#tumblr was being a dirt-bag over the reblog thing. would NOT allow me to trim it

[timeguardians]

Tributes

@fallsekings || from here & here

Snow sat behind his desk with his fingers laced together, watching as the young woman from the Districts seemed to grow angrier by the moment. He didn't even flinch when she swept his items from off of his desk and into the floor. Peacekeepers were stationed nearby to cart her off if she posed any threat to him, so her throwing a tantrum like a child mattered very little.

"You'd do well to mind your tone, Miss Barnes." It was a warning, and it would be the only one that he would give to her. No one from the Districts would show disrespect to him, nor to the Capitol. "You had a poor performance in the arena, but we graciously gave you that arm for your troubles anyways. We could just as easily take it away from you."

It was most unfortunate for the President, because if were entirely up to him, he would have her killed right then and there for the insubordination that she had shown him. The Peacekeepers seemed on edge, seemingly waiting for his signal to drag her away. It was fortunate to her, however, that he needed her alive and he had just the tool to make her do as he wanted.

"I know very well while you volunteered as Tribute." Snow said with a smile, "And in doing so, you revealed to me your weakness." She needed to understand the game that he was playing and what she was truly up against. "But I don't want to give you the false impression that Steve Rogers is safe from this game, just because you volunteered for him." Snow looked behind her now, making eye contact with the Peacekeeper and made a motion with his hand to let the guards know that he was ready to have him brought in.

The disheveled young man was being pushed through the door in a cage on wheels, just large enough for him to stand up in. The Peacekeepers were flanking him with rifles, so that Barnes couldn't get much closer.

"I hope now you understand the position that you're currently in Miss Barnes. You are at the disadvantage." He paused for a moment and gestured towards the mess that her tantrum had caused, "Clean it up and then we'll talk about what I want from you."

___________________________________

Noxious venom is birthed in two hyperfocused pools of glacial blues. Her jaw gifts him a vehement clench. A clenching so forceful, it is a miracle her teeth do not turn to dust.

Snow's inaction is ALMOST as insufferable as the horrors he forced her to survive. The nonchalance of Snow's seating splinters beneath aching and raw skin. Tributes just DIED for his amusement, and here he is, sitting as STOIC as a statue!!!! Her left arm is gone and it hardly seems to phase him!!! Her life, as sorry as it could be, was of NO consequence to him.

Bucky wishes to come up with a witty retort, a cleverly laid blow, but knows that it is in her best interest to keep her FURY bottled up inside. Poison churns stormily inside of her. "How very KIND of you." Barnes clips with a mockingly saccharine tone.

A pinch of terror races down her spine and the brunette forcibly swallows at his threat. The arm had been soldered on. Even now, mere hours later, the phantom PAINS linger. In fact, her brain couldn't yet process her left arm is no more and reflexively the metal fingers clench into a FIST.

Barnes's eyes darken as he speaks again. His insipid intonation leaves her blood half frosted over. A defiant tipping of her head crumbles the minute his words register. "What have ---you--- done?" Terror tears at the whisps of her softly uttered words.

Snow isn't wrong in his assumptions, as much as she is loathe to confess it. Her gaze begrudgingly follows Snow's to the Peacekeepers and then to Steve's caged form. The floundering muscle inside of her chest plummets FURTHER down. It's drop is quite agonizing.

She surges forwards several steps before the rifles persuade her to back off. "That WASN'T the arrangement we made, SNOW." She rumbles. Bucky had done this so Steve wouldn't ever have to. He was dealt a tough-enough hand without Snow playing into it.

"You know he is extremely unwell." She petitions. "He wouldn't last ten minutes in the arena. You wanted a champion--" This threat is one that strikes clear to her core. "Well-- that is not him." She didn't mean to take such a disparaging stance on Steve. Yet, she wanted him as far from this hellscape as he could possibly get.

It would have been better to die than to endure this, she thinks. However, the afterthought is far too late in it's arrival.

"Yes, President Snow." She obediently growls. Were it not for Steve's precarious situation, Bucky would not have so eagerly obliged. With the gritting of her teeth, it is evident that she is keenly aware of her disadvantage. Stubbornness shatters within her. Her pride is nearly destroyed as she scoops down to pick up and sort the mess she had made. The brunette's expression though, proved her bitterness over it. Hateful, her eyes turned back to him. "Satisfied?" She brusquely clips.