(Untitled)

[whowasonfire]

The weather is beginning to cool in District Twelve. Katniss is thinking about clothes - not the things Cinna dressed her in in the Capitol, but real clothes with thick heavy fabric that will keep her, her sister, and her mother warm this winter. This is the first year that they can afford all new things if they want. They won't have to trade

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[says_the_booyah]

Cy sees a face he hasn't seen before. But he's the friendly sort.

"Hey."

[whowasonfire]

Katniss blinks a little at the cybernetics, but doesn't comment. He must be from the Capitol. The robot look could be the new style there, for all she knows.

And it's not exactly her biggest concern right now.

"Hello," she says, short and guarded.

[says_the_booyah]

"I don't bite. Or fire lasers. Really." Funny how people here seem so unused to a cyborg. He's been here for months.

[whowasonfire]

"What are you doing in . . ." She pauses, catches herself. This doesn't look like it's her house, even though she can't think what else it might be. The Capitol could replace it if they wanted, and might have reason to after the Games, but not this fast. And definitely not under District Twelve's noses - someone would have seen.

". . . here?" she settles on.

[says_the_booyah]

"Ooooh. You've never been here before. I know that feeling.

"Wherever you were, you're not there anymore. You're someplace else.

"A bar. At the end of time." Yeah, he still doesn't really believe it, either.

[whowasonfire]

That does make Katniss stare.

"Of course," she says. "A bar at the end of time. Why didn't I think of that?"

[says_the_booyah]

"You really don't believe me. I get that. I still don't it sometimes. My buddies think I'm nuts." Or at least Beast Boy. "But it's real. Look out that window."

[whowasonfire]

Katniss looks where he points.

. . . it reminds her of the hallucinations from the trackerjacker venom, but there's something horribly immediate about it that those hallucinations lacked. Something indefinable that she cannot deny.

When she speaks again, after a long moment, her voice is devoid of sarcasm.

"Okay," she says, a bit faint in spite of herself. "A bar at the end of time."

[says_the_booyah]

"Yeah. You walk through the door, and you get here. You walk back through, and you're home. Back when and where you came from. It's some powerful kind of magic." He looks a bit resigned to it.

[whowasonfire]

Katniss blinks hard, forcing her gaze away from the Window. Even without the similarities to the venom's effects, the view would still remind her too much of the Games. It puts knots in her stomach.

"Magic," she echoes. Her tone is more distracted than anything as she composes herself.

[says_the_booyah]

"You got magic where you come from? I know not everyone believes in it." He didn't till he met Raven.

[whowasonfire]

Katniss has a lot of very recent practice in pulling herself together fast; skepticism is already beginning to thread its way back into her voice as she says,

"No."

In the Capitol, at least, there's technology so advanced she would have thought it magic if she'd seen it as a child. But, end of time or no, there's really any such thing.

[says_the_booyah]

"Ah. Well, this is gonna take a lot of getting used to. Let me help?

"I'm Cyborg." He offers his hand.

[whowasonfire]

Katniss finally, and carefully, moves out of the doorway to shake his hand. She stands in a way that keeps it in her field of vision, though.

"Katniss Everdeen," she says, realizing belatedly that if he's from the Capitol, he'll know that. Of course he'll know that. She and Peeta just won the Games a month ago, and so wildly popular were they that for the first time ever, there were two victors instead of one.

Maybe some people from the Capitol are actually capable of being polite.

[says_the_booyah]

"Nice to meet you, Kat...do your friends call you Kat? Mine call me Cy. Welcome to Milliways." He smiles broadly.

[whowasonfire]

"Katniss," she says firmly. She likes her name, and no one gets to take it away, especially not someone from the Capitol.

Gale calls her Catnip, but he's the only one who's allowed to do that.

"It's nice to meet you, too," she adds, because he is being helpful. She should be polite.