We've got 'til noon here comes the moon | Mordecai

[Deleted]

Another victory tour... Val had been sick of them since her own. Unfortunately for the statuesque victor she didn't get to decide whether to attend or not. After years of hearing how wonderful it would be to become a victor, Val still had a hard time believing how awful things had actually worked out. Still, that was the way things were.

Lucky for the breathtakingly beautiful brunette, she'd managed to get a night away from her admirers - or perhaps they were finally losing interest in her? Not likely. Still she wasn't going to take it for granted and planned on at least trying to enjoy herself. Naturally that meant hitting a bar. She hadn't succumbed to the draw of morphling - the Capitol would never allow it, and she had a feeling that they monitored her drinking as well. She supposed they didn't see it as a problem just yet since they hadn't intervened. Still, Val had found solace at the bottom of a bottle more times than she cared to admit.

Even on her nights off, Val still wasn't allowed to dress herself - at least not while she was in the Capitol. Naturally, the closet where she was staying held only the most eye drawing provocative evening wear...

As the gorgeous victor made her way through the streets to one of the more upscale establishments, she found her thoughts wandering to this years latest victors - yes, plural. For some reason the Capitol had allowed them to both win, something about being in love? To be perfectly honest she hadn't paid a whole lot of attention to the Games after the District Two tributes had been killed, preferring to give her attention to the well stocked bar instead. Still there was more to it than that - she really pitied them and all of the victors really. Some of them had it a lot better than others, but Glint... she reminded Val a lot of herself. She only hoped that their love would be enough to save the young girl from a fate similar to her own.

They always stared so openly at her. And it didn't help that she was always dressed so scantily... Still, it had become so commonplace that she no longer even paid them any notice which only fueled her arrogant aloof persona - and only made them want her that much more. Ignoring the other patrons, Val strode confidently up to the bar and ordered a drink. The bartender started to say something, but Val quickly cut him off. "No," she said coldly, her eyes boring into his. For a moment he seemed to consider going on but the look on her face must have made him reconsider. Instead he just skirted off to attend to someone else.

[Deleted]

There wasn't much to the capitol that she enjoyed. In fact it was rather dreary now. Onyx was back in District 1, visiting family. She was bored, rich, beautiful and completely open to anything and everything. The only bad part about her, was that she was only seventeen. No bar would allow her to even order a single glass of the smallest amount of liquor. But there was always some sort of heavy food, some sort of fizzy drink that could comfort her. Glint was still the most popular girl in the entire area of Panem. There was a fashion line made just for her; the next day there would be a gorgeous recreation of it.

She preferred to cover everything, and she did tonight. Her dress was mid-thigh length and a bright white in color. It shimmered with crystals, diamonds, and pearls; they worked amazingly well together. It was a single strap dress, it drooped over her right shoulder, but the dress only hung low enough to show some of the cleavage she had (to be honest, there isn't much there). Her hair was once more shortened and done up in a wavy style, dyed a deep blonde that was almost as white as her dress.

Fatty foods; not the best option to calm her nerves, but it would do. Loud noises were the worst, they always called back memories of the cannon going off; how cliche it felt. The streets were crowded with people and she decided it was best to duck into a restaurant. She noticed a few empty seats, mostly surrounding a female, in her twenties by the look of her. Her dress was simply amazing, very showy, but amazing. The black complemented her skin amazingly as well. Glint sat a stool away from her, and the bartender was about as baffled as Onyx was by Algebra.

"I'll take anything that fizzes, my nerves are killing me." She ordered placing a small plastic card on the bar. She swiveled around in her chair, leaning her elbows against the edge of the bar and facing out, looking at all the "upper class citizens" enjoy their meals.

[Deleted]

Val watched as the bartender started to move away, but was quickly back to take the order of the girl who'd just taken the seat beside her - Glint Mallist, the Capitol's latest Hunger Game's victor and newest celebrity. Part of Val was happy for her - at least she'd survived, but most of her pitied the beautiful young girl - a very similar fate was probably awaiting her - if she hadn't met it already...

At just seventeen years old, Val had been forced to take a high paying lover if only for a night. Youth wasn't necessarily as a good a shield as one might think, at least not as it pertained to attractive young victors. There was a thirst for their compaionship as soon as they stepped out of the arena, if they were desirable enough and that had been the case with Val and probably for Glint as well.

The pretty young blonde didn't seem to have noticed yet. For some of the newer victors, meeting their forerunners was an enormous honor, perhaps it would be the same for Glint?

"I'll take anything that fizzes, my nerves are killing me."

"She'll have what I'm having," Val ordered the bartender. Sure she might be underage, but the young man wasn't about to defy her and quickly place a stronger drink before the blonde. "It doesn't get any better," Val added as she finished her own drink and motioned for the young man to pour her another. "Trust me," the amazon beauty continued as she stood up, standing over six feet tall in the heels she had practically been forced wear, motioning for the girl to follow her as she made her way over to a more private booth. Sure there were camera's everywhere, she didn't care what those watching thought, no it was the opinions of the Capitol's general public that mattered.

[Deleted]

[/b] She felt, somewhat honored to be here at all, but there was also a slight change in mood. She was almost relieved there was someone else she could talk to that was as tied up by the capitol as she was.

((sorry for the short post, i just wanted to drop one in... coding is being a pain))[/ul]

[Deleted]

While Val had no idea exactly how many eyes might be on Glint and Onyx, she knew that they'd be keeping exceptionally close track of them. Given their romance in the arena the two had something of a buffer between them and some of the more unsavory Capitolites. And while Val had to believe that Glint might be spared some of the more undesirable tasks that were forced on Val, she knew the road ahead would no be easy for the her - especially one as attractive as she was.

As the two took their seats in the more secluded booth, Val surveyed her companion for a few moments. But it was Glint that spoke up first.

"I have never seen another victor outside of a tele-screen or this years game, me and Onyx have been stuck together like glue on glitter for the past month or so."

Glue on glitter... It was an odd turn of phrase and Val wasn't familiar with it - perhaps it was something native to District One? Either way, Val didn't really feel up to asking. Instead she just nodded. It was a good thing that she was so close to Onyx - after all, the Capitol probably expected them to marry. And while Alex had no idea whether or not that was what either of the young people wanted, it was probably in their future regardless. "Well I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty more in the coming months. It wasn't unlikely for the new victors to meet past ones on their tours.

"So... have you found the Capitol to your liking?" Val asked casually. Obviously there was more the the question than that, but Glint hadn't been crowned victor on her beauty alone, surely she would catch the hint and reply with equal subtlety. Of course Val had no idea what the Capitol had subjected the young District One native to, but she intended to find out, at least to some extent.

[Deleted]

The brown-skinned victor was very, to a point, unmotivational. It was to be expected; most Victor's were left broken and depressed. Val was obviously used to the routine, the rest of your life being watched and monitored and constantly reminded of what you did, rather, what you had to do, to survive. It was almost as if you had died there in the games. Even the past careers, the ones that had won that is, left the games traumatized and incomplete. Val could deal with hers, she may have even liked killing at some point, but there is always that monster in the back of your head that tells you what you have done is wrong: the monster that tells you that you liked it is nothing in comparison to the one labeled 'conscience'.

Glint knew that, anyone who had ever killed to survive knows that; not just the victor's. But then again, who cared? It was all just a T.V. show, just another hoop to jump through to please the almighty rule of the capitol. She looked down at her clear ale, picked it up in her right hand, and without a moments hesitation it was in her mouth, burning her throat as it made its way down. She was already feeling its effects when she finally replied. "Well, I have to admit, the food here is better than anything my mom could have made when she was alive. Heck, better than anything my sister could make. But the one thing that rubs me wrong, is that no one seems to care about the tributes that died; not a single memorial, not a single headstone. They're just marked down, and shipped home so that whats left of their bodies can be buried into the fertile soul that their families own; if they had one that is."

[Deleted]

In Val's opinion, a lot of the past tributes were definitely damaged - though not always to the same degree she was, and occasionally even more so. But on the other hand, there were a few that really were pleased with themselves, thrilled with what they'd done in the arena. Val herself had had very mixed feelings at first and only really ended up in her current state of mind because of the way she'd been used. Of course she'd never been proud of everything she had done to win. Some were really quite cold blooded, but in hind sight probably necessary. In the Capitol, she was praised as ruthless killing machine and it actually excited quite a few of her clients...

Still, she did have a conscience and right now it was telling her that Glint should know what might lay ahead for her.

"You should hold tight to him," Val finally added. "You never know who might come along if you let him go," she continued, letting her words hang for a moment. The might not mean anything to her, but she had to at least try.

Food. It really was best in the Capitol, but a part of her yearned for the simpler dishes back home in Two. Perhaps it was just everything that went along with being in the Capitol, but Val had found it increasingly to her disliking. Still, she couldn't deny that it did in fact taste delicious even if she didn't really want to eat it. The tall athletic victor had never been hungry a day in her life outside of during her Games, but there was just something about the fare in the Capitol. "I've found that I'm particularly partial to seafood," Alex replied, able to manage a small smile. It wasn't something that she had ever gotten much of in District Two, so always took full advantage when ever she had to spend time in the Capitol.

"But the one thing that rubs me wrong, is that no one seems to care about the tributes that died..."

It was true, there were no tours or parades for the dead. Instead they just faded into obscurity, just another casualty of the Games. But not for their families and not for their killers. It wasn't rare for Val to see the thirteen young men and women - boys and girls that she'd killed in her dreams. But one in particular always seemed to come to the forefront of her mind.

As a career, Glint was probably quite well versed in all of the Games previous to her own. "Do you remember my Distrct partner?" Severnian Clemens had been her District partner and when he had become injured, Val had ruthlessly beheaded him much to the excitement of the Capitol. It had become one of the iconic moments in the history of the Games and they liked to show it in their promotional clips - not that it mattered, viewing was mandatory. Back home their had been mixed feelings about it, like all the past years, thoughts of the young man eventually faded. But not for Val. Occasionally she still went to visit his grave site. There wasn't much, just a small headstone with his name, dates and how he'd placed in the Games.