War.
Terrible war.
Widows, orphans, a motherless child.
This was the uprising that rocked our land.
Ithaca Myers was buzzing around the room. They hadn't had much time to prepare for this.
"Embrace the chaos," President Augustus had said. "Show them what happens to Districts that openly kill their caretakers, their people."
The woman had her initiative. In all of the chaos caused by the end of the Dark Days, it would be easy to whoop the Districts back into shape. They had found a campus for their first ever Arena, as it had been called, and prepared to choose the 24 teenagers who would have to fight to the death in it.
Ithaca, who was once a government official, had been put into the position deemed by the President as, "Head Gamemaker." She was good under pressure and was barely startled by any roadblock that could have been thrown at her.
"Octavian!" she caught the man, barely a man at just 19, by the shoulder. He had lost both of his parents and had been employed into the Games in the aftermath of the war.
"Oh, good morning Ithaca!" he gave her a polite nod. His responsibility was simple. He was a pretty face, his light brown hair messy and shaggy, green eyes bright. He would be the one explaining everything to the still stunned Districts and Capitol. The sweet lull of his voice would soften the blow and strongly encourage obedience. Octavian Spencer was the man for the job, considering he was he most obedient person in the entire Capitol. Afraid of the President's power and naturally dense, he was just the person to wrangle the nation back into times of peace. Or, selective peace, as the President said.
"How are things going along?"
"Well!" he said, his face smiling but his eyes swimming with fear.
Ithaca brushed her straight, shoulder-length, dark green hair behind her ear. "That's good."
"Yes! It is!"
"Keep it up," she said, continuing to walk.
Thirteen districts rebelled against the country that fed them, loved them, protected them.
Brother turned on brother until nothing remained.
She walked until she was completely out of the complex, once used as an office space, now used to devise and create an Arena, to find her twin brother, Vit.
He had the same natural copper hair as her, but chose to color his navy. He had just recently started doing his eyebrows to match, and Ithaca had to admit it suit him well.
He was located at the Benevolent Prison, where the prisoners of war were kept. It didn't feel like a prison, it felt like an apartment with a bunch of nice rooms. This was, after all, the benevolent prison, where the children were being held until further notice. Vit was sitting in front of a screen with the different rooms under surveillance.
And then came the peace, hard fought, sorely won.
A people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born.
"Vit!"
The 21-year-old man turned around to see his twin.
"Hey Sis," he said, smiling. Where Ithaca was more refined and composed, Vit had always been more smiley and fun. However, after fighting in the war, he had changed into a hollow shell of himself. He had been posted to guard the prison cells. "War is my prison," he had told her one time.
"Hey," she greeted him. Though her emotions were hidden under layers of nonchalance, she was still concerned about her brother. Why else would she visit him at work so often?
"How're things going? For this 'Hunger Games' thing?"
"They're… They're going. But how are you doing?"
"Same as always."
A commotion broke out just then, as a little 11-year-old girl started to scream and pound on the door of her cell. Vit sighed and rubbed his temples. "This one hasn't stopped," he said, sighing. "She always asks for the guards to go in and play with her before bombarding us with questions about when she gets to leave."
"Why don't you let me go and talk to her?" Ithaca asked. He blinked back at her, debating it, so she continued. "Sometimes little girls just need the influence of an older and wiser lady."
"Alright…" He looked unsure as he handed her his keys, but she went to the door labelled A-702 and entered before he could change his mind, locking the door behind her.
"Hello?" The woman looked around the room, cursing herself for not asking Vit the girl's name before going in. She noticed the girl just then, hiding behind a chest. All she could see was a black ponytail tied up by an orange ribbon, and two wide brown eyes watching her.
"I know I'm not Vit, but I thought I would come see you." Ithaca focused on sounding as gentle and unthreatening as possible. "I'd love to play with you, though. What do you like to do?"
The little girl crawled out from behind the toy chest. She was wearing a black satin dress and was really quite healthy. The children were taken care of. Since most of them are from the upper Districts, they would probably be re-educated slightly and then released to live happily in the Capitol. The dissidents were suffering fates much worse. They were being starved, living in cramped, concrete cells without bathrooms, waiting, begging for death. But the children were living comfortably.
"I like to craft." She sets out some construction paper on the table. "Vit taught me how to make a crane with this."
Ithaca smiled at recounting her twin's only party trick, origami. Or course he would bond with her in this way.
"I'm sorry but I'm no good at origami," she said, walking on eggshells.
The little girl started to draw on a piece of paper, tongue stuck out in concentration. She offered the 21-year-old a pencil to do the same. The two of them sat in silence for a while.
The girl's voice was quiet and hurt when she spoke again. "Priscilla loved to draw," she said, looking up at the Capitolite. Her brow was furrowed in concentration with her work. "She was good at it too."
Ithaca watched the girl quietly. "Priscilla?"
"My best friend," the girl said miserably. "She's still in 2. At home. So's Talon, so's Brandt, so's Nate and Lijah."
"Oh. Yes." Ithaca wished she hadn't asked.
"They're my family," she said defiantly. "I don't want to be here. I want to be home. Tell me when I get to go home!"
"I know that District 2 is where you're from, but you have a new home now," the Capitolite tried, very gently. "You'll like it so much better here."
"I doubt it," the girl said miserably. "I thought you might be different from them, but you're just as bad."
"They're going to keep you here until you have a change of heart," the Capitolite told her, but Ithaca's heart ached for the girl. Ripped away from home. She had probably done nothing wrong.
"They're going to keep me here until they want to. They're going to keep me here until they find a foster home that'll adopt a District child. They say the word like it's scum."
That's because it is, Ithaca thought to herself, but didn't say anything. She just drew quietly, mostly watching the girl, who drew a picture of a field of flowers.
"Being an orphan is nothing new to me, you know," the girl said irritably. "I've been one my entire life."
"Here, though, it'll be different. You'll find a new home in no time," Ithaca tried, even though she knew that it would be a challenge to find anyone that would take on a child so fiery and openly defiant.
"That's what they all said," the girl said. "So far, you've all been proven liars."
"You would be more desirable if you had a change of heart, my dear girl. Your name is…?" Ithaca tried to change the subject, but the girl was not having it.
"Ashley. And my heart's not changing anytime soon."
"Then you'll continue to struggle to find a home."
"I have a home. I have a home with my friends. Not here."
Ithaca sighed, watching as Ashley drew figures on her piece of construction paper and started to color them. For an 11-year-old, they weren't bad.
Ashley noticed the Capitolite watching her, eyebrows creasing in a glare. "I've had lots of time to practice," she said coldly.
But freedom has a cost.
When the traitors were defeated, we swore as a nation we would never know this treason again.
"I'm sure it will all work out for you," Ithaca said, watching her.
She was not much, Ithaca observed, but could really be pretty if she would just let loose a little bit. Some extensions to make her ponytail fuller. She could see the girl with black hair, truly black, and maybe streaks of orange like her ribbon. Ithaca imagined this as Ashley drew figures of the friends she had listed earlier.
The Head Gamemaker knew that she should have been back at the complex overseeing things. Leaving the ditzy Octavian alone for so long could cause chaos. But she never backed away from a challenge, and that was exactly what Ashley was proving to be.
"How would you like to come live with me?" Ithaca asked the little girl. Her voice was serious enough that it caused Ashley to look up.
There was silence between the two of them, Ashley's cold brown eyes searching her face to see if she was genuine or not. The 21-year-old woman knew that adopting an 11-year-old girl while she was in the middle of this new, time-consuming project was not the best idea, so she backpedaled.
"Why don't you think about it a bit? I'll be back in a couple weeks and you can decide then."
The girl seemed to light up at the realization that, in this matter, she had a say. She nodded quickly. Ithaca smiled at the girl and stood up.
"I have to go now, as I still have a lot of work to do, but I'll try to pop in if I can."
"Oh, alright."
Ithaca stood up, smiling at the girl before turning around and exiting the room. She could feel the child's eyes on her the entire way. She closed the door and locked it, and walked back out to Vit.
"So, I'm going to have a new niece?" he asked, a blue eyebrow raised high.
"Possibly," Ithaca said, the realization of what she'd just promised hitting her full-force. Her face went scarlet with embarrassment that her brother had seen and heard everything.
"Well, she's much more docile now, so what you did really worked. Maybe Uncle Vit'll go in there and teach her how to make paper hats this evening."
"I have to get back to work," Ithaca said, "I'll see you later."
"Bye sis!" Vit said, his eyes still full of amusement. He called after his sister as she was walking away, "Or should I say, Mommy!"
Ithaca walked back to the complex, quickly. Octavian was there to greet her, looking relieved to see her back, as the others were asking him a lot of complicated questions.
"Octavian," she said, when she arrived back. "Come with me. I want to show you something."
"Oh, uh, alright!" He went with her, looking slightly nervous when the pair boarded a hovercraft.
"Take us to the Arena," the woman instructed the pilot. The hovercraft took off, and Octavian stood far away from the windows.
"Afraid of heights?" Ithaca asked, looking at the treetops as they flew past.
"No!" he squeaked.
"So you're afraid of heights." The woman was amused more than anything.
"If your parents sent spiraling to their deaths in a hovercraft, you'd be scared of them too," the boy said quietly. "The Dark Days surely live up to their name."
Ithaca felt bad for laughing. "Nothing like that will ever happen again," she said, walking to him and putting a hand on the shoulder. "We're ensuring that."
And so it was decreed that, each year, the various districts of Panem would offer up, in tribute, one young man and woman to fight to the death in a pageant of honor, courage and sacrifice.
The lone victor, bathed in riches, would serve as a reminder of our generosity and our forgiveness.
Octavian nodded, quivering slightly. "Right."
Luckily for Ithaca, who was already tired of dealing with unhappy people, the hovercraft landed safely before Octavian could burst into tears. She exited the craft with the interviewer, who stayed close to her side.
"It's old and pretty dilapidated, but it's just as good as any place," she said, taking him around. "The Capitol is putting its genetic technology to use now more than ever. Nothing to chase the tributes, just safeguards. Though the technology for a force field is still in the works, we'll have wolf-like mutts all around the perimeter, making sure our-" the word was still foreign on her tongue- "tributes will stay within the bounds."
"Oh, that's smart," Octavian said, in awe of all of the effort that had been put into this.
Ithaca lead him around the house in which the first ever Hunger Games were to take place, showing him each room, each little gimmick they were able to plan. Octavian looked around, still amazed.
The final stop for their tour is the balcony, overlooking the dark forest. Ithaca had found this to be her favorite spot in the entire Arena, and had spent a long time there.
Octavian was quivering as he looked out, the breeze of summer rustling the leaves comfortably. He hadn't realized the true meaning of the Games, the fact that people right around his age, people younger than him, were going to be dead in a month or two. Even more death. So much death, Octavian was drowning in it. Suffocating.
Ithaca groaned a bit as Octavian started to cry. "Do the ends really justify the means?" he asked, his eyes glassy as he miserably looked at Ithaca.
"Of course they do. These are the people that killed your parents, and so many others."
This is how we remember our past.
The announcer let out another sob, burying his face in his hands. "Why are we answering death with more death?"
"I told you, Octavian. We're doing this so that we never repeat the Dark Days. We're reminding the Districts of this pain, that you're feeling right now. They'll never act up again, there will be no more war."
Octavian sniffled and looked up at her, his friend, who reached out and dried his cheeks.
"I hope you're right," he said quietly.
This is how we safeguard our future.
~.~.
A/N: Hi there! Welcome to the Voices rewrite! So, obviously, a lot of things are going to be different this time around, because I'm totally gutting and rewriting a story that I wrote three years ago. If you're reading this anyways, I'm really glad! I hope it'll show you how much I've grown as a writer!
The first draft of the story starts in the Games, so I'm going to wait until I start in the Arena (which will be next chapter because I refuse to write more reapings and shit), and then each chapter I post, I'm going to post the original on my fanfiction Tumblr (link on my profile) so you can read them both side-by-side and see the difference.
Okay, if you don't care about sponsoring/points, you can skip down to the last couple lines.
Here's the whole points thing:
Since this is a rewrite, the Victor has already been determined. However, I'm leaving it up you to sponsor tributes that you want to live longer/see more of. Even though the Victor won't change, I don't care about the other placements, so it could be completely different. So here's how points are going to work now.
If you haven't read the first draft of this story yet, WELCOME! :D Here are the points for you:
Favorite is 2 points.
Follow is 4 points.
Review is 5 points.
Answering the Chapter Question is an additional 10 points.
If you DID read/review the first draft:
OKAY this is going to be kind of confusing so bear with me: chapters like this, which weren't in the first draft, will have totally new CQs that anyone can answer for the full 10 points. The ones that are rewritten will recycle CQs that you already answered, and though I'd love it if you answered again (to see how your opinions change), you won't get points for it because you already DID get points for it that time around. There, that wasn't so bad. Hope you followed me there. If you sent gifts in the first Voices, PM me and I'll refund you. Although it'll be a pain in the ass so you'll have to be patient and give me time as I search through my docs to figure out what you bought and how much it cost XD
I think that's all I have for now! I'm really excited for this and appreciate every review!
Chapter Question: Of the characters in this chapter (Ithaca, Octavian, Vit, Ashley), which stood out to you and why? Are there any you want to see more of?