Delta's Interview [D6m]

"Aye, can I get some food in here or what!" 

All things considering, he expected less than what they had provided him with. It wasn't much, but it was a bed and a fake plant and some puzzles that he didn't give two shits about, but it beats out being locked up in a brick cell. He thought it'd be under the colosseum for some reason, though he didn't know exactly... where he was. Everything was a blur since getting separated from Bryony - that's her name, Bryony. They had a plan somewhat in motion, and a little shred of trust between them to make it happen. 

These Capitol folks kind of just throw him wherever, and he complies for the most part. There's no reason not to, his fate's already sealed and that seems like it'll just make things worse. Just do things the right way, keep your head down, Delta; he hears it in his father's voice. And so that's what he does, he lays in bed and has a nap for dinner until a guard finally comes and collects him. 

"We on our way to eat? It's gotta be that time, right?" 

No response. 

Better stop yapping then, If they aren't in the mood to talk, then neither is he. It's something he didn't understand, why Bryony apologized for talking so much, as if he'd complain about it compared to walking silently to his final meal. 

Only, there's no meal, just disappointment in the guise of a mahogany table. He takes his seat in front of the peanut gallery, shellshocked for a moment as he realizes the crowd beneath them both. There's a brief applause, as if he's a spectacle of some kind, it all feels like a giant joke but he keeps his mouth shut in fear of looking the fool. 

"I'd like to start by talking about Blue Harbors," that's home. It's briefly all he can register as the interviewer continues. "It says in your file that it is an 'incineration facility'- for the sake of those at home, that's waste incineration, right?"

"Uhh," at home? This is being broadcasted someway, as if the Games have already begun, "yes, sorry. It's a giant complex where we take care of the pollution that comes to our district, but I just do the sort." How should he even act right now? He's never been in a situation like this before, "I play with trash, basically."

There's an overwhelming silence in the room between the lines of the exchange. They continue.

"And it also says you dropped out of school, but I'm looking and I don't see any behavioral issues or grade problems. What happened there, if you don't mind?"

"Nah, I never had a problem in school," he was decently smart too. "I just wanted to get into the workforce more. My dad's worked there my whole life and we've had it made, so I always knew there was good money in the waste industry."

"I get it- I got my first job at 13, playing a girl's first boyfriend in a sitcom, actually." Delta's getting a better idea of who this man is - as much as he's interviewing Delta, Delta wants to interview him right back. There's just the hesitation of playing within the rules, is he allowed to speak out of turn here? "Speaking of, I gotta ask- your file mentions a Demetria- who is that?"

He only speaks when the interview finishes his question, careful not to interrupt or draw attention to himself when it's not his turn to exist. There's an undeniable brightness that comes out of him though at the mention of Demetria, even here he can't resist smiling at the thought of her. "Oh, that's my baby. Demetria's my girlfriend, her and my family are everything to me. We've been together two years now," he says, "she wants to be a nurse and I want her dreams to come true. I love you, Demi," there's no visible camera to look into, so he looks above the crowd as he says it. For those at home watching, god he hopes she can see this.

See him, that he's not going anywhere.

"Pardon my forwardness, but I wonder: Are you willing to do anything it takes to survive?"

This question hits him like a bag of bricks, the exact one he's been trying to avoid since he first heard his name on that stage. It's been a question presented to him since the beginning of the Hunger Games, when he was 10 and watching Johannes Beaumont take that stage, one that he would never return to. That nobody ever returns to, that he may not return to. "It's hard, because I don't think I have much of a choice." He thinks of Bryony for a second, how both of them will hurt someone for the first time soon. Can he do it? If it were her, and he had the knife, could he end Bryony's life?

He doesn't think so, not for a second.

There's a second where the interviewer looks at him expectedly, as if waiting for more but Delta falters trying to find what comes next. The last answer feels like a slip up now, that he could have said the right thing and didn't. What do they want from him? The man opposite the mahogany table readjusts before taking over, saving Delta from the awkward silence. "Any parting words?"

"Do I get to eat now?"

There's a snicker in the audience, he wasn't joking though.