video;

[effective]

[Katniss is looking as cheerful as ever. Which is to say, not at all.]

Even if all these investigations find a way to fix the turtle, what's going to be done about the game? The kedan are coming to us for food, and what you can call a forest has basically been stripped clean. Unless we're just all living off vegetables until the next few breeding seasons have passed.

Comments

[afirewithfashion]

Katniss.

[He pitches his voice low, trying to cut through the panic. It's harder when he's not able to touch her and anchor her.]

Listen to me. You don't have to lead anyone. But this is something you know. You understand this. You don't have to be afraid.

[effective]

I'm not afraid. [She's totally afraid. She knows it, and she hates it. Hates the way it makes her feel weak, but she is weak now. Some days she finds it hard to remember if she'd ever been strong] Someone else can do it. I'm not the only one. [Not like back home]

[afirewithfashion]

Okay.

[Cinna isn't going to push her, not when her reaction is this strong.]

You're not the only one. But I don't believe you aren't one of the most knowledgeable. You're good at teaching people these things. And you're smart, you see patterns other people miss.

[He'll always bet on her.]

[effective]

[She scrubs a hand over her face] Okay. [He says more, but she's sort of stopped listening.] I'm sorry.

[afirewithfashion]

[Only a third of that got through, didn't it? He's not going to push. It's not good, for either of them.]

It's okay.

[effective]

It's not really. [It's just another symptom of how messed up she is, how not-okay]

What are you doing?

[afirewithfashion]

[They're all messed up. They're all not-okay. She's got her reasons for it. He's never going to blame her for it, could never hate her.]

It is.

[Trying to help her and making a bigger mess of things. But he can't say that, so he teases instead.]

Arguing with you. It's a full time job.