#10th hunger games tributes

[moreespressoformydepresso]

I was re-reading your 'Ragtag Group Of Kids' fic and when I came to the bit in Chapter 2, where the Peacekeeper is talking about who out of all the Peacekeepers he doesn't like that he can pin blame on for letting Teslee and Sheaf go, it gave me an idea for an escape AU that I had to share.

This gets long, so sorry.

Now the Peacekeepers obviously work and live together in close quarters, even in the Capitol. Which means that they're almost constantly together and while it can make people close and bond, it can also create tension and bad blood, especially when personalities clash. Add in to the Peacekeepers possibly being underpaid, overworked and understaffed, which never leads to a happy environment, they're also tired and stressed and clashing and arguing with one another as they begin to guard the tributes for the 10th Games.

And the tributes pick up on that tension immediately and plot to use it to help them escape. They start by telling various Peacekeepers when they're alone guarding what their co-workers are saying about them behind their backs. Either by getting a tribute to say it to their face as a 'favour/letting them know as a thank you' or gossiping amongst themselves about what the others are saying about them loudly and near the Peacekeeper so that they'll overhear. And while some of them at first might dismiss it as it's coming from District children, what they are saying though sounds very similar to what the people the tributes said that they heard it from has said to them in the past and so rather unwillingly, a seed of doubt is planted in their minds.

Then, once the initial seed is planted, the tributes kick it up a notch by talking about the other cruel things that their co-workers are saying about them, the remarks slowly getting crueler and more cutting, causing tension amongst the Peacekeepers. Maybe one or two like Treech or Sheaf sneak out and steal some belongings like money or food and put it with the supplies of another Peacekeeper that they don't get on with, implying that they stole it and play other mind games as well to cause further tensions among the Peacekeeper's ranks.

Then comes the day of the Games, tensions between the Peacekeepers as they round the tributes up to take them into the Arena are at an all time high. And then the tributes do something to a Peacekeeper then they're not looking that looks like it was done by another Peacekeeper. Something small and not noticed by a camera or another Peacekeeper but that's the straw that breaks the camel's back in a sense as two of them start fighting and the others get sucked into as well, forgetting about the tributes.

It's carnage.

And all that the Capitol, the Mentors and Gaul can do is watch as the Peacekeepers, their guards, their supposed brave serious dignified protectors, are basically arguing and fighting and trying to kill one another with their bare hands, while the tributes are fleeing the scene. They're never found afterwards and the Capitol, and the Peacekeeper force as a whole, never lives it down.

What do you think?

Well first of all thanks for reminding me to finish the next chapter of the thing, I’m gonna get on that after lunch.

Second of all…

Genius

Fucking genius

I’ve been wondering for a while on how the kids could get the peacekeepers to accidentally let the kids go themselves and I have a few ideas I’m working through to maybe post, but none of them are as plausible as this by a landslide. I think arrangements like peacekeeper barracks would cause cliques, especially, because when you don’t gell well with people you stick with those you do get along with. So I feel like the tributes would have like- a super late at night or super early in the morning tribunal to decide how well the proceedings are going and whether to push further or back off a bit depending on the reception of their meddling. Just imagine them sitting in a circle discussing how next to mentally torture their tormentors.

I think the tributes who’d do most of the direct interacting would be ones with bad mentors like Panlo, Facet, Treech, and Brandy. They have the most reason to dislike their mentors, some of them don’t even get fed by their mentors, so turning to a peacekeeper wouldn’t be too out of place for them if they need something. They’ll act the part of scrappy streed kids and ask for maybe water or food and of course they’re rejected at first, but then they sweeten the pot by offhand mentioning they understand why so and so doesn’t like them now. If they do get the help, they wonder about how this person could possibly have such a problem with that peacekeeper, because they’re just so nice. It’s small things like that to slowly get the peacekeepers suspicious of each other, but not enough to confront anyone. Then, once the seed’s had some time to take root, they start tearing allegiances apart by spreading just the teensiest bit of doubt about the tightness of these cliques. Less explicit, but still implicating enough to cause problems.

Treech and Sheaf teaming up to cause havoc is food for my soul, lets add Bobbin and Mizzen to the equation too. Treech and Sheaf, being more acrobatically inclined, do the mission impossible esque moves to retrieve whatever item they need and hide in nooks and crannies to overhear any possible info to exploit, while Bobbin and Mizzen cause distractions to help elevate the paranoia they’re instilling in these men. It has the added bonus of giving Treech and Sheaf the opportunity to steal and “misplace” items only other peacekeepers should be able to even go near, let alone take.

I love the bit in the arena the most. My personal preference for what they’d do is have Treech and Sheaf pocket some items on the first day to make absolutely sure the owners are aware of the theft and at least one of them will be bringing the kids to the arena. The day comes, and Treech notices neither him or Sheaf are being near one of the people they stole from, so he deliberately causes a struggle in an “attempt to escape” which gets more peacekeepers near him, as he suspected. He hooks the item he stole, a keychain he overheard had sentimental value to the owner, to the belt loop of the guy holding him and just barely hides his smirk as he’s shoved to the ground and kicked in the stomach. It’s a price he’s glad to pay, especially if it saves Sheaf the trouble. Ironically, it’s that kick that made the keychain rinkle, drawing the attention of its actual owner, and a fight starts.

Now I’m imagining the mentors watching the tributes first escape from the fight, then book it outside as fast as they can, and how they’d react. There’s definitely a bit of anger on the parts of mentors like Livia, Gaius, and Arachne, but a lot of mentors are secretly cheering. Maybe some like Coryo (for monetary reasons) and Vipsania (for pride reasons) are conflicted, but they are ultimately glad their tribute’s alive even if it means losing the prize. Oh the Capitol lives in shame of what happened for the rest of it’s existence, but luckily Sejanus managed to snag a copy of the camera footage before the records were burned. I think the kids would probably live just outside of Panem for a bit in their own little village, but they often visit their homes, families and friends until it’s safe to stay there again. Even if they return to their districts permanently, they make sure to keep in touch with each other somehow.

I’m torn on whether some of the mentors would find and visit them? They’d only find them because the tributes wanted to be found, of course, but I wonder if it might be an even better idea to have them just never be sure of what happened to their tributes so they have to live with that unsurety. Especially mentors who grew to care but were shitty in the beginning and now will never have the chance to apologize for it or make it right.

These have been my extremely unorganized thoughts about this amazing idea, excuse me while I go eat breakfast-lunch 💜

[kald-dal-art]

Congrats to @losingmymindrn for being one of the winners of the 3000 followers art give away, hope you like this drawing of Coral :)

[le-corbeau]

What I say: I'm fine

What I mean:

It exists a version of TBOSAS where Mizzen had to see Coral die and a version of TBOSAS where Coral had to see Mizzen die

[keroppihao]

the tributes in tbosas make me so SAD and the movie made everything 10 times worse,,,, like reaper protecting dill, lamina's mercy kill for marcus AND her getting betrayed by treech, wovey going TOWARDS the snakes, reaper trying to stop her, coral's speech at the end, how YOUNG they all looked,,,, every single detail was heartbreaking and i feel like they did such a good job with casting because it really highlights the fact that they were all just kids, and they all just wanted to go home

[moonslesbology]

i very much have little to no evidence on what headcanon i have, but i’m still putting it out there

i genuinely think that volunteering in career districts was done as an act of defiance until the capitol manipulated it.

like i cannot see kids volunteering if they witnessed / knew of the conditions the first lot of hunger games was in. why would they? tributes were kept in cages, treated like zoo animals, literally given medical exams by an actual vet.

who would volunteer for that?

now we know that after lucy gray’s game, snow put forward the idea of sponsors, victory village etc. luxuries really. but i don’t think that would be enough for someone from 1,2,4 to volunteer.

i like to imagine ppl from those districts did volunteering out of loyalty to their people. protecting the weak and vulnerable, you get me?

but of course that defeats the purpose of the games. now they lack the control, sometjing the capitol has to maintain in order to secure order and therefore manage chaos.

so what’s a better way of gaining control than controlling the volunteering system in the districts? it’s constantly reminded to readers that preparing for the games is forbidden, but the capitol seem aware that these kids are prepared prior. it’s never outright stated, but it’s almost like an unspoken fact. even districts, who lack details about each other, are aware of it.

the capitol would’ve easily been able to manipulate the career system. propagating volunteers who win, for example, would definitely be a method. highlighting how extravagant their lives are. meanwhile it’s so easy to vilify someone who “benefits” from the system. thus, hatred is directed at career tributes and not the capitol.

perfect method of deflection

[thatthingilovewith]

The ages of all the tributes in my personal opinion.

[rea1native]

Fall to my knees in the Walmart parking lot because I remembered that the Tributes ran up to Sejanus because they knew regardless that he will give food.

They knew that he was safe

[mockingjaysnakes]

MARCUS AND SEJANUS SPECIAL MAKEUP EFFECTS + DESIGNS OF ARTIFICIAL CREATURES FROM THE EXPERIMENTS OF DR. GAUL.

[spiralling-thoughts]

Headcanon that velvreene and sol were the wealthiest tributes or from the most well off families

[juno0o0o]

when I remeber there isn't a group picture with all the tributes before the whole zoo murber scene :(

[moreespressoformydepresso]

Imagine if, while in the zoo, the tributes of the 10th hunger games had spent their time bonding and at some point kinda joked about escaping together? And they all thought out exit strategies and such and even the word they’d use as signal to initiate the plans. They discuss who’s good at what, jokingly dividing tasks between them, with Wovey, Bobbin, and Mizzen getting the task of “stay behind us and don’t die” because they’re the youngest. No one really takes it seriously, they just use the fantasy to escape their horrid reality for a second because it’s nice to imagine all of them can make it out alive, even if they know that’s not the case.

Then the arena bombings happen

Otto and Ginnee probably still die, since they died from schrapnel, but Panlo and Sheaf were far enough away to still be conscious and moving around (that last part is mostly because of adrenaline). Everyone’s caught off-guard, but someone (probably Coral) sees their chance and screams the word they discussed, and all tributes jump into action. Jessup and Lucy Gray still save their respective mentors, but because the tributes are working together the peacekeepers have been taken out so there’s no one to drag them away. Instead, all 21 remaining tributes book it as fast as they can and manage to escape the area before reinforcements arrive. They are now on the run, and cannot show their faces without getting shot on sight, but they’re alive and that’s what matters. Mizzen, Sheaf, and Treech are the best thieves of the group (Mizzen’s small and fast (he was just closer to the snakes than everyone else shut up), Sheaf is described as "a limber little girl", and Treech sneakily stole Dill’s water bottles. That’s my evidence. Also they need more love) and thus go out to scrap together anything that may be helpful.

They, being the overachieving badasses they are, get their hands on futuristic medicine to cure Dill’s tuberculosis faster than the real world ever could and help Hy manage his asthma (because it’s chronic, there’s no way they can find a cure for that just lying around even in the future). I say they’re overachieving, because Sheaf did the back handspring for food, Treech only died because of Lucy’s cheating (still getting 6th(movie)/3d(book) place, and he definitely would’ve killed her and been a real contender for the win if she hadn’t cheated), and Mizzen is 13. A 13-year-old got 5th(book)/4th(movie) place. I rest my case.

They use the newfound supplies to heal their wounds and disinfect them, Jessup doesn’t get rabies because I make the rules here, and things are good. They spend a while utilizing their unique skills to stay hidden until one of two things happen:

1) the mentors, who have gotten quite attached to their assigned tributes, fight for the games to be disbanded and rally the rest of the academy, leading to a better Panem where the Capitol and the districts become a functioning, not-dystopian nation again and everything ends well.

Or

2) the tributes manage to escape the capitol and flee into the woods, letting Lucy Grey lead them to the Covey because ain’t no way they can just go back to their own districts just yet. The covey, being nomadic, is the best place for them to stay until they’ve grown up enough to be unrecognizable from their child selves to anyone who doesn’t actually know them.

Either way, things are better. I wanted to share this because I’m sad that all these wonderful (fictional) children died for the amusement of genuine monsters (and those indoctrinated to believe district people are not people)

Edit because a lot of new people are liking this post: someone wrote it :)

[spacegay-archetype]

Rereading the ballad of songbirds and snakes and just got to the first day of the games and… Lamina you will always be famous <3 I wish we knew what she whispered to Marcus.

[enobariasteeth]

just realized that Mags knew Coral and Mizzen. She and Coral were only a year apart in age, they could’ve been friends.

[nothingyoucantake]

Lucy Gray Baird

Tribute and Victor from District 12.

[avesrinapproved]

a discussion of running away and the sight of Marcus hanging in the arena spurs Sejanus into making even more irrational decisions and a group of 25ish kids make it out of Panem to build their own town.

After Marcus escapes, Sejanus starts joining Coriolanus and Lucy Gray in their time together, tapping along to her songs. Coriolanus is quite pleased that sejanus is just as enamored with her as he himself is. Maybe if she won, they’d get to keep her. Surely after her interview they would see that someone like her did not belong in the districts, and with sejanus’ money on their side, how could anyone deny them her?

And after her interview, after their goodbyes, after the kiss, how could anyone deny she belonged with him, all she had to do was win and he could have her forever. As he walks home, replaying the kiss in his head, sejanus catches his wrist pulling him from his thoughts “Hey, think I could stay over at your place?... I don't want to be alone tonight..” he asks hesitantly, like he’s never been to coriolanus’ apartment. Which he has multiple times these past few weeks, ranting late into the night about the injustice of it all, while coriolanus nodded along he didn't really agree with most of his points, but its always been better for him talk it out than let it build until sejanus did something drastic like he had done with the tributes arrived.

“Of course, i could use some support too,” Coriolanus agrees, making sure no one is around to see before taking sejanus’ hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.

“...so.. I heard you kissed Lucy gray?...” sejanus prompts

“Well, it was more along the lines of her kissing me, but yeah, emotions were high it didn’t mean anything really” coriolanus dismisses,

“It’s alright if it did…” sejanus says quietly, keeping his head down. What did he mean by that? Sure coriolanus liked lucy gray, she was his girl, but coriolanus hadn’t seen it as a long term thing, him and sejanus were dating, it was nothing serious. Was he implying coriolanus was the type to cheat, that he’d expect it from him? “I wouldn't mind you dating her..” sejanus continues snapping coriolanus out of his thoughts.

“You wouldn't?” he asks astonished, was this sejanus’ way of trying to break up with him? Why would he say that after just confessing that he had a crush on Coriolanus only a couple of days ago?

“Yeah… I like her too and she makes you happy, so I wouldn't mind.. If we added her to the relationship” “alright” coriolanus agrees, still processing what he said, its like sejanus just offered him everything he could ever want on a silver platter, if she made it through this he would be able to kiss her again, to have his girl for the rest of her life and still keep sejanus, to have his perfect life.

It’s still a bit odd having sejanus over to the apartment when no one else is ever allowed to visit, but sejanus had emitted that he’d known coriolanus was struggling for a while, and had then weaseled his way into being aloud to visit and buy them food, despite coriolanus’ protests. And it feels ever worse when Sejanus makes for the kitchen right away to start cooking them dinner, something he’s done every time he’s come over since he found out that none of them know how to cook.

“Corio.. you really need to tell me when you're running low on food” Sejanus scolds as he looks through their cupboards pulling out ingredients he had bought when they had started dating. “I know you hate taking money from me but we're partners aren't we? I should be able to get you food.” He complains

“You do get me food.. and we have only been partners for a few weeks, i'm not going to ask you for stuff this early into the relationship.” Coriolanus dismisses. Sejanus wrinkles his nose at him in disapproval but drops it for now, talking to Tigris instead as she comes to help him with dinner. The both of them managing to pull together a wonderful dinner for them all despite the apparent lack of ingredients.

Once they're all done with dinner Sejanus heads up to Corios room and changes into some of his pjs

"Thief." Coriolanus teases as he changes as well, only letting his eyes linger on sejanus for a second.

"Oh I'm sorry, I can just take them off," Sejanus says earnestly, starting to take them back off again. “I'll just sleep next to you naked." he says, stopping with his hand on the hem of his pants to smirk at coriolanus.

He can feel his face heat up at the prospect “no, you may keep them” he says trying to keep his thoughts from wandering, they hadn’t done anything yet and now is not the most opportune moment.

Sejanus laughs but stops undressing, leaving his shirt off. Coriolanus throws his uniform jacket at him, "Don't laugh." he scolds, but this only causes Sejanus to laugh more. He wrinkles his nose and huffs. "Rude.." he complains as he lays down, Sejanus flopping down next to him. His mind starting to drift back to the games, to lucy gray and her seemingly inevitable death.

".. I can't wait for this all to be.. Over." he sighs, leaning on Sejanus.

"I'm sure it will go quickly..." Sejanus reassures, his voice catching a bit.

".. Problem is.. I don't want it to go quickly either. Or slow.. I just.. I want her to be safe.." he says, running his hand through his hair. It’s not fair that they're allowed to just take her from him like this.

"Yeah... wish we could just run away..." sejanus mumbles into him

"... where would we even run to?" that always seems to be sejanus’ solution, just run away as soon as anything gets bad, but he has to admit, in this circumstance it doesn't sound like that bad of a delusion

"Don’t know... up north? Somewhere in the wilds, where we could build our own place. Our own town." Sejanus says, rolling onto Coriolanus’ chest.

He looks down at him, thinking it over, ".. That would be nice I suppose…"

"Yeah… once it’s built up we could even come back for our families, maybe even some friends, just get Lucy Gray and a few of the other tributes now and just... leave.."

Coriolanus buries his face in him, ".. It would be very hard to do.”

He sighs "yeah.. but it would be nice wouldn't it?"

"It would be..” he admits, not having to worry about if she'll make it out of the games, and getting to build his own town with them. “Though I don't know how well suited I'd be for the.. Wild." Coriolanus wrinkles his nose a bit as he thinks about tramping around in the dirt and sleeping in caves, where would they even get food? Surely they'd starve if they left.

"Oh it wouldn't really be wild after a bit,” Sejanus reassures “we’d find a nice place, build houses and gardens, collect rain water for our sinks and such I think I could even figure out how to rig it up with some sort of plumbing..." he explains propping himself up

".. You make it sound all so easy... Would it be that simple?" Coriolanus asks, brows furrowed he had never considered the mechanics of how all of that stuff worked, but surely it was harder than that.

"Well yes and no.. we’d have to find a good place to build, chop trees, spit the logs, gather stone, dig holes for the posts, actually build the thing and make sure it's structurally sound.. gather our own food, dry some for winter, forage and gather seeds, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff. But it is something we could do, I know how to do most of that stuff and I'm sure we could figure out the rest." He lays his head on him "it would take a lot of trial-and-error, but I think we could do it... you're smart.."

He nods slowly. “That… doesn't sound too hard” Coriolanus lies, it does sound hard but… maybe sejanus’ rants have been getting to him cause it sounds like it might be worth it, not having to rely on anyone, not having to worry about more bombs taking out your water or not being able to pay bills. Not having to worry about anyone else dying either.

"Yeah… but it's just a fantasy..." Sejanus mumbles quietly, sinking back down next to him.

"just a fantasy.." Coriolanus repeats, ".. It's a nice fantasy.."

Sejanus nods, making a soft sniffle as he buries his face further into Coriolanus.

He rubs his back, ".. It'll be okay.. We'll... We'll figure this out. Try and make the best of it.'

"Yeah..." Sejanus mumbles

He squeezes him, "It'll be okay.. Snow lands on top.." he says softly

He looks up at him, cheeks wet with tears "what?..." he asks quietly

"Uh.. Snow lands on top.. It's a saying that Tigris and I have.." Coriolanus explains sheepishly.

Sejanus takes a moment to mull it over "That’s... really cute" he chuckles, swiping at his face.

He smiles, "I suppose it is." He softly brushes Sejanus's hair.

"You have such a cool last name.." he mumbles, laying back into him.

He laughs softly, "Yes, I suppose it is pretty cool."

"I don’t think it would work with Sejanus..." he mumbles nuzzling into his neck

He pauses, "... Sejanus.. Snow?"

"Yeah.. sounds kinda funny doesn’t it?.."

".. Mm.. Maybe. But I could see it sticking." He says quietly

"...i’d say your name would sound better with Plinth.. but I know you wouldn’t go for having my last name" he chuckles sadly.

He pauses, ".. Coriolanus Plinth.. Coriolanus Snow-Plinth.. Mmm.." Coriolanus Plinth definitely flowed better than Sejanus Snow… but giving up his last name would lose him the prestige…

"Wait.. you’re actually considering it?" Sejanus asks, looking up at him with wide hopeful eyes.

He turns a soft pink, "Ah.. Well.."

"like actually? Not joking?" He asks suspiciously "would... would you actually take my last name?.."

".. I don't know.. I think my father would come back from the grave if I did."

Sejanus droops and nods "yeah..." he mumbles and lays back down with a sigh

He nuzzles into him, ".. Coriolanus Plinth.' he says quietly to himself, it does sound good doesn't it. If they had their own town, what his last name wouldn't matter, it would still be one of great value.

"If we left tonight... in our town... they’d be names of equal worth..." Sejanus says wishfully, like he’s reading coriolanus’ mind. "but... we’d need to leave tonight... before the tributes are sent into the arena.. if we want to take lucy gray at least.. or hope she wins.."

That wouldn't be too hard.. would it? They could grab her and go. "... The zoo is barely guarded."

"They don’t even really question any sounds.. we could just climb in and get them.." He nods slowly, ".. There's some back passages that would be easy to get through.."

"We’d need the key to the monkey house.. and get out of the capitol before they notice we’re missing....” Coriolanus sighs as he realizes how hard it would be to pull off “it.. would be impossible to do in this short of time..."

".. She... she'll win..'' Sejanus says, like he's willing it to be true.

"Of course she will” Coriolanus agrees, squeezing Sejanus tightly

He sighs, "well we should try and get some sleep.. we won't be much help to her tomorrow if we're nodding off”

[lucygraybaird-moved]

❝ you can't be serious. no, there's no way that's true. ❞ lucy gray isn't sure if she should laugh or cry in this moment. / @hawkinsjournalist gets a starter!