Tobias Harte, Head Gamemaker:
"Oh Toby," Persephone said next to me as she looked at the baby photo. "She is seriously the most gorgeous thing... How old is she now?"
"Six months," I said proudly, looking up at the lavender-haired Gamemaker whose gave was transfixed at the grinning, chubby baby in the picture. I was surrounded by other Gamemakers who looked around boredly, hoping to discuss the Games. Unfortunately for them ever since having Terra I'd caught the baby-bug and was transfixed on my family. It was amazing how a baby had suddenly made everything seem more appealing, my marriage and job being two examples.
"My cousin Demetra had a baby about a year ago," Persephone explained as one of the Gamemakers, Yeena, leant in slightly to catch a glimpse of the picture. " Have you been sleeping well? She said that she actually slept really well when she had fed the baby-"
We were interrupted by the sound of heels. My deputy, Ruth, had stormed into the room looking as frustrated as ever. The expression of vexation curved across her features and she swiftly slammed a bunch of files right in front of me, making a noise akin to a meteor striking the earth. Every distracted Gamemaker suddenly jumped and looked up as Ruth's gaze inspected all of us.
Truth is, though I was Head Gamemaker Ruth was always the one who had made sure everything was organised. I lived in a world of procrastination and ideas; Ruth was about organising and actually making sure the vague thoughts in my head would be transfused into the world as something tangent and logical. She inspected all of us, looking annoyed (though truth be told something had made her fixed into a constant state of anger for the past year).
"We are supposed to be organised here," she said, taking her seat next to me and glaring at Yinga and Persephone. "Once the Games are finished we can all coo over Tobias' baby. In fact, we've had six months to do that," Ruth had been sensitive about the subject of babies ever since her only daughter, Olga, had ran away from her and fled to one of the Districts. "This is about the Games now. We have months and we don't even have an arena planned!"
"And where have you been?" I said, trying to feign authority.
"Listening to two of our previous victor's phone conversations," Ruth replied casually, looking through her notes. When she glanced up again she noticed the inquisitive expressions of every Gamemaker close to her, and said with a sigh: "What? I was just assuming something was up and Manny is head of security, he knows how to do all that hacking stuff, they knew their phone conversation was being bugged... which was why they don't talk about anything interesting, just things like 'It'll be nice to see you Rayann,' and 'Oh, life's getting better, I made a knew friend last week', the really boring stuff, you know?" There was another silence and she cleared her throat, sitting more straight and regal than before. "Anyway, about our lack of an arena-"
"Actually," I paused, taking out a sheet of paper meekly. Ruth's gaze moved up to me. "As Head Gamemaker I discussed the arena with Yinga and we came up with an arena-"
Ruth snatched the paper from my trembling hand, suddenly the atmosphere erupted into frost and her icy eyes scanned the paper for a few seconds.
"This is unacceptable," she said.
"I think it's the best arena in-" Yinga began.
"I didn't ask for your opinion," replied Ruth. "It's certainly something you would create Tobias, but truth of the matter is as promising as this arena is it's simply too extravagant. The President specifically told us this Games is going to pass by, taking in twenty-four tributes, making sure twenty-three die and that is that. This year we're having a silent Games." She looked at all of us. "The past two Games have been thrilling and all but we know of the negative consequences they've beseeched upon us."
Her gaze moved to the girl who was in charge of weather and environment of arenas, Dr. Abigayl Carter, whose eyes were fixed upon data sheets as if she were too scared to listen to the conversation.
"Don't you agree, Dr. Carter?"
Abi's eyes shot up. "Y-Yes."
"The fact of the matter is," Ruth stood up, pacing the room. "The Games are our way of strengthening the Capitol and consolidating its political influence. An epic bunch of Games with epic arenas are interesting enough – but the two-hundred and second Games found us creating an arena so epic and bloody we'd created a group of people who were suddenly questioning the morality of the Games," Ruth looked at me accusatively, then glanced at Abigayl again, who shuddered with a wave of frisson. "Then the second year the President, and you Tobias, sent a rebellious Victor back into the arena in an attempt to make a perfectly normal, fine arena feel more epic." She frowned. "She survived, and just look at the consequences; we strengthened the backbone of rebellion."
"Maybe this arena is too exuberant," Abigayl said slightly nervously.
"No, it isn't," I stood and grinned. Abigayl was just intimidated by Ruth, and knew little of my arena. "Don't you all see? Luck has been against us lately and yes, dissatisfaction for the Capitol has increased, but can we really put it down to the greatness of the Games?" My words felt strangely patriotic on my tongue, but I continued: "The moral opposition some people have is the death of children – that happens in every Games, regardless of boring arenas or one as good as the arena that I'm currently planning."
"Your proposal is?"
"We'll have a quiet Games, devoid of unnecessary interference and spliced from Capitolian politics," I smiled. "But it's time to make a Games more epic that make supporters of the Capitol cheer and adore us, and will make opponents bow in fear of the might of the Capitol. The President isn't too pleased with us, it's true, but by creating sub-par Games we're not going to make him like us again." I smiled, grabbing the files Ruth had set down and picking them up. "It's time to rise to the challenge, to surprise and please the President and to create the best Games ever."
Feeling victory burst through me as the Gamemakers nodded in agreement, I pretended to shuffle through some papers and stormed out of the room like an overconfident shooting star streaking through the galaxy, watching people leave and hearing one Gamemaker comment to another as I left the room:
"Do you know what's scary about Tobias? When he says a game is going to be the best game yet, he usually means it..."
Though confident I was correct fulfilling my bold statement now seemed both exciting and impossible.
Welcome to Crush or be Crushed – it's part of a trilogy. If you want to make yourself more accommodated with my universe of Games, read Kill or be Killed (the 1st one), followed by Hurt or be Hurt (the 2nd).
I'm just going to give you the jist of my stories: 1st, they're usually long, I won't cover all the reapings as I don't want to bore the death out of everyone including myself, but will have a substantial period of pre-Games time to develop all 24 characters before they'd be sent into a gruesome bloodbath. The story will then be around 35-45 chapters in the Games, as I don't kill a tribute or ten off every chapter; I will sometimes have regular conversations, moments of light fillery development – but there'll always be some kind of action! My Games are basically drama and dialogue one second and fighting the next (or both at the same time!).
MOST IMPORTANT: I won't have a sponsoring system. Want your character to live? Review. More than ever, the main way to ensure your character will survive is reviewing; I'm doing this to create a fair system where more regular readers will enjoy seeing their character blossom instead of killing their character off in favour of someone who won't read or review the story.
That will be the first and only time I stress that – no reviewing = character death.
Anyway, I'll post the list now, there's lots of open spaces so if your character wasn't initially submitted create a new one or if you're just a newcomer, submit one now!
~Toxic
Tribute List:
District One:
Male: Pullox Shimmers, 18. (Littletimmy223).
Female: Alexandria Tarsus, 15. (Jayaho).
District Two:
Male: Jericho Aylin, 18. (AceReader55).
Female: Lorelei Draven, 17. (xx-Twisted Fantasy-xx).
District Three:
Male: Trojan Reid, 15. (asadderandawiserman).
Female: Elizabeth Korrapati, 15. (PoeTayToe).
District Four:
Male: Ross Deverell, 17. (ImmyRose).
Female: Honora Cashmere Flloyd, 18. (LokiThisIsMadness).
District Five:
Male: Magnus Carmine, 17. (Blangreck)
Female: Leda Viscoy, District 5, 16. (Pika And Olive's Adventures).
District Six:
Male: Sebastian Keating, 17. (YourDownfall)
Female: Brandy Gripen, 13. (Jesseknocks)
District Seven:
Male: Hadley Allard, 16. (jakey121)
Female: Conifer King, 14. (odairsmyotp)
District Eight:
Male: Darius Cortez, 16. (Computerfan)
Female: Mirrane Saffell, 17. (BamItsTyler)
District Nine:
Male: Giovanni Bescari, 17. (Bahrtok)
Female: Tear Nikuya, 16. (TalesOfFanfiction).
District Ten:
Male: Aurochs Vierra, 16. (Chaos In Her Wake)
Female: Carlie Compton, 17. (ASimpleMind94)
District Eleven:
Male: Nathan Fauve, 16. (Hutsune).
Female: Willow Horvat, 13. (Europa22).
District Twelve:
Male: Luke Diorite, 17. (charlieal12).
Female: Freya Garnsey, 18. (EvieGleek17).
If your tribute didn't get in, they're not accepted for one reason or another – sorry! Feel free to re-submit.
And to newcomers, you can still submit, ask me for my form via PM please! If you send one via review I won't even look over it and will just delete your review because you will be putting my story at risk. I urge you to submit girls please, because there's more open spaces with girls; in the biggest twist of SYOT history, I got sent more guys than girls.