Behold my first update from tropical Sierra Leone! The internet here is very spotty but I managed to get my hotspot to work on my new Sierra Leonean phone. It's very very dark right now since my house (yes, MY house- ya girl's a new homeowner of a lovely cinder block mansion) isn't fully electrified, so I've been hunched over my screen trying to see my keyboard and using my phone flashlight. Small price to pay for an SYOT, though! Here's hoping the internet holds up going forward. FYI I'll be able to charge my devices usually since we run a generator a few hours every night.
Jayden Chadsey- Heart of Darkness D1F
"So who are we killing?"
Clearly we were going after one of the bounties. Not only was it delicious irony, but I wanted those supplies. Food was a big need in an indoor arena like this one, and I hadn't been able to get my brass knuckles in the Bloodbath. That was always a problem of having such a small preferred weapon. I could make do with the knife I'd taken, but it just wasn't the same. Plus, we needed to send a message. We weren't the targets. We were the killers.
"They're both pretty formidable targets, but I think it's clear Jay's alliance is just too big," Chrome said. We were all huddled in whatever a surgery room was called. I thought it was called a "theater", but I wasn't quite sure I was remembering right, and I was going to feel like an idiot if I said it out loud and it turned out I was remembering completely wrong. Jessie was sitting on the surgery bed while Fable lounged underneath a table. Arno was trying to get in a nap while Elise paced about. All of us were restless, not least because we hadn't found any food and it had been most of a day at this point.
"I think so too," Fable said. "Gaius is more skilled than Jay, but his friends in general are pretty big, and they're weirdly loyal."
I sniffed. I'd never understood how some people didn't see that there couldn't be friends in the Games. It was hard enough trying not to say anything about how close Fable and Jessie were. Chrome and Jessie I could understand, since they were sisters and couldn't possibly have been in the same Games without this weirdness, and Arno and Elise were friends before the Games, but Fable and Jessie were just playing a no-win game. But there was no use antagonizing my allies- or spurring them to correct what I saw as a vulnerability- so I held my peace.
"If we do get Gaius, I bet the rest of the alliance will scatter. He's clearly the leader," Elise commented.
"Pity," Chrome said.
"That he's the leader?" Elise asked.
"That the rest will scatter. They'll be harder to find then."
"Guess we should kill all of them at once." Fable's expression was joking, but there was a faint tone of suggestion in her voice. She looked from face to face, seeing if she should pursue the thought.
Arno rolled over. "Say what now?"
"I thought you were napping," Elise said.
"Not with all this yapping," he said.
"Well?" Fable ventured.
"If we can get it done, more is better than less," Chrome said.
"We do mostly have weapons," Elise said.
I was glad to see everyone else thinking my way. "And it would certainly send a message."
Wyatt Sparks- Over and Over D3M
It wasn't like anything anyone had seen before. I'd never heard of a wedding in a nursery. It made sense, as far as our options went, and that was exactly why we'd picked it. Maybe we were rushing into things, but what choice did we have? With a hundred Tributes all looking to kill us, we didn't know if we had a tomorrow. Pity to rush a wedding so much, when it was something most people planned for months if not a year, but really the important thing was the love, right? So it didn't matter that Dominique was wearing a white paper gown we'd found in a supply closet. I'd said we could keep looking- the wedding gown must always be perfect, of course- but Dominique said it was just right. We couldn't find any tuxedos, so I was just wearing my arena outfit. No one cares what the groom looks like, anyway.
"Are you sure?" I joked, as Dominique fussed with the sad plastic flowers we'd ripped out of a wall planter. We'd looked for some real ones, but no dice. "No cold feet?"
"How could I regret the perfect decision?" she gushed, seeing the humor as much as I did but trying to preserve a sliver of decorum. Surely the Capitolites would see some of the absurdity, but we could have some semblance of romance. I wasn't sure how to say it, but for my part, I really was excited. I hadn't mentioned it much to other people, but I'd dreamed of getting married since I was a little kid. Even the funny kids think some things are serious. I'd dreamed of finding the lady I could spend the rest of my life with, and how someday we'd be old together but we'd still be happy because we were together. That second part wasn't in my stars, but the sliver of Dominique I got was enough.
I tried my very best to keep a straight face as I hummed a wedding song as Domique came out from behind the bathroom door of the nondescript patient room we were in (that had been my idea- the patient rooms, though boring and probably not as well fortified as we could have found, had a bed). It was a bit too silly to cry at, but it did give me mushy feelings to see her smiling and imagine how it would have been. Life was so uncertain, especially at our age. If we really could get married, chances were it wouldn't even have worked out. As lackluster as this was, at least we had the dream.
"Do you, Dominique Rindelle, take me for your husband?" I asked, her hands in mine. It didn't exactly match the vows we'd planned, but I was nervous, and also worried the Careers might burst through the door and catch me still a bachelor.
"I do," she said. I smiled, having been irrationally afraid she might randomly derail our plan. "Do you, Wyatt Sparks, take me for your wife?"
"Yes!" I said, then composed myself grandiosely. "I do."
"Then that's it!" Dominique hastily concluded the ceremony and kissed me.
Just as Dominique pulled back, a ceiling tile slid aside and a parachute fell out. Dominique held out her hands and the box fell into it.
Congratulations! Many happy returns - Tiffania Drape, read the note on top of two pieces of cake.
"Thanks!" Dominique said, waving at the ceiling. Romance aside, our plan had paid off. But that wasn't it. Even as she said it, half a dozen more ceiling tiles slid aside. For the first time, the Games were having a wedding shower.
Jason Lenn- Into Thin Air
I kept waiting for the guilt, but it never came. I wasn't happy Valerie was dead. I just found that I… didn't really care. I guess it wasn't that I didn't care. It wasn't like I didn't notice it had happened. I'd been going over my feelings, trying to figure out what they really were. What I found was that I mostly cared about how it affected me. I was annoyed I didn't have my strongest ally anymore. More than that, though, was something unexpectedly positive. I felt like I should feel bad admitting it, but I didn't feel guilty about that, either. The truth was, I felt relieved. Valerie was gone. Aside from the flashes of nostalgic memories of our earlier years- Valerie playing with me, or the time she pretended I'd killed her in battle and she'd fallen down into a position eerily similar to her body in the Bloodbath- I was relieved she wouldn't be with me anymore. For a long time I'd been accepting what the Games were and what I would do to win them. It was always Valerie who hesitated. A shadow would fall across her face when she saw me targeting someone, or I'd hear the note of disapproval in her voice. But where did it get her? She was dead, and I was alive. She was wrong, and I was right. I didn't have to hold myself back anymore for some sentimental moral standard that would only get me killed.
Kind of hypocritical, too. Valerie would always get on my case when I was "violent", but she'd volunteered for the Games, hadn't she? People loved to play the victim. We saw it all the time in students who didn't get picked. They'd say it was for the best, that the Games were barbaric and they never would have wanted to go, like they wouldn't have sprinted if the council had announced that there'd been a mistake, that really they were the pick. Nothing but sour grapes. Valerie wanted to have her cake and eat it too- to volunteer for the Games and then pretend her hands were clean. She called herself regretful. I called myself honest.
I felt a rush of exhilaration. I could do anything now. I could fight like I'd wanted to all my life. No more running from fights. Especially no more pretending some Tributes were off-limits. Whoever crossed my path, if I thought I could fight them, the fight was on. The weaker Tributes would die anyway. Better by someone who enjoyed it than by someone who would wring their hands and angst.
To tell the truth, I didn't recognize the girl who first crossed my path. She had long black hair, and from the back she looked like she might be pretty. In another world, I might have hit on her. But there was another itch I'd been waiting a long time to scratch.
Theo Mulroy- Circle of Life D12F
It would all come down to who found what first. If I found food before someone found me, I could live. I could hole up wherever the food was, or take some and hide out in some secluded hiding spot in the hundreds of rooms. If someone found me before I found food, I would die. Unless I ran across a loner who was weaker than me, which statistically wasn't likely, I would die. I supposed there was a chance a nonviolent alliance would look the other way, but it was so much to ask of someone. Even just not killing someone directly risked your own life.
They say people have a sixth sense about being watched. It was certainly true for a lot of women. The first time I'd felt it was when I was nine years old. I'd felt the prickling certainty of being hunted and since then, it had never been wrong. I turned, and I was right again. Jason hadn't made any noise creeping up on me, like the trained Career he was. And yet somehow I'd known.
It didn't matter anyway. When I noticed him, I was just entering an open seating area in the middle of the hallway I'd been exploring. There were no doors close by I could duck into. I'd have to run across the open room, and I knew he'd catch me before the other side.
Nonetheless, I tried. I ran for the couch fifteen feet ahead of me, turning to the side to pretend I was going to bank around it, then jumping over it instead. I pulled down the lighter chair just past it to block Jason's path. He vaulted over it, slowing but not stopping. I felt him approaching me before the end of his sword slashed across my leg.
I rolled over as I hit the ground, throwing my arms over my face. Jason must have anticipated the reflexive move, since he slashed my stomach instead, his sword sliding at the end of the stroke with my blood. I felt it well up warmly across my stomach and over my fingers as I tried to hold it in. I scuttled backwards, looking up at him as I waited for the next strike. It never changed, the primal fear of facing death.
Jason looked down at me, his expression not cold but eager. His eyes flickered over my wound. I couldn't imagine what he was waiting for. His sword hand twitched. His face fell a little, and I saw a mix of disappointment and boredom. After the moment of hesitation, it seemed he found my murder unexpectedly boring. He stabbed me deeper in the stomach, twisting the sword to bring out the most blood, and turned his back on me without a word.
Will it stain? I thought about my blood on the floor. Clearly it hadn't left an impression on Jason, so there was no reason to think differently of the floor. It seemed my blood mattered to no one but myself.
109th place: Theo Mulroy- Stabbed by Jason
The roster was pretty female-heavy so I've been trying to keep that in mind as I choose kills. Right now I actually have ideas for pretty much everyone so it's hard to pick. Theo deserved more, but she lasted a fair amount in her original Games, so I didn't feel as guilty killing her early as I would have had I killed a Bloodbath early again. I do wish she'd gotten more, though. That's always the hard part with Res Games. If someone dies in their first Games POV, it's pretty much the same as Bloodbathing them, but if I go through the roster once without killing more people, that would be like nine no deaths chapters and a REALLY REALLY LONG story.