AUTHOR'S NOTES: This story was actually loosely inspired by a sort of "choose-your-own-adventure" style roleplay I had with my siblings once. Their decisions determined their successes or failures, and I went from there. Whatever the case, the names are random and aren't really anything to give much thought to, so there's that.
Either way, Happy Reading!
The 97th Annual Hunger Games
The farther into the 10th decade the games got, the more people started to accept the ongoing trend, and more importantly, people began referring to it as "The 2nd Golden Age" of the Hunger Games. The original 'Golden Age' had begun literally 50 years ago and spanned about a decade, and here was the current decade aiming to do the same thing. There were still a few years left to fully judge, but even by the 97th Annual Hunger Games, it was clear that this trend was going to be followed this year, and likely the next few years to come.
While originally, seeing a tribute score perfectly was a feat to be remembered, it was less memorable these days, but not for the reasons that some people thought. While it was clear that 11s and 12s were handed out much more frequently, extensive research into the Capitol's scoring system for the tributes actually revealed that the standards had increased over time rather than decreased. Tricks and talents that might have earned a tribute a perfect 12 half a century ago might have earned an 8 or a 9 today, and so these 12s and 11s (or even the 10s and 9s) were much more notorious, especially with the amount of time and quality of equipment today's tributes had.
District 1 produced strong volunteers under the names Fabian Herondale and Tiffany Chung, while out of District 2 came Oboro Valletta and Niles Davenport. All four of them appeared to be the usual career tributes that jumped up and volunteered for these games, although there was a glint in the eyes of the District 2 pair in particular that spelled out a drive to win—more than usual, anyways.
Competition came primarily from District 5 and District 11 this year, although not necessarily as alliances. Zack Peregrin and Eve Hallowell hailed from District 5, and while young, both showed great potential over the next few days in the training center. In District 11, Amelia Lauff and Eli Christiansen reached the stage, and visually, they were almost comical contrasts to one another. Amelia was a rather lanky girl who looked built for speed, while her partner Eli was a mountain of a man whose intimidating physique was offset by his surprisingly gentle personality. Where he was going though, there was no time to be gentle, and so time would tell if he had what it took to survive the games. Cable Evanston, the boy from District 6, also took interest in this partnership and offered his talents with the others to help them take down the formidable careers.
Ultimately, an informal alliance ended up forming between District 5 and District 11, surprising many people, but unlike the career pack which would likely almost always travel together, the four tributes intended to split up depending on various circumstances.
The careers hardly surprised anyone with their 11s or 12s anymore, as impressive as they were. However, 13-year-old Sophie Tong from District 12 proved to be quite the surprise. No one had really taken her seriously during the training, because it was rare for one of District 12's "Painted Tributes" to be so young, but when she scored a 12 in training, perhaps she was a force to be reckoned with.
Eli went and scored an 11 after a rather impressive display of survival skills and heavy weaponry, while his partner Amelia scored a 9 for her archery skills. Cable proved to be effective with knives, and also with gadgets and traps, earning him a 9 as well. Zack and Eve both scored 8s, which put this secondary group at slight odds against the careers, but the arena would be the true determining factor in how well or not the tributes actually did.
The arena had a District 7 feel to it, with pinewood forests as far as the eye could see once the tributes stepped away from the cornucopia clearing. Above them were grey skies, which some of the more observant tributes figured would either work for them or against them depending on what kind of weather came into play this year. During the 60-second countdown, tributes observed the amount of weapons, supplies, and other items that were spilling out of the cornucopia this year. There were a particularly large number of crates, and both Eli and Sophie in particular were eyeballing them with interest as the other tributes glanced around for weapons.
When the gong sounded, the mayhem began as it always had year after year. The 97th time it happened, several people barely lasted two minutes. Most of these deaths were at the hands of the careers, although Amelia got a rather impressive kill with a swiftly-fired arrow. Sophie disappeared in the fray and no one—not even the Gamemakers—saw her run off into the wilderness. Eli was targeted by several tributes for his large size, but he kept them at bay with a sword and mace, and at one point seized a particularly heavy crate and threw it so hard at another tribute that the would-be attacker didn't get back up. All in all, 9 tributes didn't survive. Milo, the boy from District 12, nearly made it out, but a well-aimed spear from Oboro took him down as he tried to run into the wilderness.
To the surprise of the careers and the Gamemakers alike, however, it almost looked like the alliance between Districts 5 and 11 (and Cable from 6) would take control of the cornucopia, but after they picked out the best supplies and ransacked a good deal of the remainder, they all scattered into the wilderness to let the games really begin. They were back in their natural territory, although the careers did manage to recover most of the remaining supplies, gathering them around the mouth of the horn.
Eli, Cable, Amelia, Zack, and Eve all made different camps around the arena, many of them rigging them up with traps, even. Nightlock berries were a common sight, although most of the tributes knew how to identify them and so were not worried about accidentally eating them. A few of them, including Zack and Eli, applied some of the juice to their weapons to give them added toxicity. Eli also used a pocketknife to carve pieces of wood into punji sticks, which he laid all around his camp. He worked late into the night, surrounding his entire camp except a narrow area where he would place a small but sturdy long that he'd use to get in and out of said camp. For a boy as large as he was, he had remarkably good balance, and so he was able to cross his log bridge with ease (and then move it so that other tributes wouldn't hide it. He didn't think any of the others had the same strength he did—and while he had no way of proving this, he was actually correct). As he returning from an early-morning forage for more food in the small hours of day 2, a cannon fired. He didn't learn of the death until a few minutes later when he saw hovercrafts picking up a body from his punji stick traps. Not necessarily proud of his feat, Eli was still relieved that he was one step closer to coming home.
While Cable had joined the informal alliance against the careers, his partner Kayla was not so lucky, and she found herself racing through the forest to avoid the arrows and spears of Niles and Oboro, who pursued her with great vigor. They chased her through the woods till she reached a lake, and with nowhere to run, she fell victim to Niles' arrow. While they were out, Zack and Eve were hiding among the trees, waiting for a chance to strike. Broad daylight was not the place to do so, and so they patiently waited. Fabian and Tiffany were still at the camp, however, and so movement would be difficult without being spotted.
Later that evening, Niles and Oboro were still off hunting, but a chain of events went down that caused a few heads to turn. One of the crates tipped over by itself, and little Sophie spilled out before hightailing it. As the pair from District 1 jumped up to give chase, Fabian received a hatchet to the back of the head as the boy from District 7 ambushed them. In the confusion, both Sophie and the District 7 boy managed to escape unharmed.
Amelia met back up with Eli as they made camp for the next couple of days. Eli went back to work on his punji stick traps, using the abundant nightlock juice to not only poison the sticks but also the tips of his arrows and spear, while Amelia went hunting. She was not the only one who was hunting, however, for Eve met her demise during the next afternoon at the hands of Niles, who along with his partner, were also still on the prowl.
The next couple of days were nearly silent apart from some fairly easily-dispatched Night Witches that emerged from the lake, and the two District 11 tributes began to construct a fortress around their camp. The catch was that they ran into the boy from the lumber district again, who attempted sabotage. Amelia out a swift end to him with a well-placed arrow, and a cannon fired. They learned later that evening that the boy's name was Steven Kumani.
His partner, a large dark-skinned, dreadlocked girl named Elsa Calhoun, however, was not through with trickery of her own. It started after the Capitol announced a feast at the cornucopia on Day 7, and while plenty of tributes showed up, about half of them didn't. Cable and Zack were both present, and they grabbed a few supplies and made their way out. Also present for some strange reason were bottles of whiskey, which Elsa partook of with vigor. She basically went on a drunken rampage using her battleaxe to take down Cable. For whatever reason, Zack though he could repel her, but his attempts didn't work either, and so he was cut down shortly after. The three remaining careers found some of the whiskey later on after the kids from '5, '6, and '7 had cleared out, and decided to put it to some use along with some of the other crates and supplies as they reclaimed the cornucopia. They lamented Fabian's loss from a few days earlier, but swore to not let his death be in vain.
Eli and Amelia were saddened to see the faces of their former friends in the sky that night, but they also agreed on an offensive maneuver, particularly against whatever tributes had done the deeds. Incidentally, because of the whiskey, the pair from '11 were able to pretty much waltz right up to the careers and attack. Tiffany did not survive the attack, although Niles and Oboro staggered away with minimal injuries. For their lack of coordination (definitely caused by the whiskey) they were surprisingly fast, although there seemed to be something addictive in the stuff. Whether that was a Capitol ploy or just circumstance on the Gamemaker's part was unclear.
Elsa, however, came rampaging back towards Eli and Amelia, and while Amelia shot her with a few arrows, she didn't seem to take the hint, and so she went head-to-head with Eli instead. She was similarly large and girthy like he was, and so it became a battle of physical combat. Both of them managed to disarm one another, although after a short scuffle, Elsa suddenly just dropped dead. Eli paused, looking at his hands, before Amelia reminded him of the Nightlock. Apparently the booze had slowed the poison's effects, but once it had worn off, the poison was as instantaneous as its reputation claimed it was, and thus had claimed Elsa's life.
The District 11 pair rested easy for the next couple of nights, although Eli was hit with sad news late on the night of Day 11 when he heard a cannon that wound up belonging to Amelia, who fell victim to Oboro's spear while she was hunting. The rest of the evening was quiet now that Eli was alone, and he realized now that there were only 5 tributes left.
While there was no sign of Sophie, an elusive District 8 girl approached Eli the next day, introducing herself as Mallory DeVara, and proposed an alliance. They didn't really know each other which would make turning on one another a lot easier if it came to that. Together, they decided to take an offensive against Niles and Oboro to take one or both of them down. Arming themselves with shields and weapons, they made their way to the career camp to make their move.
Day 12 marked the afternoon when Niles finally died, after Mallory got the best of him in combat. Her shield blocked his arrows, and she followed this up by basically bashing his face hard enough to knock him down before finishing him. Oboro threw a javelin through Mallory's shield and broke it, but she and Eli managed to escape.
On Day 13, the skies darkened and rain began to gently fall over the forest. Eli and Mallory thought they were safe considering how much they had moved around, but despite the amount of time that had passed, Oboro was still following them, and only moved in for the kill after Eli was out setting up his elaborate punji stick traps again. He normally would have raced to Mallory's aid when he heard her yells, but his poisoned sticks would not cut him any slack if he misstepped, and so he had to make precise movements to get out of his own trap. Mallory was able to hold her own against Oboro fairly well, but the career girl was too strong and too fast, and bested her right as Eli entered the scene. Oboro took it as a challenge and so charged Eli, using her speed to her advantage. Eli played defensively, trying to lead Oboro to the traps he had just finished making. Sure enough, all it took was one misstep and Oboro was impaled by the sticks, falling and getting stabbed further. That just left Sophie.
Eli found the small elusive girl hiding at the cornucopia, and by this time, the rain was more of a storm, with lightning and everything.
Eli used parts of the crates as shields and as weapons, taking an offensive against the dangerous little painted knife-wielder as she retreated into the cornucopia. Eli didn't fall for that trick however, and charged with his wooden shields out. This pushed Sophie against the wall, right as a bolt of lightning struck the cornucopia. The conductive metal horn electrocuted Sophie and basically fried her, ending the games in Eli's favor. The large dreadlocked boy had just become the 9th victor from District 11, and the 97th victor of the Hunger Games.
He returned home rather shaken, but recovered over time, and remained a gentle giant true to his reputation. He was never fond of violence beforehand, but after competing in and surviving the games, he was even more anti-violence than before. This coupled with his kind and gentle attitude made him a rather popular icon in the districts, particularly his home district. The Capitol had pushed him, but had not broken him, and Eli stood proudly, and managed to stay himself. Few victors could say the same…
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)
87HG: Connor McIrish (#6, District 8)
88HG: Ian Nelson (#8, District 3)
89HG: Kozue Sowa (#8, District 11)
90HG: Gill Wainright (#8, District 4)
91HG: Aveline Togisala (#5, District 12)
92HG: Amy Zavala (#16, District 2)
93HG: Korra Francisco (#17, District 2)
94HG: Cadence Montoya (#10, District 5)
95HG: Lux Calameda (#14, District 1)
96HG: Shishio Meraxa (#7, District 6)
97HG: Eli Christiansen (#9, District 11)