Tyranna Vale (President of Panem)
If there's one thing in this world that I've never been good at, it's admitting that I was wrong. The fact that said admission almost always comes coupled with my needing to apologize to the individual, or god forbid individuals, that tried to tell me I was wrong from the beginning only serves to enhance the already unimaginable levels of pain and embarrassment present anytime I'm forced to do something that has even the slightest bit of potential to wound my already incredibly fragile ego.
But unfortunately for me, and to a slightly greater extent my aforementioned ego, that's exactly what I'm about to do. The fact that I've got to do all of this in front of two of the maybe five or six people whose opinions of me, and to a lesser extent my decisions, I actually care about, only serves to make all of this that much harder for me to do than it was already going to be in the first place.
Hell the only possible saving grace that can possibly come out of any of this, and even then I feel like I'm reaching on this one just a little bit, is the fact that I'm not going to be the one bearing the brunt of the public backlash from all of this. No, that exceedingly unenviable task falls squarely on the shoulders of my Head Gamemaker Celine, or more specifically on her soon to be headless shoulders, so I guess I've got that incredibly small sliver of a silver lining to look forward to once all of this is over with.
Well….I guess it's time for me to get all of this unfortunate shit done and over with…..
"First off I'd like to take a second to thank you both for meeting with me at this exceedingly early and inconvenient hour, especially on such short notice. And since I know that both of you spent the majority of the last seventy-two hours working on the arena nonstop to make sure it's ready I'll do my best to keep this as short and sweet as I possibly can."
"It's not a problem ma'am. After all, my team and I serve at and are at your disposal Madam President."
"Be that as it may Celine, I really do appreciate the fact that both of you were willing, to meet me in the wee hours of the morning of what we all know is the first night either of you has slept in your own beds in the last few days."
We spend the next few minutes making small talk, most of which relates to the current status of this year's arena and the incredibly interesting sounding bug mutts my niece has been working on, but it's not long before I'm forced to bring an end to this very welcomed distraction and turn the conversation in the direction of the incredibly uncomfortable and sad business that forced me to call Celine and Centaura here in the first place….
"I'm happy to hear that things are going so well right now. I know that some members of your team had some very understandable reservations about this particular arena, not to mention the mutts, and I'm willing to admit that I was a little worried myself after listening to some of their more….Pointed concerns."
"In all honesty Madam President, I was a little concerned about just how….Audacious the plan was too. Fortunately for all of us, Gregor and I found an ingenious way to fix the vast majority of the tunnel support issues while Centaura pulled out all of the stops and ended up creating what I and everyone else on the team truly believes is her single most impressive crop of mutts to date."
"That's….That's fantastic news. And in the spirit of said good news, I'd like to give you both a small piece of my own.
"After consulting with some of my most important advisors, as well as a few of the late President Snow's, I've decided the time has come for me to officially revoke my previous embargo against tribute volunteers."
I give the two of them a couple of seconds to process and digest the absolutely massive bombshell of a decision that I just dropped on their heads. The fact that doing so gives me the chance to take a long, slow drink of scotch, which allows me to calm myself down as well as to steel my nerves for the very unfortunate second part of my announcement, is just a very small but welcome bonus.
But I also don't want her to think anything is wrong, so I quickly finish off my drink before quickly and inconspicuously pressing the small red button hidden on the underside of my desk to summon the guards that will end Celine's life all the while fighting back tears and fighting to keep the same slightly happy and satisfied looking smile on my face that I've had plastered on it since Celine and Centaura first stumbled and bumbled their sleepy selves into my office….
"Unfortunately, as I'm sure you both know by now, making this kind of decision, especially so close to the start of this year's Games, comes with some incredibly unfortunate and nasty repercussions."
It's at this moment, with my words hanging thick in the air while unadulterated terror starts to seep into the eyes, faces and hearts of my loving niece and lifelong best friend, that the pair of faceless, white armor clad riot officers storm into my office with their hands resting tensely on the butts of their pistols.
"And unfortunately for you Celine, you're the one that's going to have to bear the brunt of said repercussions.
"I'm sorry about this Celine, I really am. But even though I love you like you were my own sister, this is how things have to be.
"I'd like to thank you for your incredibly dedicated and selfless service to me and to your country. And I promise you that this is going to be as humane and painless as possible. Gentlemen….I need you to please escort Ms. Minos to the doctor waiting for her in the conference room down the hall. Gently, if you please…."
The next few minutes flash by in a haze as the guards carefully but proficiently stroll across the room and take a now visibly shaking and hysterical Celine by the arm and all but drag her kicking and screaming from the room, pausing just long enough for me to lay one last soft and loving kiss on the tear stained cheek on the only real friend I've ever had before dragging her out of my life for the last time. And once she's gone I take a couple of seconds to collect myself before turning my attention back to a visibly shaken Centaura and looking deep into her beautiful green eyes, the same green eyes I and every other female in our family is famous for, before saying to her the words I'd hoped to have the chance to say to her. Just under different circumstances.
"Centaura Vale, it's with great sadness but boundless hope and optimism for the future that I, President Tyranna Vale, officially appoint you to the incredibly illustrious position of Head Gamemaker. Effective immediately. Congratulations…."
"I….You….Why did you…How….How could you kill Celine?"
"Come on Centaura, you're old enough to know that this is exactly how all of this really works. I killed Celine, my best friend, because someone had to pay the price for my incredibly stupid and short sighted mistake.
"Unfortunately for her, she was the only one other than you that makes a believable scapegoat.
"And that means it was either kill you, my loving niece, my own flesh and blood, or my best friend and an incredibly talented and accomplished Head Gamemaker. I decided to preserve what little of our family is left, and give you the chance to turn things around enough to secure my position and make the inevitable transition from me to you all the more palpable to the people of Panem.
"So please, for the love of all things, don't make me regret doing so…."
"I….I won't….I promise you that I won't let you down….Madam President."
"Good.
"Now I'd advise you to go back to your apartment and get some sleep. You've got a big first day ahead of you and I expect the arena for this year's games to be everything you and Celine were telling me that it would be..."
A/N: Hello everyone, and welcome to my sixth SYOT, Reign of Blood: The One Hundred and Fifth Hunger Games! Now as I've said in my previous stories, this is a direct continuation of my first 5 stories but having read them isn't necessary as I'll explain everything important over the next couple of chapters. However, I think that they're pretty good stories so you should read them anyway :D
Now for those of you that have read my other stories, please note that the volunteering moratorium from the last 2 stories is gone so feel free to submit volunteers again if you'd like :)
Other than that the forum for submissions in on my profile along with a couple of basic guidelines for submitting that help make it easier for me to bring your tribute to life in as effective and awesome a way as possible :)
Submissions are now open and will remain open until September 8th. Also, this is not a first come first serve type of story, I'll be picking the best submissions to fill the slots out, but no more than 2 from any individual submitter, so feel free to submit as many tributes as you'd like until the deadline.
Other than that please let me know if you have any questions as I'd be happy to answer them. Thank you for giving my new story a look and I hope that you'll send in a tribute and take this amazing journey into a blood soaked new world with me :D