trinkett: (wake up in strawberry fields)
Effie Trinket ([personal profile] trinkett) wrote2013-07-15 05:30 pm

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

[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.]
happyhungergames: (hunt the hunter)

[personal profile] happyhungergames 2013-07-19 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
"I don't think I'm supposed to be hearing this. It sounds...odd. Dangerous. No one talks like that. We don't celebrate people born in stables." Because that sounded like the Districts and the Districts were NOT celebrated, except with the Hunger Games. And no gifts were really exchanged for that, except sometimes from generous, sympathetic, or interested sponsors. And Effie's job was, in part, to solicit those in any way she could on behalf of her Tributes.
greenjacketed: (♖ you dare to be in the same army)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-19 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Instead, you celebrate children dying in arenas. Don't you?"

Fascinating, really, how he just about managed to edit the vitriol out of his voice. It was calm and collected. Oddly factual. After all, didn't his own home celebrate death just as vigourously?
onlyeffie: (have I misplaced you?)

[personal profile] onlyeffie 2013-07-19 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
She flushed hot, and sweat trickled from her palms, stinging one. "Richard? Don't."

Because she wasn't the same woman who had memorized so faithfully and delivered so ecstatically the scripts for the Hunger Games. So faithfully and so ecstatically and FERVENTLY. She didn't know what she was. Had no idea. But she wasn't THAT anymore.
greenjacketed: (♖ unpolished buttons)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-19 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
Some days, he didn't understand the fuss. Hadn't he killed his first man at an age younger than Katniss's? Sharpe could still remember the crack of his enemy's skull on the slick flagstones, and Maggie Joyce's insistent whisper in his ear that he flee St. Giles and make for the north. He'd been thirteen, a common street thief, and unusually small for his age.

And here he was -- tall, strong, and an officer. Scarred, perhaps, but successful. So, sometimes, when he heard Katniss get down on herself or witnessed others turn up their noses at the thought of children willing to kill just to survive? He'd begun to wonder if it somehow invalidated how far he'd come.

But he did know that he should act as though their Games offended him. And they did, to a point, but not because of the children. Nor even the competition. It was the conscription that rankled.

"You've truly nothing else? No holidays? No feast days?" Perhaps, he thought, their Capitol celebrated more than the Districts.
happyhungergames: (my sweater is on backwards)

[personal profile] happyhungergames 2013-07-19 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
"We have holidays quite frequently." Bread and circuses, the Romans called it. "And we celebrate birthdays. And then of course there's Black Friday."

That's when you ate and ate and ate and then shopped until your feet swelled up and exploded. Figuratively, of course.
greenjacketed: (♖ like making a mule into a racehorse)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-19 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
"...Black Friday?"

Now, there was a day what sounded dangerous.
happyhungergames: (and inside out)

[personal profile] happyhungergames 2013-07-19 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
"You eat. You eat and eat and eat. There's banquets and drinking and dancing everywhere! In the streets, in the restaurants. On roofs of buildings."

It was a very exciting holiday. Lights were strung up everywhere.

"And then you shop until the wee hours of the morning. All the shops stay open for days and days. Some people shop for a week."
greenjacketed: (♖ just rats with wings)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-19 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
"How can they afford it?"

Stupid question. Of course they could afford it -- he'd witnessed enough opulence second hand to believe it.
inyourfavor: (extraordinarily nice)

[personal profile] inyourfavor 2013-07-19 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
"We're rich." Even Effie made out pretty well in her government job. Not to mention television appearances and the odd product endorsement.
greenjacketed: (♖ you're a dead man obidiah)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-19 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
"...Must be convenient."
happyhungergames: (knock me to the floor)

[personal profile] happyhungergames 2013-07-19 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
"It is." She could NOT resist a happy little flip of her hair. "But it's not nearly as convenient as everything being free. Like it is here. Even though there are too many things here that should be restricted and burned."

Like the aforementioned books.
greenjacketed: (♖ lend me hand)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-19 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
Everything being free rather disturbed him. It wasn't that he had scruples -- after all, if it was necessary he'd steal what he couldn't buy. But he couldn't help but wonder how they were actually paying for all this luxury.

"Restricted and burned?"
greenjacketed: (♖ mullet master)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-20 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"...Sounds like the provosts, if you ask me."

She didn't. She didn't ask him.
greenjacketed: (♖ bloody hell pat)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-20 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Military constables," he explained. "They enforce regulations, like. Make sure no one ain't stealing."

Or worse.
greenjacketed: (♖ with loads of shooting in it)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-20 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
"It is, from time to time, a necessity."

Sharpe had never remained well above the law -- but now he was trying to decide whether she was sincere in her last statement. Did she truly believe...?
inyourfavor: (extraordinarily nice)

[personal profile] inyourfavor 2013-07-20 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
She was very busy trying to calculate how long Sharpe would remain alive in the Capitol.
greenjacketed: (♖ give me hope in silence)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-20 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)
He took her silence as criticism and -- to his surprise -- rushed to clarify the matter: "I give my men only three rules, ma'am. One is that they never steal, unless starving. And even then, they'd damn well better steal from the enemy."
greenjacketed: (♖ i came and i was nothing)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-20 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"...Fight like devils, and don't get drunk without my bloody permission. They obey, well enough. Most of'em. On account of they'd rather deal with me than be hanged by the provosts."
inyourfavor: (an invitation)

[personal profile] inyourfavor 2013-07-20 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Because you're such a soft touch." She hadn't meant for that to sound at all positive. But she had been around Richard Sharpe long enough to realize that he wasn't Peacekeeper material in the slightest. He was far too dangerously independent to be like them.
greenjacketed: (♖ but your soul you must keep)

[personal profile] greenjacketed 2013-07-20 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"Because," he growled, "it's better to be thumped in the gut than it is to have your back flayed open. Or your neck wrung at the end of a rope."

Not that he hadn't had men hanged. Plenty, really. On the roadside. He'd executed his own as well as the French -- somehow, the latter had gotten him into more trouble.
inyourfavor: (let them eat cake)

[personal profile] inyourfavor 2013-07-20 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's what I meant," she returned sweetly. Whenever he growled like that she made sure to be as sweet as possible in reply.

(no subject)

[personal profile] greenjacketed - 2013-07-20 16:52 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] greenjacketed - 2013-07-21 22:27 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] onlyeffie - 2013-07-22 00:11 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] greenjacketed - 2013-07-22 00:21 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] onlyeffie - 2013-07-22 00:24 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] greenjacketed - 2013-07-22 00:32 (UTC) - Expand