This is just part 1 of the Crows alliance, since their members shift before the Games begin so I'm writing them more chronologically.
Linden Anderson- Descent into Madness D8M
It wasn't that I thought people who went to therapists were weak. I'd just never thought of myself as being in that position. I had a good life- good parents, good upbringing, all my needs provided for, all that. I didn't have the problems other people had, and when I did have problems, I was tough enough to sort through them. It seemed callous, now that I thought of it, how I secretly thought of such things. Couldn't these people fix their problems on their own? What good did it do to go talk to someone, anyway? Your problems would still be there.
I saw it differently now. It wasn't that I was going to talk to someone and hopefully solve all my problems by getting in touch with my emotions or something like that. It was that I was drowning, or burning alive maybe, and I would do anything, anything, if it had even a chance of helping. I would have cut off my leg if I thought it would help with the nightmares, or the claustrophobia when I shut the door to my room, or worst of all, the sudden, blinding spells where everything snapped away and I was back in the pitch-dark Arena, steeling myself for the death I knew was seconds away. Then I'd wake up. I'd wake up, standing up and staring at the wall having somehow never been asleep even though I certainly wasn't awake. I'd first come to the doctor on Visenya's urging after she shook me "awake" while I was staring dead-eyed at the wall in the training room right in front of everyone. According to her, anyway. If you asked me, I'd suddenly been transported to the Arena and then back just as quickly as I went.
"Usually there's a lengthy assessment, but given the time constraints and the history, I can tell you right now it's post-traumatic stress disorder," Hadrian said. It was disconcerting to me that Dr. Sconce advised we be on a first-name basis. I knew it was meant to be more personal, but my strict upbringing made me feel wildly out of line referring to an older adult so informally.
"Yeah, I could have guessed," I said ruefully.
"The good news is- well, the bad news, really- is that there's been a wealth of research over the last few generations into pediatric PTSD," Hadrian continued. "On the therapy front, we can start with lumin therapy, which uses therapeutic light wavelengths that will help restore your brain to its healthy theta wave patterns. As for medication, I'd like to start you on theoxicycline. It's not the first-line medication, usually, but it works much more quickly and can be stopped immediately without side effects. With such a short window, we have limited options, but this will have the maximum benefit before you hit the Arena."
"Why isn't Visenya having flashbacks like me? We were in the same Arena," I asked.
"Everyone's brain is different. Some people's symptoms are less visible, though I'm sure your friend has her own struggles. No matter what you might think, it has nothing to do with how 'weak' or 'strong' you are. Brains are just incredibly complicated, far past even our most advanced science. In short, we just don't know why different people react to trauma differently. We can only focus on each individual patient. No matter how someone deals with trauma, improvement is possible."
I didn't say much about how much better I felt with Visenya. Dr. Sconce would no doubt say it was maladaptive, or codependent, and he would no doubt be right. I just frankly didn't have time to care. Visenya and I had been through hell together and he couldn't understand that. I was already terrified of what I'd do if she died. Probably she thought the same about me.
Visenya Lloyd- Descent into Madness D9F
It might not be healthy, how Linden and I were so attached. He just made things so much easier for me. When I was with Linden, I could pretend he was the only one who went through the Games. It probably wasn't the best way to deal with things, but I'd found it was easier to view my Games from vn outside perspective. It was something that had happened around me, not to me. Like a movie, or a story someone told me. You could remember a movie, but it didn't actually happen to you. So I put up those walls and protected myself by just pushing it away.
Linden, though, was more affected by what we'd been through. I had to take care of him. I had to make sure we left the lights on, since Linden was scared of the dark. I had to make sure there were no bugs in our room, since Linden was scared of them. I didn't talk about our Games, since it would upset Linden. If all those things happened to upset me, too, that was just a coincidence. Linden was the one with trauma. I could deal with my own problems later, if I had time. Right now I had to get us through the Games.
"Hey."
At first the voice just sounded distantly familiar, like perhaps I'd overheard the Tribute speaking during the parade. When I turned, I honestly thought I was having a flashback. But why would I flash back to before my first Games? And the face was so much different than I remembered.
"Vulpes?" I asked, certain he would have no idea what I was talking about and that I'd just sound like a crazy person.
"Small world, huh?" I hadn't seen Vulpes since he was just a kid. I smiled despite myself, thinking of those simple days when I used to play in the fields with the littler kids. I would have hoped for better things for Vulpes. Sad to see he ended up here too in the end.
"Sorry to see you here," I said. Vulpes stiffened as I went in for a friendly hug, but quickly reciprocated.
"Pick up where we left off?" he asked. "I'm a lot tougher than I used to be. After you died..." he seemed to think better of something. "Things got rougher in Nine. I had to learn to defend myself."
"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. I wished he didn't look so guilty when I said it. He didn't have to be ashamed of protecting himself. "But, of course! Let's introduce you to my friend Linden." I waved at Linden, who was halfheartedly working at the knot-tying station. "We're faking a romance. Weird, I know, but so are sponsors. Gotta do what you gotta do."
Walcott Patel- No Way Down D3F
I couldn't believe I was in the same Games as CASTIEL WICKHAM. He'd seen a real-life vampire. Not just seen it, but killed it. He was the bravest Tribute who ever lived and I'd been staring at him since training began, trying to figure out a way to approach him.
"Just go say hi," Fleur said.
"Just say hi?! Would you just say hi if Superman walked by?"
"Okay, then. I'll say hi." Over my wailing protests, Fleur just walked right up to Castiel Wickham.
"Hey. My friend thinks you're cool." She pointed at me while I wildly waved for her to stop.
"Who, me? I'm just a normal guy."
"Nu-uh!" At that, I found my voice. Castiel Wickham was not "just a normal guy". "You killed a vampire!"
"Oh, I guess I did do that. That was pretty cool."
"No one else even thinks they're real, but we know." The pent-up words started rushing out. "One of them killed my father. I've been searching for them ever since, but I think there's only a very few. I've never seen one in real person, but I'm ready. I'm ready for them."
"You're ready for... vampires," Castiel said.
"More ready than anyone in the world!"
Castiel glanced uncertainly at Fleur.
"She knows, too. She hasn't seen them but she knows," I assured him. She was into that voodoo stuff, so she knew this world wasn't the only one.
"What, like the Capitol released some into the Districts?" Castiel's uncertainty melted into horror. "That's horrible!"
"I don't know if it was them or not, but they're out there." I pointed at Shinju, who was across the room at the water purification station. I'd been avoiding her until I could figure out how best to deal with her. For the time being it was better she didn't know I was a hunter. "She was one of them."
"But it's daytime," Castiel pointed out.
"They brought her back wrong or something," I said. "I still don't trust her."
"I can see why," Castiel said.
"We need your help. Will you ally with us?" This was it, then. The moment my hero either joined me or rejected me.
"You need help? Of course I'll help," Castiel said. He really was a hero.
Vulpes Kerr- No Way Down D9M
It had to be Visenya. I'd been just a little kid when she died. It had been a defining moment in my life. Visenya had been such a kind, gentle woman. In a world that so often seemed hostile, she'd been a ray of light. I'd thought people like that couldn't be destroyed. Then the Games wiped her out like chaff and I'd seen the way the world really was. I learned that getting attached to someone only meant losing them someday. Seeing her again, I felt like a shy, naive little boy all over again. I'd known from the start I'd wanted allies- people I could arrange for protection and use like the underlings I used to command in my gang. Not her, though. Her friend was nothing but a tool, but Visenya I would count as a friend.
If Visenya was more than a meat shield, I needed to gather some more expendable allies to compensate. There were plenty to choose from. Even knowing hardly anything about most of the Tributes, I was already gathering a list of vulnerabilities I could exploit to gain favor. The fat boy from my District, for example. I'd only need to flatter his ego and he'd run into gunfire for me. Or the girl hanging all over the crazy One boy. Rumor was it she'd volunteered just in the hope of being resurrected into the same Games with him so she could declare her love. It was so easy to knock someone off a pedestal, and then to put yourself in their place. People will follow you blindly if you open their eyes.
Walcott proved to be an opportunistic catch. I noticed her stomping across the room, pausing to angrily kick at a garbage can.
"What's wrong?" I asked, sidling up next to her. Even if I didn't choose her for an ally, it was always nice to have goodwill from a competitor. I doubted Walcott would ever be in a position to hurt me, but it never hurt to reduce the possibility.
"Castiel says I should forgive Shinju!" Walcott folded her arms with a scowl.
"What did she do to you?" I wasn't sure I had the names right, but I hadn't thought they were even in the same Games.
"Nothing to me, but she's a vampire." Walcott looked at me with a "I suppose you think I'm crazy" expression.
Does... does she really... This chick is crazy, I thought. But I didn't say it. If Walcott had never grown out of her emo phase and took it far more seriously than most people, all the better to snare her.
"Oh my god," I said. I dropped my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "You've seen them, too?"
Walcott's eyes went wide and I knew I had her. Her arms unfolded and she went off.
"They killed my father!" Yikes, this girl left crazy behind miles ago. "I've been training to destroy them ever since." So she's combat-capable, she's saying? "So I met up with Castiel, since he's seen one." Oh yeah, that one Games in the graveyard. "But he says I should forgive her!"
"That's some bullshit," I said. Which was entirely true, but not for the reason Walcott thought. "They're monsters! We gotta get rid of them! And I know... because I've done it."
"You killed one?" Walcott's voice was thin with awe.
"I dunno for sure. It might have been something else. All I know is, the underboss of the Bulger gang was never out in the daytime. I knew he took three bullets before I finally got him down. And that was after I stabbed him half a dozen times, until the knife broke. That was the one that killed him- the time I stabbed him with shards of wood sticking out of the handle of the knife."
"How were you strong enough?" Walcott asked, still mostly convinced.
I thought on my feet. "He'd just gotten out of jail when I found him. Maybe he wasn't able to feed for those eight days."
"That's good to know. We can use that in the Arena," Walcott said. I smiled as she went on. We could use that in the Arena. Me, and my new ally.
Laken is in the Jayhawks now. Nothing happened in-story to cause that- his submitter just put him there and he was only in the Mean Careers by default unless his submitter moved him.