AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sure enough, there is almost certainly going to be three chapters this week! My update schedule might be slightly erratic for the next 7-8 days, but I will do my best to keep on schedule. Anyhoo, with Cecelia's games done and gone, we are down to only 6 more victors before we reach the AU turning point. We're more than halfway done here, and so far the going is good.
Happy Reading!

The 59th Annual Hunger Games

After the kills and thrills of the previous year, Gamemakers in the Capitol were wondering if they could put more focus into treacheries of the arena to keep tributes on their toes. The last year's arena had been diverse, but most of the fighting took place in a few small areas even if most of the tributes actually managed to explore most of the arena. As such, the plans for the 59th Annual Hunger Games hoped to address this issue. Such was the nature of the Hunger Games: always striving to change and improve to keep the Capitol audiences entertained year after year.

Districts 1, 2, 3, and 5 all showed great potential this year, as did the District 11 pair once again. Gates Crenshaw and Nevada Cobble were a reminder of the quiet nefariousness that comprised District 5, while their promising allies, Akiyo Tenshi and Zhin Lyautey from District 3 were a bit more open about what they were going to do. While trap-building and weapon-crafting were all viable tactics to use in the game, combat skills of some level were almost always a necessity, especially in the later games as the Capitol upped its standards and increased the quality of the time spent in training, as well as the very facility that they used to train the tributes.

Whatever the case, there were at least a dozen of this year's tributes that were in fine form, including Gerome and Jade from District 1, who joined up with Orpheus and Zenzi from District 2 to form the annual careers, as was practically tradition. A few years it didn't happen, but this was not one of them.

Gerome surprised the crowds in the training arena by bringing out a perfect 12, while his partner Jade scored a 9. Orpheus took a 10, and Zenzi took another 9 as well. Gates and Nevada actually scared some of the outer tributes, who often fell victim to District 5's nefarious schemes, after Gates scored a 9 and Nevada scored an 11. Zhin and Akiyo scored a 7 and an 8, but considering that these two were actually rather attractive individuals from their district, there were sponsors lining up for them before the training scores had even emerged.

The tributes glanced around at the arena as they emerged from the catacombs and into the sunlight. It looked almost the same as the year before it, what with the azure, cloudless skies and the brown and red rocks and sand surrounding a fairly hot desert, but there was no lake in sight like there was last year. Instead, the cracks in the rocks were small streams and slot canyons, and 14 of the tributes were able to scour these ridges and canyons, leaving 10 dead tributes in their wake as the bloodbath subsided that morning. There were not really any noteworthy goods or items at the cornucopia this year: just the usual standard fare of weapons, supplies, backpacks, and food. Jade, Gerome, Orpheus and Zenzi took command of a majority of these supplies after the alliance from District 3 and District 5 took off into the canyons. The pair from District 11 also vanished, escaping from the bloodbath with a pair of daggers for each of them.

Akiyo received favorable sponsor gifts in one of the cool, sandy slot canyons where he and his partner made camp, while Zhin received some of the finest looking blades money could buy. This helped the pair from District 3 venture out and take down a few of the mutts that invaded these canyons: much larger reptilian creatures, and scorpions the size of a small child. It didn't take a genius to realize that one sting from them would probably be lethal. Two tributes learned this the hard way.

5 days passed with only one other death. Water was becoming scarce, and the careers were still wary of these narrow little slot canyons where they could so easily push rocks down, or flood with sand. However, they had most of the water the arena had to offer, trickling from fresh springs which in turn removed any need to filter or purify it.

The advantage of the slot canyons was that they were free from the mutts and monsters of the arena, which seemed to either fear venturing into them, or simply avoided them for reasons unknown to the tributes. The downside was that anything edible was above ground, and the rocky terrain was not always stable. A few falling rocks could kill a tribute if they were careless. Zhin actually did manage to loosen a rock and drop it on a tribute below her, the cannon firing almost immediately as the boulder made impact with the rocky ground, killing the tribute sandwiched between the two of them.

The tributes were spread out too far at first for much action to happen, and so the Capitol aimed to bring them together in the canyons. On day 7, they released heavy nauseating fog that drew lower and lower until it was hovering only a few inches above the rims of the canyons. Five more tributes died this way, including Orpheus, Jade, and Gates. The remaining two careers found Nevada before Akiyo and Zhin could, and the girl turned traitor to join the careers fairly quickly. The district 11 pair had died in the haze, and so the remaining five tributes were Gerome, Zenzi, Nevada, Zhin, and Akiyo.

The tributes explored the canyons for a couple more days to try and find one another, but one day as Akiyo was out exploring, Zhin scaled part of the wall to try and figure out what the rumbling noise was. She heard water flowing from inside one of the rocks, and wondered if there was a river nearby, or if it was in the rock. If she could break it, she could flood the other tributes out of the canyon, or at least force them (what she perceived as) downstream and into some of the traps she had built. She hoped for a sponsor gift, but went to work on chipping away at the wall with what she had.

Apparently there were a lot of Capitolites that wanted her to win, or maybe it was just chance caused by the Gamemakers, but whatever the case, the next morning the skies were grey, and it began to rain. The nature of the slot canyons caused them to flash flood, and Zhin fled to safety. She scampered back up her side of the wall, clinging to the stone as torrents of water rushed around her and down the cracks, nearly forcing her off the wall and into the now raging river below them. Luckily for her, the tools she used to latch onto the wall were of high quality thanks to her sponsors, and so she clung onto the wall for dear life as her ally Akiyo and her three enemies were washed away, eventually triggering Zhin's traps and scoring the girl the last four kills she needed to escape the arena alive. With their deaths, Zhin became the 6th victor from District 3, and the 59th victor of the Hunger Games.

Like the girl the year before, Zhin was a very beautiful and desirable tribute that became a Capitol favourite for many reasons, some more savory than others. She handled it coolly and calmly just like she did in the games, but was often left with a taste of discontentment just as she had been in the games. The throngs of sponsors made more sense to her now, but like her predecessor, she learned the ways of the Capitol games, and learned how to play. She dealt with her own demons and nightmares like every other victor did, but she was cool and patient, like a chessmaster making subtle moves before entering the final assault against the enemy. She learned that there were far more games that went on beyond the Hunger Games, and after emerging a victor from them, she learned not only how to play them well, but also how to emerge as a victor…

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)
8HG: Malcolm Reed (#1, District 6)
9HG: Mags Cohen (#1, District 4)
10HG: Faren Dragmire (#2, District 1)
11HG: Maius Karuha (#2, District 2)
12HG: Iunius Karuha (#3, District 2)
13HG: Hilda White (#1, District 10)
14HG: Minali Otoyome (#2, District 3)
15HG: Willow James (#3, District 1)
16HG: Lark Chandnea (#2, District 11)
17HG: Woof Casino (#1, District 8)
18HG: Leah Holden (#2, District 7)
19HG: Zeruda Mezkiel (#2, District 6)
20HG: Muscida Lee (#2, District 4)
21HG: Kada Lahka (#4, District 2)
22HG: Gleam DiFronzo (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ivette Coronado (#3, District 5)
24HG: Olivia Thurman (#1, District 9)
25HG: Laurel Fox (#1, District 12)
26HG: Daron Armstrong (#5, District 2)
27HG: Cobalt Evans (#5, District 1)
28HG: Lyme Golding (#6, District 2)
29HG: Ash LosDias (#3, District 7)
30HG: Challis Worth (#2, District 8)
31HG: Beetee Latier (#3, District 3)
32HG: Fletch Crossley (#4, District 5)
33HG: Seeder Howell (#3, District 11)
34HG: Price Emerson (#6, District 1)
35HG: Leto Irizari (#7, District 2)
36HG: Jackson Kjelle (#5, District 5)
37HG: Zerviah Hawke (#3, District 6)
38HG: Wiress Plummer (#4, District 3)
39HG: Nephi Lott (#3, District 4)
40HG: Miriam Luxio (#7, District 1)
41HG: Marcelina Kovac (#6, District 5)
42HG: Niles Lincoln (#8, District 2)
43HG: Blight McKay (#4, District 7)
44HG: Sagittaria Svenja (#4, District 11)
45HG: Dezna Meraxa (#4, District 6)
46HG: Alice DeSiete (#3, District 8)
47HG: Aurum Zianja (#8, District 1)
48HG: Layla Aranai (#9, District 2)
49HG: Chip Sangster (#5, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Derrick James (#7, District 5)
52HG: Chaff Mitchell (#5, District 11)
53HG: Brutus Gunn (#10, District 2)
54HG: Tiffany Waxler (#2, District 10)
55HG: Zak Dreggite (#4, District 4)
56HG: Zoroka Chandaki (#9, District 1)
57HG: Cecelia Sanchez (#4, District 8)
58HG: Meili Meisha (#5, District 6)
59HG: Zhin Lyautey (#6, District 3)