Midday, After the Bloodbath (@othcrhalf)
He watches Harbor in the water. As long as he can, until the cameras move away. He’s alive.
He’s alive, but Twig knows how little that has to do with him. He couldn’t count on his oldest friend in the Capitol to be a sponsor. He couldn’t help Harbor on the interview stage, when he raged backstage at every Capitolite standing by while Harbor sat on stage, hands moving but no one giving his words voice. Why did you even reap him? He’d demanded. If you aren’t going to let him compete? No one answered. He hadn’t expected them to.
And now he watches.
He finds himself gravitating, again, to Robyn. He doesn’t know if they can be a comfort to each other, but he knows that—now, at least—they feel the same. That, after all these years and all this distance, this is what it took for them to reach an understanding. “It’s good that he’s with Wren,” he says, though he can’t say how convinced he sounds. “He’ll protect her. And she—she’s well-liked. That’ll protect him, too.”
It’s almost poetic. One of the most well-loved of this year’s Tributes, teaming up with one of the most hated. Though, if this Quell has taught them anything at all, it’s that love doesn’t always keep someone safe.