prims | first flower. ACTION & VIDEO.

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first flower. ACTION & VIDEO.

action; locked to sharpe; early morning
[ 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. ]

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[ Prim's reaction to people smiling at her has always been singular and simple: she smiles back. Despite the lack of knowledge as to where she was or where anyone else was, it's bright and genuine, an easy and familiar expression. It's clear she's used to smiling, even if she hadn't been doing it up until just then.

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. ]

No. Not big at all, really. Barely even a town. A settlement, more like.

[ 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. ]

[ Prim's not sure if that's good or bad. There'd surely be a better chance of finding things out in a bigger place - but Sharpe seemed to be implying that there was a story to the wings and Luceti, so it might be harder than that to find someone or someplace she knew.

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? ]

[ as the initial rush subsides, he sinks easily back into the same stiff demeanour. but there's a little more life in every step, in spite of it all. it's subtle, but it exists. ]

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. ]

I don't think I'm supposed to be anywhere. [ That's said quietly, because she still can't fathom it - she remembers what happened, and then just...this place.

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. ]

[ he clears his throat -- uncertain. cautious. but where certainty fails his voice, it excels in his stride. he knows the way back to the main path and he heads in that direction with nary a doubt about his head. ]

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. ]

[ A wince. Not at the comments about this place, or how it wasn't bad - just at the rabbit. Again. At least she wasn't in tears, but then again it was clear she couldn't save this rabbit. ]

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. ]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Miss Everdeen. You only just arrived, eh? Set aside all chatter of work. Dinner, first. I suppose it's on me, tonight.

[ although the girl wasn't to know it, he isn't normally so friendly with strangers. nor so willing to provide for their bellies. ]

I can cook for you another time. After I - [ Figure things out. Sorted out how to get things on her own merit, although she thought she could, maybe.

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. ]

Aye. You can cook for me some other day. I'll allow it.

[ 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. ]

I'm good at it. I had lessons. Well - they were my sister's lessons, originally, but I got to take them, too.

[ 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. ]

I believe I might know the feeling -- [ he tells her with a growl of a chuckle ] -- us soldiers rarely get good footwear on the march. I suppose no shoes are better than ill-fitting ones, aye? For the ill-fitting ones just rub you raw.

[ 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. ]

You're a soldier? [ The uniform, of course - but it wasn't one she'd recognized or pinned down. It could have been a strange fashion statement from the Capitol, although Sharpe couldn't look less Capitol.

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.

[ he wrinkles his nose at the 'was'. ]

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?

I'm thirteen. [ She's not sure what tense to use, and it's been at the back of her mind ever since she woke up. So the next part is a tad reluctant. ] I was born in May, and it wasn't far off, back home.

[ 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.

It's May, today. Very first day thereof, miss.

[ 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. ]

[ Luckily for Sharpe, Primrose doesn't find it the least bit rude - she lights up, in fact. There's no one in the world she loves better than Katniss, and she doesn't mind talking about her sister. ]

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? ]

[ katniss. once the name is out in the open, he starts to feel legitimate guilt for hiding what he knows. but just a moment or two longer is surely no sin: ] What is it they say in those street plays? Something about May being merry.

[ o the month of may the merry merry month of may! ] I imagine your sister appreciates it, eh?

[ he hopes so. ]

I've never seen a street play. [ She's never actually seen anything except the Games. Maybe an educational video or two. Street plays just don't happen on the streets of Twelve. Nor were they really the thing in Thirteen.

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. ]

[ buildings are starting to take shape in the distance; the town is in sight.

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.

[ Primrose perks up at the sight, scanning the horizon. What sort of place, exactly, was Luceti?

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. ]

Never what, Miss Everdeen?

I've never been alone for a winter. [ She's not sure if she could do it. ]

Well, Miss Everdeen, our next winter is a long way away. And somethin' tells me you needn't be alone for it.

I won't? [ It's nice to hear, but...they just met, and while dinner and help into town is one thing, that implication is another entirely.

Mostly, she's confused. ]

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