Chapter 29:

Lisia Arune, Head Gamemaker

With the interviews underway and Fabio firmly instructed to keep all the tributes separated for the rest of the day – really only necessary for Marian who was stalking Sissel from a distance – Lisia finally feels like she can actually leave the Games Headquarters for longer than just a quick pee. And she's glad she's able to leave, because she has someone she wants to go visit. She knows Seraphim had questions, but he just had to understand that there are some things that are shared between just the Head Gamemaker, the President, and his council. This was one of those times.

She's seen a lot of bizarre things and had confusing requests from the President over the years. It wasn't her place to question them. But damn did she really want to question his decisions with these Games. Just…why now?

Thankfully, the ride to the President's Mansion is short and she's soon being led down to the basement. She goes through a few security checks, leaving behind her electronics, and then she's taken down the hall. Very few people are allowed into this part of the mansion and it's quite possibly the most secure place in Panem.

A great place to hide someone who is supposedly dead.

Lisia knocks on the open door the guards lead her to, watching as the conversation stops in the room between Council Member Luciano and a dead boy. Well, not quite dead.

Pascal sits up at the sight of her and his eyes flash in anger as he points his finger at her accusingly, tugging on the cords and IV attached to him. "You! I- you-"

"Yes, you're welcome for saving your life," Lisia says, amusement in her voice as she walks into the room. Luciano shakes their head at her teasing tone as she takes the open seat beside his bed, watching the boy flounder in his reaction to her. She leans over and ruffles his hair, prompting him to quickly slap her hand away. "Welcome to your second chance at life."

"I…" Pascal crosses his arms, trying to look tough, but Lisia has seen puppies scarier than him. "Did you have to kill me with a freaking dragon?!"

Lisia shrugs as she leans back in her chair, taking her time to cross her legs and get comfortable before responding. "Well I can't exactly control the tributes like I control the mutts. The Capitol loved it and believed it. I do have a show to put on, you know."

Pascal opens his mouth to give some response and Luciano clears their throat, stopping him in his tracks. He looks over at them with embarrassment in his eyes. Huh. Who would have guessed that? But, makes sense with their shared histories with Vera Snow. "May I ask why you're here when the Games are still going?" Luciano asks Lisia, their tone pleasant and lacking the accusation Pascal would have.

"It's the interviews with the families, also known as the only time in the Games I can catch my breath," Lisia says, reaching over for the remote to turn on the television in his room. "So I figured I'd scratch my unending curiosity over Pascal and come here to watch them with you."

"I don't want to watch them," Pascal grumbles and tries to snatch the remote away from her, but she swiftly moves it out of his reach. He contemplates his next action for a few seconds, narrowing his eyes at her, before jumping out of the bed to go to the television.

Luciano quickly puts their hands on his shoulders, gently pushing him back down to the bed. "Woah there, you're still healing up. Let's not set back your recovery."

"Sorry I'm not excited to see family's miserably hopeful for their kids when my family literally rigged me into the Games," Pascal complains and Lisia feels bad for the kid for a brief second, before over it. Yeah, he was rigged, but the President allowed him to live. Seems like a pretty damn good tradeoff to her. "Besides, I don't even know who's left and don't exactly care about them."

"Well I do because it's my job," Lisia answers him, turning up the volume on the television. "And it's Marian, Abel, Iroha, Asha, and Sissel."

"Only five?" Pascal scrunches his face in confusion. "Isn't it supposed to be eight or are you not doing your job properly?"

"Listen up, you little shit," Lisia says, jumping out of her chair to lean over him. She drops her voice low, watching as he presses himself into the bed to get away from her. "You are here right now because I controlled the arena. So the least you can do is show some gratitude. Got it, kid?"

Pascal swallows audibly and nods his head, so Lisia smiles pleasantly and returns to her seat. "I suppose…thanks," he mumbles the last part so she can barely hear.

Lisia puts her hand up to her ear, leaning closer. "I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear."

"I said thanks for making me think I was going to be burned alive!" Pascal shouts at her and the two stare each other down for a few seconds, neither wanting to be the one who looks away first.

Luciano is the one to finally break their stare down. "Alright, alright, everyone relax. The interviews are about to start," they say calmly and Lisia waits for Pascal to turn away first before she turns her attention to the screen.

"It's five because there was a feast with a lot of action," Lisia tells him, not turning towards him but needing to have the last word here. "It's called keeping the Capitol excited."

Luciano holds up their hand to stop Pascal before he can give some other response as the Panem seal fades on the screen, replaced with Elliot as he gets ready to show the Capitol the interviews. "Good evening, Panem!" Elliot greets the nation cheerfully. "I'm your announcer Elliot Templesmith, but we all know you don't want to see this scruffy man. Don't worry, we'll get to see the lovely Claudia Flickerman in just a moment. First up, we're going to District Two for Marian Lilley!"

It shifts to showing footage of Marian's journey through the Games and Pascal lets out a scoff as he watches Marian make a promise to Lisia to cause drama if she survived the fire he died in. "So I could have just done that and lived?"

"No, you were always going to die in that arena, one way or another," Lisia responds without missing a beat.

Pascal lets out a 'hmph' at that as Claudia starts her interview with Dany, Marian's girlfriend and long time best friend. She doesn't miss a beat explaining that Marian's family refused to talk about her, and jumps into the interview asking Dany her thoughts on that. The girl doesn't hold back from criticizing the family and calling them out for their misogynistic views. When asked about Marian's behavior and, arguably, hint of flirting, Dany can only laugh about it and insist it was a strategy they discussed before Marian left Two. She knew Marian might do that and knows it meant nothing to Marian. If it gets her home, that's all that matters to her.

Claudia gives her the floor to say anything to Marian and Dany faces the camera, but she addresses a different Lilley. "Jaz, if you're listening…you know my house is always open to you. You're my little sis too. So if you can leave those assholes, I got your back."

The interview ends and Pascal frowns, turning to look over at Lisia. "Can't you people do something about her parents?"

"Oh if only we could arrest people for being misogynistic," Lisia answers with a laugh. "I would have gotten my old boss arrested. But, I suppose getting to watch him die from a stroke was a satisfying alternative." Pascal looks alarmed at that statement and Lisia waves her hand as Abel's journey in the arena is shown. "A story for another day."

Abel's moms and four sisters all get interviewed and following up Marian's lack of family, the love they have for their son or brother is so obvious. Claudia seems to love dropping the info to them that Abel and his twin Nereida were foster kids of Muir's as infants and Lisia is sure it will give Abel some popularity points. But the real interview people want to see is his best friend Leith, who stepped aside to let Abel volunteer. Looking at him now, it's clear he has regrets about letting his best friend volunteer, no matter if it was what Abel wanted. He jokes about getting torn a new one by Okeanas after the reaping, lightening up the mood. But when asked about Abel's odds of winning, Leith's mood quickly deteriorates. "I know he can win. He's already survived so much to not survive this. I just…can't help feeling guilty for letting him go in, you know?"

"Is Okeanas really that scary?" Pascal asks as Abel's interviews wrap up, prompting Lisia to let out a laugh.

"There are few people I'd want to cross," Lisia tells him. "And Okeanas is on that list."

"But you're like…one of the most powerful people," Pascal tells her and sneers at her taking it as a compliment.

"A title wouldn't stop her from kicking my ass," Lisia answers casually with a shrug. "I can go over the list another day. Might be fun."

Fun. What a concept. Lisia hasn't had fun in…well, as annoying as Pascal is being…dare she say it, it's kind of fun being able to be tactless and say whatever she wants.

"If Pascal is going to eventually be around those people, it's worthwhile to prepare him," Luciano says, bringing down the mood right away. Lisia has no idea what waits in Pascal's future, or when he'll be able to go out in public. He needs an entire makeover and some sort of bootcamp. If only they had someone who could whip him into shape by threatening exercise.

Their mood dims at Iroha's Games summary and Claudia jumps into an interview with the only two people who have been supportive of Iroha over the years: her elderly neighbors Aiden and Mira. The pair tell the nation about how they've helped Iroha where they could over the years, employing her to give her money to leave Kayden and babysitting when needed. The interview is punctuated by them showing her son Noah, safe at their apartment, and waiting for his mom to get home – while Kayden is being held at the Justice Building as they investigate him.

To end the interview, the couple gives a reassurance to the country about Iroha's children. "We're keeping Noah safe while Iroha is in the Games. And…if she doesn't return, we want to adopt him and Melita."

"I have a question," Pascal says quietly as Iroha's interview is finished. He looks over at Lisia, who raises her eyebrow and gestures for him to ask. "Who decided to have her delivery her baby before the Games?"

"President Xavier," Luciano answers before Lisia gets the chance to. "He is also the one who decided to rescue you. He's…a very good man."

"Oh," Pascal says quietly, growing serious as he looks down at his hands in his lap and fiddles with the oxygen sensor on his finger until it starts beeping from him moving it. "Oops, my bad."

Luciano chuckles as they lean over and fix the sensor before turning off the alarm on the machine. They give him a hearty pat on the shoulder and a pleasant smile that he tentatively returns. "Not the first time you've done that and probably won't be the last."

"Must be fun being your doctor," Lisia teases him, prompting him to give an exaggerated eye roll.

"I wouldn't need a doctor if it wasn't for you," Pascal tells her.

"You wouldn't be alive without me," Lisia counters immediately and she gets the feeling that this is going to be a point of discussion they repeat often. "Now simmer down, it's Asha's interview."

This is one of the interviews Lisia has been looking forward to as she's wanted to know how Asha's family has reacted to Slash. Although she is a bit bummed that Asha seems to have rejected Slash at the feast – could have added a lot of drama if she fought Jenny. Her parents seem like they care about Asha and her father Rajesh is proud of her reaching the final five, but it doesn't take long for Sai to start talking about their sacrifices in life to raise Asha. The two talk a lot about themselves and when Claudia asks them about Slash, they denial all knowledge of her and from the confusion in their eyes, it seems real.

They're going to be quite shocked by the next interview. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the brothel she works at is the one that Fonio and Lelantos frequented in their youth and sure enough, they were able to find the dominatrix that trained Asha – or rather, Slash. Hazel came to the interview in full dominatrix get up, no doubt wanting to make some Capitolites uncomfortable, yet she's the one who seems to be uncomfortable talking about Slash. Jealousy is written all over her as she talks about training Slash and how the clients loved her, how she excelled at the job.

When asked about what Asha could do to win, Hazel has a quick reply, "If that girl wants to win, she needs to unleash Slash. I taught her everything so I know what she's capable of."

"I don't think I want to know more about her," Pascal says when the interview finishes up, prompting Lisia to laugh loudly at the mortified look on his face.

"We'll tell you when you're older," Lisia teases him, making him scrunch up his face in disgust. "Which, by the way, is possible because of me."

"You really like to hear people praise you, huh?" Pascal asks her and Lisia tenses up at him hitting the nail on the head. He glances over at her, giving her a confused look. "Can we start a counter for how many times you mentioned you saved me and I get a dollar each time?"

"Ha ha, so funny," Lisia responds sarcastically, but she doesn't say anything else with her ego just the slightest bit hurt. This kid barely knows her yet managed to nail her biggest insecurity. "Like you need money, you're living in the President's Mansion."

"I suppose you're right," Pascal answers softly, looking around the room that he's in. "There are worst places to be trapped in."

"Just until we give it some time and give you a full makeover," Luciano reassures him, patting the top of his hand.

"And for now, we wrap up the interviews," Lisia adds as the screen shifts to the last recap for Sissel. Lisia tries to hold in her laughter when Claudia is shown sitting in Sissel's living room with a parrot sitting on her shoulder, but when Pascal starts snickering about it, she can't help but laugh. The parrot is introduced as Pissy, which just makes Pascal start laughing even louder – but the real gold moment is when Pissy shits on Claudia's shoulder and Sissel's poor father scrambles to clean bird shit off the Capitolite. Otherwise, the interview goes smoothly, with his father discussing the sanctuary that Sissel helps him with and how Sissel works on the care while he handles finances.

Which led perfectly into the final question, asking if that's helped Sissel with the bird mutt he has allied with. Lisia tenses up, afraid his father is about to reveal Capitol research on national television. "Well Sissel is a natural with birds. Put him with any bird and he can befriend it. The Gamemakers provided a bird, so I'm not surprised. If he can train Pissy there, he can train any bird."

"Fuck off!" Pissy squawks out, bleeped for the interview but it's pretty clear what the parrot said. And what an end to the interviews: a swearing parrot.

"Well, I suppose that could have gone worse," Lisia says as she stands up, knowing she'll have to get back to the Headquarters soon.

Pascal is still laughing about the parrot. "If Sissel dies, can I have that parrot? Please?"

"We can whip you up a mutt that only curses if that's what you want, kid," Lisia tells him, mostly joking about it but she knows she'd do it. "But time to get back to work."

"Ah, Miss Arune, what a pleasure to see you here."

Lisia looks over at the door, finding the hulking Theodosius standing in the doorway. "Theodosius. Can't say the same."

He laughs at her comments, knowing this is just part of their act towards each other, and heads into the room. Pascal flinches and presses himself further into the bed at his loud laugh and Luciano puts their hand comfortingly on his shoulder. "Don't mind him, he's more bark than bite."

"But my bite is still more than most people," Theodosius says in a tone meant for reassurance, but it just sets him further on edge. He laughs again at Pascal's reaction as he stops at the end of his bed and gives his leg a couple pats. "Don't worry kid, you and I will be friends before you know it."

"I doubt that," Pascal answers with a scoff and Luciano has to cover their laugh with a cough beside him.

"What can I help you with?" Lisia asks, taking the focus away from the two.

Theodosius motions her out of the room and once the door is close, Theodosius leans in closer to whisper to him. "The President has decided what he wants to do with the other matter."

Lisia raises her eyebrows at him, so curious to know what she's supposed to do. "And?"

"He left the decision to me," Theodosius answers, rubbing his hands together with a devious look on his face. "We're a go."

Lisia nods her head in understanding, more anxious to get back to the Headquarters now. "I'm on it."

Whoop there it is! Realized I hadn't actually done the Pascal reveal yet in this story but had in Renegades, so this felt like a good time to do it! And it helped make the interviews a bit spicier and easier for me to get through, which is a nice bonus because we all know how much I don't like writing interviews lol. So surprise, Pascal is still alive! We'll be seeing a bit more of him after the Games and of course, he is getting a more prominent role within Renegades so, you know, you could always check that out if you want to see more of him lol.

So we have a bit of calm in the middle of the storm before we get right back to it. There's only five tributes left, but only one of them is going to be the victor. And we're not too far away from that - only two week to go! So last warning to hold onto your butts XD yes I say that quote a lot, I just love Jurassic Park lol.

RQ #29: Any guesses on what Theodosius's decision is about?

Alrighty, I'll see you on Monday for Night Four!