[open]

[smarterthanthem]

Who| Clementine and OTA
What| Clem didn't get any family visiting so naturally she decides to go occupy her time with weaponry instead
Where| The Training Centre
When| Family fun week
Warnings/Notes| Er... let's go with possible swears and talk of violence

Clementine had been unlucky, or perhaps lucky, in that no familiar faces had shown up for her this week. Maybe she was too new, too unknown still for the Capitol to have an idea for making a spectacle of her that way yet. Being small and practiced at hiding and sneaking she'd managed so far to avoid too much of the limelight, just the way she preferred it.

So (in what was definitely not a distraction from the dull ache of disappointment in her chest) she'd decided to focus on training for the upcoming arena. When that was exactly she wasn't sure and no one seemed able to tell her, making it seem all the more important to practice while she could. Plus, with everyone else busy with their visitors the place seemed quieter than what she normally assumed it would be.

"Way too heavy." Clem says as she passes a line of swords, axes and maces, pushing down the sense of fear at the idea of someone coming at her with one of those. "Way too... I don't even know what that is." she frowns at something else. The survival stations at least look more familiar to what she knows.

Comments

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Start with something small."

Guess who? Yes, even with her father here, and words could not express how overjoyed Mindy was, she didn't shirk on her duties, and her dad expected nothing less. She was already neatly on her way to be heading a few dummies when she saw Clementine looking at weapons. Naturally, she was obliged to help.

"You can work your way up with long ranged weapons, but never underestimate the shit you can do with something close ranged. All it takes is learning how to use it."

[smarterthanthem]

"I don't think I could manage much else." Clementine greets Mindy with a smile, turning to look at her and listening to what she says. "I know how to shoot a gun, not so much a bow."

She picks up a hunting knife as she speaks, turning it over in her hands. If only she'd had something this well made when killing Walkers.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"You and I have something else in common then," she said, smiling. "I'm fucking Ace with a gun. Bow and arrow, that takes getting used to, and you need to have that accuracy down or your screwed. That's why, if it comes down to it, short ranged is your best friend."

She looked at the knife. "Go for the dummy."

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine nods, "I've seen crossbows before but never used one." Mostly from people firing at her or others from a distance. "Do they ever let people have guns in the arena?"

With a shrug she does as Mindy asks, even if she's not a mentor for Clem's district per se she won't turn down help. Clementine approaches the dummy and looks at it, with slight hesitation. Just imagine it's a Walker, which helps in some regard -- though not in that she's used to aiming for the head and that's above her reach currently. With a breath she stabs forward hard into the dummy's stomach.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Are you kidding?" Mindy grinned. "You don't get it easily, at least not when I went in, but once I had it? It was my best friend."

Mindy watches her, nodding. "Not bad. Getting them in the stomach, though, that's not the best way to go after someone. I mean, if you want them to suffer, sure. But if they can still move, they'll be very, very pissed off with you. You might want to go for the vitals if you're not into a long fight, and considering your size, you might not want that."

[ka_sera_sera]

"You'd need a horse to use it anyway," Roland says from the doorway. Best to announce himself before getting too close, after all. "Or at least, your opponent needs to be riding something. Difficult to get any good practice in with that one, unless these training rooms are much more well stocked than I thought." He moves closer, looking over the wall she'd been looking at. "Looking for anything in particular?"

[smarterthanthem]

"Really?" Well that puts that out even if she did know it, Clementine's never even been near a horse before (though she did pet a cow once). "Hi Roland. I started off looking for guns, they don't seem to have any though."

[ka_sera_sera]

"I've noticed that." He bends a little, inspecting the patterns engraved on a particularly well decorated axe. "With all this place's machines and weaponry, they could have gotten plenty of guns if they wanted."

Roland straightens, putting that particular mystery behind him for the time being, and turns toward her. "Any other weapons you're familiar with?"

[smarterthanthem]

"Maybe they think we're too likely to try and escape if they let us have them out here." she says with a frown, watching him. "Though they have crossbows and things." They're not as fast as a gun, so maybe that's the difference.

Clementine thinks, "Uh, knives... and other stuff, whatever's good for getting through the head. No one ever taught me to fight with them properly though." It's a good thing Walkers have no sense of self-preservation really.

[khiluz]

As far as Fíli is concerned, it is a blessing that no people he knows have come. He is sure of that much because he already has his brother here and that is difficult enough, he is not sure how he would handle a visit from someone else, even if they did not stay for long.

Especially when Kíli is still trying to hide the truth of the arena from him, unknown to him that Fíli has already found out on his own.

Fíli is sitting near enough to hear the girl as she looks at the larger weapons. "You need something lighter, yes. Smaller perhaps." He has quite a few daggers on display around him, as he contemplates each blade. "Have you ever used any sort of weapon before?"

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine rounds and see a man with... whoa, hair and a beard unlike anything she's ever seen! He's suprisingly short too (though her still has a few inches on her).

"Guns mostly. Or whatever's lying around when I need one." Most recently a hammer. She looks curiously at him, "Who are you?"

[khiluz]

It is rather surprising for him to find someone in this place shorter than him. He finds himself both scared and disgusted that children so young would be brought to this place, to be tossed into battle and death.

She is far too young, yet she speaks of things Fíli does not understand entirely.

"I have never heard of guns before," he confesses, as he puts down the dagger in his hand to tilt his head at her in greeting. "I am Fíli. And yourself?"

[smarterthanthem]

"You don't know what a gun is?" Clementine is surprised. "It's something you shoot people with." she glances over at the archery side, "Like a bow and arrow, but faster and easier.

"I'm Clementine." She'd question the unusualness of the name if she hadn't been barraged with a lot of strangely named and clothed people since arrival.

[aintyourdad]

Joel doesn't often use the training centre for its intended purpose - he doesn't really see the point of training, in general. But what it's good for is escaping. Getting out of the ever-present public eye, while not being a total shut-in. Sometimes there are friendly faces, and that helps, too. Tess is here, but he sometimes can't quite look her in the eye, and he has no idea when she'll be leaving again (she will be leaving again, that he knows) - it's difficult. Sometimes he needs to get away, even from her.

The little girl today is a new face, and one that sends a pang through his chest. She's so young, and it just makes Joel even more angry with the Capitol. Those bastards.

"Ever tried a bow and arrow?" he asks the girl quietly, so as not to startle her. "Takes some arm strength, but it's still easier than an axe."

[smarterthanthem]

She doesn't jump, thankfully. Living people can be a hell of a lot quieter than Walkers, she's going to have to start getting used to that, remembering that the opponents she'll be facing will be living. Back home the living were more dangerous than the dead usually but never found in great quantity.

"... no, never have. I've seen other people use them." From a distance. "Is it hard to learn?" Clementine might as well ask if he's making suggestion.

[aintyourdad]

"Easy to learn, tough to master," Joel says with a shrug, pulling a small bow down - too small for him, and still probably too big for the girl, but it should be okay for her to handle.

He tests the string on it experimentally, giving it a couple of tugs. "Aiming's the toughest part - it don't shoot straight the way a gun does, and you have to take a lot more account of wind and stuff. But it's quiet."

As he says all this, he's paying attention to the girl - she's a new face to him, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. What does intrigue him is the way she stands, the way she holds herself. Like she's wary of attack. If she's new here, she's probably from a pretty tough place. Joel can appreciate that.

"What's your name?"

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine watches, arm folding loosely over her stomach. It's a subconsciously defensive gesture from ingrained wariness of stranger, yet she's clearly paying attention to everything he says, eyes on the bow. In her case long range is definitely the better option and since guns seem to be out learning to shoot a bow might be her best option.

"Quiet is good. It's Clementine."

[onlyimmune]

Ellie wandered down to the training center fairly regularly, as a way to blow off steam, so it wasn't such a strange thing that she wandered in on Clementine right then. It did surprise her, however - the number of kids among the tributes were few enough that she kept careful count of them, and a smile slipped to her lips as she stepped over.

"Who the fuck even knows," She said cheerfully. "Looking for something to cave someone's head in, or just scare them a little?"

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine was taken aback for a moment at the sight of another girl (still her senior by probably a few years) around here. "Well, anything that'll help me not die would be a good start."

[onlyimmune]

"Dude, I am really good at not dying," Ellie said, offering a grin. She'd died twice, here, but it really didn't count when you got jumped by psychos.

"I'll be totally honest. Your best bet? Run the fuck away as fast as you can. Shotgun would be my second recommendation, but they don't tend to let us have those."

[smarterthanthem]

"Only time I ever fired a shotgun it knocked me flat on my back, anyway." Clementine feels her lips curve higher, couldn't fight it even if she wanted to. The older girls cavalier attitude is refreshing -- though she thinks she's pretty serious about the advice of running away. "I usually stick to handguns."

[deafscythe]

"That is a halberd." And here's an adult, or someone close to an adult. A teenage boy, dressed like a Catholic priest, casually walking up behind Clem and observing her attempts to identify the weapons.

[smarterthanthem]

Clementine blinks, "... looks like it'd be hard to handle, anyway. For me." her eyes flick upwards as if at the top of her head to emphasise her lack of height. The Halberd is near twice as tall as she is.

[deafscythe]

He reaches out to a spear-like object next to the halberd, pulling it out of the rack. It's slightly taller then Clementine, but not quite as tall as the other weapons.

"This is a naginata. It has several advantages in battle, especially the ability to keep a taller, heavier opponent at a distance. Because of your size, some kind of polearm would be best."

[smarterthanthem]

"It might be too heavy." she says doubtfully, eyeing it. "I'm not exactly muscly."

Clementine hold out her -- to be sure -- thin arms to demonstrate.