making the best of it//playing the hand you get

[effective]

Characters: Katniss and you /o/
Date: 5-6 April
Location: Basically all over Keeliai
Situation: Katniss is trying to take her mind off Peeta by doing everything.
Warnings/Rating: PG for potential mentions of violence/torture


[Peeta's gone. And it takes Katniss about two days of sitting around staring at nothing to realise that sitting around and staring at nothing is completely useless. Being catatonic the first time around hadn't done anything to help her, so she doubts giving it a second go would work. Besides, as much as she...cares for Peeta, he's not Prim. She has to find a way of existing without him.

Except she's not really sure what to do. She starts by checking on her supply caches around the turtle, making sure they haven't been disturbed; people might spot her hopping down from tall buildings or walking out of side alleys in any of the sectors, although trying to find out what she was doing down there won't reveal much to anyone who doesn't have a strong eye for detail.

She also hunts. A lot of the animals have been sick or dying, but there's still some game out there. She can be found moving almost silently through the trees with her bow strung and ready to shoot, or later in the marketplace trying to sell a few squirrels to increasingly irritated kedan.

She avoids the community centre, though, not ready to fulfil her promise of showing people how to deal with the rations. It's too many people, too soon. She's still trying to find herself, here.]

Comments

[bindsthedead]

Magic. [Sabriel means it to be reassuring, but she can't help eyeing the kedan nervously.]

Charter Magic, not the other sort.

[effective]

[Even though she's been in this place for nearly three months now, magic isn't something that Katniss is sure she even believes in. Her tone is flat when she speaks again.] I didn't realise there were sorts.

[bindsthedead]

[Sabriel's laugh is short and hysterical.]

I would be happy to explain, but this is hardly the place!

[One of the Kedan is starting towards them- a tall, burly one, with an unfriendly expression on his face]

[effective]

[If there hadn't been a quiet voice in the back of her mind chanting Peeta Peeta Peeta, Katniss probably would have had a little more self-awareness with regards to the kedan. As it is, her entire body goes stiff with the realisation of potential violence.

And then she pulls her bow off her shoulder, pulling an arrow from her quiver and setting it to the string in one fluid movement. The burly kedan stops abruptly, but that tenseness still hangs in the air.

I don't kill people. I don't kill people.] I can loose this arrow and shoot you dead before anyone here can get close enough to stop me. And then we'd have a riot. More people would get hurt. Let us go, and we all go home tonight.

[She's lying - she doesn't kill people - but there's nothing about the harsh expression on her face or the way she bites her words out that give it away. The kedan backs down, but Katniss still doesn't lower her bow] Come on. [This to her new companion, muttered] Let's go.

[bindsthedead]

[Sabriel felt herself freeze as soon as the bow was drawn. Her mind reached back into the Charter, grasping for the marks that would let her blind the crowd for a few minutes, let them get away-

And then the kedan backs away, and Sabriel doesn't bother to hide her relief as she follows after the other girl.]

Have the kedan always been so hostile?

[effective]

[The lines of Katniss' shoulders hold stiff when she realises the other girl is following her, but she doesn't tell her to back off. Yet, at least]

They're worse not. I wasn't here when people started arriving, but when I got here no one was threatening each other in the streets. Openly, at least.

[bindsthedead]

I suppose they're not happy about the rationing, but we're hardly the ones responsible for that.

[Sabriel stops, and tilts her head, holding out a hand.]

My name is Sabriel.