Stephanus Reagan


 * "The new format means that the tributes have time to train for the Games, which makes for much more exciting fights. I -- I don't know about you, but children -- especially children from districts like Twelve, they weren't the best fighters, and when they were killed, it was...well, it sure wasn't as exciting as it is now."


 * --Stephen Reagan to Agrippina

Stephanus, or Stephen Reagan (as he says, "I'm only Stephanus when I'm in trouble") is an Escort for District 6. He served as Escort for five years, from the 70th to the 74th Hunger Games, but returned to work shortly after Arena 09.

History
Stephen was born into the beautiful, powerful and influential Reagan family in the heart of the Capitol. His parents were always busy with work and quite distant: his father was in politics, his mother an event coordinator for very high-profile clients. From a young age, Stephen was expected to be seen and not heard, mind his manners, and not embarrass Mother and Father. He saw them at breakfast maybe three or four days a week, and dinner was served by a nanny, who rarely let him stay up until his parents came home. Honestly, almost all of Stephen's familial love came from his older brother, Cyrus. Cyrus, just as lost and alone as Stephen was, was aching for someone to love and be loved by, and Stephen clung to his older brother as friend and guide and guardian. As they grew up, they both learned etiquette and history, music and art, but Cyrus learned politics and governance while Stephen turned towards the Games. As they got older they grew apart -- Cyrus became deeply involved in Panem's government while Stephen took an interest in the drama and excitement of the Hunger Games, going to school to be an Escort. They grew apart a little during this period: Cyrus gained knowledge of the world and the greased wheels on which it ran, and became determined to hide the dark side of the Capitol from Stephen. He's taken great pains to shelter his younger brother, and it led to Stephen growing happy-go-lucky and hedonistic, mildly scandalous but never truly irresponsible. He'd never shame the family name by doing anything too outrageous.

Unknown to Stephen, his family is full of scandal already. His father made a political mistake and was poisoned by an enemy; his mother poisoned that person right back. Cyrus is as clean as a Capitol politician can be, but he does take bribes because he believes that that is how you keep a political system running smoothly, and because refusing bribes makes you enemies.

Stephen has been an Escort for several years now. He was assigned to District 6, the transportation district, and after working closely with its Mentors, Stephen has begun to see past the Capitol-created personas and into the real people underneath. He has a long way to go, but the Capitol conditioning has begun, just begun, to crack.

Presentation
Stephanus Reagan is very easy to get along with. He is pleasant, easy to talk to, and tries hard not to cause anyone offense. He'll bend over backwards to keep the person he's talking with comfortable, and he's very good at polite charm. Now, this is the Capitol, so "sophisticated" to one person is "over the top" to another, and Stephen definitely falls on the "over-the-top" side, but for a Capitolite, he's pretty classy. He's good-natured, good-humored, optimistic, and capable of salvaging a lot of really awful situations. He is quite good at his Escort job, able to balance demanding schedules and get Tributes/Mentors, who are often difficult to work with, up and out to social functions. He also has a knack for PR.

Stephen is definitely pleasure-loving, and will go out of his way to try new things, especially if they're in vogue or he can do them in the company of a beautiful lady or a striking man. He is young, attractive, witty, keeps himself in shape, and his family is filthy rich, but no one has managed to tie him down for long -- on-again, off-again is the way it usually goes. Politically, Stephen is no activist: the status quo is very pleasant for him, and he doesn't have to understand how it works as long as it stays how it is and everyone is happy. Because of course everyone is happy -- he is of the opinion that the Districts are better off this way, because this way is peaceful. And if there is unrest in the Districts, why, it's because they envy the Capitol like the limbs envy the stomach: they see all the food going to the stomach but don't understand that it is the stomach which provides for them. His brother, Cyrus, who is familiar with the darker side of the Capitol and its politics, has done everything he can to shelter Stephen from this reality.

Therefore, he can come off as extremely shallow. The fact that he's used to thinking of the Tributes as personas, as characters essentially, contributes to this. He ships them, follows them like a celebrity soap opera, and sighs for a romance like Katniss and Peeta's, or Wyatt and Maximus's. He also likes to tell people what they want to hear, and is bad at breaking bad news or confronting a friend. He has a double standard when it comes to gossip: he will gossip about the Tributes all day and night, but if something comes out that is actually hurtful, he doesn't like it and won't repeat it. He just sort of wants everything to go with the flow, and for everyone to be happy, and for people to only get hurt in municipally-approved, controlled ways.

Motivations
Stephen may seem carefree, absorbed in his job, and absorbed in his pleasant life, but this veneer is cracking. His relationships with his district's Mentors over the years, along with leading two children to their deaths every year, has stirred doubts in his spoiled little soul. He has begun to see Mentors as more than just the personas they present to the Capitol -- the few he has come to know more personally have shown themselves to be more complex than that. In addition, Stephen never liked seeing the children he escorted die gruesome deaths, and each year it became harder and harder to tell himself that it was for the glory of their Districts and that really, dying for the Capitol is an honor. He's still capable of telling himself that, of course -- Stephen is very desensitized to violence -- but he is doubting.

Stephen is a genuinely good person underneath it all. The Mentors he has been working with, whose personas he has seen through -- he'll try to help them as much as he can. If they don't like big gatherings, he minimizes their public appearances and covers for them. If they need to make an early exit from a party, he'll make sure they get out without a fuss. When Stephen puts his mind to it (though he often doesn't), he's good at understanding people, at finding out what makes them tick. This is something he usually uses to help people, but he is capable of hurting them.

Speaking of hurting people, if you fuck with his family, or with someone else he cares deeply about? Stephanus Reagan will cut you. Push him far enough or kill someone he loves, and Stephen will fly into a rage and will not stop shooting your body until the clip is empty and the gun's just going click-click-click. He'll regret it once he's calmed down, of course -- Stephen isn't a killer at heart and could never murder in cold blood. This has not happened to him before -- Stephen hasn't suffered much at all, aside from parental coldness. If he did find himself in a hard place, though, Stephen would prove surprisingly resilient and adaptable, and prove skilled at making friends even in terrible conditions.

And lastly, jumping back to family for a second. Stephen's upbringing, the spoiling and the discipline and the pressure to behave well, left a singular effect on him. Though he is too mature and clearheaded to do it, there is a part of Stephen that really, really wants to act out, to behave badly, to push the boundaries until someone tells him "no." He has spent so long regulating his own behavior for the sake of his family that he's not really sure where the limit is, and it's left him unconsciously wanting structure. Despite the coldness of his parents, though, family is the most important thing in Stephen Reagan's world. He would do anything for them, especially his brother, and believes that Cyrus Reagan can do no wrong. Stephen has no idea that President Snow is a poisoner, or that the biddable Tributes are coerced, or that the machinery that runs Panem is oiled with blood.

Storyline
Stephen returned to his work in District 6 against the wishes of his brother, Cyrus Reagan, noted Capitol political figure. He was eager to get back to work and hopeful about the new direction the Games are taking, one where fewer children die and he gets to meet people from another world. However, he was distraught to find that Jesse Pinkman had just returned from a breakdown and morphling-bender.

Family

 * Cyrus Reagan (NPC)
 * Portia Reagan (NPC)
 * Julius Reagan (deceased)

District-mates
Tributes
 * Ziva David
 * Jesse Pinkman
 * Guy Crood
 * Perry Kelvin
 * Ian Gallagher
 * Zelos Wilder
 * Kevin
 * Anna of Arendelle
 * Joe Shimamaru
 * Punchy

Ex-lovers

 * Victory Hannibal
 * Claudia Kishi
 * Derek Zoolander
 * Jennifer Blackwood