Welcome.

[trustfellows]

Rise and shine. There are a few things that matter right now - the fact that you're waking up in an unfamiliar but decently comfortable bed, the fact that you don't recognize the room you're in, the fact that you seem to have some sort of headache... Nothing severe, mind. Just the sort of odd, heavy fuzziness that comes with having slept far too long. You don't really remember where you were immediately before this, not upon waking. Something will come to you eventually if you think long enough, however - a couple of seconds of consideration will bring to mind a place, a memory, a recollection of where you were and what you were doing. It probably wasn't anything that would result in you being here, though. Welcome to Graceside Preparatory Academy. You may want to pick up the key to your room before you leave the room, but don't worry too much - your door won't lock automatically, so you won't be locked out if you've forgotten to pick it up. It seems you're not alone, either; the hallway outside your room is most likely full of other confused people by now, and should you turn around to look at the door of the room you just left, you'll find a nameplate with your name printed on it. There's a single word underneath it with no explanation. This is your title, but don't worry about that right now. Depending on when you left your room there may be a clock chiming in the foyer up ahead. It seems like it's seven, though it's difficult to tell if it's seven in the morning or seven at night. There aren't any windows, after all. Should you venture into the room with the clock, you'll find that the only exit is closed - there's absolutely no way to break down that steel bulkhead. It looks like you're not getting out of here anytime soon. The foyer also holds some very interesting information. There's a bulletin board with thirty-five pictures on it. Beside each picture is some very specific and very familiar information. Feel free to examine it. The bulletin board is large enough for plenty of you to gather around and gawk. Don't try to get at it though, that glass in front of it is very thick. If you try to break it, you'll find out the hard way that it's shatterproof. Sorry about that. Perhaps even more of a concern than the glass is the list beside the profiles. It looks like a set of rules. You might want to examine those, though they're not providing much of an explanation for why you're here or how you got here. So relax and get to know your fellow Participants. You might be stuck here for awhile.

Comments

[flagitate]

[ She gets u girl. But also, with how shouty you are, you'd die in five seconds in the Games. Chill. ]

I guess. What's confusing you?

[gorira]

[ WELL IT'S A GOOD THING WE'RE NOT IN THE GAMES-- ]

You don't think all of this shit seems off?

[ Looks like she's back to being fired up again, but, she's trying to remember her inside voice, at least, even if she really looks like she's about to lose her temper. ]

Look at this fucking group of people, for instance! Three princesses, a Lord of Spirits, a King! A colonel for a military of a place that doesn't even exist! This screams absurd!

[flagitate]

Mostly it just seems like a really elaborate joke. I mean, it's like you said, there's a green woman here.

And it doesn't look like she's just dyed her skin.

[gorira]

That's what I'm saying, but I want to know what the hell the punchline is, already.

[ She crosses her arms, rocking on her heels. ]

If it's just nonsense, it's not funny. If it's some nonsense, and some truth, then it's still not funny. But for it to be entirely serious...

[ Green woman. 233 year old grandma. An "entrepreneur," in scare quotes.

...Okay, maybe that one is a little bit more believable, considering her family's line of work, but. ]

But what the hell is the point?

[flagitate]

If the rules are real-- [ and she's sure they are ] --the point is to get us to murder each other in cold blood.

[gorira]

[ ...Right. The elephant in the room. ]

Assuming that's not a joke, the master plan is, what? Put 35 people in a room, lock 'em in, throw away the key, and wait for someone to get desperate and crack? Putting aside how fucked up that is, it isn't as though some Lord of the Flies crap is gonna happen overnight.

[ But even if the idea is disgusting, even if her gut tells her it's nonsense, she has no choice but to entertain it. Stay level-headed-- ]

There are some sick bastards out there, and I'm sure there are sick bastards in here, one way or another. But I'd like to fucking think the majority of us aren't gonna jump to the solution of first degree murder.

[flagitate]

You'd be surprised, [ she says flatly. Apparently, most of these people have never had to deal with that sort of thing, and that's fine. (She can't deny that she's a little jealous, though. Must be nice, to not have to worry about Reaping Day, about you or your best friend or your sister being carted off to slaughter.) But... ]

I'd rather be on my guard than get a knife in my back.

[gorira]

...No, I can't blame you for that. If the rule is there, chances are someone's at least thinking about it, even if it's in jest, which is the sick part.

[ Very frustrating. For some dipshit to read that and possibly take it to heart...and 35 people are a fair bit to keep an eye on, too. ]

If that's the goal, we'll just have to make sure it's as difficult to do that as possible.

[flagitate]

I'm not worried.

[ ... which is a lie, and a super obvious one at that. Katniss doesn't meet her eyes. If she had a bow and arrows, she could deal, maybe. But there aren't a lot of places to hide here, or to run... and she doesn't even know if she'll ever get a bow and arrows.

Ugh. ]

I won't kill anyone, though. I want to leave, but I'm not gonna... kill to do it.

[gorira]

I am.

[ It's blunt, and her posture shifts, to stand up straighter. She reminds herself to keep her cool. ]

I'm sure most of us, if not all of us, wanna leave. That's the scary part. And people can get desperate, and anxious. And when that happens, they're more inclined to buy into bullshit...

[ Like justifying taking the life of an innocent person. ]

And if we're stuck here a while, it's only gonna get worse.

[flagitate]

.... Yeah. I get what you mean.

[ The way she describes it, it's like a much slower Games. It's true that there isn't any fanfare, just a list of rules and profiles of people Katniss doesn't know. ]

The only thing we can do is wait and see. And prepare for the worst.

[gorira]

That sounds smart. You look like the type who can take care of yourself, though.

[ Her arms cross again, and she looks like she's sizing up Katniss, just a little bit. Her build, her stance. Her demeanor.

She's serious. It makes her a little less angry and a little more grounded. ]

If this really is a deathtrap, then the object is to stay on the defensive. You're not gonna die unless you let yourself die. But if something's gonna happen, it's gonna happen because someone assumes they're stronger than you.

So the goal is not to give them a reason to think that.

[flagitate]

If I don't take care of myself or my family, no one else will.

[ She thinks back to when her father died. How she'd been helpless, until... until someone had showed her kindness. Her mother is useless for the most part, and Prim is too gentle to hunt, too scared of the woods to gather greens or other food. ]

I really don't intend to die, either. Or put myself in a position where someone thinks they can pull a fast one on me. [ She studies Chitoge now, too. ] You seem like you'd do the same.

[gorira]

[ Must be tough, to be the breadwinner. Her family is so huge that she's never really had to worry about that. Her look turns empathetic, just for a moment, but Katniss speaks up again, and it's gone just as quickly.

She sounds kind of like Tsugumi, and that's a welcome comfort. ]

It's not myself I was ever really concerned about, here.

[ There are soldiers and colonels and army captains and "huntresses" and generally shady-looking people, and then there are princesses and pop idols and students and green women. There's a clear mismatch here. And while she likes to think she can watch her back well enough, and she doesn't exactly like to pigeonhole people, there's no guarantee others won't make assumptions...

It makes her pissed off, all over again. ]

[flagitate]

[ ... God, doesn't she just relate to that. Katniss relaxes a little. Yeah, she's getting at least a decent impression from this girl, despite how shouty she is. ]

You and me both.

[ She sounds a little distant, but... without her, who'll put food in her sister's mouth? Gale, yeah, but he has his whole, bigger family to worry about. ]

... I'm Katniss.

[gorira]

Katniss, then. The Mockingjay, whatever the heck that means.

[ There's sort of a lull here, and the tension hasn't really lessened any. But there's, at least, an understanding of the situation. No pretense here. The girl in front of Chitoge seems like a reliable one. ]

My name's Chitoge. ...Sorry, for yelling earlier.

[ She has the decency to look a little embarrassed about it. ]

[flagitate]

A mockingjay is a bird. And I'm obviously not a bird, so I don't know what that's even about.

[ She gives a shrug. Out of everyone here, Katniss thinks she might be the one she can rely on... if it comes to that. She's never been good at that, after all. ]

It's fine. ... I can't really blame you that much, I guess.

[gorira]

A bird? Like, a cross between a mockingbird and a magpie?

[ Definitely not something that could be an occupation. So that's...something to chalk up as an anomaly. ]

I've never heard of such a thing.

[flagitate]

Mockingbird, yeah. But the jay part comes from jabberjays. They're birds created by the Capitol.

[ Hey, it's one of her favorite stories! Because it makes the Capitol look like a bunch of morons. ]

Back in Panem, there was a rebellion. People just got done with all the crap the Capitol pulled. So they created jabberjays, which could perfectly mimic what people said. [ There's a slight grin there. ] Turns out the rebels caught on and they started feeding the jabberjays total lies.

So the Capitol released the jabberjays into the wild. They thought they'd just die off. Instead, they mated with mockingjays. They can't mimic human speech anymore, but they can copy any song they hear, right down to melody and the sound of someone's voice.

[gorira]

H-hang on, slow down a little bit...

[ It sounds like she's describing some kind of dystopia. People rebelling against their government, and the government retaliating by bio-engineering bird mutations to keep tabs? ]

I've never heard of a place called Panem, before.

[ Pan, as in, bread..? ]

What kind of shit did they pull, that the people led a full-scale rebellion?

[flagitate]

It used to be America.

[ "Used to." ]

Neglect. Slavery, basically. Tried to keep the districts divided, kept the rich richer and left the poor to die.

There's other stuff, too.

[gorira]

Wait, wait, wait, Katniss, back the fuck up--

[ Her arms uncross, and she leans in forward, fists clenched at her sides. Her cheeks are losing color; they were tinted red before, from her tirade, but she's starting to pale... ]

What do you mean, it used to be America? What happened to America?!

[ This is the first she's hearing of a name-change, let alone...all of this shit-- ]

[flagitate]

[ Wow, that's a pretty strong reaction! ]

It drowned, basically. The sea level rose too high around the whole world, and left America the only landmass with people on it.

So those people renamed it Panem, and eventually, got sectioned into different districts with the Capitol reigning supreme.

[gorira]

[ The sea level? But that must be at least hundreds of years away, if not thousands! Even with all this climate change here, for it to flood the planet, that's way, way off! ]

What the hell year is it, where you come from?!

[ Is she some kind of time traveler? She must be, right? ]

So everyone moved to America, and they split up the whole damn thing...and they turned it into a fucking dictatorship?

[ That...can't be right, can it? ]

[flagitate]

I don't know. But it's been seventy-four years since the Capitol crushed the rebellion.

[ Little less than hundreds of years, then. Katniss shakes her head. ]

No, I don't think they moved. A lot of people died.

[ ... ]

Thirteen Districts, but now it's just twelve. And... yeah. Dictatorship's a pretty good word for it. It's illegal for people to go to other districts, for the most part.