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Post by Light on Jan 11, 2014 19:58:23 GMT
After the quick succession of kills, it had been an uneventful day, and now as they were in camp, watching the faces in the sky, it seemed things might kick off again between Terrence and Neil.
Persephone looked over as the bickering started. Really, Day 2? Not that you could actually trust anyone in an environment like this, but you at least had to pretend you did. What was the point of forming a pack if things were going to disintegrate this early on?
She scraped one of her swords against a nearby rock, creating a low screech that would get the others' attentions: "The bitch got stupid and tried to turn. Would have gutted her myself, but Neil was closer." she said: "Satisfied, or do you really want to do this now? There are more pressing issues out there." even if you were constantly expecting a stab in the back, the least you could do was act like you weren't; get the job done, make the others think they'd surprise you when they turned, and kill each other later.
This whole thing was making it abundantly clear that more caution than usual was required. One Career down, and the male from 1 still running around on his own. There shouldn't be cracks this early on.
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Post by PenguinNinja on Jan 11, 2014 20:24:58 GMT
Tara had snuck out when the shadows were their darkest, her bag high on her back. Her eyes had been her only guide down the rocky slope until she touched the floor. And she listened. Nothing. Her eyes scanned the area. Nobody. She smiled, stuck to the shadows and scampered as quickly as possible. A straight path was stuck to as she reached the forest and moved through it. At least she knew she could get back to her spot.
There had been the sound of voices and she'd ducked, crept through the undergrowth, giving the voices a wide berth. When they became distant she scampered and ran. Night wouldn't last forever and the sooner she could get to the cornucopia the better.
The area looked clear and she stepped out into the chilly air with narrowed eyes. She waited, listened, watched, listened and waited. Nothing and nobody. With a sigh she ducked down and rushed across the plain until the first podium had come into view. She dropped to her knees, dropped her bag and stuck her hands into the dirt. Hands scrapped at the dirt, digging and digging until the first mine could be seen. She continued to dig until she could get underneath it and eyed the mine. She was happy that they weren't going to blow up in her face and pulled it out of the ground. When it sat in her lap she pulled the screwdriver out of her back and opened the back of it. Fingers worked quickly to make sure the game makers couldn't turn it back on. Then she was shoving the mine into her bag.
For the next thirty minutes she dug, opened, turned off and put away five more mines. With any hope that would be enough for now and she threw her bag back onto her back, eyed the area, stood and stepped through the forest once more.
It took her much longer to get back to her hollow in the rocks, desperate to make as little noise as possible and to get back without alerting anybody to her position. Not to mention the bag wasn't exactly light on her back. She sighed as she climbed back into her hole and curled herself back up.
Sleep. She could sleep until the sun came up.
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Playle
Talking In Your Sleep
Posts: 441
Deadly Sin: Sloth
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
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Post by Playle on Jan 12, 2014 2:23:26 GMT
The grease from the cooked rabbit and squirrel was slathered down Onyx’s face as he watched the announcements in the sky. The anthem of Panem caught his attention, because for the past several hours he had felt like he had heard nothing but the sounds of woodland animals.
The scene which stuck with him was the scene of Amee beheading that District Ten girl. She seemed fierce in the training, but they weren’t close. He remembered their trainer had made some real effort to make sure they worked together, but their chemistry clashed. Both had similar mentalities in the arena – sooner or later, Onyx or Amethyst would have gutted the other one over some petty matter. Better she took out her rage on the other careers; better he took out his rage on critters to cook. Tonight alone he had caught a pair of stoats and found some overripe apples.
The squirrel and rabbit meat was fattier than anticipated, and he felt more than nourished. He felt sated. He didn’t feel too upset at missing out on the combat today. Clearly the career pack had picked off a few numbers, but they weren’t to be underestimated. He could probably take one or two of them down in a fight, but he’d be skewered or sliced or shot before he could get all of them. He was too big to stealthily attack them – leaves crunched awfully loud even when he wandered around, probably alerting anyone he attempted to kill in the night. He didn’t have the smarts to set up a real trap either. When they had fewer numbers for whatever reason would be his time to kill them.
He’d found a foxhole a little north-west from the lake, one covered in branches and moss. It was comfy enough to sleep in and big enough to hide his excess equipment and food if he was scouting around. After the embers had died out on his fire he decided that getting some sleep would be a wise idea. Before he knew it, he was fast asleep dreaming of home.
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“Merlot, honey, how you going to make sure this year’s got one of your tributes winning?”
He had known the woman for all of five hours and she was speaking in cutesy names like “honey”. It made him feel a little sick. His arm was wrapped around her in their post-coital cuddle, and all she could speak about was some brats fighting with one another. Well, it was something he was good at, training them.
He turned to face her. Her hair was in a capitol style, shaved in zig-zags on one side and cobalt blue on the other with lime-green highlights. From head to toe she was covered in chequered tattoos of varying sizes, and some dozen surgeries must have been done to make her cheeks so pointy.
“Trust me, Ezzy was it?”
“Ezzle, but call me what you want honey” she tittered with a high-pitched giggle at the end.
“Yeah, anyway. Trust me. You train boys and gals like I do, and it’d make even the peacekeepers think twice. That girl, you saw her today, beheaded that Hanya like she didn’t give a care in the world. That Hanya probably had family, friends, maybe a boyfriend but I doubt it with a face like she had – Amee just killed her like it was nothing. And that Alex; well Onyx made short work of him! Trust me. Cold-blooded killers, just like I told ‘em to be. And you know, I’m so confident that they’ll win – if they don’t, I’ll bleach this beard of mine and dye it a single colour! Shave it off even!”
The woman did nothing but smile and giggle on command. Not a single response to challenge Merlot’s ego.
“Yeah, one of them’ll win. They’ve got the sponsors, and they had me. All a tribute needs to assure victory.”
He smiled to himself and tried to sleep. The next few days would be full of interviews and the like. The next few months full of tours around the capital. But the history books of Panem would know him as one of the best mentors.
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Post by Tonks on Jan 12, 2014 14:29:44 GMT
Chum glared at Persephone and then back at Neil. "So, you're conspiring together to kill us off one by one. Well it was bound to happen sooner or later, you should never trust people from two. I should've known you'd go for our district first. Who the fuck wants the fish guy to win?" He picked up his bags and weapons. "I'm leaving, are you coming, Amee?" He glared at her. She shook her head. "Fine, suit yourself. I'll look for your name in the sky tonight."
With that he marched off through the trees to the West. "Idiot" Neil called behind him. Chum half expected them to just stab him in the back while he was still in view but he was left in peace. He'd had so many cruel deaths lined up in his mind, the bear traps were just the beginning, but now he just felt disheartened.
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Post by Light on Jan 12, 2014 16:05:58 GMT
This was the way it was going to be, fine. She could work with this. They only needed a few more kills as a pack anyway, then there would be few enough tributes left that it would start fragmenting. What was left of it at any rate: Catalina, dead, Onyx, running around on his own, and now Terrence, leaving, for lack of trust. That was almost ironic, the career pack was certainly never founded on trust, merely practicality, and in the name of efficiency in the early days, but even so, this was something of a first, to see the numbers in the pack down by half with only one of them dead.
If it hadn't been for this arrangement still serving it's purpose. She would have gutted Terrence then and there, but that was pretty much guaranteed to spill over into a full fight with the tensions this high. Whilst she was certain she could take the other two, it didn't make sense to throw away something still usable so early on.
If Terrence insisted on being stupid, he was once again a more pressing target. However, he still had his uses in that he was still a career tribute, so he could still whittle down the remaining numbers on his own. If he came back to fight them then anything was fair game again.
She watched him stalk off into the night, listening until the rustle of the leaves under his feet became distant. "Tomorrow then. Let's talk targets." She said to the remaining two careers in the pack. Things were moving quickly, even by the usual brutal standards of the games.
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Playle
Talking In Your Sleep
Posts: 441
Deadly Sin: Sloth
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
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Post by Playle on Jan 12, 2014 19:03:59 GMT
Dawn broke through the arena, illuminating the clearings and making the waves on the lake shimmer brightly. Birdsong was loud this morning as mockingjays serenaded one another. The wind made the leaves rustle and brushed against Chum’s snoozing face. The mixture of bright light and the wind stirred him awake. Within minutes he was on the prowl with his two knives at the ready.
The District Four tribute was still thinking of the events from last night. Leaving the career pack was usually a dumb move, but he had weighed the pros and cons and realized he was right. Neil had threatened him last night, and would have snapped his neck in his sleep or something. Or one of those two crazy girls would have left him for dead if things went at all sour. He could do this on his own quite easily, he just had to stay one step ahead in the game.
He eyed the cornucopia from across the lake. He could see the boy’s cornucopia quite easily, but the girl’s one was a little harder to make out. By the looks of it, both looked empty of tributes, but who knew what or who could be skulking around there now. Better to not risk it. He continued walking by the lakeside with vigilance. When he came up to the foxhole, he thought it would be prime time to score some meat to eat.
He readied his knives so that he could clear the branches and moss with one knife and then lunge forward with the other, catching the animal by surprise.
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Merlot had shoved his palm into his face in anger. If his tribute was about to become mincemeat in his sleep by some lad from the fish district, he would be embarrassed beyond belief. The foxhole had no camera inside. Merlot could not see if Onyx was ready or not. He started biting his manicured nails out of stress.
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Post by PenguinNinja on Jan 12, 2014 20:20:01 GMT
Tara yawned as rays of morning light hit her face. She opened her eyes, blinked the sleep away and stretched awkwardly in the small space. Her foot kicked her bag and she sighed, grabbed the bag and drew it towards herself.
The fabric was pulled out and she cut the fabric into small squares. Soon there was a pile of these squares and she shoved them to the side. The knife was used to painfully split the wire into several smaller lengths. These too were shoved to one side. Next she grabbed one of the mines, took the back off and began to dismantle it. Bits of screws and pieces of metal were shoved to one side. Time trickled by until she finally got to the only important piece within the mine. The explosives. It was a solid block of explosive material and she pulled it out and laid it flat on the ground. The knife was back in her hands and she cut the block into smaller squares.
One of these squares was put into the centre of one of the small squares of fabric. She picked up a piece of copper metal and pinched all of the corners together, enclosing the explosive block in fabric. The piece of wire was shoved through each corner and twisted tightly to keep the fabric closed. It made a neat little package of explosive material. Next time somebody came at her all she had to do was light a match, light the fabric and throw.
Finally things were looking up and she settled on putting more squares of explosives into squares of fabric to tie them off with pieces of metal.
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Playle
Talking In Your Sleep
Posts: 441
Deadly Sin: Sloth
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
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Post by Playle on Jan 13, 2014 0:57:19 GMT
Chum brushed away the branches just as Onyx had tackled him in the waist and sent him flying back. The District One tribute had heard the oncoming boy and had to rub the sleep from his eyes in time to prepare this manoeuvre. In the foxhole he had primed himself; he hadn’t even gone for his weapons, knowing there was little swinging distance until he was outside. Unless another tribute had sneaked up with this first one, all would be alright.
The force of the eighteen year old took the wind right out of Chum who had expected at best a fox or something to dash out of the hole. One of his knives left his hand as he tumbled to the floor, he could hear the sploosh as it fell into the lake. The one in his right hand was still there though, he could be thankful for that. He was now sprawled on his back whilst he was catching his breath.
Onyx knew there was no time to grab his axe or hammer. This was a career tribute he was against, the first one he had fought so far. He could turn for his axe and be stabbed in the back. He remembered the name of this one, Terrence, and he wasn’t going to go down as easy as the other two males he had killed. Terrence had been noteworthy in training; many a time Onyx was impressed with this tribute’s abilities. Now it was time to kill or be killed.
Chum could make out that Onyx was going to crash down on him with all his bodyweight. The boy’s fist was raised and going to smash into Chum’s face with a hell of a lot of force. Adrenaline surged through Chum and he knew he had to defend or be ended. He raised his knife to meet with Onyx’s punch, hoping something would come from that.
There was a squelch, a tearing sound, and then a deep growl came from Onyx. The middle finger on Onyx’s right hand dropped onto Chum’s torso. His ring finger was severely cut also. It did not stop the boy from District One. He wailed on Chum, punching him repeatedly in the face even with his now disfigured hand.
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Post by Tonks on Jan 13, 2014 16:31:04 GMT
Finley had stayed as North of the arena as he could. He didn't want to be anywhere near the Cornucopia in case the career pack was there. His clothes were nice and dry in the morning so he put them on and went hunting. He caught two large rats which he prepared and cooked and ate happily, it wasn't often he got to eat something that hadn't grown out of the ground. It wasn't anything compared to Capitol food, but he'd done it all himself so it tasted just that bit better. He lay in the grass, which was tall enough to hide him, and looked at the sky. He thought to himself that maybe this was the last food he'd ever eat, and maybe this was the last nice view he'd ever see, so he savoured it. The blue sky, the smell of the grass, the juices of the meat. He knew that the hunger games were awful and cruel. He knew that he would die in this arena. He knew that it would probably be painful and gruesome and his parents would have to watch. But, he also knew that thinking about it wouldn't change it. He knew there was nothing he could do to change anything that was going to happen. So instead he enjoyed what he had, savouring the smells and sounds because the fact he could smell and hear them meant he was alive and nothing was more precious than that.
His mum has always said he has a funny way of looking at things. His dad would always say he should take things more seriously, but then his mum disagreed. She said there's enough people in the district doing that and that it was refreshing to see someone happy and content in a world where it was thought to be impossible. She said it gave her hope. Every time they ran out of food and every time his dad got ill and basically every time something bad happened he'd always say, "it could be worse" and it always cheered his mum up and it always stopped her crying. It was true, it could always be worse. Finley figured he was just more appreciative of existence than everyone else, and some people just needed reminding some times.
He suddenly had an idea, he took off the white vest he was wearing under his arena jumpsuit and lay it down on the grass. He picked up a stick and dug into the ground with it to coat the end in mud, and then drew a line on his vest. He continued doing this until he had spelled the words "it could be worse" and then he held it up to a camera in the nearest tree. He put the vest back on over his jumpsuit, waved at the camera and lay back down. If he was going to die today, he needed his mum to know there was still hope.
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Playle
Talking In Your Sleep
Posts: 441
Deadly Sin: Sloth
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
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Post by Playle on Jan 13, 2014 16:55:36 GMT
The punches kept raining down on Chum’s now swollen face. Whilst Onyx’s right punches were weaker and even causing himself pain, he was still inflicting a great deal of damage to the other tribute’s head. Chum had thrusted with his knife again, this time catching Onyx in the leg but not managing to do anything else but nick the skin and tear a little muscle. He hoped to either slice Onyx’s jugular vein or his femoral artery – if he did that, the boy would bleed out and die at some point even if it was after Chum was already dead. Exsanguination isn’t how he thought he would take somebody else out, but it might just work in this situation.
The punches thrown by Onyx were slowing down now, they were waning in strength, and the District four boy was somehow still enduring although his face looked battered to a pulp. He needed to end this, needed to stop Terrence from causing any more injuries. He stood up, brought his leg back and then swung it at full force straight into Chum. He had kicked the boy as hard as he could in the bollocks in the hopes of winding him. It would give Onyx enough time to retrieve his axe and end this.
Chum heaved in agony as his scrotum swelled with blood. He retched a little, and knew that if he was going to be sick he had best turn over. With a roll he got himself on his hands and threw up a little bit into the grass. As he had swung himself to do this he had knocked Onyx’s severed finger away from himself and it rolled into the water. Chum grabbed his crotch in pain, feeling his pants slick with blood now. He got to his feet to see through his incredibly bruised eyes that Onyx now had an axe in hand. The tributes locked eyes, knowing one or the other’s death was imminent.
Suddenly, the quiet birdsong and the snarling of the tributes was broken by the sound of splashing. In the water, a furious flurry of fish feasted upon where Onyx’s finger had dropped. They were ravenous fiends who ripped up the digit between themselves in a matter of seconds, leaving only bone. These scaly muttations sunk beneath the waves as quickly as they emerged. The cogs in Chum’s head began whirring as he thought of what to do. He simply needed to get Onyx in the water by dodging or parrying or pushing or whatever means.
The District One tribute saw red, and charged at Chum with his axe held high.
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Post by Tonks on Jan 13, 2014 18:34:55 GMT
Michael Finch was nearing the cornucopia and heard a lot of noise. He hid and peered to see what was happening; careers fighting each other. He did not want to get involved but didn't know where to go.
Rinter sat forward on his chair. The career fight was great footage but he didn't want Finch involved, he wanted to slow the deaths. He stood and paced the floor thinking of how to get him away.
"Psst." A voice came from behind Michael. He turned his head to see. "Psst." It came again. "Who's there?" He whispered. "Michael, follow me." "Who is it?" He followed the voice trying to figure out who it belonged to. He couldn't see anyone. "Follow me" it said again. He did. He followed it for fifteen minutes, now quite far from the fight between the two careers. He'd given up asking who it was, but he felt an urge to trust the voice and so continued to follow. He cut across a small section of the open field, now very confused to who it was. As he reached the trees again he felt his feet be pulled from underneath him and suddenly he was in the air, trapped in netting. He struggled against the net and then saw a jabberjay fly past him. "Bastard." He said aloud. He pulled against it but it wouldn't rip and he hadn't gotten any weapons from the cornucopia. As time passed, he continued to struggle.
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Post by Tonks on Jan 13, 2014 18:47:38 GMT
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Playle
Talking In Your Sleep
Posts: 441
Deadly Sin: Sloth
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
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Post by Playle on Jan 13, 2014 19:01:17 GMT
The downwards cleave missed Chum. He had evaded the blow by about a foot, and the weight of Onyx’s attack sent him tripping a few steps forward. He wasn’t far from the water’s edge, but he had time to recover. Chum looked the District One boy up and down through his swollen eyes. He was plotting something, but Onyx could not figure out what. Another swing from the axe went stray, and then another. He had to resort to swinging with his left arm which still had all the fingers on the end of it. His off-hand swings were worse, completely going wide.
Chum could only outmanoeuvre him for so long and had to act. After a horizontal chop from Onyx which he jumped back from, he shifted his weight in order to knock over the eighteen year old with a tackle. It worked. Both boys crashed to the ground with Chum on top. Chum’s right arm with his knife was beneath Onyx’s back, so he couldn’t hope to use that. The boys wrestled and kicked and punched and bit each other. During the brawl both Onyx’s axe and Chum’s knife had gone astray. Onyx had one of his incisors on the bottom smashed out. Chum’s thumbs were broken. Onyx had a chunk of ear missing. Chum had lost vision entirely in one eye due to swelling.
Both the careers fought with all their might, managing to get back on their feet again after some time. The boys were covered in blood and dirt. The turning point came when Chum had outsmarted one of Onyx’s left hooks and turned it against him. Chum shoved Onyx, spinning the District one tribute and knocking him over right next to the lake’s edge. Before Onyx could react, Chum was grabbing his neck with both hands and shoving his face beneath the waves. Onyx initially thought it was an attempt to drown him, but spied the muttations swimming towards him hastily. The fish had their fangs bared and clearly hungered for meat.
Onyx had little time to act.
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Post by PenguinNinja on Jan 13, 2014 19:01:36 GMT
Tara had shoved the makeshift grenades into a pile in one corner of her little hollow. She'd used only two of the mines and tried to think up a way to use the other three mines. How? How could she use them to her advantage? What could she do to take out one or more of the other tributes?
She couldn't just hide out until she pleased. The game keepers would force her into a confrontation and she needed to be ready. She needed to be on the offence for one.
The mines were turned over in her hands, twisted in one direction then the next, all the while Tara was hoping that something would give her a clue. After a few minutes she looked closely at the top of it and thought. They were designed to set off if somebody touched them, which made them pressure sensitive. But that stopped being in effect after the countdown, so a shut down mechanism. She frowned in thought, turned the mine over in her hands once more and grabbed the knife.
It took a lot of wriggling, cursing, fine slices to her fingers, which spat droplets of blood over the mine, but she was able to get the top of it off. Her eyes rushed over the inside, checking out the wiring and pressure sensitive device. There! The section that worked on a timer. Her hands worked to follow the wires. In her head she was able to work out what she needed to do to take off the timed control and put back into play just the pressure sensitive system. But she would need to be on the ground to do it. Doing that now then moving it would only spell disaster for herself and that was the last thing she wanted.
She grabbed the other two mines and set to work prying the lids off of them two so that she could access the wiring inside. Once done she used the knife on the walls of the rock around her to mark out a basic map of the arena as far as she knew it. At least that way she could begin to plan her attack.
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Playle
Talking In Your Sleep
Posts: 441
Deadly Sin: Sloth
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
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Post by Playle on Jan 13, 2014 19:25:08 GMT
Chum’s face was contorted into a menacing sneer as he kept both hands on the back of Onyx’s neck, either hoping to drown him or feed him to the frenzied fish. He was in agony, and felt like he would have to rest for a long time after this fight, but he had turned it into his favour at last. He couldn’t believe he was using fish to kill somebody – fish! It would secure him a place, and it showed that even without the careers he was more than capable.
Onyx’s face and arms were beneath the water now. He scrambled with both. He needed to pop his head up for air, or to just plain avoid these ravenous fish. With his arms, he was searching for something. A rock or a log, something to fan away these beasts. Or to hit Chum with. He was looking and feeling around for something with ever so little time. That’s when he found it.
Chum kept putting his weight into Onyx’s neck. He could see the shadows of the fish. A whole starving school of them! That would definitely end this tribute. He began to laugh as he watched his opponent’s demise.
THUNK! From his swollen blindside there was no way Chum could have seen it coming. Onyx had found the discarded knife from before, it was just sticking out of the dirt in the water. With a lucky swing he had managed to find Chum’s temple and planted the knife straight through it. Brain, blood and bone fell into the water. Chum’s now lifeless body fell on top of Onyx and slid into the water. Onyx wasted no time in pushing his head and arms out of the water.
He felt one or two of the muttations bite at his nose as he was withdrawing. They ripped off chunks of flesh but nothing severe. As he caught his breath on the bank, he watched Chum’s lifeless body get devoured. The fish ravaged every piece of the boy’s flesh, leaving it bare. The water was red now and the skeleton known as Chum began to fall to the bottom of the lake. Even the hovercrafts would have a tough time recovering that.
The cannon thundered to signal the District Four boy’s death.
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“Wow, what a surprise at the end there! These two have been duking it out, and here we thought that Terrence Chum had the upper hand. One swift strike from that Onyx ended it though. The fish tribute became fish food!”
Caesar Flickerman’s announcement made Merlot cry with happiness in a typical over-the-top Capitol style. His nails were bitten to shreds out of stress but he didn’t care! He restored himself to a normal composure and punched in numbers on his phone.
“Yeah, you just saw that baby! District One does it again! Now, I’ve got more than enough sponsors for this – get some painkillers to that boy pronto. Morphling tablets, anything!”
He’d sorted out something to keep the tribute alive a little longer. He knew that there was a good chance of either Onyx or Amethyst making it this year.
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