Day Eighteen: Sympathy for a Monster
"I didn't want to!" Cas, Caspian is shaking now, the trident in his hand hanging limp and loose as if he hadn't just used it to butcher a little boy who really just wanted to go home. It's still dripping blood, not that Mason could focus on that. Not when Cas' acting as if he's legitimately just gained a conscience, as if the trident in his hand is an ugly extension of the personality he wants so desperately to hide.
"I know, you didn't, Cas. Just calm down." Tethys, Cas' District partner. The young woman who should really be handling this issue, not Mason, because it'd look better for the cameras and because Cas is shivering and glancing at Mason with distrust. Not entirely unwarranted distrust, Mason saw what happened. Who Cas really is, and if any similar concerns had been had on his part about appearance Mason would be in the same position.
"Tethys, stay out of this. Cas, look at me." Cas looks. "You're a goddamn Squaddie, Cas. If Vulpes hadn't run afoul of that fucking mutt before we'd gutted it, you'd be dead for this kind of reaction. Panem above, if I hadn't stepped in now you'd be dead." It's not a lie. A Squad eat Squad world out there, and Caspian's just so happened to run afoul of an unspoken rule that makes you the eaten and not the eater. Don't get into this messy reaction, take the kill and move on. Mason didn't ask why Vulpes was able to remain smiley and excited two hours into her work, because from what he'd been told One's blondes were on another level of problematic and the less questions asked of why the better.
"Cas. Did you do kill tests?" The cameras will be out, best project the illusion of the Squad just being outliers who befriended each other every year. "Yes, but..." "But what?" "They were malcontents! The criminals, the insurrectionists, the people society was better off without! How does me spearing a little boy who really just wanted to go home make society better off?" Cas is shaking again and shit.
Mason offers a sympathetic nod. "Of course not. But you have to do it. You're making society better because you're not an outlier who's going to cry and die, you're trained to handle this. So don't fucking cry, ok?" Cas nods, but he's too far gone, and the others are eyeing him with a hint of a threat this time. That's an issue. The dynamics are off this year, without Vulpes and her charm Kyanite's been on edge, Tethys was cool with Cas but not friendly by any means, and Royce has almost been more excited since his glimmering, playful District Partner took claws across the back and teeth in her throat.
So Mason has to take charge. Has to guide a shivering Caspian into the overly warm river, take his ally by the hand and begin to gently flick water, eventually accepting a mug from Kyanite and using it to pour water over Cas. After all, bloodstained and desperate is not a good look for a Squaddie, even a Four.
"Don't take this the wrong way, Caspian Seward. I'm doing this because you're my ally. Not because of any underlying tension, I like girls thank you very much and that's a definite. This is because you're my friend." Cas lets out a shaking laugh, and Mason can accept the issues because he's slipped the trident out of Cas' grip. Begins to let it slip, let the water run blood off it into a shimmering red cloud in the water. Still a couple of minutes till anything that likes blood enters the water.
Or not, when Mason feels a nip on his leg, and pushes a mostly clean but still sopping wet Caspian onto the bank, the fisher boy turning to him with a smile and a wave of thanks. "Thank you. I know you must think I'm a Monster, but." "But we've got that light at the end of the tunnel. Victory. Maybe you, more likely me." Another shaking laugh, and now Mason has his arm around Cas' shoulders. "We're all Monsters here, Caspian Seward. Now look, look at the bright sides of life. The river, look how pretty it is."
Caspian has a tremor in his voice. "You're not concerned?" "No, Cas. I'm not concerned, I've never been concerned for you. You're going to try your damn hardest to win." "I am?" The question is audible, and at this point it seems Cas' given up. Mason now sympathizes with Caspian, with the boy who just wanted to know he was good, wasn't a bad guy.
Which makes it all the more rough when Kyanite drives the spear through Caspian's neck, and the blood spurts. Cas jars, just for a second, staring down at the sandy bank and the river beyond. Then the carcass pitches forward, and the spear drives down again. Harder, this time, into the head. A cannon fires, and at least it was over. Tethys tries a smile, only manages a distant grimace, and Kyanite shakes her head. "We had to, Mason. We agreed to. I swear we had to."
"Yeah." Mason can't speak, can only look at the once-scared boy on the ground when Kyanite reaches her arm around his shoulders. Tethys on the other side, helping, leaving the body with the trident gleaming atop it. Kyanite speaks, again. "We had to, Mason. I swear. Come on now, we can go back to the 'Copia. Go and get a drink and something to eat. Horrific hot out here in this jungle, yeah?"
"Yeah." They head back off, not before Mason's glanced back. Seen Caspian, last glimpse of his friend's body pitched in the ground as the whir of the hovercraft descends.
