[Katniss has told much of the story. Maybe he didn't see it, but it's been said, and she's never shied away from telling anyone. So she'll tell it again.
She doesn't write it. She turns on the recording function. There's something about hearing it.]
What was once "North America" was savaged by disasters. Economic, natural. Bit by bit, it fell apart. A new nation rose from the ashes-- Panem. The Capitol and thirteen districts supported one another. The Capitol oversaw the districts, who provided vital supplies to the Capitol and each other.
District Thirteen rose up, and its citizens incited the rest of Panem into rebellion against the Capitol. For years, the war left people without food, homes, divided and killed families.
The Capitol destroyed Thirteen, and the rest of the districts laid down their arms. They wrote and signed the Treaty of Treason, to ensure that the Dark Days would never return, that they would never try and strike again at the Capitol, who had protected them and now forgave them.
Part of the Treaty was the Hunger Games. Every year, each district offers one young man and one young woman between the ages of twelve and eighteen to go to the Capitol, be trained, and enter an arena. They are armed, given supplies, and can gain sponsors, who can send them more of either once in the arena. These twenty-four young people are the pride and honor of their districts, and they compete in the arena to be the lone victor, the one survivor. The victor wants for nothing the rest of his or her life, bathed in riches and the attention of the Capitol. Their district has food and luxuries for the year, until the next Games, and they still have their Victor, whose money supports the district. The Games remind us what war can do, the hardships that it can entail, and the Victor reminds us of the ability to survive and the mercy of the Capitol.
This is how we remember our past, this is how we safeguard our future.
[She pauses a moment for the familiar line... then she continues. She has to keep talking. She can't stop now. If he's tired of listening to her, he can stop. But she will finish.]
I was chosen to represent District Two in the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. I was proud and eager to go. That year, the Capitol showed even more mercy: They agreed to crown two victors if they came from the same district. Out of twenty-four tributes, I was the nineteenth to die.
[There is no emotional reaction there, not from her. It doesn't matter. She can't let it matter.]
To be armed in the Games, you had to win the race to the Cornucopia. Survive the initial onslaught while other people tried to claim supplies and weapons there. It was always a bloodbath.
Here, they give us weapons before we even start.
In the Games, only one person lived. Alliances were all temporary; you always knew you'd break them because you had to be the one to survive to go home.
Here, you can protect someone else. You have to go if they tell you to, but you don't have to fight.
voice:
She doesn't write it. She turns on the recording function. There's something about hearing it.]
What was once "North America" was savaged by disasters. Economic, natural. Bit by bit, it fell apart. A new nation rose from the ashes-- Panem. The Capitol and thirteen districts supported one another. The Capitol oversaw the districts, who provided vital supplies to the Capitol and each other.
District Thirteen rose up, and its citizens incited the rest of Panem into rebellion against the Capitol. For years, the war left people without food, homes, divided and killed families.
The Capitol destroyed Thirteen, and the rest of the districts laid down their arms. They wrote and signed the Treaty of Treason, to ensure that the Dark Days would never return, that they would never try and strike again at the Capitol, who had protected them and now forgave them.
Part of the Treaty was the Hunger Games. Every year, each district offers one young man and one young woman between the ages of twelve and eighteen to go to the Capitol, be trained, and enter an arena. They are armed, given supplies, and can gain sponsors, who can send them more of either once in the arena. These twenty-four young people are the pride and honor of their districts, and they compete in the arena to be the lone victor, the one survivor. The victor wants for nothing the rest of his or her life, bathed in riches and the attention of the Capitol. Their district has food and luxuries for the year, until the next Games, and they still have their Victor, whose money supports the district. The Games remind us what war can do, the hardships that it can entail, and the Victor reminds us of the ability to survive and the mercy of the Capitol.
This is how we remember our past, this is how we safeguard our future.
[She pauses a moment for the familiar line... then she continues. She has to keep talking. She can't stop now. If he's tired of listening to her, he can stop. But she will finish.]
I was chosen to represent District Two in the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. I was proud and eager to go. That year, the Capitol showed even more mercy: They agreed to crown two victors if they came from the same district. Out of twenty-four tributes, I was the nineteenth to die.
[There is no emotional reaction there, not from her. It doesn't matter. She can't let it matter.]
To be armed in the Games, you had to win the race to the Cornucopia. Survive the initial onslaught while other people tried to claim supplies and weapons there. It was always a bloodbath.
Here, they give us weapons before we even start.
In the Games, only one person lived. Alliances were all temporary; you always knew you'd break them because you had to be the one to survive to go home.
Here, you can protect someone else. You have to go if they tell you to, but you don't have to fight.
I like it better here.