thecapitol | Living inside the shell

Entry tags:

Living inside the shell

Who| Mindy, open
What| The victor returns to the Capitol.
Where| Various Places
When| After being patched up
Warnings/Notes| Mindy, so foul language and descriptions of violence.

After the last few weeks, it was a breath of fresh air to be back in the Capitol. It was not something she would have easily admitted to herself, but at least here there was a sense of ease, knowing that she didn't have to be watching her back for death.

Mostly.

It was strange too. She almost felt alien, coming back here with the win. Death had at least made her an equal: now she was an object, to be striven for or hated or stared at or asked questions to. The crowing would come soon enough, she knew that, and what a pain that would be. Words to say,things to plan, and really, all she wanted was to make sure all her friends were all right. certain ones would hare her now, of course, but that was expected. She had, after all, let the games' nature affect her.

She was more than happy to be restored though: all the bleeding and the aching had taken a toll on her, and she was ready for aching she at least only inflicted on herself. There were several ways of going through with this.

1. The Training room. It was always Mindy's "go to" place, and even now there was no reason not to go. She was aware of the stares and the whispers, but she ignored these: after all, she'd come here last time after her defeat, why should her victory be any different? Mindy is hard at work on the treadmill, looking to see if she can increase her speed. There was a lot to think about, and this was the perfect way to NOT have to do that right now. Cut everyone out, hear some mindless music, run like the wind. Easy.

2. Eventually though, there's a place she needed to go: over to District 12, at the top tower to see Sandy. She hated, more than anything, to apologize or even explain herself unnecessarily but in this case it was needed. Sandy wasn't just some girl to her: she was one of the first friends she made, and after what she'd done, she needed to at least talk to her about it. The girl might not listen or care, but Mindy still needed to explain herself. She might run into anyone in District 12 though.

3. In her own tower, she made the unwise choice of attempting to sleep. After that, she thought a mushroom trip might have been more peaceful. Now she just had visions of the worse things in the Arena: beheading, throat slitting, bombs going off, and all of the dead looking at her as if she were the cause. It was pretty gory, and Mindy had awoken wide eyed and breathing hard. So anyone in the Tribute tower, especially in her District, can see the girl sitting in the room now, oversized shirt on, watching a replay of the games, almost glassy eyed.

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Fee wasn't sure how to react to everything Mindy just said, especially the last line of her little bent. She wasn't exactly ready to declare her desires herself, but she appreciated the sentiment nonetheless.

"I should start with the easiest to master, wouldn't you agree?"

Yeah, that was a bit over the top. Mindy would have admitted that. Considering the woman wasn't fainting from shock though, it let her know she could continue.

"Ok. A simple pistol then. Let's start with seeing how you can aim, to start."

"That sounds easy enough," Felicity agreed. She knew a thing or two about aiming, due to her archery training. However, aiming a pistol and aiming a bow were not exactly the same thing. For starters, her positioning would be terrible. She wasn't even certain how one should properly hold a pistol.

"No, no, not like that," she said, taking the gun. "You're starting out, so start with an Isosceles Stance. Keep your legs apart, bend them slightly. Yeah, just like that. Keep your shoulder and feet steady. Now, aim the gun with your arms locked in an Isosceles triangle, and aim."

Hating to fail at anything on the first try, Felicity took a deep, humbling breath and made a second attempt. Her stance still wasn't perfect, but there was some improvement over her first attempt.

"This is better, isn't it? I might actually be able to shoot something like this."

"The trick is getting your center of gravity. Once you get good at it you don't even think anymore about it. You can just trust yourself to get the balance right. It's the best thing about a pistol: they're lightweight, pretty accurate and don't require you to be balls on accurate."

Not that she wasn't always, of course.

Felicity practiced assuming the stance a few more times before she was certain she had it down properly. Of course, she'd need more practice in the future to assure she'd memorized how to use the weapon as an extension of herself, but she felt rather confident considering it was her first go.

"Are the other guns much more difficult than this one?"

"Of course, because every gun is a little different. They fit you hand different, they might shift your stance, they might have a recoil once you get to something bigger. You always want to be familiar with your piece, or who knows what might happen?"

Mindy was right, of course. There was so much Fee had to learn, she was so poorly prepared. If she wanted to stand a chance at winning, or even at protecting herself, she had to know all of these things.

Her confident facade faltered for the slightest of seconds as she wiped a golden curl from her brow. "May I ask you something? How many times were you in the Arenas before you won?"

She could see the woman was determined. That was good, actually. It meant she would master it soon, and the quicker she did, the better it would be.

The question, of course, made her feel awkward. "That was my second time. The first time I lost, I too the defeat pretty personally. I was in the training room practically every day."

"How did you die the last time?" Felicity was still going over her own death in the Arena with great frequency. She was bitter about what had happened with Cindy, especially over Cindy leaving her to linger and suffer and not ending it quickly. It was enough to make Fee want to seek revenge.

"There was a bear trap. It got me on the leg, and the bitch that set it got on me, driving it further so it was pretty much snapping the leg. I took her eye for that, so she left me to die. Was crawling along when Guy came. He talked with me even as the pain was taking me, then gave me a mercy kill. It was still one of the noblest things I ever felt, to have him take me out with dignity. After that, well, swore not to go out like that again."

"And you knew for certain that you would come back?" Felicity still had a hard time understanding how everyone seemed so sure that there was life after death in the arenas.

"I talked to people while I was fleeing for my life. No real reason for them to lie about something so insane. It's still insane to me, actually. Didn't mean it didn't hurt though. Fuck, did it hurt. Then again, so does an arrow in the shoulder."

It was still insane to Fee, too. She'd been to a world where death had been essentially personified. There was no coming back from that sort of decay, once it started in the soul. It was painful to think about, even now that she'd experienced it. "How many people did you kill in the Arena?"

"Directly? Five. Indirectly, two more. Seven. Why do you ask?"

"Curiosity." Fee lowered her gaze, swallowing hard. "I have never killed a human before. I do not know that I can do it."

"You can duck and hide for awhile, but it won't make a difference. Something or someone will be trying to kill you. If you want, just try to make sure its not in cold blood."

"I shan't let myself be murdered again," she answered assuredly. "I won't let anyone put me down like she did." She, being Cinderella.

"Good. That's a good place to start. Hell, it was what I was saying to myself when I was killed in the last Arena. The training room became my house at that point."

The older girl gave a resolute nod. "Then I shall have to make myself right at home here."

Realizing then that Mindy hadn't needed to help her, Fee found herself nodding in acknowledgement. She might not be the most polite of individuals, but she could give credit where it was due. "Thank you for your help. You didn't need to do that for me. I'm not even in your district."

"Can't hurt." Mindy, after all, had been pretty successful once the next Arena had come around, after all. If anything, this would at least make you stronger.

"Eh. I'm not going to not help you because you're not in my district. Help us help. I'm still going to be going for every training session I can get, even if its not in my district. That's how you learn."

"That's very smart of you." She would take Mindy's advice to heart, not only because advice from a victor was likely sound, but because it made sense in general. Felicity didn't want to depend on anyone for anything. Her body had to be her own, the same way her mind did. She would improve everything she could, across the board. "I suspect we will cross paths down here again."

"I don't doubt it," Mindy said, nodding in her direction. "Hey, see me sometime if you want to hang. I know it'll look weird being around a kid, but hell. Could use the company right?"

Mindy was right, she could use the company. So she nodded in response, looking over her shoulder at Mindy. "Ninth floor, right? I'm on the second."

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hit_girl_mindy - 2014-04-05 04:50 (UTC) - Expand

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iphigeneia - 2014-04-07 20:36 (UTC) - Expand

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