marcus greenstone (philistines) wrote in colosseum, @ 2014-03-22 11:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! interim, - districts, victor: 42nd marcus greenstone |
WHO: Marcus Greenstone (and his sister, Faustina Greenstone)
WHAT: A reunion
WHEN: Between the 56th and 57th Games
WHERE: District 2 Victor's Village
PROMPT: Eternity
"What are you doing here?" she asked with deceptive mildness. For a moment, there was no recognition; bored bemusement hovered on Marcus's features before his lips twisted slightly. After all, it had been over five years. "This is my house, Faustina," he finally told his sister, pushing past her. She trailed behind him, boots clicking on the tiled floors, past the newly painted frescoes to the enclosed courtyard in the center of the house. The hot wind whistled through the silvery branches of the potted olive trees. "Shouldn't I be asking why you're here, instead?" Faustina took a seat on the fountain's rim, arms folded, examining him with the light, piercing gaze that had caused him so much discomfort in past years. She looked older than he did, Marcus noted with some surprise -- still strikingly pretty, but with a hard set to her jaw that he didn't remember. (He wouldn't have believed that she was noting the exact opposite at the moment; that he had a new weariness in his eyes.) "You were in the Capitol last time I had leave," she said, without blame, but with the clipped tones of a Peacekeeper making her report. "I'm on leave for a month. I got tired of Four and put in a transfer -- approved with surprising speed. Shockingly, there are some benefits to being a Greenstone." He looked up from the careful study of the mosaic pattern on the fountain's rim. "To where?" "District 1." She was now staring at him, expecting a reaction. Marcus yawned. "I fail to see how this has any impact on my life whatsoever." "Good," Faustina said sharply. "It won't have any impact on your life. I'm telling you because it can't. And if you weren't such a fucking idiot you would --" He gave her a cold smile. --- "I thought about staying here," Faustina volunteered. He never initiated conversation with her, and especially not when walking through the center of town, where most citizens of Two gave their Victors respectful space. At least, now it was respectful, he thought wryly; prior to Brutus and Diana, it had been disdainful. She continued without invitation, "They always need people supervising the quarries and weapons manufacturing." "How nice," Marcus said boredly. They stepped through the gates into the Victor's Village, past Zinc's forge and Purbecka's house, around the corner to the columned portico of his own villa. Even the tennis court looked uninviting in the blazing sun. "You could consider doing it too." "Don't be absurd," Marcus let out a hollow laugh. "I'm busy." "Busy? The other victors actually do things when they're here. Some days, you sit around drinking from eleven in the morning." He looked at the gleaming watch on his wrist, brushing the sand off, refusing to admit the desperation and loneliness, the dissatisfaction, the exhaustion of waiting for the Capitol summons. "There's nothing for me in this godforsaken hole," he said finally. "Absolutely nothing." "Oh, I know," Faustina said. They were standing next to a brilliantly painted fresco in the foyer, titled JUSTICE AND MERCY BRING AN END TO THE DARK DAYS. In the distance, the faint tinkling of the fountain continued. "But you've ensured that yourself." --- "Keep in mind," she said, pulling the helmet's visor down over her eyes, "That the Capitol won't always be there for you. You don't control when you go, or when you see her, or anything about it. What's always there is this District." "Thank you for your sage advice," he sneered, reaching for her metal trunk. "Let me take this to the train for you. It seems like a brotherly gesture." Faustina was pulling the regulation white gloves over her slender wrists. "I'll handle it. I hate when people see me off." She adjusted the guns strapped to her waist, and pulled the handle from the trunk. She pressed her lips together, considering her goodbye. "Mother always says that our obligations to this District are eternal." The weight of Faustina's words hung in the hot, dry air. Finally, Marcus nodded at her, but he was already reaching into his pocket and feeling his fingers clench, almost involuntarily, around the packet of fine, white powder waiting there. |