Yttria Noxus- Descent Into Madness D3F

First aid was so cool. I guess I should have expected that, since humans were so complex, but I'd never really looked into it much. Anatomy class in school had always bored me. Now that I was having so much fun, I was starting to think maybe Mr. Dilbert was just a boring teacher. How did you make something like this boring? Just learning about tourniquets, for example. Super harmful, obviously, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do- like a wolf gnawing its leg off. Anyway, the way the nerves stayed alive and they knew there was supposed to be something more there, so you kept "feeling" your arm even though it wasn't there? And that even helped amputees control their prosthetics?! Mindblowing. I didn't even know one percent of it yet and I wouldn't before the Games began, but I wished I had ten lives, just so I could do this and be an author and be president.

I looked up from the splint I was working on and saw Paloma working at the fire station. Even if we'd both made fires before, it had turned out to be a lot harder than we'd expected, and there were all sorts of different materials we hadn't worked with. I wanted to get up and tell her about what I'd learned, but I found myself distracted just looking at her. She was bent over her tiny fire, tucking her hair behind her ear with irritation as it threatened to fall near the flames. Something about it brought to mind a forest witch hunched over her pot of whatever it is witches boil. It still hurt that it was just the two of us instead of our old group, but I was more thankful than I expected that I still had Paloma. It was only going to hurt me in the end, having friends, but I didn't regret it. The Capitol could tear Panemians apart, but it would never stop us from coming back together.

"Hey, I got it!" Paloma straightened up from her now-healthy fire and turned to call to me, pointing at the little blaze. There was something about her smile that made me smile back without even realizing it, though of course I was happy she'd done it. It was the sort of smile that tugged at your face, the ones you can't fake for a picture. That, coupled with the way my insides pulled when she turned and the way her eyes always looked hooded but somehow still looked so alive, was how I knew what it was I was feeling.

It was natural, wasn't it? I'd always wanted to be with someone like me, but who balanced me out. Paloma loved learning and she'd always been honest, just like I tried to do with others. However, she was quieter than I was, and happier working in the background. I could just see it, and I let myself. I'd work all day in some high-powered office, changing the world, and then I'd come home to Paloma, who would have her own job and passions, but who would always have time to point some tiny thing out to me that I never would have appreciated without her. I let myself see it, and ride through the feelings it pulled up in me, and then I let it fade away. My emotions were outside my control, as was my love. Even so, I controlled what I did with them. Paloma was a lovely person, entirely deserving to be the object of a crush, and far more than that. But love needs time and place as much as feeling. There was nothing down that path for us, as wonderful as it would be if there was. I let myself feel the crush and then I laid it aside, knowing it was still there but choosing not to open it. Some things in life can't be, no matter how much we want them.

Priscilla Piscot- Back to Normal D1F

Ding-dong!

I sat up from where I'd been goofing off playing video games, having told Miall they were "virtual reality training". Who on earth would be ringing the doorbell? Anyone from One would just barge right in, and any other Career would, too. No outlier would come looking for interaction with the Ones. So who was it? I opened the door.

"OH MY GOSH!"

It didn't matter that my baby sister's black hair was now zebra-striped, or that she was taller than I was. My baby sister would always be my baby sister! Kiko's eyes flashed as I opened the door, and then her big smile lit up. We grabbed on to each other, hopping on our toes and screaming.

"You're here?!" I said, only slightly quieter than a scream.

"It's very important I keep tabs on Games fashion," she said in a faux-serious tone.

Inside, we stood near the door, too excited to settle down to any activity.

"Are you rich and famous?" I asked.

"Don't you know it," Kiko said, flashing the jeweled bracelet on her wrist. "Where"s Miall?"

"Guess," I said, my nose wrinkled.

After getting Miall out of the training room, we triumphantly proceeded to a cafe to update each other.

"Little sis has a Capitol accent now," Miall teased.

"I do not," she said.

"I do not," Miall and I both said in Capitol accents.

"How are Mom and Dad?" Miall asked.

"They got over it," Kiko said, referring to their very strict order that Kiko would volunteer if I died. Kiko, being almost eighteen, simply… didn't.

After that we wandered through the Games building, popping into whatever caught our eye.

"Oh my gosh, token!" I said, pointing to the retro photo booth in the middle of the aisle, clearly unused for some time. We all squished in. That night, Kiko next to me and Miall on the floor for our impromptu sleepover, I looked at the best token in all history. There was one pic of the three of us, Miall's and my shoulders hanging out of the edge of the booth, making our best smiles. One pic of us making our worst smiles. One pic of us in a group hug. Last of all, my favorite- me and Miall doing pull-ups on the edge of the booth, and muscle-less Kiko hanging off Miall's back.

Artemis Jager- Res D2F

I hadn't spoken to Pray since the day I came back. Two didn't prepare us for things like this. I could kill someone, or… basically, that was it. That was all we knew, and clearly Pray was even worse than I was. I didn't even know the words for what I felt. I couldn't possibly even know how to begin to talk to her about this. All I could think to do was stay back and let her come when she was ready. But what if she was never ready? I missed her. That much I knew- it hurt my soul how much I missed Pray. Even if she ever talked to me, I knew she wouldn't be the little sister I left. I'd missed not years, but decades of her life. She was a stranger and I was a ghost from her past.

Everything had changed. Pray was gone- that was the biggest part, but it wasn't all of it. I recognized nothing in the Games Building I was in. I recognized none of the features, none of the people- even the accent was different. Some of the old guard was still here, but just seeing them brought it all crashing down. When I'd last seen Mags, during a clip show for the twentieth Games, she'd been a young woman. She could have been my ally. Now she was an elderly woman. I passed her once walking to the training room and I just stood there, rooted to the floor at the visceral sight of just how much time had passed. There was no making up for this. I didn't even know where to start.

My training took over, and all I could think to do was focus on winning. But where to start there? I hadn't won last time, so clearly that wasn't the way. Some things hadn't changed- throwing a spear was still throwing a spear- but it was clear training had progressed since I first played. I picked up a throwing knife and felt its familiar position in my hand. Before I could throw, my eyes were covered in tears. I saw myself the way Pray must have- her cool big sister, setting the path she'd one day follow. If I'd never trained, would she have? If I'd won, would that have been enough for her? I'd followed the only path that led to her becoming what she was.

The spear lay guiltily in my hand. It was the obvious choice. Big pointy stick, can't mess it up. The only thing was, looking around at everyone else, I felt the humiliating truth that I wasn't on their level. That old world was gone. I wasn't a big sister anymore and I wasn't even a Career anymore. In this group, I was a long shot. I had more in common with the outliers than the trained group. I looked at the outliers, gauging what they trained in and what they thought was important. The rest of the day I stayed at the water purification station, the same one the Careers and I had turned our noses up at during my first attempt. I wasn't one of them anymore.

Mahi Arapaima- Circle of Life D4M

"I'm going to train for a while," I said to myself. I probably talked to myself more than I talked to anyone else. It wasn't exactly to myself, though. I'd never had many friends as a kid. At first I was lonely, but I found it felt better if I pretended I had someone there to talk to. It didn't matter if it wasn't really anyone in particular. I was just talking to no one, sort of in case there was someone there no one was talking to and they felt lonely. Since I'd always felt objects were sort of alive, even though I knew they weren't, it just made sense to me. I was talking to the walls, since no one ever talked to them and that made them sad.

"So anyway, a lot of people think it's weird I volunteered, since I don't like germs," I said to myself and the walls on the way to the training room. "Actually, there are a lot of different types of germ aversion. Me, I mostly just don't like general dirtiness. I'll sweep if the floor is dirty or something, but it doesn't bother me being outside or even playing in mud. I just really do not like dirt under my nails. I swear, if I get dirt under my nails in the Arena, I'd literally rather get stabbed. I can take just about anything but dirty fingernails. I don't even mind gutting the fish back home. It's just when you put the worm on the hook and the dirt smooshes under your nails."

The good thing about talking to myself was that I never got bored of me. As I went to my favorite station, I could say pretty much the same stuff I talked about every time.

"This is a cestus. Really the word refers to any glove, but generally people say it to mean these spiky ones ouch-" I squeezed my finger to see if I'd drawn blood, but luckily I hadn't. "They're really great for punching things. Not too much else but sometimes that's all you need."

"Who are you talking to, weirdo?" Olivine said as she walked past.

"That's Olivine," I said when she was out of earshot. "She's okay. Weird she allied with some of the less strong Careers, since she's so dedicated, but it's nice she has friends. One of her friends, Ava, won, so that's nice. Not so nice for us outsiders, but she won an only Careers Games so it works out. We should do that all the time- Careers get their own Games and we have separate ones…"

Jayla Dean- A Night to Remember D3M

"Here's the plan," I explained to Niko, who stood uncomfortably in a correctly-fitting but still just plain unnatural tuxedo. Clearly he wasn't used to the finer things in life. Then again, he was also heaped with so much makeup I wouldn't have recognized him. All part of the plan.

I sat in the raised table outside the cute Capitol coffee shop, the one that was clearly perfect for a first date. I was wearing a dark blue dress with lighter blue makeup on my eyes. The description made it sound like just way too much blue on blue, but the dress was so dark it was more like navy, and the eye makeup was light. I was cradling a glass of water by myself, clearly waiting for someone. I'd been there for some minutes, forlornly waiting for someone. At last, he appeared.

"You made it!" I cried, perking up as I saw Niko approaching. But then, he wasn't really Niko. He was "Jorge", the name we'd agreed upon in case we needed to use a name. Niko stalked toward my table, his acting leaving something to be desired but largely hidden by the makeup.

"No, I didn't!" he poorly ad-libbed. We really should have gone over this more. "I just came to say I never want to see you again!"

"But why?" I wailed, leaning forward and almost spilling my drink,

"I met someone else. She's way prettier than you," Niko said. Acting was not among his skills but perhaps it would fool a Capitolite? They weren't smart. I could see some people at other tables watching in interest, anyway.

"What? Noooooo!" I protested, bursting into tears behind my napkin. "It's okay! She can be with us! I like girls, too!" I was not going for subtlety.

"No. It's too late. Goodbye forever." Niko turned and stalked away, no doubt glad to be out of the spotlight. He scuttled away as I called after him vainly. I sat at the table, crying into my hands.

"That guy's a jerk."

I peeked through my fingers at a female voice. Score! A Capitol girl with black hair and yellow eyes was standing by my table, looking down at me with concerned

"I can't believe he dumped me," I said through fake tears.

"That's rough, but sounds like you dodged a bullet," the girl said.

I lowered my hands and looked at her vulnerably. "But now I'm all alone!"

"I mean… you already have the table. You want some company? It's okay if you don't."

I sniffed. "That would be okay," I said.

The girl took the seat across from me. "I'm DeeDee. Boys are such a waste of time, am I right?"

I smiled a fragile smile. "Maybe you are."

Lyon Cartier- The Poseidon Adventure D4M

"Can I talk to the Gamemakers? Like, is it allowed?"

Shane looked at me like a deer in the headlights. Clearly he'd not only never been asked this question, but he'd never considered it.

"I don't know," he said.

Turned out, you could talk to the Gamemakers. No one had ever asked before. Some people had asked about Games stuff and had been denied, but I was the first to ask about the cloning technology. Since I was probably going to die, they didn't care much. If I didn't die, they'd just tell me I couldn't tell anyone under penalty of death.

"So how does it work?"

"It's very simple." Gamemaker Hadrian Gumble, the least experienced Gamemaker and thus the one tasked with showing the curious Tribute around, said. "We simply ergonomize the latent kinetic energy in the r-phase of the RNA and replicate the genomic structure of the person we want to clone."

"How do you know it's the same person?" I asked.

"It's the same electromagnetic sequence in the brainwaves," Jocastus, the neurologist of the Gamemakers, said.

"But it's not the same matter. It's a brainwave forced on new matter," I said. That was what got me. How did we know we weren't just copies? Paper could be copied. A person couldn't.

"It's not the same matter," Daria, the physicist, said. "But I believe humanity is more than matter. There's something almost metaphysical about humanity. "Preterphysical" might be the better term, since there is an explanation- we just haven't discovered it yet."

"But sometimes the clones don't act the same," I pointed out.

"I've never seen that. Who acted like that?" Jocastus asked, as the rest of the room went dead silent. I felt the eyes looking at me and thought better of asking more.

"Why don't you use this to heal disabled people?" I asked.

"We do! Just last month we restored a Capitol woman whose neck was broken in a freak equestrian accident," Hadrian piped up.

But what about- rarely had I been hit so bluntly by my privilege. I'd been about to ask about Districters. Probably if I asked, they'd mention some high-profile people from Career Districts who were helped. But not outer Districters. Not because they couldn't, but because they didn't think they were people.

"Anything cool you're working on next?" I recovered.

Hadrian brightened. "There's a lot we can't say yet, but we're working on new developments in the area of behavioral health. Soon improper thinking habits will be curable with ease! Even from a distance!"

It wasn't until later, when I lay in bed that night, that I shuddered. Hadrian hadn't said "unhealthy" thinking habits. He'd said "improper". I'd thought they were working on helping people trapped by their own mental illness. They weren't thinking about that at all. There was nothing wrong with the people they were working on changing- remotely, from what Hadrian described. No, they were thinking about people who didn't agree with them. In the blink of an eye, they wanted to cure that. In the blink of an eye, there would be peace on Earth.