paradisa | thirteenth snare

[so, his girlfriend got knocked unconscious with a cake pan by his best friend's boyfriend - who, by the way, kind of stole her from him back home.

clearly, this is not exactly Happy Time for Gale. he's been spending most of his time at Ino's bedside, even though she's clearly not getting any closer to being conscious. now that people seem to be sane again, and Crowley's awake, and things are slowly edging toward as normal as house life gets, however, he figures he might be able to leave for a little while]

[House Filter]

Could someone please just ... keep an eye on Ino for me, today? I need to get out and grab some air. But I don't want her to be left alone too long, in case she wakes up ....

[/House Filter]

[with that, he'll bundle up against the cold and start a trek up to the castle, to see what's going on now that everything is back to normal, dictating into the journal as he goes]

I'm coming up to the castle ... since I figured I should maybe try to meet some of the new faces, or see if anyone needs my help with anything. Also, it's been a while since I played anything in the game room ... so if you want to come say hello, I'll probably be up there. My name's Gale - I'll be the tall guy with the dark hair wearing the green hunting vest.

[yes, that IS a brand new vest, it is his Christmas present from Ino, and he kind of wears it a lot. pardon him while he puts it to practical use by hunting down Pac-Man ghosts and Dig-Dug baddies. badly. arcade games are one of his Paradisa guilty pleasures, okay, and he can just pretend every little clump of pixels is Peeta Mellark's stupid clumsy dumb oaf face]

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[....w...ow... okay that is extremely foreboding.]

And... you don't know about the other countries at all? You don't have a world-wide internet or something?

No, there's ... well, there's electricity, but it's regulated, and the Capitol gets all the really high-tech stuff. They get all the high-end ... everything. We got cut off from the rest of the world, and there's no way to really know if anything's out there. If there is, the people in the Capitol are the only ones who know, but they like being in charge, so there's no way they'd tell.

I see...

[sure is hoping that Japan didn't get completely wiped out '^']

Besides, they're too busy making us all fight for their entertainment to care about other countries, anyway.

Wh-what?!

Yeah. They called it The Hunger Games - due to the fact that there are food shortages everywhere, and whoever wins every year gets a giant supply of food brought to their hometown every month for the year.

[the bitterness in his tone is so strong, you could make coffee with it]

Each year, two kids from each of the Districts - a boy and a girl, between twelve and eighteen - are chosen to participate. And they're brought to the Capitol for the Games.

[Tsuna falls silent. Oh, he does not like where this story is headed.]

The Hunger Games are held in an arena ... they build a new one every year. Acres and acres of land, and it's all contained by a force-field ... kind of like how we have the Dead Zone on all sides of us, only you can't cross over.

They don't go there right away, though - there's a special building in the Capitol where they're all treated like royalty. They get makeovers, and they get to eat everything and anything they want ... and during the day, they all get training. Training in weapons, and camouflage, and survival skills. And the whole time, they're all filmed, and the rest of the Districts watch them eat, and primp, and learn, and get interviewed.

And then they go to the Arena, all twenty-four of them ... to see which one will manage to be the last one to survive.

[a pause]

Yep. The Capitol's really figured out quality entertainment for the masses.

[There's silence on this end for awhile. When he finally speaks, he sounds horrified.]

People just... watch as they're forced to fight to death?

[And then a thought strikes him.]

Gale-san... were you...?

I wasn't, no. But my best friend was. [he sighs] And she won. She and the boy from our district, too, both of them. They changed the rules.

[he doesn't sound happy about that, though, for some reason. HMM.]

Th-that's great, though, isn't it? That they both survived.

They survived by pretending they were together, a couple. [he's told the story so many times over the last year that it's lost most of the sting in the telling. plus, well, he has Ino. so that makes it a lot easier.]

And ... well, at the time? I really loved her.

But, it was just pretending so they could make it out alive, right...?

It was to start. [like he said, he's lost a lot of the sting. he manages to say that pretty matter-of-factly]

By the time she came home ... well ... she was kind of a superstar. Everyone kept sending cameras and interviewers to the town, wanting to know about her. In order to make sure she won, we ... well. Her mentor didn't want anyone to think Peeta had any competition, so to speak. He wanted it to look like they'd been pining for each other forever.

So I had to pretend I was her cousin. ... It was either that, or risk losing her.

Even when you came back... [What awful circumstances. ):]

But, you have Ino now, right? [and let's face it she's probably 100x better than that other girl]

Yeah, even when I came back. ... But you're right, I do. [from the tone of his voice when he says that? it's pretty clear that he thinks she IS]

That's ... what makes it easier for me to talk about home. I know I have good things here to make up for how awful it is, there.

[And that tone of voice and words perk him up substantially.]

I'm really glad for you, Gale-san! I'm glad for the both of you. It's... really nice, that you're both happy with each other.

Thanks, Tsuna. ... I'm glad for her, too. She went through so much ... she needs a chance to be happy.

Yeah, she really does. [can you tell this kid loves her gale]

thirteenth snare

never any regrets

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