I’m gonna run this town . kaplan . blitz

Octavia Strauss --

She rolled her eyes, bringing the cup of tea to her lips as she eyed him with a hard gaze. The tea was delicate and hot enough to warm her, but perfect enough that it did not burn her tongue. Carmen had done a wonderful job, it was probably why she still had one, Octavia liked her. There were notes of citrus and the loose leaf of the jasmine tea sat at the bottom of the cup.

The taste was wonderful, the moment of delicacy ruined by the man before her. A sour taste on her tongue by the time he finished speaking and she had placed the cup down.

"Malcolm, I've read your file. I know exactly what kind of person you are." She was half tempted to pull it out of her bag, but she remained where she was, fingers wound around teacup handle. "You've had a few, ah, anger issues, it seems. Not a very good look for a person who's supposed to lead a district."

Octavia looked away, already feeling disinterest seep into her veins.

"We can't have the mayor accidentally snapping, now can we?" Maybe he goes on a murder spree? Kills a few kids and an adult or two. Hell, maybe Octavia could pin something on him. Get rid of him for good. Crush the cockroaches under the heel of her stilettos.

Octavia Strauss --

Everyone presented themselves to be a person they were not. It was the way the world worked. It was the design of human nature. There was no person standing on this earth that was exactly the same as they were in public as to who they were in private. Marcus seemed to believe that they were one and the same.

He believed that people could change.

People did not change. We are irrevocably tied to the way that our pasts define us. We cannot escape it, we can only hide behind fractures of self-fulfilling designs.

"Marcus, deary, people do not change. We fool ourselves into measurably thinking we can be better, or think better. We do not. How many times have you seen a victim fail to stand for another one? Watched child after child adamantly believe that killing another won't make them different?"

The cup of tea was empty now. Octavia stood, pulling her sunglasses down. "We pretend to be people to make them like us. Just as you're holding your tongue for fear of what you might actually say." She peered down at him, tugging on her coat.

"But you let that fear rule your ability to speak your mind. I do not."

Octavia Strauss --

"Oh Micheal," Octavia laughed, for the first time this meeting actually satisfied with a response she had received from him. He was finally biting, reply to her and showing her a little bit of what was going on inside that head of his. She lived for this, thrived on the way she could push herself inside people's minds.

"You can absolutely count on that," she exclaimed, stopping to place a hand on his shoulder as she moved to leave the cafe. "Those are some of the greatest pleasures in life, other than being fucked by two guys at the same time. Why would I stop?"

She patted him, once and then twice before walking to the exit, her laugh following behind her.