Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. They belong to Suzanne Collins.
Note: Another chapter, another Victor and a step close to the looming Quarter Quell. This story is, honestly, sort of addictive to write. I can see why the 'one chapter for every Victor ever' genre is as popular as it is. It's just plain fun! Hope you all find this Victor fun as well; Careers can come from outside One and Two on extremely rare occasions... but who says glory is the central reason behind it?
"I have to admit, I would've expected Four to have more Victors by this point. Remember how many times they won in the last few years of the Hunger Games?" Katniss remarked.
"Yeah, they sure had a good streak going on," Peeta agreed. "I guess in these early days it was hard to consistently beat Two and even One. Not to mention Seven having a decent start, all things considered."
"Looks like Tide found a way to do it. Just like all the other 'Outliers'," Katniss said, looking down at the face at her feet. "What's with the tattoos, though?"
"Maybe it was a fashion trend in Four in those days?" Peeta suggested, shrugging. "I'm not sure, honestly."
The two kept a silence for a while, wondering what the third Victor from District Four had gone through decades ago. It didn't occur to them she'd been a Career tribute outside of One and Two.
23rd Annual Hunger Games
Name: Tide Luther
Gender: Female
District: 4
Age: 17
Kills: 6
The dice are thrown, rolling on for several dramatic seconds until they come to a stop.
Snake eyes.
It's exactly the kind of eyes that Tide Luther did not want to see. The man running the back alley casino pays no mind to her groaning, however. He's too busy chuckling to himself as he rakes in the Caps she had bet upon the roll of the dice. It's all his now.
"How many lost bets was that this week?" the man asks as he counts up the money. "Ten by now?"
"Twelve," Tide says, gulping. She glances around, as if expecting to be attacked at any given moment. "Come on, one more roll, please."
"No cash, no dice roll," the man says. "If I were you I'd get out of here before the Peacekeepers come by... or the debt collectors. Not sure which would be worse, given your gambling debts that get worse every day."
Tide is off soon after that, making a run for the boat she lives on without looking back once. She's been hounded by the debt collectors once already, that in itself being enough times to know being seen by them is only going to lead to great pain.
She makes her way on board an old whaling boat, a rickety galleon known as 'Pier Pressure'. An old thing that serves as a home for several working class girls and a personal training ground for Tide. It's not long before she is at the bottom deck, going through her evening routine of exercise and practising with a trident.
She's training for the arena and, with reaping day looming near again, the time for training is starting to run out.
It all started when she was twelve, really. A young girl with little to call her own in Panem besides the old clothes on her back, half a loaf of bread and ten Caps. Driven by hunger alone she placed a bet on the short girl from Five winning the Eighteenth Hunger Games. Amidst mockery and laughter her bet had been accepted by the crusty, salty men at the dock.
They stopped laughing when the first night came by and Isobel unleashed her karate skills onto the hapless Careers. They begin scowling when the girl went on to win and meant that they owed Tide quite the sum of money, money which she was all too happy to claim with a cheeky look on her face.
She became addicted fast. It became impossible for Tide to turn down a bet, no matter how outrageously unlikely or pathetically small time. The prospect of winning more money against the odds was almost like a drug to her, like the purest hit of morphling the druggies of District Six craved ever so often.
It landed her in debt. Lots of debt.
At first Tide was able to win enough bets to pay chunks of it back and spend a few stretches of time here and there without debt weighing her down. But as she grew up, the amount she owed grew with her. The addiction became harder and harder to control until, at the age of seventeen, she has been given until the end of July to pay back the money or end up in debtors prison. She's heard the stories of such a place and the knowledge makes her blood run cold.
So it all leads to how things are now; training for the Hunger Games. With her being near the top of the tribute age scale and having some muscle from her work on the boats she can't be said to have the worst odds. It's a gamble for sure, but she's willing to bet her life in exchange for fortune if it means avoiding debtors prison.
Besides, if twigs like Pliny, Gwenith and Pi can win, who can't?
All but two people from Four who went into the arena, that's who. But Tide need only think of what happens to women in debtors prison and any feelings of unease are blocked out. Between being violated in a jail cell and suffering in an arena where she might have a way out of this mess she'll pick the latter, please and thank you.
The night before the reaping she's interrupted midway through her cardio and dumbbell workout routine by Peacekeepers storming the boat. If she had been a second or two slower in hiding her dumbbells her illegal training for the Hunger Games would've been exposed.
She doesn't question the rare surge of luck she has been given.
Her luck is gone moments later when the worst of the people she owes money to, Sharky Huxley, reveals himself. He demands his money within a week or he'll have his men beat her every day until she pays him or goes to jail
For a man like him it's not hard for him to pay off a few Peacekeepers to carry out his threats. Money is money and enough of it can buy the temporary assistance of Peacekeepers.
"I'll have it soon, I swear," Tide tries to stand up tall, easy for a girl measured as being six foot two inches. It does nothing to deter Sharky. "I can pay you back with a little extra, just give me a few days, please!"
"How about we roll for it?" Sharky says, taking out a die. "Guess right and you have two weeks. Guess wrong and you have a day. Refuse to guess and it's a week. Your choice."
"Five!" Tide blurts it out before she can even think of resisting the bait.
The dice is rolled and comes up as a one. Shaky just chuckles, giving the command to his men without hesitation.
He leaves the boat, indifferent to the screams behind him. Either he gets his money or sends a message to anybody else who owes him cash; either way it goes, he wins.
Tide staggers around, wrapping a bandage around her bruised arm. She curses Sharky's name, all the more committed to her decision.
"Four is getting a new Victor this year," she says, spitting out a few drops of blood. "Count on it."
It's lucky that she had some healing cream left over from her last successful bet two months ago. At least it means she can have her bruises gone before the reaping arrives.
When Tide makes her way to the reaping for the Twenty Third Hunger Games she only has two things on her mind. Naturally, the first is how she'll be volunteering for the Games and will be on the tribute train within the next hour.
The second thought is that she has a chance to make some fast cash while she waits for the ceremony to begin.
"I bet ten caps somebody is gonna volunteer. A girl over fifteen," she says to those standing around her in the seventeen year old females section.
"No way," one of the other girls says with a shake of her head. "Nobody would have the fishbones for it."
The crowd all echo the girl's sentiment. When Tide suggests they make a bet of caps on it they all agree, betting anywhere from one to five caps each. Tide just smirks, betting five caps she does not actually have that somebody will.
When the escort- this year dressed like some kind of avacado with dragon wings – calls out for a girl by the name of 'Ocean Noor' it becomes clear to the other girls that they were scammed. Tide calls out that she wants to volunteer and, after collecting several caps from the annoyed girls who can leave without a trip to the arena, makes her way to the stage.
The District can only stare at Tide, whether in anger at being scammed or surprised at the fact she willingly entered this death game, with no real reaction following the reaping of a stocky fourteen year old, Skipper Lee, aside the sobbing of a family in the crowd.
Victors Museida and Mags feel rather conflicted at the sight of the female tribute as she wives a wave to the cameras before shaking Skipper's hand. On the one hand she looks strong and could give District Four a real chance at winning.
On the other hand, why did she enter this sick murder game!?
Tide lays out her reasoning for her choice that night, between fast and greedy bites of the fine glazed ribs that are among the many dishes being served.
"Money," she says, pausing to take a deep gulp of cola.
"...That's it?" Museida asks, sounding more than a little disgusted. "You signed up for money?"
"I've thought it all out, sir," Tide assures him, putting on the charm. "I've been training myself up for over three years at this point. I've got a chance."
"So you're a Career?" Museida asks. "You sicken me, just making that part clear. Mags, you can have the girl. I'll take Skipper."
If Tide is bothered by Museida's hostile reaction she does not show it. She merely says she is fine for Mags to be the one coaching her and resumes eating the ribs. It's fast becoming a new addiction of hers, one perhaps less dangerous than gambling.
Mags is better at holding judgement than Museida is, she always has been. That's why she's able to get more out of Tide than anybody else would've been able to. It's later at night when she spots Tide making a bet with the escort – 'I bet I can land the first kill, one hundred caps. Wanna play?' - that she talks to her tribute and asks if it truly was greed alone that made her make such a dangerous decision.
"Not exactly," Tide says, sitting on the sofa near the TV. "I've got a thing thing about gambling... I love it. I need it. I keep gambling and betting and... well, I owe money to a lot of people and if I can't pay it back I go to debtors prison."
Mags frowns, knowing of the stories and screams that come from that dreadful place. She puts a hand on Tide's shoulder, waiting for her to continue.
"If I win, no more debts and I can live the life of complete luxury," Tide says, relaxing. "It's a gamble... but I see it as an opportunity. One that's always there, waiting for those brave enough to take it. Between this and debtors prison, I felt the choice was obvious."
Tide changes the topic after that, offering Mags a bet on which tribute will be the first one to die. Mags turns the offer down, feeling such bets are just plain wrong, but she has to admit that there is more to her tribute than she had assumed.
Museida instructs Skipper to learn everything he can about survival skills, using a trident and medical skills. Keeping out of the way in the early days will be his best chance, a fact Skipper doesn't argue.
Mags, meanwhile, tells Tide to focus on brute force and weapon skills. If she's going to get into the Career pack she needs to be strong and get their attention onto how she can fight on their side.
"It's all about making them see you as an asset to their little army," she explains, not quite able to look Tide in the eye. "If you want to be a Career, you need to be tough like one."
"Bet you I can, and by lunchtime at that," Tide replies as she heads for the elevator to start training.
With her decent amount of pre-Games training Tide stands out as one of the strongest tributes of the year from a first glance. Not quite level with the Ones and Twos, but easily amongst the top eight. When she grabs a trident and gets to work on the dummies it becomes obvious she's actually among the top six.
Dream and Allure are both impressed by what they see of the girl from the Fishing District, but this year it's Mordecai from Two who leads the pack. A mighty brute, it falls to him to decide if the fisher girl gets let in.
Upon seeing Tide skewer her trident right through the dummy in one clean strike he nods his head, telling his District Partner Minerva to invite Tide to sit with them at lunch.
The Career Pack goes from four members to five shortly after the meal begins, Tide falling in with her new allies easily. They laugh, joke around and discuss a few plans for the battles ahead. Overall, it's a pleasant meal for the pack and they head off to spend the afternoon training together and putting on the intimidation against several of the Outliers, taking the job in shifts.
Tide sucks it up and makes sure to scare the fat girl from Eight, knowing only one can live and that taking part in these sorts of Career traditions will only secure her place in the pack. Of course, she makes sure to do things her own, personal way. Tide's many things, but a cliché isn't one of them.
"Wanna make a bet?" she asks the bigger girl. "I bet you'll die in the bloodbath. Wanna bet who ends up doing it?"
The big girl cries and scampers off soon after that. Tide never gets her name – Mavis Williams – and tries to push out the uneasy feeling in her gut as she returns to her alliance, all of them cheering and patting her on the back.
She tells herself she made the right choice and that people have done worse; she even bets people have. It doesn't matter, surely. Survival instinct is why she's not sorry, isn't it?
She earns a score of eight from training. Very high amongst the Outliers, but lower than the four Careers who score nines and tens. While her spot in the pack is cemented at this point, it seems that Mordecai is having doubts about letting her remain in the pack. His standards are high, very high indeed.
But Tide is a gambler, born and bred, and so takes the plunge to make a bet that keeps the Career boy interested in having her on his side, for now.
"Bet you I can kill at least two people in the bloodbath," she says as the tributes are lined up backstage for the interviews.
"You're on," Mordecai says, shaking on the bet. "But don't kill steal. If you try and rob me of somebody I've already started on we're gonna be having issues."
"As if I'd be so lame," Tide scoffs, crossing her arms. "No, I'm gonna be the one responsible for both kills and, I'll raise the stakes a bit here, I'll get the first kill of the Games."
"You will, will you?" Mordecai clearly doubts it, but can't help admitting Tide has some warrior spirit in her. Maybe she's not an awful ally after all. "Fair enough then. Good luck."
As Mortimer starts the show and calls Allure to the stage it's clear that his health is ailing a bit, as is his hair. Nobody misses it, not even the tributes.
"So... what's up with him?" Tide asks, awkwardly. "...Any bets?"
"Ass cancer," Dream says, shaking his head in dismay.
"Ass cancer?!" Tide exclaimed, wide eyed.
"Yeah," Dream shudders. "It's when you have cancer in your ass."
"...Amazingly, I worked that part out," Tide says, gagging.
Tide's interviews goes off fine. As with Jack a few years ago her being a Volunteer from a non-Career District makes her notable and her story of being a gambling addict seeking a way out of debt is something that a lot of those within the Capitol can relate to. She finishes off by telling the audience to bet on her, the clear Victor, and leaves the stage to grand applause.
She's talked the talk, but can she walk the walk? That's the question everybody wants answered and the bets on the outcome are very much a fifty-fifty kind of situation.
Tide feels like her luck is finally starting to stay in her favour when she is launched into the arena and glances around at the terrain surrounding the Cornucopia. It's another abandoned city, but this one has quite the distinctive factor that sets it apart from the one in the dreadfully long Ninth Hunger Games.
It's flooded.
The buildings are old, worn and partially eroded from the constant exposure to the wet elements and all over are lakes and deep trenches of murky water. It'll be a year to favour those who can swim. Those like Tide, and perhaps Skipper. Even from the start of the countdown Tide can hear storm clouds distantly moving in, sure to bring vast amounts of rain with them.
But she can't focus on the water and what may lurk within it. Not when the countdown is almost up and she has a bet to win.
As the gong rings Tide lets her training and all the Career antics she has been exposed to fill up her mind and soul. Right as Skipper leaps off of his own pedestal and make a beeline for his ally, the girl from Eight, Tide grabs up the first weapon she can lay her hand on – a cleaver? It'll do. - and charges at the siblings from Three who were launched beside her.
It's no contest. The siblings are both older than Tide, but lack any training and are both quite skinny. Not even twenty seconds have passed before District Three has been eliminated, the pair laying still with their throats gushing blood onto the wet concrete.
The Gamemakers set off thunder and lightning as the opening melee continues, eager for more blood. They get what they want, thirteen tributes laying beaten and bloody upon the watery ground as the bloodbath ends five minutes later with the blood starting to spread wide over the area.
Tide pants for air, all tired out from the frenzy of action. She removes her current weapon, a trident, from what's left of the beefy girl from Six as her allies cheer and holler in triumph. Mordecai approaches her, wiping the blood of the boy from Seven off his shirt, and for a moment Tide wonders if he intends to betray her.
Instead he laughs, clapping her on the back with a smirk on his face.
"Looks like you win the bet," he says, very impressed. "Three kills and you landed the first two in the Games. Not bad, Tide. You sure are a Career."
Tide doesn't feel any shame this time to hear such comparisons. She just smiles and shakes Mordecai's hand with a smile on her face.
"Like I was telling you all along, you don't need to be from One or Two to count as a Career," she says, giving a wink. "...Bet you I can land the next kill."
"You're on," Mordecai says with a laugh. "We'll rest up, fix up any rounds, sort the supplies and get hunting. Whoever landed the least kills gets to be the guard."
"Dammit!" Dream yells in annoyance, having not killed a single tribute. Indeed, he ended up getting his hand stabbed when he tried to go for the girl from Eight.
The eleven tributes become ten during the second day when the pack come across the short girl from Twelve. She knows in an instant she is doomed, only able to control how she reacts in the face of certain death.
She chooses to jump to her doom before the Careers can get within killing range, letting the water carry her away to the world beyond. The cannon booms as the Careers reach the edge of the rocky ledge the girl had been backed into during the short chase, all of them disappointed or annoyed.
"Well that was a waste of time," Allure mutters, shaking her head. "Urgh, stupid."
"From her point of view it made sense," Tide adds.
"True. Eh, whatever, one closer to the end," Mordecai says with a shrug. "So, we gonna get going or try and grab whatever was in the bag she was holding."
"Bet you that Tide can't do it," Minerva adds.
The girl from Two intends to get Tide to jump in and drown to eliminate a threat, thinking that even a girl from Four cannot handle the flooded waters of the city, especially with the debris that float within them. But Tide, driven by pride and the hope of the bag having something decent inside it, takes the jump and swims after the corpse of the miner girl. Mordecai cheers for her, Minerva hopes she drowns quickly and Allure watches with a neutral look, just glad that some sort of excitement is going on.
The bag ends up being empty besides a ruined pack of soaked crackers, but it doesn't matter to Tide. She's just pleased that the leader of the Careers is impressed. The sponsors, too, are impressed and her reward is fine meal of ribs that night.
Dream, meanwhile, feels more and more bitter about being stuck at the Cornucopia and having to sit around in the rain as he guards the supplies. With his alliance still not back by the time day three turns into the earliest minutes of day four he decides, fuck this, and ditches the area to go it alone.
It makes it really easy for Skipper and his ally, Mavis, to raid the Cornucopia of its food and water. When the pack return at the close of day four they don't just feel angry.
They're pissed.
"Let's give dream a nightmare," Mordecai says, glowering.
"Right on," Tide agrees, more than a little pleased that Dream going rogue means she's got more time before the alliance turns on itself.
In a flooded arena, it's only natural that the floods get worse as the days go by. With the rainfall continuously falling it's not a matter of if it will get worse and merely a matter of when.
In this case, the 'when' happens on the sixth day of the Games when the pack takes out the brutish boy from Nine. He proves to be a savage opponent though, smashing Allure off of solid ground and down ten meters into the murky water. He dies, but he takes down Allure with him. By the time Tide jumps into the water and drags her out onto solid ground her cannon has fired.
Nobody ever taught the pretty Career how to swim.
"Seriously?" Mordecai can't help but facepalm, shaking his head in dismay. "A Career who cannot swim to save her life... literally? That's gotta be a new low for District One."
"You guys can?" Tide asks, curious.
"I grew up near a lake before I attended the academy so I know my way around the water," Mordecai says, nodding. "And Minerva here got taught to swim just like all the cadets at the academy do."
"Not as well as this brute," Minerva adds, dismayed. "But well enough. Better than fish legs here."
It's so wrong, so inappropriate, so mean and yet the trio cannot help laughing over Minerva's scathing remark over the corpse of Allure. They head away into the rain, searching for shelter as the hovercraft takes away the remains of one half of the District One team.
Tide isn't the only one in high spirits that day. After all, it's the day Skipper and Mavis share a kiss. They know it can't possibly last, but if time is limited what's the harm in making the best of their dire situation?
By the time eighth day of the Games roll by the number of remaining tributes falls to nine. Dream caught up with the girl from Five and showed no mercy. While he nurses the stab wound he received during the battle trouble begins to arise several miles away from his current location.
Minerva makes no secret of the fact she is not very fond of Tide. Meanwhile Tide mainly just ignores the girl from Two, seeing her as a minor annoyance when compared to the debt collectors back in Four. Mordecai finds himself stuck in the middle of a mainly one sided conflict, soon decided he doesn't give a shit. Why should he when he's not the main target of either girl?
It comes to a head when, during the latest additional flooding of the city, Tide makes a bet with Minerva.
"I bet you can't swim out to that rock and back," Tide says, smirking.
"You're on," Minerva says, wanting to prove a point. "You do it once I'm back."
"Child's play," Tide says, her smirk widening.
Minerva makes the swim and reaches the rock thirty meters out from the shore easily enough and promptly starts to return to her allies no worse for ware. Just as she assumed, swimming was not an issue for her.
On the other hand, the sharks swimming around in the depths of the flooded waters certainly are.
Her screams fill the arena as the sun sets, Mordecai and Tide unable to do anything but look on as she is torn to pieces by the hungry mutts. They exchange a glance, silently agreeing to leave the area fast.
They don't want to risk the chance of the shark mutts being able to jump onto land, after all.
The two Careers hunt side by side for several days, becoming fairly close friends in that time. Mordecai says how Tide isn't bad... for a Four, that is. Tide says that Mordecai is actually pretty civilised... for a Two, anyway. Both laugh, enjoying the company they share.
When only six tributes are still alive – Tide, Mordecai, Skipper, Mavis, Dream and a particularly elusive girl from Seven – the Gamemakers call for a Feast to be held at midnight by the Cornucopia on the sixteenth. Much of the arena is flooded, the tributes boxed in closely and so it's not hard for any of the tributes to make the journey to the Feast if they chose to.
All of the tributes besides the girl from Seven decide to take the chance.
Tide and Mordecai make it there first, of course, and as the other three run in things become quite a massacre. With Skipper and Mavis fighting side by side and Dream being solo yet competent it's not a fight that anybody is able to walk away from without some sorts of injury.
Mordecai and Dream clash, going blade to blade with full intensity. Sparks fly as their swords clang again and again. Both takes wounds, nobody knowing how the battle will end.
Tide goes for Skipper and Mavis. If she feels any hesitation for fighting the boy from her District she doesn't let it show. The younger pair only want to flee with what they have, but only one is allowed to live. Tide plans for the money and life of luxury to be hers. That's why only eighty five seconds into the fight Mavis is slain with a nasty stab from the trident, unable to even say goodbye to Skipper.
"You're a disgrace to Four," Skipper says, making his last stand. "All about the money with you. Money, money, money. You came here to kill people for money!"
"I have debts to repay!" Tide screams, dodging Skipper's attempt at a stab. "I need the riches to pay people back; that's not my fault, it's just how it is Skipper!"
"Whose fault is it that you're in so much debt?" the shorter boy replies, ducking under Tide's trident. "You have nobody to blame for your gambling debts besides yourself. You sold your humanity for cash. Winner or loser, that won't change."
Dream screams in agony as Mordecai, by now rather battered, gains advantage and slits his throat with his sword. It's not after that when Tide is able to land the killing blow on Skipper, letting him fall to the ground to die.
But he's not done yet, not when he has enough energy left to say one final thing to his District Partner.
"Even if you win... what makes you think you won't just make more bets you can't win and end up back in debt again...?" Skipper asks.
He gets no answer, his life fading moments later. Tide tries to stay stable, telling herself that Skipper was wrong and just trying to throw her off of her game to give himself a chance. She pushes the thoughts out of her mind, turning to look at Mordecai.
"Just one left to go," he says, panting. "We gonna fight or we gonna go look for her? Flood is gonna get higher soon, so she won't have many places to hide."
Tide takes one look at how Mordecai is fairly beaten and bloody. She decides to take the gamble of fighting the girl from Seven all alone and says they may as well get the inevitable over with as both of them would easily take the girl from Seven one on one. Mordecai agrees, his final words to Tide being that she was a good ally.
His final words of his life end up being 'aw fuck' two minutes later when Tide brings down her trident a few minutes later.
With all the supplies of the Feast being hers to use however she wants the Games are basically won at that point, anything thereafter being more of a formality than anything else. Sure enough, twenty hours later Tide hunts down the elusive girl from the Lumber District and hears the sound of the victory trumpets.
She cheers, her trident held up high in victory. Her debts can finally be paid and she can live the easy life for the rest of her days, what could be better?
It turns out, as years go by, that there is indeed one thing that could be better. Having any kind of freinds or interaction in her life besides the Career Victors from One and Two who she only sees when the Games arrive once again.
Nobody wants to be around the girl who trained for the Games, willingly entered and then killed people only to earn money. The fact that Tide's gambling kept on going, up to running a betting ring on the reapings of Four and the Games as a whole, made her a social outcast in Four. Skipper's family would only speak her name in contempt and a spit upon the ground. Even those who appreciated her strength and the riches she bought back to Four found the girl's greed a major issue to contend with.
That was how life went for Tide in the end. Surrounded by piles of money which had a habit of coming and going due to her obsession with gambling and having absolutely nobody to share it with. Even Mags didn't exactly hang out with the Career of Four particularly much, the betting ring Tide made on how quickly mags' niece would die in the Twenty Seventh Hunger Games being an action hard to forgive.
A greedy recluse at the reaping of the seventy Fourth Hunger Games, she watches the screen and lets out a tired chuckle.
"I bet that girl from Twelve will win this whole thing. One thousand caps."
"Twenty three years and still no Victors for Six or Ten. I guess some Districts have all the luck," Katniss said as she and Peeta slowly walked on from Tide's section of the side walk. "District Four certainly was one those that sure did early on."
"All comes down to how not all Districts are equal. They never were," Peeta replied, glancing up at the clouds. "Six only had their first Victor due to a complete accident, as we know."
"In a way, we were accidents too in a way," Katniss replied, letting out a breath. "Or maybe we just got lucky... guess whoever bet on us got a good pay out."
Peeta said nothing, just letting Katniss speak as they reached the twenty fourth face on the Walk of Victors. The somewhat chubby face of a rather cheerful looking young man looked back up at them, his hair cut short and a fairly big nose only beaten by his bigger smile.
"Crown Martins," Peeta read. "Last of the Victors before the Quarter Quell. End of an era."
There we go, Tide succeeds in her ultimate gamble and joins the ever growing Victor Family. I've always found Careers outside of D1 and D2 rather fun to think about (and given I go by the movie canon, D4 aren't typically a Career District) and really, if somebody can successfully train themselves up prior to the arena and volunteer for the sake of winning and not to spare a family member ect then I'd count them as a Career regardless. Perhaps not a happy story in the long term, but like most gambles it worked as a short term solution. Hope you guys found the gambler girl fun. :) Stay tuned for more!
Stats
District 1: Peridot Gaudy (8th Games), Crystal McCree (14th Games), Bronze Marley (19th Games)
District 2: Baron Overwhill (4th Games), Runa Peace (7th Games), Olga Machete (10th Games), Rook Valiant (17th Games), Boulder Atherston (20th Games)
District 3: Honorius Perthshire (5th Games), Pi Orbit (22nd Games)
District 4: Museida Selkirk (3rd Games), Mags Flanagan (11th Games), Tide Luther (23rd Games)
District 5: Shunt Gaspar (12th Games), Isobel Sparks (18th Games)
District 6: N/A
District 7: Pliny Aransio (2nd Games), Fir Buzz (9th Games), Jack Tylos (21st Games)
District 8: Woof Casino (16th Games)
District 9: Mizar Aldjoy (1st Games), Gwenith Rosebud (13th Games)
District 10: N/A
District 11: Bear Redfoot (15th Games)
District 12: Duke Saint-Rose (6th Games)