façade . cato & kiah

o c t a v i a .

We are calling to you
Come away little light
Come away to the darkness
In the shade of the night we'll come looking for you

All three of them had unanimously agreed that there was no way Meredith was going to make it out of that Arena alive. Octavia had watched with growing anger as the child had smeared the family name. Albeit, she had been somewhat impressed by the game the girl had been trying to play. Not many tributes opted to throw themselves to the wolves and build enemies before the fighting had even started. It seemed that Octavia had underestimated the fifteen-year-old, she was a lot braver -or stupider- then she had first believed.

She had flicked through the lists of potential children to adopt, the replacement for Meredith. They no longer had a room, thanks to Victor and Killian, she had not been too happy about that, biting his ear off with a few choice words. They’d tossed a mattress in the lounge room, not the most optimal place, but it’d do for now. She liked to believe that even if the children had no mattresses, their lives would certainly be better than in the orphanage. It seemed that Victor wasn’t the only one of the three with a god-complex, Octavia’s tended to not manifest itself in violence.

The list had been growing and changing as they’d checked in on the children every few months. It took years to settle on one, trying to find the best combination of athletic ability and brains. Sometimes they got it wrong, evident in choices like Meredith, Anabelle, or Finn, but most of the time they did pretty well. Octavia had been eyeing a sixteen-year-old by the name of Aster, she was not the prettiest, but she was smart. Killian had taken an instant liking to the child, wanting more children that shared his interests in books, as opposed to weapons.

Octavia was stuck with one, maybe two, members of the house that she believed were really up to standard when it came to social strength. Begrudgingly, she knew Bessie would be fine, the eighteen-year-old reminded her of herself, a spitball of fire and sass that could woo a crowd. Beau was the other, a little uncertain, but a polite charmer that impressed. She supposed it was only fair that Killian got a few more bookworms, he had one kid, was that Elijah? She couldn’t remember, more often then not she forgot the names of the ones that didn’t matter.

It was all about leaving an impression.

The orphanage was familiar with the Strauss siblings, and they were welcomed with warm smiles. Octavia had drilled it into her sibling’s heads, that they had to act warm, charming, and professional. Their reputation was built around the way the world viewed them and as long as they were outside their estate gates they had to play their parts.

“Good to see you, Samantha,” Octavia went in first, giving the matron of the house a kiss on the cheek as she embraced her. There were about ten orphanages in district one, and they rotated through each of them, building a relationship so that they could adopt and inspect at ease.

“How’s Anabelle and Isabelle, Octavia? I’m so glad they finally found a good home,” Samantha smiled, waving Killian and Victor in as they headed down the long hallways. “They’re well! Anabelle is a sweet child, she and Finn are inseparable,” the joy in her voice masked the cruel intentions behind the words.

“Isabelle is blooming, Victor has really taken her under his wing,” she nodded at Victor, hoping the praise would stroke his ego and prevent him from saying something stupid. Samantha beamed, delighted to hear that the children were in good hands. Octavia rolled her eyes as they made their way down to the main hall room.

“The training room is over there,” Samantha nodded to a door on their left as they came to a halt, she pointed to the one on their right, “and that’s the main common space. I believe the three you were interested in are in these two rooms.”

She moved a few steps forwards before turning around and giving them a bright smile, “I’ll be in this room just up here, please do come find me if you have any questions.” Octavia nodded, matching the woman’s vibrant smile with one of her own. As the door closed behind Samantha, Octavia’s smile vanished, she raised an eyebrow looking at her younger brothers, “where do you want to start?”