:| And What About You? |: {Dars}

The thing about power: It's a game that is only fun to play when we have a lot of it. I have more than most. I have more than some well ever dare to dream of having. But my power lies within my home. My power goes no further than the fences. I own the streets that smell of soap and the homes that can't afford it. I own the place Colgate O'Leary resides.

But I am no president. I do not have any special treatment from the Capitol. If I were one to have children, they would not be spared from the reaping. I can see glimpses of the Capitol and of other districts on my calls or on business calls, but I cannot have my choice of where to reside. This is my only home. My only turf.

So I have to make sure it is run smoothly.

Being buried in paperwork is a common thing for me. Interviews and changes and complaints and everything under our sun is handed to me in a paper folder, and I am expected to have all of the answers. Usually, I am good at it, but I am no robot. I can't possibly have all of the answers. Not without more power.

I stare at the work in front of me, sifting and scribbling and sorting and I am so engrossed in it that I hardly notice when Soren is escorting a young man into my office. I make a vague gesture with my hand to send him away so that I am left alone with him. I mean to tell him I'll be just a moment, but the words never make it past my thoughts.

But he takes matters into his own hands.

"We've tried rewiring the systems a dozen times," I try,, but he speaks over me.

I cannot tell if he is disgustingly arrogant, or deliciously brave. Either way, I am intrigued, so I place my elbows on the edge of the desk at which I sit and lean my chin onto closed fists. "You are bold. I'll give you that much, Mr...?" I purse my lips.

I know who this boy is.

I've watched his family be ripped apart.

"Jay. Mr. Jay." I answer for him.

He has my attention now. All of it.

"Take a seat, Mr. Jay, and tell me what exactly it is about me you want to know."

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table by zoe

Instinctively, my eyes flick around the room. People often question why I have chosen such odd decor: petrified wood, rocks -- nature itself was mounted on my wall and placed gently on shelves.

"A clean room is easier to think in. Not as many... distractions, if you will. Plus, we can't have the leader of our district giving such poor examples as being untidy, can we?" I allow a moment of pause. "My up-bringing was... less than glamorous, as I'm sure you have heard. My parents were already quite a bit older when I was born, so they couldn't work. When one cannot afford many things, Stel, they learn to appreciate the things they get to have. I suppose it's stuck with me all of these years." I stand and gesture to the walls.

"I'm a collector. Not quite the conventional one, in case you haven't noticed. I like nature." Like did not quite describe my feelings for the trees. So rarely am even I allowed to experience it these days, so small are the green spaces left since the industry change, that I make sure to take as much of it with me while I can. My collection started off as a reminder of my childhood. I lived on the outskirts of the district, back when wild game was District Nine's main import. Back then, trees practically swallowed the district. I never dreamed it would all end one day until, eventually, it did.

"It has a special place in my heart." For a moment, I feel as if I am the same child I was all those years ago. And I miss it.

And I realize I am not happy. Not with my life, not with the person I have become.

I can remember what mom told me when I was first elected, when she told me how proud she was of me and my accomplishments, how I had worked hard my entire life, but she also told me she wished I had given myself a second to live in all those years. "You aren't happy, Baby. You think you are, but I know. I know you aren't."

At the time I thought she was crazy, but now?

Now I know she was right.

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table by zoe

I pursed my lips at the boy. "It's not just about the power. It's... an obligation. To you. To the people of Nine. To myself." I nodded and folded my hands together, studying his movements, the way his eyes refused to sit still, the way his hands were always moving. It was curious, an oddity that both made me intrigued, and made me wonder what caused the nerves. Was it the Games? The loss of loved ones? Or had he always been this way? Was he a naturally nervous, albeit seemingly brilliant young man, or was this all a facade brought on for the need to be better for the looks that came his way?

"But yes, nature is not a luxury Nine is easily afforded these days. So I bring a little piece of it with me every chance I get." There were those that felt there was an underlying message in my collection: that I was trying to bring the freedom of nature into my own district to show the residents how much better a life outside the fences could be. It is a bit funny, really. Hearing the rumors was always fun for me, because most of them were silly. "It does not look good, a person with my power being so interested in another world, does it?"

But it is a risk I am willing to take.

"I'm sure you of all people understands how important maintaining an image is."

What were their names? the lost brothers? Stellar and Jabber, correct? Was there another? Was I forgetting? It was not good for me to forget, but frankly I always had a harder time remembering those that died early on. My district needed recognition. We needed to be known as a place of warriors, not a place with a curse. And for the longest time, that was all anyone talked about: "The District Nine Curse." It was appalling.

Then, the year Colgate and Magenta were reaped, I knew things would be different. Ah, yes, it was obvious from the beginning the curse would be broken, and from the moment Colgate finished the little girl from Five, to his crowning ceremony, to his return home, I was proud to be the leader of this place.

Since then, things had changed. I was still proud, but rumors of the curse returned and I knew we needed another victor. It was all about image.

"Now, I get to know you. How are you faring with the losses?"

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table by zoe