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

[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.

[the_dead_pool2]

Well, I guess you are just lucky that way. Personally I can't die, and let me tell you, kind of sucks.

[Living on the edge wasn't as significant when you could survive the fall]

[shenevermisses]

Really? You can't die? At all?

[the_dead_pool2]

Nope. Been exploded, mashed, bashed, fallen into a deep dark pit, bottom of the ocean, space, pretty much anyway that you can think of which should kill someone, I've experienced and came back from in my own world.

[shenevermisses]

That's weird. But kind of cool. Wish I had that kind of talent.

[the_dead_pool2]

Well, I make anything kind of cool.

[He loves getting an ego stroke]

If you think about it though, not always the best.

[shenevermisses]

Probably like anything else: sounds better than it is. But.

[It can't be seen, but she shrugs.]

I died at sixteen. So not being able to die? Sounds pretty great to me.

[the_dead_pool2]

Fair enough.

[He won't get all emo on her now]

It certainly makes being a dynamite juggler a much more prospective career.

[shenevermisses]

Dynamite juggler, huh? Yeah, guess it would.

[the_dead_pool2]

Chainsaws and the like too.

[There is a brief tapping sound as Deadpool drums his fingers on a table]

Personally I'm a mercenary, so it works decently enough for that too.