earth to nero // capitol [dibbed]

Nero: "Then the Le Roux boy stabbed a fifteen year old in the neck, and won a poll for best dressed the next day. Apparently, this is what us Capitolites love to see... what's your thoughts, Nikau?"


Nikau: "Well, what I'm thinking is... don't you think it's weird we only watch kids kill each other against their will?"


Nero: (laughs) "...no! Not at all."

---

Believe it or not, Nero was an actor before, well, this. A relatively successful one, he was never a standout but he had his blimps of being an A-list celebrity for having a good chest. Times were different in the 40's, a man old enough to tell you what the murder of Marvin Crowe was like. Nero was in the industry before the Games became a mogul of the Capitol -- well, after they died in the 30s and resurged in the 54th. 

54th and on, all anyone talked about was killing their own civilians. 

Maybe morals died thirty years old. 

That, and common sense. 

---

Nikau: "Wow. Those butterflies just shredded 10 corpses."


Nero: "Hold up, hold up... I think I missed a scene, the butterflies?"


Nikau: "Yeah. Yeah, I would say so."


Nero: (shocked laughter)


Nikau: "Can you believe they haven't brought it back in fifteen years, Nero?"


Nero: "I can't believe a lot of things!"


Nikau: (laughs) "Ain't that something!"

---

He has three kids, a beautiful partner & a happy life. Grateful he may be, Nero remembers the stories his grandparents told him of before the Dark Days; he remembers the stories from before that. Of why they take a day of rest, and why he can't shouldn't say sabbath in front of his friends, never the less the cameras. Before the Capitol he grew up in was a war-torn militia stare, and his grandparents had seen an oppressive Capitol he'd never fully understand. Stories of the Jewish family from District 8, the first Blaustein's to come the top of Panem's mountain.

That's where history begs him to stop, and if you ever ask, he did. 

Whenever questioned, Nero doesn't know of the thousands of years Panem hides. Nations written in script, not in textbooks, and part of him wishes he could forget it as easily as the rest of Panem seems to. That, maybe if he never knew, he could be as content as the rest of them. 

An option never available to him, and the braver half of him is proud to know his ancestors were resilient. That he could teach his kids to be, that survival is as powerful as rebellion. That however you take Halahka, it's enough to get you through the bullshit of Panem. 

---

Nikau: "Caller #3, you are on the air! What's your name?"


Caller #3: "Anonymous, but I can say I'm from District 3."


Nero: "Ahh, hello to District 3. And what do you have to tell us today?"


Caller #3: "I just want to say that I've never been happier now that Snow is dead! Even with the shit storm of this lockdown, I can at least sit in my room & laugh to myself because that motherfucker is rotting alone."


Nero: "Woah-ho! That's not something you're supposed to say on air, but I hear you!"

---

If he could be any more honest without getting threatened with a firing squad, he'd shit on Snow's grave. Nothing more dangerous than a fascist in disguise; the council isn't much better, but he'd rather kill a hydra than a demon. 

Ironically enough, Snow's death came with the collapse of the film industry. Anything non-kid murder related was pretty undesired, and he was a bit too old for the romcom movie casts. Not that he'd refuse the role, there just always seems to be another industry standard white victor to be forced to take the role by their agency. He always wondered who decided the victor's careers; more so, why they couldn't leave the damn kids in peace like they used to. Some of these newer victors can't catch a break, meanwhile Nero could name maybe two victors from the 20's. 

It's to the point he can't remember which games Julian Bryze's parents won, isn't that insane?

---

Tarquin (2nd): "I have strength... do you?"


Aisha (2nd): "¡Jodete!"


Both: (hyped yelling as Nikau replays Aisha & Samiyuq's first interaction)


Samiyuq (2nd): (faintly, behind another fight) "No te volveré a decir-"


Nikau: "No way, they actually couldn't edit that out!" 


Nero: "I was wondering why they didn't show more Samiyuq."


Nikau: "Pause, do you see that?"


Nero: "What do you mean, I don't see a thing!"

---