like a phoenix from the ashes // victoria kronoa's speech

She'd waited for five years for a chance to enact her ambition.

And for five years, she'd been let down, again and again, as Carmine Downer ignored the promise she had made to not only Jewel, but to the people of Thirteen who had supported her as well. Why, the smartest thing that girl had done had been to not announce a bid for reelection come the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Dark Days.

Though, to be quite honest, she was a little disappointed that that meant that she couldn't beat her ass with her own candidacy this time around. But that was mostly swept away by the fact that the only candidates to gain any traction this time around were herself and Accolade, a member from the same ideology as she was.

Regardless as to who won, Thirteen would right its wrong committed over three quarters of a century ago. The only question was, who would lead her.

In most cases, she'd be perfectly content to let this young firebrand take center stage and lead her home to the glory it deserved as Panem's savior. But after Jewel's defeat and Carmine's subsequent failure, she figured that if this was going to go right, she might as well take the mantle of leadership herself.

"People of Thirteen!" she called out, projecting her voice across the sanctum. "For too long, we have stood idly by as the Capitol enacts treason upon murderous treason on our brothers and sisters and siblings on the surface. For too long, Thirteen has remained complicit in the crimes of the Capitol, letting them have their way with innocent children as we suffer through our purgatory six feet under."

There was a wild glint in her eyes, passion and anger flowing through her voice as natural as the very words that left her tongue. "Today, I say: No more! It is time that we right our wrong that our ancestors made, time for us to take our place back amongst the surface and end the tyranny of the Capitol while doing so!"

Pause, a breath, and suddenly the air shifted to something almost somber in tone. "Too many innocent children have paid the price for our survival. Every goddamn year, Coriolanus Snow murders, corrupts, and plays with the lives of twenty four children so that we may live through our purgatory, never to see the sun, only to slowly waste away beneath the earth like corpses. Well, I say, enough is enough, Thirteen!

A glance back and forth between the people of her home, and she couldn't help but be so very proud of the future that was to come. "By electing me, you yourselves become the very saviors of this nation, the saviors of thousands of poor, innocent children that have died so we may live, and together, we will see the sun rise - not only on us, but on our future."