Liza Flouria, District 9
"Poison oak, some boyhood bravery."
Bright Eyes, Poison Oak
The Hero
Every Hunger Games had a hero.
Most of the time they became the victor. Normally, their heroism in the Capitol's eyes made it enough for them to win. But sometimes they didn't. Sometimes, like in the Thirty-Sixth Hunger Games, they came up against a tribute so twisted, so villainous, that they never stood a chance.
The hero of the Thirty-Sixth Hunger Games was a fifteen-year-old boy from District 9. This boy was fairly unremarkable at first glance. He came from one of the richest families in the district so he wasn't farm-strong but he wasn't half-starved either. He was tall and broad for his age but nothing compared to a Career boy. He was fairly good-looking as well, but not enough to make the ladies (and a few of the men) of the Capitol to swoon at the sight of him.
What many viewers noticed was his striking resemblance to Saloven Field, District 9's first and most enduringly popular victor.
Understandable, given that this boy was Houghton Field, Saloven's son.
From the moment Houghton Field was reaped, he gained a following quite unlike any other tribute in Hunger Games history. The clip of the Thirty-Sixth District 9 Reaping went viral on the internet.
It showed Houghton Field, after a brief moment of shock, letting the news sink in, striding up to the stage with an almost otherworldly confidence. Even decades later, outlier boys would try to mimic Houghton's strides. He ignored the crowd, on the verge of a riot. He ignored his father on the stage, beginning to break down.
He walked straight up to his district partner, a girl named Liza Flouria. She was about the same age as Houghton - a few months older, actually - but he dwarfed her.
Instead of shaking his district partner's hand, Houghton Field gave her a hug.
The news spread like wildfire. Not only was the boy from District 9 a victor's son. His district partner was his best friend. Houghton and Liza became a team with such a devoted horde of fans that only a madman would dare to take them on.
But one tribute tried.
The Villain
His name was Webb Liarwhipp. He came, like most troublesome people did, from District 12. He had a reason to hate Houghton Field with a burning passion. His uncle had come second in the Ninth Hunger Games, having died to the sickle of a particularly tough farm boy.
Saloven Field had killed Webb Liarwhipp's uncle. So Webb decided to take blood for blood and kill Saloven's son.
In training, it became clear to Webb that the brat from District 9 deserved a fate worse than death. Webb had tried to intimidate Houghton but the victor's son, too proud to back down, had just insulted Webb right back. Soon they were trading blows as well as insults. The trainers had to pull the two boys apart.
The public took Houghton's side, of course.
After being booed during his interview, Webb made a promise to make Houghton Field suffer. He knew exactly how, as well.
He'd have to force Houghton to watch as his precious district partner was torn to shreds.
The Villain's Dastardly Crime
There were seven tributes remaining when Webb Liarwhipp found Liza Flouria wandering through the woods, alone. He hadn't received a single sponsor gift, despite managing to kill a Career in the bloodbath. But he'd managed to grab a knife and a coil of rope. That was all he needed.
He charged at her, slamming her into a tree. Liza screamed, struggling to break free, but Webb managed tie her to the trunk of the tree easily. Then he drew his knife and began to carve into her skin.
As Webb was tracing his knife across Liza's face, having just finished making lacerations up her arms, he heard four cannons in quick succession.
"Your little boyfriend had better still be alive, otherwise I won't have any need to keep you alive anymore." He hissed.
Liza shivered, whimpering with a mix of pain and fear.
"Houghton!" She screamed, like she'd been screaming ever since she'd been captured. "Help! Please!"
Webb realised that it was beginning to grate on him. He noticed the scarf around Liza's neck - undoubtedly a sponsor-bought gift. He tore it from her neck, stuffed it into her mouth to muffle her screams and searched for a new place to cut.
What he should've been searching for a reason why all the Careers had suddenly dropped dead. Or why Liza was alone instead of with her district partner and close ally.
It had never occurred to him that the girl he had bleeding out and tied to a tree had the biggest kill-count out of all the tributes left in the arena.
The Hero's Gallant Rescue?
Houghton Field had never killed anyone but, when he saw the boy from District 12 slicing off his best friend's fingers, he charged, sponsor-bought sickle drawn.
So what if he'd never picked up a sickle before in his life? It was in his DNA. He was the son of a victor and Webb was the nephew of a failure.
The stage was set for the grand finale of the Thirty-Sixth Hunger Games. It was like something out of an old storybook. There was a bold hero, a bloodthirsty villain and a damsel in distress. The audience were on the edge of their seats. Would Houghton be able to slay Webb and rescue Liza from his clutches? There was no way that Houghton would be able to save his district partner's life, since she was losing blood and his medical skills weren't good enough, but the audience had hope he'd be able to kill Webb and comfort his friend as she bled out.
It didn't turn out like that.
Webb was brutal, vicious, feral. He didn't care whether or not he survived the fight, only that he killed Houghton in the process. Houghton, meanwhile, was weakened by his overconfidence. What he'd assumed to be a quick fight against someone far weaker and less well-armed became a long and brutal battle against someone far stronger.
Soon, Houghton was on the ground, howling with agony as Webb hacked away at him. Liza was still tied to the tree, slumped against the ropes.
It looked like the villain had won.
The gamemakers, sensing a public outrage on the horizon, immediately sent a mutt to savage Webb to death as quickly as possible. There were cheers across the Capitol as, suddenly, the triumphant torturer was torn away from his victim by a wolf.
Webb's cannon was the first to fire.
Houghton's was the second.
It was Liza Flouria, the damsel in distress, who won the Thirty-Sixth Hunger Games. A team of medics were sent in to rescue her from the arena before she bled out. They had to cut her away from the tree and carry her to the hovercraft.
The Damsel
The truth about Liza Flouria was this: she'd killed the last four Careers. One night, she'd snuck away from her sleeping district partner so she could poison the food in the Careers' supply pile. Webb had caught her on her way back from her secret mission.
When she overheard people muttering about how Houghton - the worthy victor - would've won if she hadn't screamed for help, it made her blood boil.
Over the years, it became less about the role she'd had in her best friend's death and more about her best friend's role in stealing her thunder. Liza found herself forgetting more and more what Houghton was like with every year that had passed since his death. The kind, selfless boy who'd comforted her on the reaping stage and sacrificed his life to save her became an arrogant, bratty kid acting like someone far more skilled than he really was.
Liza began to wonder what Houghton had actually done in the arena. Sure, he'd won tons of sponsors but Liza'd had good enough survival skills to find food on her own. If Liza had just stabbed Houghton in his sleep, she probably would've won a lot more easily, since Webb had only targeted her to hurt Houghton. She'd have been able to keep hold of all of her fingers.
She wouldn't have ended up so scarred.
Liza gave up on life when she was reaped for the Quell. She rejected anyone who tried to ally with her. All she wanted to do was to to her new district partner - Derrick Miller, her district's last victor - what she should've done to Houghton Field years ago.
She charged into the bloodbath and stabbed him in the back.
Villain, monster, traitor. Liza Flouria would've taken on any of those labels just so people would stop calling her a useless, helpless damsel in distress. She revelled at everyone's disgust at her.
The moment Cashmere Goré, who'd been taught to respect her district partner when she'd been reaped alongside her brother, saw Liza kill Derrick, she threw a knife right into the older victor's head.
Liza died in seconds. She felt nothing.
That's another Catching Fire victor done! Liza definitely went through a lot in her games (although there is a silver lining in that the scars she received from Webb's torture session probably saved her from victor prostitution). She's definitely one of the victors who was corrupted the most, going from a loyal ally to a bitter district traitor. It's probably because she got such a raw deal. Liza managed to get four kills, which is a pretty impressive number for an outlier. Heck, it's more than some Careers (looking at you, Mink). However, she's doomed to live the rest of her life with the embarrassing reputation as a damsel in distress.
In Houghton Field, we also get a Hunger Games first - the first child of a victor to die. He's kind of somewhere between an incompetent, spoiled brat and a confident fighting machine. He was a little too arrogant but the only person he really hurt was himself and he did manage to save Liza, even if it wasn't the way he was expecting. His name's pronounced Hoch-ton, by the way. I got it from a Jackie Kay poem about soup (I really ran out of District 9 name ideas). I'm not sure what Hough (rhymes with "loch") is or whether it has anything to do with District 9. To be honest, looking it up would kind of ruin the mystique. If it's something that has nothing to do with District 9, just chalk it up to Sal exercising his right as a celebrity to name his kid something stupid. Speaking of Sal, he did nothing to deserve losing his son. Houghton was reaped just out of pure bad luck.
I have something long planned for next chapter so it might take a bit longer than usual. Or maybe not. I'm pretty bad at predicting when I'm going to update next. I hope it'll be worth the wait, since my favourite number and my favourite district shall collide.
