Gazette Abalone paces her Gamemaker Quarters crisply, indecisive. She stops pacing every couple of feet and grabs the remote on the top of her desk. She sits down in her metallic chair and does a full one-eighty turn.
She swipes the remote up once- a desert landscape appears on the big screen. "No, no! Too...barren." She swipes again, "Ha! I'd be a fool to choose this! All the tributes would die in this frozen wasteland." She swipes again and again and again until her finger turns red. She doesn't even bother to analyze each image, she knows each will be drabber than the last.
Impatiently, she stands up and paces some more. She looks down at the people below her, her administrators. She huffs out, "Don't any of you have any clue of what to do?! We need a new idea. No one wants to do a woodland, it's so basic. Rocky terrains are boring. Let's figure something out!"
Her second-in-command walks in. Thaila Cezela is a handsome lady...if women can be handsome. Thaila's sparkling eyes stare intently at her pale blue eyes. She smiles at her, "With all due respect, I've got a better idea on what to do with the arena. If you-" She cuts herself off because the gaze that Gazette gives her would make Hell freeze. Internally, Gazette scolds her.
With all due respect?! Everyone knows they're about to get insulted in the most sugar-coated way possible.
Thaila continues: "Miss Abalone. Let us think differently. Ah...go against the status quo, as they say." She laughs inwardly, "Per say someone from District Four were in your position. Not that some civilian would ever reach your level, of course."
Nice save, Cezela. Very nice save.
"The mere peasant would build an arena that would contain an ocean or some type of oceanic terrain...a tropical forest perhaps? A man from Nine would create a field with tall grasses and open spaces with some rocky terrain. And one from Eleven would have bountiful trees and maybe some orchards with fruits."
Gazette studied Thaila as she studied her theory. "I see, but don't quite understand. Why would I build an arena that plays to any one tributes advantage?"
"My dear, that is my point. All the people want something that they have familiarized themselves with."
"So we what? Go against that...how? Any one terrain will be similar to that of one's home, maybe of two districts!"
"My idea is that these theoretical men would use things they know. Look around you. What do you see and know?" She asked sincerely. Maybe she wasn't that bad.
"I see my city. The one I was born and raised in. I understand, I'd want this as my arena because I am familiar with it...and they...they are not." She looked straight ahead expectantly. And unexpectedly, she threw her hands in the air.
Of course. None of the tributes would be familiar with a city! Why hadn't she thought of that before?!
"Cezela, you are a genius! An absolute genius! Ladies and gentlemen," she looked at her screen once she was reseated, "we have work to do."
All people on deck began to type and plan furiously. Thaila Cezela had a smirk on her beautiful face.
