What even, Iris!?
This was creepy and very painful to read.
I love how you begin with the sense of creepiness in the sense that they have been undressed and more, maybe.
And then Finnick not wanting Katniss and Peeta to face what he knows Snow has in store for them.
I like the contrasting deaths- one is guilty, other hurried but both executed (sorry) well.
I like the part where Finnick doesn't have to lie and say I love you too. There is something that gives that line a sense of finality.
As for the end.. I cant even. :c
All in all a very powerful fic. Great job!

Wow. Okay. Right...

So this is truly chilling. The responses to the scenario are so heartless and yet... so heartfelt. Suffering ends but yet to do so... suffering begins. It's unusual but it is really good. I never before thought about what the outcome would be if both Finnick lived and the rebellion failed but I'm glad I read this fic - it's brilliant, Iris!

The ending is disgusting and horrible but considering it is the Capitol we are talking about here, it is honest. I really like that you haven't sugar coated anything or looked at it through rose tinted glasses, you've just put it truthfully and that is the most brutal way possible.

(You should write another fic like this one)

This was an exceptionally dark fic. There were parts that made my stomach churn. I hated Snow and all of Finnick's fans so much while reading this. The part with Katniss and Peeta was both heartbreaking and horrifying at the same time. As much as I hated the death by lizards scene in mockingjay, this fic made me wish that the lizards would come back, so there could still be a happyish sort of ending. This really captures the cruelty of the Capitol along with Finnick's final moments of desperation. This was good, but... also really dark. I'm speechless.

Hi there! Sorry for not reviewing earlier, I wanted to review all the fics entered in the contest at once. :)
First off, WOW. My feelings are all messed up from this. This fic just really had the cold, bleak tone of Mockingjay down pat, but there was obviously a lot more to this. I love all the subtle things in this fic like Snow toasting to Finnick's death and the gold shimmer Finnick's prep team puts on his skin. I also was surprised with how much I like Finnick 'on his own' in this fic. He's obviously not the only character in it, but it's very much as if he's all alone. The reader really gets a lot of good material about his character when he's without Annie or the other victors. I really like the way you gave his character a lot more depth in this fic than (I think) he has in the books. Actually, you do that in your writing a lot!
Also, I haven't read Mockingjay or any of the other Hunger Games books for so long that I literally forgot what the Star Squad was and I had to Google it.
Anyhow, I thought that this fic was done very well and I think the minimal dialogue and the poetic tone to it give a great atmosphere.
Amazing fic and good luck! I'll have the results up soon. :)
-Shady

It's been a long time since I read the Hunger Games series. I am glad someone has written an alterative end to Finnick's story other than the fact that he was murdered by a mob of Lizard mutts. This story connects with the chapter where he sacrificed for the Star Team's safety, which was sad enough. Everyone in the story was in character and acted realistically despite what being caught meant.

There are no gammarical errors. All in all, it was written beautifully. If you are planning on writing a side story, let me know!

Iris! Here for RT :)

Okay, wow, this is a frightening but unique AU. I like how you start off with an atmosphere of dread right off the bat as Finnick awakens practically naked in a cold basement with a fuzzy memory and the realization that the Capitol plans to kill them all. You really get us into his head by him being creeped out at the thought of who undressed them all and where else their hands went beyond the removal of clothes when he/they were all unconscious and therefore unable to consent :shudder:

His mercy killing of both Katniss and Peeta is a great study in contrasts – Katniss is not even conscious and therefore the only struggle is within himself as he feels guilt for what he knows needs to be done – depriving Snow and company of using her execution as a message to the districts. Peeta, however, awakens and so it is an actual struggle to kill him. Yet we see that guilt again because he sits by Peeta's body afterward and strains to see some sign of life still being there. And like him, I expected the Peacekeepers to rush in and stop him so they and theirs could have the pleasure of killing all of them themselves. Or at least Katniss.

You don't say it but on the other hand, I like to think that they allowed him to commit his mercy killings in order to give them another excuse to execute him publicly. And also that they don't mention it to the public because, like airing any sort of a so-called trial, the common people in the districts/the rebels would just shift their allegiances to him with Katniss dead. Better for Snow to lie to the world and claim Finnick pled guilty on his own.

I love and am grossed out by the fact that he had to be made up for his execution. Love it because that's such a Capitol tactic – God forbid a convicted-to-death "criminal" look anything less than perfect. I'm glad that he's able to put on a brave front for the cameras (okay, for Annie – same difference, heh) and that the whole time, he's just staring Snow down with what I can mentally see is the biggest "screw you" to the president :P which, while he'd rather remember the people and the home he loves as his last memory, he does kinda win after all. He didn't try to beg for his life or leniency; he didn't cry or allow himself to look affected. I see his giving in by grabbing at the rope in his final moments as natural instinct and nothing more...the mind may say "do not resist" but the natural impulses and communications between lungs and brain cannot be ignored.

That ending paragraph...WTF? Okay, that is just...ew ew ew. But again, that is totally something I can see Snow doing – turning Finnick's corpse into a statue or something for his mansion, to show off at his future parties as proof that he (thinks he) won. Which ends it on a depressing note, but a powerful one.

Very nicely done!

Looks like youre not so prepy anymore prep!

Necrophilia mention indeed. :

I loved this - it's not really what I expected when I saw the title, but it was brilliant anyway. I definitely see the wit behind the title and I'm a fan of it.

[A part of him had hoped that the guards would stop him. . .] At this point, I was in a mild panic, like "oh god oh god oh god the D13 people saved him somehow and they're going to come in and he's going to have murdered Katniss and Peeta —" but, luckily, I suppose, it didn't happen like that.

This is just a very, very good fic. Agh.

Even though I read your warning and knew that it obviously wasn't going to be pretty, this was really gut-wrenching to read. I would definitely say that it's worse than how Finnick dies in the book, if only because it's longer. Him killing Katniss didn't bother me (probably because Katniss herself would've done the same thing) but when he had to kill Peeta, who was always purer than Katniss, in a way, it really made me squirm, much like the books did in their gorier moments. Especially the line when the sound "changed from a crash to something wet" - I mean, you could really feel Finnick's disgust at himself and his actions just oozing out along with poor Peeta's brains. Finnick's slow walk to his execution is chilling, but the final lines, where you reveal what Snow plans to do with his body, are what really hit hard. Even in death, Finnick is cursed by his beauty.

I know that on your profile, you ask for constructive criticism. The only suggestion that I would make is to add some details to Finnick's last thoughts. In the book, when Katniss watches him die, she remembers how Annie looked in her wedding dress and Finnick getting the silver parachute in the arena. Maybe have him try to "cling to" a few specific memories like that, rather than just "thoughts of Annie and Mags and Four," which is more general and not as powerful. I hope that's helpful. This is a really impressive story!

This is seriously messed up, and that's coming from me.