Daycycle 122 [ January 15 - January 21]

[computerized]

daycycle 122

[Jan 15 - Jan 21]

[OOC Plotting for this Dacycle can be found here.]

Early, Early Morning [0200 - 0400]
At approximately 0200, several explosive devices planted in Technical Services by PURGE will detonate, damaging several memobanks. In a rush to prepare for the morning upload several Technicians will mistakenly put the wrong memories in the wrong banks. They will catch their mistake before the final upload, but as a result several memories will now be shared across different alpha citizens' consciousnesses. These memories will be experienced as dreams and characters will retain knowledge of them when they wake.

Memory Swap Pairs

• Adam Parrish - Derek Hale
• Zatanna Zatara - Oliver Queen
• Steve Rogers - Ronan Lynch
• Katniss Everdeen - Matt Murdock
• Morgana LeFey - Tony Stark
• Clint Barton - Allison Argent
• Isabelle Lightwood - Lydia Martin
• Buffy Summers - Barry Allen
• Emma Swan - Parker
• Cisco Ramon - Gracie Cannell
• Natasha Romanoff - Jack Harkness
• Primrose Everdeen - Alcide Herveaux

Room 1101 will be woken up at 1200 when a squadron of Internal Security Gray Ops come to arrest Bucky Barnes for treason. He will be led away at gun point and his roommates, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish and Oliver Queen will be immediately taken into IntSec for questioning. They will be questioned about the activities of their former roommate for several hours before being sedated and returned to their room before 0500. Bucky's roommates will not remember his arrest or their questioning when they wake, though they may feel the lingering active effects of the sedative for several hours into their day.

The memory of Bucky Barnes having ever been present in Alpha will be erased with varying degrees of success from all those he came into contact with.

Early Morning [0800 - 0900] — All Troubleshooters Report for Duty

No Specials will be selected for a mission today.

---

Morning & Afternoon [0900 - 1600] — Service Firm Positions
All Troubleshooters not assigned a mission should report to their Service Firm for their daily duties.

At 0900 it will be discovered that the shooter from Steve Roger's assassination attempt has, ironically, been assassinated along with her guards in Armed Forces the night before. The letters mod will be left written in the shooter's blood along her cell wall.

---

Evening [1600 - 2200] — Citizen Improvement
All Alpha citizens are encouraged to better themselves through Alpha’s wide variety of educational, entertainment and cultural opportunities offered each evening. Attending these sanctioned events are not mandatory, but is highly encouraged by The Computer. Citizens choosing not to take advantage of these opportunities, have a growing number of other options available to them in how to spend their hard earned credits and free time.

Tonight’s event will be at 1900 in the Commissary and will be overseen by Clint Barton. Izzy Lightwood from Medical Services has been assigned to assist him in giving a demonstration on basic first aid and wound care.

---

Alpha Curfew Restrictions
All Alpha citizens should be in their quarters within the Wagon Wheel by 2200, unless they’ve been given permission from a GREEN or higher clearance level citizen. Sleeping Aid gas is dispelled each night in the Wagon Wheel at 2200 to assist citizens in getting a productive sleeping period.

Confession Booths
There are hundreds of confession booths available around Alpha Complex if a citizen would like to communicate directly with the computer. Please use these confession booths to report mission statuses, report treason or terrorist acts, unregistered mutants, confess your trespasses against Alpha Complex, request propaganda or speak with Your Friend, The Computer, at any time.

Comments

katniss everdeen | ota throughout the day

[stillplaying]

morning;

That her nightmares are full of violence aren't anything new. Although having Derek there at night to hold her has helped curb the haunting dreams to a degree, all the recent upheaval in Alpha Complex has practically negated the calming effect of being held. It hasn't mattered how much she's reassured herself every day by spending time with Prim, or how tightly Derek holds her during the night. The nightmares come. Memories of some of her worse moments in life. The Computer would have done her a favor by completely removing her memories. The past few days, she almost wish that It had succeeded.

The nightmares that night are violent and while that isn't new, the degree of violence she witnesses is. Although at one point, the man tells another man not to kill, the way he beats up men in a staircase in another dream seems almost worse. At least Katniss' kills have always been clean - both animal and human. The nightmares don't get any better. Although it's not her, she sees everything from this man's point of view. The truck nearly hitting him as a child. The woman dying in his arms. The worse part about the nightmares is how real they feel. As real as any horrible memory of her own that haunts her at night.

When she finally wakes up, she feels as confused as she had been the day she woke up in the Complex. Her eyes closed, she whispers to herself: "My name is Katniss Everdeen. I'm eighteen years old and used to live in District 12..."

afternoon & evening;

Eventually, she does manage to push aside the memory of the strange nightmares. They don't go away entirely and linger in the back of her mind as she tries to get through work. But actually trying to make an effort there has become important to her. Though she remains skeptical of Derek's plan to convince the Computer to give them actual food, she wants him to succeed. And not just because real food might actually encourage her to eat more (however wary she remains of HappiTime pills being slipped into her meals again). She wants him to succeed because she can almost imagine the proud smile that might momentarily slip on his face if he does.

Despite the strange dreams from the night before, the day continues on as normal. Katniss follows what has become a relatively normal routine: meals in the commissary, work, spending part of the evening at the range with her bow and quiver. She has to stop every now and then to remind herself who she is. And to remind herself that everything in the Alpha Complex is real. Seeing Prim helps.

Finding out that she's not alone with the strange dream experience helps even more.

morning

[duelo]

It'd been a long night. That's all Derek can think because he hasn't felt this unrested since he'd been home. He'd been letting the sleep aid gas do its thing for a while and then he'd been going exploring with Buffy and dropping like a rock. Then Katniss started sneaking into the room he shares with Alcide — Buffy's been promoted; Derek's not sure he feels angry about that or proud of her, so maybe it's a little of both — and he'd been sleeping better.

The dreams from last night are the first that didn't feel like his own in over a decade. Usually, he knows faces. He knows names. He remembers things. He's slept terribly and Katniss has, too, he can feel it in the cold sweat between them that he knows is neither his nor hers, but both.

And then he hears her whispering.

"Katniss..." he whispers back, tilting his head up to see whether Alcide is still in the room and if he is, whether he's sleeping. Derek leans his head back down and kisses the top of Katniss's, fingertips moving up and down her back, beneath the top of her pajamas. "It's okay. You're okay. I've got you." He doesn't know what she dreamed last night, but it's usually about her sister, as far as he knows. Derek assumes this is no different and falls into the normal response of trying to soothe her and remind her that it's okay now, because she's not in Panem and Prim isn't dead.

[stillplaying]

She hadn't meant to wake him. Since the first time she knocked on his door, disturbing Derek or any of his roommates had been one of the last things she wanted to do. Though she still thinks it's safest not to befriend anyone here, she's found herself sort of liking Buffy. Buffy might have a different room now but Alcide isn't so bad either. So she continues to be as quiet as possible. This morning is different though. After those dreams last night, she needs to remind herself of who she is. She had thought she was being quiet enough not to wake anyone though.

At least the pang of guilt that she feels when he whispers her name is clearly her. She already feels as if she owes Derek at times for letting her sleep beside him. Disturbing his rest means owing him more. But if it annoys him, Derek doesn't show it. Instead he works on soothing her with soft lips and a warm hand against her skin. Her breath catches in her throat when his fingertips first touch her. She should feel more ashamed for letting him slip his hand beneath her top but he never strays where he shouldn't and it does put her at ease. She relaxes a little and squirms a little closer to him.

She's quiet for a while, just wanting to believe that she is Katniss Everdeen and that all of this is real and the dreams the night before are... Are something strange and irrelevant. Then, finally: "Is this real?"

[duelo]

As she moves closer to him, Derek adjusts his hold, keeping her snug against his body, partially because he likes how that feels and partially because he thinks maybe it's the closeness that comforts her.

Her question throw him off a little because, in her silence, his own mind started to wander back into the depths of his own dreams. They both make sense and absolutely don't, somehow, at the same time. He can mentally write off some things while others, well...not so much.

"What? Me and you, right here and right now?" Derek asks. "Still stuck in the nightmare?"

Derek shifts a little so that he can slide an arm out from under her, holding up all five of his fingers. "Count my fingers out loud," he says. "In dreams, you can't count properly. If you can count to five, in order, you're awake and this is real. That's how I have to tell sometimes, when the dreams are a little too real."

[stillplaying]

She has no qualms about Derek holding her closer. The closeness does comfort her, yes, but she also just likes being held by him. Derek's good at holding her. He's good at making her feel safe. That's not something she feels all that often.

Is she still stuck in the nightmare? Katniss can't tell. She feels so lost. Is Panem the dream? Or Alpha Complex? Is she really a girl named Katniss Everdeen? Or is she the man she dreamed about? There's so many different places in her memory at the moment. Different worlds and different lives. All of them seem painful. There's no escape from that, is there? The pain life can bring.

She does her best to listen to Derek, watching as he pulls an arm out to hold up five fingers. Curious, Katniss reaches out to touch his palm. "One," she whispers, touching his thumb. "Two. Three. Four. Five."

So she's awake. At least she's awake according to Derek's rationale. This is real. But that doesn't explain her dreams. She's not that smart or that creative. Her brow furrows and she frowns. "It's real?"

[duelo]

Katniss humors him and Derek watches her as she ticks off his fingers one at a time, concluding at the correct number in the correct order. "It's real," he agrees when she asks seemingly for confirmation. He's not really sure what plagued her dreams so badly the night prior that has her so disoriented, but he's trying his best to help. He always does.

Derek takes his hand back, smoothing her hair back and out of her face before leaning in to give her a little kiss. It's chaste and not unlike the kisses he's given her in the past few days whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night and he happens to notice it. Sometimes, he probably sleeps through it. Other times, he'll spend a few minutes trying to help calm her down until they can both fall asleep again because she believes him when he says she's safe.

He hopes that never ends up being a lie.

"Are you okay?" he asks quietly, voice rattling slightly with lack of use and choked a bit with sleep, because he's still waking up, admittedly. He needs to get up and around, anyway, so he's not upset about it, but the sound is still there either way, whether he likes it or not.

[stillplaying]

The dreams last night would probably be a lot less disorienting if she hadn't felt so mentally disoriented when she first arrived here. If she hadn't wished so badly for the memories to actually be glitches and not actual memories. Though she's accepted otherwise, there's still a part of her that wants those memories to be false. That part is willing to accept last night's nightmares as reality. Especially given how real they had felt.

But Derek's chaste kiss feels just as real. Just like every other calming kiss he's give her when her nightmares wake him up. She has memories of every night spent safe in his arms. He has that same calming effect on her Peeta had. When he lulls her back to sleep, she can almost believe the nightmares won't attack her again.

Katniss has a harder time believing that right now. At his question, she shakes her head. She turns around in his arms so she can look at him. It's only thought of the dreams that keep her from realizing how intimate the new position is. "I dreamt I was someone else last night. Not me. Not anyone I know, either."

[duelo]

Frowning slightly at her response, Derek's brow creases with concern. It's disconcerting, at best, that they've shared an experience like that. None of it makes sense and the fact that it's even possible is too much for Derek to process when he's only half-awake. But the fact of the matter is, they've both had the same sort of nightmares: the sort that didn't belong to them at all in the first place.

"So did I..." he admits and it's concerning. It's very, very concerning. "I mean...I think I did. Now that you put it that way," he says. A part of him is still going to tell himself that it was just his subconscious trying to piece together pieces of home with pieces of here, but even then, why Isaac? Why wouldn't he dream about things he already knew to be fact like he usually does? It doesn't make sense to dream about the beta he hasn't talked to in a year and change and have new faces that don't belong forcing their way into the dream on top of it, really, does it?

Derek presses his forehead against hers. "I'd say try not to think about it, but then I'd be a hypocrite," he whispers. For once, Derek doesn't have the answer. He can't even begin to pretend he knows how to make her feel better. He doesn't even know how to try to, because he's grappling with his own identical issue and he can't figure that out, either. If he can't make himself feel better, how the hell is he supposed to assuage Katniss's upset?

[stillplaying]

He admits to having experienced similar and now it's Katniss' turn to crease her brow. They have a lot in common, sure, but that isn't a reason for both to have similarly eerie dreams. Katniss doesn't have any explanation for that. A lot of the strange disruptions in Alpha Complex are unlike anything she experienced in Panem. People don't have such similar dreams or experiences.

She closes her eyes when he rests his forehead against hers. Laying on the bed like this, it would be so easy to kiss him. That's her thought because the person in her dreams was a man and there had been a strange woman dying in his arms. As embarrassing as the stray thought is, it's a relief. Derek might be right about this being reality. And that she really is Katniss Everdeen.

"Did you dream that you were a man in a city, too?" she finally asks, unable to stop thinking about her nightmares. "Wearing a mask and fighting... other people, and beating them up so badly even if you don't believe in killing?"

She frowns again and opens her eyes to look at him. "Does that even make any sense?"

[preemptiveforgiveness]

With the assassination and everything else, Matt doesn't have time to really think about the dreams until late afternoon when he gets a little downtime. By this time, he's heard a bit about other's nightmares and he knows that it's complex wide (at least for the Specials) which doesn't make him feel any better. In fact, it makes him feel worse because they're being manipulated.

At some point in the afternoon, Matt goes looking for the brunette in his dreams (and that alone was overwhelming because Matt has always been able to see in his dreams, but they're all old images or images that he knows his mind has created from what it does know, which isn't anything visual so for the first time since he got the implants out, he saw new things). It takes a little while to find her, and some describing her to several people. When he finally does find her she's on her way to her room. He stops her, suspecting that she knows who he is because of his dreams.

"Katniss?" he asks tentatively because he's got nothing to go on but visual cues and what everyone else has told him. The visual cues don't do him any good.

[stillplaying]

Being manipulated isn't anything new. It's how Katniss had left the last two years of her life. She had been nothing but a piece in their games and any act to the contrary only resulted in ruining things. Ruining things for others, usually. It never stopped her though. She never seemed to learn her lesson. She's not sure that she's learned it now.

If it's true what they're saying, that everyone suffered from dreams and nightmares that weren't their own last night, then she wonders if the Computer's claim of glitches isn't actually real. There's a part of her that would still prefer that. That would like to think that the life she remembers hadn't actually happened. But Prim remembers things similarly. Prim exists. If she didn't have those memories to shape her, would Derek still show interest in her? Would Prim still be here?

The questions that plague her all day are never sufficiently answered. It's enough to make her want to hide and by late afternoon, she's tempted to do just that. That's when she sees him. The man from her dreams is real. Worse, he knows who she is. She straightens and nearly bristles, stealing herself for the accusations that she's sure to come. If she saw his nightmares, he must have seen hers. He must know what a horrible person really is. She's tried to convince others (people like Derek or Buffy) but they never seemed to understand. He must though. "You're real."

[preemptiveforgiveness]

It's new for Matt, and it's probably one of the more difficult things to get used to here. He's used to being in control back home, to being the one that manipulates people (when necessary for the greater good) not the other way around. If he thought this was 'for the greater good' he might be a little less angry about it, but he doesn't.

Personally, Matt thinks the computer has access to their memories and is messing with them. However, he doesn't think they control the memories entirely. Maybe they're constantly, simply, trying to wipe those memories and there was a glitch involved in that. He doesn't know, but he'd like to find out. Memories and life experiences absolutely make a person who they are, and Matt isn't a fan of anyone's memories being messed with regardless of what the reason behind it is.

He sort of knows who she is. He's been trying to find her most of the day, but it's not an easy task with so little information. He doesn't think she's horrible; he thinks she was a pawn used for someone's game and he thinks she's a survivor, a fighter; he can't fault her for that. He nods a little at Katniss' question. "So are you."

He takes a step toward her, holding his hand out to shake. "I'm Matt Murdock."

[stillplaying]

One person's greater good isn't the same as another's. Snow's greater good disagreed with most of Panem. So would have President Coin's. Why would the Computer be any different? The longer she finds herself in Alpha Complex, the more she starts to realize exactly what this is: another kind of game. What other reason would the Computer (or whatever other Gamemakers are in charge) have for the memory swaps?

Really, she doesn't want to know what caused her nightmares last night. She doesn't care. The truth would probably anger her and Katniss has seen where that fire has gotten her before. She had lost Prim because of it. That isn't a mistake that she's making again.

She eyes his hand suspiciously. While Matt had been trying to find her, she had been dwelling on the nightmares as she had gone about her day. Encountering him risks finding out of he had witnessed her normal nightmares. That's not something she wants to know.

"Katniss," she says cautiously, unable to bring herself to shake his hand. She continues to stand there defensively, ready to run if the conversation goes awry.

[preemptiveforgiveness]

No, it's not and Matt knows that as well as anyone. Yeah, this place is a game and they aren't allowed to know the rules. They have to make the best of what they've got. Some days it's miserable and on the best of days, it's bearable. He's been here long enough to forge a life in spite of everything and he now has moments where he's actually happy, but that has nothing to do with this place.

Matt has no idea what caused his nightmares either. He does know they were not his own, but he doesn't think they were fiction either. They were far too real for that.

He lets his hand fall to his side. He nods a little. "I'm Matt Murdock. Something very odd happened to me and I think maybe it happened to you too." He tilts his head one way, listening for anyone approaching them. So far, they're alone.

[stillplaying]

Forging a life in spite of everything that Alpha throws at them. That's something that Katniss is doing now without even realizing it. It's not something that she wants to do; forging a life is dangerous because suddenly, you have so much more to lose. She shouldn't be doing this. She shouldn't let herself any moments of happiness. Katniss knows better.

And from all accounts of those nightmares last night, the man standing in front of her should know better too.

She scowls at his comment. Something odd happened to both of them but that doesn't mean she actually wants to discuss it. Her frown deepens when he tilts his head. She recognizes that gesture. It's one she's done herself when listening for prey during her hunts. Is he expecting someone to approach? Or making sure no one does? Either way, Katniss is feeling more and more certain that she doesn't want to be here.

"So?"

[preemptiveforgiveness]

It's not easy to do, but it's necessary. If they don't forge lives than they're really not doing anything except what the Computer wants them to do. They're just...cogs in some machine. Matt wants to be more than that. Forging a life is dangerous, but not doing anything with your life, that's a waste.

Maybe he should, but he's trying to have a life anyway.

He can't see that scowl but he can practically feel it. No, he's not expecting anyone, but he's trying to make sure that he hears them before they get there if they do approach.

"I saw...what I think are your...glitches last night and I could see them."

[stillplaying]

She's already done that, hasn't she? Been a cog in someone's machine. Been a piece in their games. That hadn't turned out well. But trying to have a life more than what had been expected of her had only seemed to make things worse. Will it be the same here? The Computer is still toying with them despite expecting all the Specials to set a specific example for the rest of Alpha. It doesn't seem like matters would be any different.

"Memories," Katniss insists angrily. If she starts calling them glitches again, she might try to once against convince herself none of those memories were real. That wouldn't be fair to Prim. "They were memories and they're none of your business."

She can't easily take her anger out on the Computer without jeopardizing Prim's safety. It's much easier to yell at Matt.

evening

[littleducktails]

The Everdeen sister's lives are...different than they were; it's strange that everything has similarities to the time in 13, but it's still different because it never felt like Katniss was actually there. Here they see one another every day, like when Prim was younger...even if it's not in the relative squalor that they grew up in. Focusing on that, at least for a little bit, helps Prim feel less invasive and less inclined to feel curious and then guilty about Alcide's memories. Despite the urge, several times, to tell her sister about her dreams...to ask for help, Prim doesn't.

Instead she keeps it to herself, trying to be not only less of a burden, but more independent...she's no a baby anymore, after all, no matter how the older Everdeen might see things. Really, Prim has no certainty about that, buts sometimes she thinks that will always bee how her sister sees her: the baby sister that needed saving, that always needs saving. It's not bad, it's just....sometimes she wants to prove herself, and to make Katniss proud.

That line of thinking only distracts the thin blonde so much, though. Anything to not dwell on someone else's...relationship and death. Because it just feels so wrong, so....rude. "Have you ever been on a mission, Katniss?" Prim asks, the question actually startling herself for a moment. Her own had been pretty eventful.

Does Katniss know about that? About...magic. It is something better to focus on. For the moment.

[stillplaying]

Their lives are different in District 13 and yet, in so many ways, nothing has seemed to change. Katniss still worries about Prim almost every waking hour. All of her previous roommates have been assigned new quarters and although it's tempting to talk Prim into rooming with her, there are some chances she won't take. It's safer for her to sneak out to Derek's room at night than talk Prim into doing anything that might put her sister on the Computer's bad side. She has sharp, horrible memories of losing her sister once. That's never going to happen again.

Despite every desire to hover over Prim, Katniss has also worked her hardest not to give in to that impulse. It's not that she thinks Prim as her baby sister that always needs saving. She had seen how Prim had grown in the course of the past two years, how she had become older and wiser beyond her years. Her over-protective streak stems from a crippling fear of losing her sister again.

Katniss puts down her fork when Prim breaks the comfortable silence that had fallen between them. The question distracts her from her own thoughts. Quickly, she shakes her head and then frowns. "No. You went on one recently, didn't you?"

[littleducktails]

Blond hair bounces slightly as the younger sibling nods her head, to answer the question that's asked, before she puts her own fork down. She's not sure if she's allowed to talk about what happened, technically speaking, and yet....the idea of keeping something from her sister is sort of hard for Prim to actually do when it comes to practice. The difference between the mission and the memories is that the memories aren't her's; they aren't something that it's fair for her to talk about, not when it could effect someone elses' feelings.

"I went on a mission with Zatara, I think she's my age." Prim adds, looking down at her food. Soylent. The two things are, basically, the same thing, right? AT least according to the Computer. "We failed, actually." The tall blonde teenager moves to put her elbows on the table in front of her, unable to help but think...and worry a bit.

Will Zee get in trouble for her own...mutant abilities? Will they get in trouble for failing? She's really not sure. The plan seems so sound; they tried really hard to make it seem as if there was nothing they could have done to make the mission work. "I'm hoping that it doesn't get Zee, or me, in trouble." Prim is really bad at keeping things to herself, or maybe, it's just that this is Katniss. "They wanted us to betray people, to help lead them into a trap." Prim speaks quietly, a frown marring her normally much more happy and open face. She's just got more on her mind than usual.

[stillplaying]

There are very few things that Katniss would ever keep from Prim. She still does her best to shadow her sister from most of the darkness in her life but anything else? Katniss has remained quiet about Derek because she's not even certain what this thing with Derek is. And it makes her uncomfortable, embarrasses her. But when she figures things out? Her sister will be the first to know. As Prim is the first to know almost every part of her life.

She nods at the mention of Zatanna. The other girl is probably Prim's age. And is just as caring as her sister is. Now that she thinks about it, she could see the two getting along well. She doesn't eat as Prim continues to talk, pushing around the soylent with her fork instead. Her sister's mission failed but staring at this goop, she hopes that Derek's doesn't. It would be nice to have real food again.

"You didn't," she states quietly, her voice barely a whisper. She's unable to see either girl willingly betraying people. Katniss does her best to choke back her panic. Will Prim and Zatanna get in trouble for failing their mission? She puts her fork down and reaches out to squeeze Prim's hand. Does her sister know how proud she is of her? Of everything she's done? In a more normal voice, "What happened with the trap?"

[littleducktails]

Despite the fact that she knows the computer is always watching, Katniss manages to drag a smile from her younger sister. Her sister doesn't have to say much to deliver the message; Prim knows her too well to misconstrue. And it's not exactly like Katniss has ever been an avid fan of the rules either. So, there is something comforting knowing that she probably did exactly what her sister would have done....even if probably far less successfully.

That doesn't mean that the Computer won't see it differently, but they did everything the could do to keep up appearances. Squeezing Katniss' hand back Prim tells the official story. "They didn't trust us." Which is the truth. From there, though, it gets more complicated. "They were sure that all the Specials work directly for the Computer and so they didn't believe we were one of them. They didn't know us, and so they weren't going to believe us no matter what we said. They...incapacitated us." The matter-of-fact way that Prim tells the story might as well be a tell for the blond teenager, it didn't go exactly like that, but it is what she and Zee have gone with.

"There was nothing that we could do." The blonde shrugs, studying her sister's face. She only manages to let that linger for a moment before she looks down and then whispers, "That's what we wrote in the reports." Prim pushes around at her food a moment before taking a bite before looking up again.

[stillplaying]

Katniss leans in closer to Prim as she begins to tell her what had happened the day before. If the Computer is somehow watching them, she wants it to appear as if they're acting like sisters and sharing normal, sisterly talk. Katniss is proud of Prim for her act of defiance but at the same time, she worries. If the Computer figures things out, what kind of revenge might It take on them?

It's clear that the story Prim is telling her isn't the entire truth. This has to be whatever they concocted for the Computer. Maybe later, she'll take Prim to the warehouse that Derek had showed her so that they have a chance to really talk. For now, this'll have to do.

"Sometimes there's only nothing," Katniss admits, completely genuine with her words. It's been her experience again and again. No matter how hard she tried, there was nothing else possible. "You and Zatanna did the best you could."

[littleducktails]

Her sister's answer isn't very hopeful, but then again they grew up in a place that wasn't all that full of hope. This place is more advanced, more regimented, like Thirteen was, but it only had minimal hope itself. There people were trying to make changes. Here, Prim isn't even sure. She just knows that she did what was right morally in this case; the only question is if she is going to wind up in trouble for that moral decision. She hopes not, but her worry...it's more about Zatanna than it is about herself. The other girl is a mutant, after all.

Still, Prim nods. "Thanks, Katniss." The smile she gives, though, doesn't reach her eyes. She's still worried. She may have managed to escape death and...have her innocence and childhood prolonged thanks to her sister, but it doesn't mean she never worried. "I just hope the Computer, or whoever, looks at the report sees that. I don't want Zee to get in trouble, especially." Prim shrugs, trying to shake off those thoughts.

She's got a lot crowding her brain at the moment between that and the dream she had. It does make her wonder, though. Tilting her head to the left Prim decides a question, another one, anyway, can't hurt. "How did you sleep last night?" The question isn't that random, considering Katniss had trouble sleeping before coming here, but also....Prim can't help but think about the dreams that haunted her, that didn't feel like they belonged to her, all night.

[stillplaying]

Neither of them have known much in the way of hope during their lifetimes. That's one of the things that made the prospect of a better Panem so hard to comprehend. Any hope that she's had previously has always been dashed. Why would it be any different here? They both know better. The difference is that Prim remained someone kind while Katniss had grown cynical and code.

She frowns again when Prim mentions Zatanna. It is like her sister to care more about others than herself. Just once, Katniss wants Prim to be more selfish. She wants her sister to take care of herself and stay safe.

But it looks like Prim's done talking about her mission. The change in subject leaves a little to be desired. Maybe she should mention Derek to Prim. Or at the very least that she has someone to look after her when the nightmares become worse. Instead, she stays quiet on that and addresses the question at hand. "You probably know. I never sleep well anymore."