open ; i said one day the valley's gonna swallow me whole

[anthophobia]

CHARACTERS ▶ Katniss Everdeen and You~
LOCATION ▶ Marketplace/Bazaar, Agriculture Zones, or anywhere
SUMMARY ▶ Running into people while out and about.
WARNINGS ▶ None
NOTES ▶ Something of an intro post, though she's been around for four years. Feel free to assume shit if you want, I'll go with the flow.

Marketplace

It's her day off, which means it's time to roam the city rather than sit at home and do nothing. She heads into the bazaar first to grab a quick lunch and peruse through the goods, taking her time at a stand selling pins as well as listening to a few of the musical performers. You may even catch her humming some of the more familiar tunes.

Agriculture Zone

While she doesn't work here, she does come down to the lower layers when she's able, if only to smell the various things growing down here. The forest was a huge part of her life in the Matrix, a place where she relaxed and felt safe, and that hasn't changed. It's not the same as being under a canopy of trees, but it's the closest thing she can get around here.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Want to run into her somewhere else, just make a starter and I'll go with it. :)

Comments

[axeyou]

"Working, sleeping and eating," she mimics back at Katniss, her mouth still drawn in that sweet little smile. Totally fake. Even if their time together in the Matrix was fake? Katniss is still going to be able to read her. She's being as obvious as she can, to make a point. "Like you said. What else does anyone do around here."

She's keeping her pace slow, more like a leisurely stroll than the way she might otherwise storm through Zion. In fact, the way that she's walking, they might just be two friends. (Are they friends?)

"What's 'working', for you? Wait, let me guess. I bet it involves fancy costumes."

[anthophobia]

Katniss has never entirely known if they were friends. Allies, sure, insomuch as anyone can be. Mutual survivors. They both understood something that most people couldn't. It was just a thing that happened when you became a victor.

Katniss rarely had friends. The same could be said for Johanna. Who knew? In the end, it really didn't matter.

"I fix things. Mechanical things. Not clothes."

That had been Cinna's job. It would always be Cinna's job.

[axeyou]

"Well, yeah, not clothes." Like, duh. Like she knows Katniss so well. She knows about Katniss, anyways--the Katniss in the Matrix, the Katniss who won her Hunger Games with a total lack of finesse but a neat little trick at the end. "I wouldn't trust you with a needle and thread. Or anything that took creativity."

But mechanical kind of makes sense. Technical, the way you have to be when tracking a shot or making a choice. Less heart, more head. Sometimes. Sometimes people like Katniss get big ol' bleeding hearts. But in the Real? That changes everything.

"What do you do with what you make? Don't tell me you come down here and blow it all shopping. Or drinking. I mean, you have to do something with it. No cute baby sister to send it home to."

[anthophobia]

"I could probably stitch someone up if I had to." It was the best skill she could do with a needle and thread, and she'd seen her mom and...Prim do it enough times. But Johanna was right in the fact that that didn't exactly take creativity. The one thing that she'd been required to do that had...she'd had Cinna's help. Again.

Katniss was actually thinking about her answer, was going to give her another boring and average reply that would move the conversation along and hopefully make it reach an ending as some point.

But Johanna sure knew what buttons to press.

Katniss' entire body goes rigid. Memories she tries to suppress, that she has to continually reassure herself that it wasn't real, resurface. With them comes anger, and when she speaks, it's through bared but clenched-together teeth.

"Don't you dare talk about Prim."

[axeyou]

She sure does know what buttons to press. And she'd pressed Katniss' button gleefully, malicious and happy to be so--and now when Katniss stiffens, and spits out her answer: well, gosh. It's pretty thrilling. In her boots, Johanna's toes curl. Thrilling.

She turns her smile on Katniss, mean and sharp and very self-satisfied. Katniss might be as rigid as one of her stupid arrows, but Johanna is as smooth and as limber as ever. She doesn't miss a beat, but she does precede her response with a short pitched laugh.

"I can talk about whoever I want. Sucks, doesn't it? Not being able to shut me up. Not having the pull to get her unplugged." Not that she sounds at all sympathetic. "It's like they say. Everybody loses their special privileges once they slide out of that pod, all naked and sticky and stupid. The Real doesn't have any space for mockingjays. Or for cute sisters. Nobody out here but us bitches."