Fifth Dispatch. Practice Makes Perfect, And Perfect is Me. Action.

[trinkett]

[It's a hot afternoon, and Effie Trinket has sneaked into the Barracks -- first checking to make sure no one else is in there.

No one is.

It's far too hot and dusty and anyone in her right mind would choose the techy comforts of the Battle Dome over this place.

This is a good thing. Effie doesn't WANT to meet anyone today. For one thing, she feels very awkwardly dressed: running shorts and a bright yellow T-shirt (yellow is a Power Color); white athletic socks with that 1970s-era striping at the top; sneakers. No heels, no shoulder pads, no wig, no makeup.

She is here -- VERY GRUDGINGLY, MIND -- to train for warfare. Her last announcement to the village brought on plenty of warnings, and even a subtle death threat or two, and at least a few people giving well-meaning advice. She can hardly believe any of the doubters who'd said the Malnosso would sacrifice her in a battle, but better safe than sorry. One never knows when the higher-ups might make a clerical error or shifting error and accidentally send a valued subject into dire straits.

The second reason she doesn't particularly want to meet anyone is because she knows none of the Luceti peons like her very much. That's fine with Effie. Eventually the Malnosso will take her into the inner workings of the organization and place her right where she belongs. Until then? Well. She can and has been staying indoors a great deal, being a bored journal stalker.

Unfortunately, this lonesome round in the Barracks confirms that Ms. Trinket is not cut out for warfare at all. It turns into hesitant prods at practice dummies with wooden swords, a lot of staring out the windows, and a frustrating turn at a punching bag.

Fighting is horrible and she's horrible at it and consequently is in a horrible mood.]

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[ruthlessismore]

[greenjacketed]

"Orright, Miss Trinket. Wipe the smirk off your face and give us back the canteen..."

He defaulted back to his usual standoffishness, holding out a rough and powder-burned hand.

[onlyeffie]

"You never did tell me where your buttons went." Now THAT was a trigger she would have to save for another time. Romance novels. Effie wiped her mouth-spit off on her t-shirt before holding the canteen out to him. "Something about Katniss?"

[greenjacketed]

...And -- once again -- he seemed more put-off by this gesture than had she not wiped the canteen's top. Didn't she realize she was getting her sweat all over his precious canteen? Bloody women.

But he corked it quickly and hitched it back onto his hip. "Traded them to the boy at the smithy for some work. Turns out she's fairly sweet on him -- he made them into a necklace and it to her as a gift." But Sharpe didn't sound too thrilled by any of this. Not least of all because the buttons were already back in his possession -- thrust into his hands after Sokka had come to visit last week. He simply hadn't bothered to sit down with needle and thread, yet.

[inyourfavor]

"....Oh."

That was disconcerting. Effie should have KNOWN about that little affair.

"Wait -- was this the olive-complected boy with the luminous blue eyes?"

They had been SO OBNOXIOUS to her.

"I DON'T APPROVE OF HIM. Not at all!"

[greenjacketed]

"...You and I agree on that much, at least."

Sharpe had approved, once. But now he cursed himself for that approval, wondering how he could have so poorly judged the lad's character.

[inyourfavor]

"I shall have a long talk with her later today!"

And in spite of no-makeup and tennis shoes and sweaty blond ponytail, Effie Trinket's voice rang out more effily than ever with that statement. Tremble, Katniss -- tremble.

[greenjacketed]

Ah, crud.

"Don't bother, ma'am. It's as good as over -- haven't you seen it? She's been hiding for the better part of a week."

A broken heart, he suspected. But he couldn't go so far as admit it.

[trinkett]

And so have I, you big smelly man-boar.

Effie cleared her throat.

"Ah. Then..."

She was stumped. What was she supposed to do now? Generally Tributes didn't suffer from romance problems.

Maybe Effie could loan Katniss some books.

[greenjacketed]

"She'll overcome it," the man stated -- simple. Bordering on paternally naive. "She won your bloody games, didn't she? One yellow-bellied bastard of a young man seems a trifle in comparison to all that..."

And yet, as a man quite accustomed to falling too quickly and too deeply for the wrong people, he wondered if it could ever be a trifle. He'd encouraged her to move on after losing Peeta -- and this is what she'd gotten for her troubles? For all his advice?

Dammit. His guilt drove him to confess: "...He's the one who blackened my eye, anyway. So if Katniss don't string him up? I will. In time."

[ruthlessismore]

"I'm not sure that's wise, Richard." There was no comment forthcoming on the bruising of Sharpe's eye by Sokka. Effie believed the hoodlum capable of anything.

"You'd better let me handle it."

She began to more carefully arrange the leftover items in her lockbox.

[greenjacketed]

"You! With your wooden stick!

What could you do?"

[happyhungergames]

She flushed with anger, but carefully locked her box and re-hung the key around her neck before confronting him.

"When the Malnosso come for me, I mean. When they give me a position within the Organization. That's how these things work. It's those on the Inside who can better delegate punishment and justice."

And those two things ALWAYS go together. Welcome to her reality.

[greenjacketed]

"...The Malnosso have already meted out their punishment," he said -- not quite understanding that this nebulous penalty thing he barely understood didn't actually come from the Organization itself. "And I'd sooner take him 'round the back of a building and crack a rib or two than trust regulations."

[happyhungergames]

"That's vile! Vigilante justice is NEVER approved!"

[greenjacketed]

Had Sharpe men here, he was certain they'd tell the woman they preferred his justice to the regulation whip. But they weren't here, and Sharpe was not about to argue his own case. The mere thought of speaking so many words and attempting to say another's opinion about him? It tied his guts into knots.

Better to stay simple: "It gets things done. And men in line."

[happyhungergames]

"Do you want new buttons?" Maybe she could come back to that topic. Once the Malnosso brought her Inside, he'd see. He'd learn. "I'm sure the shops have some. Or you could go on a mission and earn some.

I've still got to find an appropriate mission. For my dog."

No, she wasn't letting that drop.

[greenjacketed]

"I've the points," he said with a wave of his hand. He'd been saving them up -- point by point -- as he did his captured prizes from the field. A coin here, a golden watch there. "And I've the buttons back, as well. It's only a matter of sewing'em."

Perhaps he would get on that task tomorrow. It would be nice to have his regimentals back.

"As for your bloody mutt, pick a mission without fighting. Or else bring someone with you who can."

[happyhungergames]

"Well I'm not going to fight."

She made no offer to sew for him. Effie Trinket didn't sew.

"I imagine they'll have need of me to organize or entertain or inspire their people. Public relations. That sort of thing."

Into the duffle went the lockbox. Effie zipped it before standing and stretching and facing off against the punching bag once more.

"I'm going to name him Jason."

[greenjacketed]

Sharpe stood, still. He always stood -- at least until a woman in his presence sat down first. Only then could he bring himself to sit down first. These rules were inviolate, unless the woman in question was someone entirely special. Someone to whom normal courtesy did not apply.

But he did try and not watch while he stood. Averting his gaze.

"Inspire'em how?" He asked, if only to avoid telling her that Jason was a lousy name for a dog.

[onlyeffie]

Shut up Sharpe it's the most amazing canine name ever.

"With my delivery, of course!"

She began another round at the bag, smacking it silly with the non-bandaged hand.

"And my smile."

[greenjacketed]

"...But what will you actually say?"

[happyhungergames]

"Whatever they tell me to say."

[greenjacketed]

"Some day, lass, you're gonna wake up. And I think I actually want to be there to see it happen."

[inyourfavor]

"I feel pretty awake to me."

Smack. Smacky smack.