mars the god of war {flynn&patricia}

[rook]

trish valfierno

♕

The fifth floor is emptier than it used to be. I can still recall Lethe's stern voice bouncing off the ceiling, scolding Eden for running in the halls. I see the rug where Phelix once sat and watched capitolite cartoons before the rest of us were awake. Now all that's here are five's ghosts, drifting between rooms silently.

I stand purposelessly in the open-plan kitchen, hands on my hips and staring at the widescreen television across from me. Twenty minutes until the Games begin, and I'm stood here debating whether I should even watch.

Viewing is usually mandatory, but since the council took over after Snow's death things have been a little more lax on that front, at least for Victors. If I wanted to I could go back to bed, forget all about today and live in a blissful ignorance.

I owe Izzy and Fatima more than that.

No, I'll watch. Just not here. I've spent far too long in my own quarters with the blinds shut and the lights dimmed - I need some natural light and a bit of space. Everything here is just stale.

Including me.

I leave my room, taking my keycard with me and hearing the door click behind me. The foyer is expectedly busy, and I have to wait a few minutes for an elevator. The rabble of capitolites, staff, junior gamemakers, and escorts pile into the glass chamber with me and all together we descend to the ground floor.

I hear them whisper. I've learned to tune it out, but occasionally there's the odd word that slips through the filter. Old or tired or irrelevant. I'll be whatever they want me to be, so long as I stay out the limelight and can keep living my quiet little life away from this place one these few weeks are up. The doors open and I peel off towards the executive lounge.

This area is reserved only for victors and the most distinguished of VIPs and sponsors, and whilst it is busy, it is at least quieter than most areas in the training center. Plus, the bar is open, even at this hour. That's always a bonus.

I spot a short figure standing alone ten yards in front of me, and raise my eyebrows at the sights of District Six's most junior Victor.

"Garner," I announce myself, walking up to the young boy, "Didn't expect to see you down here."

It's strange to see someone so young standing on equal ground as myself and the other Victors. I had the same uncanny feeling when I first met Kass. So young, and yet no longer a child - hands red, soul tarnished. Been to a place that you can't come back from. Innocence gone. You're not looking at a child, but something else now in a child's body.

Having never engaged with him before, I wonder if I'll find out just what's left of Flynn.

[d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel]

FLYNN GARNER
YEAR OF THE 90TH

”It is full in here, Garner.”

”Full?”

”Yes, maybe there will be room for you in the executive lounge?”

There is a No Flynn Garners allowed poster on the door to my own floor’s television room. Full? We are one of the emptiest Districts and somehow the room is full. Probably full of Star’s ego and Teddy’s silence. Yeah, I do not need to guess why I am barred from my own quarters for the bloodbath. I drew myself a reputation a year ago and the stain remains just like it does on Star’s dress.

So, they think I am safe from a breakdown in the full view of the public eye, in front of strangers? I am just meant to brush off watching the deaths of Lucien and Peter just as easily as I have seen Teddy do just because I am in the executive lounge? Just great, great. I am not at all prepared for the next hour. Hopefully Avriel or someone familiar is there. Thanks Teddy!

The strongest elixirs and bubbliest of wines are being served at the bar. It really is just a social event too them. There was no time for breakfast this morning, prep for Peter and Lucien ran up to the last second and now my dry throat is groaning for something fresh. ”Do you have some kind of fruit juice?” The question is a mistake, the bar tender lists a whole array of juices and fruits I have never heard of, pressed, fizzed and whizzed together using a million and one methods. ”Uhhh, I will just have a banana and strawberry smoothie.”

I have the perfect viewing spot as the fruit is blended, watching all the familiar and unfamiliar wander into the room. Greeting each other like they have had a friendship for decades. It is just another part of life. all of this for the older victors. Their appearance fades and so does their empathy. Greying hair and greying souls. Then soon it will be me, trodden to the turf by the Capitol without a fight. It is the price I meant to pay. It is why I am at the college, training to pick up the surgical tools of life. I can’t be like them.

I am an obvious sore thumb stood here, sucking on the straw of the smoothie all alone. Someone throws a net, shouting out my name. It is the senior from District Five, surprised to see me down here in full view of everyone that can cause my life hell. I wasn’t even born when Patricia won. I wasn’t even born five years after Patricia won. She reminds me a little like Saffron, in terms of age amongst the victors but she is one who I have had very little contact with.

”I have no choice but to be here.” I say, placing the now half drunk mush of fruits on a weird sticky out kind of table thing that is screwed to the wall. ”They have thrown me out, District Six wants peace and quiet this year.”

[rook]

trish valfierno

♕

"Thrown you out, huh?" I fold my arms, watching as he places his drink on the side.

Flynn seems frustrated, and who can blame him? They won't let him be a normal kid, but they won't let him grow up either. The longer they can keep him in this limbo the more they can exploit his child-victor status.

See, they don't come around often, and the media just adore it when they do. Just look at Kass, at Saffron. Flynn is undergoing the same treatment, and they'll milk it for all it's worth before discarding him like they did the others. They don't care about what happens to you after you've expended your worth to them.

He looks away, too preoccupied with his displacement to pay much attention to me or whatever it is I'm thinking. His eyes scan the room, I wonder if for danger, or for an opportunity.

You can take the kid off the streets, but you can't take the street out of the kid. I know that all too well.

The excitement builds as the pundits on-screen discuss early favourites. There's talk of Isaac and the streak of dead Le Roux's, Talon Grey's athleticism, and how Parker Lachlan is the clear frontrunner.

As they chat away, live odds flash across the bottom of the screen, and I see that Fatima is one of the shortest for first death. I stare for just a second too long before I have to drag my gaze away and return to Flynn's still-sulking face.

He may be less than half my age, baby-faced and emotionally under-developed, but he's my fellow Victor. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, if you've won the Hunger Games you've earned the right to stand side by side with me. Bound in blood, and all that.

"Would that be Teddy's doing?" I enquire, before jerking a thumb over my shoulder and shooting Flynn a playful wink, "Because I can kick his ass for you, if you like?"

[d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel]

FLYNN GARNER
YEAR OF THE 90TH

There are so many people in here now. A possible sell out audience for the breakdown that Star so hopes that I have. Except I am not ignored like I am on the sixth floor, I am not told to shush. Patricia has plucked me out of the crowd, instead of a familiar or someone on the same level as her. Not even my neighbour can do that, and it has been three years.

Everyone says that victors are meant to be like a family, that Teddy must be like my supportive dad. Though he is more like the annoying older brother who I always bicker with. I see Avriel and Annie more like supportive siblings, supportive long-distance siblings that I see once or twice a year. So yeah, it is true, we are like family, all living the same life but all taking it down a different route. I am certainly not going to be one who is hugging a bottle at the bar while watching my tributes get bludgeoned to death.

Stats roll by underneath the screens. Peter surprised everyone with his training score, a mediocre seven just like me but better than Lucien’s five. Neither of the pair are favourites but neither are a hundred to one shot. Sponsors are loving Peter’s personal affairs and thank science that he did not bring up the school rumours about me!

Patricia offers an ass kicking for Teddy and while I would pay half a share in my victor’s mansion to see that, I deny the offer with a grin. ”I would love to see you do that but I don’t think I could see poor Teddy walking away from an ass kicking from you!” I lean against the wall besides the ledge where my half empty drink sits. ”He just seems to not say anything when they are so clearly walking all over the both of us. I know we can’t stand up to them and this is all a life sentence but not even a murmur from him! It is why I am down here, I said something last year and I guess they don’t think I will, in front of these people.”