Jessiah Marius, Head Peacekeeper:

Morning comes too quickly. Lucent and I wake up before dawn, scurrying around her house, showering and getting dressed and putting on makeup, getting ready for the kickoff of training today. Last night's Tribute Parade went well, but there's still much left to do, and Lucent wants me to go with her and see the new additions to the Training Center. While I put on a nice sweater and dress trousers, Lucent dons a ballgown and the purple fur coat that signifies her position as Head Gamemaker.

She's almost childishly excited when she throws open the door and sees the new layout. Apparently the Head Trainer, Hortensia Parcel, didn't let her see it up until this moment, and now she's dashing from station to station, eager to see how the renovations turned out for each one. The expansive room has lots of natural lighting, with comfortable, homey setups and an open floor plan. The swimming pool, boxing ring, and private training booths are set up to the side.

Hortensia is standing in an athletic jacket and running shoes, green hair woven in two thick braids, smiling. She's clearly also happy about the improvements, and that Lucent is equally pleased.

Then she takes us to see the surveillance cameras, which are hidden and invisible to the naked eye. All she can do is point at where the pinprick size lenses are hidden in the walls and ceiling. Then Lucent unlocks the Gamemaking Room for her, and she pulls up feeds on the monitors there. Sure enough, there's a clear view of every part of the room. The live film is clear and crisp, as proven when we send in a few avoxes as test subjects, instructing them to mill around. We give them an audio player, and the voices on the recording come through perfectly in real time.

Since the observation system seems to be in working order, Lucent leads me into her office. Some of her subordinates have already shown up, toting clipboards and fountain pens, prepared to observe the tributes today. The tributes will be showing up at eight, and they will be able to train in whatever areas they wish, with the exception of a few mandatory activities.

They will be given three days to prepare, and then will have a private session in which they are instructed to demonstrate their new skills to the best of their ability in front of Lucent and the other Gamemakers, and they will give the tributes a score between zero and twelve. Zero means the person failed to show up entirely, twelve means the performance was hugely impressive, virtually flawless, and incredibly masterful. Very few tributes in history have earned either one of those scores, most falling within the range of three to ten, with the average score being a five or six.

Lucent's expecting a lot of high training scores. Hortensia's scary enough to boss around any tribute into trying new things, and the trainers are top notch at what they do. Plus, Lucent's always been too honest to fudge reports simply to turn people into targets, so even if a very high score is given to somebody, it's likely because they earned it. I myself am excited to see what tributes score high. I'm not allowed to place public bets, but Gil and I have a couple private wagers going on.

Returning my attention to Lucent, I can see that she's set up a slide presentation with questions that she's demanding her Gamemakers find her the answers to. She mainly wants them to keep tabs on what each tribute is focusing on and how they're interacting with the people around them. She especially wants to know what alliances are being made, and if there's anybody who's plotting to double cross their teammates.

She's also interested in how much time they spend at each station. No tribute is going to master all the skills they need, so some will probably get a good grasp of a few, some might develop a superficial level of understanding in several, and some might focus on only one but end up super great at it. She's also ordered the Gamemakers to oversee the Careers particularly carefully, since I informed her that, after glancing over the cameras last night in the waiting area, Livi and Rafe are competing to be the top dog in the Pack, and they've decided whichever gets the better training score will become the leader.

I do wonder how they'll perform, and all the others too. I'm curious about a few of the outlier tributes and how they'll stack up when it comes to choosing weapons. They do, after all, help us Capitolites guess who the Victor will be. Gil's betting that Eliza's going to win. I have my money on Radley, the boy from District Nine. I tried to pester Lucent for details, both about her predictions and her plans as Head Gamemaker, but she refused to let on what she thought about their chances. She just said that I'd learn in due time, and that I'd just have to watch the Hunger Games like everybody else, and besides, she doesn't control everything.

While that's true, she'll still know plenty about the tributes, thanks to her little spy setup, and she can use that information against them in the arena. Plus, the compulsory tasks that Hortensia is running are going to provide some metrics about speed and endurance that Lucent will probably take into account when she's trying to prepare an exciting event.

I have to be at the Bureau of Peacekeeping in ten minutes to discuss the quashing of potential minor rebellions during the Hunger Games, and I love my job, but I do sort of envy Lucent for her proximity to the tributes. She's amazing, but I really do have to go to work, so I hug her goodbye and begin to make my way to the Justice Building. Behind me I hear her giving out more directions, and I know that the Quarter Quell is in good hands.


Hey y'all! I'm so excited to say that the first Training chapter will be out on Monday! If you have any suggestions, hopes, or predictions about what I should incorporate, feel free to leave a review or PM me!

- LC :)