Finally a hunger games Tuesday that's not super late at night. Thanks to everyone who's stuck around this long.

HG 8

"Tell me tell me tell me." The kid begged. "It had to be horrible. Was it horrible?"

"Shut up." Korra threw the pillow she had been sitting on at his face. She made sure to fart in it before she did. He had been like that since she had gotten out of the shower.

"Quit fighting, both of you." Ilaq commanded, "The show's about to start."

"The kid refused to stop for the next few moments. He finally did when the television began to sing. "Fire Lord! My flame burns for you!" it began with the fire Nation's national anthem. Korra settled in her corner of the couch as Naraq shut off the lights.

Two capitalists announced themselves. They chatted a bit about the previous events. The lightning display during the parade was an especially long topic. It seemed to take forever for them to even mention training.

They showed footage of some of the training. They cheered a bit when Wei used his metalbending to form armor around himself. They laughed when the girl from seven slipped on the floor. Her sparing partner, a trainer armed with some sort of spear, would have been able to complete his finishing move "She better hope there's no ice in this year's games." The hosts would say.

"Are we going to see any more footage like that?" The host on the left asked still chuckling.

"Well no actually. Their training just ended." The right one answered,

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Lefts false surprise almost left her nauseous. "Why don't you show us the scores?"

Each tribute was represented by a second long video that froze at the end. The hosts would chat for a moment and then the score was displayed by a glowing white number that covered the picture.

Yong and Chee both scored eights while Wei scored a nine. The boy from district three ranked six and his partner a seven. They showed the boy from Korra's district first with him only scoring a lowly five. He sank into the couch a little when it was announced.

Korras image had been taken from the tribute parade. She truly looked like a princess dressed as the moon spirit. Snowflakes she had made drifted gently onto her dark skin. The image fell still halfway through a wave. She could be particularly happy they had chosen that instant to freeze her. She really did look happy.

"Now that one is a pretty one isn't she?" Left said with a little wistle.

"I'd be careful with that one." Right warned, "You see that necklace she's wearing? The water tribe uses those like wedding rings."

Korra blushed as Left blurted out "You mean she's engaged!"

"Poor guy too. Korra is the four volunteer this year. He had to know she would be entering the games at some point."

"Well tell us how she did so he can know too."

"Let us see here?" Right shuffled though some papers he was holding as if looking for the answer. Between nervousness and embarrassment Korra thought she really would be sick this time. "Korra's score is a nine."

Korra didn't realize she had been holding her breath until after they said her score and she could breathe again.

"Well that's not so bad." Left said.

"Not at all. One of the highest scores of the night."

Lights flashed and thunder rumbled over the voices of the host. They looked around as if afraid for a few minutes. "You know what that must be?"

"It's those lightningbugs from district 5 I bet."

"So who's this first one?" Left asked

The image they chose was one of Mako in the training grounds. In his hands he held a flame. It was small enough to hold in his palms but it burned with a bright light that cast strange shadows on his face. At first glance there seemed to be nothing interesting about it. The boy and even the mentors probably dismissed it. But Korra had the eyes of someone who was secretly a firebender. She could see the concentration on his face, the strain in his muscles.

Barely visible against the glow of fire Korra could see the leaf. It was burning but had not been comletly engulfed in fire. It took a good amount of control to both fuel a fire and contain it like he was. Korra was sure the people of the capitol, most of them firebenders by birth, would have noticed the detail.

"That's mako. You remember him don't you? That's the boy who volunteered."

"Oh right. How could I forget? It was just so touching the way he fought for his brother like that. I wonder what the other tributes think of him."

"Well I hear they don't think much of him at all." Right answered.

"You're kidding." Left playfully hit his co-host with his stack of papers.

"I'm not. Rumor has it he hasn't spoken to any of the tributes since arriving at the training arena." Korra frowned at the words. He had talked to her on the first day. Did they not know that or were they ignoring it for the camera?

"A silent killer I would hope?"

"Oh you don't have to hope on this boy because he scored an eleven. There's serious fire in this one. The city is calling him the Dragon of Republic City . . ."

Eleven? An eleven? Korra felt a stone sink in her stomach. Nothing else the announcers said mattered anymore. He was good but that good? What could he have possibly done? Korra had done her best to fight off four vicious polar bear dogs and that didn't even get her a ten. Didn't the gamemakers know how many seasoned warriors fell to even one of those beasts in the wild? What did Mako do? Kill a dragon blindfolded? She had to know.

Korra found it hard to concentrate on the rest of the scores. None of them were as high as hers or Makos. The boy from district seven had scored an eight. When they were finished the hosts were chatting again. Koyak shut off the television set.

"Well I'm getting dessert and heading to bed." The boy said. His head was a little low. Korra guessed he was still hurt over his score.

"There's still night light left." Iza told him. Their costumer had joined them halfway through the evaluation announcements. "We need to talk about interview time." The boy didn't argue, just flopped back on the couch.

"My dad said you just picked out our costumes." Korra told him.

"I do. But I need to give you some instruction before. Korra I need you to not put your hair up tomorrow." Korra nodded. When she asked what else Iza just waved her away and turned to the boy.

Korra knew better than to argue with them anymore. He seemed to get all the late night training he could want while Korra was sent to bed. Korra supposed he needed it at this point. Not that she really thought it made a difference to him anyway. She was perfectly alright with just heading to bed. She had added an owl to the soundtrack the night before. Sennia had always liked the sound of owls.

The next morning the boy was still sitting on the couch. Koyak was sitting across from him trying to teach him the proper way to sit. Had the kid been there all night? Korra didn't bother to look at him and poured herself a glass of lychee juice.

Ilaq got her attention with a heavy hand pounding on the table behind her. "So." He said heavily. "Sit." He didn't even give Korra the chance to ask to start breakfast. She sat on the couch opposite the boy. She sat up straight when Ilaq snapped "Up."

"What did I do?" Korra asked.

"You slept in." Ilaq told her sitting down. Kozan shook his head.

"If there was ever a district that needed to learn how to behave it's you water districts." Kozan said shaking his head. "aside from the games the interview tonight is going to be the hardest part."

"Isn't it just some capitalist guy asking me questions?" Korra asked, "How is that hard?"

"This is going to be the only chance the public gets to see you." Koyak answered, "The real you. And you need to give that to them. Yes they are looking for someone who looks like they can win the games but aside from scores they don't have much of a way to know about your chances of that."

"The people want more than just a fighter." Kozan continued, "Districts like you don't understand that there is more to life than just maim or be maimed. They want a tribute with backstory and plot twists. They want a tribute that they can emotionally invest in."

"Like the boy from five?" Korra was almost surprised the kid mentioned Mako. Had he been paying attention to him too?

"Exactly like the boy from five." Kozan answered pointing, "I can almost guarantee that if they aren't talking about his score they're going to be sapping on about his brother. People here just eat that stuff up like chocolate."

"I have brothers," The kid perked up. "I could mention them?"

"What have your brothers ever done?" Korra added.

"More for you than you'll ever care about." The kid's anger was sharp when he snapped at her.

"Knock it off or I'm separating you two." Koyak said, "Unless you have some sappy love story about your brothers I doubt it'll be helpful. A small group of older boys hazing your way to manhood isn't going to go over well. Do you have maybe a sister? One who needed her brother to keep her savfe from winter and polar bear dogs?" The way he looked at the kid made it sound like more of a suggestion than an idea. But the kid only shook his head.

"Then scrap siblings." Ilaq said, "If we do that now it'll sound like we're stealing the strategy of the five boy. What about a girlfriend or something? A sweetheart you're coming back to?"

"I have my necklace." Korra said touching the stone. "They even mentioned it during the announcement."

"And you're telling me a boy gave you that necklace right?" Koyak said with a raised eyebrow.

"No. Asami did. Asami Sato. I mean she didn't give it to me herself but it's from her."

"This is the capitol, Korra, not Zaofu. The people here are descendants of an organization that overturned the entire world to preserve their ancient ways. They're not going to take well to two women being together. You'd be better off not wearing it or remembering right now that it was a man who gave it to you."

"It was a man that gave it to her." The kid said almost sounding determined. "She just isn't remembering it right."

"Good." Kozan leaned back in her chair. "Now, Narak, we just need to work on you." Korra learned more about the kid's life than she needed too as the mentors asked him question after question trying to forage a story for the interview. He grew up in the same city Korra did. His family had never exactly known wealth, his father was usually never around. The kid believed he out hunting for the longest time, but when he would be gone for days and come home smelling of drink he finally learned otherwise. Korra stopped listening. She thought it was nonsense. If something like that were happening the women of the tribe would be gossiping over it day and night. She would have heard it at least once.

Finally with his story set the mentors turned to presentation. The kid snapped straight and his head high. "Not like that, you look like a pole." Kozan would say.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Koyak was actually the one to interject there. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "I sat just like this for my interview. Seemed to go over just fine."

"Yes well this boy isn't a four-hundred pound gorilla bear like you." Kozan told him, "and if you aren't going to look intimidating you're going to have to look sophisticated. Remember, your father was a monster, to you and your family, but you've risen above all that. And don't try too much it looks forced."

Korra was pushed straight by a finger at her spine between her shoulderblades. She had been watching the boy so closely she hadn't noticed Ilaq coming beside her. "You want your chest out a little." He said, "You've been pretty gifted there. Let the audience have something pretty to look at."

"What?" Korra shrank back at the idea.

"The spirits gave you a gift. I don't think any of the other tributes are as well endowed as you. Let that be an advantage."

"My advantage is my bending."

"In the arena, yes. But here it's your chest. Now put them out unless you want them to pay more attention to the girl from one. They're not as big but she's cute enough."

With a frustrated sigh Korra finally obeyed although she still felt uncomfortable. The process went on for hours. How to sit, how to stand, how to wear high heels. Korra was grateful Asami had made her wear them in the past. She had no memories of her mother wearing them. How would she have done?

It wasn't until Iza returned to them at about suppertime that it was allowed to end. Even then Ilaq followed her into her prep room to give her more instruction as she was changed. She couldn't tell him how uncomfortable it was having him standing there, seeing her change. Especially after what he said. Did she really need his advice that badly at this point?

Iza had transformed her into the moon spirit again, this time with much more of a theatrical flair. Her dress was coated with glittering gemstones that made her look like a star. Her hair was unnaturally white, something Iza promised would wash out before the games. It was adorned with more glittering stones and pale blue jewelry. A translucent train flowed behind her like a wave of glittering mist. Her face was covered in enough make up Korra was surprised she looked anything like herself. And they had left her eyes clean of any liner although the girls tended to chat about how perfect her lashes were.

The only part of her aside from her face that was visible was her collarbone. The way the skin there was so smooth and lotioned it seemed to glow. And it glowed for one purpose: To put her betrothal necklace on display. "You wanted to be an engaged moon spirit," Iza told her, "and that's what you'll be."

They took her downstairs then to wait for the interview to begin