thoughtformed | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

The more that happens here, the more this place feels like just another arena. A strange one, with a lot less death. Or drawn out death, I suppose.

I don't really know if that would be better or worse than the alternative. I guess at this point it hardly matters.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It feels like life after the Games but before the Quarter Quell. You only had a year of it, so I don't know if you get what I mean.

...It was a strange year.

The 74th was a strange Game.

That's true.

If this place is drawing out our deaths, they're not being very creative about it.

Don't tell me you miss the gamemakers.

If I miss anything, it's knowing how the game is played.

In that sense, it does feel like that year. Not knowing, not knowing anything except not to believe what you're told.

If you were smart enough to know that early on, you were a lot smarter than most victors their first year out.

I wasn't as smart as I needed to be.

It was better you didn't know everything, I thought you figured that out.

It wasn't better. People suffered for my mistakes.

People were always going to suffer, you making mistakes didn't change that. It was better for you and Katniss that you didn't know everything. That fact you figured out anything in the first year is impressive.

I didn't only mean what you and the others knew.

...Still, there's no point in arguing about it now. It's done.

And now we're both equally clueless here. Not that I think ignorance makes a difference in a person's treatment in the end.

You don't think so?

Most of the time people don't want information from you, they just want to control you. Telling them what you know just hurts your side, it doesn't buy you anything.

No, but if you don't know anything, they may not bother.

You didn't know anything after the Quarter Quell. You still think people don't bother you if you're ignorant?

I didn't, but Katniss did. You know they wanted me for another reason.

Yeah, I saw your television spots when they brought us to 13. You're very important, that's why you got the special treatment.

She was, not me. I was just a tool.

I don't play the real, not real game so you can believe what you want about importance. But everybody's just a tool, from the President to the Tributes to the girl on fire. The point's just figuring out what game we're in. Which we don't know anymore.

But not every tool is of the same importance.

And if it's not a game?

See, and that just shows you really missed out, having to fight two years in a row. Everything turns into the Games, even when you're out of the arena for years. Once you've got the game figured out, then you pick whether or not you play by the new rules.

Didn't have much time for that.

This isn't Panem. I'm not saying it's what they say it is, but... it might be a mistake to approach it the same way.

And I say it's a mistake to think these people won't approach us the same way Panem did. They're counting on us to assume it's a new place and the old ways of doing things might not apply, or that old weaknesses aren't valid anymore. But they both play dirty in the same ways.

Not everyone is from Panem. How would they know what to expect? We don't even know who they are.

Yeah, Panem or not, they know a lot about us. More than most people.

I know, but they know those things about everyone here, and it's only the few of us from Panem. The rules of the game can't just have us in mind.

So, what? Just hope they get bored and pick on some other world?

No. I'm just saying we can't assume it will be just as we know it, not with so many other people targeted.

Then we're back to square one. Don't know the games or the rules- other than you can't leave on a boat.

I guess we'll just have to figure them out by trial and error, then. At least we know their barriers don't kill you, and we've already discovered the one that comes with potential drowning.

Good to know.

I don't mind keeping my feet on land, either.

If we had it my way, we'd be out of here in a hovercraft.

Has anyone tried underground?

Can tunnels go under the ocean?

I wouldn't know. But I meant to see what's there, if anything. Like in 13.

For not telling you anything, your plans aren't always half bad.

Hey, now. I'm still alive.

Somehow not dead again. We're all impressive in that way.

I've tried to avoid thinking that way, but it's getting harder.

The ship made it worse.

...I think it's better.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only