Chapter Text
Shelby couldn't be forgotten.
Perhaps this was her first mistake.
~*~
From the beginning, Shelby had wanted to be in the games. When she was three and saw a distant prettyboy come out of the arena in a blaze of glory, she pointed and babbled and so, so desperately wanted to do that.
Her mother had sighed and nodded, as parents in District Four are known to do, and enrolled her in a private beginner’s training course.
Immediately her high voice isolated her from other careers. Something as stupid as her voice wasn't something that should have set her apart, but kids are, on principle, incredibly mean, and Shelby's 'high-b' voice was what was the most noticeable at the start.
In retaliation, she threw herself into her training for years. She fought with a variety of weapons, people, environments, she memorized the difference in the edible plants and the poisonous ones, she learnt that no god would save her in the arena; only raw talent and determination would.
She also learned that if she was going to do it, she would have to be so memorable to everyone they would have no choice but to remember her.
~*~
The day of the Reaping, Shelby was restless. She stepped up and checked her name off on the attendance list, hastily scribbling down the number of times she wanted to take Tesserae. As she sat with the other seventeen-year-olds Shelby looked at the announcer.
Her eyes shined as if she truly enjoyed this job, sending children to their death. Her outfit was made of glitter and sequins and every inch of her screamed power. As she reached into the crystal bowl with perfectly manicured nails, something in Shelby’s chest rose. In the second before it happened, she knew it was going to be her. She leaned back and winked at the girl two rows behind her, the one who had always said she would never make it.
"Shelby Grace!"
She stood up and brushed her over-the-top dress down. She made her way to the podium with a little smile, standing proud and tall, eyes trained on her mother. 'I will come back,' she wanted to say. 'I will make you proud to be my mother.'
Only when Shelby sat down on a soft train cushion she realized- her hands were shaking. She had been training for this her whole life, why was she shaking? Why was she scared?
It didn't matter. She shook her head and turned to greet her mentor.
~*~
"Shelby, listen to me. You're strong and talented. If I'm being honest, I really do have high hopes for you. But, Shelby, you gotta trust me- You can't make yourself a star," Dan said to her.
There was a pause as Shelby processed, the silence of the small room nearly suffocating around them.
"What?"
"Being huge isn't really a good thing, once you're on the other side of the screen. I was lucky. You- You may not be."
"But if I'm forgettable, wouldn't that mean-"
"It only means that the Capitol will have less of an eye on you. Trust me, it isn't a route you want to go down."
"But-"
"Shelby, listen-"
"I- it just seems like you're trying to tear me down here and-"
"It happened to Mark, to Jack, to Frank, and- If you're not careful it'll happen to you, too."
"So what if I want popularity? It's not like I'll lose the games."
"That isn't the point, Shelby."
"Then what is?"
"Shelby, it's almost your turn for your interview," a quiet attendant called from the doorway.
"I'll be right there!" Shelby responded. She turned back to Dan. "I'm going to prove you wrong."
"Then I am truly sorry."
~*~
Shelby stood in the launch room, shifting her weight back and forth between her legs. It's not to say that she was nervous, but she may have been a little fidgety. She gently touched the paper crown on her head and ran her fingers over each name carefully penned on the inside.
Her stylist looked at her with a condescending eye. "That isn't going to last long."
"I know," Shelby murmured. "But it's important to me, and that's what matters."
Her stylist rolled their eyes. "Good luck, kid."
Honestly? She could have laughed in their face.
~*~
She laid face-up on her hospital bed. Technically she wasn't injured enough to warrant a night of bedrest, they told her, but it was mandatory for all Victors to stay in the hospital for 24 hours after their games. It was fine by her, she wasn't ready to face reality anyways. But the night was long and grueling; when breakfast was given to her in the morning it was a welcome distraction.
The door opened slowly, revealing Daniel. Solstices, he looked tired.
"Hey there," Shelby murmured. "You doing alright?"
"Yes. I- I was watching your games. You did good."
"Thank you?"
"Don't thank me. Now you have to live through the hard part."
"I- all I have to do is just create content, right?"
Dan sighed. "It's a lot more than that, Shelby. Trust me. The public eye isn't all fun and games."
Shelby was a bit taken aback. It, quite understandably, stunned her. Now that she wasn't seeing the beautiful Capitol-branded Victor, she could see Dan for what he really was. A half-alive prisoner who could hardly bear to be kept there any longer. He fiddled with the polyester sleeves of his eclipse sweater and hesitantly opened his mouth to speak again.
"I've also brought someone The Capitol wants you to meet."
The door opened again. A taller man with a graphic tee-shirt stepped into the room. "I'm Cory," he said. "I'm here to help with the publicity side of things."
Shelby nodded and gave a polite wave and motioned to a spot on her hospital gown. "Your shirt here, it says NewScapePro? What's that?"
"It's the name of my company, nothing special." He looked her up and down. "Shelby, how do you feel about Undertale?"
~*~
Cory didn’t even make her the main character. You would think, that she, as the newest Victor would be the main character but-
She did get it, though. She was getting sick from all the attention.
Dan had warned her about this.
~*~
Shelby tried her hardest to make Shubble out to be, for all intents and purposes, a side character. An easily forgotten NPC on a side quest’s side quest.
She hoped “Shubble” would never be as flashy as Poki, as charismatic as Austin, as analytical as Mat. She hoped to never work under the name of “Offline TV” or create a legacy such as Sky or Fit.
And yet she could never fade quite in the same way that Dan could.
Shelby thought that was kind of sad, sometimes.
"I get it now," she said to Dan one day. It's a celebration for some new thing the Capitol's done and he had pulled her away to the side for a moment of peace.
"About- you know- the popularity stuff. I should have listened to you."
He looked out over the Capitol surrounding them and nodded. "But you're memorable now, Shubs. There's nothing you can do about it and- you just have to keep going. I don't know if this is making sense but-"
"No, I get it." A moment of silence passed. "I'm sorry for- you know. Defying you. I should have known better, you were in the tower for years, and I just walked in here and completely ignored all your advice."
"No, no. I would have been mad at me, too."
"I'm still sorry."
"Yeah, well. So am I."
~*~
rhian the robot @georgeserket
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