Prologue - Obedience Is The Supreme Virtue

A small drop of sweat trickles down the back of Quoba Varian's neck, from beneath her perfectly-coiffed crimson hair. This is her fourth year as Gamemaker, but the presentation of the Arena never becomes less terrifying. Up close, President Snow is beyond unnerving, with his cold eyes and the scent of blood and roses so heavy in the air around her. He could make her disappear with a snap of his fingers, and she knows it all too well. She has to impress, again and again – and the Arena she thought was so inspired now seems dull, dangerously uninteresting, the idea too obscure, the setting too unphotogenic.

"Trenches, you said?" The President walks a half-step behind her, hands clasped behind his back, apparently unfussed by the thick mud squelching around his shiny boots.

"Yes, sir." Quoba sidesteps a patch of quickmud, deep enough to hold a tribute solidly in place without drowning them, and leads him on towards the Cornucopia. "Just a few of them for now, but we plan to put plenty of digging implements in the Cornucopia. If the tributes can shore them up properly, they'll make for a good defense, shelter, somewhere to hide. If not..." She doesn't finish answering, just waves an explanatory hand at the grasping mud around their boots, before continuing. "We'll plant various traps around the place – I'll show you the blueprints when we get back."

"And food?" His eyes shine disconcertingly. "We wouldn't want our dear tributes to starve, would we, Miss Varian?"

Quoba laughs, a little nervously, beckoning him forwards and around another treacherous patch of solid-seeming earth. "No, sir. Most of the raw materials for food and shelter are found over there." She points to the distant copse, perhaps half a mile away. "Animals, edible plants, wood for fires and for shoring up the trenches... There isn't much there, of course, but it should be interesting to watch them fight for it. And, of course, we'll have some supplies in the Cornucopia."

"Water?"

"We're walking in it," she replies, looking down at the seeping mud. "It'll need purifying, of course, but... well, that's all part of the challenge, isn't it?"

Snow's smile, thick-lipped and deadly, is a welcome sight. Suddenly, it's much easier for Quoba to catch her breath. "I have to say," he muses, "this is an inspired notion. What gave you the idea?"

Again, she clears her throat, her nervousness flooding back. "Well, sir... a while ago, a friend of mine turned up some ancient history books. Very old books indeed. I got the idea from them – from a war centuries ago. There was a poem there, too... by somebody called Owen. It, um..." The thought process leading to this arena was slightly seditious, the result of too long in close contact with the Games. She is just wondering how to proceed – how to explain her inspiration without telling him the whole poem – when Snow chuckles, and her blood runs cold.

"Oh, I know it well. Very good, Miss Varian. Very good indeed." His expression is unreadable, but his amusement palpable. "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori."

RULES/NOTES

- The submission form is on my profile. Please send it through PM – I'll accept anonymous submissions via review, but it will put you at a disadvantage if I want to talk things through with you. I will not accept non-anonymous submissions except via PM.

- You can recycle tributes which you've used elsewhere, BUT you must not copy/paste their profile directly. Use the submission form on my profile. Any tributes submitted using a different form will get major side-eye from me.

- You may submit up to three characters, but the more characters you submit, the more likely they are to end up dying horribly in the bloodbath. (I will try not to kill your character in the bloodbath if you've only submitted one)

- Submitting a tribute does not guarantee that they will be accepted. I will not accept ridiculously underdeveloped characters, Mary-Sues, or characters which break canon. If I reject your tribute, however, I will PM you back to let you know why, and you can edit your form and re-submit if you wish.

- All questions on the form must be answered. Except the optional questions, because they're optional.

- Any slots without a tribute fully submitted and accepted are open. However, you can PM or review to ask for a reserve - I will still let other people apply for that slot, but I promise not to choose a tribute for that slot until people who've reserved it have sent their submission in. So you can reserve a slot and still not end up with your tribute in that slot, but it won't be because I didn't wait for/read/consider your submission. Does that make sense?

- NEW RULE (which I forgot earlier, so I won't hold already-submitted tributes to it): Tributes volunteering from a Career District MUST be 16-18 years old. No exceptions, because we already have exceptions.

- I may PM you to ask questions about your characters if I really can't think how they would react to a situation. You may PM me if you think I'm writing your character wrong. However, please bear in mind that your character will not always win at everything, and that having your character lose or be hurt doesn't in itself mean I'm writing them wrong.

- The fic starts as soon as the first 5 Districts are filled, or as soon as I have 18 tributes, whichever comes first. If a District isn't filled when I get to writing its Reaping, I will make up any missing tributes with my own characters.

- Even if you don't have a tribute to submit, I'd love to know what you think of the concept, the fic itself, etc, etc. Don't be shy!

- There will be a points system to ensure fairness in the Arena and decides who wins and who dies, which I will explain once all the characters have been introduced.

Bring it on!