Melody 2 : Action

[rutagraveolens]

[Morning]

[Ever since the fireworks the previous day, Rue was on edge. The fireworks were too much like cannon fire, each boom a notification of another tribute gone. That the fireworks were to announce the departure of people didn't help any.

Nor she get any sleep the previous night. Rue dreamed of whippings and executions, a reaping she couldn't escape from, a game she couldn't win. She saw the boy from District 1 - Marvel - raise the spear, throw-- and woke up tangled in blankets on the floor.

Silence surrounded her as she had breakfast in House 34. She left Melody sleeping in her room and made sure her knife was on her before she slipped out for the day.

She did her usual rounds - library to return some books, bakery to pick up a snack, convenience store for a drink - before wandering the south path parallel to the river. She'd never traveled down the road before and was curious where it went. Eventually Rue found herself by the Art Gallery. After some hesitation, she entered the building. It was nice and quiet, peaceful inside. She roamed the gallery, taking her time looking over the different pieces of artwork there.

When she came across Peeta's paintings and found herself staring at her own face, her face crumbled. She reached up to touch the paintings, drawing back she realized she shouldn't do that. The wings were the right color; the yellow of her own feathered wings, the blue of the dress she wore on stage in the Capitol. Her breath quickened and caught as Rue burst into ugly sobs.]

[Afternoon - behind Slash 'n Crash]

[After calming down, Rue went to Slash 'n Crash for target practice. Bow in hand and a quiver of arrows on her back, Rue methodically shot arrow after arrow into the targets. Her aim wasn't the best, but she was still hitting the target each time. She remembered Katniss' lessons as she drew, notched, and shot each arrow.

When she shot the last arrow in her quiver, Rue went to the targets, pulled out every arrow, put them back into her quiver, walked to her starting place, and began shooting again.]

((ooc; Now with links! The first painting is the one of her looking over a puddle and her reflection, the second is her holding a bouquet of flowers.))

Comments

[rutagraveolens]

They make meals you can take with you here. There's a restaurant in town too, the food's really good.

[Rue prepared herself for Johanna's refusal of the ideas. Though she liked the bento boxes from the convenience store, eating at a restaurant and being served food felt too weird. It was probably what people in the Capitol did every day.]

[axed]

Funny how you just can't stop blathering about the food. Victors always do that, first year in the Capitol. The ones who aren't Careers.

[rutagraveolens]

You know not every District gets as much food as others. And it's hard picking and packing food and shipping it to the Capitol, knowing you'll never eat it.

[axed]

Kind of remarkable it took you lot as long as it did to throw in the towel and start stabbing the Peacekeepers with your pitchforks.

[ At least in Seven, there had been the forests, where the braver inhabitants of the district could duck past fences to range and hunt. A space of relative freedom, hard to patrol and regulate due to their size and geography. Freer at least than plantations and factories. ]

[ Not that Rue had been around for any of those revolts. ]

[rutagraveolens]

Sometimes people rebelled. The Peacekeepers would round them up and their families and execute them in front of everyone. Then they left the bodies in the square for a few days.

It was worse in the summer.

[Rue studied the shelves and took a small pack of dried mango off the shelf.]

But some people scavenged for food. They'd sneak out at night and go back to the orchards or find ways past the fence into the meadows beyond.

[axed]

Oh, is it storytime? No it isn't. Spare me, I've heard plenty of it already.

[ Johanna bites into a piece of apricot with a little more viciousness than usual, though. She knows well enough how brutal the iron fist of the Capitol was. She'd spent a good period of the rebellion locked in the Capitol's bowels or strung out on morphine (lucky her!), but when she'd returned to Seven, after everything had over, the devastation had shaken even her. Towards the end they'd started setting fires indiscriminately, burning huge swathes of forest and homes with them. ]

[rutagraveolens]

[Rue knew she shouldn't take Johanna's words personally. The games affected everyone in different ways and no one ever said Johanna was nice or hard to be. She was a Victor, she lived through her game and would spend the rest of her life mentoring Tributes and watching them die. Then there was the Quarter Quell, though that was a part Katniss hadn't told Rue about.

She knew she shouldn't take Johanna's words personally. But today Rue didn't have patience for anyone.]

Okay. Bye Johanna.

[And she'll turn away and head down the aisle toward the exit.]

[axed]

[ Johanna watches her go, then shrugs. At least walking away is a step up from passively rolling over and trying to make nice. Maybe there's some hope for the kid yet. ]

[ She rolls up the packet of apricots and slides it into her bag. What else? Coffee, she should get some coffee. God knows Peeta's made enough rolls to dunk in coffee for weeks and weeks. And hey, she managed to kick her morphling habit, she's allowed her small addictions. ]

[ Pretty productive trip to the store after all. ]