shenevermisses | 22nd Throw

There are some things you just can't teach. Not after a certain point.

[She doesn't sound frustrated or upset. Just... interested, in a way.]

It's weird, in a way. Trying to teach someone to be like me and finding out that's not possible. I mean, we're doing good. Great student.

[For Rue's sake more than anything, she's not going to name her over the journals, not going to divulge what they're doing.]

But there's just something different. How we were brought up. You can't teach that.

Which I guess is why they start us young. Start training us when we're five, where I'm from. Parents who think their kids have potential agree to send them off to the Academy, where they'll only see them maybe every weekend.

Usually less than that.

From there, they weed out the undesirable. The weak, the emotional, the nervous. Every year, there are fewer students your age. By the time we're sixteen or seventeen, there's only the best left.

At that point, only the girls who are stupid enough to get pregnant get sent away.

I guess I never really thought about it, but trying to teach someone else what I grew up with? You realize that some things just can't be taught. Not after a certain point.

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[Rue nods, also dressed for training. Dark pants, a t-shirt, and a light jacket, her folding knife tucked into her back pocket.

She waits to follow Clove, to listen and observe.]

[Oh. She doesn't sound like she's even that old...]

Gives you a pretty unique perspective.

[Clove leads the way out to the path and gives a bit of a grin.]

From five to ten, we did physical endurance training. Stamina, strength, and speed. At ten, we picked up our first weapon.

On my world and this one.

Were knives your first choice?

And is that what you were talkin' about tryin' to teach?

They tried to give me a staff first.

Something to extend my reach.

I do okay with one, actually. A staff, short sword, and knives is what I ended up doing well with. Best at knives.

How to fight like I do. How to think like I do. I died in the Games, but I made it pretty far.

I guess everyone has their weapon. [Clove had her knives, Katniss had her bows, Johanna had her axe...

Rue had a bow and a hand crossbow, but that was because she was learning from Katniss. They had a better range than a slingshot or sling too. But was that really her's?]

What other weapons could you pick from?

No offense, but I hope whoever's learnin' this is luckier than you and never needs to use it.

[At least they couldn't be from a crappier world, right? Hers has to be as bad as it gets.]

They had 'em all.

[She gives a bit of a grin. After all, it's easy to guess why Rue's using the bow and arrow, so--]

Tell you what.

Let's go to the weapons shop.

[She shifts down, into a position to run.]

I'll race you.

I wouldn't call them luckier.

...Huh. Here I woulda' thought you'd won that lottery. Lost it. Whatever.

Anyone from Panem draws a pretty short straw in that.

[Rue grins and shifts into a running position.]

Okay! GO!

[She shouts as her little legs take off. Short as she is, she knows it won't take long for Clove to catch up. Which is why she cuts through the yards and hits the trees, scrambling up one and already picking out the next one to jump to. Rue flies, Rue soars. It's no wonder the Careers or other tributes couldn't catch her; no one could climb like her.

No one could fly like her.]

So they're from your world, they just missed out on school?

[Sorry, he's slow. And even slower when he's as rattled as he is from hearing all this.]

Does that make life better or worse, where you're from?

[Clove runs. She watches her 'opponent' out of one eye until she loses sight of her. It's an impressive thing to actually see in action.

For her part, Clove... is all dog. Swift and low to the ground, keeping her pace. She vaults over some obstacles and makes her way to the weapons' shop, breathing hard but not out of breath. Well trained for that run.

She gives Rue a grin.]

You're fast. That's good. We'll need to keep that -- light weapons.

They're from a poor district. Life is a lot worse. No training for the Games, no way to prepare.

[When the trees give out, Rue drops down the ground and runs the rest of the way across the square. She arrives a bit after Clove, all grins, breathing hard, but also still spry.]

Do you think a slingshot would work?

Maybe.

[A pause.]

Especially if we gave you barbed shots from it. Something that packs more of a punch.

[She nods toward the shop.]

Let's see if there's anything you like, too.

[Ginia takes her time reading Clove's post, the messages that come in. It's horrifying to hear, would be for anyone, but she can't judge. Not when one of her best allies and friends grew up in a barracks and was a child soldier, a mercenary by sixteen.

Her world doesn't have games, but it's not any better.

But Panem... she remembers Peeta mentioning the place. And she remembers the girl from her own post too.]

Skills you can always learn. May never get as good as someone who's used them all their life or may turn out you're a natural. But mindsets, people always forget about those. You can't learn those, not really.

Train them well. They're your responsibility now. Make sure they know enough so they don't get hurt, don't die.

Edited 2014-01-28 05:13 (UTC)

Barbed shots, that would be much better than rocks or the metal balls they had at the training center.

[Rue enters the stop, pausing to look around at everything. The variety of weapons was amazing, both the ones that had come from other worlds and the ones created at the smithy.

She gravitates toward the projectile weapons, the slings, the hand crossbows, the bows.]

I have a hand crossbow too, Asami made me one. But it's slow to load.

Why did you accept it?

Because that's life in Panem. Or was, when I was there.

[It's easy enough to understand. 'The way things were' was true everywhere.]

...But it changed, after you left?

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