Trigger Warning: We were eventually going to get to a chapter like this - the origin story of victor prostitution. There'll probably be a lot of adult themes in this chapter. There'll also be some mentions of an eating disorder.
Trajia Romeo, District 2
"Well so what?
We're young
We're thin (most of us)
We're alive (most of us)"
Car Seat Headrest, Bodys
Only one year in and President Snow was already angry at the new head gamemaker.
It wasn't that Hercules Knott had designed a bad arena or that the biggest change he'd made to the Hunger Games' rules had caused an outrage. During last year's games, it had taken two months for Nickel Baker to finally track down and kill his last opponent - the girl from Five. During that time the girl's mentor, Sotope Baymark, had put herself in the hospital by what could only be described as mentoring too hard. Hercules had allowed two extra victors from each district to voluntarily come to the Capitol every year to take some strain off the mentors. Since the only four mentors taking advantage of this rule - Surf Depthell, Romulus Diodato, Emerald Kiesler and Agrippinia Michili - were all incredibly popular, there was widespread celebration across the Capitol.
But Snow had a serious problem with Knott. It was because he was rigging the games to favour one particular tribute.
Her name was Trajia Romeo. She was skinny for a girl from Two, incredibly shy for a girl who'd volunteered. There was nothing that remarkable about her. She could knock an outlier out with one crack of a whip but that was normal by Elite standards, nothing that warranted an eleven in training.
Maybe it was because she was prettier than the usual Two girl, with big, dark eyes and black hair that reached her waist.
When Knott had started sending mutts after Trajia's biggest opponents, Snow called the man to his office.
"You seem to be favouring a tribute," Snow told the gamemaker. "Given that you're new to the job, I'll give you a chance to explain yourself. Why do you want Trajia Romeo to win the Hunger Games?"
Knott immediately began blushing and stumbling over his words. It was clear that he was completely infatuated with the girl.
"You find her attractive, don't you?" Snow asked.
"I do," Knot said. "I'm allowed to. She's eighteen. She's an adult."
"I'm aware of that, Mr Knott," Snow said. "My problem is that you are rigging the games, especially since last year's games were such a fiasco. Since you are doing it for an incredibly unprofessional reason, I won't allow you to have the job back next year. The only reason why you are not being fired on the spot is that I don't want to have to replace you in the middle of the games. Get back to the Gamemaker Building and stop sending mutts after tributes."
"I'm sorry, sir," Knott bowed and began to leave. "I just thought that this country could benefit from another attractive victor."
"Wait," Snow demanded. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, ever since Luka Starkwain married that stylist, I've noticed that a lot more of my friends have admitted to having crushes on tributes," Knott said. "Clearly it's not a taboo to fall in love with a district citizen anymore. One of my female friends, I won't name names, told me that she'd once been Emerald Kiesler's lover and she'd pay a fortune for him to come back to mentor again. That's why I came up with backup mentors."
"So are you suggesting that we start selling victors to Capitol citizens?" Snow asked, sensing an opportunity to significantly improve the economy. He couldn't get what Luka Starkwain had said last year out of his head, the thing about distracting people from the government's failures.
This could be his chance for revenge. He couldn't sell Starkwain, since he was married, but he was pretty good friends with Sotope Baymark...
"I was just thinking about how much the people loved victors," Knott said. "But that's an excellent idea."
They made the list then and there, ruling out the retired or otherwise absent, the married and the unattractive. It had nine names on it. An avox put it on the wall of the Control Centre so every mentor could see it.
Surf Depthell was the first victor to reach the list. He read it aloud so the others could hear.
Dear my esteemed victors,
Due to economic issues, a select few of you will be required to sell your bodies to the citizens of the Capitol. This is a great honour. Should you refuse this honour, your family will be punished. The victors who have been chosen are:
Surf Depthell
Emerald Kiesler
Emily Yeast
Courgette Leland
Amber LeClerc
Norah Blossom
Vitellia Tonioli
Sotope Baymark
Mink Ultramarine
Those of you who have been chosen must await further information. If you are looking for someone to blame for this new development, it is worth mentioning that I got the idea from Luka Starkwain.
Yours cordially,
President Coriolanus Snow
Surf's name was on the list. He was a little surprised because he'd turned forty-five this year but he'd taken good care of himself.
As Surf watched the chaos unfold and wondered if he ought to intervene, he felt angry. He was perfectly comfortable having sex with Capitolites. But it angered him that the Capitol had taken away his choice. Perhaps it was payback from the universe for his womanising days but Surf knew the worst punishment he could've had would be if he'd made one of his lovers pregnant. He'd been too careful to let that happen.
Surf Depthell quietly realised that he was never going to settle down. He was never going to get married. He was never going to want kids. Numbly, he found a communicuff and called one of the Capitol's best doctors.
He'd use one last bit of control to make sure that he'd be made infertile. He didn't want any kids growing up in the Capitol being bullied for being half-district, the way he'd been bullied for being half-Capitol.
Emerald Kiesler didn't mind that the Capitol had taken away his choice. Maybe because he'd never felt like he'd had a choice in the first place.
To Emerald, sex was a coping mechanism. He needed to be loved, to be adored, otherwise the guilt over what he'd done would destroy him. He never allowed himself to be picky about his romantic partners. He just accepted every offer he was given.
Nothing had changed for him.
Luka Starkwain was stunned.
How is this my fault? I never suggested anything like this. He thought. He knew better, though. He hadn't needed to suggest it. He'd defied his President's orders and married above his station. Now he was paying the price.
When Amber LeClerc attacked him, Luka's body responded before his mind did and tried to defend itself. By the time it'd dawned on him that this was his fault and he wanted to be hurt, Woof had stepped in to defend him and it wouldn't have mattered if he'd just given up on blocking Amber's punches.
Luka knew that he deserved to be punished but he couldn't think how. He couldn't give himself up in everyone else's place because that would mean being unfaithful to Callisto. So instead he just silently retreated. He knew that his punishment would be to live with himself, the guilty man walking free while innocents suffered.
He'd become what he hated most in the world.
Emily Yeast focused as much as she could on the section about honour. She did feel honoured, like she'd been chosen for some higher purpose.
Emily loved coming to the Capitol every year. She loved the feeling of escaping her backwater of a district. The only problem was that her district followed her around in the form of the scrawny commoner she had to look after every year.
She resolved to spend as much time with her new lovers as possible. Wouldn't the other mentors be jealous of her when she spent her time sipping champagne in silken sheets while they toiled over their tributes?
Nothing had changed for Courgette Leland.
Nothing.
Amber LeClerc let out a screech of rage and launched herself at Luka Starkwain. He blocked her punches until Woof grabbed Amber from behind.
Struggling in Woof's grip and screaming insults, Amber realised that she'd never escape this. She couldn't sacrifice her family. They were a broken family but they were her family and she couldn't bear to break them up any more.
She'd have given up everything else to ensure that her body would be hers and hers alone. But the Capitol had found the one thing that Amber couldn't give up.
Norah Blossom didn't understand why everyone was so angry. All she knew was that her name was on a list and people were giving her pitying looks.
She asked Nate why her name was on the list but he just started crying. She waited for Sotope to hang up the call she was making and asked her instead. Sotope explained everything.
Norah started crying. It lasted for hours.
Vitellia Tonioli was currently her district's only unmarried mentor (though there was a good chance that she wouldn't be the only one after this games). She wondered if she was supposed to feel something, like anger or fear or pity.
The only people she pitied were the people who'd pay to sleep with her. Not because she'd harm them. Just because she felt like an empty shell. Surely they'd see that. Surely they'd be unsatisfied.
Surely they'd realise that they were wasting their money on her.
If Sotope Baymark hadn't known Luka Starkwain better than anyone else in the room, she might've joined Amber in trying to rip his face off. But she knew that her mentor would never want something like this to happen. Maybe Luka was involved somehow. Maybe President Snow had set him up. But Sotope decided to discuss it later, when everyone had recovered from the news.
For now, she had a plan.
The moment she heard her name being read out, she grabbed a communicuff and called Caesar Flickerman. He'd been courting her for the last three years and, even though Sotope would never admit it, she'd always thought of his efforts as quite charming. When she'd been in hospital last year, he'd visited her every day and given her flowers.
Sotope explained the situation to Caesar as calmly as she could. He was one of the richest men in the Capitol. It would be easy for him to outbid anyone else who'd try to purchase her. She didn't want to commit to a relationship but it was better than letting idiots into her bed because they'd paid for her.
Sotope Baymark lowered the communicuff as Caesar Flickerman's girlfriend and, for all her intelligence, she had no idea what it meant.
Mink Ultramarine began to celebrate. He'd always known that he was so attractive that people would bankrupt themselves just for one night with him.
He didn't even care that he'd never earn a single denarii from it.
Where most of the mentors who'd been left off the list were relieved, Nickel Baker felt incredibly insulted.
His engagement had fallen apart after his victory. He was single and heartbroken and lonely, so lonely. The list was just written proof that nobody wanted him. He was a coward and a failure, the worst victor of all time.
He would've rather become the Capitol's sex slave than carried on living under such an awful title.
Trajia Romeo had just started feeling comfortable with her body when she was told that it'd be put up for sale.
She'd always hated herself. She'd always wondered how people couldn't see that she was ugly and fat and clumsy and stupid. It was only when she'd found herself vomiting over her toilet, trying to purge what she'd just eaten from her body, that she realised what she needed to do.
She had to train for the Hunger Games. She had to give herself the body she'd always wanted through hard work and discipline.
Volunteering for the Hunger Games had never been Trajia's end goal. When she was told that she'd be her district's chosen volunteer for the Thirtieth Hunger Games, she'd been shocked. Hadn't they been able to see how worthless she was?
She'd volunteered anyway, knowing that she'd either prove herself, once and for all, or die and never have to worry about herself again. She'd surprised herself. With every fight she'd won, she'd clawed back a little bit of belief in herself.
Trajia Romeo never killed her final opponent. Her allies had turned on her when only a few tributes had remained and she'd managed to fight them all off. Standing over the pile of their corpses, she'd been overwhelmed by what she'd done. Had she managed to win a fight against four other Elites?
Was she stronger than she'd thought?
Her final opponent, the boy from Eight, had started yelling rebellious things, prompting the gamemakers to kill him. Trajia hadn't minded that her final opponent hadn't been her kill. She was a victor, a true warrior.
She'd woken up in the Remake Centre, realised how skinny she was and started letting herself eat more. She'd started thanking people for their compliments rather than just assuming that she was being complimented out of pity. She'd moved into Victor's Village and made friends with all the other victors, the people she'd looked up to her entire life.
Most of all, Trajia was close to Agrippinia, her backup mentor. Agrippinia was such a warm and loving person, so much kinder and more open than Vitellia. When Agrippinia had announced that she was pregnant, Trajia had put her hand on her friend's belly, felt the life stirring in there, and cried because she was so happy. She had hope that she'd grow up, find her own husband and have children of her own.
But then, on the final stop of her victory tour, Trajia met with President Snow in his office and he told her what the Capitol expected of her. She began to wish that she really was as ugly as she'd believed she was.
Because she was beautiful, she'd never have a family or a future.
That chapter was thoroughly demoralising but it had to be done. I didn't originally plan for Luka's marriage to Callisto to lead to victor prostitution but I suppose it was fitting that Snow had a twisted kind of revenge after being outsmarted so magnificently. Luckily, a lot of victors managed to escape Snow's list. Trajia's probably the biggest victim, since she hasn't had as much time to adjust to her new lifestyle as the other victors. Luckily, since she's a Career, she'll probably be able to retire from mentoring sooner than the outliers.
Trajia's not the most conventional of Careers, since she fought to prove herself rather than out of bloodlust. She's definitely a lot stronger than she first thought and probably has the strength to recover, especially since she's so close to Agrippinia. She'll definitely have some happiness in her life at some point. As I was writing this, I remembered what happened to her during the rebellion (she's unlikely to have survived the events of Agrippinia's chapter) and it made me very sad. A lot of victors got a bit of a raw deal. The few who actually benefited from being in the games still suffered due to the Capitol's rule and the brutal war.
As for the other victors, I decided to include all their reactions. There's a lot of variety because some of the victors are absolutely fine with the new rules (looking at you, Mink) and some of them are rightfully outraged (Amber).
Sotope also plays a pretty big role. It's her illness from mentoring so intensely over a two month period that leads to the introduction of backup mentors. Now mentors don't have to constantly watch their tributes - but only if they can get another victor from their district to voluntarily come to the Capitol with them. It got a little overshadowed but I felt like it needed an origin story as well. Sotope was also smart enough to find a loophole in victor prostitution - just start dating Caesar Flickerman. I'd always planned for Sotope and Caesar to have a romance, since she's the first victor he ever interviewed and will always have a special place in his heart.
