sixth snare

[fanstheflame]

[so, she's in. Katniss is "in" with Peeta's gung-ho, ridiculously lionhearted plot to get everyone out of Paradisa and back home, and she doesn't even know what's waiting for her. all he can think for a moment is how angry that makes him, how little she thinks of anyone but herself, and he wants to track her down and shake her, yell, maybe even tell her what's going to be there if they succeed. but then he remembers his conversation with Belle in the hallway, and ... no, that's not the best course of action at all. in fact, he wonders if trying to find their way home at all even is, especially after what just happened to everyone who disappeared. if things like that - so like the Games in their own way - can happen without provocation, he doesn't even want to think about what could happen WITH it. he starts to write a filter...]

[Filtered To People Who Believe They're Better Off Living In Paradisa]

[then scribbles it out beyond recognition.]

Tch. This is dumb.

What's everyone up to, today? I could use a new hobby or two.

Comments

[fanstheflame]

You say that like I actually enjoy getting beat up.

[ino]

You must, if you keep offering to let me~

[fanstheflame]

Trust me, I've been hurt worse.

[ino]

Hopefully not by a friend.

[fanstheflame]

[ahahahahahahahahaaaaaa THIS STORY oh god. he laughs a little, but it's nervous laughter]

Not directly.

[Gale]

[ino]

... [welp. filter goin' up, now ...]

Uh ... maybe I shouldn't have asked? [because that sounds like a Not Very Good story]

Ino, to end

[fanstheflame]

[he can't help but sigh a little in relief at the filter. he doesn't need everyone to hear this story]. No, it's... You've got the right to know. I've told you everything else, anyway. It... Remember when I first got here, and you healed me...?


[AND HE HAD ALL THOSE FRESH SCARS....]

[ino]

Yeah. [she knows he had them, but -- she doesn't say anything just yet, she doesn't want to assume]

[fanstheflame]

That was ... it was a punishment. From the Capitol's Peacekeepers.

[ino]

[she's silent for a moment, in surprise. when she speaks up again, she's not ... MAD, but she's definitely not happy, either]

Punishment for what?

[fanstheflame]

For poaching. They ... [he glances way down at his boots] The Head Peacekeeper in my District, Cray? He usually turned a blind eye to me and Katniss going out hunting. Not because he knew it was hard for us to get food - more because he knew he could get us to bring him stuff if he kept quiet. I was bringing him a turkey -- but he wasn't there. He'd been replaced by someone in the Capitol. [there's a hardness in his tone that speaks of something he won't quite say. he knows if he tells Ino why Cray was replaced, there will be tangents. and she didn't ask for those]

He put me under immediate arrest and hauled me out to the square. Forced me to plead guilty. I did, but I didn't tell him I'd been out past the border. I only said I found it wandering around and stabbed it with a stick, not ... out in the woods with a bow and arrow. Not that that made any difference. They still nailed the turkey to a post, tied me up to it, and --

[silence, and a sigh] I lost count somewhere in the 20s, before I passed out. Katniss says they got in forty.

[another pause] The law says it's only twenty.

[ino]

[there's silence again, as she listens. and man, is she raging on your behalf, gale. if whoever that guy was ever shows up in paradisa, you can bet your ass ino would kick his.

but for now, she's quiet, thinking]

This might seem like a weird question, but --

Those scars, do you want to keep them?

[because she knows there are people who would keep them. as a reminder, as a warning -- something like that. but there are also some who'd rather forget those bad memories, and if gale is one of those people ... it wouldn't be too hard for her to fulfill that wish, even if she couldn't save him from feeling the pain in the first place]

[fanstheflame]

[it takes him a moment to process what she means - what she's offering, and how she'd do it. as such, his gaze slowly shifts from confused, to surprised, and then into thoughtful, before he looks away from the journal and out his window, up into the clouds. a bird coasts by, and he can't help but idly realize he doesn't know what it is, where back home, he'd know in an instant just by the size and the shape of its silhouette. and that, somehow, brings all his thoughts on the matter together. he sighs, softly, drumming his fingers on the page]

I don't know.

It ... Back home. In Panem. They have the technology to do that for people: to remove scars, to heal injuries and make it look like nothing ever happened. But it's the sort of thing that's so expensive and advanced that only people in the Capitol can afford it ... or ... or Victors.

So part of me wants to say no. And not just no, I mean - I mean no as in Not Ever, Go Step Down A Shaft no ... because it'd feel like I was selling out in a way, you know? Like I wasn't being ... true to who I am, where I come from. What my family and I have struggled with all my life.

But then - then again, it's so different here. There's so much we have that I'd never even be allowed to know existed, let alone see, or hear, or touch, or do, or eat. I don't wish for anything - I only use what's here - but still, what's here is ... [he chokes out a laugh] It's amazing. And a part of me thinks, you know ... if I can get away from the Capitol - even if it's to a place that's no better in its own ways ... if I can live it up just as much as those controlling, blind, callous freaks, but know that it doesn't come at the cost of someone else's way of life? Even if I can't directly rub it in their face, it still sort of feels like it.

... So I don't know.

[ino]

[wow ... go step down a shaft. LMFAO. HER FEELINGS ARE A LITTLE HURT, HERE ... she realizes he has an excellent reason for saying so, but it's such a strong negative reaction to her wanting to help him that it feels like a more personal rejection.

still, she's quiet until he finishes talking; and when he does. she tries not to let it show, but -- she can't help but be just a little miffed]

It's your call. Just a suggestion.

[fanstheflame]

I know. And ... I know you were suggesting it because you wanted to help. ... Honestly, that's the biggest reason why I want to think about it. Because someone here cares enough to actually ask.

[he won't say it, but the tone of his voice suggests it: he feels bad. he wants to be able to change that kneejerk 'no' to an unfaltering 'yes'. he's just ... still too new, too much of his own world and not enough yet of this one]

1/2

[ino]

[... it's kind of hilarious how much better him saying that makes her feel. not only because it's nice and it's flattering, but because -- most people she knows would never actually say that out loud, even if it were true. it's something that continually surprises her about gale, that he's so willing and open to talk about his feelings, where he's at, that sort of thing ... it's not something she's used to at all, so. she kind of takes a moment to be surprised, and flattered, and ... well, a little happy, even. that he appreciates that she cares, enough to blatantly say so to her face.]

[ino]

[... it takes her a moment, but when she speaks again, she's clearly teasing]

Well, in my defense, you did say to go step down a shaft.

[fanstheflame]

I -- [he sighs, knowing she's got him there. apologetically] It's what I would have said. Back home.

But this isn't ... it's so different.

[ino]

I get it. Really. There are plenty of reasons people have given me, but that one's probably the best. [since otherwise it's usually I'M AFRAID OF MAGIC or something. a pause, because as she reconsiders his story ...]

You're lucky you're alive, honestly.

[fanstheflame]

... Yeah, I know. It's mostly thanks to Katniss' mom. If she hadn't been so quick to help heal me ...

[ino]

That's not quite what I mean. [a pause, as she figures out how to word this] There are people of authority in every world who take their power and abuse it out of fear. You're lucky it didn't go any further than that.

[aka, he's lucky they didn't just kill him to keep him from ever speaking out or doing anything rebellious. ... yep, this is another one of those things where she sounds like she knows from experience]

[fanstheflame]

No, they --

[there's a long pause. he'll double and triple-check the filter to be sure, then:]

-- they did a lot worse.

[ino]

... What?

[and she immediately assumes he's dead. but she'll wait for an explanation before actually saying anything]

[fanstheflame]

They -- it wasn't from anything I did. But ... in the end, I guess, maybe, it was all of us. It'd be easy to say Katniss started it, but -- that wasn't her fault, either. They were the ones who made her be in the games. It's not her fault that people started seeing her as ... something to rally around. Give them hope.

[he sighs] The other Districts were starting to riot against the Capitol. To try and make it stop .... the Capitol came and firebombed District 12.

[ino]

[...a pause, and then softly:] Maybe our worlds aren't so different after all.

[but she'll run her fingers through her hair, before continuing] So that's what you meant when you said your family was in danger. [when they first met, that is]