shenevermisses | Contact

[It takes Clove a little while to respond.

Away from the fight, she's back to now knowing what to do or where to go. Sure, Cato's with her, and she's not getting too far away from him, but... But she was born and raised to be a Career, to fight in the Games and to think only of survival. To come through it stained in blood and not care is one thing.

The quiet afterwards is quite another.

She woke Cato up last night, she knows. She couldn't even tell him why she was screaming. Was it trackjackers? Fire? Wild dogs? District Twelve? The infected? She doesn't know, not really. It was some nightmare, some creature she can't shake from her mind. But he didn't bother her about it. Just stayed awake until she fell back into fitful sleep.

She wants to be back in the battle.

As long as she's fighting, the nightmares can't catch up.]

Hey, Ikki. I'm back. Few wounds, but they're not too bad.

[Her voice falters, a soft, unsteady sound that's something between a laugh and a sob.]

I've never had a candied apple before, but. Sounds great.

[ That laugh-sob catches Ikki's attention, and she frowns at the journal, worry plain on her face. ]

Rest up, okay? And...I'm glad you're back.

Good to be back.

[She's lying. She doesn't want to be here. She wants to be in another fight, drenched in blood, sleeping for just a few hours in order to survive. Because as long as she's fighting to stay alive -- as long as there's something like that to think about...

The nightmares can't catch up.]

How were things here?

Interesting? It was Halloween, so there were a few Shifts, but none of them were the bad kind. We had some ghosts who were pranking people, and a huuuuuuuuge corn maze, and there was a lot of candy and night-time parties thrown by the ghosts. Oh, and the ponies put on a different sort of Halloween party on the 31st, too!

I don't think anything really happened besides the Halloween-ish shifts, though.

[She's never heard of Halloween, but that doesn't really matter to her. What does is how the girl talks about it. Is this what kids are like outside of Panem?]

Sounds like fun.

It was pretty fun!!! I mean, aside from the people who were on the draft...we were worried about that. But, otherwise, I think it was pretty fun!

Good.

It wasn't too bad, the draft. [Says the girl who lives on the fighting.]

[ Yeah, pretty much everyone else she's talked to has had the...opposite to say. So Ikki's a little surprised. ]

Really? ...That's good, though. Some of the people coming back looked pretty bad.

[Those people are probably much more right in the head than Clove.]

Cato and I got a little scratched up, but that was about the worst of it. For us, at least.

Yeah, I...know a person who died. But I'm glad you and Cato are doing okay!

[To anyone else, Clove would have just replied simply that, well, people die. That is how the world works. But Ikki...

Maybe there are places where kids don't think like that.]

I hope they're back soon.

They will be. It's only a week, right?

[ That's a weak reassurance, but she manages it, and...it does make it better, but also worse, too. She's not sure how you're supposed to feel about someone dying if they're coming back. Does that make it wrong to grieve?

Still, Ikki just wants to focus on the coming back part. ]

Anyway, I should let you rest.

Yeah, I should get some sleep.

[Not that she can. Not with the nightmares. But she doesn't need to say that.

Though, after a moment, she does say one word. One very uncommon word for her:]

Thanks.

What're friends for?

[ It's a rhetorical question, said lightly.

And yeah, that probably explains why Clover has a small child checking in on her every so often. Ikki's pretty determined about that sort of thing. ]

I'll see you later, Clover! Sleep well.

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