The Preserve, Monday Evening

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

After his conversation with Karla the previous week, and the train wreck of a weekend he'd just experienced, Wesley, true to his word, trekked out to the preserve on Monday evening to set up what would be a memorial for Katniss. The preserve had obviously been a place of some significance ot her, given her avocation for hunting, and it just seemed natural to have it there rather than in a park or in the church. So that evening found him setting up candles people could light and sprigs of katniss and other flowers for people to lay down if they wanted to, and clearing a spot for people to congregate. There were blankets on the floor, since the nonstop rain lately had made the ground fairly wet, and seemingly limitless boxes of tissues.

There. That... that was a memorial. With all the candles lit, it would be a proper memorial, but until then, he lit one of his own.

[[up early for SP tomorrow! open to those who know about the Games, and NFB due to the whole memorial thing. OCD coming up!]]

Comments

Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Mingle is probably the wrong word. Talk.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Though death and loss were nothing new to Firekeeper, this sort of thing definitely was. So she stood close to Blind Seer, her curiosity about the different things people were doing for this memorial warring with her pride as she tried not to show that she was in any amount perplexed by anything going on.

[ooc: around on and off during the day, but totally happy to SP.]

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Having put this together, Wesley felt something of an obligation to approach people, even though no, he didn't much feel like talking.

"Hello," he said softly, coming up beside Firekeeper. He didn't want to crowd her, but maybe it would help to know that he was around if she needed anything.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[trigons_child]

Raven didn't know Katniss, but Karla had told her about what had happened and of the memorial, so she'd come to pay her respects and offer support to her friends. Her shields were still weakened after the weekend in Glacia, and she could keenly feel the sorrow all around her and ached to take it away, but she knew those here needed to grieve in their own ways.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley didn't know Raven, and hadn't seen her at the screenings of the Hunger Games footage, but that didn't stop him from giving her a little nod as she arrived. Whether she knew what happened or not, she still deserved to be a part of this and pay her respects.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[solo_sword]

Jaina tended not to like these things. She understood wanting to pay your respects and thought it should be done, but memorials and funerals were not good for repressing when you wanted to do so. But she was trying not to do that right now, and she actually wanted to be in the same place with the people who had watched and felt that was important. Memorials weren't just about the dead, they were about helping the living move on and make peace.

It didn't mean her shields weren't way up high, though. No one was reading anything off her, and she wouldn't read anything off anyone else.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

It still felt odd to Wesley, the degree to which the Fandom teachers cared about their students. Still, he respected people like Jaina and Anakin and Alex all the more for being a part of this.

He hovered near her for a while, trying to think of how best to approach her. Then, finally --

"Do you need anything?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley did his best to remain approachable throughout the memorial, even though all his natural instincts told him to sit in a corner, hidden from everything. His interactions with Karla and Anakin over the past week had introduced him to different coping strategies, like the idea of maybe sharing his grief with those who were experiencing the same thing. Hence the memorial.

So, quietly circulating the clearing with his candle in hand, Wesley was around for people to talk to.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle had grabbed a nap after classes and looked fairly well-rested (if limping a bit, and sporting bandages on either side of her left shoulder, and doing her best to hide both of those things) by the time she arrived in the preserve. To tell the truth she was still exhausted and a little weak, but she wouldn't have missed this for anything.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle was one of the people with whom Wesley had never really interacted during the Games-viewing sessions, but he came over to greet her nonetheless.

"Hello," he said as she arrived. "Do you, ah, need anything?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[sith_happened]

Anakin was there with his hood draw up over his head, looking pensive. It had been a long few days weeks months...bit and the lack of sleep he'd had was finally starting to catch up with him.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Ah. Wesley had something for that.

He came over to Anakin with a cup of tea in hand, determined to show Professor Skywalker the same degree of compassion that Anakin had shown him during the viewing of the Games.

"Hello," he said softly. "Tea?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Alex had not been to a memorial service in a long time. She wished it was under better circumstances.

It wasn't the first one for an adolescent victim, either. But those never got any easier, no matter what lies people told themselves.

She should mingle, or find people to talk to, or make sure everyone was okay. Or maybe she should let everyone grieve in silence. She wasn't sure any more which was helpful, or if anything could be.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Last time this group had congregated, it had been in Anakin's office and Alex had been the one approaching Wesley to offer help. This time, he was determined to return the favor.

"Hello," he said, hovering a bit. "Ah -- how are you doing?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima was more there for Wesley and the other students than for herself; she had seen bloody, pointless death a thousand lives over, and while it was always agonizing to see a bright light like Katniss go out, Ghanima was the type to grieve privately.

The students, however, had no such perspective or ability to process the events, and so she was here, keeping a close eye on them all."

Candles

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Light 'em.

Re: Candles

[trigons_child]

Raven still hadn't sorted out her feelings about her own spirituality after her death and rebirth, but it was comforting to fall back on praying to Azar. She lit a candle and made a prayer to her goddess to watch over Katniss's spirit and guide her to place of peace.

Re: Candles

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Alex no longer prayed, but candles didn't need religion behind them. So she lit one, quietly, for Katniss, and for all the others who had perished in that arena for the government's entertainment.

She didn't think Katniss would mind.

Katniss

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

The flower. Not the person. She's not here.

Re: Katniss

[glacial_queen]

Karla knelt down in the still muddy earth, ignoring the damage she was doing to her clothes. She had a plan for the sprigs of Katniss that the others could lay down. Reaching out with her Craft, she encouraged the tiny plants to take root and spread.

This, then, more than pretty words or fond memories, was how she was going to honor Katniss. A small patch of Katniss plants that would always come back and thrive, every year.

For remembrance. As a reminder.

Eulogies

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Anyone want to say a few words?

Re: Eulogies

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

Alex hadn't been sure that it was her place to say something, but someone should. It was better to stand up and try haltingly than to stay quiet, and wish she'd said something later.

She didn't bother introducing herself. After those huddled days in Anakin's office, they all knew one another entirely too well, by now.

"Katniss was one of my students," she began, not bothering with a preamble, either. "I realized right away that she was very bright. She was also guarded, and a touch cynical, both in ways that suggested she had seen far more than anyone her age should. It hadn't left her bitter. She was incredibly compassionate, especially to those less fortunate -- the hungry, the homeless, the poor."

"In time, Katniss trusted me with some of her story, which all of you already know. She asked me to bear witness to that atrocity they call a 'Game.' And she asked me for my help. I immediately offered whatever assistance I could give, on her behalf, but she said that there was nothing I could do for her. She was only enlisting my support for those she was leaving behind."

Alex cleared her throat, which gave her a moment to keep her composure.

"I could talk for an hour, but I don't need to," she said. "That exchange is more Katniss than anything I could say. She was a child, walking into a second tour of Hell, and she wanted volunteers to protect her friends from the grief of losing her. She was brave. She was vibrant. She was clever, and thoughtful, and ruthless. I will always be glad to have known her, however briefly. I was deeply honored by her request. I wish I could feel worthy of it."

She didn't know what else to say, so instead, she bowed her head, once, and sat down again, in case anyone else wanted to talk.

Re: Eulogies

[atreideslioness]

"I was a friend of Katniss," Ghanima said as she selected a sprig of the flower. Last week she had sung the first part of the funeral dirge for the girl, today she would do the speaking and finish it. "My great-grandfather once said that 'Life — all life — is in the service of life.' Katniss embodied this concept with every breath she took. Everything she did; from volunteering for her younger sister to each death dance with other Tributes, was about life."

"We have a song for those who have fallen in combat: Full moon calls thee --" she sang. "Shai-hulud shalt thou see; Red the night, dusky sky, Bloody death didst thou die.... this is true of Katniss, and yet she never let the possibility deter her from fighting for life."

"Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and predator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself — a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred." Ghanima's blue-on-blue eyes were hard. "We know who caused the true atrocities in that arena, and it was not Katniss, and we honor her tonight."

"We are the friends of Katniss, and we will not wail for our dead like a pack of garvag. Instead we celebrate her life, and remember."

Leaving

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

When you, you know, exit.

OOC

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this is done right, omg!