Here it's safe, here it's warm

[etcircenses]

Who| All those on the liberation mission and all those being made to fight against them.
What| The liberation of District 7.
Where| District 7.
When| This week.
Warnings/Notes| War, violence, death. Please warn for more in headers.

The forest goes on for miles, a great green, snowy, and towering sea unbroken by the influence of man, at least until the city is reached, parts of the forest cut away around it. It's a city that's come to much ruin as the elements have taken over most of what once was Calgary, but some of the buildings have been converted into lumber mills, the giant saws buzzing loud. A few mills even have a man made river running by them to help run smooth and transport materials, the water's current keeping it from freezing just yet. The river runs into a massive and beautiful lake that's frozen over to the opposite side of the river's mouth, the ice thinner the further one gets from shore.

Posters of Clara and Emily have been put up around the District but some only half-way as the war broke out and parts were lost to the elements. Still more have been defaced, scratching out the lines Peace is the brightest star on the tree. The phrase We can make this our Panem can be seen around, but those too have been blotted out in other areas, sometimes with a note that the offworlders don't belong here. Tiny snowmen faintly resembling Karkat and Wyatt stand around, made by the young and hurried hands of certain residents here.

Much of the homes are log cabins, but a few have been made out of overturned train-cars and trucks. Throughout the open paths, Snow has been piled up to build icy blockades, protecting the buildings and their people, while trenches in the middle of the roads give Districters a vantage point to fight from.

But there is no better vantage point than among the trees. With the cover of the foliage, soldiers, Peacekeepers, and Districters alike able to climb the trunks can sit up high and scope out their enemies, getting the drop well before they're ever even noticed. These people have lived rough, but they are stronger for it, not weaker, and they are largely in favor of the Tributes, grateful for the children that were saved. Much of rebellion has hidden within those woods. The rebels on top of the many wildlife creatures like moose, big cats, foxes and birds of prey, make it a treacherous walk for Peacekeepers.

That in itself is another thing everyone will notice; there are a lot of Peacekeepers here. In District seven, most peacekeepers are the best of the best. Capitol-soldiers will be in no short supply of backup, even despite the District's rebelliousness. Rebels will need to step light no matter what they're doing; the Peacekeepers can be a little trigger happy.

The war continues, and in the back of everyone's mind is a familiar phrase; may the odds be ever in your favor.

Comments

[conifer]

Emily closes her eyes, drawing in a deep breath to calm herself and then wincing in pain as expanding her chest exacerbates the nasty burns there. When she opens her eyes it is indeed Quintus' face before her, pale and stricken with concern. She almost manages a smile to see a familiar face.

"And here I was the one warning you about coming out to the front. Maybe I should have listened to my own advice."

[lex_paciferat]

He has to smile, drawing his hand back from her face in favor of gently squeezing her palm. "I told you this was a bad idea, too. I guess next time I'll just have to put you on house arrest for your own good."

The brief humor dropping from his expression, he asks, "Do you remember what happened? I could ask someone, but--"

[conifer]

The smell of the smoke and the heat of the fire was still raw inside her, scraping sharply through her lungs and pulsing in her skin. She tries to shift in the bed a little but it only makes it hurt more. "I went looking for my mother. Back in my house in the Victor's Village. And ... it exploded."

[lex_paciferat]

"Oh, no." A mother, the family she loves--he'd have to ask whether they were among those evacuated. As large as the conflict looms, he can't always keep track of such specifics, occupied with the motions of his own troops and fragmented news of the enemy.

"I'll try to find out where she is for you. I'm so sorry. I'm just--I'm glad to see you."

[conifer]

"It hurts," she says weakly, resenting everything and trying not to include him in that too. If the Capitol weren't causing her emotional anguish, they were getting her physically hurt so badly. She wished they'd just leave her alone.

[lex_paciferat]

"Yeah," he says, both in acknowledgement and a sort of bitter agreement, brushing some strands of hair from her forehead. "I know. Believe me, I know."

[conifer]

"Make it stop hurting," she says weakly, aware of how childish she sounds. "I want to go home."

[lex_paciferat]

"You'll get to go home," he says, and abruptly realizes that he might have misinterpreted her request--he had thought of the Capitol, but hadn't she always referred to Seven as home? Hadn't she spoken of her childhood cabin as such, a structure that would probably be yet another casualty of war had it not been demolished already, condemned to an unreachable past?

Maybe your home is in the future, she'd told him. Hers would have to be, too.

Perhaps it's her childishness that incites the gesture from him, grounded in a desire to protect. Perhaps it's a consequence of loss taking a familiar face, like the comrades he'd suffered alongside. Whatever it is, he finds himself leaning in and gently placing his arms around her, careful not to put pressure on her wounds.

[conifer]

Emily writhes on the mattress like the viper the press had named her for, instinctively trying to get him as far away from the scorched tissue over her chest and arm and stomach. She feebly manages to raise a hand, her palm hot and clammy as it touches his face.

"You'll look after them for me, won't you?"