HEART OF GOLD | CORIOLANUS SNOW

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 27

Lilith wasn't quite certain how she'd gotten here, if she was being perfectly honest. Her memory told her this: She had informed Snow of her so-called Plan B, which was really a Plan A Minus. For some reason, he hadn't rejected it outright. Rather, he'd recommended her to present her idea to a wider audience, quoting that it necessitated the support of various departments in order to be realized, and if she wanted that support, she would have to garner it herself.

And so, on Friday afternoon, Lilith stood at the front of the conference room. Like all the other rooms here, it was installed with a Wyndow—a trademarked invention of Wyndham Infrastructure's. Basically, it was a screen programmable to display whatever scenery one preferred, even a live feed of parts of the Capitol. It could be incorporated into glass, as it was at home, whereby the actual view through the windows could be overlaid or simply replaced with one's desired landscape. Other common applications included wall paneling, like here.

Stretching along the upper half of the wall that might have faced outside the building should it have been above ground, the Wyndow essentially acted as an artificial aperture, instilling a refreshing vibe to the space and alleviating any sense of claustrophobia. Today, they seemed to be surrounded by the city park, which was ablaze with sepia-toned foliage that swayed in the breeze and littered the lush emerald meadows as if scarlet and gold confetti.

In reality, the conference room was identical in size to Snow's office. Only furnished with an oval meeting table accompanied by ten chairs, however, the former was loaned the impression of being much vaster. All the department heads had assembled for the weekly round-up. The only one who wasn't a principal, or standing in for one, was Laurentia Cardew—Wren, as she'd insisted the day before, when the girls had bumped into each other in the ladies—whose budget projection for the upcoming Games had been a solid thing that Lilith would be hard-pressed to match, let alone top.

The timing wasn't favourable in more than one way, besides. Now that the round-up's regular agenda had concluded, and they were onto the second of two ad hoc topics slated for today, meant that Lilith's audience had been in their seats for the better part of an hour without a break.

At least some of them brought their own coffee, Lilith consoled herself. And you've prepared for this!

It was the truth; she even had time to put together a few slides to strengthen her case. Certainly, it was more than she could have hoped for just yesterday. And there wasn't that many of them; only four, excluding Snow and Wren, and Gaia, who was present as a scribe. The Hunger Games division wasn't yet that big.

"Good afternoon," said Lilith valiantly. Since Snow had already introduced her at the start of the meeting and her subject was spelled out on the agenda, she flashed out her first graph and jumped directly into her content. "Viewership trends in the districts correlate well to their tributes' progress during the Games as well as the number of victors produced, suggesting that citizens tune in when their district's more likely to win.

"The tribute mentorship program aims to level the playing field amongst the districts, thereby attracting more viewers from across Panem. A mentor's main responsibility is to provide aid and guidance to their tribute, which loosely translates to sharing strategy and experience, coordinating with their stylist on an image, securing sponsors, organizing the dispatch of gifted articles during the Games, et cetera.

"But who shall these mentors be? If you were a tribute trapped in the arena and wanted to get out alive, who would you trust to give you advice? Someone who'd escaped themselves, of course. Thus, past victors are the best candidates to serve as mentors."

Upon briefly outlining the pairing criteria she'd detailed in her proposal, Lilith continued, "As a vital element of the Games moving forward, mentors ought to receive privileges befitting their roles. To launch the program, I would like to invite all Hunger Games victors to the Capitol for an exclusive, chaperoned tour known as the Preview. Designed to offer them a taste of the life they can expect whenever they return for the annual event, their itinerary features a first-class bullet train ride from their home district, a private dining experience at Gild, and a night's stay at the Grand Palace downtown—"