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Violet Emerald made her way through the hallways of the Gamemakers' Center, approaching the high-security conference room. Before the institution of the Events, it was only used once a year: to go over the dossiers of the tributes for the Games. The dossier system was instituted when the Reaping Statutes were introduced; the exact details of a given Statute were not revealed by the government to the public, but they were reviewed by a few people in private to know what they were dealing with and who would be better Victors (though the Gamemakers would never directly target a tribute). There had been a debate as to whether or not the dossier system would continue for the Events, but Ruby had encouraged it, in case an aspect of a competitor's history would impact the Events. (Violet wasn't sure why Ruby was so adamant about the dossiers when she refused to be in attendance when they were read, but she'd long ago decided not to argue.)
When she entered the conference room, she found that she was the last to arrive; Garnet, the President's representative, and Madaline Ohm, the woman in charge of background checks, were already there. Madaline was the daughter of a prominent researcher in Three, but was reaped for the 128th Games due to a scandal related to her father's research; she was then rescued from the Arena, but rather than send her out into a district, they kept her in the Capitol to help with background checks for government officials and research for tribute dossiers, as she had exceptional research skills and access to information through Three's databases that previous background checkers did not. Violet only knew about Madaline's existence and saving because of her research skills, and thought it was an isolated incident.
"Hello, Ms. Emerald. Are you ready for the dossiers?"
"Yes. It's a little weird to do them before the Reaping recap, though."
"But there was no other way – they're showing the Drawings right before the Parade," Garnet explained.
"I understand that. That doesn't make it any less weird, especially because we haven't seen any of the competitors yet." It was policy, also instituted with the Statutes, that the Head Gamemaker and the President's family didn't watch any Drawings before the recap.
"Fair enough, dear cousin."
Madaline slid folders across the table to the Emeralds in attendance, then uncovered the projector, which displayed a slide that read "THE COMPETITORS OF THE FIRST INTER-DISTRICT, INTER-DISCIPLINARY EVENTS" in giant, magenta comic sans. (Madaline always had a flair for the childish in her presentations.) "Hello again, my friends. It's exciting to be presenting for a new Gamemaker. This year, I've noticed two characteristics that manifest themselves in many of our competitors. Firstly, many of our competitors have moved districts at some point in their lives. Secondly, many competitors have some form of a strained relationship with their parents. I'll make sure to point these out as we work through our competitors."
Madaline moved to the next slide, which displayed a picture of Nell. "We begin with the earliest district to draw, District Six, which drew at lunch yesterday. The female from Six is Nell Edwards, age fourteen. Nell is the daughter of John Edwards, who writes for the Panem Times, which is the most reliable newspaper nationally. He's been training her a little bit, so she's got good writing skills, but she's not academically remarkable other than that. Questions?"
"Is she in Six's pre-University program?" Garnet asked.
"No. She's in their regular Reaping-Age school. It's in the same building, but different programs. Anything else? Cool. I will point out here that Nell is being mentored by one of our Selection ladies. Just something to keep an eye on." *CLICK*
"The Six Male is Ventus Gorva, age eighteen. Both of our characteristics manifest themselves in Ventus. His mother was, according to court documents from the divorce of his parents, an extremely sociopathic, manipulative, and abusive woman with a lot of power in District One. Ventus's father filed for divorce, and in his application to move residence, he cites that his wife began to smear his name around One, whatever that means. Either way, the Gorvas now live in Six.
"Because he was from One, Ventus faced a lot of hostility in Six, even post-redistricting. Ventus faced a lot of bullying and abuse in Six, but didn't handle things very well initially. We have records of Ventus getting into fights at school, which put Ventus under a Statute that would have expired last Games were it not for an attack on Ventus a year ago in which one kid broke his arm and another pulled a knife. The school finally took action at that point and his statute was already lifted, but I can't imagine the impact that's had on him.
"All that being said, we must note that Ventus has extensive training, not just from One's Academy but from his mother. According to Ventus's father, Ventus's mother wanted nothing more than a Victor. From what I can tell, Ventus is no longer training, but his younger sister, Malva, may still be. And I do wonder if Ventus still would want to be in the Games."
"Did Malva request her name be taken out of the drawing?" asked Garnet.
"No."
"Is Ventus out of Reaping age?" asked Violet.
"Nope. He is still technically to be eligible to enter the Games this summer. Any more questions? Ok. Obviously, a lot of questions about him come from personality things that we don't have in public records, and because we have public records, we didn't reach out to any family members. So we'll have to see how he's changed, but he's one to keep an eye on. Let's move on for sake of time." *CLICK*
"Our Thirteen Female, Henley Moriarty. Age sixteen. She grew up in Thirteen, and therefore was under the special Statute, but had no Reaping Statutes of her own. Henley was in the Thirteen Special Ops unit, which merged right into the Capitol SpOps branch. As you know, Henley was rigged into the Events; her primary job is to be there on the inside and ensure that everything runs smoothly and that there is no fighting or killing. Any questions on Henley?"
"I'm not familiar with Henley's mission. Is she still eligible to participate in and win the Events?" Garnet asked, making notes on his page on Henley in his folder.
"Yes. Henley has the ability to participate just like any other competitor would. The structure of the Events, as you know, is such that there is no outside influence on the outcome of any given competition, so there can be no Gamemaker bias. And because each competition is individual, so they're not competing in teams or using alliances, just by themselves, she could totally throw/lie about competition placement if needed. Anything else? All right." *CLICK*
"Aelyx Stark is our Thirteen Male. Age eighteen. He's the nephew and adopted son of Erik Stark, who is the commander of the Special Ops branch. Aelyx was not rigged into the Games, and is unaware of Henley's mission; from reaching out to his father, we know that Erik didn't tell Aelyx anything about Henley's mission. Aelyx has both characteristics in himself: he moved from the Capitol to Two when his father's second wife made his father kick him and his sister out, and he then moved with his uncle Erik to Thirteen when the military relocated. Any questions?"
"Does Aelyx's birth father still have contact with Aelyx?" asked Violet.
"Unclear from my findings."
"Is Aelyx in the army?" Garnet asked.
"He enlisted as a reserve officer when he turned sixteen, as all children born in Thirteen are required to do. Any other questions? Excellent." *CLICK*
"Now we move to District Ten. Our female competitor is Ramona Wayland, age thirteen. She is the niece of Viktor and Rowena Wayland, two tributes from the Fourth Quell." The Emeralds in the room visibly winced at the mention of the Fourth Quell. Nobody talked about the Fourth Quell, which, being born twenty years at least after the Fourth Quell, Madaline couldn't have known. "There's not much to say about Ramona. She's very intelligent, in the top ten of her class academically. She also has a connection to Alexei, the Three Male, but I'll get into that later. Questions? No? Yeah, she's pretty simple. Great." *CLICK*
"Our Ten Male is Kitt Mosley. Age seventeen. We don't have a ton on the records about him, so we reached out to his parents. They were very nice and personable, and told us that Kitt doesn't go to school in the winter because he works the rodeo. And obviously there's no school in the summer. Kitt mostly works with the bulls, to get them ready for the arena, but doesn't ride horses at all due to an injury he had when he was younger. This led to an extended story about every individual incident between Kitt and bulls and horses, and everyone's feelings about Kitt's accident, and everyone's feelings about Kitt's feelings about the accident, and to be honest I just let them talk while I did more work. Any questions on Kitt? Cool." *CLICK*
"District Twelve! The female is Sharen Cantiano, age sixteen, who also hits both of our characteristics on the head. Sharen was born in Eleven, but after her mother's death when she was twelve, her father refused to take her in, so she joined her mother's family in Twelve. We have records of her traveling back to Eleven just over two and a half years ago to visit her father, and then traveling back to Twelve shortly thereafter. So the visit didn't go so well. There are no other important points to Sharen, so unless there are any questions, I'll move on. Good." *CLICK*
"Our male is Alder Howe. He's really just a simple, average, twelve-year-old kid. Loves trucks. Nothing remarkable in his backstory. But he's very cute. I'll move on now." *CLICK*
"The female from Eleven is Mallory Farro, age fifteen. Her parents are overseers in the fields known for being especially tough, and that's saying something in Eleven; Quinoa, her mother is especially known for her cruelty. So we may have a dicey relationship with her parents situation here as well. There is a report from a physical education teacher that says that her grades dropped after her thirteenth birthday due to a limp."
"Is there any recorded abuse?" asked Violet.
"Not on file. But it wouldn't surprise me if it has happened. Mallory has surprisingly little on the record for the child of an overseer, but I'm fairly confident that there is no rebel activity in her family (after all, she is the child of an overseer.) Any questions? Excellent." *CLICK*
"Our Eleven male is Crixus Anjou, eighteen. Another one with a difficult relationship with his parents. He left home at age 13 to go live with his grandparents, but Crixus instead decided on his own to leave there to live in an orphanage. I'm unclear as to what exactly the cause of leaving the house is; all of the extant records are incredibly vague. The mother cited 'irreconcilable differences,' which is usually something you see in divorces, Crixus cited… well, he didn't really give a reason for leaving his grandparents but they signed off on it so Eleven approved it. He's definitely one to keep an eye on in the Arena, especially for one other reason that we'll talk about in a sec. Any other questions?" *CLICK*
"District Eight. Our female is Serenity Capiere, age thirteen. Her family has moved twice. Right with the redistricting her family applied for relocation to One, which was approved, but as you know, any work visas coming from Eight are denied after five years as a buffer against rebel activity, and are not renewed for a full year after the fifth one. So she moved back to Eight. There is no recorded rebel activity in her family, but protocol."
"Do we have any information on her training in One?"
"Unclear. It's likely, because she is from One, and she is on records in the Academy system, but she has no listed assessments anywhere." Madaline paused for a moment, then moved on to the next slide.
"This next one is an interesting one. The Eight male is Sage Davidson, age seventeen."
Garnet sharply breathed in.
"What's wrong?" Violet asked. "Is he a rebel? Did a rebel slip through the cracks?"
"It's not important," Garnet said. "He looks a lot like someone I once knew."
Violet narrowed her eyes, but allowed her cousin to be silent on the issue, yielding the floor back to Madaline.
"OK. So Sage used to live in Eleven, but recently moved to District Eight for a reason that… is not entirely clear on record. Sage has a history of depression in his family, but he was able to get over that by working in the fields back home. He's still trying to find an outlet in Eight, where he is living on his own with a woman named Kira Mazda, meaning that none of his family moved with him. We have no familial rebel history for Sage." Before Violet could ask any questions, Madaline progressed to the next slide.
"The next district to draw was District Three. What's interesting about Three is that both Three tributes are in pre-University programs there. That may be an interesting thing to look at for next year. The female is Sinsya Powers, age 14. She's one of the youngest members in the formal pre-U program. Sinsya is brilliant, but that's about all we know about her. Any questions re Sinsya?" *CLICK*
"Where is she originally from?" Violet asked.
"Good question. Six, I believe."
"Her partner, Alexei, thirteen, is in the advanced computer science program. It can feed into Pre-U, but not necessarily. He just started at the end of the summer, so they're still analyzing his skills, and he may have to do some work during the Events themselves. Alexei comes from Ten originally, and is very good friends from childhood with Ramona, our Ten Female. The two are pen pals; a letter came through Nine in November from Alexei to Ramona. So that's cute! Any questions about Alexei? Awesome." *CLICK*
"District Four now! Our female is Amazon Brown, age eighteen. Amazon is married to Mason Brown, and is the mother of Lucy, age three months. She moved over to Four in August, as soon as she could after she turned eighteen, with her husband, Mason; she cites concern over her parents letting her raise Lucy as a reason for moving, so I assume she also has a dicey relationship with her parents."
"Is she trained?" Violet asked.
"Yes. Wouldn't be surprised if that was encouraged by her parents. Now, one other thing. Because Amazon is still breast feeding, we gave her permission to bring Lucy with her. So there will be a baby. We're still trying to figure out what to do with the baby during the Events, but yeah. Garnet, maybe we can enlist your services?"
"Maybe," smiled Garnet. "Let's move on and think about it later."
"All right! The four male is Sol Mikkelson. Has at least some training, being from Four, and is eligible next year, as he's still eighteen. He's the child of two teenagers who had a combined six years of statutes, so he was Reaped for the 133rd Games. Then his boyfriend volunteered for him, and then his boyfriend stepped off the pedestal."
"Does anyone know why?"
"No. We generally look into the families and histories of tributes who step off, but there's nothing that indicates rebelliousness, suicidal nature, anything. I'd assume that Sol isn't quite over it now, though. Anyway, his statute then expired. Sol was adopted, and never really knew his birth parents, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's not thrilled with the current Statute system."
"But it is still new!" Garnet exclaimed.
"I know. I think he'll get that. Any other questions about Sol? Cool." *CLICK*
"The last district to draw on the first day was Seven. The female is Sawyer Burns, age eighteen. Recently engaged to Michael Lee. Sawyer does not come from the wealthiest upbringing; her mother is currently listed as working three jobs. And her brother is deaf. So an engagement to someone wealthier is going to be incredibly helpful for her family, as will the stipend from the Events. We don't have any remarkable school record from her, but she is in school. Questions on her?" *CLICK*
"The male from Seven is Morrel Elmwyner, fourteen. He's also quite smart. He applied to Pre-U programs in Six and Three, but was rejected from both of them; he could still make it in later on, but he just wasn't ready yet. He wasn't quite a Sinsya. He's very academic, it seems, and also from a fairly wealthy background; there is a record of the Elmwyners hiring tutors for Morrel almost every year, even though he was doing well academically. So expect to see him doing well even after the Events. Any questions?"
Madaline took a deep breath. She said tensely, "The next tribute is our Nine Female, drawn this morning. Sixteen-year-old Liana Klepper. Daughter of Dania and Correy, niece of Elizah and Garnet."
"Oh boy," said Garnet. "Even with the Fairness Council, there are going to be people up in arms about her."
"I'm not crazy worried. We'll just have to announce structure earlier than I planned. Plus, I think the Capitol will like her. Madaline, is there anything about Liana we don't know?"
"She was adopted, but you know that. She's a good role model, but you know that. I think you've got her covered. We'll move to Aviel Nitsa, also sixteen. Aviel's educational records are very interesting. Up until the redistricting, they're mediocre to bad. Then, his grades shoot up. I think that the existence of Six as an educational center really helped motivate him to succeed. So props for the redistricting! Wealth wise, not so wealthy, but still barely middle class. Questions about Aviel?" *CLICK*
"District Five. Female is Luna Powell, age eighteen. She's pretty smart, but not Sinsya or even Morrell smart. The big thing with Luna is a fire in her home about three years ago. We have it on record because she lived fairly close to Five's rebel stronghold, so any fires are logged in that area in case suspicious activity is on the record. There was no suspicious activity in this case; the mother made a point to tell the authorities that the fire was her fault because she put a candle too close to a curtain. Oops. We don't really have anything else to note about Luna, but that's what it is. Questions?" *CLICK*
"OK. This next one is one we need to keep an eye on. Rochas Augustus, age seventeen, Five male. Adopted when he was younger. Rochas is a member of the Save Earth Activists. The group is technically non-violent – at least they claim to be. Either way, we need to watch him. Rochas was relocated from Two to Five last year, which probably means that he had two protest strikes. That's how Save Earth handles things – two strikes means relocation. I would not be surprised to see Rochas try to use the Events as a platform for Save Earth. And I also don't know enough about how the government's environmental policies work to know which side is right. That's not my place. But keep an eye on him. Especially because he was one of the only tribute to make a huge scene during the Reapings. Questions?"
"You said he was in Two," Garnet pointed out. "Any training?"
"His sister has trained, and she was actually good enough to have her name submitted for withholding from the Drawing. I'd assume he's trained at least at little bit. because he's from Two, and their school system goes through the academies. But the amount he's been willing to train? We'll have to see. Anything else? All right." *CLICK*
"Now we move into our primary Career districts. District One. The female is Jessamine Rogers. She also moved from Eight to One, but because her family was in the small-business guild in Eight, they were able to get permanent residence. I have nothing on record about her training, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that she has some. One other important thing about Jess is her medical record. She has a very unique condition called aphantasia, which means that she cannot visualize things. I don't know if that will impact her in the Events, and I also don't know if we can do anything about it. Violet, could that be a problem?"
"There's one that will be a problem. I don't know if we can change it for her, though."
"So that's something for you to consider. But I don't have much else to say about Jess. Her district partner," Madaline moved to the next slide, "Winsley Vwystrom, who is thirteen, also has a unique ability. Winsley has prosthetic legs on both his left and his right. Was that English? You get my drift. He has some training, but spends a lot of time dancing and playing floorball; he's enrolled in specialty programs for both of those activities. Notably, his dance instructor is Lavender Aroma. Winlsey also mentioned in his drawing that he feels masculine on weekdays and feminine on weekends. Any questions on Winsley?" *CLICK*
"Four more. The Two female is Myranda Lidano. She has training, and a lot of it – Myranda is ranked sixth in her year; as an eighteen-year-old, that means she had a real chance at volunteering. I don't know to what degree she was considering what to do after she volunteered, but I would definitely be cognizant of the fact that she might be upset about not being able to enter the Games."
"Is she trained under a Victor?" asked Violet.
"No," said Madaline. "She's the first individual trainee of Dania Lidano." Madaline caught Garnet's eye, and the two shared a knowing look. "Let's move on." *CLICK*
"The Two male is named Plato Antoni, age twelve. He's also involved with training in the Academy, but did not rank significantly enough to be of note, meaning he was not submitted to be withheld from the drawing. We don't know much about him other than that. Questions? Cool." *CLICK*
"Our Capitol tributes, finally! The female is Lyric Cloud, age fifteen. Yes, as in Cloud's Composers. She has some altercations and a tattoo, et cetera. She does not train in the Academy in the Capitol, but we know that the Capitol Academy has some problems with getting trainees who aren't lazy. More on that in a second. She is very musically talented, though. So that's good. Questions?" *CLICK*
"Our Capitol male is Silas Rune, age seventeen. Silas prefers they/them pronouns, but remains in the male slot because they haven't applied to transfer. They're originally from One; their father worked in a Capitol restaurant after the redistricting and their mother stayed in One working in a jewelry store. Two years ago, Silas was given the opportunity to transfer to the Capitol academy; they were sinking in their ranking in One and the trainers here wanted some moderate to good trainees to help boost up the Capitol Academy. Even with that and a Victor, it kinda didn't work. Not to mention that Silas's ranking continued to drop in the Capitol, though less far. They're not bad by any stretch of the word, but they're probably less skilled than Myranda to say the least (after all, they trained in One and the Capitol, not Two, and they ranked tenth or so at the last check). Questions about Silas?
"Excellent. Thank you for your attention. Garnet, can I talk to you for a bit?"
"Sure. Bye, cousin Violet."
"Goodbye," said Violet suspiciously. "Thank you, Madaline."
"My pleasure."
Violet left the room, delicately slamming the door behind her.
"What are we going to do about Sage?" Madaline exclaimed.
A Timeline of the Intros
Fifteen Years, Two Months, 22 Days Before the Drawing: Mallory is born
Ten Years, Four Months Before: Aelyx is forced out of his house and moves to Two; he'll later move to Thirteen
Six years, Two months Before: Liana is adopted by the Kleppers
Six years Before: Announcement of redistricting, Jess's family prepares to move.
Five years, Seven Months Before: Crixus slaps his mom
Five years, Two Months Before: Winsley starts dance
Three Years Before: Luna's home catches on fire
Two years, Seven Months Before: Sharen goes to see her dad
Two Years, Two Months Before: Ventus moves to Six
Two Years Before: Morrel learns about the Pre-U program in Three, Silas is offered a transfer to the Capitol Academy
A Year and a Half Before: Owen volunteers for Sol
One Year Before: Nell tells her dad about the Ventus incident in the cafeteria, Sawyer gets engaged, Chloe comes out to her parents
Eleven Months Before: Amazon learns she's pregnant
Nine Months Before: Rochas's protest and transfer to Five
Seven Months, Three Weeks Before: Serenity moves to Eight
Seven Months Before: Sage is transferred to Eight
Six Months, Three Weeks Before: Ramona learns that Alexei is moving to Three
Three and a Half Months: Kitt's family's rodeo opens
Two Months Even: Alexei writes to Ramona
One Month, One Week Before: Aviel cheats and cheats
Exactly One Month Before: Lyric performs in Seven
Three Weeks Before: Henley gets her mission
Two Weeks: Alder is adorable, Sinsya chats with Xella
One Week: Lists come out in Two for Myranda
Yay the dossiers! I decided to include this chapter because I thought it would be a good way to have all of our competitors in one place. Is there anything interesting that you noticed here that wasn't included here? Anything you didn't see that you noticed was omitted? What's going on with Sage? Is there a reason that Madaline included the two specific non-competitors she did (and who were those people)?
A note: I've only included in this chapter things that I think the Capitol would reasonably have access to, which is why we know some things from the Reaping chapters that they didn't mention here (like the fact that Silas is genderfluid – they would only know that if they had asked to be switched into the female bowl, which they didn't. Silas only mentioned his pronouns.)
I decided to skip the goodbyes because only one is actually relevant, but we can go over that during the Train Ride scenes. I also don't know if I'll be able to get another chapter up until after I finish school, so around the 21st. I'll also have time to arc the story out then, which is good. Because right now I'm flailing in my head.
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. I'll see you next chapter!
Yours,
Goldie031