crawling home tonight [annie & flynn]

[gamemaker ☢️ ivan korsch]

Pretty sure I shouldn’t be heading to where I am right now, that whole sworn never to succumb to life’s pollutants seems to have been ejected out of the side door. I suppose I am eighteen now, practically an adult. A few drinks here and there will do no harm so long as I take care of my liver and WATER! Water is everyone’s best friend (unless you have aquagenic urticaria).

I am a little incognito right now as I make my way down the extremely lit up streets of the Capitol, just a scarf covers up my mop of hair and the large scar where there was once an ear. The trademarks are hidden, I have grown a whole lotta inches since the thirteen-year-old was blasted all over this city. Surely a miniscule disguise can guide me to my destination without disruption.

A success! Blue and purple strobe lights blind me as I step through the door of my intended bar. I drop the disguise, leaving the scarf on a hook by the door. Over the years I have been recommended a lot of bars, restaurants, and businesses that the Capitolites have tried their best to market to me. I have visited none. Until today. The Sea Shell bar, the first on my list. Or maybe list. There is a thing called a bar crawl, but I don’t intend to crawl anywhere tonight.

I flick through the pages of the cocktail menu at the bar, the bartender patiently (or maybe not patiently but he definitely looks it) waits for me to pick. ”I am not really sure which one I should have, do you have recommendations?”

[ryan]

she hasnt been out on the capitol streets in a long time. not since the last time she was here when she met shelby for dinner. it wasnt like it was anything she was actually missing. she was sure that trish and axel were far more used to this place now then anywhere else. whatever it may be, annie did not miss the hustle and bustle of the capitol.

though she did have to admit, she did enjoy the winter time simply because of how decorated the streets had become. annie hadnt bothered covering up while trying to walk around the capitol anymore. she knew how to deal with people that would hound her for attention. shed smile, wave, and then walk away. for her, it was that simple. sure, she was probably one of the more prolific victors to grace the streets, but now a days, she knew that the youngins would take away that attention, espeically since the boy from ten just won.

she dipped into the same spot that she had met shelby for dinner last time, knowing full well that it turned into more of a bar setting after a certain time. she smiled as an avox had motioned for her coat and she obliged. she looked around for a moment, the lights had been a little disorienting, but she adjusted. she did a double take when she saw flynn at the bar. "if you are going to partake, start with something easy." annie walked up next to him at the bar and smiled. "start with a glass of wine or a vodka cranberry." annie shared this knowledge with him because she knew that theyd try to take advantage of him if he went with whatever the recommendation was.

theyd bleed him dry.

[gamemaker ☢️ ivan korsch]

There have been two occasions where I have been intoxicated before, one was with Colgate O’Leary in District Nine and I am not really sure how or why that happened, a bizarre introduction indeed. Yeah maybe I am a lightweight but I am proud one. I am not going to be one of those folks that I have had to hook up to dialysis machines or fill with intravenous fluids in the emergency room when I have interned there. Nah, I am responsible for this temple that has already been battering rammed left, right and centre. I may as well control some part of me.

A familiar voice drops a few recommendations behind, Annie sets up a place beside me at the bar. I am not sure I have thanked her enough for the short haven in District Four I spent with herself and her family after Aurora’s death. She is definitely one of the victors that I can call a true friend, so I follow on with one of her suggested drinks. ”I will have a wine please, the rose one. Just a small glass…” I say to the bar tender as I slide over the plastic magnetic chipped card across the marble top towards him.

”I have not done this before. But I suppose I will pay for whatever you are having?” I turn to Annie a little awkwardly, the older victor is definitely more acquainted with life than I am. ”How have you been anyway? I didn’t intend to be here again and before Ratmas. Some mandatory PR shit to help with the plague morale, if that can even be a thing…”

[ryan]

annie took a moment to think back to the time when flynn did spend time with her at her mansion in four. still a surreal thing, even to this day, to mention that she has a mansion in four. she did earn it, and flynn did earn his own. but she knew all too well that this was never a life that people wanted to earn once they got it. that was the hardest part.

she looked back to flynn and smiled, always relishing in the fact that even a place as big as the capitol, you could still find a familiar face. he heeds her words and she listened to him order a rose. a good choice for something light. "make it two." she said with a small smile to the bartender, just as she was about to pull her card out, she noticed that flynn had already slid his over. "i guess you beat me too it." annie knew that it didnt mattered who paid. usually when victors showed up to places like this, everything was comped. they would scan it for the show, but otherwise, they didnt need their money. their publicity was more than enough.

"ive been okay. running a district has kept me busier then i anticipated, but having three new victors under my belt allows me a bit more freedom to focus on home more. though i am here now because they wanted me to do a couple interviews on how i think the new mentors of four are handling things." annie said, her eyes fixated on the glass of rose that had been poured for both of them. it was hard for her to be critical, especially when she didnt want to be, as the new victors are doing what they can to get by. "by the way, they only have one size here in the capitol." she smiled before watching the glasses put down in front of them. "its always a party here, whether you like it or not."

[gamemaker ☢️ ivan korsch]

I tap the machine with my card that the bartender hands over and it pings. It sounds slightly self-advantaged, but I can’t remember the last time I actually checked by account balance. I just swipe this card on machines in the Capitol, it makes a beeping noise and then some kind of service or product is handed to me. It is nothing like the copper coins that used to stain my hands with a strong stench a few years ago. I mustn’t get so used to it, but it is the teeny tiny perk that amazes me, just swipe and BAM, something is now mine like the opposite of small glass of wine that is presented to me.

Oh yeah, I forgot Annie is now a mayor. A whole mayor of a district, it seems to be a popular side hustle of the victors, not something that I would like to indulge it to be honest. I have heard that Parson Cham has thought about it, I laughed in his face.

”I know you have like careers and all of that but three whole victors, you are so lucky!” And then there is me, with the list of the dead. Izzy was so close this year, so near to the end and now I have to shake hands with the guy that took the only chance I have had yet away from me. ”How is Four fairing with the plague? It seems to finally be contained in Six now.” I say as I take a sip of the more or less fish bowl size glass of wine. Social distancing and quarantines have finally settled the disease back home but it didn’t stop it seeping through the gaps in the fence. The names of the dead far and wide confirm that.