Gamemaker Theodora Harp POV
It was time once again to sit in a cramped room all day with my stuffy associates and judge the skills of twenty-four kids I didn't really care about. Time and time again I told my superiors I was an Arena engineer, not a talent show junkie, but here I sat. At least the refreshments were excellent. I nibbled on a cookie as the first boy entered.
AURUM NITEO-1M, our prompter flashed. A good looking young man walked in cautiously and looked around. Hey, if I'm stuck here dying of boredom, I can at least enjoy the view. Aurum picked up a sword and requested an intermediate partner. Before his partner came in, he ducked behind a cart full of spears. When the partner got close, he jumped out and got in a good slash before his partner could react. He wasn't terrible even after the partner started fighting back. He might last a while.
RUBY D'ARCY-1F was next. She picked at a few of the plants and ran around the track. Her time was nothing impressive, and she got maybe five edible plants, though she didn't pick any poisonous ones. I don't know what happened in One. They were such a proud District. Why'd they send us these two? The odds didn't look to be in their favor this year.
Two was an improvement, but Nero Augustus was still a sorry example of their former glory. He slashed some dummies with a sword and held his own against a medium-high level partner. It was such a shame. Usually the pair from Two were some of the most entertaining. Nero was just dull. He had what it took, though. With this bunch he might win.
I finally got what I was looking for with Eltara Vetirata. She reminded me of Venus from last year. That was her Game to win, and I lost a lot of money on her. Maybe Eltara would be more fortunate. She displayed mastery in swords and daggers, as well as workable knowledge of spears, but her real love was obviously a sickle. I could see Cornucopia Manager Arsenio Pug writing some notes in his planner.
The Threes were always a mixed bag. They tended to specialize in bombs and the like, but Xzavier went straight for the weapons, and he didn't disappoint. I'd heard some gossip that the Careers had approached him, and I could see why. Give that boy a sword and he'd give us a show.
Celeste was… not one of Three's finest. She didn't even touch the electrical equipment. If the Careers took each other out, she might be a possible underdog. Since the twenty-third Games, we'd added some shelter-making supplies, and she could at least do that. She knew her way around the plants, too. If- probably when- she died, it would be by Tribute, not by Arena.
Dath was a contender. That boy knew his way around a machete. He demolished the expert sparring partners and decapitated a dummy from across the room. He was also trim, fit, and it great shape. He was a Career through and through, and he didn't seem like the ones that got carried away and valued killing over living. My money was on him or Eltara so far.
MIST HASTINGS-4F, the screen blinked. A tall, skinny girl walked in. She looked around the room and her eyes focused on part of the wall. What is she doing? I thought. She saw the weapons table and picked up a knife. After saying something to nobody, she… Oh, ick! She drew the blade down her own arm. That's nasty. Atticus covered his eyes beside me, but I couldn't look away. She brought up the knife and licked it. I pressed my hands against my mouth to stop from vomiting. As soon as she left, we started discussing what to do. We wanted that thing gone, so we thought about giving her a 12 so the Careers would pick her off. We didn't want to give her ideas, though. That was a quandary.
We took a quick break after that horror show, and most of us fled outside to get some fresh air. The rest of the Tributes were waiting on a row of benches, and they seemed awfully happy to see us green in the face. Fie on them. I'll still be here next year.
Erwin Jackson tossed a few knives at a dummy and hit in about two out of three times. He was the first knife thrower this year, and I didn't mind that at all. Some years it seems all we have are knife throwers. He also picked some edible plants and set up a small snare. Not great, not terrible. He was positively average.
The girl from Five- Laeila- was quite the spitfire. It was obvious she wasn't trained in weapons, but she could throw a mean punch, as our hand to hand attendant found out. She spent the next four minutes running around the track. She kept up a good pace and wasn't tired at the end. When the Games started, I didn't think it would be enough, but it was nothing to be ashamed of.
I forgot the name of the next boy as soon as the prompter stopped blinking. He wasn't bad, just blah. He knew his way around a snare. I had to give him that. The thing was, I didn't think he knew what to do with Tributes after he caught them. But then, the people loved a new approach. Nobody had won with traps yet. He might get quite a few sponsors.
His partner Nairobi was all right. She started a fire and had enough time to run a few laps at a pretty decent speed. She had just started swinging a machete when the buzzer rang. She was more of a jack of all trades than a specialist. If she made it past the Bloodbath, she might have a shot.
Dante swaggered in like he owned the place. He threw a spear at a dummy and skimmed its side. He got demolished by our expert sword attendant and ended up barely fending off our level one guy. It was the same for daggers and axes. Is there anything this guy's good at? I wondered. If there was, he didn't show us. Right before the buzzer rang, he turned to us and took a grandiose bow. That was a twelve for confidence and an eight for style, but skill was another story.
Dahlia was the first to try out our agility course. That was always fun to watch. She got across without falling, but it was nothing special. She threw some knives and hit her target half the time. Since knives usually come in packs of six or twelve, she could do some damage. She finished off one of the dummies she hit with some close range knife work. I pegged her as a bloodbath or early death, but you never know in the Games.
I didn't know we had ogres in Panem. Torchy looked like he could eat me for lunch and still be hungry. He asked for a hand to hand partner. After a few minutes, one of our attendants was shooed reluctantly into the room. Torchy just sort of fell on him, and that was that. Poor guy could hardly get up. Nobody else would fight him after that, so Torchy threw around some weights that were probably heavier than I was. Goodness, I hope that doesn't win, I thought. I don't want to run into him in the Capitol.
When Taylor came in, I knew something was rotten in District Eight. That little puff? Really? I hoped she was enjoying the Capitol. She wasn't going to see it again. She didn't even try the weapons. She picked out two or three plants and ran on the track. She had the speed- she might get out of the Bloodbath. It wouldn't matter, though. That girl was dead already.
Something was rotten in Nine as well. There was no way Farlon was that good with so many things without a little training. He was a bit on the scrawny side, but he'd give any attackers a run for their money. He was well-rounded, as well. Tributes hardly ever used our first aid kits, but he patched up a dummy after he slashed it apart. If he avoided the Career pack, he wouldn't be wanting for food or security.
Emmalie wasn't as trained as her partner, but she must have done some running back home. She kept up a good pace for the first half of her time. Then she surprised us all by picking up a huge mace and smashing it into a dummy's face. She chucked a knife at a dummy as hard as she could. It hit it handle side first, but the impact was obvious from our station. Just about any Arena has rocks, and she would make the most of them.
The next Tribute was where things got weird. Mouse just waltzed right up to the partition between our space and the Tribute space and leaned against it.
"Hey, 'sup?" he asked Arsenio.
"Uh… not much," Arsenio answered. He looked at Mouse like he had two heads. The door to our area opened, and a servant walked in with a huge cake.
All right, cake! I thought. Who doesn't love cake?
"Want a piece?" I jokingly asked Mouse.
"Nah. Want your watch back?" he asked me. He held out my silver and crystal wristwatch. I gasped and checked my wrist.
"Hey!" I said. Mouse winked at me and handed it back. He walked right out like nothing had happened, and I couldn't help but hope he survived to steal many more watches.
I'd heard about Harmony's misadventure in the Training Room, so I wasn't surprised when she skipped the fire and focused on the plant station. I also wasn't surprised at her new hairdo. Her stylists had decided this was the perfect opportunity to make a new trend and had left it half short and half long. It wasn't for me. Harmony got all the plants pretty easily. A girl that accident-prone wouldn't last long. She was probably a Bloodbath.
Where did all these ogres come from? At least Frankie wasn't as scary as the other one. He held a bow in a flawlessly proper stance and slew one dummy after another. He widened each cut with a dagger, and his face never moved the whole time. He must have really good concentration. He finished by picking up our heaviest weight and holding it above his head until time ran out. If one of the ogres won, I hoped it was him. At least he wasn't creepy.
Azalea was just mean. She pounded our hand to hand partner into the ground and didn't stop until some medics came and dragged him away. Poor Tycho. I'll have to send him a fruit basket. If she was as good at finding supplies as she was at fighting, she might have a chance, as long as the Careers didn't think she was a threat.
There was nothing to say about Arden.
Finally, we came to the last Tribute. Beth seemed nice enough until she gutted our dummy. She danced around it giggling and didn't stop until I couldn't tell it had ever looked like a person. She seemed to get bored of harassing the poor thing after three minutes or so, and she stood around cleaning her nails with the knife until her time ran out. I found myself hoping that she and Misty ran across each other, because I wanted to see that.
After that, I finally got to go. By this point in the year, I know what the Arena will be, but I can tweak it a little to fit the Tributes. I'd have to have a word with Hysperia. She'd come a long way from last year, and a few Muttations could really push this Game over the top.
Sadly, Ardun was so boring that Theodora forgot what he even did :( maybe everyone else will forget him too.