Disclaimer: I don't own The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes or any of the characters.
So… guess what I've been doing instead of writing A Traitor's Tale? Yeah, that's right! Hyperfixating on The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, baby! This story doesn't need much of an explanation, it's just little snippets focusing on something sad about each of the twenty-four tributes. You'll probably be able to guess my favourite character by the end because they'll get way too much attention but oh well.
Also, just to clarify, this story is mostly based on the book and I'm using the book's death order.
Trigger Warning: suicidal ideation, one brief mention of suicide.
24. Brandy
Brandy Petersen was bullied relentlessly at the community home until she fought back and scared the bullies away. When her mentor tried the same thing on her, she foolishly thought it'd work.
23. Ginee
Ginee Miglāne was class president, respected by students and teachers alike. When her school announced a day off to mourn her death, the peacekeepers intervened and several teachers were executed.
Meanwhile the two Capitol children who'd died in the same explosion had extravagant funerals on national television.
22. Otto
Otto Sirmais was failing all his classes until he agreed to let Ginee tutor him. She gave him a new sense of purpose. He spent his last few days of freedom revising for a maths test the day after the reaping. Even in the zoo, he and Ginee practiced algebra together, just in case he made it back and the teachers made him sit the test.
21. Facet
Facet Acquaviva was the fastest tribute reaped for the Tenth Hunger Games. He was on his school's track team. He would've made it out of the arena with the Twos but he hadn't wanted to leave Velvereen behind.
20. Velvereen
Velvereen Russo had pulled a hamstring because she'd pushed herself too hard again the week before the reaping, training for the big race. Facet was the only one of her opponents she told. She regretted it, when he slowed down to help her and she watched him die seconds before her.
19. Sabyn
Sabyn Tang had always loved climbing. She scaled that wall believing she'd never fall.
She underestimated the toll the starvation had taken on her body and the toll the anxiety had taken on her mind.
18. Panlo
Panlo Shaw's mother was a doctor. He knew the expression she made when a patient had no chance.
It turned out that veterinarians made the same face.
That was when Panlo realised that he was going to die.
17. Sheaf
Sheaf Gallette was annoying.
Every night, when she and Panlo lay down close to each other, she'd bother him with questions.
"Panlo, are you asleep yet?
"Panlo, did you know I can do a cartwheel?"
"Panlo, who do you think is better at doing cartwheels, me or that Treech guy?"
"Panlo, can you sing?"
"Who would win in a fight, Panlo? Me or Wovey? What about me and Teslee?"
"Panlo, what are you thinking?"
"Panlo… are we gonna die?"
"Panlo? Panlo? Talk to me, Panlo?"
Sheaf kept asking Panlo questions as they both lay half-conscious at the veterinarian's. Eventually he just stopped responding and she knew he was dead.
That was when Sheaf realised that she was going to die.
16. Hy
The peacekeepers strip searched all the tributes shortly after Brandy killed Arachne Crane. They took any belongings they deemed suspicious.
"Hey… I… I need that!" Hy Cartwell cried when the peacekeepers were examining his inhaler.
The peacekeepers didn't even hear him. They took the inhaler and Hy never got it back.
15. Marcus
Marcus Volpato had cried for days when Sejanus Plinth had moved away. Then he promised himself he'd never let himself be that weak again.
14. Dill
Dill Peterson desperately tried to make a friend in the zoo. The only person who wanted to talk to her was Reaper and he was scary. But every time she tried to make a friend, she'd cough and her new potential friend would scurry away, scared of falling ill.
Eventually, she met Brandy and they had a good laugh about how their surnames were almost the same. Dill had a friend.
Then Brandy got shot and Dill stopped trying to make friends.
13. Bobbin
Bobbin Casino lost his arm protecting his little brother in a fight. He forgot that he'd started that fight. He forgot things when he was angry.
Bobbin would've done anything to get home to Woof. He forgot that when he saw two Capitol boys in the arena. He forgot things when he was angry…
12. Sol
Sol Hailford had 'Sal' written on her gravestone for four years. The stone was supplied by the Capitol and her family couldn't afford anything better. The only reason why it was changed at all was because one of Sol's neighbours won the Fourteenth Hunger Games and spent a little of his victor money on a new gravestone for her.
11. Jessup
Jessup Diggs' Family became pariahs in the Seam after their son seemingly lost his mind and attacked his district partner.
It was only after the rebellion that it became common knowledge that Jessup had contracted rabies. By then, all his family members had died.
10. Lamina
When Lamina Deitz was reaped, she made a silent, tearful promise to her district that she'd do them proud. She'd ally with her district partner, do whatever she could to protect him, give her all to make sure a Seven made it home.
Her district partner turned out to be someone District 7 probably didn't want back. A ghost from the woods, an orphan who everyone had just assumed was dead for the last eleven years but nobody had ever found the body.
Lamina still made an attempt to ally with Treech, and hid her relief when he shot her down. Treech still gave her some of his food at the zoo. Part of Lamina hoped he'd stick with her in the arena, but Treech pulled his little disappearing act the first chance he got, vanishing like a circus magician in a puff of smoke.
All Lamina could think about was, if Treech had any family left, they'd be so worried about him. Missing, presumed dead in the Hunger Games arena. Maybe that was what kept her out in the open, the knowledge that her family was watching her, her district was watching her.
Lamina Deitz didn't want to disappear. She refused to become another one of Seven's ghosts.
9. Tanner
"D'you think we should recruit the lumberjack?" Coral asked. She was watching the boy from Seven, who was at the front of the cage, doing cartwheels and backflips and flirting with the crowd. He'd got bored of just waiting around to die, probably.
Tanner Torpegaard just laughed.
"No way," he said. "Lumberjack and I both have hats. The audience will just get us mixed up. Besides, do you really want him around stealing your thunder with his silly tricks?"
"I guess you're right," Coral had said. "Maybe we should keep it to just me, you and Miz."
Tanner only realised he really could've used having Lumberjack around when the Fours turned on him.
8. Wovey
While everyone else was playing the Hunger Games, Wovey Lorenzo had chosen to play a different game. One she was a lot better at. Hide and seek.
She'd found all but one of her opponents. Not one of them had found her. Now the only one she had left to find was Treech. He was very good at hide and seek. Lamina had told Wovey how good Treech was at hiding at the zoo and Wovey had been surprised. But now it felt like Wovey had been looking for him forever. She couldn't play hide and seek forever. She was thirsty…
Suddenly, she came across a bottle of water, just sitting there in the tunnel. She picked it up and took a sip. Ready or not, Treech, here I come…
7. Circ
Circ Pritchard had always been fascinated by phobias. Before the games, he tried to learn as many of his opponents' phobias as possible, just out of curiosity. It was rare to get a sample that included people from every district. But of course, some of his opponents had got a little too smart and lied to his face.
"I'm scared of axes," the boy from Seven had said.
"But… you're a Seven."
"And? I'm not a lumberjack. I work at a circus."
Circ hadn't questioned him. He'd seen Seven do enough tricks. It was clear he'd worked at a circus at some point. But then in the arena, Seven came charging towards Circ and Teslee with an axe and Circ had come to the realisation that he'd lied. Or maybe he just hadn't told the whole truth. After all, it was possible for one to switch jobs, to have been an acrobat and a lumberjack.
It was almost funny. Circ would've laughed if he weren't being chased by a Seven with an axe.
When the gamemakers dropped the tank of snakes into the arena, Circ watched the fear flood Seven's face, watched as he turned on his heel and ran. Circ knew.
Ophidiophobia. Fear of snakes.
Circ's triumph was short-lived as he realised that Seven had a good reason to be so afraid.
6. Coral
Whenever Coral Connolly saw one of her opponents, she wondered to herself 'Can I kill you?'
The only one where the answer was 'No' was the first opponent she laid eyes on, her district partner, thirteen-year-old Mizzen Murray. Whenever she thought about killing Mizzen, she thought about his parents in the reaping crowd, about the looks they'd give her if she came home instead of her son.
Coral was pretty sure there was a girl from Seven a few years ago who'd committed suicide when she made the final two with her district partner so she wouldn't have to kill him. She was beginning to wonder if she'd have to do the same thing. When the snakes attacked, it was almost a relief.
5. Mizzen
In the last few days of his life, Mizzen Murray got sick of people talking about his age.
Thirteen years old. The youngest tribute. Just a little kid. No chance.
"How is everyone else older than me?" Mizzen complained to Coral one night at the zoo. "How is that little girl from Eight older than me? And that girl from Seven who cries all the time? Fuck them! Fuck them all for being older than me!"
"I'd kill them all for you, Miz," Coral said. Gallows humour. The Fours both used it to cope.
"Not if I kill them first," Mizzen said, grinning.
Then the Fours laughed. They laughed while it was still funny.
Gallows humour stopped being funny when the hangman pulled the lever and broke your neck.
"What's so funny?" Tanner asked, half-asleep.
"Nothing," Coral said. Mizzen was still giggling.
4. Teslee
Teslee Urbańska was an animal person.
She fed kittens in the alleyway and pigeons on her windowsill. She even left crumbs out for the rats in the zoo. She had a pet gecko named Mateusz who she kept in a tank in her bedroom and constantly fought against her parents to keep. If she died, her beloved Matty got flushed down the toilet. That was what kept her fighting.
While Circ was surveying other tributes about their phobias, Teslee asked them about their pets. She knew she'd feel bad if she left animals to starve. The boy from Four had said he didn't have any, so Teslee felt fine killing him.
Teslee didn't know the name of the boy who drove his axe into her skull. She knew the name of his rabbit. Atsumori. The boy from Seven had got misty eyed talking about Atsumori's white fur and the cute little noises he made when he ate lettuce out of his hand. She died hoping the boy would be reunited with his rabbit.
Her hopes came true. The boy from Seven had lied, said 'I have a rabbit,' instead of 'I had a rabbit'. Atsumori had been dead for over a decade, killed and turned into stew during the war. His owner was the next to die after Teslee.
3. Treech
The songbird from Twelve wasn't the only musician to be reaped for the Tenth Hunger Games.
Treech Fujiwara was a talented pianist, a child prodigy. His parents would show him off at dinner parties. Everyone who heard him said he'd be good enough to play concerts in the Capitol one day.
Until the war. Until the rebels broke into his house, murdered his parents and smashed up their piano for firewood as Treech hid in the closet.
Treech never laid his hands on a piano again. He's had the chance to play it again for his interview but he hadn't taken it. He was scared that he'd end up staring at the keys and crying for five minutes. And then who would sponsor him?
Treech cried on the fourth day of the games, when he'd narrowly escaped the snakes filling the arena and all he could do was hope that they couldn't slither up to where he'd climbed to. He tapped on the concrete with his fingertips to calm himself, pretending he was playing a concerto.
When rain began to fall, it felt like an orchestra.
2. Reaper
Casca Highbottom secretly donated money to Reaper Ash's sponsor fund. He knew that if the boy won, he'd be the last ever victor of the Hunger Games.
Reaper didn't know. Or, if he'd ever known, the rabies had clouded his mind too much. If he'd known he'd be the last ever victor, he would've tried harder.
1. Lucy Gray
Lucy Gray remembered them, all three and twenty of them.
Pieces of them found their way into her songs. Jessup's nobility. Lamina's courage. Coral's care for her district partner.
Wovey's innocence, how she'd reached for Lucy Gray's hand as they'd been forced into the arena. There was no way she could've won but Lucy Gray still wished that one of the others had killed her.
Treech's potential, all the songs in him left unsung. Sometimes Lucy Gray wondered what would've happened if his axe had been quicker than her snake. He surely would've been able to beat the husk of a boy who once was Reaper, surely would've lived a long life.
Reaper's defiance, how he'd been the first to see how rotten the Capitol was while Lucy Gray had been blinded by roses and kindness. He was clearly dying of sickness and out of his mind, and would've been in the grave not long after Lucy Gray had he won. Killing him was mercy, in a way. But maybe he still would've made the world a better place. Maybe Reaper would've ended the games forever.
Lucy Gray Baird could've been the last child to die in the Hunger Games, the last name crossed out. Instead, she was the victor.
I hope you enjoyed this story! I definitely enjoyed writing it. One of the most frustrating things about TBOSAS was Snow being an unreliable narrator and basically ignoring every tribute who wasn't Lucy Gray so I tried to give every tribute their moment in the spotlight… until a certain lumberjack with a nice hat decided to steal the show like he stole Dill's water. Would you believe that my first draft of this had even more Treech content but I showed some restraint and edited out some of it? I guess I just felt like he needed a bigger role because he was probably the most robbed tribute in TBOSAS and he definitely would've won if Snow hadn't cheated.