Action/Dictated | Expedition

[the_effect_she_has]

[The journal blows up open while Katniss is sitting at her tent, tending to her bow, during the nighttime hours. She is singing - trying to push back the darkness of the Dead Zone - while she runs the polishing cloth along the smooth black wood of the bow. It's a song from Panem, a song of District 12, and she remembers the day she sang it. A golden haired boy had remembered it too, and that makes her smile a little as she sings in a pure and beautiful voice.]

Down in the valley, the valley so low
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow
Hear the wind blow, dear, hear the wind blow;
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow.
Roses love sunshine, violets love dew,
Angels in Heaven know I love you,
Know I love you, dear, know I love you,
Angels in Heaven know I love you.
If you don't love me, love whom you please,
Throw your arms 'round me, give my heart ease,
Give my heart ease, dear, give my heart ease,
Throw your arms 'round me, give my heart ease.
Build me a castle, forty feet high;
So I can see her as she rides by,
As she rides by, dear, as she rides by,
So I can see her as she rides by.
Write me a letter,'Send it by mail,
Send it in care of Birmingham Jail,
Birmingham Jail, love, Birmingham Jail,
Send it in care of Birmingham Jail

Comments

[assassino]

[He approaches from behind, quietly but taking no care to hide his footsteps.]

Sad song, for a young woman.

[the_effect_she_has]

There's not many happy songs, in the Seam, except for children.

[Her hand had strayed towards her blade, but then went back again. If someone wanted to kill her - they would have made no noise at all.]

[whistles_the_blues]

[A little while after she finishes singing the song. He'll whistle the tune back over the journal.]

[the_effect_she_has]

[Her eyebrows shoot up from surprise.]

...sounds like we have a mockingjay out there.

[whistles_the_blues]

Never heard of a mockingjay before, but I suppose so.

Just a fan of music.

[the_effect_she_has]

Back where I come from - it's a bird that can listen and mimic every sound you make. Entire songs, in fact.

[She's quiet, for a moment.] I wasn't -- but I learned to be. A fan of music, I mean.

[whistles_the_blues]

Hm. Talented bird, that's pretty impressive.

I suppose it's not for everyone, at first at least. Listened to it a lot before I started traveling, then I made up my own.

[the_effect_she_has]

So are you some sort of musician? [She's never met one before, outside of the Capital.]

[whistles_the_blues]

Not really, it's just a hobby. For entertainment while I'm on the go. Since I arrived I've been trying to learn an instrument, We'll see how that goes.

[the_effect_she_has]

[She nodded her head slowly, before she pursed her lips.] I hear the guitar is easy.

Oh snap, I forgot to mention this was dictated

[whistles_the_blues]

Oddly enough, that's exactly what I'm working on.

It's cool! These things, they do happen.

[the_effect_she_has]

[She snorted softly, and with appreciation.] What do you play?

[whistles_the_blues]

I used to just whistle, I'm getting better with the guitar.

I prefer to either play rock or the blues. Make up my own tunes as I go along.

[the_effect_she_has]

I've never heard either one of those, until Mark showed me. [She sounds almost wistful.] Most of our music is sung.

[whistles_the_blues]

Oh, why's that? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[the_effect_she_has]

We don't really have time for music, in the Seam. Well ... we didn't. [One corner of her mouth lifts up.] There will probably be more singing now.

[whistles_the_blues]

The Seam?

Hm. That's sounds like a real shame, or at least it sounds like it was.

[the_effect_she_has]

The Seam. Where I come from, in District 12. It's ... well. It's where the coal lives.

[She thinks about it, her gaze quiet and far away.] I wonder what will happen now, there.

[whistles_the_blues]

I take it there were some big changes there before you arrived here?

[the_effect_she_has]

We just finished the war. We freed ourselves, from the Capital's grip. [Her voice goes quiet.] I lost Prim.

[whistles_the_blues]

I'm sorry to hear that... That you lost someone that is.

[the_effect_she_has]

Thanks ...[She knows a lot of people have had loss here.] So, are you a musician here?

[whistles_the_blues]

Here? Hm. I suppose there's no reason why I couldn't be.

[the_effect_she_has]

People have a lot of time on their hands, here, outside of expeditions and what the castle puts us through.

[whistles_the_blues]

Hm. I suppose you have a point there. More so given that I can't expeditions are out of the question for me.

[the_effect_she_has]

Why can't you go on expeditions? [She figured everyone but small children came along -- and even they managed to sneak through.]

[whistles_the_blues]

Let's just say it's difficult for me to work out there.

[the_effect_she_has]

Ah hah. You don't have powers outside the Dead Zone either. [It takes her a moment to figure that out, but it makes sense why he would want to stay back.]

[whistles_the_blues]

In a sense yes, but not quite. It's not that I don't have powers out there, I'm not powered out there, I literally cannot function once I get to the dead zone.

[the_effect_she_has]

I've never heard of anything like that.

[whistles_the_blues]

Well now you have. There was a place like the Dead Zone where I'm from, I went there once and don't need a repeat of what happened there.

[the_effect_she_has]

..There are places? Where we're from? In the dead zone?

[whistles_the_blues]

No... I'm saying I was a place that does something like the Dead Zone, before I arrived here.

I don't believe there's a connection, but I suppose it's possible.

[the_effect_she_has]

Well, that makes a lot more sense.... I'm sorry that traps you in the village, more or less.

[whistles_the_blues]

Hm, Don't worry about it. It's an adjustment, but I'll be fine.

[the_effect_she_has]

Well, you have seem to adjust well, so good on you.

[whistles_the_blues]

Let's just say I know where I'm better off.

Dictated forever

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Pretty song, Katniss. [Heartbreakingly sad, too, but he's not going to mention that]

How's things going out there?

Re: Dictated forever

[the_effect_she_has]

Thanks, Rabbit. It's a song of the Seam.

[She bit her lip, looking around.] Good. We haven't been attacked yet, so that's always a plus.

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

From your home?

...That's always good, yeah. Nothing interesting happen yet?

[the_effect_she_has]

[She nodded her head.] My father taught me, ages ago. He used to sing it to the mockingjays, and they'd sing it back to him.

[She snorted softly.] Well, I'm meeting new and interesting people. Does that count?

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

So they're like parrots?

[There's a pause. Well, at least that's better than her curled up in a ball hating her life] Fair dinkum, I'd say it does.

[the_effect_she_has]

Something like that - but they can at least carry a tune.

What does that mean again, in your strange, Rabbit language?

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

Well, it's Australian, not rabbit. But it means something is true.

[the_effect_she_has]

Huh. Australian. Are all rabbits like you Australian?

[thatrabbitsdynamite]

No, rabbits like me came from another planet. Australia is just a place I made my home.