Chapter Text
Now that ills beset thee, I am not ashamed to sail the sea of trouble at thy side: Ismene
(6:58 PM, recording now)
I’m all set? Perfect! Now, I’ve been quite open about the fact that I LIVE for drama, and this was easily our most dramatic bloodbath night in a decade! And not that I wouldn’t have wiped the smug look off that little vulture from the tabloid’s face just for the love of the game, but I had been setting myself up to play the heroic sidekick in Alara’s grand love story for days now - so this argument had evolved into something much more personal for me. I wasn’t about to let some jaded ex-lover drive my sister to suicide by dragging her through the mud while the great love of her life was teetering on the brink like that! Gods, I hate to think about what would have happened if Voltaea had died there- I was quite worried for a moment that I was going to have to watch both of them die right before my eyes and I don’t know if my heart could bear it. Not when this was all so new, not when Alara was finally talking with me off-air for the first time in a year, not when I’d seen something almost like a genuine smile on her face - no. I don’t think I’d have handled that well at all. Oh, yes, where was I? Ah! Anyway, Selica, bless her heart - she did manage to get the show back on track after the first outburst for at least a while…
Selica stands up and calls for a break just after the fighting clears, with the last big action before the cut being Voltaea - to the in-studio cheers of an increasingly chaotic Alara, and Ismene’s howling sobs - sinking a thrown axe right into the back of Satin. The sadness was earnest, really! Satin was as sweet a boy as I’ve ever known. For the sake of honesty, though - I was much fonder of him than his sister. In some ways I blame her more for what happened to him than Voltaea - but of course I would never say that on a live broadcast. There’s a certain reputation you have to uphold once you’ve made a name for yourself as the sensitive one in a group like ours - “We have two minutes before we come back from commercial and I expect everyone in this studio to be in position, behaving like adults, and most importantly - FOLLOWING THE GODSFORSAKEN FUCKING ITINERARY by the time we’re rolling again or I will have every single one of you replaced by showtime tomorrow. Am I-”
Agrippina throws her hands up in frustration - “You know I don’t work for-”
That was a terrible choice on her part, but gods! I admire the ego one has to have to think they could pull that off - “Don’t you dare interrupt me with some smart remark about who your ‘real’ boss is! Especially not when you owe your entire existence in the public sphere to that glowing recommendation that I wrote you in spite of you leaving in the middle of your internship - with no notice, I might add!” Selica swoops into spitting distance of the girl’s face - she tries to avert her eyes but before she can look away a hand grabs her chin and wrenches her back to face the music - “Do you know what your career would look like if I were to issue a retraction of that statement?” Agrippina tries to shake her head but the grip around her chin tightens, locking her in place - “Don’t be childish, use your words! I’ll remind you that it was your idea to come out here and argue with the adults, I shouldn’t have to remind you of basic manners.”
Shaking in her seat, the girl sputters- “I don’t kn-”
Without missing a beat, Selica leans into her ear and shouts - “That’s because YOU WOULDN’T HAVE ONE!” You could practically smell the fear coming off the poor thing and I’d figured at that point she might give up the whole crusade she was on altogether. She didn’t, of course - vultures are carrion birds. They’re willing to linger quite a while for the chance to pick over a choice carcass if the timing isn’t right yet. Oh! And speaking of carcasses- at that point, Alara felt emboldened enough to rejoin the fray-
“I don’t know why you thought you were going to win this fight, darling, not when-” But that didn’t last long at all. I’ve never met anyone with a nastier backhand than Selica Vireaux - you could probably hear the SMACK from three floors up if you listened closely.
“I told you to save it for after the cannons, Alara!” Selica checks her nails for damage as Alara rubs the angry red print on the side of her cheek, then plops down in the center of the sofa with a heavy sigh and a snap of her fingers - “Everyone take your places, cameras on in ten seconds!” While my role here was to protect Alara, I wasn’t about to step into the line of fire where Selica was involved. You have to remember, at this point we’d been living under the same roof for twenty-three years, and I’ve never been the sort of woman to throw stones in her own house. No, I kept quiet until it was my turn to take center stage. Which, as it so happens, came about ten minutes after we returned from commercial break. Impeccable timing, given that my sister had gotten herself all worked up again.
“Selica darling, pull up those gift logs you were talking about - I want to see EXACTLY how much trouble my escort is in when I get my hands on him!” Alara tries to grab the remote from Selica’s hand but she smacks it away.
“I was getting to that, thank you!” Selica punches a few buttons on the remote and a scrolling feed of text pops up at the center of the screen behind her. “It looks like… ah! The boys from Districts Five and Seven were sent two gifts via Console Five - so it was your escort who sent them, Alara. A pair of night vision goggles and a hundred foot length of rope. Oh my- that’s a hefty price tag on those goggles, isn’t it?”
“Hefty doesn’t even begin to describe the damage he’s done to our account! I SPECIFICALLY told him what he could send, who to send it to, when to send it- damnit! I’m going to-” The first BOOM of the cannons interrupts her before she can finish threatening Orville’s life on live television - six more ear-splitting BOOMs roar through the speakers before falling silent.
“Is that it?” Selica frowns “Only seven?” she sighs after another ten seconds of quiet pass and confirms her count - “It looks like our final bloodbath count is locked in at seven! And that means it’s time for the highlights - the triumphs, the failures, the fatal mistakes! We always like to start with a bang-” I can’t stand it when Selica starts making puns, so you’ll pardon me for glossing over the rest of this bit with the explosives. You get the picture, I’m sure. I was surprised to see her in such good spirits about losing her boy so quickly - “What a punch! Can we play that back again - slowly, this time! I want to see the moment she connects again-” CRACK “-Look at that! It’s like you can see the light drop out of his eyes the second that fist swings through.”
“How much force do you suppose she has behind that punch?” Agrippina muses from her armchair - I suspect she was taking notes on who to bet on - which I’m sure you’re well aware is against journalistic regulations! I don’t have any proof of that, of course - I simply had to express how distasteful I found her again, forgive me.
“Enough that I fear for anyone that girl gets her hands on…” Ismene mutters, gravely.
The next clip is Cymbria’s on-the-run kill of Six’s boy, knocking the whole District out of contention on day one of the Games. Selica only takes the briefest moment to brag before moving on to the clip of District Four’s Mako taking an axe to the skull - this one, Alara averts her eyes for. She couldn’t even stand to think about it again, let alone watch it. I suppose I wouldn’t have wanted to either, in her position. “Now these last three -” Selica explains, “- we of course had to cut as a single clip, or we wouldn’t have done them justice. Genuinely, this was some of the most impressive fighting I’ve ever seen from a tribute duo in all my years of hosting!”
Alara scoffs. “Don’t be dramatic, they completely failed to take the cornucopia and-”
Selica was at that point completely exhausted by Alara’s nonsense and spared her no patience - “It was two against six! And half of those six are dead, as we’ll recap here-” It was a bloodbath in the most literal sense of the word. The Two’s had armed themselves with sledgehammers and charged before the group led by Weaver had finished picking their weapons. Had the girl not spit at me and called me a traitorous cunt the first night we met, I might have advised her to think about that before heading into the fight. But alas! Some lessons have to be learned the hard way. Which here meant watching three of her allies being smashed open like dropped eggs in front of her before they’d managed to wound the careers enough to run them off. Oh, and her poor brother of course- she went right ahead and abandoned the others to haul him back and nearly bleed him to death in the process.
Right, I’m going on again aren’t I? You’re not here to listen to me ramble about my tributes, you’re here for real drama! That real drama came right after, when Selica finally turned us loose on each other. The vulture came prepared with legal statutes, sure - but I find emotion tends to win out over fact in the court of public opinion more often than not. “Now that the dust has settled, it’s time for us to address the elephant in the room, as I know some of you have been waiting for.” Selica rises from her seat and claps her hands, the studio lights shifting from the dramatic red they had been to the usual shade in response. “While I’m sure some of our viewers at home would love to know my thoughts on the situation, I’ll be putting those aside to act as moderator-”
“There’s nothing to moderate, Selica - not while this little bitch is running around the whole Capitol slandering me to anyone who will listen!” Alara, barking like a mad dog, tries to stand - a sharp glare from Selica and a single raised hand in reminder is all it takes to put her in her place.
Agrippina gasps at the accusation - “Slander is a stretch, don’t you think!?” She snaps her fingers at the crew - “Pull up those pictures! I want to hear her try to justify herself while she’s staring her crime in the face-”
“There’s no crime!” Alara turns to the camera like she’s trying to appeal to the audience - “This is what I mean by slander! Ms. Finch here is simply holding a long-time grudge because-”
“Anyone who has read my article is all-too aware of my grievances against you, Alara. But let’s not get distracted from your criminal behavior! District Five’s civil code clearly places the age of consent at eighteen. Now, how old is Voltaea, again?”
“She’ll be seventeen in a few days, but that’s completely irrelevant because - and I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this with how far your head is up your ass - we aren’t anywhere NEAR District Five right now, are we?” Before Agrippina can rebut her, Alara cuts in again - “No, we’re not. We’re in the Capitol, where the age of consent is in fact, sixteen. Those laws have ALWAYS varied between Districts - if you’d like to go over them, I’d be happy to teach you, darling. Though, if you’d actually done your research you’d know this already.”
I realized at that precise moment that Alara was going to hang herself without my intervention - reputationally speaking, at least. It’s a terrible look for a woman claiming she’s not a predator to know every District’s age of consent law off the top of her head, isn’t it? Anyway- I let the two of them trade a few more barbs about the legality of it all before swooping in to steal the show - “Ahem! If I could speak-” The vulture falls silent, Alara groans, Ismene lets a single tear roll down her cheek and stares straight at the centermost camera - “-I can’t stand all of this arguing!” I’m sure there were eye rolls behind me, especially after that little sob for effect - “You’ve both made your points three times over about the laws, and we’ve gotten nowhere! This is a matter of the heart! And the whole country has probably seen these pictures, I don’t think anyone’s going to change their mind just because they’ve seen them on our show this time…”
“Oh come on! Just- I mean- LOOK at them!” Agrippina gestures wildly at the screen, but Ismene doesn’t waver - she just keeps talking past her in the most condescending drawl she can muster.
“I just said we’ve all seen the pictures, sweetie. There’s no need to shout. Now I may not know as much as you do about the law, but I can tell you with a degree of certainty that in spite of whatever you may think of them as individuals or of their coupling, that they are very much in love.” Alara relaxes back into her seat, seemingly content to watch her cohost’s plan unfold. At least for a few minutes.
The vulture cries out, interrupting once more- “OF COURSE that's what you believe! Because that’s what Alara’s told you! And it’s not like we’ve had a chance to hear the girl’s side of that story!”
It’s a rarity that I come across such a cooperative victim, however unintentional it may have been on her part when she handed me that perfect segue. There, see! I’ve said one nice thing about Agrippina. Ismene wipes her tears and gives the vulture a concerned look - “But we have heard her side. I hate to sound accusatory, but I don’t think you’re as well informed on this relationship as you say you are if you haven’t seen the video.” The three other women in the studio whip around practically in unison to look at her - confused, surprised, a little angry on Alara’s end. I’m quite proud that I managed to catch them all so off-guard.
“What video are you referring to, exactly?” Alara’s eyes narrow at her, voice cold. While Alara is quite adept with practical technology, she’s never been very good with the digital variety. I don’t think she’d ever even considered that someone else could access those cameras she set up. Not even when I told her flat out that I’d just used one of them! I suppose I did neglect to mention that I’d left it paired to my personal datapad. Her setting up that particular camera right above her bed was just a stroke of good luck. I’d intended at first to use whatever I found against her if she stepped out of line, but as I spent more time watching the two of them together, I realized my sister had fallen face-first in love with this tragic tribute girl. Gods help her. And I wasn’t lying when I told her I love a love story! How could I resist helping her write hers? Anyway, the one I chose - well… you know the one, I’m sure.
Ismene turns from the others towards the crew - “You can pull up my personal blog, right?” several of them nod, unsure of who exactly she’s addressing. “Excellent! I went ahead and shared it there when I came across it during the last commercial break - play that back for us, would you?” I’d first posted the video from one of my many alternate accounts earlier in the day, but this narrative wouldn’t have sold nearly as well if the public had realized Alara and I were responsible for curating everything that leaked. It seemed that a single degree of separation was plenty to throw them off my trail, because the only people who realized what I’d done were my sisters - and there wasn’t a thing they could do to stop me at that point without throwing themselves to the wolves.
The video opens on the two of them in bed - Dressed, of course. I think my sister might have actually murdered me had I used some of the other footage I saw. Voltaea lies on her side, Alara sits upright with the girl’s hand tugging at her own. I was already a little worried she’d kill me for using this one - “Darling, I love you too much to let you live out this lifetime thinking I’m nice.” The Alara on-screen and the one in the studio turn bright red at almost the exact same time - she buries her face in her hands.
“I love you too.” That was about all I was able to use organically. The rest took some very heavy-handed editing to pull together, but I managed to get it done with just a single favor owed to one of our studio girls with a knack for that sort of thing. There’s a cut to the two of them lying together, the girl with her head in Alara’s lap, nails running along her scalp - It was a great shot, once you replaced the talk about the Games with something a bit more romantic. They both just looked so… vulnerable. It struck me. “I’m not going to take back what I said, I meant it. And so did you.” There's a pause - Alara leans down to kiss the girl on her forehead. Just as she sits back up, Voltaea says - “I love you”
“I love you too.” This time, Voltaea sits up and pulls the other woman into a feverish kiss. There’s a fade to black, then a brief shot of the two of them lying next to each other with Alara barely staying in her robe with her hair completely disheveled - I thought it most effective to cut there, just enough to hint at what might have happened without veering into crass territory. Alara had talked about wanting to frame the whole relationship as the girl’s idea, but not a soul out there was going to believe she had no hand in it. My work of art still painted Voltaea as the forward one in most ways, but putting Alara’s confession first gave it the kick of believability it needed. And with the pleasant side-effect of her looking like the vulnerable one for once, too!
Agrippina tries to formulate a quippy response as soon as the screen cuts back to the now-dull live shots of the Games, but all she manages to come up with is - “Alara still said it first.”
“You said we hadn’t heard the girl speak. Now we have, and it seems to me like she’s in agreement with me - that whatever else you might think, the two of them are very much in love.” No one speaks as Ismene takes her seat. The only sound apart from the low chatter of the background feed is some choked sniffles from the opposite side of the sofa. I’m not sure what cracked her - whether it was the stress of revealing her deepest feelings to the public, or her anger at me, or just her finally letting the emotion of the day overwhelm her. But she cracked, and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever orchestrated. Do you know how powerful it feels to crack a woman like that? And of course every time she gets emotional she runs to me for support - two birds with a single, perfectly-cast stone.
Selica finally manages to gather herself enough to play the leader again - You could see on her face how it had rattled her, though. Not so much the contents of the video as the fact that I had managed to sneak the whole thing by her. “Alara, do you have anything you’d like to add?”
When she finally calmed her tears enough to say something, it took every ounce of restraint I had in me not to throw it right back in her face. Again, she’d spent AN ENTIRE YEAR barely speaking to me, she’d made me cry on camera more times than I can count - and then of course she’d belittle me for the tears! But I’ve always been the biggest person among the three of us. And so I put that urge aside to play my role as best I could. And Alara, red-eyed and tear-stained, gave the world the genuine confession she needed to to play her own - “I just want her to come home to me.”
Then we- what? Oh, yes, I suppose we are out of time aren’t we, but we’ll have to-
(8:03pm recording ends)