own Tanner Flax and Indigo Weaver. The other three districts with dogs still in this fight are Districts 1 and 2 – known as 'Careers' – as well as the pair from District 12 in a surprise showing.

We caught up with Miss Weaver's mother to ask about her accomplished daughter. Polly Ester has since remarried but confessed, wiping back tears, that she is so proud of her first-born.

"I just want her to come home to me!" Mrs. Ester wept. "Then we can be redeemed!"

Back in the Capitol, reports are surfacing that betting in the city's Rolling Casinos has reached a fever pitch, with both kids from Two still the heavy favorites. Although Indigo's odds are said to have jumped significantly after her display with Ludwig, enough so that she is right behind the leaders.

This district has a real chance to finally get its' third Victor – potentially becoming only the third district to achieve the feat, and the first outlier district to do so.

Yet both Tanner Flax and Indigo Weaver are known to have done horrible things – both in and out of the arena. So the question becomes: do we even want to have either of them as a champion?

We may have an answer soon enough.

'Closer to Fine' – Indigo Weaver, Daughter of Alleged Adulteress, Becomes District 8's Third Victor

Capitol (AP) – Indigo Weaver, who was gang-pressed into the Quarter Quell by her neighbors on account of the alleged sins of her mother, took the Victor's Crown for herself Sunday afternoon. She had been in the arena for a grueling twenty-three days.

Tensions in the Capitol and in District 8 reached a fever pitch when the Top Two was finalized early last Tuesday morning, when Indigo's district partner, Tanner Flax, stole the coveted spot from District 2's Marshall Paul in a truly stunning upset.

In an unprecedented event made all the wilder by intact district pairs rounding out this year's Final Eight, the finale was a showstopper as district partners battled for the Crown, their homeland already guaranteed to take it all.

They met on a burning mound of trash overlooking the Cornucopia and after a nail-biting sixteen minutes of biting, scratching and clawing, it was the scion of a slut who stood victorious over her fourth kill, which tumbled down from the peak of rubbish before landing broken on the metal horn below.

In her final interview with Lucky Flickerman during the Victory Ceremony, Indigo had this to say about her historic win:

"I feel closer to fine," she expressed. "Finer than I have in a long time. My mother didn't do what they accuse her of, so this was my way to shove it in their faces. They wanted to take out her alleged bad decision out on me, but they couldn't do it."

Capitol AP caught up with Indigo's mentor, Savera Inchcape, for her thoughts. The lady is regal and still quite lovely, though her white orbs can still be a little jarring to those not familiar with her.

"Well, I always knew she could do it," Inchcape, Victor of the Ninth, expressed. "That little girl has had to fight long odds in her seventeen years. I should know – I had long odds myself, and I'm here, aren't I?"

Still, even with District 8 guaranteed a win for days preceding the final battle, it was hard not to notice the dejection in Woof Rayon's face when he sat down with us for an interview.

"Tanner gave it his best shot. Of course, he deserved it more. But if he couldn't have it…." he sighs. "I'm glad Indigo could."

When we press him on that burning question on everyone's minds – will District 8 ever see another male Victor? – the Victor of the Twelfth Hunger Games demurs.

"I sure hope so," he chokes out, tears in his eyes. "I sure hope so. You never know…"