the core of our bones {d5 train blitz}
Oct 4, 2020 17:45:02 GMT -5
Post by rook on Oct 4, 2020 17:45:02 GMT -5
PATRICIA
It feels so weird not being alone in this anymore. You can't count Lethe when she's barely shown her face in the seventeen years- no, eighteen years since I was Reaped. I've been doing this all on my own this whole time, and now, all so suddenly, I'm not alone.
Lysander's been distant with me ever since she came home. I suppose I'm not surprised, but I expected her to be more... explosive? I don't know, I guess I just thought she'd be mad at me in the way I was mad at Lethe for abandoning me and not giving me the help I needed. Instead, she's just been avoiding me, keeping herself to her family and friends, and barely giving me a second glance whenever I see her around the victor's village.
I can't say I blame her. She's processing all this in a very different way to me. I just need to give her time and space to come to terms with what's happened. In the meantime, however, there are two more unfortunate souls that I have to attempt to steer straight, like I tried to with Kenji. This year they aren't volunteers, which makes it easier for me to want to help them. I can have genuine sympathy, rather than have to try to talk sense into senseless, drunk volunteers.
I'm first to arrive in the tributes' carriage. No sign of Lysander, as of yet. I went straight to my own quarters after the Reaping, so Ripred knows where she is, but she better not pull a Lethe on me - else I'll make sure she wishes she died in that arena.
This year's two tributes look as shell-shocked as the countless others before them, and at this stage in my life, it's almost become routine for me.
"Okay, let's get to work." I stand across from them, leaning against the support column, "I'm Trish, and I'm here if you have any questions about any of this."
They always ask the same things, and my responses are usually similar. It's ironic that the one person I didn't help in all these years went on to survive. Maybe that's fate laughing at me, twisting the knife between my ribs. Maybe I'm not very good at this, maybe my advice is shit. Maybe it's just coincidence. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, but whatever the truth is, I have to try and help - I owe it to these kids. I owe it to the one girl I truly failed.