WHO: Jessie Link and Edsel Saturn WHAT: Two old people being relieved they don't have to mentor WHEN: Day of the private training session WHERE: D6 Quarters STATUS: Complete. WARNINGS: Language.
When Jessie came into D6's common room, Edsel was settled in and eating a sandwich. The luxurious foods for the Games were a delight, but sometimes a man wanted something simple. He slowed down in his consumption of the sandwich long enough to wave at her without actually stopping chewing. Once he'd swallowed, he actually spoke. "Hey, Jessie. Come on, sit down, and tell me what you think of our prospects.
They'd seen a lot of Games together, Jessie and Edsel. The time for bullshit was long past. Straight shooting was the order of the day.
Link was in a world all her own, she usually was. As the sound of Edsel’s voice drew her from her thoughts she realized she had probably missed something. Link had, the physical gestures sometimes missed in her haze. “Oh Hi,” she said with a smile pleased to see him. As he told her to come and sit she nodded her head. “Ah yes, our prospects.” Link had mixed feelings towards them and their success.
“I won’t lie, the girl worries me about as much as the boy.” Link laughed, “but in entirely different ways.” Link couldn’t quite put her finger on the girl, but the boy seemed too nice. “I just wondered if we will ever see the brutality we need from the boy.”
"I don't like putting all our eggs in one basket, but I think he may be what we got this year. The nice gets whipped out of 'em if they make it past the Cornucopia." Edsel nodded sagely, even though he wouldn't be surprised if Jessie missed it. "The girl, though. They're wondering if she might be--" and he made a gesture to mimic a syringe at Jessie. This time he thought better of not saying what he was thinking in words, and added, verbally, "Using."
“You’re right about that,” Link sighed. He was very right about something getting whipped out of you after the Cornucopia. Lots of things seemed to if Link remembered correctly. Link smiled at Edsel, but it soon faded. “If she was going through withdrawal we’d see that already.” Link shuddered, “Do we not remember what I’m like?” Granted it was years of use, the girl didn’t have as many years in as Link did. “I don’t think she is.” Link’s hand went to the bend of her left arm as she collapsed back in her chair more. “But could you blame her?”
Edsel shrugged and shook his head. He blamed himself, but that was different. "I haven't seen enough of her one way or another to have an idea since we've been here. But if you say she's not, I believe you." Jessie would know. She was further down that railroad than Edsel was or ever wanted to be.
"The boy, Zeal, asked me some questions. I think he thinks I'm old and respectable or something. Or know shit about shit. He's not like me. Don't know how to advise him except I don't think what I did will work for him." Which Edsel had told him, and Jessie had probably seen, but Edsel felt it wise to remind her.
Link just didn’t think it was possible. She would have barely been able to function. At least that is how she recalls it. Perhaps it is different for everyone, but Link had her doubts. “Either way we need to pull something out of her, else we are not getting two tributes out of the blood bath.” No point beating around the bush about what the Cornie was.
“It isn’t really our place.” Link sighed, more out of relief. “We can advise but will what the kids say to the tributes be different? Probably.” Link started to draw shapes with her fingers on her thigh as she spoke. Soothing her from the stress that was tribute talk. “I just hope he finds the strength in himself to know what to do when he gets there.”
"I ain't telling him different from Kia and Geo. Just telling him what worked for me, and didn't. That what I did was worked with my strengths and he needs to know his own strengths to work with them." To someone else that might have sounded like Edsel was indignant, but Jessie had known him, mentored with him, long enough, to hear the undertones of despair. "You know what Wren fucking reminds me of? Axel."
Who had been the other tribute in Kia's year, the one that they'd left swinging in the breeze while they put all their efforts into Geo's cousin. And damned the poor boy to death by their choice.
A sound somewhat like a squeak escaped Link as he mentioned Axel. “But we made the right choice.” Whether they did or not, it still haunted Link. They had barely focused on him because it seemed more important to bring family home. Luckily they had. Link knew she would have felt ten times worse about Axel had Kia died as well. “Kia will make a connection with Wren, I know she will.” Link had to have the faith the younger woman would.
Link shook her head, “They will do what they want right. They just need to find it in themselves to want to survive.”
"It ain't Kia's fault if she can't." Which wasn't the most comforting thing he could have said, and Edsel knew it. If Jessie had been paying attention, she'd have seen it in Edsel's face. "She and Geo are doing their best."
He liked Zeal all right, Edsel really did. But if it was him or Wren on one side of the scales and the Malloys and Jessie on the other, Edsel had no doubt which pan he was laying his thumb on. "We'll all prepare 'em both as best we can, and then may the odds be ever with them." It was a hollow mockery, but it was what they had.
“Of course they are doing their best,” Link sat up straighter looking at her old friend. “And if Kia can’t then Wren is a lost cause and we gotta accept it.” Another inevitable death on the horizon.
Link rested her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands. “Yes, those damn fucking odds.” Her voice muffled slightly. Looking through her fingers at Edsel before finally dropping her hands lank in front of her. “I almost wish to say, wake me up when it is over.”
Edsel petted her hair a little, the most comfort he knew how to give her. "You rest, Jessie, and I will."