Hunger Games, Mind Games

You guys, I had a nightmare last night, and the plot of my nightmare was that I was chosen to be a tribute in the Hunger Games! Yes, so apparently these books are engrossing enough (and my brain gullible enough) that reading the second one for 2 hours before bed gave me my first bad dream in what must be 4 or 5 years.

If you do not know the plot of this series, basically in a post-apocalyptic (or something) world, there's this Capitol civilization that's all rich and shallow, and there are 12 neighboring Districts, which are poor and have shitty jobs and live in fear of the mean old Capitol's vengeance. They tried to revolt a number of years ago, so as punishment, the Capitol makes them send 2 teenagers apiece each year (12 x 2 = 24, you guys) to fight to the death in a televised match that's basically their Super Bowl. It's pretty brutal, and it makes for an awesome 1 2/3 books so far.

So anyway in my horrible dream I was chosen to fight, and since this wasn't one of my awesome Buffy dreams I still occasionally have, I was just gay old me. So before we all were to be taken to the arena, all the tributes and I were sitting outside chilling (as you do) and all I wanted to do was scream and yell and get them to band together and revolt, but nobody would listen to me. And then a big group of them started singing "Eye of the Tiger" to express how excited they were to start killing, and I was so terrified at what that song represented that I started screaming at them, but they sang over me and did hand motions, you guys it was the worst moment of my life!

When the song was over, though, I realized I couldn't remember who originally sang "Eye of the Tiger" so I forgot about my imminent death for a minute and asked the kid next to me, who said it was an old World War II song. That's when I realized that he came from a parallel universe where that was true. So that was pretty awesome.

Then I noticed Aziz Ansari sitting across from me, and I said "Oh no, they got you too?" But he explained that no, he was not chosen, but the Hunger Games pain him so much that every year he goes to the rally before the event and sits with the tributes to say goodbye. It was really touching. Thanks for being there for me, Aziz.

That's the end. Even though most of the dream was technically awesome on paper, it was all still terrifying, and I woke up scared and was grateful I got to snuggle up to C.C., who also does not know who sang "Eye of the Tiger".

The answer is Survivor.