7m adonis abadeer | interview

/ adonis abadeer's interview /

♠  district seven male   ♠

harlan.

adonis.

Adonis sits calmly across from Harlan Godfrey, his hooded gaze not breaking eye contact as the other man speaks. His demeanor is polite and cordial, saving face for the trauma he endured prior when his named was called. The boy channels his father and the other Abadeer men who proceeded him, jaw raised high and posture straight, ever the picture of patrician youth.

"Adonis Edward Abadeer III. That's quite the name!
You wouldn't happen to be related to Abadeer Institute?
We hear about that one even here in the Capitol."

He nods, dark brown hair combed neatly to the side, thick curls framing his moody, intelligent expression. Wearing one of his own suits, the same crisp three-piece he had worn to the reaping, he pauses just briefly enough to adjust the golden cufflinks he borrowed from the nightstand in his room. They catch the light well, just the same as his steady, eloquent voice. "You are correct, sir. My family has overseen the institute since establishing it. I am also a student in my senior year." He hesitates for just a moment, thinking of just how close he got to his graduation, and how far away it seems now. He recovers quickly. "And I am aware the name is a mouthful, simply call me Adonis. My father is Edward, and my grandfather is Don."

"So is it your plan, then, to grow up one day
and take over like your father before you?"

He gives a short laugh to this, the chime of a bell, joyous and warm. It is not lost on him how important it is to have good standing with these people, and while it does shake him to experience for the first time what it is like to be in a room where he is not at the top of the social ladder, he treats this exchange as he would interacting with the associates of his father; the socialites who come to visit his mother for afternoon tea. His voice comes evenly, a silk spiderweb in the process of being spun, capturing attention. "I would hope so, but I would never dare assume on behalf of my father. If I am not to follow in his footsteps as Headmaster, I should hope in my lifetime I receive my license to practice as a doctor. I have always had an inclination for the medical sciences."

"I'm sure you have lots of friends who'll
be rooting you on and cheering for you.
Anything you'd like to say to any of them?"

He thinks about his select group of friends, a quartet of young men roaming the halls of Abadeer Institute in search of mysteries to unravel; lifelong companions who have held each other in high regard for the better halves of their lives. Landon is a maestro with a paintbrush, able to bring any landscape to life with vivid detail and color. Binx is already a genius mathematician at seventeen, the only other student that Adonis can recall who reads more fervently than himself. And Kendrick, handsome and kind, is easier than all the rest to conjure in the safety of his memories.

He thinks of their fingertips touching, those lazy afternoons by the lake surrounding the campus with no sound save for their own breathing, the way his heart beats like the wings of a bird even now. Love and loss are sister spirits. He smiles, "I should hope so, but I am sure you have learned how I feel about assumptions by this point, Harlan. I would tell my classmates to uphold my position on the student council until I am able to return to my duties, and I would go so far as to ask Mrs. Townsend to go kindly on Landon while grading our projects at the end of next week. It is not his fault that he was partnered with someone so unlucky. And to my closest friends, don't let anyone take my seat at our lunch table."

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

He glances to the ground in thought, and then looks back up with an incline of his head. "I will do what is in my nature. But I cannot tell you whether I will choose fight or flight, simply that I am aware that only one of those options might save me. I do intend to choose correctly."

"Any parting words?"

Standing, he shakes Harlan's hand and turns to the crowd, bowing his head politely and not allowing the silence to affect his composure. "Thank you for your time. And do save your condolences until the end."