stillplaying: ([neutral] the mockingjay)
Katniss Everdeen ([personal profile] stillplaying) wrote2013-07-16 03:00 pm

16th Game [video]

[She's spent the last week hiding. Skipped guitar lessons with Teddy and archery lessons with Henry, barely showed her face in public. Most of her time was spent in the far reaches of the woods away from any areas she knew Sokka might hunt. When she could bother going on her forays. But in the past week, they hadn't felt quite the same. She hadn't been able to lose herself in the hunt as she normally did. Not when there was a fear in her belly that she might see him.

At least Gale had been smart. He'd put that space between them by moving to District 4. This town was too small. It lacked that space she had had in Panem. And because they had been so damn open about their relationship at Prim's party... People knew. So many people knew.

If there was one thing that Katniss couldn't stand, it was humiliation. She didn't want to see their pitying looks. Hear their echoed apologies. She had already had to go through that once. When she had lost Peeta, when her heart had truly broken. This? This didn't hurt as much. No, it was the mortification and the self-disgust that really bothered her now. At least she hadn't been so stupid as letting herself fall in love. But if it had gone on longer? If he hadn't had his death penalty removed, would she have?

Better to have them all hate her, despise her, than pity her. At least that she knew how to deal with, felt as if she could accept. Because they'd be right not to like her. All of them would be right. This likable girl her friends thought she was? That was a lie, only a part of whatever charisma it was she held over others. And today? Today seemed like the perfect day to do just that.


Effie's last post remained fresh in her mind as she turned on the video recorder in the journal. Her hair was neatly braided in its custom side braid. The mockingjay pin pinned high on the chest of one of her nicer blouses, displayed where everyone could see it. She stared resolutely at the camera for a minute before she nodded.]


Today, back in my home of Panem, would have been the first time in seventy-six years that a reaping of contestants for the annual Hunger Games would not have occurred. As many of you know by now, every year, on this day, the names of two children from each district - a boy and a girl between the years of twelve to eighteen years of age - would be selected to fight to the death in an arena days later. The Hunger Games served as entertainment to those who lived in the Capitol. People like Effie Trinket who didn't know better. An honor to those in the richer Districts, the ones favored by the Capitol. For the rest of us, it was a punishment, a reminder of the cost that came with rising up against our government.

[She took a deep breath, lips pursed together for a quick second as she remembered. She spoke without thinking. Determined, she only realized later, to take the heat off of Effie for her suggestion of games here in Luceti. Her mockingjay wings twitched behind her. But once she started speaking again, the words tumbled out. She held her gaze steady, grey eyes showing all the emotion her stoic expression hid.]

Many of you were angry when Effie suggested the idea of gladiatorial-like games here in our prison. But Effie was only acting like everyone else here, trying to make the best out of a horrible situation. Looking for something that would make her feel more at home. Just like the rest of us. You have no right, no right at all, to judge her for that. You don't know our world. You don't know what it could be like.

The 75th Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, were the last official games held by President Snow and the Gamemakers. But they weren't the last Hunger Games. Because after the second uprising ended, after we won, the surviving victors of previous Games met. There were only seven of us left. Me and Peeta. Our mentor, Haymitch. Johanna, Enobaria, Beetee, Annie. We were given a choice by President Coin - the new leader of Panem, the leader I executed in revenge for my sister's death. One last Hunger Games, this one played by twenty four children directly related to those who held the most power in Panem.

I think the way the vote fell was obvious. Peeta and Beetee and Annie voted no. The better of us. Johanna and Enobaria voted yes. And Haymitch and I? We had the last votes. But he's as unlikable, as bitter as I am. I suspected how he'd vote. And I voted to kill those Capitol children anyway.

I am not a good person. Maybe... maybe I thought I could change. Maybe I thought I could put all this behind me. The Captiol, the Hunger Games, Peeta... But girls like me don't deserve to be happy. They don't deserved to be liked. Or loved.

So do yourselves all a favor and think before you make a judgement about someone. Because as wrong as you are about Effie? You're just as wrong about me.
halfnhalf: ([teddy] what if he doesn't know?)

[video | locked]

[personal profile] halfnhalf 2013-07-17 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Katniss, if I thought people who did bad things in their past weren't worth hanging out with, then I wouldn't be friends with half the people I know today.

[He lets out a sigh, fingers on his temples again.] You know I come from a world with superheroes in it, right? How I'm one too, sort of? Some of those heroes, some of the best ones, started out as villains, or killed people when they had other choices. Does that mean we don't give them any chances? Does that mean they don't deserve to have any friends?

[Teddy lowers his hand, letting them intertwine in his lap as he looks at the journal.] What makes you think you don't deserve any of that? [What happened?]
asthehawkflies: (Default)

[Video] [Locked 90% to Katniss]

[personal profile] asthehawkflies 2013-07-17 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[He smiles slightly at that and god, he wishes he could help her. The red is always the worst in your own head. He knows that. Couldon who tells him that he has more than earnt his place in SHIELD, when all he can see is lives lost by his hand.]

You are real. You feel grief and pain and guilt for what happened and those are real. But you don't have to let them be all that you feel.

You feel bad about it. That means you're still capable of building something more for yourself.
savedtheworld: (dismay)

[Video]

[personal profile] savedtheworld 2013-07-17 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[Throughout the entire message, Aang's heart feels heavy. And breaking.

"I executed in revenge for my sister's death."

Prim.

"I voted to kill those Capitol children anyway."

His face is strained with the pain from this stress. He doesn't even notice that the video is flipped on. He gives a startled gasp, but no other words can form yet.]
ura_no_ura: (静かな表情)

[voice]

[personal profile] ura_no_ura 2013-07-17 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, so children are expected to kill each other for sport where you're from, huh.

[ That isn't all too different from the Chuunin Exams of his world, though death isn't exactly the goal. ]
greenjacketed: (♖ give me hope in silence)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-18 12:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"...He's the bastard what didn't lay his terms on the table. Had I thought--" Hmm. Sharpe frowned.
rashness: (Scare the living shit)

[Video]

[personal profile] rashness 2013-07-19 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
And what about people who show up next month, or the month after that?! You gonna keep telling people over and over and over that you're so terrible?! [Breathe... breathe...

The flames don't abate completely, but the ones around his shoulder die down, and while his teeth probably elongated into more pronounced fangs (given they're gritted right now) his eyes at least haven't shifted (not that he could tell). Instead, he remembers something else:]


And you gonna keep telling people that Prim's dead?
touchofrogue: (Pleasant and Earnest Conversation)

[ private, video ]

[personal profile] touchofrogue 2013-07-19 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
Rogue's initial reaction, after disgust, indignation, and fury had run their course, was exasperation.

Oh Lord, save me from self-pitying dramatic heroics.

And then she shut the book. Because she was sure, in a town like Mayberry in Space, there would be plenty of people to comfort this girl she only vaguely knew, plenty of people to tell her that she deserved a second chance because everyone deserved a second chance, and even a few people to tell her that she was a horrible, hideous excuse for a human being, and how dare she do something so genuinely wretched.

She didn't need to interact with this. She didn't need to deal with it.

But it bothered her.

It gnawed in the back of her mind, it aggravated her psyches, it bothered her. So she opened up the journal up the journal and she skimmed the other responses and Rogue found that she had something to offer after all.

She thought about making this anonymous. She wanted to make it anonymous. She didn't want to talk about it at all, but if she was going to do this, talk about something so private and personal, even if the other girl had felt the urge to be so blatant about this, it would only be fair to show her own face.

What's the worst that could happen? Everyone found out? She'd survived that before and she would again, if she had to. But she could, at the least, make it as private as she knew how.

Rogue sighed and started her message, "I don't go about makin' it my business to poke my nose into anyone else's. But since you decided to ya decided to use the journals like a public confessional, I figure you made it my business. The question is if you'll listen to what I've got to say."
savedtheworld: (glum)

[Video]

[personal profile] savedtheworld 2013-07-19 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
[It's still swirling inside him - thinking of Katniss. And the choices she'd made. Katniss has struck Aang as someone who was hurt but strong, in a way that reminded him of Katara. But now he faces this critical difference. Katara turned away from revenge at the last minute. Katniss gave in to it.

But Aang couldn't just stop talking and give up on her in any way. Even over the video, it was a struggle to meet her eye contact, but he did. And he hesitantly tried to speak.]


K-Katniss. I...
yourfononsarewhack: (sizing things up)

[Video]

[personal profile] yourfononsarewhack 2013-07-19 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
[Jade listens carefully and intently - a very vivid picture of her world is painted for him. Perhaps on some level he does feel some sympathy. But on the whole, he's more drawn in by all the pure information on the world - this ceremony, this recreational war game, these political upheavals. It's delicious for someone as invested in politics and military as Jade - and for the scientist in him who simply strives for research.

There may be pride hidden somewhere deep down as well. If there's one thing Jade can respect, it's someone who can own up to their mistakes, no matter what those mistakes might have been.

His face is less teasing or cruel - a bit closer to stoic. But he keeps a slight smile on, all the same.]


I have to say, I wasn't expecting to actually hear your life story. [And his grin becomes somewhat crooked.] I seem to like you much better, now.
greenjacketed: (♖ darkened skies and damn vultures)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-19 11:43 am (UTC)(link)
"I am sorry if my buttons brought you any sadness, lass..."
prims: (= oh!)

action;

[personal profile] prims 2013-07-20 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Prim listens to the whole thing. All the things Katniss says, which she'd never known about - because how could she, after she died? Some of this was after. That Katniss had killed coin, that she'd voted for a last hunger game. Things that had happened after Prim had died.

After, she goes to rap on the frame of the bedroom door. The bedroom that belongs to Katniss, although Prim sleeps there these days. ]


Katniss? [ Quiet, gentle. But firm enough to be heard. ]
thisismylife: (Backglance)

[personal profile] thisismylife 2013-07-21 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[Artemis heard the broadcast. It was something pretty hard to miss, after all. She took in a few of the responses to it, but the journal was no place for something like this. Not after what Katniss had said. She leaves her journal home and goes to find Katniss for herself, swinging by her house and knocking resolutely on the door.

And if she doesn't get an answer? Well, most of the rooms have windows. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out which one belongs to her almost-sister.]
thisismylife: (Smirk)

[personal profile] thisismylife 2013-07-21 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[When there's no answer on the door, Artemis starts peeking in windows and it doesn't take her long to spot Katniss, curled up on her bed. And lucky for Artemis houses weren't exactly secure here in Luceti, and even if they were, she had her fair share of experience in breaking and entering.

...Not that anyone needed to know that.

So it was only a matter of minutes later that she's climbing in Katniss's window and giving the other girl a rueful look.]


You know, hiding works much better if you're not in a room with a window.
notyourutopian: (Crying)

[video]

[personal profile] notyourutopian 2013-07-22 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
[Eleanor wasn't quite certain what she thought as she listened to the other girl explaining her life. It was unsettling to realize how some of these people (and she'd finally settled on the fact that this wasn't some trick of her mother) could come from places nearly as terrible as Rapture. Perhaps just as terrible. Sending children off to fight in an arena, slaughtering each other for the sake of entertainment and control...it was something out of a horror story.]

[And yet...to hear the wat Katniss talked about it, it almost sounded like she was justifying it somehow. Defending herself, which from the sound of it, she had no reason to. Eleanor might not have approved of her choice, but it was an easy to understand, something she could see herself doing in the same situation. Easily. The only thing that held her back was her father...and not very well, judging by the body count they had amassed during their escape.]

[She almost doesn't say anything, not even quite certain the girl wants people to respond, but she can see that they are. Hmm. So eventually...she opens her book. She's curled up on the floor of her apartment, in the space between her bed and the wall, somewhere small and safe, a reassurance in a panicking world to know people couldn't sneak up on her.]


My father would have said that vengeance is wrong. Sparing the people that have wronged us proves we are so much better than them. [Her voice is quiet and sad, her accent far more noticeable than usual.] But it's so hard to live that way, when the world throws demons at us and expects us to be angels. I think I might have done the same thing. In your place. I did things just as bad in mine.

[A pause. She's not sure. She wants to believe she would have done something else, that she'd live by her father's example, but given the chance...]

It doesn't make you terrible. Good people can still do terrible things when pushed too far. When I came across one of the people who harmed my sisters...they did not survive either.

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