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

[demon_brat]

[Damian is out in the woods. It's less of a run and more checking how things are. Not quite a hunt... but as careful.]

[Which is why he realizes there is another hunter, there. Not a kedan. He stills for a moment, considering, then pulls out a mask and quickly places it over his eyes. Robin will have more of a reason to act with the agility and speed that he's not willing to surrender, right now.]

[And he keeps on moving. Not disturbing snares (what there is, of those), not seeking out the other hunter, but not going out of his way to evade them, either.]

[effective]

[She hears him before she sees him.

The noise is light enough to be a deer, but it's almost too deliberate. Katniss isn't so hungry that she'd rather risk being attacked than scaring off a meal. She sets an arrow to the string] Who's there?

[demon_brat]

[Pause. He actually stops moving altogether. And then.]

Robin. And you are?

[What. If she can ask, so can he, right?]

[effective]

[He goes still before she can place his exact location, which only makes her more uncomfortable. She moves so that a tree is at her back, so quietly that the leaves barely crunch underfoot]

Katniss. Are you you going to try and kill me? [Doesn't hurt to ask, although she doesn't know if she'll believe the answer]

[demon_brat]

[Well, that is an unexpected question. And one that he hasn't actually heard... directed at him in a year and a half, if not more. He hesitates for a moment, not wondering what to answer but how to phrase it. Eventually, he settles for simplicity.]

I don't kill people.

[Anymore.]

[But the question also makes him realize what he frame of mind is - and he also has some idea which way she is. So he. He moves closer across the trees, before dropping down and walking the last of the distance to becoming clearly visible. Eyes on her bow.]

Can you shoot that?

[effective]

[She stills a little, the familiarity of the words startling her. Something that she's had to remind herself over and over since she was dragged to this place]

Neither do I.

[Anymore.

She relaxes very slightly when she sees him coming into view, but doesn't lower the bow just yet. She raises her eyebrows at the question, because it's been a long time since anyone has questioned her abilities with a bow. Sometimes she forgets that not everyone knows the girl on fire, in this place] Yes.

[demon_brat]

[Well. That is an understanding that would have surprised this little bird, if he was aware of it.]

Yeah? While doing what?

[He may not be above bragging, somewhat. Weapons, man. You keep a weapon trained on him, he'll try to show you that he's better with it than you.]

[effective]

[She stares at him for a moment. He's young, but that doesn't mean anything.]

Is that a threat. [Maybe he doesn't kill people, but there are worse things than death]

[demon_brat]

[The sort of question makes him backpedal, mentally, a little. He has never met somebody this old who is this - afraid? He blinks, behind the mask, and tries to figure out what to do about it.]

No, I thought it more of a challenge, but... it doesn't have to be.

Are you okay?

[effective]

[There's a pause, before she snorts, and finally lowers the bow. The arrow stays in her hand, just in case] I don't play games with weapons. [There's a certain bitterness to her tone. She's not scared, just overly suspicious.

She shrugs] Not really. [She doesn't seem too bothered by this fact]

[demon_brat]

I don't play games.

[Not ones that he doesn't stay perfectly aware that can turn deadly.]

[Also now that he knows the answer? He has no idea what to do with it. So he turns it back to things he knows. Like, oh, that he can catch an arrow out of thin air.]

Shoot at me.

[effective]

[Her expression twists, almost distressed, definitely angry. It doesn't matter that he's the one asking her to shoot at him, all she's really processing is that someone is asking her to shoot at a person again]

I don't kill people. [She spits the words. The arrow in her fingers snaps in two]

[demon_brat]

That was wasteful.

[He did perk up at the snap, and now he's looking over and up at her.]

You wouldn't kill me. No, before you ask, I don't have magic, but I have enough training to pluck an arrow out of the air in the middle of a fight, and I can most certainly do it when I can see it being aimed and shot.

So I wasn't asking you to do that.

[Slowly, he comes closer, and - if the young woman doesn't back away - holds his hand out for the pieces of the arrow.]

Do you make them yourself?

[effective]

[She grits her teeth] It's mine to waste.

[She does back away when he approaches, mind racing through the possible escapes. His bragging barely touches the sides; she's seen and heard it all before, and the ones who did it are all dead while she's hear to listen to someone else.]

I'm not letting you inspect my weapons. I'm definitely not handing a stranger in the woods something pointy.

[demon_brat]

[Eyeroll, not that it can be seen behind the mask, and he moves his arms just so - then there are a pair of daggers in his hands, clearly glinting for a moment before he puts them away again.]

I have a lot of pointy things. They won't wind up in you.

[effective]

Her hands move the seconds his do, grabbing another arrow and setting it to the string in one quick, smooth movement. Her voice, on the other hand, shakes as she spits out the words. Get away from me.

[Sorry bro, there's no off switch for PTSD]

[demon_brat]

[... whoa.]

All right.

[And Damian does move back, making an easy flip - and staying in plain sight. On the one hand, leaving her alone altogether right now seems like a good idea. On the other... this kind of reaction is likely to go with a healthy dose of paranoia. If he disappears into the foliage, she's like to wonder if he's not stalking her.]

[... or he would be wondering, if he were to be reacting that strongly.]