Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games.
Note: The results of the bloodbath poll are on the website, along with the current state of alliances.
My sponsor poll is up on my profile, and this is the one that will actually have an effect on the Games. Here's how it works: Vote for whichever tributes you would like to sponsor. Feel free to use whatever criteria you like. This isn't about who you think the Capitolites would sponsor (unless that's the criteria you want to use). It's about who you would want to sponsor. Whoever you want. Feel free to vote for your own tribute; all I ask is that you don't only vote for them. (Although I have no way to actually enforce that.)
Voting will be open until the the bloodbath. The three tributes with the most votes (or possibly more than three in the event of a tie) will receive a sponsor gift at some point during the Games, as long as they survive the bloodbath. If they die in the bloodbath, that gift will pass to an ally. If their allies are all dead, or if they didn't have any, it'll pass to their district partner.
Those three tributes may not be the only tributes who get sponsor gifts, but they will get something. It could be something big, something small, something practical, something sentimental, or something completely outrageous. Who knows? Not me. (Not yet, at least.)
Private Sessions
What the Conditions Are
Tamika Ward
Head Gamemaker
She'd created the perfect conditions.
Tamika leaned back in her chair as she surveyed the room. She and her fellow Gamemakers were positioned on a slightly raised platform on the side of the room opposite the door, which was perfectly normal. Equally as normal were the stations available – a variety of weapons, a number of dummies, and supplies for fire-building, first aid, shelters, traps, poisons, and almost anything else that the tributes might want. The walls had various bumps, nooks, and crannies in case the tributes decided to demonstrate their climbing skills. On one side of the was a pool – smaller than the one in the training area, but large enough to swim across, if tributes decided to make that part of their demonstration. All of that was fairly standard.
But forming a rough semicircle around the other three sides were thirteen young avoxes. A perfect audience – one that wouldn't be able to reveal anything about what the tributes had done, but would be able to react in a way that might unnerve some of them. She'd deliberately chosen a younger group, ranging in age from twelve to eighteen, just like the tributes. Each one wore a small button with a number from one to thirteen on top of their standard drab uniform.
The numbers were completely arbitrary, of course. Once an avox arrived in the Capitol, no one particularly cared what district they came from. Someone somewhere probably had a record of it, but accuracy wasn't what mattered. What mattered was what the tributes would assume – what they would be reminded of by their presence. No one was immune to the Capitol's authority.
The thirteen of them had their instructions – to watch, and to react as naturally as possible. That was all. It was simple. It was probably a bit cruel. But it would also be rather telling. Tamika leaned back in her chair and nodded to the avox nearest the door, who reached out and opened it.
She wondered what would happen next.
Clive glanced around the room once, taking in the scene. He flashed the avoxes a smirk before heading straight for the weapons, selecting a spear from the pile and going through a series of moves. He swung the weapon this way and that, aiming for one dummy and then another, ducking and dodging invisible enemies.
After a few minutes, he tossed the spear aside and chose a sword and a dagger instead. With a weapon in each hand, he quickly tore through most of the remaining dummies before choosing a selection of throwing knives. By the time his session was nearly done, the dummies had been pincushioned not only with the knives, but with several arrows each.
Clive glanced at the clock on the wall, shot one last arrow at the farthest dummy, then finished with a smile towards the watching avoxes. "Left you a bit speechless, huh?"
Tamika heard one of her fellow Gamemakers chuckle as Clive left and the avoxes began replacing the dummies. Tasteless but funny. Not a bad sense of humor to have in a fight to the death. But she couldn't help wondering how long it would last.
Bellona raised an eyebrow at the circle of avoxes, but headed straight for the axes and went to work on the dummies, striking high and then low, pretending to ward off blows from an unseen opponent. After a while, she chose a spear and kept attacking the dummies from farther away, using the weapon to extend her reach without losing her precision.
Finally, she flung the spear towards one of the targets, skewering it through the stomach. Quickly, she hurried over to the survival stations and chose one of the longer pieces of wood from the fire-starting supplies, broke off a few of the smaller branches, and quickly whittled away at one of the ends until she'd sharpened it into a point. Then she cut a few lengths of cord from the traps supplies and used them to tie her whittling knife to the other end of the stick, fashioning a crude double-ended weapon.
It wasn't as effective as an actual weapon, Tamika noted as Bellona turned her improvised blade on one dummy after another. The weapon was crude and a bit clumsy, but still made short work of the dummies, and easily made her point: a Career without a proper weapon was still plenty dangerous.
Ross glanced uncomfortably at the avoxes as he entered, his gaze lingering for a moment on the one with a 2 on her button. But he quickly shook his head and chose a bow, taking aim at a dummy across the room. He struck it squarely in the chest, then quickly turned and fired at another three in short succession – all on different sides of the room. He backed up farther and fired again, and again, but was careful, Tamika noticed, not to back up too close to the line of avoxes.
After he'd skewered several more dummies, he chose a pair of knives and began ducking and weaving between the remaining dummies, striking here and there, moving in for a quick cut before retreating out of arm's reach. Hit and run – an interesting tactic for a Career. After seventeen years, District Two still managed to surprise her.
His next choice was surprising, too. He settled down with some of the fishing supplies, carefully attaching some fishing wire and whittling away at a small piece of wood. He cast the line in the pool just as the timer hit fifteen minutes, then pretended to reel a fish in before bowing and turning to go.
Lily took one look at the avoxes, giggled excitedly, then headed for the poisons station and chose several apples and a selection of knives. To Tamika's surprise, she began to juggle the apples, all while making her way towards the nearest avox, one of the younger girls, who froze in terror when she realized the Career was actually approaching her.
Lily, however, tossed the girl an apple. In one quick motion, she took the knife from under her arm and sent it flying from hand to hand along with the two remaining apples. "Toss the apple," she instructed the avox. "High as you can."
The girl, clearly too terrified to do anything else, did as she was told. Lily glanced up, released the knife in her hand, and went back to juggling as the apple the avox had tossed clattered to the ground with a knife stuck in it. Lily made quick work of the next two apples, then grabbed a sword, tossed the avox a few more apples, then stepped back. "Throw them at me."
As the apples came hurtling towards her, Lily swung, slicing each one cleanly in two. Soon, she was surrounded by a pile of apple halves, leaving only one remaining. She picked up the last apple, strode over to the avox, and whispered something Tamika couldn't hear. The girl nodded, and Lily carefully placed the apple on top of the avox's head, then stepped back as far as she could and took aim. The girl closed her eyes, but held perfectly still as Lily's knife came flying and stuck cleanly into the apple. Lily turned to the Gamemakers, bowed, then scooped up one of the discarded apple halves and took a bite as she left.
Elseri stopped short when he saw the avoxes, then looked even more confused when he caught sight of a half an apple that they'd missed while cleaning up. But he recovered quickly, scooped up the apple, took a bite, and headed for the traps supplies. He gathered a few supplies, began to construct something small, then apparently changed his mind and looked up at the nearest avox. "Can you hold this?" he asked quietly. When the avox nodded, he handed her the end of the rope and flashed her a quick thumbs-up before hurrying off with the other end of the rope.
Tamika watched as he hurried back and forth, positioning a few of the avoxes in different spots around the room, setting up a series of simple trip lines – one that would spill a container of water from above, another that would send a bowl of pebbles rolling across the floor, and a third that would make two dummies fall, creating a barrier.
With barely a minute left, everything was set, and Elseri began walking nonchalantly across the room, chomping on his apple. The first avox pulled on a rope, and Elseri dodged the bucket of water just in time. When he triggered the second trap, he leapt over the pebbles, then ducked and rolled away from the falling dummies when the third trap was sprung. Finally, he gave each of his assistants a high-five, then flashed the Gamemakers a smile before turning to leave.
Hattie barely seemed to notice the avoxes as she made her way over to the fire-starting supplies. There, she took her time getting the wood into just the right place, then settled in with her sticks and began rubbing. Minutes passed, and still she sat, patiently rubbing the stick back and forth, waiting for the right moment.
Gradually, she began rubbing faster. Faster. The piece of wood started to smoke a little. Then a little more. Still, she kept rubbing. With a few minutes left, she began to blow on the embers, then dumped them gently into her bundle of tinder. Finally, she was rewarded with a few flames, which quickly began to lick at the dry leaves and grass. She added a few smaller sticks, then a few more.
Satisfied, Hattie sat back, enjoying the flames and adding a few more sticks, until the timer was nearly at fifteen minutes. She got up and turned to leave, then seemingly remembered something, hurried back, and quickly doused the fire just as her time ran out. She turned to the Gamemakers and gave a little curtsy, then headed out the door.
Acher looked a little disappointed as he stepped through the door, sniffing the air. Maybe he could smell the smoke from Hattie's fire. Maybe that was what he had been planning to demonstrate. Tamika raised an eyebrow. Had Hattie known that? Maybe not known, but suspected? In any case, if that was what he'd been planning, Acher quickly changed tack and headed for the pool instead, diving in immediately despite his lack of swimwear and quickly making his way from one end of the pool to the other.
After a few laps, he turned over and backstroked his way back and forth for a few laps. After a few times back and forth, he switched strokes again, then flipped back over and floated on his back, catching his breath and relaxing for a moment in the water, looking quite calm now that he was finally in his element.
He looked so calm, in fact, that it was almost a shame when the buzzer sounded, signaling the end of his session. Acher jolted upright and quickly splashed his way out of the pool, dripping water all the way to the door. Once he was gone, Tamika chuckled quietly. The other tributes would have no trouble trying to work out what he'd demonstrated. Then again, the fact that a tribute from Four could swim wasn't exactly a secret. She just hoped his district partner had something better up her sleeve.
Faven headed for the weapons without a second glance at the avoxes. She quickly chose a trident and began waving it back and forth. She'd obviously been paying attention the previous day when the Careers had shown her how to use one, but it was just as obviously too big for her to handle properly, and she was still sore where Lily had beaten her. After a few minutes of inexpertly waving it around, she was clearly beginning to tire.
Suddenly, she tossed the trident into the pool, then dove in after it. Tamika couldn't help a smile. At least she'd had more sense than to dive in while still holding the weapon. Faven quickly swam to the bottom of the pool and emerged with the weapon, swinging it over her head and pretending to strike an opponent. Then she dove back under, swam the length of the pool, and emerged on the other side, the trident still in her hand.
After a few more laps, she climbed out of the pool, breathing heavily but smiling. She glanced up at the Gamemakers, maybe hoping for some hint of what sort of impression she'd made. Tamika kept her expression carefully neutral until Faven had left. Two swimmers in a row, but at least she'd bothered to try to use a weapon too. That had to count for something.
Leven completely ignored the avoxes as he walked in, but sniffed the air meaningfully and nodded. "Fire and water. Interesting choices."
Tamika smiled as he picked up a sword and went to work on the dummies. Maybe he could have picked up a clue from the spilled water around the pool, but there was no way the scent from the fire would have lingered long enough for him to notice. It hadn't been that big a fire. No, he'd probably just picked up the scent as Hattie had left her session, and figured the comment might make a good impression on the Gamemakers.
And maybe it had, but his speed was making an even better impression. Leven raced around the room, scooping up one weapon after another, tearing into one dummy and then the next, lopping off heads and hacking off limbs. Several of the avoxes took a step back as he sped past, and he finally seemed to notice them. As his time ran out, he circled closer and closer to the edge of the room, grinning as one avox and then another stepped out of his way.
Finally, he grabbed a small knife, sliced across the last dummy's stomach, and brought the weapon around in an arc towards the nearest avox, who was already backed up against the wall. The avox froze as Leven's knife stopped just a hair away from his throat just as the buzzer sounded. Leven grinned, stepped back, and dropped the knife, which clattered to the floor as he turned to go.
Euphoria was beaming as she strode through the door. A flicker of surprise passed across her face when she saw the avoxes, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. She pulled something from her pocket, blew a single note on her harmonica, and began to hum, clapping and stomping rhythmically, motioning for the avoxes to join in. Clap. Stomp. Clap. Stomp. One by one, they joined in on the rhythm.
React naturally. That was the instruction Tamika had given them. And Euphoria was a natural performer, quickly turning the circle of avoxes into an audience. She picked up a tomahawk, but instead of throwing it, held it up like a microphone and burst into song. Tamika leaned back in her chair. She had been expecting this. After a few bars, Euphoria threw the weapon striking a dummy in the chest before selecting another, dancing back and forth as she sang, waving at the Gamemakers and high-fiving the avoxes, most of whom seemed completely taken in by the spectacle.
As the timer neared fifteen minutes, Euphoria pulled something else from her pocket – a notepad and a pen. One by one, she scribbled something on a piece of paper, then handed it to an avox. One and then another received a piece of paper before the buzzer sounded. Euphoria turned to the Gamemakers, took a deep bow, and left to the sound of applause from the crowd of avoxes, who were tucking their slips of paper into their pockets. Tamika raised an eyebrow and made a note for later.
Rook froze as soon as he saw the avoxes. It was a moment before he even remembered to close the door behind him. For a moment, he just stood there, taking in the fact that there were thirteen extra people watching him. A look of puzzlement passed across his face as he seemed to realize that many of them were still smiling. If he'd figured out what Euphoria had done, it didn't show on his face. Instead, he clenched and unclenched his fist a few times, fiddling with something in his pocket with the other hand.
After a moment, he headed for the daggers. He took his time choosing just the right one, then dove towards one of the dummies' legs, sliding along the floor and slicing upwards. He scrambled to his feet and hurried towards another dummy, using the same maneuver. Using his small size to his advantage – not a bad idea, really. Tamika nodded as he tried out the move a few more times, then headed for the wall on the far side of the pool.
Slowly, carefully, he began to climb, making his way up the rough surface, then slowly turning around so that he was facing away from the wall. He took a deep breath, preparing himself, judging the distance. Tamika grinned as she realized what he was about to do. She barely had time to wonder what would happen if he'd judged the distance wrong before he leapt into the pool.
There was a splash, and water fountained up. After a long moment, Rook emerged, thrashing a bit, but apparently unharmed as he clambered out of the pool and used one of the blankets at the first aid station to dry himself off before heading out the door, still dripping a bit. Tamika smiled and made a note to look up whose idea the pools had been and thank them.
Christina's face quickly hardened into a look she probably thought was deadpan when she saw the avoxes. She headed for the knives station, tucking a few into her pocket before heading towards the dummies, dodging and weaving back and forth, pretending to try to stay out of their reach. After a moment, though, she decided there was a better option. She dropped the knives and approached one of the older avoxes. "Can you help me with something?"
The avox nodded. Tamika didn't hear all of Christina's instructions, but they both headed back towards the dummy, which the avox lifted and began to swing towards Christina. She ducked, dodged the next swing, and managed to get to the knife she'd dropped. She scooped it up just as the dummy came towards her. Tamika leaned forward as Christina dodged out of the way again. Would he really have hit her with it? React naturally. Maybe that had been a mistake.
Christina, however, didn't seem to regret her choice, dodging and weaving out of the way each time the dummy came towards her and finally managing to bury three different knives in it. She smiled as the buzzer sounded and held out her hand to the avox, who shook it. Christina held his gaze for a moment before saying "Thanks" and turning to go.
Leif headed straight for the axes the moment he entered, quickly choosing a large one and setting to work chopping at the dummies. Tamika raised an eyebrow. The larger axe had clearly been a mistake, because it was only a few minutes before he began to slow down, breathing hard, and finally had to pause to catch his breath.
Muttering under his breath, he headed towards the camouflage supplies, mixing some darker berries in with some mud to darken the mixture, then spreading it over his arms. He glanced at the timer and apparently decided against taking the time to spread the mixture over the rest of his body. Instead, he headed for the nearest wall and started to climb.
As he made his way up the wall, it was clear that the muddy camouflage would certainly have helped him blend in if he'd coated his whole body, but also clear that he should have taken a bit more time to let it dry. Only a few feet up, he began slipping, and after the third slip, gave up and turned his fall into a rolling attack on one of the dummies before he turned to go, clearly frustrated, even though he still had a few minutes left.
Galadriel also headed for the axes and chose a rather large one, but while Leif had tired after only a few minutes, Galadriel was clearly used to prolonged periods of exertion. No surprise there, of course – the girl was a lumberjack, after all. Still, it was nice to see an outer-district tribute who wasn't exhausted after spending a few minutes swinging a weapon, even if she had to periodically correct herself and swing where the dummies' vital organs would be rather than lower down where she would normally swing at a tree.
Not that it mattered much, in the end. Even if taking a swing at a tribute's legs wouldn't immediately kill them the way that, say, a blow to the neck would, it would certainly incapacitate them long enough for her to finish them off. But as Tamika watched Galadriel occasionally glance at the younger avoxes, who were watching with wide eyes, she couldn't help wondering whether she would have the stomach to actually do that if, instead of a dummy, she was facing someone with a face and a name.
Tamika shook the thought from her head as Galadriel finished off with some predictable fire-starting, which she accomplished much quicker than Hattie had earlier. Either she would have what it took or she wouldn't. If she didn't, she would die. If she did … well, she would probably still die. That was how the Games worked. But at least if she was willing to fight, she would give the audience a good show.
Diyon went out of his way not to look at the avoxes as soon as he saw them, instead smiling up at the Gamemakers as he made his way towards the knives. He quickly chose two and turned his attention to the dummies, slicing one across the stomach, another across the throat. He mimed sneaking up behind a third and cutting its throat, then stabbed a fourth in the back.
Gradually, he made his way through most of the dummies. Other tributes might have grown bored of simply stabbing dummies, but Diyon didn't seem to mind the repetitiveness, or the fact that it obviously wouldn't be that easy if they could fight back. In fact, there was still a smile on his face as he gave the last dummy a shove into the pool, letting it sink to the bottom.
For a moment, Tamika thought that perhaps he meant to dive in and retrieve it, but Diyon simply headed towards one of the avoxes – the one with a 4 on his pin – and smirked. "Guess you better go get that."
The avox, who probably wasn't actually from Four at all, didn't move until Diyon had left, but then nodded towards one of the younger avoxes, who dove in and retrieved the dummy without any trouble.
Edwina looked rather uncomfortable when she noticed the avoxes, but not noticeably more uncomfortable than she looked when she was surrounded by the other tributes. She did her best to ignore them as she made her way towards the snare supplies and settled down to work with some of the rope. Carefully, she assembled a small snare – about the right size for a rabbit or a squirrel, certainly not big enough for a tribute.
After setting it up, she glanced around for something about the right size, then chose one of the larger sticks nearby and tossed it towards the snare. Nothing happened. She tried again. It took a few more tries to get it to land in the right spot, but eventually, the trap sprung, and the rope wrapped tightly around the stick.
Edwina glanced at the timer, saw she had a few minutes left, and chose a slingshot from the pile of weapons. After a few shots, she managed to hit one of the dummies in the chest. A few shots later, she hit one in the head. The buzzer sounded, and she gave the Gamemakers a hesitant wave before turning to leave.
Uriel frowned when he saw the avoxes, but shook his head and chose a bow, took aim, and let the arrow go. It nearly hit the dummy, and the next one actually struck the dummy's leg. The next two clattered off the walls, and another fell short, but the next one finally struck the dummy in the chest. After a few more misses, Uriel was beginning to look distracted. Finally, he set down the bow and pulled something out of his pocket.
It was a small notebook and a pen, Tamika realized as he quickly wrote something down. She'd seen him writing a few times during training, but now he took the pen, approached the nearest avox, and whispered something she couldn't hear. The avox stared at him for a moment, but then Uriel nodded encouragingly. The avox wrote something in the notebook, then passed it to the avox beside her. One by one, they each wrote something down.
The last one handed the notebook back to Uriel, who glanced at the page and nodded, satisfied. Then he tucked the notebook back in his pocket and glanced at the timer. He still had a few minutes left, so he grabbed a few knives and began throwing them at the dummies. By the time he left, three of the dummies had a few knives stuck in them, and Tamika had written a note to check the cameras and figure out what the avoxes had written.
Demeter was shaking her head as she entered the room. Tamika wondered if Uriel had told her what he'd done. Or maybe it had simply been obvious that he'd done something unwise, even if she had no way of knowing what. She did her best to keep her expression neutral as she made her way past the avoxes and towards one of the dummies.
But she didn't reach for a weapon. Instead, she began punching, chopping, and kicking her way through the dummies, moving quickly from one to the next, delivering blow after blow with precision. Tamika raised an eyebrow. She didn't remember Demeter spending any time at the unarmed combat stations during training. Most tributes hadn't, in fact. They realized intuitively that it was better to learn how to use a weapon, while punching someone in the face or choking them with their hands came pretty naturally.
But what Demeter was doing wasn't natural. It was learned. There was an elegance to it, even if none of the dummies she'd knocked to the floor would have died as a result. And the audience did appreciate elegance. Tamika smiled to herself as the buzzer rang and Demeter turned to go. It was nice to be surprised sometimes.
Lucretius gave the avoxes a wave as he entered, then chose a large piece of wood and settled down with a knife, quickly chipping away at the edges until he had roughly a circle, with four slices cut out of it so that the remaining wood formed a wheel-like shape with four spokes. He made a series of notches along the outside, then used the knife to poke two small holes – one in the center and one along the rim.
He threaded a bit of string through the one along the rim, then tied the string so that the circle dangled from it. Then he carefully chose another stick, one with a bit that jutted out, and snapped it so that the jutting-out bit was roughly in the middle. He stuck that bit through the center of the circle so that the rest of the stick could spin around, almost like the hands of a clock. Satisfied, he held it up to show the Gamemakers just before the timer sounded.
Lucretius was turning to go when Andromeda, her head arena technician, called out. "Hand that up here, please." Lucretius quickly did so, and Andromeda dismissed him with a wave. "Not bad," she muttered once the boy was gone, holding it up and turning the stick. "Not bad at all."
"What is it?" Tamika asked.
Andromeda chuckled. "I'll show you later."
Swiss headed immediately for the weapons and quickly chose a small cleaver – not a bad choice for someone her size. She quickly stormed over to the nearest dummy and began hacking away at it. Soon, the dummy was on the ground, but she didn't stop. She kept on chopping until the dummy was torn to bits, and she was breathing hard.
Even though she was clearly tired, though, she didn't stop. She moved on to the next dummy, gave it a few swings, kicked it over, and proceeded to take that one apart, as well. She didn't even glance up at the Gamemakers; she simply kept hacking away at one dummy after another until the buzzer sounded, then tossed the cleaver back into the pile of weapons and bent over to catch her breath.
Finally, she looked up, then around at the remains of the four dummies that surrounded her. She nodded, satisfied, and turned to leave without a second glance at any of the people in the room. Tamika nodded and watched as the avoxes patiently swept up the mess.
Olly was grinning as he entered the room, and his grin only widened when he realized he had a bigger audience than he'd thought. He pulled his deck of cards from his pocket sat down cross-legged on the floor, shuffling the cards back and forth from one hand to the other. "Anybody up for a game?"
Two of the avoxes – the ones with 9 and 11 on their buttons – stepped tentatively forward. Olly motioned for them to join him, then called up towards the Gamemakers. "We could use a fourth."
Puck, her tribute specialist, glanced over for permission. Tamika gave them a nod, and they hurried over to join the game. Olly nodded. "Right, then – we obviously need a game that doesn't require speaking." He reached for a nearby stick and broke it into three pieces. "Listen closely, then."
Tamika listened, but, more importantly, she watched. She watched Olly's hands and smiled as certain cards were carefully kept near the bottom of the deck – or near the top. She watched as he dealt quickly – some from the top and some from the bottom. She watched as he sometimes laid an extra card and sometimes drew an extra, hoping the other players wouldn't notice.
Tamika noticed, but only because she was watching for it. She wasn't surprised when Olly was the first to end up with four cards that matched. His hand darted out and grabbed a stick, followed quickly by the two avoxes. Puck chuckled and sat out the next rounds, watching with a grin on their face. For now, at least, they could all have a little fun.
Anahi took a deep breath as she entered, then headed over to the weapons and chose three small throwing axes. Instead of throwing them, however, she made her way to the trap supplies and chose a length of rope. She tied one end around the handles of the axes and looped the rope around her waist to make a crude belt before cutting the other end off. Then she headed over to the nearest wall and began to climb.
Carefully at first, and then faster, she scaled the wall and began to clamber across the room. When she stopped, she was high above a dummy's head. The nearer avoxes moved out of the way as she removed one of the axes from her belt and brought her arm back, ready to throw.
The first axe grazed the dummy. The second hit it, but with the handle instead of the blade. The third left a decent slice in the dummy's shoulder. Anahi climbed down, jumping the last few feet and landing just before the buzzer sounded. She took a little bow and turned to go, tossing her rope belt off to one side as she left.
Elio was holding back, Tamika knew. She'd watched him during training, and he was doing it fairly well, but it hadn't taken Puck long to dig up the fact that he'd been training with Brennan – and with a few Peacekeepers. That wasn't the most interesting tidbit Puck had dug up about him, but it was the most relevant at the moment.
Elio chose a sword and started swinging at the dummies, his movements carefully calculated to appear a little clumsy, a little slow, a little less prepared than he really was. A little better than average – that was what he was going for.
What she had to decide was whether she was going to give it to him.
As the buzzer sounded, Elio finished with one last flourish that seemed to throw him off-balance for a moment before he recovered. He looked up to see their expressions, trying to keep his own carefully neutral. But he had to be wondering whether they were going to play along, whether they were going to make sure the Careers continued to underestimate him.
Tamika smiled. She hadn't decided yet.
Ellie glanced around nervously as she entered but tried to smile as she made her way over towards the Gamemakers' table. She held out a shaking hand. "Good to meet you. I'm Ellie. I mean, I guess you know that already, but I just wanted to…" She trailed off, unsure.
"Just wanted to make a good impression," Boris, her mutt specialist, finished, shaking her hand. "Go ahead, Ellie. Show us what you've learned."
Ellie brightened a little and made her way over to the shelter-building supplies. She quickly arranged a tarp and a few branches into a makeshift tent, then covered it in mud and leaves for camouflage. Then she took some of the first aid supplies and bandaged a dummy's arm, carefully setting it in a sling.
When she had about a minute left, she finally chose a dagger and stabbed a second dummy a few times in the chest, then made her way back to the Gamemakers' table and held out her hand again. "It was nice to meet you. I … I hope you have a good night."
Boris shook her hand. "Nice to meet you too, Ellie." He smiled as she left, pausing to shake the avoxes' hands and tell them good night. Once she was out the door, he added, "And don't worry. We will."
Ophiuchus flashed the Gamemakers a smile as they entered the room, then gestured towards the avoxes. "And who might these be?"
Tamika raised an eyebrow, wondering if the question was sincere. It seemed like an odd detail for Harakuise to leave out, but maybe the two of them had been focused on the Games. "They're avoxes," she answered. "District citizens who have … displeased the Capitol."
Ophiuchus said nothing in reply, but headed over to the poisons, where they busied themself with mixing several poisons together and coating a few weapons in the mixture. Then they turned the blades on the dummies, slicing here and there, but never anywhere where the blow itself would be fatal.
With a few minutes left, Ophiuchus tucked something inside their sleeve and approached one of the avoxes, who took a few steps backwards – closer to the Gamemakers' table. Ophiuchus cocked their head. "And what did you do to displease the Capitol?"
The girl opened her mouth and shook her head, trying to communicate that she couldn't answer. Ophiuchus nodded and, before she could react, slid the hidden knife out of their sleeve and stabbed her in the stomach, then drew the knife back out. Ophiuchus eyed it curiously for a moment, examining the blood, then laid it gingerly on the Gamemakers' table and dropped to one knee. For a moment, they simply knelt there, then silently rose and turned to leave, ignoring the cluster of avoxes around the girl, who was still bleeding on the floor.
Once Ophiuchus was gone, Tamika nodded to Puck, who took control of the avoxes. "Right, let's get her out of here. Hopefully they didn't use anything that's too quick-acting. You two, with me. The rest of you, clean up that blood."
"No," Tamika interrupted. "Leave it. Come back once she's taken care of. They didn't use anything that fast."
Boris raised an eyebrow. "You were watching everything they put in there?"
Tamika shook her head. She didn't have to. "If they'd simply wanted to kill her, they would have cut her throat, or stabbed her in the heart. They didn't. They wanted to leave it up to us whether she lives or dies." She smiled as Puck and two of the avoxes carried the bleeding one out of the room. "They're a fast learner."
Karina's eyes widened when she saw the avoxes, and even more when she saw the blood on the floor. Her eyes swept the room, counting. Twelve avoxes. It didn't take a genius to do the math. She tried to hide a shudder as she picked up a dagger and began circling the dummies, pretending to sneak up and stab a few from behind, ducking out of the way of blows that would have come if they had been tributes instead of … well, dummies.
That was part of the challenge, of course, that came with these private sessions. Dummies wouldn't fight back. Couldn't fight back. She could have asked them to fight some of the trainers, of course – and there had been years when she'd gone that route – but she always came back to this. The tributes had been fighting trainers for three days. It was more telling right now to see how they thought their opponents would react, and how they thought they would react to that.
Karina reacted to a dummy's invisible attack by rolling across the floor and out of the way, then throwing the dagger she'd been using at the dummy as she scrambled to her feet. Tamika could tell she was eyeing something in the weapons pile. Karina glanced at the clock, then apparently decided there wasn't anything to lose at this point and picked up the sling she'd had her eye on.
Carefully, she chose a stone and set it in the pocket of the sling, then motioned to the avoxes on the other side of the room. "You might want to get out of the way," she suggested. They quickly headed for the other side of the room – well behind her. A good choice, too, because the first stone clattered against the wall several feet from the dummy. The next few were closer, though, and finally, one struck the target. Karina kept going until the buzzer sounded, breathing hard but smiling at the three dummies she'd managed to hit.
Tamika relaxed as Puck dismissed the avoxes, who hurried back to … well, wherever it was they had been before she'd asked for them to be brought here. Except the girl who had been stabbed, but Puck quickly confirmed what she'd suspected. "The doctor says there won't be any long-term damage. You were right. They weren't trying to kill her, unless we wanted to let her die. They were just making a point. Maybe more than one point."
Puck dropped something onto the table. It was a button – a button with the number 3 on it. Tamika raised an eyebrow. "You think that was deliberate."
"Hell of a coincidence if it wasn't," Puck pointed out. "Thirteen avoxes to choose from, and they just happen to pick the one with a number 3 when one of the tributes from Three has obviously … How did you put it? Displeased the Capitol?"
There was a smirk on Puck's face as they said it. Displeased. That was too mild, and they all knew it. But it was an easier word, an all-encompassing word. Some of the avoxes were, of course, criminals. Others were simply troublemakers. Maybe a few had even been unlucky, had fallen in with the wrong people and hadn't fully realized what they were getting into – the same angle that Elseri was trying to play.
In any case, being an avox was far kinder than some other punishments they could have received. They were still alive, after all. Some of them were treated quite kindly. And their basic needs were always met, because starving slaves simply weren't as useful. As long as they didn't cause more trouble than they already had, most of their lives were pretty good.
As long as they cooperated. As long as they obeyed. An avox who didn't obey was dead – or worse. But most learned their lesson fairly quickly.
"And I found this in her pocket," Puck offered, interrupting Tamika's thoughts. They laid a piece of paper on the table.
Tamika picked it up. "I guess that answers one of my other questions," she concluded, then handed it to Boris. "What do you make of that?"
"Euphoria Fonseca," Boris read. "She … gave them her autograph?"
Tamika nodded. "It would appear so." She handed the piece of paper to Puck. "See that she gets it back when she wakes up. How about our other little mystery? Any idea what Uriel was asking them to write?"
Puck shook their head. "No, but I suspect we'll find out soon enough. He's been writing in that notebook for a few days now. I think he's preparing something for the interviews."
"That makes two of them," Andromeda observed. "We know Euphoria's working on a song."
Tamika nodded, then turned to Boris. "What about Ellie?"
"What about her?"
"You were awfully polite."
Boris shrugged. "Never hurts to be polite."
Tamika scoffed. Boris had no poker face. "You're wondering if she'll be as fond of your mutts as the pair from Twelve a few years ago?"
"They were her friends," Boris reasoned.
Puck shook their head. "No, they were her family."
Boris shrugged. "Not biologically–"
"She's an orphan. They were there for her. That's family," Puck answered firmly. "Which makes me wonder how our other two orphans will react to our news."
Tamika smiled. It was coincidence, really, that they'd even found out about one of them. Puck was in charge of digging through the tributes' lives for anything interesting, and they'd only recently begun including blood samples in that digging. They had them, after all – from every district citizen. And, as it turned out, from some Capitolites.
Tamika waved a hand. "We can leave that up to Malchus. Right now, we should be focusing on things that could impact their scores. Like that." She nodded to the circular device Lucretius had made, which was still resting on the table by Andromeda. "What is it?"
Andromeda chuckled. "It's an astrolabe. A rather crude one, but he's got the right idea, and I can't say I would've been able to make a better one in fifteen minutes. You can use it to calculate the time of day, latitude and longitude, the positions of stars, height of buildings – that sort of thing. Not particularly exciting, maybe, but could be useful for navigation under the right conditions."
Tamika nodded. The right conditions. That was what all of the tributes were hoping for, in the end – conditions that would favor them. An arena that would play to their skills and help compensate for their deficiencies. Tributes from more urban districts would hope for buildings and streets, while those from rural districts would hope for trees and fields. Careers would hope for a rather sparse arena, where the lack of natural resources would draw the others back to the cornucopia. The other tributes would hope for enough resources elsewhere that they could survive without relying on the cornucopia – or on sponsors.
And only some of them would get what they wanted. Oh, the Gamemakers made an effort to balance things from year to year, to not have too many arenas in a row that favored one sort of tribute or another. But the fact remained that, to these particular twenty-six tributes, it didn't matter what the arena had been like the year before – or what it would be like next year. They only cared about what was in store for them this year.
As far as that was concerned, of course, she was careful not to drop too many hints. The scores they gave out wouldn't reflect how useful certain skills would be in this particular arena – only how important they were in general. If she made a habit of rewarding the most relevant skills with high scores, she had no doubt it wouldn't take long for the mentors to catch on, and there were a few who would probably encourage their tributes to demonstrate some rather niche skills in the hopes not of gaining a high score, but of gaining useful information about the arena.
No, she wasn't interested in playing those sorts of mind games. The tributes' scores would be based on their performance today – no more, no less. Tamika smiled as she realized that also gave her the answer to the other matter she'd been deciding. No mind games. No tricks. The tributes would get the scores they had earned today, without regard for anything outside this room. She nodded to the other Gamemakers.
"Let's get started, then."
"Everything is conditional. We just don't know what the conditions are."