ataraxion | 003; Voice

[HELLO, EVERYONE. Nice and trauma-filled from that horrible vacation?

Haymitch isn't here to make it better.]

Judging by all the unhappy faces, I take it didn't go well down there. Maybe next time you'll take a lesson from those of us who were smart enough to stay behind. Might not be the best place, but at least we know the ship wants to kill us all. [Snicker.

Annnd there's a pause, because while he knows Peeta's gone, because he hasn't checked in, and that stings after losing Katniss, (and with Finnick and Annie in bad shape) shock of shocks, he has other people he cares about.]

Anyone happen to notice a little girl tagging along down there? Goes by Mattie Ross. She'd be the one with braids, preaching justice to the locals and making a damned fool of herself. Hard to miss her.

[Filtered away from Annie and Finnick; 50% Encrypted]

[AND NOW HAYMITCH GETS TO BE AWKWARD.]

Don't know which one of you yanked Annie Cresta out of all that, but it's appreciated. Finnick's in no state to thank you, himself, so I'll save him the trouble.

[Filtered to Jack Sparrow and Russia; 50% Encrypted]

All right, talk. I know at least one of you went down there and both of you can't be in as bad a shape as the rest of them. How bad was it?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With the dangers intact, too?

[ Just your average space weirdness, really... ] A couple of people. No one I knew personally and no one who fits your description, but there were some empty seats. [ Pause. ] Honestly, I would have expected worse, but a lot of people literally dragged some of the others back.

Mutts are gone, but the hallways have traps and those aren't going away.

[IF ONLY THE HUNGER GAMES WERE MORE LIKE THIS...] Damn near admirable. Would have been killing the stragglers for seats there were plenty of back home.

Well. At least it's a path.

[ hhhuh ] Sounds like a rough place. I'm sure plenty may have done the same back where I'm from as well, but it depends on where in the universe you are.

Not that there's much there worth looking for.

[He grunts.] In Panem, it all depends on whether or not you're playing. That's all this is- a game. Different rules, but the same basic set-up.

[ hold on what ] A game?

[Haymitch chuckles.] Right. Forgot. The rest of you lot haven't had the honor of dealing with the Hunger Games. Panem's pride. Well, I'll tell you this much- they're not much more than what's been given us here. Only difference is no one's being forced to kill each other yet.

Not as far as we know, anyway.

[ And that's concerning in itself. Carolyn's a pilot; she's outmatched against most of these people, even with her lessons from Alice. ]

Meaning the former crew- did consider that actually.

So what, the rest of the former crew killed itself off and now we're being used as free labor until the ship's in good condition again and then history will repeat itself? Is that the theory?

[ Trying to follow drunk paranoid Haymitch logic is hard... ]

[It is. YOU'RE DOING SO WELL, CAROLYN.] Didn't consider the part about cheap labor, but that's the gist of it.

[ SHE TRIES. ] If they want to survive, they need to keep it working, but with a ship this size? Two people can't perform all the maintenance, especially with how bad things have gotten.

So they bring us in. And so long as the ship's functional and the Game's being played when the time's right, someone's watching, and it doesn't matter how many times this repeats, it'll always be entertaining for them.

So where does the smile come in?

[Yeah, he's not so sure about that. Everything else can be traced back to something in the games, but that damned smile.] With the effect that thing can have, who knows? Might be driving us to act or it might be leading us to where it ends.

It's been... surprisingly helpful, lately. [ She heard about it leading people to the cure, but she was there for it to break people out on Strela. ]

And yet, it's still got a list of people on its radar, a couple of whom aren't here anymore and one of them ended up dead, after he found something out about the ship.

I'll give it this- I trust it more than I trust those two on the bridge.

Most of us have a list of people on our radar. The difference is that it made its list public.

I'm not sure there's much use speculating right now. It won't get anything done.

[He snorts, but that's it. He can't deny that for a second.]

But the gossip's about all we have. Might not be productive, but it passes the time. [WAS THAT A JOKE? Probably. His acerbic sense of humor is acerbic.]

[ She knows it, too.

Now it's her turn to snort, though. ] I guess you can multitask through it, if nothing else.

Better to be informed, I suppose. [Which yes, he just sort of implied he's a stalker, but who cares? He's not following people in the corridors, just listening in on everything.]

Make sure to come by space training when we have it, then. [ If you like information so much. :V ]

[Yes, hello Training Center flashbacks. Lovely to remember you.]

Might have to, considering we're still in it and I know about as much as I did when I showed up here.

If you want to keep yourself alive, it'd be useful.

I'm not good at much else, so I might as well. [That's not even a "I want to stay alive." It's just a natural state of being for him. He's literally too stubborn to die.]

Then I'll see you there.

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