trainingwings | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

[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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Clove and her knives.

If anyone could take down a rabbit like that, it'll be this girl. She doesn't question it at all.]

You're not going to learn if you keep doing it wrong.

[She sets down the twine that will not tie properly. She's kind of tempted to just burn it. It wouldn't help, but it'd make her feel better.

And she picks up the book and shows it.]

I'm trying.

[But copying something like this out of a book is difficult. Why didn't she go to the trapping station during training?

Oh. Right. Never thought she'd need it.

She sets the book back down, abandons the should-have-been-a-rough-snare she was mutilating and picks up the roll of twine to start over. She isn't asking for help. She wouldn't from this girl, and she'd be highly against doing if even if it wasn't District Twelve.]

[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.

[If Clove were anyone else, she might question that word. Ask them to repeat it, saying she hadn't heard her clearly. But she's aware of what a sacrifice the girl is making by thanking her.

And not for the first time, she wonders if the people from District Two, the people who grow up to be Careers, have that same sense of obligation. If they feel like there are some people they can never stop owing.

So she just nods. Because she doesn't want Clove to feel that way. Not that she thinks the girl would. But she knows these things can't be helped.]

Have you tried fishing?

I can catch a bit.

[Hunting, she's hopeless.

Fishing, she can at least feed herself once a day.]

C-- [The name sticks in her throat, catches, and it's painful either rending it out or swallowing it. But she does what saves her the most embarrassment. What won't make her seem quite as attached, quite as emotional.] We managed with that okay. Not great. But...

I can manage a meal if I have to.

[Because you can't show any weakness in front of your fellow tributes. Not unless you want to be marked as easy pickings.

And no Career would ever want that.

She glances at the book on snares and thinks. Fishing is simple enough if you have a good hook. And you can easily obtain a decent enough one here. Maybe what she needs is more passive ways to obtain food.]

Maybe you should get a book on plants.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only