Chapter Text
“Heavensbee, take your camera and my engineering officers and fly to the arena this afternoon. I’d like them to film a short explanation of the arena.” Plutarch stopped taking notes. They were halfway through training, and Fulvia’s world had devolved into meetings, the observation box, and the backstage area of Caesar’s show. She gave Brento a high five for a job well done in his last interview as the reigning victor and chugged another coffee. She confirmed with Plutarch that enough arena wear outfits of the appropriate sizes had been delivered to the arena. She told herself everything was fine. There were dynamics this year, and the gossip reached her through excited side comments from staffers. Max was micromanaging Felix, the arena engineers were falling asleep at their desks, and the escorts all seemed mad at each other. Fulvia could barely keep up.
“Sir, we don’t do arena explanations anymore because the mentors were able to send coded messages to the tributes. Not to mention, Fulvia’s staff would need to edit the footage.”
“Fine,” Charlemagne added. “No messages with sponsor gifts then.” Fulvia frowned.
“Oh, I like the messages with sponsor gifts.” She shifted her weight in her seat. This might be a losing battle. “The bigger concern is the time constraint.”
“Is it doable?” He asked her. Fulvia nodded. Charlemagne looked over to Crispus. His shoulders were slumped.
“You’ve been unusually quiet today.” The head gamemaker prodded. Crispus shrugged.
“I don’t have an opinion here. It doesn’t really affect me.” He didn’t look at Fulvia. She frowned.
“Good lad,” Charlemagne replied. He glanced back over at Fulvia. “This arena is about showing the districts what we’re capable of. Besides, I want my engineers to receive credit for all of their hard work.”
“Yes, sir.” Fulvia knew a losing argument when she saw one. She mentally apologized to her staff. They’d be pulling an all-nighter, the night before interviews. Lysterna, Cicero, and Nero all flew out with Plutarch’s team to see the arena and film a teaser. Plutarch wouldn’t say how it went, but they all had to sign NDAs, and Lysterna said she thought it was a good one.
4M and 1M achieved the highest training scores of 10, while 12F received the lowest score of 4. Some of the associates had wanted to go lower, but Fulvia felt that was unfair. The girl was really trying! She had done a nicely woven basket as her skill. It wasn’t her fault that she was 14 and tiny! Plus, Effie raved about what a sweet little thing she was, and how her family knew Haymitch’s family from before. That deserved at least a four!
“How would we feel about skipping the meetings where we ask the mentors to identify a primary tribute?” Fulvia asked at their final department heads meeting. “I can ask the escorts to get us that same information, and frankly, we’re short on time.” Charlemagne shook his head.
“You can delegate if you need to.” His voice was surprisingly understanding. “The act of forcing the mentors to choose is valuable, though, and I want to avoid surprises with the interviews.” She nodded. “Good luck with interviews tonight. I always enjoy watching the tributes fight for attention.” Charlemagne closed out their meeting. “Odds ever in our favor.”
“Odds ever in our favor.” They all repeated. Fulvia cornered Crispus as they were leaving.
“Thanks for the backup.” She commented. He shook his head at her.
“Not now, Cardew. Oh, hi Laurentio.” He perked up as the man appeared next to them. Fulvia took her last second to face the wall, rolling her eyes, before spinning to greet Laurentio.
“Hey.” He glanced at Fulvia. “Sorry you ended up with more work.” She shrugged. The finish line was close. She was more offended by Crispus's utter indifference to her situation. “I wanted to ask Crispus if he had any more of those photoshoots coming up.” Crispus’s eyes went wide, and his posture changed.
“Um. No. Usually, those are a once-a-year thing. They’re expensive, and it’s input versus output.”
“Aw, man. Let me know when you have another one. The last one was fun.” He slapped Crispus on the back before walking away, taking Fulvia’s desire to snark on Crispus with him. She knocked her arm into him.
“You ok?”
“Tired. Stressed. Hungry.” He replied. He watched Laurentio walk away. She nodded.
“Will it get better once the games start?”
“Some parts will. Other parts will get worse.” She nodded again. There wasn’t really anything left to say.
“I have to get to mentor meetings. Secret handshake?” She extended her left hand. He grinned.
“Always Cardew.”
So she hauled herself and Urban over to the conference room in the atrium of the tribute building and poured herself a cup of tea. Urban grabbed a croissant and managed a few bites.
“I don’t even know who to expect from One?” She whispered. Victoria was obviously mentoring 1F with occasional support from Zara, but she half suspected that Max would just show up in Felix’s place. Urban swallowed.
“Boss, I don’t even know what day it is,” he replied. “All I know is I need to have a brand new uniform ready for tomorrow, and every decent tailor in this city is already booked, so I had to call my sister!”
“That’s funny,” Fulvia replied. “It’s rough, but it’s funny.” She opened her data pad and queued their spreadsheet. 1M and 1F were both in bold due to their high training scores, resulting in higher expectations.
All of the Ones came to the meeting. Fulvia offered coffee and tea, but no one wanted any. Felix and Victoria sat, and Zara and Max stood behind them. It felt like a parent-teacher conference from high school. The Ones lacked their usual polish. Hair was still set in curls and styled, outfits were still tailored and crisp, but there was an exhaustion under everyone's eyes that no amount of concealer could hide.
“Trivot is our primary,” Felix said softly. The Ones all seemed to exhale as he said it. Fulvia nodded. She typed the information in.
“Angles?”
“They both just want to honor the Capitol and bring honor home to District One,” Victoria answered. She swallowed. “Diamond will be a little fun and flirty.”
“Trivot’s more about the spectacle.” Felix finished. Fulvia finished typing. Despite all the drama, the Ones would have a fairly normal year then. She paused. Crispus was stressed. She was stressed. Felix and Victoria were both stressed. They had a terrible year last year, and they were giving it another go. They all had bosses to keep happy. And she would be a good boss where she could.
“Well, they both have great mentors.” She looked between Felix and Victoria. That actually got a small smile out of Felix. “And I’m sure they’ll both bring honor to the Capitol.” Victoria smiled widely.
“Yeah.” She turned to face Max. “They both will.” There was an edge in her words. Zara made a face.
“Ok. Let’s go.” She beckoned Victoria. She stood up and followed Zara out with a toss of her hair. Felix looked back at Max and shrugged.
“Went better than you thought it would.” Fulvia made a mental note to tell Crispus that trouble seemed to be brewing on the first floor. Actually, he probably already knew. That must’ve been why he was stressed. She messaged him about it anyway. Maybe they should listen to the bugs tonight? The Twos were next. Spirits were high.
“My girl will be the primary.” Lyme offered. Cael shrugged. He didn’t seem upset. “She’ll make a good run of it. Great with swords.”
“Are we doing standard Two angles?” Fulvia asked. Cael nodded.
“Ado’s funny and sarcastic. You saw him with knives during training.” Fulvia nodded. Had she seen that? Whatever. She would nod anyway. She typed it into the sheet.
“Great. I’m excited for you guys. Have a good year.”
“We’re trying,” Cael replied as he stood up. He smirked and looked over at Lyme. “The Ones are ripping themselves to shreds.” He was practically giggling as her looked between Lyme and Fulvia.
“Not our style.” Agreed Lyme. “Our only real worries now are the Fours and the arena.”
The Threes were fast. 3M was the primary. The boy would be funny and smart. The girl was sweet and funny. No concerns. Fulvia typed it all in and wished Wiress and Beetee a great year. Mags and Percy were next.
“Hello again.” Fulvia greeted them. “Coffee? Tea?” Mags shook her head.
“No, thank you, we’re fine.” Her posture was perfect. Fulvia involuntarily sat up a little straighter. Percy and Urban followed suit.
“What’s the plan?” Fulvia toggled down to the next row of her spreadsheet. Percy shrugged.
“Show up, look good, and then go home?” He leaned back and crossed his legs the way Crispus would have. Fulvia smiled.
“I love it. I can’t put that in my spreadsheet, though.”
“Coral is our primary.” Mags offered softly. “Fisherman’s daughter. Wants to honor the Capitol. She’s very serious.” Fulvia nodded. She added it to the sheet. Serious tributes typically struggled in the interviews. Caesar was good about helping them channel that seriousness, though.
“Nice,” Urban added.
“Puff is more jovial. He’s a very smooth talker. He’ll be fun to watch.” Percy finished. Fulvia typed it all in. She nodded and sipped her coffee.
“Ok. Thanks, guys. Have a good year.”
Porter was optimistic about their girl, but the boy was tiny again. Maureen and Brento were next. Brento did take her up on the offer of pastries. He filled a plate with glazed turnovers and placed a second plate over it as a top on the container so his food was portable. Urban made a face, and Fulvia kicked him under the table. Sometimes, District people had weird habits with food. It was just one of those things they had to accept and move on. Fulvia asked about Brento’s hip, and he said it was actually doing ok.
“Was I your primary last year?” He asked Maureen. She shrugged. He looked over at Fulvia and Urban. “Was I?”
“I don’t remember.” Fulvia lied. Urban followed her lead. Of course, Brento had been the primary, but if Maureen didn’t want him to know that, then she wouldn’t tell him. Fulvia decided a topic change was in order. “You should talk to Cecelia. She had to mentor her first year out, too.” Brento nodded.
Blight and Oakley were shockingly casual. Their girl was the primary. She was going for a humble lumberjack angle (which Fulvia didn’t understand, but whatever), and the boy was proud to represent District Seven. Urban nodded approvingly. Fulvia typed. She didn’t ask about their tributes knowing each other, and they didn’t offer anything.
Fulvia lost track of how many times she wrote the words ‘funny’ and ‘sweet’, and ‘nervous’ and ‘likes the food.’ Truly, the only remarkable thing was that Effie joined Haymitch for the meeting. Fulvia knew that it had been the right call instantly. Haymitch’s eyes were bloodshot and swollen. Fulvia reached into her bag and pulled out a set of under-eye masks. She set them on the table and offered them wordlessly. Haymitch didn’t acknowledge her. Effie nodded and slid the patches into her own dress.
“So we’re thinking that Poppy will be our primary. She’s very sweet and fun. Tom is very genuine as well. We rode the elevator with him multiple times because he loved it so much.” Fulvia smiled for the first time all day. She thought back to District 12 and its dark gray sky, slushy snow, and the layer of coal that coated everything. She was glad 12M was getting to experience this. Haymitch looked down and tapped his foot.
“I’m so glad. Is he a fan of the food, too? That’s been a trend this year.”
“Yes!” Effie adjusted her posture. “We had the mushroom risotto for dinner last night. I thought he was going to lick the bowl.”
“Please introduce that kid to an ice cream float,” Urban begged. Fulvia nodded. They had jokes in the Capitol about things like this. Similar to ‘District 2 does not produce peacekeepers, ’ the other good one was ‘A single sip of a carbonated coffee would kill a District 12 child.’ Given how much Haymitch drank, Fulvia wasn’t sure if that one was true.
“No snakes,” Haymitch whispered. He looked up at Fulvia for the first time. “Please don’t do it again. Please let her go gently.”
“I can’t control that,” Fulvia replied. Effie gave her a look, and Fulvia nodded. “If she’s afraid of snakes, let’s make sure there are none in her interview outfit.” She wanted to tell Haymitch that the arena probably wouldn’t have snake mutts based on what she’d heard, but she couldn’t. She’d agreed to review her staff member’s edit of the engineers’ arena walk-through after mentor meetings to prevent any accidental information sharing on her part. Her poker face was good, but not perfect.
“It’s not allowed,” Urban offered. “It’s in our handbook. Section 23.14 No live animals are allowed in the building.” Fulvia glanced at him. “What? I’ve been hanging around the VA crew.”
“And it’s a shame because Tigris used to bring her cats,” Effie added. “It was very nice to see them.”
“Oh.” Haymitch made a face.
“Well.” Fulvia decided. “That’s settled.” She didn’t want to kick them out, but she also had places to be. “May the odds be in their favor.” Effie stood and began to herd Haymitch towards the door.
Fulvia took a long and slow exhale as she lifted her braids from her neck to get some air. She’d need to figure out a new hairstyle for tomorrow. Long hair couldn’t be worn down with the new uniforms. She’d probably do an elegant twist or something.
“I’ll get note cards off to Caesar.” Urban stood up. “You ok? You seem different?” Fulvia’s head snapped around to him.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just a ton of politics this year, and I don’t think this should be a political role.” Urban nodded.
“Hang in there. President Snow is allowing this for a reason. It must be a lesson of some kind.” He offered. She nodded.
Fulvia had an iced coffee and a muffin for dinner. She ate in the spin suite with her staff after she reviewed the arena footage. Lysterna showed them all pictures of her new baby, and Fulvia suggested they hang the pictures up on the wall. The engineers had done ok on camera. They worked with a different type of angle than she did. And that was ok! They all had different strengths. She was more interested in the engineering officers who had been sent. She’d wait to hear from Crispus and Plutarch before any further thoughts. The arena was spectacular. She couldn’t wait to see Panem react to it.
She tapped her microphone gently. “Ladies and gentlemen. This is Gamemaker Cardew with your 15-minute call to places. Again, this is your 15-minute call to places.”
“Thank you, 15.” Her staff responded. She scanned through each camera absent-mindedly. Everything looked fine. 1F was with Victoria backstage. Neither seemed stressed. 1F’s dress was pink with tulle. She’d been decked out with diamond necklaces and a diamond hairpiece. It was honestly a little much. Just because the girl’s name was Diamond didn’t mean that she needed to be her whole brand.
Felix showed up with 1M. 1M unbuttoned his top button and puffed his shirt out. Felix promptly rebuttoned it. 1F and Victoria thought that was hysterical. Fulvia scanned through more cameras. Caesar flipped through his cards while doing vocal warm-ups. The sparkly orange was growing on her. Maybe she would even like it by the end of this year. Fulvia looked at her staff. “Last bathroom breaks. Drinks on the table, please. No liquid near the console.” Her staff obeyed without comment. Fulvia closed her eyes and stretched out her neck. The 10-minute places call. The five-minute places call. 2F and Lyme were backstage in the queue. She nodded at her allies. The dress was an interesrting choice. It was a sparkly high low in a pastel blue. It didn’t work with her angle at all.
Her earpiece crackled.
“Gamemaker Cardew, you are cleared to roll when ready.” Charlemagne’s voice came through. She nodded and looked around at her staff. They were ready. They always were; she had trained them well.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Standby brass symphony. Standby Caesar. Hunger Games 59. Odds ever in our favor. Go symphony. Go Caesar.” Fulvia could run these cues in her sleep.
“It’s just so nice to be here!” 1F sparkled under the stage lights like her namesake.
“I’m so excited. I’m going to be the best of all time.” 1M added. He’d unbuttoned his top few buttons. Fulvia and Urban made knowing eye contact. Fulvia glanced at her mentor camera and saw Felix face-palm backstage. Victoria and 1F exchanged a look. Imagine going against a mentor’s instructions? This should get interesting.
“I’m so ready.” 2F offered.
“All of these tributes are annoying, and I’m excited to kill them.” 2M deadpanned. Fulvia blinked. Urban giggled.
“I love it!” Caesar shouted. The crowd roared.
“I really liked the chocolate cake,” 3F explained.
“I love the chocolate cake. Tell me. What else have you tried during training?” Caesar kept her going. Fulvia smiled. She had a feeling that many of the tributes would be talking about cake in some form tonight. 3M’s suit had light-up panels sewn into it. The stylist had done an amazing job.
“Look, I can change the color!” he showed Caesar, turning it to a sparkly orange. “We match now.” Caesar gasped.
“No! You look better than me now!” He cried. Fulvia laughed. “Alright, I’ll allow it. Here, take my microphone.” The rest of the bit was 3M pretending to interview Caesar, which culminated in Caesar almost walking 3M offstage to a smiling Beetee. Fulvia nodded. That kid just became a contender.
4F did struggle in her interview. She said that she didn’t understand the point of the interviews. If it was a joke, it didn’t land. It didn’t help that she was between two funny tributes who had a natural acting instinct. 4M was sensational. He wore another seashell suit and stole Caesar’s microphone. Caesar pretended to be offended, and 4M then they took the opportunity to do a free-style rap that had their entire office in hysterics.
5M was so small that the chair swallowed him up, and 5F tripped on her heels. Caesar caught her. She promptly took them off.
“Why do people here wear these?” She asked? The crowd roared in delight. “Caesar, I’ll get you some steel-toed boots from Five. We wear them in the power plant.”
“Do you think I could be a power plant worker?” Caesar put his hand over his heart.
“I think you show potential as a solar panel.” She replied. Fulvia watched Porter smile and laugh. The Sixes raved about the food and clothes. Fulvia nodded. All good. The sevens were standard.
“You have no trees here.” 7F observed. “You should fix that.” The eights were basic.
“The lamb stew was really good,” 8F explained. “But my favorite thing so far has been the chocolate. That and it turns out knives are just bigger sewing needles.”
“Are you going for a knife in the morning?” Caesar asked her.
“No, I’m going for chocolate. But if there’s a knife in the cornocopia, I’ll take that too.” She smiled and posed.
“Gamemakers! Put some chocolate in the arena!” Caesar shouted. They panned the camera to Charlemagne, Plutarch, Crispus, and Laurentio, along with a few others in the gamemaker booth. Laurentio nodded and gave a thumbs-up before remembering that it was technically no longer his job. The nines were good as always. Another solid year from the tens.
“I don’t have a victor prediction this year?” Urban whispered to her at one point. Fulvia nodded. She felt the same way. Prior to seeing the arena edit, she would have said this was 4M’s to lose, and maybe 1M or 4F would take it. But this wasn’t a water arena. It was a brutal one, though. She pushed the thoughts of the arena out of her head. She shouldn’t be thinking about that yet. Plus, these outlier tributes were showing up! The mentors hadn’t been spinning anything; these tributes all seemed funny, sweet, and enjoyable to watch!
The twelves appeared on her backstage camera. Haymitch knelt in front of 12F and mimed smiling and waving. There were no animals or reptiles anywhere to be seen. Effie had an arm around the boy. Little 12F was perfect during her interview. Haymitch watched it with foot-tapping anxiety and a hand over his mouth.
“I like all of the dresses and food here.” 12F admitted. “But the lights block out the stars, and I don’t like that.”
“We’ll get our top engineers on it,” Caesar promised. “You win, you come back, and we’ll have that fixed.”
“I’m counting on it.” She smiled.
12M was similarly perfect. Effie reminded Fulvia of a stage mom as she mimed a big smile backstage. 12F held Haymitch’s hand as they all watched together.
“I don’t understand why you’re not all fat.” 12M offered. “If I lived here, all I would do is eat all day.”
“Well. Some of us do eat all day.” Caesar commented.
“You don’t look like it.” 12M replied.
“You’re very kind. Tell us, in our last minute, what should we be watching for when you’re in that arena?”
“Well, I’m really excited for the tube bit. I rode the elevator here and it was awesome. Haymitch and Effie let us ride it multiple times!”
“Incredible. What a beautiful reminder of simple joys. Ladies and gentlemen, Tom McElroy of District 12!”
“Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Hi Anna! Love you!” He shouted before heading off stage. Effie hugged him, and then the Tweleves shared a nice moment of a group hug. Fulvia didn’t know Effie very well, but she was so grateful to the woman for pulling Haymitch through this year.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!” Caesar closed out the night, and Fulvia rolled the anthem. The other department heads messaged her words of congratulations. Charlemagne even said it was “good”
“I will see everyone here tomorrow at 5:30 for a uniform check!” Fulvia shouted to her staff. “Please go home and sleep. No alcohol or merriment tonight!” The staff made a show of booing her. She rolled her eyes. They began to clear out. Fulvia wondered if she should go back to her apartment for the night or if she should just sleep here. What were Crispus and Plutarch doing? She’d do the same as they. Her datapad pinged with a message from Crispus.
‘No bugs tn. Ones are fighting, Fours and Twos are hype.’
Well. Now all she had to do was finish the epilating on her now-tailored uniform, submit more analytics reports, make sure that wool socks (IN JULY) didn’t make her boots too small, polish said boots, and then transfer her gum, Band-Aids, and bobby pins to her new tunic. May the odds be ever in her favor. She bit her lip.