trainingwings | (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

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.