thecapitol | (no subject)

Entry tags:

aunamee,
✘ orc

(no subject)

WHO| Aunamee and Orc
WHAT| Orc finally finds him.
WHEN| Several weeks after the Crowning.
WHERE| The Speakeasy
WARNINGS| Violence, alcoholism.

Aunamee is no longer the social butterfly or the smiling salesman. He is the nightmare that lives in empty spaces.

Call it a change of strategy, if you will. A shift in plans as all the plans shift around him. Once, he would invite crowds of Capitol citizens out to dinner and front the bill with all the credit he earned killing other Tributes. Now he waits in corners and shadows, catching the eyes of people that prefer the darkness. He was afraid he'd be lonely, but he isn't.

It turns out he prefers the darkness, too.

He sits in the back of the Speakeasy, nursing his liquor, his back curled like a lurking sea snake.

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Orc had been encouraged by his handler to try some of the other fine bars the Capitol had to offer.

That handler would be fired after what was about to happen.

The door to the bar swung open and Orc lumbered in with his usual grace and sense of presence. All eyes in the bar turned to look at him before going back to their drinks.

It wasn't every day you saw a seven foot tall rock man...unless you lived int he Capitol.

Scanning the bar he shuffled up to order a drink, that was his ultimate goal tonight.

Aunamee saw Orc enter (how could he not?) and took a particularly heavy swing of his drink. It was a response that had nothing to do with fear or anxiety -- it was a victory drink, a cheers to himself for a job well done. Catching and keeping Howard in the last arena had been his first successful venture after a string of failures. Even now, with the Capitol's biological betrayal fresh in his memory, the thought of it was enough to make him smile.

And so he did.

With the first of what would be many drinks in hand, Orc turned around to scan the bar. Most people were paying him no mind, or purposefully not looking at him.

But one smiling face had looked right at him. One face that made his stomach twist in a knot and his heart come to a dead stop with one last thud like a punch from inside his chest.

"You."

His fingers curled around the over sized glass he'd been given and it shattered. As beer rushed through his fingers splattering foam and froth on the floor he started stomping over to Aunamee with a snarl revealing each of his thick white teeth.

"YOU!" He wasn't sure what he wanted to say but all that came to mind were cuss words so he fired off a few. "FUCKING ASSHOLE!" His booming voice silenced the rest of the bar and the bartender was already inching for the phone.

Aunamee could feel the chair underneath him rumble in time with Orc's steps as though the rock boy were an oncoming thunderstorm. Fear stuck to the roof of his mouth -- but no, no, it shouldn't, should it? He had no reason to be afraid. Somewhere out there, his powers still existed. His immortality paced around in a lion's cage built by the Capitol, but it existed. It was in his blood.

They had said so.

He watched Orc approach him, not bothering to stand up from his chair. He practiced measured calm.

He took another sip of his drink.

"You," he said pleasantly enough. "You could have used that drink you spilled, dear friend."

"I don't need it for this!" He snarled and grabbed the front of Aunamee's shirt hauling him up out of his seat and knocking over the table with Aunamee's legs roughly.

His eyes were unfocused, but they blazed with fury.

Now it made sense to panic. His legs connected with the table with a hideous thunk, a shockwave of pain shooting up his spine all the way to his shoulders. He grasped at the stone fingers holding his shirt. It reminded him more of climbing a wall than escaping a fight.

"Don't be unwise," he snarled. His body trembled as he met Orc's eyes. "You're a better boy than this."

That actually made Orc smirk. It was a horrible ugly thing to see the way his pebble coated lips cracked and curled.

"No I'm not." He growled, and with the force that could hurl a full sized car he threw Aunamee across the bar at the wall covered in fragile glass bottles.

Aunamee was well familiar with the sensation of breaking bones. He had felt it in his victims when he peered into their minds, that sickening swirl of pain, that inescapable feeling of misalignment. He had felt it when Wyatt threw him down the stairs, clearer than ever because the magical water had muted his pain and the only thing remaining was cracking, separation.

Aunamee was well familiar with the sensation of breaking bones, but he felt none of that now (his shoulder, his hips, his ribs, his arm) because he was out like a light moments after colliding with the wall.

Edited 2013-12-27 16:59 (UTC)

That wasn't enough for Orc. As the patrons screamed and the security was summoned, chaos exploded in the little bar. He was flipping tables and shattering chairs as he plowed into the bar like a wrecking ball and seized the limp body by it's leg.

Swinging Aunamee around like a flail he hit anything he could. He was sure if he just hit Aunamee hard enough he'd be too dead for even the Capitol to bring back!

Tears poured from Orc's eyes and ran through the cracks on his face and his Roar would be heard out the door and down the street.

"LEAVE! HOWARD! ALONE!"

The few moments the Peacekeepers in the bar take to not only remember they are on duty, but remember their contingency plan for dealing with this particular Tribute. The smoke bombs come out, filled with anaesthetic.

"Everyone get out!"

Patrons choke and flounder, knocking over stools and chairs as they rush out. The barkeep moans and hides under the counter. The fog cuts through the air and cuts through pain alike.

For Orc, it won't be enough to knock him out, just slow him down until a Peacekeeper can shove a needle in his gums and take him into the dark. For Aunamee, it'll at least be blissful numbness before he passes out and wakes up in the hospital.

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