A/N: Stop the press! The tribute list is complete! And the arena shall be revealed...

Stick around the point system and the blog for this story! :-) Hope you like the arena!


The green-feathered boots of this year's Head Gamemaker scoot across the marble floor at an alarming pace. He can't be late. Two minutes could mean the difference between a long term in charge of the Games and his immediate execution. Luckily, he arrives at the president's door with thirty seconds to spare. He takes this time to make sure he is presentable – straightening his bow-tie, putting a stray hair back in its place, checking his shirt is fully tucked-in. Now he looks to the wristwatch on his left arm, while he readies his right to knock. Three, two, one, 11:15am, on the dot. As the time on the clock changes, he allows a quick three taps before waiting. Barely any time has passed before an Avox is opening the door for him and gesturing that he should enter. That could be him in a few weeks' time, he thinks as it takes his jacket and hangs it on a coat stand. Or worse. Of course, being a Capitolite through-and-through, he can't be bothered to worry about that.

As Santiago Pierceson turns around, he finds President Alba Snow sat prominently behind her desk. Her hair is its natural brown hue, with a few barely-noticeable grey highlights. Most Capitol citizens would be laughed at ten streets away for letting such natural things show, but it didn't matter to Alba. She was the president, nobody could say anything against her, especially after her great-grandfather had spent so long in the same role. Nobody disagreed that she was now the best one for the job either, because she was. The makings of a president were how well they could keep the districts in line, how scared they could make them. They also tended to be judged by the quality of their Games, so Alba needed to make sure Santiago had got it to a T.

"Sit down," orders the president, and Santiago obliges, taking the seat opposite her. "So," she begins, adjusting a pencil to be exactly parallel to the desk's edge, "what do you have in store for me this year?"

Santiago lets out a small smirk. "I'll show you." He hands her some blueprints, "These are the basic designs," she flicks through them, "but I think it can only be experienced best in person."

Snow raises an eyebrow, "And it's safe for people to go on?"

Santiago nods and laughs, "For the time being." Snow still doesn't look convinced, so he says, "I've got a hovercraft waiting outside. And if something does go horribly wrong, I'm sure your Peacekeepers shall be ready and waiting to shoot me down."

Alba considers this a moment. He's confident, she'll give him that. She likes to see people standing up against her, at least when it's in this way. And the blueprints seem reasonable. Though she can't shake off the feeling that he's trying to woo her. It's been so long since anybody even attempted to do that. Probably has something to do with the fact she will always be the one in control of the relationship. Well, thinks Alba, I do need to keep the Snow family running... A little soon to be thinking of that, perhaps, but he's got guts. She likes that.


One slightly-tedious hovercraft ride later, and Snow and Santiago are entering the brand-new arena. They wear protective – and sterilised – white suits to 'just make sure we're totally safe', though really Santiago is just thinking the president will be none too pleased if she were to get mud on her high-heels.

"Here we are," announces Santiago after the two descend down the hovercraft ladder. He casually walks over to where the giant metal horn of the Cornucopia stands and leans back against its cool gold surface. Oh, he's definitely trying to woo her with that move. But Snow isn't impressed.

"So this is your amazing arena?" she exclaims in disgust.

"Yup," replies the Head Gamemaker. President Snow marches up to him with daggers for eyes and a pointing finger.

"We. Are in. A field," she bellows aggressively. "I gave you the entire budget for this year's Games... and you came up with... A FIELD?!"

"No," says Santiago coolly, anticipating this reaction from her, "it has everything that was on my blueprints." Snow remembers the blueprints. There were lava pits, forests, ice, an ocean... there was everything. This... is a field. She gives a death stare into Santiago's artificially violet eyes, "I swear, if this is some sort of joke, I'll-"

The man cuts her off. "I'll show you it all," he says, and leads her towards the edge of the circle of platforms. He walks past a plate, and for a moment Snow swears that the air... wobbles. And she can't believe what she's seeing when Santiago leans against thin air. Curious, she steps towards him and her mind goes fuzzy for a moment as her surroundings change. Now she is not in the middle of some grassy field, she is stood in the midst of a tropical jungle, humid atmosphere, birds squawking above her head, the narrow trunks of trees stretching upwards and blotting out almost all of the sunlight. Santiago leans against one of these such trees, and Snow cannot speak as she turns around to find the jungle stretches on for what must be miles.

"But... how?" she asks, flabbergasted. Santiago grins and explains something or other about different wavelengths and frequencies of the locations and blah-blah-blah, no-sense sciency stuff. She interrupts him halfway through, "So, what you're saying is, by going through a certain part of this..."

"...I call it a semi-permeable forcefield."

"...Yes, that," continues the president, raising an eyebrow at him speaking, "...so when a tribute enters it in a certain place, they enter a certain simulated environment?"

"Exactly," confirms the Head Gamemaker, "and this turns the whole arena into this environment for the tribute. Plus, the tributes in one environment can freely run into others from another environment, even though they won't be seeing all the same things. For example, if, per say, there were a tribute in the 'water' arena, they may be swimming through some of it, but to a tribute in the 'fire' arena, it would appear they were walking along the ground in an odd way, not floating as you may expect. With me so far?"

"Yes, I think we are on the same..." Snow smiles before finishing off her sentence, "...wavelength."

Santiago allows himself a small grin at that before carrying on with the full explanation. "The way that the arenas... interlock, it means that if someone was to make a weapon out of something in their arena, it could be used against another tribute in another arena, and that tribute would be able to see it, because it had been modified by a human. This is the same for food; if food is gathered in one arena, it can be eaten in another." He grins at the next bit he will explain, "However, the audience may get bored of constantly seeing the same tributes in the same environment all the time, so..." he reaches into his pocket and presses a button on a controller, "the environment can be randomly shifted around, so none get too accustomed to any." The place around her transforms from a colourful jungle to a colourless icy tundra, not much unlike last year's – for that the Head Gamemaker got... fired, to say the least. Santiago has disappeared.

"Pierceson!" yells Snow. Santiago peers round a block of nothingness where there used to be a tree. A grin is again plastered on his face, and he presses another button on his controller to revert the arena back to its original field design.

"I knew you'd like it," says Santiago as they walk back towards the hovercraft, "There are six arenas altogether, you know. Apart from the original field, they are themed with some of the elements, fire, water, ice, earth – that was the jungle – and rock. We didn't need to do a specific one for air, for obvious reasons. And I haven't even mentioned how there is a depth filter on the forcefield, so when on the plain, tributes look closer than they are, therefore if we should totally shut down the alternative arenas, the tributes shall be extremely close together for a big fight." He waits by the ladder for a response.

"You've outdone yourself, Santiago," says Alba sweetly, and gives him a peck on the cheek, which is answered with a blush. This Head Gamemaker doesn't need to worry about executions, not that he ever really bothered to. He has wooed her.


A/N: So, what do you think of the arena? It's confusing to explain, but once you've got it in your head, I think you've got it. Sorry if the Head GamemakerxPresident stuff was a bit weird, but... yeah, I've got nothing. I like the word 'woo'.

:-D Thanks to everybody that submitted a tribute! Including my ten-year-old brothers... They made their tributes Careers just because they thought that would mean they'd win :-L Not that easy... They won't be getting any favouritism here.

Check out the blog here: justanotherdead109hg . blogspot . co . uk/

It has pictures of the tributes (I apologise to nb1998 for making Mars Justin Bieber, it was the only picture I could find that basically matched your description) and quick details of their preferred weapons, whether they were reaped or volunteered, etc. I'll also have training scores and allies up there whenever they crop up, and possibly a kills table and stuff. Aren't I professional? (No.)


And the points system: Most of these things confuse the hell out of me, but recently I've found an easy-to-understand system on d11olive-13's SYOT, so I'm adapting from that.

Every chapter, you list your top five favourite tributes for that chapter or altogether (starting next chapter), not including your own, because that wouldn't be fair and you'll just be wasting a vote. Your top tribute will receive 5 points, your second 4, and then down to your fifth will get just 1. The amount of points the tributes each have will determine how many times their name is placed in a hat, where they will be "reaped" to decide if they live or die on a certain chapter. So the more points your tribute has, the more likely they are to stay alive longer. And if you're not voting at all, I'll just kill your own tribute in the bloodbath. Did that all make sense? I hope so. Every living tribute shall go in at least once (excluding bloodbaths), and the points are accumulative.

Any questions about anything, then just put it in a review or ask me through PM!


The reapings and goodbyes shall be split into three chapters about that morning, the actual reaping and the goodbyes. So they'll likely be the longest chapters I'll ever do. How long exactly, I don't know, but more than the average chapter anyway.

Sorry, long author's note... But please leave me a review to tell me what you think of everything! :-D Thanks, and I'll try to update soon and regularly.