SnowLucario is back in action.

As you can see, Lorax has a new cover. I drew it over the weekend. It looks pretty simplistic, but I like it. This is going to be a pretty awesome arena theme, I can tell. It has reached 100 views and six reviews, which is a good start. I think that will increase faster than last time, because I now have a finished SYOT under my belt.

I uploaded two more deviations today (September 19). One is a selfie, one is a journal entry about this story, basically saying that I need more tributes.

Interesting fact: My good friend WhyNotWriteFanfiction, who praised highly the way I wrote Elegance in the last one, has also taken up the District 1 female spot again. Glory is her creation.

Anyway, please remember to review. I want to know if I wrote your characters well!

District 1

"I'm checking out today".

The woman at the front desk of the community home in District 1 looked up at Glory. She had obviously been aware of the girl's plans, due to the fact that she had talked of little else for the last several weeks.

"Okay, Ms. Asphodel. I wish you good luck in the Hunger Games" the matron said. She looked sternly at the girl over her glasses, but Glory could tell that she was proud of her. After all, the reaping was a cause for celebration in the wealthiest district of Panem.

"Thank you, Mrs. Alger" Glory replied. She would need all of the good luck she could get in the Hunger Games, but she didn't think it could be too bad. After all, a District 1 girl, Janet Jingles, had won the Games just two years earlier.

Of course, Janet had later committed suicide because of the guilt involved...Glory pushed that thought out of her head. She knew that she was far from suicidal. If she had to die early, it would be because she went out fighting in the Hunger Games, not because of her own hand. Yes, of that she was determined.

As for last year's District 1 female, Elegance Elysia...she'd gotten a six in training, the result of fainting in front of the Gamemakers, the result of pricking her finger with a mace. As a result, she had been kicked out of the Career pack and left to fend for herself. On the fourth day, she'd ended up in a room of the Labyrinth with snakes, much resembling an Indiana Jones movie. She'd gotten bit by a snake and died facing her worst fear. That was one horrible way to go out.

This year, though, would be different. This year, she would bring glory to District 1. She would reverse the tide that had started with Elegance.

"Oh, and one more thing" Mrs. Alger said. "I think that, before you leave, you should say good-bye to Blush. After all, she's your best friend here, and...you know". Clearly, the matron did not want to state it outright, but Glory knew what she was going to say. Of course, there was a chance that she might not return home. And Glory knew the risks that she would be facing on the adventure that lay ahead of her. And she was determined to take them, all the same.

And so, she said good-bye to Blush. They had never been very close, but Blush Rosent had been the only friend Glory had ever had, ever since she had moved into the community home. Blush was sitting on her bed, drawing something that looked suspiciously like an evil version of their matron. But Mrs. Alger wasn't that bad.

As for the reason they weren't very close, that was simple. Glory had not led the easiest of lives prior to meeting Blush. Her parents had both abused her for as long as she could remember. Life had pretty much sucked.

The tipping point came when Glory was ten years old. In a fit of rage, her parents, Glamma and Extravagance, had killed her younger brother, Bliss. Glory had always loved Bliss due to his ability to see the positive in everything. That was, of course, also something that Glory had tried to do as well.

Glory had run away and called the Peacekeepers. And, then, the Peacekeepers had come in and arrested her parents. They were currently serving twenty years to life in the District 1 Correctional Facility, and Glory hadn't heard from them since.

As for Glory, the Peacekeepers had removed her from her house and placed her in the community home here. Ever since then, she'd been far happier. In poorer districts, the orphanage was awful, with hardly any resources to take care of the children. But since District 1 was the wealthiest in Panem, it was far better. There was a very nice view of the Pacific Ocean from the windows of Glory's dormitory. And the food was quite good, far better than she would have expected.

And that was why Glory only had one friend here. As much as she liked Blush, there was one thing that Glory adored more than anything else. And that was the Capitol. She felt indebted to them for removing her from that toxic situation back at home.

As Glory walked out of the orphanage for the last time, she knew that it was time to serve the Capitol a little more.

"I am going to do this" Garnet said.

As he threw the spear, the same thing he had been doing for the last ten years, training for the Hunger Games, he kept repeating this mantra over and over again, much to the annoyance of the other boys at the academy. They were clearly jealous of him, because it wasn't their year yet to be in the Games. And, for many of them, it would never be their year. Because there could only be one District 1 boy every year in the Games.

The spear hit the dummy in the brain, straight on. There was no way that, had it been an actual human being, it would have stood a chance. As if it had exploded, the stuffing of the dummy began flying everywhere, getting all over everyone else's faces.

"And I can tell you mean it!" the trainer said. The trainer, a short woman with a ponytail, was normally very stolid about the situation at hand, whatever it might be. She rarely if ever smiled, and was usually speaking in a militaristic fashion. Now, though, Garnet could tell that she was very pleased with the skill he had just shown with a spear. That he could use to kill other tributes in the Games.

After a few of the other boys had demonstrated their weaponry skills, the trainer decreed that Garnet would be the one to enter the Hunger Games this year. The other boys all looked very disappointed, which was no surprise, considering that they had been waiting their whole lives for this opportunity. But Garnet had little sympathy for them.

Since this was reaping day, Garnet had to head home before he could go to the town square. It was only a short walk from the academy to his king-sized oceanfront villa. Immediately, his father, Jett, came to greet him.

"Son! How did you do at the academy? Are you going into the Games this year?"

Garnet smiled, showing off his ridiculously white teeth. He was going to do this. He was going to nab another victory for District 1. In theory, all twelve districts were competing. In reality, though, it was really District 1 versus District 2. Half of the time, the victor came from one of those two districts. That was what happened, considering that those tributes had the most training and the most supplies from the Cornucopia.

"I am" Garnet said.

"That is excellent!" Amber Golds responded. His mother worked as a hairstylist in the Capitol, and, as such, she was frequently away at night. However, she had made sure to return home for the reaping, which everyone had to attend. Technically, it wasn't mandatory for people who were in the hospital to attend. All the same, though, the reapings were such a popular event that it wasn't uncommon to see hospital patients wheeling their IV stands to the central square.

"I am going to win these Games" Garnet said. The more times he stated this sentence, the more convinced he became of this.

The reaping was held in the central square of District 1. This year, unlike last year, a separate section had been set up for non-terminal patients who wanted to watch the reaping, even though it would be shown on TV that night in their rooms, so there really was no reason to go.

Some people were just that hardcore, Glory thought.

The escort, a young man with lime green hair, began the traditional ceremonies with the movie on the Dark Days and the Treaty Of Treason, which was the law that had brought the whole Hunger Games system into being. And then, it was time to reap the tributes.

The escort grabbed a name from the girl's bowl, after saying "Ladies first!".

"Silvera Jewel!"

The younger sister of Horatio Jewel, the previous District 1 boy, now notorious for wetting his pants when confronted with a Minotaur muttation, flinched at the sound of her name being called. Of course, there was no way she was going into the arena.

Luckily, she lived in a Career district.

"I volunteer as tribute!" Glory called out. When no one challenged her, she ran breathlessly up to the stage.

"What is your name" the escort asked her.

"Glory Asphodel" she said.

"Well done, Glory! And now, for our male tribute..."

"No way" Garnet said. "I was made for this. There's no fucking way any of you are getting in my way. I've been chosen by the academy. I'm number one in my class. I'm going in".

Garnet strode up to the stage as if he owned the world. When the escort asked his name, he simply said, "Garnet Golds".

The escort then stood between the two Career tributes, who would now be aligned with each other in the arena. They couldn't be one hundred percent certain of this, but it seemed highly likely, considering what usually happened.

They shook hands.

District 2

"Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life? Say yes, say yes, because I need to know" Brett said to the man.

Of course, considering that Mr. Jenkins was an upper-class man wearing a business suit, and Brett Mason was a lower-class seventeen-year-old boy from the relative slums of District 2, the odds were against him being allowed to marry Estonia, the daughter of this man. However, he was disappointed to see Mr. Jenkins's head shake.

"You'll never get my blessing until the day you die" he said.

Brett's heart sank. He'd first started to notice Estonia when they were both eleven and in sixth grade, and he'd almost instantly fallen for her. He wanted nothing more than to impress this girl. In ninth grade, he'd finally confessed his feelings for her. And now, they had seemed on a path to courtship. They'd been dating for three years, and things had appeared to be going very well. He'd popped the question to her, and she had said that she just might say yes.

"Why you gotta be so rude?" Brett asked. "Don't you know I'm human too? You know what, I'm gonna marry her anyway. Marry that girl, marry her anyway, yes".

"Well, on one condition" Mr. Jenkins said.

"What is that?" Brett asked, perking up almost immediately. He wanted to know what, if anything, could convince this man to allow him to marry this girl. He would go to hell and back for her.

"I will let you have Estonia if you enter and win the Hunger Games next year" the man said. "Until then, she is off-limits to you, you understand me?"

"Yes, sir" Brett said. And he knew, irretrievably, that that was the only way that he would be able to win Estonia from her father.

That had all happened the previous year. Now, Brett had gotten in better shape. He'd learned how to wield a sword, as well as some basic combat and survival skills, at the Career academy. He wasn't the perfect Career, because most of those had been training all of their lives, and Brett only had a year of preparation before he could enter the arena.

Now, Brett was eighteen, and it was his last year to volunteer for the Hunger Games. He had to do it today, or else he would never get to be married to Estonia.

At least I'll get lots of sponsors, he thought.

Brett had no question that he had a good sob story for the Capitol audience. They loved romance, just like some Shakespearean tragedy. Of course, that was essentially what the Hunger Games was. Romances happened sometimes, but they never managed to get out of the gate, since one or both of the lovers would be dead before the Games were over. Even so, Brett knew that this would not be the case for him.

He was going to marry Estonia Jenkins, or die trying. Literally.

"Get that bag of blood right now!" Mrs. Shinier whispered, so as not to awaken the other patients, to her daughter. Even though it was reaping day, there was still work to be done at the clinic. A nurse's job was never done, Twilight had learned from an early age.

Twilight was sent over to the blood bank, running as fast as her legs could take her. She didn't want to be too late to save the patient.

"What type?" she shouted back at her mother.

"O negative, he doesn't have that much longer until he's bled out completely!" her mother said, clearly not caring any more that she would probably be waking all of District 2 at this point. It was about four in the morning, and Twilight was helping her mother at the clinic in which she worked. Of course, this would be her last day volunteering, because it was reaping day.

And it was Twilight's year to enter the Hunger Games.

As Twilight ran back with a bag of O-, her mother hung it from the patient's IV stand. This was what her mother had done her whole life. Checking the heart monitor, Twilight said, "Oh no..."

"What's that?" Twilight's mother asked her.

"It looks like he's dead" Twilight responded somberly.

Even though patients died all of the time at the clinic, it wasn't a happy occurrence by any means. This was the thirtieth patient to die in the last year. There were rumors that Sapienna Shinier was going to be sacked, due to her track record. Even so, she had over six thousand patients every year, a fatality rate of 0.5% or less. But that didn't change the fact that it was the largest clinic in District 2, so of course it was going to be the one with the most deaths. Why expect anything else?

Twilight extended her ears, listening for the beat of the patient's heart. Maybe there was something that the monitor just wasn't picking up, and the patient wasn't really dead yet.

Some people would have thought this ridiculous, but Twilight had reason to believe it was possible. Five years before, when Twilight was twelve, she had been told that she would require hearing aids, because she was becoming hard of hearing. Twilight, however, did not want to wear hearing aids because she thought that she would look dorky at the Career academy she attended, and it would jeopardize her chances of being chosen as the one who would enter the Games that year.

So, her mother had performed an elective surgery on her so that she would be able to hear better. But not just any hearing better. Twilight now had superhuman hearing capabilities, so much so that bees buzzing on the flowers sounded like a million lawnmowers cranked up to full power. And she knew that this would be a great asset to her in the Games.

Unfortunately, the patient was still dead. That might also be her greatest weakness in the Games; she was uneasy around death.

The day of the reaping was hot and sultry, as it normally was during summer in District 2. The previous victor, Margaret Malachi, was standing to the side, watching. She would be the one to mentor the chosen girl. After the normal movie about the Dark Days and the Treaty Of Treason, the escort, a tall, skinny woman with long orange hair, said "Ladies first!"

She dug into the bowl and pulled out a name. However, nobody else ever found out who it was, because Twilight shouted, "I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"

She pushed her way through hordes of other teenagers to the stage. When the escort asked her name, she simply said, "Twilight Shinier". A lot of people laughed at the fact that that was really her name, but they decided to ignore it for the reaping of the male tribute. Which wouldn't matter, because someone would volunteer anyway.

"Brett Mason!"

"Guys, put your hands down" Brett said. "I've got this. I'm going in. I really want this!"

Brett walked to the stage, and thought I'm doing this for you, Estonia...

The two shook hands, each of them firmly believing that they would be the victor of the 64th Hunger Games.

District 3

Gauge just didn't fit in.

Not with his friends, because he had a lot of them, but with District 3 in general. As the other kids around him were talking about and anticipating their final reaping before they would be free to pursue a full career in the tech industry, Gauge somehow knew that that wasn't for him.

What Gauge really wanted was to be a firefighter, or a janitor, or something like that. Something that wasn't a District 3 job. And everyone knew that.

"Hey, Gauge, you want to go over to my place after the reaping? For a giant slumber party, to celebrate the fact that we're going to be safe from the reaping after today?" one of his friends shouted out.

"Yeah!" Gauge said enthusiastically. Despite what one might have thought, Gauge was actually quite extroverted and always loved to hang out with the other boys from his high school. The reaping was a cause for celebration, for everyone other than the person who was reaped, as well as their family and friends.

Of course, school was off today due to the event that took place annually on this day. It was something that everyone had to attend, unless they were dying. The event where one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen would be selected for the Hunger Games.

Gauge was eighteen, his last year. Since his family was middle class, they did not need to take out tesserae, so he only had seven entries in the reaping bowl. That was better than could be said for some of his friends.

"Yo, 'sup, Gauge?" came a holler from across the park.

Gauge's best friend Matrix came running over to him. As much as he was very good friends with Matrix, Gauge sometimes felt that the other boy was somewhat immature, and he found this annoying. Even so, they enjoyed hanging out with each other, and playing video games. They also played chess, at which Matrix always won. That was no real surprise, because, as said before, Gauge didn't feel as though he belonged in District 3, the intellectual district.

"Not much, Matrix" Gauge said back. "A little worried about the reaping, is all".

"Look at it this way, I've got thirty entries in that reaping bowl!" Matrix said. Matrix's family was lower-class, so he had to take out tesserae for himself, his parents, and his younger brother. It was far more likely for his friend to be chosen over Gauge for the reaping.

But he just couldn't shake the feeling...

"This looks good, Dad!" Zelda exclaimed as Mario hit an item box. Getting a blue shell, Zelda used it to make her way into first place. It didn't take long until she herself got hit by one. Karma, she thought.

Normally, the people of District 3 would not have had access to Mario Kart 59 so long before it was released. But Oiram Pixelford worked at Nintendo Of Panem, and so he got special privileges. In fact, he often brought prototypes of his latest video game creation home to be play-tested by his children. They were his quality assurance team, he often joked.

"That's good news" Oiram said. "I really want to get this game out fairly soon. I'd want to take advantage of the boost in sales that is likely to follow the reaping. That's how things go, and I want to capitalize on it. Do you think that this game is ready for release?" he asked his daughter.

"I definitely do" Zelda said. "I think that people are going to love it! But the reaping..."

There was nothing Oiram could say that he knew would make her relax. After all, even the wealthiest District 3 citizens were not exempt from the reapings, and people rarely volunteered in her district. So if Zelda was reaped, despite only having four entries in the bowl, there would most likely be no one there for her.

Just then, Peach Pixelford, Zelda's mother, came in.

"Are you ready, Zelda?" Peach asked her. "It's time to go. We don't want to be late to the reaping!"

"No, definitely not, Mom. Let's go".

So they left the house, taking the subway to get to the central square. One of Zelda's greatest interests was public transit maps. That was partly because she had Asperger's syndrome, and partly because she lived in District 3. She didn't know which one it was.

But she didn't care right now. All she hoped was that she would not be selected to compete today. But she did have a plan, just in case.

Just in case...

As soon as the Pixelfords, including Zelda and her sisters, Daisy and Lucia (seventeen and thirteen years old, respectively), reached the square and were asked to draw blood for identification, they all went off to their respective age sections.

After the escort, an overweight man with purple hair, went through the traditional video about the Dark Days, the rebellion, and the Treaty Of Treason, he put his hand in the bowl for the girl's name.

Zelda was really hoping that it wouldn't be her. That was all she wanted. Don't let it be me.

Of course, she could never be that lucky.

"Zelda Pixelford!"

Zelda tried to think back to that morning, when she'd been play-testing her father's video games. She rarely had as much fun as she did then. And she was unlikely to live long enough to be on the quality assurance team of Mario Kart 60.

She walked up to the stage, head down low, not happy at all with her current situation. It went from ten to zero in less than ten seconds.

She tried to focus on the escort, as he drew the name of the male tribute.

"Gauge Cypher!"

Fuck, he thought. I just got reaped. Great.

He went up to the stage and reluctantly shook hands with Zelda. The entire time, he was wishing that he didn't have to, because the more connections he forged with his district partner, the harder it would be when it was finally time to let go.

District 4

It was reaping day today. It should have been a cause for celebration for Memphis Alonso, but there was a simple reason that that wasn't the case.

It brought back bad memories. The previous year, he had fallen for a girl named Zoe Winter, the mayor's daughter. They were both selected to volunteer for the Hunger Games two weeks in advance, being the top boy and girl from the training academy. But it sure made a lot of people jealous.

Amanda Snow, a pissed-off eighteen-year-old who could not comprehend the fact that Zoe had been selected to volunteer before her, went over to attack Zoe with a sword. She ran Zoe through the hand. The wound didn't look too serious to Memphis. Even so, he had run over to her, and then it had happened.

Zoe had died. The reason? The sword was spiked with a deadly poison, and Amanda had just really wanted to take her place. Of course, Anna Hardy had overcome everyone else to get onto that stage. And people had been so focused on her that they hadn't really noticed that Zoe Winter was dead. And Amanda hadn't even gotten in any trouble for it, because it had been interpreted as an accident.

Memphis, on the other hand, knew better. As he lifted bags of flour from a delivery truck and carried them into the bakery, the same one that District 4's seaweed-tinted bread was baked in, he imagined that every bag was Amanda Snow, who he would no doubt have completely annihilated in the arena given the opportunity. Forget about the Career alliance that was standard for the Hunger Games.

I have to do it. I have to avenge Zoe. I need to win the Hunger Games this year.

That was what had kept him going, throughout all of his time on the streets. When he was thirteen years old, his parents had been shot for being rebels, and he'd ended up as a street kid. He'd had to fight in order to get into the Career academy. And he didn't regret any of the fighting.

He was very much determined to win these Games.

"How are things going, Sparkle? Let's check your blood sugar one more time before we go to the reaping".

"I think that it might be going up a little, because I'm so nervous" Sparkle responded.

Of course, this was no real surprise, her nervousness. Even though District 4 was a Career district, Sparkle worried about the reaping every year. She was sixteen, and her family was fairly well-off, so she didn't have too much to worry about, only five entries in that bowl. But the problem wasn't her chances of being chosen.

The problem was her chances of winning if she was chosen.

Sparkle knew that she had little or no chance whatsoever of winning the Hunger Games. She had type 1 diabetes, and she needed to eat regularly in order to avoid having lows. And that wasn't something that was easy to accomplish in the arena.

Sparkle's mother led them off to the central square of District 4, where the escort, a woman with black hair, just normal, simple black hair, unlike what was typical in the Capitol, put her hand in the reaping bowl after all of the normal things about the past.

"Sparkle Waters!"

Even though Sparkle heard her name, she wasn't too worried. Her mother, Mallory Waters, had always told her that she was very lucky to live in District 4. If she was chosen, someone would volunteer for her. Give the fishing district an actual chance at winning.

But no one did. And still, no one did.

Finally, after what might have been as much as a minute, Sparkle knew that she simply had to accept her fate. No one was volunteering for her this year. So, she simply walked up to the stage. She was feeling very lightheaded all of a sudden, and, dimly, she remembered that she had been hardly able to eat at breakfast this morning. She'd been so nervous for the reaping.

"Koz Edgewater!" the escort called out.

A small 13-year-old boy flinched at the sound of his name. He was no doubt worried that the same thing would happen to him as had happened to Sparkle. But, of course, he was luckier than Sparkle Waters.

"I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" came an extremely loud roar from the section for eighteen-year-old boys.

The boy walked up to the stage, and the escort asked his name.

"Memphis Alonso" he said. "And I'm here to avenge my late girlfriend, Zoe Winter, murdered by Amanda Snow at last year's reaping!"

Sparkle was having a difficult time keeping a grasp on reality at this point. All of a sudden, her world turned black before they could shake hands.

This chapter is just about five thousand words exactly. I hope that's a respectable length for the first chapter of reapings. I did not initially have a District 3 girl, but I created Zelda just for the sake of being able to write this chapter today. And I like Zelda. Despite being the opposite gender, I can relate to her to a certain degree.

I hope that you guys are going to review. If you created a character that was in this chapter, I'd love to hear how I did at writing them. I can't wait to hear your feedback!

I cannot write the next chapter until I have everyone from 5 to 8. I'm currently waiting on a District 7 girl and a District 8 girl.

Sincerely, SnowLucario.