Survival is Insufficient: An Emergency Announcement [Vasco]

[marguerite harvard d2a (zori)]

v a s c o

Cause your whole heart's a village
Everyone you love has built it
And I've been working there myself
And that's where I'll be

At precisely 7:36PM Panem Standard Time, the evening programs broadcast across District Eleven were interrupted briefly by a hold-sign, followed by cursive white letters across the television screen – An Important Message from the Mayor – before retreating to lay out the warmly lit office that came on screen.

Not quite the Saturn City production, it had the hallmark earnestness of its subject, Vasco Izar. Sitting behind his oak desk with hands folded over the table, he was surrounded by photos of his family, a poorly crafted clay coffee mug with #1 dad scrawled in black in across the front, and a small bouquet of wildflowers and queen anne’s lace in a vase at his left.

Dressed in a collared white shirt tucked underneath a wool sweater, he opted for gentle formality of dress clothes a farmer would’ve taken as fancy. Pinned across his breast was a simple white button with the word ‘No.’

“My friends. I’m sorry to interrupt your evenings. Please know this is not an emergency, but a message from your mayor regarding next week’s reaping.” His voice is firm, if a bit quiet. Almost swallowed up in the headlights hanging overhead of the camera. Off-screen, Alfer watches the reel run and pulls him into focus.

“Over the last ten years, I have watched our children put to death and brought back to life and put back to death again. And we have sought to better understand one another through each of these tragedies. To craft a better world for Panem, for our children. Now, on the eve of another choice – we are being asked to play decider.” He strikes notes between sour and sweet, trickling through his speech as though he can see all of them again – the dozens of children who deserved much more than he could give.

“I cannot sit by without asking you to consider one another. To know your neighbors, their struggles, and grief. You are not powerless, as much as it may feel.” He’s in tight focus, voice full, underscoring not with a bite.

“I’m asking you to do something simple with the power that is being put in your hands. Something that perhaps should have been said some time ago.” He pauses. Trepidation. This is it, there is no turning back.

“Say ‘no.’” He holds, and shakes his head to continue.

“No, I will not nominate someone who has not asked for my place. No, I will not betray another’s trust or bring grief on another family. As terrifying as it might be to serve in the games. Use the power that you have and stand with one another by saying ‘no’ to what they’ve asked you to do.” He finishes without flinching, back straight, eyes burning into the camera.

“I challenge all of Panem to do the same. So that no one may endure the grief my family and so many other families have faced.”

Banging can be heard, knocking softly at first at the door, then shouting. Demands to open the door. Crackling wood, soon to splinter.

“Your decision may spare a life. And may it inspire us all toward a world as it should be, despite what it is.”

The channel cuts back into a holding pattern before fading into a cooking program.

A few days would pass before the same recordings make their ways to the hands of the mayors. The letters accompanying them are short but sweet: Do what you can, while you have the chance. -Vasco

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[Tagging Mayors, in case anyone wants to respond napoleon, d2m ₊⊹ 🐁 ɢʀɪғғɪɴ. , cass , Arrows , я𝑜𝓈𝑒 , tick 12a / calla , lance , @fabulousraven , d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel , gamemaker tallis 🧚🏽‍♂️kaitlin. , umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars] , Tom

And open to anyone who wants to respond to having seen the message in 11, etc!]

elegant