4th Game [action]

[stillplaying]

[Today is a day that Katniss Everdeen never should have lived to see. Today - give or take the few days difference between Luceti's calender and Panem's - is the day she turns eighteen.

Life in the Seam. Two arenas. An uprising. Becoming the Mockingjay. Acting as assassin. Her own attempts at suicide. The bombs that took the wrong life.

The odds were never in her favor. Today was a day she never should have lived to see.

It's like any other day. She wakes up in her bed, shaking and sweating from a nightmare that lingers in the back of her mind. Watching Prim die again and again. Being physically incapable of rescuing her sister each and every time. And then panicking when she wakes up in a still unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed.

Peeta had won. Maybe she hadn't fought this argument hard enough. But earlier this week, they packed up their treehouse shelter and moved into town. To house 43. Where Peeta's leg won't make it difficult for him to travel to town or climb up ladders. Where they live close to a bakery he could work at. Where Rue could more easily attend school.


Where she could wander around the village for the rest of the day, trying to forget every little event that led to today even as she reminds herself of all the deaths that led to her being able to turn eighteen. She carries her bow and arrow, but she has no intention to hunt. Today is an amnesty. Even if she never considered the game killed for food a part of her death toll, she can't bring herself to kill anything.

Instead, she explores the town in a way she's never bothered to before. She spends time inspecting the river and parts of the north eastern woods not too far from the house. Studying the other buildings. Going in and out of shops. She goes to the bakery and the library. Returns to the welcome center and the clothing store. Even steps into the Seventh Heaven restaurant to look but not eat. She has no appetite.

Her final stop of the day, before heading back to her new home, is at the item shop. It's easy to lose herself inside of there. To examine strange objects from other worlds that she's never seen before. And then to find something unexpected: her father's plant book.

As she flips through it, each page earning a careful caress as she studies her father's handwriting. And wonders what he would think if he were here in Luceti with her today. Would he be proud? Or would he be disappointed, loathe the girl she grew up to be?

She clutches the book to her chest before heading out and quietly whispers:] Happy birthday, Katniss Everdeen.

Comments

[stillplaying]

Not a lot of things.

[Not as much as she might like. Not that she has many items of sentimental attachment.]

Does it usually take a while?

[hisdarkmark]

Depends, I suppose. Take wands for instance. I received mine almost straight away, but Hermi--...a friend of mine from home didn't receive her for nearly a month and a half. Reckon the Malnosso like you.

[stillplaying]

[She shakes her head. She doubts it has anything to do with liking. Only a way to placate a dangerous Mockingjay. Give her allies and enemies. Objects from home that'd take her mind off of any sparks or fires of rebellion.

Make her malleable. Make her usable. Keep her unstable. Anyway,] I'm not very likable.

[hisdarkmark]

It wasn't exactly a "like" in a good sense, to be fair.

[stillplaying]

[Her lips quirk into a sardonic, almost self-depreciating, grin.] That'd probably be more right.

[hisdarkmark]

Believe me, you don't really want to be liked in this place. Gives them more chances to use weaknesses against you...but I'm sure you already knew.

[stillplaying]

[She did. She knew that all too well. Something you learn when you're just another piece in their games.

A nod and even a dry laugh.] Yeah.

[hisdarkmark]

[He thought so.]

So what are you going to do with it now?

[stillplaying]

Keep it.

[Why wouldn't she?, her eyes seem to say.]

[hisdarkmark]

For the sake of keeping it, or to get some use from it?

[stillplaying]

Both. [She pauses for a moment.] If Elicia wants to learn more about plants, I can use it to teach her.

[hisdarkmark]

Didn't peg you to really be the teaching type.

[stillplaying]

I'm not.

[But it's hard to resist Elicia. Especially with those wide eyes and blonde hair and that eagerness to learn. She's too much like Prim. And that means too much to her to walk away.]

[hisdarkmark]

...special circumstances then. I see. [It's okay, Katniss, he's got his own set of special circumstances that break a lot of his personal rules.] That's a more logical explanation.

[stillplaying]

[A nod. It's something that tends to explain a lot, isn't it?]

Do you teach?

[hisdarkmark]

Suppose you could say that. On and off, though we've sort of disbanded our classes since we first started.

[stillplaying]

[She nods, slipping her father's book into her bag.]

Magic?

[hisdarkmark]

[A nod.] It was...nice, or whatever. The girl who kept us all organized, Hermione? She kept us going. When she left though everything fell apart. We tried to put it back together but then everyone else left. I haven't had the desire to teach since then.

[stillplaying]

[She understands. Like she hadn't had any desire to sing after her father died. It's only been recent, only since her first trip to the arena, that she's started to sing again.]

Where'd she go?

[hisdarkmark]

Home. They all did. We're from a country called England in the Europe continent. Look it up on a map sometime.

[stillplaying]

[By now, she's met enough people from the past to know that Europe is a place across the ocean. That it once had countries of its own. Now? She doesn't know.]

I've heard of it.