Prologue 1:
Six Months Before
Odyssey Gunderson, Victor of the Sixth Quarter Quell
"This was a terrible idea."
Odyssey shakes his head as Misha holds back a chuckle as chaos unfolds in front of them in their apartment. Odyssey thought it would have been a great idea to just have the four of them stay over at their Capitol apartment after the Victory Tour. After all, it was only going to be for one night, just for them to meet with people about the changes, then they would be back home. But he really should have known better than to combine this group of people.
"I'm not gonna say I told you so, but…" Misha tells him, barely holding back the amusement in his tone.
Odyssey sighs as Elias sits back, sipping tea as he watches Anastacia threaten Amelia to hurry up or Shadow would poop on her bag, not that the service dog would actually do that. And then Fox and Amelia nearly collide as he steps out of a room. "And this is how much chaos there is without the actual children here. Thank God Fox didn't bring his kids."
"Don't you love your friends?" Misha asks as he steps up and hugs Odyssey from behind, watching the group of survivors of the Quell run around frantically.
"I do, but next time they are staying somewhere else," Odyssey laughs as he leans back against Misha, needing his boyfriend's presence to keep his heart from racing too much in nervousness over the meeting and what will start in just a couple days. "Are we done yet?" Odyssey calls out to his friends, watching them all stop scrambling.
"I've been ready for a while," Anastacia tells him with a shrug as Shadow sits at her feet. "The nice thing about being blind is you can just not care about what you look like and no one is going to tell you you look like shit."
"I think you look great," Elias tells her, getting a genuine smile from Anastacia, the only person who can do that.
"Thank you, I stole Amelia's things," Anastacia responds casually.
"Hey!"
The group laughs as Amelia takes her purse and hits Anastacia in the arm with it, all in good fun. But leave it to the dad of the group to get them under control. "Okay, okay," Fox says, stepping between the two girls. "We were supposed to leave five minutes ago."
"Eh, Seraphim can be kept waiting," Odyssey answers, getting a nod of agreement from Anastacia, but he steps out of Misha's arms and takes his hand instead, motioning to the others. "But we're not just meeting with Seraphim. Let's go."
Odyssey doesn't think he'll ever get used to what his life had become, never having expected this when he volunteered for the Games. He had hopes of someday living in the Capitol, but never like this. And he really won't ever get used to having a limo waiting out front for them. "Okay we need to tell them to knock it off with this," Odyssey tells Misha as they all pile in, Amelia and Anastacia raiding the champagne right away.
"I think this is lovely," Anastacia says as Amelia pops open the champagne. "I love the black interior, my favorite."
Amelia pours out glasses for all of them as the limo takes them to the Presidential Mansion, laughing as Elias looks so unsure about it. "Come on, this is probably the last time all of us are going to be together for the next six months. Let's take a moment to actually enjoy ourselves because we won't be next time."
"Well that's a bit of a downer," Anastacia mutters, shaking her head as she leans back, nearly into Elias until he moves out of the way.
"Amelia is right," Fox tells the group, holding up his glass to all of them. "We're lucky to be here and have each other so…cheers."
"Cheers," Odyssey says with the others, forcing his smile to stay there at those words. They truly are the lucky ones, the survivors…and with all of them together, Odyssey can't stop the pang in his chest that his friend isn't one of them. Misha notices right away, taking his hand, making him look over at him taking his prosthetic hand. Misha gives him an encouraging smile, understanding what Odyssey is feeling.
Odyssey leans against Misha, silently taking comfort from him as he watches his friends joke around with each other. Part of him had been worried that after six months apart from most of them, things wouldn't be the same, but when they got together for the Victory Tour, it was like they hadn't been apart. Part of him just wishes he could freeze this moment and just pretend that they're a normal group of friends, but it's impossible to do that. A close look at anyone of them will show the physical signs of what they went through, let alone the mental toll the arena and rebel situation took on all of them. If only they could just be a group of normal teenagers without the pressure of helping stop a rebellion on their shoulders.
Amelia is in the middle of telling them a story about going out with her university friends when the limo pulls up in front of the mansion. Elias looks disappointed that he won't hear the end of the story and Amelia pats his shoulder and reassures him that she'll finish it later as they get out of the limo, all falling silent as they stare up at the building in front of them. It doesn't matter that they were just there last night…there's something about being there that still feels surreal.
"Well, raise your hand if you're ready to stop a rebellion!" Odyssey jokes to the group, not at all surprised when no one raises their hand. He sighs as he starts leading their group inside, unfortunately the head of their messed up group by default because he's the one with the title of victor. "Yeah, me neither."
A guard leads them towards the meeting room and they walk in silence until they enter the room, of course the last ones to arrive. Misha gives Odyssey an encouraging smile as they take their seats with the people they've spent the last six months working with. And what a group it is…
The two co-Head Gamemakers – Seraphim Lukianas, one of Odyssey's least favorite people thanks to what he did to him in the Quell, and his boyfriend Zephyr Ondrej, one of Odyssey's fellow victors from Two. The Head of Security, Ishani Kostas, who sits closely to Khaya Christian, still technically a rebel but at least a rebel on their side. And Rosabella Venezia, the interim President of Panem…
Rosabella clears her throat, bringing most of their attention to her, aside from Anastacia who is fixing Seraphim with her well-practiced glare, directed by Elias on where to look. "Thank you all for coming tonight. We'll try to make this meeting brief, but it made sense to touch base with everyone while you're still in the Capitol. We'll start with the lightest topic – did everything go well on the Victory Tour?"
The group all looks to Odyssey, who sighs before giving an answer. "As far as I can tell. We showed everyone that we're a united front – careers and non-careers. The victors aren't going to be an issue and most were friendly with us."
"Most?" Rosabella asks with an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah," Odyssey says, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "I got sassed a lot in Eight, but I think that was deserved…"
"Oh that's just how District Eight is," Seraphim tells him, chuckling a little as Odyssey begrudgingly looks at him. "Anyone could go to Eight and get sassed so try not to have any hard feelings."
"But no issues in Seven?" Rosabella asks, keeping them on track much better than in meetings run by Seraphim.
Odyssey shakes his head, looking at the others with him who give similar actions. "Not at all… Should we be concerned?"
All of them turn to Khaya, their biggest insight into the rebels and what they are up to. Khaya taps her fingers on the table in front of her as she thinks, her face showing her concern. "For sure…the fact that we haven't seen any action at all from them since the announcement of the changes to the Games is concerning. I suspect they are planning something big and we need to be prepared for whatever that might be."
"We'll increase the security measures for the Games," Kostas steps in, looking to Seraphim and Zephyr who don't look quite too thrilled with this news. "Seraphim, you have the arena design and location locked down, right?"
"Yeah, I do, and only a small handful of people know the specifics of where and what it is," Seraphim answers uneasily, glancing around the table at them. "Not that I don't trust all of you, but…"
"When it's a matter of national security, it's best to limit the amount of people that know," Kostas reassures him and Seraphim nods his head, settling back in his chair as Zephyr puts his hand on his shoulder. "We'll touch base later."
"We also need to increase our search efforts for the rebels," Rosabella tells them and Kostas nods her head obediently, exchanging a look with Khaya. "Perhaps it's time we see if the tracker mutts can pick up on people using blood samples from a relative."
Everyone stares over at Khaya who sighs loudly and nods her head, "At least you're somewhat asking and not just taking it. I'll talk to Josefine and Niek to get theirs as well, see if we can find their parent. I…really don't trust whatever Elin and the others are planning."
"Neither do we…" Rosabella says quietly and a heavy silence falls over the table. Odyssey looks over at his friends, wishing he could do more to comfort them as their faces show varying levels of the pain they still feel at the memories of the time they were held as collateral by the rebels. "We're going to stop them, I promise," Rosabella tries to reassure the group, but when they have no information on where the rebels are or what they've been up to ever since their big scheme at the end of the Quell…yeah, it's hard to be reassured by it. "Why don't we talk more on progress with the Games? Seraphim is still working out the details on what will happen if no one volunteers. Zephyr, any updates on the escorts?"
"Flannery and Agapios are going to help with the interviews. Ain has insisted on helping too and had an idea with his brother to film some sort of promo video for the applications. Suggested getting Odyssey and the others get involved in it." Zephyr pauses to look at the group for their reaction before he gives a shrug.
"I like the idea," Rosabella comments, nodding her head absentmindedly as she writes down some notes. "Show more unity between the Capitol and Districts by having them participate. Let's get that organized asap. Anything else about the interviews?"
"We'll start interviews soon," Zephyr continues. "We have a good pool of applicants so far, some new, some returning. It will be fun to see how they react to my questions."
"Be nice," Seraphim teases him, only making Zephyr starting grinning in a way that Odyssey recognizes from being back home in training. Those poor applicants. "We want them to want to be here."
"Yeah, and I'm making sure we weed out the ones that aren't fully committed," Zephyr says with a shrug. "You knew what you were getting into when you asked me to lead this part."
"I know, and I still think you'll do better than I would have since you know more than me what is required of escorts," Seraphim gives him a proud smile and Zephyr sits up taller at the praise from his boyfriend.
"Just don't scare away too many," Rosabella cautions, but her tone is a bit light. "And last Games topic for the day…the training centers. Starting on Monday, training will begin in each District… We can only hope that this will succeed and we will have a decent turn out, enough to show the rebels that the country is willing to move forward with the changes we implemented and ultimately the end of the Games. But Odyssey and Misha…are you two ready?"
Odyssey shares a look with Misha, feeling completely overwhelmed by the very thought of having to train excited young kids in the Capitol. He doesn't feel remotely qualified at all to train anyone, let alone be some of the first to be training the first group of Capitolites that will participate in the Hunger Games. Misha notices his look and answers Rosabella for the two of them. "We're as ready as we can be with everything going on. Odyssey's gotten lots of advice from Darach and Glacia and I've talked with Mr. Jory a lot-"
"That's it, the kids are doomed," Zephyr jokes under his breath, making Seraphim lightly smack him on the arm for the comment. Odyssey holds back a chuckle at this, turning it into a cough when Misha gives him a look.
Odyssey clears his throat, trying to get back on track so Misha doesn't get upset at him agreeing with Zephyr's comment. Jory is great, but he can see where Zephyr is coming from. "At least the kids will be as inexperienced as we are so they won't be able to tell if we mess up," Odyssey jokes, using the humor to cover up the crippling fear he has that he's going to completely fail to prepare the kids for the Games.
"I know you two will do your best and that's all we can ask for," Rosabella reassures them with a gentle smile. "And you'll have some of the trainers from the Games Headquarters assisting you. As for the rest of you…"
"Ah we're finally needed," Anastacia says quietly, getting a shake of the head from Amelia at her comment. "We're all ears since that's all I have," Anastacia fixes Seraphim with another pointed look.
"How is she so good at glaring when she's blind?" Seraphim says in a loud whisper to Zephyr, getting a smirk from Anastacia before she turns her focus to Rosabella.
Rosabella clears her throat to get them back in line. "Yes, you four…I hope everything has been going well for you. You can keep doing what you've been doing, but we may have you stay and film some more promos for the training centers - and Ain's idea – while you're all here in the Capitol…"
Odyssey glances over at the four of them looking over in his direction expectantly, knowing where their thoughts are going. He sighs at the excitement on their faces, knowing he can't say no to them… "I suppose you can crash at our place for a few more nights."
It's going to be a long few days – no, months – of this.
Welcome everyone to Renegades: The 151st Hunger Games! *insert party noises here* Well, this story has been in the works for a very long time now and so I'm very excited to finally kick off this story!
This is not first come, first serve and submissions have been open for both tributes and escorts for a couple weeks and will be open until June 24th and 12th respectively. This is a full SYOT (my first with 24 tributes XD) and following the Quarter Quell, all escorts must reapply (meaning a new form sent in to be included), so there are lots of open spots! As you can see here, there's been quite a few changes towards the tributes in the Games and the list of those changes is up on my profile. Actually, there's a ton of info up on my profile, including a current list of subs (don't get intimidated by numbers!), guidelines/rules (PLEASE read these, very important), a link to a doc summarizing Overlooked and Senseless, and of course, the link to the google forms to submit! While this story is the third story in what will probably be a trilogy (most likely, but ya never know lol), but it is not required to have read Overlooked and Senseless first. And submissions will only be accepted through the google form.
If you have any additional questions about some of the specifics of my verse, please just ask. Honestly, asking and getting clarification so they better fit into my verse will increase your odds of getting in quite a bit. And detail, detail, detail. I love a crazy backstory, but I need a good personality to work with.
Well, with all of that being said, let's get to the fun stuff! Here we get to see most of our key players on the Capitol side of things! The rebel plot is going to be quite prominent throughout this story, so expect to see lots of these people! Oh! I almost forgot to mention that there is now a story blog! The link for that will also be on my profile and features info right now on all the mentors, Capitol people, and others, and will be updated with tributes and escorts after the lists are finalized!
Link: renegades151st . weebly . com (remove the spaces, of course)
Alright last thing to discuss is my update schedule. Obviously at the time of publishing this, we're all stuck inside with more free time. Who knows when this is going to end, but right now I do have a good stockpile of updates for both this and my partial SYOT, Legacy. However, there are times when it can take a month or two (or more) to get an update out. This is for fun and I have a life outside of this (eh who am I kidding, not much of a life XD), and things come up and I can't update as frequently as I would like sometimes. If you're going to make any comments about that update speed, I'll kindly ask you not to participate in this story. Like I said, I'm doing this for fun and shit happens at times. But this is my third full SYOT, fifth overall including my two partial SYOTs, and I have finished other non-SYOT stories before. I will finish this story. You can count on me to put my heart into the tributes in this story and give them epic deaths and lots of angst and finish this story.
All that being said (I'm sure I've forgotten something and it will either be on my profile or I'll say it next chapter)...let the Hunger Games begin!