miles rhodes; mentor, district six (milesperhr) wrote in colosseum, @ 2014-05-02 09:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! wrap up, - capitol, victor: 49th miles rhodes, victor: 56th halle gremlin |
WHO: Miles, Halle, and special guest, Titus.
WHAT: Bits and pieces of the 67th Games (pun intended.)
WHERE: Mostly in the Capitol, watching things~
STATUS: Uh well. It's Titus. And the Games.
67th Games
In the eleven years since Halle’s win, District 6 hasn’t brought anyone else home. But when “Titus Piston” is called, his hulking form makes him the instant favorite to win. He’s bigger than any other boy sent to the Games by any district, even Careers, in years. All strength and muscle: a massive force who looks much older than his sixteen years. His smile is predatory, but the Capitol likes that.
He gets attention even from Miles, whose yellowing skin and glazed expression give the impression he’s not really there. And most of the time he isn’t, but Titus gives him something he hasn’t felt in years: a flicker of hope. For the first time in a very long time, he turns his head ever so slightly to look at Terra and then at Halle with a wisp of a smile on his face.
This year's girl doesn't make much of an impression on Halle--she's well past getting attached to the tributes by now--but this boy. This boy has to be the most physically impressive tribute Six has sent to the games at least in her lifetime, if not longer. She can see sponsorship money rolling in even as he walks to the stage, and returns the wisp of the smile to Miles. Hell, if Miles can wake up for this kid, anything is possible.
The attention his frame and build bring him at his reaping just increases at the parade, where he oozes ferocity and drive. Titus is aggressive in training and widely sought as a possible ally. There aren't many tributes who can bring to the table what Titus can, however, and his mentors can afford to be picky. Halle offers what advice she can, but there isn't as much she can say: his experience is sure to be different than any of the other District 6 kids she's dealt with in her eleven years as a Victor. She enjoys trying to steal District 2's sponsors--they're always looking for the biggest and strongest, after all.
Titus insists on joining the Careers. Miles relents. Maybe he’ll do well with them, but he’s afraid they’ll kill him when the bloodbath is over. He sits next to Halle in the viewing room when the Game begins. Although he shakes and illness threatens to overtake him, he is wide-eyed and alert.
Trying to stay sober hurts. Its not the first time he’s tried, but it’s the first time in a few years he manages to last more than a week. He vows to some unseen force that he’ll stay clean if Titus wins. “He can do it,” he tells himself, more than he tells Halle although it’s her he’s speaking to. “We can do it.” But who could be prepared for the arena? Tributes ascend and rise from their tubes, dressed in parkas and boots. There isn’t much blood in the bloodbath though - temperatures have made even the most well prepared tributes sluggish and unable to perform. Their girl makes it out with boy seven as her ally. Only four are killed, including one surprise: Titus axes an ally, the beastly boy from Two, before taking off in the flat wintery landscape on his own.
Miles squeezes Halle’s hand before doubling over in a fit of pain.
Halle rubs Miles's back in a comforting, familiar motion. She is under no illusions about his enduring sobriety, but is glad for the effort he is making. And she's glad to see Titus run off alone; none of District 6's victors had allies--at least, not for long.
The conditions of the games are harsh, but Titus would make better use of another weapon than food or comfort, so that's the sponsor gift he receives. Halle insists they still send some bread to the girl; though supporting Titus makes much more sense, she never has come around to entirely abandoning one tribute for the sake of the other.
It's two days before Titus sees another person face to face, and the small boy from 10 stands no chance against their hulking tribute. He kills quickly, and Halle starts to plan another round of sponsorship bids. She is distracted, however, by Titus's immediate actions. At first, she thinks he is simply searching the 10's body for supplies, but then…
"What the fuck?"
Miles is just as stunned, but unable to process any words. He stares, fixated and horrified, at the screen. The gnawing is unmistakable. The Capitol has been complaining about how bloodless deaths have been - tributes dying to cold, more than anything else - but when blood colors the snow now, no one cheers. Sharp teeth bite deeply into Ten’s neck, intent far different than years earlier in the 62nd games. Flesh isn’t spit out: it’s swallowed.
An unpleasantness churns in Miles’ stomach.
“I - he just -” but he can’t formulate anything coherent. Was it real? Or has his morphling abuse finally driven him insane? The pains and aches in his body remind him he hasn’t used all games and it’s a reality which suddenly seems even worse than what they just witnessed. His face and fingers twitch and he tries to paint that night, but his canvas is full of sloppy stains and nothing more.
Halle has assumed Titus's actions would receive some twisted praise in the Capitol, but they manage to surprise her once again. He is vilified, and not in the secretly-impressed way some of the other villains of the arena have been. His continued survival puts knots in Halle's stomach.
They send a loaf of bread to Titus--perhaps they should have done this in the first place--but the smirk on his face as he receives it and throws it away uneaten chills Halle to her core. They shift what little money they still have to their girl. They can't send much, but it's enough to keep her going.
Until she and boy seven cross Titus's path.
He makes quick work of boy seven. His own district partner takes longer to die, but Titus doesn't wait. Her pleading for life turns to pleading for death as he gnaws and tears at her flesh. The worst of it is censored from Capitol and District broadcasts, but the mentors see and hear everything. When Titus finally bites into the girl's neck and puts her out of her misery, Halle vomits. She can't seem to form words. She simply stares at Miles.
Miles mouths wordlessly, face twisted in an incomprehensible expression. He feels cold and empty and he can’t form any words. He’s angry when the Gamemakers simply stun Titus and pull the bodies away from him. He wishes they’d just killed him.
Miles cannot stand the look on the faces of the other victors, so he stops going to the viewing room. With their girl dead and their boy a monster, Six has no one to care for. He refuses to meet with any of the small handful of twisted people who actually like Titus. The light has gone out in his own eyes now and with nothing to hold him back, he starts using again. He’ll never escape this prison of mentoring year in and year out and he’s beyond trying.
The Gamemakers seem to want Titus to be killed by the Capitol favorite: the girl from One. She’s sure to win, even with few kills to her name, if tributes keep dying from the cold at the rate that they do. But they’ve gift wrapped Titus now, pushing him into her path with mutts and traps until finally they meet on an icy plane of a frozen lake. She swings surely with her mace but the crack from beneath her plunges her leg into the chilled water and she can’t free herself before Titus surges forward, easily snapping her neck. The Gamemakers don’t hesitate this time - they stun him before his bite can pull away of her flesh.
And it’s when Titus leaves the lake, enraged, that an avalanche finally claims him. Miles is barely aware when it happens but he isn’t sad for his tribute’s death. He’s happy for it.
Halle hopes she never again feels relief at the death of one of her tributes, but it is what she feels now: immense relief. She blows off the snide comments from the other mentors and support staff; apparently it was just Six's year for a weird one, she insists with a forced laugh.
Though she's experimented with morphling and enjoyed various other chemical wonders of both her district and the Capitol, Halle has never succumbed to addiction. She privately counts herself better for it, but now, she just envies Miles his escape. She doesn't believe he'll force himself into sobriety again any time soon, if ever, and certainly not for the sake of one tribute. What would be the point? She leaves him alone, for her sake more than his, and spends the rest of the games drinking in anonymous Capitol bars in occasionally-convincing disguises.
Miles avoids going leaving his room as much as he can, preferring to wither away in oblivion alone than listen to chatter from others. The train takes them home eventually, him not knowing who even won the Games. In District Six he’s even worse as a shutin, spending most of his days in bed and leaving only when he runs low on escape, or to spend time with Terra. Occasionally he visits Halle but never speaks about what happened. Sometimes he lets himself into Shay’s old house and sits in the empty hollow alone painting trains. Life continues in the same way it always has: a vicious cycle of happy and sad, pain and bliss.
Weeks pass before Halle summons the courage to visit the girl's family. They slam the door in her face. She never goes to see the boy's; she believes they want to forget him as much as she does, and are likely just as unable. She never talks about him again, despite the snide comments from the district, from Peacekeepers, and especially from the other victors. The newest one reminds her a little of herself; young, small, and clever enough and, most importantly, overlooked by the other tributes. Halle likes him. She makes a point not to patronize him, despite his youth. She even manages to separate him from his games in her mind.
Still, being back in the Capitol messes with Halle's head. Her vices don't match those of her district partners, but nonetheless she indulges herself more than usual. Or rather, more than what used to be usual. She spends more time with Miles and Terra; she "gets" them better now, and gets their need to escape. The tribute she refuses to name did that much for her, at least. She just hopes they never get another one like him.