"Simple Song"

A/N: Keeping this chapter a bit shorter/less dense because it's the last prologue, and because at the end of this chapter I'll have the finalized tribute list, and a link to the blog!

~I know that things can really get rough when you go it alone

Don't go thinking you gotta be tough, and bleed like a stone~

Coira Thompson, 33, Hunger Games Interviewer

The stage was set. In just a few short weeks twenty-four tributes would come on stage and plead their case to Panem for why they deserve to be the sole survivor. Banners with the Capitol seal stamped on them covered the room. Bright lights lit up the stage with a yellow glow, while thousands of seats stretched back countless rows. Coira was used to the stage. She had sat on that grand, pastel chair and overseen the interviews last year. It was by all rights belonging to her. That throne was hers. Yet it still felt to her that by even standing on the same stage as that seat she were trespassing, filling a role that she couldn't ever live up to.

"It's nice to see you, Coira." Jaycen stepped out of the shadows, joining her on the stage.

Coira didn't turn to face her old friend. She only continued to stare into the spotlight. "We both know your intentions by you wanting to meet here of all places, so go ahead and say your piece so we can be done with it."

Jaycen quirked a half-smile. "Panem needs you to do this job. Quitting won't heal anything that's been broken."

"It's not about healing," Coira murmured, turning away from the lights as they brought tears to her eyes. "It's about moving on."

"I get it," Jaycen said. He sighed as he joined Coira's side, the two of them gazing out into the empty crowd. "Apollo's gone. Your dad was a good man, and a fantastic interviewer, but he's gone. His legacy will be passed on to someone else, and they'll be the one to carry it. He won't get to write an end to his own story. You can't change that fact, nobody can. " Jaycen turned to face her, the tiniest shadow of a twinkle in his eye. "But you can decide who will pick up his pen, and finish it."

Coira shook her head. "You don't know what that means, who my father was."

"You're right, I don't." Jaycen moved towards the chairs at the center of the stage, brushing his hand up against the arm of the seat. "Nobody does, in fact, seeing as I burned the file on him, and every person who had ever read it is now dead. Nobody knows anything about Apollo Thompson, who he truly was, except for you."

"You don't understand," Coira said. She turned away from the empty crowd. Her eyes were stained a glassy red as tears pooled up, threatening to spill over at the slightest move.

"I understand that once your father was a young man, living in a nation that was on the brink of collapse, a nation that had nearly burnt itself to ashes in fighting itself. He was a person who saw a bleeding country, and helped it to heal. A person who saw a lonely orphan, and helped her to heal."

Jaycen stepped towards Coira, but she avoided his gaze, her eyes falling to the ground. After the Mockingjay Rebellion, when the dust had finally settled, she was only a kid. Six years old and she had lost her parents, and beyond age, Apollo was in most ways just a kid too. He was broken, a person who had lost so much, had made so many awful mistakes, yet kept on pushing forward. He saw her, a girl who had lost everything, and together the two of them helped each other learn to grow past who they were.

Jaycen continued. "My father, you know, he taught us that history will always move towards progress. We've taken a massive step back, and that sometimes happens. Sometimes those steps are more like leaps, which take you all the way back to the beginning. But progress marches on all the same. As long as one good person is left in the world, one person who dares to dream of a world better than the one we have, progress will come."

"Well, then it's good that Panem has you," Coira said, lifting her head to meet Jaycen face-to-face, the tears evaporating as she hardened her features.

"I'm not a good man." Jaycen's voice quaked, and now it was his turn to peel away his eyes and face the reflection painted across the floor. "I've lost my claim to that."

A silence fell over the pair. The only sound that filled the room was the hum of electricity and the whistling of the strong breeze that barraged the outdoors. Coira heard none of it. "I don't know what you expect me to do."

"All that you can," said Jaycen. "Nothing more. Nothing less."

Coira shook her head, absently brushing a hand through her rough, dark brown hair. "You think too highly of me."

Jaycen shrugged, a sad smile forming on his lips. "It's a habit."

He reached into his pocket, and without explanation tossed a small, silver device towards his oldest friend. She caught it in her hand, and didn't need to spare a moment examining it to know what it was.

"Give Connie my love," he said. A red dot lit up on the device, and by the time Coira raised her eyes, Jaycen was already out of the spotlight, hurrying off the stage in the shadow of the large banners that filled the room.

Coira decided not to follow. Instead, she stood in the spotlight for a little while longer, deep brown eyes staring off into an empty crowd. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but she swore even now she could hear them, the lost echoes of ghosts ringing through her ears.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who submitted! I've gotten so many amazing submissions, and sadly had to turn down a lot of characters I wish I could have accepted. I ended up getting 30 submissions for only 14 slots, and all of them were brilliant in their own ways. I ended up opening more spots than I originally intended just to get as many in as possible, meaning now the only non-POV tributes will be the D4 pair.

I've posted the link to the blog here, as well as on my profile, and would love if you could check it out and let me know what you think (blog reviews are food). Now, without further ado, here is the final tribute list for the 102nd Hunger Games!

lastofus102nd . blogspot . com (erase the spaces)

(PS: make sure to check the full list, I moved a lot of tributes around to second/third choices cause half y'all put D5 as your #1 district lol)

District One

Male: Troy Magnison, 18- david12341

Female: Vivian Ostera, 18- TheEngineeringGames

District Two

Male: Talon Olympus, 18 - david12341

Female: Lana Birkhead, 12- david12341

District Three

Male: Ty Bale, 16- CelticGames4

Female: Julie Novum, 14- david12341

District Four

Male: Logan Hurt, 18- david12341

Female: Aphrodite Silva, 18- david12341

District Five

Male: Nikola Surge, 17- Reader Castellan

Female: River, ~14- david12341

District Six

Male: Arnold "Arkus" Smitt, 18- david12341

Female: Earhart Robertson, 15- Goldie031

District Seven

Male: Vesa Carlisle, 18- PercyJacksonAlways

Female: Juniper Lourdes, 16- Andii99

District Eight

Male: Udon Chang, 16- AlexFalTon

Female: Inesa Hugo, 18- HogwartsDreamer113

District Nine

Male: Lane Freeley, 16- Jimster920

Female: Ciera Ocussia, 18- 66samvr

District Ten

Male: Jamie Curie, 12- CozenCraze

Female: Persephone Saskia, 16- Merp1Molecule

District Eleven

Male: Marquise Clifton, 18- ANTonio-banderas

Female: Bethany Hopper, 16- foxfox12

District Twelve

Male: Denver Lyon, 18- david12341

Female: Sparrow Kalani, 12- david12341