New kind of victory.

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone on the District Tours.
What| The Celebration dinners for all the Districts.
Where| Specified in thread.
When| The second night they are there.
Warnings/Notes| Find your district below. Leave any questions here. And please add any needed warning into your subject line when appropriate.

Comments

[iwatchtjhooker]

"That's not exactly the word I'd choose," Sam says. He's going for wry, but it comes out tired, instead. Far too tired for his obvious youth. But then, Finnick would know about that. "I'm guessing I have the same questions as everyone else. Do you have any answers I won't expect?"

[finnickohdear]

It's not uncommon for tributes to sound like that, sadly. And he understands exactly where it's coming from.

"I guess it depends on the questions you ask, and what you're expecting. But I'm really here for advice, and to make sure you get gifts when things get bad. If you want to ask about any of those things, I'm here."

[iwatchtjhooker]

"All right," Sam says, shifting his shoulders. "Advise me how to get out of here."

[finnickohdear]

"Here specifically? Like the party? Or here as in the whole of Panem? Because one of those is easy to do, the other one, not so much."

He stops a passing waiter to get a drink, smiling widely the whole time. It probably makes it seem like he's not taking Sam as seriously as he should.

[iwatchtjhooker]

Sam's lips purse, his mouth going smaller than you'd expect, in a face so broad. "Not the party," he says, quietly, but with no less urgency for all that. He's well aware Finnick had to know what he meant. "Do you think I care about 'easy'?"

[finnickohdear]

"You'd better not care about easy, because you're not going to find it here. At least, not if you want to go back to your world. They're not going to want to let go of you if they can help it."

Which is Finnick's long winded way of saying he doesn't really know how to get Sam home again. He doesn't want to say that outright, though, he just doesn't want to admit it right out.

[iwatchtjhooker]

Sam doesn't particularly want to get back to his world. But as far as options go, dying here and dying there are what he's got and he knows which one he prefers. "Do you mean I won't find it easy?" he says. "Or at all? Because I'm not interested in what 'they' want."

[finnickohdear]

"Choices around here are pretty limited. You're best bet is to either win and become a Mentor or apply for Panem citizenship. I can't say I really recommend either, even if having a few other mentors would be helpful."

He doesn't want to lie to Sam straight out and tell him that things will be happy and fun for him in the Capitol. Sam doesn't seem like the sort who will be motivated by a prize he can't ever obtain.

[iwatchtjhooker]

Sam shakes his head. "I'm not doing that," he says. "I'm not killing. I've... there's been way too much of that already, for me. There are things back home. People I need to make sure are all right."

Dean had pulled him from death, a death Sam had been more than willing to accept, if it meant saving everyone else. Sam can't leave him there.

[finnickohdear]

"That's going to make it harder for you. It's not impossible to win without taking a life, but it's not easy, and sometimes it's not worth it even when it works out."

He's speaking from unfortunate experience on that one. He's been around for long enough to see the kind of toll even a good arena can have on people.

"Look, I'll see what I can find out about sending you back home again. There may be some loophole I'm missing. But until then, stay out of trouble. Pushing back is the easiest way to make your own life harder."