Please let this be a normal SYOT.

With LCS? No way!

In other words, we've reached the part where I messed up. Here's the sitch:

I received 5 votes, all for Persi. I would need 7 to be totally sure it was a majority, but after a few days with no votes coming in, I'd thought I'd gotten all I would get this round, since I often end up with about that much percentage of votes cast. With that history, five seemed sufficient- what were the odds all seven other votes would come in right at the end and all for one person, amirite?

Narrator voice: but she was not right.

I overlooked one very important thing. When I open votes, I had been assuming everyone would be pretty much ready to vote and would vote when voting opened. I didn't think about how sometimes I put a breather chapter in. Specifically, I didn't think that people might be waiting for that chapter to see if it affected their votes. Which it DID, in fact, and the largest alliance had been waiting and therefore hadn't cast their vote yet, those votes being enough to overpower the five. So that one's my fault- I should have been more specific about when I would or wouldn't have a breather and when the votes had to be in. I'm very sorry for my mistake and from now on I will be more precise with my schedule.

To recap, Persi got 5 votes. 2 were bogus so in-universe Isabella would be able to stop reading votes and I wouldn't have to make more bogus ones. I should have noted that last chapter but forgot to. That was very important info because the Ellekoner alliance is probably going crazy trying to figure out which of them flipped. Without confirming or denying specific votes, I do need to disclose to that alliance that Persi got 5 votes, not 7, and I am sorry for the witch hunt I very likely caused. Here's a quick breather POV so this chapter isn't all behind the scenes stuff.

TW: mentions of abuse

Val Vella- District Two male (18)

There was something about twilight. Everyone knew, though it was rarely spoken of, that all the best conversations happened at that time between day and night, when people were still awake but the darkness outside seemed to blunt the edges of reality. Everyone knew there were no monsters under the bed when it was light out. At night, when you were alone in bed, a lot of people thought differently, whether or not they admitted it. And under the cover of falling darkness, conversations often went deeper.

"I'm having so much fun here, I don't even want to go home," Lana said. We were all sitting around the fire- Lana reclined on one side, Enzo sitting spread-legged with his crotch closer to open flame than I would personally like, Yarrow poking at the logs with a stick to make sparks fly up, and the others in various positions. It was one of those nights that are cool but not cold. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the clearing we'd built our fire in gave us a pristine view of the night sky.

"I want to stick around and all, but I'm looking forward to my mom's cooking when I get home," Leo said.

"I eat better here than I did at home," Lana said.

"Even the first part, with nothing but rice?" Dorian joked.

But it was no joke, it turned out. "Yeah. Aunt Sadie sends me to my room without dinner if I'm bad, and I can only eat lunch if I get to the lunch lady before they run out, so I was hungry a lot at home."

"What? Like, a lot?" Kallik's face was shadowed even past the flickering campfire light. She seemed unsure of how much she should ask. Everyone always wanted to help with things like this. Then when they happened, no one had any idea what to do.

"It's no big deal." Lana shrugged. "It's not like she's abusive. She doesn't hit me very much."

I should have felt sympathy, but most of what I felt was disgust. There were so many people out there who mistreated anyone they could. I'd only known Lana for a few days, but I knew she didn't deserve that. I should have wanted to comfort her, but instead I wanted to give her Aunt what she deserved. Sometimes karma needed a helping hand.

"Hold up there, sport." Enzo felt the same way. "Try that without the 'very much'."

"It shouldn't be at all."

Octavia's voice was so sharp and bitter that half of us looked over at her. She saw she'd given away more than she wanted to and flattened her expression. But she didn't stop. I could see the flashing in her eyes even though she turned away from the fire's light. "People who love you don't hit you."

"Oh, did-" Dorian answered his own question and let it go unfinished.

"It's not important," Octavia brushed him off. She turned to Lana. "No one should ever hit you. And no one should ever not let you eat."

"Yeah, that's just basic human decency," Enzo said.

"You all are such good friends." I thought Lana wiped a tear away, but maybe it was just an ember that was too close to her hair. "That's why I don't want to go."

"I have no idea what's going to happen, but I hope you stay around for a while," Leo said.

"Oh my gosh, look!"

Yarrow's uplifted finger pointed at a patch of night sky. As my eyes adjusted after looking at the fire, I saw a vein of lighter blue that pulsated slightly.

"It's the northern lights!" I didn't have to look to know Kallik was smiling.

Even as I watched, the vein of blue lightened into a greenish hue. It spread up and out into the sky like a pat of butter being smeared onto bread. One chunk broke itself off and shifted to an electric shade of icy blue that ripped the edges of the green chunk. The whole thing started to undulate like a massive, glacial snake. I couldn't say how long we watched in awe before someone spoke.

"They really are just like in the pictures," Leo's voice was hushed and breathy. "But better."

"What a thing to see. What a thing to bring home," Shep said.

I had so much back in Two. I knew how lucky I was to have the money and opportunities I had. But there was so much we still didn't have. I never saw something like this back in Two. I barely ever saw the stars. It was nice being one of the most developed Districts, but it also meant we were among the farthest from nature.

"What a thing to share with friends," Leo said. The warm highlights on his face from the orange-red fire stood out stark against the cool blues and deep purples of the sky around the green lights.

"This is something we'll have forever," Alara said. "Sire, when the next council comes, we'll vote for someone, and we'll do it unt

il there's only one left. But we'll all always be part of this. We'll always have this."