II May the Odds Be Ever In [Our] Favor II 74th GMs
Sept 18, 2016 18:24:07 GMT -5
Post by Rosetta on Sept 18, 2016 18:24:07 GMT -5
Azure Herodotus
It had been a long eight years.
And as each year ticked by, Azure felt herself slowly drifting to her wit’s end, grinding her teeth down until her plastic surgeon tutted, muttering each time she was reassigned to menial tasks, crossing her arms so often, so tightly they became sore. From designing the digestive track and anuses of mutts to perfecting the mind-numbingly boring backdrop of the Arenas, down to the last boulder. It was as if the other Gamemakers were laughing at her, mocking her. Azure, who had never before chipped a single manicured nail, had never taken off her stilettos in the Gamemakers Chambers and still screamed until her face turned blue, demoted in the 73rd Games to monitoring the weather of the Arena. She wanted to turn up the heat so high their skin roasted or so low they froze to death, but she was just met with eye rolls and kept the heat high, but not too high.
Never before had Azure, meant to be a Gamemaker since she was born, begun counting down the days until her service ended. How many more Games until she was done? Or, at least, got back to the real fun of being a Head Gamemaker. She daydreamed of it every day, heels propped up on her control panel, lips set in a constant scowl, snapping at anyone who broke her daydream. Back to the days where she could end a life at the touch of a finger, could send hordes of mutts, could send a plague. In those days, her every word could send hordes of Gamemakers scurrying, too. Now, she was the one scurrying.
Today, however, things were about to change.
At the long, dark table, Azure ran her soft palm across the unblemished wood. Despite feeling a sort of smugness at sitting her once again, her heart was still hammering. At each and every creak of the room, her eyes darted to the door, anticipating just who would walk in. Being a Head Gamemaker wasn’t a lone job; your partners could make or break you. And Azure wasn’t willing to be broken.
She had really thought she’d done it the morning she walked into the office to an Avox handing her a slender, white envelope. Was this for raking her razor-sharp fingernails down the keyboard of a younger Gamemaker who had asked for help with mutt design, taunting her and added fangs here and there, far from where the Gamemaker had asked? Was this for gliding in an hour late a week ago and asking innocently, “Oh, what, you needed me to adjust the temperature? Why couldn’t you do it? It’s just the flip of a switch.”
Grinding her teeth and sucking in anxiously, Azure ducked into a long, empty passage and used her fingernail to slice the envelope open, half-expecting to see a pink slip. However, to her surprise, she found a thick, white card inside, delicately topped with a rose illustration.
To Azure Herodotus, it began. It’s our pleasure to invite you to act as Head Gamemaker for the upcoming the 74th Games. Please join your fellow Head Gamemakers in the top room of the Training Center on Saturday at 1 p.m. Please do not reveal your status until after this meeting. And signed, at the bottom in a delicate swoop, was President Snow. Azure spent the next half an hour, running her fingers over and over that signature, until the ink was nearly smudged, a small smile growing and growing on her face. Do not reveal your status was the hardest part, she realized, as Azure later sauntered into the Gamemakers Chambers, a smirk still on her face.
Do you know who I am now, she wanted to shout at all of them. Do not mistreat me like this. Not until Saturday, she whispered to herself over and over.
Now, she straightened up in her chair, checking the clock which was just striking one. Where were her partners? Didn’t they know it was rude to be late? And just like that, the door opened and Azure caught sight instantly of the imposing breasts, the puffy lips and, most of all, the large rear, blocking the other person behind her that Azure didn’t recognize. Capri.
And before she could stop herself, Azure growled out, “What the fuck?”