trustfelled | Welcome.

Welcome.

You don't remember how you got here.

It may be one of the first things to occur to you when you wake up, that you don't know when you got here, what you were doing involved nothing like this; granted, it's also possible that it doesn't matter – that whatever circumstances you last remember have nothing on the fact that this bed is really comfortable and the room around you is gently-lit.

It's warm, but it's nowhere near where you're supposed to be.

Whatever you think of it, the fact is that you can't stay there forever; there's a silver key resting on that trunk near your bed, and you might want to take it on the way out. It's no big deal if you don't, exactly – it won't lock automatically after you close the door, that has to be done manually – but it'll probably become clear that privacy is a commodity in a place like this.

After all, you aren't alone; the hallway is likely quick to become populated with other people that are just as confused as you are. Go ahead and talk to them if you'd like; none of you will know exactly how you got to the building with the wooden walls and the odd windows that no one can see through, but that doesn't mean you can't get to know each other on the way to...wherever it is that you're going.

Wander long enough and you may hear the chiming of a clock nearby.

It's hard to tell whether it's telling you it's very early or very late at night, but checking out the room it's in eventually might be a good idea regardless; it's large and open, designed to accommodate social gatherings from the look of it, with the clock in question mounted against the western wall. It isn't the only thing here, though – there's a large frame set into the wall nearby, and it contains some information that might be relevant to your interests...

Or perhaps your attention is drawn instead to the other framed information nearby; don't worry if you miss it in here, though. It's posted in every other room in the building.

There's also the matter of the large double-doors at the end of the room; they aren't going to open, regardless of what you do.

Looks like you're trapped here for the time being. Might as well see who's here with you, right?

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Huh? Did...something happen to America, that it changed the name like that? I haven't heard anything about that...

[ Shit. Deflect, deflect. ]

Don't worry about it.

[ Smooth. ]

[ Well, that certainly doesn't sound reassuring... ]

Well, if they really did change the name and divide it up into districts, I doubt New York would be anywhere near 12, unless you're way out from the city or upstate. You'd probably have a hard time doing much hunting near Manhattan, especially if you're after game so big that you'd need to use snares and traps...if you really are from a place that used to be America, more than likely, you're further west.

The snares and traps are for rabbits, usually. They keep them out of the way of bigger predators, like dogs. Gale and I don't find a lot of big game. Just deer, usually.

[ ... ]

District Twelve's in a place that used to be called Appalachia.

Edited 2016-07-03 19:26 (UTC)

Rabbit meat..

[ It's almost like the ends of her bright red ribbon droop at that. She can't even imagine eating something like that... ]

Appalachia...like the mountains, then? That kinda makes sense...that's a little to the southwest, from where New York City is. Or, was, I guess?

[ Too weird... ]

... I don't catch rabbits too often.

[ Katniss is good at comforting people, and it might be half a lie. ]

I guess. I don't know much about the area. Just that there are a lot of coal mines, but the miners have to dig really deep. And the forests--thick and wild.

[ She gets it. You do what you have to do. ]

I haven't been out there myself, but, it sounds about right. A lot of the books I've read said that area hasn't been doing too well recently. Lots of people moving out and not too many moving in, so they don't have many people to tend to the fields. So that would explain why everything is so thick out there...

[ ... ]

That doesn't make sense. No one moves out of Twelve. Or any of the districts.

Wait, you're...not allowed to leave?

[ What the hell..? ]

No reason to. We all have our jobs. Specializations. If you're born in District Twelve, you stay in District Twelve, and you eventually become a coal miner. Usually.

...

There's no way. That's...that's not the America I know. America is supposed to be...it's the land of the free. No matter where you're from or what your status is, it's a place where you can pursue your dreams. Be what you want to be. Do what you want to do.

Probably because it's Panem, not America.

[ That's... to the point?? ]

I got that much! But what I'm asking is, what happened that it turned into Panem and not America? I may not have lived there for the past three years, but, America is where I grew up! And there's no way something like that would have happened just out of the blue, s-so! I want to know what happened!

[ She may be getting mad at this, but, anyone would, after hearing that their home turned into, well, a shell of everything it was before. ]

A catastrophe happened. A lot of places were wiped out, and North America was the only place left. When it grew big enough, they organized the districts. Thirteen of them.

People got tired of the way they were treated. So they rebelled. The Capitol crushed them and destroyed District Thirteen. People gave up. Stopped fighting. Now we just accept things the way they are.

A catastrophe...

[ But...that doesn't make any sense. A cataclysm powerful enough to take out 6 out of the 7 continents seems outrageous enough. Not to mention the fact that obviously she'd notice if something like that happened to Japan, unless she's been asleep for a really long time.

Still, this girl doesn't seem like she's lying, of course. And to hear that a place as great as she had thought America was has been taken down by a regime like that... ]

I'm sorry that your world is like that.

[ That's the only way this makes sense to her; Chitoge has to detach herself from it. Her world may be cruel sometimes, yes, unless one does as her mother does, as her family does, and takes it by the balls. But the one Katniss is describing is a whole other level of egregious. It might as well be some kind of bizarro parallel universe. And while it's awful that such a thing happened, even more awful is that they've stopped fighting it. ]

It's not anyone's fault but the Capitol's.

[ ... Here, maybe she can vent some of her frustrations. Then again, Gale isn't here, so who would actually listen to her? She's essentially going to be yelling herself hoarse with no one to hear. ]

... We manage. Survive.

It just...it sounds sad. A world where you're only just scraping by, and you're left to pick up the pieces...it sounds hopeless. Desolate, even.

[ ... This is bringing up a lot of feelings Katniss had thought she'd buried down deep. Anger. Hatred. It's hopeless, she's right.

And completely unfair. ]

There's not much we can do about it. President Snow hasn't lifted a finger to help the poorer districts in decades. There's no reason for him to suddenly change his mind.

...So there are rich districts and poor districts, huh?

[ It makes sense, but it doesn't make the system any less shitty. ]

Sounds like he's more like a dictator than a president...

[ ... She's starting to really like you, Chitoge. ]

He's pretty bad, yeah. The type who wants control over everything.

I know the type. Even in my family, there are people like that...

I can't stand it, personally. But if you just sit back and does nothing, then nothing's gonna change. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that. Even if the odds are stacked against you, well...

I really hope that there's something you can do. To stick it to someone like that, somehow. Even in a small way.

I've thought about it.

But I've never had the chance to do anything about it. Snow's all the way across the Panem--the Capitol's in the Rocky Mountains range.

It's hard to get there unless you ride the train.

[ ... But people who ride the train usually never return home. And they certainly don't get close enough to Snow in any way to do something. ]

Way out to the West, huh? And I take it only the elite are able to take the train, or something along those lines...

[ She's starting to get a handle on how this works. ]

What would you do, if you saw him face-to-face?

... Something like that.

[ ... ]

I'd shoot him through the heart.

[ It's because Snow insisted on continuing the Hunger Games and led to Prim's being picked, after all. ]

...Someone who messed with your country that badly, I can't say that I exactly blame you.

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flagitate - 2016-07-04 01:01 (UTC) - Expand

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