CHAPTER XXVIII. MENTOR INTERVIEWS

"Don't confuse actions of a ruler as the nature of his people."

-Shon Mehta

MICAH FAIRFORGE (19) - VICTOR OF THE 24TH HUNGER GAMES - DISTRICT 2 MENTOR

Throughout this trip to the Capitol, it was hard for Micah to not feel completely and utterly miserable. Maybe he deserved it for all that he had done over the past year, but Micah knew he was a good person, yet he wasn't being treated like one and it disgusted him. Last year, he would have been over the moon about the chance to be interviewed for being a Mentor, since he was so full of pride and love for the People of Panem, but the fact that it wasn't until now that Mentors were being interviewed to increase the spectacle of the Games filled his stomach with dread.

The interviews went in District order, meaning Sapphira Starlett, last year's Victor was first to go, and lord did the Capitol love her. Everywhere she went she was followed by applause and people wanting to take her photo, and it just made Micah realize how much he should have embraced the spotlight while he still had it.

"And just so you know dolls," Micah anxiously waited backstage for his interview to begin, listening to Sapphira's eloquent speaking, "District 1 is once again not here to play! We plan on bringing it home two years in a row!"

The audience roared; if only that could be Micah talking and not Sapphira. He had faith in his Tributes, as he should since Bellerophon was predicted to place second and Moira fifth, they never spoke to him so it was hard for him to get attached to them or even care about how they did. At least Ammo was enough of an asshole that Micah had some thoughts on him, but Bellerophon and Moira didn't mean anything to him.

"Thank you Ms. Starlett," As Lucky the Announcer spoke, the audience sounded upset at what was coming, "It was a pleasure having you here with us this evening."

The audience whistled as Sapphira walked backstage and gave Micah a light touch on the back, "You're next, sweetie."

"Thank you, miss." Micah's hands were sweaty and he wasn't sure if it was because he was nervous for the interview or because Sapphira Starlett had the tendency to scare the living crap out of him. Something about the way she did everything effortlessly was alarming to Micah, and he couldn't help but wish he was her.

"Hailing from District 2, it's the Victor of the 24th Hunger Games," Micah did deep breaths as Lucky started to introduce him, "Everybody put your hands together for Mr. Micah Fairforge!"

While the crowd was certainly cheering as Micah stepped out onto the stage, they had notably less volume than when Sapphira was present. Disappointing but not surprising. Micah unbuttoned his white sportcoat and then sat down on the velvety seat, looking out at all the people. It reminded him deeply of the interview from when he was in the Games, yet oddly this felt more stressful, "Thank you for having me, Lucky."

Ugh, what a stupid thing to say. He had to have everybody.

"The pleasure is mine, Micah," Lucky flashed a cheesy grin at the audience as the blue macaw resting on his shoulder echoed him, making the crowd laugh, "Now tell me, what do you think of your tributes this year?"

What a boring, boring question! Lucky had asked Sapphira about a myriad of things including her upcoming film career and she was the one who had to shift the attention back to her tributes, but apparently there wasn't anything remotely interesting in Micah's life, "They're lovely! I think District 2 will be securing another Victor this year."

In all honesty he had no idea whether or not that prediction would serve to be true or not, but Micah didn't even care since it wasn't like he was too concerned about what happened to the kids.

"Why do you say that?" Lucky put a hand on his chin, lightly patting his beard which he had dyed to be an icy shade of blue.

"They're just the best!" That was the only logic that Micah had, but hopefully it made sense.

"I see, I see," Lucky looked rather bored, "Last year you spent a lot of time with Mags Flannagan but we haven't seen you two together at all this year. Did anything happen?"

Now Lucky wanted to get into the juicy drama, though it actually wasn't too juicy. He wronged Mags and he felt bad about it, but she didn't want to rekindle our friendship.

"I've just been hard at work training my Tributes," Micah sighed, "I haven't had too much time to really do anything but that."

That was such a lie and he knew it as soon as he said it. Micah's time in the Capitol was spent doing nothing but being alone in his room, slowly draining out the mini-bar. Alcohol wasn't a coping mechanism but it was something that could prevent him from slipping entirely into nothingness and that was certainly worth something.

MAGS FLANAGAN (31) - VICTOR OF THE 11TH HUNGER GAMES - DISTRICT 4 MENTOR

The remainder of this chapter features mention of sexual assault. Please proceed with caution.

Mags was a lot more relieved for her own interview after suffering through Pascal's shitshow, probably one of the worst things she ever witnessed, which was saying a lot considering she had seen and even participated in the murder of multiple children.

"Hey, I'm sorry about what I said out there," Mags missed the opening bit of Pascal's interview due to Micah Fairforge deciding to speak to her, "We don't have to hang out or anything if you don't want to."

"I don't," Mags crossed her arms, "I have pressing matters to attend to, and unlike you, I actually plan on attending to them."

This year's set of kids was an unusual challenge for Mags and it was sort of messin' with her head. Everybody always said that she was the kindest, most useful Mentor out there, and that it was a shame that she hadn't trained a Victor despite coming close so many times, but this year Mags certainly didn't feel like she was the best Mentor. On paper, Kingston seemed like the sort of kid she would gel well with. He appeared to level-headed and hard working, and in the few interactions they had at the gym, she was certain he would do well, but perhaps some sort of a switch was triggered in her brain that day his sister died, since Kingston Havlock was not at all the sort of Tribute that Mags was expecting. She tried her best to counsel him and support him with the recent loss he had suffered since she truly felt bad for him, but Kingston simply wanted nothing to do with her and her advice.

Part of that could of course be attributed to one Lana Lotus, perhaps the worst kid Mags had ever had to deal with. She was used to kids being bratty, but Lana? Lana wasn't bratty. Lana was evil, to the very definition of the word, always making snide remarks at Mags as well as her allies. How she managed to become the leader was a mystery at first, but the more time Mags spent with her, the more she realized that the kid she was dealing with was a complete and utter disaster, always doing weird routines and somehow Kingston was along for the ride. Greif tended to do weird things to people around Panem.

"Hey, are you watching this?" Another Mentor, Olive from District 10 patted Mags on the arm and pointed at the screen which was showing a live feed of Pascal's interview.

"Should I be?" Mags honestly didn't care much about what the other Mentors had to say.

"I refuse to answer that question, Mr. Flickerman," Pascal's grimy voice sounded through the speakers. That man had always given Mags a somewhat off feeling.

"What did he ask?" Mags whispered into Olive's ear, suddenly interested in what was happening.

"Apparently his male tribute used his private session time to accuse Pascal of multiple instances of sexual assault," Olive sounded deeply concered, "How tragic is that?"

There was a big difference between being an overall creepy person and a full on rapist and she had never thought Pascal would be the latter, "That's awful. Truly, wow!"

Mags was dumbstruck, not knowing how to respond to the news, but she knew that Pascal certainly had to get his shit straight.

"Pascal," Lucky Flickerman was persistent, "Edison told Clemensia and Lysistrata that you demanded he sleep with you in exchange for sponsor gifts and that when he refused, you raped him."

"You're not making any sense right now," Pascal broke out into a nervous sweat. For the first time in a long time, the audience was silent.

As the awkward pauses went on, gears in Mags' head began to turn. She thought back on the 25th Games, when Jacob, the boy from District 3 received a somewhat sexualized maid's dress in the arena as a gift from Pascal. Was that some sort of a cruel punishment for not sleeping with Pascal or was it the "sponsor gift" he had promised. Did he not know that part of their responsibilities as Mentors was to purchase gifts for their Tributes if possible, regardless of whether or not they slept with them.

"You know exactly what I am talking about, Pascal," Lucky looked dead serious for the first time in his life, "Did you do this with Tributes in the past as well."

"Thank you for having me," Pascal said abruptly before getting out of his seat and rushing behind the curtain, through the green room and eventually outside. The rest of the Mentors stared at him, mostly in disgust but ultimately not even they knew what to do in the situation. Mags heard the steps of somewhat angry people but she decided it was best to ignore them since she didn't have the time to think. She had to focus on her own interview now and somehow guarantee that it wasn't worse than the disaster she just saw.

PASCAL PACKARD (24) - VICTOR OF THE 18TH HUNGER GAMES - DISTRICT 3 MENTOR

Fuck.

"Edison, your male tribute told our Head Gamemakers today that you sexually assaulted him multiple times. What do you have to say about that?" It was three minutes into Pascal's Mentor interview and he was scared shitless. Lucky had just asked him possibly the worst question imaginable, all with a straight face and Pascal was caught completely off guard. Why the fuck had that little brat Edison decided to go and tell on him? Pascal made a promise, each and every time they fucked.

"If you don't tell on me, you'll still get that free gift." Pascal remembered whispering into his ear as he zipped up his pants on multiple occasions, "I know you want it if you want to survive."

"I refuse to answer that question, Mr. Flickerman," Pascal didn't really know what to say. Nothing he could possibly say would redeem himself at that moment. He looked out at the audience and could see that the people seemed to hate him. They weren't supposed to fucking know about this, or Pow, or those who came before him. Fucking hell.

"Pascal," Lucky's eyes looked deadly, "Edison told Clemensia and Lysistrata that you demanded he sleep with you in exchange for sponsor gifts and that when he refused, you raped him."

Why the fuck what he asking these questions? Was Pascal supposed to say that yes, he did technically coerce Edison into having sex with him, but that it was also a mutually beneficial situation and Edison seemed to enjoy it? He wouldn't get it! Nobody would get how increasingly frustrating it was to share a bed with an old geezer who wanted nothing more than cuddles when all Pascal wanted was physical erotic connection, "You're not making any sense right now."

His mind was blank. He was in disbelief not only at what was happening but at the reaction of the audience. They seemed appalled, like Pascal was the monster even though this was totally the shit they did behind closed doors.

"You know exactly what I am talking about, Pascal," Lucky tapped his foot against the ground,"Did you do this with Tributes in the past as well."

Yes, of fucking course Pascal did, and none of them had a fucking issue with it until that smartass Edison came along. Besides, his tributes rarely made it out of the bloodbath so it wasn't like he had to drain his pockets anyways. He couldn't say that though. He knew he couldn't.

"Thank you for having me," Pascal knew it was time to do what he did best, run. Where to? Pascal had no idea. Possibly to his boyfriends house or maybe just far away where nobody could find him and he'd never have to suffer through this excruciating torture again. As he soared through the green room he was reminded of the arena, where all he had was his ability to run, and he just hoped and prayed that that same ability wouldn't fail him now.

"Hey you!" Pascal was outside of the stadium now and he heard people calling his name. Surely they couldn't do anything to him. They seemed angry but it would pass. Nobody could be angry forever.

"Cool it," A man with a busy pink beard and an eyepatch grabbed Pascal by the arm. He looked up to see him holding an empty bottle of some sort of expensive liquor, "You're a fucking monster!

Pascal looked around, trying to figure out ways to escape the man's clutches, punching at his rather thick stomach when CLINK.

Pascal began to feel dizzy. He looked up to see the bottle shattered in half in the man's hand then looked down to see pieces of glass all over the floor. His mind was spinning. Was he really a monster? Slowly, he fell to the ground as his head began to throb. He put his hand by his left temple and felt a warm sticky substance on his hand, as well as small pieces of glass stuck inside his hair.

He put his hand in front of his face. It was blood, something that Pascal had forgotten the touch of. He wasn't sure if he felt pain or delirium but he knew he was in danger and he somehow had to find a way out.

He tried to get up but he sunk back to the ground once again, looking around to see people approaching him and the man who had initially stucken him was right over his head. He felt a sharp pain in his crotch when he realized more people were approaching him until suddenly it all stopped.

CRACK!

Pascal heard a loud noise, felt a sharp pain in his neck then looked up to see a black leather boot before seeing nothing at all.

Hey, thank you for reading Chapter 28. Mentor Interviews were something that I'd never seen in a SYOT before so I decided it would be interesting to try it out especially since I feel very passionate about some of my Mentors which is why I've been overall trying to include them more this time around. Let me know what you thought of this idea.

Another reason I decided to do these interviews is that they happened to fit perfectly within the arc of a certain mentor hehe, speaking of which, he did die didn't he so I guess I should eulogize the son of a bitch.

25th Place: Pascal Packard, District 3 - Killed by an angry mob like he fucking deserves

Pascal, I didn't really put much thought into creating you when I was creating mentors for We The People, but as soon as I received Pow's face claim, I saw potential in turning you into something truly disgusting and evil to show the real horrors of people who live in Panem. Edison was your perfect foil, and I'm glad that he allowed me to not only villainize you even more, but ultimately condemn you for the horrific things you did. I would say that I'm going to miss you, but that's such a fucking lie. You're the worst and I hate you. Have fun in hell, stinky!