shenevermisses | 28th Throw

28th Throw - [ written ]

Looks like we're a pretty big drain on this community.

[She's wary as she writes it. Most of the people who'll see this, she hopes, are from the same Luceti she is. But there's no guarantee.]

So I'm organizing a hunting party.

Anyone who doesn't know how to hunt and wants to learn? Meet me at six in the morning by the stable.

Those of us who do know how to hunt will pair you up with a buddy. We'll leave at six-thirty sharp.

Hunting'll be Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Fishing'll be Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

[If there's one thing she learned in Luceti -- learned from Katniss -- it's how important these skills are.]

If we're going to strain these folks' resources? Least we can do is try to help.

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I've spent the last two years learning to hunt. Had a pretty good teacher for most of the time.

Has something like this happened before? Other than that incident with the refugees.

[Compared to others, he hasn't been here all that long-- it will be just two years for him in November.]

The others harbored someone the people in charge wanted. Not too long after I showed up.

I figured they'd starve us out to find him. Then there were the refugees.

...Where I'm from, I learned not to take people handing you food for granted. Our government isn't too different than the one here, so... Kinda expect they'll know. Best way to break something as closed off as we are? Hunger.

It's an easy way to control people. Control what necessities they're allowed to have, and most of them will bend to your will rather than die. Can't blame them for it, either. Not many people want to starve to death.

And most people here don't even consider it. They don't even think about how they'd eat if the shops stopped carrying good.

Most people here don't think about how they'd survive in general without the barrier to protect them. Why would they? They're protected from the outside world and they get everything they want or need handed to them on a platter.

They're complacent. It's sickening, really.

Where I'm from? We're spoiled by the government. They love us. Because we always do what they want. But you think we don't realize that the moment we tried to step out of line, they'd end us? We grow up knowing it.

No one says it. No one has to. We live by their mercy.

[She pauses. But... in a moment of bitterness she can't quite escape, because this is so much like the Games... she says it.]

And die for their sport.

These people? Are nothing compared to them.

Like trained animals.

[There's definite distaste to his voice as he says this. This is something he knows all too well, because he'd experienced it himself once he'd made the choice to defect from Demon Card.]

They only care about you as long as you're useful to them. Once you outlive your usefulness, they'll discard you... or worse.

They make sure we're useful. Or entertaining.

[He... understands. To some degree.]

Every year, they take twenty-four of us -- two from each district -- and put us in an arena. Twelve boys, twelve girls. Ages twelve to eighteen. We have limited food, limited supplies, weapons, and each other.

The last alive? Wins.

And they televise it. To every district. Every second of the day, there's something on those screens.

Until there's only a Victor.

Your world considers people fighting to the death to be entertainment?

[Shuda has seen his share of brutal things in his world, but this is a new low even to him.]

I take back everything I've ever said about Demon Card being cruel. Even they don't go that far. They'll slaughter innocents without cause, but they won't turn it into entertainment. If anything, they do it to strike fear into the hearts of others.

[There was Georco, but...]

It's only entertainment for the Capitol. Their children don't go into the Games.

For the rest of Panem? It's a reminder. That the Capitol remembers their failed rebellion. And that, if they chose, they could kill everyone.

Instead, most years, they settle for twenty-three kids.

[Because in her two years in Luceti, that's what she's accepted. They are kids. They're just kids. All of them. Career eighteen-year-olds and outlier twelve-year-olds alike. They're all kids.]

I'm not sure what it says about either of our worlds that the government in yours sounds like it has a lot in common with an organization that terrorizes the populace in mine.

And that's not even touching on the 'kids' part.

...How long's yours been doing it?

A couple of decades by now. I didn't join it until it had already been around for a while.

Took someone seventy-five years to overthrow mine.

Heh. We're working on it.

I hope you manage it.

I won't get to see what Panem's like without the Games, but the idea's enough for me.

[That's a bit of an unusual thing to say, but Shuda is pretty sure he understands what she means by that and isn't going to ask about it.]

Thanks.

Name's Shuda, by the way. What's yours?

I'm Clove.

Good to meet you. I'm looking forward to hunting with you.

Same to you. It'll be fun to learn something new and useful, and a lot better than just practicing against artificial quarry.

Definitely. And it'll be good in case our benefactors ever turn against us.

Knowing them, I wouldn't be surprised. If anything, I'd say it's just a matter of time.

Especially with how much people seem to like to defy them.

Don't get me wrong-- I'd defy them too if given the chance. I just know how to pick my battles.

I wouldn't. I'd rather work with them -- for them, if I could.

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