[MINGLE] Crab Boil

[markwatney]

WHO: Mark Watney
WHERE: 6I Inn front lawn
WHEN: 21 June 2018, afternoon/evening and onward
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
NOTES: A few thinsgs: You may assume your character helped set up; There are tubers in pot with the red salt, negating the warmth effect; The list of of potluck dishes is here; The list of local provisions is here

---

The weather is great, the sun is starting to dip toward the horizon, and it's pleasantly mild. Time for an (extremely) old-fashioned low country boil.

We've got two small fire pits built out in front of the inn, each with a massive pot filled with loads of vegetables — corn, carrots, potatoes, onions — and of course the rainbow crabs Finnick and Annie discovered not long after we arrived here. We've even got salt, if you can believe it, although the red salt in this place is pretty spicy and usually makes me sweat, so I've only put it in the one pot, and then set a bowl of it out for garnishing.

Tables and chairs have been brought out from inside, a couple of them set aside specifically for piles of plates, bowls, cups and whatever potluck provisions the rest of the village brings.

Comments

[oorah]

Aretha pants happily for the attention and Frank nods his approval too. She keeps talking to him like he knows where she comes from, like he's from there. He should find a way to tell her he isn't, but honestly... it's nice. It allows him the shelter he needs for as long as she's around. So he says nothing - except, that isn't why he's silent. Not by a long shot.

Frank holds up the OK sign. Good job friends. Everyone looks like they're really having a good time. Frank then points to a casserole dish at the end of the table and points to himself. He made that, Katniss should try it.

[burn_with_us]

Katniss gives him a bit of a smile. Nobody who values their life would eat anything she made, even if it would keep you alive, but she's happy to go and try his. She goes and gets some of it and settles near him, happy to share his space. It's nice to have someone who doesn't pressure you to talk; Katniss talks more than he does and that's a rarity.

"You remind me of Mags," she says, taking a bite of the casserole and nodding her approval. "From 4. She didn't talk either. I could always figure out what she meant, though, and I liked her a lot. She was a good person."

[oorah]

He worries his lip when she sits by him, but settles there because it seems to comfort her. To say that it doesn't help him too would be a lie though, wouldn't it. Now she's detailing someone he reminds her of and he swallows, nodding his understanding though something dark comes over his expression.

"Ellie," he says, just a gruff utterance of the girl's name. Katniss and Ellie would have gotten along. They could have gotten all those kids into shipshape too, he knows. He nods again, he had liked Ellie a lot. He already knows in his heart that he'd never allow anything to happen to Katniss either.

[burn_with_us]

"Ellie? I remind you of her?" Katniss has to try and fill in the blanks because he just doesn't talk enough for her to interpret otherwise. It's the first thing he's ever said to her and Katniss feels like it's something to be treasured, that his words aren't something that are given lightly.

"Was she your sister? Or your daughter?" Families get started young in the Districts and she wouldn't be shocked by either answer. Gale has a sister that's just a baby, after all, and he's a man grown.

[oorah]

Frank nods slowly, flashing her a soft smile that only lingers a moment before it's gone. She does remind him of Ellie, almost to a T. Maybe she's just a touch nicer though, which is neither a point for or against her really. He considers her question carefully, staring ahead into the fire. Neither is quite right, though he wanted to protect her like family. He knows Ellie would protest both labels and he wouldn't blame her.

"Friend," he corrects gently, signing the word while he murmurs it, only loud enough for her to hear.

[burn_with_us]

"Friend," Katniss repeats, mimicking the signing. She knows the one for OK pretty easily but this one is new and she wants to learn it. It's not how she communicates at all but it seems to be the way he's most comfortable and she has to try and accommodate that if she can.

"Can you teach me more words? With the hand signals? It might be good in the woods when I'm hunting and I don't want to scare game off."

[oorah]

It reminds him of Nill, Ellie, all the kids who ever came to Reims after the first wave. He doesn't hesitate for even a second before nodding. It's a good skill to have for survival in general, even without monsters afoot. And it would give him something to focus on that isn't the absence of said monsters.

"Sure I can, sweetheart." It's low, his voice scratchy and tired, but the sincerity is there. He'd already do anything for her.

[burn_with_us]

Somehow, when Frank says sweetheart it seems sincere and not in the half-affectionate, half-sarcastic way that Haymitch uses it. It's enough to get Katniss to smile, a real smile, and she's shocked he even used audible words. She's been talking at him for a while but hearing some back seems like a success, somehow.

"We'll figure it out. Besides, I like the quiet. It's part of why I like going in the woods so much."

[oorah]

If she likes the quiet... it explains why she likes hanging around him, he supposes. Frank mimes zipping his lips, then padlocking the zipper, then tossing the imaginary key over his shoulder. Silence he can do. And it's even easier around someone he's not frustrating for being this way. She seems to understand if the assumption he's from her world is to be read into at all. He gestures to her then himself, then mimes shooting a bow. Next time they meet, they should kill stuff. Sounds like a great time, doesn't it??

Though he doesn't move on right away, Frank's lingering presence carries no expectation of words or conversation. When she says something, he nods in acknowledgment or even responds in his wordless way. And by the end of their visit, he feels recharged somehow, like just being around Katniss is a battery for his weary soul. And when they finally part company, it's with a cheery (for him) wave as he signs to her, Good Night.

[burn_with_us]

Katniss gives the little sign back. She suspects it must mean goodbye or good night and she decides it's going to be something she keeps in her pocket for later on. Just before he's gone, though, she lifts her fingers to her lips and gives him the District 12 salute.

If he knows it, he's never made any indication of it, but if he doesn't she wants him to associate it with her. That done, she heads back down the path to her own house. She'll see him again, she's sure of it, and maybe they can go hunting.