"...Oh I love it! Our latest victor from District 2 looks stunning, majestic, like a dream! Like she is the meadow, what do you think, folks?"
Ah, Caesar Flickerman. A mystery of a man who Nemesis never understood but could find herself respecting.
Slightly.
The way that he seemed to make uneasy tributes seem less uncomfortable to an audience allowed Nemesis to appreciate him. Caesar made the audience consider even the most useless of tributes.
Nemesis let herself flash a smile at the audience as Caesar walked around her, loudly admiring her dress and makeup. He fanned his face and took Nemesis' hand, leading her to a chair before he finally sat down as well.
"Well, might I just say, again, that you look absolutely lovely, drop-dead gorgeous, am I right folks?" Caesar exclaimed, looking toward the audience.
"Thank you, Caesar, you look stunning as well," Nemesis said. "New hair?"
"I'm so glad you noticed," Caesar said, waving his hand to calm the laughing audience. "Now, Nemesis. This is, what, your second year being a mentor?"
"Yes, last year was my first," Nemesis responded. "It was a unique experience, I can't wait to do it again this year."
"Yes, yes," Caesar said. "How do you feel your experience with your tributes this year will be? Better? Worse?"
"I wish I'd never have to mentor anyone ever again. I wish I'd never done this in the first place."
At least, that's what she wanted to say.
"Well Caesar, to be honest with you, it really depends on the tribute. It depends on how willing they are to listen and, when it comes down to it, how fast they can learn. How quickly they can think. Of course, I'm sure my tributes this year will be nothing if not incredible."
"I'm glad you think that," Caesar said. "I'm sure that's something we'd all love to see, some fire to spice up the arena, isn't that right folks?"
Again, the audience cheered, but this didn't make Nemesis feel anything positive. Her stomach tightened. Some fire to spice up the arena. Fire was never her strong suit.
"And I'm sure that's just what we'll get," Nemesis said. "I have a feeling the 74th Hunger Games will be one hell of a showstopper."
"I'm sure it's not just me, but several others, who wish it to be as much of a showstopper as the 72nd," Caesar said, leaning forward. "I've said this time and time before, and it is something I believe with my whole heart; your games will go down in history as one of the greatest games Panem has ever seen."
"Thank you, Caesar," Nemesis said, leaning forward in correspondence. "With the 74th games coming up, I keep thinking to myself how fortunate I was for everything because it led to all of this. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the Hunger Games."
Fortunate? Lies, lies, lies.
"You went into those games as one of the youngest in the arena and came out, well, the only one alive," Caesar said, looking her in the eye. "You fought not only hard but smart, which is something just as important that some tributes tend to overlook. Do you have any words of advice, for the upcoming tributes?"
She was a killer. The foundation of her advice would be to forget your humanity and be an animal. Kill upon instinct.
But she couldn't say that.
"Don't ignore your surroundings. Your own ignorance can kill you faster than anyone or anything else."
"And isn't that a piece of magnificent advice I'd advise all you future tributes to follow," Caesar said, adopting a gentle voice for just that moment, reverting back to his regular show host voice for his next line. "Now, we've seen her games. We've watched, rewatched, and analyzed. But we haven't seen much of Nemesis' life as a victor, now have we folks?"
The audience collectively shouted no, eager to hear what Nemesis would have to say.
"And wouldn't we love to hear about it?" Caesar encouraged further.
They burst into applause. Nemesis found herself appreciating Caesar deeply for carrying their conversation. She was a person who enjoyed conversation, through and through. However, she found that after the games, she began to decline in that area because she never really wanted to talk to Caesar. It seemed that, anytime she talked to the man, horrible memories were brought forth.
She didn't have very many instances where'd she'd exercise her appeal on anyone. Nemesis tended to avoid anything social unless it was mandated.
Sometimes she realized that this type of person isn't who she was before the games, but along with that, she realized that there was no way for her to go back. She didn't think she deserved to be who she used to be, not after what she'd done. She was different now.
"Well, Caesar," Nemesis smiled at him (she didn't want to), and then at the crowd (she didn't want to do that either), "what would you like to know?"
"I think what we'd been longing to know throughout this past year must be how your life has changed," he said, gesturing towards himself and the audience. "It's been almost two years for you, now that you're 16- but you did, however, spend your first 14 years as a regular citizen of Panem. How have you found yourself adapting to the change?"
"Well, above all," Nemesis started, not skipping a beat, "I'd say I'm very satisfied with the endless supply of food."
Caesar and the audience laughed as if she had made a funny joke. It wasn't very funny to her, however, because in the poorer part of District 2, food was a genuine struggle. She assumed it was less of one compared to the poorer districts, like 8, or 12, but it was still there.
It never affected her harshly, for her parents were relatively high up in the business of stonework. For most of her life, income was never a problem. She never had to wonder if there'd be food on the table. Though once both of Nemesis' parents passed in a work accident, things began to get complicated.
"Oh, yes, and I do love having Enobaria as my neighbor," she added. "She makes for a great scare in the early mornings."
The audience laughed louder as they clapped for one of their favorite victors.
"Yes, I love it," Caesar said, reeling the audience back in. "And are you living with Orion, or in the house next to his?"
"I'm Orion's neighbor, and I think we both prefer having at least a little bit of space; he's a bit of a pain," she deadpanned.
Not completely a lie. Orion was a very...teasing person. At least, he used to be, but he hadn't fully lost that quality. Nemesis supposed that was a good thing, but it did inspire her to take the new space that was given to her.
Caesar laughed loudly at Nemesis' comic response. "Well, there is a reason the two of you are Capitol favorites at the moment. You know, you two remind me an awful lot of Cashmere and Gloss Nicholo. Correct me if I am wrong, but you four are the only pairs of siblings to ever have won the Hunger Games?"
"You would be correct," Nemesis said. "And I'm glad we remind you of them, I adore them both. Cashmere is like the sister I never had. And needed, to balance out the levels of testosterone in our household growing up."
Nemesis and Cashmere were very similar and she found a sense of comfort in that. They were both the younger sister and they fought smart.
She found that Gloss was very similar to Orion; he had a teasing nature, but if he cared about something, it was clear.
The Cadels and the Nicholos were practically parallels; the only difference was that the Nicholos were able to fight to feel their emotions whilst the Nemesis and Orion fought to get away from them. They fought so hard that their real, true feelings hardly ever resurfaced.
"It's wonderful to hear how well you and Cashmere get along, and that's made me curious, which other victors- if any, are you in good graces with?"
"I find myself hanging around a boy from my own district," Nemesis started, "Orion Cadel? Not sure if you've heard of him, he's an odd one."
Anytime Nemesis said anything remotely funny, the audience roared with laughter. It unnerved her how easily she could influence such a big group of people.
She continued, "But I'm sure you know already, I'm well acquainted with Enobaria; she was my mentor, after all. I see her around often, you know, the usual walks, occasional dinners. Brutus, too. I haven't been a victor for very long, so I haven't gotten much of a chance to get to know every single one."
Nemesis purposefully left out her acquaintanceship- or rather, friendship- with Johanna Mason. Johanna wasn't necessarily in the good graces of the Capitol, so Nemesis knew better than to name-drop. Her relationship with Johanna was strange, to say the least, but the two understood each other, despite how different they seemed to be. They held a mutual resentment, but not towards each other. Towards something far bigger.
Johanna was an underdog, nobody expected her to win. She spoke against the Capitol and she paid the consequences.
Nemesis was... less of an underdog, she definitely had people betting on her. She spoke as though she was a part of the Capitol because she knew the consequences would be severe if she didn't oblige.
"I recently became acquainted with Finnick, as well," Nemesis continued, pausing when the audience went feral. "I think Finnick and Orion are around the same age. He and Orion are friends, I guess, so I see him around more often than not."
"Why does it sound like you aren't the fondest of him?" Caesar teased.
"Well, when I woke up to Finnick and Orion making 'breakfast' in my kitchen, I was a little bit alarmed," Nemesis said. "Our breakfast that morning was nothing but ashes. That was the first time I'd ever met Finnick, mind you."
She didn't necessarily mind Finnick, just something about him concerned her, and it wasn't the fact that he burned her breakfast. She couldn't figure him out for the life of her, but she knew there was something very, very wrong.
Caesar laughed loudly, "Ah ha, who would have guessed that the almighty, all-desirable Finnick Odair is a clutz in the kitchen?"
"I certainly wish I hadn't been the one to find out."
"Well, Nemesis, this has been quite the honor," Caesar started, beginning to tone his voice down. The audience sensed what was happening and nearly groaned in sync. "But I'm afraid our time is almost up."
"Extremely unfortunate."
Caesar stood up, holding his hand out for Nemesis, which she accepted reluctantly.
"It's alright folks, we'll be seeing her again in just a week," Caesar comforted the crowd. "During the reaping of the 74th Hunger Games!"
The crowd went wild.
Nemesis felt unwell.