What's this? An A/N at the beginning of the chapter instead of the end? Well that, dear friends, is because at the very end lies nothing other than the tribute list! So go on, frantically scroll down to the end to see what the list is, and then feel free to dive into the chapter itself! I'll break down the chapter and the list itself at the very end, after y'all have gotten to meet our kooky District Five-assigned Capitolite mentor, Daphne Capere!
THE VOCAL FILES OF DAPHNE CAPERE, JOURNALIST, GOSSIP, AND ROOKIE MENTOR OF DISTRICT FIVE
BEGIN RECORDING
"Entry number nine hundred and twenty seven, date: May eighteenth, nineteen ay dee dee. Oh, to hell with that, I don't need to number this shit anymore - I got the job! I got the fucking job! Rumor has it that there were literally thousands of people who sent in applications of some sort, everyone from die-hard superfans to the rich and powerful, and I even heard that an infamous ex-con tried to get the gig - you know the lady who used to call herself Anna Kissed, the half-insane one who claimed to be President Dominus's quote unquote 'one true love' who would burn down the Capitol and headline an anarchist society to prove her devotion to him? Yeah, apparently even she applied - not that she was taken seriously or anything, but just goes to show just how far the Games have really become a part of today's society, yanno? But it was me who got it all along! No corporate fat cat who's had everything in life handed to him on a golden platter while he sat on a golden toilet seat, no no-life nerd who has every part of Triton Yang's habits, quirks, and anatomy committed to memory in hopes that he'll be the one to finally seduce him for real now that his obsession with Platinum Royale has finally worn off, no ordinary joe who just so happened to check it out because it's neat. And yes, all of those people are real. Unbelievable, right? Well, believe it, because I looked them up myself. Hey, don't give me that! I know that you guys are judging me over there behind your screens, and I'll have you know that I had to keep bread on the table somehow, and if writing the Ex Oh Gossip tabloid's trashy articles kept me paid, then I'll fucking write the hell out of some trashy articles! Even if it means slandering the weirdest of my rivals for all of Panem's most loose-lipped to chatter and chuckle about.
"Yes, I said weirdest, you heard me right. Trust me, you do not want to know why Mr. Ordinary Joe, Trademark, over there caught my attention.
"But enough of that. I got the freaking job! District Five's new mentor for the Nineteenth Annual Hunger Games, Trademark, will be none other than moi! Yours truly, Daphne Capere, here to guide and advise two lucky district kids in the way of the greatest spectacle in all of Panem. Were I a more humble woman, I'd say I'd be surprised, but really? The only odds against me were the numbers. I'm shrewd, talented, an amazing investigative journalist - hell, I even survived the loyalty tests that they put me through! Did you know that those were used to scope out real live rebels back during the Dark Days? But since there really aren't any rebels left, the technology has become redundant. I get it though. You only want your best and brightest mentoring the kids until they get good enough to send one of their own to do the job for us instead, and that's not gonna work if you have someone half-assing it the entire time. Like, seriously, just look at Balderic. The man has supposedly given his tributes the same advice every year, his famous battle cry of 'Plant your feet in the ground! Summon your inner warrior! Never give up! And stand and fight!', which may have worked out well on the battlefield, or maybe even for the Coliseum days and that one time he got a kid in the finale, but today? Trying to 'stand and fight' when not one but two districts are sending their own personal trained prodigies into the Games? Like, at this point I genuinely can't tell if he's stupid or simply incompetent. Probably a bit of both, let's be real here.
"But hey, if someone like that can hold Twelve down all on his own for nineteen years and counting, then hey, that's already one rival I don't have to worry about beating. Only ten more to go!
"...and only two and a half more months to try and figure out the arena and put together a coherent strategy. Fuck my life.
"No, no, no negativity, Daphne, especially on this day of all days. Spin it around, make it positive! Like, seriously, just imagine if I happened to find out all of the juicy secrets before the Games even began. No one has ever done that before because the Gamemakers are notorious recluses at best and just plain rude at worst - but no one has also ever been a mentor before, right?
"Ah, I know, wishful thinking. If I want to last longer than any of the other six poor fucks that held this job before me, then I have to play fair, play by the rules, and all that jazz. And really, do I need to do the impossible? I'm just about to become the envy of all of my co-workers simply by telling them I'm about to quit, because I'm moving on to bigger and better things! Who needs to worry about some stupid old scoop anyway? Not me, that's for sure.
"Oh my, now look who that is! Hey! Capricious! Get a load of th-"
END RECORDING
BEGIN RECORDING
"Entry number nine hundred and sixty two, date: June fourteenth, nineteen ay dee dee. Yeah, I know, I know. Look, old habits die hard, okay? I don't know, this just does feel right without that opening narration!
"But I digress. Today's officially the first day on the job, so to speak, as in the first day I really get to do anything Games-y. Turns out that for all of its pomp and splendor, the only time that mentors really do anything Games related is, surprise surprise, during the Games itself. So ya girl here has to do a little bit of improvising!
"And turns out that every year, my predecessors would get together at this kooky little joint called the Golden Cornucopia - I know, it's so on the nose, right? But apparently it's like, the hot spot for sponsors and victors when the Games are in full swing cause it's got literally everything, like a bar and a restaurant and a VIP lounge and apparently even some services that I can't say because you never know whose kid might pick this up and I sure as hell don't want to get sued. Anyway, look at me goin' off on a side tangent again. Now where was I? Oh right, right. So yeah, seems like every year up till now, all of the Capitolite mentors would gather around at this Games-themed joint 'round a month before the Reapings to share some drinks, get caught up on the year's happenings, and take bets on the upcoming Reapings. No, seriously, as in literally placing bets - who would get a crier, who would get the youngest, would Leonidas's chosen be a boy or a girl, that sorta stuff - and even though there's only three of us left, the tradition still stands. Somehow. I mean, it's mostly habit at this point Balderic just seems perpetually depressed and keeps to himself and his resting brooding face - hell if I know why, with a track record like his - and Vespasian much rather seems to prefer hamming it up with whichever rich bastard looks the drunkest. Something tells me it's not to get a head start on sponsors for whatever poor saps they pull outta Eight this year.
"Still, it's one thing to hear rumors about these people and then to actually meet them in real life as their equal, yanno? Like, twenty years ago Balderic was one of the biggest names in the Capitol as some big shot war hero second only to the Prez himself, and yet all I see here is a sad, tired old man who'd rather be anywhere else than here at this moment. And Vespasian was this real hit stylist, right? Like, there's a reason that the victor of the Twelfth was almost a girl from Eight instead of that little shrimp from Eleven, and that wasn't because of her mentor, it was because Vespasian's talent in making his fashion stand out. But good lord is he one of the shallowest fuckers I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. Like, I'd be surprised if he even lasted a full minute after the topic switched to the Games before he 'politely excused himself to go catch up with an old friend.' The Capitol's best and brightest, my ass.
"It really makes you think, though, right? Balderic's the only mentor Twelve has had in two decades, from the 1st all the way up to the 19th. Vespasian's the third mentor that Eight has seen, and this'll be his sixth year. Yet if they're so incompetent, then how the hell is Five the one that's had so much turnover? Balderic's incompetent, Vespasian's apathetic, yet it's Five that's on their seventh mentor. Were my predecessors really that inept?
"That's what I wondered, too. So, in lieu of, you know, breaking into the Gamemaker headquarters and finding out the arena ahead of time, I decided to do some research, yanno? And turns out, 'mentor' isn't really a position you can be fired from! Like, take a look here. Listen. Ugh, same thing!
"Okay okay, enough of that. Here we are. First up was 'Drusilla Grimvalde', mentor from the 1st to the 4th, oldest mentor assigned of the original twelve, passed away peacefully in her sleep days before her eighty-ninth birthday. How the hell did an old lady like that survive one of those mentorships, let alone four? Second, 'Dapper Denzel', mentor of the 5th, retired after Jaeyoon Kim nearly blew up the arena. Fair, fair, it's not like he was named 'Courageous', am I right? Here's where it gets interesting though. 'Alderic Baldomero', mentor from the 6th through the 9th, executed for suspected rebel activity. Rebel activity, from a mentor! It never elaborates on what, exactly, only that it was clearly seditious and threatening enough that the Prez just straight up beheaded the guy. And then after that, it's three in a row of the same - 'Elodie Mayweather, 10th through 13th', 'Nero Melodiant, 14th through 16th,' and 'Kingsley Kramer, 17th and 18th' all quote unquote, 'retired into obscurity' within weeks after their respective last Games. Quite the coincidence if you ask me, given that of the three, only Nero was more than half old Drusilla's age. I wonder if there's a pattern behind it, or if it's merely coincidence. Like, okay, Five's the only district to never have a victor or a finalist, I get that - Balderic had one in the 7th, and Eight had the 12th and 15th, so even they've had the latter - but if incompetence was the rational for my predecessor's departure, then why the hell are they still there?
"Course, it could be entirely possible that dear old Elodie, Nero, and Kingsley simply grew tired of dealing with those two as their only brethren-in-arms remaining from the Capitol. Personally, I can't really blame them."
END RECORDING
BEGIN RECORDING
"Entry number nine hundred and ninety nine, date: July fourth, nineteen ay dee dee. And before you ask, yes, the brief hiatus after the last entry was intentional - what better way to mark my one thousandth voice memo ever recorded by having my first two tributes guest feature in it? Kind of like the shifting of an era, you know? The first thousand are from my pre-mentoring life, while the next thousand will be after. It's a good pattern in my opinion. Maybe every thousand I should try and accomplish a new life goal or something like that? That sounds like it'd be-
"What? Shut up? You shut up! Yes, I do, in fact, realize that the reapings start in seven minutes! Don't you know who I am?!
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Nosy fucker, that mayor's aide. He has a point though - we're finally gonna get to see this year's crop of tributes! I'm finally gonna get to see my first two mentees! Honestly, I'm not sure if I want them to be my last two or not - that either means I've managed a great success not seen since the very first Games or I've committed some sort of unthinkable offense beyond mere incompetence that ends up in my removal, but either way that means this whole experience is just, you know, over and done with! And truthfully, I'm not sure if I want that. Five's so nice and quaint, even if its people could stand to learn some manners, and it'd be nice to take a short little vacation here every Reaping weekend, yanno?
"But enough of that. I for one am excited for tonight, you know? My tributes get to show off their stuff to the world, I get to mingle with the victors as one of their own - hell, by the end of it all even lil old me in charge of one of the most forgettable districts in all of Panem will be a household name! That's how big these things are! And the victors-ooooooh, the victors! I'm so excited.
"Let's see, let's see…still got five minutes till it all starts, so let's do some rapid fire gossip on the victors. Starting with District One - ah yes, Platinum will finally have a protege of her own to share the spotlight with after ten years! She's so charismatic and beautiful though that I do wonder if she'll even let poor Silk tag along - sharing the spotlight has never really been her thing, yanno? Kind of a waste if you ask me - being the most recent victor is an honor you only ever get once in your life, yanno? Oh well, if she's not around, then more power to me! Hell, maybe that's even a good thing - all of the newcomer spotlight being on me instead…
"Oh right, gossip. Apparently District Two is going to bring Gunnar along for the first time too, after his mysterious disappearance last year. It was really weird, you know? Most districts are proud to show off their newest victor for as long as possible, use it as a chance to gain the spotlight and maybe some sponsors because everyone wants to be the first district to get back-to-back winners, yanno? But in what was truly a first, Gunnar was nowhere to be seen last year! And no one really knows why either - not from lack of effort, mind you, I did try to get the scoop, but no one's gonna send a Capitolite to the districts unless you're a Peacekeeper or on official Games business. That's why there's all this speculation that Platinum might leave Silk home too, cause whatever One or Two does these days, the other is doing the next year.
"District Three….hmmm, that's been pretty boring ever since Jaeyoon lost all of his family shortly after winning. Threes mostly keep to themselves, and he's no exception, just kinda minding his own business. No Capitolite ads, no public scandals, nothing from the last six months at all except for the fact that he apparently scared a kid at the cemetery his parents are buried in. But even that's a stretch - I mean, really, the guy blew up an arena fourteen years ago, oooh ahhh, the least you think he could do would be something interesting after that!
"Four though, now that's a district that loves to catch attention. Surprisingly, it's not Cove this time, but Triton! Yes, seriously, he found something aside from his pretty boy stick to become relevant for! Apparently he hosted some sort of live reenactment of his Games in front of a crowd of kids or something last month, even using a replica of the spear he won with, and that caused a major stir, cause now you have half of the games experts saying he's trying to take after Leonidas and Platinum and train his own batch of kids to enter the Games while the other half couldn't take him less seriously because of how absurd the reenactment was! Like yeah, okay, maybe he didn't have his shirt off in the actual Games, but you don't see me complaining!
"Then you got Six, which you'd think would be like Three because Theodora's about as interesting as last year's winter fashion line, but apparently the girl has spunk, because rumor has it she single-handedly stopped a gang war from happening right in front of her childhood orphanage! Now, I say that's about as likely as Six getting their second win this time around - that is, to say, hardly at all - but still, the mere fact that she's even sort of relevant is shocking all on its own.
"The outer districts honestly aren't all that interesting - Elwood's still going steady with the same girlfriend he's had since before he won, which ugh, give us the drama! Bale and Elliot continue to hide away from the public eye which is a shame, because I am such a big fan of that little bromance stick they bring every time they mentor, Ambrosia donated to another local charity, and Wyatt had his abs plastered on another fashion magazine - no, not Ex Oh, cause I was really the only one pushing for that and after I left, hah! Who was going to organize something like that? Capricious? Don't make me laugh.
"What? It's starting? Well, why didn't you tell me so? Oooooh, I'm so excited you guys, you have no idea! Catch you on the flip side with my first two mentees!
END RECORDING
So here we are! While the three Capitolite mentors won't get quite as much of a focus as the victors will, they're still some of the most important side characters in the entire story through the merit of mentoring six of our soon-to-be-beloved-and-potentially-brutally-murdered youth. Daphne was chosen as the PoV for this chapter because, as the newest mentor about to enter her first year of mentoring, she offered a fresh take on the Games different from the mostly traumatized victors or the jaded Balderic and Vespasian. The choice to write her out exclusively in voice memos throughout three key moments leading up to the reapings was likewise to show the uniqueness of her voice - here's a Capitolite who's clearly brilliant in her own right, yet so unequivocally still maintaining the ignorance towards the Games that we've seen many a time throughout both canon and fandom works set in Panem, and honestly her prologue was probably my favorite of the three to write for that reason.
But enough of me yammering, y'all got the worldbuilding and the voice and all of that in the chapter itself. So now for the long awaited list. As a first-time writer here on this good old site, I was honestly not expecting much, so to get a whopping 35 submissions in total absolutely blew me away. That ended up being more than enough to fill up all 24 slots in the fic, making it a full instead of the partial I was preparing to write, and I am so so so excited to navigate each and every one of their stories with y'all over the next few months!
Disclaimer that, because I did end up getting more than 24 slots, I inevitably had to deny some of them, and if your character didn't make the cut, I deeply apologize for that. That being said, this is far from the only SYOT I plan on writing, so if you submitted in the past and didn't make the cut, I strongly encourage you to submit again for those future fics, as I enjoyed each and every submission that I received!
Okay, enough talk. Here's the list for your viewing and screaming pleasure;
District One:
D1f - Andrasteia Locket (Kkstar47)
D1m - Luminê Paradisus (DariDark)
District Two:
D2f - Minthe Alexopoulos (QueenOfMorning37)
D2m - Wyatt Frescott (HumanWiki)
District Three:
D3f - Ellison Abel (recklessinparadise)
D3m - Chase Desmond (Very New To This)
District Four:
D4f - Skylar "Sky" Levaria (ShadowMoose)
D4m - Asher Rivera (Son of Arryn)
District Five:
D5f - Nix Liu (averyrandomauthor)
D5m - Aegean "Gene" Smalt (Audmirable)
District Six:
D6f - Valentina Ferrari (goldie031)
D6m - Valon Terraza (ladyqueerfoot)
District Seven:
D7f - Shea Sinclair (recklessinparadise)
D7m - Oisin O'Donnell (Ace-0f-Sw0rds)
District Eight:
D8f - Elida Orsala (ladyqueerfoot)
D8m - Sterling Satinette (geologyisms)
District Nine:
D9f - Aiday Farkas (averyrandomauthor)
D9m - Cyrus Ackerman (LadyCordeliaStuart)
District Ten:
D10f - Dahlia Arlette (goldie031)
D10m - Felipe Barrer (BaskingMagic)
District Eleven:
D11f - Damia Yarbrough (rising-balloons)
D11m - Chidi Bankole (rising-balloons)
District Twelve:
D12f - Kaliopi "Kal" Moscowitz (QueenOfMorning37)
D12m - Mino Rossi (Very New To This)
