DISCLAIMER:  This is the hunger games, so obviously almost all of the characters are going to die.  The signs are split into two per sign.  Each individual character will get at least one POV in total.

DISCLAIMER TWO:  This story has six chapters written, but has not been completed and is unlikely to be revisited.  If you reach the sixth chapter and want to know what was going to happen, leave a comment asking, and I'll explain the plot events that were going to happen.

The POV's this chapter are Taur, Nye, Tarian, Aqua, Pi

Pi's POV

The TV screen in the center of the square showed the Ram district first, full of people, and no one remotely afraid. Not surprising, there were so many voulunteers that there was no chance of getting picked if you didn't want to be. The name reaped was Lisa, and the announcer had barely called for volunteers when dozens of hands sprouted up. One was chosen, a small lean girl named Ari. She eagrely ran up to the stage.

"Must be nice," mentioned Hailey. "You know, getting reaped in those districts. Then you get to say 'hey did you guys see me on the stage?'"

"Probably lots of bragging rights," I whispered. More so in district one, one of the largest districts. The Ram district specialized in mining and stonework. Originally, they'd been the most devastated by the war, but had quickly bounced back and become the capitol's favorites. And won the most hunger games. By contrast, district twelve was one of the smaller districts, and we had only ever won three games.

The boy reaped from one's name was Aaron. He was... a big guy, even bigger than most of the careers I had seen. District two was up next, the second career district. The girl who volunteered's name was Talia, and the boy chosen was Taur. Neither seemed particularly worried. The next district to be filmed was district three, the first non career district. The girl reaped was named Gem, and the boy chosen was named Nye. A murmur ran through the TV crowd, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. "What are they saying?" I whispered to Hailey.

"Not sure," she whispered back. By this time, it was on to district four, where the girl chosen was named Cancia, and the boy was named Carter. No one volunteerd, district four wasn't a career district either. The next district however, five, most certainly was. The lion district was in charge of producing luxury products for the capitol, and happened to get some favor in that way. There were several volunteers from five, but those chosen were a girl named Lea, and a boy named Leo. The next district was six, the only district to have won less games than twelve, with only a single win. The girl who was reaped was named Victoria, and the boy's name was Virran. From six, they picked a girl named Libby, and a boy named Liam. Libby couldn't stop crying on her way up to the stage. She wasn't the first I'd seen do that, but it didn't make it any less painful. It just seemed wrong. I didn't say anything, but Hailey and I exchanged a glance. She felt the same way I did.

Next was district eight. Eight... well, it wasn't exactly a career district, but there seemed to be a steady stream of voluteers from eight, although almost none of them knew to fight well enough to even stand a chance. Sure enough, there was a girl volunteer from eight, named Scorpa, but the boy who was reaped, Skylar, had no one to take his place. In district nine, a girl named Saggi was reaped, and a boy named Tarian. Nine was easily the smallest of the districts, and almost everyone in the crowd seemed to know Tarian and Saggi by name. After them was ten. The girl who was reaped was named Cora, and the boy's name was Mason.

There were several shouts from the crowd, but they subsided. Then, when volunteers were called, a boy's hand shot up, and he was accepted in Mason's place. His name was Rico, apparently. Maybe Mason was someone he knew.

"That was brave of him," I whispered.

"Yeah," nodded Hailey. "Hope it was worth it."

District eleven came next. The girl who was reaped was called Aqua, and the boy's name was Arius. Then, it was finally us.

The man on the stage fished around in the glass ball, and I tried not to think about who could be chosen. It could be me. It was a real possibility, my name was in the ball twenty or so times for extra grain ration. But, more likely it would be someone I knew, just another face snatched away from my life. I glanced at Hailey. She was eighteen years old, while I was only seventeen, and this was her first year with no chance of getting reaped. I had no idea what was going on in her head, fear certainly, not for herself, but for her five very eligable younger siblings.

A peice of paper was finally pulled. "Pi Stonewright!" called the man. Me.

Hailey realized it before I did. "No!" she screamed, as I was pushed up to the stage, in a daze. "Not Pi!" she screamed.

"Hailey-" I said, but I cut off, I had nothing to say. This couldn't be real. This was just some kind of a nightmare. Everyone has nightmares about getting reaped. Right? But I wasn't waking up.

"If anyone would like to volunteer-"

"I volunteer!" It was Hailey. She was right up by the stage. "I volunteer!"

"What's your name?" began the man, but one of the peacekeepers shook his head.

"She can't volunteer, she's eighteen," he explained. He shot Hailey a look that could only be described as pity. "Sorry."

Hailey didn't answer, she just sat back, stunned, and I didn't understand why, because she must have known that this wasn't real. That it couldn't be real.

I barely paid attention as Pete was called up, a boy several years younger than me. I didn't know him that well, but I knew his face. And his name. But that was it.

And then the ceremony was over, and Pete and I were being pushed away from the crowd, and then we were being led away from everyone else into the city hall into the little visiting room with a bed, and there I found myself, still waiting to wake up.

The tributes and age

District One: Ari- 14 Aaron- 16

District Two: Talia- 17 Taur- 16

District Three: Gem- 16 Nye- 16

District Four: Cancia- 17 Carter- 15

District Five: Lea- 16 Leo- 17

District Six: Victoria- 13 Virran- 15

District Seven: Libby- 15 Liam- 15

District Eight: Scorpa- 14 Skylar- 14

District Nine: Saggi- 15 Tarian- 16

District Ten: Cora- 14 Rico- 17

District Eleven: Aqua- 16 Arius- 12

District Twelve: Pi- 17 Pete- 13

Nye's POV

"This changes nothing," I said.

"Un-huh," nodded Gem, staring out the window. We were staying in our compartment, being the only two non-careers present.

"I'm still your big brother and I'm still going to protect you."

"Listen buster," said Gem, wheeling around, "You are older than me be litterally sixty seconds, and you couldn't protect an invisible iron clad safe against a dead chipmunk. We are equal in age and I am the who is going to save your butt every time you do something stupid."

"I knew that would get you out of your funk," I chuckled. Gem cracked a grin and hit me with a pillow. I swiped at her with mine.

The compartment door slid open, and there was a man standing there. He slid into the room. "Hi," he said.

"Hello," said Gem and I in unsion, before exchanging a glance, who was this guy?

"I'm Perseus, and I'm going to be your mentor, Nye," he explained. "Gem, your mentor is Cygnus, she's already at the capitol."

Oh, now I remembered who he was. Perseus won the games about two years before I was born, and is what was described by one annoyed capitol citizen as "the most boring victor ever." What happened was there was a giant earthquake that killed all but three of the remaining tributes later. Two of them fought, killed each other, and Perseus was very surprised to learn that he'd won, without a single kill. Everyone back home was so proud.

I shook his hand. "Cool."

Gem did the same. "Pleased to meet you."

"So." Perseus leaned back. "Either of you have any special skills I should know about? It always helps when picking out a strategy, and we like to start early."

Gem and I exchanged a glance. "Gem's good with spears," I said.

"Barely," she shrugged.

"Spears?" Perseus raised his eyebrows. "Wait, how?" His confusion was understandable, the Twins district wasn't a career district. We didn't really have access to spears.

"Our house is near some woods," she explained. "We started practicing when we were eight. Just, you know, for fun." That's a lie. The real reason Gem and I started practicing the spear was that our older sister got reaped, and died about five minutes into the games. I swear, there must be something about our family, because there were four kids and three got reaped. Granted, it's not a huge district, but what were the freaking odds?

"I do spears too, but I'm not as good as her," I said. I'm terrible at it. I can never get them to move straight.

"You're fine," she shrugged. She's lying, she's told me I'm trash on several occasions.

Perseus was quiet for a moment. Then he turned to me. "How good is she? Really?"

"Pretty dam good," I said.

"Then there's a chance you two could get into the career pack," he said. "Don't show anyone until private training, and we'll assess your skills. If they're good enough, we'll have you ask them to join."

Gem and I exchanged another surprise glance. Getting into the career pack was something we couldn't hope to achieve. They'd been training for this their whole lives. Gem had only been compulsively throwing makeshift spears in the back woods since she was eight. There was a big difference. Right?

"I think you've overestimating our skills," said Gem, "But sure. If you think so."

He shrugged. "It's happened before. I don't see why it can't happen again." Then he stood up. "Get some sleep while you can, the opening ceremony usually takes a lot of energy." He left the room."

Aqua's POV

I had never been on a train before, and despite the circumstances I found it fascinating. The way the train rocked, and the wheels moved. I stuck my head out the window, watching the wheels move. "Fascinating," I said. "Think of how much power that must take."

Someone stopped behind me. "Maybe you should be thinking about something else," she suggested. "Say, your impending trial by combat to the death."

I poked back in through the window. "That's awfully depressing."

"So is the hunger games," shrugged Cora. "Have fun watching the wheels go round."

Well. Someone was clearly determined not to enjoy herself. It wasn't like we were about to go off someplace and kill each other or anything. I walked back down the hall into the Water district compartment. We shared the train with districts 12 and 10 as well. "Heya Arius."

It was hard to look at Arius, sitting there on his bed, staring out the window, and not want to kick someone's face. Arius was twelve. The only twelve year old to be reaped this year. It just didn't seem right.

"Heya Aqua," he said. Arius and I were familiar with each other from before the reaping, which was both a blessing and a curse. It would be impossible to kill him in the arena, but at least I had company. Besides, neither of us were going to live long enough for that to be a problem. It was important to be optimistic about these things.

"So, ready to eat the ledgendary capitol food?" I asked.

"Ooh." Arius's eyes lit up. "I forgot about that. What do you think it tastes like?"

"Food, but better."

"You're probably right."

The train let out a jet of steam, and lurched a little. It was beginning to slow down. We must be almost there. And we had yet to meet our mentor. I had seen someone talking to the district twelve group and ten group, but no one had come for us. Weird. "Where do you think our mentor is?" I asked.

"Sometimes they're already at the capitol," Arius shrugged. "Whoever it is, they're probably there."

Eleven had had exactly five victors, but three were dead and two were clinically insane. So it was really anyone's guess who we would get.

The train kept slowing, and finally stopped inside a small station. Arius slid off the bed, and we went into the hall, climbing out of the train with the other tributes. We're immediately led off by a tall man who's clearly a peacekeeper and not our mentor. "Follow me," he said, and we followed him down a short hall onto another train, this one underground. I couldn't help but be fascinated again. Eleven is in charge of making technology for the capitol. Did someone from our district help build this train?

The train sped off and finally came to a stop. "Any idea where we are?" Arius whispered, and I shook my head. We got off in a small room, and then a door opened, and a peacekeeper came out with a dazed-looking man. One who I immediately recognized as Eleven's most recent victor- the clinically insane one.

"Hello," nodded the peacekeeper briefly. "Meet Cetus, your mentor."

Taur's POV

The opening ceremony- the second biggest waste of time in the entire games, the biggest one being the interviews. Sadly, it was a pain that must be endured if you actually wanted to get to the interesting parts. Like training and killing people. That's why I was here.

Sure, that was putting it a little blunt, but that was what the games were all about anyways. I was here to kill people, and I didn't really see the point in pretending to be a crowd-pleaser for some pampered capitol citizen. Every family back home owed their safety and comfort to monsters like me and they all knew it.

So I just sat there, with Antono something buzzing around me, poking me with things, doing up my hair, spraying something on my skin, and thinking about how wack the capitol was to have something as weird as the games. Don't get me wrong- I love the games, I just don't see why they have non-career districts participating. Makes no sense.

"There," smiled Anty-whosit. "Have a look in the mirror."

I stood up out of the chair and walked over to the walk-in mirror, and it was okay I guess. District two does livestock farming, so we usually end up as cows or bulls or even one year chickens, and this year was no different. I had these fake but kind of cool horns poking out of my head, and a ton of brown face-paint-stuff on. In general, meh. The whole thing was a waste of time.

Ant man led me out of the prep room into the room where all the chariots stood before going out, and I have a good look at all of them. District one was... rocks? Whatever. District three had gone for their symbol, the twins, instead of district job. Gem and Nye were dressed exactly alike, holding hands, the whole shebang. I blinked in surprise, realizing they looked similar enough to actually be siblings. That was pretty rough for them, but not my problem. Four had also gone for symbol, they were dressed up like crabs. Five was decked in jewels, and so bright they actually hurt my eyes. The girl from five was covering her face too. Six had wisely opted not to dress both tributes like girls, and instead they were decked in what looked like a bunch of rugs. Textiles, obviously. Seven was actually kind of creative, Libby and Liam were going to be on opposite ends of one of those weighing balances, lazily swinging up and down. Liam climbed on easily, but with his weight, it was harder for Libby to get on. Virran noticed her struggling, and jumped off the chariot to give her a lift. Eight was on this weird black metallic looking chariot, it probably did something once it started moving. Nine... apparently no trees from the lumber district this year, instead they were some kind of weird over-stylized lumber jacks with battle axes and everything. Ten, just farmer getup, for agriculture. Eleven was... some chariot that was supposed to look high tech or something. Twelve was fishes, again. Every dam year. Never, had district twelve ever been anything but fishes. A little variety, please?

Talia jumped up onto the chariot. "Ready?"

"No," I grunted. "It's a waste of time."

Talia shrugged. "Good chance to stand out to sponsors."

"Right, because who doesn't want to look like the biggest suck-up in the districts," I muttered.

"I'd cut the attitude," advised Talia. "Sponsors like suck-ups."

"Fair," I sighed. Talia did have a point. It was important to look friendly. Only giant hunks of muscle like Aaron could get away without doing that, and strong as I was, I didn't look it.

There was a blast, the music started, and the district one chariot rolled out. Massive cheers. Apparently the rock chariot was a smash. Heh. Our chariot pulled out, and we were greeted by more cheers. Not that our charoit looked great, but hey, look, tributes! I saw why one's tributes got so much of a cheer, the chariot was rolling around with rocks, producing a pretty cool visual effect. Ours was just kind of... meh.

"Boring," I said, as I smiled and waved.

"At least pretend to have emotions," answered Talia, blowing a kiss to someone in the crowd.

"Can't wait for the games to actually start," I said, beaming at the crowd.

"Don't you get it?" said Talia, laughing good-naturedly at the crowd. "This is the games. Just keep smiling. You're doing great."

Tarian's POV

Finally, the ceremony was over, and Saggi and I leaned on the inside of the elevator, panting. Draco punched the button for floor 9. Draco was our mentor. He was mentoring both of us, because of how few victors nine has had in recent years. At the very beginning, Nine was actually a career district, but then Archer district got hit by a plague that wiped out half the population, including most of the upcoming careers.

"That was exhausting," said Draco. "It's going to be an even longer day tomorrow."

Right, training. Turns out Saggi and I both had one of those special skill things, but there was no point in doing seperate mentoring, because Nine's a small place. I already know how good an archer she is, and she already knows how good at climbing I am. Granted, archery is probably going to be a lot more useful than climbing, but at least it's something.

"I'm not really tired," shrugged Saggi. "Are we allowed to do anything else tonight, or is it just, like, waiting around." Saggi seemed to be taking the whole impending death thing pretty well. As for me, I was almost at the point where I could think about the games without getting sick to my stomach.

"I guess you can strategize for training," mused Draco. The elevator hit floor nine and we walked out. I gasped, without really thinking about it. Everything was so... technological. The main room we walked into was bigger than my family's entire house. "Are you guys going to show off your skills, or lay low?"

"Lay low," I said immediately. My skill would lose all its value if anyone knew about it.

"Same," nodded Saggi.

"I'd advise that," nodded Draco. "Saggi, if you're as good as you say you are, you don't need to worry about weapons training. Go learn something else. Tarian, are you good with a knife?"

"Okay," I said, making a face. "I'm not going to stab myself, but I haven't practiced in any significant way."

"Do that tomorrow," suggested Draco. "If it seems hopeless do something else you'll need to know. I wouldn't waste either of your times on wilderness survival or fire building or anything, because you'll know most of that from basic training in Nine." That was true. Everyone in Nine got basic training as a scout for a year, before the best were weeded out to become actual scouts. I was not a scout, training ends when you turn sixteen, and you're either in or out. I was out, although it would have been nice to get in, even though they only took one to three a year. There's a nice paycheck for even teenage scouts, and my family really could have used that. As for Saggi, she was still in training, but she definately had more than the average slim chance of getting in because of all that illegal hunting she did. Illegal hunting was pretty common in Nine, and widely ignored by the peacekeepers because they wanted the food just as much as we did.

"Alright," I said. "I'll do something like snares." Snares weren't taught in scout training. Even with the lax attitude towards hunting, that was too far.

"Good idea," nodded Draco approvingly. He checked the timepeice on the wall. "I'd get some sleep now. Early morning."

"Sure," said Saggi. Draco left the room.

"Alright, time for bed I guess," I said, starting to get ready. Maybe it did suck to be in the district where you always would personally know the person you had to kill, but for me, getting killed was already a foregone conclusion. It was nice to have the company.

Saggi didn't answer, she just sat on the couch for a moment, and then got up and walked towards her door. I did the same.

"I was going to be a scout," she suddenly said.

"What?" I said.

"I was going to be a scout," she said, and she wasn't talking to me, she was just saying it. "We're not supposed to know, but the trainer came up and told me. He said I was going to be a scout." She shook her head, and gave a half laugh. "Tarian, I was going to be a freaking scout." She didn't wait for an answer, but just went straight into her room.

I stood there for a moment, there was no answer to that. Then I walked back into my room, I was tired, and I needed to sleep.