Verity Sangster(District 1 Mentor and Victor of the 100th Hunger Games)
I don't remember the last time I saw the training center as busy and active as it's been this year, for the first time in my life everyone in the district is making a concerted effort to not only prepare their children for the games but to take them seriously as well. For all the bluster and bravado that accompanied last year's unexpected announcement that volunteering was being placed on a dozen year moratorium, it seems like everybody has finally adapted to and accepted the new order of things, at least in District One anyway.
Today I get to watch as my little group of twelve and thirteen-year-old girls do their best to manipulate knives and other small weapons for the last time before tomorrow's reaping. Part of me thoroughly enjoys watching the unease and fear in their bright little eyes slowly melt away as they gain more confidence and comfort in using them and while it's obvious that none of the students in this group would ever have been selected to volunteer the fact is that each and every one of them is in danger of being chosen so every little bit of confidence and training can go a long way should that horrible fate befall one of these precious little treasures.
As I move around the room watching and observing the progress or lack thereof that my students are making one of the little girls in the back of the room lets out a frustrated groan before angrily throwing her knife to the ground with an angry sigh. Her movement quickly catches my attention and while one of the girls standing next to her does her best to scoot the discarded weapon out of sight before I can see it it's a futile effort as I'm forced to motion for the now red faced and terrified looking little girl to come talk to me.
She hesitates for a moment in a surprisingly amusing effort to pretend like she didn't see me motioning and trying to catch her attention. It takes every ounce of restraint and self-control I have not to break down and laugh so rather than give my composure a chance to break in front of all of my students I'll just have to send them away and hope I can hide my amusement while trying to 'punish' Jade for her little outburst.
"Ok I think that's enough practice for today, I want each of you to remember the basic movements and stances we worked on today and make sure you go over your hold technique sheets during the Hunger Games break, does anyone have any questions for me….? Ok please return your weapons to their proper places and enjoy the rest of your day. Except you Jade, grab your knife and come talk to me before you go please."
A soft smattering of giggles rises up from the others as they quickly return their weapons and scamper out of the room leaving a visibly worried and upset Jade staring down at her feet as I close the door behind them. I quickly clear off a small area on one of the counters along the wall and motion for her to join me as I gracefully jump up and sit on the recently cleared counter. It takes her a couple of tries to hoist herself up next to me and once again I'm forced to stifle a giggle at her cute and comical attempt to emulate my action. Once she's finally seated on the counter, however, I put my most professional face on and try to get through this talking too before I lose my composure.
"Would you like to tell me what that little outburst earlier was all about?"
"I….You see what happened was…..Can I say no?"
"You can but I can't help you fix your problem if you don't tell me what it is."
"I just….I think I broke my knife, the little butterfly one at least."
"What makes you think it's broken?"
"It won't open and I tried everything I could think of, see for yourself."
She hands me the knife and it only takes me half a second to spot the problem but I force myself to spend a full minute studying the knife in an attempt not to embarrass her and to give myself a chance to stifle and control the laughter that would almost certainly come rolling out if I speak too soon. Finally, after I manage to get myself under control I quickly and discreetly slide my thumb over the lock before opening the blade up with a showy flourish.
"See it wasn't broken there was just something caught in the little hinge on the bottom."
"I never would have thought to look down there. I guess I'm as helpless as everyone says I am aren't I?"
"Now why would you think something like that?"
"Because everyone in school and in the training group tells me I am it at least once a day. They all say I'll never make it past the bloodbath and that if I'm reaped tomorrow I'd be better off killing myself then making the district suffer through another year with a pathetic tribute."
"First off they shouldn't be talking like that to anyone and if you tell me who they are I'll take care of them."
"I'm not a tattletale Ms. Sangster, I'm not going to run and cry to an adult just because someone hurt my feelings."
"That's very brave of you Jade, and for the record, I think you'd do just fine if you ended up being our female tribute this year."
"Do you really think I could do it?"
"Of course, I do. You're smart and you've developed a well-rounded and complete skill set that makes the one I had when I won look laughable."
"I can't use a weapon, though. How do you survive the games if you can't fight and kill?"
"Not every winner has to be a killer or a fighter. The last two winners played to their strengths and it worked out well for them. Kimma played it safe and picked off wounded and solitary tributes while preserving her health and her supplies. Quanta used her brains and her opponent's reckless attitudes against them and only had to use her crossbow a couple of times at the very end. Being a victor takes more than just brute force and strength, it takes sound thinking and an analytical mind and you've got both of those in abundance. Trust me when I say you'd do just fine if you're reaped tomorrow."
She offers me a bright and happy smile as I quickly shoo her out of the room just moments before my mom and dad come barging in with my brothers and a slew of other victors right behind them. I quickly and politely offer my mom and brothers a warm smile and a hug as before turning around and offering the same to my friend and one-time mentoring partner Velvet who spent two years helping me adjust to life as a mentor before she was rudely and unceremoniously booted to the curb by my dad in what ended up being a futile attempt to whip our young and malleable tributes into fighting shape last year.
It takes a few minutes for me to greet everyone in the room and once I finish I take a couple extra seconds to close the door and lock it before finally returning my attention to one of the most impressive if not the most impressive collection of surviving victors Panem has to offer. The only problem is I'm not entirely sure what they're doing here, I mean it's nice to see Velvet and my family, outside of my dad who I still haven't spoken too since we got home from the Capitol last year but I've probably said two dozen or so words combined to the likes of Cashmere and Gloss and not a one of those has come since I won my games.
"While it's certainly a treat to be surrounded by some many distinguished individuals would someone mind telling me what exactly it is that brought all of you here today?"
"This is the Career Academy Verity, and seeing as how each of us is a victor as well as a current or former instructor we all have a right to be here whenever we want."
"I didn't mean that offensive dad, I was just curious as to why all of you were here at the same time. After all, this is the first time outside of the reapings that I can remember seeing all of us in one place at one time."
"Well, we obviously have questions about the preparedness and ability level of the potential tributes you've been training ahead of tomorrow's reaping and seeing as how you can't seem to be bothered to come to the daily training meetings or submit your paperwork we have to come down here ourselves to get some answers."
"Well then what would you like to know?"
"For starters what percentage of your tributes would you say are ready to compete as a career as of right now?"
"More than three-fifths of my students are twelve years old and all of them just started training this year. None of them would meet the slandered you're trying to hold them too."
"So in a year you've managed to accomplish next to nothing with your class?"
"No I've accomplished a great many things, the problem is you're not asking me to chart marginal growth and confidence bumps but survivability against a standard crop of tributes for a normal year. With those parameters, none of my tributes are up to the level you're expecting. That said each and every one of them is skilled in their own way and I'm confident that if one of them were to be reaped tomorrow I'd be able to help them shore up some of their weaknesses during training in the Capitol and that they'd be more then capable of making a deep run in this year's games."
"That's good to hear, we can't afford another poor showing like we had last year, Audrie and Topaz did a lot of damage to our reputation and only a strong showing from this year's tributes can undo the damage those two did."
I'm never going to understand how my dad could view last year's results so coldly and with such indifference. I understand that he was extremely upset that his handpicked tributes got pushed aside for two extremely young and unproven ones but it's not like either of them was any happier about it then he was. Still it's not going to do me any good to argue with him on this anymore as we went over a great deal of this on the train ride back after the last games and the result of it was that we haven't spoken outside of work since. No at this point it's better that I just let the matter rest and hope that we end up with older and better-trained tributes this year without the age restrictions in place.
"Can I assume that means you'll be accompanying me to the Capitol again this year father?"
"Not this time. The other mentors and I have talked it over and we're going to let Velvet go again this year. The two of you can pull strings and open sponsor doors with your youth and good looks that I can't anymore, not to mention that after the debacle that was last year I'm not interested in letting my name and reputation suffer under the failures of another batch of crap tributes."
Well I have to say I'm a little surprised that my dad's not interested in mentoring again this year and while I'm certain that a lot of what he's saying about his reputation and image is true I'm willing to bet that my mom and brothers played a pretty big role in talking him out of mentoring again and honestly that's probably the best thing for everyone.
The fact is my dad is a great mentor and one hell of a competitor but he doesn't have the patience and practicality to deal with untrained or under trained tributes and last year proved it. At least with Velvet I'm getting a partner that's willing and able to work with me to provide a solid and united front for both tributes instead of casting one aside before they even have a chance to prove themselves like he did with Topaz last year.
"Well then I look forward to working with you again Velvet, I think we'll make an excellent team."
"We did before and we will again Verity. Now if the rest of you will excuse us we need to discuss a few things before the reaping tomorrow."
My mom and brothers quickly wrap me in a succession of tight and surprisingly warm hugs and while Cashmere and Gloss don't partake of the hugging they do offer up a pair of stern but approving nods. After that everyone quickly exits the room until Velvet and I are left alone in the uncomfortably awkward silence with my incredibly frustrated looking father glaring at us both. For a couple of moments, no one says or does anything and it's not until I let out a small sneeze that anything at all really happens, once I shatter the tension though everything comes spilling out and my dad quickly reminds me why he's such a difficult person to get along with.
"Both of you need to understand that none of us is willing to accept another showing like we've had the last few years. It's unacceptable that we've gone three years without a tribute even making it into the top five and the only reason the two of you were chosen to mentor this year is because Cashmere and Gloss teamed up with your mom and Velvet to outvote me. However regardless of that fact the two of you need to bring the same ruthless aggression and fight you had in your own games and instill it in your tributes this year if you can't then this will be the last year either of you mentors."
He lets his threat hang in the air and really sink in as he quickly makes his way out of the room and leaves the two of us to contemplate our approach for this year with a whole new level of stress hanging over us. I just hope we end up with tributes that are willing to be as ruthless and aggressive as Velvet and I were, because if we end up with timid tributes like last year there's no chance we're going to live up to the expectations being heaped on us for this year, and with an ultimatum like that from my dad there's no way I can fail. I guess it's time to dig up the merciless Verity I tried to bury after I won my games a few years ago; I just hope I've still got the ability to be such a ruthless and uncaring monster.
A/N: Hello everyone I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has submitted a tribute so far and to give everyone an update on where we stand while giving you all a sneak peek into the mind of my very first SYOT Victor Verity. Now before we jump into everything though I wanted to address a question that's come up in a few of the submissions with regards to number of reviews leading to increased survival, I'm not going to decide on a winner or anything of the sort based on the frequency that the submitter reviews so there's no need to worry about that. If you're submission is the best one they'll win out regardless of whether you review every chapter or once in a great while. I hope that answers any questions anyone has about that subject.
Now on the subject of where we're at I have at least 1 submission for every spot with the exception of the D11 Male and a great many of them have 2 and a couple have more than that and every tribute I've gotten so far has been amazing. Honestly I'm not sure how I'm going to narrow down the list with so many amazing tributes to choose from but that's part of the fun of doing this is you get to create an original entry into such a rich and amazing world while adding so many unique and amazing faces and voices to the tapestry. However I'm starting to ramble so I'll stop and get back to the task at hand.
Anyway I'm still on the short end for younger tributes and again I'm empty on the D11 Male spot but other than that everything's going good and I hope to have another update and a tribute list posted for everyone by Monday the 23 with an eye on starting the Pre-Reaping chapter and story proper by the middle of next week.
Also I fully intend to continue the same format I've always used with the one pre-reaping chapter, the one reaping, the one justice center, the one train ride and the Capitol arrival/Remake Center chapter with 2 districts per chapter with 3 in the reapings and the train rides. The Arrival/Remake Center Chapter will also have the parade in it again and it'll be set up the same way as the last story with the Master of Ceremonies providing our POV for it.
After that we'll be diving into the training, sessions and scores chapters. Each of the training chapter will have three tributes with 2 chapters per day and the individual sessions and scores will also have three tributes each grouped together in a random but connected way. Finally I'll be trying something different with three interview chapters that'll cover all the tributes submitted.
I hope all of that is ok with everyone and I look forward to taking this amazing and fun filled journey with all of you. As always please review and let me know what you think and I'll be looking for all of you on Monday for the next update :D