Caleb Ainsley, 39, District 5
I take a sip from my drink and set it back down on the counter next to me, leaning back into my chair. On the screen in front of me the highlights of the 98th games are being played in all their glory, part of the annual hype before every Hunger Games. Last year was a fairly boring year by the Capital's standards, with Lucian Slate from District 1, another one of the cookie cutter careers that have been pumped out recently, dismantling any competition. The arena was a simple forest with few mutts, in an attempt to save extra money for the quarter quell arena. Because of that it was quickly forgotten, much to the dismay of Lucian I'm sure, with all the hype staying on the games two years ago, Audra's games.
The highlights from the games are slowly pulling to a close, now at the finale, with just Audra, the boy from one, and the boy from two left. All of them are standing in the middle of a field, the two boys armed to the teeth with weapons, while Audra sits defenseless as a pack of mutts bears down on them. I click off the TV and kick my feet up on the table. I remember being in the mentor room when this was happening, I don't need highlights to remind me of it. It was the first time in my 23 years of mentoring that one of my tributes had made the finale, so I was nervous, and rightfully so.
Audra had no right winning those games, and the fact that she did would be chalked up to just ridiculous luck by anyone looking in from the outside. But over the last 25 years as a mentor if I've learnt one thing, it's that in the games, there's no such thing as luck. Everything that is perceived as being a lucky break, or a fortunate turn, is just the Gamemakers meddling with the games. Nobody wins that they don't want to. Nobody dies that they want to live.
It's the reason that I won, it's the reason Audra won, and it'll be the reason the next District 5 victor wins 30 years from now. On any normal year without the Gamemakers deciding it the careers will always win, outside of the one or two times a true miracle happens. But every once in a while the Capital will gift a win to a certain district for something in return. In my year, the 76th games, the last flames of the rebellion were still being put out. Almost all districts were completely under control again. All of the inner four districts never even swayed far away, District 12 was completely destroyed and in the process of being rebuilt, 6 through 11 were under heavy peacekeeper pressure, and with District 13 striking a peace treaty with the Capital in order to remain at least somewhat sovereign, only district 5 had some fight left in them.
Of course, there was a simple solution for the Capital. Give us a victor, and make it obvious that if we played along, then we would continue to get our children back. They stuck us in an arena that was a fully functional power plant, and directed me to a control room where I was able to wipe out the whole career alliance from afar. I never had to so much as touch another tribute the whole games, and still won the games in just five days.
The games were some of the lowest rated ever, and I haven't exactly ever been in the limelight that Audra has, but the message was still clear to the district, and the last sparks of rebellion died within the next year, the last flames of rebellion in Panem extinguished. Despite that however, the Capital made sure the next two years were the toughest of all.
Left as the only surviving victor from the district, it was up to me alone to mentor the tributes, and I failed horribly, with all four dying in the bloodbath. Snow in that time also began cracking down even harder then before, with even the once rich of the district reduced to barely scraping by day to day.
Thankfully for all of us, on the first day of the 79th Hunger Games, Snow finally dropped dead, and with nobody in his family left but his granddaughter, who was far too young at the time to rule the nation, The Capital held it's first democratic elections, electing a half-decent woman by the name of Cassandra Young. She completely flipped from the stance that snow had, and surplus of food and other support from the Capital quickly turned us into one of the richest districts in Panem, which thanks to President Young, actually meant something.
Still people starve to death, there are still whippings for crimes against the Capital, and Avoxes are still made from those who speak of rebellion. But at the same time poverty is on the decline and the laws have eased up considerably, and continue to do so. Just a few years ago the Capital even opened up restricted travel to the Capital for the higher ups from District 1 and 2, and are looking to do the same with 3, 4 and 5 soon. Who knows, they might even start giving us some human rights, now that would be something.
The TV blares to life, and I sit back up in my chair, letting out a yawn. Here's what I've been waiting all day for, the quarter quell announcement, where we get to see what kind of fucked up, sadistic ideas the Capital have come up with this year. On the TV a trio of animated "Hunger Games experts" discuss the past quells and possibilities of this year, which I zone out, waiting for the president to come on out and get it over with. After what feels like an eternity of talking the games to death, they finally switch over to the presidential mansion, where President Young, now in her final year of her final term, is preparing a speech.
"Welcome one and all, to the announcement of the fourth Quarter Quell!" A roar comes up from the audience, and she pauses for a moment before continuing. "100 years ago the great nation of Panem established the Hunger Games as an annual reminder of the district's crimes against the Capital. At the time of the creation, it was stated by the founders that every 25 years a special games will be held to commemorate 25 years of peace as a nation!" Another cheer comes from the crowd, and Young lets out a laugh, holding up her hand. She proceeds to go through all the other quells twists, before signalling a young girl with a box stacked with cards to come forward. Young smiles at the girl, and takes out the card marked 100 and carefully rips it open, slowly unfolding the card.
The crowd goes dead silent, all of them in suspense as to what the twist will be. "And for the fourth quarter quell, to remind the districts that when they die, their children die with them, each district will have one tribute reaped of normal age, then paired with a 5-11 year old. If the tribute dies, so does the child, and if the child dies, the tribute will as well. We wish you all a happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"
As the audience explodes in cheering and applause, I do nothing but lean back into my chair, and let out a sigh. A pounding sound comes from the door and I reach over to the table, grabbing a drink. This is going to be a long-ass year.
A/N: Hey everybody, David here with what will now be my 3rd SYOT, and hopefully will be my 2nd successful one. My last one got cut off because of some IRL things I had to deal with that are now over, so I'm going to do my best to finish this one all the way through, however long it takes. So on this SYOT, I'm going to be accepting 12 standard tributes, then 12 more of the younger tributes. There will be no gender restrictions for the tributes, so there can be 2 boys or girls per district, or it can be 1 and 1 like usual. All of the POV's will be from the standard tributes b/c I have no idea how to write 5 year old's inner thoughts, though the younger tributes will still get plenty of time because they will be tied in with an older tribute, you just won't be able to read their thoughts. Tribute forms is on my profile, I'll be accepting tributes for about 2 weeks, though depending on how many good tributes I get, it may be shorter or longer. You can submit 3 tributes, though odds are I'm only going to accept 2, and would prefer to get at least 1 tribute and 1 kid from you if you do submit 3. Looking forward to seeing your tributes and getting this started!
PS: PLEASE READ THE RULES/BACKGROUND INFO BEFORE YOU SUBMIT
PSS: Also, just so everybody knows, the prologues are short because I broke the original prologue I had into 3 parts so I could focus on accepting characters instead of writing chapters during the submission period, so normal chapters will be longer, probably around 4~6k words.
PSSS: Reviews are food.
