Arena Description [6th games]

The colosseum stands tall. Indestructible and immortal. Its history grows richer by the year while its size stays as imposing as ever. Walls stained red with blood and the scent of the ocean still thick in the air, the arena reeks of loss now. Of wilted opportunity and missed chances. Of death, failure, and fish. The first thing to be done was get rid of it. Namely, the water. A new wooden floor is put down, retractable this time and layered with sand and dust. To give a more rustic look. And luckily, the smell fades as soon as the ocean life is sent to Four, replaced expeditiously by the harsh stench of burning coal and the loud racket of a steel track being laid.

And that is the rather striking feature this year - a dark train engine circles around the edge of the colosseum, slow-moving and blaring its horn at seemingly random intervals, puffing smoke as it pulls four different types of freight cars behind it.

Familiar tiered seating still descends along the edges, surrounding the decadent presidential box. Missing, though, are the faces we are all so familiar with. Those of our victors, our heroes. Adder and Samiyuq. Babe and Mohamed. Newest of all, Terra. They are nowhere to be seen. And neither are the usual well-known capitol VIPs. Instead, you see large television screens constructed at ten intervals throughout the colosseum’s stands, including where they would have normally been seated.

They flicker through three continuous slides.

First, the seal of Panem.
Second, a title card of the Sixth Annual Games.
And third, the names and faces of this year's tributes.

It’s an interesting set up, to say the least. Something the games have never quite seen before. As is what lies in the center of the arena. A platform stage adorned in false crystals and plastic pearls looks as if it might be trying to hide just how much money went into the lighting and sound equipment this year. Stairs only accessible via private keycode allow access to and from, and connect to a similarly adorned red carpet that leads from the stage to four decorated train cars.

THE FIRST - an homage to the second and third games - is painted gold like a gladiator’s helmet. It wears a skirt of leather, a frilled mohawk, and appears to have a spear skewered through it.

THE SECOND - a replica of Grimsby - the infamous lion mutation from the fourth games. It has a glorious mane of hair and matching tail, and has even been engineered to roar on an interval.

THE THIRD - a representation of the most recent games - is colored all black with specks of white, just like the whale that performed during the half-time show. It has fins on either side of the car and a tail off the caboose to match.

THE FOURTH - a stadium fit for the very first tributes - complete with turf flooring and white hashes, this train car even has renovated seating to match the original stadium. There’s also a scoreboard lit up on top, designating top kill counts.

Another set of stairs allows access to each train car. Inside is a beautifully decorated dining room, fully equipped to seat and serve eight lovely VIP patrons per car. Not only will they receive a wonderful six course meal and wine to accompany it, they will have the best seats in the house! With mounted screens inside the cars as well, VIP guests will be able to experience the games on a whole new level. Tributes will fight while they dine and enjoy the show. Victors have been invited as well- given seats in whichever car they so choose -as a courtesy, so that they may dazzle, dine, and delight alongside the Capitol’s most important and influential figures.

Let the 6th Annual Hunger Games begin!