Prologue IV:
Six Months Ago
Lisia Arune, Head Gamemaker
"We are officially at the six month out mark."
Lisia groans at this as Fabio hands her a coffee – his turn to do a coffee run for the two of them, Mara, and now Seraphim – and leans her head down against the desk. "I'm not ready yet," Lisia mumbles against her desk, overwhelmed by the ambitious task she set out for herself. "It feels like there's still so much to do."
"Well there is a lot to do still," Fabio answers as he sits on the edge of her desk, earning him a glare from the Head Gamemaker. "Just keeping it real with you. But you've done this how many years now?"
"Don't call out my age," Lisia warns him as she sits up, taking a long sip of her coffee and sighing in contentment. She glances over at Seraphim, finding him still watching what she does with that wide-eyed and shocked look he's had since day one. "What do you think should be our highest priority right now?"
"Me?" Seraphim asks in confusion and Lisia gives him a look that it's obvious she's talking to him. He takes a long sip of his coffee, blushing in embarrassment and trying to think about how to answer to her. "Umm… Well, arena construction is on track to be done next month, so not that. Which is probably the most important thing. I would say…the muttations?"
"Indeed," Lisia agrees, letting out a sigh as she thinks about the absurd challenge she has placed on her Gamemakers this year, all because she wanted to end her time as Head Gamemaker with her most elaborate idea yet. Bigger than her Quell – and that's really saying something. Because at the end of the day, people are going to remember her for her last Games, not the many years of Games she has been the lead for. Her last Games and the Quell. Those will be her accomplishments people talk about for years. She already achieved it with the Quell, so just one more year left…
"You're the one that said 'Make it bigger than the Quell'," Fabio tells her when he sees how exhausted she is just thinking about everything that needs to get done.
"Well yeah, this year will be my legacy," Lisia retorts, taking a long sip of coffee. "So Seraphim, how do you propose we make sure everyone gets their shi- oh what now?!" Lisia yells at the knock on the door before putting her head down on her desk and lightly hitting her head on it. "This is why I can't get anything done."
Lisia can hear Fabio walking over to the door to check who is there, but she keeps her head down as he talks to whoever it is in hushed whispers. She shuts her eyes, wishing she could just take a nap right at her desk, but she can't. Not with the sheer amount of work that still needs to get done. And if this is how she's feeling six months out…she doesn't even want to know what she'll be like in a couple months.
Fabio clears his throat and Lisia slowly picks up her head, pushing back her hair that's fallen all over to stare up at him. She has to blink a few times, her exhaustion making it a struggle to just stay awake. "So um…bad news."
"Of course it's bad news," Lisia mumbles and puts her head back down. She rests her forehead on the desk and shakes her head at him. "When is it ever good news?" She sighs before sitting up properly to stare at him, noticing Mara hesitating in the doorway, nervously wringing her hands together as she looks at the Head Gamemaker. "Just tell me."
Mara sighs as she leans against the doorframe. "We just did a test run of the launch with the early mutt prototypes to see how the arena is coming together and…catastrophic failure."
Lisia simply stares at her for a long moment, too exhausted to even process what that means. "Can you be a bit more specific?"
Mara nervously laughs and Lisia knows whatever she says next won't be good. "Well…" Mara scratches the back of her neck as she avoids meeting Lisia's eyes. "Some failed to even launched, some didn't stay in their respective zones, and some outright attacked each other."
"Of fucking course," Lisia mutters angrily, picking up her pen and throwing it over at a plant on the edge of the room. "It's only six months out, why should I expect the preliminary mutt prototypes to be working? It's not like they're a major part of the arena design or anything like that. Nope, maybe we should just not have any mutts at all!"
"Lisia…" Fabio says carefully and she just starts shaking her head at him, not in the mood for him to tell her everything is going to be alright.
"Don't even start," Lisia tells him before turning to Seraphim. "Alright Seraphim, today's lesson is whatever date you think something will be done by, expect your Gamemakers to extend that," Lisia sarcastically tells her young trainee, but raises an eyebrow when he actually writes that down. She shares a look with Fabio at this, who just shrugs a little, before she turns back to Seraphim, finding him watching her attentively and ready for whatever she says next. Her rage dissipates as quickly as it came on as she watches him, an idea slowly forming. "You know…how about you go with Mara and find out what went wrong and report back to me later today."
"Me? Really?" Seraphim asks her immediately and Lisia nods her head at him.
"Yes, really," Lisia tells him. "If you're going to take over someday, well, you need to start getting used to doing things that the Head Gamemaker does. So get to it."
Seraphim rapidly nods his head before pushing his glasses up from where they started slipping down the bridge of his nose. "Yes, of course, ma'am, I'll let you know right away what happened."
Lisia watches him jump up from the chair and head over to Mara, who pats him on the shoulder as he walks past her before giving Lisia a surprised look. Lisia just shrugs at her so Mara turns back to Seraphim and gives him a smile. "Come on, I'll take you over to the disaster."
Mara shuts the door behind them and Lisia shuts her eyes as she shakes her head. "Why can't anything ever go right?" Lisia asks herself quietly before opening her eyes and pointing at Fabio, "Don't answer that."
"I won't," he answers, holding his hands up defensively. "I'm just shocked you relinquished control to him," Fabio tells her and Lisia lets out a sigh at this as she goes to take another sip of coffee, only finding it empty. "Are you feeling okay?"
"No," Lisia answers him honestly. "I'm overwhelmed and there's still so much to do and I'm worried I am trying to do more than is feasible. And now…I don't want to end up being remembered like Akakios because I rushed things…I want to be remembered for being the one who made an epic final arena…"
"And you will do that," Fabio reassures her, but Lisia finds it hard to believe him. "I'm serious, Lisia. I've known you for too many years to lie to your face. We're going to get it done. We will, not just you. Stop trying to do everything on your own and ask us to help you out. Otherwise, you're just going to work yourself to exhaustion and then you won't get anything done."
Lisia knows he's right…but it's so hard for her to do that. So much rests on her shoulders and if she does it herself, she knows it will be done correctly. "I…I'll try…"
"Good," Fabio pats her shoulder, looking way too happy right now for her tired state. "And give that kid some actual work to do instead of just following you around. I'm pretty sure he's started to stress drink coffee from getting secondhand stress from you."
"The coffee habit he gets from you," Lisia teases him and Fabio shrugs as she grows serious, tapping her fingers on her desk. "Do you think he can do it?"
"Be Head Gamemaker someday?" Fabio asks and Lisia absentmindedly nods her head. "I think so. He needs to get a bit of a spine and stop trying to please everyone, but not all of us can start out as fiery as you."
"Right…" Lisia agrees quietly, not sure how else to respond.
"Do you think so?"
"I…" Lisia hesitates as she thinks over Seraphim's willingness to do what she asks of him. He was so nervous when he first started here and Lisia was worried she made a mistake with him and the people that recommended him were wrong. But slowly he started asking more questions and participating more and more in the conversation with the Gamemakers. "Give it some time and…I think he will. He needs to find his confidence and then I think he'll create some great Games."
"Better than yours?" Fabio teases her and Lisia cuts him a glare, only making him laugh at her reaction. "Hey, it's flattering to see the student surpass the teacher. It certainly happened with you, so why can't it happen with him?"
"True," Lisia says with a sigh before leaning back in her chair. "But to do that, we need to make sure these Games end well. If not, there won't be any legacy of mine to compare to."
There we have it, our last prologue! Another check in with Lisia and Seraphim as they start getting closer to the Games actually starting and of course things are a mess lol. When are things not a mess with the Gamemakers? XD But for now, it is time to shift into the intros! We'll be doing the alternating order like I did in Wayward, so the order is: 1, 11, 2, 10, 3, 9, 4, 8, 5, 7, 6. But of course, you're all here to see the list.
Thank you to everyone that submitted a tribute for the story! I had 40 subs total so obviously I could not take every tribute. If you would like to know why I didn't accept your tribute, feel free to send me a PM and I can go into further detail. But thank you for being understanding. I picked the tributes that I feel will be the best and easiest for me to write. I'm doing this as a way to destress with a very busy PhD program and I don't want it to feel like a chore writing a tribute I don't fully connect with. It won't make me happy and that will show with the quality of the writing, and that's not fair to the submitters. This is for fun and if you're not happy with that, I'm sorry, but at the end of the day there's not much I can do because I'm writing the story as a hobby and for my own happiness.
Anyways, here is the list. Make sure to look at every spot because I did move a few tributes around! And underlined tributes are those in the featured spots!
District One:
Nativity Nadal, 18 - CelticGames4
Rodrick Tang, 18 – AmericanPi
Escort: Sextia Quirinus – Santiago. Poncini20
District Two:
Marian Lilley, 18 - TheEngineeringGames
Kaz Aberdeen, 18 – VeneratedArt
Escort: Flannery Escouvier – TheEngineeringGames
District Three:
Sasha Kolster, 16 - TheEngineeringGames
Samis McCree, 17 – Professor R. J. Lupin
Escort: Joyce Syllers – Platrium
District Four:
Orin Rensch, 18 - goldie031
Aberforth Barringer, 18 – TheMaeflyProject
Escort: Nelena Aquillen – dsalazz
District Five:
Margaery Fox, 15 - LordShiro
Artem Nobyl, 14 – TheEngineeringGames
Escort: Iris Roseau – HogwartsDreamer113
District Six:
Iroha Kinoshita, 18 - 66samvr
Dresden Kahlo, 17 – House Elf Liberation Front
Escort: Belinda Maxwell – CelticGames4
District Seven:
Betula Washington, 12 – Santiago. Poncini20
Pascal Flores, 12 – TheEngineeringGames
Escort: Winona Samson – TheEngineeringGames
District Eight:
Gwenith Drezzel, 15 – Brooke2214
Grey Pendleton, 17 – Little Knight Mik
Escort: Maeryn Callahan – Little Knight Mik
District Nine:
Asha Kader, 18 - CelticGames4
Laine Lawson, 15 – dsalazz
Escort: Agapios Wheatley Hallorian – CelticGames4
District Ten:
Ally Ishmael, 14 – foxfox12
Sissel Wetherburn, 17 – SinfonianLegend
Escort: Icarus Clo – misfit-right-in
District Eleven:
Jendaya Barrett, 18 - HogwartsDreamer113
Grant Gallitan-Montgomery, 14 – ray. 51
Escort: Priscilla Rhodes – foxfox12
Again, thank you for understanding that I chose the tributes that I am going to be the happiest writing with this story. I'm really excited to start writing this group of tributes! I have exciting things planned for the arena and I know this group is going to be a lot of fun.
Hopefully the first intro will be up before the end of September, but no guarantees because life happens and we're reaching the Games in Senseless and we all know that will probably be where most of my writing motivation is for XD
I will have the blog updated soon with all of the tribute and escort info, I just haven't gotten around to it yet lol. Definitely before the first reaping is up!
