MAJESTY MIRAVAL- Nene Palmer
"Hey, I think I figured out why you didn't get affected by the gas," I said to Tabitha.
"Oh? She said.
"It was your bandage." I pointed to her wrist. "It has immune system stuff in it."
"Oh. Cool," Tabitha said, looking down at it. "Anyway, I'm glad Majesty is dead."
RICHARD FRANKLIN- Tabitha Sparks
It was so hard to be happy and know it was what he wanted. Not to die, but to die before me. He'd never had to watch me die. Of course that meant twice I'd had to watch him die, but I loved him enough to be happy to live with that for him.
LOTTIE PARKER- Olivine Martinez
The party was over. No Marley cracking jokes. No Lottie trying to see if she could break a table in half with a crowbar just because. I was a different person without them. It was like I'd partied long into the night, and at last I'd woken up to normal life.
THEO WONDDEROO- Toddward Howard
It was stupid to make friends in the Games. I wasn't ever going to let it stop me, though. Theo was a person. He deserved to be seen as a person. He wasn't competition, or a liability, or a threat. He was my friend Theo. If I refused to see the humanity in the others, the Gamemakers had won.
UNIQUE DIOR- Juni Triton
It was strange how much it affected me. I'd barely known Unique, but from what little I'd heard of her, she seemed to be a joke to the others, just like I was. Funny how two jokes had lasted longer than some of the most respected Tributes in history.
PRISCILLA PISCOT- Elissa de Angelo
I'd thought about trying to find her and ally. I wasn't surprised she and Unique had banded together. I guess it was a good thing I hadn't been there. Then again, if I had, it might have been enough to tip the scale. It might have been the only chance for One to stand against the Two army. I'd saved myself, but it might cost my District.
Diamond Stark- Res D1M
There weren't many outliers left. As the numbers dwindled, I definitely expected some sort of corralling method on the part of the Gamemakers. No one wanted to sit around watching a dozen people never crossing paths in a giant arena. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been the Gamemakers who wrote the post about the doors, crediting it to Arielle just to stir up drama. If we didn't succeed in sealing off the doors, they'd find another way to push us together.
Elissa de Angelo- Descent into Madness D1F
I was moving upwards. Unique and Priscilla had gone to the first floor to meet with the Ones for an alliance. There was a decent chance they'd still been there when the Twos found them, which would put the Two army on the lower floors. I was lucky enough that I'd been on the third floor when the cannons sounded, and I decided I'd increase the distance.
The seventh floor had already been swept. It was eerie seeing the warped-shut doors and knowing someone had been here searching room-by-room for anyone alive. On the bright side, they were less likely to return. If I found a decent hiding place in the center of the floor, I might be able to ride out the Two army until they started to flag.
Olivine Martinez- Back to Normal D1F
My chest hitched as I brushed a fleck of caramel off my pants. It was so quiet in the lonely halls of the fifth floor. Strange how after long enough, every arena starts to feel like home. It was like a messed-up hotel in here. There were rooms with beds and artificially cheerful potted plants. There were other rooms for maintenance or staffing or office space. It almost felt like I would run into one of the employees when I opened a door. No one was there, though. No employees, no competitors, and no allies.
Fable Anders- A Night to Remember D1F
There was a table with three cups on it in the playroom. They were still half-full of liquid and the smell of mold was starting to permeate the air. There was a really cool dollhouse in one corner of the room. There was a bin overflowing with articulated dolls and clothes to dress them in. A bookshelf was full of children's books that I was definitely going to read. And in front of the table, one just next to it and the other ten or so feet to the side, were two red discolored sections of linoleum. Someone had died here in the playroom. What a place for someone to die. What a place for someone to murder.
Joseph Carpenter- Wandering Souls D2M
Did God really mean it? Seventy times seven? Maybe I hadn't killed four hundred and ninety people, but it seemed more egregious to me that I'd come so close to changing and then so soon after that I'd killed again. This time I could at least say it was someone who volunteered for this. That didn't satisfy me, though, with the rumors that Unique hadn't chosen this. Still, I could find a hundred ways to justify to myself what I'd done. They were all beginning to pale. I knew what I had to do. The question wasn't whether God would wait long enough. It was whether I would do what was right before my time ran out.
Artemis Jager- Res D2F
The Ones were on the run. Fable had never been without allies before. Olivine had lost her tank ally. Elissa was harder to pin down, but one tribute couldn't be that large a threat. Diamond was the wildcard. He'd been alone from the start and he'd lasted this long. Clearly he was doing something right.
I squinted at the annoying light overhead in the hallway. Since the Games started none of us had gotten good sleep. Fortunately for my ill mood, we'd decided two Ones was enough for one day. My watch wasn't until two in the morning, so I had time to get some rest. I was starting to get a real headache.
Tuesday Erelle- Into Thin Air D2F
Hello readers! The Two army is off to a great start. I won't list our members, since you all already know them and any little snoops inside the arena with us would love to have that information. Don't worry, though! You'll all find out soon :)
Flint Kenyte- No Way Down D2M
"So what's it like being from an older Games?" I asked Artemis as the night was winding down. With the multiple tiny bedrooms attached to the nurse's lounge, it almost felt like we were in a college dorm. I'd never thought a guy with my background could have that kind of experience.
"Really weird," she said, wrinkling her nose a little. "It's definitely a lot more competitive now. Back then, most students just trained as a status thing, like bragging that you could afford to not only not work, but pay to train. Now it's all so cutthroat." She smiled at the irony.
"It is a bit silly," I agreed. Paying to train? I just fought so I wouldn't die.
Chrome Cabello- Heart of Darkness D2F
It felt like I was getting a fever. I quietly went through our supplies and looked for something to take for it, careful not to wake my sleeping allies. Of all the times to get a cold… At least it was the perfect arena for it.
I'd volunteered for first watch because I was grateful for the time alone. We might have a reprieve for a while, but Jessie and I needed to figure out how to handle this. It was uncertain, but our best hope was that some of the Two alliance died tracking down Elissa and Diamond. If that happened, Jessie and I could slip off and not join them in the hunt for Fable. I didn't think there was any way for us to reunite, but at least we wouldn't be the ones killing her.
Jessie Cabello- A Night to Remember D2F
I slid out of bed, trying not to disturb the others on the mattresses we'd dragged into one room for security. It was like a really violent slumber party. I'd always been the type to wake up right before my alarm. Chrome still had a few minutes before her shift was over, but it wasn't like I was going to be able to fall back asleep.
I must be dreaming. It was my first thought when I saw Chrome slumped on the floor. There was no way Chrome would fall asleep on watch. The only possibility was that she was dead, but my brain wouldn't let me think that.
"Come help!" I screamed as I knelt by Chrome. Her neck felt warm under my hand, but the stiffness and lack of response ended my hopes. I looked up through the doorway as Flint, Tuesday and Joseph shot up in bed at my yell. Artemis didn't move.
Kamau Kariuki- Res D2M
I knew it was a dream. It didn't make it any less terrifying. The dogs were all around me. I could hear their yipping as they stayed always at the edge of my vision- far enough behind me that I had the slightest chance, but never losing ground, no matter where I went. My legs were heavy as I slogged away from them and toward a tree. It was always the way: I ran so slowly in nightmares, but still the monster never quite reached. It was just always inches away. I reached the tree and started hauling myself up. The dogs jumped after me, impossibly high and nipping at my heels, only to fall away. I'd wake up eventually, but it wouldn't end. Ever since the Games, sometimes I saw them even when I was awake.
Wangari Kariuki- Res D2F
I stretched my arm above my head and arced my back in a wonderful stretch. There had been a lot of cannons last night. The Two army must have had a good hunt. Come tonight, maybe the anthem would show that One was gone entirely.
As I rose, my arm brushed against Kamau's hair. My heart flopped sideways. No. No. I put a hand on his cheek, already knowing what I would feel. Careers didn't sleep through someone touching them. I sat there in shock, Kamau's cold skin under my hand.
"What's wrong?" I asked dumbly, like he could have told me how to help. What happened? What's going on? Through it all, I knew it didn't matter. It didn't matter what sick trick the Gamemakers played on us, or what freak accident had occurred. My baby was dead. But he isn't, really. He can't be. This was a mistake, or a dream. I started to hyperventilate as I pulled him to me in a hug. His stony form was like holding a block of wood. My baby's body was too stiff to move.
Walcott Patel- No Way Down D3F
A lot of cannons last night. Not Shinju, though.
She wasn't all I thought about. She was just a lot of it. I also thought about other things, though. I thought about staying alive, and whatever Castiel was talking about at the moment, and who had died last night. Probably some of the Careers. They were most of who was left. They seemed to really be going all-in on the outliers lately, but there just weren't many of us left. Eventually they'd have to turn on each other.
Emmeline Blythe- Over and Over D3F
Hey Zibby, would you happen to have some beta-andrenergics you could spare? I'm sure you can see what I'm planning and why it wouldn't be a threat to you. If you do, could you drop one in a biohazard chute? I'll be able to get it from there.- FellowScienceLover
Shinju Matsushita- Heart of Darkness D3F
I just wouldn't eat. If I really was a vampire, they could last years without food. If I wasn't really a vampire, eventually I would get hungry enough that normal food looked palatable again. I just wouldn't eat. I wouldn't look at blood, I wouldn't think about blood, and I definitely wouldn't eat blood.
Tabitha Sparks- Swing Vote D3F
At the sound of a cannon, I jerked awake in bed and threw my arms over my face.
"Nice, I guess," Nene said, looking out at the direction the cannon had come from.
I got what she meant. Nene wasn't happy to see someone die, but it meant one more person who couldn't kill us. Two, that is, I thought as another cannon went off. Before I could get back to sleep, a third came. It chilled me to think of what was going down out there…
Yttria Noxus- Descent into Madness D3F
Oh my gosh. That is epic. Oh my gosh I hope it works.
I was almost a bit insulted Emmeline hadn't thought to ask me. I would have sent her what she needed. I would have done it myself if I'd had the parts. Clearly Emmeline had some of what she needed and was only missing that last bit. Clever of her to deduce that Zibby would have beelined for the exact place that would have them. It was probably why she hadn't asked me. She hadn't known if I was nerdy enough to go for a lab or pragmatic enough to go wherever was safest.
I itched at my arm as I got ready for bed. I must have gotten a little bit of this or that on it. I hadn't worked with anything dangerous recently, so it was nothing to worry about. I just needed to wash my hands more carefully.
Juniper Triton- Swing Vote D4M
I'd been wandering for hours. It was a silly, silly errand, but sometimes morale is important. At long last I finally found the audiology department. I waited for perhaps an our outside the glass door, since the smashed glass suggested someone else might be nearby. When no one came, I concluded it was a battle long finished.
The soundproof chamber was fortuitously cozy. The walls and floor were padded with soft foam. I wouldn't even have to drag in some blankets or a mattress. I set the little radio on the seat set into the wall. I'd found it in one of the offices. It would have been beyond stupid to make noise just for fun, but I'd found the one place where I could set the music free. The only thing I needed to top it all off was a pillow for my sore neck.
Arielle Ermin- 28th Games D4F
The Capitolites would never know how mind-numbingly boring the Games were. I'd heard Peacekeepers say it was the same for them: their jobs were 90% dead boredom and 10% total chaos. The rooms blurred together in the spooky dimmed light. The worst part of all was that the work was just hard enough that I couldn't go on autopilot. I had to search every nook and cranny of each room and think of every possible place a desperate tribute could hide. All through the night I searched, the silence broken occasionally by the unusually numerous cannons.
Must be the Twos, I thought with some trepidation. They'll be running out of Ones soon. Then they'll come for us Fours.
Gabriel Farad- Over and Over D5M
It gave me a funny feeling, lasting so long in the Games. Though I'd never really understood what made me different from hearing people, I knew that everyone I'd ever met said it meant I had no chance to come home. Here I was, though, in the top forty. It didn't sound like much, but with these numbers it was like the top eight. There were other people who must have thought they never had a chance. Soleil never mentioned it directly, but from my time with her I'd always had the feeling she'd meant something else when she set her arena on fire. And of course nobody thought Hades was going to win. Anything was possible, really. It wasn't likely, but it was possible. Maybe I really could go home. Maybe I really could live.
Nene Palmer- Swing Vote D6F
It was nice being on watch. I got to sit by myself and not talk to anyone. I liked just sitting and not moving for a long time. Also, I'd taken a toy ball and string from the pediatric ward. It was this neat soft ball attached to a stretchy string with a strap on the end so you could wear it on your wrist. You could toss the ball and it would bounce off the floor or the wall and come back to you so you could throw it again. It was really fun.
Bounce. The ball came back at my hand. Thud. Bounce. Thud. Bounce. Thud. Bounce. Thud.
Ferrari Benz- Into Thin Air D6F
BOOM!
Ding-dong, someone's dead. In the same singsong, I finished the thought.
I'm gonna feel really bad
if it's an outlier
but there's not many of us left
so it's probably the Twos and Ones fighting.
Ding-dong…
Maxson Deloria- Swing Vote D6M
Hey, God. I don't know much about how any of this works but I know I do believe in you. I don't think I'll ever get a chance to find out what you're really like. Well, I guess that's not true…
I was just praying to ask if maybe one of us could get home. Not me since that seems rude to ask, but Gaius or Todd. They're both really good people. And could you make it so Gaius gets better? I know we all die, but that's just too horrible to think about. Why did you even make that disease in the first place? And also please help Todd. We're all really sad about Theo but he and Todd were pretty much best friends. I hope you're taking care of Theo. Just please bless this alliance. They're the best thing I've had in a really long time.
Hadley Kinneth- In Your Hands D6F
I sat up in bed, leaned over the railing and puked. I was burning up- it was like someone had cranked the thermostat up to ninety degrees. Something was very, very wrong.
It's a plague.
Even with the headache fogging my thoughts, I knew what it had to be. The Gamemakers usually did something like this with the Resurrection Games. They put some horrible disease in the arena and let the bodies pile up.
It's not fair. I clenched my stomach and started to cry. I sat up sharply. I am going to die right now.
Braddock Simpson- Heart of Darkness D7M
I (&^ hated how bright the lights were. I knew they put them in here to piss me off. If I got out of here, I was going to kill the Gamemakers. I was going to follow them home and kill them.
Why do all these rooms look the same? How was anyone supposed to get anything done around here when the place was a giant maze? I could have sworn I'd passed the same room three times.
I pulled my fist back. I'll recognize it for sure if it has a giant hole in it. I shot out my fist and smacked it into the door. Dull pain throbbed in my hand as a tiny dent appeared in the door. Stupid door. They didn't have to make it so thick. They always have to make it harder.
Echo Osuuchi- To New Heights D7F
I was holed up for the night, the office door barricaded as well as I could. Soda cans filled with whatever small metal things I could find were piled around the door frame in case someone tried to sneak in while I was sleeping. It was a bit claustrophobic, and felt just the tiniest bit warm and stuffy, but it was as safe as I could get.
Every few minutes I refreshed Tuesday's blog. It was doubtful she'd give away any useful information, but maybe she'd say something about all the deaths. Maybe it's a good sign, I thought. Maybe it was all the Twos. Wouldn't that be ironic. After another vain refresh, I shut the screen off. The light was starting to hurt my eyes.
Lacey Weaver- No Way Down D8F
So many cannons. I held my coupon in both hands, looking down at Isabella's smiling face. We had to be getting pretty close to thirty. How close was I willing to cut it? I'd long lost count of the exact number of tributes left. I thought we'd started the night at close to forty, but there had already been four cannons. I needed to decide who to kill. But what if I named someone who had already died? I should wait until the Anthem, then. For at least a few more cannons, I'd wait until the Anthem. If there was more than five, I'd call it and pick a name.
Zibby Spooly- A Night to Remember D9F
So far it seemed to be dead average. Bacterial meningitis was universally fatal if untreated. None of the Tributes would know what was happening to them, and even if they did, they didn't know how to treat it, or have the expertise even if they did. The caveat was that it wasn't particularly virulent. It took a good dose to infect someone. Diluted throughout the entire arena, there were pretty good odds that any particular person wouldn't be infected. It would depend on who stood in the wrong draft for too long, or who happened to have an already weak immune system, or who'd undergone more stress than the other tributes. After I dropped Emmeline her gift, I ran numbers and calculated chemical equations. All around me were the sound of cannons, each of them one more lovely data point.
Toddward Howard- Swing Vote D8M
"What do you suppose all that is?" I asked about the fifth cannon.
"Hopefully the Ones and Twos fighting," Max said.
"I don't think it is," Gaius said from his chair. He could still walk, but with his stiff legs it was really more like hobbling. He walked like a man who was old enough that everyone flinched if he stumbled.
"They're weirdly far apart," Gaius continued. "If there was a big battle then that would make sense as people died of their wounds, but the Ones don't have enough members to force that. It sounds more like a bunch of individual deaths. It might still be the Careers, but I don't think it was a One-Two battle."
It was easy to forget that Gaius had seen real battle. He knew these things not from a video game, but from life. After the Games, I wasn't sure I ever wanted to play a violent video game again. It hit different after you'd seen real blood.
Camille Igawa- Let the Good Times Roll D9F
I really didn't know how to make a real difference in the world. It was an incongruous thing to think about as I lay on an ambulance stretcher, but I did need to think about the future. My family was already rich. With the money I would get if I won the Games, I would be able to really make a change. Where do you even start with something like that? Education came to mind first. A long time ago I read that most people in Nine couldn't read past an eighth-grade level. It's so easy to control people when they can't take in information through reading. You inherently have to listen if you can't read.
What about after the school, though? If people could read but still had a crushingly low wage at their jobs, it hardly increased their power. I could start my own business maybe. I could run it at cost since I didn't need the profit. It could be some sort of co-op where the workers had a share in ownership. I just had to do something. I had so much given to me in life. I wanted to lift everyone up to at least where I started just from the luck of birth.
Vulpes Kerr- No Way Down D9M
What a strange thing to sponsor. It made sense, sure, but it was just aesthetically weird. I wondered if it was cheaper to send homemade materials as a sponsor gift. That would explain the armor that seemed to be made of footballs or some other leathery material. It looked like some nerdy schoolkids obsessed with Rome had cobbled together a cosplay of a soldier. It looked sturdy, though, or at least sturdy enough to deflect arrows and impede small knives. The fox head hood was a pretty neat touch. I had to admit it looked pretty cool.
Tyler Alvarez- Swing Vote D10M
Drink water, they say. That'll help with a headache.
I'd been chugging water for at least an hour. All it did was spur a dozen bathroom breaks in the same amount of time. Out of gross curiosity, I looked in the toilet. The water was completely clear. I was pissing straight water, I was so hydrated. Yet I still had a splitting headache!
Lily White- Into Thin Air D11F
Theo died after I ran into him and his friends. I didn't feel guilty about it. I wasn't the reason they happened to be there. It was Lottie and Olivine who killed him, and either him or his allies who killed Lottie. It wasn't my fault, but it was eerie to know I'd seen him moments before he died. Five minutes before that, he had no idea he was walking toward his death. That moment would come for all but one of us eventually.
Gaius McClellan- No Way Down D12M
I could still talk. The others had probably noticed how slow I was speaking, though. With every word I dreaded a wrong move that would send my teeth into my tongue, losing that little bit of speech forever. I could still move my arms. They moved easily, like nothing was wrong with me at all. There was no tightness in my chest as I breathed. I could even still move my legs, though they were stiff and awkward. I wasn't dead yet. Zibby was hard at work, Todd and Max serving as her assistants. She said there were some irregularities in the blood sample she'd taken and it possibly indicated Gamemaker tampering with the disease. With luck that meant they'd made it possible to cure. I wasn't dead yet.
Elara Angelo- Over and Over D12F
When the night went quiet, after a long stretch of peace, another cannon would sound. Someone was out there. Someone had figured out some way to be deadly accurate and targeted with their kills. Above me, below me, on the same floor as me, there were cannons. I didn't know how someone could move that fast. My only thought was it must have been the Twos and that they'd split up. There were too many cannons for it to be only the Ones they were killing. I sat up long into the night, my pot of glue hugged to my chest like a security blanket. They were out there. They were coming for everyone. They would come for me.
Sky Larch- Wandering Souls D12F
I didn't feel good. It had started with a headache an hour or two ago. Right away I'd settled in for a long, hard night. I was always a huge baby with headaches. There was just something about the sharp, unrelenting pain that got me way worse than a scrape or a cold did. When I started to feel warm, too, I knew I was in for a rough few days. It couldn't have been the first time someone had gotten a cold in the arena. I found some cold and flue medicine and hoped the Capitol stuff was better than what I used to take at home. I suspected some chicken noodle soup would have helped me better than anything I would find in the hospital. Sometimes the simple comforts made all the difference. I tossed around in my bed, throwing off the covers and then sliding back under them depending on how warm or exposed I felt. It wasn't that bad, really. I'd feel better in the morning.
I thought it would be fun to give everyone in the arena a short POV so everyone could read with increasing paranoia as they wondered whose POV would give that telltale mention of a meningitis symptom with the short POVs preventing spoilers by the formatting. You're welcome!
38th place: Artemis Jager- Meningitis
If I was going to kill Artemis, I thought this was one of the nicest ways to do it. Pray would classify this death as unfair and dirty since Artemis couldn't see it coming and fight Zibby. Artemis did good for being one of the older Careers from a milder age. She had a big hurdle to pass being Pray's sister. Hopefully Pray has matured enough to value what she has in Artemis.
37th place: Juniper Triton- Meningitis
These deaths are in no particular order, so I did the right thing and gave Juniper 37th. It was a toss-up whether to add him to the body count. The idea of it being an easy death eased the decision. Juni really doesn't belong in the Games. In contrast to the more enthusiastic Careers, he clearly made a mistake volunteering. Now he's where he belongs in that big mermaid tank in the sky.
36th place: Chrome Cabello- Meningitis
Here we see Chrome getting the short end of the stick once again. She's more than strong enough to win, but something always gets in the way. Now Jessie has a chance of finding Fable again, which we all know is why I killed Chrome here, but Jessie would have preferred not to lose her sister to do that. RIP Chrome, who died of not being as popular a pairing with Jessie as Fable is.
35th place: Kamau Kariuki- Meningitis
You all knew it would be one or the other. This was the option I thought was juiciest. The submitter agreed, so RIP Kamau. The Kariukis have gotten a lot of acceptance for canon foreigners. Maybe one of these days one of their kind will even win...
34th place: Hadley Kinneth- Meningitis
Hadley made it a long, long way with all her loot from the feast. While it wasn't all shown onscreen because of space, she evaded a LOT of Career attacks with her glasses and other equipment. Then Zibby went and did this. Sometimes you just can't win. Hadley's been here a long, long time, and hopefully she'll be here a lot longer.
33rd place: Yttria Noxus- Meningitis
I overlooked her while going through the deaths and I'm too lazy to renumber everyone, so she gets a higher placement. Yttria's taken a lot of hits in her time in the Games, from Othella to Arroyo. If she'd been more bloodthirsty she might have taken out some more opponents. Instead she decided to value life, and that's something to be commended, even if she didn't win.
32nd place: Echo Osuuchi- Meningitis
Echo was the wild card out of all this bunch, due to not having a full form for me to work with. She had the least original material and I kept her around partly because killing her seemed like the easy way out. We did get to see a little more about her, though, and she went out in a not at all ignoble way. There's no predicting who dies in this scenario. It was the luck of the draw.
31st place: Tyler Alvarez- Meningitis
This one hits harder. It seems like Tyler, our of this bunch, was one of the ones with unfinished business. He had a good run, though. He chainsawed someone in the face. He survived the feast. He was a good boyfriend despite his very cynical upbringing. Tyler was one of the ones where the Games really wasn't the worst thing he'd been through, and that's reflected in his high placing.
30th place: Sky Larch- Meningitis
It would have been a long shot for Sky to win. I took this chance to bulk up the death count and give her an easy way out. Sky made up for her unfortunate first Games with a full run this time around. We got to see all we'd missed the first time and now we can properly mourn someone we've actually come to know. Hopefully next time she does even better.
That should be the last large-scale death event I need. Really I didn't need this one, but it seemed unlikely Zibby would only do one horrible thing in her run. Now we're almost at a normal SYOT amount, so we can have lots of focus and character moments on the remnant.