compass here but the needle's shot [Tom]

Nate would love the Training Center library. Most of the books are manuals and guides, true—edible plants, mutt biology, Games history, rationing plans—but there's a cozy-looking fiction section in the corner, too, perhaps for trainers on their breaks. Wander is the wrong person to appreciate it, but ve meanders that way anyway, if only to run a hand down the covers and think of the tiny library hidden away in Nate and Teresa's closet: his handful of books, squirreled away from who-knows-where, that none of them have the heart to make him throw away despite knowing that they're probably asking for trouble.

Ve's not exactly here to learn anything, anyway, only to get some space. The trainers must be acting weird about improvised weapons for a reason, so Wander goes along with it more often than not when ve looks for a sparring partner and someone asks but wouldn't you be interesting in learning how to make one of these? Building weapons clashes with all Wander's habits, though—the wrong knots, the wrong materials—and ve can only take it for so long. After what felt like the fortieth band broke off vis slingshot, ve needed a break, and getting into the water didn't sound worth the trouble of dealing with the fishing trainer. The library is a poor substitute, but it's the librarians mostly stay at their counter, so it's good enough.

It's a little less quiet today than when Wander found it yesterday. Through the air-conditioning hum and the interment whispers of someone flipping pages, there's something new, a series of soft thwips that Wander would say sounded like playing cards if that made any sense. For lack of anything better to do ve follows the sound, head tilted and steps careful, until ve steps around the corner of a shelf and to find another tribute—the boy from Eleven? no, Wander remembers Carmen's district partner; Twelve, then?—fussing with what turn out to be, in fact, playing cards. "Oh," ve says reflexively, then shakes vis head at vis own volume and tones it down. "Hey."



yeah it's still not exactly the Mood (TM) but I'm just gonna keep pulling thread titles out of Salvage a Smile for now