stillplaying | 7th Game [action/voice]

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7th Game [action/voice]

[Action]

[The bakery is a mess. She never meant for it to end up that way. It just sort of happened. Flour covering hair and body, the smell of something burning from the kitchen, flecks of pink frosting teasing her cheeks. Peeta's normally presentable window displays are less than ideal; a poor attempt at recreating the alluring cakes that always caught her attention back in District Twelve. The frosting's melted from the summer heat on one that's sat out since Friday. Another is poorly covered with a grey color -- an attempt at mixing food dyes gone horribly wrong.

Ingredients for various baked goods have somehow escaped the kitchen, piled up on the counters, half covering the note cards Peeta had left for her. Cookbooks borrowed from the library lie open elsewhere, pages now far from pristine. Half baked pretzels stock the shelves along with burnt chocolate chip cookies. Deformed cheese breads and crumbled brownie bites still in their trays sit nearby. Even Buttercup, easily pleased by any free food, ignores the easy pickings.

She tried. She had tried so hard. Peeta had left her recipes. Had tried to teach her how to bake on lazy days when she was more content to spend time with him in the bakery than go about her own thing. It seems that every lesson has been forgotten. Any skill she might have had in the kitchen, utterly gone.

The rain pours outside as she plucks at the rock hard shortbread cookies she's recently retrieved from the oven, trying her best to peel them from the tray. It's a halfhearted effort as she leans her head against her hand and stares out the window. She'd rather be hunting. But it's been raining ever since Peeta left for his mission, raining so hard, all she's been able to do is check a couple of the traps in the river behind their house. And she had promised, hadn't she? Promised she'd look after the bakery?

Look how miserably she failed, the worry making it hard to breathe, harder to concentrate. Shouldn't he be back by now? Shouldn't he?

Every few minutes, she checks the journal for signs of life. Ignores Buttercup begging for real food. Glances at the door to see if Peeta's finally return. No luck. No luck at all. He's supposed to be back today. Why isn't he back yet?]

[Voice]

Why do you bother? [The words aren't meant to be recorded in the journal, but they are, anyway. It barely processes to Katniss that she's left it laying open, close enough to pick up any mutterings.] Going on these missions? Being a piece in their games?

It's stupid. This is all stupid.

[ooc: timed to after mission is over, when people start arriving home. but if you want to tag during -- feel free to have katniss in the bakery making a mess from friday on!

also, edit for warning of sexual content in the Peeta thread.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Estelle followed her gaze down to the display and looked over the choices that were presented to her. My, so many to choose from.]

Hm, I wonder what Sokka would like.

[This is said mostly to herself, but if Katniss has any ideas, she's more than welcome to give them.]

Sokka?

[She looks up at the name, hands stilling over the chocolate chip cookies.]

You mean the boy with the boats?

[Estelle looks up.]

Oh, does he have boats? I had no idea. Do you know him?

[She admittedly didn't know Sokka very well at all.]

[She nods. She's been in them, borrowed one from time to time. It made all the difference in transferring larger goods to the treehouse in the western woods. Made it so much easier and, in the process, the treehouse so much more livable.]

He called them canoes. They're good for river travel.

Oh good, that should make the search easier.

[Estelle is clearly relieved by this fact. She had been starting to feel pretty guilty and worried for Yuri and the others. The fact that they have canoes does ease this a little bit.]

[She tilts her head a little. Maybe she should be finding cookies for the girl, but she's a little more interested in what she has to say. Customer service doesn't come easy to her.]

Search?

Oh... I, lost something, in the river. He and other members of Brave Vesperia went looking for it.

[Here she looks a little guilty as she turns her gaze towards the outdoors where it's raining.]

I promised to have some cookies for him, when he gets back. A lot of cookies.

[She doesn't know what Brave Vesperia is. Doesn't really know Sokka well enough to judge as to whether it's in his character. But the boy had seemed nice enough.

A glance towards the window gets a frown. Maybe stupid, too. Today's not a day to go searching in the river.]

I... think we can find some that aren't burnt.

[No, no it's not a good day for that at all. Which makes her feel terrible. She was... just trying to help. Sigh. Estelle does perk up though at what Katniss says.]

Really? That would be wonderful!

Edited 2012-09-03 21:42 (UTC)

[She nods and steals a quick glance at the cookies in the display. Unburnt cookies. Okay. There have to be some.]

...does two dozen assorted sound okay?

That's perfect, thank you very much.

[Two dozen on top of the ones she's making should be plenty for Sokka and the others...hopefully.]

[She nods absently, already distracted by the task at hand. Twenty-four non-burnt, mostly presentable cookies. It sounds easier than it actually is.

She starts with the chocolate chips. Mostly, it's hard to screw up the presentation of a round cookie. It's finding the ones that aren't burnt that's the problem.]

[Estelle isn't sure what to say or do while the other girl looks for the cookies, so she decides to strike up a little more conversation.]

Oh, I forgot to mention. My name is Estelle.

[It's not an easy search, finding the chocolate chip cookies that have little evidence of burnt bits. But in those moments of silence, she does come up with three. She's on the search for a fourth when the girl speaks again. She glances up.]

Katniss Everdeen.

[No Mockingjay. No Girl on Fire. Just her name. The anonymity is one of the few things she truly treasures about life in Luceti.]

[She would have to agree with that sentiment. It was kind of nice not to be constantly running into knights who insist that she return to the castle.]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Katniss. Do you work here often?

[She shakes her head, picking out two more chocolate chip cookies and placing the rest back in the counter. She pulls out the sugar cookies next.]

No. But Peeta's on a mission right now.

[She waits very patiently, and isn't at all wasting time trying to get to know or make friends with Katniss.]

Oh. What do you normally do?

[She's never been very good at this. The small talk bit, the part where you befriend others. She never learned how to do this. Never found the need. She had Madge and Gale and Prim growing up. Why would she need anyone else?

Why would anyone want to know her? She's not exactly all that nice. Or all that interesting.

But she's trying.]

I like to hunt. I spend a lot of time in the woods.

[That's okay, Estelle can make up for that because she's outgoing enough. Unless she starts to get on Katniss' nerves or something! But she is genuinely interested in the girl.]

Oh, I see. Do you use rifles, or are you an archer?

[In the library she's read about a few different hunting methods, but those seemed to be the most common.]

Archery. [If Estelle looked behind the counter, she'd see Katniss' bow and the quiver full of arrows. It's rare for her to go anywhere without them.

Two sugar cookies are placed in the tin with the chocolate chips.] But I've used traps, too.

How interesting!

[Katniss would be the second archer that Estelle's ever really met.]

Bow hunting differs markedly from hunting with firearms, as the distances between the hunter and the game are much shorter in order to ensure a humane kill. The skills and practices of bow hunting therefore emphasize very close approach to the prey, whether by still hunting, stalking, or waiting in a blind or tree stand.

[And now it sounds like she might be reciting something.]

[A lot of the information she's heard before. From her father when he was teaching her how to hunt all those years ago. Not that utilizing a firearm was ever an option. The Peacekeepers would never allow it. Owning the hand-crafted bows had been dangerous enough, even if they were kept in the woods.

But she nods, paying the girl all the attention she thinks Peeta would. Which is to say, a lot more than she would normally.]

You have to be quiet.

[It was one of the first rules her father had taught her.]

[Sorry Katniss, Estelle is just a really friendly person. She grew up in near isolation after all, and is making up for lost time.]

That must take a lot of skill.

[She says this with a thoughtful nod.]

[It's okay. Somehow, she just seems to attract these friendly, nice people. She'll just never seem to understand why. Or how.]

A lot of practice. [She pauses for a moment to put the sugar cookies away and take out the brownies. Glancing up from her work, she adds in:] I've been hunting since I was seven.

[Ooo, brownies, she hadn't thought of those.]

That's very impressive! Did your parents teach you?

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