stillplaying | 18th Game [action/video]

[She's been so busy lately that she hasn't noticed the time fly by. Busy with teaching Foo Foo, busy with hunting and providing for her family, busy helping Richard finish the extra wing to the house before first snow, trying to learn filial magic, busy stealing every spare minute of time with Prim and Teddy and all those others she holds there. She hasn't noticed the time pass. Hadn't realized that it's already November.

It's been a year since Peeta's left. Over a year now. And though she misses him every day, misses him even more when she wakes up on the couch screaming from night terrors, she's... still alive. Found something - someones - else to live for. And maybe that boy who had asked about finding a way to bring others here might actually succeed. Maybe she could bring him back. The boy that loves her. Where everything is actually real.

More than that, though, she's realized what time of year it is again. Has it really been two years, then, since the end of the rebellion? Since losing Prim?

But Prim's no longer lost. She's here. And if Katniss has her way, she'll stay here forever.

It's this realization that makes her more reluctant to leave that morning. But she has responsibilities. Things she has to do. Including teaching that stupid sabertooth moose lion how to actually hunt his own food rather than snatching her squirrels from her bag. Foo Foo has, at least, grown incredibly skillful at that. So at some point mid-morning, Katniss makes her way to House 56 to pick up the beast and continue their way in the Eastern Forest.

Once again, her hunt with Foo Foo isn't nearly as successful as her hunts alone. She loses more squirrels to him than she manages to retain. And when she finally spots a rabbit - perfect for tonight's dinner, perfect to make one of Prim's favorite stews - he lumbers in the way of her shot. Frightened, it runs into the bushes. Annoyed, Katniss lets her arrow fly into the trees.

Some seconds later, she pulls out her journal. With the video feed on, she focuses on Foo Foo.]

How is anyone supposed to teach something this stupid to do anything?

[She doesn't even feel remotely guilty when the young animal looks up from his interest in the rabbit-clad bushes and gives her a goofy, happy grin. It seems one enjoys these outings more than the other.]

Dumb mutt.

[Sometime later in the afternoon, she's back in the town. Having to pick up food is becoming more and more an uncomfortably common task on the days she tries to train Foo Foo. But this week more than ever, the week of her sister's death, she feels the need to spoil her. To go to the items shop and find little gifts that might make her happy. Or pick up fresh bread at the bakery and sweets at the grocery.

Anything for Prim. Anything.]

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[She considers the advice just for a moment before dismissing it entirely. Funny. That's not even something she's considered really seeing if Foo Foo's capable of. For the most part, he's always been so good at listening to Sokka that she just assumed.

She should test that out. At some point. When not paying attention to the journal.]

He needs to learn how to hunt.

Babies crawl before they walk.

[There's a little shrug from his end, at least what's visible on the small camera.]

He's not a baby.

[And he hasn't been for a while. Maybe, maybe if Sokka had taken him hunting back when he was a baby, he wouldn't have this problem now. If he hadn't spoiled him with free food, if he hadn't treated him like a pet.

Katniss had never been good with pets. Or small children that weren't Prim.]

Maybe not, but that's not the point. With something as complex as hunting, you need to start with the basics. How are you going to hunt if you can't tell him to "stay" or "sit" so you don't startle your game?

[It was years and years ago that Shepard had a dog, back when he was a young orphan in a city that was best described as a warzone. That goofy mutt was a bright spot in his life, and he taught it just about any trick you could imagine. Lately he's only had fish and a hamster, but he obviously still likes his pets.]

Crawling is just the first step towards walking.

[Analogy complete. Yep.]

[He has valid reasoning. Her father hadn't given her a bow and expected her to be as good as she is now. They had taken steps. Small steps that had been some of the best memories in her life. Practicing against a tree. Perfecting her shot with smaller and smaller targets until she could hit something the size of a squirrel's eye. Of course, those last steps had come later in her life. Later, after his death. When poaching had been the only option away from starvation.

She thinks on this just a minute more before reluctantly nodding.]

What would you do?

Beats the hell out of me. I'm only good with dogs and varren.

[And he has no idea what the hell that thing is.]

But like I said, the basics can't hurt. Make a game out of it.

[She nods again. Make a game out of it. It's... a possibility. Not all games are horrible, something better off forgotten than actually enjoyed. Some childhood games weren't so bad. The games at that world on the moon. But a part of her remains reluctant to agree entirely to the notion.

Or want to continue on that train of thought.]

What's a varren?

Four-legged omnivore native to Tuchanka.

[Ah, he sometimes forgets that nobody here in the Valley knows a single thing of what he's talking about. So the camera moves a bit as he points it to his forearm. There's a little glow, his omni-tool activating, and he pulls up a video display to show a picture from his personal file.]

Most people call them "fishdogs."

[As soon as the image pops on the screen, she has to look away. Even if she's never seen anything like that before, it looks too much like some of the strange creatures that she has thing. The muttations in the Hunger Games. The ones former Tributes and Victors faced. The ones she's faced, in and out of the arena.]

We'd call them muttations.

Except they're not mutations. Well, not Urz at least. They're an alien species.

[Shepard deactivates his omni-tool and the orange glow, and the picture, fades away. He shifts the camera back to him to continue.]

Real friendly if you feed them well.

[Aliens. It's one of those words that Katniss picked up here. There's no reason for something like it back home. As far as she still knows, Panem remains the only surviving nation in the world. The idea of anything existing elsewhere, on Earth or outside it just seems so utterly ridiculous.

She knows it's true for other Earths. Other worlds. But she can't ever imagine it being true for her own.]

It doesn't look friendly.

Neither do you with that face you're making.

[That gets a scowl. It sounds far, far too much like something Haymitch would say. While, on occasion, she misses the gruff man, she doesn't miss the sorts of things he would say to her. Things like that.]

[Shepard smirks a little and shakes his head. Trolling around here is way too easy!]

Relax. It's a joke. Hell, does anybody know how to take a joke in this place?

It wasn't very funny.

[Because she can take a joke. Most of the time. When she can actually identify the humor behind it. And, usually, when she's in a better mood to begin with. Not already frustrated with Foo Foo or with some of the more pointless advice she's been given.]

I laughed. On the inside.

I don't care about you.

[Because a joke should be funny for all involved, not just the person playing it. Otherwise, what's the point?]

That hurts my feelings.

[Katniss snorts, looking at the journal with disbelief. His feelings hurt?]

Why would you care?

I'm a sensitive soul.

[She gives a small nod. Sensitive souls, the sort of people that really didn't need to associate with her. People like Peeta. People she only harmed in the end or put in harm's way. They're safer not knowing her

She's not a good soul. Not a sensitive one.]

Then you're talking to the wrong person.

I get the feeling sarcasm is lost on you.

Not all the time.

[Sometimes, she can see through it. Comprehend the joke and smile. But those are her better days, the moments where she doesn't want to blame herself for everything wrong. Where she's not being self-deprecating. Moments that were, mostly, still rather rare. Especially among those she didn't know.]

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