Today is Victor's Birthday…

Cornelius Flint Sybil held up his tiny baby. He was so small, but Cornelius knew he would grow to be strong someday. This was evidenced when the baby grasped onto Cornelius's hand. Hard. Cornelius let out a shout, then threw his head back and laughed. Oh yes, this would make a fine boy. He handed the baby back over to his wife. She stroked the little pink face that stuck out of the blue blanket. It had taken the two of them a long time to find a name for this baby. Names in District 1 were very important. Crystal, always concerned with what others were doing, wanted the boy to be named after some type of gem, like Jett or even Mercury. But Cornelius had wanted the baby to have a fine Roman name like his, so he could sound like he was from the Capital. They had bickered good naturedly about this for months, before deciding on the perfect name. Victor. It was far different from the names of all the other boys. Tougher. With more edge to it. And Victor's father prided himself in this. After all, he was a victor. He had won the 30th Games, no small feat. He had brought pride to his family and now this boy would do the same. He was going to be a Career. You see, the inner workings of the districts closer to the Capital (in more ways than just distance) may seem complicated to those in the outer districts but were quite clear to those living in them. Since Victor's own father had won the Games, it would be shameful not to pass on the legacy. If Victor was never sent to train, people would assume Cornelius's son was weak. They would think the boy's father was a cowardly fool. Of which Cornelius was nothing of the sort. No, pride was radiant in the Sybil family.

And so, before Victor Mercury Cornelius Sybil even opened his eyes, his fate had been sealed.