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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Guess that's not your bag. [the girl's no amateur at cool. She'll give her that. Faith's seen enough to recognize the careful check as Clove takes stock of her weapon, smooth enough that she would have missed it if she'd been almost anyone else.

Rather than approaching, she leans against the nearest tree, arms crossing in front of her] One of those girly clubs back home, where they teach you about tying knots and cooking and managing all those warm fuzzy feelings.

Sounds useful.

[And she means it. She can sort of tie knots-- that's part of what she's learning more of right now. She can cook-- not great, but enough that she didn't poison anyone when they had to live off her cooking.

And managing "warm fuzzy feelings"? Well, she doesn't know the expression, but she can guess. Of course, "managing" to her means learning to blanket them, quiet them into almost non-existence.]

[she shrugs] If selling cookies and dressing up in a uniform's your thing, I guess it is.

[a few years earlier and she might have made a crack about the only thing a uniform was good for, but she lets it slide, now, her gaze returning to the shoddy traps]

What's with the GI Jane act, anyway?

Cookies?

[Okay, now she's confused. Uniform? She gets. She used to wear one, after all. A couple. The academy, training, and the Games.

Three parts of her life, three uniforms.

...And she doesn't know who "GI Jane" is, but maybe that's a girl scout? The G for girl scout and the I for... something?]

Learning how to feed myself. For when there's not unlimited, free food.

["When," not "if."]

Guess you really aren't from Kansas.

[actually, it's not a bad idea. She'd been skeptical of the free food, too, but her survival skills were meant more for city streets than wilderness. Traps hadn't occurred to her.

Of course, she had the feeling hunting wildlife would be a bit easier than hunting demons, so she's not too terribly worried]

Me, I'd rather fight something than trap it.

[she gave the traps a skeptical look] ...and besides...I've got nothing to do and I can still think of better ways to spend an hour. [okay...that part might be a lie]

Hard to fight when you're hungry.

[Simple experience talking. Never mind that this girl is a bit older than her.

Sure, sponsors meant she didn't starve during the Games, but after the food supply was gone? She'd spent more than one night trying to sleep while her stomach was cramping from hunger.]

Learned to be prepared.

I did alright.

[one eyebrow goes up at the Girl Scout slogan as Faith searches the younger girl's face for some hint of a joke...but it's not there. She's completely serious. Faith shakes her head a little]

So what got you thinking survivor-mode? Don't think I've heard anyone so much as ask where all this food's coming from, before this. [hell...even she'd wondered where the price tag was, but not the source]

[She's comparing her snare to the one in the book and...

Anyone can see she's messed up. Big time.

She tosses it down. and looks up.]

This place can change anything it wants at any time. And they can send us to battle any time they want.

The food won't last.

I'm not going to be begging for scraps when it disappears. I'm going to learn to feed myself.

Fair enough.

[moving almost lazily, she pushes away from the tree and walks over to pick up the book Clove threw. Flipping through pages, she skims until she finds the instructions the girl had been working from....and snorts.]

Damn. If that's what people have to do to eat, the whole damn village will starve.

[a sideways glance] You ever think about just straight-up hunting?

[Not all of them.]

That's what the spear is for. [Okay, more for fishing. But she could hunt with it.]

And I have these. [She opens the vest she's wearing... and the inside, against the chest and stomach, is lined with about ten sheathed knives of various sizes.]

But hunting is one animal at a time. Snares and nets can let me catch multiple at once.

[the knives get a whistle and an approving smile. She's got a soft spot for blades, herself. Switching back to the side of the good guys hasn't changed that.] Now you're talkin' my language.

And, hey...you gotta start somewhere. 'cept maybe you should see if the library's got some sort of Traps for Dummies thing instead of diving right in.

[...maybe not the best title choice with someone not from her time]

[Enjoy the glare. She almost remarks that, of the Careers who went in, she was easily the smartest.

But people here don't know what the Games are. Don't have reason to believe her.

...And her snare makes her look pretty stupid.

She fastens her vest closed again.]

I knew someone good at these. If she can do it, so can I.

I know someone like that. [that sparked that competitiveness...though she can't say about the traps. Who knew? Maybe Buffy could set them]

Can't say I'm real good at it, myself, but maybe you oughta be playin' to your own strengths, 'stead of trying to imitate hers.

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?