Jericho "Ed" Edwards, 18, District Three / Edelweiss "Eddie" Unathi, 18, District Three
Representing Gauge Williams, Victor of the 17th Games / Billy Telle, Victor of the 19th Games
Perhaps the most common misconception about the Victors is that Gauge Williams and Billy Telle won back-to-back Games. This is not actually the case – the former won the 17th and the latter the 19th – but their intimate relationship and incredibly similar personalities made it difficult for anybody to tell them apart. Rumors about the two flew non-stop while they lived, and their story has certainly been twisted now that they've died, but all that can be said for sure about them is that they were very, very close friends. And everyone can agree that no pair of Victors made more fun for themselves while they were alive.
"Ed! Come on!" Edelweiss Unathi called, running through the crowded streets of District Three.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," replied Jericho Edwards, desperately trying to keep up with his much faster friend.
"Go faster! I want to go find that VloggeVision site. I bet my mom and dad have a camera we can use – they've got all sorts of old technology that Capitolites have sent back to Three in their store."
"Oh, I'm sure there will be at least one camera there. Capitolites go through technology like... like…" Ed froze in his tracks. He was sure there was an alogy to be made there but he couldn't figure out what it was. "… like Capitolites go through technology." Comfortable with his point, he picked up the pace again, catching up to Eddie just as they arrived at their apartment building.
It was almost too fitting that Ed and Eddie lived in the same line of apartments, two floors apart. The two lived practically the same life: both only children, both loud and energetic, and both preferring to have fun in school than to actually learn. It felt like fate to both boys that Ed happened to move into Eddie's building the summer after Eddie's seventh birthday; it took maybe two weeks for the then-called Jericho to pick a nickname that would forever link him to his new neighbor.
Ed and Eddie, best friends against the world. What could be better?
Once the two had stormed up the staircase, making more noise than two teenagers should realistically be able to make, they burst into Ed's apartment, simply because it was two flights lower. The boys made a beeline for the old computer precariously perched on a makeshift desk in the corner, Eddie bouncing excitedly as Ed methodically plugged in the username and password. Eddie knew that it would be faster if he just logged on – as much as Ed tried to keep the password secret for his parents' sake, he was very bad at it – but Eddie liked to give his friend the satisfaction of doing one of the few things he could do well.
A short orchestra melody blared from the computer's speakers. "We're in, boys!" Ed said triumphantly as he stood up, allowing Eddie to see the screen. "You said you know where the website is?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"I'm excited to watch more of his videos. I didn't know there was a place we could post all the stuff we do!"
"Neither did I. I bet we could get super famous if we post all the stuff we have already filmed."
"Oh, I'm sure of it."
Eddie took his turn in front of the computer, connecting it to the internet and searching in the default web browser for "Atticus Otterson VloggeVision." Sure enough, the first result was a video entitled "Meet My Friends!" A small image preview showed the bright, smiling face of the boy that they'd met in interviews the night before: Atticus Otterson. He wore a maroon shirt, precisely the same shade of maroon as his interview outfit, and a bright smile that made it feel like all three boys were sitting in the same room. Well, all four boys; there was another standing a few steps behind Atticus who seemed significantly less comfortable behind the camera.
"He's not talking," Ed remarked, leaning in towards the computer.
"That's because we haven't played the video yet."
"Oh." Ed paused. "Can we click play?"
"Yes. Yes we can."
~.~.~
Meet My Friends! [AtticusOtter Official]
Views: 95,034
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"Hi everyone, and welcome back to AtticusOtter! Today, we're gonna meet two of my friends! I have some others, but you'll meet them over time.
"First, meet my closest friend, Dylan! Hi, Dylan!"
"Hey, Atticus! Thanks for having me!"
"Thank you for being here. Tell us a little bit about yourself."
"Atticus and I used to be in the same year, but when Thirteen became Reaping-eligible and our years had to be standardized with the Districts', I moved up a year; we stayed friends, though we have very different interests. I'm interested in maybe becoming a doctor someday, but I still have some time to decide."
"And tell us a fun fact about yourself!"
"Um, well… I once beat the record for fastest time to finish physics homework! Not exactly… intentionally, but it happened."
"That's quite the achievement."
"Not a record I'd like to hold, but that's what happened."
"Well, thanks for being here, Dylan! Catch ya in school?"
"Yeah."
~.~.~
"So he's just… talking about his life? Walking around and showing it off?" asked Ed as the video continued.
"It seems so."
"That's so boring!" Ed exclaimed, getting up and beginning to pace. "We've done so much more exciting stuff than that in film club."
"You're right." Eddie thought for a moment. "Why don't we post that?"
"Huh?"
Thoughts were racing in Eddie's mind, the possibilities of what he and Ed could do with the skills they'd just been learning for fun swirling and shaping themselves in the boy's head into something so much bigger than either of them. "Why don't we post that stuff? We have the footage somewhere. I bet we can make it into something as exciting as Atticus's stuff, if not more. And if we each make our own channel, we can post videos with each other on each other's channel, so we can get even more exposure."
"We could be famous?"
"Absolutely."
"Let's go for it, then!"
Welcome to my Channel! [EDELWEISS]
Views: 683
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"Hi everyone! Welcome to the first video here on my official VloggeVision channel! My name is Edelweiss Unathi, and I'm a teenager from Three with a passion for filmmaking. After joining the film club at school this year, I got hooked on the idea of capturing life through my camera's lens. On this channel, you'll see snapshots of my life, the ups and the downs, my friends and my family, crazy things and pretty things, whatever I want to share! I hope you'll join me on this ride as I record all of the things that make me, me!"
~.~.~
Hi [Ed's Edition]
Views: 20
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"Hi. I'm Ed.
"This is where I'm gonna... do stuff.
"Stay tuned for me doing stuff."
"Well, your views are remaining steady at least," Eddie said, looking at the analytics on the VloggeVision Creator Hub. "See how this line is straight across? That means you're basically getting the same number of views on every video."
"Yeah, but isn't the goal for more people to see them?"
"Yes. But as long as they aren't going down, that's good."
"How do your views look?"
"That's not important," Eddie quickly said, closing out the tab. "What's important is that we keep working to increase yours. I'm not letting you flounder; we're in this together."
"So what can we do to get them higher?"
"I'm not sure. But I have an idea of where we can look."
Eddie opened up a new VloggeVision tab and began to scroll down the homepage, picking out a few videos at random and opening links to the channels that published them in new tabs. Ed could hardly keep up as Eddie flitted between web pages, scrolling up and down and going forward and backward so quickly that Eddie could barely comprehend what was on the screen before the content shifted to show something else. His eyes were moving so quickly trying to keep up with Eddie that he could feel himself getting dizzy. Ed tried his best to stay standing, but after what seemed like hours (but what was really no more than a few minutes), his head was spinning so much that he couldn't help but collapse to the floor.
"Ed?" Eddie asked, turning around as he heard a loud THUMP from behind him. "Are you OK?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I just got dizzy."
"Oh. Well, I'm pretty much done. I think I figured out what we're gonna do."
"Ooh." Ed cautiously stood up again and peeked over Eddie's shoulder. "What am I supposed to look at."
"So look at this channel, Darth Rell. She makes a bunch of Hunger Games recap videos. Rell was averaging about 10,000 views per video, which honestly is a lot for a channel of her subscriber count, but that's probably because any Hunger Games content overperforms on VloggeVision. But then, she collabed with Atticus Otterson, interviewing him about the Events. After that collab, her view count went up to about 40,000 views a video, and it's been steadily climbing. The same thing happened with Jan Jolie. She's a DFAB drag queen who was averaging probably 7,000 views a video. But look - after she collaborated with another drag queen, Madam Monster, her views went up to about 25,000 a video. And then, of course, there's the Hype Vlog. This guy Mr. Logs, one of the biggest channels on VloggeVision, got together a bunch of smaller creators and started making these massive collab videos, all of which were published on a separate channel, The Hype Vlog. We don't have to go through their channels now, but trust me that their view counts skyrocket when they started doing Hype Vlog content."
"So what does that mean?"
Eddie realized he needed to simplify matters. "If we make videos together, we each should get more views."
"But isn't that what we're already doing?" Ed asked, sinking back down to the floor, still trying to get his bearings.
"Sort of," Eddie answered, a smirk appearing on his face. "Just trust me."
DIZZY OLYMPICS (Ft. Ed's Edition) [EDELWEISS]
Views: 3,026
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"Hi everyone and welcome back to another video! Today, I'm here with my good friend Ed from Ed's Edition."
"Hi."
"And today we're going to be doing a challenge that's been all over VloggeVision lately – the Dizzy Olympics!"
"How does it work, Eddie?"
"Well, I'm about to tell you! We're here on our school's track, where we've set up a whole bunch of challenges. We're going to do each challenge twice, first normally to practice and then after spinning around blindfolded thirty times. Whoever gets the fastest time in the dizzy round gets a point, and whoever has the most points at the end of the challenge gets to dare the loser to do anything they want – and the loser has to accept."
"So you're challenging me?"
"If I win."
"You're on."
"Let's do it, then! For the first challenge, we're going to start simple. All we have to do is run in a straight line from here to midfield. Most steps in a straight line wins! Practice round, ready, set, go!"
Normally, when Eddie turned on his computer after school, he went right to the Creator Hub, desperate for any insight he could get into his channel's performance. But today, he went to the Dizzy Olympics video first. He wasn't even interested in how many views it got; Eddie just wanted to watch the video of him and his best friend having fun. Soon enough, there wouldn't be as much time for fun in their life, as they were about to enter the workforce for the first time. Eddie didn't consider himself the sentimental type, but he knew he was going to miss this.
The door to his apartment swung open, the arrival of whoever came in heralded by its rusty hinges. "Hi, Eddie!"
"Oh, hi, Ed!"
"What are you doing?"
"Just watching our video from the other day. The Dizzy Olympics one."
"Is it doing well?"
"I don't know," Eddie admitted. "I just wanted to watch it because I had a lot of fun."
"It was a lot of fun to film together, instead of just doing our own things with the other person behind the camera."
"It was fun. I wish we could do more of it."
"Yeah. Can I take a turn on the computer?" Ed asked, nonchalantly changing the subject, as he was wont to do.
"Sure." Eddie moved away to let his friend take his turn. As he watched Ed scroll through the main page of VloggeVision, Eddie found himself thinking about how he could preserve this time, the last few moments he had with Ed before they grew up forever.
And then, an idea came to him.
Our Eighteenth Birthday (4/1) [EdNEddie]
Views: 3,026
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Ed and Eddie stand in a dark room, illuminated only by the light of a single candle on a birthday cake. Ed wears a red turtleneck, and Eddie a blue one. They let the flame flicker for a moment before Ed begins.
"Three hundred sixty five days."
"Fifty-two weeks."
"One year."
"I'm Edelweiss Unathi."
"I'm Jericho Edwards."
"Together, we are Ed and Eddie. And today is our eighteenth birthday."
"Really, it is, we promise!"
"At this time next year, we're going to have to start being real adults."
"Honestly, probably beforehand, but we don't want to think about that."
"So we want to use this channel to remember the last year of our childhoods."
"For the next year, until we turn nineteen, we're going to post one video a day. Then, on April First of next year, we're going to lock the channel behind a password, which we've promised not to unlock for at least ten years."
"This way, our channel can be like a time capsule for us of the best year of our lives."
"So Happy Birthday to us and to Ed and Eddie. Here's to the best year."
Ed and Eddie lean over the cake and blow the candle out together. The feed cuts out as the number 365 appears on screen in big blue letters. A moment later, the number turns red, and the five is replaced by a four.
Hi everyone, and welcome to my monthly update! I do hope you enjoyed these two crazy boys, Ed courtesy of david12341 and Eddie from timesphobic! I know that the header is a little long but as you just saw, these two are so intertwined that I couldn't think of a better way to introduce them than to pair them together and interweave them. One of the things I've been having fun with this fic is playing around with format, and these two give me such a great opportunity to do that. I hope this was more or less clear, and if not, do give me feedback so that I can improve for next time! (And yes, the AtticusOtter video is taken directly from Otterson's IDIDE2 intro - I thought that would be a nice touch :) )
As before, non-POV submissions are still open, so if you'd like to send one my way, please feel free to! I'm starting to draft out my pre-Events plans and they're gonna be very fun hee hee. I can't wait to see y'all next month for our next pair of intros! We've got two real sweethearts coming your way.
Oh! Also, for my friends who are not on the SYOT Verses Discord. I've been posting little trading cards for the kids and I'm trying to think of a good alternative that isn't a blog because blogs are hard to maintain. Maybe I'll do an instagram? If anyone has an idea hmu.
xoxo, xxxi