Let Them Eat Cake [open for 1 more!]

Cause baby you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth
make 'em go, oh, oh, oh

Duchess nodded along to Yazmine, as if there had been any question or choice in the conversation. Still, it was perfectly polite, and as a society girl, she appreciated that and knocked the other girl up a peg or two in her social chart. And she found even more to like when Yaz carefully weighed her response about the games. It was tepid, but true. No rash judgments for this girl, which would serve her as well in the arena as it would in the cutt-throat social politics of district two. She only gave a little shrug in response to Thomas' support. Really there was nothing anyone could do; Kobaloi controlled Duchess' life now, for better or worse.

She really wanted to talk about the Games, because she always did, and at the same time, she really didn't. In her gut she knew it would be another two-less victory, and then where would they be? Maybe Thomas would find a way to turn it around, to make them remember that they were from a privileged place, with fine food and training and wealth. But it didn't feel like it lately, because what good was all that if you had nothing to celebrate?

It was a dark thought for Duchess, about dark as they got, and she was grateful when Nyklus made his way over to them. She knew him, because Kobaloi made her learn about the other potential tributes about her age too. It would be impossible to know all of them, so she limited it to a two year span. Nyklus fell in those lines, and she might have known him anyway, from the training center, from his spear. Without it he looked almost naked. She felt herself grin at the thought.

"Wasn't he marvelous?" Duchess took a long pull, her gaze sweeping Thomas, because looking Nyklus over. She put one hand to her hair, pinching it between fingers and palm, poofing the roots. "Come sit by me, Nyklus," she offered, before he could introduce himself. Duchess was making an absolute nuisance of herself, but she couldn't help it. If she wasn't going to shimmy around the tables, try to drum up a proper sponsor, then at least she was going to let her fellow Careers know how things lay. And she wanted Nyklus to know that she at least knew him. Duchess pulled back the chair about a foot, taking the opportunity to throw one last glance at Thomas, because the way the table curved, she wouldn't be able to look at him easily after this. And she wasn't really sure why she looked at him, only that she wanted his support, wanted him to know that they were among Careers. Not friends, not enemies, people they could learn from, people they could study. In case they had to slit the other's throat.

And Duchess never let herself consider that Thomas might become one of those people.