After The Storm (A Hunger Games Fanfic)

Interviews: Districts One - Six

The roars of the crowd are deafening. Carmen drinks them in happily as she slides onstage, still slightly flushed from the helicopter landing. The tributes are already sat in their chairs, but the spotlight is on her and they are in darkness. Some costumes gleam slightly through the lack of light. She bows a few times to the crowd, like every year, blowing kisses to a few people in the front rows. She’s not overly exuberant; today is about the tributes. She knows that, in front of a crowd this size, even the most confident ones like Jax and Ever will be starting to quake slightly out of nerves. They will never have seen so many colourful faces pressed into such a small space, and seeing it on the screens is not the same as experiencing it live. The noise actually hits you like a force, the heat rising from the mass making the stage uncomfortably warm even before the spotlight is turned on you. And with the spotlight comes the attention of everybody in Panem.

“Hello and welcome to the interviews for the 99th Hunger Games!” Carmen chirps; she doesn’t need to shout because of the microphone, disguised as a hair ornament. In the times past, microphones used to be obvious, but some genius decided that they may as well be a fashion statement as well. So this one looks like a faceted jade dragon with a flickering tongue and a small stream of fire that curls around her chin and rests under her lip. The microphone she will give to the tributes for them to speak into is more in the traditional style and has the name of every past victor engraved on it in delicate gold.

The crowd go, if possible, even crazier. Cameras flash like mad, and the huge infrastructure of the stage, the rigging holding everything in place, shakes with the noise. It’ll hold; it always does. Carmen waves a hand and just like that, everybody goes quiet. Crowd control is a necessity for the interviewer; time limits are important.

“Now, I know we’re all really excited about tomorrow,” she exclaims, “But tell me, how excited are we about tonight?” As hoped, this brings up massive cheers and whoops. She nods.

“I thought so! So, without any further ado, let’s get these interviews underway! Ladies and gentlemen, your first interview of the night...the lovely Jewel Burgundy of District One!”

Jewel slides up to the plush chair in front of Carmen, smiling with her mouth tightly closed. It makes her look nervous. She’s wearing the traditional interview outfit for her place; a translucent and clingy gold dress that trails along on the floor behind her, strategically draped to reveal as much as possible without actually revealing anything. Jewel feels uncomfortable in it but she knows she can’t show it and only tries not to trip over the hem. She greets Carmen warmly, shaking her hand and telling her that she doesn’t look any older than she did last year, which always goes down well no matter how many times she hears it. The rest of the interview follows the same vein. Jewel ignores the crowd and chats with Carmen, trying not to smile too widely in case it shows off her teeth. Deep down she knows she’s being ridiculous – teeth will not affect her chances of getting sponsors – but it’s a force of habit by now.

As she’d hoped, Carmen doesn’t ask her about the arena. Instead they talk about the Capitol, the food, the clothes. Jewel happily admits that she wouldn’t wear this particular dress again, mostly because it is so impractical. This gets a few chuckles from the crowd and they warm to her quickly, though she doesn’t attempt to interact with them and she gets no more than a few smiles. They discuss her job, and Jewel insists that she likes everything to be perfect and has thrown away more jewellery than Carmen probably has in her own cabinet.

“Oh, I wouldn’t bet on that, dear!”

Carmen thanks Jewel, shakes her hand again, wishes her luck and invites Trey Rathbone to the chair.

Trey saunters forwards, waving at the crowd and grinning to himself at the wolf-whistles. He looks good; this outfit is similar to his parade outfit, which he’d quite liked. Tight gold trousers, made of a material which feels as though it isn’t there, and a clingy, sheer golden shirt beset with sapphires and rubies. He treats Carmen to his winning smile and flops lazily into the chair, bathing in the attention. Everyone in Panem is watching him, his bunch of mates back home, his father. Dad doesn’t like the interviews – all talk no action – but he likes them. He glances over to Jax to see what he’s making of this and Jax gives him a small smile back. Carmen calls his attention forwards. Unlike with Jewel, her first question is about the arena, what he thinks would benefit him best. He laughs, flipping a strand of his tousled hair out of his eyes and retorts that, as long as there’s weapons, he has the advantage.