Tiberius Bright (Head Gamemaker)

I shouldn't be this nervous. I've been a gamemaker for forty-three years and the head gamemaker for fifteen. And during that time I have, quite literally, seen just about everything there is to see and done just about everything there is to do in my profession. I've built landscapes, I've designed traps, I've cultivated flora and fauna, and I've even genetically engineered some of the most beautiful and deadly mutations to ever grace the arena. I shouldn't be this worried about showing my work off to the President for the first time.

Then again, my longevity in this field is a double-edged sword. It may give me every reason to be calm and confident, but it's also a major part of why I am so nervous. You don't spend more than four decades in this business, let alone a decade and a half at the top of it without becoming keenly aware of the penalty for failure. I am, after all, a first-hand witness to and one of the few survivors of the absolute debacle that was Fifty-Seventh Hunger Games.

That year has become a case study in how anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and it wasn't even our fault. We had no way of knowing the building site was directly on top of a fault line or that the Capitol would be hit by a once-in-a-generation earthquake just hours after we put the finishing touches on the arena.

None of that mattered to the President. She had the Head Gamemaker executed within hours and then ordered the rest of us to work twenty-two-hour shifts seven days a week at gunpoint to make sure we fixed everything in time for the games. And even though we somehow managed to pull it off, she still executed all of the senior gamemakers and one-tenth of the junior gamemakers as soon as the games ended. Just to make sure we never messed up that bad again.

And that was a lesson I took to heart. I spent the next forty-one years developing a reputation as a safe and steady hand. I never made mistakes, I never made waves, and I always delivered. And I threw it all away.

I let President Ashwood talk me into going with his grandiose arena design instead of the smaller and significantly safer arena I and my senior staff had wanted to build. I let him talk me into constructing a once-in-a-lifetime monstrosity fit for a once-in-a-generation quell despite not being sure I, never mind my team, were anywhere near qualified to do so.

So here I am, standing in the center of an arena I never wanted to build, waiting patiently for the President to finish his inspection so he can tell me how disappointed he is that I butchered his dream while praying that he might like it.

"This is incredible, Tiberius. I mean it, I've never seen anything this breathtaking in my entire life. You should be proud of the work you did with this."

Well, I guess that answers that question.

Don't get me wrong, I knew my team did a good job, and I expected the President to be pleased, or at the very least to keep his disappointment well hidden until after we finished the tour and he and I were alone. But I never in my wildest dreams dared to hope he would be genuinely happy with how things turned out.

It's almost too good to be true, and if I didn't know that President Ashwood hates duplicity and political doubletalk almost as much as I do, I would think it was.

But he does, and I don't. I genuinely do believe that he's elated with the breathtaking work my people did. And I don't know how to respond to it.

"Thank you very much, sir. But I can't take any of the credit."

"And why is that?"

"Because you and my team did all the actual work.

"You came up with the theme for the arena, and then my team spent the next eight months working eighteen-hour shifts bringing your vision to life. All I did was make sure they stayed on schedule and didn't bankrupt Panem in the process of doing so."

"You give yourself too little credit, Tiberius."

"I fear you give me too much. I am, after all, just a gamemaker, and not an overly talented or imaginative one.

"My only redeeming qualities are that I'm a steady hand who can get the best out of any situation.

"That's the reason you asked me to stay on as Head Gamemaker instead of letting me retire when you took office as my wife wanted me to."

"That's not even close to true and I think we both know it."

"I'm not as sure about that last part as you are, sir. But I know better than to argue with you, so I'll defer to you on this."

"That's a good policy, Tiberius.

"It's not that I don't enjoy trying to shower you with well-deserved praise despite your obvious aversion to receiving it, but I do have other places to be. Other fires to put out, as it is."

"I'm sure you do, sir.

"And speaking of that. I want to take a quick second to mention all of the positive responses my wife and I have heard from our friends and acquaintances about your recent announcement. Your changes seem to be very popular with the people."

"That's good to hear. Though I'm sure the incredibly compelling quell twist had a lot to do with how well it was received.

"I'm not too proud to admit that I was a little worried there would be rioting in the streets of the Capitol after I made the announcement."

"I can relate, sir. Not directly mind you, but I was more than a little afraid you would hate the arena so much you'd have me executed on the spot."

"Oh, I thought about it. I spent most of the morning coming up with as many creative ways to use the arena to end you if I didn't like what I saw….

"I'm kidding. Lighten up, Tiberius. You'll live longer."

"I'll try to keep that in mind, sir.

"Now, if you're happy with the general setup and architecture of the arena?"

"I am."

"Then I would like to finish our little tour with a sneak peek of what my mutation experts have cooked up for our tributes to contend with as they explore this breathtaking arena…"

A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this very small sneak peak at the arena. I've spent a decent amount of time planning it out and I can't wait for all of you to see it. But that will come in time, and we have a little more world building to get through before we start picking up steam towards the mayhem that awaits us in the games proper.

With that in mind, I want to thank everyone who has submitted a tribute so far. I've received a few amazing submissions already and I know that there are many more on the way, and I can't wait to meet them all. Meeting new tributes and bringing them to life is the best part of doing this, and I truly do appreciate everyone who trusts me enough to submit one to me and my story. I also greatly appreciate everyone who reads my work and reviews it, knowing that there are people out there who do enjoy my work enough to do so really does make this even more fun than it already was.

But there will be plenty of time for me to gush about how amazing all of you are over the coming weeks. So I'll cut it short for now with one more quick thank you and a request that you review this chapter, submit me your amazing tributes, and be on the lookout for the next update in the near future :D