thecapitol | [open] CATCH ALL

The screen and the news on it as she was moving past the common room, planning on testing the door again. She scowled at it and went to stomp past. She was still in her nightdress but she had taken the cord of the dressing gown she had been given and ties it around her middle, in this makeshift belt she had about eight kitchen knives.

she had a knife in her hand as well, and in the other hand she had a duck. She had found Duck whilst going to get the dressing gown cord, she was pleased that he had managed to escape being arrested with Sandy.

She glared at the man on the sofa, "They do no be knowing what they do be talking about, they do be being stupid." She told him, before walking towards the elevator.

"That is most certainly the truth." Joly agreed, giving the girl a little nod, and eyeing the duck a little nervously. The weapons did not bother him so much, even on a young girl, but the duck, with its potential to cause allergies was another matter. Not that he was saying anything about that, yet.

"It seems rather impossible that they could generate such a list, of so many different district tributes in that little bit of time." he mused, nodding towards the screen now, and shaking his head. "There are people on that list who would never...who are smarter than that." He did not mention kinder, because frankly, to him, killing Penny had been a greater act of kindness for the general good.

"I...would you like to join me anyway?" He offered. "I doubt they will play anything but footage but even so. It may be useful to know exactly what they want us to believe." Sticking to stories such as those put through the media would be easier if they were remembered, yes?

Pruna looked at the list, it was the first time she had seen who else had been taken. She realised that she knew a lot of them; Thane... Kevin and Maximus. Eva, Mindy, Susannah. Garak... that had been the name of the man who she had met when she had first returned.

And Sandy of course.

"That many people could no all be killing one person, they could no even be planning it, especially with no one knowing before they did be doing it." A secret was best kept with one, if that wasn't possible two or three maybe. But that list was far too long.

"I do be going to be rescuing Sandy." She explained pointing towards the lift, "They did be taking her and I will be getting her back."

Joly nodded at her assessment, seeing the truth in it, immediately. "No, they could not. If that was the case, the odds are that someone would have told them, I should think. What better way to please the Capitol than by foiling a murder plot, yes?" He asked, feeling a little nervous again, when he considered why all of them may have been taken if there was an alternate reason.

He did frown at her assessment, even though there was likely no way Joly could stop anyone from doing anything. That said, he did lay a finger over his lips for now. Someone might be listening to this conversation after all. There was no way of knowing whether even this was safe for now.

He knew the feeling entirely too well, though. More than anything, Joly would like to go and get Courfeyrac out too, but for now, well, there was no way it could happen this soon at least.

"They have a friend of mine as well." He answered that, expression going a bit tense. "I do not think we'll be allowed to go to them at all for a while still." How he wished that would prove NOT to be the case, though.

So he knew someone in there too, and yet was just sitting here. "I do no be thinking we will be being allowed to be going to them ever." She pointed out. Breaking people out of prison was not something that was legal as far as she knew, not that she had never really paid much attention to the legality of things.

But he was right, they might be listening. She frowned, annoyed at how they couldn't even talk.

Joly was, yes. He did not like that he had been reduced to that, but until the lockdown was lifted a bit, or at least until the commotion had died down, it seemed the wisest thing to be doing, much as he hated it. Sorting out the facts from the overblown fictions being splashed across the screens was a mental exercise to keep him from keeling over here and now, although, when Pruna spoke again, he found himself sighing, agreeing, really, with what she had said.

"That is something I wish I had not had any cause to think of yet, but you are most likely right." He added, a worried frown creeping over his face as his brow furrowed even further there. "I would hope that you are proven wrong, but I very sincerely doubt it."

He was willing to believe that the peacekeepers, simply under order of suspicion, would harm all of their friends who had been taken. Or rather, do more than harm them at that. Given Penny's special announcements in the past, it looked like a course of action that was common enough here. The thought made him shift, rather nervously, as he wished that there was somewhere they could really talk about these things, and somewhere that they could come up with a means to get Courfeyrac free of this.

He frowned right back at her, wishing there was a way to find any of their cameras, or tapes, or other recording devices in this room, and a way to destroy them besides that.

"When things have calmed a bit, when the peacekeepers are not so busy doing their jobs protecting us by making certain we stay put," he started, rolling his eyes so that only Pruna could see that he didn't actually mean it quite the way he said it, "We should talk to our friends in other districts. They might have some idea how we can be of help during dark times like this." Dark times for whom though, he was not going to say.

Pruna frowned, because this man was probably right. They probably had to wait until the peacekeepers relaxed a little bit, so that they could at least get out of the building. But Pruna had no idea how long that would take. Sandy could be dead by then, if executions were what they were planning.

Even if they weren't planning to kill them- which they might not, she remembered, since they were useful for being in the arenas she knew Sandy well enough to know she wouldn't be able to withstand any torture she was put under.

"Do you be having strong friends?"

"I do rather." Or, at least, Joly's opinion casted his friends as strong, considering what they had managed at home, and that, since then, Enjolras had been a victor once, before he'd been swapped out for Cosette and that Courfeyrac and Marius had gotten far in other arenas, and there was Venus too, though he would ask Enjolras for his opinions there, before involving her.

Combeferre had also lasted in the last arena longer than him, and on his first try, and besides that, he was perhaps the smartest person Joly knew, so that there was only that one answer he could give. "The strongest men I've ever known." He confirmed, with a firm nod. "And they've just taken one of us, along with several other friends captive. I cannot see them letting it stand without at least attempting finding something out. "

He meant rather more than that, but well, given the restraint they were placed under, saying anything more was rather stupid. "Surely, they'll find the real killer too." He added, using what he was sure the official channels would say about it. It was a slim chance and he did not entirely believe it, but better to look like he trusted in some sort of power at work here.

Well that was good at least, that he had strong friends, they would be useful. She understood that he meant more, it was hard getting back into the habit of watching what she said all the time. It was hard.

"Maybe they will be being, if they do be having all this technology they should be being able to be finding the right person."

She frowned, "If you and your friends do be needing any help I do be being really strong."

It was definitely hard. Joly hated this idea, the trying to speak in code when every single part of it could be observed, when they could almost read a Tribute's mind... It was stifling, it was difficult, and even using puns to convey messages as he had first considered did not seem likely to work on an enemy one had to out-think at every turn.

"They ought to, yes." He agreed with that at once. "I should hope that they find the culprit soon." Joly would like to buy that man or woman a drink, that was for sure.

And, at that message, Joly nodded, and he smiled. It was not a patronizing smile either. His district mate reminded him something of Gavroche, and Gavroche had proven to be rather strong as well.

"I will keep that in mind." He promised, nodding firmly.

Pruna nodded back and sat down on the floor. It seemed that rushing off was not going to be the answer. Though she hated it she thought it best to wait and then when everyone had had a chance to talk, or not talk since they couldn't, they could make some kind of plan.

She put duck down and took out one of her knives. "Be picking it up." She told the duck, with Sandy gone it seemed she would have to continue ducks training if he were to be any use to them.

Joly, too, thought that running around like a maniac, much as he wanted to do something right now, was an incredibly horrible idea. It would probably get everyone into more trouble, so now he sighed and tried to clear those thoughts.

The duck actually made a great topic switch. "You are, ah, training the duck?" he asked, curious in spite of his dim mood.

"Yes." She nodded, pointing to the knife again, "It do be being very useless still, but it do just be being a baby. I do be training it and Sandy did be helping."

The duck makes Joly think of Combeferre in this moment. Combeferre, who is so much steadier, who probably is handling Courfeyrac's arrest a lot better than he is, even if he is from the same district and probably witnessed the entire event. Combeferre might actually have a calm proposition for ways to help those captured. It's calming, somewhat, and Joly's little nod is a lot more normal this time.

"I suppose training ducks would take a while. But if one can train pigeons for message delivery, why not? What do you hope to teach him?"

That was true, she nodded. "To be attacking people, but I do be thinking delivering messages would also be being useful. He do be needing to be learning how to be flying first." She pointed at the knife again and this time the duck picked it up in its beak and dropped it in her lap.

Pruna grinned, and took some bread out and gave it to Duck. "You did be being supposed to be keeping it though Duck."

"Delivering messages does seem like a very good idea." Joly agreed. "I do not think that anyone would actually suspect a duck. There could even be some sort of arrangement." He did not say what while they were being watched, but made a note to let Pruna know, when they were alone, that a system with colors might work very well for that.

One could, perhaps, add colored feathers to the duck's wing on the inside. Red for danger, green to go ahead with something, and the like. More complex ones could come later, but that one was, at least, a start.

"Flying would help matters a bit I think." Joly mused, then he grinned, watching as Duck dropped the knife into her lap. "Oh now I'm QUITE impressed! My friend, Combeferre, he is a few floors down, but came here from my home, once said that ducks were something of a joke that nature played on them.

I would love to see your duck prove him wrong, and show that he commited a fowl offense in demeaning them. I suspect things will go swimmingly from that point on. It's good to see you are taking a quack at training him. Perhaps it will fit the bill quite nicely."

The puns had slipped out, though, perhaps on second thought, the phrasing Pruna used might mean that they did not make sense to her. Well, he had tried at least, right?

Pruna nodded, it was a tactic she had used before. Very few people suspected a little girl, they were stupid and their stupidity was all the opening she needed.

Of course it was a tactic that fell apart quite quickly, especially with everything being broadcast on to the technology screens, but she still sometimes took down new tributes that way.

Flying lessons definitely needed to happen and Pruna grinned when Joly said he was impressed. She blinked at his next words and though it took her a while to work through what he was saying and puns weren't something she had come across before she grinned as she understood and laughed.

"You do be being funny."

The damned screens did sort of ruin the advantages most people had over each other, except for the tributes who could rely on brute strength, sure. In arenas that played to other talents than that, well, it told everyone who to focus on getting rid of first. It was actually something of a mystery to Joly why the games didn't turn into the sort of group activity where a large group took out targets by very slowly narrowing them down, one by one. He did not think it would work BETTER by any means, because, really, people like him would be chosen as weak links practically right away, but even so, he was surprised.

When he got the laugh, Joly actually felt a bit better in spite of the horrific things that had gone on tonight/this morning and the horrific things that were likely to be continued now. The fact that he could still make a child laugh, a hardened child at that, showed that there was still a BIT of good somewhere in all of this.

"You are one of the only ones to say so. Mostly people groan at me."

"Most people do be being stupid." Pruna told him, going back to trying to make the duck pick up the knife. It felt good to laugh, she hadn't laughed in what felt like a long time though really it could have only been a week, maybe two.

The only person she could laugh with at home was dead, and now her only friend here was captured and Pruna hadn't even told her she was back before she had got arrested. She wondered if she was allowed to laugh after all that but then thought she didn't care. She decided she liked this man, he wasn't stupid.

"Do you be having a name?"

"Sometimes, they truly are." Joly agreed, because, really. Puns were, perhaps, the highest form of humor ever invented, so far as he was concerned. It was a shame, really, that most of the time,now, he managed to get eyes rolled at him. Then again, they HAD all heard most of his material before. Well, to a degree. There were the new ones that he pulled together and saved up for special occasions sometimes.

Either way, someone who really appreciated them, besides Zoidberg, was welcome. Really. Could he keep her?

As far as being allowed to laugh, well, sometimes laughing was the only thing that did help. Joly had found that one out a few years ago himself, coming down from the first attempt at Revolution he had been involved with, and watching as it fell before him. All there had been BUT to do was find the smallest, stupidest things to laugh at. Or rather, L'aigle had found that out and demonstrated for him at the moment Joly had been about to snap.

That was probably part of why the instinct for it rushed to his mind now. It certainly did not change anything for good in what had happened, but it also did not do the same for ill. Good enough, wasn't that?

"Ah yes. I am Joly. And you, my dear?"

Pruna nodded fiercly because people being stupid was something she felt strongly about. She figured the world could be a much better place if less people were utterly stupid.

"Joly." She copied how he said it, "I do no really be having a name, but they do be calling me Pruna here so you can be calling me that if you do be wanting to."

Another thing she remembered, being confident enough just to introduce herself as Pruna. But the name felt fake again to her, not like she was last here when it had became a bit like a proper name, or as close to one as Pruna could imagine.

That was very likely true, in all honesty. Joly was lucky when it came to other things with his friends. Only one of them was truly stupid, at least when it came to things like functioning socially or taking care of himself. But there were so many others who just...sometimes he wondered how the human race managed to keep itself breathing, honestly.

"Miss Pruna, then." He nodded, frowning a little at the replacement of 'Mademoiselle' . He managed to forget, most of the time that he had lost his languages, but then, there would be a reminder. "if that is what you would prefer, of course."

She nodded, "Yes it do be being alright." She had lost her language too even if she had kept her dialect, it was strange speaking as normal and hearing her words in a language she understood but had never learned.

She was quiet for a moment before she remembered her lessons from last time she was here, on manners and such. "This do be being Duck. Duck this do be being mister Joly." Duck didn't acknowledge him, she wondered if manners were something she should be training him in, but she wasn't sure she was the best teacher for it. She forgot a lot of the rules all the time.

"Good then." Joly's smile grew a bit, glad that things were going along, well, fairly decently, given the circumstances. There was still something human enough in him, and in this girl, even after facing the arena (he did not know much of the world that she had left, after all) every time that they had done it. There was something human there that could not been stamped out, and how he was relieved to find it.

"And Duck," Joly agreed, nodding to the creature in turn. "I suspect you may like me better if I were another duck," he mused. "But I am pleased to meet you, all the same." It would have been considered a bit of silliness perhaps but seeing how the last thing Joly remembered from home was watching and speaking about a cat, it probably was natural, somewhere.

"I think he might be being. But he do also be liking anyone who do be having food." Duck quacked in response.

"I do be thinking he do be being pleased to be seeing you anyways."

[open] CATCH ALL

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fade out or did you want to do more stuff?

Looks like a good spot!