This was written for Summer (loki-laufeyson) at the first ever fic exchange at Caesar's Palace! She gave me the prompts "i don't love, i'm just passing the time", "not many people will kill you", "not given the chance to be", and "happiness is a crime". Enjoy!
i don't love you, i'm just passing the time
She owns him. She can play with him like a puppet-master with her marionette. It's really not that hard, and Glimmer excels at this sort of thing.
Glimmer slips out the door, leaving him alone. Poor little Marvel. So clueless, so naïve. She was using him from the beginning, the Training Center was when it really started.
She was using him from the beginning, mainly as a shield. Brawny, skilled, and dumb, the perfect qualities for a shield. In the games, Marvel killed Tree-Hopper from 11 and the two-can-win announcement came, they split up from Cato and Clove. The girl from 5 killed Cato and Marvel killed Clove, Fire Girl, and Lover Boy, who had split earlier. Glimmer never even had to get dirty. The Gamemakers let them both win, and now she was here.
Everyone thought Glimmer was a dunce, a flirty, silly little girl from 1 who was delusional enough to think that she could win.
I didn't think I could win, I knew I could win. And look where I am now.
Winning the games was so easy, she could play with them how I pleased. Even the Gamemakers were under my control. Glimmer intends to keep it that way.
"Glimmer," A hiss from a shadow in the dark hallway.
"Marcellus," She replies, sauntering over. She presses her hands onto his chest. He's another of he playthings, just another marionette in her collection. A pathetic Capitol man who I use for wealth and influence. He's one of those socialites that got famous for being famous.
He smiles, and his breathing sends a wave of stink into Glimmer's perfect nose.
"Come with me?" He gestures towards his room.
She realizes something. She's done with him. She's gone everywhere she can go using him. He's useless to her, and there's no point humoring him. Even if he tattles, she's far above his rank. Victors always win.
"No." She hisses, pushing him away.
"Glimmer, you're being paid, and—"
"Well stop paying me then. I don't love you, I'm just passing the time."
She walks away, leaving him speechless.
not many people will kill you
"Not many people went out of their way to kill you, and that's why you're alive. Understand?"
She nods. Glimmer did whatever she had to in order to win, if she's considered weak than so be it. Her mentor was a true Career, a warrior. Glimmer wasn't possessed with that sort of strength, so she had to employ... subtler methods.
"Just stay weak and easy to control, and you'll be fine. Your little stunt with Marcellus made you a target for Snow. Just be regular Glimmer."
She nods once again, not really listening. She'll do whatever she wants, every man, woman, and child in the Capitol is her plaything. Her little marionette.
"Good. Now, Mr. Sharpe has a new client for you."
She smiles. Probably another sad little Capitol man, desperate for a woman. She'll dispose of him soon enough, but he could have connections somewhere. Glimmer will use him until he expires.
I am the puppets-master, controlling them all with a flick of my finger.
not given the chance to be
"Glimmer Delacroix."
She's been waiting to receive her punishment. She knows they like to pretend to be all-powerful, but she knows better. Just the right combination of words and a bit of blackmail, and she's free to go along her merry way. But now, they're calling her, and she must obey the Capitol's wishes.
She enters, and Mr. Sharpe is sitting there, idle.
"Miss Delacroix. You haven't been obeying us. You've left Marcellus, you've left Aurelius, both prematurely. What do you wish to say for yourself?"
"Mr. Sharpe…" The crocodile tears spring easily to my eyes, "I-I haven't been given a different chance in life."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I can't do this job. I wasn't given the chance to be anything else, no one asked me if I would rather be, for instance, a painter. No, I was immediately thrown into this business."
"I see. But you still didn't obey orders. This is punishable by death."
This is when it first hits her. She could die. In an hour, or less, she could be another corpse lying there.
She survived the games just to become another corpse? She won't have it.
"Give me one last chance. I'll prove to you that you should keep me alive."
He agrees. She'll stay alive, on her own terms. They're my puppets, I do with them what I want.
happiness is a crime
A mourning family, quiet in the pouring rain.
This can't be real, they think, Glimmer was favored in the Capitol's eye. Why was she murdered?
Alas, the Capitol couldn't release the details, so they were stuck in a hazy, mysterious speculation.
"Glimmer? Please wake up?" Called Glimmer's young cousin, Rarity. She was too young to really understand the concept of death, and tottered around on short 2-year-old legs, asking Glimmer to wake from her slumber.
Her parents, once so proud of her for emerging victorious from the games, are now devastated from her sudden, unpredicted death.
Maybe the Capitol wasn't her marionette.
Happiness is a crime now, apparently. Whenever someone is happy, it immediately must be taken away. No hope, no joy. Only pain and misery.
That's what the Capitol wants, and what the Capitol wants, it gets.