AUTHOR'S NOTES: A slight break from the crazy, but fear not, it will resume. Interestingly enough, this was actually the last chapter of the entire series that I wrote. I'm not really even sure why; I had always intended for the games to go sort of like this, and knew the victor's name ages ago.
Whatever the case, Happy Reading!

The 86th Annual Hunger Games

A great deal of mystery surrounded the 86th Annual Hunger Games, from the tributes and victor to the nature of the arena and hazards; and even to why it was supposedly not considered very memorable. Like many of the other slower games, the so-called justification for the "slowness" of these games was a lot thinner and held a lot less water than most other years; but at this point, it was what it was.

It was common for a place like District 1 to produce attractive tributes just as it was hardly surprising to see ruggedly good-looking strapping youths volunteer from District 2. Because of this mindset, the Capitol didn't really bat an eye when District 1's Aurus and Sapphire turned out to be lookers, or when District 2's Naisha and Fukaya turned out to be athletic and attractive. It was not to say that they were not impressed (and plenty of sponsors lined up for them too), but after nearly a century, it seemed that it was basically just something the Capitol expected.

What they did not expect, however, was to see that sort of thing from District 9. Maxwell Bunch and Marian Greene almost looked like creatures out of District 2 and District 1 respectively. While it was well-known that District 9 was ostensibly poor, not all of them were struck with the same kind of crippling poverty that District 11 and District 12 faced on a regular basis. It was certainly not to say that the Bunch family and the Greene family were living in the lap of luxury, but Maxwell was able to keep in shape surprisingly well, and Marian, despite being the eldest of 5, was also still well-cared for.

It was she who became something of an unintentional celebrity when they reached the Capitol. The stylists and potential sponsors fawned over her good looks, and already her prep team was deciding what angle they were going to take with her.

Good looks alone would not win someone a Hunger Games though. A score of 9 might do it, however, and perhaps symbolically, both Maxwell and Marian scored 9s in training. This was outdone by the careers who all scored 11s and 12s, and by a couple tributes from Districts 11, 5, and 3 that took 9s or 10s; but all in all, they still had respectable scores in the grand scheme of things. Of course, none of that would matter if they went the way of most of their peers and predecessors by becoming cannon fodder in the bloodbath and opening minutes.

A whopping 12 tributes were killed in the opening minutes, almost as if it was a sign of things to come. The rest of the arena however, made it feel like there might be a delay between now and the end of the games. They were surrounded by rocky cliffs and mountains riddled with cavities and caves, which the tributes ventured into at different times. The cornucopia had weapons and supplies, including food, although even the career pack didn't want to linger too long. The central location of the golden horn made it visible from almost any angle, which in turn meant that anyone who remained there might get cheap-shotted, among other things.

There was quite the night in store for Marian, however. Sponsor gifts started almost raining down on her, for she had become something of a meme and a sensation back in the Capitol, and it seemed a lot of people, for whatever reason, wanted this District 9 girl to come home. For a while, she hoarded these gifts in one of the caves, not wanting to use them out of fearing that someone was rigging the games in her favour, and so instead, she went out and hunted other tributes.

Most of the case systems were dark and dim, although a few of them had natural lighting from the outside or faintly growing crystals inside. Given how many holes and cavities these rocks had, it made her wonder how easily some of them would come down, and so when she was not busy with combat, her own survival, or dealing with whatever monsters lurked in these caves, she got to work planning on how to trap other tributes and bring parts of the caves down.

To the surprise of many, Marian killed two tributes in single combat, and took out another four more by collapsing a cave tunnel on them. All of this happened during Day 2 and Day 3, and suddenly there were only 6 tributes left: her and Maxwell, and then the four careers—Aurus, Sapphire, Naisha, and Fukaya.

Despite Marian's willingness to share her gifts with Maxwell, he did not fare as luckily and got taken out by one of the careers on Day 4, but Marian responded with an attack of her own. She was armed to the teeth and ready for a fight, and it seemed that there was more to her skills than just good looks.

The sponsor gifts tilted the odds in Marian's favour, where she led her enemies into the caves. She attracted the attention of some sort of dark-dwelling monsters, but since one of her sponsor gifts was a pair of night-vision goggles, she managed to escape and let them run chaotically through the tunnels and ambush the careers, who were not so fortunate. All in all, the last four cannons all went off by the afternoon of Day 5, thus ending the games swiftly and soundly. Marian had become the 3rd victor from District 9, and the 86th victor of the Hunger Games.

The "Marian Sensation" lasted just under a year as a large Capitol fad, and then luckily for her she faded into a little more obscurity after that. There were still plenty of people that were fond of her (and she was still very good-looking) and so there was still plenty of media attention for her whether she liked it or not. Her games had been an interesting case; they were fast-paced, although weren't exactly remembered in the legendary years for one reason or another. Whatever the case, a victor was a victor, and while Marian was shaken from the games and was not exactly fond of attention, she was still just as good looking now as she was back in her games. They could not take that away from her—not yet anyways…

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)
60HG: Lucas Drazen (#10, District 1)
61HG: Kara Petersen (#5, District 7)
62HG: Enobaria Taos (#11, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Zianja (#11, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Zianja (#12, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#5, District 4)
66HG: Elroy Trujillo (#12, District 2)
67HG: Varric Svenja (#6, District 11)
68HG: Carver Tabris (#2, District 9)
69HG: Bethany Shanza (#8, District 5)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#6, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#6, District 7)
72HG: Immanuel Cox (#3, District 10)
73HG: Paige DeSiete (#5, District 8)
74HG: Clove Kazera (#13, District 2)
75HG: Katniss Everdeen (#3, District 12)
76HG: Johnny Stallings (#9, District 5)
77HG: Ikki Ortolani (#7, District 3)
78HG: Ryuka Satoru (#6, District 6)
79HG: Nailah Zoraki (#13, District 1)
80HG: Zenzi Tallarico (#7, District 11)
81HG: Kaede Raiden (#14, District 2)
82HG: Katsuo Raiden (#15, District 2)
83HG: Mandy Ikezhen (#7, District 4)
84HG: Vigo Zakatau (#4, District 12)
85HG: Resin Balthezar (#7, District 7)
86HG: Marian Greene (#3, District 9)