Trigger Warning: Some of these tributes got voted in for some pretty disturbing reasons. I'm not going to spoil any of them up here so PM me if you want any details.


Lachesis Dumont, District 8

"People you've been before that you don't want around anyone,

That push and shove and won't bend to your will,

I'll keep them still."

Elliott Smith, Between the Bars


1.

She was doomed. She'd never done anything wrong. She was just an academy student. When the Quell was announced, every student's data was put up in a wall in the town so the people could choose a worthy Elite. They chose her, an angel to enter an arena full of demons.

Amber hadn't voted for her. She knew what men with twisted minds tried to do in the arena and she knew all the other districts would vote their most twisted into the games. She'd saved her two votes for the plainest kids in the academy, kids who would've put up a fight, maybe even had a shot at victory. She'd been outvoted, of course. Most of District 1 only saw the glory of victory and not the sacrifices it took to get there. District 1 had voted in the pretty people and forgotten that nobody won the Hunger Games by doing pretty things.

He was legendary. The greatest fighter of the year, maybe even ever. He won the votes by a landslide. He had the entire district's hopes high as he strode up to the stage.

Emerald would've tried to rig the votes in his favour if he hadn't known that he'd win. He had complete confidence that, this year, he'd mentor his first victor. He was certain that nobody would deny him the victory he deserved. This year, Surf and Romulus would finally stop treating him like a joke.


2.

She was a solid performer. Reliable, consistent. District 2 tried a similar trick with academy students to District 1. She only won the vote by the narrowest of margins. Many people in Two wanted someone more showy but, for most people, common sense won out.

Agrippinia had voted for her. She would've felt wrong sending a girl to what was likely to be her death if she hadn't known that the girl would probably have volunteered anyway.

If the academy'd had any say in who was going into the arena this year, they wouldn't have chosen him. He was a capable fighter, sure, but what the people couldn't gather from a piece of paper on a wall was that he was best friends with his district partner. Sending them both in would've been heartless, even by academy standards.

Constantine hadn't voted for him. He was pretty sure none of the other victors had. All he could do was give his tribute a hug and a package of tissues on the train and try to hold back his own tears.


3.

She was a hacker, one of the worst cyber-criminals in the district. Several people had been executed on suspicion of being the face behind the screen. Her downfall had been boasting about her crimes to her friends. The moment the Quell was announced, they sold her out, knowing that they'd be safe as long as the voters remembered her name.

He was just a clumsy kid. His accident in a school science lab had killed three children and put many others in hospital. The peacekeepers investigating the accident had all agreed that it was an accident. They gave him fifty lashes for manslaughter because they thought he didn't deserve to die.

Gajin didn't vote for either of them. Recently, rude words had started appearing on his wall. He'd traced them back to the two siblings of a boy he'd failed to mentor to victory and decided to let the kids off the hook. Grief made monsters of decent people, after all. But when he'd learned that he couldn't abstain from voting...


4.

She was vicious, even by academy standards. Before it had opened up, she'd been responsible for numerous playground atrocities. After it had opened up, she'd been responsible for numerous training accidents. Never mind that the girl was only thirteen and unlikely to win.

Mags hated her. She could understand why the academy was set up, to protect innocent kids from being reaped, but it felt wrong to her to train kids up to kill. Mags had voted for the girl, though. She'd rather get the teenage bully out of the way now than have her volunteer five years later.

He was nervous. After last year's boy had been torn apart by wolves, he'd begged his parents to let him leave the academy. They hadn't let him. And with other boys dropping out, left right and centre, he suddenly became the star pupil...

Kraken knew that his boy was doomed. Surf had told him who he'd blackmailed to get the academy built, although he'd been too scared to actually reveal President Snow's secret. Kraken knew that his mentor was absolutely formidable and, if a man who Surf was scared of had a grudge against District 4, District 4 was in deep trouble.


5.

She stole parts from the power plant she worked at, to sell on the black market. Non-vital parts, she'd thought. Ones that could've easily been replaced, she'd thought. She'd never expected the plant to break down, or for the delivery boy meant to bring in the new parts to be jumped, or for a few workers to die from the radiation averting a total nuclear disaster. She'd turned herself in the moment she'd heard the news of the disaster, hoping her punishment would be less severe. It was only when she was in her prison cell that the Quell announcement was released. She wept when she heard it.

If he hadn't been voted into the Quell, he'd probably be jumping some poor delivery boy. July was the best time to do it, since Luka Starkwain - the man who'd made being a criminal so much harder by pouring funds into the peacekeeping forces - was in the Capitol, mentoring tributes. But he had been reaped and now Luka Starkwain was mentoring him...

Luka wasn't even trying to keep his tributes alive. He didn't want a thief moving into Victor's Village. He'd voted for both of his tributes, kids whose greed had caused innocents to suffer. District 5 had probably saved countless other boys by voting one of the few remaining bike-jackers into the Quell. As for the girl, since she'd turned herself in, Luka was willing to put in a bit of effort for her. He'd already called up his girlfriend and asked her if she could design the girl's outfit this year. He'd get his tribute enough sponsors to buy her some poison, something that killed quickly and painlessly. It would be up to her to take it.


6.

She was a gangster's moll. Her boyfriend was one of Exhaust Warden's best lieutenants. She wasn't much better than him. She was the one who knifed his enemies. Voting had been close between her and Kia Warden, the boss' youngest daughter, but many of the voters had been discouraged by Kia's older sister being Six's only victor. Many more had spared Kia for being an innocent who couldn't help being raised on dirty money.

He was a gangster, one of Exhaust Warden's best lieutenants. He gave the crowd the middle finger as he kissed his district partner - his girlfriend - on the stage. District 6 had known that, knowing their luck, one of their tributes would be coming back. They had the highest crime rate of any district and the toughest criminals. So they'd voted in a couple to ensure that, if one of their criminals did win, they'd still suffer for their crimes.

Taia hadn't voted for either of them, instead choosing two runners from a rival gang. They'd been her childhood friends. They were the only two kids around her age who were nice to her. She didn't understand that her tributes had just been nice to her because her father had told them to. Taia thought that they were her friends. She'd do anything to get them back.


7.

She loved fire. That was difficult in a district where pretty much everything is flammable. That was her only issue. She was a nice girl.

Norah felt sad that she'd voted this girl in. Everyone had told her to and she'd caved. She hadn't expected to make friends with her tribute so easily. She hadn't expected the pyromaniac to be so respectful and kind.

He loved murder. District 7 had many a murder ballad and he'd done enough to ensure that a quite a few would be written about him. He sung to his victims as he stalked them through the streets with his axe. For years afterwards, people would swear they heard someone crooning to them on dark nights, the sweet, lilting voice sending shivers down their spines.

Nate couldn't even bear to look at him. He'd forgotten, when he'd voted for a teenage psychopath, that he'd have to mentor the boy. He had a breakdown at the reaping.


8.

They called her The Fate of Eight. She shared a name with one of the ancient goddesses, the one who measured the thread of mortal life. Whenever a corpse turned up within their eyelids and mouth stitched shut, they knew it was The Fate's doing. They thought that voting her into the Hunger games would kill her, since she was only fifteen and needle-thin. They should've known how deadly needle-thin things could be. In the end, they decided that she'd been responsible for too many deaths. They broke into her Victor's Village house while she was asleep, tied her to the bed and set the house alight, making sure that Eight would never have another victor for thirty-five years.

Executions rose. Food prices rose. Violent crimes rose. They blamed her.

After decades of losing almost every good kid sent into the games, Eight's fourth victor - a loud-mouthed rebel who'd got his combat skills from mugging people in alleyways - clawed his way out of the arena, scarred and broken, and moved into her rebuilt house. They blamed her.

Seven years after his victory, he died of an overdose, despite being clean for years. They still mourned. He'd been a sorry victor but he'd been their victor. They blamed her.

Eight became the first district to lose all of its victors, with none of the two remaining victors surviving the Quell's bloodbath. They blamed her.

Even in death, Lachesis Dumont sealed her district's fate.

They called him a rapist, because that was the only word that described what he did to girls in alleyways. He asked his victims to call him The Shark, so he'd get more of a reputation, but they all refused out of defiance. Nobody wanted to give him any power. After years of hoping that he and The Fate would find each other in the alleyways they prowled and destroy each other, District 8 finally had a chance to put them both in the arena. There was even a betting pool on which of the two would be the first to die.

Woof had voted for both tributes. They were the most vile things his district had to offer. Instead of trying this year, he was going out for drinks. He'd bring as many of the other mentors as he could with him.


9.

She was a healer's apprentice. Every time a good-looking field-hand came to her, he'd come back with stories of how she'd drugged him helpless, climbed on top of him and put her hands all over his body. There was never enough evidence for the law to get involved, since the boys were often delirious from pain or painkillers, but that didn't stop people from talking. Someone claimed they'd watched through a window as she'd smothered a boy and had her fun with his corpse. Whether or not the rumours were true, she was voted into the Quell.

Emily was annoyed. She'd voted for the daughter of one of her daddy's political rivals. She couldn't care less about some poor boys and their problems.

He was a bully. In another district, he might have been overlooked for punching a few weedy kids in the playground. But Nine was fairly quiet. The crime rate was fairly low. A few concerned parents began to gossip about the boy and that was all it took.

Sal had voted for the boy. As a parent himself, he hated the idea of someone bullying his son. It was only when he heard the boy's mother sobbing at the reaping that he realised he'd made a mistake. He was very grateful that Houghton would age out of the reaping before the next Quell.


10.

She was a thief. She thought it was unfair. She knew other girls who had stolen more things than her. She'd only stolen one thing. But that thing had been a horse...

He was a thief as well. He'd stolen a peacekeeper's gun, just to impress his rich and bored friends. He'd planned on giving it back. He hadn't expected it to go off and kill a peacekeeper. Eighteen years old and on death row, with no chance of volunteering for the games under the new Quell rules, he campaigned for it. His friends and family put his handsome face on posters around the district. It worked. He won the vote.

Stallie liked both her tributes. She liked the wild and the untameable. She could've voted for the girl but she'd closed her eyes in the booth, so she'd never know who she'd voted for. She'd definitely voted for the boy. If he'd chosen the Hunger Games over the noose, it seemed only right to give him what he wanted. She had hope that he'd win.


11.

She thought she was a witch. Most other people agreed with her. She was out in the orchards every night, breaking curfew and conducting secret rituals. She was blamed for freak accidents, spoiled food and sudden illnesses. She didn't have any friends or family to clean her up and make her part of society.

Courgette pitied the girl and she envied her. Maybe that envy had influenced her vote. The wild, grimy little thing reminded her of Cranberry, the girl she'd loved, who she'd had to let go with her victory. Courgette knew that her tribute would never let herself be used.

He thought he was better than everyone else. He had all these outdated ideas about race and gender. Those ideas had turned into insults and those insults had turned into targeted attacks.

Brock couldn't remember who he'd voted for. He was too drunk when they'd forced him into the booth to remember. He hoped, as his tribute started insulting him over his dark skin, that he'd voted for the boy.


12.

She was a merchant. She was very pretty, fairly athletic. Victor material. Twelve had waited long enough for a living victor to mentor their kids. This year, they were going to make sure they got one.

He was Seam. He'd been in the mines for almost a year and could swing a mean pick. He turned nineteen the day after the reaping, making him one of the oldest tributes of all time. Had he been born just a day earlier, he wouldn't have been eligible.

Captain Kane wanted to retire. He was sick of having to mentor tributes for a district that couldn't get one living victor in twenty-five years. He didn't vote for either tribute, since he wasn't a citizen of Twelve, but he was happy with both of them.


I hope you enjoyed the Quell. I had fun creating this little gallery of rogues. I also had fun writing the mentors' reactions to their tributes. Some of them showed off their good sides (Constantine and Norah) and some of them showed off their dark sides (mainly Luka. He got a bit Lawful Evil in this chapter). If you have the time, let me know who your favourite tribute was, which tribute was most deserving of death, who you'd like to mentor you the most if you were in the games and who you definitely don't want to be your mentor.

Lachesis is definitely one of the most evil tributes I've ever written. A lot of First Quarter Quells set up these villains that make your skin crawl and then let one of the more likeable tributes win so I decided to go against the popular convention and make an absolute monster win. Lachesis' victory and her death by angry mob set District 8 up to be the most rebellious district. Between the consequences brought on by her death, Woof's conspiracy theories and Lumas... just being Lumas, it makes sense that District 8 is the first to rebel.

Speaking of Lumas (who's a pretty major character in The Bride and The Widow so don't get worried if you haven't read it and you have no idea who he is), it looks like I've just casually killed him off mid-chapter. Sorry about that. I'm aware that it was very mean of me. I had that death planned for him from when I first started writing him, from before I had even even worked out his friendship with Ramona or the challenges he faced in his arena. I kind of wrote myself into a corner with Lumas since he's such an outspoken rebel. There wasn't a way I could keep him around during the events of Catching Fire because, if he'd been there, Katniss would've had to be a total idiot not to notice him. I know that Lumas is a bit of a fan-favourite (at least with my real life friends who I'd convinced to read The Bride and The Widow) and I probably wouldn't have killed him off if I hadn't been so stubborn when it comes to character deaths (Fawkes Chau learned that the hard way and he's my favourite character I've written so far). Rest assured, he'll get a proper death scene later on, as well as his own chapter. I'll also write an AU where he doesn't die, since his death is so important to the rebellion that him surviving for a bit longer would create an entirely new universe. Lumas is one of the characters I like so much that I'd break the laws of time and space for him, so hopefully that softens the blow of me killing him off.