A/N: Our third, and possibly final, interlude! We'll be meeting our interviewer, Fabula Obcubo! She's fiesty and tricky, and...sort of inspired by Harlequin Marceau from LadyCordeliaStuart's SYOTs? Maybe? I don't know! XD I hope you guys like her, she'll be sticking around for a long time. So will Ludum and the Presidential Family, although only one (maybe two, will a possible future All-Stars Games) will be sticking around for a long time. Well, I just went off on a tangent, sorry! XD I hope I wrote our probably final interlude well! Enjoy!

P.S. There is a cameo from a minor character from Oceanside, and it is not Faustina or Toulouse, they're just mentioned. Whoever guesses who this person making a cameo is, if you PM the correct character to me, PM this please, I will give you an extra bonus sponsorship point! :D

Trigger Warnings: Profanity

So, have another drink

Have another drink, call me

If this is what it takes

If it's what it takes, baby

Dream another dream

Because you're killing it, honey

This is what we do to get by

We're always chasing that paradise

Paradise, paradise, paradise

There's a place we try to reach

Impossible as it would seem

I heard you crying out in your sleep

I see that look you save for me

I pull you back upon your feet

I know you always need something more, more

Fabula Obcubo, 35

Capitol Resident

Interviewer and Host of the Hunger Games

These sorts of interviews aren't fun. They're not the real show, the grand show, with the big lights and the big glitz and the big reveals and the big hype. They're the piddly interviews with past Victors and plastic Capitol celebrities and chubby Capitol politicians that I do to make a living on the off season. At least the ones with the Victors, like the one I'm preparing to do, are bearable. They're just repetitive and boring, you ask each Victor the same questions every time. They get a set of around a dozen questions tailor made to them, and every year or whenever they're interviewed, they're just reworded so the thick Capitol audience doesn't catch onto our ruse of using the same content over and over again. The celebrities are stiff and made of chemicals, plastic and synthetics stitched together on top of a human core. At least they're funny sometimes, and even though they're one hundred percent fake, they're usually really attractive. The politicians are the worst. They waddle onto the stage in the studio, oversized stomachs, which almost all of them have, barely held in by their formal attire. They babble about policies and laws and tariffs and economics, and while I have degrees in economics and communication, they're just so dull, and I'm just a prop. I rarely even ask questions, I just invite them onto my stage and watch as they grunt in recognition, sitting down. Then they run their mouths talking about campaigns and other political lingo, and then they wave goodbye and pretend they like the people and the crowds. I'm no rebel, but I do harbor some disdain for the Capitol. The Victors are my friends. I see them all yearly, usually four to six times a year, when I interview them. There's lots of down time in between filmings, and the Victors from each District usually travel together. Sitting down with the rowdy crowd from Four is always a treat, seriously, with Oisin being grumbly and drinking scotch, Waverley running her mouth and being bossy and bitchy, and Mags trying to hold everything together and then exploding at the two of them. Two's fun as well. They might not need the drink, but they know how to pound alcohol, and the Headmistress can tell dirty jokes like no one else when she's isn't all high and mighty with her panties in a twist. Today I'm talking with Lucia Theonis, the latest Victor of the Hunger Games, having won last year, the Twenty First Annual Hunger Games. Serephina and Scylas and Clay are back in Two at the Academy, and Brick came here to flex his muscles for some Capitol prostitutes and give them the night of their lives. I'll be interviewing him tomorrow. At least the end is near; the Reapings are in two weeks, and after that the Games begin.

We have a bit of downtime before the interview. The setting for the studio interview stage is always the same; dark blue backdrop with an iridescent gloss behind us, two dark brown leather chairs with rigid backs but lots of fluff in the cushions, pretty comfortable, reclined back just a tad, and a small teak table with a smaller aloe vera plant in a light cream vase with a jagged pattern on it. The lighting is being set up, and the lights revolve around and flash across our faces. Lucia flinches a bit; she's still inexperienced in what must be a brave new world for her, and while she was tougher than Brick in the arena, outside of it, with all the adrenaline gone, she seems to be as effected and as hollow as Clay. Once the lights have stalled and they're fiddling with their cameras, we can finally talk without being interrupted by the stage lights shining bright and loud right in our faces. I turn to her and put on my most friendly smile.

"So, nervous for your first Games shadowing as a Mentor?" I ask, sipping from a glass of water that's sitting on the teak table under the cover of the aloe plant. Lucia looks flustered for a moment, and she glances over at the cameras, confused.

"The interview's not starting, right?"

"No, honey, just talking to you," I say with a pleasant smile, trying to keep my voice even and friendly. I guess I let a little prickle slip through, however, because Lucia bites her lip and looks a little embarrassed. She's so skittish for a Two Victor. "When the red light turns on on the cameras, that's when the interview is starting. I know, it's hard to remember, all of these little intricacies. I would be a sucky Victor with all the stuff I'd have to do!" Just trying to make her feel better, but she doesn't buy it. I'm great at public speaking and manipulating, at making tributes that weigh sixty pounds and haven't eaten an actual meal before they reached the Capitol look like able tributes that are a good bet to sponsor. I'm Snow's favorite interviewer yet; Faustina was too nice and too...unreliable and too...unrealistic in her political opinions and ideals. Even in my mind, I have to be guarded about how I say things. Also, Toulouse was too preoccupied with his affairs and his wealth to actually be immersed in the interviewing process, the hosting, and the Games as a whole.

"Okay, got it," she murmurs. "Being onstage and stuff always flusters me, it's my weak spot. They almost didn't pick me because of my stage fright. That would've been a disaster, Adom or Bastian would've destroyed the other girl who might've gone in, Horadia, she was so thin and willowy even though she was really pretty and really good with bows and spears and was good at public speaking, they would've snapped her like a twig. Umm, Fabula? What's happening? Why is the light flickering? Oh right. That means that the producers are ready, and the interview is about to start getting tap-"

"FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE," the director, Crux, shouts. I snap upright, putting on my sugar sweet smile. Lucia almost seems shocked by how quick I go from lounging back in my chair, eyes half open as I talk in a relaxed fashion, to prim and proper, sitting straight up in my chair, a so-good-it-has-to-be-fake smile glittering on my face, my signature glossy hot pink pantsuit gleaming in the light. The camera swivels around and centers on us, and the interview begins. Lucia looks paralyzed before the camera reaches her, but by the moment the lens focuses in on us, she's put on a wavering, half confident smile. She looks resplendent in her pastel green dress, which contrasts nicely against her darker brown skin, but doesn't clash really.

"So, Lucia, how is your talent of metal working going?" I inquire. Last time, I asked Isn't your official metal working hobby going well?

"It's going well, I have holes in all of my clothes from the sparks, but I surely have made some really great pieces like weapons and cutlery, as well as some abstract sculptures! It's a really fun past time, Fabula," Lucia tells me. Last time she said It's really fun to do, Fabula! I've been making lots of cool stuff; Clay and I ate dinner last week with knives and forks I made! My clothes are ruined, but oh well. I can get more, that's the beauty of being a Victor! I remember every moment of every single on of my interviews. It's weird. I'm pretty forgetful in day to day life, but when the lights focus on me and the cameras are whirring to life and an audience, have it be a half dozen producers and cameramen, or the half million Capitolites that pack into the massive auditorium for the Hunger Games interviews, are whispering, waiting for the show to start, something clicks in my head. Every single moment, every single word, every single breath, every single hair out of place on the head of someone I'm interviewing, every emotion glittering in their usually augmented eyes, it's all stored in my head. It's the strangest thing. I've never told anyone about it, but why would I? My mother died in the rebellion, my father's a fat pig of a politician who's power hungry and hasn't spoken to me in two years even though I have one of the most auspicious jobs I could ever have and have made him extremely proud, and my older brother Marcus Jr. is a deadbeat drunk who works as a sloppy Peacekeeper all the way in Twelve. After my first visit, where I found him passed out in the Justice Building, a half full bottle of vodka in hand and too much money bursting from his pockets, I haven't gone back. I'm bisexual and I am always looking for perfect guy or girl, but everyone I meet, they're just posers trying to clamber up the social ladder, grasping at me since I'm one of the top rungs, and a relationship with little ole gullible, hopelessly romantic me means skipping the hard work of climbing up the twenty something rungs below me. Sometimes I think I should stop interviewing, but it's my life. I don't know who I am without it. I'm not Fabula Obcubo, the daughter. I'm not Fabula Obcubo, the sister. I'm not Fabula Obcubo, the lover. I'm not even Fabula Obcubo, the woman.

I'm Fabula Obucbo, the interviewer. That's never going to change.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading about Fabula! This was a tiny bit short, but I found a good place to stop a bit earlier than I planned, so I just stopped writing instead of dragging my point on and on XD She was a joy to bring to life, she's that type of character I just love to play around with, and I hoped she was a fun read and she wasn't boring or anything! :) I was also going to add the person who does the parades, Nuntius Calpor, but decided against it; the chapter would've been enormous if I had done him as well. All you need to know about him is he's a fashionista with a terrible sense of humor! Like, so bad it's not even humor, it's literal mental and emotional torture! Poor Panem XD

So this is where our super fast updates will most likely slow down. School starts for me again tomorrow, and midterms are in mid to late January for me, so I need to get studying! Track doesn't start till around March, though, so I should be able to get 2-4 updates a week hopefully, maybe even more. I also have just been only writing for this story at this point, so I'll also be spending time updating 500YOP and Big Brother: Bite Size instead of only working on this story, but this story is and will always be my first priority until it's finished so it will receive the most updates out of all of my stories currently, lucky you!

So I don't know why I'm going to tell you this now. I think it's because I've mapped out how these Games will go and have put the stamp on it. Yeah, I think I have it all planned out! XD Well, actually I have 2 possible scenarios and 2 possible Victors right now. Not revealing ANYTHING about those plans or Victors, I'm not a spoilsport, but I'm just telling you that the decision has been made. I'm going to say this part a million times before the Games start, so I might as well start saying it now. If your tribute dies early, I'm sorry. You might not review at all, and your tribute makes the Top 8, or you might be a loyal reviewer, and your tribute gets cut at the Bloodbath. I do take reviews into a bit of consideration when I decided the placements, but for placements I mostly just looked at the characters, and what's most beneficial for the plot. I'd hope the Victor isn't one whose submitter has never reviewed or rarely does so, but just because your tribute might breathe their last breath super early isn't because I hate you or because I hate your tribute. It's just their time to go, as they might not be beneficial to the main plot(s) of the story or it might be best for their arc or fellow characters' arcs if they perish early. This is really early and I don't need to tell you guys this yet, hell, we still have like 3 goodbye chapters, and then way too many Pre-Games chapters, but I'm still telling you. Keep this in mind as we continue. Thank you :)

Again, thanks for all the reviews and support! You're all the best! :D

I THINK WE HIT 100,000 WORDS HOLY GOODNESS YAY! :D

What did you think of Fabula? Do you think Fabula will effect the tributes and their chances in the Games? Do you think Fabula will become wrapped up in the new Capitol subplot, originating with the Gamemakers? We'll see! :D

Fabula (1 pt.) - Which District is Fabula's brother Marcus a Peacekeeper in?

Answers to the previous chapters:

Ivy - Trunk Cathsby

Baron - Hope is eternal

Calico - cocktail weenies (they're little sausages/hot dogs xD)

Gaia - Blowpipe, not needle

Sage - Remember her

Luke - Anny

Thanks everyone! Love y'all! :D

Until Next Time,

Tracee