I'm Sure I'll F*** Things Up Again // [D10 Tribs]
Jan 19, 2013 3:18:09 GMT -5
Post by Baby Wessex d9b [earthling] on Jan 19, 2013 3:18:09 GMT -5
for what it's worth, I have a slow disease that sucked me dry... I always aim to please
but I nearly died
He was living a nightmare.
There was simply no other way to explain it. He had heard the tribute's names read, and for the first time, he had actually recognized both. His jaw unhinged the moment he head Regalia's hysterical wail. And with that he turned away from the stage. When it was finally time for him to march off, in the wake of the new Mayor, Mace lengthened his stride to catch up to the old cowboy, rather than face either of the lives he was sure to doom. He seized Mayor McFadden's arm, squeezed his elbow. A better man might have said, 'I know it's hard now but you get used to it,' or 'We really don't have any control of this.'
But that just wasn't Mace. Instead, he said, "Good of you to be here," which he meant with his whole heart, even though it came out sarcastically. Shakti had missed the last Reaping entirely. To have a Mayor there, another person other than the walking corpses, was a tremendous relief to Mace.
Now if he could just get the universe to cooperate and not hand him a girl who had patched him up in a rough spot or the secret boyfriend of his sister, which of course he, and everyone else in Ten with ears, already knew about. Mace sat inside the Mayor's home, his head in his hands, as had become his posture on reaping days. He didn't acknowledge either tribute as they entered, and barely heard Regalia's wailings until much, much later.
But he couldn't totally tune out the television in the Mayor's nearby office.
He'd made that mistake once before, during the 60th. The shock of seeing Julian had nearly given him heart failure, at nineteen. Nothing had been so bad as his own District since. There was no point in avoiding it. So he listened as the anchors chattered through his tributes goodbyes, and felt the names drift by him as clouds before a storm. He ticked them off, caught somewhere in the middle of the broadcast, and had almost forgotten about it when the doors creaked open, his tributes ready to be marched to their deaths.
And then he heard it.
The one goddamn name in all of Panem that could send him spinning.
Owen Rook.
"Well, fuck me." Mace said, dragging himself off of the wooden chair to size up his tributes. He hadn't been talking to them at all, but it was a better introduction than he would have managed otherwise. He jerked his head towards the side doors and started walking. It wasn't until he was almost at the train that he realized he was favoring the leg that Essence had sewn up years before. Mace shuddered, the chills creeping from his fingertips up his spine.
It wasn't until Mace had grunted and ushered them onto the train that he really heard what his sister had said. It had come at him in such a blur, blindsided by her rage and her grief. He could only remember what he had said.
Reggie.
Reggie...
REGALIA!
And she had stopped screaming, stood trembling and helpless before him. Her wide eyes had already begun to haunt him as he led Essence and Axel to the dining car.
"I'll be here. All the time. If you need me. Although I think you both know exactly how much help I am," he said as he sat down at the long dining table, glancing at them out of the corner of his eye. They deserved more than that. Regalia deserved more. He hadn't offered her any support because he had none. What was the point in hoping any more? It seemed he had spent all his luck on Julian and anyone associated with him was now condemned.
For the first time, though, he felt the vaguest tingling of responsibility. He knew these two people. He owed them at least an introduction. With a snort, Mace pulled out the chair next to him for Essence. "Essence helped me out once, after a bull tried to get the better of me," he explained, the ghost of a smile playing at his lips. "And I hear that Axel here has got it bad for my sister."
When Mace once again had the strength to life his gaze to Axel's, a full blown smile opened his face
banner credit: jurate
lyrics:placebo for what it's worth
lyrics:placebo for what it's worth