Prologue 1

Clarity Dalloway, age 51
Citizen of the Capitol

I said I'd buy the flowers myself.

Lucinda, after all, has her work cut out for her. The house has to be in perfect shape for Salvia's arrival, so Lucinda, my maid, is in charge of cleaning it and tidying it up. Of course, I could have sent her out on an errand to get the flowers, but today…

Today is a lovely day.

I throw open the windows and smile out into the sun, taking a deep breath of fresh air. The weather is perfect, not too hot or too cold, and fluffy white clouds dot the clear blue sky. I remember the weather being like this years ago, all those years ago when I spent a summer with Salvia Seton out in the country during the best time of our lives.

Well, at least it was the best time of my life. I don't know what Salvia has been up to these days. It's been a few years since I last saw her in person, which is why her visit today is so important to me. Rich, my husband, will be out working as usual, and Elizabella, my daughter, will be with her friends from school. In other words, there will be no one around to stop Salvia from running down the hallway naked. I find myself blushing as my heart beats faster. Well, I hope things don't come to that this time around.

Have a little dignity, Clarity, I scold myself as I get ready to leave the house. You're not young anymore, and neither is Salvia.

I put on my favorite hat, the green one with the feathers, and take my umbrella before stepping out into the streets. The pleasantness of the weather and the bustle of the crowd help take me away from my nervousness. I wonder how Salvia is doing. I know she is in a happy marriage and raising five sons, but does she still have those dangerous ideas about the Capitol? It was because of those ideas that I decided not to marry her, despite definitely being in love with her all those years ago. She's happily married, so probably thriving, so she can't possibly still be such a rebel, right?

As I walk through the lovely streets of the Capitol, I wonder if maybe Salvia's marriage isn't as happy as it seems. I push the thought away, not knowing where it came from. Perhaps it's my own marriage - there was never much love between Rich and me, and I can't say I'm happy with him. Maybe I should have married Plutus Walsh instead - I rejected his marriage proposal many years ago - but would I have been happy with him if I did? I don't know if he could have made me feel the way I felt towards Salvia.

Salvia, Salvia, Salvia. For some reason my thoughts keep drifting back to Salvia Seton. I try not to dwell too much on her upcoming visit, and I manage to distract myself with the smell of flowers, fresh from District 11. I've arrived at the florist's.

I select the bouquet carefully. I need to convey that I'm interested in talking to Salvia again, so I'll probably pick some more warm colors, and god forbid I include a rose in that bouquet because if I do she might get the wrong idea. I don't want to spend too much time worrying about the flower arrangement or anything really, so I quickly settle on a bouquet and make my purchase. It has more pink than I hoped, but it's really quite pretty. It'll make a nice centerpiece when Salvia visits.

I bid the florist a farewell and head straight home. It isn't a long walk anyways, and I don't want anything to happen to these flowers. I still take the time to enjoy the warm sun and the lovely clouds in the sky.

I arrive at my house and quickly set about arranging the flowers in my favorite vase. Usually Lucinda does these things, but for some reason I feel that I should be the one to arrange the flowers today. I've barely started when the doorbell rings.

"I'm really not expecting Salvia until later today," I mutter to myself as I leave the flowers half-arranged. I go to the door and find out that it's Plutus Walsh.

What is he doing here? Last time I checked, he was doing business in District 10, of a sort that I never cared about. He's always been unpredictable, though, and I can't find it in me to not let answer the door. So I do.

"Clarity!" Plutus exclaims with a smile. He takes out a fancy pocketknife and fiddles with it, which is one of his many annoying habits. I find the man to be annoying in general, really, even though he's mostly just a harmless sap who fails at most everything he tries.

"Hello, Plutus," I say, politely but not icily. "I thought you were in District 10."

"I was, I was," he says exuberantly, tucking his pocketknife away. "But I'm back! I'm back to make the divorce arrangements and then the marriage arrangements."

I can't help but stare at him blankly. "You're what?" I say.

"Oh, you didn't hear?" Plutus asks, still unusually exuberant. "I'm in love! For real this time! With a girl I met while I was in District 10. She's married, which is why I said divorce arrangements - well, I meant mostly mine, but you get what I mean." He smiles broadly. "Clarity, what do you think the Quell Twist will be?"

"Hopefully something that doesn't involve forty-eight tributes like last time," I say with a smile, glad to no longer be talking about Plutus's love life. "I'm hoping for something simple, yet interesting."

"It's going to be announced later today," Plutus says with a nod. "I think I'll go watch the announcement on the big screen in the park. Of course, I was just in the park, but today was going to be a park day anyways. Speaking of, I came across an interesting couple in the park earlier today."

"Do tell," I say. I'll have to admit that I find Plutus's excitability somewhat endearing.

"The woman didn't look like she was from here, really, but she was still quite tidy and pretty," Plutus says. "She definitely didn't seem to fit with the guy. He looked like a Capitolite, more so than the woman, but he was kind of staring off into space and muttering to himself."

"Huh," I murmur. Before I can say anything else, however, Plutus claps me on the shoulder.

"Well Clarity, that was a nice distraction but I best be on my way," he says, exuberant as ever. "I have business to attend to, with the divorce and marriage and all. It was nice talking to you, Clarity."

"You too," I say with a pleasant smile, and Plutus Walsh is gone as quickly as he came.

What a strange fellow, I think as I resume the activity I was doing before being interrupted. In love! With a married woman while being married himself! I'm glad I didn't marry him.

Salvia will arrive at three and the Quell Announcement is at five, which means that hopefully Salvia will be able to stay and watch it with me. I finish arranging the bouquet. Now all I need to do is wait.

At two forty-five, I find that I'm nervous and excited as I pace around the house. She's going to show up, right? I arrange the bouquet for the umpteenth time. I straighten everything I find, even though Lucinda has straightened everything already. I gaze at the family pictures and let out a sigh. Neither Rich nor I look happy in any of them. I wonder if Salvia will notice, and I wonder if I should tell her how I feel about my marriage. I shake my head slightly. No, that wouldn't be appropriate.

At five minutes past three, the doorbell rings. My heart leaps up, and I take a deep breath, knowing that it's Salvia. I straighten my back and answer the door.

"Clarity," the woman at the door says with a smile. I can hardly believe it's her. Salvia has a mature and subdued energy about her, a far cry from the wildness of her youth. But she's pretty as ever, and I find myself staring before I catch myself. I nod and smile back.

"It's been a while, Salvia," I say, reaching out to give her a hug. She returns it warmly.

"How have you been?" Salvia asks as we break apart.

In all honesty, thinking about you, I think privately to myself.

"Good, good," I lie, deciding that it doesn't make sense to burden Salvia with negativity right now. "Elizabella is seventeen now, definitely growing up fast. I wish you could see her - she's very changed from when you last met her - but she's with friends from school."

"Ah, well, I'm sure there will be another time," Salvia says lightly. "May I come in?"

"Yes, of course."

Salvia steps into the house, and I close the door behind her. She looks around.

"Life is pretty good for me too, we had a lovely 25th anniversary celebration earlier this year," Salvia says. "We went to the Restaurant Stratosphere, me and my husband, without the kids. It's amazing how much you can see from up there."

"I'm glad you had a good time," I say with a smile. "Come in, come in. We can sit in the TV room. We have a lot to catch up about."

We converse pleasantly for a few hours. It's mostly small talk, but I greatly enjoy being with Salvia. She still has an energy about her, but it's quietly radiant rather than bubbling the way it was when we were young.

I don't even notice that it's five, but the TV switches on to broadcast the Quell Announcement. Salvia and I watch with interest as President Snow addresses the nation. He greets Panem and runs through the two previous Quarter Quells, the 25th Games where Districts voted their tributes into the Arena and the 50th Games where there was double the usual number of tributes. Then he picks out the envelope for the Third Quarter Quell, opens it, and reads it aloud for the entire country to hear.

"On the 75th anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that they are completely at the Capitol's mercy thanks to their choice to initiate violence, the tributes will be chosen by the President of Panem and there will be no volunteers."

Interesting, I think as the words sink in.

"That's awful," Salvia murmurs as the watching crowd on the TV applauds. "All that power in one person's hands to make a cruel game even crueler."

So Salvia still has those rebellious ideas of her youth, I think, my heart hurting slightly as I look away from her angry eyes. I'm glad I didn't marry her. But I'm also not glad that I married Rich...

A/N: This is very inspired by Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. I know no one will get the references, but I write for myself and it's fun basing my subplot around one of my favorite pieces of classic lit.

Hello everyone and welcome to The Hours, my second SYOT. Unlike my previous SYOT this will be a full SYOT, accepting twenty-four tributes from submitters, and I'm excited to get this show on the road.

This is going to be a considerably shorter SYOT than my previous one, The Same, But Different. TSBD was 139,703 words total, and I've planned for The Hours to be between 100,000 and 125,000 words. The reason why I'm doing this is that I bit off more than I could chew with TSBD, with its length being too much for me. I'd like to not take two and a half years with this SYOT, so I'm trying to make its length manageable.

This story's website is the-hours-hg . weebly . com (remember to remove the spaces). The Google form is at forms . gle/4aNk5HydTzdjRGbB8 (remember to remove the spaces).

Full submission guidelines can be found on my profile, but here is a summary of the submission guidelines.

1. This SYOT is canon-compliant up until the 74th Games.
2. No recycled characters.
3. Submit via Google Form or PM.
4. I'm fine with short or long forms.
5. This SYOT is NOT first-come first-served, so sorry, no reservations.
6. All alliances are decided by me based on what is written on the tributes' forms.
7. The tentative submission deadline is November 29th, 2019.

Other information, including the tribute form and available tribute slots, are on my profile.

This isn't exactly a submission guideline, but I would really appreciate it if you could review The Hours as much as possible should you have an accepted tribute in this story. Not only do I love reviews, but also if you submit a tribute and I'm not sure if you're reading this story your tribute's chances of making it far and winning will go down. After all, it doesn't make much sense to me to have the Victor be the tribute of someone who has left. So please try to review! I understand that things get busy, though, so if you can't review every chapter I'd appreciate some sort of indication that you're at least still around.

And now for Chapter Questions! You don't have to answer these but I would really appreciate it if you did because I'm curious about what my readers think about the subjects in these questions.

Chapter Question: What is your opinion on the Quell Twist?

Bonus question: What do you think of the characters introduced in this chapter, especially Clarity Dalloway (who we'll be seeing more of throughout this story)?

Random question of the chapter: If you had to wear one hat for the rest of your life, what kind of hat would it be?

I am looking forward to seeing what tributes you all submit and having you on this journey. I'll see you all in about two weeks for the second prologue. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!