Taurus Blackman, aged 41
Head Gamemaker

There was something unnerving about seeing such a powerful man look so exhausted.

Sterling Aurum Snow was the most important man in Panem. The President. He was loved, admired, and feared. Those simple-minded Capitolites and the citizens of the districts...they all looked up to him and they saw him as nothing less than a god, worshiped him so.

Taurus had known Sterling for twenty-five years and he knew better.

Behind the cameras, Sterling was just a regular person. He could crack under enough pressure. When his imperfections were no longer hidden by makeup, Taurus could see the wrinkles and creases on his skin. His brilliant blond hair was growing grey at the roots. His suit was slightly disheveled, his tie slanted, and he was anxiously checking his watch when Taurus arrived at his office.

"You're late, Blackman."
"Patience is a virtue, Snow. Besides, I was busy feeding my pets."

Sterling had no reply. That was a bit worrying. If the President was much too stressed to scold Taurus for keeping live animals in the Gamemaker offices, which were used as references for arena mutts, then he had to be stressed out by something else.
"Taurus, sit down."

Taurus dropped into the swiveling chair in front of the President's desk. He shifted from side to side as Sterling sorted through some papers and handed one to Taurus. It was all wrinkled with one corner folded another and another one ripped off completely. It carried three simple words that at first glance, seemed like complete nonsense.

Spring is here.

Taurus frowned. "It's a threat. A threat to kill Snow, the President. You."
"Of course it is."
"Do you know who sent it?"

"It appeared in my mail last night." Sterling glanced at his watch. "I have my suspects...of course I can't just go around arresting my staff without any sort of solid proof."
"I don't see why not." Taurus shrugged. "You're the President. You could make the arrests and turn it into an example. Execute the guilty ones and use the rest to show Panem what happens if they dare to defy the Capitol."

Sterling chuckled. It sounded forced. "Taurus, son, dear brother of mine...has ruling a country ever stopped someone from being stupid?"
"Absolutely not...well, not in your case. You're a fairly intelligent leader-"

"These rebels have been a problem for almost two years now. We grow stronger, training military and Peacekeepers to defend our lands, but so do they. They know our tricks by now. It's become so easy for them to deliver messages and trade secrets under our noses. They're not afraid to take risks. Torture out all you want to know...there's always something they never did tell you. Besides, it's the dumb ones who get themselves caught. The intelligent ones, the leaders...oh, they are very hard to catch."

"James Lorein."

The name was out of Taurus's mouth before he even thought about it. Sterling simply nodded. Nothing had been proven that the lowly District 6 citizen who managed to escape one night was indeed the mastermind behind the rebel uprisings occurring across Panem, but it was very likely. Taurus had been there to witness the interrogation of James's husband, his friends, his family, the people he left behind in his hasty attempt to run for the hills. And if he could slip through their fingers one time, he could certainly do it again, with a little help from his friends.

"Panem is changing, Taurus. Panem changes all the time. Pretend all you want, but things change."
"I am aware, sir."
"The question is, how will we change? We can't prevent change, we can cause it, but we can't stop it. We can never have too much of one side or the other. We'll never have change that's all beneficial, or harmful. But we can have too much...and that's harmful. We must find a way to balance our change with everybody else's, to run that narrow middle path. We can't have too much hell. Or too much heaven."

"I'm changing Panem. You're changing Panem. The rebels are changing Panem."
Sterling folded his hands on the desk. "Exactly."
"But you want our change to overpower that of the rebels. So we move Panem in the direction we want it to go."
Sterling nodded. "Precisely."

"How will we do that?"

"I'm thinking about sending in a spy."
"A spy."
"A spy. A puppet. We might be able to worm them in enough. Earn enough trust of those rebel leaders, and we might uncover something good. Or course, we have to be very careful. And we need to find the right person who knows how to make make their way to the top of the ladder without getting caught."

"It's a risky business. I hope you find someone stupid enough to do this for you."
Sterling chuckled. "Good thing we're friends, Taurus, or I'd have your head for a comment like that."
Taurus smoothed back his silky black hair. "You wish you could."

"Don't you have better things to do than to make a fool out of yourself in front of the President?"
"Right." Taurus stood up. "I need to go through some resumes. One of my Gamemakers is on maternity leave."
"Be careful, alright? We don't need another rebel right under our noses."

"I'll take care of it, sir. No need to worry about me."

Aw yeah, here we go! Another SYOT!

This is my third full SYOT and is the sequel to OLS and RF; though reading those stories is not completely necessary, it will help and give you a better understanding of some of the featured characters.

I will be using a Google Form to control to control the flow of submissions and to keep them all in one place. I will not be accepting submissions through PM or reviews. If you want to submit, the form link is up on my profile.

Maximum three submissions per person. They can be for whichever slot you like; I also accept non-cis tributes. That being said, at least one submission MUST be a Bloodbath submission. Keep in mind that I do not kill off a tribute in the Bloodbath because they were submitted as one, but I'd like to have options.

I will accept a tribute from another SYOT, only if the story has been abandoned (not updated in at least four months) deleted, or discontinued. If you want some more info on my resubmitted tribute guidelines, feel free to PM me.

This is the 9th Hunger Games; almost all tributes should be REAPED. Career Academies do not exist in 1 or 4 and have only been around in 2 for less then two years. I will not accept Careers from 1 or 4 and if you do submit a Career from 2, keep in mind that would've only had about two years of training, so they're not the powerhouses from the 74th. If your tribute isn't a slightly trained Career from 2 and volunteering, then they better have a damned good reason.

I would highly suggest not making your tribute related to a canon character. If you do want to go down this path, PM me and we'll work something out.

I may open up escort submissions too! This depends on how much attention TMH gets.

I don't have a set due date yet. I am willing to extend it to give people a longer period of time if they feel to need it.

I'm super excited to start this! It's always a bit nerve-wracking to start an SYOT, but I think we're going to see a lot of great submissions. i can't wait!

Hope you guys enjoyed the prologue! I'll see you all in the next chapter!

-Vr