East Wind on the Horizon{Drought} // Kay//Lalia/Shrimp//Dee

for what it's worth, I have a slow disease that sucked me dry... I always aim to please
but I nearly died

He should have held onto the list, instead of shoving it back to Marlboro, as though he'd had anything to do with it. Now, he could only parade the last names through his mind. It had been so long, forever and only a day, since the victory tour. And he honestly could not recall the names of the many siblings, parents, cousins and beyond he had met. All now a blur of a passing train, full of misery and grief. But he should have remembered these names, something to identify them as individuals, instead of a relation of the deceased. Mace's world had always been full of shoulds. Today would be no different.

Bloom.

The name, the word, filled his skull. He instantly had a headache, sharp behind his eyes. His shifted his gaze down to Mason, if only for somewhere to rest his eyes. It wasn't that she was identical to Aesop in any way. For one, she was quite a bit older than the boy Mace walked with in his dreams. No, it wasn't her physical characteristics, but the way she stared, the way she stood, the way she was. He would have known the Bloom girl anywhere, strange as it was to have in her Ten. Mace bounced Mason once, pushing the boy an inch away from him. Mason turned, glanced at Calliope once, and then buried his face in Mace's vest. "Lotta help you are," Mace whispered. Mason was a poor substitute for Denver, who had so easily brought their alliance together in the Training Center. Without him to bond them, Mace needed armor to talk to a Bloom. And Mason was no better armor than he was alliance maker.

Mace was saved from having to make a decision about whether or not to approach her when other trains arrived, depositing more memories.

Wie.

Two ladies. Twice as many memories, as much pain. He was lucky to have noticed the last name printed several times on the roster, otherwise he might have discounted the first girl entirely. He could not recall having heard Sundra swear. She had never been anything but determined, and impossibly in love. As he did at home, he rested his palm over the side of Mason's face, as though to shield him from the words that he uttered on a daily basis. With any luck, he would say something like Daddy first to Julian, before dropping the f-bomb. With his hand covering Mason's face, he nodded first to Io and then to Europa. "Thank you for coming."

Which was as polite, distant, and unhelpful as he could have been. But what was he supposed to say? No one had coached him on how to speak to family of the deceased. Hell, Olive hadn't told him anything useful in almost a decade. Julian could have handled something like this. Topaz, Opal, maybe even Saffron, who proudly swore like a sailor these days too. But not him. Not when he had so few words to spare.

Monaghan.

Finally, finally, some relief from anger and pain, although guilt knotted his gut. She was absolutely impossible to miss, for herself, not for any relation to Sawyer. A woman all to herself. His gaze slid past her, just for a second, to acknowledge a group of district citizens on the platform gawking. It would not be long before someone with a camera and an agenda descended, no matter what Marlboro's assurances. For the first time in many, many years, Mace felt a trickle of sweat roll down his back. It traced his spine, cutting through the cold. He extended his hand, just a hint of a shudder in his pinkie, to her.

"Jackie. 'fraid we're going to have to put you to work." His grin came and went fast a bolt of heat lightning. "Probably should get you checked in first. Y'all can follow me." He took a step and then hesitated. With one hand supporting Mason, there was really very little he could do to protect his back. But it hadn't been his back which had needed protecting in the Games. It had always been his heart.

He leveled his gaze at the Wies and Bloom lady. "I know I ain't the one who asked you to come. The drought's killing us, just as sure as anything else." Marlboro's warning pinged in his head, igniting the headache. The Capitol is always watching. Mace checked the gawkers (still gawking), and jerked his head towards the Victor's Village. "Know that I am grateful for your help, even after... everything. I'd like to welcome you to my home, offer you anything you need while you're here. It ain't much. It ain't never gunna be enough. But what's mine is yours."

He took in a long, deep breath. So many words, so many heavy words. He wrapped both arms around Mason, who was he was fairly sure had fallen asleep, and waited their judgment.

There's only a few things capable of pissing me off and this is one of them.

Stupidity. This bumbling needs to get over with. The tension is so thick I could butter a slice of toast with it if I had any. I can feel myself fuming as the other Wie tries to scold everyone standing around. What does she think this is, kindergarten? Oh, the girl knows how to apologize. That's another peeve of mine. People thinking they can talk down to me. And here I was, ready to fly off the handle too.

But that's a lie, because I fly off the handle anyway. Da always said that I had a short fuse.

"You're damn right people have died. I was starting to think I was the only one thinking about the combustiphant in the room." I say with my jaw clenched.

"Screw it. I'm gonna break it down right now." I say as I get right in the older Wie girls face. "So my cousin killed your sister. Big whoop. Maybe he figured she had an edge that made her dangerous like her mentor that won the year before. Skip ahead, she's dead, Bloom boy whittles my cousin down to a shambling bloody wreck and leaves him two choices. He can be the tribute that dies before Aesop Bloom, or he can be the tribute that dies after him."

I take a moment to glare at the Bloom girl that doesn't have a tongue and snap at her." So, rather than place his place in history in corporal cokeheads shaky hands, he takes a third option and lights his happy ass on fire; which was halfway useless as the Capitol still recorded the kill as belonging to Aesop anyway, leaving the only guy at our little meet up enough time to end the fifty ninth hunger games in style. Do I wish my cousin was standing here right now? Shit yeah! But I know he couldn't have held his own even if Aesop died before him. Not when the cowboy barely had a scratch on him at that point. I've made my peace with that."

I rarely talk. Hell, I never say more than three words to my da at mealtimes. I don't have any friends. Except for the weirdos that follow me home every now and then. I'm not sure where all of the words are coming from but fuck if I don't need to get them off of my chest.

"You know how?" I seethe as I glance at the younger girl. "Because I watch the replays of that games every year. Because I'd rather celebrate Sawyer's life than mope about his death. Meanwhile for those of us not living in the past, Captain savesomebitches over here is offering an all expenses paid mini vacation and you're all too busy trying to figure out who can work the stick of sadness out of their ass and beat someone else to death with it first to even bother thinking that Hey, some hospitality from tall dark and letting himself go would be great since It's the least he can do for being alive when my family member ain't."
I'm shouting now, and I bet that the passerby are wondering what the hell is going on. "Do I even want to be around you bitches?! Fuck no. But I'd rather get a taste of what its like to enjoy the victors village without having to outlast twenty-three poor dead bastards than join the dusty mope fest in this country ass hick district that you three idiots seem intent on having!"

The rant leaves me breathless, gulping for air as my rage starts to lessen. I glare at each of the other girls in turn, daring them to do something. I'm sure my face is redder than my hair at this point, and so I turn away from the tight-lipped trio and look at the victor again, trying to forget about how I managed to insult him three or four times in the last five minutes. "Lead on Emberstatt," I say as I stick my shaking fists into my pockets. "I need a drink like blondie over there needs to get laid."