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grailfish · 10 months

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WHG 20: The Big Day + The Reaping

CW for mentions of fantasy substance abuse and character being unable to trust their own memory and perception (is there a more concise way to say that), dead naming

Tag list: @concealeddarkness13 @ratracechronicler @maple-writes @pen-of-roses @forthesanityofsome @pied-piper-of-hamlet

Razz

Razz is starting to lose track of how many times they've woken up like this, sweat drenching their back but blood cold as ice as the memory of their old, dead name being called out rings in their ears. One moment they're on the stage with thousands of stone faces and flashing lights staring back at them, and the next they're back in bed, three days before the Reaping is even set to take place.

Razz remembers watching the 20th annual Hunger Games in full from the comfort and safety of the streets. It's one of the few times of year they don't get chased out of the square and cursed as a dirty rotten Razer for the offense of being visible. The Games even had an exciting twist this year when one of the tributes staged an escape attempt, managing to get a handful of the others out with her.

District 2 was in shambles when that happened, security tripling overnight and enforcers executing anyone who looked at them wrong, but Razz still managed to find enjoyment in that little bit of "fuck you" that the escaped tributes managed to stir up. People even left Razz alone after that, afraid that standing too close to anyone "shady" would end them up on the whipping stand.

But apparently none of that actually happened. Because just when Razz thought that things were looking up again, they woke up. There was tension in the air, and everyone was mumbling again about the upcoming reaping. Three days before the 20th Games. That was where the loop started

Razz's mom used to say they had a very vivid imagination. In time the adjective changed from vivid to active, active to disruptive, disruptive to delusional. There were hours, sometimes days, that seemed to go on repeat. Going to school felt like a joke when the lessons would replay over and over. Razz learned to keep their mouth shut when the teachers said the same sentence twice, because apparently no one else in the room had heard it the first time.

They were given a digital watch, one that displayed the date next to the time, at 10 years old. They'd missed the bus to school five times in the same month, thinking that it was already the weekend, and their parents were at their wit’s end. Razz hated that present, feeling like it was just another way that they showed how much they didn't believe whatever was happening to Razz was real. Instead there were murmurings of how they'd caught the "family crazy," just like their great uncle. Murmurings that they were cursed.

That same watch blinks up at them now, reminding them that they can never trust their own perception, that time is never on their side.

The cruelest part of their repeating nightmare is that their name gets called first, every single time. The first time the 20th Games happened, they hadn't even been a tribute. Now it was as though they were bound by fate. There was still the hope that things would return to normal and everything would be back to how it was supposed to be. That Razz could go back to their corner of the slums, wasting away on their own time and not at the whims of a bunch of Capitol snobs. But that hope was shattered every time.

Instead there were gasps and snickers from the captive audience as they took in the bags under Razz's eyes, the needle marks in their arms that they didn't bother hiding anymore. Many of the onlookers must have been disappointed to see such a scrawny tribute for District 2, but just as many were relieved to see one more Razer taken off of the streets and delivered to their rightful place in the ground. Razz never even hears the second tribute's name being called with all of the blood pounding in their ears. The terror at the prospect of being sent into the arena to die fights with the terror of reliving it all over as they wake up again, and again, and again. Three days before the Reaping. Never early, never late.

They'd started trying to keep tally on the brick wall next to them at some point, but it was hard to remember how many marks they had the last time when it all gets erased on every loop back. Was it thirty now? Or maybe it was higher. This time, they don't even bother to count. The only thing they're certain of is that it won't be the last time.

Yuen

There are very few things in life that cannot be controlled. It’s just a matter of figuring out the right triggers. There’s a saying that the beat of a butterfly's wing can set off a storm on the other side of the world. Yuen has found that the flash of a smile paired with the glint of a knife produces far more immediate results.

The Reaping for the 20th annual Hunger Games is set to happen in 3 days. This afternoon, the names of the eligible will be finalized on a list, printed and cut into thousands of slips of paper. After an influx of issues with "career" tributes committing acts of violence in the weeks leading up to the Reaping, the volunteer system had been suspended until further notice. This is inconvenient for Yuen, who had decided after watching the 20th Hunger Games the first time that he wanted in.

He writes a tally mark in his notebook, making 38, then snaps his fingers. By now it is nearing 2AM, and he will need an early start if he wants to make it in time to run into the official Name Randomizer on her morning coffee run. He's already done what he could to make sure that his name is entered as many times as is reasonable without being counted as an error, but only a limited number of names will actually be selected and prepared for the ceremonial drawing.

Yuen is awake a minute before his alarm goes off, a habit he's been unable to kick since grade school. The sun hasn't quite risen past the horizon yet, but the cafe is a far walk away from where he's been squatting. Even in District 2, having the money to go to a cafe every morning is a bit of a luxury, so he needs to make an effort to appear high enough status not to be kicked out immediately.

Although Yuen himself comes from an esteemed family, they do their best not to appear as such and risk garnering excess attention. They didn't spend extravagantly, didn't live in the nicest houses or dress in the finest clothes, but they never struggled to get by, and never feared that they might.

Of course, as the Gifted one of the family, Yuen was always treated differently. Coddled, sometimes, patronized moreso, and so he chose to go off on his own the moment he was old enough to leave. He'd always had ambitions that far exceeded what could be contained under his mother's rooftop.

He had taken an apprenticeship under a craftsman, although he did a shit job of ever arriving on time or learning anything about the craft. Old man Ason was just as annoyed as he was charmed by Yuen's particular mixture of eclectic and bastard, so he hadn't kicked him to the streets just yet and paid him enough that he wouldn't have to go limping back home for bread and board.

The cafe is quiet when Yuen arrives, except for the official at the register chatting up the woman behind the counter who doesn't appear to have slept the previous night. It's no surprise, with the Reaping so close, and if the cashier hasn't been under a rock all this time, she probably knows that the official in front of her is in charge of the name selection for the Reaping. Must be a dreadful job, having to make small talk while serving the person who may very well be stacking the deck with your name in it.

As the official receives her order and starts to turn around, Yuen smacks right into her shoulder, making her spill her drink all over the front of her dress.

"Watch where you're going, lady," Yuen grunts as he shoulders his way to the counter.

The official sputters, "You watch it, you little punk."

Yuen rolls his eyes at her and looks at the cashier, whose expression has changed from exhausted to horrified. "I-I'll get you a new one, on the house," she says, though Yuen knows that it'll likely be coming out of her paycheck. She's filling another cup with shaky hands as Yuen watches her with eyes like a hawk, impatient. "Be right with you, sir."

"I'll have a double shot espresso," Yuen says instead of waiting. "Name for the order is Yuen. Y-U-E-N." He then slaps down the money for the order and turns around to take a seat nearby. He added a little extra for the trouble of dealing with his bullshit first thing in the morning. There isn't a lot of room to be nice when he has an objective to fulfill, but he's not out to make more enemies than he needs to.

The official's eyes follow him back to his table as she waits for her drink. Somewhere, a butterfly flaps its wings as the winds of a storm brew up above District 2. Now he just has to hope she's angry enough to reroll the abbreviated tribute list until his name appears as many times as possible. Yuen isn't a very common name. He's certain that she'll be looking.

There isn't much else to be done until the Reaping, so he prepared to pass the time quietly, having already planned his next moves since the first time he started the time loops. Even with the ability to manipulate time, some events are random no matter how high the odds are stacked, and his luck had been particularly bad this time (or good, depending on the perspective. Any normal person would be ecstatic to go 38 Reapings back to back and not have their name called.)

There has been one consistency that surprises him, though, as if Father Time herself had already decided the fate of Raphael Legato. That was the name of the first tribute, the one who was always called ever since Yuen first reset the timeline. Somehow, after 38 times, their name was always drawn first. The odds were astronomical, of all the tens of thousands of names in the drawing, for them to even be called two times. Much less three. Much less thirty. They hadn't even been a participant to the 20th Hunger Games before. Yuen was almost jealous of their, by all accounts, unbelievably bad luck.

When the day of the Reaping arrives, the district is buzzing. This used to be a celebrated time, during the days of the career tributes. It gave the weak a sense of safety, the strong a sense of competition and pride, maintained the peace within the district for the rest of the year. Now, with that practice gone and the volunteers eliminated along with the age limit, they got a taste of what it must have felt like in the lower districts for all these years.

The population of the district is large, so there are multiple stages set out in key locations of each area, with the Center Square the most crowded. Only the middle holds the Capitol representative and the name jars, though the remaining stages are all prepared and linked with speakers so everyone can still see and hear what’s going on. There are cameras everywhere, eyes and machines scouring the streets, rousing and assembling anyone who may try to hide from the Reaping.

Yuen has made his way to the middle of the crowd at the centermost stage, eagerly awaiting the start. He keeps his expression blank, but his veins are buzzing. It's time to see if his efforts will finally pay off, or if he's in for another reset.

As the woman from the Capitol crosses the stage, a shadow gathers behind her in the mid-morning light. It stretches far past where it ought to, and as it grows all of the doubt in Yuen’s mind disappears. From the shadow a figure rises, towering behind the Capitol woman but entirely unnoticed by anyone else watching. The figure wears a wide-brimmed hat and a pinstripe blazer and skirt that drapes all the way to the ground. Her face is beautiful, eyes like spring and lips like summer, but Yuen sees the way her body ages as it stretches away from her head. Her fingers are nothing more than skin stretched over bone, and though her legs are covered, Yuen knows that her feet more closely resemble a swirling of dust than any human shape. Father Time has arrived.

As though controlling a puppet, her spidery fingers follow the Capitol woman's hand into the first drawing, unsurprisingly drawing out the name of the first tribute, Raphael Legato. As she is followed to the second drawing, Father Time locates Yuen's face in the crowd and locks eyes with him. Her voice can't be louder than a whisper, but Yuen still hears it clearly.

"You're a stubborn one. I'll give you that."

Yuen's name is called. Father Time vanishes.

He makes his way up onto the stage, almost unable to believe that it's finally happened. After so many tries, Father Time has let him infiltrate the 20th Hunger Games. Now the real fun can begin.

He shakes hands with Raphael while cameras flash and the Capitol woman forces the audience into a roar of applause. Raphael's hand is cold and damp and the color has completely drained from their face. They can't seem to stop staring at the space behind the Capitol woman, where her shadow lies a perfectly reasonable distance from her feet. They separate, and Raphael doesn't even seem to blink.

This never happens. They normally appear afraid, horrified, even gaunt. But never so haunted. What changed this time? The only difference was that Yuen's name was called. That and the presence of Father Time. But there was no way. The only people who can actually perceive her form are those with her Gifts. Unless…?

No, it's impossible. There is only ever one Gifted allowed to exist at a time. If there were someone else with power over time, Yuen would have noticed by now. He glances down to see the needle marks on Raphael's arm. Raze user. Yuen's little butterfly effect must have just given them a bad trip. That’s the best explanation.

There isn't any more time to think before they're ushered away to the government building and prepared for visitation. He decides if it's any cause to worry, he can think about it another time.

#i am late to the party #but at least i showed up!#writeblr #writeblr hunger games #whg #loop hop

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otomelavenderhaze · 1 year

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My final thoughts on Armin's wedding episode ~

A good conclusion for a route that had it funs/cutes moments, it's spicy moments and hit or miss moments.

Would I say that I liked the mixbag that was the theme of the wedding? No. Would I say this episode took genuine laughs from me and I was laughing with the writing not at the writing? Yes. Have I loved the scene itself and I am happy how things went? Yes.

The episode was average, was a fun episode, we got to see nice little bits like where Armin and Candy are going to live after the wedding, they choose things for the wedding together and such. The scenes with the parents are also another cute moment that I really liked.

I had moments when I was enjoying myself more than I was finding issues with it, it was a normal wedding episode, very much like the one we got before and this is fine, cute, even, the biggest issue I had... was something I have talked about it multiple times about Armin's route and lets just take a sit and talk about this in this post.

If you want more people to play a route like Armin's, going heavy on pop culture, games references, movies references, isn't just aging your writing, it's also a HIT OR MISS. It's not made for everybody to play because not everybody is gonna find fun having a wedding on a place that looks like disneyworld or something, or having a batman or a catwoman costumes to your honeymoon - I find it funny, but not everybody will.

But you could say that Armin's route is NOT for EVERYBODY... and I would tell you that's silly, that's so silly. You being silly. You're mistaking personality with stereotypes turn up to 1.000. Wouldn't it be better if Armin's route would be also palatable for, I don't know, even girls that are not super hardcore into games or pop culture - even more considering that they don't go as hard with other routes, you could have music references on Castiel's route or references of dectectives/sherloke holmes and such for Nathaniel's route... but never this much and never up to 1.000.

Cuz understanable, it would be kinda annoying and you have other things to do with those characters, oddly, not the same applies with Armin. Or at least, this is how I see it and what have stuck with me.

But I will admit it, I am nitpicking stuff. It's a perfectly fine episode... but the stereotype thingy, turning it up, making it into almost 30 to 30 seconds in your dialogues.... it bothers me, because it feels like you have nothing else to show from that character or to have him saying - or at least, is the conclusion I get when this is all I have seem from him.

Thank GOD, they didn't do the same while Armin was saying his vows to Candy, I would've lost it, and I would have made fun of it for the rest of my life - but they know it can be annoying, they know when shit is serious they shouldn't put that in a dialogue, BUT EVERY SINGLE OTHER TIME ARMIN STILL DOES IT, do you get why I am saying what I am saying???? It's overplayed, it can be annoying, that's why I am saying it.

I liked that I could pick something related to the buffet in Alice Wonderland's theme tho, it made the think about their high school play and left me nostalgic - I don't know if they put it there on purpose, I wish I had more of those moments throughout the episode, but I am fine with what I got anyway.

#my candy love #amour sucre #corazon de melon #amor doce #my candy love alternate life #my candy love alternate life armin #I am late to the party

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