This is the story of Coriolanus Snow III. He's not your average Hunger Games Character. He's no cheap love interest- he's cunning, desperate, weird, average looking, and unashamedly uncool!
Preface
*Flashback*
'Celestia screamed as the rebels, inspired by the Mockingjay who she had so looked up to, brutally raped her inside the Presidential Mansion. The Peacekeepers had long since turned and ran from the mansion and nobody came to rescue her as her ordeal continued for hour after hour. Finally, her ordeal ended in a rough snapping of the neck as a particularly abominable soldier from District 13 cunningly decided to finish her off before the Mockingjay returned to the Mansion. '
The following is set immediately after the end of the 2nd Rebellion
Coriolanus Snow III, while the same age as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, could not have been more different. Tall, with short black hair and unremarkable brown eyes, though his private tutors had considered him intelligent, especially when it came to the dark arts of politics, unlike his sister he was not considered a face that would improve the image of the president and so was kept well away from the capitol and his Grandfather's mansion. Coriolanus had never been a great lover of the games, at heart he was a geek who revelled in the history of Panem and the First Rebellion, rather than the 'bread and circuses' his grandfather's gamemakers provided the capitol. In a few short months the beloved Mockingjay had destroyed his grandfather's empire, his wealth, and in the rioting that followed the murder of the capitol's children supposedly carried out under the President's orders his 12 year old sister, Celestia Snow, had been brutally murdered as hid in her bedroom in the mansion. Worst of all Coriolanus had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide; the former peacekeepers and countless other elite members of capitol high society who knew of him would soon betray his existence: worst of all he had briefly been introduced to the former victor Finnick Odair, who Coriolanus had considered a sleazy rumour-monger. Things looked bleak.
President Paylor solemnly took the Oath of Office, having been elected President of Panem unopposed. She faced a huge task in rebuilding Panem and reconstructing the capitol, alongside bringing those who had committed war crimes to justice. She hoped that a more equal society could be brought about, and living standards in the poorer districts could be improved. As her first action in office she ceremonially signed the new constitution of Panem into law, giving unprecedented rights to the districts, and creating a federal nation of equals.
The new Secretary of Communications, Plutarch Heavensbee, walked purposefully towards a prepared press conference, in which he would announce the mayoral elections to be held in the districts and capitol. As he walked capitol residents who had crowded the President's mansion surged towards him to shake his hands to thank the rebels for liberating them from the man who had killed their children. The intention was that those that had proven themselves as leaders in the rebellion would stand for election in order to win the peace. As he announced the new elections he felt a great sense of foreboding that something was not going to go to plan.
Coriolanus POV:
As I heard three heavy knocks at my door I knew that the Rebels had finally come to take their revenge on the last member of the once proud first family. I strode up confidently to the door to meet my fate with the decorum befitting a capitol resident and the grandson of Panem's longest serving President. While I was certainly not proud of what my grandfather did to Peeta Mallark and countless others I knew that he had stood up for law and order and putting the capitol first: and had almost certainly taken less lives than the alternative of endless conflict. Before opening the door I pinned my grandfather's trademark white rose to my lapel, as a final sign of rebellion against our new overlords, a gang of uneducated louts from the euphemistically called 'outlying districts'. As I opened the door I thought about my regrets, my failure to protect my sister, my family, and having had a rather unfulfilling life: while capitol girls fantasised over the likes of Peeta Mellark I knew that I would always have to rely on my grandfather seeing fit to set his embarrassing grandson up with some poor girl. To my great surprise I found a rather more welcoming visitor than I had expected- A rather drunk Romulus Thread. My former bodyguard began ranting incomprehensibly: "revenge… war crimes…..election", only at this moment did I realise that others would be even more broken by the fall of my grandfather than myself. At this moment I felt the most bitter for his failure, Romulus and all the others don't deserve the humiliations that will surely now befall them.
After giving Romulus a glass of water and a good meal I began to understand his intention: He needs me to run for the Mayoralty of the capitol, and more than that he needs me to pull off a victory against all the odds and all political logic. He explained it to me very simply "Paylor and Heavensbee are bound by the new constitution to allow any candidates to campaign freely – but as soon as the campaign is over they can do as they like if we lost. ". Knowing that this was my only chance I began plotting what a campaign run by two of the most wanted men in Panem would look like. I leaned over and whispered, as if the Mockingjay herself were spying on me, "Rom, we will have to fight this using any weapon we can find - we can start by attacking the redistribution of wealth and we might gain some traction. We need to find proof the rebels bombed the capitol. That's the only way we will stand even the slightest chance- we prove that and the game changes" The ever irrepressible Romulus Thread then reminded me that my grandfather's substantial personal fortune, which was currently being used by Katniss and Peeta Mellark to look after orphaned children, could be reclaimed in order to run the millions of dollars in propos that would be needed. Despite this, we knew that we would be in at the deep-end as very few directors would want to be seen working for the likes of us. Of those who would be desperate enough to take the job just one name sprung to my mind: Ceasar Flickerman. Romulus looked at me and deadpanned "May the odds be ever in our favour"
Read on soon to learn how Panem- including Katniss and Peeta- react to Coriolanus' attempt to become the Mayor of the Capitol and see if he has a chance of pulling of the seemingly impossible. They may not know it yet but the Snow is back and he's planning to stop the show! (sorry) Review, share, PM etc etc!
