Our Love Could Be Lethal Act I Re-Write

Act I: Accidental Acquisitions

It should be no surprise to me that the Tribute Tower connects to the casino via an underground tunnel, yet, as we walk through, it makes me wonder just how many underground tunnels cascade through the ground of the Capitol.

As we make our way through the seemingly never-ending tunnel, Chaff begins to go through the gaggle of us victors tapping us all on the shoulder in his count before forgetting what number he's at and restarting. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...seven...no that's not right...you're eight," he says as he taps on Cecilia's shoulder.

She lets out a short laugh. "Yes, in all senses of the word."

Chaff speed walks a bit to the front of the pack and turns to us, walking backwards through the tunnel. "Okay, perfect. So, we've got Eighteen with us, so that will give us two full tables of eight, and two people on standby to swap out so we don't have to worry about any Capitolians dropping into our games."

"Huzzah!" everyone from young to old but me cheers at the same. I'm slightly taken aback at how loud Mags is.

I can't help but feel like I've missed out on some sort of inside joke, so I turn to Finnick for an explanation. He simply gives me a look as if to say, you'll catch on eventually.

We enter the casino and Chaff, the apparent representative for the casino group, goes up to the front desk. From outside, we hear a mix of groans and cheers as those waiting to get in notice that we've slipped past them in the line. "Hello my good sir," he says to the attendant, "Which wing have our other Victor friends gone to?"

The attendant doesn't even have to check the system to find out where the Careers went. "The West wing, sir."

"Great, we'll take two of the large tables in the East wing."

The attendant looks slightly taken aback for a moment before punching in a few buttons on the tablet before him and motioning to one of the Avoxes. "Right this way please."

Chaff holds up his hand, "We'll find our own way there thanks," and walks away from the desk before the attendant has the chance to even put up an ounce of protest. I can't say I really blame him for his aversion to Avoxes. It feels so wrong to have so many of them hanging around in the Tribute Tower, especially in the apartments. But then again, I'm sure that's why Snow and the Gamemakers put them there in the first place. An ever-looming reminder to stay in line.

It doesn't seem to matter much though because Chaff knows his way through the casino well enough and we soon arrive at the East wing. It's a rather expansive space with plenty of tables throughout, all spaced out well enough that you wouldn't be able to hear another table's conversation from yours. The ground is an extremely shiny-looking marquina marble—a material that I recognize from the quarries back home. The ceiling is painted with a blue so dark, it nearly looks black, and there are small twinkling lights riddled throughout to make it look like we're sitting under a sky of stars.

We spread out amongst the tables and I end up at the second table seated between Finnick and Haymitch, with Cecelia, Mags, Woof, Porter, and Sylva.

Haymitch asks the dealer to run some open hands for us as he starts to teach me the ropes of how to play poker. I'd heard the past students of the Academy talk about playing in their Peacekeeper barracks, but I've never really learned much about the game as a whole.

I'm not the only one being helped though because eventually Cecilia realizes that Woof's memory isn't severing him very well and she begins to help him with his cards too.

Finnick puts up a fuss about things being 'unfair' that there are suddenly now two sets of two working together and soon, it turns into an informal match of pairs. Haymitch and I versus Mags and Finnick, Cecelia and Woof, and Porter and Sylva. The dealer looks increasingly fed up with us, but I swear, it only spurs Haymitch and the others on further.