who run the world? {scissor sisters}
Oct 8, 2017 0:04:34 GMT -5
Post by lance on Oct 8, 2017 0:04:34 GMT -5
[presto]
[/presto]She'd written the letters that morning, virtually the same set of words twice over with a few key differences mixed within. She'd delivered them by mid-morning - one slipped under the door on the fourth floor, the other given to Tallu to pass along to her counterpart from Two. She'd guessed that Two would be more open to input from an outside source while Four would prefer to receive her information directly, but only time would tell if she'd gambled correctly.
Hayden Harvard and Samson Parish, her Career counterparts from Two and Four, respectively, and the only two she found worthy of allying with as anything other than meat shields. Hammerfell was a logical choice as well, as he alone of the Career boys seemed to possess any ambition or skill on par with her own.
But a three person alliance of the girls from One, Two, and Four was more poetic without a spare Two thrown into the mix. And besides, if nothing else she'd like to get a feel for her two chief rivals personally, face to face.
That was how she found herself seated at a table in the dining hall at a quarter to four, well after lunch but not quite in time for dinner. Out of the way, virtually empty save a handful of avoxes, it was the perfect location for a strategic meeting.
Not that anyone else would dare eavesdrop on three of the most dangerous women in the entire building, of course, but she'd rather be safe than sorry.
Four in the afternoon came and went and the souls at the table swelled from one to four - Harvard had brought along a companion, one of the lower district girls. She'd sized the unexpected addition to the group up quickly and had decided not to question the issue.
After all, even the best of Careers needed their meat shields.
As everyone got settled in their seats, she put her best charismatic smile in place.
"Ladies," she greeted cheerfully. "So glad to see that you could make it."
And she was, if only for the fact that being spurned would have achieved the exact opposite of what she was trying to accomplish with this very meeting - that was, of course, the early infighting of the Careers.
"As I'm sure you already know, I'm Cynthia, of District One," If they didn't already know they'd be fools, but some formalities must be kept, at least. "And as I'm also sure you've already guessed, I've gathered you hear to proposition an alliance."
Quick and to the point - that was the Rose way.
Her smile did not waver as her gaze flitted from one girl to the next, carefully gauging their reactions. "Why do I make this proposition, you may ask?" Even if the words weren't spoken outright, she had no doubt that behind the girls' pretty faces the gears were already turning. "It's simple, really. Mutual survival."
She paused for a second, letting it sink in. "Think about it. Career infighting has taken its toll on all of us over the years. It's why so many of the lower districts have been racking up crowns for themselves - simply because we've been too busy focusing on taking each other out instead of them."
It was a pattern sadly repeated throughout recent history - her own predecessors trying to take each other out and emerging all the weaker for it, Shaw turning on Demheaux prematurely in the finale may have very well cost her her own crown, the numerous clashes in the Seventy Fourth, the duels between Fray and Muto and then Fray, Travers, and Strangways-Teach in the Seventy Third all before half the tributes had died - the list went on and on.
And the Career pack might be an outdated concept anyway, but Ripred damn it if she wasn't going to try for a late revival.
She leaned forward, her grin traveling into smirk territory. "And I don't know about you ladies, but I'd rather have the deadliest tributes at my side instead of at my swordpoint until it was guaranteed that one of us would win." The smirk grew wider. "And I do believe that the three that fit those standards the best are sitting here in this very room."
Endgame time. "So, what do you all think?" she asked, the question as loaded as a peacekeeper's gun.
"Are you in?"
It was unorthodox, seeing that as of late, alliances were formed with relationships first and practicality later.
But if it worked, then she didn't think she - or anyone outside of this building, save perhaps her father - would complain.
