23rd Throw - [ voice ]

[shenevermisses]

[After two days of the girl not showing up for lessons and not giving her any warning, Clove went looking. A brief discussion with Twelve, and, well, that was enough.

Of the things left behind, she'd claimed the stiletto she'd helped Rue pick out.

Maybe, in the long run, it was better this way. She'd never had to really use it. She'd never had to put the training Clove had tried to give her to use.

Later in the afternoon, Clove addresses the journal.]

Looks like the Little Bird has gone back to the nest. [A nickname for everyone. Something to make them less than human in the Arena.] The kid, Rue, she's not here with us anymore.

["She went home" would be a lie. For Rue, for her, for Cato... There's no home to go to. There's only death.]

This place really has its moods, doesn't it? Sometimes just sends a lot of 'em away at once.

Comments

There are moments when the things Clove doesn't know are wonderful

[shenevermisses]

In the context you're talking about? Yeah. We were.

Ah, bad ass girl and boy scouts is the hunger games

[the_dead_pool2]

Huh, so you had uniforms and different tropes and regions you worked out of?

[Rue would look adorable in a scout uniform]

[shenevermisses]

Sort of. I mean, we all wore the same thing. All of the tributes did. They didn't put different districts in different clothes.

[the_dead_pool2]

So you learned camouflage and fishing and sewing and stuff? Do they still do archery and stuff too?

[Just going on the whole normal everyday scouting since no one has told him otherwise. ]

[shenevermisses]

They had a few of those classes in training, but most didn't really have time to learn a lot.

District Two -- my district -- taught us with weapons, though.

[the_dead_pool2]

Eh, fair enough. A lot of places don't have time for the weapons for the most part.

Sounds like my kind of place this District Two. That must have given you an edge on the competition.

[shenevermisses]

I did okay. [Yes, the pun went right over her head.] No one really matters except the winners -- the last one left, or last two in our year. Special circumstances.

Still, I was nineteenth to go down. Out of twenty-four.

[the_dead_pool2]

Fair enough. That is the case of most competitions.

[He cracks his neck]

So, you get some kind of honorable mention or something for that?

[shenevermisses]

No.

If anything, I'll be a cautionary tale in my district about how not to react. I didn't face it like I should have.

[the_dead_pool2]

Like you freaked out or something?

[He raises an eyebrow]

What was the poop?

[shenevermisses]

[That second question is... weird. She doesn't even know how to respond to that. So. First question it is.]

Yeah... Yeah, I freaked out.

We're not supposed to be afraid. Two trains us better than that. But I... [She shrugs. She's never flinched from saying it before. No reason to start now.]

I died screaming for help.

[the_dead_pool2]

[He pauses for a second]

Hold up there a second, little britches. You died in a scout competition?

[That was way more intense competition than at home. Well, he hadn't ever participated but still.]

[shenevermisses]

That's what the Hunger Games are. The competition in my world. Twenty-four go in, one comes out. Two in special circumstances -- only happened once.

[the_dead_pool2]

Seems a little intense for people your age, but whatever floats your world's boat I suppose.

[shenevermisses]

Twelve to eighteen -- that's the range of ages for tributes.

[the_dead_pool2]

Stupid age for people to fight to the death. Haven't even fully developed yet.

[He shakes his head. ]

[shenevermisses]

It's tradition in our world.

[the_dead_pool2]

Traditions are often stupid.

[He lifts his hands up and shrugs]

Just the way of things. Basically its someone doing something, and saying you got to do it this way, after years and years, people just sort of get accustomed to it. It doesn't mean it wasn't initially stupid.

[shenevermisses]

The Hunger Games are meant to remind the districts of the horrors of war that came when they rebelled against the Capitols.

[the_dead_pool2]

So, to remind everyone of how horrible war is, every year they kill off a bunch of kids? Yeah, that won't piss anyone off.

[shenevermisses]

It took seventy-five years before the Districts rose up again. Seventy-five years of the Games.

[the_dead_pool2]

I guess people are bloodthirsty no matter where they come from.

[Shouldn't be that surprising]

Seventy five years is a long time to go without having another uprising.

[shenevermisses]

I guess it is. We don't really learn about the first uprising. Just that the war destroyed the nation, and the districts, according to the Treaty of Treason, agreed to the Hunger Games in reparation.

I was in the seventy-fourth Games.

[the_dead_pool2]

Huh, sounds like you got the shit end of the stick for that.

[To put it mildly]

Well, at least it ended at some point. Personally I'm not a big bleeding heart when it comes to death, but I've never liked the forcing people to do it.

[shenevermisses]

It wouldn't have mattered. If I'd been alive for the war, I'd probably have died in it. At least from everything I've heard about it.

So, one way or another, I'd end up where I did.

Not really something that bothers me, really.