THE HUNGER GAMES DRABBLE MEME

[redbrunja]

With the release of the finale book of The Hunger Games Trilogy imminent, it seems like an excellent time for a comment meme to whet fandom's appetite. (Plus I just finished my third reread of the first two books and yet still want more!)

So I present.....

THE HUNGER GAMES DRABBLE MEME

How To Play
1. Place a prompt as a comment.
2. Comment with as many prompts as you want. Seriously. Don’t be shy.
3. Reply to a prompt comment with corresponding story! This is a “drabble meme,” so no pressure to write anything more than 500 words. But I doubt any lucky OP would receive an unexpected epic with anger, right? So write whatsha want.
4. Feel free to pimp out this meme to all the communities you can think of + your flist! The more the merrier!

Prompt Examples
A lyric or quote! Katniss/Peeta, "Lend me a helping hand ‘cause I’ve been treating your heaven like a one night stand."
A word! Gale, patient.
A kink! Madge/Katniss, blindfold.
A bit of dialogue! Finnick/Annie, "I just miss you when you're gone."
An action! Prim, mending clothes.
A situation! Johanna/Haymitch, killing time at the Capital.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

(meme format totally cribbed from stainofmylove .)

Comments

[paper-pinwheels.livejournal.com]

gale/madge, left behind

[thankthatstar.livejournal.com]

peeta/katniss, i'd take down the stars just to be in your arms

[paper-pinwheels.livejournal.com]

Drinking is supposed to make things better—fade out the memories, dull the pain that’s always there, dull the thinking that doesn’t ever stop. But, the alcohol only sharpens what’s already there.

Three drinks and it’s almost okay.

Seven and he can see her clear as day, clear as if he were there again, holding her hand again, watching her die again.

Maysilee was a pretty girl (but he can hardly remember how pretty she looked now).
He didn’t love her, but he didn’t want her to die. He didn’t love her, but he used to think she was so pretty when he saw in her school, used to dream about touching her hair and kissing her pretty mouth.

Now he only dreams of her in those last few moments. Blood on her face. Blood in her hair. Blood bubbled and frothing out her open mouth.

He dreams her dying every night and no amount of drinking will make him forget.

--

[ldkirby.livejournal.com]

Katniss/Gale, aftermath

[thankthatstar.livejournal.com]

this was so gorgeous, omg <3

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

oh wow, ouch. this is lovely + so so sad, oh peeta. :/

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

Haymitch (+ President Snow); you never know who you're working for.

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

oh wow, finnick. i love the emotion in this, and also i want to give him a hug.

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

holy crap, this is amaaazing. i love the structure, it's so neat and then heartbreaking. i want to draw hearts around it, like, all the time.

(Fiction: Finnick has no weaknesses.)
blows my mind.

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

Cinna/anyone, "you could love me if I knew how to lie"

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Nice way to bring this ficlet around to who Finnick is at the end.

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

holy crap, this is like a punch to the gut. i love how realistic this is, and the regret that suffuses it.

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

Haymitch + Katniss, "you, a killer killing fate."

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

[sorry, this is capital-letter free :/ and kind of rushed :/]

she asks him, do you love me because i am not the one who died? her hair is streaming across the pillow. her eyes catch his, and do not let go.

the moonlight is filtering in through the window; it falls silver across her shoulders, across her mouth and her eyelashes. he cannot help thinking that she is something delicate, something to be protected.

of course not, he says. he does not think it is a lie, but these days, he is never sure. i love you because you are you. he thinks, i love you because you survived.

sometimes he thinks he does not know who he is, without the girl on fire. this is not madge undersee's fault; it is something that happened. this is something he does not want to fall to pieces, like everything else he has touched.

he leans forward and presses his mouth to hers.

Left Behind

[blankculture.livejournal.com]

Gale used to dream of the day after his last reaping. He used to imagine how it would feel like to have one of his responsibilities gone forever. Forty-two slips of paper with his name on them gone like they never existed.

It wasn't supposed to feel like this.

In the evening, five minutes before it's mandatory to turn on the television, he goes to the Everdeen house. Prim opens the door. Her eyes are little red and very dry. She didn't cry when he carried her to her mother in the Square either. Maybe they are not going to see her tears ever again. Maybe she is going to turn into another Katniss.

They all sit down and watch the show. All the makeup and weird fiery clothes make Katniss look like this expensive outlandish china doll. She smiles and waves and holds on to Peeta Mellark's hand like it is the only thing preventing her from going airborne.

Katniss is wearing Madge's golden bird pin in her sleeve now. In the Seam the pin would have been extravagant and snobbish, but in the Capitol it is tasteful and almost modest. Katniss is turning into this great stranger in front of their eyes.

Gale goes to the woods and hunts and gathers and catches fish like always. The days seem empty, the evenings too full with Katniss in the television and her family in the small couch with him.

When Mellark stands in front of the entire country of Panem and declares his undying love for her, Gale doesn't feel much of anything anymore. Maybe the feelings will come back when the tributes finally start killing each other.

Later Katniss almost burns her leg and hair off, hell, she almost burns herself to death, and Gale goes to the Mayor house to sell strawberries. Madge opens the door. She has been crying, she still has that skill and privilege. Her eyes are all red and puffy. Gale can't help thinking how different it would be if it was Madge burning in the arena. No one would be crying then.

[wrldpossibility.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[mellowdee.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. I love this.

Going sober and back again

[blankculture.livejournal.com]

People like to think that going sober takes only little spunk and willpower. That you just need to admit that you have a problem and deal with it. Maybe take that program with 12 steps.

They don't know shit. Haymitch does.

Withdrawal is just a term. No one can imagine what it feels like without experiencing it. Delirium tremens is just a term too. It just sounds more sophisticated than saying that you go shit crazy when you stop drinking. Haymitch doesn't want to go crazy. He doesn't want to feel anything at all, and that's why he drinks. Vomiting and falling on sharp objects on a regular basis is more peaceful than breaking his heart every time he has to lead a new pair of these ragged kids to their early deaths.

Then came the latest pair. The girl almost stabs Haymitch's hand, and the boy takes a fist to his face like he is used to it. Neither of these things is good. They only tell what kind of lives these two have led, what kind of place District 12 is for its children.

It also means that maybe, just maybe Haymitch has got a pair of fighters this year. Haymitch isn't sure if he is supposed to be delighted with the fact or not. It means that he has to start fighting too.

[mellowdee.livejournal.com]

Oh gah. This was so beautiful. Amazing and so much went unsaid. Amazing.

[otherbella.livejournal.com]

and that’s the thing with aftermaths - you can only continue on when all else is gone.

Oh my hell.

That is gorgeous. ALL OF IT is gorgeous.

[otherbella.livejournal.com]

Stunning.

[otherbella.livejournal.com]

This deserves more than a keysmash, but :PGBDEFBSDIVB SDI

Gorgeous.

[mellowdee.livejournal.com]

AH. OMGAH. I LOVED THIS.

Finnick is passionate, Finnick is strong, Finnick is everything all at once when it comes to Annie.

(Fiction: Finnick has no weaknesses.)

MY FAVORITE. Wonderful.

[electrumqueen.livejournal.com]

--

it is, after all, nothing new. he loves her. she does not love him.

it's how half the stories go. (the ones with the tragic endings, or the ones where he is a secondary character.)

she says, i love you.

he says, i can live without you.

lately, all they can do is lie to each other.

--

sometimes he thinks of himself as a creature of habit, wonders if he is running on that; if that is the only reason he has not listened to his better angels and let go. he sometimes thinks he is a badly-fired clay shape, with one phrase echoing around his head to define him, i love katniss everdeen.

the thing is: they fit together, too well. they can finish each other's movements if not sentences; he knows when she is feinting, when she is shooting. he knows when to duck.

this is how he feels the faintest flinch as he is kissing her.

this is how she feels him tighten his grip, before he lets go.

both of them are running on this: things they do not say, things both of know. truths that stick in both of their chests.

he wonders if one of these days he will be brave, if he will say, everything i do is because i love you. he wonders if she will say, you and i do not fit together.

somehow, he doesn't think so. he has gotten much better at lying, since he started to understand her.

--

[clotpoles.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, seconded about the goosebumps - I was shivering by Once, she was Katniss Everdeen.

So, so lovely. :)