Risso Copeland, 18
District 4

If there was one thing Risso was good at, it was minding her own damn business.

Risso Copeland had never been one to socialize, even as a child. She could never understand why people would want to surround themselves with large groups of people that they barely knew when they could instead hang out with just a friend or two. She just couldn't comprehend it. It sounded exhausting.

On the first Saturday night of summer break, almost everyone in Risso's graduating class was going to a party at the lighthouse on the beach. Well, almost everybody. Risso wasn't invited, but she wasn't too upset. She knew that she wouldn't have gone even if she was. Instead, Risso spent her first Saturday night doing what she loved.

She liked to think that she had the best job in the world. She had been drawn to the ocean ever since she was little, and the first time she ever saw a beached whale, she was inconsolable all day. From then on, Risso made it her mission to do everything she could to protect the nice creatures living in the ocean from the bad ones. That was why for several years now, Risso would dive to the ocean floor to collect harmful sea urchins.

If the water was shallow enough, she was able to just dive down and grab them without a problem; she'd been doing this for so long that she didn't have trouble holding her breath for a few minutes at a time, or keeping her eyes open underwater. But she did have scuba gear for the times that she wanted to navigate deeper water or stay out for longer. But today was one of those days that she would stay in the shallows with a bucket.

Doing this had two main positives. The first was obviously helping to save the fish and other aquatic animals from the urchins. But the secondary result of this was that Risso learned which fancy restaurants in District 4 would buy the urchins from her by the bucket. So while Risso's parents were out on the fishing boats for days at a time, she would go out to the ocean with a wet suit, a bucket, and work gloves, and get to work.

Tonight, Risso chose to collect urchins from the shore near where the party was going on. While she didn't want to be at the party in the slightest, it was comforting for her to be able to hear the faint sounds of people having a different kind of fun than her. She had just come up for air, a powerful bass pounding in her chest when she heard voices.

"She's such a freak."

"I'm so glad she didn't crash."

She recognized their voices as Leilani and Cordelia, two girls who had been making Risso's life a living hell ever since they were little. Without any hesitation, she took a deep breath and disappeared into the depths of the ocean, hoping the girls would go away soon.

While she was under the water, she noticed a pod of dolphins off in the distance. It was hard to see in the dark, but the more she focused, the more sure she was that they were Risso's dolphins, the type she was named after.

Risso's dolphins were born with scars and markings covering most of their bodies. Risso Copeland was born with a birthmark that stretched from her right shoulder all the way across her chest to her left ribs. When her parents saw that, they immediately scrapped the entire list of names that they had decided on for her and agreed to name her Risso.

Her birthmark grew with her body, and although kids bullied her relentlessly for it, she never let it get to her. She learned to love the way she looked, and not to pay her peers any mind. To her, her birthmark was a strong connection she had to the ocean that she loved so much, and she was grateful that she had that physical reminder with her everywhere she went.

Her classmates' words never succeeded in getting the better of her. She knew that she wasn't ugly or a freak. She knew that she was probably smarter than all of them anyway. But just because she didn't listen to the taunts didn't mean that she didn't want to escape them. They were just annoying, and she wished they'd stop.

That was why when she wasn't at school or digging for sea urchins, Risso was training her ass off at the Academy. Her ultimate goal, like many other teenagers in District 4, was to volunteer for and win the Hunger Games. But the difference between Risso and the other kids in the District was that she would stop at nothing. Most people had some sort of fall-back plan; they'd work at their family's restaurant or become an Academy trainer, or join a fishing boat, then probably go on to have a bunch of kids that they push harder than they ever pushed themselves.

But Risso Copeland wouldn't settle for a plan B.

She was delighted when she was given the go-ahead to volunteer for the Quarter Quell, because she wasn't just doing it for her own personal gain. Sure, it would be nice to live in a fancy house in Victor's Village with all the money in the world. But what Risso was focused on more than anything else was how she would use her wealth, fame, and outreach to help others. She wanted to devote herself to helping those less fortunate than herself, including kids being bullied who hadn't learned to let the insults roll off their backs yet.

Risso wanted to be the adult that her younger self needed, and she could think of no better way to do that than to be one of the most famous and wealthy people in District 4. She just hoped that all of her hard work would pay off.


Hudson Firth, 18
District 4

Hudson could not understand why people kept asking him if he was nervous to volunteer. What the hell did he have to be nervous for?

Okay, truth be told, lesser men might be a bit nervous if they were in Hudson's position. Sure, he had been selected as District 4's male volunteer, but he didn't exactly play by the rules to get there. In fact, Hudson didn't even intend to get that far.

See, Hudson's parents were, as some people in District 4 liked to put it, fucking lunatics. It started out innocently enough, with them enrolling him in Hunger Games training despite his protests. Although he was incredibly athletically inclined, Hudson wasn't naturally inclined towards the Games, so he found himself regularly skipping his sessions in favor of hanging out at the beach with his friends.

But when Hudson's parents found out about his absences, all hell broke loose. They couldn't stand the idea that they were throwing away their money for their son to run off with his school friends to get drunk and surf. So from that moment on, they limited his privileges, telling him that he couldn't go out with his friends anymore until he received positive feedback from the trainers at the Academy.

So Hudson Firth did what any teenager struggling in school would do: he cheated.

Hudson was in the Tuesday/Thursday training group, and he had some friends in the Monday/Wednesday group. This meant that every time the Academy would give students a test on plants, theory, Hunger Games history, or any other useless bullshit that wouldn't actually help anyone in the arena, Hudson would get the answers from one of his friends who took the test before he did. His test scores all reached near perfect, only getting a question or two wrong per test to avoid any suspicion of cheating. So with his newly great scores combined with his natural athletic ability and ability to learn to fight, Hudson jumped to the top of his training class, all while never studying and still spending time doing fuckall with his friends.

Before he knew it, Hudson was sitting in an office that he had never seen before, and in the blink of an eye, he was shaking the Head Trainer's hand and agreeing to bring honor to his District.

Why did he agree to that?

Sure, Hudson knew deep down that he wouldn't have been selected if he hadn't cheated on his written exams, but what did that matter? Hudson was a handsome guy from District 4. He wouldn't need to be able to identify plants, because he would be able to have all of the food at the Cornucopia. He didn't need to know the theory behind how to kill someone. He just needed to be able to do it, and he knew that he could. And Hudson could never understand why they bothered teaching Hunger Games history. It was over and done with. The only Victors he needed to worry about were Marina and Roman, that year's mentors.

So Hudson's theoretical knowledge wasn't the greatest. Big deal. That didn't change the fact that he was the strongest, the fastest, and probably the sexiest trainee that District 4 had to offer. From what he could tell, he and Risso Copeland would be an unstoppable force. With any luck, they'd be enough to remind Panem that District 4 was just as strong as 1 and 2.

Granted, Hudson didn't know much about Risso. He knew that she was in the Monday/Wednesday group, but she was never one to give him test answers. She was one of the few trainees that Hudson had never made a move on. She just wasn't his type. He preferred blonde beach babes, and she was brunette with an athletic build. The only reason he even knew she existed was because they were volunteering together. But she was selected out of dozens of girls, and from what Hudson could tell, she actually deserved it. Maybe if he ever really needed to eat a plant instead of food from the Cornucopia or a sponsor, he could count on Risso to help him out.

Hudson spent his last night as a free man exactly the way he would have wanted to: partying. Once he volunteered, he would be considered property of the Capitol, and from what he had heard from some of the Victors at the Academy, he would be closely monitored. He wouldn't be able to sneak off from his mandatory training to do other things.

As Hudson got drunker, the girls at the beach party seemed to get hotter and even more desperate to spend the night with the future District 4 male tribute. He liked to imagine they all wanted the bragging rights. Their social status would climb rapidly if he won and they got to say that they had been involved with him.

As much as Hudson wanted to pick out the prettiest girl on the beach and take her home, he knew that he shouldn't. His parents wouldn't get back from their fishing trip until the next morning, just hours before the Reaping ceremony, but he knew that he shouldn't. He'd just wait until he got to the Capitol and hook up with a girl there. The girls from District 1 were usually hot.

Regardless, Hudson continued to enjoy the party. The black market liquor in his cup sloshed around his cup as he danced, but he was careful to keep it from spilling. He could feel the music pounding in his chest, and he kept closing his eyes to feel as in the moment as he could. People kept coming up to him to congratulate him, kiss his cheeks, and shake his hands, and as the night went on, he could barely keep his head up to smile and thank them.


Roman Lake, 33
Victor of the 83rd Hunger Games: District 4

For the past seventeen years since Roman Lake had won the Hunger Games, it's felt like he's had an itch that he couldn't scratch.

He volunteered for the same reasons as any other guy from an upper-class District; honor, fame, money, glory to District 4. But when he got into the arena, he came to a profound realization about himself: he enjoyed killing people. It wasn't in a vigilante way, or a self-preserving way. No, it wasn't just that he was in the Games and wanted to get home.

Roman never wanted to leave that arena.

His preferred method of killing was by strangulation. It helped him to get as up close and personal as he could as he watched the life drain from the other tributes eyes as the whites became bloodshot and their lips turned blue. It made him feel connected to the killing as he did it. It was almost as if when someone else died, their life force drained into him, making him stronger.

But all good things must come to an end, and Roman did get out of the arena. Since returning home to District 4, he hadn't been able to make another kill. Not one kill in seventeen years. But how could he with paparazzi on his ass every time he left the house?

Maybe that was why he loved mentoring so much. He loved to live vicariously through his tributes, cheering them on when they made kills and booing at the screen when they got killed. He couldn't be happier that he was mentoring for a Quarter Quell year. Technically it wasn't his year, but when he asked Finnick Odair to switch years, he happily obliged. The man was nearly 50, and was more than happy to stay home with his wife and kids rather than spend a crazy year in the Capitol.

Roman hoped he never burnt out like that. He hoped he never lost his fire, or his passion for the Games. They had been a huge part of his life ever since he was a kid, and he couldn't imagine just settling down and pretending it never happened like Finnick had done with Annie. He couldn't imagine being lame.

So as he stared at the two kids on stage in front of him, Risso and Hudson, he couldn't contain his excitement. They both looked strong, confident, and capable, and he had a feeling that no matter which one he wound up with, his leadership could lead either one to Victory.

It was going to be a good year for Roman Lake.


Thanks to Jms2 for Risso and Jamez S for Hudson! (hehe Jameses)

1. Who did you like better, Risso or Hudson?

2. What did you like about them?

3. What didn't you like about them?

4. Thoughts on Roman?

5. Any predictions?