Calm Like a Bomb

[hit_girl_mindy]

WHO| Mindy, Open
WHAT| General hope for CR interaction, basically
WHERE| I'm going to have her in the training center/tribute tower
WHEN| This week
WARNINGS| Swearing and likely dialogue of the adult situations. Mindy just rolls like that.

1. The training room was becoming her home away from home.

Which, honestly, it HAD to be. Home was where dad trained her, home was making herself ready, finding the tired, aching in her bones welcome after the drudgery of the games forcing her to be alert almost constantly. That had happened too soon after her attempt to conform to real life. Even in her "roll with it" personality demanded the switch, it still left her in a hard place, untrained for fucking wilderness and traps.

She knew better now. She'd eaten more, even allowed herself to get dolled up every so often (two random days) so she could regain a little bit of herself. It just helped her regain a foothold back to what she did best: training her body to shatter some bones. A run n the gymnasium cleared her head. A few choice weapons of the stabbing variety kept her senses sharp. A rundown on long ranged weapons told her how much more she had to go. Everything she did, she recorded on a notepad for herself.

There was no more dad here to keep tabs on her: kill or be killed. Mindy wasn't going to go into the latter category easily.

Right at the moment, she was suspended from a rope, her eyes closed. One of the exercises she had set for herself was sensing everything around her. She had lost the previous games because she blundered into a set trap. That had been reckless, and made her feel even dumber for falling for it. She'd make sure that didn't happen again. This meant sensing everything around her, disciplining her body in the case someone or something had to be detected. This, she knew, would be harder to do suspended like this.


2. It was hard to get to sleep sometimes. Between nightmares of her father and her leg getting torn up, her head was becoming a space of unpleasant imagery and that was not something she needed. She was in a faux lap of luxury suite, she didn't need her mind reminding her how desperate everything was: all of this was wrong. So she regressed back to her over sized shirt and walked out of her suite, trying to gather her thoughts.

Comments

[knifewithnoname]

"She will no be getting killed." She pointed her finger, "You can be counting on that."

She wrinkled her nose, "Who did be getting you?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy privately hoped that was the case. She knew Sandy still felt frustrated with doing nothing while people got killed and brought back over and over again.

"That girl Azula. Bear trap that pretty much tore my leg bad enough. Tried to kill me on the spot after too...so I took her eye. She got the message and left me to die."

She was glad she could talk about it casually now, because it hurt like fuck back then.

[knifewithnoname]

"You should be avoiding the leg eaters." Words of wisdom from Pruna there. But she gets the casualness, it's the same tone she used when talking about her own deaths. "Did you be killing anyone?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah, told myself that after it got caught in the trap. But that won't happen again, I can tell you."

At the question, she grimaced. "No. Too busy starving and gaining information."

[knifewithnoname]

"Well you will be doing better next time." She told her, maybe. She seemed tough enough.

"I did just be killing one person this time, and he did be being just a stupid kid."

She had to get better, she had been aiming for at least three, but her eye had gotten in the way.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Next time I won't be asking questions and talking to people," she said. "Sucks, but I'm not exactly in a forgiving mood now."

Well. She wouldn't kill Sandy. Or Ellie. Not unless she was forced to.

"Good on you. A kid huh? Wonder why they're so keen on throwing kids in with adults."

[knifewithnoname]

"I can be handling adults, I have been killing adults before." She shrugged, she didn't really see why they wouldn't throw them in together, it would be complicated if they had to do seperate arenas.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Killing adults was primarily what Mindy had done until now, actually.

"From the way I heard it, the Hunger Games started out with just kids. I'm just wondering what made them change their minds and throw adults in. It might not mean anything, but if I'm stuck here, I wanna know why."

[knifewithnoname]

"Maybe they could no be finding enough kids." She shrugged, "Or maybe they did be wanting more stronger fighters, and there do no be being many kids as strong as us."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"That makes sense," Mindy said, though maybe she should ask Katniss about this. Speaking of that...

"Hey. How did you find about that girl, Katniss Everdeen? I mean, you know, outside her being infamous and all that."

[knifewithnoname]

"She do be being my mentor." Pruna told her, wrinkling her nose. She was pretty sure they had explained this. But Mindy had been new and the arena had probably been confusing.

"She do be being from district twelve and I do be living in the twelve suites. Then me and Sandy did be going to the library and learning about her."

[hit_girl_mindy]

It had been a very heated interaction, and from what Mindy remembered, neither girl had left a favorable impression of the other. But that explained a lot.

"There's a library. Figures. Guess I'm gonna have to go there right after training room from now on. Guess I'm gonna be sorta be in school, in a warped way."

[knifewithnoname]

"What do school be being?" She asked wrinkling her nose, but nodded. "I can be showing you the library if you do be wanting. Do no be asking the stupid lady there anything, she do no be knowing nothing."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"You're kid-school? You know, where you learn your ABC's and math and writing and shit like that? Even if it doesn't exist in your world, hasn't someone here mentioned it?"

Usually preceded by "you're just a kid, you should be in...?"

"The librarian sucks that much, or just another government leech?"

[knifewithnoname]

"No." She shook her head, "I did be learning maths and writing from my guardians." She had never heard of school.

She shrugged, "She do just be being stupid."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Ok, like me then," she said, as Mindy herself had to be home schooled, otherwise how was she going to learn everything she needed to to be as resilient as she was now?

The lack of detail hurt Mindy's head. "Usually they pay you to know this book stuff. All right then. One of the things I still wanna know is how they even got us here to begin with."

[knifewithnoname]

"Well I did be guessing someone did be teaching you." She nodded and wrinkled her nose. "I did no be saying she did be being uneducated, just stupid. She do no be knowing what to be doing with all the stuff in her head and she do be thinking kids should be reading books with pictures and no actual information."

Pruna really hated the librarian.

"Oh they will no be telling you that, it do no be being in any books either, I did already be checking."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah," Mindy said, leaving out that it was her dad. That was her own business. "That sounds pretty damn retarded. Almost makes me want to go out of my way to read the dirtiest shit I possibly can, out loud, in front of her."

Yup. On her to do list.

"Figures. Anything you actually would wanna know they'd keep to themselves. That'll probably take a bitch of a time to find out too."

[knifewithnoname]

She grinned, "Be doing that." Pruna would join her, and drag Sandy along as well.

"Yes I could be finding nothing about their technologies for bringing us back to life either. No one who do no be being very important do be knowing about it." She was still working on a plan to find the information out.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Bothering people. One of Mindy's favorite things to do in her spare time.

"Of course they wouldn't tell us," Mindy grumbled. "Why would they want to tell us how they were able to get us here to begin with? Looks like I'm going to have to do more than expect this dump to actually tell me."

[knifewithnoname]

"Exactly, you do be having to find the answers." And good luck with that.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"At least they don't make it easy," Mindy replied, shrugging. "Just have to be patient. I don't like the whole Nineteen Eighty-four vibe, but I can still wait and see what I can find."

[knifewithnoname]

"What do a nineteen eighty four vibe be being?" She asked wrinkling her nose.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Right, references. Lost on Pruna.

"Basically, the government watches everything you do and monitors your behavior. You can't so much as take a shit without them getting wind about it. What we have to deal with now, pretty much."

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes, that do be being what it do be being like." She nodded and sighed, "They do be having technologies that do be watching you all the time."