trainingwings | (no subject)

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[Never let it be said that a Career is against learning.

The village provides food-- good food and for free--, but Clove isn't inclined to trust that this will last forever. She assumed her food supply was secure once; three nights of falling asleep with hunger pains were her punishment for that. So, now, she is trying to learn the skills she previously discounted.

Two attempts are already set up. Handmade nets-- string woven together to discourage breakge and tied together in moderate-sized squares-- are positioned. One is laid out in the brush. The other is dipped in the stream, supported by a stick secured on the bank with a small stone structure. It only extends halfway across, and the dark twine shows under the water easily.

She has three other methods with her: more twine and a book on snares, a shoddy hand-made fishing pole, and a sharpened stick to use as a spear. More Cato's style than hers, but he isn't here... So she'll try to learn.

She's talking to herself, muttering as she tries to make a snare. Not as easy as the book makes it look. Her tone is determined, not angry.]

C'mon, Clove. If District Twelve can do it, so can you.

Player Name: Lynn
Are you new?: N
Character Name: Clove
Character Fandom: The Hunger Games

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I tried that. [I died.]

I need both.

I can fight, but she can survive. She knows how not to starve, and I need to learn.

I'm guessin' she ain't the sharing type.

We tried to kill each other.

Doubt she'd want to help me, and I don't plan to ask her.

Huh.

[well. She knows how that goes]

Got someone here like that, too.

They have to do that, don't they? The people who brought us here.

Don't bring the person you [really want] would kind of like to see... but they sure can have the last person you ever wanted to see again.

[she gave a dry laugh] Probably makes for better entertainment.

Probably.

Their cameras are quiet. I haven't heard them. More subtle, too. I don't feel the eyes on me.

[blink]

Cameras?

If this is for entertainment, they have to be recording us.

[Obviously.

And she's not even joking. Or exaggerating. She seems dead serious.]

[Faith doesn't look quite so convinced] If they're filming this, they've gotta be bored off their asses. It ain't exactly action-central around here.

Then they'll get bored and do something to spice it up.

From the sound of things, that's what these shifts are.

Not buying cameras, though. [because that's a level of paranoia she doesn't want to deal with.]

...you got a name, kid?

Then why bother? If they can't observe us, there's no reason for the mu-- Shifts. If it's for entertainment.

[Weird thing? She doesn't glance around as she says this, like a paranoid looking for everything she's talking about. She just... acts like being constantly watched is a fact of life and the only logical thing to expect.]

Clove Athame, District Two. [She hasn't shaken that idea. She is from District Two.]

[she can't help it. She gives a surprised laugh]

Seriously? [what kind of name is Clove, anyway] Sorry to hear it.

...Sorry?

[And she's lost.]

[She frowns at the book. They're useful for some things. What would she had ever done if her dad hadn't filled her mother's book of medicinal plants with information about edible ones as well? But she can't imagine learning to hunt or snare game from a book.

Katniss is reluctant to give up her perch. She's safe in the tree, far from the reach of the girl's knives. But not so far away that her own arrows cannot fly true. But people helped her here. Even when she didn't ask for it. And maybe... maybe if she helped the girl from District 2, some of her own nightmares might ebb.

She climbs down slowly, never taking her eyes off of Clove. Once on the ground, she picks up the abandoned snare and starts to fix it.]

[Clove is ready to snap something at Katniss. Some indignant remark in reply to the mockery she expects. She knows how bad the snare is and knows how good District Twelve is at them.

It's the same thing with climbing. It's why her knees are scraped and her hands are a little bit, too. There are skills the Academy neglected to teach her, she knows now. Skills that, here, could save her life. She might not have the Games to live for any more, but she is alive.

There might not be a purpose for her now, but she doesn't want to die.

...But she's not making fun of her. She's reworking it.

So Clove sits quietly and doesn't bother to hide that she's watching the work.]

[She's not as good as the training instructor that the Capitol provided before the games. Katniss has only ever really been taught and has never actually tried passing her skills to others. It's been little bits with Rue here and there but it's different then. An act of companionship, not just a lesson.

Still, she tries. She makes sure that Clove can clearly see her movements, the way she twines the rope and turns it into a clever snare.

Once done, she walks over to the tree and carefully ties it to the branch so the loop rests right above.]

For a squirrel.

Huh.

[She's paying close attention. No one can fault her there. It's unfamiliar, but she's trying to learn.

Nets, she at least knows how to set. She might be awful at making them (and her fishing one is bound to fail, she's sure)... but she knows how to set up a net to properly tangle something up in it if it's large enough.

Granted, she's quickly learning that animals are smarter than people about avoiding traps.

She cuts off a length of twine from the roll she brought and begins trying to mimic Katniss's actions. Finally, as she's working, she manages a proper question.]

Which is better-- higher or lower branches? Or does it matter?

It doesn't. [Said with a shrug as Katniss crouches, partially leaning now against the tree. It's a position that lets her both relax and prepare for any sudden movements on Clove's part.

But the other girl seems intent to master a snare of her own. She watches quietly for a few moments before continuing.] Squirrels chasing each other will use all the branches. The trick is to make sure they get caught in the noose. They'll struggle and fall eventually.

[It's nearly a whole speech from Katniss Everdeen. But as much as a part of her still sees Clove as competition, Haymitch's words haven't left her head. Remember who the enemy is. And it's still not the other Tribute. Not here.

What would have once been a twitch of her lips at the memory is now met with a blank, distant look.] You could make a pole with a number of these snares. Ga- my friend was great at them.

A pole? [It's an interesting idea.

Plus the consideration of a "a number." One squirrel is hardly a meal. Which doesn't make the skill not worth learning. It simply means she has to learn to be effective enough to get more than one.

Her fingers can't quite master the size of loops she needs to tie the snare, but she's realised that's part of the problem at least. So she comes up with a solution. A fallen stick is picked up, the twine wrapped around her hand to keep it there but out of her way. And her knife scrapes the wood, ridding it of bumps and curves.

She puts the knife back up her sleeve and returns to the snare-- looping the twine around the wood to get the size she needs then carefully pulling it out.

Better, at least.]

[It'll get easier with practice. The snares will get better, too. Her first ones were awful. Not much better than Clove's are now. But she doesn't say that aloud. Surely the District 2 girl knows. She's a Career. They train and train until in perfect condition to win the Games. She knows perfectly well.

Katniss nods in response. Gale's squirrel snares were something to be admired. All of his snares were. Even those ones he helped to create at the very end of the uprising.

She stares at the ground for a while, fighting back the memories. She can't appear weak. Especially in front of Clove.]

[Clove knows about practice. That's why her frustration at her lack of skills is only small. It is irritating, not knowing how to do it. But it's more irritating that no one ever taught her. That no one ever thought she might need to know it.

It was always just assumed that if she went to the Games, she'd always have food.

...She wondered for a moment if maybe District Two did things a little differently now. If they'd seen what happened when Careers lost their supplies and were trying to prepare their golden children for the possibility.

Or would they dismiss Katniss as an anomaly and never speak of it happening again?

She pauses in her work... but does her best to make it look like she's just checking it.]

[They're questions Katniss will answer if asked, but she's not going to approach any of the topics herself. In this way, it's different than when she's around Rue. The questions don't have to be asked then. She'll volunteer information about the future the little girl will never get to see. But she doesn't feel the same compulsion to tell Clove things. To tell her about the end of the Hunger Games, or the changes in Panem.

It's enough to be offering silent help on the snares.

She undoes the squirrel snare on the tree branch, then undoes the snare itself. Rather than working on anything productive, she leans against the trunk and begins to tie knots. Just like Finnick had showed her. It helps to keep her mind at ease, memories at bay, while she waits around to see if the District Two girl needs more help.]

[Clove resumes her work for a few minutes before she finished. It's still shoddy work, and she knows it. But it actually looks like it would be capable of catching and holding something.

So she ties it to the tree, where the other was.

And one word comes out. Quiet and quick, almost more like a cough than a statement. It's hard for her to say. Just like the word "please" doesn't usually come, and asking for anything she can't just take is even more trying. But she does say it, at least.

Even if it's muttered and rushed.]

Thanks.

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