blue night gone fragile | [hafen/hesper]

^{H  E  S  P  E  R}

Her strategy of going unperceived by the other tributes was immediately rendered impossible after they dumped Hesper into the exhibit. She looked around and saw a sad tree with a weather tire swing hanging from it. There was a pool of stagnant brown water in one corner, and a huge rock feature in the other, mounts drilled into the sides. On all sides, they were surrounded by a tall fence. Crowds of people gathered and gawked and pointed and called for them.

Them. The other tributes. All twenty four by end of day, piled into this one little exhibit. Part of her worried that they were dumping them all in because this was supposed to be the start of the Games, but no one ever made any announcements, and the crowd wasn't growing impatient or bored of them. She remembered the tributes in the games of her eleventh birthday refusing to fight, and the Capitol threw in a bunch of-

Zoo animals.

Now, here they were. Here she was of all people. Animals in cages could come in all forms, it turned out- and she better than anyone knew that having them in a cage was not at all enough to stifle the wild nature they held within. Any one of the people prowling around her could've been the one who killed her. But it wasn't going to happen yet. It wasn't going to happen today. And after Amber and October broke the veil of her silence by calling her over and inviting her to hang out with them, Hesper had a new strategy: make friends. (God forbid.)

Maybe- maybe it'd cause enough of a hesitation for them to dogpile someone else instead of her when they eventually were taken to the games. She wondered what the coliseum would look like this year, the first since its reparation, as she regarded a tribute who wore a handcuff on each wrist like the world's edgiest fashion statement. She nodded politely, lifting a finger to wave in her direction, before pointing it at her own wrist as she spoke:

"That on purpose? If not, I could get 'em off for you." She removed one of the pins keeping her curls out of her face and waved it for the other girl to see.

"My grandpa was a retired peacekeeper, back before... everything. My sister and I found a bunch of his stuff in the attic one time, and-" Irrelevant. Stick to the important bits. "Long story short, I learned how to pick cuffs."