Astorian was heading into the viewing room to see how INdigo was doing, he had just gotten back from seeing her off to the Arena when he walked into the room and was poised with the question, eyes scanning over the source of the question, Cain Gunn, grandson of a former Victro from Two. He was a year or two younger than Astorian, and he remembered he had rooted for him as a child. The idea of a kid Victor had been exciting at the time, now....it felt gross. Someone that young in the games. He pushed his glasses up his nose a little.
"We learned about older Mutts in school, most of the ones for the arena were bred to die quickly after the games. Though my dad said the Capitol destroyed them immediately after to prevent a breakout. They probably kept the genetic files though, I would have imagined Vox would have destroyed them though, if they had planned on ending the games. I'd have hoped so anyway."
"Huh," Cain nodded simply, letting his head lull back against the couch. "That makes sense." It did make sense— that the lifespans of mutts would be intentionally short, that gamemakers weren't bringing them home between Games like class pets that needed to be rotated through the group. "I always thought mutts were pretty cool," he admitted without having been asked his opinion on anything, really. "Probably 'cause I don't understand how they work... basically at all. It's like watching, uh, a magic trick." He knew their intent was gruesome, but there was a kind of morbid fascination there. He missed having Holland around to entertain his stupid questions.
"Maybe they hadn't gotten around to it yet," he shrugged. "I mean, there was a ton of stuff to do when they took over, right? It figures some files on computers could probably just wait around a while. No harm, no foul."
