Story [Hunger Games] On Fire (UDC 6) - Week 20 posted 10/5

Loved the Plutarch set!

Because that moment with the berries took just a little too long... she knows how her daughter thinks. That was on purpose, a calculated gamble. And it worked.
Interesting look at what she was thinking during the games.

As she works with blood and bandages and snow, it doesn?t matter who it is, it doesn?t matter when it is.
It was so odd seeing her use such primitive methods to heal with all the technology Capitol had.

He?ll still die, but Coin will not get the win. Katniss does.
It?s all he?s ever wanted.
Great look at Snow.

 

NyCitygurl: I love your interpretation of Snow! He's very cold and calculating, but he's not stupid.

Thank you! I had fun with Snow. I think the scariest thing about him is that discrepancy between Katniss' very personal war against him and the fact that to him it isn't personal at all. He destroys lives (sometimes by killing people, but just as often by making people wish he would just kill them), and he does it with no more thought than we'd give to sacrificing a pawn on a chessboard. Chilling.

FelsGoddess:

Interesting look at what she was thinking during the games.
Moms know. My mom would know. She just has this way of coming up to me, all my life "Hey, what're you thinking?"

It was so odd seeing her use such primitive methods to heal with all the technology Capitol had.

Yes. There?s a reason I keep coming back to Gale?s whipping. One reason is just because it sticks. For sheer visceral impact, I think that scene stays with me stronger than anything else in the series. But it's also because it says a lot and I can say a lot with it. It?s the first time Katniss (and by extension, we as readers) sees the Capitol move brutal physical violence as a means of control out of the Games and into her ?safe space?
And I think whipping is a deliberate choice. The Capitol is clearly a high tech society. The Peacekeepers can do whatever they want to punish criminals. They can (and when they?re in the Capitol, they do) use electroshock, they can do psychological torture, they can do whatever. Like seriously, sky?s the limit. But when they?re in the Districts, they pick public whipping. It?s just another method of control: ?We have the medical tech and the quick healing and the painkillers where whipping shouldn?t even be a threat. But you don?t.? The discrepancy is brutal and that?s part of the point.

Week 11 (Peeta)

Death
He's ready when they call his name.
It's not like he wants to die, but if he has to, at least he won't be alone in the arena. He'll be with her. Katniss. The girl he's been sneaking around, spying on, protecting and loving for nearly five years even though they've never spoken. She deliberately avoids him now, knowing what's coming.
"I will not let them kill me," he tells her in the Capitol, their last night. "I won't die on their terms."
And that means she won't die either.
Not while he's still there to watch our for her.

Doom
Animals go off into the woods, to die alone.
Katniss taught him that.
His leg pulses with agonizing pain, but he finds the cool mud of the riverbank makes it survivable. He distracts himself by painting swirling patterns on his skin, matching the colors and shades of the world that swallows him. His palette is blood and dirt. The marsh grass is his paintbrush.
The water laps over him in gentle waves. He closes his eyes.
But her voice calls, searching him out, bringing him back to life.
He smiles.
"Frosting," he says weakly. "The final defense of the dying."

Terror
He thinks about those days in the cave a lot now.
He clings to memories of Katniss when she loved him, before he knew it was a lie.
It would have been so much better if he'd died.
He suffers continuous torture; blinding lights, overwhelming pain, piercing sound that rips through his brain and never ends.
The Capitol must know that his good memories, those brief flickers of happiness, were giving him strength to resist.
Because now he screams and rages in the night, they have stolen even those from him, flipped them and turned them into weapons of terror.

Peril
He does not want go back to the Capitol. He does not want to stay alone. He does not feel safe with Katniss. He cannot walk away from her.
He grabs at anything solid he can cling to, numbers on his skin (451. His squad. They want him, they picked him. They guard him, they fear him). Solid ground beneath him. He counts breaths. Keep breathing.
As long as he is breathing he is still alive.
"I can

 

Challenging words this week, with multiple possible definitions. I went to Google dictionary for inspiration, and wrote the definition that fueled me next to the word.

Week 12 (Coin)

Prime (?the beginning or first?)
She grew up in a city underground, constantly hearing words she didn?t understand, learning to fight against people she never knew, in a world she?d never seen.
?Why?? she asked her instructor one day.
?The Capitol is evil. Corrupt.?
It?s the day she sees her first Hunger Games, an old recording, but it?s clear the adults are bristling at the thought of children being forced to kill, to die.
She wonders why they have a problem with it.
She?s the same age as they are, those kids on the screen, and she?s been training as a soldier all her life.

Composite (?the product of two or more factors, a thing made up of several parts?)
She grows up, she grows old, she never fights.
She continues to hear the stories, but she understands them now. How District 13 used to be the most powerful in Panem, had weapons that even the Capitol feared. But that District 13 doesn?t exist anymore.
An angry fire flares inside of her, alongside other more dangerous feelings. She doesn?t understand how they can hide here, pretending to fight.
She wants something better.
She wants a war, she wants to win.
She begins reaching out, in secret, to the world she is not part of. The seeds of revolution are planted.

Deficient (?not having enough of a specified quality or ingredient?)
They?ve gone too long, with nothing to unite or drive them.
Kids continue to train but never fight. At least in District 13.
Coin watches the Hunger Games, live feeds now, no more old recordings. And that?s how she sees this girl disregard the Capitol?s whims and offer herself in place of the tiny little girl whose name was actually pulled.
When she manages to break the rules of the game completely, refusing to kill her fellow tribute, forcing a choice between two victors or a televised suicide pact, Coin knows she?s found the symbol her people will rally behind.

Perfect (?as good as it is possible to be, highly suitable for something?)
?I?ll be your Mockingjay,? the girl says, and Coin smiles thinly. As if it were ever a question.
But she insists on laying out conditions.
For the most part, they are easy. Letting her hunt is not an issue. If they want her to lead their war, they?ll need her in fighting condition, and she won?t get there locked down underground.
She wants immunity for the tributes. That?s a dangerous precedent, but she concedes, because without it they?re right back to where they started.
And the last request? ?I kill Snow.?
That?s how Coin knows she?s made the perfect pick.

Abundant (?existing or available in large quantities?)
Every war in history is about limited resources.
The Hunger Games. They?re not played in an arena, they?re played everywhere, every day.
Tesserae.
Fences on the other side of which game runs free, but it?s illegal to hunt. Can?t eat the food you pick from the fields, if it?s marked to go to the Capitol.
The punishment is whipping in Districts 1-12. In District 13, it?s confinement, long days shackled and bruised in a cell.
In the Capitol, Snow makes the laws. In District 13, she does.
But the laws are arbitrary.
There?s more than enough to go around.

 

His leg pulses with agonizing pain, but he finds the cool mud of the riverbank makes it survivable. He distracts himself by painting swirling patterns on his skin, matching the colors and shades of the world that swallows him. His palette is blood and dirt. The marsh grass is his paintbrush.
It was such a good tactic for him to use.

Real or not real?

The real not real discusses captured how delusional Capitol ran the entire nation very well.

It?s the day she sees her first Hunger Games, an old recording, but it?s clear the adults are bristling at the thought of children being forced to kill, to die.
She wonders why they have a problem with it.
She?s the same age as they are, those kids on the screen, and she?s been training as a soldier all her life.
Interesting point. She wouldn't understand without knowing all of the details involved.

Abundant
So very true.

 

FelsGoddess: So very true.

True in Panem, true in our world too. Food, clean water, oil, money, technology: it's not about availability, it's about accessibility. "Real or not real?" Politicians and propoganda are very good and making wars happen. Scary!

Y'all, I took something as sweet and innocent as "Pixar words," and Rue, and turned it dark as all hell. Just FYI. I think it's only fair to give you a warning before you dive in.


Week 13 (Rue)

Toys
The interviewer asks her with a smile how she scored so well in Training, and she tells him the truth: ?I?m very hard to catch.?
The Peacekeepers never caught her either.
She knows the audience can only see her as young, small and weak. Just a child.
They expect her to go down easy. They?ll be surprised.
She?s not a little kid, she?s old. The oldest in her family: protector. Seasoned survivor, hard worker. They all work in District Eleven.
But she played, too. Ran, jumped, sang. Hunted and hid, laughed and teased and joked.
The trees were her toys.

Bugs
The tracker jacker nest swings gently in the breeze. It would be easy not to notice. It would be easy for anyone but her not to understand its danger.
Fear makes her freeze, in her own tree, just out of reach. But if the wasps were to fly, they could still get her.
Even before they?re ever seen, the mutts inspire terror.
She comforts herself by reaching to her pocket, clutching tight to her leaves. She?s been stung before, they all have, at home.
She knows how to survive this and nobody else does.
She warns Katniss. And she runs.

Monsters
?If they can?t catch me, they can?t kill me,? she repeats to herself over and over.
But does she want to win?
Memories follow her through the arena.
Shivering in the dark, blind and almost collapsing from hunger, but knowing she had to keep going, keep working, because she?d seen enough to know what happens to the ones who don?t.
Watching friends, whipped and bleeding, knowing one misstep, one bad day, and it would be her.
Watching the Peacekeepers kill an innocent boy, who didn?t understand and just wanted to play.
The real monsters never stay locked up in Games.

Heroes
Katniss finds her later, offers an alliance, and somehow she trusts this other girl even though she shouldn?t.
Because although she?d killed those other tributes (horribly. she can?t shake the images of jacker stings), Rue had also seen the video of the Reaping. Katniss shouldn?t even be here.
They sleep together in a tree and it reminds her of home. Up high, she feels free.
They plan to break the rules, and not get caught.
?They?ve got everything,? she whispers. ?And they?re so strong.?
Who is she talking about? The Careers? Or the Capitol?
?We?re strong too,? Katniss reminds her.

Rats
She lays dying in the grass, and the nightmares overwhelm.
She knows what happens when people drop in the fields during the harvest, when they?re not allowed to stop to bury them. They just get dumped to the side, far enough away that they won?t destroy the crops, and then they rot, and the animals eat them, bugs and rats and carrion birds. She?s so afraid of that happening to her (why though? She won?t feel it. It won?t matter). But still, she shakes. She cries.
?Sing,? she begs Katniss.
One last beautiful thing. One last distraction. One last game.

 

Wonderfully written set. Rue's death was such an important moment in the book. I hope it's not screwed up in the movie.

 

Wow, you?ve been posting a lot this weekend!

Peeta is my favorite character! I love how you show the development of his relationship with Katniss. ?Shadow? is my favorite. It?s a nice companion to the epilogue with Katniss?s thoughts. They?re still both haunted by what they?ve been through, and that won?t ever change, but they?ve both been able to heal a bit and to learn to live their lives again.

You actually make Coin seem sympathetic, especially at first. It?s a very interesting view of District 13?it has some similarities to the Capitol. And Coin has some similarities to Snow in that she will do what she needs to get what she wants?and if she kills children . . . well, there are always more.

You?re right; Rue?s are dark. ?Monster? in particular is chilling. She?s so very young to be so very old. ?Heroes? was heartwarming. ?Rats? is an absolute tearjerker. Poor Rue!

Very wonderful sets!!

 

FelsGoddess: I hope it's not screwed up in the movie. God, me too. I'm gonna see the movie, but I'm really nervous about it. I just don't know how they're gonna be able to pull this stuff off to its full impact. I really don't.

NYCitygurl: I am trying to get caught up. Of course, now we're in the Monday-Friday, and as much as I love me my fanfiction... homework + class have to happen. Seriously wondering now what ever possessed me to think graduate school was a good idea. *sigh*

I'm glad I pulled off Peeta well. I'm a pretty unapologetic Gale fan so I don't write Peeta often. It was fun trying to get inside his head.

Coin... is scary. But I'm really interested in psychology (it's like half of why I write), so very few if any character is gonna be completely unsympathetic, because I try to figure out why they act the way they do. Almost no one is going to do something "because I'm evil." Coin is very, very selfish and self-centered, but District 13 encourages that, because of what it is. It's extreme insulation - how can you feel a connection to a world you're not part of? Why should you feel a need to help people you have never seen? Compassion as a concept just has no place in her world view. No wonder she's so okay with setting up another Hunger Games - suffering is still abstract for her - war's still a game. She gives commands like you would when playing Warhammer (or pick your war-strategy game of choice). We "take out the healers first" because that's what makes sense tactically - that's how you "win" - she just doesn't *get* that it's real people, real kids, with homes and families, that die, because she's never had that touch her life.

Rue breaks my heart. And District 11 is dark, if you go just under what's said (which is sad enough. Really read the conversation Rue has in the arena with Katniss - I did, to write these, and remembering that this is a 12-year-old girl, you're just like, in tears with it). We've talked about going out into the Districts to see the real suffering there, which I've started doing for fanfic (because actually the real suffering in Panem is not happening in the arena, at all. The Hunger Games have always been a distraction and a diversion). I've talked about it with a couple of my friends who teach Hunger Games with their middle-schoolers. With Rue, with D11, it's like... the way those tributes are the only ones specifically described as being "dark-skinned," the way Rue mentions whipping before it ever comes up for Katniss, the way when Katniss and Peeta go there, the Justice Building architecture is very South Carolina/Georgia in style... "What are we really talking about here?" - See, this is why I would give these books to a middle-schooler (and why my friends do). Because, read that conversation with Rue. Talk about it. Go to history class now, and I bet you're paying a lot more attention to those slavery lessons, aren't you? (Of course, this only works if you're in a school with great teachers who are on the ball and willing to work together and get under the obvious with their lessons)

Week 14 (Darius)

Smile
It?s his infectious grin that gets him his free pass in here, and he knows it.
There is absolutely no way a Peacekeeper should be allowed to freely wander around a black market, even in District Twelve. It?s a good thing his supervisor spends most of his time drunk, or with desperate women, rewarding them for their illegal services with illegal food.
He shouldn?t be glad, but Darius knows that although this isn?t how it?s supposed to be, it?s how he wants it.
Here he smiles, teases, tries to make Katniss laugh.
In any other District... he?d be a murderer.

Pain
?What?s the penalty for poaching?? Thread asks him. They both know the answer. It?s a test of his loyalty. He has to tell the truth.
But he shivers when he sees the cruel glint in Thread?s eye.
He?ll kill an innocent kid, and Darius is the only one who might have a chance of stopping it.
It turns out he doesn?t have the power to s

 

Week 15 (Octavia)

Avarice
At first, she sees nothing wrong with her job. To work on the Games in such a well-known capacity is a dream come true, even if it is for District 12. The prep team, is, of course, not as well-rewarded as a stylist. Cinna will get the credit while they do most of the work with the tribute. But there will be interviews, cutaway shots during the broadcasts. There is fame to be had, if they do their job well. Sometimes it?s even better for the tribute to die tragically. They?ll replay it in later years, at least.

Envy
It?s almost too easy to transform Katniss Everdeen, to make her unforgettable.
Octavia is not beautiful. She?s too plump, her eyes are the wrong shape, even with ink and glitter she can only hide her flaws. But there is something about Katniss that shines through even the dirt and scars of a life out in the roughest District in Panem. It takes Octavia a moment to realize it has nothing to do with her appearance. What Octavia envies is Katniss? attitude, her complete fearlessness. She doesn?t care at all about what she looks like, or what people think of her.

Gluttony
She can?t bring herself to swallow the concoction, vomit, and continue stuffing her face.
Katniss has changed her more than either of them admits.
She remembers the hatred in the girl?s eyes when she first came to the Capitol. She sees it again now, and she realizes she cares now about words she?s heard all her life but never listened to: tessarae for one. Katniss has told her what those rations really are, barely enough to survive, and bought at a terrible price.
And ?Hunger Games.?
Octavia used to look forward to them, every year. Now, she can barely watch.

Lust
The 74th Hunger Games were Octavia?s first, but Venia and Flavius have been doing this for a while. As the Victory Tour gets underway, they shiver and whisper in hushed tones when they know Katniss will not hear.
She wasn?t beautiful when they started, but perhaps they have done their jobs a little too well.
They have made her desirable.
That was the point, and she knows it. Desirable kept Katniss alive in the arena, bought her sponsorship (and she knows exactly how expensive those medicines were, and she can?t bring herself to feel bad).
But desirable is dangerous now.

Pride
They didn?t care enough to ask her why she stole the bread (it wasn?t for herself, she knew full well she didn?t need it, but there are still kids here who are far too thin despite the carefully measured rations). She took the beatings with silent tears and figured it was only fair, payback for the years she?d spent watching children die.
She never expected Katniss to rescue her, she doesn?t deserve rescue.
But she can?t help but smile as Katniss screams at Coin, because she knows that she had some small part in creating her, this girl on fire.

 

Darius's set was just heart-breaking.

Sometimes it?s even better for the tribute to die tragically
That statement is so horrifying, yet with how she probably grew up, I'm not surprised by it at all.

She can?t bring herself to swallow the concoction, vomit, and continue stuffing her face.
Capitol, the real center of gluttony.

 

Poor Darius I like his set--strong until the end.

I like seeing this side of Octavia, particularly in the last set. And this line:

she knows that she had some small part in creating her, this girl on fire.

 

On Darius: What happened to Darius is so heartbreaking, and the really terrifying thing about all of it is that it's really very easy to completely forget his existence as a character. That this kind of thing can and does happen "off-screen" - no one really notices or comments... *shudder*


On Octavia: I identify with the Capitol crew. I think the great majority of them really aren't bad people at all, they just grew up in a society that's broken as hell.
Part of what I love about this series is that it forces us to see and question where these lines are. Is there much of a difference between what happens here and we Americans who throw away disturbing amounts of perfectly good food while children starve? Deep questions.


Week 16 (Effie)

Pow
She does her best every year, honestly, but there?s not much to work with in District 12. It?s not her fault.
It?s not theirs either, though. Every year she comes here and feels their desperation.
She forces herself to paste on the smile that?s just as fake as her hair, because the cameras are watching all of them, especially her.
?Lots of spunk!? Haymitch manages to choke out, as the girl volunteers to die. ?More than you!?
Effie freezes, because she knows he?s right.
He?s the one that falls off the stage, but she staggers too, almost loses her composure.

Bang
She watches them carefully at the dinner table, finding little things to criticize, like table manners, because it?s easier than getting attached. When the broadcast of the Reapings comes on she watches that instead, grateful for the distraction.
?Your mentor?s got a lot to learn about presentation,? she comments. You?d think he?d have picked up something, after 24 years.
But they only laugh at his drunken stupor and slurred words.
And she bangs her fist on the table and stalks away.
Just once she?d like a Games where watching ?her? tributes die early and forgotten is not a foregone conclusion.

Boom
It?s just the two of them left in the arena, and Effie doesn?t know what to think. This has never happened before.
She never thought she?d be in a position to choose, even in her own mind, which of her tributes she?d want to survive, which one would be left to die. Somehow, this is even worse than watching them die early and forgotten.
The trumpets blare, but she thinks she hears the echoes of a cannon boom behind it. She has to be imagining that. Cannons only fire when someone dies, and these two are safe now. They?ve survived.

Zap
If she concentrates on the schedule, she doesn?t have to concentrate on the reasons for the delays and alterations, the increased security.
Working in television she?s used to the buzzing zap of electronics: microphones, cameras, lights. But now, she sees the fear that Katniss thinks she?s hiding and she notices other things: the humming buzzing sparks of electrified fences, caging them in. The tasers the Peacekeepers carry.
Katniss gives a speech in District 11, and it?s really quite good, there?s hope for her yet.
But then something happens, she hears a gunshot.
This is not how it?s supposed to go.

Pop
?I just wanted to hold them accountable, if only for a moment,? Peeta admits.
These two... they?ve popped through all the bubbles, the careful layers of expectation and illusion that hide the truth. They?ve been doing it from the start, so good and honest that they can?t even see the ripples they?re creating, the danger they?re in.
?That sort of thinking... it?s forbidden. Absolutely.? She tries to keep her voice controlled, but it?s not the high pitched giggle they?re all used to.
It?s the closest she?ll ever come to admitting she has those sorts of thoughts all the time too.

 

The trumpets blare, but she thinks she hears the echoes of a cannon boom behind it. She has to be imagining that. Cannons only fire when someone dies, and these two are safe now.

Very chilling! Nice foreshadow

Poor Effie. I like seeing her character development during the course of the drabbles.

 

Those were all great, especially the last one.

 

NYCitygurl: Very chilling! Nice foreshadow Thank you. I have no idea where that came from, it was a moment of awesome inspiration.

FelsGoddess: Yeah, I like the last one too.


Week 17 (Caesar)

Inception
He always asks the handsome boys about their girls back home.
In only a few minutes, he has to imprint these children on the millions of people watching, whose sponsorships and gifts might make the difference between life and death.
This one has a surprising sense of humor. Most of the time the kids from his District are either depressingly shy and silent or filled with a sullen anger that turns the audience against them.
In response to the question, the boy only gives a shy smile, shakes his head.
"Come on, what's her name?" Caesar prompts.
The audience waits.

Babe
A second year, an interview with the same kid.
He tries to joke, but they've lost the ability to gloss over the truth now. Peeta is too serious. So Caesar cuts right to the heart of the matter: the relationship revealed to the nation exactly a year ago, the relationship that changed all the rules.
The relationship that is going to end in fire and blood.
"Surely even a brief time is better than nothing?" he says quietly.
"Maybe I'd think that too, if it weren't for the baby."
For the first time in his life, Caesar Flickerman is speechless.

Network
He has never lost control of the audience in his studio.
These children should be easy to predict. He's been doing this for long enough, nothing should surprise him anymore. But Peeta and Katniss never stop surprising him.
As the live viewers cry, Katniss grabs for Peeta's hand, and then reaches for the other tributes.
And they reach back, one by one, until they form an unbroken chain, a network of defiance, broadcasting live.
The lights snap out, the camera cuts off.
And Caesar feels a flicker of fear, like ice down his spine.
It's all over for him now.

Avatar
Another interview with Peeta.
It's such a cruel torture, forcing them to return to this set, these cameras and lights, pretend things are fine when in fact they're barely clinging to sanity.
They tell the truth now, they don't try to hide anything anymore. What is there left to lose?
At least with their dying breaths they can give warning, their avatars on the screen will say the goodbyes they will never be able to have face-to-face.
"Is there anything you'd like to tell her?"
Reach out to the world, get the message out.
Same job as always.

Traffic
After a lifetime underneath the harsh heat of studio lights, he cannot adjust to the cold darkness of his cell.
He hears screaming sometimes, he wakes up from haunted nightmares, but the Capitol seems to be trying the "ignore to death" tactic with him.
Ironic, since he was once their face and voice, their symbol broadcasting to all of Panem.
He hears the chaotic traffic of an invasion force. It's all confusion, noises that sound like the arena sounded, fighting and gunfire swirling all around.
Later he learns that it's the Capitol that's died, not him after all.
Now what?

 

That's a really good way to end things for him: "Now what?"

Love it!!

 

NYCitygurl: I feel like "Now what?" is a question that has to be asked any time a world changes at much as Panem just did.

Hey, I got these words and I just had to channel my own life a little bit (plus I like the idea that more than one person can still be one character, the news team)

Week 18 (Camera Crew - Cressida/Pollux/Castor/Messalla)

Direct
Cressida loves her job. Directing is freedom, power, unlimited choice. It means watching the world through everybody's eyes. She sees what all of her cameras are looking at, and she creates a full picture by combining their incomplete perspectives.
When one camera loses focus, loses power, or simply struggles with the reality of broadcasting in a war zone, and can't be used because the person holding it is running to cover, leaving no image but shaky flashes of ground beneath them, then she can cut to something else, another eye.
The story never stops. It's people who have limited vision.

Produce
Pollux is a camera guy. He's the one who stands in the background. People do not notice him, they notice the equipment he carries, the tool in his hand. He doesn't get to decide where to go or what to focus on: that's what directors are for. He doesn't ask questions or hunt information: that's the reporter's job. He follows people around, and captures moments. He records everything, and shares it with the world. He tells the truth, the real story, and he gets back at the Capitol that thought they took away his ability to tell anything at all.

Perform
Castor picks up the camera and focuses on Katniss because if he watches Pollux his breath catches in his chest, he can't block out the familiar guilt. He had no idea his brother was still capable of whistling. He'd never had reason to find out, it's not something you would think to ask.
He realizes almost instantly that he recognizes the song. It's seared in the memory of everyone who's ever learned it; those people who have every reason to fight against the Capitol.
Pollux is not the only one crying.
"I wasn't doing it for the cameras," Katniss insists.

Edit
Messalla learned a long time ago that "assistant" is a word video crews love because it is eminently flexible. His job description is literally "whatever we need right now." Usually what they need is editing, which most people hate because it means long hours locked in a room with nothing but keyboard and screen and headphones and too many hours of footage and an always-too-soon deadline screaming in your ear. Most people hate it, but he loves it. It's the best game, finding something unique and powerful in the discarded images, looking at life in a new way.

Distribute
This thing they do has become so much more than a job; it's a mission now, a calling.
It's not about following Katniss anymore, or searching for images to fill in a predetermined narrative. That's what the Capitol does; they use television to lie, they cut out every picture that doesn't match their story.
That's where they all started, that's the first thing they learned how to do.
That's where they end too.
They go into to the Capitol with no weapons but their cameras and headsets, and some of them die.
This thing they do will change the world.

 

Caesar is such an interesting character. His interviews were rather telling of what Capitol wanted the citizens to see.

Great look at the crew. The last one summed them up nicely.

 

I like one about each of them and then summing them up together in the end. Especially:

This thing they do will change the world.

 

FelsGoddess: I like Caesar. I liked him ever since Katniss pointed out that "he tries to help you out." He is really good at his job, giving the audience (and the Capitol) what they want, but he helps out the tributes too, as much as he can, in his own way. I like to think he gives them a little bit of confidence, and that can mean the difference between life and death if what it's replacing is fear.

NYCitygurl: "This thing they do will change the world." My favorite line of the week, too.

Week 19 (Greasy Sae)

Spring
She smiles when she sees Gale and Katniss coming into the Hob, laughing and joking. They insist that they are just hunting partners, that nothing like that is going on between them and it never will. She rolls her eyes and chuckles and tells them that she needs them together to keep her supplies coming. One day soon they?ll have to stop pretending. Maybe even today. Reaping Day. His last, maybe if luck is with him the knowledge that he?ll be free from the Capitol?s lottery, even if it means the mines, might let him look forward to the future.

Summer
She?s not sure how Katniss became someone she took special interest in, but this year the Hunger Games are very different. She is glued to the screen, she cannot tear her eyes away, even when her granddaughter pulls at her shirt. She manages to find the girl some food while not fully paying attention. And she rallies all the desperate loners and losers of the Hob, an alliance of the people who long ago stopped caring, and somehow manages to convince them to contribute the money that none of them have to give Katniss a shot at surviving the summer.

Winter
?I just can?t wait for the whole thing to be over.?
?I know,? she tells Katniss. ?But you?ve got to go through it to get to the end of it.?
She doesn?t point out that Haymitch has been waiting for the whole thing to be over for twenty-five years, that she?s been waiting even longer than that.
Outside, it starts snowing.
Winter comes early here, as if they needed something else to make life harder. She?ll just have to do what she can to keep people fed. If she can give them a reason to smile, that?s even better.

Season
In District 13, they lack imagination.
They lack a lot of things. Sunlight. Seasons. Color and warmth and laughter.
She knows that most of her friends are happy to be here, to have food, shelter, safety. They are alive; that should be enough. But she cannot help but wake every morning with an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. Everything here is too clean, neatly ordered and boxed in. She?s not the only one who feels that this place is deeply wrong. She combs her grandaughter?s hair as the child whimpers and hums and squirms in her grasp.

Change
She?d only wanted her granddaughter to have a chance at a life as carefree as the one that existed in her head, because she knew she couldn?t keep her protected forever. She wanted a world where her daughter wasn?t dead, where her neighbors didn?t have to choose between starving to death or bleeding under the Peacekeepers? torture.
She never thought she?d play a part, no matter how small, in the revolution that broke the Capitol.
She couldn?t have imagined coming back to the wreckage of District 12 and feeding Katniss Everdeen eggs and toast like nothing at all has changed.

 

She couldn?t have imagined coming back to the wreckage of District 12 and feeding Katniss Everdeen eggs and toast like nothing at all has changed.
It would be so surreal.

I can just imagine Greasy Sae's first day with 13's cooks.

 

These were very sweet! I like seeing the warm side of Greasy Sae. She definitely deserves a lot of credit for helping Katniss.

 

FelsGoddess: I can just imagine Greasy Sae's first day with 13's cooks. Heh, me too, and it's an amusing mental image to say the least!

NYCitygurl: I like seeing the warm side of Greasy Sae. Me too! She's definitely one of my favorite background characters, between that one line of dialogue "you've got to go through it..." (actually helpful, practical support, which Katniss desperately needed) and the knowledge that she's raising that granddaughter with special needs in a world where it's gotta be a million times harder to do that (and it's hard enough in our world!)

*blinks* *looks around* Is it Week 20 already? Guess so!

Week 20 (The Girl and The Boy)

Cut
She holds the knife in her hands, studies it carefully. Her mother tried to take it away when Uncle Haymitch gave it to her.
?What is wrong with you?? she?d screamed, wild and scary in that way she gets. ?She?s too young!?
The old man just shrugged. ?She?s eleven, Katniss.?
Mother looked like she might cry, and she almost gave up the knife, but didn?t.
In the fields, she hacks at the plants and grasses she?s learned about from her mother?s books. She whittles and carves, gouging lines in the tree bark until they turn into pictures.
Her father smiles.

Wrap
Her hands move with gentle, practiced motion as her baby brother squirms and cries. She hums a tuneless melody as she cleans the blood away and wraps a bandage around his leg.
He thinks he?s grown-up already, tries to chase after her and falls a lot. This time, he?d cut himself on a sharp stick trying to keep up with her in the woods. She knows there used to be a fence there, but now, even the youngest kids are familiar with these forest trails.
?She?s got her skill,? she hears Daddy say quietly.
And she hears Mother crying.

Done
Her brother toddles after her, immune to her scowls.
She watches him run through the grass, tripping and giggling and picking himself back up again, yanking up the yellow flowers so hard that patches of grass come up with them. When he has collected more than his small hands seem designed to carry, he hurries back to her with a huge grin lighting up his chubby cheeks. ?All done!? he squeals proudly. He claps, cheering himself on, immediately dropping his prize.
?They?re just dandelions,? she says testily. ?What are we supposed to do with them??
?Mommy likes them,? he insists.

Over
Her mother refuses to have a television in the house, no matter how much she begs. It?s not like there?s anything dangerous on TV.
?No!? Katniss snaps. ?This conversation is over.?
Then one day in school, they learn about the Hunger Games.
The chatter in the classroom stops, like everyone is holding their breath. The teacher speaks in quiet, halting tones. And her friends exchange knowing glances. This is why their parents disappear sometimes, lost in their own heads. Or they lash out with sudden anger. They constantly hover, worrying over tiny things.
This is what they never talk about.

Finish
She goes out into the woods and climbs a tree and whistles, waiting for the birds to whistle back. And she sings, only snatches and phrases, the little bit she remembers. She can?t finish any song, and even the songs she knows, she gets the words wrong. Her mother used to sing when she was younger, she still sings for her brother sometimes. But as soon as she got old enough to ask, to try to learn them, Mother refused to teach her. And when the mockingjays pick up the words and phrases, Mother always wants to go back inside.

 

I was wondering how you were going to end these (or, rather, who you were going to end them with). Perfect choice!!

I like that the girl has such innocence still, even though the scars the Hunger Games left will never truely go away, especially for her parents.

Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! You did a fabulous job!!

 

Cut Katniss's reaction to the knife is appropriate for the circumstances.

Love how you have the girl pick up Prim's skills.

This is what they never talk about.
Which is unfortunate, really. Hiding it won't stop it from happening again.

Fantastic drabbles! Cut