dom copperview || capitol {*finito}

32160 W Platon Ave
floor 81 suite B
Executive Park, Capitol, PM
#662-0213 ext 5600

from the desk of
Dom Copperview

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My name is Domiduca — Dom — Romulus Copperview. I am thirty-seven as of this writing — born on the day of the Bloodbath during the 27th Hunger Games — and have lived in the Capitol all of my life. And if you're reading this memo, because of my line of work, there is a very, very strong chance that I'm dead. This is a precaution — not a will, exactly, but because I want to be remembered as a person, and not just as the 55th, 57th, 60th, and 64th Hunger Games. Nobody remembers the man — or, woman, as it may be — behind the curtain. I want my existence to have its own legacy, apart from my work. You may remember Dom Copperview in this manner:

Here's a mental image —

Appearance is never the first thing on the mind of anyone who's too busy devoting all their energy in their work, and, for Dom, this is apparent. Particularly during Games season and the preceding months, the Head Gamemaker will go days without leaving her office building — meaning no shower, no sleep, and no change of clothes. While most of the Capitol, including a large number of Dom's colleagues and subordinates, is most concerned with fashion above all else, the Gamemaker chooses to dress chiefly in simple black clothing, eliminating a distracting wardrobe from the short list of things that could distract her from the flashes of genius that make her a valuable (though not indispensable) asset to the Capitol's bloody Games.

Even by District standards, Dom's general appearance is plain; to the Capitol, her typical lack of style or taste for fashion is borderline heresy. Preferring to dress simply and discretely, she is often caught in long black coats and slim blazers, with a simple white button-up shirt underneath. For official public appearances, Dom does occasionally allow herself to be seen in a dress — but these instances are few and far between.

Oftentimes, while working, Dom chooses to allow her blonde hair to hang loose and not styled — this is saved for rare public appearances — or to tie it back out of her face. Function always takes precedence to aesthetics, and for the Head Gamemaker, the two cannot coexist peacefully beyond professional dress. After all, who can think and plan when half their focus is dedicated to not drowning in ruffles? Makeup is another distraction Dom prefers to avoid, as endless nights are conducive to tired eyes, which are often rubbed and scratched out of habit.

Despite her disinterest in her own appearance, her raw features have a certain beauty to them. Golden-brown irises encircled with a rare green sit beneath a serious brow, often fixed with intensity at nothing in particular while the gears turn in her head. Her nose, though neither slim nor broad, comes to a point above seldom-smiling lips, which house teeth that are seen in grimace more often than grin — although the occasional enlightened smirk slips through her defenses from time to time. More often, Dom's version of a smile is quick enough to miss with a blink, and generally amounts to little more than drawing her lips together into a thin line. False smiles come quicker than genuine ones, but are reserved for officials and politicians and others who have done nothing to earn a real one.

For those who outrank her and those beneath her alike, Dom's ever-serious countenance unsettles and intimidates. Her default expression is one of concentration and disapproval, which does nothing to put those interacting with her at ease. When not seated at her desk, her height, which is not unsubstantial, is put to good use to this end — at 5'10" with impeccable posture, she manages to tower over most of her female colleagues and a good many of her male ones. Even those taller than her manage to feel looked down on by Dom's stony glare.

Behind the scenes —

Had she not aspired to mastermind the Hunger Games, Dom Copperview would have made a very successful engineer. As it stands, she would be willing and eager to style herself the Chief Engineer of the Games, rather than Head Gamemaker, if it weren't for the respect commanded by her current title. "Gamemaker," after all, sounds silly and childish; Dom does so much more than move Tributes around like her little playthings. The way she sees it, every Games she creates a set of connected objects forming a complex whole, a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism, an intricate interconnecting network. Her arenas function as a complex engine, each gear and each cog interacting with the others in a very specific way.D Domiduca Copperview does not play with toys, she architects, she builds, she masterminds.

Work-focused and logic-driven, the Gamemaker is often accused of being cold, callus, and no fun whatsoever. To an extent, this is true: Dom prefers to avoid most social scenes when possible — although, due to the demands of her job, this is not possible often — and makes her decisions based on logic and facts rather than feelings. However, it would be a lie to say that Dom refuses to have fun; her idea of fun simply does not line up with everyone else's. When she is familiar with someone, she's willing — and even happy — to have more traditional fun with them; the only drawback being that it takes a long time to reach that point with the reserved, withdrawn workaholic.

There are certain mannerisms that make successful Gamemakers. Dom Copperview lacks natural charm and showmanship, and is not unnecessarily cruel to the extent where it would be a benefit to her career. What grace and malice she does not have, she makes up in passion. Dom pushes through her life — and, by extension, her work — with a hard-edged intensity and drive rivaled by no one. She does not allow herself to get comfortable in her position, and certainly does not allow herself to indulge. She is wholeheartedly convinced that the minute she gets complacent with her work — the minute she allows something to slip through the cracks that is not entirely perfect — will be her downfall. The perfectionist that rules over Dom refuses to let that happen.

Punctual and organized, Dom is practically never late for anything, despite the fast pace and demands of her job as Gamemaker. A control freak who is always preparing for the unexpected, she is seldom caught off-guard by anything. Patterns fascinate her, and she is very apt at recognizing the precise chain of events that can be triggered by any single incident, a talent that makes her incredibly skillful at willing the tributes to move and behave as she desires. As she is often unable to separate her working life from the rare hours spent outside the office, Dom tends to manipulate the people who surround her, and frequently without realizing it.

While she is not unnecessarily mean or cruel, the brusque manner in which she deals with people combined with her tendency to keep everyone at arm's length or further does not win Dom any friends. However, to the few she keeps, the Gamemaker is fiercely loyal. Although her demeanor leads most people to believe otherwise, she does have soft spots for those closest to her, as well as a few other chinks in her armor — though she'd be the last person to admit it.




Previously —

Aemilious Copperview, who wanted a son quite desperately, was quite sure that his third child would be male. Romulus Domidius Copperview, he'd already decided, and his wife had agreed. When the baby came out blonde and quite female, as her older sisters before her and as the clutch of siblings that would follow, the first and middle names were reversed, and Domidius switched for its female counterpart. Domiduca is not a particularly common name, although, historically speaking, is quite fitting for a Gamemaker: in Roman mythology, the goddess Domiduca protects children on the way back to their parents' home, although this was a fact Dom was not aware of until enlightened by the Chief Executive Somethingorother of Something Corporation at some dreadful gala she attended in her mid-twenties.

Prior to her appointment as one of the Capitol's Head Gamemakers, galas and dinner parties were off the agenda for any of the Copperview sisters. In the scope of the Capitol, Aemilious and Silana Copperview were neither particularly affluent nor well-connected. A mid-level employee of an advertising firm, Mr. Copperview was always working, though with little to show for it beyond a middle-class apartment in the middle circle of the city. Their lack of status frustrated Mrs. Copperview, who was obsessed with competing with all of their acquaintances in terms of social hierarchy. The life of a socialite bored Dom to death, who alternated her childhood time between hitting things with sticks and reading about how to hit things with sticks better than the neighbor children.

Dom's career path began around her fourteenth birthday, when she got an internship in the Gamemakers' Headquarters. She was at the absolute bottom of the corporate ladder, running errands for people who worked for people who worked for people who worked for people who were important. However, it allowed her to get her foot in the door, and by the time she was eighteen, she was taken on as the Arena Architect's assistant for the 47th Games, which were currently in planning. Her input in the design process was found to be surprisingly well thought-out to her boss, who kept her on for four years. Designing the Arenas was not enough for Dom, who wanted more power, who wanted to be in on the action. Though the Arena Architect was hesitant to let her go, he finally relented and agreed to put in a good word for her as she interviewed for a position as Deputy Gamemaker.

She spent several years as a Deputy Gamemaker, but her break came with the 54th Games: she was selected as second-in-command by the Head GM and from there went on to win the bid for the 55th — a quell Games, and a big honor. Having reached the very top of the Hunger Games pyramid with no more feasible promotions, all of Dom's energy is expended on making her Games — the 57th, the 60th, and the 64th — the absolute best they can be. Although she was considered the very best in the business at one point, she still holds on to the fear that she's slowly being replaced by young whelps like Warren Whip, and tends to look down on the fresh faces that have been showing up to run the Games since she started.