you'll be alright, no one can hurt you now

[flagitate]

[ After a hell of a trial, Katniss needs to focus her energy into something. So, the afterparty it is. Since she's not good at this kind of stuff, she's had some help. She'll pass out invitations to anyone she passes by, or she'll slip them under the door. ]



[ There is some food set up, but it's very much in sealed containers. Cookies, specifically, along with anything else she could scrounge up. There are very tightly sealed bottles of drinks, too. After that whole thing, she figures it'd be best to tread with caution. She won't blame anyone who brings their own food, of course.

There are fixings for smoothies, just in case someone's feeling it. Katniss has set up a couple of blenders around the game room. There's also some surf 'n' turf food, to honor Mack, too.

There are some decorations--courtesy of the guys, of course, because how the heck do you decorate for anything. ]

Comments

[flagitate]

[ ... ]

I'm not confident that it won't get harder.

[fittedgloves]

Neither am I. They certainly didn't in the last game I was involved in. We just need to prepare for the worst.

[flagitate]

[ ... ]

You were in a game like this?

[fittedgloves]

...Yes. A mutual killing game that took place in Hope's Peak Academy.

Maizono-san was also involved.

[flagitate]

[ ... Oh. Oh. ]

The Adjudicator knows how to pick people for this stupid game.

[fittedgloves]

He truly does. I worry for his poor sense of humor, to be honest.

[flagitate]

No kidding. That's four people who've been in "games" like this before coming here.

[fittedgloves]

[ That'd be Kyouko, Mallick, and Sayaka... ]

The fourth person is...? [ She has a feeling who it might be, but she's not going to make assumptions. ]

[flagitate]

Me.

[ Might as well just come out and say it. She's told plenty of people already. ]

[fittedgloves]

Was it similar to this game...?

[ She'd apologize to Katniss that she'd been involved in a game like this before in the first place, but Kyouko herself doesn't like being pitied and she can't imagine Katniss does either. ]

[flagitate]

Other than the killing? No. The twenty-four people who are in the Games--they're called Tributes. [ She practically spits out the word. ] We're taken to this arena. Then we kill each other until one person's left. There's no trials. No investigations. Just... murder.

[fittedgloves]

...No one should ever have to participate in something like that. Is it forced?

[flagitate]

Yeah. Well--pretty much. You can volunteer for someone else, if their name's called. But that's not very common. It only happens if you're afraid to lose someone important.

[fittedgloves]

...I see. I suppose people are often too afraid to volunteer for someone else?

[flagitate]

Yeah. They don't want to die horribly, I guess, so to save themselves they don't speak up. Just watch the Games.

I don't blame them. But there was a more important person than me who got drawn.

[fittedgloves]

Who was it? [ She has a feeling it might be a family member, but she feels like she needs to ask anyway. ]

[flagitate]

... My little sister.

[fittedgloves]

I see. I understand why you volunteered.

[flagitate]

Yeah.

[ ... ]

She was only twelve. I couldn't-- let her go into that.

[fittedgloves]

Of course not. Sometimes you have no choice but to put yourself in the line of fire for those you love.

[flagitate]

... Yeah. "Sometimes."

[ more like every day of her life ]