Vengeance and Vindication
PROLOGUE
Head Gamemaker Haleriana Priosta
It was 12:59 p.m., and Haleriana Priosta was happy. So, so, happy. The quarter quell was here, and the honor every Head Gamemaker had dreamed of was hers. Many a Head Gamemaker had been killed before reaching the success of planning a quarter quell. Not Haleriana though — she had made it. And here she was, on the balcony with President Libertatem Coin — daughter of the legendary liberator Julianne Coin — awaiting The Reading of the quarter quell infliction, exactly three months before the reapings. Oh, Haleriana knew the reasons she was alive, she knew why she was being given the honor, she knew why she was on this balcony: She was perfect for the job. She was vicious, bloodthirsty, twisted, and had a sadistically creative flair that made every game entertaining and new.
"Like last year,'' she remembered, "with those beautiful flesh-eating worms. I should use those again — though not anytime soon, I can't repeat myself too much." It was, to be fair, difficult to come up with a perfectly new idea every year, so she often looked for inspiration in the old tapes and games. And today, the 75th quarter quell was on Haleriana's observation block (my, did it look delightful). A wonderful game, with death-trap islands, and a perfect amount of diverse forms of creative bloodshed. They hadn't worked out so well for the Head Gamemaker eventually, as he had been an ally of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, and so Haleriana had been reluctant to plan the games. However, if there was one thing that Plutark Heavensbee had been good at, it was creating genius arenas. Plus, those were the games when everything had ended, and yet, at the same time, had begun. The mighty District 13 had risen from its ashes, and defeated the evil President Snow, liberating the masses and bringing joy to all.
Now, why exactly Snow was evil (or at least, more evil than Coin) the public didn't know. "But," they thought, after watching all the documentaries, "He obviously was." Haleriana smirked at the thought. Really, the change didn't matter — it was nothing but a switch of tyrants. An apparent killer for a hypocritical one. Snow had killed masses, and had taken responsibility for it, like a lion roaring over its prey. Julianna, and then Libertatem, were like vipers hidden in the brush: giving whispers of assurance and protection, pretty lies, offering the fruit of innocence, and then striking deep and feeding their power with corpses of infants and lies about the past. Haleriana was fine with that, as long as she was under the favor of whomever was in power. According to the history books — which, interestingly enough, Haleriana herself had helped write — President Julianne Moore Coin, who was now dead, bless her heroic heart, had bravely taken the reigns of the nation and led them into a time of recovery and prosperity. The vicious terrorist and back-stabbing rebel Katniss Everdeen and her cohort Peeta Mellark had attempted to murder the glorious president, but had failed and been executed after a fair ("Fair." snorted Haleriana, "Fair is the opinion of whoever's in charge") trial and being tried as guilty. And so, peace finally came to Panem. Of course, the games had to continue, but the amount of food in the bellies of the people had increased, and so had their precious liberty.
Sadly, food had been cut back a little recently, and for a better degree of safety of the people an ever-increasing quantity of guards was being shipped into the districts (but, of course, only for protection). One of the few true changes that Panem had experienced was its justice. The people of the Districts finally had their vengeance against the Capitoleans.
While the Districts still had to send dozens of their children to die, so did The Capitol. And while The Capitol still recieved massive portions of the production of the Districts, none of that would help the Capitoleans when they were sent into the games. And so, in this manner, justice was served. This way, the Districts got what they wanted. And so did the ruling class. The games continued. And that brought everything back to today, The Reading Day. Haleriana licked her lips with eager anticipation for this quarter quell. Supposedly, the infliction cards weren't opened until Day of Reading… but everyone in the government knew that was all batcrap. This quarter quell, with the extra infliction personally designed by President Libertatem Coin, was going to be beautifully gory and sadistic. And this year, The Day of Reading was to be held earlier than most, due to the infliction the Reading contained.
The clock hit 1:00 p.m. exactly, and every Television Panem had automatically turned on and taken to the channel showing the President. President Coin cleared her throat, and took the sealed envelope containing the slip of paper out of the hands of an overly makeup-powdered girl of 11, who immediately retired from the balcony. Dramatically slow, President Coin began opening the envelope, and finally pulled out the slip of paper. Once again, she cleared her throat, and finally spoke, reading the words on the paper ("As if she hasn't had these words memorized for the past six months," snorted Haleriana to her insides).
"As part of the One-Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Quarter Quell, the words go as follow: To remind the people of Panem that in being prepared we are stronger as a nation, The Reading dictates that from this day forward until the official day of the reaping, every child in Panem within the ages of twelve and eighteen will be allowed to train for the games, and if necessary, trainers will be given for public use to give basic training. However… if there are no volunteers, then two children between the ages of nine to eleven will be chosen instead."
A/N Hey guys! So yes, I have been strongly inspired by my amazing friends SetFiresJust2WatchThemBurn and Thorne98 to start and SYOT myself if you're reading this, please strongly consider submitting at least one character!
The submission form can be found on my profile (it's the same one that Thorne used, and since he's a genius I'm using it too. I'd like to make clear that I won't accept SYOT submissions through comments, only PMs — sorry if that's an inconvenience. Each person can make up to 4 submissions, but if you do make four, at least one must be a BloodBath character with "BB" by their name. You can have a reservation, but you need to get the basics in (at least up to the reaping part) within 6 days. After that, you lose your reservation, unless you have three or four submissions and have gotten most of your submissions in, but need a little more time, in which case contact me before the six days are up.
I will need the full submission within four weeks. And finally, as to updates. I will attempt to update once a week, but can't promise anything. I will complete the reapings by the order that the Districts were filled in. If that means D6 had all their submissions in first, they get to go first. If you need any clearing up, please don't hesitate to PM me!
Yes, I know this chapter was short, but I promise the rest won't be.