Sixth Drink

[wastheexample]

[Given all the things that have happened to Peeta in the last week, it's not been a fun time for Haymitch. Somewhere between chugging the remaining booze in one night and arriving in the castle, he's ended up in the clinic. After all, he's only human and his liver tends to not like it when he punishes it to these extremes.

So he wakes up in a clinic bed, the journal beside him catching a quick rustle of bedcovers because Haymitch does not like waking up in places he has no idea how he ended up in]

Oh. Great. Still in this place.

[He sits on the edge of the bed for a moment, grimacing as his stomach protests at all this movement. He belatedly realises that his hand hurts. A lot]

...Did I punch a wall? [No...no wait. Fuzzy memory, coming back] ...Or maybe Daniel's face.

[He notices the journal, picking it up and flicking through it. He really should apologise to Daniel for the face thing]

He probably asked for it. [Or not] How long have I been out?

Comments

[i_got_this]

Okay, I think I'm a little confused. Gale mentioned hearing South Dakota but I don't remember any 'Panem'. What's the connection there?

[wastheexample]

Panem is the whole place. It's what used to be North America.

[i_got_this]

Okay, I think I get it now.

What happened with the other countries?

[wastheexample]

No one knows, we lost contact with them long before I was born.

[i_got_this]

That is so weird ... [To her, at least, who's Earth countries went into space and started colonizing other planets.]<>

[wastheexample]

To you, maybe.

[i_got_this]

You probably think humans launching into space and colonizing hundreds of planets is weird, huh?

[wastheexample]

Pretty much, yeah. Guess we weren't that lucky.

[i_got_this]

Well, it wasn't much of a cakewalk for us, between the Insurrection and Genocide-by-aliens.

[wastheexample]

Aliens. Better that than your own race I guess.

[i_got_this]

It's not easy either way.

Gale said you guys had a Rebellion brewing?

[wastheexample]

Gale needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.

[i_got_this]

There a reason that this would even matter here?

[wastheexample]

Given anyone from my world could show up at any given time? Yeah.

[i_got_this]

What about networking? They show up they're going to have a real hard time getting to you if you've already got allies from all these different worlds. [It's what South's been doing more or less as insurance against Washington]

[wastheexample]

I'm not a big fan of allies. Allies either get you killed, or get killed themselves in my experience. [Boy does he sound bitter here]

[i_got_this]

You know, you have a point? But I rather like knowing I have backup in case I need it. [Which she probably will because she's South and Stupid Decisions is what she does best.]

[wastheexample]

There's a difference between a backup plan and an ally.

[i_got_this]

One sort of helps if you have the other, though.

[wastheexample]

...Sometimes.

[i_got_this]

Yeah man, whatever. Just don't come crying to me when the castle falls to shit and you don't have any backup.

[wastheexample]

If you think that'll be something I'll do, more fool you.

[i_got_this]

Fine, stoically bleeding to death alone in a ditch. Does that sound like more something you would do?

[wastheexample]

...Nope. Not even close.

[Not since he was 16 anyway, doop doop]

[i_got_this]

So what the hell does that mean, that you're just some weird god that walks around without consequence?