The Just Series

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The Just Series is a series of fanfictions written by misticalcookie, based on the young adult series The Hunger Games. The series consists of Death is Just a Game (which focuses on the 52nd Hunger Games), Fear is Just a Word (which focuses on the 53rd Games), Freedom is Just a Dream (the 54th), and 2 prequels of sorts, one called Happiness is Just a Memory, which focuses on the lives of some of the tributes before the Games, and another called Survival is Just a Maize, which is a full-fledged prequel and is set during the 33rd Hunger Games.

Tropes used in The Just Series include:

Diana: I look like Dragan from two years ago.
Amethyst: Yeah, that girl really decked him good, she had quite a right hook, and all you got decked with was a tiny little bitty stone.

  • And I Must Scream: “He couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, but he could still hear her.” and “Jewel tried to talk, tried to scream, but it was no use.”
  • And This Is For: Three instances, said by different people.
  • Animal Theme Naming: Leo and Rex Long.
    • Also, all of Roan’s girlfriends are named after animals.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: A lot of them.
  • Anti-Hero: Sadie gradually morphs from a Type II into a Type IV during the Games.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Louka in the second-to-last chapter of Fear.
  • Audience Murmurs: Happens after Emily mentions her brother during her interview.
  • Ax Crazy: There’s at least one in all 4 Games, notable examples being Sarah from the 33rd, Dragan from the 52nd , Aria from the 53rd, and Amira from the 54th. Some of the Careers are like this, too, especially Lenea, Emily, and Diana.
  • An Axe to Grind: Autumn, being from the lumber district, uses an axe in the Games. Dragan also uses one, but that’s because he’s Ax Crazy.
  • Back for the Dead: Dragan disappears for two chapters during Death is Just a Game. The next chapter he appears in, he dies.
  • Beast and Beauty: Dragan and Emily.
  • Because I Said So: Emily’s Berserk Button.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Traxxton and Emily, Amethyst and Diana, Angelo and Janie.
  • Berserk Button: Never say “because I said so” to Emily if you’d like to live.
    • Also, Sadie would like to remind you that her name IS NOT SALLY!
  • Betty and Veronica: Jace is the Betty and Angelo is the Veronica.
  • Big Badass Wolf: Diana gets eaten by a pack of these.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Dragan toward Emily, Colten toward his younger sisters, and Angelo toward his sister.
  • Big Brother Worship: Emily with regard to Dragan, Thorn with regard to Hunter, and Sadie with regards to Jael.
  • Big Eater: Amethyst and Aria.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti
  • Big Guy Rodeo: Autumn does it to Dragan, and later Anika does it to Marin.
  • Blade on a Stick: Jael uses a spear during the one time she actually fights. The District 4 tributes, almost stereotypically given their district’s industry, use tridents.
    • The Halberd family is named for the most effective poleax. And, appropriately, Emily actually uses one at one point.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Liviana (blonde), Amethyst (brunette), and Diana (redhead), the Career girls from Freedom.
    • Also, from the first story, Lenea (blonde), Sadie (brunette), and Anya (redhead).
    • And from Fear, we have the Girl Power Alliance: Delaney/Tilly (blonde), Meleana (brunette) and Myrrah and Rosylin (redheads)
    • Male example: Stelz (blond), Dragan (brunet) and Nemo (redhead), the Career guys from Death. The Careers seem to have a lot of these.
  • Blondes Are Evil: Lenea and Liviana.
  • Blood Bath: Diana mentions wanting to bathe in blood in chapter 29 of Freedom is Just a Dream.
  • Blood Knight: Many of the Careers.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: The author often engages in short conversations with one of the tributes at the end of the chapter.
  • Brick Joke:
    • The “Caesar’s mom” comment in Freedom.
    • Death is Just a Game, chapter 6: “Better watch it, soon that will be your heart.” 10 chapters later, “I told you I was going to get your heart.”
  • Broken Bird: Emily, after her brother died and her other best friend deserted her.
  • The Bully: Several background characters.
  • Bully Hunter: Dragan, who simultaneously manages to be both this and The Bully.
  • Call Forward: The D1 chariot prep in Survival. Almost all of it.
  • Captain Obvious: Seneca Crane gets called exactly this.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Angelo uses a mace at the beginning of his Games.
  • Cat Fight: Given that most of the main characters in the Games are girls, this happens a lot. The fight between Myrrah and Ivexonna toward the end of Fear actually gets called this. Similarly, the fights between Autumn and Lenea, and between Diana and Amira from the first and third stories are very good examples of this.
  • Cheerful Child: Sadie during Happiness is Just a Memory.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Tilly and Flamiken.
  • Child-Hater: Melinoe Halberd doesn’t exactly hate children, per se, but she certainly doesn’t like raising her son or daughter.
    • Liviana would be a better example, as she’s explicitly mentioned to hate babies.
  • Children Are Innocent: Subverted viciously. Played utterly straight with Sadie in Happiness is Just a Memory, though.
  • Cliff Hanger: Happens a lot.
  • Cloudcuckoolanders: Tilly from Death, Silas from Fear, and both Amethyst and Diana from Freedom.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: The Careers’ specialty. Ivexonna and Emily seem to be particularly fond of it. Unfortunately, this backfires on both of them.
  • The Confidant: Dragan is this to Emily, heck; he’s even called this in Emily’s point of view chapter of Fear!
  • Continuity Nod: All over the place.
  • Cool Big Sis: Jael Cross.
  • Crapsack World: This is the Hunger Games universe, after all.
  • Crazy Cat Lady: Paisley from Freedom is mentioned as someone who would probably become one of these.
  • Creepy Child: Aria, definitely.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Just about everyone, but especially how Stelz, Tod, Emily, Diana, Amethyst, and Rex die.
  • Cute and Psycho: Sadie, Aria, Diana, and Amira.
  • Cute Clumsy Girl: Definitely Meleana.
  • Dark Action Girl: Lenea, Ivexonna, Amethyst, Tory, Sadie (eventually), Emily, Diana, Tallulah, Liviana, Amira, Sarah, and Aria. Jael was also supposed to be one in her days as a Hunger Games competitor.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Many of the tributes.
  • Darker and Edgier: The first story starts out as a light and possibly even funny Hunger Games story. Once it gets to the arena, it doesn’t hesitate to get instantly darker. From there, each story gets significantly more dark and edgy.
  • Dead Little Sister: Naturally, there’s plenty of these.
  • Deadly Game: Well, duh.
  • Deadly Lunge: Happens a lot in the arena.
  • Deadly Prank: Fret from Death is Just a Game apparently pulled one.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Mallow. Also Diana, and Fiver from Survival.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: Delaney, who is supposed to be dead, impersonates Tilly, who is actually dead.
  • Death by Irony: Rex from the 54th Games is eaten by a sea lion. His brother’s name is Leo, which means lion.
  • Death Glare: Liviana is apparently very good at giving these. The tributes of District 2 also tend to glare at each other an awful lot.
  • A Death in the Limelight: Many of the chapters of all three stories are like this.
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: Whenever any of the Careers (especially the male Careers) die.
  • Deliberately Cute Child: Aria.
  • Designated Villain: The Careers. Most of the other tributes hate them, but deep down most of them have a conscience and families that genuinely love them.
  • Destined Bystander: Again, Tilly and Flamiken.
  • Died Standing Up: Silas.
  • Dies Wide Open: Richard.
  • Disney Death: Colten, Rosylin, Jael and Dragan (the first time, at least)
  • Disney Villain Death: Dragan, although he doesn’t die.
  • Disproportionate Retribution:

“And he does deserve to die, mother, Dexter pushed Emily around at the playground today.”

    • Yeah…need I say more?
  • Damsel in Distress: Any girl tribute who isn’t an Action Girl is most likely this. Nat Henley from the 52nd Games, Meleana from the 53rd and Nyx from the 54th come to mind.
  • Dramatis Personae: At the beginning of every story in the series.
  • Driven to Suicide: Mallow. And Emily, which really works if you think about it.
  • Driven to Villainy: Sadie.
  • Dual-Wielding: Diana wields a pair of knives.
    • Also, both Dragan and Aria are described as having a knife in one hand and a sword in the other at one point.
  • Due to the Dead
  • Duel to the Death: Happens so often, you lose count.
  • Dying Alone: What eventually happens to Diana.
  • Dysfunctional Family: The Arrwood, Halberd, Maurice, and Meneme families seem to be very dysfunctional. Justified for the first three, as they’re from Career districts.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Myrrah appears briefly in Death, and Diana gets a mention in Fear.
  • Easily Forgiven: Flamiken.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The whole Halberd family.
  • Enemy Within: One of the tributes from Survival is Just a Maize, Hannah, has this in the form of her evil other personality, Sarah.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Autumn gets one when she stands up for Nan and challenges the biggest, meanest tribute in the arena.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Careers, at least, the more evil ones.
  • Evil Gloating: A rather common tactic of the Careers.
  • Evil Laugh: Ivexonna, Dragan, Diana, Sarah and Jael are each noted to have one. Jael’s laugh, in particular, is mentioned to scare Sadie very much.
  • Evil Redhead: Rhine, the mean girl from District 8 whom Torrence hated. Also Diana.
  • Expy: Dragan seems to be an Expy of Drake Merwin from the Gone (novel) series, mainly because they’re both evil guys who enjoy torturing and whose names sound the same.
  • Eye Scream: Belle kicks Dragan right in the eye.
  • Face Heel Turn: Sadie pulls one midway through Death is Just a Game.
  • Faking the Dead: Delaney and Rosylin.
  • Faux Action Girl: Anya, Doris, and Amethyst qualify.
    • First off, Anya does a really good job showing off to the Gamemakers, and thus gets a training score of 8…but once we get to the arena, she does absolutely nothing, makes a point of not killing because “her brothers are watching” and skirts through almost the entire Games before getting killed off simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
    • Doris volunteered for the Games, got a slightly good score of 7, and got into the Career pack, yet she’s shown to do hardly anything in the arena, not kill anyone, and get killed off herself fairly early.
    • Finally, Amethyst volunteers, presents herself as a formidable opponent, gets a good training score, but by the time she gets to the Arena, she alternates between annoying as heck and giggly girly girl. And then she starts slowly descending into the realm of insanity before dying in agony.
  • Fiery Redhead: Autumn, Myrrah, and Flamiken. Also, Jace’s sister Eileen.
  • Final Girl: Skylar, Tessa, and Anika.
  • Finishing Stomp: Myrrah to Ivexonna.
    • Also, Amira to Amethyst.
  • First Kiss: Nolan and Mallow’s kiss qualifies, as it was both of their first kisses.
    • Same goes for Janie and Angelo’s kiss.
  • Five-Bad Band: The Careers from the 53rd Games.
  • For the Evulz: Dragan’s motivation for killing Sadie’s kitten.
  • Foster Kid: Sabine.
  • Four-Girl Ensemble
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble
  • Freudian Excuse
  • Fridge Brilliance: Throughout the beginning parts of Fear is Just a Word, it’s made a point that Emily wants revenge because her brother got killed. In a rather twisted way, she got her revenge, because in the previous games, the District 2 girl killed Emily’s brother, and in the next year Emily herself was the District 2 girl, and she killed herself.
    • Especially brilliant when you consider that {{|spoiler:she didn’t even make him promise that he wouldn’t volunteer, her “She would make him proud or die trying. At this point, it didn’t really matter” POV line, and she didn’t even try to fight back when Jewel attacked her. She wanted to die. In essence, she blamed herself for his death, and she wanted to put an end to that once and for all. You can also chalk that up to why she got in so many arguments with Trax and the other Careers- she was secretly hoping for one of them to put her out of her never-ending misery. Especially since she looked like her brother- basically,she was confronted by her horrible guilt every time she looked in the mirror. And it drove her ultimately to assisted suicide.}}
      • Also, the Delaney/Tilly switch makes so much sense if you go back and re-read Fear after The Reveal. There’s tons of subtle foreshadowing. For example:
    • When she was taken by the Peacekeepers? Probably orchestrated by rebels to make the switch.
    • Ryan’s thoughts about Colten.
    • Tessy mentioning that Delaney looked somehow different, subdued, and nervous.
    • Delaney’s thoughts during the countdown.
    • Delaney’s OOC behavior in the arena.
    • Similarly, Tilly’s OOC behavior.
    • Tilly reacting to the spiders-Delaney’s fear- and Delaney not reacting.
    • Tilly suddenly wanting to join Colt and Rose’s hug makes sense too.
    • Tilly’s thoughts during chapter 32.
    • The Colt/Tilly dialogue during the scenes in the D6 mentor box.
      • Also, on the surface Jewel’s murder of Emily may not be that significant. But if you recall that she didn’t really want to kill (until Tod died) then her sudden change will make sense. She was so motivated by her lust for revenge that she became her worst nightmare- a torturer, exactly like the Careers, and especially Emily, who she targeted instead of Louka, so she could throw karma right back in her face. In essence, she became her target.
  • Friendless Background
  • Friend to Psychos: Emily. Although she later becomes a psycho herself.
  • Gender Blender Name: The names of both District 3 tributes in Freedom. Even the Gamemakers aren’t quite sure which is which.
    • Um, Seneca Crane, anyone? The character is in fact male, but the name could easily be used for a female.
  • Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: At least, Volouth thinks so.
  • Girl Posse: Whimsical is mentioned to have one, but her only named evil minions are Sapphire and Diana. Diana later gets dropped from the group because she beat Sapphire to volunteering for the Games.
  • Gladiator Games: In addition to the regular Hunger Games, they apparently have these in District 4.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Some of the Careers are like this.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars
  • Go Out with a Smile: Nat.
  • Granola Girl: Tessa and Romy.
  • Green Eyed Red Head: Autumn.
  • Grey and Grey Morality: Nobody’s really evil in the Arena, not even the Careers.
  • Grey Rain of Depression: In the beginning of Fear’s Games.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Largely averted.
  • Hair Flip: Sadie does it after she kills Dragan.
  • Hammerspace: Evidently, where Ivexonna gets her weapons.
  • Hand or Object Underwear: The District 3 tributes in the chariot ride for Freedom.
  • Happily Adopted: Sabine.
  • Happily Married: Louka and Lindi, along with 6 out of the 7 tributes that were released from the arena in Freedom.
  • Hates Being Touched: Angelo. This changes later on in the story, though.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Colten and Angelo, and Jewel to a lesser extent (because she wasn’t really in love at all). Emily qualifies in the “sibling love” way.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Nat makes one for her brother Colten in both the real and alternate versions of the ending of Death is Just a Game.
  • Heroic Second Wind
  • Hidden Depths
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In chapter 9 of Freedom, Diana stated, “I’ll never be like Emily.” Later in the story, she is actually a lot like Emily, taking Emily’s role of The Dragon and also arguing a lot with her district partner. And she dies in chapter 33, which is the same chapter Emily died in during her Games.
    • Also, Jael says that she wants to be the first person ever to win the Games twice. This becomes funnier if you consider the events of Catching Fire.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Sadie. Need proof?

Sadie: When I was an infant, she picked me up and threw me down the hall, mom wasn't thrilled at all. Then when I was three she tried to drown me in our bathtub at home. When I was seven she locked me in the attic, it was during that really hot bout of summer we had, I almost cooked to death, so yes, you could say we got along swell.

  • How Dare You Die on Me!: Emily’s reaction to her brother’s death.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Mr. and Mrs. Braxus.
  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
  • Hypocritical Humor: Belle from the first story says it’s not nice to curse. Then she goes ahead and curses anyway.
  • Ice Queen: Melinoe Halberd and her daughter Emily. Also Liviana, who even gets called this.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the chapters in Fear and Freedom follow a naming pattern of “To (verb) (article or pronoun) (noun)”
  • If I Can't Have You: Said nearly word-for-word by Seth in Freedom.
  • Ill Girl: Atarah, Jezebel Renn’s sister. She does end up dying; however, this is subverted as she’s shown to be quite mean to Jezebel.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Whenever someone in this series throws a knife or just thrusts one forward, it always lands perfectly on target, right where they wanted it to be.
  • Improvised Weapon: Corinne demonstrates the use of a tube of toothpaste as a weapon.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Flamiken sets the 53rd Games Arena on fire.
  • Incest Subtext: Some subtext between Colten and Nat, Colten and Delaney, and Dragan and Emily.
  • Ineffectual Death Threats: Dragan tells Sadie he’s going to kill her. It…doesn’t happen. However, he tells Nan he’s going to kill her, and he does.
  • Informed Ability: Sadie is apparently a more-than-competent archer, and she is also very good at tolerating pain. The first thing is never mentioned again, and the second is only mentioned in the span of about three sentences during only one fight and is never used again.
  • Insult Backfire
  • In the Back: How Traxxton, Finn, Hunter, and Jewel die.
  • Intoxication Ensues: Diana and Amethyst seem to be high in chapter 29 of Freedom because of some suspicious flowers found in the Arena.
  • In with the In Crowd: Diana.
  • Ironic Echo:

[[spoiler:Ivy (to Louka): You wanna put Jewel out of her misery, or shall I?
Jewel (to Louka): You wanna put Emily]] out of her misery, or shall I?

Autumn: You! Utter! MONSTER!
Tessa: I.AM. NOT. A. DOG!
Angelo: STOP. TALKING. TO. ME!
Angelo: I. DO. NOT. LIKE. HER.
Sabine: Never. Ever. Mention. That. Night. Again.

  • Title Drop: The original title of Death is Just a Game is dropped in chapter 19.
  • Together in Death: Ritch and Lenea.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Sadie and Jael, Anika and Ruby.
  • Troubled Fetal Position
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: There’s loads of it, especially in a story like this.
  • Tsundere: Most of the girls, especially the Career girls, are type A.
  • Unfortunate Name: The District 7 mayor has the last name Hardrict, which can easily be changed into…something different.
    • Also, Duncan Hiney, Laurant Peddler, and Whimsical Darling. Seriously, WHIMSICAL DARLING? Doesn’t help matters that she’s the resident co-Libby of District 2.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: The Careers. Some of them you just can’t help but be sorry for. Also, Aria and Amira.
  • Unusual Euphemism: The Career characters seem to use “playing with your food” or some variation thereof as a euphemism for “torturing an opponent”. This is never really explained.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Sadie, Aria, Ivexonna, Emily, and Diana.
  • Vague Age: Almost all of the characters don’t have their age mentioned or their age is only mentioned in passing. The tributes are between the ages of 12 and 18, though, and the mentors are most likely older than 18.
  • Valley Girl: Nolan’s sister, Odie.
  • Weapon of Choice:
    • Colten, The Hero of sorts, uses a sword to kill his last opponent in the Arena.
    • Autumn, from the lumber district, and Dragan, being a classic Ax Crazy, both use axes.
    • Angelo, the resident Brute of Freedom is Just a Dream, uses a mace during the Games.
    • Liviana, an experienced gladiator-type fighter, uses her bare hands.
    • Jezebel, a morally ambiguous girl, uses a bow and arrows. Sadie does too, but only during training.
    • The District 4 tributes, being from the fishing district, are adept with spears and tridents.
    • Emily uses a halberd at one point, which is appropriate given her last name.
    • Most of the characters use knives.
    • Mallow uses a sling fairly often.
  • We Used to Be Friends: Diana and Emily.
  • What Could Have Been: The 5th chapter of Happiness is Just A Memory has an alternate ending of Death is Just a Game, involving Autumn killing Ritch, then Nat and Colten, and winning the Games. Afterwards, she goes home and refuses to cooperate with President Snow, and her brother is killed, then she goes to the Capitol and tries to kill Snow, and then becomes an Avox.
  • "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Many of the chapters of Fear is Just a Word.
  • Wham! Line: “No. I’m Delaney.”
  • When She Smiles: Mallow.
  • White Sheep: Emily, the only relatively good person in her (mostly) villainous family.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: Sadie, although she turned evil not to get her revenge, but because she got her revenge.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Diana Rockefeller. Full stop. Stands in direct contrast to her sister, who wears Jade-Colored Glasses.
  • Will Not Be a Victim: Sadie.
  • Working Title: The original title of Death is Just a Game was Survival: The 52nd Hunger Games, but it was changed to match Fear is Just a Word’s title.
  • World of Woobie
  • Would Hit a Girl: Dragan, along with most other male Careers, certainly would.
    • It’s even referenced at one point: “Dragan had never been taught that it was rude to hit a girl. And even if he had been taught that, he probably wouldn’t care.”
  • Write Who You Know
  • You Have No Chance to Survive
  • You Monster!: Autumn says this to Dragan after he kills Nan.

Autumn: You monster. You! Utter! MONSTER!

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