we feign opulence, just to get by;
put on false confidence, just to feel alive
they can't hurt me anymore
there's nothing left to break of me
there's nothing left to take from me
'cause baby it's easy to fake a smile,
when you've been doing it for a while -
baby it's easy to fake a smile,
when you've been doing it for a while
" little game, miss benny "

The bedroom walls were once a pale pink color. The bookshelf had stuffed animals and colorful picture books overflowing from the shelves. The bed was soft and comforting, the carpeted floor was covered in dolls and cars and legos that hurt his feet. And in the big purple armchair in the corner sat a tiny girl. His girl.

The twenty-year-old swooped his daughter up and into his lap, and she giggled as he pretended to drop her into his warm embrace. The two-year-old looked up at him with bright eyes, dark hair still soft and just below her jawline now.

She hadn't even been a month old when they lost her mom. He lost her to the Puzzler. It was supposed to be okay for them. He had just had his nineteenth birthday, and the Puzzler could have taken anyone else. Two years - she had been safe for two years but she had been chosen. And they collected her before he could reach her, before he could volunteer in her place, before he could say goodbye.

She's a spitting image of her mom. A brilliant mind for a two-year-old too. Talking away, stubbornly trying to teach herself how to understand the letters in the books he reads her. But she was happy, that was all he could ask for. She was his reason. Why he worked as hard as he did. Why he fought against the doubts in his head. Why he pushed away the people who thought he couldn't do it. He would show them all one day. But for now, he'll raise his little girl. He'll help her learn everything she wants to learn, he'll make sure she's smarter than everybody else. And if the day ever comes when the Puzzler tries to take her too, he'll be confident in knowing that she'll survive.

The bedroom walls that were once pale pink become navy blue. The carpeted floor was covered in puzzles and books instead of the toys of her youth. The bed was still soft, but it was hardly comforting now. The bookshelf was overflowing with books and encyclopedias and awards instead of the things that reminded her of innocence. She wasn't a little girl anymore.

In fact, she was fifteen years of age, and soon to be sixteen. Two weeks from now, she would be sixteen-years-old.

Her eyes glance over a page before flipping it to the side and scribbling in the answers to the puzzle. On her desk were five workbooks spread wide open. Only one was a part of her homeschool curriculum, the others were for fun.

She has to be ready. Because in three weeks, the Puzzler turns forty-eight-years-old. Sixteen years since it took her mom from her. Dad swears she looks just her mother.

And that's all she can ask for. To be the spitting image of her mother. She flips the page of one of her puzzle books and immediately fills in one of the clues. It's only right after all. Because after all these years, she's ready. Ready to prove to the world that she'll survive.

THE RULES

01. PLEASE BE KIND!! please be kind to me and to others applying in this fic. if you are unkind in anyway i will block you automatically.

02. please be diverse in your characters roles, personalities, ethnicities, genders, and sexualities!! the more diverse characters the better (and the better chance of being accepted)

03. please pick faceclaims that can fit in a 16-18 age range. your faceclaims need to have acted when they were around that age, or be close enough to where they could still "pull it off"

04. be detailed in your forms!! I want to know literally everything about these ocs!! the password!! is your favorite color followed by the name of a piece of silverware

05. please be active!! voting and commenting shows that you are ready to be involved with this fic. i would much rather have a small audience of dedicated readers who read EVERY chapter and give it tons of attention than a whole ton of ghost readers m'kay

06. when applying, please first comment your oc's name and then fill out the rest of the form in a single chain of comments as replies to the first comment. this really helps me in keeping the forms organized, and I'm more likely to want to pick your oc if I can understand their form easily!!

07. the payment!! in order to apply and be accepted, you must follow me permanently. if your oc is not chosen, i will not sob violently if you decide to unfollow. you also have to give me a shoutout and announce with a link to this book on your message board

" sign-off: queens-hope "

welcome, to my first attempt at an apply fic <3 let me just start off with the facts about this book that everyone should know if they're interested in applying!!

NUMBER ONE: this book takes place in a world that I created. it's called the Republic. this world is very much a dystopian type place. there are no set dates in this book, however they're are certain years and anniversary's that are mentioned that are important to the history of this world!!

NUMBER TWO: what is the Puzzler? this "attraction" is the center of this book. if you like escape rooms, it's a lot like that. but here's a more detailed explanation - the Perplexor Program was started by the government after the Partior Rebellion in order to give teenagers that would soon be adults a chance at a better life, and a reminder that in order to succeed you have to have the skills and right preparation to do so (which can only be provided by the government). so the Perplexor Government does a raffle of sorts for twelve teenagers that enter the Puzzler. the twelve are chosen out of the twelve school districts in the Republic (one from each school district). this means that it's up to each school district to aide their students in surviving the Puzzler and "making it big". the Puzzler itself is an ever-changing escape room that livestreams the 12 teens trials up to their successes or deaths. AND IT ISN'T A ONE WINNER KIND OF DEAL!! the Puzzler challenges skills on physical and mental levels, making it an all around competition.

NUMBER THREE: this book is heavily inspired by the Hunger Games series and the Mr. Lemoncello's Library series. there are very similar elements from both of these in this book, and it's all going to be touch darker.

NUMBER FOUR: the districts!! you're probably wondering how to place your oc in a specific district, and you'd probably expect me to go over this in the forms chapter. BUT I'LL BE THE ONE WHO DOES THAT!! a lot of the names of things in this fic are from Latin words for different things. the same will go for each of the school districts in the Republic. each school district will have different qualities about it from how well the school is maintained to what the kids' families backgrounds are. this means that you are allowed to model your oc after any kind of trope/stereotype you want for a high schooler. the Puzzler selection is random, it is not a "who have we trained the best" kind of situation. BUT as mentioned, your oc can volunteer in the place of anyone else as long as they are with the person selected when they are being collected. unlike the hunger games and Lemoncello's library, it is not a big gathering or a selection based on successes or trying to win a raffle. this means that when the government selects the person, the government finds them wherever they are and simply takes them. much scarier right? and only the people in the age range, that are with them at that moment can volunteer to take their place.

I hope that you're all excited, and I'm excited to see all of your forms <3

DEDICATIONS: to all of the wonderful people who are interested in my work and continue to support it, I love you all so much and I am beyond thankful💕

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