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ceitfiannaRight, so, I hadn't planned on seeing The Hunger Games and haven't yet but I keep getting closer considering all that reviews I'm hearing. Maybe next week, but in the meantime all of the great AUs that are floating around my flist made one sneak into my head. While I was walking back from lunch today, I suddenly got an idea for how some of the characters from the Abhorsen Chronicles would work there. This is what I've written so far, its not done yet as I can't decide if Sam's going to make it out alive.
Sam knew when he entered the arena that unless he was lucky, he wouldn’t leave it alive. His mother had been one of the youngest and quietest Victors, who brought death surely and from all sides. His father one of the bloodiest Victors who seemed to lose control when the blood began to be shed and yet still was the only one standing. Though it had seemed near the end that he had died when he hadn’t and he struck down a Career that was whispered might even have been his brother. Victors didn’t usually marry and the connection between Sabriel and Touchstone surprised everyone who knew of them but not those in their district who had watched them find each other, nodded. It wasn’t a truly happy ending for either of them but it meant they weren’t quite as alone.
When they had children, everyone was silent because they knew that in time one or both of them would have to enter the Games. Their eldest, Ellimere quickly chose her path, she found what education she could and the District spoke of how she would do what she wished. Sam took up the mantle of following his parents, he was brave and would do his duty and it soon became known that when he was sixteen or seventeen he would volunteer. Both his parents trained him and his sister as they didn’t wish her to volunteer but it was best to be prepared. They both learned how to fight, but the one part Sam could never easily learn was how to kill. His parents knew death so much better than he, it defined them and scarred them.
He volunteered at the first Reaping after his seventeenth birthday because he knew it was time. During training, he was watched and approached by everyone as they had such high hopes for him. When he had free moments, he would sketch devices he would never be able to build because that wasn’t who he was. The power of their district was in metals and he’d at times talked to men who knew them and some had even spoken of how he seemed to understand the way of steel better than many who were older. He cherished those words of praise alongside what his parents had given him; a quiet love, knowledge of how to fight and all they wouldn’t and couldn’t say.
In training, he showed himself to be competent with blades and creative when it came to constructing traps and other devices. There were no private spaces in the Capitol but he’d spend any extra time he could, trying to understand how various devices worked. Though he knew that there’d be little chance that he could ever understand them and even make things such as them. That wasn’t his role, instead his role and duty was to fight and kill and win.
The arena this year was green and rocky, it made Sam think of quarries and slag heaps. One of the first deaths was accidental, someone ran too fast down a hill and a load of scree came down with them and loosed a torrent of stones. After that, the boulders and stones only moved when they were pushed or manipulated by unseen forces, they were props. Everything was a prop or a weapon, Sam knew that, had been trained it since he was a boy, be wary and know that death can come from anywhere.
At first the Careers had tried to create an alliance with him, but he gave nothing to them or anyone. He did this as a duty and one Career worried him, a taller boy than him who had a dangerous lust in his eyes. His father never spoke of when he went berserk but Sam had been shown playbacks of when he won and who he fought, the Career who his father killed had that same look in his eyes. Sam’s guess proved right as he dodged the arena but would hear death and sometimes would spot the other boy, Hans with cruel satisfaction in his eyes. Hans knew death and could wield it. As the first night passed, Sam hid under the lip of a quarry and thought over his options. He’d been able to grab a short sword at the beginning and a small bag of supplies, nothing that would last him more than a day but something. As he heard the cannon fire three times, he sighed and tried to sleep for a few hours.
Sam knew when he entered the arena that unless he was lucky, he wouldn’t leave it alive. His mother had been one of the youngest and quietest Victors, who brought death surely and from all sides. His father one of the bloodiest Victors who seemed to lose control when the blood began to be shed and yet still was the only one standing. Though it had seemed near the end that he had died when he hadn’t and he struck down a Career that was whispered might even have been his brother. Victors didn’t usually marry and the connection between Sabriel and Touchstone surprised everyone who knew of them but not those in their district who had watched them find each other, nodded. It wasn’t a truly happy ending for either of them but it meant they weren’t quite as alone.
When they had children, everyone was silent because they knew that in time one or both of them would have to enter the Games. Their eldest, Ellimere quickly chose her path, she found what education she could and the District spoke of how she would do what she wished. Sam took up the mantle of following his parents, he was brave and would do his duty and it soon became known that when he was sixteen or seventeen he would volunteer. Both his parents trained him and his sister as they didn’t wish her to volunteer but it was best to be prepared. They both learned how to fight, but the one part Sam could never easily learn was how to kill. His parents knew death so much better than he, it defined them and scarred them.
He volunteered at the first Reaping after his seventeenth birthday because he knew it was time. During training, he was watched and approached by everyone as they had such high hopes for him. When he had free moments, he would sketch devices he would never be able to build because that wasn’t who he was. The power of their district was in metals and he’d at times talked to men who knew them and some had even spoken of how he seemed to understand the way of steel better than many who were older. He cherished those words of praise alongside what his parents had given him; a quiet love, knowledge of how to fight and all they wouldn’t and couldn’t say.
In training, he showed himself to be competent with blades and creative when it came to constructing traps and other devices. There were no private spaces in the Capitol but he’d spend any extra time he could, trying to understand how various devices worked. Though he knew that there’d be little chance that he could ever understand them and even make things such as them. That wasn’t his role, instead his role and duty was to fight and kill and win.
The arena this year was green and rocky, it made Sam think of quarries and slag heaps. One of the first deaths was accidental, someone ran too fast down a hill and a load of scree came down with them and loosed a torrent of stones. After that, the boulders and stones only moved when they were pushed or manipulated by unseen forces, they were props. Everything was a prop or a weapon, Sam knew that, had been trained it since he was a boy, be wary and know that death can come from anywhere.
At first the Careers had tried to create an alliance with him, but he gave nothing to them or anyone. He did this as a duty and one Career worried him, a taller boy than him who had a dangerous lust in his eyes. His father never spoke of when he went berserk but Sam had been shown playbacks of when he won and who he fought, the Career who his father killed had that same look in his eyes. Sam’s guess proved right as he dodged the arena but would hear death and sometimes would spot the other boy, Hans with cruel satisfaction in his eyes. Hans knew death and could wield it. As the first night passed, Sam hid under the lip of a quarry and thought over his options. He’d been able to grab a short sword at the beginning and a small bag of supplies, nothing that would last him more than a day but something. As he heard the cannon fire three times, he sighed and tried to sleep for a few hours.
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Date: 2012-04-01 02:45 am (UTC)Also, re: the movie - you know my feelings on these books. I loved the movie. While it helped to have the books in my head as a sort of companion to what I was seeing, I really thought the movie did a lot of things really well, and felt like a lot of the story worked much better in a visual medium.
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Date: 2012-04-01 02:48 am (UTC)Yes, that's what I've been hearing which makes me curious to see it.