Gamebreakers.

[admin dars]

From the center of the dark screen, an eerie green glow begins to expand, different shades of a verdant sea bleeding out into a white light that eventually overtakes the entire surface. The words Panem Rivals begin to appear on screen in beautiful yet cryptic font. A subtitle appears below the writing in a smaller and simpler font: Gamebreakers.

A transition begins as we fade into a table in which three people are seated: Host Crescent Caroul, and her two guests for the week, Colt Royale and Mania Rogue.

CRESCENT:
Welcome to the first ever episode of Panem Rivals! I'm your host, Crescent Caroul, and with me today are some of my closest friends in the game, retired Hunger Games stylist and fashion designer, Colt Royale! And Capitol socialite and Key Games Sponsor, Mania Rogue!

MANIA:
It's a pleasure to be here! I've missed you, girl!

COLT:
Thank you for having us.

CRESCENT:
Of course, of course! I'm thrilled to have you both. For those of you who don't know, Colt and I- we go way back. I'm talkin: he gave me my first prep team job!

COLT:
I did! First hire I made there, I think. Oh, jeeze, that was- feels like that was forever ago doesn't it?

CRESCENT:
Over ten years, now.

COLT:
Insane.

CRESCENT:
And then, Miss Mania over here, I believe you were a Key Sponsor several times while we were working in the Games together, right?

MANIA:
Yes! Yes, I've done it four times now, I think. You actually did my makeup for the banquet I think my... I guess it would've been my second time as a sponsor. I think that's- that's when we like met, right?

CRESCENT:
Yeah, right, right. I think we'd seen each other around before then but that was the time we actually talked and such, yeah. I remember that look, too. We did the whole rococo thing, I remember you looked stunning.

Actually, the reason that I invited you two here with me today is because not only are you my good friends, but we all worked together on the 83rd Hunger Games. Now, what I wanted to talk about is this whole- this Minerva Hale versus Hades Lochlan situation. As both you and everyone at home knows, Minerva Hale was a head gamemaker in the 83rd, Hades Lochlan was her junior. There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the two of them and fans have been able to track it allllll the way back to those Games.

What do you guys remember about the 83rd?

MANIA:
Right, 83rd. For me, um... I remember getting the call to- I remember being asked to be a Key Sponsor about a month before the reaping was set. I remember they had us do the promos and all that stuff because they wanted it to go live as soon as the tributes were selected. I remember the banquet, that's obviously where I met you. Um...

CRESCENT:
Do you remember hearing anything or seeing anything about either Hades or Minerva?

MANIA:
I do remember hearing thing about Hades- speculation stuff about how he was a favorite to GM and all that stuff. Nothing official, nothing confirmed or anything like that. But, yeah it definitely seemed like people were thinking it was going to be him and Ms. Levelwright, though.

COLT:
I agree. I mean, the stylists aren't really as in on that part of things as much... We don't really- it's not really a part of the job description, I guess. But even I heard stuff like that just from, like, meetings about budgets and stuff. Actually I think I remember hearing Hades had already been designing new mutts before the arena had dropped.

CRESCENT:
He was. He had his employees sign NDA's until the arena dropped and everything, that's already been proven. But that could also be because he was brought on as a junior. Especially given his specialties.

A lot of people recall this, though- it's been a topic for a while now, but everyone kind of seems to agree that Hades was in, Minerva wasn't until she was, and then Hades wasn't anymore. We don't know if he quit, or if he was replaced, or what, but Minerva wasn't even being talked about before this. And Hades has reportedly had romantic links with several gms before- Beatrix Alfray and Astrid Zane. So, what happened? Was Hades originally supposed to help run the Games? Where did Minerva come from? Is there really a rivalry there? Is it all a publicity stunt?

I can't stop thinking about it, I was reading through this- through the brief- I'm obsessed, because we never got confirmation either way.

MANIA:
I don't remember even knowing there was a rivalry until after the Games started. But, again, I wasn't really there until like a month before. I do know that Minerva was the one who hired him as a junior though.

CRESCENT:
So you think it's fake?

MANIA:
I think it probably got blown a little bit out of proportion. I mean, how bad could it really be if she hired the guy to work for her right after?

COLT:
Well, I think the issue people had was just, I think a lot of people felt like it should've been Hades who got the position in the first place.

CRESCENT:
He did have a large following.

COLT:
Exactly. And when he didn't get it, people really hated Minerva for it. Which, I think Minerva did an excellent job. I mean, a two-career finale? That's almost unheard of these days, you know what I mean? But I think the issue people have stems from... almost like a confusion?

CRESCENT:
'Where did this girl come from?'

I agree. I think she did a bang up job. But when you look at her past, she's never worked with the games before. She's never held a position of authority in any other field. Honestly we had trouble finding any previous work experience. The only tie she has is her father- Madden Hale- who happened to work directly under President Snow.

Meanwhile, Hades is designing mutts for every games since, I believe it was since the 78th? 77th! He's designed mutts in every games since the 77th, he's juniored the last two consecutive games at this point, he's the favorite for the job... they go with Minerva?

We're gonna take a quick break but when we come back, we got the down-low from some anonymous sources close to the subjects. You'll wanna hear this. Stay tuned.

The screen fades to black as the camera pans away, before a promo for the new episode of Young Love in Panem starts to play.

^{A MOST UNFORTUNATE TAROT READING}

She stared at the screen with a hollow, vacant expression. Her eyes had filled with tears, her jaw set into place, and she was so still that she may not have even been breathing. It was only when her grip on the half-full glass of wine caused it to shatter that she finally flinched back into reality.

Her palm was bleeding. The couch was ruined.

She didn't care.

It wasn't enough. She wasn't enough. She never would be. And they didn't even know the half of it, that she had nothing to do with getting the job, that she already knew Hades deserved it over her and that's why she'd hired him as her junior. She had tried to fix things. She'd driven herself mad trying to fix things. And for the first time in her fucking life, she had been successful. Ridley Le Roux was, if nothing else, a fabulous victor from a deserving district and a well-respected family. And the half of the final two who didn't live got a second chance the next games and succeeded through Beck. Things were on schedule, the arena was lauded with rewards, a lot of the tributes still had devoted fanbases to this day.

And even still, it wasn't enough. She. Wasn't. Enough.

She made it to the bathroom, wrapped her hand in a towel, and noticed from her reflection in the mirror that her mascara was running in two unsightly streaks down her cheeks. She wiped at them with the clean part of the towel and before she could finish, she got the unbearable sense that she should do a reading.

In the years since her games, Minerva had only become more spiritual, and thus more certain that she had actual precognitive abilities. They were subjective, of course- the future was a pool of water and the future she saw was the one in which it was assumed that there'd be no waves. No changes to distort the image, not even a little ripple. Obviously, the smallest thing could change the future entirely, so she didn't need to justify herself to strangers when she told them she was certain one thing would happen, only for another to happen altogether.

She pulled out her deck- the very same one she'd played with during the private training sessions, shuffled it, pressed it to her heart, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Will I get an opportunity to fix this?"

She flipped over the first card and winced. The Hermit. Patience for a long journey. The universe's way of saying, Not any time soon.

"Will he?" She willed a no. She begged for one.

Ace of Pentacles. Opportunity, abundance and the manifestation of dreams. She gritted her teeth and wished she had another wine glass to break.

"With who?" she asked, annoyed.

Ten of Swords. The stabbed-in-the-back card?

She took a long pause.

"Someone I know?"

She flipped the card over and gasped.

The Emperor. She'd done a hundred readings about some people. A thousand. This card almost always showed up for one person.

"My fucking sister?"

^{GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE}

He clicked the television off right as some boy with pink hair planted the most awkward-looking kiss he'd ever seen onto a boy with quaffed hair and fish lips. He'd seen enough already, smiling into his martini.

"Cinder," he called, and the seelie next to him blinked awake, floating excitedly and awaiting a command, "send meeting requests to the following contacts in my phone: Astrid Zane, Hendrix Fernwood, and Saber Bancroft. Stagger the meeting times from noon to two o'clock pm. I want to hear from all the good juniors before Hale and Antoinette get to them."

He hadn't been thrilled to work with another Hale, but this time he was working next to one, not below. And it was a different one from before, so he decided he didn't actually give much of a fuck either way until she gave him a reason to.

The seelie chirped with delight, its core glowing an orange so vibrant that even three years later, it still looked like the molten heart of a pool of lava. There were hundreds of more effective ways to build an artificial intelligence system than having a defenseless gelatinous blob which couldn't even communicate past adorable little coo's of confirmation when Hades told it to do anything, but he felt it gave a lot of style points to show up places with a cooler and better version of the very same creatures he created for the 87th Hunger Games.

Plus, he liked the idea of bringing his AI system with him wherever he went so he could quickly fix whatever needed fixing from wherever in Panem he currently was, and this was a way to do it.

After he finished his drink, he climbed the stairs to his balcony and breathed a sigh of relief out to the beautiful cityscape view in the distance. Tomorrow morning, they were making it official.

Finally, the world would see what Hades could really do.