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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[One last game, with kids from the Capitol. Kids that had been safe for seventy-four, seventy-five years. Kids that watched other kids die for entertainment, who never had to know what it was like to fear or starve or suffer.]

...That's wrong. Even if they never knew what it was like, no more games should be no more games.

[No more kids dying.]

Seems like if your baby Career can't take the heat, she shouldn't play. You're not being a very good mentor by trying to protect her either.

Plenty who claim it, but I bet most of them wouldn't last a day if they actually had to.

How to kill if she has to. How to survive otherwise.

[Clove shrugs.]

And after 76, there weren't.

They deserved it.

She wants to tell people, she can. I'm not going to.

[Did they deserve it? Did they deserve it any more than the innocent kids through all twelve districts did?

Rue's not sure, but there's no changing what's already happened.]

Is there anything else here?

...Useful if she gets drafted, at least.

[It'd be an interesting test. It also wouldn't be a bad idea for someone to host a survival training course, but that's someone else's job.]

Thanks for the heads up. Didn't realize people were that poorly prepared around here.

How caring.

Look around.

[It's, really, the best advice Clove's got. She means well, at least.]

Anything that catches your eye? That you think would be a good fit?

Precisely. Or if we get dumped with a ton of hostile people again, like some of the refugees were.

They like to talk tough, but most of 'em? Wouldn't last long if it came to "kill or be killed."

An advantage? I would imagine so.

In my world, it is generally illegal to kill someone. It is not in yours?

[Rue slowly moves off into the store, looking at the shelves for anything that catches her attention. She wanders back a few minutes later with a collapsible grappling hook connected to some rope.]

This. They had them in District 12.

When the time comes, it's sink or swim. It's the only way it'll get in people's heads.

That depends where the killing is done. If it's in the Arena? Totally legal. You have to do it, actually.

Huh. Cool.

Can't say I've seen anything like that, but it definitely looks useful.

Most of them'll be dead before they have a chance to learn.

[It's cold, but it's the way she views the world.]

It's a grappling hook. The ones in District 11 aren't as nice, but they're used for climbing and pulling things.

Definitely sounds useful, then, yeah. They probably used something like this in the mines of Two, but I never saw anything of those except the offices.

I see. [This sounds messed up, dude. Yet vaguely similar to something HMMM except you know without the. Actually killing part.]

Is everyone required to enter the Arena? Are you allowed to exit after your kill?

24 are chosen every year. A boy and girl, 12-18, from each of the 12 districts. Only one leaves the Arena -- the lone Victor.

Only one child leaves? So every district will lose at least one.

What is the purpose of becoming this Victor? I assume that it is some sort of substantial reward.

We don't have a choice about going. The purpose of becoming a Victor is to be alive. And there's a brand new, beautiful house and money. Victors don't have to work.

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