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first flower. ACTION & VIDEO.
[ Primrose remembered dying. Or - she thought she did. She was almost sure she did. She could recall the child, could see herself taking off her jacket, could hear her name being shouted from behind her, almost drowned out in the chaos (you're imagining things, Prim, but she'd turned anyway) - her name in her sister's voice, which couldn't be the case because after everything Katniss had died, they'd seen it on the television, after Prim had watched two Hunger Games glued to the screens and praying that would never come, and then after the Games...
She remembered seeing Katniss. She remembered saying her sister's name. She remembered -
She didn't remember what had happened after. Or she did, but - she'd been in a city, and now there were trees overhead, and the quasi-familiar sounds of the forest. She'd only ever been outside the gates with Katniss, and each of those times had been years ago. But the shadows on the ground, the crunch of leaves and branches underfoot - these things she could remember.
A forest. It didn't make any sense, and Prim stood shakily, and realized that even less than that made sense: a white dress she'd never worn or seen before, and something on her back. Prim bit her lip, reaching back and - wings. Like some sort of capitol person, or - a muttation? Or what? And a book. Why? She picked it up, turned a few pages, and then shut it at the strangeness. As unsettling at the wings, really.
No city. No children, no healer's uniform, no - ] Katniss? [ Shakily, uncertain. The last person she'd seen, but Katniss wasn't there.
In the absence of any sense of where she was meant to be, Prim chose a direction and began to walk, stepping carefully. ]
action; open; afternoon
[ While she spends a good portion of her morning at her sister's house in her sister's room reassuring herself that Katniss was, in fact, alive and here (if not here), Prim eventually goes to tentatively explore. She makes a foray into town to pick up clothing that isn't borrowed and might actually be hers, Buttercup hot on her heels. The cat apparently isn't letting her out of his sight, for whatever reason.
Prim's grateful for that, although she nearly trips over the cat twining around her ankles several times. Eventually she gives up and picks the tomcat up to tote around, just so she doesn't fall over.
She can be found at the clothing shop, outside the bakery eyeing the decorative cakes and cupcakes displayed inside, or sitting and flipping through her journal on the front step of house 43. Or just walking along the route to or from any of those places - take your pick. ]
voice; evening
[ It doesn't take too long to work out how the book functions. It's strange, certainly, but after playing with it for a while, reading things - listening to things - Prim thinks she can use it. Try to figure things out a bit more. She can't make sense of what she's read and listened to; maybe it's just because it's so everyday compared to where she just was, or maybe it's just that the events and people discussed aren't ones she's familiar with.
She liked listening to the voices, though. Looking at the pictures. The video clips. It was sort of soothing, even if it was all nonsense. Eventually she works up the courage to say something, though. To turn on the video.
Prim is sitting cross-legged on Katniss' bed. It's the place she feels safest, and there might be a shot of the forest mural in the background, but mostly it's Primrose Everdeen, blonde braid falling over her shoulder as she leans in, Buttercup purring madly in her lap. She's petting him absently, and he mews like a kitten whenever she stops. ]
Hello. [ That's said too softly, barely there, and Prim has to clear her throat. Try again. ] Hello. [ This time the greeting is louder, more solid. ] Sorry, I didn't mean to...I'll try to speak up. [ Prim feels awkward, talking to a book, even knowing what it does. She would have written, but Buttercup seems to need the attention, and...well. ] I only got here today, but it's...not a bad place, is it?
[ That sounds tentative but eager. She is, after all, in one piece. And Katniss is, apparently, in one piece. And Buttercup is in one piece. Prim has never asked for much, but all of those things have always been included in what little she wants from life. ] I'm even in time. Just. May eighth is only in...seven days? My sister - she's going to turn... [ Prim's suddenly unsure. How old is Katniss? How long has she been in this place? ] ...a year older. [ And Prim does smile at that, although it's small and shy. She knows that sounded silly, and she's still not entirely comfortable where she is - probably won't be until the moment she sees her sister alive and whole - but she's trying. ]
Normally I'm the one who wakes her up, then. So...it's a good thing I'm here. To do that? [ Breakfast. She'll make breakfast, and maybe a cake. And while Katniss is the one who mockingjays quiet to listen to, Prim will sing her sister a song. ] Just like at home.
[ She's quiet for a beat, before going to end the missive - although then she realizes she forgot the important part. ]
Oh. I nearly forgot. My name is Prim. Primrose, I mean. Primrose Everdeen.
[ That should do it, just about. Prim ends the message, with another shy smile. ]
[ action ]
[ Trust or don't trust.
It's Prim, so she steps out from behind the tree, having to look down to avoid stepping on anything sharp as she makes her way closer, blonde braid swinging.
If he lives - then she's alive? That's...a nice thought. There's a minuscule moment of hesitation again, before Prim finally offers up the answer to his first question. ] It's Prim. My name. Primrose.
[ action ]
[ he repeats the name on the inhalation -- surprised. and, frankly, just a little excited. though he wouldn't admit so for all the tea in china. for he knows the name and it coupled with all this talk of districts and numbers...
oh, christ. if he's correct, then the lass is gonna have quite the surprise when she gets back. but he tries to remain casual and courteous.
it mostly comes across awkward. stiff. ] Ah. Miss Primrose. [ a slight bow. the dead hare swings in his fist. his rifle bumps his wings. ] Richard Sharpe. Your servant.
[ action ]
[ She's not asking him to do so, really; just pointing it out. She likes her name, so it's all right if people use the full form, although Prim's so used to the shortened one it's a bit odd to hear.
The strange combination of surprise and then awkward stiffness confuses her, but Prim's already gone up to him, so it'd be useless to get suspicious now. At least - well, for her it would be.
Her eyes flick to his wings - like hers - and then back, and she tries a smile. It's a little hard to do, with the circumstances, but Prim manages it.
Sharpe. Richard Sharpe. She was hesitant about using the last name - Katniss the Mockingjay, and Peeta being used against her - but after a second Prim trades it back. ] Everdeen. Prim Everdeen.
Why do you - why do we have wings? [ Small wings. Flightless. ]
[ action ]
and so prim is treated to a rare sight for any soul who has just met major richard sharpe of the south essex regiment: his smile. ]
The wings, Miss Everdeen? [ like breathing, he switches naturally over to her surname upon learning it. katniss may be katniss to him -- or even kinder endearments from time to time -- but prim is a new slate. a new someone. he doesn't dare behave overly familiar. ] That's a bit of a long yarn, I'm afraid. And there are some who tell it better'n me. Come, now. I'll tell you what I can on the way to the town.
[ his own brown feathers are all a-flutter. it's been months since he's been so pleasantly agitated. ]
[ action ]
There was a reason Katniss remembered her as sweet.
She debates telling him Prim is fine, again, but since he just went from Primrose to Miss Everdeen, Prim doesn't think her chances of convincing Mr. Sharpe about that are too high.
It's hard to think of someone who calls you "Miss Everdeen" or "Miss Primrose" as anything so informal as Richard. And that thought nearly makes her laugh. ]
Is it a big town? [ He had a way of talking that was a little different from what she was used to - but not in a bad way. A long yarn. Prim liked the phrase.
She looked ready to listen, though, keeping close to Sharpe. Getting lost was a very real possibility for her, and she didn't want to risk it. ]
[ action ]
[ sharpe had been born and sorta-raised in london. at least, he'd had his education in its slummiest streets and was sold into the chimney-sweep business at a tender age. and london was uncountably larger than the little luceti. in truth, this village hardly rivalled some of the smaller hamlets he'd seen in india.
he clucks his tongue and wishes he had something to offer her for her bare feet. but at least: ] You ain't cold, are you? You may have my jacket, if you wish.
[ the weather barely calls for jackets and his green uniform is missing all of its silver buttons, but he'd sooner keel over and die than be anything less than gentlemanly to the girl he is now fairly certain is katniss's younger sibling. ]
[ action ]
She thought a small town or settlement might not be so bad, though. Twelve wasn't small, not to the degree he seemed to be saying, but Prim thought it might be nice, maybe, to have someplace smaller. Less crowded. More peaceful.
Someday, she wouldn't mind a little peace.
Prim shook her head at the question, her braid swinging with the motion. Katniss had always done her best to see Prim warm and fed and everything else, but they'd all known how to do without. It was just a fact of life. And while the dress wasn't perhaps the best protection possible, Prim didn't feel too cold, and certainly didn't want to take a coat away from someone else - even if she was smaller than Sharpe, and a lot less hardy. ] I'm okay, thank you. I'm - really grateful, just for you showing me how to get to this village. I thought I'd be lost for days and days - I don't know much about forests. Just - plants and things. I know those.
[ She's spotted some familiar to her, on their walk. On her walk. It's comforting. ] You said you'd tell me what you could.
[ It's more a prompt than anything else. What do you know? ]
[ action ]
None of us are supposed to be here, Miss Everdeen. Not I. And not, I suspect, you. Yet here we are. Trapped. [ katniss, too. and it isn't as though he wants to keep that fact from the girl, but he hasn't yet decided how to tell her that her sister is both here and not here at the same time. ]
[ action ]
But Sharpe's alive. ] I mean, I don't think -
Why are we trapped here? [ There isn't any point in wondering about her being alive or dead. Not aloud. ]
[ action ]
There are some men. Some women, too, I suppose. And they see fit to keep us here for their own...[ don't scare the lass, sharpe. ] They see fit to keep us here, which no one seems to care for. Only the place ain't that bad, see? There are roofs and there's food. Good hunting -- [ he lifts the rabbit. ]
[ action ]
I...I can work, if there's a clinic. Or animals. I'm good with animals.
[ Work for a roof, because she can't hunt. She's proven that time and again. A roof was important - she knew that much. ]
[ action ]
[ although the girl wasn't to know it, he isn't normally so friendly with strangers. nor so willing to provide for their bellies. ]
[ action ]
Got ahead of herself again. And that got a sheepish grin from her. ] - I'm doing it again, aren't I?
[ There would be at least two people who would recognize her, at Sharpe's home.
One of them was a cat. ]
[ action ]
[ he pulls aside a low-hanging branch and invites her out of the woods and onto a well-beaten path. ] Are your feet orright, miss? I promise the walk ain't much further.
[ at least not relatively speaking. ]
[ action ]
[ Prim ducks under the branch at Sharpe's gesture, and she definitely looks relieved to be on a path rather than in the woods. Besides the obvious benefit of not being lost, it's easier on her feet. ]
They're okay. [ She'd managed to avoid the worst of the forest floor, at least. ] I didn't always have good shoes at home, so it's not too bad, comparatively?
[ That was meant to be pacifying, somehow. ]
[ action ]
[ he knows he should be telling her more about this place and why they might be here, but he always finds himself so tongue-tied when he tries to explain the politics. ]
[ action ]
Prim almost wants to ask what he fought for, but she thinks better of it, and says instead: ] I prefer being barefoot, but at home I'd just wear the ones that didn't fit, anyway. It would have worried my family if I hadn't, and they worked really hard to get what we had. We all did.
[ So she didn't mind the badly fitted shoes. At least, not much. Then, veering back to her first topic, ] I was a medic.
[ Was? ] Am. I am one. In training.
[ action ]
Handy skill, that. [ bloody hell, but the everdeens were just brimming over with resourcefulness. ] How old are you, anyway? Can't be more'n...what? Fourteen? Fifteen?
[ action ]
[ Before. ]
My sister was, too. Born in May, I mean. [ And then she shrugs, smiling a little wistfully. ] My mother taught me a lot of what I know - and other things, I learned from the doctors in Thirteen. They were going to train me to be a doctor, I think.
[ action ]
[ well, christ. ] And you say your sister's born in this month as well?
[ it's rude of him, but he finds himself following up a lead about katniss instead of politely inquiring about her training. ]
[ action ]
She was! On the eighth. Twenty days before me. Once my father said I was a late birthday present to her. We were little, then.
Normally I'll wake her up just to be the first to say happy birthday. It's hard, because Katniss always had to get up early to do all the things she had to do, but - I always managed it. Or she let me manage it. [ And she still didn't know if she'd dreamed her sister being alive or not. Had Katniss survived that explosion only to die in another? ]
[ action ]
[ o the month of may the merry merry month of may! ] I imagine your sister appreciates it, eh?
[ he hopes so. ]
[ action ]
It sounds like something fun, though, and again Prim wonders what District this man could even be from. Soldiers and street plays. ] But I've always liked May.
[ Their birthdays and spring. Hope. ]
[ action ]
and sharpe damns his pride and drowns his worries: ] As months go, she ain't so bad. It's a fine thing to feel the sun again after a long winter. And the winters here are dreadful long and filled with snow.
[ action ]
Another shrug. ] Twelve was cold. I don't mind that.
[ What she minds is more...being alone. That's never been a thing that's been true, for Prim. ] Although I've never...
[ Survived a winter without her sister; provider, protector. ]
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