#uvstarters

Ollie had been having probably the worst two days in the world. 

Not that anybody he loved was injured from the blast in the Capitol, but because the part of him that empathized with people was getting the best of him. Because of that, over the last two days, Ollie had three seizures. His body was torn up from the effort of them and he was exhausted. No one could leave the Village, let alone their houses for that matter after some Victors caused a fuss outside regarding those who were missing. Olile’s heart hurt for them, even if he didn’t know them well. He couldn’t imagine what he’d do if it had been any of his sisters or his parents in that thing.

The thought of it alone had brought him into a seizure as it worked him up to the point it set it off. He hated that the thing that caused his seizures was stress. It was a stressful world they lived in and there was no cure-all for his condition. He had to live with the consequences of being born that way. 

In the late morning of the third day, the Village seemed quieter than normal, as he found out that the lock down had been lifted. So, in order to get some air, Ollie had gone out onto the front porch to sit down on the steps, leaning his head against the banister as he watched the empty streets. The sky wasn’t full of smoke and flames anymore, but he couldn’t imagine how many people had died out there. If there would be funerals for the people from the Village. He felt himself get worked up and he took a deep breath, clenching his fists. He didn’t want to have another one. His parents had been through enough as it was.

The last few days had been filled with both tension and normalcy.  Marina was scared of what happened, what this could mean for the future, and worried about those who were caught up in the explosion.  Blissfully, Waverly was too young to understand what was going on.  Her daughter, not yet two, had merely had to deal with her mother being more clingy.  Though what toddler would object?

Now, in the early afternoon Marina sat in the rocking chair on her porch.  It was a nice day, there was no longer smoke in the air.  Things felt normal again.  Waverly had dozed to sleep in her mother’s arms, her baby blanket covering her against any potential chill.  Marina knew she should get up and go put Waverly down for her nap, but she wasn’t ready to.  These moments were precious and what happened only reinforced that belief.

Marina’s hand kept moving up and down the toddler’s back in a soothing rhythm as she rocked, only stopping when she saw someone approaching.  “It’s a nice day,” she started.  “Almost makes you forget everything.”

Well, his first go-round as a Victor during the Games hadn’t exactly been a resounding success, but this was Alexander Knight after all. It wasn’t as if his own time in the arena had been full of glory and valor, and he doubted that being a Victor would be any different.  He definitely would never be a very useful Mentor compared to the others - the only advice he had for the District 2 Tributes had been, ‘Don’t die,’ which clearly hadn’t done the trick. And he was never going to be a master of ‘the game’: not the one in the arena, but the one played within the Capitol, with words and smiles and deals made in the dark. But as long as he only had to be trotted out once a year, he could handle it all... or at least he hoped as much. 

As it were, Alex was seated strategically within the village, where he could idly watch the flurry of activity post-games without having to take part directly. His hands were kept busy by  soft stones and a set of carving tools, crafting tokens to honor the fallen Tributes of District 2 (they’d go nicely with the other twenty-three on his shelf.) 

“So, that was definitely a... thing.”

Valor hadn’t slept all day since the raids on the houses.

As far as he knew, the lettering and the Mockingjay was still on the back of his house, but he couldn’t be there. He told Rhys that he needed air and he needed to be out of the house for a while. So he had gotten dressed shortly after they made sure everything was okay and left the house without his husband or his children. 

He didn’t go into the Capitol outright. He spent most of the time in the park, walking the trail that led up to the city’s edge and then back around in a continuous loop. After several hours, his feet were aching. He hadn’t muttered a word to anybody, ignoring anybody who was trying to talk to him. A bandage was around his left wrist and he still had bruises that were easily seen from the neckline of his shirt from being man handled. 

Indie’s decade-old burn wounds had reopened, the right side of her body screaming with that familiar pain from when she had caused an explosion in her own arena years ago. The burns weren’t as bad as they had been upon her exit from the arena. This time, though, there was the falling rubble. And when a cement block fell on her left arm, pinning her to the ground as searing hot pain returned to her skin and up those scars that remained on her flesh, Indie thought she very well could die here. In what was supposed to be the safest place in the country.

She’d been thrown into the hospital- one of the first to be evacuated from the site due to being a public persona- and had her wounds bandaged, her arm carefully wrapped and placed into a cast. And she’d been left there. The room was stark white, the air stagnant and nearly impossible to breathe.

As soon as she’d been given the go-ahead after several days, Indie spent as much time in the hospital cafeteria as possible. The amount of people here was comforting; she loved the circulation and the motion of people going about their business here. So here Indie sat, slowly munching through an apple that she’d picked up off the produce table, when a figure approached close to her.

“Please don’t make me go back,” she sighed, assuming it was one of the nurses attempting to push her back into that stale room. // @uvstarters

“No, of course not,” she said curtly to the Capitolite. “Please... please don’t mention that again.”

She turned and walked away. Sure, he could have been a rebel simply scouting for the cause. But it was more likely that he worked for the Capitol. For the President and the Gamemakers. If she said one affirming word, let one idea out there that she might be rebelling in any serious way...

Pixel had eight siblings left to worry about, after all.

Her mind was frazzled as she nearly ran into another figure standing nearby. It took her by surprise; Pixel very rarely actually ran into somebody on accident, since she’d never been particularly clumsy. 

“Um, sorry,” she said softly, trying to hide the nerves that had risen up in the back of her throat. “I’m just...” // @uvstarters

Ares didn’t leave his house for the majority of the day. He saw Fell, but he knew that Serenity was probably stationed in her house with Censa and Aurora while Luciana dealt with the majority of the issues. She was the Captain in these parts, which was an unsettling concept. No doubt Serenity was bothered, but he couldn’t get to her right away. He sent her a text to check in with her, but so far, he had gotten nothing.

It was a chaotic day. There was far too much chaos for his liking and he worried for Alex and his fellow District Two team, but even then he was afraid for everyone else, too. He wondered what was going on with his sisters down the street. Did his mother get interrogated? There were several questions that were left unanswered.

Still, after the Peacekeepers split from the area for the most part, Ares finally left his house and went outside to sit on his front porch. He cracked his knuckles, watching the people and homes around him. As he saw someone pass by, he called out to them.

Ollie was rather amazed that he convinced his parents to go to this party. There was no way he wanted to sit this one out, considering how many Capitolites he had the capacity to annoy out of principle. Not that Ollie was a forthright annoying person, but when it came to the Capitol? He loved to stoke the fire and make them look stupid without them realizing it. 

This was going to get real fun real quick.

He had just arrived at the party, hearing the birds chirping and the cicadas going nuts, but he was more interested in the sweets table than anything at the moment. He was in a traditional suit with a green tie, looking as dapper as he could manage it. He was glad that he didn’t have to watch his sisters, considering Summer had been a little bit of a holy terror before they left. 

Ollie plucked a chocolate covered strawberry off of the plate and took a bite out of it, savoring the flavor of it. He was used to luxuries like this, considering he had spent his entire life here rather than in District Eleven where he had gone for the last several years for the Reaping. It was weird to see his father’s home District and how destitute it was. It reminded him how fortunate he was each year he went home.

He finished off the strawberry and took a few pieces of chocolate before he turned around and nearly ran straight into someone.