Chariots

Noir Skoria, District Twelve Male (18)

Noir didn`t like this.

He wished he could have not made gone to this part of the games, but here is he is. In the prep room, waiting for his prep team.

He has positioned himself not be looking up, and his whole body is looking to the floor. It`s a bit boring, but safe.

Nothing could-

"Turn around boy." A member of his prep team said. "We need to wax you."
"No."

"Okey- What did you just say?"

"I said, No!" He didn`t look at them. He didn`t want to turn around just to spite in their faces.

"Okey, then." The member of his prep team turned around. "Camila, Soria, turn him around."

"Wait!" Noir wanted to scream. They would hate him for it like everyone has. They would give him a bad outfit for it, he would get no sponsors, and die of starvation. He didn`t want that at all "Please no!" He tried to fight back, but it was useless. Soon enough he was looking up. With his little friend exposed.

Noir started to cry. He didn`t want this to happen. He just volunteered to become a man, and now he was going be hummilated and called a woman again.

The member of his prep team who had talked to him before spoke.

"Camila, Soria. Start waxing him."

Noir flinched for a second. "Wait, aren`t you going to say something about…. It."

One of the girls spoke up. "Oh, Sergio. Look at this pure smol bean."

Sergio didn`t laugh. "Shut up Camila. We got work to do."

They started working on him as they spoke. The third person in the room, probably Soria, started talking.

"Cami, remember when you wanted that guy to fuck you, but he had that surgery to become agender and didn`t have a vagina or a dick?"

"Yeah. It was pretty hard for me seeing that the person I wanted so much to fuck me didn`t have a sexual organ to do love with me."

Noir was shocked. "Wait. People in the capitol pay for people to remove their sexual organs?!" Noir was enraged. People here wanted to become him, and he couldn`t understand why people liked to be like him. He wanted to shake those people and make them understand how painful that would be for him, and that it would suck for sure. Hell, people were laughing about at them right now.

"Don`t listen to them kiddo."

"Why not? We are glorious" Camila said freeing her hair from a ponytail.

"Just… Fuck off"

Noir was then, still confused, send to the main stylist for him.

He knew he had seen this person somewhere. He had seen them on TV some time ago, promoting their book, "The Dead Have a Voice". He hadn`t been able to read it, cause District Twelve, but he had been wanting to. It seemed like an interesting case of life.

After all, he was still alive due to the president`s failed experiment.

"So." The stylist said. "Camila couldn`t stop blabbing about it. Are you safe?"

"Wha-What?"

"I asked if the person who did that to you was still near you back home."

Noir looked down. He wished so much that part of him had never cut off from him, as he would still be a man otherwise.

"Was it your mom? I had a bad one myself."

"N-No, she is dead."

"So, your dad then?"

Noir weakly nodded. What was he doing talking with Chickadee Toulson about his problems? He was faced by this.

"He isn`t near me anymore."

"Good. I will report to the authorities."

"WAIT NO!" Noir didn`t want that all.

"Why not?"

"I mean, do it, but no one must find out about me."

Chicadee nodded.

"i guess you would like to be dressed right now."

"Yeah."

Noir quickly dressed on his canary outfit and went outside to the chariots.

Amy was waiting for him there

"Are you okay?" Amy said while holding the fake pickaxe on her hands. Her miner outfit was meh, but it was still there.

Noir could feel everyone watching him. And he was going to have something going on until…

"Hello." The District Six Male said to him.

"Hi." Noir said abruptly. Why was this boy talking to him, had he found out about him and wanted to mock him?

"You are cute" Hermes said and run away to his chariot

What the hell was that?

Blandus Hale, First Man of Panem.

Blandus was waiting for him.

It was unnatural for the president´s partner to not appear with him in the chariots, but he got other business to attend.

He just needed to find Silvius between the crowd.

The chariots were going to start soon, and he needed to find to talk what they needed to talk.

He searched and searched. He needed to find. He said he was going to be wearing some colorful clothes.

Big description, Silvius. Everyone is wearing colorful clothes.

He decided to just sit on the bleachers. If dyed his hair and his skin could make him pass as someone else… hopefully he hadn´t needed to change his face or something.

Lorenzo started blabbing something as soon the chariots would start rolling. Something about all the tributes being super ugly or something.

Someone touched him from behind.

"Sil-"

"Oh, sorry" said the girl. "I am just looking for my dad. Sorry."

As the girl left, Blandus thought of his own children. What would they think, if they knew he was going behind his husband´s back and lying to him? Sure, it was to help him, but what if he found out? Would Fabian be mad at him? Would he see it as a betrayal? Would he still love him?

Of course, he would. Blandus knew he couldn´t let these thoughts interfere with his plan. He needed to find Myriad´s murderer. If not, Fabian could still be at risk.

"Hello." A voice sounded from behind.

It was Silvius. He hadn´t done much to his appearance, apart from dressing a bit more fancily.

"What are you doing?!" Blandus had no time for politeness. "Why didn´t you disguise yourself?"

Silvius laughed at Blandus´ remark. "Oh, please. I don´t need to hide, unlike someone else here."

Blandus glared at him. "Sit down. Next to me. The Chariots are starting soon."

Silvius complied. "So… I guess you want to know what information I could find."

"Well, obviously."

The two fell on silence.

"So, what information do you have?"

Silvius looked at him. "Well. I found out that before the case got closed with supposed no leads, someone had said that they had found a DNA evidence on the lead."

"So… I don´t need you now?"

Silvius glared at him. "Sadly, you still have to pay me, because apparently there were so many DNA Samples from blood there, apparently many murders and sex events had happened in that rooftops, that they could not separate any samples from each other."

"Yeah… But I already knew that. They had been presented all over the news when before the case was shut up." Blandus flinched his hair. "Where is the great news investigator I always saw on the news?"

Silvius glared harder. "Can you just let me speak for once?" He was pretty angry. It was something normal in him, but Blandus hadn´t seen much of him, so he didn´t know how to react and stayed quiet. "That was the theory, that it was done in a nearby building. But then I realized, how would have the sniper had gotten away with such a precision and no seen him, even with the mess that happened in the Mansion and the surroundings when Myriad was killed."

"What are you getting at?"

"Do you know the Jamaica Building?"

"Everyone does. It´s the tallest building in Panem."

"And you the story of it?"

"How it was started as a financial center, but then the zone started slowly losing popularity so they moved the avoxes in the zone?"

"Yeah… That one." Silvius chuckled. "Well, anyways. That place is the best to see the city from. Some people say that you could even see District One from there."

"So…. Oh."

"Yeah. I went to take a sample from the rooftop, and there it was. A dry, red mark, just there. For me.

"How convenient."

"Yeah it was pretty convenient." Said Silvius ignoring Blandus´ comment. "I send it to a private lab for testing. It should be out soon."

Before they could continue speaking, loud noises and roars had started to appear.

"AMIGOS, OH MY AMIGOS, I HAVE ENLIGHTED TO TELL THAT THE CHARIOTS HAD STARTED!"

Lorenzo was always this loud? It didn't seem so when he and his husband and kids were in the presidential mansion and they saw it all from the window.

"OH MY GOD, HERE COMES DISTRICT ONE. THE TWO OF THEM ARE HORRENDOUS AND UGLY, DRESSED IN SHINY DRESS AND TUXEDO, FOR CHLORIS AND MIDAS RESPECTIVELY. I can´t wait to see them die!" Chloris started shouting at him, while Midas stayed quiet.

"And then comes District Two. Two non-selected volunteers, doing what non-selected volunteers do… SUCK ASS. They are dressed as Captain Panem and SuperSnow! What a disgrace to the original story." Fernanda looks hurt by the comment, and Hero shows Lorenzo the finger.

"District Three, the district of snobs. Moghan is dressed as some weird snob, and Ace is dressed as his random assistant. How boring. WE NEED ACTION BABY." Ace and Moghan both ignore the comment.

"How can anyone like this?" Said Silvius as Lorenzo told the District Four tributes that been dressed as fish was not original. "It must suck for the tributes in there."

"You have to remember; they are not people. They are just tools for us." Blandus was sure of his affirmation. After all, it was the Capitol way to act.

"District Five. The district of Power. And oh, they are dressed as nuclear plants workers! These stylists are wanting me to roast them!"

"The tributes from the next district aren´t looking good. After all, they are dressed as gasoline tanks. Literally. At least this is weirdly original? I don´t really care. Fuck Hermes and Bexley, am I right?"

Lorenzo continued to talk about how trashy the costumes were. The District Seven´s dressed as leaves, District Eight dressed as factory workers. Ryella and Miller dressed as corn, the peacekeeper of Ten dressed in a peacekeeper outfit, making like she was shooting her district partner, who was dressed as "WANTED" poster, with a fake gun.

"I can´t stand this anymore. I will see you when I have more information Blandus." Silvius said as he got up and left, as the District Eleven started getting cheered on by being dressed as sexy fruit.

"Okey. I should go as well." Blandus said. He stayed a little more to watch the District Twelve chariots, only to be disappointed by them being dressed as coal miners.

This was always the same.

Wraith Devlin, District Four Male (17)

Wraith didn`t want to do this.

He didn`t want to do this at all.

But he had to. It was the only way to survive

Hi, He signaled to the to other members of the career pack.

He and Opal hadn`t gone to talk to them before, Opal clearly citing; "They should come for us, not us for them." But then, when it was clear that wasn`t going to happen, both of them reluctantly went to talk to talk to the tributes of District One, District Two and Bex.

Opal continued to glare at them, trying to make some kind of stance and show her annoyance at them, but that clearly wasn`t working.

"Well, look who we got here. The youngie and the mute kid." Midas was certainly being an ass right now, and both Opal`s and Wraith`s face could show that. "My bad. I didn`t want to sound like an ass. I just wanted to prove a stance. Sorry guys."

Opal clearly didn`t like what Midas was saying, but she sucks it up. Or at least it seemed so until she snapped.

"Just because I am younger than all of you doesn`t mean that I am useless! Hero is only a year older than all me! So don`t act like you are better than me, you twats!"

As she left, Chloris told the others she would go on and get her, and ordered Bex to accompany her. She reluctantly agreed and left with her.

Wraith then signaled to the others something.

What a piece of shit, right?

Midas laughed. "I don`t know what the hell you said, but I am gonna pretend it was something like "those fucking whores!"

Hero glared at him. Fernanda looked down.

"Oh, sorry again. Just had bad experiences with women."

"Well," Hero started. "Maybe you should be nicer. You don`t know what problems people have gotten into that could affect them, you know?"

Midas looked dubitative. "What problems do you mean?"

Fernanda signaled something to Wraith.

Could you do something to shut them up?

And in that moment, Wraith slapped Hero. Midas laughed. Then he got slapped too

"What the hell man?" Midas was upset.

She told me to do something about it.

"I-I" Fernanda was distraught. "I just didn`t want so much scandal in our alliance, you know? We can fracture ourselves more than we are. Go Career team!" She said, obviously trying to make better a situation that was unsolvable.

"It`s okay Fer, Just- "

"Don`t call me Fer!"

"Did Vagos call you like that?"

"Vagos, the victor? You are damn lucky girl. Having sex with a victor must be the best."

"Shut it, Midas!"

"Shut you up, obviously poor kid. Did your parents abandon you or something?"

That moment, it seemed like a fight was about to start. And it was only matter of time if it did. So while he was surprised, he wasn`t so much when Fer grabbed the pen he had in his hand and started drawing on his face.

What is she doing? He thought, but It was obvious. Hero and Midas looked at her, and then, as she drew a dog, or what she must have thought it was a dog, Hero laughed. And after a moment so did Midas.

"That`s the way you draw?" He said and grabbed the pen. "Here, let me do it better."

And so they spent a while drawing in each other`s faces. Hero draw a horse in Midas`s, Midas drew a unicorn in Fernanda`s and Wraith, who was cataloged as best artist, draw a picnic in Hero`s.

By the time they were finished, they were on D2`s floor and having wine. Fernanda didn`t want any, and just drank coffee, but the guys drank all of two bottles.

They were, for a moment, happy.