Let Them Eat Cake [open for 1 more!]

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

Cause baby you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth
make 'em go, oh, oh, oh

Duchess nodded along to Yazmine, as if there had been any question or choice in the conversation. Still, it was perfectly polite, and as a society girl, she appreciated that and knocked the other girl up a peg or two in her social chart. And she found even more to like when Yaz carefully weighed her response about the games. It was tepid, but true. No rash judgments for this girl, which would serve her as well in the arena as it would in the cutt-throat social politics of district two. She only gave a little shrug in response to Thomas' support. Really there was nothing anyone could do; Kobaloi controlled Duchess' life now, for better or worse.

She really wanted to talk about the Games, because she always did, and at the same time, she really didn't. In her gut she knew it would be another two-less victory, and then where would they be? Maybe Thomas would find a way to turn it around, to make them remember that they were from a privileged place, with fine food and training and wealth. But it didn't feel like it lately, because what good was all that if you had nothing to celebrate?

It was a dark thought for Duchess, about dark as they got, and she was grateful when Nyklus made his way over to them. She knew him, because Kobaloi made her learn about the other potential tributes about her age too. It would be impossible to know all of them, so she limited it to a two year span. Nyklus fell in those lines, and she might have known him anyway, from the training center, from his spear. Without it he looked almost naked. She felt herself grin at the thought.

"Wasn't he marvelous?" Duchess took a long pull, her gaze sweeping Thomas, because looking Nyklus over. She put one hand to her hair, pinching it between fingers and palm, poofing the roots. "Come sit by me, Nyklus," she offered, before he could introduce himself. Duchess was making an absolute nuisance of herself, but she couldn't help it. If she wasn't going to shimmy around the tables, try to drum up a proper sponsor, then at least she was going to let her fellow Careers know how things lay. And she wanted Nyklus to know that she at least knew him. Duchess pulled back the chair about a foot, taking the opportunity to throw one last glance at Thomas, because the way the table curved, she wouldn't be able to look at him easily after this. And she wasn't really sure why she looked at him, only that she wanted his support, wanted him to know that they were among Careers. Not friends, not enemies, people they could learn from, people they could study. In case they had to slit the other's throat.

And Duchess never let herself consider that Thomas might become one of those people.

banner credit: WILMETTA!
lyrics:katy perry firework

[apocalypse]

"Thanks. Ah, that." the boy smirked, he thought it was Thomas, . "I figured it was a natural move, since we're supposed to be a state of warriors. For a warrior, elegance and ferocity are two sides of the same coin- no need to hold back on one just because we're at a banquet." Nyklus supposed he was right, and so he smiled and nodded. Anyway, Thomas. I don't think I caught your name yet." Knew it. Nyklus thought. He had known his name was Thomas. He shook his hand with pleasure. "Nyklus." he said nicely. "You can have a seat if you like. My cousin's coming back for the seat to my left soon, but that chair next to Duchess doesn't belong to anyone yet." He didn't know who Duchess was, but he nodded, and his troubles were solved when a girl - Duchess, probably, talked.

"Wasn't he marvelous?" I just said he did great. "Yes, it was very thought-out and simple. Yet... perfect." "Come sit by me, Nyklus," The girl said again, doing stuff that looked pretty flirtatious. "Mkay." Well, Nyklus was gay, so he was in no way going to hit on this girl, but she seemed to have a thing for him. "So, I have a question..." Nyklus spoke in hesitation, looking at the both of them. "Do you ever get sick of the games?"

---

eww. it sucks!

[Gale Hawthorne: Ace Attorney]

He posed an interesting question. "Sick of the Games?" He didn't stop eating, but his pace quickened. He wasn't raised in a certain district of coal miners he wasn't fond of- that put him beyond talking with his mouth full. Instead, he paused before he spoke. "I think so, in a way," he admitted. "They're more of a passion for me than an obsession... I think." For the first time, he managed to put a puzzled look on his own face.

"I don't think I've gone for weeks with a screw the Games mentality, but there are times I just don't want to talk about them- especially when I'm going on hard times myself." He stole a glance at Duchess for a split second, sliding his eyes to Nyklus to make the movement look natural. "I don't usually feel much besides disappointment when we lose a tribute, but... the thought of a friend dying in the arena makes my skin crawl." Not that he ever had a friend reaped. District 2 was a big place; it wasn't exactly inevitable.

[wyldwing]

Yazmine blinked, thinking about Nyklus' question "Like Thomas said, having to see a friend, or family member, die in a usually terrible, and gory way, sucks. Though, no one I've ever known has been in the Hunger Games.". She said, pushing her hair behind her ear absentmindedly "But, this is District 2. We were pretty much trained from birth, told about the glory of these Games. It's everywhere, and it's what evey kid is expected to aim for ya know? Though with it everywhere, with all these expectations, it can get overwhelming. Though, I don't think I've ever been truly sick of the Hunger Games."

Her thoughts drifted to the idea of being in the Hunger Games. Maybe she'd be with one of her male friends, and have to kill them... And there was no doubt, she'd have to. It was kill or be killed. Or, what if her friends got in the Hunger Games?! Having to watch them eventually kill one another, to win. It would be torture. But it's what they had to do right? It was all for the Hunger Games. Every Careers dream.

(ooc, Short, my laptop was running out of battery)

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

Cause baby you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth
make 'em go, oh, oh, oh

She realized her mistake a little too late. At first it seemed like innocent conversation, but when Duchess really let her gaze linger on Nyklus, she didn't think he was just being chatty. There was something there, a feeling or an inkling or a thought. Something not quite right. And why should they - a happy pack of Careers in their prime - have anything against the Games? It was blasphemous, it was wrong, and it rattled her bones. And then the pieces started falling, first with Thomas and then with Yaz.

It came to Duchess, who had no temper to speak of, who carefully laid down her fork (although she had not eaten a thing), smoothed her bejeweled dress, and canted her head so that she could look Nyklus in the eye. "I live for the games." She spoke quietly, knowing things were more true, more deadly in lower tones. She held his gaze a second longer, her mouth and jaw set, and then leaned back in her chair so casually, so elegantly, that it was almost as if another person had briefly inhabited her body and been dispelled.

"But this is pointless! If any of us are going into the arena it's because we want to, right? Honor the glorious dead and all that. Kobaloi says that all the time." Duchess rolled her eyes, a clear indication that she was back to her former self. Almost. When she lifted her gaze, the same hue as her slitted dress, to Thomas it was a warning. To talk out against the Games, in a room for full Sponsors would mean certain death if any of them ever made it through the Reaping. Duchess liked Thomas, found Yaz's company pleasing, but nothing would keep her from becoming a tribute. Nothing.

banner credit: WILMETTA!
lyrics:katy perry firework