6th Design [accidental video]

[threadthefire]

[The video opens, angled strangely as if the video is accidental. Only half a face is visible - pale, sunken eyes, and a stubble'd cheek. The normally put-together Cinna looks positively taken apart. A hand comes into view, rubbing over his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose as he begins to speak in a bitter tone.]

Bravo, City. Not even the Capitol could have conceived that little torture - after all, who better to harm us than ourselves? Who knows better what fears we harbor, sins we cover-up.

Well played. Really, well played.

[The feed ends with an angry click.]

[He sits at the kitchen table, cradling his coffee in one hand as the other casually tosses the device to the side. Taking a sip, he winces, even after several cups he's not used to the flavor without sugar and cream, but today... there's nothing comforting about today so the coffee's as black as his mood. From the moment he woke up, before the sun had even hit the horizon, he'd been sitting in this chair, contemplating his own... foolishness.

How could he ever have believed he had a grasp on what happened to those children in the arena? How could he ever have thought he could help? It was arrogance to the nth degree to have ever thought he understood. To have thought that he could help erase the scars. He should have realized sooner how deep they go.

Now with the sun several hours up, he's still hardly moved, looking out the window, more determined than ever to see the Capitol fall.

Comments

[aimandfire.livejournal.com]

[ Lips pressing thin together, she nods; that's the answer she expected and it's a little comforting for all that it's something simple to predict. Pulling her hair over her shoulder, or what of it that she can, she begins to braid it thoughtlessly. ]

Costumes?

[ It's a guess based on the approaching end of the month holiday they've all heard so much about, but she figures there are other things he might be working on. ]

[threadthefire.livejournal.com]

For the holiday and a the play.

[The kettle whistles and he pulls it off the stove, pouring the boiling water over the leaves in the pot and setting them to steep. Pulling a mug from the cabinet he brings the pair to the kitchen table and sets them near his... well, his ward he supposes. He really has no idea what to call this young woman in his life.

Friend sounds almost too... friendly.]

I have something special for you, I hope you'll like it.

[aimandfire.livejournal.com]

[ At this she can't help but arch a brow, tilting her head. ]

I like everything you design. And so does everyone else.

[ Not flattery, because it's true. ]

But you didn't need to make me anything.

[ She cups her hands around the mug he presents her with, her shoulders thoughtlessly softening in posture at the way the warmth seems to seep into her palms and spread up through her. ]

[threadthefire.livejournal.com]

It's a holiday, I hear there are celebrations.

[He pauses, considering his next words carefully, wanting to make them count and not offend.]

You could join them, meet more people your age, perhaps - there are some in the play I'm designing for.

[How does one ask another to live? To grab their life by the reins and enjoy every second, heeding nothing but their whims for a little while?]

[aimandfire.livejournal.com]

[If one can watch a pause, then that is what Katniss does here, watches and then considers both the silence and his words. Her fingers interlace around the mug before she lifts it slowly, sipping, buying a bit of time to think of an answer. To a certain degree she understands something of what Cinna is not saying -- that there may actually exist people she could like at all, period, for instance. But mingling, getting to know people, these things are exactly the sorts that Katniss' life has excluded first by lack of need and then by the very reverse and now...now she guesses it's a little bit of survivalist necessity and old rotten habit. Maybe not rotten. Distrust isn't unwise per se.

But it's not exactly a way to 'live' either. ]

Maybe. Rue might want to go.

[ It's the best she can do, at least for now, without lying and she's no good at lying anyway so why bother? If the City isn't a raging asylum the night of the holiday, who knows. Her gaze flickers up and over to Cinna briefly again but she doesn't say anything this time.

She just smiles a little. It's so subtle that it would only be noticed by someone attuned to her in some way or looking for it, but it's there. If there is one thing she doesn't want right now, it is to add to Cinna's shadows. This is the man who gave her an edge in the Games when she had none of her own, a flair -- bright, burning, and most importantly: memorable. It's not just that she owes him though, even though that's part of it. ]

[threadthefire.livejournal.com]

I'm sure she will, I'm making her something, too.

[He smiles a little, accepting Katniss' concession and giving his own. He often questions the fate that tossed her in his path, but Cinna thanks it as well. Frustrating and confusing she may be, but she seems to have forgiven him his home and upbringing.

More than he deserves.

He doubts he'll live to see the woman she'll become, but it's nice to wonder about occasionally.]