3. A star is born!
Dedalus Wright and Huck Barron were the first two victors Panem has ever seen. They were to be the first two witnesses of Capitol City's greatness after the Dark Days our nation had just barely left behind – but, alas, both of them were not the personas that our first Presidency, that of Lucius Ravinstill (33 B.T.T., Before Treaty of Treason – 27 A.T.T., After Treaty of Treason) had expected them to be. We have already introduced our reader to Dedalus' never steadfast and more and more decreasing popularity among the citizens of the Capitol, and through the pages of his diary he expresses himself as a scarred man, more like a "survivor" than he considered himself to be a victor. It is true that, shortly after the Second Games were over, Dedalus reached out to Huck, started to write him letters in which he offered the new victor from District 11 some level of solidarity and camaraderie, letters to which the latter eventually responded. The two began then a correspondence that lasted through the years, of which the only remains are held in a secret chamber of the Capitol Library, protected by Peacekeepers and inaccessible to the unauthorized at least until after the Third Rebellion of '76. What is important of this literary correspondence and what has been found in it, it seems to us researchers to be the development of an alignment of the first two victors in terms of trends and attitudes towards the Hunger Games, Capitol City and the new arrangement of Panem: attitudes of opposition, if we will, but anyways not in favor of them. Dedalus and Huck celebrated their bond over the Games, in these letters. And most certainly not Capitol City.
Something had to be done. Before the possible danger that, sociologically speaking, Dedalus and Huck could represent towards the newly found stability of Panem, a new victor was needed. A "proper" victor, one that could embody what the new Panem was really about, which was mainly honor, respect and self-sacrifice towards the core that fed all districts equally and rightfully, Capitol City. One man or woman that could be the ambassador of the new principles that were to be learnt by all citizens and that would carry us into the bright lights of the future. One man or woman that was not afraid to surrender everything and anything he or she had ever possessed for a greater good, that of our nation. One man or woman. One.
One is the place where our government officials were sent, a week before the Third Games would commence by President Ravinstill himself, on a secret mission to find this man or woman and carry them to his legitimate throne. After all, District 1 had always been the second most loyal district to the Capitol, after District 2, even long before the Dark Days. These officials were made to run an enquiry of District 1 in its whole, of all the wealthiest and most respectable families, so that they could look through the profiles of their children and find out the most athletic, charismatic and well-liked among them. Of course, all of this had to be done in the most discreet and unobservable way possible; the consequences of being discovered would have been ungovernable, another internal revolution could have even broken out if something had been known by any citizen, even the most unreliable madman in the district's population. The whole chase lasted two weeks. District 1's families thankfully cooperated, families like the Humes, the Grazonards, the Ragnarssons, the Chevalliers and… the Vollards. There. There they found Leo Vollard.
Leo Vollard, beautiful in his sixteen years of age, platinum blonde hair, forest green eyes, representative of his class at school and best player at local sport Sticks'n'Stones in the Young Adults' league. He seemed practically perfect to every official's eyes. The Vollard family was well-known and respected in the district, where the Vollards ran the first company of sapphires and rubies supplier in Capitol City. All the kids that grew among the Vollards would be placed at the highest of the district's hierarchy, with a good job, a good wife or husband and contacts in the Capitol. Leo's parents, Amethyst and Samantha Vollard, showed no sign of reluctance to let their son perform the golden task that President Ravinstill had given him, especially with the huge cash prize promised to them if their son had accepted. And, all things considered, Leo seemed very pleased, too; the very evening of the communication of the choice of Leo by the officers to the Vollards, Leo threw a goodbye party in his family villa, with flowing rivers of alcohol, delicious food and songs of glory sung by the participating relatives.
In July of 3 A.T.T. Leo Vollard was reaped to participate in the Third annual Hunger Games, along with his female counterpart, Amelia Crusade, also sixteen-years-old.
The reaping was perhaps the only pre-Games event of this year that took place "normally" for Leo. Of course, Leo was put in the zoo's cages as he arrived to the Capitol, just like all the other tributes – and in this was no special treatment. But his cage was not as "normal" as the others': it was replenished with a bed, a full gym equipment, two demijohns full of water and a box of top quality fruit hidden under his bed. Furthermore, it was raining in the Capitol during the first week of July. It doesn't come as a surprise to us that Leo's cage was equipped with an amber wood roof, on the inside of which the cage was also placed a hanging lamp. It is not unexpected that some of the other tributes tried to rebel against these injustice and inequity. Oral sources tell us of the male tribute of District 8, which apparently had begun since the first day to complain furiously with the Peacekeepers placed to guard the cages and with visitors to the zoo. Or the girl from 5, a little anorexic being, so thin that he tried for two days to pass through the bars of his cage, apparently to get into the cage of Leo "to beat the crap out of him". Both of them were beaten up by the guarding Peacekeepers, and this discouraged any other from opposing Leo's special treatment.
As usual, five days had passed since the tributes' arrival in the Capitol, and the Games were then ready to begin. On the morning of July 9th, the tributes for the Third Games were put on the same pedestals of the previous year inside of the usual amphitheater that served as the arena. Leo was so well-nourished, so well-rested and so well-trained that from the first photographical shoots taken by Capitol's journalists he outshone in appearance each and every of his competitors, most of whom had gone for the previous week without food, water and a cover from the rain. When the gong that marked the start of the Games sounded, Leo was the fastest to jump into action, whereas many others seemed to be still gathering the strength to move a single muscle, and by that moment, most of the viewers, both at home and in the Capitol, already knew how it'd all end. The Games themselves lasted for roughly four hours, as Leo easily slashed his way through the majority of his opponents with a sword that he had found lying just a few meters from his pedestals. That year, the cannons signaling the death of a tribute were introduced. In those four hours, Leo kept dancing to the sound of cannons firing, a song he himself was composing. By the time there were only five tributes left, from a megaphone installed on top of a column in the amphitheater came out an austere voice that summoned all the remaining tributes to the center of the arena, penalty being the direct elimination from the Games. Three of them didn't make it and, although their cannons had effectively sounded, it is still unknown how they were actually eliminated, as no footage remains to attest the true means of such elimination. Viewers then saw Leo and a weakened boy from District 9 making their way to amphitheater center, before they engaged a short battle that ended with the boy strangled to death by Leo Vollard, who thereby became the victor of the Third annual Hunger Games. The boy from 9's cannon boomed in the width of the amphitheater, but its sound overlapped with Leo's exultation and excitement, who was wearing a white, dazzling smile that almost matched his bloody hands.
After that year's Games were over, President Ravinstill got exactly what he wanted. A bright new shiny victor who was openly supportive of the Capitol's government and the Presidency, who would often appear on Capitol TV in brief spots where he would recite an oath to the President himself before receiving the crown from Huck Barron, then thanking the audience from home for the support shown to him – he had indeed watched the full filming of his Games, which would be broadcast for many years to follow. Leo Vollard was also on every building's wall in the Capitol, portrayed in posters, one of which is shown below as a document:
DOCUMENT 03:LEO_VOLLARD_VICTORY_POSTER
VICTOR IN AND FOR THE CAPITOL
LEO VOLLARD
DISTRICT 1
III ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
THE GRACE THAT LED TO VICTORY
Come visit the victor here in his new house in Capitol City!
From Mon to Wed 10 am - 3 pm
Kids of reaping age enter free!
[End of DOCUMENT 03]
After a week in the Capitol, Leo finally returned home to District 1, where he was welcomed home as the hero President Ravinstill wanted him to be, considered as such by his family, his people and his successors. Rightly so, Leo Vollard became eventually also Ravinstill's hero. He gave a new meaning to the Hunger Games and their existence in Panem, and in the following years he managed to convince most of District 1's population that being a tribute was an honor, as well as being a victor was a blessing. When he acknowledged Leo Vollard's persuasive force, President Ravinstill offered him a job as an actual actor in Capitol City's productions, knowing that the more he was on screen before thousands of people, the more he would be able to reach out to Panem's citizens and, as the President once wrote in a private letter, "touch their doubtful hearts". Leo accepted without a second thought, and for the years that came he starred in a total of 47 films (all of them are still in our Libraries' databases and can be watched freely), until he was too old to appear on Capitol TV anymore.
That, all that was and has always been the importance of Leo Vollard. He did not just win the Hunger Games, he was not just another survivor. He did not just overshadow his predecessors, and he wasn't just the first victor from District 1. Leo Vollard was and did so much more than that: he was the face and the mouth of the Capitol as well as its ambassador in the districts. Leo Vollard was the one thing the Treaty of Treason was supposed to produce. A true victor above all other losers.