i. a new era — prologue

kiernan alcraiz. 13.
president of panem.

Y'know, it's not easy being me.

I know right, big fuckin' surprise; ruling an entire country is actually pretty difficult. You'd think I'd have known that before I signed up for the whole presidency thing, but mostly I just did it out of curiosity. Maybe that's a smidge irresponsible, but when that old fart Snow said, "Hey Kiernan, I'm getting tired, how'd you like to take over?" I wasn't going to just say no to him.

My haters scorn me, saying things like "How's he fit to rule if he's barely a teenager," and while they're right, I don't see them clamoring at the foot of my throne, begging to fill in my shoes. Yeah, you heard that right—throne. It's a President thing; I wouldn't expect you to get it.

I don't have time for haters anyway, being President occupies basically all of my time. Seriously, I don't get how Snow had the time to do all that evil scheming while also trying to rule a country. Then again, he was pretty shit at the latter. Maybe I'll do an awful job too—ah, who am I kidding? I'll do a great job, 'cause I'm good at everything after all.

Currently, most of my time is spent planning the Fifty-seventh Annual Hunger Games. Yeah, they're still happening. After that attempted rebellion bullshit, so many people told me, "Hey Kiernan, you should cancel the Games," and while that was definitely an option, it wasn't one I decided to choose. Simply put, if I had to suffer in that stinkin' arena, twenty-four other schmucks should have to do the same. It's not like they're nearly as iconic and legendary as I am, anyway.

Normally, Presidents don't put much into planning the Games, but I'm not like the other Presidents. Maybe it's the fact I don't particularly trust the Head Gamemaker I appointed to do as good a job as I could've, but I can't be President and Head Gamemaker at the same time; that's just excessive.

Atlas Zephyr Perdanez visits me on an afternoon in early May with a smile on his face. I'm already tired of his bullshit but I do the good deed of asking him, "What do you want?"

"Oh, I was going to show you the arena," Atlas says, scrambling in his leather bag to find a stack of photographs, "I assume you'd want to see it?"

Well, that's funny. Last I heard, when you "assume," you make an ass out of you and me. He assumed correctly though; good for him.

I stretch my arms over my head, wide like I'm a bear that's just gotten out of hibernation for the winter. With a yawn, I respond to my Head Gamemaker, "Yeah, sure… whatever. I'd love to see it, I guess."

The key to being a good President is always acting disinterested with your cabinet so that they have to go above and beyond to get your attention. I would know because I am the President, after all.

Atlas steps closer to me, showing me pictures of the masterpiece that he's created. I'm not going to tell you all what it is just yet, but trust me when I said Atlas truly went above and beyond. Seriously, this dude's insane.

With glee, I clap and say, "Good lord Atlas, you really outdid yourself."

"I knew you'd like it bro!" he interjects, but I'm quick to cut him off with—

"I'm not your 'bro,' I'm your President."

"Right, so sorry," Atlas readjusts his posture to appear more physically imposing, "I knew you would like it, Mr. President."

How the fuck did he just know I would like it? I pride myself on being chaotic and unpredictable, so really there was no possible way of Atlas just knowing I'd like his arena design. I'm sure he was hoping I'd like it, but there's a big fuckin' difference between knowing something and just hoping it.

I would know. I hoped that my sister Maeve would be a decent fucking person, but clearly I never knew that 'cause she abandoned me with my idiot mom when she volunteered back in 'fifty-five. She said it was to get money to support me and my shitty astmatic lungs, but proved herself to be phenomenally unhelpful when she decided to fall in love with the girl from One? Do you know how embarrassing that was? I'd be having a great time watching the Games while eating mac and cheese when boom the screen shifts to my sister playing tonsil hockey with dumbfuck Madison Saros in the middle of the woods. I'm glad I put that wench in prison; what she deserves for distracting Maeve from yours truly.

Anyway, I'm far too exhausted to get into semantics with Atlas, so instead of questioning how he knew I'd like his arena design, I just offer him a smile and say, "You're doing great work. Keep it up!"

Reciprocal to my compliments, Atlas returns the favor with, "So are you, Mr. Alcraiz. I reckon you're the best nation the world's ever seen."

How would he know that? He's half-blind. Good lord Atlas, you're killing me here.

"It's not like I had strong competition," I snicker, leaning back onto my throne, "But seriously, I'm grateful for your support."

Yeah, as obnoxious as I can be, I truly am thankful for each and every one of the people who support me. My mom and Maeve sure didn't give a shit about me, so it's nice to have an entire country that does. I wait for Atlas to leave the room before removing my jeweled crown from my head and placing it on the table beside me. Having a big head means wearing a big crown, and wearing a big crown means shit is heavy as fuck. It's more of a novelty item than anything else.

And that's that. My days are often filled with paperwork that only somewhat makes sense and dealing with an entire country's worth of bullshit. It's hard work, but I'm the right guy to handle it.


Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm Kiernan and welcome to my first SYOT :DDDDDD ! Deciding to write this story was a big decision for me, but I know it will be great, mainly because I'm writing it. I hope you liked this first prologue from the incredibly handsome President of Panem that just so happens to have the same name as me, 'cause it was so much fun to write The story blog is awesomeandswag . weebly. com

For this story, I will be taking 12 of the most swag Tributes of all time, so please submit using the form on my profile. Do not submit via reviews, ONLY PMS! I ain't doing that first-come first-serve bullshit because I need this story to be fucking iconic. Please review and give me the validation I never received from my mother. If you don't I will cry.

Bye bitches,
Kiernan