Julian Arviados, Official Presidential Aide and Undercover Assassin

"This is unbelievable." Titania said, as she watched the girl from District 10 volunteer.

Julian shrugged, preferring to remain noncommittal. They were watching the Reapings, and all of them had been mildly surprised when the boy from 3 volunteered. The rest of the Reapings had been fairly typical up until this point.

"I'm sure she had her reasons." Lidia noted. For a Head Gamemaker, she was surprisingly unperturbed about the surprise volunteers.

Titania looked like she was about to argue, but was interrupted by the boy from 11's rant about starving. Julian held back a smile as he watched her face change from surprise to confusion to indignation. He had always admired Titania's ability to hide her emotions, but this time, it seemed, she was just too appalled by the events of this year's Reapings.

"We can't have orphans starving in 11!" She exclaimed hotly. "Think about what this will do to my image!"

Lidia shrugged. "Whatever. I'm just focused on running the Games, not the country."

Judging by the look of annoyance on her face, Titania was used to her cousin's now-typical chilliness towards her. Julian was also accustomed to it as well by this point. The rivalry that was developing between the two meant that he would have to pick a side, and soon. For now though, he needed to focus on alleviating the tension between the two women long enough for all of them to figure out the significance behind the volunteers.

"They're a threat." Titania snapped at Lidia.

Lidia made a huge show of rolling her eyes. "They're tributes. Twenty-one of them are going to die anyways, so it all turns out the same. If you wouldn't have changed the damn Games, there would be more tributes, which would offset the number of volunteers. Not to mention that twenty-three of them would ultimately die, instead of only twenty-one."

Titania ignored her cousin's barb for the time being. Instead, she stood up and began to pace. "This is terrible. Because of that little bastard, we might have riots in 11 again, and who knows what's going on if three tributes from the Outer Districts actually volunteered?"

Julian glanced at Lidia, who looked disgusted with the fact that her cousin wasn't even paying attention to the District 13 Reapings that were now playing. Of course, they could always watch the reruns later, but Titania was too busy worrying about the volunteers. He decided it was time to establish himself as a potential ally to Lidia. Being careful to make eye contact with Lidia beforehand, he made a face at Titania's back as she paced. When she turned to face them again, he raised his hand. "May I suggest something?"

Titania sighed exasperatedly, but stopped pacing. "What?"

"Why are we so worried if we don't have any information yet? I know you're worried that the volunteer tributes may have been planted by a rebellion, but there could be plenty of other reasonable explanations. Including coincidence."

If the look Titania gave him was any indication, she didn't believe the volunteers were a coincidence at all. "Unfortunately, that's information we don't have," she all but snarled.

"Exactly. Which is why I'm suggesting that you obtain that information."

"Are you trying to suggest that I should simply stroll up to the tributes and ask them about their very interesting tributes for volunteering?"

"In a way, yes." Julian responded. A flicker of interest crossed Titania's face. "How would I go about that?" she asked carefully.

Julian leaned forward in his chair. "Well, let's start with a novel concept…"