My Attempt At Callista

D2 Victors as memes

Iris: Welcome to the another episode of How to Ruin Iris' Life. We are back with more depressing moments and heart wrenching betrayals.

Ronan:

Ronan: I just asked how were you doing.

Odin: I'm kind of crushing on someone, but I'm worried about telling you who it is, because you're not going to like it.

Luna: Just rip the bandage off.

Odin: It's Hera.

Luna: Put the bandage back on.

This is inspired from @lorata's ficTake My Hand.

Starring bb Lyme, Adessa and the Awkwardest Teatime.

PS: This did not end up as angsty as I thought but considering the rise of my feelings, I might write more about it, so sorry Lyme.

Enjoy.

As the vapour from her teacup rise, Lyme felt the intenseness of the whole situation once again. Every time she blinks, she can see younger Adessa -covered in blood and hands shaking with bloodlust though her face remained as cold as the metal of her old man's belt.

Lyme purses her lips and just focuses on the damn tea which tastes better with sugar. One sip after another, she felt, well, worse than she already is. Her cuticles which were tarnished by her picking the skin up was obviously visible.

Adessa looks at her, once glance causing the same affect as thousand blades and Lyme doesn't have the time nor the calmness to think how could that happen when she is so close to lose the last pieces of her supposed sanity.

"You had not touched your scone, child." Her grandmentor says and Lyme wants to vanish like how the amount of sugar dissolved in her tea when she added it to her tea.

Lyme waits for the question; what's wrong little girl?, Nero would say with his overwhelming sincerity and probably make a move towards her to stop her from peeling her skin off because it is not healthy for you.

It never comes.

"Oh," she says instead, her nerves taking away her ability to say something and it is not like she can make a conversation without messing up. Advantages of being a new Victor. "Hadn't notice."

Adessa was expecting an apologies or sorry, I have no appetite or just the right measure of nod and smile and stab. Poor her, she won't get any of that bullshit from Lyme.

Apparently Adessa does not mind that either, she simply looks at Lyme who feels attacked by an army of vicious ants in the face. "Okay, I'll not force you to eat, dear. Though I recommend the ones with lavender, quite tasteful if you ask me-"

"Well, I don't." Lyme says in a tone not even near to polite but oh well, too late for that.

"What was that, dear?" Adessa raises an eyebrow and her voice makes Lyme feel like as if she is chewing on an iceberg if that's possible. She, however, does not back up because that's not how you survive from death; no matter how far you run, she will always catch you.

"You heard me." she snarls.

"Certainly," Adessa nods, not an inch of her anger showing and it makes Lyme more frustrated because why is she not caring!? "However, I'd like to ignore it, you are young and raw and most certainly lack the etiquette but I have not expected you to knew it considering this brute attitude."

"I-"

"Oh, I am not angry at you, how can I?" Adessa muses and Lyme tries to calm herself because she is not a science experiment to inspect by the hands of Adessa the Great. "Though, I firmly believe ignorance is worse than crudeness so it is my duty to teach you one day."

There are things way more important than knowing how to use the right spoon but the burning feeling inside her wanted to prove Adessa was wrong and she can learn how to -or pretend to- have manners.

"One day." Lyme says and bites her scone, the flavor of lavender makes her tongue feel funny.

Adessa wraps her elegant fingers delicately on the holder. "Perfect. Callista shall join us too for making the meeting of you two easier for my Nero."

Oh.

Lyme: Let me show you a picture from last night that really upset me.

Claudius: Okay, but in my defense, Dash bet me 50 cents I couldn't drink all that shampoo.

Lyme: That's not what I wanted to- you drank SHAMPOO?!

Shauna: i love you zeke

Zeke: i love you too shauna

*silence*

Shauna: we both love you as well, Four

Four: thanks. I was feeling left out

Adessa & Enobaria's first meeting.

Well this idea popped up in my head and thanks to @randomfacter I am not the only one who thinks these two have sort of a connection. Other than coming from the same Victor-branch, of course.

Enobaria is mad.

She is so, so fucking mad at Nero that she might tear his throat out.

For the starters, her mentor is not so bad. Obviously he has his faults. She has them too, like how she just let him send her to her Grand-Mentor, The Pantsuit Lady or whatever the heck people call Adessa nowadays.

She does not remember much about Adessa; except for the fact that she was an Offering, very smart, and almost killed Snow, her 'frosty ex', for Nero.

Also she dissected a person, which Enobaria can appreciate, unlike her fashion choices.

Walking towards her house beside Nero, makes her nervous a bit. The rosebushes surounding her garden-all red, a contrast to Snow's whites- are oddly intimidating.

"Everything about that woman is intimidating, Bari." Devon said to her once.

She grinned at him, showing her pointy teeth which are currently protected by a plastic. "And yet you recorded porn with Callista."

"It was not supposed to be pornographic!" he yelled with a horrified gaze. "That was supposed to be a working out video!"

It will always be a mystery how Devon can talk with Callista, but freezes while describing briefly about Adessa. They cannot be so different, their names almost sound the same. When she was a little girl she always thought that words meant the same thing if they sound similar.

As they walked towards to door, she convinced herself that it won't be so bad. Everyone here is a family, regardless of their backgrounds and personalities, there is no need to panic, Nero would say as if she is a child. But maybe she is one to his eyes.

She was so deep in her mind, she had not noticed the woman who opened the door for them.

The Pantsuit Lady stands in front of them with a slight smile on her face. The previous thought about her and Callista's possibility of them being the same, completely vanished from Enobaria's mind. Adessa, who is standing in front of her is smaller than she had imagined and standing so straight that her own spine ached. If she looked closely there was something underneath the collar of her vest.

Was that blood?

"...as I said, it will only be a day. Just make sure she is comfortable." said Nero.

"Of course, dear." regal looking woman says and really? Who uses or need to use the word 'dear' or 'darling' when you can just simply kill them. Is this the same woman who feared by everyone years ago and still to this day? "Come inside, child."

And she does.

Adessa's house is grand and clean, way too clean that it makes Enobaria wonders how can she will spend a day with her?

They sit one of the couches, in front of them there is a table which has a drawing book and several colour pencils on it.

Nero. Of course her sweet, gentle, and hug- crazed mentor clearly had a vision about her getting bored with an old person.

Adessa can take the offence.

"Do whatever you want. I will continue to work on my recent project. Tea time is not that far from now. So be a dear and stay here until I come back." With that the person who was told to be her babysitter went away.

She does not like it but at least she can draw something. Pantsuit Lady choke on her own death, perhaps.

___________________________________________

It pasted an hour or more than that, or time is just an illusion and she is actually one of those dolls who stucked in their plastic pockets.

Where was Adessa?

Enobaria knows nothing about tea ceremony, despite her parents being rich and hired a nanny to help her become a lady. Well she is not a lady, and she does not have proper manners; therefore it is natural for her to go around and explore someone else's house. She is sure it is late for tea time.

Not sure about where to go, Enobaria followed the hall she saw while coming in. For a moment, she can feel the Arena's artificial breeze and how nice it felt to slaughter the targets.

But, but, but. They were not targets Enobaria, they were people like you. Why don't you just take that knife and-

"Shut up!" she yelled at top of her lungs. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!'

"Oh, dear. Are you alright?" and she is there. Looking down at her with usual unemotional face of hers.

"Do I look like okay? Well, I never am! You know I'm mental! I mean who thinks about tearing someone's throat out with their fucking teeth, no one-"

"I did." says Adessa and what? She doesn't looks like mental. Apparently Enobaria does not needs to say anything, her traitor of a face reflects her brain thoughts, or Adessa's Talent is mind reading, maybe both, shit, who knows?

"Well, when I was young, I started with dissecting dead frogs. They were interesting but not as much as a human. After years, I eventually went to 'Residental' or 'Final' for me, since the system was different. It was my first human kill and the trainers do not allowed us to go brutal, that was for the Arena. So I did the next best thing; I grabbed my dagger and ripped the corpse's vocal chords off."

Enobaria gulps. Admiration and fear starts to make out in her head and she cannot stop it. "Then what happened?"

Embodiment of Elite Manners grinned, glad to got her Grand-Victor's attention. She bent down and made Enobaria stand up.

"Obviously, it was not enough. Nothing is ever enough when it comes to human bodies. I was curious, way too curious for my own good but can you blame me? I did not done what you did, child, but I did wonder about what human teeth's capacity of damage would be. And in 29, well, you know the rest."

"So, you don't-you don't think that I'm a monster?"

"Not completely," she said with utmost honesty. "Each one of us, except some exceptions, has monsters inside us, however, it does not erase the fact that we are also humans. What you did was an act of surviving, a true spirit of a Victor. Do people thinks it's wrong, yes. But you survived in the end and that is all that matters."

"You care?"

"Not in a way most people do." she admits and it makes sense. "My advice for you is do not show how truly angry you are to them. They are vultures who wants to make you suffer, and it is not like we are in peace. They ruined my Nero and they should pay."

Adessa said this words with such malice that there must be deeper than this. She must planning something, a want she cannot reach yet.

"So in public eyes, we must be killers, not at home though." she says and seeing her elder nod shows that she is right. Then something suddenly flashes in her mind and she asks away without thinking. She will die because of this. "What was your recent project? Was the blood on your vest related to that?"

Adessa's expression darkens. "Don't mind that at all, dear. We all need our secrets and you are also way much young for this."

"Will you tell me in future?"

"No. But I do hope you will see one day, child. Let's go to kitchen, we still have so much time."

Enobaria nods and lets Adessa to lead her to kitchen.

(Somewhere dark in the house, one of Nero's potential cougar screams until she cannot anymore.)

___________________________________________

Nero comes back and takes Enobaria back to home, with a exhausted look in his eyes. "How was it?" he asks as they putting plates on the dinner table together.

"Surprisingly good. I am not a complete monster, I just look like one. Same for you. You look like a wild wolf but you're just a puppy."

Nero smiles and months ago she would throw the plate on her mentors head, but now, she really likes him. "Glad that you enjoyed."

Enobaria looks at her food, some mash she cannot identify. She had a flashback about the dinner she ate with Adessa. It was a calm moment, neither of them talked much; perks of disliking socializing. After dinner Terrfying But Admirable Lord of Pantsuits tried to teach her chess.

It was hopeless when Enobaria tried to itch her teeth with a bishop.

Regardless she liked the time she spent with her Grand-Mentor.

"Bari?" Nero's voice is soft and careful. "Bari, are you alright?"

She played with her food with her fork. "Adessa and Enobaria sounds a little similar too. Like training and maiming, you know." she says in a thoughtful voice.

Nero looked absolutely confused.

Misha: Why do people who use baby changing stations always come back with the same baby?

Emory: Remind me to never let you babysit for anyone ever.

My attempt at Nero

Victors & Arenas

So, I thought it would be nice to write about the Victor's Arena's for fun and, you know, pain to my favourites. I did not wrote everyone in detail since some of them were already said, though I tried to extend as much as I could.

All the character rights go to @lorata, I am only responsible for the traumas I caused for her Victors.

Enough rambling, here it is:

Ronan (16th Games)

A desert or somewhere with a lack of water. His year definitely was a flashback of war and Dark Days and really, really horrible. He was like a squeezed balloon in the end, all the aggression, misery, bloodlust gone and just wanted to get out and...just exist.

Caius (17th Games)

An airship because in my headcanon, Caius admired when his parents taking him away with them with a plane trip which was about a family vacation (though he did not knew it was for escaping from war) and wanted to be a pilot. In a modern world, he would have, but it's Panem so he will get one melancholy Arena which brings painful, forgotten memories.

Iris (20th Games)

I wrote about it here but I'll quickly summarise that without spoiling much. Her Arena was an ocean with ice sheets on it and most of the tributes either got hypothermia or a monster coming after them if they are alone. After winning her Arena, Iris got half deaf and she had a very upsetting things happened to her constantly.

Luna (27th Games)

Mental asylum because why not? My version of Luna is quite Enobaria-like (especially about Iris) and her parents were not the best which I wrote about it. In her Arena, the tributes were placed in a room (three separate rooms with only one weapon in them) which their characteristics were match just to cause a lot more psychological pain since they would recall their past AND a sign to districts that Snow knows everything, even their favourite food.

Adessa (29th Games)

Abandoned laboratory for irony. Obviously she was marvelled about how interesting was it and for a moment she thought killing in here was a waste -only for a moment, dear- but then with the first blood she spilled, she easily got into the game. Her dissecting a tribute in the end was her plan and she got the gadgets for that- a win-win for her. Her Arena would be one of the most interesting for Two's since the Abbot's (Adessa's family, which I also created and she is/was a part of them so ~instant fame.

Hera (31st Games)

An aquarium. That year was definitely in favour of Four but she is Callista the Butcher's future mentor, she won't go down that quick. She stayed quiet and hid away from the tributes, made them believe she was drowned before last 5 days. She killed the last tribute with stabbing them with the broken glass of the aquarium, strike after strike, until they were a bloody mess. Needles to say she got her demons out of her.

Odin (32nd Games)

His was a normal, indoor one -as normal as Panem can get- and was all about staying alive and defeat the other tributes, or that's what they thought. The Arena was getting smaller at each day and triggered a lot of claustrophobia, even from the ones who did not have that. In the end he got a crown and a lost eyeball.

Callista (41st Games)

Calli's games were all about sex and blood and torture so I thought a brothel with a lot of sex-toys-turned-into-weapons would be great for her. In her Arena, she was not quick, obviously, and had the least kill count on the first day- it got better (worse for others) after that. She tried to be calm about her killings on the first day -just a stab in the heart, guts, or wherever the fuck she wanted, depends on her mood- but then a feeling came over her and she smeared innards into snow and make a pretty picture of it AND made sure no one attacked her during it.

Nero (42nd Games)

His games were the ones with no weapons so an apocalypse Arena for our Nero. There were loads of volcanoes, natural disasters at best and not enough food. From the Hunger Games canon, the cannibal tribute Titus (?) would exists in this Arena and became one of Nero's victims, thankfully. Though he did not like what he did, he was in relief that it all end and he will get love and hugs- oh. (Unless it turns into my Rock, Misery and Hugs which Adessa and Nero hugged for five times)

Brutus (49th Games)

Like Odin's, it was pretty simple and was described in To Love a Beast, so I will take that and add a memory erasing bomb which affected him partially- he heard voices he did not recognise and stuff like that.

Emory (52nd Games)

Her Arena was indoors and was in favour for outer districts so I thought it might be a house full of riddles and logical thinking must be required. The weapons were hidden in tricky places so most of the tributes choked one another or pressed on their throats. There were no windows so Emory's and tribute's understanding of time were limited.

Lyme (55th Games)

A survival Arena, nothing much to be done for others when Careers were all active and had Lyme as their leader. She was stealthy enough to sneak out from their tent and find undiscovered weapons and use them against the Pack in the end.

Artemisia (57th Games)

An Arena so much like Centre, it raised a flame of cockiness and the strong belief that she will win- or this would be the scenario if Six kept it in his pants but oh well, Misha is a though nut to crack weaklings.

Devon (60th Games)

A factory with lots of deadly machines to fight with. No weapons but if you're smart enough, you can create one as the mindset. Alas, he could not because there wasn't enough wood so he kissed people and slit their throats with a nail clipper.

Enobaria (62nd Games)

A jungle full of mysteries and poison and full of tactics. Bari was not the flashiest one in her games and most assumed she would die, until she proved herself with killing 5 tributes in Bloodbath. In her final fight, she was weaponless -weak- and her instincts got over and she bared her teeth and teared the boy's throat apart.

Claudius (67th Games)

All kids except for Careers as we know and I pretty much liked it so I do not have much to add except for some kids cuddling each other when they were sticky with blood.

Petra (72nd Games)

An apartment with three floors and wicked weapons. Petra was not a fool to not to notice the ends of her signature weapon was poisonous so she choose to use a weapon she had not excel with- which caused her trainers smack their foreheads but she got survived in the end, and it's all that matters.