2nd Game [action + voice]

[stillplaying]

[The rain has finally stopped. It comes as such a relief to Katniss, that she slips out of the treehouse village with her bow and arrows and hunting bag so very early in the morning - earlier than she's been awake in days.

It's been a whole day of exploring the woods. Gathering edible plants and resetting snares that were damaged by the storm. And just wandering. Wandering amongst the trees, sometimes climbing up one to get a better look of the area. Here, by the edge of the lake, she feels far enough from the town that she might actually be safe.

Safer, at least, than in those past few days. Maybe she spent too much time in the treehouse after that gathering. Too much time alone with memories and thoughts that made her heartsick. Nightmares that here, something will happen to Rue, something she won't be able to stop - just like she couldn't stop that District 1 boy from spearing her in arena. Lost days that she tried to hide so she wouldn't worry Rue.

But today? Today she almost feels like herself. Especially after a whole morning's and afternoon's worth of hunting and gathering. If you've been in the forest near the western lake today, there's a chance you might have run into her.

Maybe she hasn't been as successful as she's been in the past, but her bag still speaks of some results. A wild turkey she shot early afternoon, herbs and roots gathered not too far from the lake, and a couple of small squirrels from her snares. They weigh her down and she considers returning to the treehouses, but she doesn't want to leave the sanctuary of the forest. Not yet.

A flash of yellow catches her eye and she turns, arrow notched in it's string. And then it meows, indignant, and her arrow flies to land in the dirt right next to the beast.

She stares. And scowls.




A while later, she's back in her treehouse room and glaring at the stupid creature that followed her home. Of everyone to find here from District 12, of course it has to be Buttercup.

She reaches for the journal to ask a question.]

Has anyone else here found a pet from home?

Comments

[geniustheveil]

Excuse me. You mentioned 'anyone else', so I just thought...

[stillplaying]

Buttercup isn't mine.

[Even if that's not quite true. But she still has a hard time seeing him as anyone's but Prim's.]

[geniustheveil]

Buttercup? Could that be the pet you found, then? Whose pet is he?

[stillplaying]

Prim's. [A pause.] My sister's.

[geniustheveil]

That's unusual; but I'm sure you'd know by now if your sister was here, too. You'll have to take good care of him for her.

[stillplaying]

[It makes sense, if she thinks on it. He is hers now.

And she explains, in a very flat voice.]

She's dead.

[geniustheveil]

I'm sorry to hear that. You must miss her very much.

[stillplaying]

[That doesn't begin to cover the overwhelming grief that haunts her at night. The suicidal depression she fell into after watching her dear little sister die.

But she doesn't know how to put any of it in words. And she doesn't want to appear weak. Stoic is much, much better.]

A lot.

[geniustheveil]

There's a chance of her arriving here. Would you want that?

[stillplaying]

No.

[As much as she wants to see her sister, it's not safe here. And she can't let anything ever happen to Prim again. So it'll remain fantasy, the idea of being somewhere, safe and sound, with her sister. Letting her have a chance to grow.]

[geniustheveil]

[Ami understands. As much as she's so glad to be with her friends... not here.]

I think I understand. It's better if they can be somewhere safer, and home.

[stillplaying]

Yeah. Exactly.

[In the end, Prim's better off dead than in danger.]

[geniustheveil]

[Ami considers that while her friends live, there's still a chance to avoid the things coming in their future. She knows all too well what those things are.

Perhaps, perhaps, Luceti is that chance.]

If she does arrive here, she'll have you to help her.

[stillplaying]

[It's true. She'd do anything to help and protect her little duck. But she worries, though. Worries that if Prim winds up here, she still won't be able to protect her from everything.]

How dangerous are they? The Malnosso.

[geniustheveil]

They have the ability to affect our minds. That makes them highly dangerous.

[stillplaying]

Someone else mentioned that.

[It made her think of the tracker jackers. And mind-jacking.]

They do... [Not games. What was it?] ...experiments?

[geniustheveil]

That's what they call it, but I don't think their methods can be called science at all. There doesn't seem to be any purpose or benefit to it.

[stillplaying]

[No purpose or benefit. Even the Games had that. A reminder of those dark days and lives lost during the first uprisings. A reminder of the power of the Capitol over the Districts. Entertainment for all the rest.

She scowls.]

Then what?

[geniustheveil]

Their own cruelty.

[She doesn't even say for its own sake; she doesn't even believe that much good of the Malnosso after two years here.]

[stillplaying]

[Cruelty like the Gamemakers. Selfish, too. That she understands. Muttered under her breath:]

May the odds be ever in your favor.

[geniustheveil]

I'm sorry, I don't understand.

[stillplaying]

We had games, back home. [It's said in a very detached voice.] Gamemakers that had children fight to the death for the Capitol's entertainment.

[geniustheveil]

That's too cruel! [Katniss, quite likely, very much agrees.]

[stillplaying]

Like the Malnosso.

[Because in her eyes, the Gamemakers and Malnosso would get along great.]

[geniustheveil]

Exactly so. [Ami has no love for the Malnosso, and treats even their so-called kinder gestures with suspicion.]