For Evergreen

Prologue

Tulio Vitus, Head Gamemaker

"I'm not sure I know what you mean, sir."

Tulio Vitus turns his attention to his young assistant, a sigh of impatience leaving his lips with no attempt made to disguise it. Tulio does not have the time for such childishness and, with all his interruptions, he honestly isn't quite sure what made him take on the young man as his assistant in the first place. As the Head Gamemaker the most powerful man in the Capitol, apart from the President of course, Tulio could have given the position to just about anyone. Yet, he felt the young man would be the one best suited. Tulio wondered how long he would continue to believe this.

"I really don't have the time to explain it, Donte," the Gamemaker says finally. "You really should ensure that you read the agenda before our meetings so that we can all be on the same page. We have only weeks before the arena will need to be in full working order. None of us have time for delays caused by oversight."

"I apologize, sir," Donte replies, bowing his head with his dark eyes focused on his station. "I did read your messages but you didn't return my questions so I figured you would prefer to-"

"Never mind," Tulio says, waving his hand dismissively at his young assistant. "We can discuss this at a later time in my office. Are the rest of you at least prepared with what I've asked?"

Yulia is the first to speak up. As the newest Gamemaker this year, Tulio had expected very little from the woman but she had proven to be quite adept at muttation design. He couldn't wait to see what she had created with the parameters and samples he'd sent her. "Two of the creatures are already complete as you requested them, but of course I will require a bit more time for the others as they are in need of some… rather unique traits."

"Don't be shy," Hannes calls out and the woman blushes as Tulio scowls in his direction. "Show us something!"

The Head Stylist is of little use during these meetings besides to annoy him lately. His projects are quite easily completed and Tulio has already given him the go ahead on much of the tribute uniform. Of course, Tulio would have to wait until the Reapings before he would get the sketches from the other stylists for the tribute-specific outfits. Not that he cared much for what happened with the tributes before they entered his arena. It wouldn't matter except for which tributes gained sponsors. A new addition last year that the President simply adored. The ability for rich citizens to send their favourite tributes small treats and tokens to assist them in the arena. Tulio could take it or leave it, for him it was all about the arena and those few tributes who could last within it. The audience was simply there to admire his creations.

Yulia looks to the Head Gamemaker for approval. Once he nods, she quickly hits some keys on her control panel and the room dims. Yulia motions towards the front of the room and everyone turns in anticipation. As the creature appears, all the eyes in the room widen and a series of gasps is overwhelmed as the creature lets out a deafening roar. The Muttation is huge, easily one and a half times the height of anyone in the room. Its white fur is interrupted only by a mouth full of thick teeth and two enormous black eyes.

As the creature disappears, the room breaks out in applause and the young Gamemaker smiles. Tulio beams with pride, the muttation will be an excellent addition to the arena as will the others he has requested. There has not yet been an arena quite as exciting to him as the one he's designed for this year's Hunger Games. It was based off a series of photographs he found from the old world and looks nothing like anything found in Panem today. It will surely present quite the challenge to the incoming tributes.

The arenas have become more and more involved with each year since Tulio had been given the Head Gamemaker role leading into the 2nd Hunger Games. It is becoming more difficult to come up with inventive creations, but Tulio is determined to continue to capture the attention of the Capitol and the trepidation of the districts. He has never been one to readily accept failure.

This Hunger Games, only the sixth of its kind, would be the best yet. That, Tulio would personally make sure of. The President wants the districts punished, and Tulio can't think of a better way to do that than with another successful Hunger Games followed by many years of more of the same. The obliteration of the rebels themselves was obvious, but not nearly enough for what the districts had done to their nation. The destruction of those they most wish to protect is only deserving. After all, they took the one person in Panem that Tulio had always sworn to protect. It seems only fitting that he does the same to them, one year at a time.

A/N: Yes, I'm hopping on the return-to-SYOTs train after I said like two days ago that I wouldn't be. Sue me, I'm bored, and no one can spend 12 hrs a day on school.

Anyways, this is going to be a continuation of one of my long ago-completed stories, Devils and Dust, which detailed the 1st Hunger Games before they grew into the well-orchestrated event that they are in the canon books. Some details of that story (which may or may not return in this one) included commercials in place of chariot rides, Capitol mentors in place of Victors, and tributes with guns. In saying that, this will not be exactly like the 74th Hunger Games but instead is meant to be the Capitol kind of trying out some ideas before they settle on what the games will look like.

If you would like to submit a tribute the form is up on my profile and the deadline will be April 22nd, 2020. Some notes that you'll want to consider are as follows.

- This is still a very early HG (6th to be exact) and as such there are no real Careers as we know them (I will be allowing some tributes with training from 1 and 2 ONLY, however training is still relatively new at this point)

- Tributes are age 12-18 as usual, with one male and one female per district

- NO tributes that survived the bombing of D13, everyone there died on site

- There is no tesserae but each tribute is given the normal number of slips for their age (12=1…. 18=7) so younger tributes are less likely to be reaped

- The tributes are likely to remember the war but were between age 6-12 so were not very likely to have been personally involved in it

- If accepted, some tributes may go through some minor changes including age, face claim, and district alterations – fair warning. I will try to let you know of these before posting the final blog and tribute list

If you have any questions feel free to message me. I have no issue helping out to ensure your tribute is the best little sacrifice that they can be.

Other than that,

Welcome to For Evergreen!