"I just… Ugh, I can't deal with this one, Mom!" Lux Hastings shoved another strawberry danish into his mouth. He was always one to eat his feelings, and today was no exception.

Saxon Hastings took a sip of coffee from her mug, glancing at her son with amused silver eyes. "I'm sure that's not true."

"She's… Ugh, she's so…" Lux buried his face in his hands. "She's so…"

"I wasn't exactly the perfect announcer my first year, either." Saxon's relaxed posture tensed as the memories of the nightmare that was the 84th Games came back to her mind.

It was the year nobody talked about, for good reason. There were two co-Head Gamemakers, and by the final 6 both were dead. Saxon had walked in on their Games historian Ross trying to shake life into Santana Villanueva's dead body. It was horrible. After that, Saxon did a few more years of announcing before it became too much and she quit in favor of being a mother. Her interviewing counterpart, Blaine Buchanan, stuck with it much longer than she did. Saxon admired him for being able to do it.

"Maybe you weren't, but she's just so…" Lux tugged on his hair, frustrated. "AUGH!"

"Calm down now," Saxon said, amused. "You're all new at this, it's not going to work perfectly right away. Patience."

"Mom," whined Lux. "I'm not patient!"

"I know you're not, Honey. But these things take patience. So you're just going to have to deal."

Lux shoved yet another danish into his mouth. "It's not fair," he despaired.

"I know it's not."

"A' whe' Icci' 'ron I's 'us wos!"

"You're gonna have to say that again when your mouth isn't full, Dear."

Lux swallowed the bite that had been in his mouth and sighed. "When Piccolo's around, it's just worse."

"Things will balance out eventually. Just give it time."

"Why did they choose to hire the most rambunctious pair of twins in the entire Capitol!?" Lux shoved more food into his mouth.

"The same reason they hired Diesel Bundren, probably. Because they're damn good at what they do. No?"

"So maybe they're great at it, still though! I don't understand!"

"I know you don't." Saxon smiled affectionately at her son. "Well, call me jaded, but when I was your age, I was probably more like her than I was like you. There's a period of time where everyone's antsy and nobody knows what the dynamic is going to be like, but maybe if you all spent some time together you'd understand each other more."

"And what do you suggest? Go camping together in last year's evergreen Arena? Roast marshmallows over an open fire and stargaze and everyone will just be all cheery?"

"Sure. That sounds like a fine idea."

"Mom!"

"Only a suggestion."

Lux shoved another pastry into his mouth and pouted.

The TV in the room was showing a rerun of the Quell announcement. President Pilotheos Blossius was standing at the podium and delivering the words Lux had memorized since they had been announced.

"For the 125th Hunger Games, as a reminder to the Districts that many people lost loved ones, the reaping age will be narrowed from 15-18, and the tributes will fall in love during their time in the Games."

This set off a lot of buzz. You couldn't just make people fall in love. It only added to Lux's stress-eating. President Blossius assured Lux that they knew what to do, but the Head Gamemaker still had no idea what he meant. They still had a little less than a year, but for Lux that wasn't enough time to figure that out. He would leave the science to the scientists.

"You'll figure it out, Dear," Saxon said. Lux gave a small nod.

"It'd probably help to be in love," Lux sighed. He'd been in love before, but nothing that had been particularly successful. He was close to thirty and hadn't found someone to settle down with, which made him nervous.

However, his mother taught him that marriage isn't necessary for happiness. Saxon was aromantic and asexual, but wanted to be a mother, so she adopted a child and loved him: and raised him: well.

"You'll put it together."

"I sure hope so." Lux sighed. "But… She punched someone… In the face…"

Saxon burst out laughing. "Sounds like my kind of girl! Why?"

"They kept asking about her dead name or something."

"Oh, she went easy on 'em."

"Mom, you can't just punch people in the workplace."

"You can't just dehumanize and disrespect someone in the workplace."

Lux thought for a second, and realized that his mother was right before sighing and rubbing his temples. "You're right. I'll have to have a chat with that guy." He felt like punching that guy too, in hindsight. Lux sometimes got too worked up in professionalism, but luckily he had people there to snap him out of it. "But she always brings that stupid trombone to work with her, and you can't tell me that's justified because it's not."

Saxon laughed. "It helps her get into character?"

"It's. So. Loud, Mom."

Saxon just laughed. "Maybe if you just loosened up a little bit it wouldn't bother you. Consider it… Working music."

"You're awfully optimistic about this."

"I know you'll find a way to make it fun."

"I want to punt that stupid hunk of brass out the window."

Saxon just laughed, causing Lux to shove another danish in his mouth. "Just be patient."

"And that stupid fucking Piccolo. I want to snap it in half, burn it, and throw the ashes out into the wind."

"I do hope you don't mean the person."

"Of course not. Although the person is so loud too. Every day my ears are assaulted by that stupid march that goes like blup bum blup bum digadiga dum dum badabada Bum BA balalalalahhh-"

Saxon laughs louder at her son's failed attempt at trying to sing a trill. "Viridian Turner would kick your ass."

Lux sighed. He didn't know these people of whom she spoke, but most of them seemed pretty alright.

He ran his hands through the shaved sides of his hair, feeling more stressed than ever. Lux had an undercut, with the shaved sides his natural dark brown, top green and the tips silver. Combined with the dark blue contacts he wore and occasionally black glasses he didn't need, he gave off a very polished, intelligent vibe.

"I'll do anything to make this Games be… Not a trainwreck."

"Even go camping with your crew?"

"Mom, that's not professional!"

"Sometimes making friends is what it takes."

Lux sighed and buried his face in his hands again. Then, he sat up and stuffed another of those wonderful strawberry danishes into his mouth.

"Fine. If that's what it takes. I'll invite them all camping and we'll try not to kill each other. No trombones, though. I mean it."

Saxon just laughed. "You should consider changing your mind."

Lux stood up, sighing. "I don't have to. I'm still in charge here. I will keep order."

With that, the young Head Gamemaker gave a nod, turned around to fill his hands with whatever pastries he could carry, and quickly left the room, the door closing decisively behind him.

~.~.

A/N: Welcome to Danzón: The 125th Hunger Games! I'm not gonna say too much because all of the stuff is on my profile, but the form is using Google forms so please, don't try to submit using reviews. All of the rules and such are on my profile, so just go ahead and check it out! Also, the headcanons for how the District are currently faring. So I didn't really reveal much about the Quell twist in this chapter like I meant to… Whoops. Next prologue for sure. I have more ideas. But basically, as I say on my profile, the twist is that the tributes will be injected with fast-acting hormones that will make them more vulnerable/more likely to fall in love and/or have sex. You'll see next chapter. Whenever that is. I haven't sent a deadline yet but I will eventually. We just have to see how many people submit.

So, if you've flown on Celtic Airlines, welcome! Please fasten your seatbelts and take note of the nearest exit. In case of an emergency, oxygen masks will come down automatically. To inflate lifejackets, pull the cord, or put the tube in your mouth to blow it up manually. Yeah, I used this joke already, fight me. Your flight attendants, Pontifex, Dawson, Vardaman, Monty, and Diesel, will be around with some complementary peanuts and beverages.

In all seriousness, though, I hope you consider submitting. I've already completed one full SYOT, and one partial SYOT, plus one or two HG stories with all my own tributes. If that's not enough to convince you, I dunno what is. XD

So, I'll probably do a sponsor system for this story, and due to inflation nowadays it'll probably be harder to get items unless you review consistently and answer chapter questions, which will probably be more in-depth this time around because I like long reviews. And it's been far too easy to sponsor. I have to find that happy medium. Also, you get 6 points for a favorite and 4 for a follow, and for each one of my stories that isn't part of the sponsor compendium that you review is 5 points a piece. If you want more points, you can go back and read Voices, ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH!, Instinctive Travels, Masque, and/or Silhouettes and answer all the C/Qs to have about a million points. Seriously, Dreamer's past 800 right now. Hence, inflation.

"I'm not gonna say too much." Haha, whoops. This is just a thing that happens. I just like to talk I guess. Anyways, answer the Chapter Questions to get points so you can sponsor later on!

Chapter Question: Okay so this is going to be more general, but: How did you like Lux? Which characters struck the most interest/would you like to see more in the next prologues?