One more (with feeling)!

[borntochoose]

So, step one.

[He lifts one finger] You get me a-well, one of those journal things. Which you still have to work on by the way- but I digress.

Step two [He lifts another finger] well, this one. Finally letting me out and talk to other people.

Dare I ask what is step three?

Comments

[hijackedbread]

Step three is when they rip you out of your home and time and put you in a spaceship. Or a prison.

[borntochoose]

Everybody seems so against these games. Are they really that dangerous?

[hijackedbread]

Yes.

I don't mind danger so much. But I don't want to be just a pawn. Every place makes you do things you don't want to do.

[borntochoose]

[The smile drops from Clark's lips instantly. His father hadn't died just so he would become a pawn.]

Is escaping from said games really that impossible?

[hijackedbread]

[Peeta drops his gaze, frowning a little and clearly struggling with his expression.]

Yeah, it is. Once you're inside, it's impossible to leave unless they get tired of you.

[borntochoose]

And how do they, exactly, 'get tired of you'? [He taps his chin, frowning]

It just doesn't seem exactly fair.

[hijackedbread]

I don't know how it happens. It's not fast, but one day you realize that they don't care for you anymore. The relationships you've made and the months you've spent making a home for yourself aren't worth anything anymore. Then you're gone. There's nothing left for you unless they take you somewhere else.

There's nothing fair about it. The GameMakers rarely are.

[borntochoose]

[He's really not liking the sound this mundane-puppet relationship, at all. He's suddenly really glad his mun is paying attention to some other version of himself, and being ignored doesn't sound too bad.]

Is that what happened to you? If so, I'm sorry.

[hijackedbread]

Not exactly. Mine wanted to save me from myself when all my friends left. But you're still gone in the end.

[borntochoose]

I'm sorry to hear you lost your friends, but if your mundane saved you from yourself they must not be all that bad? They do care.

[hijackedbread]

They care like President Snow does. It's about ratings. They'll put you in places almost as bad at the Games and expect you to thrive. If you fail, you get cast into the darkness again.

[borntochoose]

[President Snow, the games, ratings and failing... Clark might not be Lois Lane but can still put two and two together, and the result is that this kid didn't have it easy in his world.

Whatever games they played they weren't nice.] Darkness isn't so bad, if it means they won't use you like that again is it?

[hijackedbread]

I told Katniss I would always be there for her.

[Yeah, it pretty much comes down to her in the end.]

[borntochoose]

And when the moment came, you weren't. It's hardly your fault though.

[hijackedbread]

Thanks for saying so. But you're wrong.

Does your Mundane want to take you somewhere?

[borntochoose]

[He notices the change of subject but he can't help but ask:] Why do you say so? You said yourself it's all up to the mundanes and how we amuse them or not.

She's tempted, but she already plays a version of me somewhere. It'd be hard to keep us apart, apparently.

[hijackedbread]

It's not the mundane's fault. Not completely. Part of it is my fault.

I understand. Is that what you want?