shenevermisses | 1st Throw - [ video/written/action ]

1st Throw - [ video/written/action ]

[Her approach today: simple, caution edged with sweetness.

Clove has set her Journal on a table in her apartment for the perfect upper body shot.

The key to her appearance is the word "simple." Her long hair is pulled back into a low ponytail. She has enough make-up on to color her features, but it is light enough that it's only just noticable. Her shirt is pale grey, fitted and sleeveless with a high neck but made of light material.

She gives herself a few seconds before she speaks.]

Hello, everyone. My name is Clove. I've only just arrived, and I'm still getting my bearings.

[Remember to smile. She obeys the advice from her absent mentor.]

I've been sort of a recluse these last few days, and I'm really sorry if you've seen me around the village and I ignored you. This is just a lot to take in all at once.

[This isn't the Games, and there are no sponsors... but in a new, strange place like this, a little good PR can't hurt.]

I look forward to getting to know everyone.

[Off goes the feed.]

[A few minutes later, she writes a short note.]

If you're somehow reading this, Cato: come find me. Tonight at sundown.

[Come sundown, Clove is sitting at her makeshift camp by the western lake.

She's sure Cato isn't here. She'd have heard from him long before now if he was. Still, her message was for him to find her at sundown, so she waits.

Her location has been carved into various trees throughout the forest and village using a signal taught in the Academy to make pack activity easier. If he looks for her, he'll find it.

Of course, anyone out that way will see her waiting for someone who won't come.]

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Well, most places don't. Its...a cultural thing from my home. Japan is a rather unique country to come from.

Would you like me to try?

...It can't hurt anything, right?

[She almost smiles.

The suggestion is on entirely neutral and unknown grounds. She's never been taught to see "witchcraft" as evil and so has no inclination against it, and she's never been taught to believe in it either, so she has no draw toward it...

Save for the desire of a young girl to have something akin to hope.]

[Hope is what Rei and the Senshi do best!]

No, it can't. I've been working on getting a suitable place together for flame readings, which I know best. They are a bit more involved, as I have to consecrate a space, and burn a flame.

I can do a palm reading right now, its...simple and won't reveal a whole lot, but it could be interesting for you since you don't know what its all about.

[She holds out a hand]

Please, let me see your hand?

Well yeah, for the actions. I meant more... I'm sorry you went through that. It's a terrible thing.

Everyone dies eventually. I've got it out of the way.

[Because if she keeps telling herself that, it'll be true eventually.]

[Clove nodded.

The chance at hope had to be weighed against a fear of prediction of disaster.

She didn't even believe in this. So what did the outcome matter?

Still, she held out her hand.]

[Gingerly, Rei took the other girl's hand and began to trace the lines and patterns in Clove's palm. Palmistry was something idle she'd learned from her grandfather, her real talent was in flame reading but...this would at least entertain the new girl]

Well...this line represents health and strength. Its long, and thin so that means you'll likely grow stronger. Luceti is good for things like that, the challenges we face here are pretty tough.

[Another line, this one crossing the palm]

This means you've taken a trip recently, which...well, that makes sense since you are here.

[Next is the Union line]

This one...it is the line representing unity. Are there people from your world here? People you know? This indicates a connection to...someone here in Luceti.

What kind of food do you guys get to eat?

Three others.

[The rest might just be to appease her, but that statement piqued her curiosity. It sparked a question in her.]

That I know of.

[Maybe...]

All three of them were my competition in the Games. We have a truce right now. They have an alliance.

[Three against one. Or could it, maybe, be three against two?]

Three meals a day.

[She appreciates the luxury now, after the destruction of the Career food supply.]

A moderate meal of bread, eggs, and meat in the morning.

A light meal of bread, fruit, and meat in the afternoon.

A large meal of bread, vegetables, and meat in the evening.

Controlled portions depending on the student, water to drink.

[A simple but filling diet, specifically designed for keeping them active, lean, and strong.]

They'll vary the kinds of meat and bread or the like, but it's always the same basic components to the meal.

Oh, that's so much food. [Her tone is slightly wistful and even a bit angry. Everyone knew District Two was a wealthy district, favored by the Capitol, so it's no surprise, but hearing it makes Rue just a little angry. They didn't starve workers in District 11, especially not during harvest season when everyone needed to work sunrise to sunset, but they weren't well-fed either.

Eggs? Meat? Fruit? At best, they got some bread and a watery soup with some vegetables. Meat was once in a rare while. Water portions were good at least.]

Did you all sleep in the same area or did you get rooms?

Those three may be the ones the reading is telling me about. I cannot say anything for certain, that isn't the nature of palm-readings. If I were to guess, I'd say it was them. You have a truce, then? Perhaps a bond can be formed here. There is no reason to fight among yourselves in Luceti. We've got bigger enemies to deal with.

[Rei smiles again, releasing Clove's hand]

It could be that another will arrive in the future as well. I would have to read the flames to have anything more accurate, but I suspect that with you being...dead that may make any question directed about your home somewhat hazy.

"Yours don't attack me, I don't attack them" are the terms of our truce.

[Hardly promising for building anything more.

But she was here. After dying. Maybe Cato would come soon. He'd died after her, so it made sense he might come later. Maybe he was already here, had seen her message and would meet her at the camp tonight.

Probably not, she knew, but she could pretend to hope.]

We sleep six to a room, boys and girls have separate buildings, every year is on a different floor, and there are eight rooms for every year.

[A pause.]

Sometimes the rooms aren't full. Kids who can't keep up, who aren't performing as well, transfer either to the academic program or to the village schools, and if someone who isn't a thirteen-- the last year we attend-- goes to the Games, they don't come back to the Academy if they win.

[She can't speak on anything but the athletic program. Most of the academies went home at night, ate what their families fixed. The miners? Clove had never thought of or thought to think of what their meals and lives might be like.

She knew only her small corner of the world.]

[So. Uncomfortable] Y-yeah. I mean, I guess that's a way to see it.

Allies can be found in the most unlikely of places. Here, we all need each other to survive. There are two people from my home here are the most important people in any world to me, but...I've made other friends. People I wouldn't even talk to at home.

You'll figure it out once the experiments start again. If nothing else, you can rest assured that you know what the people from your world are capable of.

How else could I look at it?

Dying is something that happens to everyone. [Especially tributes, but so few people here seme to know anything about Panem, so she doesn't mention her home.] Should I be bothered?

It means, unlike others, I have nothing to worry about where I come from.

[Clove refrains from comment on much of what Rei says. It does not seem to her that anyone in this town would need one another to survive.

There seem to be unlimited resources, eliminating competition for them and alliances to improve the odds of said competition turning in one's favor. There was nothing to foster any necessary competition, except perhaps the fighting, but that was sporadic at best, and her own combat experience was that alliances dissolved eventually.]

This place is really weird.

[The people here are really weird.]

[It's all interesting to Rue. Everyone knows no one is supposed to receive any special training, but everyone knows about the Careers too. Maybe it's a perk of being in District Two or any other career district; people turn a blind eye to it.]

Do you... [She realizes what she's going to ask next is a strange question given the situation, but she wants to ask it anyway.] do you guys get along when you aren't training? Talk with each other at night? [Make friends, even knowing you might have to kill the other?]

We do.

[There's equal parts homesickness and comfort in this "chat." She likes talking about it, really. Because it's familiar and she misses it. But it makes her all the more aware of how far it is and how long she feels like she's been gone.]

I mean, we're encouraged to keep to ourselves-- girls with girls, boys with boys. But they don't keep us separated, except when we sleep.

[Because there was no danger of crossed loyalties then. Girls didn't go to the Games with other girls.]

The only thing they really forbid is sex. They definitely discourage athletics dating other athletics, but getting caught having sex is an automatic expulsion. [There's no reason to really sugar-coat it.] That rule pretty much only applies to the girls, though. They catch an athletic boy and academic girl, and they usually hush it up. [But it's not unfair. Not to her. It's simple and practical.] They don't want to risk sending a pregnant girl to the Games, after all.

[No reason to sugar-coat it, but Rue still flushes a little in embarrassment. She's seen people kissing and heard the adults whisper at night, but she's still twelve.]

Oh, I see. [Her voice is a little rushed as she moves on.] Do you have friends in District Two?

A few. I always got along better with the guys than with other girls, though I think even some of the guys were glad to see me go when my name was called.

Did you know Cato?

[There's a pause. Longer than she likes. But she thinks her voice sounds even when she speaks.]

Yeah. I did.

I knew Thresh. [It's a bit of a peace offering, for what it's worth.] Not well, but he was always nice to me.

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1st Throw - [ video/written/action ]

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