#` i. brutal truths and gentle lies . ( hc. )

[tcnked]

✦ * · ˚ ⌜ paul wesley, amanda, 20, est, she/her ⌟ was that TED TONKS?  i heard the TWENTY-EIGHT year old is working as an INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER now. not surprising, seeing as how they are SHARP and GENUINE, although some say they can be AGGRESSIVE and BLUNT. maybe that’s why HE is rumoured to be NEUTRAL. here’s hoping they have what it takes to survive the war.

so this is ted, he’s really pretty. that’s all u need to know

pinterest

character insp: ryke meadows, shane madej, jess mariano, jack pearson, ryan atwood, etc.

themes, motifs, and imagery: tba i’m too lazy for this rn.

EARLY LIFE.

tw: mentions of emotional manipulation and alcoholism

michael tonks? an absolute asshole of a guy. valerie tonks? horrible stepmom. rachel tonks? great lady, the best, iconic, groundbreaking. didn’t even change her last name back bc it was her son’s and she didn’t want him to feel alone. my name’s amanda and i would die 4 rachel tonks

basically michael and rachel were a really fast-paced relationship. super deeply in love but destined to fizzle out early once michael found the next pretty girl that was apparently better than rachel. and his two year old son. they were in their mid-twenties and she was working with michael during a case he was given and, as the poets say, the rest was history. they were engaged within the first year and married a handful of months after their one-year anniversary. they fell pregnant a couple months later and had a son before they were even together for three years.  the fact that they lasted for years past their honeymoon stage was a gd MIRACLE, to be honest with y’all

they were fairly happy for the year following ted’s birth, but from there things started to go downhill. they started arguing over everything, fights ranging from small things to exploding over something major. the tipping point was when rachel found out he was having an affair --- but of course, it wasn’t MICHAEL’S fault he was unfaithful. it wasn’t MICHAEL’S fault he turned to alcohol to deal with their failing family. it’s never his fault; always everyone else. he was a saint, as far as he was concerned!!!! by the time ted was two years old, his parents had divorced. it was an UGLY thing behind closed doors, but as far as michael’s colleagues and the press following his rise as a lawyer knew, it was pleasant. and after a bit, rachel and edward tonks fell back into obscurity. 

she moved out of london and took ted with her farther north, back to her hometown and family, while michael and the woman he had been seeing behind his wife’s back slowly eased their relationship into the public. two years they were married with twins on the way!!!! and for a few years, ted had no idea of his father. the way michael initially wanted it, at least.

ted was seven when michael decided to step back into his life. rachel fought against it, but michael was fuckin relentless and also,,,, a lawyer so he knew his parental rights and what he had and hadn’t given away. ://// so every week he and ted would have lunch or michael would show up at his football games, trying to ease his way into ted’s good graces. and at the time, ted was so easily manipulated that it hurts my heart

he fell for it, for a WHILE not realizing that this wasn’t the proper relationship a son should have with his father. it even got as far as him getting close to his twin half sisters, georgina and cecelia. but it was all very quiet as the older ted got and the more he realized this was SHITTY, the more his father tried to manipulate the situation by blaming things on rachel. or on ted, when he would miss dinners or have to change plans with four of them. and he would keep feeling guilty, and keep falling for it every time. even when his mom would try to reassure him that nothing was his fault. all masked as a good father wanting to be involved with his son and have him involved in this second family’s life as well.

he was just past his tenth birthday when a woman in robes showed up at the doorstep of the tonks home in northern england, weaving stories of a school for magic. it explained a lot of incidents that had been shoved under the rug and never discussed again as ted had grown up, though rachel was undeniably weary with her more catholic background. it took........a lot of convincing to say the least, but by the following september she was alongside ted at king’s cross.

HOGWARTS YEARS.

the hat didn’t sit on his head for long before screaming ravenclaw within the great hall. he joined those with eagles plastered on their chests and, for the most part, kept to himself.

ted in hogwarts grew to be a lot more.........stony, for lack of a better word. the boy with endless curiosity and a big heart shifter into someone rougher the longer he faced taunts and whispers and disdainful looks from those of ‘pure’ magical background. despite it all, he was fairly well known around the castle. not always for the greatest things, but he did get himself a certain reputation

ted was no stranger to starting or getting involved in fights around the castle, both physical and verbal. he’s v punch-first, think later

he was such a smart ass honestl y. like fairly self-deprecating but he also didn’t stand for people saying shit??? like if someone said something stupid or rude, he was quick to bite back??? came off as a lil self-righteous, a little condescending when it came to his intelligence. highkey a pain in the ass but overall he meanT well like lived by do what you love, fuck off what u don’t

he was never anything but strongly and genuinely himself tbh. v dry humored, v 'i can do anything'

basically hogwarts ted was hard to ignore even tho he wanted 2 stay to himself

POST - HOGWARTS TO CURRENT.

so BASICALLY after leaving hogwarts his dad amped up the shitty game

especially after ted got with andromeda

“how many trips have you made with someone named black but not your FAMILY” “your SISTERS miss you, think you can make some time for them?” “maybe we’d help you if you spent time with your family” it’s v disgusting v rude but like,,,,, he still didn’t know ted was a wizard and anyway

ted grew increasingly sick of it, especially as michael kept pushing and pushing and pushing him when ted and andromeda had to live with rachel for a while following andromeda being disowned. it was a lot to deal with and ted just,,,, lost all patience with it and stopped contacting his father at all

tbh one of his biggest fears is eventually becoming his father and it really worried him that by removing himself from michael and his step mom, that his sisters will think he’s abandoning them

but listen ted at 28 is sorta thriving??? a lot more mentally stable tbh. less aggressive, for the most part. he’s working as an investigative reporter for the prophet. he’s big on digging and figuring out the truth and yeah he’s v aware the prophet isn’t an impartial paper, but like. he’s trying his best out here. getting involved in some shady shit and going under a pen name to avoid potential risks of the wrong people realizing who he is, yikes. not only war-related things, but unicorn blood dealing circles and dragon rings etc etc etc.

also ted as a dad???? iconic. he would do literally anything for dora BYE

and andromeda? always flirting w her tbh, always doing tiny things 2 get under her skin. he was such a pain in her ass at hogwarts goodbYE

anyway dont talk 2 me about him trying to help and cope w andromeda’s like. unspoken problem w alcohol. he’s out here tryin 

this is a lot of word vomit and didn’t cover everything iw anted but. love me plot w ted

[sarah-bae-maas]

For the HC thing! 12- nessian❤️

Send me a number along with a ship and/or character!

12 - The first time

***

Cassian loved her – by the cauldron he did. He didn’t care how much she snarled at him, or how cruel her words were. He saw her for what she is, who she truly is, and there wasn’t a single part he didn’t want.

Being in Illyria had forced her to quit some of her more toxic habits, but that did not mean that she was healing inside at all. They had made progress, but she was still rough-hewn and scared, even if she didn’t want to admit it.

There was a storm, an unusually brutal one, and it made Cassian tuck Nesta away in their house, much to her protest. But even the Illyrians would struggle in this weather, and they were far better equipped to it than Nesta was. 

Cassian was making them a stew, his shirt and leathers hanging up to dry. Nesta sat in her soaked dress, arms crossed and scowl on her face. Cassian knew she wanted to be anywhere but with him, but he had grown accustomed to her hostility. He had tried giving her space before, and it hadn’t worked. So even if she despised his presence, he wouldn’t leave. Nesta had to know there was someone in the world who was rooting for her.

They started fighting, he didn’t even know what about. Maybe she didn’t like the stew, maybe she just hated him. When she screamed at him, “Why are you even here beyond some brutish loyalty to your brother?” he blanched back. Not from her tone, but from the inaccuracy of her statement.

“I am here because I want to help you.”

“I don’t need help.”

“Sometimes we need help and don’t even realise it.”

She threw a clock at him, which he easily caught and pushed aside. She shrieked at him again – telling him he was a liar, that he was pathetic, and he took it. Because he loved her. She didn’t know it, but he did.

So he told her.

“I love you, Nesta Archeron. And I’ll be here for as long as you need me.”

She went silent at the words. He waited. One minute. Three. Five. The wind the only sound as it made the windows creak and whistle.

“How on earth could you love someone like me?” she whispered through the darkness.

So he told her. Like a list of lovers lost, he went word by word as to why he adored her. Her ferocity. She challenged him. Her love for her sisters. Her stoic-ness. Her taste in erotica (that one nearly made her smile). The way her voice sound after she’s just woken up. Her intelligence. The way her hair catches the sunlight. Her human heart. Her Illyrian soul. Her.

She was breathing heavy as he went through the details, and he had never been more resolved to a truth. When he was done, she walked forward. She put her hands on his chest, her breasts, fuller now that she was eating healthy again, rose and fell and she sighed.

Cassian was still – more than he ever had been. She had all the control here.

Nesta leaned forward and placed her head on his chest. Her lips grazed his skin as she said, “You foolish male.”

Then she kissed him.

It was hesitant, a peck, then another, then she took him more forcefully when he didn’t cringe away. Her hand wrapped to the back of his head, where she tangled it in his hair to make him come closer. Her other hand reached behind her, pulling at the string to undo her dress.

Cassian pulled away, eyes wide from her actions.

“What – what are you doing?”

“What does it look like?”

He shivered. Was this real? Besides that one day on the last afternoon of the war, she had never shown interest. As a friend, yes, maybe, sometimes, kind of, but not as a lover. Not like Cassian did.

“Are you sure?” He was a bastard. He was nothing.

She was vulnerable when she said, “I don’t want you to fuck me Cassian.” Her voice broke. “I want you to make love to me, the way they do in my books, the way mates do it. Love me, Cassian. Please.”

He conceded.

So gently, he turned her. He slipped off her dress, kissing her shoulders. He undid her corset, smoothing his hands down her back. He stepped in front of her, naked but for her underwear, and dipped his head to kiss her again. His hands were shaking.

It was her that led them to the bed. It was her that undid his belt and pants before they lay together.

At first, they just lied on their sides and looked at each other – consumed the other visually.

Then Nesta scooted closer, nudging his nose with hers.

This time it was Cassian to take the lead. He kissed her like she was the antidote to the most dangerous poison. When she pulled him on top of her, he made himself stable, so he didn’t press into her too hard. He wanted to be gentle with her.

He spent hours making her moan in every way he could. His fingers, his tongue, everything he had he gave to her while whispering how much he loved her.

When they were done, they just looked at each other, Nesta not saying a word. She was enveloped in his arms, and he was the steadiest thing she’d had her whole life.

And the uncertainty of that certainty scared her.

They went to sleep with him cocooned around her, her face nuzzled in his chest and their legs tangled. It was the best night sleep they’d both ever had.

Cassian woke first and made them breakfast. Nesta mumbled that she wanted to sleep, so he ate on his lonesome, a smile on this face the whole time, and left her a serving while he went to work.

He spent most of his day with Emerie, who commented on the ‘frankly weird jovial mood’ he was in. He wasn’t going to say anything, but while they cleared the flooded gutter out the front of her store he confessed why.

“It’s Nesta and I… we’re together.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“What makes you say that?”

He explained in vague details what happened the night before, his goofy, love sick grin only widening. But she just looked at him in concern.

“Did Nesta tell you she loved you back?”

He opened his mouth to say yes, but no words came out. Because no – no she didn’t. But she didn’t need to. What she felt for him was her business, and she would tell him when she was read.

“Cassian, did Nesta explicitly say that you two are now together?”

Another question that’s answer was no.

Emerie looked at him with doubt and pity in her eyes, but Cassian didn’t mind. He knew what happened the night before meant something – he knew he wasn’t just another coping mechanism to her.

He continued on with his day, the scent of Nesta still fresh on him. He did his work as planned, and then a little more. The storm caused flooding, and debris had to be cleared before he returned home. He was later than usual, and on his way back picked up Nesta’s favourite desserts and a single poppy flower.

When he walked through the door, she was sitting in her reading chair with a book in her hands. She didn’t look up to greet him, even as he called her name and started excitedly speaking to her, nor as he asked if he could cut her a slice of the cake he’d gotten her.

He was approaching her with the single flower when he smelt it.

She’d been with a male today.

A male that wasn’t him.

He stopped dead in his tracks and backed up a few steps.

The scent was fresh. Only a few hours old maybe. Here while he was with Emerie. He swallowed hard and was silent. She’d had a male here after him, after what he’d said to her.

He was nothing to her.

He threw the flower in the trash and walked straight out of the house the way he came.

[ellanainthetardis]

Loved today's prompt! Just out of curiosity, what's your Effie/seneca headcanon?

Thanks! My Effie/Seneca hc mmmm... I put a read more bc it got long.

I’m not in the “they used to be a couple” bandwagon but I like to hc they knew each other very well because they’ve been in the same circles forever so they’ve known each other since childhood. I think they’re the kind of friends who make-out after a long night partying, when you’re drunk and a bit high on dancing and fun and you want somebody you love close, sometimes maybe it had gone further, but it always stays entaglement free, it’s easy, affectionate. I strongly hc that while Seneca is fluid, he’s more into men than women so whatever happens is mostly recreational and there’s never any ambiguity between the two of them, never any unrequited love.

I think they’re very good friends in a way that’s not always common in the Capitol because they recognzie themselves in each other: young, beautiful, deadly ambitious, probably with hard to please parents... I like to think there’s something pure to their friendship because Seneca genuinely loves Effie (in a friend/almost family way) and she loves him back the same way. I think he would risk a lot for her because he’s pure of heart when it comes to his friends (unlike Plutarch who I hc Slytherin, I think Seneca is more of the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff variety) and she would go far for him but not as far as he would, not as far as she would go for Haymitch or the kids, she’s too pragmatic and has too much self-preservation. And I don’t think she realizes just how deep he feels for her.

While she might be amongst the people Seneca would do anything to protect, he’s not in hers because... I think at some point, probably 2 or 3 years after she starts being an escort, Effie stops trusting anyone Capitol and above all anyone who works for the Games. It might be unfair but that’s how it is.

I see them as fake-dating from time to time, because... Well it’s a wider hc but while I think sexuality in the Capitol is very free (like nobody cares about preferences) and it’s totally okay to be gay, it’s a little more proper to be married to the opposite gender in certain high circles and families. There’s a clear discrepency in the city about what you do behind closed doors and what you do in public, about being wild because that’s how they live, in total excess, and being proper because you’re the “civilized” part of the population in opposition to the savages Districts (which also paradoxically are more traditional)...

So, yeah, I think Seneca is totally at ease with who he is, who he prefers, but I also think he has an overbearing politician father who would prefer him to marry a woman instead of a man - and he doesn’t quite have the courage to tell him to fuck off, because there’s a lot of money, influence and pressure and he’s been groomed since he was a child to be the next Crane: head gamemaker is only a step on his way to goverment.

As for Effie, there are moments when she doesn’t want a boyfriend/girlfriend (because of Haymitch) and others when she doesn’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend for several months/years (still because of haymitch), and while she’s seen with men and women at red carpets and events, there are talks about how she hasn’t been in a steady relationship for a while.

So it works out. They pretend to be a couple for a while, they have fun because they’re good friends, gossip dies and moves on to something else. They have an amicable break-up in time for the new Games season.

While nothing is ever made public and they deny it at the top of their lungs, I do believe the affair between Haymitch and Effie is kind of an open secret in the somewhat small Games staff world. Even if they’re trying not to be, they’re a bit obvious at times but mostly, in there, nobody cares because it’s not that uncommon for escorts to hook up with a victor or a Gamemaker, it probably happens often. It’s like being trapped in a terrible situation with someone for a certain amount of time, at some point, that person no matter how much you dislike them becomes the only one you can rely on, as twisted as it might get.

I’m also pretty sure the penthouse is bugged so, truly, there’s not hiding that they’re sleeping together even if they’re adamant it’s just a casual sex-friends thing.

And Seneca being Head Gamemaker, he’s the first made aware probably.

I think it amuses him at first because Effie denies and denies even if she must know he knows - and isn’t that a little embarassing - and he teases her about fantasies and about how she probably has wanted to do that since she was a teenager... He does see the appeal but Haymitch is not his kind of men.

After a couple of years though he starts getting concerned and I think he would urge her to cut him loose. Seneca is good at seeing patterns, at anticipating what’s going to happen, and he sees the train wreck in the making. He’s never as adamant as Chaff is with Haymitch because he respects Effie’s judgment and trusts her to make the good decision but he’s not entirely happy with the affair and lets her know. It probably causes a much larger rift between them than her wavering trust in anything/anyone Capitol.

I think Seneca was very much her closest friend before Haymitch took that place. She trusts Haymitch like she never trusted anyone. She trusts him blindly and completely, he’s her ally, her partner... He’s never lied to her even if the truth hurts sometimes a lot...

For Seneca, it must feel like Haymitch replaces him even if they never had the same degree of a relationship. He was Effie’s go-to person and now he’s not and she is still his so it leaves them unbalanced.

More generally, I don’t think Seneca is a bad person. He’s not a rebel, he never was. I think he does believe in the necessity of keeping the Districts under the Capitol thumb and he doesn’t exactly love what he does with the Games but he sees it as a control tool, he rationalizes it, he makes his peace with it. He distances himself from the tributes in the arena, they aren’t real to him until they become victors. He doesn’t think he will be Head Gamemaker forever. He’s been a Gamemaker almost as long as Effie’s been an escort, he’s been Head Gamemaker since the 70th HG, he’s the youngest Head Gamemaker ever... It’s only a stepping stone. Head Gamemakers are usually promoted to a high ranking ministry in less than 10  years if they do a good job and show indefectible loyalty. That’s his end goal.

What he does try to do and that other Head Gamemakers haven’t always bothered with is try to make it safer for the victors (and the escorts) on the prostitution front. It’s not much but for instance he makes sure that if a “client” is too brutal or something to the point of the victor seriously being injured, the client will not only ever be allowed to buy again but that he will get a bit of a fear. That’s something Snow is willing to work along with because victors are investments and messed-up investments aren’t any good.

I think Snow likes Seneca well enough because Seneca is young, full of ideas and determination to get to the top. Snow likes him with some fondness and a spark of interest because he’s promising and if he can groom him into the kind of men he needs, he thinks Seneca could go far. Snow liking someone has never stopped him from having them killed if need be though. On his part, I think Seneca is naturally wary of the President - there are pesky rumors around Games staff about poison and murders - but he’s also been taught to worship him since infancy - don’t tell me Snow doesn’t have a personality cult impleted in schools, it’s tyranny 101 - and because of his own father’s disappointed attitude, he answers favorably to Snow’s gentle guiding and words of praise. He wants to please Snow, he wants to do well. Snow is not quite a mentor but close to that. He’s not blind but he tells himself the horrors he sees are necessary to keep peace and save Panem.

Victors make fun of Seneca (because of the beard and the attitude) and don’t really like him but he’s not the most hated Head Gamemaker there ever was either. He’s decent enough and if they’ve got a real big problem, they know they can go talk it out with him. It might not amount to anything but more often than not, if it’s really serious, he will try to do something. He also tries to temperate Snow’s wrath as much as possible when a victor does something idiotic that deserves punishment, trying to find alternative punishment that won’t be deadly. For instance, I think Jo caused a lot of trouble as soon as she won and he tried to get her to see the light, warning her at least once or twice and sending older victors her way before he’s forced to take much more drastic measures and having her family killed (on Snow’s orders but at that point, he doesn’t seen an alternative either).

The indiference he feels towards tributes morphes into a sort of odd protectiveness when victors are involved, maybe because of a twisted conscience. Maybe because despite his job, he is not a violent man himself. He never threw a punch in his life and he wouldn’t have the first clue how to defend himself if attacked. This being said he never really shows any of that concern. It wouldn’t do because he’s the boss. 

He’s a bit like Effie, I think - and most of the Capitols who are aware of the danger of having more personality than mindless drones - in the sense that he has a very imposing public persona. He laughs a lot, he likes being seen, admired, seduced... He’s always amiable, always apparently happy... He plays the role of the successful young man, of the most elligeable bachelor... He has a somber, more contemplative nature though but he keeps that hidden for nights where he stares at his ceiling.

Above all though... I think he has a sort of honesty toward himself that Plutarch lacks in the sense that he doesn’t try to pretend he’s a better man than he is. He knows exactly what kind of man he is, regardless of the face he presents the world. He kills kids for a living, for the greater good maybe, but that’s what his job is. He doesn’t let himself think about that too often, he usually drowns it in champagne, parties and sex, but it’s there, simmering under the surface. Maybe once Snow told him leaders have to make hard decisions, cut a few to save the lot, that what they’re doing in important in the sense that it’s keeping Panem united and safe and he clings to that with all he has.

It’s a lonely life.

Effie’s the one who gets Seneca for Haymitch during the 74th Hunger Games and, ultimately, she’s the one who convinces him to go along with their plan.

I know a lot of people hc that Haymitch did the whole thing by himself and Effie was clueless but, to me, they’re very much partners, Effie taking the place of the traditional second mentor, and everything they do they do together - of one mind - and so Effie is very aware of what she’s doing when she sells Haymitch’s star-crossed lovers idea, she knows it’s risky, but she wants to try and save the children.

I also think, just like Haymitch must have, she knows the rule will have to be changed last minute and that there won’t be two victors no matter what the kids think in the arena. Maybe she tries to get Seneca to stick to that rule but the order comes from above (Snow) and Seneca won’t risk more than he already did. Possibly, he’s a little angry with her by the time they reach the ending because he let himself convinced by Haymitch that it would be good TV but mostly, he did it because Effie pleaded and now he sees how it could so easily go south and Snow is furious and he hates the disappointment he saw in Snow - and he’s scared too.

What no one anticipated was Katniss and the berries.

Seneca cuts ties immediately after the victory. He won’t take her calls, he avoids her, maybe the only thing he consents to tell her when he is forced to offer his congratulations at the Crowning is: to stay away from him. She thinks it’s because Twelve is in deeeeep troubles and she understands that he doesn’t want to get mixed up in it so she respects his wishes. She doesn’t quite get it’s a little more complicated than that. Sure he’s trying to not get associated with her but he’s also trying not to get her associated with him.

Because at that point, Seneca knows he’s dead, it’s just a matter of time.

I kind of liked what they did in the movies with the bowl of berries because there’s such doomness in it, just like if he was forced into an arena too. It’s terrible. He has no choice but to kill himself. How terrible it must be??? Like, he actually has to stand there and do it with dignity or try to fight, know he will lose and be force-fed berries... Personally, I think he ate the berries by himself, that he would feel it more dignified.

But in the books, I don’t think it was that easy, I think he tried to put up a fight because it’s one thing to be locked in a room with poison berries, it’s another to be asked to hang himself. I think they hanged him and it’s a terrible way to die and he must have known it.

Effie is devastated after his death and it happens after Haymitch and the kids went back to 12 so she doesn’t really have anyone to turn to. Cinna and Portia are there of course but she’s been set into this “don’t trust anyone” path for so long it’s hard for her to let new people know her real thoughts and feelings, her friendship with her only becomes completely trusting later, I think, once Haymitch tells her it’s okay and she actually should go to them if she has a problem.

Mostly, like probably all of the escorts, Gamemaker and people in the known, she’s forced to show some sadness but not too much grief because if they’re seen desperate over his death, they might be associated with him and soon join him in the “suicided” wagon. It’s a tight rope to walk on, all the more so because she keeps getting interviewed and asked questions about him because of their close friendship. And she’s forced to lie about how he might have been depressed or sad or about having an inkling he would do something like this.

I think that time is really, really rough for her because she truly loved Seneca. In a lot of ways, he was a masculine mirror and now she grasps soooo very clearly how quickly and easily she could fall. But it’s too late becaue she’s already committed to the children - never mind Haymitch.

She’s not really allowed to grieve. She doesn’t let herself grieve, not even in the privacy of her own home because she knows it’s bugged, she knows she can’t be seen crying over a traitor, not when she’s on thin ice herself. I think she loses it at her parents one afternoon during tea and her mother and sister are horrified, but at least it’s within the family and it stays there. She feels better after she cried it out but it’s still a weight on her shoulders, it’s not a sorrow she can just shake off like that.

She feels very guilty about his death too, terribly so, because she’s the one who brought him to Haymitch, because she’s the one who begged him to go along with the star-crossed lovers thing... She feels it’s her fault if he’s death, she feels as if she killed him herself.

In my hc, that’s why she’s so upset when Katniss mentions hanging a dummy and painting Seneca’s name in CF - and also because she’s been in a lot of stress for months, she’s probably more aware than Katniss gives her credits for, and she knows there’s a sword dangling over their heads coming lower and lower with every minute.

I think Haymitch is aware of how hard it is for her regarding Seneca’s death but 1) he doesn’t really cared for Seneca 2) he doesn’t really get it because while he’s aware they were friends, when the Games were in sessions, they weren’t much in contact (because a Gamemaker/later Head Gamemaker can’t be seen favoring an escort) so I’m not sure he gets how close they really were. He sympathetic of her grief because he sees it affects her deeply but he’s not sorry Seneca’s dead because he was just another Capitol Head Gamemaker who didn’t care about dead kids to him and there are more urgent fish - Mockingjays - to fry.

The rebellion kind of sweep everything under the rug and be it movie canon or book canon, Effie doesn’t have the luxury of thinking about Seneca’s death any more.

I think she spares him a thought from time to time post MJ but it’s a distant one because, once she settles in 12 for good, it’s like... another life entirely. The Games, everything that came before the war... At some point, it’s something she and Haymitch leave in the past because if they don’t cut it off the past and its demons will swallow them whole. It takes a few years, but they get there.