Blooper: I always get the Ten and Twelve escorts mixed up since they both have trisyllabic names. It was Fluvius, not Chimera, who vouched for Queenie. Him being old is sort of a mythology gag, since he was in my very first HG story as Cornflower's escort. So really since he was already old then he's more like pushing 80 if you wanna get nitpicky.
Blake Armani- District One mentor
They actually sent two actual Careers this time. I didn't want to be a whiner but I couldn't help but notice the insane amount of non-volunteers and "reluctant" volunteers we'd had over the last ten years or so. But Alsace and Andromeda were actual, normal Careers. Maybe we'd actually win this one. As long as Alsace remembered the point of the game was to win and not to "win" a grudge match.
Pray Jager- District Two mentor
Bull. No one drops a syringe the week before the Reaping. I never dabbled in them but I knew enough to know doping a week before the Reaping wouldn't have any effect. I also knew Dew was an endomorph and would have been way larger if he'd been into that. Sagar didn't deserve to be here and he wasn't getting anything from me. Medusa, now... everyone had been against her and somehow she still made it. On the one hand, she obviously didn't need any help. On the other, if she got this far without it, what could she do with me behind her?
Gidget Ford- District Three mentor
"Can you tell us how to win?" Andrea asked.
"I'm gonna be honest with you two," I said. "Really I won out of luck. I'm not so much a coach as... think of me as your agent. Whatever you're already good at, I'm gonna play that up to the sponsors and get you some real material help, since I don't have much strategic help to offer. If I did, I wouldn't still be mentoring."
Shane Donegal- District Four mentor
He wasn't a Career. That was a welcome change. I didn't like Careers. Perversely, this once I wished it was a Career. Percy had no chance of winning. I didn't have to pretend I approved of wanting a chance to kill people, but I had to stand by and watch an innocent kid die. I'd seen enough people die. When I thought about that, pain pierced my heart. I'd seen someone almost Percy's age die. Not a month went by I didn't think of her. If she was alive now, she'd be old enough to be his mother.
Careen Ellis- District Four mentor
"Heard you have some unfortunate relatives," I said to Cyrene.
"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of birth," she said.
We kept our eyes on each other. Neither of us looked up or to the sides at the cameras studded in the walls and joints of the train car.
"Do you miss them?" I asked.
"They're lucky they got arrested before I could kill them," she said.
"Let's get you some sponsors," I said.
Erwin Jackson- District Five mentor
I clung to Aurelia as she cried in my lap. She coughed and her tiny body shook and shuddered. My face was stiff and over her shoulders, where she couldn't see, my eyes were lost.
"Please can you talk to them? So I can go back home?" Aurelia asked. She didn't notice I didn't answer. "Please make them let me go home. They'll listen to you. Please can you talk to them? Let's go home, okay? They'll listen to you..."
Meenah Turbine- District Five mentor
Remus did a double-take when I walked into the car.
"I know, I know, it's weird," I said, raising a hand. "Erwin is Aurelia's grandfather." A moment passed as the secondhand pain passed through us. "Obviously he'll be with her, so you're stuck with me."
"Actually, that's..." Remus started. He looked down at his hands. His face puckered and he composed himself. "That's perfect."
"Oh? Well, good," I said. I opened my mouth to go on. Remus looked up at me suddenly.
"I want to be a woman," she said.
Lancia Audren- District Six mentor
"Hey. Meet the next Victor," Tony said as I came in. He offered his hand and I shook it.
"Maybe," I said coolly.
"Or maybe her, to be honest," Tony said, pointing at Siobhan, who was watching out the window with her hands pressed up on the glass "I really have no idea." His smile was carefree.
"You get to do this every year?" Siobhan took her face from the glass to grin at me. "I love trains! Oh, also, it's 'them'."
Loki Saberhagen- District Seven mentor
Rigel seemed to have a lot going for him already. He was built like, well, a lumberjack. Just from talking to him I could tell he was smart. He also had that shifty look about him, the same as he saw in me. Right when we first looked at each other we could tell we'd both done time in the orphanage.
Katrina bent over the table and felt at its polished wood. Then she got up and walked from one end of the car to the other, peering at every detail.
"Everything's so pretty," she said. "I think if I lived somewhere so pretty I wouldn't have to kill kids to be happy."
Tillo Peters- District Eight mentor
I could never think of much to say to my new Tributes. Luckily this year they took care of that.
"I think there's something we have to say," Fryderyk started. "Something we both knew was coming."
Cerise fanned her fingers out on the table and nodded. "Yeah. I think you're right."
What are they talking about? I wondered.
"I'll always cherish you,"Fryderyk said. He had the look of someone who would have cried but already had.
"You were my first love," Cerise said softly.
Oh no that's what they're talking about. I beat a retreat and let the breakup finish in private.
Randy Mills- District Nine mentor
I did a last-minute makeup check in the mirror before I met my Tributes. It seemed like I did that every year. No need for them to see puffy-eyed red-nosed me. It wasn't their fault I always thought of Laurel when I got back on the train.
I meant to ask Arthur why someone his age would volunteer, but I took one step into the car and Camille totally distracted me.
"Oh my gosh I love your outfit!" I said. I'd always been too chicken to get into goth but I always thought it looked so cool. "OMG before the Games we should totally have a makeover night. We'll do the training and stuff too but makeovers!"
Bambi Kirkland- District Ten mentor
"I'm very grateful for this opportunity," Angus said. "The Dark Days must never happen again. It's good we have the Games to ensure that."
I was about to write him off and leave when I figured it out. Smart kid. Smart enough to grab at the crumbs of the people who were starving him.
"I'm glad you see that," I said.
Cornflower Fields- District Ten mentor
I sat facing the window. Queenie was set on the table. I put an arm around her pot to guard against the lurch of the train when it would start.
A throng of people crowded outside to see the train off. Peacekeepers stood all along the platform. I covered my ears with my hands. Some of the people in the crowd noticed and looked at me funny. Then the Peacekeepers raised their guns.
Hlenn Rambutan- District Eleven mentor
"You're one of the indentured servants, aren't you?" I asked Pik.
"How'd you know?" he asked without much surprise.
"Just written on you, I guess," I said. In the way he sat, in the way he acted. A difference not in his attitude but in his soul, if I had to nail it down. And speaking of souls, Rachel had two, sort of. Lucky for her. That was what you needed if you wanted to win the Games and have a soul left.
Haymitch Abernathy- District Twelve mentor
"I'm not really Jay. I'm Joy," the boy said. "We're twins," he said at my confused look.
Twins, I thought. "But you weren't the one that got called."
"I went up instead. That's what brothers do," he said.
My heart sent out a slow beat. My breath let out. The blood in me lost its warmth until cold dampness flooded me. I took in another breath and wilted in my chair. The best don't survive a war.
Nubu Sanders- District Twelve mentor
I was heartsick. Pity, compassion, horror, and love mingled in me as I watched Harper pace the car, her eyes darting and her hands flexing. She spoke sometimes, a mixture of nonsense and dark utterances about things better unspoken. She was a child. A child who should be in a hospital. We should be caring for her, trying to mend the damage that started in her mind and bled into her soul. I couldn't help her win this. The best I could offer her was prayer.
Reality ensues :( Small consolation, no children died when the Peacekeepers opened fire on the Ten crowd, since they aimed high to hit adults.
