Title taken from the short poem "A Song from Soweto" by June Jordan. Highly recommend you check that out before reading this chapter :)


On the spotted outskirts of the Capitol City lies a vacation destination and a home to a rare few citizens who still desire to wander aimlessly through old paths between towering ponderosa pines and coin-leafed quaking aspens. Soon, Phoebe thinks, these sickly green leaves will wilt and leave a thick, crunching blanket all across her backyard, but before they do, they'll turn iridescently yellow – so yellow, the sun might pale with embarrassment were it close enough to get a glimpse.

Phoebe's time with her arms outstretched to feel the warm Rocky Mountain sun coating her is limited. In what feels like only a few unguarded moments, she'll be whisked by lightning-speed trains back to her high-rise apartment, its hexagonal windows which give her a view straight to the Presidential Palace. Her apartment is gorgeous, quirky in a way that makes her feel unique to the thousands of citizens who strive for only the trendiest skin, hair, décor – but her apartment brings work.

Never having had the work ethic she wished she could conjure for herself, Phoebe has made a life for herself through sheer willpower and through the aid of constant trips back to her mother's manor at the edge of the fenced-off forest just outside the city. The forest has been inaccessible for decades, decades even before Phoebe was born. While she's always been curious, her laziness has led her to value her own freedom over a curiosity that might guide her to break the Capitol's rules. Besides, she's always been sated by the thin layer of trees that coat her mother's backyard.

She wonders if Gamemakers of years past have wondered about the forests just outside the Capitol's border enough to plop tributes down into them to discover what's in their depths. She knows it's a more complicated process than this, although she doesn't care to discover the details. If she had a knack for learning or an analytical mind to her, she might drop the Gamemaster schtick and become a Gamemaker herself.

She shuts her eyes and pictures the vastness of the world outside of their borders – too far away to reach on her own, but not so far that she can't imagine what might await the tributes this year. Scuba suits and underwater battles? A litany of high-rises in some ancient abandoned city to the far north or south? A jungle with creatures unknown to any citizen of Panem for centuries? Or maybe something mystical, something unnatural that only the most bored Gamemaker could construct. Or, perhaps, the Gamemaker with access to the best drugs.

It's set to be an excellent year. Phoebe shudders to think of all of the debrief meetings that trailed after the disappointment of last year's festivities. Twenty-four tributes entered the arctic hills of last year's arena, adorned with parkas as uniforms and plenty of trees in their wake for warm fires, and yet not a single one left. The final battle between two well-matched tributes lasted so long, mutts were sent to expedite the victory. Turns out, vicious, blood-hungry mutts with poorly done, last-minute programming are wont to do their job a little too well. So well, in fact, that not even the high-speed Capitol hovercrafts could swoop in and lifeline the dying victor from District Four quickly enough.

The only year without a single victor. Yikes.

Phoebe turns away from the thin underbrush and the whistles and trills of birds floating from branch to branch above her. The list of things she has left to do before returning for the Quell announcement starts swelling in her. Say goodbye to Mother. Collect my bags. Call the car. The list drowns her thoughts, and she's almost forgotten, just for a second, the thrill of the evening: the shock and delight when the rest of the Capitol hears the news.

Adults and children alike this year. This is going to be a blast.


In honor of the Hunger Games resurgence happening I'm reliving my Hunger Games days and giving myself an excuse to write :) Come along on this nostalgia journey with me :0

You can submit by shooting me a PM with the form on my profile or a form of your own if you have a premade tribute looking for a home. Some worldbuilding: I like to say that two people can win the Games because listen y'all I like a lil bit of romance if it makes sense but it's pretty unrealistic for two people to NOT resist falling in love if they both can't win. Plus makes alliances make a lil bit more sense too. Buuuut to add some Capitol spice, if the two are from different districts, it halves the winnings sent to their district, incentivizing them to kill the final person if they're not from their district and further pitting the districts against each other.

Since I didn't make it clear in the chapter (I couldn't bring myself to write a Quell announcement chapter and wanted to introduce my Caesar Flickerman character instead) - the Quell twist is that the age limit has been changed from 12-18 to 12-30, as a reminder that district citizens of all ages rebelled and must be punished for the actions of their ancestors, and districts will be paired up with partners outside of their district who they're not supposed to kill themselves as a reminder that the only unity in panem is unity which serves the capitol (also to complicate the whole you can only win if it's with a district partner thing). (ps this means that technically a parent who had their kid at age 18 could be reaped with their kid or volunteer to protect their kid of another gender. just saying bc that would be a fun heartbreaking thing)