Indigo Stein's POV, the Gamemaker's balcony:
I slip onto the Gamemaker's viewing balcony, and sit down as the first tribute walks in. She's nine, with long, blonde hair. I glance down at my tablet, which I use for everything at work, and discover that her name is Shimmer Shineback. Not that I need to know this – she says it, as soon as she walks in, with an air of arrogance, like she's so amazing, she really doesn't need to tell us that. I like her already.
She walks over to the knife-throwing target, and throws seven knives at it, in quick succession. They all hit very close to the centre, but none of them quite hit the bull's-eye. Next, she picks up a spear, and throws it at a dummy, searing it in the neck. Satisfied, she sits down, and weaves a net.
"Dismissed!" Calls the head gamemaker, Genisius Oronof, and she walks out. I submit her score (8, if you're interested), and grab a bite to eat from the able at the back, as the next tribute comes in, meaning that I miss his presentation, and the girl after.
I do see Marcus' presentation. The boy from one takes down the trainer at hand-to-hand combat within a minute, and then just walks out. Bad manners, I have to say, but that's not what I'm judging him on. I give him a nine.
The older girl from one, Hyacinth, gets a ten for her scythe work – she almost shredded the dummy she was up against, and the boy of the same age group, Andrew, gets an eight for his ingenious trap that he creates. It was almost better than some of the things that Thorkild, our nineteen-year-old trap engineer, creates for the tributes in the games!
The girl from two is boring; all she did was sit there and cry. I mean, seriously? She's from district two, which means she brings honour to her district, no matter how small she is!
Genisius presses the button which calls for the next tribute.
"Jacob Bryant, District two." He announces, before reaching for a bow and shooting arrows at a target. He misses quite a few, so I give him a seven. Let's hope the older pairs from two are more career-like.
"Rockelle Grayworth, District two." The girl is tan, with well toned muscles, and she's pretty darn awesome with a spear, hitting all of the dummies, bar three right in the centre. Worth the nine that I gave her, if you ask me.
Her partner is a brother to the younger boy from two, but much more skilled. He swings his axe around, in a rapid, but skilful way. The dummies all have large dents and missing chunks after he leaves.
While I submit his score of ten, the older girl walks in.
"Alexx Odom, District two." Her first station is the axe station, which has been set back to rights, but that certainly doesn't last long. After that, she destroys the sword station, and most impressive of all, she tears the general weapons stations to shreds with a whip. Now, that deserves an eleven.
"Dismissed" Genisius croaks, obviously as stunned as I am.
I miss the smallest girl from three because I had to go get a drink, and calm down. When I come back, the youngest boy from three, Alex James, is just finishing his work with a staff. I don't see much, but I give him a five.
The older boy, Lynx, makes quite a mess of the archery that he attempts, prompting me to give him a four.
Just then, my colleague/friend, Serica-Prima, arrives. She's from a long line of family gamemakers, all the way back to Seneca Crane, who made his debut in the seventy-second games.
"Hey, Indigo! Miss Stein, look at me!" I grin at her, and she sits next to me. Obviously, she's wearing the latest fashions, in the latest colours (Green and Brown, because District seven were victors last year).
We chat for a while, before she exclaims "Well, that was stupid, I though he was from four!" I look down at the boy who is currently being watched. He has just fallen out of the net he was attempting to climb. He flushes, and then disappears into the swimming changing rooms, appearing soon later in trunks. What followed was pretty remarkable; he just started swimming lengths, really fast, without stopping. After a long time, he emerged, panting, and was dismissed by Genisius. I'd already given him an eight.
The girl that follows him is a sixteen-year-old from four.
"Siren Moon, District four." Even as she says this, she is shuffling towards the now-back-to-normal sword station, and in seconds, she's stabbing dummies, left, right and centre. Even Serica-Prima is stunned, and I assign her a score of ten.
Her district partner, Pisces Ruller, is extremely agile, and scores an eight from me, for his efforts on the ropes course.
The older girl, Riana, gives off a vicious and cruel attitude, and soon sets to work, hurling knives at the human-shaped target. When she's done with that, she grabs a trident, and does basically the same thing with that. It's pretty impressive, I must say, and I'm about to give her a ten, when she stops. Something has changed in her face; she's more… desperate, despairing. A few seconds after this, she spins the trident around in her hand, and points it at her chest. The peacekeepers only just come in time to stop her from stabbing herself. I lower my score to eight.
After this incident, Serica-Prima goes to chat to someone else, and I think that I fall asleep, because the next tribute I see is a girl from six, around sixteen years old, throwing knives at a target with terrifying accuracy. This awakens me immediately, and I give her a nine.
Next, I go grab an energy drink, because I'm still a bit sleepy, and being a gamemaker is very tiring.
When I get back, a tall boy is entering the arena.
"Terran Lacerta, District six" He walks over to the axe area, and swings his axe with such ferocity and accuracy, it's impossible not to give him a ten.
Suddenly, Genisius spots me, and calls me over.
"Indigo, I was wondering, could you help me with the centre work, these games?" I pause, slightly shocked – centre work is only for very experienced and intelligent people, and I'm only twenty-six. These are my third games!
"M-me, sir?"
"Yes, who else would I be talking to?"
"Of, of course, sir, I would be honoured to!"
"Brilliant, I'll see you tomorrow." I half turn away, but then think of something else to ask him.
"Why me, sir? Why do you need help?" He smiles, like he thinks I'm stupid.
"I'm old, Indigo, soon to retire, and I need someone to take over, when I leave. You just seemed like you would be able to handle the workload and responsibility."
"Oh. I'm very honoured, sir." He smiles, dismissively, and I walk back to my seat, to continue to watch the tributes.
A small, ginger boy from district seven is attempting to climb a net, but he keeps falling off. I give him a three, and try to focus.
Next up is Emily Ray, seventeen, from the same district. She throws a few knives at the targets, fairly successfully, and I award her with a seven.
"Torin Carlysle, District seven." The next tribute declares, before walking over to the archery range. He has obviously had practice, because he hits most of the targets with ease, even with only one eye, and is dismissed quickly, but not before I've given him a nine – pretty good for an outlying district.
Genisius sends for the next tribute, a girl called Carissa, aged twenty-seven.
When she has introduced herself, she throws some knives at the targets, and they nearly all hit the centre. The room falls silent, my colleagues shocked. From the look on her face, she's pretty shocked, too. I have to give her a nine, again, incredible, for an outlying district.
Suddenly, Serica-Prima appears again, and starts talking to me about a dress that a girl across the room has, someone called Oktober. I'm not really listening, but not really focussing on the tributes either, and I only stop when I notice that the fifteen-year-old girl from eight has been sat at the camouflage station for an extraordinarily long amount of time.
"Hey," I interrupt with "Do you think she's actually doing anything?" Serica-Prima looks at the girl, and shuts up for a second.
"What have you done?" I call out to the girl, who holds up her hand in reply. I'm taken aback; the back of her hand is decorated exactly like leaves. I note down a five for her (Seriously, what's camouflage going to do for you in the games?!) and dismiss her, because Genisius is too busy talking to a guy in a red suit to do it himself. Then, I turn back to Serica-Prima, and tell her to continue talking.
Suddenly, my head just whips around. I have no idea why, it just does. A twenty-year-old girl has just appeared.
"Carmen Calder, District eight." She walks over to the hand-to-hand combat station, and attempts to take a trainer down. She does, but even I can tell he's going easy on her. I give her a five.
Next, her district partner comes in, a muscled, good-looking guy.
"Maxwell Jones, District eight." He also walks over to the hand-to-hand, and does about as well as the girl. However, he then gets onto the ropes course, and does… alright on it. I give him a score of six.
Genisius is talking again, but this time to a spiky-looking girl with purple hair, similar to mine, but, well, spikier, so I dismiss him as well, and call for the next tribute.
She's tiny, seriously, tiny, and her voice is really quiet and nervous.
"Jenna Moonlight, District nine." Then, I recognise her as the girl with the sisters. That was so brave. "Jenna Moonlight!" The escort called, and a little five-year-old suddenly started crying. But her older sister didn't flinch, she just hugged her sister, handed a really young one to her, and walked, placidly up to the stage. Her younger sister just sat on the floor and cried, though, until a tall, stately woman strode up to her, and slapped her around the face. She went quiet, but her younger sister, only one or two, started to wail. Jenna, the girl who was picked just stood there, not wanting to go onstage, but not able to go back to her sisters, tears streaming down her cheeks. I shake myself, and focus on what she's doing – a snare, and an intricate one, too. Genisius dismisses her, and I pause, wandering what score to submit for her. I'm really not sure; I know that people can win the games with just snares, but she was so small, and would probably be slaughtered in seconds… I jot down a five, and look up to see the end of the younger boy's session, and the middle girl arrive.
"Heidi Thumps, District nine."
Her attempt at snares fails, and I award her chance of winning with a two.
Then, I get chatting again, and the next tribute I see is a girl from district ten, after Serica-Prima comments on the poor quality of such a strong-looking tribute. I watch her fail at sword fighting for a bit, give her a two, then hear "Dismissed!" being called from the other side of the room, by a brown-haired guy standing near Genisius. After he calls, he turns back to the head gamemaker and continues to talk. What could they be talking about?
"Excuse me" I mutter to Serica-Prima, and walk over to them, discreetly, pretending to be grabbing something to eat from the table at the back.
"…Sir, are you sure?"
"Yes, of course I am! Why would I ask you to do something that I don't want you to do?"
"Sorry, sir."
"It's ok, Krystel, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Of course, sir. I wouldn't miss it for the world."
Suddenly feeling ravenous, I pick up something from the buffet table and head back to Serica-Prima, who immediately starts jabbering nonsense.
Why would that man, presumably a gamemaker, be meeting Genisius tomorrow? Everyone knows that tomorrow is the games, and Genisius is very busy in the Centre. I must be the only person to be allowed in, that I can think of, bar the technicians, obviously. Unless…
"Oh, look at him!" My head flicks around to the training arena, where a tall, muscled boy walks in.
"Shaki, District ten." He winks at Serica-Prima, who blushes and giggles. He'll certainly make the games interesting, that's for sure.
First, he heads over to the axe station. I don't really look, at first; I'm too busy looking him up on my tablet. He's twenty-four, a year younger than Serica-Prima, and two years younger than me. Works on a tiny little farm in district ten…
Crack!
My head shoots up to see him chop another dummy in half. I'm impressed, but give him a score of seven; he totally misses the next one.
Suddenly, I feel really sick, and have to rush off to the bathroom. I have no idea why, I just feel horrible.
When I get back, a coloured girl is throwing a spear at a figurine. She's nearly done, but I give her an eight, just from what I saw.
Of course, the younger two from twelve are terrible. Not worth putting into the games, really, you might as well just kill them now.
The seventeen-year-old girl was also awful, her archery effort worth no more than a four, and I think that is being slightly generous.
Her district partner, a boy called Josh, really stood out. Not because he was good – in fact, I only gave him a five – but because he chose a mace, something that I haven't seen used, well, ever.
I decide to leave it at that, and go home. After all, the games are tomorrow…
A/N: For a full list of tributes, see my profile page. I should hope to get the next chapter out within a week, but I can't guarantee it.
As always, thanks for reading, please tell me what you think! :)
