like the spring, or snow [Day Two | Delivery Word blurbs]

"One of my friends swears he caught a seagull with his hands once," Wander tells Temple idly as ve tracks the nearest bird, "but we've never seen him do it again."

They've tried, too. Every time, Madalitso insists that everyone else needs to stop scaring them off, and Florentia insists back that he's full of shit. Wander doesn't not believe him, but ve still laughs at him for making faces at Florentia instead of arguing.

This would be so close to a familiar game, with the two of them. Probably Theron, too; maybe Iovita, if Wander caught them in a mood to let themself be convinced. Temple's good company, but Ripred, Wander misses the easy competitiveness of things that don't matter, climbing highest and running fastest, chased by nothing but at worst a scolding.

With two deaths and the day barely halfway gone, they're probably not broadcasting right now. Fights and traps and scandals, the fallout of it all—there's got to be something more interesting to Capitolites and more agonizing to District crowds than a couple of patched-up kids chasing birds. Still, as Wander waits with vis good hand propped on one knee, ve takes vis eyes off that bird long enough to give the air—gives vis friends—a tiny wave with the other hand. You never know.

[and again!]
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It takes Wander a few seconds to register vis own success. The Delivery Word sits so quiet and docile in vis hands that all ve can do is blink at it half-comprehendingly—until it honks, sounding almost curious, and Wander jumps so hard ve drops it.

To vis relief it doesn't fly away, only flutters in front of ver. It does, however, settle on vis injured arm, wrenching a pained gasp out of Wander as its claws settle placidly but firmly over the wound. Through gritted teeth Wander grouses "Ohhh, wrong hand wrong hand, wrong hand," shoving at it with vis other until it scoots across with a clatter of claws over rhinestones and another querying honk.

It sits patiently on its new perch, looking for all the world like an accessory, while Wander gives Temple a vague reassuring gesture and turns the hurt arm, trying different and equally useless angles until the pain eases on its own. With a small sigh of relief, ve relaxes vis shoulders and brings the other arm up to look the bird eye to eye. "Better." A sharp turn points one eye directly at Wander's face, and ve quirks a small smile. "You're not bad, huh? Way better than seagulls. Seagulls are totally dead to me right now."

"They're intelligent, kinda, yeah?" ve adds to Temple. Something must go on in those little heads, if they make directed deliveries.

It honks.

"Yeah, okay, whatever." Ve crouches to set the Word next to vis spear, where it blinks up at ver from the shade with those odd speckled eyes. "You'll stay here, right?" As ve backs up ve keeps one hand low, palm down, trying to signal stay; it cocks its head and blinks with no indication that it understands anything of this, but that doesn't seem to matter, since it also makes no move to go anywhere. "Cool," Wander says, hesitantly drawing back vis hand. "I'm gonna find you a friend or two."

[Mission: Acquire Birb Friemd]
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As Wander loses count of how many attempts ve's made, ve settles into a rhythm: light steps and lunges, unpracticed but as steady as ve would be with ice and knives. Admittedly, that rhythm involves not getting a finger on a single feather before each bird flies away, but ve's self-aware enough to know it's only sort of about getting the birds, at this point.

The birds didn't seem to mind Wander's and Temple's voices, before, so ve lets verself hum a little as ve waits for vis next opening, eventually breaking into "all around the rock light where the salt tides do flow" under vis breath.

Nowadays ve figures the down, derry, down is just filler, but ve always liked that one, as a kid.


[Birb Friemd? :four_leaf_clover:]
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Wander's humming/singing "The Dreadnaught," another sea shanty, here; here's a rendition by Bounding Main. (Incidentally, it's kind of a really good driving song.)

It has nothing to do with getting the bird a friend, of course, and everything to do with the friends Wander shouldn't have made. Out of everyone, ve's made vis choice and been lucky enough to be chosen back—and ve doesn't regret that, not at all. There was no one in the Training Center that ve would rather have faced today with than Eve and Bette and Temple, no one else ve would rather see in that photo.

Even so, there are others ve'd like to not see on the other side of vis spear—a sliver of home, a voice by the water, a game in still air, a sleepy murmur at night. Maybe that's still as much of a mistake as it ve realized it was during the Bloodbath, but as long as ve can avoid it, ve doesn't want to chose between them, even for something as little as this.


[Delivery Word attempt, heyo]
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the part of my brain that knows anything about how dice work knows a 2 isn't any closer than a 4 for this but the part of my brain that's trying to write posts at 3:14am is like "DANG, that was so close"

[:dolphin:]
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The bird honks as Wander, bubbly enough with a bloodless victory to ignore the throbbing in vis arm and hand, scoops it up and lifts it straight into the air over vis head in triumph. Like the first, though, it makes no effort at all to struggle. "Thanks, buddy." Ve brings it down against vis chest to carry it back to the other. "You get to go back to... uh, whatever birds do, promise. Better stuff to eat back with the crew." That might or might not be a lie, but maybe they'll find some firewood soon and cooking the fish beyond recognition will offset the ice problem.

On second thought, that doesn't sound like it's how food poisoning works. On third thought, at least a dead fish a couple days old is already dead and—most essentially—can't try to stab ver.

Wander kneels to set the new Delivery Word down, then stays on vis knees for a few seconds, watching them both watch ver. Two is still fewer than ve would like, knowing that every day is a gamble on whether Wander will still be alive, let alone the recipients.

[one more try first, just to see?]
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[haha, alright, nope]

[this is a bit of WIP because it's 4:19 and I'm sleepy, assume a bit of a timeskip here]

The first one is easy: bright pink and a short message.

Or at least, it's easy right up until Wander rips through the highest leaf on the rose the moment vis fingernail touches it. Ve blinks forlornly at the torn-off piece in vis hand for a moment, then looks up. "Hey Bette, can I borrow your knife again?"

That works better, though ve frowns at the message and adds another—more her voice than Wander's, but ve hopes it makes her smile, if only a little—across two more leaves before signing off on a fifth.

The second one is harder. Wander holds a bright teal for several minutes before swapping it for red, then lilac, then an orange that could have dripped down from a sunset, knowing the whole time that ve isn't really worried about the color. It's the message; even if there was room, what do you say about a situation like this?

I'm angry at you for hurting my friend even though I know I'm a hypocrite because I hurt your friend, but in my defense she hit Annie first and I got a chunk out of my arm for the trouble. And maybe we should all get over it because it's the Hunger Games and I always mostly roll my eyes at people holding grudges, and the library was nice, but it's kinda different when you're here, y'know? Anyway, hope you're not beat up too bad.

Yeah, that's a disaster.

In the end all ve gets out is a -W on a single leaf of the orange rose, and a tiny, fervent, selfish prayer that he'll be able to guess the rest.


WIP WIP WIP but somewhere in here Wander snaps a photo of the Delivery Words chillin on a vine, just because they look nice and thinking about who to send things to has ver all ":hk: okay maybe there's only three photos left or something but also, maybe I die tomorrow! might as well use it!!"

Shrimp's asleep so I can't ask atm but if Bette's like "this is a goofy thing to do with my knife, can you not," ve'll use one of the needles. Which... sounds like a bad idea for something that's gonna go in your skin, but so does putting it in your skin one day and then letting all the bacteria sit around for a day or two before doing that again, so hey.