Writer Games | Masquerade of Martyrs & Family Ties

Task Three: Barely Human

"Mother, the second day in the arena has seen the arrival of a mutt for hundreds of years. Some things even you can't change."

Vienna laughed. "First  of all, Cicero, you'd best learn not to tell me I can't do something if  you don't want to be proven completely wrong and embarrassed." Pause.  "But this is one tradition I'm actually quite fond of. You don't have to  worry about that."

"Then where is it?"

"That's the fun part, Cicero. It doesn't exist."

Though Vienna was fully  aware of the puzzled look Cicero was giving her, she merely ignored him -  there was no point in wasting time when her son would fully understand  everything soon enough. Instead, she shrugged, heading back to her  control panel. There was still so much to do; there was no time to deal  with anything besides her job. Sadly, as she'd learned with years of  experience, that included spending time making sure her son was fully  caught up. If the tributes grew to understood, so would he. So, she  shifted her gaze back to the arena, waiting to see everything unfurl  before her eyes.

As the moon rose to the  sky, the Capitol eagle flew onto it as well, quickly swapping to reveal  the faces of those who would soon be coming home in a little black box.  Those whose hopes had been crushed by the bloodbath.

Honorius Vaccaro,  Jessica Greenwood, Mira Finley, Ryder Mahkowski, Maiesta Portune,  Crescit Frumentum, Jeremiah Cahal, Winslet Lucerne.

A roar echoed in the distance. Soon, the tributes will wake - and then they will be in for a treat.

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THE TASK:

- This task is more or  less the mutt task expected from my Games - except not. As your tribute  awakes, they come face to face with a jackal-headed mutt atop a human  body, completely in the effigy of Anubis (Egyptian God of Burial).  However, it becomes evident that the mutt is unkillable. The mutt is a  hallucination - the key to surviving this task is to snap yourself out  of it.

KILLS:One  entry death. If you have an ally, this must be a member of your  alliance. Two ballot deaths. Six will go up for votes, four will die.

DUE DATE:Monday, December 29th at 10 PM GMT.

WORD LIMIT: 1,500 words.