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[knifewithnoname]

Who| Pruna and you!
What| Pruna is back in the capitol, cheers for her favourite tributes and goes on a research mission.
Where| District 12 suites, common room, library and out and about around the city.
When| In the days following Pruna's (as of yet unwritten) death.
Notes| Standard fare, might be some language. Oh and very awkward discussions about where babies come from for anyone tagging into part 3

[District 12 suites] This time Pruna was expecting to wake up, so she wasn't confused and she didn't struggle. She just sat still and did as she was told as the checked her over and even remembered to say thank you when they let her go.

Effie would have been proud. Pruna wasn't pleased that she had died, but if her count was correct she had lasted longer than last time, it had been a stupid mistake that had killed her though. And she had only killed two people again.

Once she got back to her room she pulled on what had became her favourite dress, a simple yellow cotton one with white frills on the sleeves and orange flowers near the bottom. Then she went to the lounge, to see who was there, before heading over to Sandy's room and knocked on the door. "Sandy do you be being in there?"

[Common room] Later that day Pruna headed down to the common room, her cuff was still round her wrist but she ignored it and the stares she got. She found a seat near a TV and watched as they went through the remaining tributes.

Howard was still alive, Pruna grinned, he was doing well and even though it was stupid that she hadn't outlived him. If she wanted anyone to win it would be Howard. Well maybe Shepard too even if Pruna didn't really trust her. She was alive too, so was that man she had stolen off; annoyingly.

The woman that hurt Sandy as well, she was still alive. Pruna bared her teeth. She should have killed her too. She would kill her. She was also glad to see the Grand Highblood was still alive, and Tim. They might win too.

The man who helped her learn spears, Maximus was next on the list of those still alive and he had killed a few people, and apparently dating the man who had showed her carving. At least Pruna thought that was what the television was saying, and she watched the footage for tips, if she was to make everyone believe she was dating Sandy.

[Library and around town] The library was always a good place to start when you needed to know things. Sandy and Pruna had come a few times before this arena but today Pruna came alone. She smiled at the librarian, who was always nice to her despite her cuff. "I do be needing to be knowing where children do be coming from."

At the woman's blush and flustering Pruna frowned, not understanding. Maybe the librarian didn't know either.

"I did be thinking about it. And sometimes people do be being married and then they do be getting kids. But sometimes they do no be married and do still be getting kids. And then there do be being the kids like me who do no be having parents at all. So I did be thinking maybe parents do no actually be having anything to do with it. Because there do be being people who do be being married and no be having children and I did then be thinking it did be magic. But there do no be any magic here and still kids."

At that the librarian just looked shocked and disappeared, a moment later bringing back a book and telling her that the answer was in there. Pruna nodded and took the book out, going to sit on the edge of a fountain in the city and read it. It was a baby book, at least it seemed so to Pruna. Colourful pictures and not much writing at all, she did sometimes get the feeling the librarian thought she was stupid.

It showed a man and a woman smiling, and said that when they wanted children there was an egg, and a seed and it made a baby. There were some pictures of the baby turning from a dot to a baby and then the couple smiling with the baby in their arms. The woman also seemed to get very big and there was something called a hospital involved. Pruna sighed.

"This do be being stupid." She picked up the book and wandered a bit, seeing a woman with a pram and a second child walking beside her she followed stalking them for a while, as if this would solve her mystery.

It just opened more though, she had seen parents with their children in markets in Gauig before, but had never really paid attention. Hadn't thought them important. But she wrinkled her nose as she watched the mother and the children, she didn't seem angry at them, not even though the baby cried a lot.

She continued to follow them silently.

Comments

[justoutrunyou]

There was some rattling, what sounded like cans being knocked over and the door opened.

Sandy looked like she had been up all night. Bags under her red eyes, her hair a mess. Her night gown (the latest style) was sideways and stained with pain. Fumes of spray paint washed over Pruna as the door opened and Sandy gave a weak smile.

"Welcome "Home"." She gestured to the room inviting her in.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna blinked at her and tilted her head, "What do you be doing?" She stepped into the room, and looked around.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy flopped on the bed after shutting the door and gestured at the ceiling. Everything in the room was covered in news papers and the reason why was clear. Up above them Sandy had painted images of her experiences so far, including fireballs, a bear trap, a doki doki rabbit, and spiders. Nothing nice or pleasant. Just the things that had caused her pain.

"I thought if I painted them it might get them out of my nightmares." And had inadvertently gotten herself a dizzy head from the fumes.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna looked up, seeing the paintings, looking at them in amazement. It wasn't as wild as The Grand Highblood's paintings had been but they were interesting and Pruna stared upwards for a while before wrinkling her nose.

"Do you think it will be working?"

[justoutrunyou]

"No idea. But I'm grasping at straws here. The only stuff that makes me sleep at all anymore is that special tea Effie got me." She sat up again and picked a cup off her night stand peering inside hoping for some more of the tea only to find it was gone.

"Sorry I died." she added dropping the cup to the floor letting it bounce off the carpet.

[fire_punk]

Kevin had finally gotten bored of what he had for entertainment in his suite. He figured he'd see what the Capitol had that passed for movies. Maybe he'd even find some porn.

He hadn't quite known what to expect but seeing Pruna following a mother and her children wasn't one of them. "What are you doing?"

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna glared at the man who had approached her, not sure who he was. She thought she had seen him around at some parties, but wasn't sure if he was a tribute or not.

"It do be being none of your business."

[fire_punk]

He shrugged. "I was just curious." He might be tall enough to pass for a man, but if she really looked at his face, she'd see he was still young yet. And he acted like he was her age more often than not. "Is there a good movie store around?"

[knifewithnoname]

She wrinkled her nose, "Curious cats do be being made into soup." She told him and blinked in confusion. "What do a movie store be being?"

[fire_punk]

"They do?" He'd never heard that one before. "Who'd want to eat cat soup? And it's a store that sells movies."

[gruesome]

The children's section of the library was Some's speed, but he couldn't spend long. As much as he'd have liked to. As soon as the parents there spied him, they tended to gather up their children with haste and leave.

Even before the cuff, when he'd had a certain amount of popularity, few parents had allowed their children near.

He was just arriving when he saw Pruna, and he gave her a quiet nod, looking for a book of his own. Something with pictures. And small words.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna nodded back and then moved forward. She liked Some despite his weird world with weirder gods.

"These books do be being for baby's," she pointed out wrinkling her nose.

[gruesome]

"Babies can't read," he said amicably, flipping through something with pictures of lots of people, his main two eyes watching her while the rest squinted at the page. "I am only still learning to."

[knifewithnoname]

"You do only just be learning?" She wrinkled her nose again and sat down next to him. "Did no one ever be teaching you before?"

[gruesome]

"Grues don't write or read," he explained. "We just tell stories out of memory. My friend Hermione was teaching me for a while, but she left."

[president_evil]

"Find it lacking, did we?" came a voice from nearby.

Wesker had found himself a seat on a bench beneath the sweeping branches of a tree, the shade preferable not just to the heat, but the bright, unrelenting rays of the sun.

(The glasses helped, but could only do so much. They hadn't been meant for eyes such as his.)

His legs were crossed, ankle resting on one knee, and one arm was stretched along the back of the bench - a silent warning to any who might have been foolish enough to attempt approach without invitation. His.

In the other hand was a book. A red cover, the dust-jacket removed.

He didn't look up at Pruna's long-suffering sigh, just turned a page with a careful shift of his fingers.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna looked up and saw Wesker there, she smiled, because she liked Wesker even though she felt a bit embarrassed. She had told him, last time they had met, that she would win. But here she was having obviously not won, even if she had done better than last time.

She sighed again from where she sat. "It do be being stupid, and it do no be telling me anything."

[president_evil]

When compared directly to some of the others - say, the gladiator, or Ms. Dee Milo - Pruna was rather easy to overlook, but on her own, taking into account the ease in which she manipulated others and turned upon her fellows, Wesker was rather encouraged.

Talents such as those were so very hard to teach.

"Perhaps you're asking the wrong questions."

He marked his page with his finger and tipped his book down. "What is you wish to know?"

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wrinkled her nose at that, because it sounded exactly like something Kant would say.

"I do be wanting to be knowing how we do be existing. No the gods sending our souls to our bodies I do be knowing that bit, but where do the bodies be coming from. This book do be saying an egg and a seed but what do you be doing with them? Planting them?" She tried to imagine babies growing in fields like potatoes. "You do no be having magic here and this book do be being for babies."

[president_evil]

She wanted to know where babies came from.

How adorably droll.

"A poetic way of putting it, to say the least," he drawled, amused. "But not technically incorrect."

At least it wasn't falling back on the old 'stork' trope.

"The egg comes from a woman, the - 'seed,' as they so colorfully put it - is from the male. Together, they create a baby and it's planted inside the woman." His head tipped. "There's no magic involved, I assure you. Merely biology."

District 12 Suites

[setfires]

Cinna approved of the dress that Pruna kept choosing to wear, though he was considering finding ways to sneak in more like it to see if she'd change colors or styles.

"Good morning," he said in his ever-calm voice when he saw her. "How are you feeling?"

[knifewithnoname]

"Good morning Cinna." She smiled, Effie would definitely be pleased with her manners.

"I do be being okay," she wrinkled her nose and poked at her tooth, one of her molars near the front. "My tooth do be being back and it do be being wobbly again."

This was a mystery, she worried it with her tongue a bit.

"Do you be being okay?"

[setfires]

"I'm comfortable," Cinna replied, not really willing to get into his emotional state with the girl. "Do you want me to have a prep team to look at your tooth?"

[knifewithnoname]

She clamped her mouth shut. "It do just be a baby tooth." She argued, "But it did be falling out and now it do be being back and that did never be happening before."

She didn't like the prep teams. they made her sit still and complained about the state of her hair, even when Pruna had went to lots of trouble to brush it.

[setfires]

"I see," Cinna said. "It's probably a side effect of coming back from the Arena," he commented thoughtfully before focusing on her again. "How are you feeling after this Arena?"