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thecapitol2016-07-05 09:32 pm
etcircenses) wrote in thecapitol2016-07-05 09:32 pm
Just close your eyes, you'll be alright
Who| Everyone.
What| A reunion.
Where| District 12, the meadow.
When|10 years later.
Warnings/Notes| Mentions of death. Please warn for anything in headers.
It seems an odd place for a reunion but someone must have decided it. Really, it’s not so bad at all.
The meadow stretches out far and wide into a forest up ahead and a town back the other way. The breeze flows gentle through here, rustling the daisies and dandelion, the katniss and primrose, the rue and bacopa, the tansy and chicory. A single willow grows at the top of the hill, and everything can be seen from there. The sun settles everything in a beautiful hazy gold. The air is sweet. The crickets are just beginning their songs and the birds are ending theirs.
A tent has been put up some ways down, close enough to walk to but far enough that the sound and clamor doesn’t all reach. The tent is tall and welcoming, chairs, tables, and open spaces for dancing set-up all within. It is here the reunion is hosted, offworlders and other friends of the rebellion invited here from all over Panem.
Food and drink is lain out, brought by the guests from all over Panem including Peeta’s bakery in the town. Musicians have been recruited to play the songs of the Districts, the old Capitol, even things from other worlds as best they can be duplicated. Dancing is encouraged and welcome in all shapes and forms. Few other performers are needed with a bunch like these; everyone here has been through much and come out the other side to know having learned and done amazing things. There are stories to be shared, jokes to be had.
Everyone is dressed in a casual best, whatever fits their comforts. Children are given toys, bubbles, and sparklers. Guests are invited to play only the most harmless of games. Painting is done, gifts are exchanged, all is kept light and merry, at least for a little while. There will be a memorial soon.
The party takes its sombers turns sure enough as memories are called up. For every step forward is the shadow of the past. Toasts are had, to losses, to victories, to freedom, to the future, and ever to those who didn’t make it, the names muttered one after another like a procession. Katniss Everdeen makes an appearance, seemingly having been called to sing. Peeta and the rest of the family are not far off.
The sun eventually starts to set. Much has changed in ten years. The Arenas are gone, replaced by monuments to the fallen. The Rebellion is over; the Capitol has been replaced by a more progressive government. All over, Panem and its Districts are slowly, but surely, being rebuilt for future generations untainted by the Hunger Games. But one thing hasn't changed: everyone’s presence here. You are all still here, even all these years later. And the memories of those gone are still here with you. Even if the nightmares still linger, even if some of those memories still dig deep, things work out in their ways.
The war is over, everyone is free. And so, for every terror hidden behind eyelids, the dawn still comes. It just takes a look around, to see who’s still with you. To see, that in the end, we will all be safe and sound.
What| A reunion.
Where| District 12, the meadow.
When|10 years later.
Warnings/Notes| Mentions of death. Please warn for anything in headers.
It seems an odd place for a reunion but someone must have decided it. Really, it’s not so bad at all.
The meadow stretches out far and wide into a forest up ahead and a town back the other way. The breeze flows gentle through here, rustling the daisies and dandelion, the katniss and primrose, the rue and bacopa, the tansy and chicory. A single willow grows at the top of the hill, and everything can be seen from there. The sun settles everything in a beautiful hazy gold. The air is sweet. The crickets are just beginning their songs and the birds are ending theirs.
A tent has been put up some ways down, close enough to walk to but far enough that the sound and clamor doesn’t all reach. The tent is tall and welcoming, chairs, tables, and open spaces for dancing set-up all within. It is here the reunion is hosted, offworlders and other friends of the rebellion invited here from all over Panem.
Food and drink is lain out, brought by the guests from all over Panem including Peeta’s bakery in the town. Musicians have been recruited to play the songs of the Districts, the old Capitol, even things from other worlds as best they can be duplicated. Dancing is encouraged and welcome in all shapes and forms. Few other performers are needed with a bunch like these; everyone here has been through much and come out the other side to know having learned and done amazing things. There are stories to be shared, jokes to be had.
Everyone is dressed in a casual best, whatever fits their comforts. Children are given toys, bubbles, and sparklers. Guests are invited to play only the most harmless of games. Painting is done, gifts are exchanged, all is kept light and merry, at least for a little while. There will be a memorial soon.
The party takes its sombers turns sure enough as memories are called up. For every step forward is the shadow of the past. Toasts are had, to losses, to victories, to freedom, to the future, and ever to those who didn’t make it, the names muttered one after another like a procession. Katniss Everdeen makes an appearance, seemingly having been called to sing. Peeta and the rest of the family are not far off.
The sun eventually starts to set. Much has changed in ten years. The Arenas are gone, replaced by monuments to the fallen. The Rebellion is over; the Capitol has been replaced by a more progressive government. All over, Panem and its Districts are slowly, but surely, being rebuilt for future generations untainted by the Hunger Games. But one thing hasn't changed: everyone’s presence here. You are all still here, even all these years later. And the memories of those gone are still here with you. Even if the nightmares still linger, even if some of those memories still dig deep, things work out in their ways.
The war is over, everyone is free. And so, for every terror hidden behind eyelids, the dawn still comes. It just takes a look around, to see who’s still with you. To see, that in the end, we will all be safe and sound.
Porrim | Open
She's changed.
In some ways, the changes are visible. Her skin, which was once so smooth and perfect, is sun-darkened and freckled from long hours spent working in her garden, chasing around the children she's fostered—mostly war orphans from District 5. Her hair is kept short, cropped at her shoulders and rarely coiffed to perfection, and her clothes are beautiful but simple. If one didn't know better, you'd have no clue she lived in the Capitol for most of her life. She's reached forty with grace and dignity, and sometimes when she looks in the mirror, she's shocked at how much she resembles the Alternian woman known as the Dolorosa, from what images she was able to see of her. She finds herself, more often than not, musing on an existence she never knew, aching for a spiritual homeland she never saw.
But the changes go further than that. She's learned the value of so many things she'd never even considered before—of learning to grow her own food and enjoying the outdoors. Of working hard for its own sake, and of appreciating the aching in her muscles the next morning. Of watching the sun rise and set not from a Capitol rooftop or projection, but from the window of her cottage. It's the little things that really change a person.
She's brought a big, soft quilt to spread out in the grass, and it's there that she stations herself for much of the day, chatting with old friends and new alike, beckoning passersby to sit for a moment and speak with her. It feels like all of them are friends, comrades brought together by a common experience. Sometimes, she's even surprised to see the face of a fellow Capitolite, many of them changed in the same way she was. But by and large, she finds it's Offworlders she's keeping an eye out for. The ones she grew close to, the ones who changed her heart and inspired her to fight for the new world they're living in.