thecapitol | She Pulls a Razor from Her Boot [Open]

WHO| Penny and open
WHAT| Poisoning pigeons in the park
WHERE| A Capitol park
WHEN| Week 2 of the Arena
WARNINGS| Animal death. Also, she's a sadist torturer.

Penny doesn't see sunlight often. It isn't an avoidance thing; she just works six days a week and tends to have her servants make grocery runs for her when she isn't feeling like subjecting herself to the faces of others. She loathes smalltalk, and truly only enjoys Katurian's company these days. That he hasn't answered her phone today has put her in a foul mood, and she wafts through the park like a wisp of a thunderhead signaling a storm in contrast to the bright lighting.

An Avox, one of her personal servants, carries a bag of birdseed for her. Penny sits on the park bench (the Avox must stand) and picks out one piece at a time, holding a cup of hot coffee with one hand and occasionally meting out dead-eyed stares at passers by. Her gown is too elegant for a simple park visit, even by Capitol standards, and her slippers are perfectly clean, having been brought by the Avox in a purse and substituted for more comfortable footwear.

The first pigeon seizes up six minutes in. It flutters and tries to flap away, only to fall from a height of only a few feet and collapse to the ground. Its feathers puff, it makes little chirping sounds, and it expires. The other pigeons examine it, and then another suffers the same fate. Then another. It's not long before she and the Avox are surrounded by tiny corpses.

Penny smirks and drinks her coffee.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shion is bundled up warmly and walking through the park, mostly because the constant stream of footage from the arena was getting too much for him. Even though he worried whenever he wasn't watching it, like just his watching it could stop something terrible happening to Rat.

It couldn't he knew, but he still worried. So he was walking in an attempt to take his mind off such things, the park was a calm place and he could mostly avoid any staring citizens.

He rounded the corner to see a bird fall to the ground, he blinked and rushed forwards turning it over expecting to see a wound of some kind. There was nothing, then he saw the other corpses. He went over to another, it was dead as well, no wounds. A feeling of foreboding settled over him, since things being dead for no reason, in a city such as this, was probably not a good sign.

It takes him a moment to see the woman and another moment to place her face, since the last time they had spoken she had been wearing a mask. He blinked at her, "Did you see what happened?" He couldn't imagine anyone deciding to drink their drink on a bench surrounded by dead birds...

Ah, Shion. Easy-to-intimidate Shion. Penny remembers him, although not much about that party except how angry she was at Katurian for focusing his attention elsewhere. Penny doesn't even turn her head to look at the boy.

The last pigeon spasms and dies.

"They died." Penny snickers and takes a long sip of her coffee. "What does it look like?"

And then she laughs whole-heartedly. It's a strange hee-haw, donkey-like but high-pitched and teetering over notes. She slaps her knee with glee.

He picks up the last pigeon, staring at it in horror as it died too and looked up at the woman. "Yes..." He tried to keep his voice steady, hard when she laughed like that amidst so much death. "But how... what killed them..."

He blinked at her fearfully, not sure that he wanted to know the answer. Tears pricked at his eyes at the thought of so much pointless death, even if they were just pigeons, they had been alive earlier that day and now they weren't.

Edited 2014-02-04 08:58 (UTC)

"What - or who - does it look like killed them?"

Her teeth are like barbed wire when she smiles. They are too human to be fangs - cruelty is such a human emotion.

Teary purple-black eyes turned to look up at her. Understanding and recognising the cruelty in her smile. He should not be surprised, he had seen her kill before. But that had been her job, whatever Shion thought of that. This was different, this had no reason.

"Why?" If he hadn't been sure he wanted to know the answer to who? he was certain he wouldn't like the answer to why? but he asked anyways, because he had to live in this city, and that meant he should at least try to understand the people here.

She loves his tears. She savors it, the fear and confusion. She hoards away this emotion, this pride at being able to strike that sort of feeling into someone without even intending it. It draws tight muscle lines into her smile like gashes.

"Why not?"

"Because..." He took a deep breath, trying to calm down and breathe and think, all of which proved to be impossible feets that Shion was not capable of.

"Because... it's cruel..." And he doubted she cared, and so it was a stupid reason to cite. "It's..."

He blinked at her again and shook her head, "What did you learn from it?"

"Who said I was learning anything?" Penny sniffs and finishes her coffee. She tosses the empty cup to the ground and the Avox goes and retrieves it, spurred by fear that compels it to drop to its knees and muck up its uniform in the dirt.

Shion watched the Avox with sad, slightly frightened eyes, though they flickered back to Penny every so often, watching her.

"No one... I just thought..." It would make more sense. Shion could understand awful things if they were to learn something, if they were to make progress. It didn't mean he condoned them, nor would he do such things himself but it at least made more sense than... whatever this was.

"It doesn't matter..."

"That's your problem. You think." It's a mindless, rude thing to say, not something that reflects anything Penny actually knows about Shion, but her barbs needn't be pointed for her to lash out with them.

Shion blinked, blushing deeply. "I'm sorry." He wasn't sure what to say, she was frightening but it was her city, and her park even if he couldn't even process what she had done. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"No, I'm sure you didn't, but that doesn't really matter, does it?" Penny's smile curves at the corner of her lips like fishhooks. "You should kneel and kiss my feet to apologize."

Shion blinked at her and looked at the avox, whose face gave nothing away as usual. Was it literal? He didn't know.

He looked around, as if he could get his answer from the trees or the flowers around him, none came though and Shion found that he had no answer at all. Nothing he knew could help him with this. He tried to think of what Rat would do, but it would have probably involved knives and violence.

Shion was not a violent person, and he had no knives. But even Rat knew when not being violent was best, Shion remembered the woman who smelled of perfume who had grabbed him, and Rat kissing her to convince her to let Shion go. So perhaps this would be the best course of action.

"Um..." Another helpless glance at the avox before he moved forward. He might not like it, and part of him told him to walk away. But he was pretty sure he couldn't afford Penny as an enemy, not for him and definitely not for Rat.

So frowning slightly, still torn he knelt and pressed his lips lightly to her foot before immediately standing up again.

Penny's lantern is akin to that of a jack o'lantern - glowing, but grim, terrifying in its way. She kicks off her sandal and wiggles her toe as if in glee.

"Good. Very good." She leans forward and runs her fingers under Shion's jaw - her nails are painted a deep, violent purple color. "You know your place in this world."

Shion still looked like a rabbit caught in headlights and he concentrated on breathing as her fingernails ran under his jaw, breathing, just breathing.

The moment he was able to he stepped backwards. His eyes darted around, looking for an escape. "Can I go now?" He pretended his voice wasn't shaking.

"Yes. Yes, you may." Penny lounges back on the bench, looking like she's making luxury out of the old rotten would.

"Get out of my sight."

Shion stumbled back a few paces before turning and walking away, it took all of his concentration not to run, he felt sick and terrified. Like he wanted to curl up somewhere far from anyone. He blinked angrily, banishing the tears that threatened and tried to remember what breathing was and how to do it.

She Pulls a Razor from Her Boot [Open]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject