"Hi, I'd like to see Gregory Ross please."
"Name?"
"Evaline Ross."
"Visitor or relative?"
"Relative."
"Here's the keys. He's in Room 105."
The young woman took the dangling keys and headed off. Her heels clicked against the barren hospital's floor, her posture and presence emitting an aura of insecure power. The whole room shifted so that it seemingly straightened itself out as she walked past it. An anxious smile crawled onto her face, as she fiddled with the essence of what she was about to do.
Down the hall and to the left.
Taking a split-second to arrange herself in the mirror - pushing up her glasses, glazing over another layer of lip gloss, making sure not a single strand of her thin hair was out of place - Evaline took a heavy breath in. She slowly released the stress pushing down on her frail figure and headed inside her father's room.
It was a lavish room, painted a light blue in honor of her late mother. On the walls hung pictures of Evaline and her sibling's youthful prime. A strand of lights was strung across the ceiling, as elder furniture contained stories that only members of the Ross family tree could ever know. In the corner of his room, a vase was drowning in water, a vase whom she had given him from her visit prior. There were ivory elephant statues and original artworks and piles of books scattered across the room. There were golden trimmings and the latest technological works and everything the Capitol could ever give. They spared no expense to give her father the room he deserved. She sighed. The room felt alien, foreign, and an unearthly feeling formed in her gut. They painted the room to make it seem alive, but to her, it only seemed to hold a rotten scent of a corpse.
Her father slept in a bed fit for a king. A shroud of velvet sheets was draped over his resting body. His lips were pursed, and his broad frame was rolled on his side, facing the direction of a phantom wife. Evaline walked over and gripped her father's pale hand, caressing the veins and scars lacing it. She fluffed the pillow that he lied on, and ruffled his hair, just as he used to do to her. As she gazed down at the still vegetable her father had become, she silently prayed for him to be soon freed from the tangle of wires and machinery he found himself caught in.
No matter how magnificent the size or the quality, nothing would ever be good enough for her dear father.
At the pinnacle of his career, her father was the head game maker of the games. Every year, he would spend hours at the expense of sleep to masterfully create a visionary arena. Every year, he would lead his army of game makers and entertain millions in Panem. But most importantly, every year, he would take her inside the control room and let her watch the behind the scenes magic that unfolded. It was her favorite tradition. She would grip his hand tightly, smile up at him, and he would hoist her on his shoulders as she squealed like a little piglet. For a moment then, she would forget about all of her troubles.
For a period in her lifetime, it seemed as though everything would continue to spiral upwards indefinitely.
It happened after the eleventh Hunger Games, the sixth one her father led. She had just started an apprenticeship in her father's course of work, and everything was seemingly going well for her. With enough luck, she would soon be able to join the game makers and be right alongside her father, bringing honor to her family just as her elder siblings had.
She would never forget the eve of the Crowning Ceremony. One moment, the game makers and herself were celebrating yet another victorious Hunger Games. The next, she looks back and sees her father on the floor, eyes rolled over, paler than the moonlight which disappeared on that fateful night. She plunged into hysterics, screaming at her father to stay alive, to continue fighting just as he always taught her to.
He had been plagued with an unidentifiable disease, sworn to be bedridden for the rest of his days. She hasn't been able to speak to him since that eve of last year. On the few days she did get to visit him, he was at rest like he always was.
Evaline walked over to the collection of photographs on the dresser. In one, her older brother stood outside the opening of his company "Theodore Industries". His company grew to be one of the most successful businesses the Capitol has ever seen, and he grew to be the richest businessman the Capitol has ever seen. She shifted her attention to another photograph. It was one of her older sister walking her first runaway show. Her sister was the darling of the Capitol, and everywhere she looked there were admirers and fans of her modeling work.
Where did the leave Evaline? What had she grown to become? She was still toddling in her father's footsteps.
"Mom was right," Evaline muttered to herself, "I'm not as successful as my siblings." Her mother always appreciated her siblings more, calling them the honor of the family. Calling them her children, as if Evaline didn't even exist. She never noticed that it was her who cleaned the house. She never noticed that it was her who behaved in school. She would never think that it would be her to visit father, unlike her siblings who were too preoccupied with work to even notice his illness.
However, Evaline was still in an internship, still yet to discover who she was in her late twenties. It was a competitive world out there, and she was on the lower side of the spectrum.
"I'm not as successful as my siblings," Evaline said, gears turning in her eyes as she glanced over at her father, "But I can be."
Days prior, she had received a call for an opportunity. She could be her father's substitute until he recovered as the head game maker of the twelveth Hunger Games. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, one she had been waiting for since the start of her work at the Capitol. She waited for days to respond, wondering how her father would react. After the confirmation, she ran straight to the hospital where she was now.
It was the opportunity of a lifetime.
She flipped through the cream-colored folder citing her father's progress in the hospital. About how his vitals were stabilizing after a year. About how he opened his eyes a week ago. About how he might wake up soon.
The sound of the heart monitor pounded in her ears, louder than her own heartbeat. She held her father tightly, kissing him on the cheek how she always did when she came home from school as a child.
It was the opportunity of a lifetime...
And she wasn't going to miss out on it.
The heart rate monitor stilled.
Her father's eyes rolled back.
Her prayers had been answered.
A single tear escaped her eye as she left the room, clicking heels emitting sirens against the barren hospital's floor.
That turned out darker than expected, whoa. I'm actually kind of happy that it turned out the way it did, minus the suck-ish ending. Anyways, for those who don't know me, hi. My name is unicorntopiapoop, and I really, really like SYOT stories. I've recently been getting back into them and the Hunger Games series. So, I've decided to make my own SYOT.
Just a little heads up, you will be learning more about the map and what makes this SYOT story unique in the future. I'll just be letting you know now that my OC, Evaline, will be heavily involved with your tributes. That's just how the story is going to flow. Some tributes will appear to be more prominent than others because that's just how I write. If you submit a character, I will usually write them how I see them as, rather than how you see them as. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to like seeing surprises with the characters I submit, so be prepared to be surprised as to how your character will pan out in this story. However, if there is something you really want or don't want to happen with your character, be sure to write it in the additional notes category of the form.
Speaking of which, without further ado, let's head into the SYOT form. Make sure to be as detailed as possible, and I really want realistic but unique characters. That means no Gary-Stus or Mary-Sues, and no Peetas or Katinesses. If you send one to me, I have every right to deny a character or alter one (however you are allowed to critique my portrayal or complain about it, and I do listen to critiques as I am but a novice writer).
SYOT Form
(This was inspired by SilverflowerXRavenpaw's form in her story "Trapped: The 18th Hunger Games-SYOT-Closed". Make sure to check it out!)
Name:
Age:
District:
Gender:
Backstory:
Family:
Friends:
Pets?:
Personality:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Appearance (must include race, height, frame, hair/eye color/descriptions, and anything else you want to add):
Token:
Reaping Outfit:
Interview Outfit:
Reaping Reaction (I will alter the reaping scene however I see fit, but I just need to see how your character will react to their reaping):
Training Plan (must include what they show to the game-makers, and what they do during stations):
Interview Plan:
Games Plan:
Allies (Yes or no):
Enemies (Yes or no):
Romantic Relationship (Yes or no):
Additional information:
And there you go! The sooner I get submissions, the better. I would like to get either District One down right away so that I can start writing as quickly as possible. That's all for now. Signing off!