i ; video & action

[grounds]

Who: Octavia Blake and ??
Broadcast: Everyone
Action: Marsiva
When: Saturday morning (backdated)

[Luckily for Octavia's dignity, somehow her initial waking up freakout wasn't broadcast, so the first televised signs of her include the brunette leaning against the wall, curiously looking over her communicator. She jumps a little when it starts recording, but composure isn't too far off.

A raised brow greets the fleet, followed by a hesitant attempt at a smile. It's a bad one.]

So, space. [It's said in a very dry, unimpressed tone.] Anyone mind telling me what the hell's going on? I've got things to do, and this wasn't one of them... Whatever this is.

[She straightens, moving back to her initial bunk.]

And someone tell me what dick took my sword. I want it back.

Comments

[takeabow]

[ softens slightly because Prim is the best ever ]

Yeah, Primrose.

Why were they complicated?

[grounds]

Pretty name. [Octavia pauses for a moment, really debating on how much to divulge right away.]

There was a one child law, and I have an older brother. I wasn't supposed to exist. [She stops, expression souring instinctively.] We had two people's rations between the three of us. Mom and Bellamy were the only people I ever talked to for most of my life.

[takeabow]

That sounds... really difficult. Why only one child? There's no way we could manage that in the Seam...

[grounds]

Supplies. And oxygen preservation. If the population got too high, the Ark wouldn't have been able to sustain everyone. At least that's what they told us. Pretty sure they were right, though. Turned out it was already failing. Go figure.

[takeabow]

Oxygen supply.

[ well that's a new and terrifying thing she hadn't thought of before ]

How'd your family get away with it?

[grounds]

Yeah. [Her lips purse, and she finally just dives in.] For sixteen years, I was kept hidden under the floor of our quarters. When an inspection came around, I had to hide in there and not make a damn sound. Eventually, stuff happened, and they found me. I mentioned it was against the law, right?

[She's got a look bordering on anger now.] Crimes were treated very severely. If you were under eighteen, you went to lock up until you were. Then they decided if you were worth keeping around. [It's a crude way of putting it, but it's the cut and dry of things.] My mother wasn't. She got floated soon after I was discovered.

That's sending someone out the airlock and into space. To die.

[takeabow]

[ that certainly sounds both terrible and somehow not that surprising. but again, nova hasn't been thinking really hard about space. her voice is raspy and sympathetic when she replies ]

I'm sorry. That's terrible...

What about you? Your brother?

[grounds]

I'm seventeen, so they sent me to lock up. Just for being born. My brother got demoted, but he wasn't arrested.

[She figures a little bit more backstory might be necessary.] We've been on the Ark for the past hundred years. There was a nuclear war, so not really livable for people. Since the station was failing, the adults decided to send a hundred kids down to the ground to see it was survivable.

Basically, we were the damn guinea pigs. Bellamy stowed away, so we're both fine. [A lot more happened, but that's not important here.]

[takeabow]

That sucks. But hey, you got to be outside, huh?

[grounds]

After they pretty much sent us to die, yes. I did. [Octavia's still pretty bitter after she brought it up again.]

What about you? Whats your story?

[takeabow]

Maybe we're from the same world...

[ look, weirder things have happened ]

We had war, too, but instead of send people to space, we live in Districts, each with a different specialty of industry. District 12 is for coal mining. In order to remind people who's in charge, every year two kids between 12 and 18 are chosen in a lottery. It's for something called The Hunger Games, because usually how many times your name is in the pool is tied into how old you are and many rations you request. I tried to keep mine down... but it basically punishes poor families like ours.

...I'm giving too much background. Sorry. A boy and a girl are chosen from each district, so there are 24, and have to fight to the death in an arena while everyone watches it broadcast.

[ she's kind of... surprised at how this all comes out, but she actually feels like Octavia is someone who won't make this whole thing about her ]

Prim's name was called and... I couldn't. I couldn't let her go. She was just 12.

[grounds]

[Disbelief. That's the only way her expression can be described. Soon it morphs into one of utter disgust and revulsion.]

That's just fucking sick. [It's all she can do, keeping her voice even. She doesn't even know these people, but there's some sort of anger on their behalf, probably because she can relate in some twisted way. Octavia doesn't ask more or want to know more of Nova's role unless she offers it.]

How the hell do they get off doing that?

[takeabow]

By killing anyone who tries to speak against it. And their families. And everyone they've ever talked to, if they've really pissed the Capitol off.

Usually, though, they kidnap people, cut out their tongues, and turn them into servants after torturing them. Also, it's just... normal. People just want to keep their heads down and breathe a sigh of relief when it's not their children.

[grounds]

And they only protest when it is? [She looks like she wants to spit to get a bad taste out of her mouth.]

It's people like that who have no business being in charge of anything.

[takeabow]

Yeah, but they do. And they have for a long time.

[ she's just... angry and resigned ]

[grounds]

[Her mouth twists into a shape akin to someone sucking on a lemon. Her nostrils flare briefly before she forces herself to let it go.]

Something has to change eventually. It always does. [Octavia figures it's time to move on to a less... angering subject.] So what have you found to do around here?

[takeabow]

[ yes good let's move on ]

Well, I'm seeing someone who's also here. But mostly just... talking to people?

[grounds]

[Okay, that someone sounds like a positive topic. Let's go with that.]

Yeah? Did you meet them here?

[takeabow]

[ shy katniss: go ]

No, the last place we were. We were on the same team there and... he's just a good guy.

[grounds]

[Oh snap. Octavia's on this like dirt on a grounder. (Meaning very on this.)]

Good how? I'll need more than that.

[takeabow]

[ why, nova, is that a blush? ]

Uh, well. He's really funny. Sometimes I can get wrapped up in my head, you know? And he's really good at not letting me get too far into that.

[grounds]

Yeah, I know the feeling. [She remembers a certain someone back home who can sometimes dwell on his own grim dealings.] That's something good to hang on to.

[takeabow]

We were planning on getting my sister and going to his world, but we got sidetracked here.

[grounds]

You could do that? [Cue a very puzzled look.]

[takeabow]

From Aather, yeah. I don't know about now.