⚒ 007 | audio

[rocked]

I am the female tribute for District 2 in the 74th Hunger Games.

[And she sounds so, so pleased at that-- almost giddy, but she's reigning herself in to sound more poised. She has her constructed, public face that she'll put on for the TV interview before the Games, and she's practicing it here.]

We arrived in the Capitol this morning. It's amazing-- seeing it on TV doesn't even come close to preparing you for the real thing. I can't describe it. We rode in chariots through cheering crowds... and District 2's outfits were excellent; we were dressed in gold armor. Everyone cheered the hardest for District 12 because their stylists did some fancy trick with fire, but we looked the most powerful.

I didn't think I'd be able to come here again, because my computer is at home-- but the community followed me. I found this small phone in my pocket, and no one else seemed to notice that I have it. I'll leave it behind when I go into the arena, but it might appear again.

We'll go in in five days. I hope you'll all wish me well.

Comments

[former_endboss]

Your chances of victory are at about 4%. Of course, those are raw figures, but even with all your 'advantages', I can't see you having more than a 10% chance of survival. Planning to win in the face of such odds strikes me as madness or worse.

So I truly do hope that your death is quick and painless.

[rocked]

Someone from District 2 who's trained her whole life for this has only a four percent chance of winning?

I think your calculations are a little off.

[... Okay, so her prep team had told her that some bite was okay. She just had to make sure she didn't go overboard.]

[former_endboss]

Now now, I amended it to ten percent. But anything could happen. Sepsis from a wound, poor luck, looking left or zigging when you should have locked right or zagged...

Well, there are a million ways to die if you aren't me. They haven't found one that actually works on me yet. And those little seals won't hold much longer...

[rocked]

Your concern is appreciated, but I've trained in survival, too.

[former_endboss]

Merely a modification of the odds. I am certain you would rather play Russian Roulette with one bullet instead of three in the chambers, but it's still a deadly game.

[rocked]

[Clove has no clue what Russian Roulette is, but she can make a few guesses based on the context.]

I'd pass. The Hunger Games is the only deadly game for me.

[former_endboss]

It is ultimately your choice. But I suppose you should watch your back then. And your front, and both your sides. Your allies now are your enemies tommorow.

I recommend slow poison.

[rocked]

I think you should talk to the kids from the higher-numbered districts. They're the ones who don't already know all that stuff.

[former_endboss]

Ahhh, but if everyone else already knows it, it cannot hurt to remind you. Oh, but what am I saying, if everyone else already knows this, what are the odds any advice I give you will be benefical-because you're going to die anyways.

Of course, there is the third path, but you may not like it. I, on the other hand, am a revolutionary and an anti-authoritarian at heart, and would love to see you all refuse to kill each other.

[That, at least, is no lie, Mir would love to see humans defy all she knows of them, even if she says it in mocking here.]

[rocked]

That's stupid. It would never happen.

[former_endboss]

How is it stupid? Are they going to kill you for refusing to kill each other? Then they are the villains, and you the martyrs. By what right do they command the life and death of so many?

[rocked]

You're wrong about them, and you're wrong about us.

And I'm not going to bother explaining it to you, because you're awful-- and you also wouldn't understand.

[former_endboss]

I might be awful, I might be a monster, a demon sent from hell.

But demons are sent to punish the wicked.

[rocked]

You couldn't do anything to the Capitol. No one can.

Video

[former_endboss]

[Mir's response is simple. She sends Clove a video clip of the first time AR TONELICO was fired-the ground splitting open for hundreds of linear kilometers, lava gushing forth, transforming once verdant lands into twisted hellscapes and mountains of absurd height. The Seven Bloodstains.]

Video

[rocked]

[Well, that's. Terrifying.]

They have weapons, too. And defense systems. They'd destroy your little bomb before it even got close.

text

[former_endboss]

That was fired through the entire planet. There is nowhere that is not within range of AR TONELICO.

text

[rocked]

Except another world. Stupid.

text

[former_endboss]

Barriers can be breached. Walls torn down. Paradigms shift and mutate like crystals of water as they melt and freeze. what is true today may be false tomorrow. All points are the center of the cosmos, and no point of view is privileged. Any problem can be overcome.

text

[rocked]

Are you just babbling because you know I'm right?

text

[former_endboss]

Am I? It's hard to tell, isn't it?

text

[rocked]

No. It's not hard to tell at all.