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

[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.

[seewhathappens]

...

"Yes?"

[sicaria]

"I apologize for harming my fellow citizen. In my defense, he deserved it."

[seewhathappens]

He says to Shell Bell: "A young woman just snuck into the President's house and assassinated him, then apologized to me for it. She claims he deserved it. By my observations this seems to be true. Do you have any insights to offer?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"...He probably deserved it. Who is she, do you know?"

[seewhathappens]

"What is your name?" he inquires of the assassin.

[sicaria]

"Sherlock Stark."

[seewhathappens]

"She says her name is Sherlock Stark," he reports to Shell Bell.

[she_sells_seashells]

"She was a victor a couple years ago. And her twin brother the year after her. ...The way Cerulean talked about going to the Capitol I wouldn't be at all surprised if victors had a less pleasant time of it than is usually discussed and it could easily be Snow's fault in particular."

[seewhathappens]

"I see."

To Sherlock, he says, "Having consulted my advisors, I retroactively declare that you were working in an official capacity at the time. Here is a holy symbol identifying you as affiliated with the military but outside their command structure." A rectangular wooden badge materializes. "Do you accept this position?"

[sicaria]

She catches it out of the air.

"Yes. Got anyone else for me to assassinate?"

[seewhathappens]

"If I do, I'll let you know."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I assume you must have some sort of actual justice system not usually administered by assassins, even if you have a low enough crime rate that it seldom comes up," Shell Bell says.

[seewhathappens]

"Yes," says Kirovalin. "But there is also room for assassins, in times of war. On another advisor's suggestion, I've recruited her."

[she_sells_seashells]

"...Another?"

Meanwhile:

Scattered throughout the country, some people attack Peacekeepers for various reasons.

There is a panicked near-riot of miscellaneous civilians within the Capitol outside some official government buildings.

The Reaping lady is being carried off by some District 1 teenagers without much regard for her well-being.

A few people without tongues are trying to escape the Capitol and some people with tongues are trying to stop them.

Someone in District 5 turns out to be violently allergic to strawberries.

A member of the Hunger Games orchestration organization is getting into some kind of scuffle with his co-workers.

[seewhathappens]

"With or without the official title, you're certainly advising me."

Kirovalin makes decisions about the appropriate response to each incident. A blessing for health will help the person with the allergy; people attacking Peacekeepers may be left alone or asked to stop or interfered with directly by obstructive flora; more obstructive flora can assist the people trying to escape the Capitol; the scuffle amid the Hunger Games orchestrators bears further watching; the panicked citizens can be listened to, and perhaps asked to calm down if he judges it more helpful than otherwise...

[no_return]

Somebody's already on the case with the Reaping lady.

"You guys aren't thinking of harming your fellow citizens, are you?" he inquires, following. "I hear you can get in trouble for that."

[alicornucopia]

"She's from the Capitol," someone says derisively.

"Aren't you the Career for this year? She wanted to cart you and your girl friend off to get killed," someone else adds.

The Reaping lady whimpers.

[no_return]

"Yes, I am the Career for this year," says Jewel. "And I didn't hear our new god-emperor saying 'I welcome you all as new citizens, except anybody from the Capitol, fuck those guys'. Way I heard it, seems like you're about to break the law." He picks a cloudberry off a newly sprouted bush and eats it. "Also about to kind of annoy me. Up to you which one scares you more."

[alicornucopia]

"He wasn't talking to her," says the first guy.