shenevermisses | 22nd Throw

22nd Throw - [ voice ]

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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What are you doing?

Hmm...it is true that we cannot change one's upbringing. The older we are, the more difficult it is to adjust to a new path.

However, it is not impossible, if both you and your student feel that it is worth the effort.

You'd be surprised how much people can change.

Are you sure you wanna be teachin' someone what you grew up with? Sounds like a crappy childhood to me.

[Going without a family at such a young age? Firo can safely say that'd be hell on earth.]

People who are allowed to have a normal childhood, and are not made to become warriors, are fortunate.

The fact that she can't learn the things you were forced to do so is not a weakness.

[Training hasn't been easy. Clove was a good teacher. Firm, demanding the best Rue could offer and then some, but not unkind. Clove was doing her best to teach, Rue was doing her best to learn.

But Clove was right; you couldn't learn some things.

When Rue responds, she does her best to filter her message to Clove.]

Thank you for teaching me anyway.

[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)

Your brain - and body - are still developing when you are so young. Your environment drastically influences how they grow.

[So, he agrees, basically. :|b ]

What does your Academy teach?

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