goodnight, Sis {Victor's Speech}

[lionel estrada d5 ᥫ᭡ kiah]

Victor Strauss

“Thank you so much for coming out here today,” he starts, mirroring the speech his sister had given only five short years ago. Lips pulled back into a smile that was all charm. Looking down out into the crowd, his head is held high, as though it already held the crown that he deserved. 

* * *

There was blood on his hands, metaphorically of course. He had made sure that any remnants had been washed away. He hadn't intended to kill her, had only intended to have a civil conversation with her, with his sister. His sister who had taken the crown, the district. She had spoken of a future that was so beautiful that he had been right by her side, her right-hand man, eager to reach for it. To grab at it with greedy, selfish hands until it was theirs, his. But... 

But...

He believed he had done it due to several factors. Jealousy, frustration, obligation. 

Octavia Strauss was weak. She was broken. She had lost sight of the family's goal. She had become so lost that she had become a burden on the family name. She had become the weed that needed to be terminated. 

"Octavia," he had greeted her with hands tucked behind his back, lips a straight line. "You are going to step down." There had been broken glass in the corner, and she had looked older. There was something frantic behind her eyes, her fingers bounced rapidly on the mahogany desk as she had looked up at him with a look of disbelief. "You're losing it, sis, you are fucking losing it." He had taken moved closer, coming to stand on the other side of the desk. 

The desk that he had wanted the moment his sister had claimed it. It should have been his desk, his office, his district. Jealousy. 

"Your running the family name through the dirt, you've forgotten who you are, who we are," his voice was low, his eyes unwavering. "You're failing. We are supposed to be the strongest of the strongest. The best of the best, fucking gods amount mortals." He was in her face now, roughly grabbing her chin. "You are fucking weak. You have failed. We have failed. Step. Down-"

"No."

"Octavia-"

"No."

Frustration. 

Grabbing his sister he had shoved her against the wall, forearm digging into her throat, crushing her windpipe. 

He had watched her for months. Locking herself away in this dark office. Drinking herself into a stupor each night. Every time she had called him in she seemed more and more unhinged. The last time she had, she had been frantic, desperate, demanding he hunts down each threat to her reign and slice their throats open in their sleep. A job that was supposed to bring honor to the family name, to move them up the ranks, to become more than what they were, had turned her hyper-paranoid, her delirium a danger. She was unhinged, broken, and weak. 

And the Strauss' did not tolerate weakness. 

We terminated it.

Obligation. 

Her body had crumpled to the ground, eyes wide, the skin of his arm covered in blood from where his sisters nailed at ripped into his flesh. 

* * *

“We need strong leadership," he continued, his voice booming out over the crowd. "We are strong, we are the best district in all of Panem.” 

Octavia's words fall from his mouth as he pulls the mic free to stand in front of the podium, grinning down at his subjects, 

“You put your faith in my sister, now put your faith in me, because I know I won’t let you down. You can ask anyone I know. Let’s keep District 2 strong, let's prove to the rest of Panem that we are a ferocious district, one that deserves to be feared, one that produces champions, who pride ourselves on strength. Octavia has gotten us this far, a victor, but let me bring home more than a sole victor."

His grin grows, "we are proud, we are strong, we are the best district in all of Panem.”

He would do this for his family. For Octavia. But most of all for himself. 

Finally, a crown that he had strived for from the moment he was born. 

But for how long would this satisfy him?

After all, Victor Strauss never thought he'd settle for a king. 

Not when he was a god. 


OOC: Octavia's death has been approved by Cass.