Room 403 | Friday Afternoon

[district12baker]

School week over with, Peeta headed back to his room to read the few bits of mail he had managed to get from home. Mail between the districts was strictly forbidden but messages were passed directly through 12 often enough. Michetta had sent letters on a whim and they somehow reached Fandom through some sort of magic or system that Peeta didn't

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[district12baker]

Peeta lifted his eyebrows at the sudden line of questioning. He knew Fawn was a curious sort of person but he still wasn't used to people being curious about him.

"Well, um, I mentioned the rebellion, right? That happened almost 75 years ago, all the districts rose up against the Capitol and the Capitol beat them down, completely destroying District 13 in the process," Peeta said, having been through enough Reapings to know the story quite well by now. "After the war the Capitol forced all of the districts to participate in the Hunger Games, which is their way of showing us they have all the power and we have nothing. It's where a boy and a girl is chosen from each district and all 24 get put into an arena where they are expected to fight to the death."

As always, Peeta said it casually even if he was quite aware of how horrific it is.

"The Games are mandatory viewing for everyone in Panem, as is participation in the Reaping, which the lottery that decides who plays in the Games. It's the only time of year where the Capitol takes notice of the people in District 12 and until I am a legal adult I have to show up and participate," Peeta said. "If I don't they'll kill my entire family. I've seen it before when people tried to get out of the Reaping."

[yinandyango]

There was a good, long moment of wide-eyed staring at Peeta, and then Fawn's gaze shifted toward the book in his hand.

"No wonder you're unimpressed," she murmured. "I'd accuse you of lying, but I was a pony last weekend. That's only slightly less believable than that."

[district12baker]

"Only slightly?" Peeta asked, cracking a smile. "I had a hard time believing people had no idea what I was talking about when I got here."

[yinandyango]

"That's probably a good thing that people don't know what you're talking about," Fawn pointed out. She knew she was using the humor as a little bit of a defense mechanism of avoiding what Peeta was really telling her, and she drew in a shaky breath, forcing herself to confront it instead. "They really have to fight to the death? And why children? Children didn't start the rebellion...I assume. Adults should have to do it, if anyone."

[district12baker]

"They're not really young kids, the Reaping is only for people between the ages of 12 and 18. Any younger and I think that the people in the Capitol would be disgusted," Peeta said. "But I think they use young people because they represent hope and change. And no parent wants to have their child chosen so they keep in line to prevent any tampering with the Reaping."

He paused and thought a little bit more on the question. "There's also the fact that young people put on a better show. It's all a show. The people that live in the Capitol don't have to play so they think it's great fun."

[yinandyango]

And, behold. More staring. A lot more staring.

"Oh, sure," said Fawn, eventually, when she finally seemed able to muster up enough disbelief to do the dry statement justice, "let's take hope and change and then make them kill each other so their parents behave and we can have a good show. That's kind of sick, Peeta."

[district12baker]

"I know that, but I don't think the people in the Capitol know that. They've never been to the districts, they don't see us as real people." Unlike his future Games partner, Peeta did have a grip on what the average Capitol citizen must have thought. "The government plays it off like playing in the Games is an honor. They only know what is put on the television screen."

"That's not to say I approve or that none of them understand what's going on," Peeta said. "I just find it hard to believe that the entire population of the Capitol would let the Games keep going if they knew what was really happening."

Ever the optimist, yep.

[yinandyango]

Did he really? Fawn realized she almost wished she could believe something like that, too. Granted, she didn't know anything about his world except for what he was telling her now, but she knew, having grown up the way she did, that people could turn a blind eye to a lot of really terrible things. Especially when they lived in fear.

For a second, as her thoughts started to delve deeper and deeper with each connected though, her body twitched, muscles tightening, one knee kicking up, and she knew that, if Peeta caught it, he might have seen her contorted witch's face, but she forced it down before it turned into anything more and he breathed out nice and slow to settle down.

Maybe she should have just kept going out the door instead of sitting down.

"You should make them all cupcakes," she suggested, "and poison them all. If there's no one to watch the Games, then would there still be one?"

[district12baker]

Peeta smiled a little sadly. "I think killing them all would only start a cycle of something worse. Besides, I'm not that guy. I'm not trying to say that I wouldn't kill if I got picked to play in the Games...I just wouldn't take out a whole bunch of people without sitting down and talking to them first."

[yinandyango]

"Talking...usually doesn't work very well in a war," Fawn said, returning Peeta's small smile, because, really, that's what it was. A war against themselves, a war against their minds. She started to wonder how she would do if she was chosen for something like Peeta's Games, and she figured she wouldn't do very well at all. She wondered if how that would work, too, if they chose one boy and one girl. If they drew her name, they'd have both in one package. She started twisting her fingers in her hand, tightly, pulling on them slightly.

"And I take it if you were chosen and you did something like kill yourself to get out of it, there'd be repercussions for that, too."

[district12baker]

"I would think you would be under very, very close supervision. I don't know the details for sure, the Capitol is pretty hush hush about it," Peeta explained. "Besides, I wouldn't kill myself. I'd probably try to help out the other person from my district."

He really couldn't think of any girl in District 12 that he'd be willing to kill, even if his own life was on the line.

"Though I'm sure you must think that's silly."

[yinandyango]

"No," Fawn said, shaking her head. "I don't think it's silly. Pointless, maybe, in the long run, but definitely not silly. I think if I could help, I'd probably do the same. I know I definitely couldn't kill someone, though."

[district12baker]

"I used to think I wouldn't be able to," Peeta admitted. "But I've seen enough of the Games to know that everybody ends up doing it. Or trying, anyway."

[yinandyango]

"I don't know," Fawn said. "Maybe I haven't seen enough,"--and she was okay with that--"but I still can't see me being able to."

She could see plenty of other gruesome outcomes for herself if she was inexplicably thrown into the Games, but they all centered around her complete inability to kill...and everyone else's inevitable ability to do it.

[district12baker]

"Luckily it's not something you have to worry about," Peeta said, smiling again. "And I only have three more Reapings to go before I'm in the clear."

Of course the older he got the more likely his chance of being chosen but he wasn't about to mention that.