DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of the Hunger Games.
Report delivered to President Paylor; three months prior to the Capitol Games.
CAPITOL GAMES: Mentors, Stylists and Recommendations.
1. TRIBUTES
All Capitol children have been informed which district they shall be entered for. If an entrant's family has connections with a specific district, that is the one they may be chosen to represent. This has naturally meant that some districts have more representatives, particularly One and Four, for obvious and unsavoury reasons. Twelve and Thirteen have very few representatives. Entrants who have on familial connection with any district have been distributed as evenly as possible. The tribute committee worked on this for a fortnight and have found this to be the most acceptable resolution.
Furthermore, this week each child will be informed of the number of slips they will have in the reaping bowl, much like tesserae, and the reasons behind the number. Minimally, this means one slip per year of their age. Extra slips are allocated according to familial involvement with the games or the rebellion. Some examples: Parent purchasing "Victor services" adds five slips in total for under twelves and five slips per year for over twelves. Relatives of those peripherally involved with the Games (doctors, trainers eg); same principal but ten slips. Relatives of those in Snow's government, same principal but 100 slips. For full details please see Appendix A.
Volunteers will be allowed.
2. MENTORS
All known surviving Victors or their representatives have been contacted.
The following have agreed to take part:
Enobaria Golding, District Two. Victor of the 62nd Hunger Games and survivor of the Quarter Quell
Beetee Latier, District Three. Victor of the 38th Hunger Games and survivor of the Quarter Quell
Riley Sparks, District Three. Victor of the 22nd Hunger Games. Survived the rebellion and subsequent Victor's purge by electrifying his daughter's entire house so nobody could get in or out.
The following have declined:
Commander Lyme Orion, District Two. Victor of the 52nd Hunger Games. Paralysed during the fall of The Nut. Willing to offer advice via camera feed but does not wish to be seen in public.
Basalt Ajax, District Two. Victor of the 61st Hunger Games. Survived the fall of the Nut. Does not wish to have any further contact with the Capitol.
Annie Cresta, District Four. Victor of the 70th Hunger Games. Survived the Victor Purge after being rescued by District Thirteen. Doctor Aurelius has explained to her the full plan behind these Games and assured her that viewing will not be mandatory.
Selena Bishop, District Eight. Victor of the 46th Hunger Games. Survived the Victor Purge by disguising herself and hiding in the Capitol. Does not wish to take part.
Peeta Mellark, District Twelve. Victor of the 74th Hunger Games. Survived the Victor Purge after being rescued by District Thirteen. Doctor Aurelius has spoken with him at length and explained the reasoning behind these Games, and he has reluctantly agreed not to oppose them.
Other:
Johanna Mason informed us in typically colourful language that she is undecided and may yet decide to participate.
Tullius Bentley, District Six. Victor of the 68th Hunger Games; escaped the Capitol and believed to now be living in District Nine with two adopted children. Due to his diminished mental capacity he has not been contacted, but the District Nine liaison will explain the situation to him if he sees anything on television and it becomes necessary.
Ranger Tempest, District Ten. Victor of the 54th Hunger Games. Survived the Victor Purge by hiding out in the wilderness beyond the district fences. Could not be contacted, but a letter has been left for him explaining the situation should he return to the district.
At the request of Peeta Mellarck, Victor of the 74th Hunger Games: Haymitch Abernathy, Victor of the 50th Hunger Games and Katniss Everdeen, Victor of the 74h Hunger Games of District Twelve have not been informed. He has assured us that as they have no televisions and rarely leave their homes it is highly unlikely they will even find out these Games are taking place.
Due to the low number of mentors, the District representatives will act as Escorts and each tribute will get a minimum of three hours contact time with a Mentor, to be allocated by ballot.
3. STYLISTS
No stylists survived the rebellion. However the following citizens will be acting as stylists for these Games in return for one year's free rent on a modest one-bedroom apartment on Capitol Row or the district of their choice.
Former stylist Tigris, aged 87, will oversee Districts One and Two.
Former stylist Count Scarlett, aged 44, will oversee Districts Three and Four.
Former skin beautification specialist Venia Vanilla will oversee Districts Five and Six. NB: she has agreed to be a stylist on the condition she is not seen on camera and is allowed to return to District Thirteen immediately following the games to rejoin her colleagues Flavius Leto and Octavia Twinkle, who she informs us remain too traumatised to assist.
Former hairstylist Aquamarine Ardor will oversee District Seven. Aged 83, she was a prep for District Seven between the 15th - 38th Games.
Body modification student Dionysus Vale, aged 18, will oversee Districts Eight and Nine.
Skin specialist Pippy Snowdrop, aged 21, will oversee Districts Ten and Eleven. She was apprenticed to District 11's prep team for the 75th Games.
Nail artist Prodigy Flora, aged 19, will oversee Districts Twelve and Thirteen.
4. Escorts
Two escorts survived the rebellion. Effie Trinket is now living in District One and teaching at an elementary school, and Satina Sparkle is rumoured to be living with Basalt Ajax of District Two. Both have declined to take any part in these games.
Therefore the District representatives have agreed to act as escorts to the tributes as follows:
District One - Diamond Shadow
District Two - Snub Granite
District Three - Dupont Halifax
District Four - Fynn Flanagan
District Five - Eller Bright
District Six - Dr. Cordelia Autus
District Seven - Lady Briar Oakley
District Eight - Twilla Floss
District Nine - Maizie Miller
District Ten - Cooper Smith
District Eleven - Argula Finch
District Twelve - Delly Cartwright, advised by Dr Aurelius.
District Thirteen - Britannica Gold
~ Report ends ~
In a small third-floor apartment, entirely unlike the plush, spacious rooms in which she'd lived the first twelve years of her life, Saoirse Rudolphine twirled a lock of faded yellow hair around one finger and stared at the document. Fifty-eight slips for her, 46 for her sister...and just 6 for her brother. One for each year of his age. The numbers would mean nothing until she could compare notes with the girls at school, it was the words at the top of the page that made her frown. Parent paid for relations with District Five victor Cyra Luned. Aunt Cyra. She'd visited every year for as long as Saoirse could remember, right up until she'd been killed in the third quarter quell. But...she and Mum were friends. That was why she'd visited.
"...wasn't it?" Saoirse didn't realise she'd been speaking out loud until she looked up from the paper she was holding and saw her mother's stricken face. Her mind raced. She'd heard of prostitution, of course. Everyone knew how girls and boys from District One liked to come and work in the licensed Capitol brothels so they could send money home to their families. The Capitol were kind enough to fake documentation so fourteen and fifteen year olds could come and work there early, they...
"I think...after the third or fourth year, she'd started to think of me as a friend" Swann Rudolphine said quietly, staring at the wall. "And then you were born, and of course she had Iovita, so we had something in common at last, so when she visited, instead of, um...well, we talked, and..." Saoirse saw tears in her mother's eyes, and she was afraid for the first time. Not that she would get picked, for the games were just something that happened on a faraway big screen, Saoirse didn't even connect the concept of death with the scenes she'd watched for as long as she could remember - but for what she was about to hear. So she said "Isn't it time to pick Lyssa up from her dance class?" and Swann wiped her eyes and smiled and said yes, they should probably get going, and they didn't talk about it again.
Six hundred and six slips. Jupiter Mondrian folded the letter carefully and tucked it under his mattress so nobody else would see. It was times like this when he missed his mother the most. Having someone to hug at the end of the day, just knowing somebody had his back. She was working in District Seven now, digging trenches to plant new trees and whatever else they were making her do out there. It was much better than prison, she had told him in all three of the letters she'd been allowed to send. At least she got to be outside and talk to people, and the food was decent if plain and dull, and she was working.
"What you doing, traitor boy?" sneered a voice. Jupiter calmly stood up as the older boy slunk into the dormitory. He knew better than to look scared. They only liked it more if he was scared. They two boys stood face to face, though Jupiter had to crane his neck. The boy shoved him, not painfully but hard enough that he fell back onto his bed. "Toilet's blocked again. Miss White wants you to come and clean it out" the boy sneered.
Jupiter picked himself up as the boy walked out. Maybe there was a blocked toilet, or maybe not. He should go and find out. Being the son of one of Snow's most trusted advisors didn't help him much these days, not now he was living in a community home. He thought about those six hundred and six slips again, and how likely it was that he would be end up in the Capitol games, even though he was only eleven years old and wouldn't even have been eligible if he'd been born in one of the districts. Ah, well.
At least he might meet some people who didn't hate him before the end.
She supposed it was her name that had connected her to District Nine. Abundance Verity's mother had died during the final days of the rebellion, caught in one of the pods in their street as she'd tried to buy food for the family, but she'd never done anything wrong. Dad worked in a nail salon, but there hadn't been much call for his trade since President Snow had died, so money was tight now. At seventeen, Abundance had wanted to be TV presenter, but now she found herself spending her days processing deliveries in a warehouse that distributed food supplies throughout Panem. It wasn't something she'd ever imagine herself doing, but she couldn't deny the small thrill of independence she felt every time she collected her paycheck and knew she could afford to support herself for another month.
Twelve slips, she thought. Twelve slips, and the name of a victor. It wasn't likely she was going to be the one to get picked.
A year ago he hadn't even known District Thirteen still existed, and now he was potentially expected to represent them in a death match? Arctic Corbin wasn't angry, not exactly, but the unfairness of the situation stung painfully. In fact it was doubly unfair, because if he was another month older he would be too old for this whole charade and someone else would have to take part. It wasn't as if he'd ever particularly enjoyed the games, despite teasing from his friends that he preferred to live in a fantasy world rather than watch real life. And he didn't even have any connection with District Thirteen. No connection with any of the districts in fact - his parents were just regular actors, appearing in one of the Capitol's most popular soap operas. The one upside was that he had just thirteen slips - presumably, one per year from the ages if six to eighteen - so surely it wasn't likely he was going to be chosen.
Nonetheless, Arctic carefully folded the letter and left the apartment, heading for the newly-erected justice building for his area where he politely knocked on the door and asked if there wasn't someone he could talk to about this. He had no doubt that this was all a mistake and someone would sort it all out promptly.
"How many is five hundred and ten?"
"A lot, darling. More than there are days in a year."
"Because Daddy was a gamemaker?"
"That's right."
Aspen Ambrose thought about this for a while. She looked at the piece of paper again, reading it very carefully. Some of the words were new to her, but five hundred was a big number, and the bigger the number, the more likely you were going to have to play the games. Mum looked sad, and Aspen couldn't bear that. She got up and went over to Mum and gave her a big hug.
"If I have to play the games, will you come with me?" she asked, signing as she spoke. But Mum shook her head. "I don't think they'll let me" she signed back.
That made sense, Aspen thought. Mum was an Avox, so she wasn't allowed to do lots of things. Like when Daddy's wife had been alive, and neither of them had been allowed out of the apartment. She hadn't even seen grass until she was eight years old. Then things had changed, and Daddy had let them go out after dark as long as they wore long cloaks and Aspen promised not to talk to anyone. It was like a game, pretending to fade into the street like you weren't really there, until they got to the park and Aspen was allowed to play on all the swings and slides that the regular Capitol children used during the daytime.
Then things had changed again and Daddy had come home scared, and said nobody was going to go out at all. Mum had gone out anyway, and she'd come back with food, and shook her head and refused to sign when Daddy asked where she'd got it from, but they'd stayed inside and eaten the food while there were bad noises and screams outside. Then one morning Aspen had woken up and Daddy wasn't there any more, and when she asked Mum where he was Mum didn't know, but she'd looked sad.
And now there were five hundred and ten chances that Aspen was going to have to play the games.
A/N I'm so sorry I started and then seemed to abandon this fic! I have the whole story drafted and then I lost confidence in the idea. But it won't leave me alone, so now I'm back and determined to write to the end. I hope you're staying safe, wherever you are.