What Can Be Done, And What Should Be Done || Axes || OS
After lunch, I decide that I should probably visit a station that focuses in weapons. Still, I’ve had a pretty good day, so I don’t want to soil it by making a fool of myself, so I head over to the axes station, a tool- well, weapon- that I am very familiar with. An added bonus was that there was no one there, so maybe, if I did mess up, there would be fewer people to laugh at me.
The axes are strange, and I run my hand along the handle, before picking it up. Unlike the axes at home, this one is smooth and sleek, its handle made of some carbon fiber thing, rather than the standard wood I was used to. The blade gleamed and shined, even under the low lighting of the Training Center, and I ran my fingers over the blade lightly, hissing when I nicked myself, more out of surprise than actual pain.
Stepping over to the mat, I take a few practice swings, trying to reestablish my equilibrium. The weight and balance is different to what I am accustomed to, and it’s clear that it’s a higher quality of axe as I make careful swings and movements. Despite the differences, though, it was still an axe, and there was an innate familiarity in it.
Once I felt comfortable enough, I moved from the mat over to where some dummies were available for practice. I’d never used an axe on a person- I mean, why the fuck would I?- but I know it can’t be that hard. People are thinner than most trees, after all. The biggest challenge would be to the fact that people move, whereas trees don’t. Still, I wanted to take things one step at a time. First I needed to make sure I would be able to do any damage with these new axes.
My muscles burn as I swing over and over, but I find it comforting. It’s familiar and, if I use my imagination, I can pretend I’m at home, just another day at work, instead of at the Training Center in the Capitol. I feel my mind drift as I work, and a fantasy I don’t often indulge, aided by the whiteness of the dummy, appear in my mind. The dummy easily morphs into Bastion, smirking at me in his Peace Keeper uniform and I begin hacking even more intensely.
The blade cuts through the dummy with ease and I move on to the next one and the next one and the next one, until suddenly the sound of metal on metal jars me out of the strange trance I was in, the axe vibrating intensely in my hand from the force. Shaking my head slightly, I glance at the carnage around me and blanch, dropping the axe in surprise. While that was a fantasy I had entertained in the past, I had never lost control like that before.
Turning on my heel, I left the training center without looking back. There was still about an hour of time left, but I was done. There was a difference between doing what needed to be done for survival, and killing for the sake of destroying. The Suite was empty, thankfully, so I didn’t have to deal with explaining to Ivy why I cut out early from Training. Instead, I jumped into the shower, and stayed there.
