I've been reading this series for the past couple weeks and I'm kinda obsessed. when or if you come back just know I'll be freaking out from afar. there's no telling how excited I'll be from an update but here's a hint: a lot. I will lose my shit. anyway just wanted to let you know I'm here, eager, and I'd imagine many other people are. you've created an amazing universe, one of intrigue and fascination, and I have to applaud your work. truly, these are my favorite works of literature by far and I know it's jUsT a FaNfIc but it's a lot more to me. I love the way I can just escape into this universe and feel like I never wanna leave. its special and what you've made here is a work of heart. I hope you're doing well and keeping safe during this time. alright, until next time toxic

I think this year's Careers are at the highest risk of imploding early, which I'm all here for. That opens a huge new dynamic. Lillee wants to sabotage them from within, Rosario doesn't see the Fours as worthy or competent enough, and a threat, the rest of the Careers might follow him. Lillee then has her own side alliance, her true alliance, and that leaves Yveaux as target #1. No idea how this will play out, but my mind is spinning with possibilities.

Also, hang on...WHAAAAATTT IT'S BACK BABYYY YEAHHH

pff, a year is nothing XD but I'm so so glad to see this back and kicking! Ah! I missed this story! This world! These characters! This community! Mwah, welcome back. AND Roxanne is truly MVP to me, letting this whole drama play out like an artistic play. The nom-Careers, namely Epsilon, Cassandra, Percy, Kai, Raleigh, Lily, Bella, all of 'em, they all have this calloused togetherness it seems that gives them an advantage against the Careers this year, since they seem to be operating at a level of heightened awareness. Pregnancies in these Games haven't ended well. If the Careers end early, and depending on the Arena, then there'd be many hunter teams I'd imagine. I have my theories, but I'm more interested in everyone else's. Ah! What will happen?! I need to re-read to get caught back up on the story, but for sure the most compelling element to me this chapter are the alliance dynamics. Just, so many possibilities.
I feel like no matter what, Yveaux is fucked. Everybody has a plan but him, he has NO idea that some Careers want him dead, some want to backstab him, and EVERYONE knows he's a threat. He did get that 11 for a reason though, so I shouldn't underestimate him.
(ALSO - is Lillee starting to have a soft spot for him?)

The banter between Rosario and Jordyn is great, as is the banter between Kai and Roxanne, mainly since Roxy can prove a great contender.

I know this is a short review, but it truly is great that this story and community are back. I'll do a thorough reread to get all back into the swing of things!

update todaye?

Ahhh, it's so lovely to see you back at it again! I need to go back and reread the previous chapters, but I have to say that the interviews were a great way to refresh my memory on the tributes. Overall the biggest standouts to me were Arabella and Cassandra. Bella is honestly my sentimental fave. She's the bitch we love to hate, and the girl that we know will likely die but can't help but root for. Her commentary usually has me howling, but it was interesting to see a more vulnerable side to her. I really hope she pulls a Monk.

I also enjoyed enjoyed Kai's POV, especially his observation of Alina being a protagonist if this were a story (heh-heh). However, I can't really say I can say I like Kai himself too much, since I honestly don't feel I know enough about him (the same goes for Tamal at times).

As far as Cassandra goes, I have to say that I am astounded at the amount of depth you gave her. I went back and re-read the form I submitted to you, and I am always taken aback at your ability to grab some small paragraphs and turn them into a fully fleshed character. I mean, just reading her interview gave me chills. It's rather funny, I never realized just how similarly she can read at times like Katniss, despite this not being my intention at all. In fact, with Arran being into archery, her working for a baker, and Bella feigning a pregnancy, you can say these games almost feel like an odd mashup of both of Katniss's games. However, I can tell you made her her own person, and I am so honored to have you writing her, no matter how far she makes it. Thank you :)

Can't wait to read the last of the interviews, as well as the post interview event. Thanks for the great read!

Welcome back! I wasn’t sure if you were still writing so this has been an awesome surprise. It took me a few days to reread the previous chapters but I’m all caught up now and excited to see where the story goes. As I’ve read, I’ve realized that I like a lot of the characters and can’t imagine them dying. You do a good job of developing everyone, even those who end up dying in the bloodbath. Anyway, the interviews! I thought they were really interesting. Going through the interviews was a good way of reminding me of who each character was and whether or not I liked them. I’m waiting to see how the last few interviews go. Obviously, I’m curious of how Epsilon does, but I’ve grown fond of the Arran and Cassandra. Thanks for updating!

welcome back toxic! i think i nearly had a heart attack seeing that you uploaded in my emails. it only took me several business days to finish this chapter and wow... you totally exceeded my expectations. this was so damn spectacular. i thought i would have to reread the first few chapters but that wasn't necessary at all for me. quality work tends to stick to my memory. i'm so excited to see more of your world building, it's fantastic.

Ah man, I didn't even remember that I was this far behind on reviews. I thought I could just swan in here and review the new chapter nice and early... nope. Now I have to pay for my long-ago crimes and try and put together a review for 3 previous chapters! And nothing against escort chapters, but it's not exactly the easiest introduction back into this whole thing... but I will persevere! (Is that a pun now?) It's time to bring back the ranking list too... it's a good reminder for who I like/don't like too.

Starting with Lillian... one of the three 'Lil's of the Toxicverse... at least mine is spelled differently :D I remember everyone loved Tauri last time round, and I'm part of that everyone. His conversation and 'roasting' of the other escorts was great. I also like that he backs up his tributes too, despite them being district 13. I look forward to seeing more of him. The conversation with Cassandra was a good read too, I remember Lillian being one of the nicer escorts and it's good that she was honest about whether Luke knew of his parents. I see I've scored Cassandra a 7 below, I think I'll stick with that.

Lillian #2! Oh man, I completely forgot she made out with Yveaux... bahaha. This quarrel between her and Raleigh is funny, even though I don't really care much for Raleigh. It surprises me he's in 2nd place in the poll, as I don't remember seeing anyone else care much for him either. Man, I've got some really generous scores in my list, I'm gonna drop Raleigh to a 5.5. Dear lord, a super-alliance would be crazy if they combined! We've already got the anti's, and the even bigger alliance of Alina, Epsilon, Bella, Tesni & Raleigh... With the careers as well, there'd only be 6 people not in those three groups... I do wonder how the games would go if everyone was in a big alliance - I can't tell if the fights would be more brutal and fatal, or if it'd end up a big stalemate with nobody dying. Uhh, anyway, despite not liking Raleigh that much, I do really like these two together. It's a shame they're not allies, they bounce off each other well.

Hey, it's Mirane! Of course she's badass enough to see through Bella's act, wooo. You've maintained her character brilliantly through the two stories, and her handling of the situation was great. Bella got toooold. God damn, I hope Darius is looking away! Pfft. Let's move on from this scene, I completely forgot it even happened. Ahem.

I admit my reviews aren't gonna be as detailed on these catch-up chapters as they hopefully will be going forward, but it's a good thing to catch up on these chapters anyhow. One down!

Yveaux: 9/10
Arran: 9/10
Tesni: 8.5/10
Frankie: 8/10
Arabella: 8/10
Percy: 8/10
Batiste: 8/10
Lillian: 7.5
Roxanne: 7/10
Rye: 7/10
Tamal: 7/10
Florian: 7/10
Silas: 7/10
Alina: 7/10
Cassandra: 7/10
Titan: 7/10
Pip: 7/10
Xavier: 6.5/10
Kai: 6.5/10
Rosario: 6.5/10
Jordyn: 6/10
Percy: 6/10
Epsilon: 6/10
Nate: 6/10
Raleigh: 5.5/10
Syncis: 3/10

Hi Nathan! I've been genuinely pretty excited for this chapter to drop, since you said you'd be coming back, and it was totally worth the wait! Weirdly, for a series about children killing each other, this universe is very comforting to me, and I can use little bit of comforting around now. I'm out of practice leaving reviews too, but I guess I'll just go through in order, and talk about things as they come up.

Rosario: I did read the rest of HuOBHu over the last week or so, and honestly I'm a lot more into Rosario as a character than I remember being the first time around. You kind of lampshade it later in this chapter, but a lot of the Careers this year fit the stereotypes of their Districts very well, and Rosario probably more than anyone. During that first section of training where the Careers get a lot of focus, Rosario is a really entertaining part of their general dysfunction, and I enjoy his sort of 'holier than thou' attitude. Obviously, I'd hate him in real life, but as a part of this ensemble, he's pretty fun. And I really appreciate how throughout the entire pre-games it feels like you've made an effort to just have more things happen than the standard formula, with more drama, more socialising, more plotting, and the decision for Rosario to already be planning against the Fours is part of that. It seems pretty likely that we're not going to get a very long time, if any, with a standard Career pack in these games before the antis or internal disputes blows it up. I assume lots of the individual careers will surivive though, just split up, and I think it would be cool to have multiple small groups of very strong tributes early on. I've been assuming that Jordyn and Pip would split together, but honestly I could see Rosario and Jordyn ending up together, with the whole grudging respect their developing. But, we'll see. It's honestly very difficult to imagine that almost a third of these tributes are going to be knocked out straight away, and I have no idea how that's going to ripple out to the rest of them.

I also think that the fleshing out of the Career system is definitely one of the most significant chunks of worldbuilding in your universe. So I'm always interested to hear these little details. It makes total sense that a lot of focus would be placed on the decorum side of training as well as the fighting part, and it makes pseudo-careers like Jordyn and Pip more distinct to know that this is the sort of thing they missed out on.

Frankie: It was nice to see more of Frankie here! I certainly feel like I understood a bit more about her after section. I don't think we really heard anything about her loneliness in her last section, although I was already familiar with her um, appreciation of some of the more attractive tributes. This was also the first time we got to see her perspective on the antis, and I really liked it! I think it makes Lillee's plan more believable to see that other characters disagree with it, and I think Frankie has a pleasingly realistic perspective of her own chances in the games. There's not a lot of affection going around in the anti alliance at the moment, but I really hope that Frankie gets the chance to make a genuine connection with someone at some point. You've made it feel like a genuine possibility that Lillee might get cold feet with the antis as well, and that extra little bit of tension keept me on my toes.

Kai: I have to say, I think Kai was already one of the tributes we knew least about as a person, and he got a little bit overshadowed in this chapter, so I don't feel like I know a huge amount more about him. I guess that's what comes with being allies with Roxanne. That said, you know that this whole Games metanarrative thing is exactly my jam, so I'm fully on board with it being the main focus of two of our characters, and not just Roxanne herself. I really enjoyed this whole section, what with the discussion on Syncis, the tropiness of the careers, and talking about Kai's place as a sidekick. I've not always been sure what to think of Syncis's role in this story, but I really liked what you said about him here, and particularly how it relates to Magnus' story in the last games. The Gamemakers tend to want to make mental illness into a cool, frightening superpower that some tributes have, and Syncis himself would probably almost agree, but I appreciate how consistently every other character sees him as tragic, and the story presents him as just another person the capitol has failed. That said more than any other tribute I really can't imagine what his story could be past the bloodbath, but we'll see. Anything could happen. Oh! I also really liked the acknowledgement that Alina was probably the closest thing the story had to a protagonist. I think that's a really clever way to summarise her at this point. I really like Alina, and it's clear everyone does, she could very easily be a victor. But there's so many tributes that seem to have a big role to play, almost certainly one or more of them will die early in a shock twist. I could even see someone like Roxanne or Lillee going out early, leaving a tangle of unfulfilled plans in their wake.

Bella: Speaking of surprise deaths, it would be pretty funny if Bella dies early, and accidently leaves behind a functional group of friendly people who would never probably never grouped together without her. That said, I think she showed a bit more vulnerability here than in other chapters, so it's entirely possible she will end up making actual friends with some of them. Plus, I still have half an eye on Tesni as a saboteur. I think it's amazing how well established all the characters are at this point, and how many plausible possibilities there are. I have to say, the pretend pregnancy doesn't do a lot for me, especially since, like was mentioned, there were two pregnancies in last year's Games, but it does feel fully in character for Bella. I like Bella's antagonistic relationship with Mirane (I'm always up for more relevance for our past Victors), and I also liked the bit where she says she's more prepared for the Games because of the way she's been spoilt. It's nice to see self awareness from this type of character, and honestly, she's probably right. I will say though, unless Tesni has an actual stammer, which I don't think has been mentioned, I'm not a huge fan of the s-stuttering thing in her dialogue. I think she's well characterised enough without it, that we can imagine her tone of voice.

Raleigh: I don't have a lot to say about Raleigh, I liked him already, and I still like him. The whole thing with him, Yveaux, and Lily adds a bit of complication to the tribute relationships, particularly between alliances, but in general he just seems like a fairly pleasant normal guy, if a little emotionally immature and idealistic. A few other tributes stood out here though. Batiste's streak of bad luck continued, with his inteview being overshadowed by Bella's, and I for some reason find his misfortune pretty funny. Epsilon continued to be a highlight in this section, acting very believably as a newcomer to all this. Plus, we got to see a little more from Silas, who I think has almost undeniably had the least spotlight so far. We get a few more pieces of information re: your statements at the start of the story that there were quite a few religious and lgbt tributes in these games. I don't think there had been any indications that Roxanne was gay or bi earlier, unless I missed them, and I don't think we knew that Silas was religious. So that's Jordyn, Titan, Frankie, Roxanne, and Tamal who are LGBT (although I could be missing someone obvious) and Percy, Tamal, and Silas who are religious. Maybe that's everyone, or maybe there are more we don't know about yet?

Cassandra: I really like Cassandra, and I liked this part. I know I'm probably sounding like a broken record at this point, since I really am very fond of almost all of these characters, but Cassandra's certainly in like my top 5. I think her 'deal' is incredibly easy to get, and very compelling. She's angry, has nothing left to lose, and she's a consumate survivor who has already outlived everyone she loves. I liked that she played this angle up in the interview, and it rings true to me that she'd get one of the biggest reactions of the night, probably just behind Roxanne and maybe a few others. In one of the earlier chapters you mentioned that District Six was 4th in line with sponsors, and at this point I could easily see District Twelve coming into 5th (probably at quite a distance from the top 4 though). I also really liked her interactions with Arran. I realised in the chariot chapter that they make quite a fun pair, both effectively wanting to tell the world to go fuck itself, and I hope they meet again at some point in the story. I'm also curious whether Epsilon's going to realise from watching this interview (Epsilon seemed to be watching pretty intently) why Cassandra hates her. I guess we've got the Thirteen's interviews to come, so we might get a clue there. Honestly, who knows what's going to happen with those review. I feel like they won't be quite as brutal as the chariots, at least for Epsilon, cause she's already started to buy into the games.

Since I mentioned how easy it is to get Cassandra's 'deal', I think I'm gonna quickly bring up Percy. It's probably been more than 3 years since I submitted her now, and while I'm still really fond of her, there are things I wish I'd done differently. I think more than any other tribute in the arena, it takes quite a few words to get to the bottom of why Percy's interesting, and that's always going to get in the way. I think her brand of aggressive optimism is really cool, I like how she's from a tight-knit community where she's very used to loving and being loved, and I think it's interesting to have a tribute who has trained for a while, but not their whole life, and not professionally. There's way more I like about her too. But she can't be summed up in a few words, you have to get fully into Aesim and her backstory for her actions to make sense, and that makes her design kind of ungraceful compared to some of the others in the arena. Even with Trojan, you get a solid 50% of his deal just by knowing he's a pickpocket. So yeah, I wish I'd done some things differently, but I still like her loads, and I'm excited to find out where her story goes from here. I mean, this is what comes of a story spread out over such a long time. I'm sick of my username too, but I guess none of us can escape our teenage selves here ;)

Anyway, I really appreciate the effort you go to to write this, especially such a long chapter. I know how time consuming this must be to someone living an actual adult life, especially for such a small group of readers (although I'm hopeful people will make their way back), but it really is very cool to me. As always, looking forward to see what comes next :)

IM FUCKIBG SCREAMING HOLY SHIT!

:)

i will read the next update so fucking fast even if the next chapter comes out by the time my firstborn escapes my womb.

Could you at least tell me how my tribute was going to develop? Like her potential interview, friendships, etc? :(

an update would make me so fucking happy bruv

pls update bb ily

I second timmys plea.

Everyone is dropping off like flies..SYOTS are not what they used to be. You have a very rich world to play with, and a rather dedicated fanbase.

I submitted Mirane to you expecting...im not sure what, only to find that she becomes Victor, and pregnant!

Now I submit Francine to you, and I desperately yern for you to develop her. Especially her social relationships with Lileee to be specific.. And the fact that she doesn't really 'like' people romantically because people are put off by her.

You stopped at a piviotal moment in SYOT timelines. If I were you, Id be psyched if I were at the interviews! Because there are so many people and personalities to play with.

Not to mention the after party you usually write.

I hope you're doing okay...maybe you need to branch out and live life separate from FFN and internet communitites.

I know I do...

Heres to you coming back and finishing. One last hurrah before leaving this site for good