forgive me so // vasco & altair

[Deleted]

altair qadir

Was this too formal?

He could never tell how he was supposed to represent District 9. Whether it was best to be authentic, or to save face, easier to digest. This is a lower-district affair, isn't it? Only them? That my change things somewhat, but nine's reputation has never been the best; just pick something, man. Altair comes to District 10 with a mixed bag, dressed to the nine's for day one with a string-bag of gym clothes. 

What nobody told him was how damn dry the district was. 

Perhaps, that would have been better to plan for. 

Altair has always walked a tight rope between his parents and his friends, it's why he was relieved to be attending the County Fair alone. Everyone was too busy- or thought it too lame, the jury's still out on that. Once he's done here, hopefully he'll have time to pack before a Capitol appearance is set; if anything, this will be his most enjoyable business trip to come. He finished his sort for Mayor Irvine before his leave, sent out to represent her to the best of his abilities. 

Whatever that may be, he's at least hopeful. He & a few others from Nine split rent to afford one of the pre-established cabins, sharing his room with a boy he had never talked to before. It's an interesting event, something right up the alley of a politician until he noticed his roommate brought his knife collection from home. 

That was when he decided to pay Vasco Izar a visit. 

Still in his corduroy jacket, he rolls his pants legs up past his ankles, blue argyle socks peeking through brilliantly. He straightens himself out, adjusting the jewelry in his hair as he saw fit. Altair left without saying much, waving to the few neighbors hanging around the Cabin's den before heading out. As luck would have it, he found exactly who he was looking for not long after, exchanging coins for fire wood. 

"Mayor Izar!" Altair exclaims, a thousand dollar smile coming as naturally as usual for a politician raised by politicians. He adjusts the cuff on his right hand before extending it, "Altair Qadir, representing Shiv Irvine. It's such a pleasure to meet you." More pleasurable than wearing corduroys in the western heat, that's a definite. 

"Would you like some help with this?" He says, already assisting with getting one of the firewood bundles off the stand. If anything, it's a good excuse to strike a conversation with one of the greatest mayors in Panem. 

To ask him, how he did it. 

How did he unify a district, when Talon couldn't? 

And less transactional, Altair is simply interested in learning from him. A scholar first, he's read a fair bit on each mayor, but you learn so much more face to face. He always feels guilty learning for the sake of learning, that maybe he could put his time elsewhere, but hey. 

Isn't that what the County Fair experience is all about? 

He thinks so! 
 

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

v a s c o

I lift my eyes up to the hills
This my evening song
Where my help comes from

The brochure had described the cabins as rustic, but I’d say that Emma and I both found them charming. Leave it to other districts to fret over what they thought they didn’t have – the fair skinned folk of ten must’ve been worried what the rest of us thought about the gently sloping roofs or wood slats peeling off the sides. Almost as though the capitol had gotten far enough into their heads that what was good wasn’t good enough, or that what was plain couldn’t be lovely all the same.

Emma and I had planned on settling in just as soon as we’d gotten our keys in the door. More that I’d gamely pushed the metal frames next to one another and flopped across the mattresses, so that when Emma looked up from unpacking her suitcase, I could wiggle my eyebrows at her. Yani had decided that being twelve meant she was too old to share the same cabin as her parents, and that her older sister Sofia was a much better option for the duration of the county fair.

Of course, I’d had to act as hurt as possible when she’d told us. It’d been a few weeks prior at breakfast, when she’d been poking at the yolks of her eggs with a fork before finally announcing what she’d wanted. And it had – for the moment she’d explained it – cut a little bit into me, her not wanting to stay with the two of us. She was already turning out to be a lot like both of her older sisters, more than she probably knew.

But then I realized that for the first time in years, Emma and I would have days and nights worth of our own space together. No matter the dust that came off the sheets and pillows, or the heat of the summer cracking through the shades of the windows. And somehow it felt something to celebrate – not that I’d needed much reason with Emma. Christening the cabin was an important tradition in ten, or so I'd said from the foot of the bed with a laugh.

I’d been grinning ear to ear when I’d gone to fetch some of the firewood.

Sweat dripped down the side of my temple and I brushed it away with my forearm, and it’s then I remembered myself and start to button up my shirt again. I whistled as I treaded along the grass and dirt paths. I made sure to wave at anyone I could recognize from eleven. It seemed enough of us had put our differences in the past to want to see what ten looked like.

Mayor Izar! Ah, duty called. Altair Qadir, representing Shiv Irvine. It's such a pleasure to meet you.

“The pleasure is mine, Mr. Qadir,” I said with a firm grip of his hand and a quick shake. Nice shirt, stylish corduroys, he’s somehow not what I imagine from nine, and yet exactly who might’ve been sent by an Irvine. “How is Mayor Irvine? I’d been hoping she might be here. It would be nice for she and Emberstatt and I to get together finally.”

When he went for the firewood I was right behind him, trying my best ‘no no no’ that I knew he probably wouldn’t listen to, and so took my own bundle, too.

“You know, I don’t mind the company, if you can stand it. My wife’ll have gone to check on my daughters and I was just planning on staying around the cabins until the bonfire later.” I shifted the weight of the parcel of wood under my arms. “We can talk business, too.”

elegant