Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. They belong to Suzanne Collins.
Note: No sense slowing down when the first Quarter Quell is right around the corner. It's a milestone I've been really wanting to reach and by all accounts I should be able to reach it very soon, especially given my update speed recently. But first, the final pre-Quell Victor, Crown! Remember how it was mentioned in Crystal's Games that D1 only started having back-up Volunteers every year after the first Quell? Yeah, this guy is exactly why they do. Enjoy!
Katniss and Peeta looked over Crown's imprinted face upon the side walk, thoughtful.
"So, know anything about Crown?" Katniss asked after a few moments of respectful silence. "I'm going to assume that, being from One, he was a Career?"
"Well, you'd think that wouldn't you? I don't know much about him personally, besides the fact apparently he had the lowest training score of any Victor from One, but my parents knew about him," Peeta said, looking almost nostalgic. "Their parents did too."
"What did they know? The kills he made and how gruesome they were?" Katniss guessed.
"Not quite. Apparently he was actually in the business of candy making and only become a tribute as the chosen Career chickened out," Peeta said, slowly shaking his head. "Crazy, huh?"
"...Yeah, that's about as far from a Victor from One as I would expect," Katniss remarked, looking rather confused.
24th Annual Hunger Games
Name: Crown Martins
Gender: Male
District: 1
Age: 18
Kills: 2
Peridot first meets him while out on the town on a warm Saturday afternoon. It's just after her trip to the local comic book emporium – she does not think the clerk there is cute and wants Crystal to quit asking! - when she feels the urge to buy something sweet to sink her teeth into.
She walks into a rather fancy looking candy store, The Candy Crown, and approaches the counter to ask what sorts of gummies they have.
That's when it becomes impossible for her to ever forget Crown Martins.
"We have quite a lot of gummies in stock and like you are totally gonna love them ever so much I mean really it's like no contest that we've got the best gummies in One with all of them handmade by me actually. We have gummy snakes, gummy worms, gummy elephants, gummy tributes, gummy Orions, nutty gummies, fruity gummies, soda gummies and for the strange folk who have cash and don't need questioning we've got a wide array of blood gummies raging from prices of one cap to ten caps though for a refined lady like you I'd imagine something like mint gummies are more your thing you know?" Crown babbles on and on without even pausing to take a breath.
Peridot doesn't get a word in edgeways, sideways or anyways at all. She's left with her head spinning and her ears abuzz with a faint aching. She asks for one of everything in the hopes it'll keep Crown silent for a while, as surely that many gummies will take time to pack up.
Too bad for the first Victor that District One ever had, she's very much mistaken. Crown works fast, chattering the whole time.
"You know your Games are some of the earliest memories I have as a matter of fact and I was rooting for you all the way because obviously you were going to win from the start like duh because Cadbury was an idiot to leave you all alone to plan a counter attack and holy shit Miss Gaudy I'm honestly awed that you killed him how you did like it was amazing you know you were a badass and I'm proud to be from the same District as you and that'll be one hundred caps please," Crown stops abruptly, placing down the sealed box of gummies and activates the cash register.
The guy may be friendly and have given her some nice praise, but Peridot is glad to be able to leave the store and get away from his endless talking. Even Crystal at her most cheeky isn't that bad! Peridot soon relaxes, figuring she'll never see the young man again anyway.
She's wrong.
Crystal first meets him when Gaudy High is having an open day, much like those she attended as a youth before she entered the arena. The day starts off like any other, Crystal and Harp working together to greet people as they arrive to take a look around the historic building where Careers are trained and watch people take part in various free training exercises throughout the day.
The pair take a break on a bench, content to just relax in their quiet spot and enjoy each other's company. It's only a moment later that any chance of peace and quiet is destroyed.
That's when Crown arrives, pushing along a large cart of candy. He has all the official paperwork sorted out and a license to show off, so there's nothing stopping him from selling his goods around Gaudy High. It's not a problem.
Well, it wouldn't be if not for how loud he is and how his talking his near endless. It's not long before Crystal fears she may need the defibrillators again and Harp mumbles in distress from the loud noise.
"Step right up and come get your hands on some great snacks to help you relax and feel good after a long day of training like really why wouldn't you want to sink your teeth into chocolate and gummies and reasonably priced toffee bars of which we have hundreds that you're all going to want to buy as for today only everything is half priced so come on over and take your pick from the hundreds of delicious snacks on offer though please form an orderly line as rioting helps literally nobody!" Crown speaks like a video tape on fast forward, not even pausing for breath a single time.
As out of place as he looks at Gaudy High the fact is he clearly knows what he is doing; it's only a few moments before a loud crowd of patrons are running over to check out his candy stall and practically forcing money into the tall young man's hands when they find something they want.
Crystal and Harp quickly leave the area after that, neither able to handle the sheer volume and constant amount of chatter going on. The noise and Crown's non-stop talking rings in their ears for over half an hour, even once they've managed to find a quiet place to sit together on a distant hilltop.
"He's so loud," Harp groans, her hands over her ears. "Needs to shut up sometime."
"I know, right?" Crystals agrees with a weary groan. "But you know, those sweets sure did look good... wanna go buy some when the crowd thins out?"
Harp's eager smile says it all. Crystal figures that they can handle going back later and checking over what snacks remain. After that, it's unlikely they'll see the boy again and be subjected to the same level of noise that follows him around.
She's wrong.
Bronze first meets him on reaping day, the starting event of the Twenty Fourth Annual Hunger Games. The cocky, arrogant young man relaxes in his seat on the stage as he waves smugly to the cameras. When put against snooty Peridot and immature Crystal he knows he's the best Victor by default. The Capitol sure love him, always eager to take a photo with him any time he takes a trip to the fancy city.
He never minds posing for the camera with his fans. Who would he be to say no to some sheer flattery? It helps being the Capitol favourite; it lets him enjoy his status to the fullest and all the benefits it allows him to make use of.
Like any sort of charges against him from that girl he took off the streets and into a hotel a month or two ago being dropped hardly a day after they were made. Bronze chuckles, loving the life of a celebrity.
Perhaps this year he'll get some decent company in the Victor Village. The girls he invites over are hot, sure, but it'd be nice to have a bro to act as a wingman. Perhaps as a flunky. Anybody, really, besides the huffy Gaudy girl and the one who has at least two heart attacks every quarter year.
Bronze adjusts his shades, smirking. He knows the boy who is going to volunteer this year and has already laid a personal claim to mentor the male tribute, paperwork and all. With how Kingsley Hark is sporty, a ladies man, pretty ripped in his appearance and a self-admitted fanboy of Bronze what more could he ask for in a tribute and future neighbour?
Bronze doesn't say anything nor react when the girl volunteers for this year of the Hunger Games. He spares her a glance – hot as always, but not really his type. Too flat. - but just shrugs. The real Victor is about to show up.
The Escort reaps a boy by the name of Crown Martins and one look at the tall, somewhat overweight candy maker has Bronze disgusted. Exactly what he doesn't want in a tribute, let alone a citizen of District One. He flinches when Crown starts talking, rattling on for over a minute over how he's happy to have his minute in the spotlight and advertising his family candy store.
Bronze is thankful, so thankful, when the Escort finally asks for a volunteer. He doesn't miss how the man dressed like a feathered elephant wants Crown gone as well.
...But nobody came.
Bronze barely has time to seethe and snarl over the fact Kingsley chickened out before the escort announces Crown as the official male tribute. As Peacekeepers take him and the girl inside the Judgement Building he feels like he is going to enter an outright fit.
"Well, have fun mentoring Crown," Peridot says with a smirk as she heads off to get on board the train.
Bronze barely contains himself long enough to storm away to an alley before having a meltdown. He thinks, mercifully, Crown will die very fast and be out of his hair.
He's wrong.
Crown never wanted to enter the Hunger Games and never trained for them. What use would he, a candy maker, have for all the gross and morbid blood and fighting? Made no sense to him, so he just kept it at the back of his mind and focused on his work. What is there to fear when somebody always volunteers these days?
Well, with the volunteer wimping out and there being no back-up this year keeping it out of sight and mind is no longer an option for the heavyset candy maker.
He keeps to himself for a while, just enjoying the luxury of the train and letting himself unwind from the rather emotional goodbye in the Judgement Building to his family before he settles down to get to work.
If he's here, then he may as well get stuck in and try to win.
At dinner, shortly after watching the reaping recaps, he speaks up to the rest of the District One team while buttering some fine bread and coating it with raspberry jam.
"So what's the plan for the Games guys like I assume the pack will be a thing as it always is but this year I don't see the Fours being accepted into the fold but I guess having just us and the Twos works well enough but what do we do beyond that I mean is it just training hard and fighting or are we gonna-."
"Shut up!" Bronze roars, slamming his fists down on the table, hissing like a snake.
Crown does, being no stranger to receiving that exact command on a regular basis. So, politely, he gestures for Bronze to keep going.
"You're not meant to be here. You're only here because Kingsley was too cowardly to volunteer," Bronze says, pouring himself out a drink of strong wine. "As far as I am concerned, you're not a tribute. You're not my tribute. You're not even here. You're not going to be in the pack, you're just gonna die on day one and damage our record. I have nothing else to say."
Bronze gets up and storms off, disgusted. Crown looks hurt, if only for a moment.
"Ok but is the pack really so vitally important because like you killed half of your year's pack before the second day was over out of petty jealous and like never really did anything with the girl at all so maybe I do actually have a chance because if you can win more or less alone why not me like am I really as weak as Gwenith c'mon I know I can score at least a four and she only got a two Bronze so please have a heart maybe?"
Bronze just shoves his hands over his ears, slamming the door of the carriage behind him without another word. Crown tries listing his skills – baking, keeping to a strict schedule, lifting heavy sacks of flour and sugar, smacking pests with a frying pan - to Peridot and Tiff – the female tribute – but it's clear they're having none of it. Peridot is pragmatic minded, always one to put stock into the most likely Victor and Tiff outright says she doesn't like sugar and that Crown talks too much.
"My advice, just run away," Peridot says, calm and cool. "Only chance you have."
"Or you know maybe I can find my own alliance and then we'll see who is really the Victor here," Crown replies, chuckling. "You do it your way and I'll do things my way and then Bronze can just I don't know get drunk and drugged in an alley somewhere I mean we all know he does right?"
Crown's only response is a chuckle from Peridot, nothing more. It's not long before everybody starts to turn into bed, aside Bronze who throws a massive fit in his room and Crown who stays up late to watch a cooking show.
That's the cover story anyway. He actually watches the reaping recaps with a bowl of toffee popcorn, trying to pick out the hungriest tributes and thus who will accept him an an ally chef.
District Twelve is the obvious choice.
With Crown shunted out of the Career pack a spot opens up for some lucky Outlier to take his place. It naturally creates plenty of competition amongst tributes, both in the parade and at the training centre. With the pair from Four on the shrimpy side this year the candidates for the slot become the huge boy from Five and the convict girl from Ten. The pair fight and argue viciously for their spot in the pack, while the three Careers laugh and simply watch the show.
Crown pays none of it any mind. He's keen to play things his own way, not the District One way. It's clear, not being a Career, the normal way his District plays the Games is simply not going to work.
But all Crown has to do is think back to how Bronze won his Games and decide that he's fine with this. He doesn't bother with the sword or spear training stations, instead paying very close attention to the edible plants and animals training station. Fire starting follows soon after, same with finding water. The stuff Careers would normally sneer at, having no need for any of it when the Cornucopia and sponsors can tend to all of their needs.
Crown doesn't just listen, he asks plenty of questions to the training staff with a notebook and pencil in hand.
"So if I end up in a desert would cacti be an edible kind of food because like I don't want to bloody my mouth up as that may end up just making me die faster than outright starvation would though maybe if it had no thorns I'd be fine maybe-maybe though actually do cacti ever come without the thorns or am I crazy but anyway I'm hoping for another forest with fruit that's not poisonous as I'm kinda gonna just cook my way to a victory and that's easier in an arena with natural food supplies because who is gonna sponsors a chubby candy maker like me beside people addicted to sugar but actually I think a lot of the Capitol are so I may have a chance what do you think?" Crown rambles on and on per the norm, never stopping for breath and always keeping a sincerely interested look in his green eyes.
The trainer trembles and twitches, grinding her teeth and pulling at her hair. The big boy from One is close to driving her absolutely insane, all without even trying to for even a moment. The only thing that stops her from fleeing is how her contract forbids her to leave her training station until her lunch break, regardless of what the reason might be.
It's to her relief that Crown leaves to check out the knife training station ten minutes later, eager to inquire about how effective the knives at the Cornucopia would be for cooking meat.
By the time lunch arrives several of the trainers are well and truly pissed off, all twitching and practically frothing at the mouth as Crown's voice rings in their ears, never quite leaving their minds.
A first for a District One tribute, Crown doesn't sit with his District Partner at lunch. Indeed, he doesn't sit with any members of the pack. Instead, he cheerfully sits down with the gloomy, skinny pair from District Twelve and asks if they'd like him to make them some fine candy pops.
The Career alliance ends up expanding to a total of five members, the trio deciding that they'd have an easier time by just going all out and letting both of the competing Outliers into their alliance this time. There are three of them and two of the others, and even then Braxxer from Five and Lamb from Ten hate each other. Little chance of it backfiring.
Crown, meanwhile, succeeds in creating his own alliance. A combination that had not been seen before his Games or a single time ever after, District One and Twelve had formed an alliance for the arena.
An alliance where candy making is first and central.
It's not hard, really, to come down at night with the intent of seeing if the rumours of the training centre being left open are true – they are – and it's easier still to sneak into the kitchen of the training centre.
From there Crown teaches the pair from Twelve, fourteen year old Cress and fifteen year old Remi – how to make toffee apples. The miners are entranced, amazed at what their ally shows them. He's nothing like the Ones they have seen in the Games growing up, always sadistic and cruel.
He's fun. He's nice.
And he makes a damn fine toffee apple. The security crew watch the whole thing on cameras and, sure, they could rush in any time to restrain the tributes and then tie them to their beds quick as a flash.
But they don't, as even they are amazed at the sheer skill and passion that Crown puts into the cooking lesson.
"Shame he's gonna die," one of the guards remarks. "Those toffee apples look amazing."
The interviews were a terribly painful experience for Mortimer, weaker by the day from ass cancer.
"I've loved being able to see the Capitol and try out some of the food here as you guys make some amazing stuff whether it's candy plums or fancy ribs or maybe even the solid gold cake that nearly but not quite broke a tooth in this jaw of mine which actually reminds me of a funny little thing I heard in training see the brutes from Two always kill the people from Six and their girl said she'd break the jaw of the girl from Six so like I think the girl should just run though I wish I knew her name but I honestly forgot what it was because after I saw that I scored a three I went to eat cookies and only saw the Twelves when I came back and by the way the miners are really nice people I mean seriously I'm glad to have met them since my District kinda doesn't like poor people which is dumb because Cress and Remi are really cool like guys they taught me what hopscotch is and I love it but anyway that actually reminds me of a quirky little anecdote from when I was six and this guy who might have been a werewolf or perhaps just a furry entered the candy store and asked for blood gummies and like well what crazy person refuses a werewolf or a customer right?"
A very painful experience indeed!
When the tributes are launched into the arena of the Twenty Fourth Hunger Games the first thing Crown does is let out a somewhat disappointed sigh.
He'd really been hoping for a forest of some kind, or even some kind of cave.
The hot sun beams down from overhead and the terrain is rocky and red as far as the eye can see. Where the ground isn't an angry red colour it's coated in dry bushes and a few cacti scattered sparsely here and there. All this, the distant rocky mountains and the probably lethal kangaroo mutts that hop around far away make it one arena that'd have no issues festering in the nightmares of District children.
Crown just sighs, feeling that suddenly it's gonna be harder to cook his way towards winning. But all the same he gets ready to make the run, always willing to do his best.
The only mercy he has from the pack is that Tiff has claimed she will not go for him in the bloodbath, though with four other Careers to worry over it's a small mercy at best. Part of Crown just wants to leg it like his allies probably will.
Part of him thinks running off into the arena without at least a pan, some flour and a bag of sugar is pure and utter madness.
The gong rings and suddenly the bloodbath itself is the source of madness, not the thought of running off without cooking supplies. Tiff keeps to word, ignoring her easy chance to stab Crown and instead stalking aggressively after the girl from Nine, a small girl who bravely tries duelling Tiff with a knife.
Crown tries not to pay attention to the screams and dying cries around him as he thunders along the rocky red ground towards the Cornucopia. He keeps his eyes right on the prize; a large backpack that has a frying pan hooked into the side. Clearly, it's meant for him.
Reaching it is the easy part, both knives thrown his way missing due to the boy from Eight hardly being what one could call an expert at throwing them. The hard part is getting back out when the crowd of Outliers is starting to thin out, whether they're running off into the distance like the girl from Seven or laying dead on the red ground like the gutted kids from Three.
The Careers turn their attention to himself and the boy from Ten. Crown and the lanky ranch hand meet eyes, knowing their best chance to live is to work together in their escape. Crown grabs two sacks of flour and tosses one to the boy from Ten, giving him a firm nod.
"Flour power, now! Now, now, now!" Crown shouts.
One moment the four Careers, with Tiff hanging back, are moving in to land their next pair of gruesome kills. The next moment the bags of flour have been opened and cast down, a pair of massive flour clouds filling the air. The blinding, thick blast makes it impossible for the Careers to see a thing and easy for Crown and the boy from Ten to run off in separate directions, dodging the Careers as they wildly swing their blades in hopes of hitting their targets.
A body hits the ground in a slump but when the cloud of flour finally settles it becomes clear that their prey have escaped and that one of the Careers, they don't know who, accidentally killed Braxxer.
Crown doesn't look back, instead panting as he runs through the open outback covered from head to toe in thick layers of flower. From a distance it's almost like a ghost is dashing through the land down under.
It's during the morning when Crown manages to find his allies from Twelve, or more accurately they find him. One moment he's frying up some cassowary eggs on a fire pit using the frying pan and the next moment his allies have stumbled over towards him, both hungry and thirsty due to having both ran away from the Cornucopia from the opening second.
Hungry as he is, Crown sees his allies are much hungrier and so he willingly let them eat the eggs and shares out some water. To the starving youths of District Twelve the idea of a generous tribute from One is mind boggling, but food is food and who would they be to question it?
"So what's the plan?" Cress eventually asks as the trio sit at the base of a large, rocky mountain.
"I'd guess not dying," Remi says, hunched up and afraid. "Crown, your District normally does well... what do we do?"
In response Crown gives an apologetic shrug, knowing he doesn't have the answers that Remi wants to hear for even a moment.
"Well I'm not really a District One tribute in the traditional sense as like my mentor ditched me and none of the rest of the One team really cared about me so I'm kinda just making it all up as I go since I'd have to be mad to even try and do things like a career I mean I'm not really strong or deadly and mainly I'm just good at making candy so I guess the plan is to just make candy and hope the rest starve quicker than we do though after that happens who the heck knows you know?" Crown promptly stops talking, munching on one of the apples that were in his large backpack.
"So basically we just have to hope people don't find us?" Remi asks, gulping. She's grown used to Crown's way of talking already, but right now wishes she hadn't. It's bad news.
"If that's true then let's find a cave," Cress says, getting up. "Still twelve people out there, let's go."
Before Crown and Remi can get to their feet a cannon fires, impossible for anybody to miss. Silence reigns for several, tense seconds.
"Now I'm no expert at math or many things really besides making candy but that cannon would imply to me that despite your knowledge of counting you're actually at least more or less partially one hundred percent incorrect as that noisy cannon tells us that not only is the noise of it even worse in here than on TV but there are actually eleven people left out there but hey at least it's one step close to being done with all this right?" Crown wrings his hands as he glances around the outback. "Going with a gut feeling here and saying that maybe possibly perhaps the girl from Four died."
The Twelves don't respond, just giving a light nod each. Life's cheap in Panem and with every passing year things like innocent youths dying just a few miles away become less and less of a shock for them to deal with.
Crown is incorrect as well. It's the boy from Ten that the careers find, having managed to find his flour trail and narrow the gap. Four on one makes it no contest, just a slaughterfest.
By the time the sixth day of the Games roll by it becomes clear that this will be another longer year of the morbid death game, though many hope it won't be to the level of the Ninth Hunger Games. Whatever the length, twelve tributes are still alive and spread out across the arena. Most travel solo across the outback, with the two main alliances on opposite sides of the arena.
The Careers let their ally from Ten lead them along, the bandit girl claiming to be an expert at tracking and be close on the trail of another tribute.
Crown and the Twelves, fast becoming known as the 'cookie brigade', are over ten miles away as the Careers close in on the girl from Eleven. Having taken shelter from the hot sun in a nice, empty cave their morning is peaceful and slow.
But, as Crown is aware that a lack of activity is an invitation for Gamemaker punishments, he decides to fill up the morning in the best way he knows how.
Making some fine candy.
And so, after requesting some ingredients from sponsors – items that Bronze, like it or not, is required to send in – Crown gets to work and hosts his own Hunger Games Cooking Show to teach Panem how to bake honey fudge.
Despite the misery that the subtitle staff are put through in trying to keep up with what the motormouth is saying the show is deemed a complete success and has Crown very popular with the fans. Even his allies, while not really popular in and of themselves, are liked by simply associating with the rather non-traditional tribute from District One.
It becomes a daily segment of the Twenty Fourth Hunger Games and a rather beloved one at that. Crown would request ingredients and then the nation would watch him bake some new culinary wonder under the hot sun of the outback. And, without exception, he would always allow his starving allies to eat the results.
They'd never had enough to eat while he always had. He felt it was only fair.
It kept the audience and even a few Gamemakers rather entertained near effortlessly. Many of them felt it to be a shame that inevitably Crown would be slain, his culinary talents lost, as he just had no way to beat the Careers in a fair fight, let alone an unfair one, even with the death of Tiff caused by a rather nasty rockslide leaving the pack at three members instead of four.
Crown didn't think about it. Indeed, he had become quite lost within the craft he was so passionate about and practically forgotten the fact he was in the Hunger Games at all.
It was the morning of day ten when Crown had his first true test of his resolve. At this point ten tributes were still alive in the arena, admittedly soon to be nine due to how dehydrated the skinny girl from Four had been for some time, and Crown had been almost done with teaching his audience how to prepare a rather... special variety of candy pop.
"So once you have the mixture all solid and well formed it's really just a matter of letting it set properly for a while to ensure the ingredients have time to reach their maximum effectiveness though given how potent this sort of thing is it's probably a fair bet anybody who eats it will be really feeling it," Crown says, coming to the end of the cooking lesson.
Cress and Remi applaud, both quite impressed by the show they were attentively watching. Cress remarks, not quite jokingly, that he'd love to give one of the candy pops to the Head Peacekeeper in District Twelve.
A moment later an arrow whizzes through the air and strikes him for a lethal hit between the eyes.
"Yeah, got him!"
As Cress slumps over, his cannon firing, the terrified boy from One and girl from Twelve turn to see the three members of the Career pack coming their way, Felicia from Two having been the one to fire the killing arrow.
"Run! Like holy crap run for your life we gotta get out of here!" Crown rambles, almost spluttering in panic as he makes a run for it down a steep hill and away over the sunbaked plains of the outback.
Remi tries to follow him, she really does, but one wrong step has her falling down the hill where her arm is broken. It's not long after that when the Careers catch up to her, laughing in triumph as they cut her up with their swords.
"Aw yeah, that gave me a rush!" Felicia cheers, pausing to scoop up one of the candy pops that Crown left behind. "Aw look, they even left us some candy to celebrate eliminating a District within one minute."
"Shouldn't you fire an arrow at Crown while he's still in range," Heto suggests, pointing to Crown a fair distance away as he flees for his life.
"I don't mind tracking him down for us; he's not getting far," Lamb adds, shrugging.
"Eh, I've got him" Felicia says with a chuckle.
Felicia puts the candy pop to her mouth, sucking on it as she notches the arrow and begins to take careful aim at the fleeing candy maker.
That's when she spits the candy pop out, screaming bloody murder as she wails and roars in pure agony. Her mouth begins to outright melt away, something causing her flesh to be rapidly taken out and what she swallowed of the candy pop starting to do the same to her throat and some of her insides.
Candy pops are sweet, but acid pops are certainly not. Corrosive acid is never a safe substitute for honey, a fact Crown knew when he made the choice to cook some 'combat candy'.
Heto tries to look indifferent as his District Partner dies in the rocky dirt. Lamb actually does look indifferent, suggesting they make their way after Crown.
"Eh, let him go. Let's be real, dehydration or a mutt is gonna get him soon enough anyway," Heto says, shrugging. "You said you tracked the boy from Eight out here right? He scored a seven; he's more worth killing."
"Eh, sure, you're the boss. He's probably within a mile or two of this place," Lamb says, starting to search for tracks. "Gimme a few minutes."
The Career pair soon leave to search for Mod from Eight, leaving Crown free to run for his life and search for shelter. Heto is right about dehydration being an issue, as before long Crown is panting for air and utterly worn out.
Suddenly, he's unable to think of anything but being in the Hunger Games.
Four terrible days of constant sunshine, distant howls of coyotes and total isolation pass by, Crown being uncharacteristically silent throughout all of them. With the Sponsors eyeing the Career pair as the likely final two of the year Crown knows he's lucky to even be getting sponsored one bottle of water a day.
Of course, he was lucky enough that it was Felicia that ate the acid pop and that the Careers didn't bother chasing him. Otherwise he'd have ended up like Mod did two night ago or how Dolphin did three hours after the deaths of his miner allies.
Crown is keenly aware that being far from a typical District One tribute makes him not exactly worth hunting down as a threat, this being a major factor in being one of the last five tributes in the arena. Perhaps being weak isn't so bad.
Or maybe it is, as he'll have to win the final fight to go home. He's out of ingredients, almost out of water and has no weapons.
"Water please?" Crown asks, hopefully. "I'll teach you how to make candy water."
His semi-lie works, a water bottle falling down soon after. He takes three big, greedy gulps before wiping his mouth on his loose sleeve. He's lost a notable amount of weight in the Games, his outfit starting to not exactly fit him anymore.
"Add sugar to water and, boom, you've got candy water," Crown says, worn out. "Simple, easy, very basic stuff right there."
Eventually Crown removes his sweat drenched shirt, the damn thing too loose on him now to be anything but an annoyance. One snap of inspiration later and he has a rock wrapped within his shirt. A sort of makeshift set of bolas.
The weapon proves effective when a coyote mutt attempts to attack him as the sun sets, leaving him with several impressed viewers and a source of coyote meat to last him at least two days.
However, the girl from Eleven lacks any weaponry of her own and as such becomes easy prey for the deadly coyotes patrolling the outback, their hunger unquenchable.
While Crown attempts to climb halfway up a cliff wall to get some abandoned cassowary eggs to make into an omelette for breakfast on the seventeenth day, the Career pair split with a vicious fight following when Lamb tries to get a cheap stab against Heto when he's not looking. Both tributes live past the confrontation, mainly just left to nurse their scratches and cuts.
While Crown makes his fine omelette and Lamb starts to track down the girl from Nine, the one who miraculously escaped Tiff at the Cornucopia bloodbath over two weeks ago,
It's around ten minutes before the female tributes get into a fight that Heto spots a massive razorback, one that could feed over thirty families easily. The beast snarls to itself, unaware it has company.
A parachute falls with a special syringe and, one jab at the mutt later, Heto admits that the stories are officially true. Olga is the best mentor in Panem. She's gotten him a perfect mount to ride into the final battle and mark his name into legend with.
While Crown finishes his omelette and starts to ponder if any berries may be growing around to use for a fine dessert Heto spots Lamb. The bandit had managed to kill the girl from Nine without much bother, but one look at the Career upon the razorback has her running for her life.
She doesn't run fast enough to evade the razorback and is instead trampled to an agonising death.
Heto begins to search for his final opponent while Crown, tired and dazed from the sunshine, begins his search for berries to put into a pie.
The pair meet at sunrise over the outback on the eighteenth day. Crown walks into a large area of flat, rocky ground and some dormant, incredibly tough looking termite mounds in hopes of finding food. Not five minutes later Heto arrives with a triumphant grin on his face, ready to run down the big boy from One.
Crown's words are impossible to decipher as he flees in terror from the Career and the razorback, knowing it's a hopeless fight. The Gamemakers cut off all escape with a harmless force field, one that has Crown running swiftly to the left, faster than Heto can steer his mutt, and towards a termite mound where he tries to catch his breath.
"Nowhere to run One!" Heto calls, more amused than anything else.
Crown looks up as Heto rides the mutt towards him like a madman.
He leaps out of the way with hardly a second to spare, the mutt smashing into the termite mound and howling in pain as it bucks around. The bucking makes Heto almost lose his own balance and gives Crown time to move away, a plan entering his mind.
If he cannot fight the mutt, then he won't. He'll make the mutt knock itself out using the arena as a weapon.
"You gonna come at me Heto? Gonna try and kill me?" Crown calls, panting for air near another termite mound. "Are you are you are you are you are you are you?"
Heto yells, annoyed, making his mutt charge after Crown once again. This time Crown is ready and dodges with two seconds to spare. One again the mutt, now bloody and bruised, bucks wildly and almost throws Heto right off.
Heto has gotten wise to what Crown is doing by the third round of this, but that helps nothing when the mutt is angry and hard to steer properly. Sure enough, not even a minute later the mutt crashes, knocking itself out and sending Heto flying until he lands roughly on the rocks.
"Ten point landing that was or maybe just maybe an eleven to match your training score you know?" Crown chuckles, trying to mask his fear with laughter. He swings his makeshift bolas, ever so tense. "Let's see how you do in a fair fight, huh?"
Heto tries, he really does, but it's not a fair fight at all. Not when the fall he just took has sharp red rocks dug deeply into his left leg and his right hand fractured. With his ability to fight mostly gone only twenty seconds pass before Crown's shirt and rock combo smashes his head like a watermelon.
Exactly like a watermelon.
Peridot is stunned to see that her District has a new Victor but won't argue the fact One will be getting more food and money. She's content.
Crystal cheers, having grown to rather like Crown as the Games went by and becoming somewhat addicted to watching his cooking show. She's happy.
Bronze slams his fist upon the counter, snarling in contempt. It doesn't matter to him that he technically mentored a tribute to becoming a Victor. This creature is a disgrace and a complete embarrassment to his grand luxurious District. He's disgusted.
Crown just smiles tiredly, for once silent and rather uncertain. He took two lives and he can never change that, no matter how many apology cakes he bakes for the families of the dead. But he's alive and he didn't need any training for it. He's relieved.
The after events of the Games pass like a blur, much like Crown's talking. The Capitol are already training themselves to understand 'speed talk', not wanting to miss a word from their new Victor. Some call him really strange and a dismal showing from One. Some say he's a fresh face from the Luxury District, a new look of sorts, and that he made the Games memorable. Some just shrug and say a Victor is a Victor and that he's at least better than Pi was.
Bronze feels absolutely disgusted with how things have gone, wanting nothing to do with the new Victor who chats speedily with Capitol business investors and easily charms some investments from them towards his candy store. Even shouting at Pi, the broken Victor sobbing enough to cause a notable puddle on the floor, doesn't particularly make the feeling of disgust go away.
He orders a drink, ready to enjoy a pint of fine champagne and charm a girl into spending a night with him. Before long though he's approached by a young blonde man, perhaps a year or two older than he is.
"Let me guess, a fan?" Bronze asks, sitting up straighter.
"Who wouldn't be? You're one of the all time favourite Victors in the Capitol," the man says with a fond chuckle. "I should know. I bet on you."
"Smart man," Bronze says, smirking. "So, want a picture?"
"Doesn't everybody?" the young man asks. "Much better to have one with you than this year's Victor. I find myself disappointed and not just because I lost my bet. I mean... an overweight candy maker from One? Not that he's really big anymore, but what a disgrace. I'd expect that from Seven, not One."
"Tell me about it," Bronze said, gesturing for the man to sit with him. "So what's your story? Famous citizen I've never met? A relative of Orion's?"
"Nothing quite so grand. I'm one of the interns of the financial department of the Capitol. Money this, fetching coffee that. A thankless job; I'd rather just hit it big and enjoy the good life like you did," the man said, sighing as he ordered a drink of his own. "Here's to District One winning next year and hopefully getting a Victor that's halfway decent."
"I can drink to that," Bronze says, laughing as he clinks glasses with the man's own. "So, what was your name again?"
"Coriolanus Snow," the man said, sipping his drink. "But just call me Snow, really."
"Amazing really that One had a candy maker go into the arena. That'd never have happened in our lifetime," Katniss said as she and Peeta kept moving down the street. "I was more used to beautiful, deadly murderers."
"I guess times change and fads change... or, you know, became the standard," Peeta said, shuddering. "I try not to think of it anymore than I really have to. When your earliest memory is seeing a Career tear the head off a citizen from Twelve... yeah..."
The pair were silent as they came to a stop, looking down at the twenty fifth face imprinted upon the sidewalk. The face that looked back at them was of a handsome young man, practically dashing, with a valiant look to him and a short crew cut. He oozed toughness.
"The winner of the first Quarter Quell," Peeta remarked, softly. "Vercingetorix Carnby."
"Now there's a mouthful of a name," Katniss muttered.
There we have it, the 'embarrassment of District One' and chatterbox extraordinaire, Crown! For this one, I felt it would be interesting to have a boy from a career District win despite being literally the opposite of what somebody might expect from D1 in the Hunger Games. Without Careers being ready to volunteer it'd just be normal people going in and when it comes to normal citizens... sometimes they can be rather quirky. I found Crown to be rather fun and entertaining to write for, what with the chattering and stereotype breaking, but do you agree? Regardless, Snow has finally made an appearance and the dreaded Quarter Quell looms near...
Stats
District 1: Peridot Gaudy (8th Games), Crystal McCree (14th Games), Bronze Marley (19th Games), Crown Martins (24th 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)