Valora Brightfall: Head Gamemaker

Tuesday Morning 11:30
Time Until Bloodbath: 5 Days 20hrs 30mins

The elevator dinged as the doors slid open to reveal the busy offices of the Gamemakers. People rushed about like drunks trying to get their last drinks before closing time.

"Ms. Brightfall," A meek voice spoke from her left. "I have those papers you asked for. Geraldo says they're still trying to program the Mutts. There was a software glitch last night, and they're having some trouble."

"Of course," Valora huffed. "Tell him to get his ass down to the conference room. I want the heads of all major projects, from Mutts to weather to terrain to drop what they're doing and meet me now."

"Yes Ms. Brightfall," The woman, Gabrielle, bowed her head in assent.

Valora grumbled to herself while her heels clacked on the tile floor of the hallway leading to the conference room. She thrust the door aside and quickly set her bag at the head of the table, opening her tablet.

With the reapings complete, the Gamemakers now had just a little extra information to work with. They could tweak the arena minutely to better accommodate certain tributes in some areas and other tributes in different areas.

It was one of the more interesting aspects of Gamemaking to Valora. They had to look past the oft poorly crafted opinions of the TV commentators and take a hard look at each tribute. It paid to have potential storylines planned out, and with the abundance of information available to them on each tribute it certainly wouldn't be difficult.

Over the next few minutes project managers entered, some appearing frustrated and others appearing to be in better moods. Last into the room was the absent-minded Jorge Geraldo.

He was a tall young man with long matted hair, like he forgot to shower at night. Jorge was heralded as a genius, the up-and-coming face of Panem's political world. Only problem was that reality often differed from narrative, and the story of Jorge was definitely more narrative than reality.

Jorge really was as smart as people claimed him to be, perhaps too smart. His mind regularly deviated from the task before him and ventured off down paths he found interesting regardless of his own personal health and the wishes of others.

He would not make a good politician. Jorge was too easily exploited by those around him who paid more attention to the world.

"Let's begin," Valora addressed the room at large. "As you all know, the reaping was yesterday. That means we only have six days until the bloodbath, and there's still quite a few things to get worked out before then. Let's begin with a status update."

Valora received various answers over the next few minutes. The environment team had completed their tasks, apart from a few minor details set to be corrected over the next two days. The man-made materials team was still finishing construction on the arena's cornucopia, as it was quite a lot larger than the average cornucopia.

Then, there was the food and water team. They managed to sprinkle just the right amount of clean water sources in with potentially dangerous ones, and matching poisoned berries distinguished themselves from their edible counterparts. The weather team had created some fantastic storms, but they were still working out some of the kinks in testing.

Soon enough, it came back around to Jorge Geraldo. He explained in a soft calm voice how the computer system had been wiped and they'd lost all information on the Mutts. Now they had to start all over again, and they had only five days to complete their work.

"As I've explained before, we have one major mutt and many smaller ones that should give the tributes plenty of trouble but hopefully won't be enough to kill them," Jorge said. "Programming the large Mutt could take at least three days, and that's if we work around the clock."

"I expect the entirety of your quotas to be met Jorge," Valora said.

"That could be a problem," Jorge replied. "It could take two weeks to copy all the code in."

"You'd best get to work then Jorge."

Jorge stared at Valora for a moment, appearing almost vacant. He barely seemed to see her. Then, suddenly, he stood and promptly exited the room without a single word.

Valora hadn't thought he would just stand and leave, but it was probably for the best. Jorge never contributed much to the discussion anyway. He was more of the quiet intelligent kind of guy. Maybe that was what proved his genius. He never bragged about it.

"Well, what about the new tributes?" Valora asked. "Are there any suggested changes to the arena based on what we've seen?"

"I still think we should lower the amount of escape routes from the cornucopia," Dalius Livy said.

Dalius Livy was a particularly stubborn man. Stubborn and stupid. He had this moronic idea about forcing the tributes together in large groups, despite the fact that they would never voluntarily do such a thing.

"We've been over this Dalius," Valora said. "That is not a viable option."

"I'm serious," Dalius replied. "I think it would make for a fascinating Games."

"Sure, if you'd like for all the tributes to kill each other on the first day. Does anyone else have any ideas?"

"It seems to me like most of our tributes are more brains than brawn," Drai Mixon commented. "Even some of the careers look more like schemers than head bashers. Maybe we should make up some puzzles or something? If they solve the puzzle, they get some kind of reward."

"Ha!" Dalius Mixon laughed aloud. "How ridiculous an idea is that?"

"Shut up Dalius," Valora spoke, barely even paying attention to the idiot. "I like it Drai. Tell me more."

Bam! Another short Capitol chapter. Things are moving along though. Next time you get to see the stylists and the Chariot rides. That should be fun.

Anyway. Thanks for reading guys.