DEPRIVED barbarism (1)
Pairing: University!Coriolanus Snow x Mysterious!reader
Summary: Taking two incompatible oaths showed weakness, but that didn't add anything to the immorality of Coriolanus Snow.
WARNING: 18+ SlightyDark! Coriolanus, SlightMean!Coriolanus Dacryphilia, Smut (p in v), Mind-fucking kink, reader is referred to as an "abomination", Fem reader, mentions of violence, (Kinda) enemies to lovers trope, Ocs, bullying
Authors note: Originally I wanted this to be one post, but I just decided to split it into two parts so it won't be so long. Going to post the second part sometime this week. Enjoy the read! ily babes <3 💗
Word count: 1.7k
An abomination. That's what they referred to you as. That's what he referred to you as.
Coriolanus Snow was too proud of himself to admit that it hadn't been more than a joke, too self-conscious to let any of his peers get a sliver of who he was outside of university. Only the Grandma'am and Tigris got to see that part of him, the part of him that smiled and made attempts of sincerity (though that façade was shortly fleeting.).
After all, Coriolanus was the son of General Crassus Snow. He was to be the future President of Panem (Grandma'am and Tigris had told him such so many times that he was starting to believe that he might have a chance at presidency someday); Coriolanus didn't have time to be making jokes with his peers.
As much as Coriolanus liked daydreaming about being President someday, he knew dreaming was only for those who lacked control. For now, he was Coriolanus Snow, still the son of Crassus Snow, the tenth annual Hunger Games winner Snow. Coriolanus Snow, subject of Dr. Gaul.
Being Dr. Gaul's study subject introduced the two of you, albeit, He wasn't sure if you two were ever formally introduced in the beginning.
You just popped up one day in Dr. Gaul's laboratory, and after a week or two, Coriolanus deemed you a zit (this was before he deemed you an abomination). Zits shows up out of the blue and is hard to get rid them, and you don't want to pop it because it'll leave a blemish.
Coriolanus Was unsure if you were a student; the way you lingered around Dr. Gaul and the university made you seem like a ghost filled with dreaded longing.
Coriolanus thought, if she were a ghost, she doesn't know she was dead yet.
You weren't a ghost. Fennel Clearwillow, Coriolanus's occasional acquaintance, confirmed it.
Coriolanus was studying in the archives when Dr. Gaul approached him alongside her: you.
"Mr. Snow." Dr. Gaul greets. "Cramming your nose in a book during your substantial off day." She says, hands clasped behind her back and head held high. Dr. Gaul had this look on her face—like she knew something that you don't. At first, Coriolanus mistakes this look of all-knowing with the woman being out of her mind, but he would later conclude that Dr. Gaul is omniscient and a little omnipotent (and a little scary at times).
"Dr, nothing's the matter with a little weekend studying," Coriolanus said, making sure to flash his pearly whites.
You were there. Lingering behind the curve of Dr. Gaul's shoulder. So odd, yet compelling.
"While the rest of your peers are out partying, drinking themselves to a stupor." Dr. Gaul states.
You looked…clueless, Coriolanus thought.
"The rest of my peers are morons. They wouldn't know how to serve the Capital well if there was another rebellion."
It's like your brains had been sold separately or something.
The thought of another war breaking out terrified Coriolanus, but at least this time he knew how to aim and shoot.
This joke had been one of many self-deprecating ones. He earns a small smile from Dr. Gaul, which makes him feel pleased.
“Mr. Snow I want you to meet my…”
Latest creation? He thought.
Dr. Gaul was a psychotic mutation-obsessed woman. Coriolanus was no stranger to this. He’d seen the snakes of various colors, the rabbit mutts, and even those stupid, stupid Mockingjay, all done by the hands of Dr. Volumnia Gaul.
She’d already had a Frankenstein complex, messing with nature, so why not mutate humans next?
“My latest subject, Y/N Y/LN, alongside you, Y/N will also be studying under me.” Gaul said.
Hmmp.
Dr. Gaul nearly pushed you into Coriolanus. You stopped by the tiptoes before you collided with Coriolanus’s broad chest.
“Hello.” You say firmly.
Coriolanus nods, too occupied studying your face. He would never admit it, but Coriolanus was too stunned to speak. This was his first time seeing your face up close and not hiding behind Dr. Gaul’s wild hair or burning in some dark corridor.
Your skin hadn’t been muted with discoloration or any signs of stitching of other human body parts on you; you didn’t have that overall oddity most (if not all) Dr. Gaul’s mutation had.
If you had been created in a laboratory somewhere, Coriolanus was sure it had been an antique doll factory.
You were like a porcelain doll, like the ones Tigris had played with growing up, which she would later have to pawn off during the war for three cans of pinto beans and a jug of milk. Before they were pawned, Tigris didn’t let Coriolanus touch her porcelain dolls, scared he’d break them with that negligence only a child could get away with.
You extend your hand out, waiting for Coriolanus to accept and shake your palm, but he doesn’t. Coriolanus didn’t want to touch you. He was scared he’d put a scratch on you.
You extract your hand, the slight smirk on your face fading.
“It seems like Mr. Snow has already caught onto my intentions.” Dr. Gaul says. “You two will not be friends—Coriolanus, you know how much of a nuisance it is to have friends, don’t you? Especially in a competition.”
“Competition?” You and Coriolanus say simultaneously. Coriolanus felt a strange feeling brewing in the pit of his stomach at the smile that appeared on Dr. Gaul’s face.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to throw you two into the arena.” I wouldn’t put that past her, Coriolanus thought. “Just think of the opportunity you two students have compared to the rest of the student body.” Gaul said. “How bad does that make me look? It’ll look like I’m just inviting anybody into our little secret society.”
She was anybody.
You scoff.
"I must assume the winner gets a permanent spot in this 'little secret society' then." Coriolanus said.
The winner would be Coriolanus since he was here first, obviously.
Dr. Gaul begins to nod, but she cuts herself off. "That part has been undecided, Mr. Snow; until further notice, I want to see how the two of you work with each other."
Coriolanus concluded that Dr. Gaul must get off by watching the youth of Panem suffer.
"I want the both of you to write a 6-page essay about what the punishment shall be if there were to be a second rebellion. It seems like the districts haven't quite learned their lesson, what would we do to deprive their barbarism?"
Coriolanus's face dropped in realization.
"Thank you, Mr. Snow, for the idea." Dr. Gaul grins. Dr. Gaul watches the bewilderment on both of her prodigy's faces; she's pleased with herself. "The paper is due this Monday, so there's no time to stand there so boggled."
Before Volumnia Gaul leaves her two students to work, she says: "Two brilliant minds both wanting to study under one brilliant professor. This should be fun."
Coriolanus could feel her shit-eating grin gloating through the archives as Dr. Gaul left.
You were there again.
Looking so clueless.
The sight of you alone made Coriolanus's gut churn, but that bewildered look on your face gave him hope. This competition should be easy if you were as brainless as Coriolanus thought.
But…
If you were one of Dr. Gaul's mutated experiments, you indeed had an advantage. An advantage Coriolanus Snow lacked.
Though the "competition" hadn't been set in stone, Coriolanus couldn't afford to let you win.
Snow lands on top, Coriolanus affirmed, watching you from a distance as you roamed through the "Punishment in World History" section of the archives.
Snow always lands on top.
Two hours passed.
Two hours in which you and Coriolanus hadn’t spoken a word to one another. The only sound came from the flip of a page in your textbooks or your pens squabbling over your papers.
Coriolanus looked up at you occasionally. He wondered how you got your skin to look so soft. He wanted to touch you, just one poke.
She can’t be that bad, an unrecognizable voice in his head said; this was his morality speaking.
His thoughts meshed, creating one considerable thought of you and a second rebellion.
He wondered if you would survive in a second rebellion; surely you wouldn’t; you’d shatter. And Coriolanus would have to save you from those barbaric districts. Though he didn’t mind having to save you, the thought of you being some damsel in distress made him more pleased to be around you.
Coriolanus looked down at your paper. The two you decided to split the essay into three parts each. You’d been on your second page, going onto the third. Coriolanus had just decided what he wanted to put in the introductory paragraph.
For two hours, what had he been doing?
You noticed his hostile yet imploring stares; you didn’t let it bother you until the second quarter of the hour came around.
“Sir Stare-a-lot, if you want to win Gaul’s competition, this isn’t how you do it; I’m sure cheating is prohibited.” You said, eyes still on your paper, penned hand squibbing away.
Coriolanus scoffed like he would want to cheat off you. For the past two hours, you could've been writing nonsense onto your paper.
"Like I could even read your chicken scratch handwriting from here." He spat. This makes you smirk. You snatch his paper quickly, ignorant of Coriolanus's pleas to "Give it back!"
You scanned over his paper.
Two sentences. He had two sentences, and the first sentence was the initial question rephrased.
You laugh.
"More like you can't read at all." You say. "You'd been staring at your books for two hours and this, is all you come up with? A district can come up with something better than this."
Maybe it was your taunting laugh, your comparing his knowledge to someone as low as a district, or your control over him in the short time you two had been studying together that left Coriolanus Snow speechless.
He couldn't think straight with you being around. Coriolanus excelled greatly at coming up with exciting ways to punish the districts for their wrongdoings. Still, with you sitting across from him with exquisite facial features and flawless skin, his mind drew a blank.
Coriolanus needed to recuperate; he needed you out of the picture, and he needed to win.
Part 2
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