orestes: (Default)
Eɴᴊᴏʟʀᴀs; ([personal profile] orestes) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2014-01-31 12:15 pm

there is a pseudo-intellectual in me; open

WHO| Enjolras and open!
WHAT| Happenings around the Capitol.
WHERE| Commons and the Tribute Center at least. I'm cool if you want to start something elsewhere, too. c:
WHEN| Generally in Week 2.
WARNINGS| Highhanded philosophical ridiculousness, probably.



[1; training center]

Generally speaking, Enjolras avoids the designated training areas. It isn't that he has something against physical fitness, or is somehow embarrassed by his decidedly modest combative skills. No, it's that they exist as a stark and concrete reminder that the Tributes live for a purpose solely destructive. The best they can hope for is to live and die perpetuating a barbaric system. It isn't something he ascribes to personally but there is a certain inevitability to the reality of it.

That said, he has only ever experienced the training areas when they are inundated with his fellow Tributes. With the Arena on that isn't as much of an issue. In fact, the training areas are more or less deserted in the middle of the day, those Victors who do choose to workout mostly keeping to an actual regimen rather than doing so out of a futile attempt to avoid the disappointingly ubiquitous television broadcasts.

Nonetheless, it's with an uncomfortable tug at the thin cotton t-shirt clinging to his skin that Enjolras climbs onto a mat clearly intended for boxing. He hadn't been much for fighting of that sort in Paris, but he had a cursory knowledge of it from Bahorel and oddly enough, Grantaire, and it had to be more useful than fencing or canne de combat, at any rate. And if he could focus his attentions on his own destructive capacities, perhaps he could block out those happening in the Arena.

[2; main lounge of the tribute center]

Ostensibly, he's reading. There's a pen tucked behind his ear, just visible under blond curls, and a paperback with a distinctly worn cover resting on his lap. Nevertheless, Enjolras' attention is focused on the television coverage of the Arena. He glances down every now and then, seeming to pick up a line or a passage, but it's a farce. He isn't making progress, and even if he were, it isn't any information he didn't already know. He closes the book, finally glaring daggers at the statistics on the screen, at last unable to hide his disinterest.

Never the less, a terrible cycle presents itself. Every seven minutes or so --when the advertisements for luxury cosmetics, designer cupcakes, and whatever else the Capitol is fond of this week begin to run-- he'll stubbornly reopen the book, struggling to find his place again and slowly losing interest again once the programming resumes. It's a losing battle, he should really just move to a different room, away from all the pageantry, but his curiosity forces him to stay. It's a vicious, nagging thing. He wants information about his friends, and yet he also fears what the television might tell him.
stilest: (Say hello to your friends!)

2

[personal profile] stilest 2014-01-31 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Claudia sits down next to him, shoving a glass with some sort of apple dessert at his hands. "I bet it's hard being on the other side of the screen now," she says. "You can't really do anything except send them things and hope for the best."
stilest: ('Cause you know that your)

[personal profile] stilest 2014-01-31 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Claudia takes a few bites of her own matching dessert before replying, mostly to steady her temper. The way Enjolras seems to treat every conversation as an opportunity to lecture reminds her uncomfortably of her older sister.

"Don't be stupid," she says, after the third spoonful. "Unless every single district went along with you, there'd still be a Games and all you'd do is remove Five's chance to benefit from a district win. That doesn't really matter for us here, but it does matter for the people we're representing and I thought you cared about them."
stilest: ('Cause you know that your)

[personal profile] stilest 2014-01-31 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
It takes another few spoonfuls before Claudia feels like she can reply. "Why don't you? It's fine helping your friends--I've got friends working for the other districts too--but you shouldn't neglect the other Fives. It's part of your job now to help them."

She doesn't touch on the abolition of the Games. It's a touchy subject anyway--and practically treasonous--but she's no longer sure these days how she feels about the Games. It's... it's very different when you've been given the chance and time to truly get to know the tributes.
akingalways: (wat)

2!

[personal profile] akingalways 2014-01-31 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
It was lunchtime. Joy of joys, lunch.

Even though Jack seemed to be a very proper, snobby person, if one asked him what his favorite food was, he would unabashedly say "basabito". If no one knew what in the hell that was, well, the humongous...plantain thing he was carrying would answer anyone's question. Which automatically meant one thing.

Jack really like street vendor food. And why not? He grew up in District 8, where vendors lined up in front of the factories were a normal thing. Said vendors would practically pick out the trash that the Peacekeepers threw away, or the least-wanted remnants of animal insides from the few slaughterhouses that dotted the District, cook it up, slap it between two slices of whatever was available, and serve it up to any hungry soul with the right price. Be it assi, tessera, or any kind of item that the vendor might be interested in, in exchange.

Before then, of course, bisabito was among the things that Martha cooked in the orphanage. It was something that could be made quickly and with a hodge podge of items, when they were available. It had always been a treat.

Ah, those days. The smell and taste of the sandwich always brought him back. But those days were gone, if Jack's last visit during the Tours had given a glimpse of the harsh present back in his childhood home.

The vendors? Gone. Martha? He had no idea if she was alive. Most of the kids that he grew up with here dead or disappeared...

Jack's wistfulness - and subsequent staring into the distance - was interrupted by the rustling of paper. Looking to his left, he saw...well, someone he probably should have noticed when he sat down a few minute prior. And, of course, it had to be Enjolras.

"Wh--" He huffed. No doubt Enjolras was reading some weird, lofty book about boring philosohpical crap, with hoity-toity, complicated words like... ultimatum. Or something. "Hmph. Hi."
Edited 2014-01-31 21:56 (UTC)
stilest: ('Cause you know that your)

[personal profile] stilest 2014-01-31 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes," Claudia says. "Thank you." She finishes her own and takes Enjolras' from him. "You're being irresponsible. So you can't--or won't--teach them teamwork. You've still got other things you could teach. All right, you're no Maximus, but you can handle yourself with weapons and you did keep yourself alive long enough to win. You could teach them that stuff. Or... whatever else you know how to do, but I guess talking forever about philosophers isn't going to help them in the arena anyway."

She sighs. "You are trying to get them sponsors, at least, right?"
Edited 2014-01-31 22:05 (UTC)
vissernone: (Happy - Oh?)

Training Center

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-02-01 08:23 am (UTC)(link)
"Would you find it offensive to spar with an old woman?"

Hands wrapped in boxing tape, she rests one on her hip and the other against a set of weights. She has a light sheen of sweat already, a dark green towel that clearly has seen better days slung over her shoulder.

She isn't terribly fit; while she has her regimen at the Training Center, alcohol abuse has given her a certain fleshiness and fatigued air, and standing several inches shorter than Enjolras, she never cut the most intimidating figure in size. Her posture is perfect but strains to maintain that rigidity. She favors one leg over the other.

But what she lacks in physical presence she compensates for in intensity. Her confidence could never be mistaken for cockiness, her warmth never for softness or gentleness. Her candor is not actual honesty.

"Or is it something you could swallow?"
fire_punk: (pic#7199185)

option 2

[personal profile] fire_punk 2014-02-01 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Kevin walks into the Common Area, tablet in hand. He sits down in a chair, watching the current footage moodily. He looked up with a sigh. That was when he noticed the other Mentor.

"You actually like to read?"
fire_punk: (pic#4342734)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2014-02-02 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
Kevin frowned, slightly. The last part of that made no sense at all. "Why? Because you like learning things?" That was why Pruna said she did. He'd done some reading since then but he still kept getting lost. Except when there were pictures and most of those books were stupid.
thatwasme: (✘ ask (you checked those facts?))

1

[personal profile] thatwasme 2014-02-02 06:27 am (UTC)(link)
Barbara passes the back of her wrist over her forehead, wiping away the sweat dripping down into her eyebrows. She'd needed to work out the kinks that the Capitol was putting back into her system, finding it harder to settle back into a routine when she'd never had much of one here to begin with. It was easier back in her District. There, she could figure out something to do. She knew how to work with the system well enough not to feel the razor's edge they all walked was so painfully sharp.

Here it's about always being on your on game. It's exhausting.

Nonetheless, she finds herself smiling, exercise the inevitably lift in mood that can carry her through another round of Sponsor overtures and examinations of their Tributes left surviving in the Arena.

She spies Enjolras on her way out, hair having escaped her high ponytail in wisps and tendrils that cling to her neck and face. Sweat has turned the back and underarms of her loose fitting shirt damp, clinging as she moves, loose as she plucks at it, pulling it away from her skin. Full leggings disappear into socks and shoes meant for this indoor training room, the black of the sports bra she wears high on the back of her neck where her shirt doesn't cover. Her body language as she changes direction is relaxed and fluid, her steps almost jaunty.

"Ah, it's -- Enjolras?" Her pronunciation is terrible, a name she trips over with the slow rolling lilt of an accent one doesn't find commonplace in the Capitol. Barbara's brow furrows for a moment, clearing some as she smiles. "Sorry, I've made a mess of your name, but it is you, right?"
vissernone: (Basic - Staring into Space)

[personal profile] vissernone 2014-02-02 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
"That's alright. I'll probably find more relief attacking a punching bag anyway." She rubs the back of her neck and pushes some greying flyaway hairs down against her head.

"I won with a crossbow," she says idly, as if explaining away her decision. "Physical combat wasn't something I had to put much stock in. And now it's just a good way to escape the duties of a Mentor."
savedbyasong: (distance)

1

[personal profile] savedbyasong 2014-02-02 01:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Shion usually avoided the training room as well, when everyone else was here it just reminded him how out of his depth he was. How useless at fighting and surviving he was compared to every other tribute.

But when most people were still in the arena, he could at least focus on the few things he could do. Knot work, making traps. His attempts at using weapons usually ended in disaster but he sometimes still tried.

The more he watched of this arena the more he realised he had to try harder. Even though he could try and gather sponsors he couldn't really help Rat here, couldn't stop him from dying or being hurt.

He hadn't managed to stop him being hurt whilst he had been there either, and that was why he had to train harder.

Of all the people he expected to see, Enjolras was not one of them. He blinked, "You fight?"
gluteus: (you're next)

1

[personal profile] gluteus 2014-02-02 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Maximus had been spending more and more time in the training center as the arena passed on. He had become a fixture there, all intensity and rippling muscle and crippled leg. He didn't bother to hide the prosthetic, here, was learning how to use it almost as well as his original leg and he had increased how much leg work he did in his training.

When he came down here he preferred to be alone, and he made that all too well known. His intensity alone generally kept the others at bay, a single minded focus that nothing could dissuade.

It was Enjolras' fate, perhaps, than when he took his trip down to the training center that Maximus turned that focus on him.

"Victor," He said, the word hard as he looked up to the other man. Despite their mutual wins, Maximus did not view them the same. But not every soldier could be a general.

And this particular soldier he had a bone to pick with.
akingalways: (MY PERIOD)

[personal profile] akingalways 2014-02-02 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Unfortunately, that was just how Jack Atlas was. Even when he wasn't talking.

"As well as can be." He crossed his arms. Of course Enjolras would have his nose in that book. However, mindful that people were watching, likely taking note of what he said with the other Mentor, he took a bite out of his food. "So. What are you reading."
fire_punk: (pic#7199185)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2014-02-02 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"Both, I guess." He shrugged. "Reading is confusing."

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