Prologue II
Narcisse Roda | 39 years
President of Panem
170th Hunger Games
He's never liked the control room in silence. It's not empty whatsoever, but everyone inside has adopted an air of silence since he's stepped inside.
Probably because silence in this room of all of Panem means that productivity is at an all-time low. Even thinking that makes him cringe at himself, and reminds him of every pen pushing politician he works with, or rather who works for him. Those same politicians would say it's a necessity though, looking at the room now.
There are a fair number of gamemakers and their assistants milling around, carrying a tablet or two in their arms, and appearing busy enough. Some of them look like they're trying a little too hard to look hard at work, one man sitting on the level just below him currently has flipped between the same two screens more times than he could track in the last five minutes, no data added. He has to look efficient in his job when the president is sitting just above him, even if Narcisse didn't look at him once. As if it really matters to him what small cog the man was in this scheme.
What did matter, was that he had been sitting in this same seat for nearly an hour and most of the gamemakers in the room were getting tense.
Not one of them knew that he would be paying them a visit. One could argue that it was a bit of a sick joke to play on them all so close to the eve of the reapings. Like it was supposed to be a shot of adrenaline to get everything finished. Again, it didn't matter to him what it took to get it done, just that it did.
His head of security strides up the short level of stairs to the platform overlooking the rows of screens and busy bees running below them with Kassius just behind her, and pulls the empty seat next to him towards her. Her arms crossed over the back of the seat, leaning onto it as she casts a last glance over the room before settling on him. Kassius settles into the chair with a sigh, content by the sounds of it.
"Someone been stood up?" Kassius smiles and leans back as best as he could with Zaina standing there. No sympathy whatsoever.
He runs his fingers across the screen on the desk, Lars's control center by the looks of it, and brings up a camera's view of inside the arena. The two people he came to speak with clear in the feed, hundreds of miles from here. Loxas raises his tablet to Lars and points to something off-screen before Narcisse glances back up.
"By both of them. I shouldn't be surprised, they weren't expecting me, but I'll keep it in mind," he agrees, sending him a brief quirk of his brow. That had been the point though, to catch them off guard. The rumours that were leaking up to them weren't reassuring to hear with a handful of days left before to prepare. Lars has never known what a comfortable grace period is, has he?
"Have you heard any recent details? The last I heard was the mutts still had no solid form yet, that they'd seen. You need a higher level informant for meatier leaks than the last one." His voice low, just above a whisper, only for Kassius to hear. He could laugh, how many pockets Kassius had a hand in to root out the truth of matters. Being told one thing to reassure him that everything is going smoothly while it's an utter lie isn't the way he lets things run. Anyone with a sliver of a brain should know he doesn't take kindly to that.
Kassius's smile twists into a smirk. "Not yet. The arena's complete, the systems are up and running for sponsors, and Capitol celebrations have been designated to certain sectors with plenty of advanced notice. The last is the mutts, thanks to Mr. Cyre and this 'unconventional' lead." Despite the smirk, Kassius doesn't look impressed. "It'd be a shame to see Mr. Cyre go so soon. He has a bright head on his shoulders."
"That's more melodramatic than it needs to be," He murmurs under his breath. Zaina snickers above them, still scanning the rest of the room. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
There are plenty of things that could go wrong and an equal amount that could go right and he wasn't about to let it snowball from upset viewers at a disappointing lot of mutts. Every detail mattered to them, and that in turn, gave him a headache. That the games could destabilize his administration.
History had evidence that volunteers from outer districts could cause a considerable amount of damage. Everyone knows how that little story played out, and just how quickly it was snuffed by one brutal swipe of Enobaria's sword. But there was always a chance for another.
Still, if hiccups occur anywhere in the planning, that mess will eventually find its way up to him. Every damn time. It's not what he signed up for when he took this position from the last, and he won't be the last expecting the same. Kassius has said he worries far too much, but that's precisely why he was where he was now. He knows what to worry about and what not to, what he needs to squash under his heel before it whirls back to bite him in the ass.
Staring at the Lars in the camera feed he can't shake the feeling that he'll be one of those people for a very long time. Adirian's too busy finding every reason to leave the Capitol to have his nose in all the wrong business, and Vinicia knows how to vanish at the right times.
At some point, it turned from accidental to just their nature, like something infected them the longer they held their positions and it changed their DNA. He's sure of it.
"At least I have the consolation that they'll awake at the crack of dawn on launch day, while I'm sleeping in," he mutters.
That's their job. Run the country for a couple of hours, that's all. Why is it still so terrifying to let them have that?
Have a little taste of the capitol crew we're dealing with. Fun fact, this one has gone under zero editing I'm sorry.
I'm not on my usual timezone right now so I'm a little bit wigged out but I wanted to start keeping a consistent-ish day that I post updates, so here's to seeing how long it lasts! I've been loving the submissions you guys have given me so far and cherish every single one that comes in whether they get accepted in the final cut or not so thank you so much. I have been adding a few notices on my profile as I receive submissions so keep an eye out for that as you work on yours.
Next week is the final prologue that I have written so I hope to have all the tributes by then to post the results everyone is waiting for. Please make sure to check the rules and what I could use more of before submitting~