Yes, this is, in fact, BOSAS compliant. Warnings for abuse, eating disorders, alcoholism. This chapter is a heavy one, so prepare yourself.
Arafura Sparrow
Age 16
District 12 Female
24.
Arachne Crane never truly bothered to get to know her tribute. If she had, she would have known that Brandy Palmer always had a temper. She was always told that it would get her into trouble one day, so Brandy tried to keep it under control. However, there was only so much someone could take before they snapped.
When Brandy was reaped for the 10th Annual Hunger Games, she was furious but swallowed her rage.
When she was thrown from the train cars like a rag doll because she happened to move a little too slow, she took a deep breath and counted to ten.
When she was denied food and water and treated like an animal at a circus, she closed her eyes and tried to quell the fire burning inside her.
However, Brandy reached her limit when Arachne teased her with a sandwich.
Had Arachne tried to get to know her tribute, she would have known to keep her knife far away and her ego in check.
Had she tried, perhaps Arachne would have gone home to her family that day.
23.
Apollo Ring and his tribute, Otto Hutchence, got on quite well. Otto said that he hadn't felt like he had someone in his corner since the war took his family away. Otto and Apollo got along so well that Apollo told him "When you win, I'll see about finding a way to get you a phone. We can talk every day."
Apollo could handle Diana's teasing. He just wanted to keep his new friend.
Otto was terrified during the arena tour. Apollo thought that it was because he was in a place where he could very well die horribly in less than twenty-four hours.
When Otto voiced his concerns to Apollo, Apollo, as usual, tried to cheer him up.
Turns out, Otto was right to be afraid.
Apollo should have been afraid too.
He heard Ginnee shout a warning.
He turned to his sister in terror only to find that she wasn't there anymore.
Then he wasn't either.
22.
Diana was in love with her tribute. She was beautiful, kind, and smart. She had a sharp sense of hearing and was a dancer on top of all of that.
She knew she was a fool to get attached, but she had such a good feeling about Ginee Bright.
You could hear a pin drop in the arena during the tour. Ginnee was frightened, and when Diana reached for her hand to comfort her, Ginnee let her.
When Ginnee froze and asked Diana, "Do you hear that?" Diana immediately found herself on guard. "It sounds like…ticking."
Then, Ginnee screamed out a warning.
It was the last thing Diana would ever hear.
She died before the sound of the bombs reached her ears.
21.
Gaius Breen had big dreams and a five-year plan to reach them. He was going to be an actor, a comedian, and he was going to be famous. It didn't matter that Panlo Sinclair wanted nothing to do with him. He would do his best where he worked best, in front of the cameras.
When the bombs went off, he found himself wondering what had just happened, and why Panlo was unconscious and covered in blood before he too lost consciousness.
He never woke up, which was probably a good thing.
He would have been devastated to have known he had lost his legs.
He would have been even more devastated to know that he would never achieve his dreams.
20.
Palmyra Monty survived the Capitol bombing by the skin of her teeth. Her tribute did not.
Palmyra was humiliated when she woke up in the hospital to the grisly sight of the bullet-ridden corpse of Velvereen Vail being dragged down the street. She thought the embarrassment of having a tribute try to flee would kill her, and would joke about that with her family to lighten the mood. She always had a sense of dark humor.
She joked about having Coriolanus sing at her funeral and a massive parade being held in her honor. When her condition deteriorated and she succumbed to her wounds, no funeral was held. The Games were over and so was the need for spectacle. No one cared anymore.
19.
Sejanus Plinth was always too kind and trusting for his own good. He tried to make friends with anyone and everyone, even though he always felt he was trapped between worlds, not truly belonging in the Capitol but never able to return to District 2.
When his new classmates in the Capitol shunned him, Sejanus felt helpless.
When his tribute and former classmate, Marcus Lance suddenly hated him, he was devastated.
When Coriolanus Snow treated him decently, he latched on and he latched on tight.
All Sejanus wanted was to be loved and to love in turn, but he quickly learned that in Panem, no good deed went unpunished and love was nothing but a weakness.
When he was dragged to prison, he waited for his father, his ma, Coryo, or anyone to come and save him.
When he heard his own voice - his conversation with the boy he thought was his brother, echo through the branches of the Hanging Tree, he was too scared and shocked to realize he had been betrayed.
It was a kindness. Had Sejanus had enough time to put the pieces together before the floor beneath him, it would have broken him.
18.
When President Ravinstill died of heart failure, his great-nephew Felix was the front-runner to take his place. The unfortunate demise of Dill Lewis was of no consequence, though it did give him sympathy points when part of his campaign involved better health care for the districts. Everyone loved him for that.
It made it ironic when the heart condition that took his great-uncle's life turned out to be hereditary.
17.
Lysistrata Vickers took over the family business and became the physician not just for the Ravinstill family, but for other less fortunate Capitolites as well. Jessup Diggs's kindness was the reason Lysistrata was still alive, and she wanted to extend that kindness.
She stayed in close contact with her former district partner, Coriolanus after he returned from Twelve, and he was thrilled when she became the presidential physician.
When President Ravinstill and Felix both dropped dead of a heart condition that she knew for a fact that they didn't have, Lysistrata never expected Coriolanus to blame her. Her resulting death sentence for assassination by medical negligence hurt less than the way Snow threw her under the bus.
16.
People saw Io Jasper as weird, but Io never seemed to care. She did have an obsessive streak, however, and when Circ Pellish died to the snakes unleashed on the arena, she grew fascinated with those creatures and studied them relentlessly.
Around the time she fell ill with a severe illness, she discovered a connection between the venom of the snakes and the flu that afflicted Clemensia Dovecote so long ago. She fought hard against the illness, wanting desperately to complete her research, but she knew when she was beaten.
Io passed her research notes on to her old friend Vipsania Sickle just before she died. Vipsania was no scientist, but if anyone would know what to do with what she found, it was her.
Io died hoping that she did the right thing.
15.
Urban Canville did not appreciate Capitol News turning Teslee Marx's death into a comedy bit. Her using the drones was hilarious, yes, but her demise at the hands of the Seven boy was not. It was what ruined his life. He and his psycho of a mentor. The tragic end that makes the comedy his ass, that comedy haunted him like a ghost. No one would take him seriously.
When he flunked out of the University and his family cut him off, he turned to the bottle for support. A few failed bets and several arrests later, Urban wound up on the streets. One year after he nearly froze to death during a harsh winter, he realized he needed to get his life together. He and his former drinking buddy Dennis Fling pooled what little money they had and got a small apartment together. They cleaned themselves up. They got jobs and tried to salvage their lives.
Dennis succeeded. Urban didn't live long enough to.
A girl was being harassed on the street late one night and he stepped in to defend her. Her harasser had a knife on him. Urban died a hero, but everyone except Dennis assumed he died in some bar fight.
14.
Clemensia Dovecote never fully recovered from the 10th Hunger Games, at least not physically. She regretted allowing herself to be bitten by that snake, rendering her ill for most of the Games, which she believed affected her performance and her ability to help Reaper Ash, but with time and therapy, she learned to accept what happened.
The "flu" she contracted, on the other hand, left her with health problems that followed her for the rest of her life. Thankfully, while things were shaky at first as trust was rebuilt, her friendship with Coriolanus survived. However, as the years went by, he began to change, and not for the better. While Clemensia was able to move on from the 10th Hunger Games, it seemed to follow Coryo like a ghost. As he rose through the ranks, distance began to grow between them. She tried to follow him, but her health problems prevented her from doing so, so she settled for the energy secretary. She used her position to try to help Coriolanus where she could, tried to get him out of the belly of the beast before it was too late, but she failed. - another failure she had to learn to accept.
When her health worsened and she landed in the hospital, she was surprised to see Coryo visit her after all these years. They had one final conversation. Her old friend didn't seem happy, but he did seem content. The conversation left her with some semblance of closure.
That would have to be enough.
Clemensia died in her sleep that evening.
Coriolanus was the chief mourner and even sang at her funeral.
No one batted an eye at the replacement secretary that was installed not even twenty-four hours later. No one except a handful of her former classmates…
13.
Festus Creed rebounded from his failed mentor assignment quite nicely, almost as nicely as the lumber business he was set to inherit. During his time at the University, he took a liking to architecture. He changed his major and began designing buildings for a living, leaving the lumber business to his younger brother.
Even though Coral Ward was forgotten by most, Festus never forgot her and found himself in love with District 4's buildings. He began to incorporate elements of those buildings into his designs, which made him quite popular.
When Coriolanus took over as Head Gamemaker after Dr. Gaul's passing and proposed a new arena be built every year, he tapped Festus to help out with that. Festus's arena designs were so popular with the Capitol, that he was hired on as a Gamemaker.
He married his childhood sweetheart Persephone Price and lived a happy life. However, a structural failure during one year resulted in his dismissal, despite his popularity. He died suddenly not long after of an illness that the president also contracted, but miraculously recovered from.
Earlier that year, it came out that he was considering going into politics.
When exchanging stories with her old friends at a class reunion, his widow innocently brought this up.
Her friends took notes.
12.
Persephone Price rode the high of having such a young tribute place so high, as well as having the first tribute to die to an inventive Three. She did regret Mizzen Brymer's death though and never crossed a milestone without silently thanking him for the prize money and fame that he had brought her.
Rather than go into the railroad industry as everyone expected, Persephone married her fellow mentor Festus Creed, stayed at home tending a garden, and wrote cookbooks. She always said that she was inspired by her father's cooking, though it was never quite the same.
Persephone continued this hobby even after her husband's untimely death, using her inheritance to do so, up until she contracted a neurodegenerative disease and joined her husband in death a year later.
She should have asked her father what kind of meat he put in her wartime stew.
11.
If you asked anyone who knew Livia Cardew, her story about how the 10th Hunger Games had humbled her was complete and utter garbage. Despite her claims that she was a changed woman after Facet Carlton ran for the hills after the bombing and was shot dead for his trouble, throwing all of her talk about him being brave and loyal out the window, everyone knew Livia was only motivated by one thing: winning.
There were whispers of how foolish her husband was to marry her, that she was only using him, that she'd use her position as first lady of Panem to gain power and run circles around him. The only people who were happy for her were her family, a few friends, and her loving husband.
When Livia died suddenly of an allergic reaction during her tenth-anniversary dinner, her husband and two children were devastated.
Her parents and sister thought that story was complete and utter garbage. They knew for a fact that Livia didn't have any allergies, and were bold enough to call out the media for the supposed lies.
The public took the side of the grieving president and his two young children and the Cardews lost everything, but they never forgot what happened.
10.
Florus Friend had been bullied all his life. He was bullied for being a bookworm, bullied for his name (A name he hated. Seriously, who named their kid Florus Friend?) and when Sabyn Ogawa died trying to leap over a wall while fleeing the Capitol and died, he was bullied for that too.
As soon as the 10th Hunger Games were over, he left the Capitol, cut contact with his family, and moved to District 7 to pursue his career as a poet and historian in peace and nature.
He did keep in contact with one person, his only friend Hilarious Heavensbee. When Hilarious asked him an important favor fifteen years later, Florus happily obliged and dove into his research, looking for the requested information.
Unfortunately, District 7 had just won the Quell, and all eyes were there
His house burned to the ground, taking Florin and his research with it. Faulty wiring was deemed the cause. That told Hilarious all he needed to know.
9.
Androcles Anderson was in a coma and woke up only to learn he missed the Hunger Games. He didn't have to ask if Sheaf Kerrigan won. If he was in a coma for several days, the odds of her being in any better shape were slim. Instead, he asked what happened. When he learned about what happened in the arena, he was relieved to know that she died before the Games began. In his eyes, she was the lucky one. Still, the way the Games went down and then suddenly dropped out of syndication made Androcles curious.
That curiosity had him coming back to Hilarious Heavensbee's house time and time again. He and several of his former classmates met every week under the guise of a book club, but they had other objectives - more dangerous objectives.
He used his reporter credentials to get information and interviews with important people that he and the other members of the book club could use. He was so excited when he got an exclusive interview with the president.
That interview was never aired, due to Androcles collapsing in the middle of it. The president himself fell ill not long after.
Snow recovered by Androcles did not. He died a week later, leaving behind a devastated and vengeful circle of friends.
8.
Bobbin Knox didn't just drop dead. Juno Phipps never let the world forget that. She was convinced that there was foul play involved. Her joining Hilarious's group was by accident, but their investigations into Snow's regime and what happened in the 10th Hunger Games were what kept her there.
It was just as well because she mellowed out quite a bit thanks to being around better influences. She had friends again: people with common interests and a common goal. She and Hilarious even fell in love and had a child together.
Seeing little Plutarch was what drove Juno deeper into the belly of the beast. She wanted to create a better world for her son.
Technology advanced over the years, and Juno realized that she had the chance to find out what really happened to Bobbin. Hilarious used his status as Head Gamemaker to get her the tapes and told her to take them home, and that they would talk later.
Juno never made it home.
7.
The world tried to forget about Treech Amamiya and the Tenth Hunger Games, but Vipsania Sickle never forgot. The boy she mentored, grew close to and was so close to saving followed her around like a phantom for the rest of her life.
Vipsania, like several of her fellow mentors, became Gamemakers, and she along with a few others bonded over the mutual trauma of the Games. After Io Jasper's funeral, she found herself carpooling with fellow Gamemaker Hilarious Heavensbee and reporter Androcles Anderson. They decided to eat dinner and reminisce about old times. Juno Phipps joined them after her taxi kicked her out outside the apartment and left her in the snow. They shared memories of school and memories of Io, and the conversation turned to the Games and the controversy surrounding them. The group decided to meet up weekly under the guise of a book club. It was all good fun until Vipsania received Io's research notes. Conspiracy theories were fun to talk about…until they weren't theories anymore
They put together the pieces of the puzzle that was the Tenth Annual Hunger Games. It led them into dangerous territory, and sometimes, Vipsania wondered if she was doing the right thing, especially after Androcles and Juno's suspicious deaths years later.
Then she remembered seeing Treech on the ground, his face turning blue and scaly as he gasped his final breath and his eyes turning bright yellow as the light left them before the buzzer that signaled his death rang and Vipsania had to leave before she cried on live television.
She could almost feel his hand on her shoulder, telling her to keep going. So she did. She did it for him and herself.
The night her apartment was broken into was the night Vipsania realized that she was right.
It was also the last night of her life.
Her final hope was that she did all she could.
Her final thought was of Treech's voice, telling her she did.
6.
Iphigenia Moss always had a toxic relationship with her father. He hurt her, made her feel useless, and was constantly shaming her weight and body. It led to Iphigenia developing an eating disorder, though when people asked, she mentioned it was revenge on her father to avoid shame.
After she blacked out during a one-on-one session with her tribute, Sol Bertoli asked enough questions to get Iphigenia to break down. Despite being the one slated for death, Sol comforted her and told her to get away from her father and that she was beautiful as she was and she deserved so much better. When Iphigenia voiced her doubt, Sol told her to consider it her dying request.
The night Sol died was the night Iphigenia packed up all her important documents and left the Moss home for the last time. She lived with Lysistrata for a bit until she could get on her feet using what little prize money she got. She went to therapy, and slowly rebuilt herself. She got a job at Capitol TV to get back at her father and stayed there for years until she retired. Her father tried over and over again to get her committed, but Iphigenia survived and thrived.
She died of a heart attack at a relatively young age, but she died happy and free.
Her friends took comfort in that.
5.
Hilarious Heavensbee thought of Wovey Paloma every single day since she died. There was no way a stupid sponsor-gifted water bottle could have killed her. It had to be poison, but how did the poison even get into the arena?
When he found himself in the company of other mentors whose tributes died suspiciously, this came up in conversation.
They decided that if Dr. Gaul was going to take the truth to her grave, then they would find it themselves.
It didn't take long for the so-called "Mentor Curse" to look suspicious.
Too many of their classmates had died of sudden illnesses. When Florus died in a fire not long after Hilarious reached out to him, he knew that whoever was responsible for the 10th Hunger Games was onto them, so they worked harder to find the truth. Hilarious's status as Head Gamemaker opened up so many doors, and his book club found out more than they ever thought possible.
Their numbers began to drop.
One by one, Androcles, Juno, and Vipsania all died.
Hilarious knew he was next, and that his popularity as Head Gamemaker would not protect him from whatever it was that killed his friends for much longer. Still, he played nice and bided his time.
When Snow called him in for a meeting after the second Quarter Quell, Hilarious knew what was about to happen to him. He made sure Plutarch was prepared and would be safe from that snake.
He only hoped that it was enough.
The next generation would have to pick up where he left off.
4.
Dennis Fling was always a partyer. The first night of the Games, twenty-four hours after his tribute Hy Funayurei died before the Games even began because some peacekeeper confiscated his inhaler, he went to a party to celebrate the Games…and wound up in jail. His old buddy Urban bailed him out and thus began a long drinking partnership. When Urban wound up homeless, Dennis realized he had to get his act together.
He briefly relapsed after Urban's death broke his heart, but he managed to reconnect with his family and even make one of his own. Unfortunately, years of drinking caught up to him, and his liver began to fail. He was denied a new liver thanks to his previous alcoholism, despite his having turned his life around. Dennis was okay with that. He was getting older, and despite the rocky start, he was content with his life.
His family fought for him, but Dennis accepted his fate and died peacefully surrounded by them.
He died with a smile on his face.
3.
Pup Harrington's moderate success in the Hunger Games didn't matter to his father. Lamina Gossner didn't matter to him either, despite Pup's insistence that she was. Pup was shipped off to military school the moment his tribute was declared dead.
Turns out, joining the Navy was the best thing that happened to Pup. He found himself stationed in District 4, where he met District 4's second victor, Mags Flanagan. She was strange yet charming, and the two became close friends, and then something more. When Pup was discharged from the Navy five years later, he asked Mags to marry him. The wedding was deemed controversial due to the stigma of a Capitolite being with a Districter, but was quickly replaced with excitement at the first wedding for a victor.
Together, they opened up a small hole-in-the-wall gym to teach kids to defend themselves, properly socialize, and survive if needed. Mags didn't want another girl like her to go into the arena unprepared, and Pup, remembering how Lamina cried throughout the week leading up to the Games, felt the same. President Snow eventually snarked to Pup to call it what it was and rewarded District 4's loyalty by making it a Career district.
Pup and Mags saved so many more kids over the years, and adopted a couple of their own. They lived happily until a storm at sea ravaged a boat where Pup was teaching some members of the Gym. He saved the lives of the kids under his care but at the cost of his own.
Pliny Harrington Jr. died a hero, and Mags renamed the Gym in his honor.
When she died in the toxic fog, her last thoughts were of him.
2.
When Domita Whimsiwick inherited her mother's dairy empire, she immediately moved to District 10. Her family never quite forgave her for that, but she had been eager to get out of the Capitol ever since her late tribute, Tanner Hawkins, told her all about it. While life was incredibly difficult for a Ten, Domita couldn't help but dream about living there, running her new business and just living far away from the violence and opulence.
She wanted simplicity, and that was what she got. She got married, had children, and died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 77, her loving partner of over fifty years by her side.
Turns out, that simplicity allowed her to live the longest out of her fellow mentors.
Had she been in the Capitol, her fate could have been much different.
1.
Coriolanus Snow returned to the Capitol ready to forget Lucy Gray Baird and the 10th Annual Hunger Games as a whole and focus on the future. Dr. Gaul agreed and when she mentioned that she had all but one of the tapes of the 10th Annual Hunger Games destroyed, Coriolanus suggested she go further than that.
So they went about erasing what they could from Panem as well.
Part of adding glamor to the Games was honoring the victors. His colleague, Magnus Casper, suggested giving them a grand introduction at the Reapings. That worked, but it also had the potential to remind the public of that last great disaster. Dr. Gaul had a simple fix for that. District 12 had only one victor, and her name was Arafura Sparrow. Unfortunately, she died of her injuries after her Games. No one needed to know what Games she was from.
As for the Covey, well, all Dr. Gaul had to do was warn the president of leftover mutts and dangerous wild animals, and that was enough for him to move the border of District 12 to right at the edge of the woods. Coincidentally, the change happened at night, while the Covey was in their cabin. Coriolanus was more than okay with that outcome. The Covey was more than capable of learning to survive in the wild. They would be free to do what they wanted, but they would never be a problem to Panem again.
People quickly forgot about the spectacle. They were soon distracted by the prospect of a bigger and better Hunger Games. It was easy enough to slowly phase out the first ten years of Hunger Games footage that still existed.
Coriolanus had indeed killed his old self. The old Coriolanus had died amongst the snakes and rain and hail of bullets in the woods of District 12. The old Coriolanus died with Lucy Gray.
Before, the Hunger Games were a dusty disaster that no one cared about. Now, Coriolanus would turn it into the greatest game in the world, and it would be the ladder upon which he would climb.
Coriolanus was given a second chance at life, a second chance to achieve his dreams, and he was not going to squander it. If someone else's dreams were shattered along the way, then so be it.
After all, the world was the arena, and he was the victor.
Look at me, spending my Sunday like a normal person. To my FBI agent: Now you know why my search history has been sus as of late.
At what point did you realize that the placement order wasn't the order of the tributes dying, but the mentors? Not all of them were done in by Snow, but I knew the odds of all of them being alive by Year 74 were incredibly slim, and Snow most certainly had his hand in some of them, but not all of them. Igriphinia, Dennis, Pup, and Domita were able to recover from the Games and live happy lives. Urban would have had he not been killed, but he died a hero, and we all know Snow will get his karma in the end. I also had to include Treesania because they were so robbed! (Remember the book club. I intend to make them important later.)
Finally, Snow changing Lucy Gray's name in official records just felt right. Gaul wiped away the 10th Hunger Games and Snow wanted Lucy Gray to be as forgotten as possible. The erasure of the 10th Hunger Games (and the other previous Games) and the demise of those involved prompted the chapter title: Lost Media!
With that, the Early Era arc is over! The Gaul saga continues though, but things will be a lot smoother for her from here on out. I still haven't decided if this is going to be canon-compliant yet or not, or if I'll be making it compliant with the Simple Gifts AU (formerly the Solstiverse). I'll likely make it canon-compliant but then I'll have to whack 99% of the victors and I have attachment issues lol. The next chapter might not come as quickly, as I will have to get back to ASM, but don't worry, once ASM is over I will be focusing my full attention on this story.