inexorable [finnick odair]

i. the victor

Sable Hanover was certainly not the victor that anyone in the districts or the Capitol had been expecting. In fact, she was probably almost at the bottom of the betting list that had been passed amongst the wealthiest of the capital bidders. Some were even surprised she made the list in the first place.

Her long brown hair and dark green eyes were nothing special and she lacked that charm that would have provided her with many sponsors. She had been quiet and timid in her interviews, only answering with one or two words for every question that Caesar Flickerman had asked her. Her own district partner, an almost eighteen-year-old called Wolf, had told her as soon as they stepped onto the train that would take them to the Capitol that he had no intention of forming an alliance with the seventeen-year-old.

This, was something that seemed to amuse their mentors.

Kieran Trent was the only District 10 victor who was allowed to mentor new tributes. Sable's older brother had always said that he was the only one out of the three living victors from their District that wasn't constantly dozed up on morphling, so Sable figured that the pool to pick from wasn't really that large. Truth be told, the Capitol didn't want the rest of Panem to see what had become of the victors that couldn't quite face the horrors of their games.

His sandy blonde hair was a rarity from their district and the wrinkles appearing on his face reminded the girl just how long he had been doing this job. He was stocky - and certainly not as lean as he had been from his time in and after his games. He'd always called himself lucky for being reaped in the 49th Hunger Games when he was seventeen, since the following year had been a quarter quell that doubled the amount of victors.

Sable would have loved to say that she had a great mentor-tribute relationship with the man, but that would have been nothing but a cold hard lie. They had clashed from the moment that Ivory Silverlock, their District's extravagant escort, had introduced him to the girl. Her older brother, Colt, had told her of the rumours that spread across the ranch about his activities before and after his games.

He had supposedly made deals with government officials and gamemakers before entering his games, which only ever seemed to have been backed up by the events that had taken place in the six days in the tundra landscape that he had been dropped into. Miraculous events that the Capitol swore had all been down to luck; but everyone highly doubted that.

After all, no one was lucky enough for their opponent to have been struck by lighting only second before they would have killed the man. Not only did that happen, but it happened twice - something that just seemed unrealistic. These rumours only intensified once he returned to District 10 to move into his mansion in the Victor's Village. Those who he had been close to before the games suddenly had been reported for various crimes that they had committed - ones that he had also been a part of but was loosing no sleep over while others were loosing their lives.

Colt had watched as half the men he worked with at the ranch were taken away by peacekeepers in the middle of their shift, only to never return again. He'd seen the way they'd share looks amongst themselves as they were lead out, almost as if it was their own annual reaping. He'd heard the whispers from the older men he worked with about the crimes they'd committed in their youth.

Sable thought that he was the worst mentor she could have had, and had almost wished that she had the female victor that had helped Wolf. Despite the fact she had since became an unhinged morphling like the other surviving victor from their District, she had at least managed to get her district partner numerous sponsors, albeit none of it seemed to help as he was killed by the Capitol mutts long before the final bloodbath. Sable had watched from a distance as his blood seeped into the fiery sand, pooling from his lips after being pierced and poisoned by a sand scorpion's stinger.