Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue.

[the_marshal]

WHO| Wyatt and OTA
WHAT| Christmas Shopping!
WHERE| Various Capitol shops
WHEN| After getting the Secret Santa notes
Warnings| None at the moment. Will edit if anything comes up!



Like all the others, Wyatt had discovered the note in his room directing him to come up with a gift for one of his fellow tributes for Christmas. Never mind that he'd never even met the "Iskierka" listed on the card, or even known there was any kind of gift exchange going on in the first place.

...But he couldn't say that the idea didn't appeal, the more he thought about it. There hadn't been much to celebrate, that first Christmas of his in the Capitol, but this year....

Picking up the strange card he'd been given - trying not to think of the funds they'd given him as blood money - he cornered his escort for information (the man tried at least to look sheepish for signing Wyatt up) and then headed out into the snow.

Even armed with everything his escort could tell him about Iskierka, Wyatt still had little idea where to start shopping for a dragon. While he chewed it over, he hunted down some other gifts, knowing nothing would really be able to tell Max or Howard what they meant to him, but wanting to do something, all the same.

Comments

[the_marshal]

"There's more to life than the Arena," he said softly, sounding more hopeful than certain as he moved slowly down the aisle. Reaching up again when he found a book about famous artists from District 1, a painting of flowers in a vase on the cover.

"Ya ever given any thought to what ya'd like to do, when ya grow up?" he asked, holding out the book to her.

[knifewithnoname]

She took the book, looking through it and trying to think whether Sandy would like it. Sandy often drew scary things like monsters and death, because she didn't like them being in her head. But maybe she would like looking at nice things...

"I do be having a job at home already. So I will be doing that unless my guardians do be deciding I do be having to be doing something else."

[the_marshal]

"Ya do?" He arched an eyebrow, head tipping to look gently over her shoulder as she flipped through the glossy pages of the book. He hadn't heard of tributes being allowed to do anything but serve in the arena, or mentor once they'd won. "What do ya do?"

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna stared at a picture of a hillside for a moment, in her own world what she did was a big secret but here it didn't matter. People didn't care about people killing, since the arena was based on people killing each other. She had told Sandy and Kevin and neither of them had got mad or hated her.

She had always been told that people would hate her if they knew she served the dark god, but the gods didn't even exist in this world. "I did be killing people." She told him, flicking the page and looking at a tree. "No like in the arena but before they did be knowing I did be even being there."

[the_marshal]

Wyatt took a breath, lips pressing together as he let it out, slowly through his nose. There were a lot of things he'd learned and heard in the Capitol that made him sad. The truths that developed somewhere in the span of years between his last day at home and his arrival here.

That children were often anything but, was one of those.

Pruna's might have started even before the Capitol had gotten to her, but that didn't change how he felt for her.

"...That was before," he said finally, after a long moment. "What about now? What would ya like to do when our turn in the arena's done?"

When the Capitol was finished. If they all lived to see it.

[knifewithnoname]

"I do be wanting to be going home." She told him, "Sandy do be wanting to be coming with me but I do no be knowing if that would be working with the technologies." At least she thought if they managed to stop the capitol they would get their hands on the technology used to bring them between worlds.

"And then I will be going back to my old job I do be guessing. I did be saying Sandy should be being a priestess and I could be being her warrior but I do no be thinking I would be being allowed to be doing that."

[the_marshal]

It had been awhile since Wyatt had thought about the possibility, really thought about it about being possible, of going home. He didn't believe tributes the Capitol were tired of were sent back anymore and when he thought of the future....

Max was in it. That's what his home looked like now. The where and when weren't much of a concern to him.

(Max might want to go back, if it were possible. Maybe they could send him further back to before his family had been killed.

Wyatt quickly set that aside.)

"An' if ya can't go home?"

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wrinkled her nose, she hadn't thought about that at all. What she would do if she was stuck here but if this place changed and the capitol did fall, if they were free.

"Well even if there did no be being the Capitol people would still be wanting to be killing people. So I could still be doing that... I do be being good at it."

[the_marshal]

His head tipped, looking down at her carefully, his brow gently furrowed.

"There's nothin' else ya might like to do? Nothin' else that yer interested in? Even Max... even as good at killin' people as he is, he's got somethin' else."

[knifewithnoname]

She frowned and then shrugged, "I do no be knowing. I did no never be thinking about it before."

She wasn't really one to think of the future, it seemed so far away and there was so much to think about right now.

"I do just be wanting to be seeing my sister again, I did no never be thinking of staying here and jobs and things."

[the_marshal]

That was the first time she'd ever mentioned a sister to him, and his heart panged again, thinking of his brothers.

"Well," his head hung, breathing sighing out through his nose, "hopefully you'll get to go back, but in the meantime somethin' to think about, I 'spose."

Wasn't like they much else to do, outside killin' one another in the arena.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna nodded slowly, "It do be being an interesting thing to be thinking about." She agreed.

"What do you be wanting to be doing? When you do be growing up?"

[the_marshal]

The question was unexpected and so blatantly child-like, innocent, he couldn't help but smile. (Somewhere underneath, Pruna was still a little girl and silently he promised he'd do what he could to give her chance to be one, as often as possible.)

"Back home I was a Marshal. A law-keeper." he told her, explaining as best he could. "Here..."

The book was heavy under his arm. He'd never been much of a farmer, despite his Pa's efforts. Max would have his work cut out for him, if he meant it. If he really wanted....

"So long as I those that matter to me, the rest'll work itself out. I've got faith in that."

[knifewithnoname]

"Like the peacekeepers?" Pruna wrinkled her nose, she had a very healthy wariness for any kind of guard. "Did you be throwing people in jail and cutting their hands off?"

His final words made her pause though, thinking. It was a strange idea that all you needed in life was other people, when she was still pretty sure that most other people were a liability. Another thing to think about.

[the_marshal]

"A bit," he allowed, shoulders rolling slightly in a helpless gesture. It wasn't a comparison he was especially happy with, but it did get the point across rather neatly. "When somebody broke the law it was my job to make sure they saw their punishment, but I ain't never cut anybody's hands off."

[knifewithnoname]

"Not even when they did be stealing?" She raised an eyebrow incredulous. Wondering what kind of guard had got to be as old as Wyatt without cutting someones hand off.

[the_marshal]

"That's not how things were done where I'm from," Wyatt explained. "Punishments depended on what ya did, an' on what the judge decided. Stealin' might end in a hangin', or ya might jus' have to pay a fine."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wrinkled her nose, "So they did be killing people for stealing?" That seemed unnecessarily harsh, though she knew it happened in her world as well, but usually only as a last resort.

"How do they be deciding who do be having to be paying and who do be having to be dying?"

[the_marshal]

"Sometimes," he nodded. It was something that he felt no guilt about it, compared to things he'd done in the arena. Those men had committed crimes and been fairly tried. He had no qualms about justice being served. "Depended on what ya stole. Some things are more important than others."

[knifewithnoname]

"And some people do be being more important than others." She nodded, understanding.

"So after the arenas will you no be being a peacekeeper?"

[the_marshal]

He was silent for a long moment, weighing her question. Asking it of himself again, a quiet echo in his ears.

"...It don't mean the same thing to 'em," he said finally, his drawl slow and soft. "...An' I ain't sure I'd have a taste for it."

Even if it were exactly the same, even if the role hadn't changed (a servant of the public, for the good of all, to a private force at the whim used to terrorize), he couldn't say it's how he'd want to spend his life once it was all said done.

He didn't know how much longer the arenas would last, how much he would have to fight, but he could already tell he was tired of violence, of blood and death.

Could tell that he wanted to rest. To know some sort of peace.

[knifewithnoname]

She wrinkled her nose, "So will you be going and being a farmer with Maximus?" She still wasn't sure about that choice, surely they would get bored really quickly. Sheep were really boring and stupid.

[the_marshal]

He snorted gently, one corner of his mouth curling.

"Maybe." He turned, moving down the aisle with slow steps, mindful of his stride compared to hers. His thumb tapped against the cover of the book, an unconscious rhythm. "If he'll have me."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna grinned up at him, "You do be being brother friends, of course he will be wanting you." She stood on tiptoes to reach up for another book. Monsters of the arenas, that was more Sandy's art style but it would probably give her more nightmares not less.

[the_marshal]

His head dipped, just for a moment to hide the grin that pulled at his mouth beneath the brim of his hat, and then he nodded.

"I sure hope so," he agreed, reaching out to tip the book down toward her, moving it into her reach. (Somehow, after their chat about Iskierka, it didn't seem odd that a book about monsters would attract Pruna's attention.)