Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games.

Hi everyone! Welcome to my attempt at Tributember! I don't usually do these 'Post a chapter every day of the month' challenges because, unless I get the prompt weeks in advance and I can write up an entire first draft before the first day of the month, it doesn't fit my usual strategy for writing. It's already not going well; it's already November the 2nd in my country LOL. But this time, I felt like stepping out of my comfort zone. I've been struggling to get back into the zone for A Traitor's Tale after Treech distracted me from it for an entire year, so maybe this'll help me. Therefore, I've decided that this story shall be set in the Shimmerverse, so spoilers for Star Crossed and Yours Faithfully. I've also decided to throw in a bunch of TBOSAS tributes because I like them. It's also gonna be circus themed because… I'm just in the mood.

Trigger Warning: Mentions of abusive parents/guardians.

1. The Ringmaster - Onstage

Fawkes Chau, District 10, Victor of the 75th Hunger Games

Most Hunger Games were won or lost in the arena, but the 75th Hunger Games were won and lost onstage.

Caesar Flickerman had not expected it to be this way. He'd interviewed most of these tributes before, and, since they'd all either placed second or won, most of them had delivered very good interviews. There were a few of the second place tributes where the cloning process hadn't gone quite right, and a few where the cloned tribute's memory of their former self's death had traumatised them to the point where they couldn't perform as well as they once had, but Plutarch and his team had notified Caesar of them.

Plutarch had not notified Caesar that Mako Yubeta would go from a calm, confident swordsman to a broken man whose widow had married another man while he was dead. Or that Ageis Sacro would go from singing the praises of her aunt, one of President Snow's most loyal victors, to accusing her of abuse. Or, most chillingly of all, that Régine Maurin would go from a bloodthirsty and crowd-pleasing Elite to calmly talking about her neglectful parents and questioning the entire Elite system that had made her and Ageis this way.

Plutarch had told Caesar that the victor of the Quell would either be Mako, Ageis or Régine, but Caesar had just watched all three of them reveal themselves as rebels and ruin their chances at victory, one by one.

Caesar could sense the tension in the crowd. They were as silent as a grave. It was like Ageis and Régine giving their interviews back-to-back had sucked all the air out of the room. With every new tribute that stepped onstage, Caesar braced himself for them to say something that'd end his career.

Then he stepped onstage, dressed in a black leather jacket, tight black jeans and bright red high-heeled cowboy boots.

Three years ago, that boy, Fawkes Chau, had impressed the crowd with his looks during the parade, scored a six in training, delivered the best interview of the night, and gone on to completely dominate the games strategically until a girl who'd hid the entire games slit his throat at the final two. Most people Caesar had spoken to doubted he'd be able to pull that off a second time. Perhaps it was because Fawkes' weakness in combat was all the more obvious when all but two of his male opponents were bigger than him. Still, this year, Fawkes Chau had impressed the crowd with his looks during the parade, just like last time. He'd scored a six in training, just like last time.

Did that mean the best interview of the night was coming up?

"Fawkes!" Caesar cried. "It's good to see you again. I must say, you look amazing!"

Fawkes' lips quirked into a smile. Caesar wondered for a moment if he'd made a mistake assuming that Fawkes would help him out here. It was true that the kid knew how to work a crowd but that could be a curse as much as it was a blessing. If Fawkes decided to say something rebellious like the others had, Caesar would be doomed.

Fawkes was the one with the power and he knew it.

"Aww thanks!" Fawkes said. "I love my outfit! Can I do a twirl?"

"Go on," Caesar said, trying to suppress a nervous and relieved laugh. He hadn't expected that.

Fawkes did a twirl, showing off the intricate red wing design on the back of his jacket. It seemed like a callback to the parade, where he'd been dressed as a surprisingly impressive-looking flaming chicken. Dressing like a flaming chicken on national television was one of the many things that only Fawkes Chau could do without making a complete fool of himself.

Then Fawkes stopped to look at the audience, arms spread wide, waiting for a reaction.

Please cheer, Caesar silently begged, Please cheer.

He wondered if he was so desperate because he didn't want the kid to get his dreams crushed or if it was because his life was on the line.

The audience broke into a cheer.

Fawkes' face lit up like a beacon. He turned his head slightly to shoot Caesar a reassuring smile. For the first time, Caesar was struck by how much effort the gamemakers had put into the cloning.

Fawkes' clone was exactly like the original. He was going to do exactly what he did last time. It was strangely comforting. While most of the other tributes this games had transformed into uncanny rebellious versions of themselves, Fawkes Chau had stayed the same.

For next few minutes, Fawkes talked about how happy he was. He was happy that he got to wear a cool parade costume. He was happy to get to know his new mentor. He was happy to move to District 10 if he won, since the Quell twist had made him a District 10 tribute. And most of all, he was happy to get another chance to perform for his fans, and that meant, for just one interview of the night, the audience got to feel happy was well.

It was only when Fawkes' interview was over and Jiro Ethridge took to the stage to presumably give his typical one-word answers that Caesar realised that Fawkes hadn't mentioned the rebellion once. He had to know that it was happening, right? Fawkes was a smart kid, and someone must've told him his parents had been killed by rebels by now. He could've brought that up to make the rebels look bad.

Or, Fawkes could've realised that the three strongest tributes in the arena were all rebels, and that they'd surely target him if he openly showed support for the Capitol. He could've realised that he had better things to spend his precious interview time on than politics. He could've realised that the best message he could've sent to the audience was 'The rebellion will fail, so it's not even worth acknowledging.'

Caesar could picture it now: Fawkes Chau sitting somewhere off-camera, watching Mako and Régine and Ageis lose the Seventy-Fifth Hunger Games, one by one. He could picture him hiding his smile as he saw his chances of winning grow and grow and grow with each one of his opponents who made a fatal mistake on that stage. President Snow would never let a rebel win the Quell, but a tribute like Fawkes, someone who was charismatic enough to distract the public from the rebellion and smart enough to play the role well, would make an ideal victor.

Fawkes Chau had just won the Third Quarter Quell onstage.

Okay, so a bit of backstory. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do Tributember but then I looked at the prompts, saw the first one was 'Onstage' and immediately thought 'That's the Fawkes chapter! I have to do it. I just have to.' I guess I like to punish myself by having to explain the whole 'Fawkes died but then he got cloned and the clone is now a District 10 Tribute' lore in the first chapter of every story in this AU. So here's Caesar's perspective on Fawkes' Quell-winning interview. I'm normally going to write from the main tribute's POV but, after I wrote the opening line, it felt like something Caesar would say so this turned into his POV.

Our next act will be The Tightrope Walker. See if you can guess who they are. Some of the circus acts I picked to correspond to different tributes are pretty random (not everyone's gonna be as perfect for the role as Fawkes being The Ringmaster), and there might be some overlap in some places.