"Now Snow, the twenty-fifth games are still two years away. We have the pre-planned outlines of what each year should be already, why complicate the prospects anymore than necessary?" Helios Clyborne asks, always the pragmatist.
He sits behind his large, oak and metal desk, his glasses sitting far down on his red, bulbous nose. Clyborne is a stubborn man in even minor matters, getting him to see the point of change in something as big as The Hunger Games will take monumental effort and time to whittle away at his doubts. Given that it's Thursday, and this is not a scheduled meeting to begin with, he's in no mood.
"A quarter quell could be a strong way to make the districts feel more involved with the process of The Games, Helios." Coriolanus explains "Think about it, right now The Hunger Games just feel like something the Capital is doing to The Districts. One part of the country against the others, subjugating them for a mistake. A mistake might I add, that most of whom who actually made it are now dead. If we involve The Districts in some aspects of how The Games go, they can feel like they have some control."
"But the whole point of these Games, at least initially, was to do exactly that. Keep the Districts subjugated, remind them what their place is and more importantly to remind them what ours is. Giving them control, or even the illusion of it could misguide them and give them the idea that were somehow equals. That they are just as valuable as we are." He counters "I understand that in the last decade it's become more of a spectacle, especially after Gaul had you and your girl make it actually enticing to watch, a way for the city to make money from how many advertisers and people see the value of it. But the main purpose needs to remain unmoving, the Districts witness their children die, all but one, and know that it's their own fault. That if they'd just relented and agreed to be orderly, none of that would be happening. They need to know that all governance, all control, all choice has been taken from them due to their own insubordination."
"There's more than one purpose to them now, that's true. But it's not just sparkle and entertainment. We want the Districts to conform to our rules, our values and our ideals. We want them to acquiesce and work and produce the things we need, from livestock to ambergris." He adds "We want them subservient, but we don't want them feeling so despondent that they lose the will to live and produce. Either they feel so weak they underproduce, like they have been for the last twenty or so years to their own disadvantage and our own. Or they rage out and start more rebellions, still underproducing and breaking out in recalcitrance which cost us Capitalite and peacekeeper lives as well as worker's lives that while more plentiful, will still take time to replace and would maintain the unfortunate lack of yield that's persisted since the war."
Clyborne thinks on this, taking a deep breath and knowing that Coriolanus is right. Living standards in The Capital haven't improved at the expected rate since The Dark Days, the initial move they played when they realized this was to raise the quotas expected from The Districts and harsher punishments if they didn't achieve them. That's what they'd done before the war and it kept expectations high, but he supposes that's also what lead to the rebellion in the first place.
"Alright, so what is this proposal about the 25th Games?"
Coriolanus knows he's not really interested in more change yet, since there's already been so much changed to The Hunger Games from their conception. But change they will.
"A Quarter Quell."
"'A Quarter Quell', and what would that entail?" He asks, almost amused.
"Well my plan is to leave the 50th and 75th for the future to plan, make them fit whatever we need them to serve at the time. For the 25th, I'd involve the Districts very directly." He begins "Right now, we need the Districts to focus on their own lives, not the general state of things. We need to make The Games more personal, and more interesting for them to watch, not just The Capital."
