[D2] 75th Hunger Games Volunteering Thread

Cassiopeia did not pause to watch the world be inundated by a wash of freshly golden sunlight as the world took its first breath after long cold midwinter night. The blonde barely spared the sunrise a first glance as it cast its warmth over the snowy earth which sparkled like iridescent diamonds scattered carelessly on the ground. All around her she could feel nature stretching herself awake, thawing frost cracked as if the trees were her bones, creaking and groaning as she woke but Cassiopeia paid no mind to it; she only wanted to reach the top of the ridge and an eager determination was etched on her face.

Her lungs burnt- her breathes harsh and deep- as Cassiopeia pushed onwards and upwards the steep pathway at a jogging pace; the cold was so sharp that the career could barely feel her toes or the tips of her gloved things, leaving them tingling with a cooling fire that winter always bought. Despite the cold, the career always made this climb. Not everyday, but at least once a week for the past 12 years she made the climb to the top of the ridge before heading straight back down the way she had come; many thought the run was pointless if she did not pause at the ridge to at least admire the view but Cassie had no need for the mundane art of watching the sunrise.

Last nights snow crunched underfoot as the young woman finally reached the top of ridge. Her legs ached beneath her lean body as she came to a halt where the ridge dropped down again for a few more meters before falling away down a steep and sheer cliff to where the District border met the fence and a forest- cold, dense and dead in winter- stretched for miles upon miles, a graveyard of skeletal trees, dusted lightly with a tint of frost making them appear bone like, washed into the vast sea which was the wilderness. This was the only thing she saw when she came on this run, the empty world that lied beyond the fence.

Yet today, she hesitated. The blonde sighed softly and her breath froze on the morning air, a dainty cloud which billowed from her mouth like a dragons as she lingered a few moments more. There was another chill in the air, an odd and rare chill that either sent a sickening shiver down your spine or filled your body with overbearing giddy excitement. Cassie always felt a bit of both. As a child, she had always felt her stomach knot together with nerves, tears brimming her eyes with every waking moment until her father beat her for it. Today, usually, she would feel excitement burn through her blood, a raging emotion she could barely control. Now it was different, her stomach knotted with a different kind of uncertainty about today.

Today felt like looking at a broken mirror and not knowing what to expect. The uncertainty simmered in her like a bubbling cauldron, a horrid concoction of nerves and elation and while she hoped it would fade on her journey back down the ridge- like it usually did on days just like this- it only grew stronger. Suddenly her feet pounding against the rough dirt beneath her feet became almost deafening the closer and closer she got towards home- thudum. Thudum. Thudum. thudum. went the steady pulse of her footfall against the frozen earth. It drowned her mind in it’s music until she came to a halt suddenly at the bottom of the path to allow a peacekeeper truck pass by. The blonde chewed her lip, shaking her body of the nerves with a small shiver and shake of the head before she pressed on towards home- the last thing she wanted to be was late to the reaping.


Cassiopeia walked amongst the surging crowd, brushing the skirt of her black a-line dress down, fiddling with the hem she had always meant to get fixed. She could not help but notice that the nerves she thought she had washed away with fresh air remained, bubbling around her, an ocean of mystery that she did not like. As her bright, blue eyed gaze washed over the crowd, she allowed herself to tune out the hum of chatter around her, the obnoxious click, click, click of her kitty heels tapping against the cobble of the street until all she could hear was her steady breaths.

After a few moment’s things settled but as the blonde moved to the front of the line to have her name ticked off and her blood taken for identity checks, she could not help but feel that nagging chill, pulling at her soul as she took her place. Suddenly the grandur of Panem’s anthem echoed over the square, hushing the excited and impatent chatter among the crowd, causing each and every head to turn to the screens which hung from the Justice of Peace. The freckled blonde glanced up to see Panem’s logo fade to the lime stream of President Snow; the old man would always make Cassiopeia grimace. He reminded her of her father; she watched as he stepped to his podium and even here, she could feel an overwhelming sense of power wash over her. A terrifying one.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 75th Annual Hunger Games! Of course, the 75th Annual Hunger Games are a Quell — and as such, there will be a change to the Rules." Cassiopeia watched with growing anticipation as he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a glimmering golden envelope, the site of which sent a nattering whisper through the crowd, like a tiding of magpies had just spotted the shiniest treasure they’d laid their eyes on. "To remind the Districts that rebellion is punished and supporting the Capitol is rewarded," the man grinned, his perfect smile peering out from beneath his traditional moustache "the tributes of the 75th Annual Hunger Games will be volunteers only. All volunteers will be accepted and their respective Districts given an increase of supplies for the coming year, while any Districts that fail to provide tributes will have their provisions cut."

As the news rippled through the crowd, an eeiery silence followed in its wake. Cassiopeia felt a shiver move through the spine of the crowd, as the announcement began to slowly set in, an awful news which chilled them all to the very bone. The world held it’s breath awaiting the cheer of excitement that- usually- would crescendo at the announcement of the quell twist- even Cassie held her breath, her brow furrowing, waiting- but today the cheer, it never came. Not even a small applause filled the empty void. Only the sound of absolute shock, awe, consideration and fear surrounded them. Cassiopeia never thought she would see the day where two was shaken to its core, not like this.

"Well shit..." she muttered under breath as she finally allowed herself to exhale.

As the escort spoke, Cassie took this time to glance around her, search the crowd for her fellow tributes and Shaw’s that swirled in the sea of paled faces. Each and everyone she glanced at was staring at the stage as if they did not what to do, as if they were contemplating the very thing they had been taught to do before they could even hold a sword; if you are not reaped and you get the chance too, volunteer. Volunteer- a word in everyones vocabluary but now, it was almost a foreign concept to them, or at least they were treating it that way. As the blonde stood there, her mind racing, she realized three things-

1- Most in the crowd, now facing the choice, would rather sit back, relax put their feet up and fail their district. Faced with the option to kill, many were having their second thoughts.

2- Even in death, her father still instilled fear in her, one far greater than any games could.

3- This was her last chance.

And so, she did what must be done.

“I volunteer!” her voice cut through the air like a river, rushing through the mountains over boulder pebble and rock face in a determined and undevoted course to get to the ocean. As the crowd crumbled away before her as she walked to the stage, Cassie’s posture grew taller, straighter as she reminded herself who she was and what she would be as she climbed those steps. Cassiopeia took her place centre stage, head held high and a proud smile etched hastily across her lips.

She would not fail her family.

Not again.