Chance and Change: District Five Introductions
Logan Musk, 17
15 January, 150 AFR
Tesla, District Five
When Logan woke up on the morning of January 15th, 150, at 7:16 AM, it was a normal day. And when they went to sleep seventeen hours and thirty-one minutes later, it was… well, decidedly not.
Logan woke to the sound of their alarm going off, slammed their hand onto the snooze button, and rolled over. That goddamn alarm never worked. Even when it was set to their favorite song - Drag You Down by their favorite pre-Panemian boy band, One Direction. If anything, setting their alarm to a specific song was a fantastic way to make Logan dislike said song. And yet, they kept setting their alarm to great songs. What a waste.
Nine too-short minutes later, the song yet again played into the quiet of the bedroom. As Harry Styles sang about his fire heart and lack of fear for the dark, Logan groaned. They really just wanted to sleep.
Their little sister, Quinn, burst conveniently into the room. Her hair was already done, makeup half-complete, and she wore a scowl. Logan pulled a pillow over their face.
"What do you want, Quinn?" asked Logan, voice muffled by the pillow and Liam Payne's voice.
Quinn strode over to Logan's pod and flicked the alarm away. "Logan, get up! School's starting in a literal half hour, you're supposed to be my supervision on the train, and I'm not getting another tardy because you couldn't haul your lazy ass out of bed." She pulled the pillow off of Logan's face and shot them a dirty look as she left the room.
To put it simply, it was a perfectly routine morning. Logan and Quinn left the house five minutes late, as usual, and ran to the train station wishing they were in shape, as usual. They barely caught the train.
The school morning was also completely routine. Quinn left for her class as soon as the siblings made it to the building, but Logan met up with Bellamy on their way to their locker. Logan rushed to Latin, shooting some fierce side-eye at the freshmen who looked at them funny, and slid into their seat a literal ten seconds before the bell rang.
The class was listening to their teacher lecture about something that must not have been important (because Logan couldn't remember what it was) when the wall screen flicked on. Special Announcement, it read. The teacher sighed and set his lecture notes down.
Onscreen, the face of President Benjamin Albatroz loomed over the teens. The classroom erupted into chatter. The kids knew that Presidential Addresses only happened during school hours for Quell announcements… and, well, Quell announcements. And it was a Quell year.
"Good day, Panem. I hope you all are having a fantastic morning thus far," the President said, flashing a white-toothed fake smile. "You know why I'm here, I'm sure. If you do not, I urge you to catch up on the Presidential Address policies. They are rather important. In the meantime, allow me to remind those who are unaware that Quell announcements are the only times you will ever see a Presidential Address during the hours of nine AM to five PM."
The chatter quieted. The children waited, taking in only shallow breaths, afraid to make a noise. None of them were sure why, even Logan, who was normally so sure of each of their movements. They'd realize later that it was the fear.
"Today I am here to explain to you that this policy has… well, it has changed. I am here not to announce a Quell twist, but a… permanent alteration to the Hunger Games as we know them." He paused. "Now, stay with me here, dear citizens of Panem. You all have heard of Sacarver's Rebels, I hope. If you haven't, well, you really need to catch up. For those of you who may have forgotten, I will outline their movement now."
"Five years ago, in the year 145 AFR, the Capitol rolled music, literature, games, video, and all other forms of pop culture that you know today into Panemian society. This was known as the New Renaissance. Please visit the webpage at the bottom of your screen right now if you require more information on this Renaissance."
"In 147 AFR, a small group of anti-Games rebels surfaced in Panem. They called themselves "Sacarver's Rebels" after their founder, Jenna Sacarver. Ms. Sacarver is an anti-Games protestor, who advocates for, and I quote, 'freedom of the web, freedom of knowledge, freedom of the children'. In a nutshell, this meant that Ms. Sacarver and her rebels were strongly anti-Games and pro-New Renaissance. They had gotten what they wanted regarding the New Renaissance. Now all they wanted to change was the Games."
"This rebel group grew quickly. Look around you, and provided you are not alone in a room, there is a strong chance that there is a member of Sacarver's Rebels in your vicinity. They began to hold marches, protests. At first, I must admit I saw the Rebels as… well, as rebels. They stood against the very values of Panem. But now, I agree with much of what they believe. I, too, disagree with the Hunger Games. I would stop them if I could. Unfortunately, it is written into Panemian constitution that they must continue as long as Panem lives. Fortunately, there are no specifications as to what they must look like beyond tradition."
The room filled with chatter again, and someone shushed. Shushing was unnecessary, Logan thought. That fucking wall screen was twice as loud as the alarm they woke up to.
"So I called up Ms. Sacarver, and together, we drafted a new Games format. It is reminiscent of a Pre-Dark Days television show called The Amazing Race, and beyond that, the only information I am permitted to give out by the new Head Gamemaker Jenna Sacarver is that there will be deaths, just not child-on-child fighting. More information will be forthcoming as the Race grows nearer."
"Thank you all for taking the time out of your inevitably busy days to listen to this message. Have a wonderful day, Panem."
The room exploded into noise the second the screen turned dark. Logan sat in their desk, wishing desperately that their friends or sister were in this class. It was literal torture to sit in silence while everyone else discussed what this might mean for them.
The bell rang shortly after the wall screen turned off, dismissing the students before the Latin teacher could even get in a homework assignment. As Logan left the room, their thoughts raced. The only thing they could do to stop thinking was spend time with their friends.
Rune Cresson, 18
15 January, 150 AFR
Tesla, District Five
God, Rune thought as she walked to her lunch table, that was… well, unexpected. It was exactly the opposite of the kind of Quell twist she was thinking would happen.
She slid into her seat next to Isaac and reached up to peck him on the cheek. Her other friends, Elon and Soichiro, weren't at the table yet, which was a little weird. Normally the two would balk at the sight of PDA. Today, though, the cafeteria in general was both eerily quiet and eerily empty.
"What's wrong?" Isaac asked her. It was almost strange, how much Isaac could tell about Rune's mood from a single kiss. She supposed that came with engagement.
Rune sighed. "Oh, you know, the regular. Homework. School. Family. Wedding plans. A new TV show to binge watch in case I get Reaped."
Isaac shot her a look over his fries. "I keep forgetting you'll still be eighteen come July," he said.
"Oh, yeah. I'm still a little kiddo. Anyway, babe, I need to watch at least three seasons of this ancient TV show they're basing the Games off of. The Fantastic Race, they said? Something like that." Rune shoved a fry from Isaac's plate into her mouth.
"The Amazing Race," Isaac told her. "Mind if I watch it with you?"
Rune gave him a look. "I mean, you do live in my apartment, so it'd be hard for you to not."
The two fell into silence as they ate, pondering their fates. Or, rather, Rune pondered her fate, and Isaac pondered the fate of his senior project, seeing as he'd be aged out of the Reaping by the time the Games came around. Rune also pondered how lucky he was to be too old for this new Game.
It seemed to her that change was always the hardest part of, well, literally anything. People were used to the the original Games. They'd become desensitized, happier, especially since the New Renaissance. Now, they could move Districts, play music, watch movies and TV shows. They could read books that told of an age before the mindless slaughter of children. And really, they were used to the death, or at least the way in which it happened.
That change… well, to Rune, that was the big deal. She couldn't see it being that much of a problem if the President had only decided to keep this new "Amazing Game"—she started referring to it in her head that way, to differentiate between the two Games'—as a Quell twist. That way, the people would know that their lives would go back to their normal after the Amazing Game, and though their normal was a fear-filled normal, they were accustomed to it. It was what they knew. Rune thought the change, the change that came with a "permanent alteration to the Hunger Games as we know them", was going to be the real problem.
Change was the real problem when they added Thirteen to the Games after the First Rebellion, change was the real problem when they mixed the genders in the Reaping Bowls after the Fourth Quell, and change was the real problem when they added the Capitol for the Fifth Quell. And then, change was the real problem when they decided to keep the Capitol in the Games. That was a real mess. And Rune couldn't see any reason that that fear of change would change. Change-ception, that was.
The first bell rang, and Rune snapped out of her thoughts to throw away her tray. Once more, she kissed Isaac on the cheek, but this time she was confident, aggressive, almost. She knew what she needed to do. In the next months, Rune needed to study this ancient TV show, to make sure she knew the rules inside and out. She needed to make sure she was prepared, ready for whatever was thrown at her if she was Reaped. She needed to know how to take advantage of the fear of change the citizens of Panem had.
Because if she was Reaped, she knew she would need to come home.
That thought kept Rune going, alert, on edge, throughout the day. She did research on PanemPedia about The Amazing Race—since the President's message, many of the people of the country had started to watch the show, and those who had liked and watched it before the message from the President had started an information database with them.
It was cool to see how much could get accomplished in just a few hours. It looked as if people on the forum database centered around the show were assigning volunteers episodes to watch, summarize, analyze, record information on. Someone estimated that at the rate the forums were at, they would have all information on the Race that came from the episodes themselves cataloged and written down within a mere few days. Then, said user RaceJunkie, they could get to work on predicting what kinds of challenges would be in the Panemian Race.
Rune headed home after school with Isaac in tow. She unlocked the door and immediately made a beeline for her pod, sitting on her bed and selecting the newly most-watched show: The Amazing Race. Curling up under her blankets and pressing play, she smiled. She was going to own this, she thought, as Phil Keoghan appeared on her pod screen, speaking the words Rune didn't know would change her life later on.
"I'm standing high above the center of New York City. For generations, New York has been the crossroads of the world, a world that will that will soon play host to 22 people who have decided to take a break from their everyday lives and embark on a race around the world for one million dollars. Contestants will be racing without the benefit of personal computers or cellphones. They've been stripped of all money, credit cards and maps. Their greatest resource will be each other as they circle the globe in teams of two."
"Can these couples withstand the stress of traveling together across almost 35,000 miles? Who will muster the right combination of brains, brawn and teamwork to win the one million dollars? These are the questions weighing most heavily as we get ready to begin… The Amazing Race."
A/N: Hello beautiful people, and welcome to Running! If you haven't figured it out yet, or if you skipped over the chapter, this is basically The Amazing Race, but set in Panem. I am super excited for this project and I can't wait to see what you all have to offer character-wise!
Please visit my profile to find the link to the Google Forms, where you can submit characters. I will not be accepting PM or review submissions. Also on my profile is a list of submissions, what I need more of, and guidelines for submitting. Please read these guidelines, or your character will not work for my story and will likely be denied.
I don't expect too much competition from this, but I'm also not taking reservations. So make sure that your kiddos are good. Take time on them, make them detailed! I should be able to get a feel for them from the form.
Please ask me any questions you have, over PM or Discord if you're on my server! (And if you're not and you want to be, let me know and I'll shoot you the invite link!) I'm really excited to get this going, y'all! Thanks for reading!
