Second Dispatch. Finally I Have Triumphed Over This Domestic Catastrophe. Action.

[trinkett]

[Effie Trinket has been sorely disappointed in Katniss Everdeen ever since arriving in Luceti. The girl seemed to have dropped all notions of propriety and her renewed place in the world as the Girl on Fire. No, here she seemed content to be muddy and sit on the laps of scruffy men and kiss

NO, that hadn't been a kiss. NOT a proper kiss! That had been a slobbery thing! Slobbery and licky! A slobbery slurpy licky thing!

KISS IN A RESTAURANT OF ALL PLACES. And live with that Sharpe person in what Effie could only describe as a cross between the District One Career Tribute Boys' Locker Room, a weapons closet, and a barn. The only thing she remotely liked about the place once she finally broke into it was the eagle. It would make a perfect wig stand.

With Katniss and Sharpe gone, Effie could take her time redecorating their house. The Welcome Center wasn't welcome in her life anymore. The only sense of purpose she could gravitate toward at the moment was Katniss. They could just deal with that when they got home from the battle. They would live like HUMAN BEINGS. Of course, she would have to prevent Katniss ever finding anything out about Jack Horner, but domestic bliss surely rested down this chosen path.

Feel free to run into her picking out properly upholstered furniture at the items shop, or other homegoods-type stuff. A lot of it will be in shocking colors. Most of it will look uncomfortable and gaudy.]

Comments

[stillplaying]

She shrugged, eyeing the potatoes with suspicion. While she didn't know what twice-baked potatoes were necessarily supposed to look like, she doubted that they had those black burnt bits around the edges. Those moments where she would attempt a fancier meal were few and far between, especially since Peeta had left.

But...

"Usually, I follow the instructions in the books."

[trinkett]

"There are books?" Effie looked doubtful. She poked at a potato with a fork and the steam rose.

"Potato books?"

[stillplaying]

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that response. A potato book? Even though she knew the Capitol had been full of privilege and wealth, there had to be some families that cooked their own meals. They couldn't all live on that canned food they had found stored like a squirrel's acorns within the abandoned apartments.

...could they?

"Cookbooks, Effie," she said slowly, reaching for a fork in the sink to rinse off. "You write recipes in them."

[inyourfavor]

[stillplaying]

Do not scowl. Do not facepalm. Do not go off on Effie no matter how tempting it was. And it was. Oh so very tempting. Did they teach them anything in the Capitol? Anything of use at all?

She returns the look with a stare of her own. A stare boarding on annoyance again.

[inyourfavor]

"It's a lovely idea, writing down all those instructions in a book."

Effie might have been raised on all the best and most exotic dishes, even moreso after she had attained some standing in the Capitol -- but she had never made a practice of cooking for herself.

"Do you have any lying around here, perchance?" she twittered.

[stillplaying]

The draft had lasted for days. Given the amount of work Effie had done on the house, clearly she didn't move in today. There was just too much stuff that otherwise didn't belong within here. And the level of cleanliness. She can't remember ever seeing the house this clean.

In all the time spent rearranging furniture, dusting shelves, returning items to their proper location, did she stop once to actually inspect the details of the house? To note the cookbooks lining one shelf in the living room? Or any of the other books within there? Or was cleaning for Effie as much of a coping mechanism as hunting was for her?

She had never stopped to consider that before. And for a split second, she felt a pang of sympathy for the woman.

"They're in the other room," she answered with a toss of her head in that direction. "On the shelves with the other books?"

[inyourfavor]

"Be right back!" With a smart forward impetus in her step, Effie whirled about and made her way to the shelves. Ah. THERE. "Joy of Cooking!" Was cooking meant to bring one joy? Mostly it made Effie's wigs slightly damp and frizzy. She took that book anyway, and another one that was written by a mere child, by the look of the cover.

She returned to the kitchen.

"I'll use these next time," she promised.

[stillplaying]

She glanced at the two books in the woman's hands upon her return, recognizing both. One had been found within the library. That thicker book that claimed joy in cooking. Whether books were allowed to be taken without intent to return, she didn't know. Never really bothered to find out. Stealing books couldn't be all that much different from poaching from the forests outside District 12.

But the other? The other she had found in the items shop. It had reminded her so much of a book she and her sister had once tried to put together as a birthday gift for their mother. How old had she been then? Nine, ten? Before her father had passed, back when they were all still a family.

A rueful smile crossed her face. "It's worth it."

[trinkett]

Then there would BE a next time. Excellent.

"Do you have any favorite dishes? It's not something I thought to ask you on the train."

[stillplaying]

It's an unexpected question, especially coming from Effie. Effie, who never seemed to care much about anyone else's likes and dislikes unless it suited herself. Who, it appeared, hadn't necessarily paid all that much attention to Katniss' interview with Caesar Flickerman.

But it's still nice to be asked.

"I really liked the lamb stew with the dried plums. But I haven't had it since-" Since the uprising, her doomed mission to assassinate Snow. "-the Hunger Games."

[trinkett]

"The lamb stew." She hadn't eaten that very gracefully, from what Effie remembered. Had the woman been brought up to think more critically, she might have realized how poetic it was that this sacrificial lamb would have enjoyed such a meal right before her bloody debut. Effie wasn't that kind of thinker, though.

"It sounds complicated. I suppose I could try it..."

[stillplaying]

Thankfully, perhaps for them both, neither was Katniss. Besides, right now, she was far more focused on the here and now. Surprised at Effie's offer. It was... thoughtful. More thoughtful than she expected.

"You would?"

[happyhungergames]

"Or I could get someone ELSE to try it...

Some...cooking person."

That sounded a bit more like the old Effie.

[stillplaying]

It's that response that almost gets Katniss to truly kick her out. To tell her that if she's not going to contribute to this house, than she's not going to live here. Not that Katniss needs someone to cook or clean. She had been doing just fine on her own. Had maybe been doing a little bit better since Richard moved in.

They didn't need someone like Effie moving in and changing things. Especially if she wasn't going to do much more.

She scowls regardless and shakes her head. "They don't have that here. Maids. This isn't the Capitol, Effie. It's not even any of the Districts."

[trinkett]

She hadn't been thinking maids. She'd been thinking slaves. Oh well.

"Of course, of course -- we are in a new, free place, now."

The frown on her face isn't one of disapproval; it is more of confusion relating to the question of just HOW she fits in here.

"I am sure we'll sort all of these things out as we go. It's a journey, of sorts."

[stillplaying]

She wasn't certain she'd call this place a journey. A game, yes. But a journey? In Katniss' opinion, a journey was still one you had a choice over. She had absolutely no choice whatsoever about being here. And though she had met people here, experienced things that she might never had prior otherwise, she would still give it all up to have never come here in the first place.

"No it isn't." She said this with a roll of her eyes. Hadn't the woman figured it out yet? "If it's anything, it's a game. Just like the ones back home."

[trinkett]

"I refuse to accept that!" came the answer. And Effie whirled about to return to the living room.

[stillplaying]

Scowling, Katniss threw her hands up in the air and stormed in the same direction. But instead of stopping within the living room itself, she kept going straight towards the front door.

She was trying to be helpful. Trying to make certain that Effie was prepared to deal with the reality she was now stuck in. And for a moment there, Katniss had almost thought that she had made some progress.

Damn it! She didn't owe the other woman a single damn thing. Angrily, she opened the front door and stepped out, slamming it behind her.