Winner By Mistake

1. Would you rather be able to see your future or be able to change one moment in your past?

Change one moment in my past. I don’t want to see my future before it happens. What if it isn’t everything I want it to be?

2. You’re in a train heading for two paths. One hosts three workers. The other is only inhabited by one civilian. The train will surely kill anyone it hits. Which path do you choose?

...... If I’m just in the train, as a passenger, surely I don’t get to choose its path.....?

3. Would you rather burn to death or drown?

Drown.

4. Would you rather be deaf in a world without color? Or blind in a world without music?

Deaf in a world without colour. I know that I’d still be able to communicate, and a world without music seems so... wrong.

5. A gun is held to your head while your loved ones watch. The assailant can either shoot you and leave your family be or shoot them all and leave you alone. What is your choice?

Shoot me. Definitely.

6. Would you rather have to skydive from a great distance or scuba dive to the surface from the ocean floor?

Scuba diving. Just the thought of skydiving makes me dizzy.

7. Would you rather find your one true love or find the one profession you would easily excel at?

Find my one true love. Everything else would just fall into place, if I was with the one person I was supposed to be with.

8. Would you rather be able to lie and have everyone believe you? Or be able to read minds?

I don’t lie much. I’m terrible at it. So, the read minds thing, I suppose.

9. Chocolate cake with vanilla frosting or vanilla cake with chocolate frosting?

Both? Marble cake!

10. Would you rather die a memorable death in the arena or become a victor that nobody likes?

Branch Lindberg. District Seven. Seventeen.

The Gamemakers had told them that they could all live. But waiting in the dark, abandoned workshop deep underground, it soon became apparent what a horrible lie that had been. There could only be one victor. There was only ever one.

Satine directed Zeek towards Ophelia, who was supposed to be the easiest of their opponents. Maybe she was. At any rate, Branch had unfinished business with her courtesy of the bloodbath on Day One.

It was not the first time she had killed someone with her bare hands. That had been Heath Gallager (District Nine. Twenty.) She could still feel his eyes bursting beneath her thumbs...

... And then she stood, and brushed off her hands on her over-sized jumper, and turned to find Zeek but he’d gone. He had gone. And Satine had thought maybe, despite the cannon and the limpness of his body and how pale he looked, maybe he was still alive. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Her gaze turned to Ophelia, and her expression went cold. Zeek was too young to be her friend back home, too old to be Marino’s, and yet he was someone familiar, someone she bumped into on the street, a person she knew.

Ophelia Gamma. District Three. Sixteen.

Satine would never be proud of what she did to Ophelia. But in that moment, for Zeek, she’d do anything. And she wanted nothing more than to hurt this girl who had hurt him.

She had the grace to set her body down beside Branch’s, and to rest their hands on top of each-other’s. She might not have spoken to Ophelia before that night, but she knew that they were in love. The star-crossed lovers of the 117th. Lucky them, perhaps, for getting to be together forever.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said a voice outside of the cave. “Allow me to present the victor of the one hundred and seventeenth bi-annual Hunger Games.”

No, Satine thought. Maybe she said it out loud. No no no no no.

She knelt down beside Zeek, trying to wake him and crying when she couldn’t. And it was there that they found her when the hovercraft team came to lead her back out through the rubble.

“why must you always wound me like this.?” she pretended to be astonished one hand falling mockingly over her chest in a dramatic motion. “well it wasn’t me who taught you. How to shoot an arrow was it? Just because your last teacher was shit…” she trailed off clearly joking. 

While the hustle and bustle of training swarmed the tribute tower, Allegra found herself getting happily lost in it all. For the first time since starting her new job, being lost and busy was something that she was happy about. There was always something to do, always someone to introduce herself to, always some to talk to about her tributes. And in this moment in particular, there was a cute girl to meet with. “You’re late for our lesson,” she said, leaning against the wall in the training room and watching Satine talk to a tribute. // starter for @xsatine

Satine turned abruptly at the now-familiar voice, breaking into a smile when her eyes finally settled on Allegra. Two seconds, she mouthed, turning back to her tribute and adjusting the collar of his shirt. “See if you can find Surya,” she suggested. “She’s much better at most of this than I am anyway.” As he headed towards one of the stations, Satine made her way over to Allegra. Hello, she signed with a bright smile. I learnt ‘macaroni cheese’ yesterday. Spending time with Neptune Caulder was proving invaluable, and not just because she adored him. Sorry I’m late. How are you?

Tetra giggled happily and Glitter smiled at both her daughter and Satine.  As much as she would never truly admit it, she appreciated Satine being there.  With River in District Four, she knew she would need some help with Neptune and Tetra during the Games.  She trusted Satine with that.  Glitter dropped a kiss to the top of her daughter’s head before sighing.  “No,” she admitted.  “I don’t think either one of us ever saw this coming.”

Satine watched Glitter kiss Tetra was a fond smile, ignoring the ache in her heart that was already missing her younger siblings. She’d have to ask her step-mom to let her talk to them when she made her nightly Games season phone-call later. “I think Kahente would be happy, though,” she said softly. “If she could see us.”

Surya winked quickly as she followed the instructions to close the door. She approached the fridge and opened it curiously as she continued to listen to Satine. “Well, I’m just glad to hear Glitter isn’t taking anything out on you,” she stated quietly. She pulled out a little bowl of strawberries and started to eat them, holding the bowl out to Satine after she’d finished speaking. “Of course, but I understand if you may want to take a little bit more of a hands-off approach this time,” she assured the girl. “I know you’re still dealing with what happened, and it’s not made easier by having to play barrier or referee or whatever you may be doing between Hunter and Glitter.” It wasn’t so much that Surya cared about Satine’s well-being, but if Satine needed to take a small step back from Eight to be nice enough to Glitter during the Games that the woman didn’t go after Surya or Hunter, it should be encouraged. “Were you back in Eight for the break?”

Satine set the end of her carrot down in her lap temporarily, offering Surya a small smile as she reached out to take one of her strawberries. “Glitter won’t hurt me, I guarantee it,” she assured her. They’d confided in each-other enough over the last six months that she was confident in that, at least. She nibbled at the tip of her strawberry, hoping to make it last longer by eating it slowly, a habit left over from a childhood spent sharing meagre food portions with six other people. “I can help, still,” she insisted. “I don’t mind going over throwing knives or something with them, if you don’t mind handling interview technique?” She was getting better at answering questions for TV, but wasn’t quite confident enough in herself to tutor others just yet. She nodded as she chewed another piece of strawberry. “Of course. It’s were my family are.” And where Hunter was not. “Next Reaping will be Lettie’s first. She was full of questions.” Satine might be immune now that she was a victor, but having two siblings eligible for the Games made her feel sick. “I’m hoping the twist this time will convince her to keep her head down.” The Harrises had been hoping Lettie would grow out of her mischievous streak, but if anything it was only getting worse. Satine was terrified of her offending the wrong person and winding up in trouble. “How’s Saiyyad doing?”

“Well damn it- are you on friday night at 8?” Joy joked handing the gun back with a smirk. “See? That was better. Not that hard is it?” Weapons had always come easy to her and some she almost considered a fierce friend given the time she spends around them usually. “Not too bad at all. if you continue like this I will have you hitting the mark with both eyes closed in a bit.”

Satine hummed, pretending to consider the offer. “I think I’m seeing someone else Friday,” she teased back. “You’ll have to be quicker than that.” Laughing, she looked back at the target and shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’ve been firing a bow for two years now and I still need at least one eye for that.”

Shaking her head joy reached over to slap Satine’s butt teasingly: “naw- touching it.” as she watched Satine flail around she couldn’t contain the laughter bubbling in her throat: “wait-” as she reloaded Satine’s gun she was still smirking sillily glad to find some amusement during training: “well the-do it better now.”

“Young, curious, clever.” Olive shrugged, holding herself a little tighter. It wasn’t very often that she let herself dwell on the kids she’d shared an arena with. “She was kind to me, which is more than I gave back.” She hadn’t known what it was like to lose a sibling back then, hadn’t known the scar it left. 

It wasn’t difficult to connect the girl Olive described with the one Hunter still seemed to adore. “We all did things as tributes that we regret now. Or didn’t do, as it might be.” She pulled her legs up onto the couch and wrapped her arms around them, setting her bloody cloth down on top of her knees. “There was a really sweet, kind girl in my Games, too. I murdered her.” And no amount of flowers sent to Clover Darwin was ever going to change that. “She hurt my district partner and I just... snapped...”

Surya had eaten breakfast some time earlier and was starting to feel her typical mid-morning stomach rumbling as she found her way back to Eight’s floor. She’d been searching for Satine earlier but to no avail, and decided they would cross paths when the time was right and started to seek out her tributes and sponsors. This year did feel different. It was almost easy, lackadaisical, and like what she did didn’t actually matter all that much because the fates of her tributes were likely already sealed. After last year, she wasn’t sure if things would ever be quite as intense.

Perhaps because the scent of vanilla wasn’t necessarily very unusual to Surya, she almost didn’t notice it as she approached the kitchen. There was no clue someone was inside, and when she opened the door, she was pleasantly surprised to find Satine inside - especially with her weapon of choice of her warning words hardly as threatening as what Surya knew she was capable of. “That’s hardly a way to deter me,” she cautioned the girl with a smile. “Annoying Lysander Vultur with meaningless conversation is my favorite guilty pleasure.”

Surya eyed the carrot with raised eyebrows before she moved toward the sink to refill her water bottle. “Where have you been all morning?”

Realising it was Surya, Satine lowered her half-eaten carrot. “Come in, but close the door,” she said quietly. “I’m hiding.” 

She hopped back up onto the counter and took another bite of her snack. “I took Kismet for a walk,” she explained eventually. “We bought Hunter those stupid cigarettes he’s so upset about. And... and now I’m just trying to gather up the courage to go back down to One’s floor again, I think. Wait.” She frowned. “No. Courage is the wrong word. I’m not scared to I just... Glitter’s busy, you know? I don’t want to be annoying.” She swung her legs idly. “Please make sure our tributes know they can talk to me still, though?” she requested. “I promise I won’t let my personal life get in the way of helping them as much as I can.”

Joy laughed at that remark waving her hand.“I’ll be okay standing next to you. Just make sure you don’t fall over. That could hurt your butt a little.” she winked at her before motioning towards the target: “go ahead. They always keep the long distance shooting stalls seperated anyway. You won’t be able to hurt anyone.

Tetra kept babbling happily to both her mother and Satine.  “The right person will come around.  I never thought I’d have one kid much less as many as I have,” she told her.  “But with the right person…anything is possible.”  Glitter shrugged.  “It’s no trouble, Satine.  I think we all needed this.”

Satine focused on Tetra as she babbled, listening to her nonsense words and nodding along as though she understood their meaning. “You’re right, Tetra,” she said seriously. “I completely agree. You’re so clever!” She smiled at her fondly, looking back up at Glitter with the same expression. “I’m glad we have each-other through this,” she said. “You and me. Who’d have thought we’d make such a great team this time last year?”

Putting her own down on the table she chuckled shrugging: “true, but you would have to pull it out to use it again. Pretty bothersome if you ask me.” she moved her hands quickly adjusting Satine’s grip and posture as she had done on dozens of other people before. Letting her palms rest u der her arms to guide her aim she corrected her stance a little nudging her feet apart with her own:“ basically you have just got to hit the goal. Keep your back straight, don’t hold the gun directly in front of your shoulder and don’t cramp around it. Keep a firm, but comfortable hand around it. And be prepared for the kickback." 

Satine let Joy adjust her stance, turning her head for a moment to smile at her before setting her sights back on the target. “You might want to stand back a bit.” she advised, half-expecting to fly across the room with the force of the kickback. “My aim’s pretty okay,” she added jokingly, “so I shouldn’t shoot you if you’re behind me.”