[video]

[scootch]

[The journal clicks to life - shaky at first, then clearing up to show Ellie's excited face.]

Oh man- is this what used to happen during Christmas? The whole surprise-gifts-under-the-tree or whatever... it's kind of late, and yeah, there's no tree, but--!!

[She turns the journal around to show her sparsely-decorated apartment at first, and then, when she fixes it, a big, box-style arcade machine, the game title of "The Turning" splashed across the front in faded letters. It looks kind of beaten up, but not in too terrible a condition.]

Does anybody know about this game? It's supposed to be so cool, I heard all about it from a friend back home. I can't get it to work, though... they're supposed to be plugged in, right? It's in the middle of the room, so the cord won't reach anything.

Can somebody strong come over and help me move it? I wanna give it a try! ...And if it doesn't work, would anybody know how to fix this kind of thing?

Comments

[Voice]

[scootch]

Yeah! Just plugged it in and it worked like a snap! And it's awesome, for the record. Wanna play?

[Voice]

[rutagraveolens]

Yeah! I'll be right over!

[Action]

[Rue leaves a note for the rest of the household before she hurries out, Melody flying along after. Some time later, she arrives at Ellie's door and knocks.]

Ellie, it's me! Rue!

Action]

[scootch]

[The door is opened almost immediately, Ellie grinning at her behind it. Inside the apartment, the noise of the game can already be heard.]

Come on in!

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

Hi Ellie!

[Rue enters the apartment and hurries over to the arcade machine. She stares wide-eyed at it.]

Wow! Did you figure out how to play it? Is it hard?

[Action]

[scootch]

Kind of! I hear a lot of the old games are tough. Just a way to get kids to spend more money. But it's on free play right now! Someone told me you could do it that way, too.

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

[She looks at the faded graphics on the panels, at the looping attract video on the monitor.]

It'd be hard getting people to spend money here when there is no money.

[Action]

[scootch]

It's not like anything's stopping us from making money. Or fake money, anyway.

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

Oh, I guess not, it just wouldn't be worth anything.

[Rue giggles.]

But wouldn't it be fun having lots of money and pretending to be rich?

[Action]

[scootch]

Maybe we should try it. I've never met a rich anybody, but I've read enough about it that it sounds fun.

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

I've never really met anyone that was rich either, but they were lots of people in the Capitol. They all had brightly colored hair and lots of makeup and wore fancy clothing.

[Action]

[scootch]

Sounds about right. Must be nice to have the time to do all that crap.

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

Yeah. We had to work all the time and all our food went to them.

[Rue frowns a little, but cheers herself up.]

But now that we're here, we can pretend to be rich and we don't have to work unless we want to! And we can play games all day too like I bet they could.

[Action]

[scootch]

[Wow, sounds like home. Rue's last words make Ellie perk up, though, and she prods the other girl towards the game.]

Oh, yeah! Come on, you still need to try it! It's super hard, though. I love it!

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

Okay, what do you do?

[Rue looks down at the controls. Okay... there's the stock thing with directional arrows, so that's for moving, right? And buttons probably do things...]

[Action]

[scootch]

Okay, here- this is how you move, this is jump, and this is attack- you'll mostly be hitting attack.

[Ellie taps the buttons as she announces them, demonstrating how to move them to get the game working. Then she steps aside to let Rue try.]

You'll probably die a lot, but it gets easier the more you play!

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

Okay!

[And... start! It doesn't take long for Rue to die, but as Ellie says, the more she plays, the more she gets used to it. All a matter of knowing when to jump, when to move out of the way, and when to attack.]

You're right, this is lots of fun!

[Action]

[scootch]

Hah, I told you!

[Yesss, video game friend acquired.]

Have you ever played before? A game like this, I mean.

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

I haven't. We didn't have anything like this in District Eleven. I bet they had these in the Capitol though. Maybe District Three since they were in charge of technology.

[Action]

[scootch]

The people in charge always get the best toys. Oh-- here! You can use the special attack, hit up, block, and kick!

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

[Oh, oh, special attack!]

At least it's better here! Though I guess some people have more since they do missions or have been here longer and gone through more Christmases.

[Action]

[scootch]

Missions? You can get stuff like this by doing missions?

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

Uh-huh! The message in the back of the book says you can get points and prizes. And Saori says her and Helios used mission points to make their house bigger.

[Action]

[scootch]

That's awesome! I wanna do that! I could fill the whole supply room with arcades!

[Action]

[rutagraveolens]

You'd probably need a lot of points for that, but you could!

[Rue gives a small sigh.]

I wish I could go on missions, but Katniss won't let me.

[Action]

[scootch]

S'not like I have anything better to do.

[Her brow lifts at that.]

Who's that? Someone looking after you?