bill the company | mania&flynn

[☢️]

FLYNN GARNER

Time has been completely consumed. That was the plan, right? The reason why I exposed secrets to the world. Now my name is completely booked up. Leave the training to the experts and I’ll focus on the sponsorship. It is all apart of the job description that I have been neglecting to revise all these years. Play their game. Follow their rules. Sure thing dad.

So, after a morning of being the special guest at a baby shower, a lunchtime of being a test subject for a rather ethically questionable therapy that still makes my head itch thinking about it, my evening has been booked by a Mania Rogue. One thing I have learnt about Capitol events, there always seems to be food involved. If I had my dad’s appetite, I’d be lapping it up. But I have inherited my mother’s skip breakfast lifestyle.

I am sent to a restaurant in Saturn City that I have never been to before, it is the type that serve twelve tiny mouthful dishes and a glass of wine to accompany each. That means it is going to be a long night, a lot of talking. Great. I love talking to Capitolites.

Cameras grab every opportunity to snap their portraits of me as I walk up to the entrance of the restaurant, wearing a shiny dark blue half unbuttoned shirt and I am pretty sure they’re leather trousers, but the stylist assured me they weren’t. There is something missing while I am walking up. My hand feels bare. There is not a gloved one, interlocked with my fingers. Facing the Capitol after our arrival without him, I feel exposed.

My company is not here yet and I wait with the server by the table like I am one of the staff. When she does arrive, I am courteous enough to pull out her chair and let Mania take her seat before I take mine. Or was I meant to kiss her cheek? Shake her hand? The public relations fact sheet is too long. ”It is a pleasure to be your company tonight, Ms Rogue.” I welcome her. It will be more of a pleasure when I see the sponsorship figures afterwards.

ELEGANT

[dars]

m a n i a

She fixed her lipstick one last time in the mirror before stepping back and taking stock of herself. The golden dress hugged her figure nicely, the fabric smooth and buttery. She always avoided wearing yellow because of how much it washed her hair out but honestly, looking at herself in the moment she was prompted to reconsider. Finally, a few minutes past when she was meant to arrive, she finally stepped out of the restrooms before circling around to the front.

"Yes, I'm meant to be having dinner with Mr. Garner?" she explained to the server, who wordlessly led her to their table. And there he stood, standing by to pull out her chair for her. He missed half of the buttons on his shirt, but she didn't mention it, instead choosing to let her eyes linger while he stepped to the other side of the table and took his own seat.

"It is a pleasure to be your company tonight, Ms. Rogue."

"Charmed as well," she said. There was a time when she would've paid for the company of a victor in a more private sense. If she was being entirely honest- which she never would have been- she had paid for more intimate company from a victor before. But that was before her days as a key sponsor, and her circulation among the reality television zeitgeist. These days there wasn't a talk show or podcast in existence that she hadn't been a guest on. She couldn't risk losing that with salacious scandals.

Even paying for a public meeting such as this one felt risky and desperate, but if she was being entirely honest, she wasn't sure what about Flynn interested her. Perhaps it was that he'd won so young, and now here he was before her, a fully grown man. Most often the tributes who won were the biggest and the strongest, it was rare that things like brains or talent or even public appeal were enough to save a tribute alone.

"Do you have restaurants like this back in District Six? I'd imagine it could seem quite daunting otherwise."