holy place

[she_sells_seashells]

My alternates tend to take over the world. Advice available. Rates negotiable.

Shell Bell puts up her sign and nibbles her most recent charity meal. Not potatoes! It is not potatoes. Or fish or clams. It is rice and curry and a fruity yogurt drink. That nice person told Bar she could use his tab for four meals, and this is meal number two.

Comments

[she_sells_seashells]

"I understand. They're already dead, definitely focus on the people who are alive. But if you wind up with the spare attention."

[seewhathappens]

"Yes."

[she_sells_seashells]

"And you can talk anywhere you've come up, right? To explain and take requests if somebody really needed their salt lake or whatever. Once you've finished focusing on the Capitol I mean."

[seewhathappens]

"Yes."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Good."

[seewhathappens]

"I'll confirm the plan with my advisors and see how much the elevation map helps."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yeah."

[alicornucopia]

On the day of the Reaping, an elaborately coiffed and dressed Capitol lady steps off the train into District One, flanked by menacing Peacekeepers to prevent anyone from attacking her. Because that'll work. She makes her way to the stage.

"Welcome, welcome," she says, smiling into the microphone and speaking through perfect lipstick. "Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor."

[seewhathappens]

Across the continent, Kirovalin's influence surges upward through the ground. He should start reaching the surface in just a minute or two - he wasn't able to get the timing any more precise than that.

[alicornucopia]

"Now," she says, "before we begin, we have a special message brought to you all the way from the Capitol!"

She turns to the screen behind her, gesturing as though utterly charmed by the clip that plays.

[seewhathappens]

The Capitol's history/propaganda video reminds everyone how terrible it was when the Districts rebelled and how nice it is that the new laws and the Hunger Games have put a stop to that nonsense.

As the clip is ending, the ground trembles, very very slightly.

[alicornucopia]

The lady is a professional. She won't let a little earthquake interrupt her.

"Isn't that nice?" she says of the clip. "Now, ladies first -"

[seewhathappens]

The ground shakes harder, with a low, angry rumble.

A pair of fir trees erupt through the stage under the glass balls that hold the names, obliterating them and scattering slips of paper everywhere.

In District One, in the Capitol, all across the continent, Kirovalin speaks in his sourceless omnilingual voice.

"I am the god Kirovalin, and this abuse will not be tolerated."

The change races outward from prioritized strategic locations as he finished surfacing. Soil shifts. Mist rises. Trees grow. Not a single person is harmed in this initial sweep; his control is that good.

[she_sells_seashells]

The lady is not that professional. She eeps and steps back from the trees that have wrecked her balls of names; the Peacekeepers ready their guns and look around for someone to shoot.

The television feed cuts out and is replaced with a twee little animation announcing technical difficulties. But where Shell Bell's standing, there's already trees and voice and fog to mark the change whether they broadcast it or not.

[no_return]

Someone in the District One crowd - this year's Career tribute, in fact - starts cheering.

[seewhathappens]

The Peacekeepers find their guns hopelessly entangled by rapidly sprouting strawberry bushes.

Meanwhile, Kirovalin is on the lookout for people who need to have buildings collapsed on them. The rush of power from most of a continent suddenly discovering his existence is nice, but he already had plenty.

[she_sells_seashells]

Some of the Peacekeepers try to pull their triggers anyway.

In the Capitol, a lot of people are scrambling to find out what's going on and stop it. They're debating the wisdom of nuclear attack on District One when it's like right there. They're scanning the new biome for explanatory microorganisms or "what if it's nanotech" or other explanations. They're getting planes in the air so the planes can't be treed but haven't decided what to do with them yet.

[seewhathappens]

Firing a gun whose barrel is full of strawberries is an ill-advised action and may cause damage to the weapon. Continuing to try it after it fails once may cause damage to the weapon's user.

The planes find themselves encumbered by extremely well-targeted freezing rain.

[alicornucopia]

The planes can handle adverse weather, but they can't handle weather that is specifically pissed off at them. Planes make emergency landings.

[seewhathappens]

Coverage increases. He can see nearly everywhere now, except the very edges of the continent that he hasn't had time to reach. District Twelve will have to get along without him just a little longer.

"I claim this land as mine," he says, everywhere at once. "And with this claim, I promise to protect and provide for its people. In my empire, no one starves. In my empire, no one forces children to kill each other for sport. In my empire, any citizen may speak my name and be heard. I welcome you all to my empire as new citizens. Call to me for help, and I will answer. Complain to me of hardship, and I will listen fairly."

He calls up more berry bushes - all with ripe edible fruit - to entangle weapons and wielders or just to grow near hungry people. (No new plants sprout in the Capitol, however.)

"You who hold weapons, surrender them to me. I will not permit you to harm your fellow citizens."

[she_sells_seashells]

(Shell Bell applauds. Some other people around her get the idea, too, although their applause is less delighted and more confused and apprehensive.)

Most of the Peacekeepers let go of their guns.

A genetics lab in the Capitol releases some kind of ultra-termite which attacks nearby threatening wood.

[seewhathappens]

The guns are swallowed up entirely by berry bushes.

The termites chew through a few trees near the Capitol and then start dying rapidly, poisoned by alterations to the composition of the wood they're trying to eat. Kirovalin decides that the genetics lab has not quite done anything to deserve being swallowed by the earth, yet. He's listening closely for anyone who is forming immediate plans to try to harm their fellow citizens.

People such as the President, currently receiving reports on the number of affected Districts and telling the person on the other end of the video call to "burn them all to the ground if necessary!"

Kirovalin checks both the President's house and the military headquarters building that just received the order. The President's house contains a number of servants who should ideally not be killed because of their employer's choices. The military headquarters has no such hostages; Kirovalin demolishes it neatly and thoroughly and grows wild strawberries in the rubble.

"Your authority is revoked," he tells the President.

The President's servants begin to flee.

[sicaria]

Someone else is approaching the President's house.

[seewhathappens]

Kirovalin isn't sure who that is or what she wants. He watches her (and grows berry bushes, and impedes vehicles, and answers the tentative prayers of confused citizens).

The President tries calling a number of people who were all in the collapsed building and can no longer respond. He finally reaches someone in a different building, who shows him what happened to the first one. He is struck momentarily speechless.

[sicaria]

In she goes.

The President has bodyguards.

The President ceases to have bodyguards.

The President has a few seconds to look at her in sudden terror.

He does not get any more than that.

She looks at the video screen, then contemptuously ends the call.

"Kirovalin?" she says.