stillplaying | 7th Game [action/voice]

[Action]

[The bakery is a mess. She never meant for it to end up that way. It just sort of happened. Flour covering hair and body, the smell of something burning from the kitchen, flecks of pink frosting teasing her cheeks. Peeta's normally presentable window displays are less than ideal; a poor attempt at recreating the alluring cakes that always caught her attention back in District Twelve. The frosting's melted from the summer heat on one that's sat out since Friday. Another is poorly covered with a grey color -- an attempt at mixing food dyes gone horribly wrong.

Ingredients for various baked goods have somehow escaped the kitchen, piled up on the counters, half covering the note cards Peeta had left for her. Cookbooks borrowed from the library lie open elsewhere, pages now far from pristine. Half baked pretzels stock the shelves along with burnt chocolate chip cookies. Deformed cheese breads and crumbled brownie bites still in their trays sit nearby. Even Buttercup, easily pleased by any free food, ignores the easy pickings.

She tried. She had tried so hard. Peeta had left her recipes. Had tried to teach her how to bake on lazy days when she was more content to spend time with him in the bakery than go about her own thing. It seems that every lesson has been forgotten. Any skill she might have had in the kitchen, utterly gone.

The rain pours outside as she plucks at the rock hard shortbread cookies she's recently retrieved from the oven, trying her best to peel them from the tray. It's a halfhearted effort as she leans her head against her hand and stares out the window. She'd rather be hunting. But it's been raining ever since Peeta left for his mission, raining so hard, all she's been able to do is check a couple of the traps in the river behind their house. And she had promised, hadn't she? Promised she'd look after the bakery?

Look how miserably she failed, the worry making it hard to breathe, harder to concentrate. Shouldn't he be back by now? Shouldn't he?

Every few minutes, she checks the journal for signs of life. Ignores Buttercup begging for real food. Glances at the door to see if Peeta's finally return. No luck. No luck at all. He's supposed to be back today. Why isn't he back yet?]

[Voice]

Why do you bother? [The words aren't meant to be recorded in the journal, but they are, anyway. It barely processes to Katniss that she's left it laying open, close enough to pick up any mutterings.] Going on these missions? Being a piece in their games?

It's stupid. This is all stupid.

[ooc: timed to after mission is over, when people start arriving home. but if you want to tag during -- feel free to have katniss in the bakery making a mess from friday on!

also, edit for warning of sexual content in the Peeta thread.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She shakes her head. It's been so long since she's mentioned the term to someone not from Panem. She almost forgot other worlds weren't as cruel. That they never had anything like the Hunger Games. Other struggles, perhaps, but nothing that involved exploiting children for the sake of entertainment.

At least, she hopes not.

For a few seconds, she resumes playing with the fletching of her arrow. Thinking. Remembering. When she does talk, she doesn't look up.]

Gamemakers were the people that designed and ran the Hunger Games. In Panem, in my home. Twenty-four children were selected to fight to the death every year. [She glances up now and rolls her eyes.] The highest form of entertainment you could find.

Edited 2012-09-20 16:25 (UTC)

[Some of the color drains from his face as he hears that. He's heard a lot of monstrous things, but this one ranks pretty high among them.]

... that's sick. What kind of monsters would be entertained by something like that!?

[She still doesn't know. The people of the Capitol, they're not all bad. They weren't all monsters. Cinna, her prep team, some of the rebels. Even dear, misguided Effie. They just don't know any better.

But that doesn't mean she's about to defend them.]

People who considered it fair penance for a war the Districts lost to the Capitol seventy-six years ago. People whose children would never be entered in the reaping. [A shrug.] I don't know.

They're wrong. [The thought of it makes him angry. Maybe because it isn't so hard to imagine. A life split between war and Luceti will do that to you.]

But you know that already, I guess.

[A nod. She's known it all her life. Promised herself never to marry, never to have children as to prevent subjecting them to the Games. But back then, she had never expected another rebellion. Never imagined herself igniting one of the sparks.

And never, ever thought she'd fall in love with Peeta Mellark.]

Peeta and I were both tributes. We won. [She hesitates just for a moment before continuing.] There are others here, too.

[Others, she says. Where everyone has to kill each other...]

I take it they didn't.

[She shakes her head. She shouldn't continue. She should change the subject. But that would never change her memories, her nightmares. The way the deaths weigh heavy on her, even when they weren't necessarily her fault.]

Haymitch won his. The fiftieth Games. But Cato and Clove... Clove was killed by a boy named Tresh. I- [She hesitates. But the words keep spilling out.] I killed Cato.

[... that's a serious thing to confess. Sokka has killed. He could never imaging confronting them afterward.]

... isn't he the one who was telling everyone about... you know?

[In the end, killing Cato had been an act of pity. It had been an act that also cost Peeta his leg. Her last arrow had been his tourniquet. But the mutts were killing him slowly. Too slowly. Hours and hours had past that night, listening to his pitiful whimpers. There had really only been a hunk of meat left when she had fired.

But a death is a death. Whatever the reason, she had been the one to kill him. The reasons don't matter.]

Yes. That's him.

[~~THAT'S SO MUCH WORSE THAN THE MOVIE~~ He has no idea what the situation was like. But he doesn't have to imagine it, anyway. Katniss? She looks young. Probably the same age as he is.

They're both too young to have to kill.]

That's hard. For you... for him. Wow. [He shakes his head.] But you aren't enemies here, right?

[~~SO MUCH WORSE~~ It was hard to see him again. Just as hard as it was to see Clove. Rue's presence here should have prepared her. But the thought of seeing them again, seeing any of the Careers, it had never crossed her mind.

She looks up at his question and nods.] We have a treaty.

[Remember who your enemy is. Perhaps Haymitch's best advice.]

... a treaty.

[When Azula was here, they didn't even have that. Just the notion that it would be reckless for her to try and take revenge or stir anything up. It worked.]

I guess you have more important enemies now. We all do.

It works.

[The odds aren't really skewed towards either of them. Katniss and Peeta might have Haymitch, but given how much time the man spends drinking, she doesn't know if she can count on him. And against Clove and Cato... The treaty is a good idea. It keeps matters formal, impersonal, and clear.

Because he's right. They do have more important enemies.]

Better to focus on the Malnosso.

And the cultists.

[These days, it's them Sokka is more concerned about with. Somehow the Malnosso have moved into a secondary concern.]

But. I guess I've said what I wanted to say, anyway.

[She nods, glancing back in the direction in which she came. It'd be good to head back now, head back to Peeta and the warmth of that house they share.

But she's glad she came. At least, she thinks she is. The talk has been good, given her more to think about.]

Thank you.

Right back at you. It was uh. Good to say all that.

[He starts to walk away, giving a sort of backwards wave as he does.]