A/N: Our second interlude with Ludum Factorem, our Head Gamemaker for the 8th year in a row in this universe :) Enjoy reading about him, I'm not sure how you guys are going to take him! XD
Trigger Warnings: Intense romantic scenes and adultery and profanity
P.S. This turned out a lot longer then intended, and I sort of created another subplot! I might have to add an extra chapter or two of Pre Games to explore this devious subplot I have created! Gah!
I assumed that there was only room for
My dreams in my dreams so I'd sleep and repeat 'til the moon went home
And I didn't know where it'd take me but made me so crazy in love with it
Then the universe aligned
Oh, with what I had in mind
Who knew there was a life
Behind those four pink walls?
Now I wake up to a different bedroom everyday
Living up in the clouds thinking of how it all changed
Used to sit and watch paint dry
Amazed by the limelight
I can't ever be afraid
Ludum Factorem, 34
Capitol Resident
Head Gamemaker of the Hunger Games
I took Iocus and Conludia on a tour of the Eighteenth Hunger Games arena. It's their favorite, and one of my favorites as well. My favorite Games I've Headed has to be the Twentieth Games, with the total darkness and the only weapons being maces and the horror filled forests with the skeleton horses and ravenous wolves. But that place is too gruesome for my two children; Iocus is eight, and Conludia is five. I scoured the innocence out of thousands of young kids with the Twentieth Games, the "Nightmare Games" as some people call them. I was supposed to save that arena for the Quarter Quell that the public still has no idea about, but I have an even better idea for the Quell that Snow likes, so I'll use that one when the time comes.
Anyway, the Eighteenth arena is a beautiful, fantastical place. It's a beautiful Gothic style castle furnished with precious metals and precious stones. There's lots of light and the place would be picturesque if it weren't for the false blood, corpses, body parts, weapons, mutts, and other Games paraphernalia that litter the castle's many wide passageways and realistic rooms. The kids love it, however. Their favorite part is when they get to sit on the throne in the throne room. It's exactly where cocky Waverley Tux of District Four sat after she slaughtered the girl from One, Glamourette, and the boy from Seven, Toney, waiting for the hovercraft to take her home. A replica of the girl's steely gray trident lays at the foot of the throne, and Iocus uses it as a stepping stool to haul himself onto the throne. I lift Conludia up, and she and her brother squirm as I take a picture of them. Then I help them down, and we wander through the halls, stopping at a concession stand. The concession stand, like all of the stands in every arena, provide examples of the food given in the Games to the tributes to eat, such as jerky or bread that the tributes ate. They also offer special treats inspired by the arena. Iocus takes a sugary sucker in the shape of Waverley's trident, and Conludia decides to have a donut with golden sprinkle crowns all over it; it's also filled with dark red jelly.
My right hand woman, Vecily Cochran, the woman in charge of arena construction, opens these arena parks the year after the Games conclude; the Twenty First's arena should be opening about a month after this Twenty Second Games ends. Vecily's outdone herself as always with this arena park, and I mentally note to commend her like I always do when I see her next. With Vecily supervising of arena matters, my left hand man Odore Ehrmphelt supervising the Pre-Games festivities and myself overseeing the entire affair, especially the tributes and the Games themselves, we make a formidable team. Each year, the Games get better and better, although the Twenty First was a little bit lacking compared to the Twentieth, but then again I doubt many Games will ever top the Twentieth. There are Games, and then there are Games. We've had some great years and some great Victors, but there's only two true years that stand out to me as Games. Those two are the Twentieth of course, along with the Tenth. The Tenth Games really set the tone with what was to come. Two would've turned out so much different if Serephina Manchas had not won. Careers might still be solitary kids trained in their basements; hell, they'd probably have died off by now.
As my kids eat their snacks, I walk them out to the hovercraft that will ferry us back to the Capitol in under an hour. Several other tourists come onto the hovercraft, all of them shocked into awe when they see me. I started out with my first Games being Scylas's, and those were a whirlwind. If anything, they'd be the next Games on that list. Then we had two surprises in a row, with electrifying Takami and the concealed threat, Woof. Then we had a run of two bloodthirsty, cocky Careers, Waverley from Four and Soren from One, who both are still too young and unpredictable to Mentor. Then we had crazy Oxen, and just last year we had the classic Career and what could be the second coming of the Headmistress, Lucia. It's been a crazy ride so far, and I don't expect it to stop any time soon. I'm going to keep going as long as I can, and make these Games as great as I can.
I strap Conludia and Iocus into their seats, and soon enough the hovercraft takes off. Conludia falls asleep and Iocus is occupied with his Games trading cards; he just bought a new pack of Eighteenth Edition cards from the arena store. He rips it open and pulls out the eight cards inside. Each pack has one of Waverley, and he tucks that in his pocket; it's probably his fifth or sixth Waverley Tux. He then pulls out one of the arena, one of the cleaver the girl from 10 used to murder the boy from One as he slept after the Careers' split, and one of Glamourette. He gasps; the runner up is always the hardest card to get in the pack. The next two are Bloodbaths, the girls from Nine and Twelve, and the last two are different rooms in the castle. Iocus just stares at his Glamourette card with a happy, kind smile, and I ruffle his hair, grinning, and I look at it too. The artists always draw the tributes perfectly.
"So all you need is Toney Ramonze and the 9th place girl, Clary Jonex of Eight?" I ask him.
"Yep!" he yelps, and then he tucks his head against my shoulder and falls asleep like his sister. I love the two of them so much.
On the subway home
I lost you in a fever
When did we grow old
Million things we done
We never stopped at nothing
When did we grow old
Come come come back to me
Come back to me again
Come come come back to me
Come back to me again
When you gonna
Come come come back to me
Come back to me again
Ludum, about an hour later
I open the door into my family's huge penthouse. Conludia's still asleep, and Iocus is about drift off again. I walk over to their rooms; they're adjacent, and they have a Jack and Jill bathroom. I open the doors to their rooms, and I tuck them in one at a time. I stand in Iocus's doorway for a moment, and I smile as I watch my little angel sleep. I can hear Conludia's soft snores from her bedroom, and my heart flutters with happiness. I should go get my wife Amonia and have her stand here with me. She loves her children. She's the perfect mother, and the perfect wife. She knows me, and knows them. She loves moments like this. I sigh, and stand there for another minute, soaking up the beauty of life I helped create, before I head to my room.
"Oh yes!" I hear, and I pause in my tracks. Is that...my brother, Aupus?
I crack open the door to my bedroom, and I audibly gasp. It feels like a scene out of a bad romcom. I flick on the light, and there my wife and my brother are, tangled underneath the sheets, clearly in the middle of fucking. Everything's frozen; the sheets are half off, and I can see their naked bodies, and I can see...I can see my brother...my brother...no...not with my wife...no!
"Ludum," Amonia whimpers. A frown solidifies on my face. She slides out from underneath Aupus and stands. She's naked, and usually I would go over to her and start kissing her. But I can never look at this woman the same again; I can never make love to her again. I turn around, fear and pain in my eyes, and I run as fast as I can out of the penthouse. I'll have to sort this out in the morning, I know. I don't know how I'll ever be able to talk to either of them again. But Aupus is my brother and Amonia is the mother of my children. And they are having sex! This can't be the first time, can it? How long have they been doing this behind my back?! Tears prick in my eyes, and I begin to sob as I crash out of the penthouse and into the elevator. I stand there with the doors open for a long minute, waiting for Aupus and Amonia to come running out, ready to explain and apologize. But they don't, and I swear I can hear moans coming from the penthouse. I whimper and slam my finger into the button for the main floor of the tower. The elevator swoops down, and I step out onto the street, dizzy and lost and not knowing what to do. My fists clench, and I find myself sitting on a bench, my body racking with sobs.
I text Vecily and Odore to meet me at the Gamemaking Center after I manage to stave off the tears. I wipe my eyes, and then I stand, drawing in a rattling breath. They're probably still having sex, that fucking whore that I love to death, the hoe I thought was a faithful wife, and my brother, the steadfast Peacekeeper with a wife of his own and a baby on the way! What will my sister-in-law Gaudia think?! It takes me forever to stagger my way to the Gamemaking Center even though it's only a block away. By the time I stumble into the room where we control the Games, Vecily and Odore are both there already, and the lights are on. Vecily has a bottle of scotch, and Odore is wearing his funny sweater that always makes me laugh. I chuckle weakly, and I sit down at the table. These two are the best. They're my best friends and my best underlings for eight years, and I'm thankful that they're here.
"What's wrong, Lud?" Vecily asks, sitting down next to me. Odore lays down on the table, propping his head up with his hands and staring into my eyes with concern as Vecily grabs my hand and squeezes it to steady me.
"Amonia's been having affairs with my brother Aupus. I walked in on them."
They both sputter incredulous exclamations, and I just nod along until they've cracked open the scotch, and we're drinking it slowly and staring at the arena map in front of us. This year was supposed to be a little less interesting in terms of arena; just a prairie with a few coyotes. But it can't just be that any more. My gut bubbles with sickly hot anger, and there's only way I know how to vent it right now, the only way I can exculpate it from my system.
"Let's fuck them up this year," I hiss darkly. "Is it possible to create multiple tornadoes in the arena, Vecily?"
A/N: So that went from oh so sweet and cute to dark and revolting in the blink of an eye. Sorry. Originally I was going to have Ludum have an affair with Vecily, but when I wrote the first part I liked him too much, so I flipped the script. That was longer than I wanted it to be, but oh well. Bygones will be bygones, and who's going to complain about more content?! XD
Yeah, I've been writing really fast with high quality and quantity. I just don't have a lot to do over Winter Break and I resolved to myself that I'd get out as much BMO as I could, so that's what's up with all the super fast updates. I'm really hitting my stride with this story right now and it's really fun to write. I cannot believe we're already inching towards 100,000 words. I know it's around 12,000-13,000 words away, but I could possibly hit 100,000 before the end of my break, the 3rd, which would just be insane! This story is going to be soooo long, hope you guys do not mind! xD
What did you think of Ludum? Was this new subplot interesting? Do you think it will effect the Games beyond the addition of tornadoes?
Ludum Part 1 (1 pt.) - Who placed second in the 18th Games?
Ludum Part 2 (1 pt.) - What is the name of Ludum's sister-in-law?
Answers to the previous chapters:
Cordelia - Carolina Martinez
Chavez - King of Hearts
Jayce - Feeling the truest fear imaginable and riding a train
Bernie - a ghost
Libby - Cathasach (yeah I know it's hard to spell if you got anything that starts with C go for it. It's just a random name from a 500YOP chapter I was reading before I wrote Libby's POV)
Fender - 169
Thanks so much! We're at 359 reviews right now and I cannot thank you guys enough for all of your support! I love you all!
Until Next Time,
Tracee