OBERON MURDOCH- Soleil Kingston

I didn't think I was that kind of person. All my life I'd stayed quiet and listened to others. I'd never done anything bold and I'd never dreamed of hurting someone. Even afterwards I didn't think I was like that. I thought if I met anyone else in the Games it would never happen again and the next time I'd just die. This was one-in-a-million. It would happen again, though. That didn't bode well for me.


Flora Amfora, District Nine mentor

I didn't know why this always happened. This was the twenty-seventh Games. That meant my kids should have won twice. But Oberon and Mazie were both dead. This wasn't fair at all.


District Nine

Oberon's friends cared for Regan as well as a bunch of ruffians and lowlifes could. Between all of them they managed to get her to adulthood and she had a fun, if unorthodox, childhood. Had she stayed in the orphanage she wouldn't have had a childhood at all. It's strange how you appreciate things more once they're gone. As time went by, Mazie's jokes seemed funnier and funnier to the people who remembered her. It seems true art is never appreciated in its time.


Culter Spring- Anthony Morgan

Another strong one gone. With every passing day the chances for a Career victory were higher. Of course by now we had a 40% chance, what with the two winners. Or was that an 80% chance, since we were two out five and two of us would win? Okay, plot out the possible combinations and remember one person can't win twice so take out the doubles... A really high chance, anyway. If I'd been good in school I wouldn't have needed to volunteer.


PORSCHE ROMEO- Nailah Nebit

I wasn't exactly proud of killing a disabled person. It was just something that had to be done eventually. Porsche was dead, it was done with, end of story. Pretty cool she lasted this long and pretty embarrassing so many Careers died before her.


Rodney Sanchez, District Six mentor

I wasn't anywhere near as strong as Porsche was. It ate me up that I won because I had so many more advantages than she did but she made it this far on nothing but spirit. Meanwhile RJ had spirit and physicality but got taken out by nothing but faith in his fellow man. Everyone always says the best of us don't survive the Games.


District Six

RJ's father retired after losing him. He and the family could barely get by on their savings and help from the community, but they didn't seem to notice. After Six's final day in the Games, loan sharks and hoods raised a respectful salute to a client who refused to ever admit what was good for her.


MARTIN JACKMAN- Gigi Thompson

I couldn't believe that weird kid lasted this long. He must have had a really strong ally for most of the Games.


Cassia Rose, District Seven mentor

Martin had my sympathies but that didn't make what he did right. Funny how his "symptoms" cleared up in a survival situation. At least Porsche, of all people, was a good influence on him. And Des... it hurts bad enough when you know you'll lose both Tributes. It's ten times worse when one of them has a chance and it's snatched away by something she couldn't possibly have prepared for.


District Seven

Most of Martin's peers had a few jokes at his expense and then admitted it was still sad a kid died. The eligible ladies of Seven mourned the loss of their cruelly murdered sweetheart and the eligible overseers of Seven mourned the loss of their best worker.


Nailah Nebit, District Two female (18)

It scared me sometimes all that poison could do. In the Cornucopia there had been a kit filled with all sorts of different horrible chemicals and extracts for me. I said "for me" because they weren't labeled, so only an expert could use them without worrying about touching the wrong thing and accidentally killing themselves. Arsenic, for playing the long con. Helpfully, it looks like food poisoning so you can deny it. Cyanide, great for a quick kill but best for someone personal, since it should be ingested and isn't topical. Ricin, great for killing with a tiny wound but so dangerous it takes extreme care when handling the weapon. Heavy metals if you just completely hate whoever you're trying to kill. And so on. I'd been cycling through them in order of preference as some of them ran out. If I needed I could get more from the environment, but this was more reliable.

Honestly, I was just trying to distract myself. I walked awkwardly beside Anthony as we searched for the others with increasing desperation. It wasn't that we were afraid something would set us off and we'd kill each other. I was just dying inside knowing that the Capitol expected a romance and I had literally no idea how to fake a romance. I was awkward enough in a real romance. And I didn't know how Anthony felt about it or how he'd react if I, I don't know, reached for his hand or something. I pictured it in my head and shied away from the thought.

"God, I just hope we find them quick. I want out of here," Anthony said.

"Yeah. I... we... we have a lot to do out there," I lamely tried to piece together.

"You think the two Victors will be allowed to visit each other?" I could hear the foundering confusion in Anthony's tone and was relieved when a jaguar pounced on me.

I barely saw the cat before it hit me. All I got was a patterned blur in the air above me and then I was buckling and trying to fall safely under what felt like the impact of a pile of bricks. I bit my tongue as I hit the ground and winced at the pain. It was so sudden I hadn't had time to stab the cat before its weight landed on my arm and pinned it down. That wouldn't stop me, though. As the cat hissed I balled up a fist and punched it in the nose, avoiding its bared teeth.

"Hey!" Anthony screamed. He'd hopped aside at the movement and I expected him to clear out and chalk it up to one more competitor eliminated, especially one as slippery as a poisoner. But he hopped back in and kicked the jaguar in the side before it had time to bite my arm shielding my face.

"YOWWWW!" The jaguar half-meowed and half-roared. It was a jarringly primal noise that swelled in my chest as its spit flecked my face. It snapped its head toward Anthony and struck impossibly fast, biting him in the hand as he tried to stab it. He screamed as the jaguar shook its head and tore his flesh into ribbons. Blood started gouting out until Anthony tore himself loose. He fell on his butt and shoved his hand against his chest as he looked for something to stem the flow.

My turn, I thought as the jaguar looked back at me too late to avoid my knife coming at its side. I stabbed it in the flank and an instant later its jaws clamped around my throat. Immediately my breath was cut off and my head started to pound. But it's too late, I thought as the cat spasmed once and then fell sideways. I rolled with it to avoid my throat being torn out and reached up to open its jaws and remove myself.

Oh my god.

I poisoned you.

With strychnine.

I yanked at the jaguar's jaws, which now felt like a bear trap rapidly closing on my throat. The dying cat's eyes were panicked inches from my face as the concentrated strychnine overrode its muscles to induce rigidity so extreme it would stop its lungs and then its heart. My own blood was roaring in my head with the crushing pressure of the jaws cutting off my circulation. I bucked and pushed under the cat as spots appeared in my vision. Blood trickled down the sides of my neck where the jaguar's bite, intended to suffocate, penetrated my skin in its unintentional force. I thought it might be enough lubrication to slip free, but I was already too far gone. I knew a blood choke was faster than an oxygen choke and experienced it firsthand as my vision tunneled and then started to fade. I was distantly aware of Anthony still trying to stop his bleeding.

We're locked together forever now, I thought dimly under the jaguar's warm weight. Until I'm as stiff as she is.


5th place: Nailah Nebit- suffocated by a jaguar

Unfortunately Nailah had the bad luck to be attacked from a tree so she didn't have time to scream at the jaguar and scare it off. Her form called for a mutt death and I figured out how to get her poison in there for that extra juicy irony. Nailah was probably the smartest player in the Arena and once I decided she wasn't going to win I had to kill her here because it would be so hard for her to realistically not win in a final fight. Poisoners get a bad rep but Nailah didn't let prejudice slow her down. She fought smart, not flashy, and it got her this far. Thanks Willuna for only the second female Warrior Race Tribute I've seen (first was in the quasi-abandoned Survivor SYOT collab)