Ripred is {Not} Dead [Mitchell/Ansgar]

Ripred. The ultimate god that was supposed to be a savior to all. He wasn't real. Mitchell knew that since the day he found Jack in a pile burning rubble. Jack wasn't saved by the holy for something greater. Jack survived because his parents had been smart in placing where Jack would sleep. Ripred was faker than anything he's ever heard come out of a gossiper's mouth. If Ripred had been real, he wouldn't have allowed Mitchell's name to be pulled at the reaping. If Ripred was real, he'd still be at home with Jack, Carter, and Jasper. Ripred had died just like any other ideal of hope and faith. Faith did nothing but create a fake calm that was used to control the people of Panem into submission. It was just like the games. A way to keep the people from rioting across Panem. Mitchell wasn't a believer and he never would be.

The training center was no place for miracles to appear. Mitchell Laws wasn't a miracle or a man who had miracles happen to him. Ripred would have vanquished his soul years ago if the god that he didn't believe in heard of his acts. Theft wasn't something that many people would consider to not be a sin. Greed was a sin that flowed through his body. Riches were something that Mitchell used to want, now all he wanted was to find a reason to live or die trying. The world would answer his call one way or another, but for now, he was only a man without a mission. A man who was surrounded by people who would kill him in a moment's notice. Mitchell Laws wasn't holy. Mitchell Laws wasn't a miracle. Mitchell Laws would die just like twenty two others.

This is why he was alone when he confronted Ansgar Todd, the holy man from District Ten. Word spreads fast within the training center. Trainers spreading information of the others like it was a game of who could find the juiciest detail of a tribute. Mitchell knew exactly what they said about himself. Something along the lines of a man who's only talent was to steal and stand quietly watching the rest of the tributes from the sidelines. It was the perfect words to describe what he's done in his time training. Observation of others was the only thing he did. Learning about them all, slowly and steadily. As he notices Ansgar's longer hair than his own, he speaks up with a newfound confidence. "Ansgar, is it? I wanted to talk to you. If that's alright?"