lysistrata salmon | 11 | escort

lysistrata

"Eleven?" she hisses under her breath, her eyes trained on her father giving her the news.

"They need you there," he says with complete seriousness. "This is an important role, and I'm so proud of you for doing this."

With the letter in her hand, she turns away from him to stare back into the vanity mirror as the makeup artists sculpt her face. "Ok, we'll talk about this later, dad. I have to be on camera in five minutes."

When she had begged to become an escort, district eleven had not been what she had imagined. She had pictured being bedazzled in the most luxurious of jewels from district one or spending days on warm beaches in four, but eleven?

Somehow, she knew, it had always been in her stars that she would end up at some backwater district doing the peacekeepers' dirty work.

---

She hadn't grown up in the Capitol. Sure, her life was one of wealth and luxury and she had been born there for the point of citizenship, but she truly grew up hidden deep in the mountains of district two. Her father had dragged her and her mother out there after his promotion, much to their dismay. It wasn't their fault he had become the Chief of Training for Domestic Peacekeeping Intelligence.

He had made sure that Lysistrata and her mother still had the finest Capitol luxuries--Lysistrata's mother had her neon purple hair dye imported on the first of the month, every month on the dot--and they had often spent time in the Capitol whenever he had been invited back to fancy dinners hosted at the Presidential Palace.

She would argue with him every day in the way that every stubborn child would. Why can't we move back? Why do we have to be here? This place is so boring.

Instead of learning around those she should have been learning with--other Capitolite children with wildly colored contact lenses and exotic pets--she spent her days tutored by her father. Not just in math, reading, mutt biology, and other normal topics, but also in what he was teaching this peacekeeping intelligence unit: subversion. She'd often sit at the back of the lecture hall hidden deep within the peacekeeper compound and watch the officers learn how to act as undercover agents. When bored, she'd comb through textbooks about the art of inter-personal communication patterns to collect intelligence and pamphlets on the subtleties of how to disguise yourself in each district to avoid notice.

It was what kept her occupied from isolation.

She didn't have that many friends during her time in the mountains. Even the wealthier of her peers in district two simply did not meet the status that she had grown accustomed to early in her life. It suited her mother's desires perfectly too. "Remember, even if they act like us, you're better than those district urchins." she would always remind Lysistrata on the loneliest days.

At night, she would stand in front of the mirror, twisting her face into varieties of smiles as she read from a pamphlet spread open next to her. When she did interact with her peers, she would use them as practice. It became a well-taught routine from her father: lean in closer to them, use an open stance, talk to them as if you're close friends and conspirators, and they will divulge their secrets to you.

By the end of her childhood, she was well-versed in training her body language and face to make people comfortable around her and divulge their secrets: just the goal of her father's peacekeeping intelligence training plan.

Much to her elation, immediately after her eighteenth birthday she was able to leave the mountains of two behind and move to her true home, the Capitol. Finally, her dad getting a new job actually working in her favor.

---

The 79th Hunger Games were on huge screens around the ballroom. The closed captions were on to allow for the socialites to chatter loudly. "Mackenzie, you've become a ghost, but then again, so have I." the screen reads as the camera zooms out of Belladonna Ruze's face as she and Mackenzie Pryce slash at Dove Elsu.

Turning her gaze away from the screen and back to the man in the turquoise blue suit in front of her, she flashes a wide smile and laughs at his joke. Taking a sip from the glowing green drink in her hands, she thanked the open bar to help her get through the night. It was her first high class event since she had gotten back to the Capitol from District Two, and she had been invited along because of her father's new role as Chief of Peacekeeping Intelligence.

The man she had been talking to had been asking her about her time out in the districts, and per usual she would respond about how her father works in peacekeeping and how two was as smelly as everyone thought it would be. After being deep in conversation for over an hour he said the words that charted her path, "You know, you would be great on television!" Intrigued, she asked what he meant, and in response, he only told her to come down to his studio the next morning.

---

"Welcome to the second season of Capitolites in Paradise!" she said, her emphatic announcer voice ringing through the screen. "You all know the rules by now, but you know I love to make sure everyone knows! We're down on the most beautiful beach in District Four in this amazing villa where we've invited 20 eligible Capitolites to join us..."

Sipping from a martini glass in her new penthouse on Style Street, she smiles contentedly as she watches herself on the T.V. It had been about three years since the director had recruited her for the new show, and it truly had been a hit. Placing the empty glass on a plate held by her new avox, she shooed it away. It had become her favorite pastime to relax in her new everything and watch herself shine on the show. With each episode released, her ego inflated just a little bit as more and more people stopped her on the street for an autograph or to beg her to let them on the show.

Oh, what a life this was.

---

"Just accept it, don't put up a fuss for a new district, they won't give it to you. They know that you've already received training, and they need you to watch the district eleven victors." She trained her eyes back on her father, now that she's left the set of the second to last episode of the tenth season of Capitolites in Paradise.

"Why? What's wrong with the victors?" She asked, her voice filled with confusion and her brow furrowing.

"We've been getting more and more intel that they have been... problematic. We need someone to watch them, manage them, and get as much information from them as possible. When you accept, you're going to get a full briefing and go through an official training process."

Looking back at the letter, signed by Glamour Kinkade himself accepting her to be an escort, she knew this was not why she wanted to become one. After ten years hosting the second largest reality show on Capitolite TV, she wanted something new to entertain her. The Hunger Games was the biggest event in existence, who better to take the role of prepping up and coming stars for it than Lysistrata? When she began bothering her father to talk with the higher ups and get her an escort spot, however, she had begged specifically for a fun district. No number larger than seven! she could recall herself saying.

"So I'm going out to do your job." She says flatly, trying to find some way to wiggle out of becoming Lysistrata Salmon: Wheat Field Detective.

"Pretty much," her father said with a knowing chuckle, matching her stubbornness.

---

The next day, she talked with the producer before going on set. And, at the finale of the tenth season, she delivered the news.

"Congratulations to the winning throuple! And, in sadder news, I have loved my time here on Capitolites in Paradise, but unfortunately, all great times end at some point." She makes a fake pouting face, one to convince the audience to feel worried for just a split second. Then, her practiced face cracks a grin to break the suspense, "But I am so excited to announce that I am going to be joining you all live from a different show as the escort for district eleven in the upcoming years for the Hunger Games!"

All the contestants in the background cheered loudly, and then the scene shifts to credits.

---

Five days later, she was shipped back off to district two to go through a rushed intelligence gathering course again. She was told her mission: "Get close to the district eleven victors. Watch them. Stop them from doing anything stupid."

It should be simple enough. What's the worst some farmers could do?