( open ) i think i found hell, i think i found something

[thatwasme]

Who| Barbara Wilson (AU) & OPEN
What| Another District 9 Mentor has arrived back in the Capitol just in time to help get Tributes together for the upcoming District Tour.
Where| The Tribute Training Center: Elevator, District 9 Suites.
When| January 3rd
Warnings/Notes| None at this time.

She'd worn the same sort of smile since she boarded the train in District 9, the kind that seems unselfconscious and to belong to someone of cheerier overall demeanor. Barbara has had years to perfect that smile, masking whatever thought process was going through her mind. Right now it was the freezing killing people off every day (not just night), and the perpetual worry about Alfred. Consternation mixed with fear of what it might mean if she couldn't pull this off, and how ridiculous it was to care so much for someone she was basically never allowed to see.

Yet it'd been intimated that there might be a way to find him a working cure, if... If she were back in the Capitol.

Barbara was all smiles and small talk on the way to the Tribute Training Center, feeling the tower looming like a presence in her subconscious as they drew close. "See you all later," was a half distracted platitude at the entrance, bracing herself internally before she walked into the den of the news hungry and the excitement craving. The Capitol, a place feared and envied, so caught up in it's own largess as to almost be comical, if one didn't have to bear the weight of all that entailed on their shoulders. She shunted that thought off to the side, bringing up parts of Alfred's most recent contact, analyzing what he's said.

I have to find a cure. The thought mobilized her, sending her through the front doors with a smile and a wink for the nearest camera. She'd come dressed exactly like she'd come out of the fields according to some romanticized version of farming: fresh cut somethings trailing as a scent where she moved, hair tousled, mud splattered up the side of sturdy, patched jeans, her shirt a blouse that would be wickedly impractical to do actual fieldwork in. The point wasn't practicality. The point was setting a certain mindset, so the impractical shirt, paired with the worn pants and the unbound hair and bit of alfalfa she rolled around between her fingers, it didn't need to be real. It needed to seem like what someone wanted to be real.

She wound her way through with a few nods of her head and a call or two of "How's the family doing?" No one really wanted to hold her up, not with the apologetic looks she shot them for her state of dress. They'd be happier for her getting cleaned up, though for now it was enough of a Capitol version of a novelty to think of a Victor who did any sort of work in the field being in such a rush to be there for the next event they came at a literal drop of the hat. The headlines almost wrote themselves.

( A ) The elevators were on the ground floor when she reached them, darting forward and holding a hand out to prevent the doors from closing. "Ha!" she exclaimed, sliding in and tapping two fingers over the Door Close button. "Just in time!" She waved at someone outside the elevator's closing doors, finally turning to examine anyone else heading up or down once they're closed. "I didn't want to get caught up waiting when the one thing I want most in the world right now is a hot shower!"

( B ) Once she made it to District 9's suites, she barely spent time looking around. Barbara cut a straight path toward the mentor's rooms, bag slung over her shoulder. She ran her free hand through her hair, breathing out slowly, keeping a ghost of a smile on her face for the sake of whatever was watching now. "Greetings from home, Eva," she called out, unconcerned if the older woman was even around to hear what she was saying. A cursory knock on an open doorframe was her other announcement, scanning the room for any obvious signs of inhabitants.

Once she judged it clear, she'd step inside, carefully setting her bag down on the bed and starting to undo the buttons on her blouse. She hadn't been kidding about that shower earlier.

Comments

[thatwasme]

"That's crazy?" Barbara had to laugh at the thought, wondering what naming standards for crazy were like where Mindy was from. She wondered if it mattered; figured it probably did, if for no reason other than the fact it might matter to Mindy.

Regardless of her thoughts, she nodded in response to Mindy's question about seeing the districts. "I take it your escort hadn't said anything yet. No, the Districts are real, trust me. Nothing like the Capitol!" She shook her head. "That is, they're nothing like what you've seen in the Capitol. We're not so fancy and all."

Understating the reality, but thinking about what Mindy had said. Did all the Tributes feel like the Districts were a joke played on them by the Capitol? What an unnerving thought. They had no idea what was going on, if they were disinclined to believe there had even been much to Panem outside the Capitol. Where they thought everything that supported the Capitol came from... but why would they have bothered to think about that? Faced with the promise of continual rounds of dying at the hands of fellow Tributes, wondering about where things came from was less of a weighing concern.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Let's just say the name is well known where I'm from," Mindy replied. "As far as certain heroes in my small life go, that person is up there."

Not that Mindy was anywhere near as pacifist as Barbara Gordon. She was more like the Punisher there, really.

"I didn't mean to think where you live is fake, but I see the image of the District as a reason for us to curse our fate less. I've sorta seen it as a way to make people compliant, having them believe some place we had never seen depended on us. It is even less believable when they don't even take you to see the place they keep talking about."

[thatwasme]

Heroes? It's such a foreign concept to Barbara, she doesn't even have to pretend to be more amused -- no, bemused, in this respect -- at the moment.

"We are looking at thankful families who aren't having their kids up for the Reapings the last eight Games. Load of stress off the mind!" As if that was the most important. In some ways, it was incredibly important, but the displacement of stress in one aspect merely opened up the room for though in that extra space to breathe. "Top that off with a whole new culture for favoritism and bets among Sponsors and Citizens... It's the gift that keeps on giving here in the Capitol!"

Barbara let herself sound cheered by this fact, as if it were great, how much fun the Capitol was having. She left mention of the Districts out. Having them believe some place we had never seen depended on us. What a way to spin misinformation. Or was it?

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy grimaced. "Ok, I guess I'm cool with the idea that kids aren't just mindlessly slaughtered for amusement and keeping everyone in line. That's really supposed to be what all this is about right? You give up your kid as tribute to remind the Capitol they're in charge, and then if they win your district gets rewarded. It's bleak and fucked up, but people hope for a win to make life better. Is that some of the jist of what it used to be like?"

[thatwasme]

Barbara wouldn't call it giving up children as tribute; her perception on it being mandatory meant it wasn't about being able to say yes or no to whatever was happening. She nodded, lips pulling up into a lopsided sort of smile that has difficulty reaching her eyes.

"Reapings are -- were mandatory," she said, "For everyone twelve to eighteen. That's the basic idea, though. Each district provides... provided two tributes who were to fight in the Games, as a reminder of the Dark Days and destruction of District 13. Winning means -- meant -- your life, and better food in your district until the next Games. With eight Games in the last two years, you can imagine it's been shifting all over the place."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah," Mindy said. "I can imagine, all right. To have them happening so rapidly is a sort of big thing though, isn't it? Proof that they're trying to reinvent the system. But we're the key to that somehow. For whatever reason, we're their answer to what happened with Katniss. What I don't get is WHY."

She was still piecing things together, as jagged as these pieces were.

"But not our district for awhile, so I hear."

[thatwasme]

Some reinvention. The elevator dinged as it hit the ninth level, prompting Barbara to back toward the doors. "Ever put out a forest fire?"

She stepped toward the doors as they opened, smile bright.

[hit_girl_mindy]

That question stopped Mindy in her tracks-likely, because it just seemed completely out of context to her.

"What?"

[thatwasme]

Barbara started walking, calling back to Mindy over her shoulder. "It's pretty crazy stuff! I hear Johanna is back in town, you should ask her if you ever see her. Lumber's her District; she's got some wild stories to tell."

She preferred to keep Mindy confused. Hopefully, it'd make her think about what happened around the point of confusion.

What I don't get is WHY. The Capitol needed something dug in ahead of the burn. Like a forest fire.

How did you kill them early? Burn up exactly what they want to use.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Johanna." She might have heard that name before, but she would have to look it up, of course. Much like everything else, things were shrouded in hints and mention. Was she another tribute?

Forest Fire though. Barbara must have mentioned it for a reason.

[thatwasme]

"Johanna. Trust me! When you meet her, you'll know." It was the last thing she had to say before disappearing down the hall, keeping a cheerful thought on the front of her mind: warmth.

Warmth she wished she could share with the people of her District. Warmth she hoped her uncle found in District 3.

[hit_girl_mindy]

It would be NICE if people were less cryptic, but Mindy might as well be wishing that she were safe and sound in her own world: it was just not going to happen. In any case, even strange information was still a step in the right path.

Barbara would just have to be on her list of people to watch out for.