(no subject)

[electriccandlelight]

WHO| Eliot Spencer, Valeria Rushlit, other District 3 Tributes if they wanna stop by?
WHAT| Eliot and Valeria discuss costumes
WHEN| A few days before Halloween
WHERE| Valeria's Workshop
WARNING/NOTES| Extreme tackiness? Otherwise none at the moment.

She would fiercely deny it should anyone bring it up, but Valeria was tired. The woman who could stay up all night party-hopping and be fresh and perky at brunch the next morning was long gone, it seemed. The endless pressure, admittedly at least partly brought on by her own perfectionism and need for attention, was finally wearing her down, culminating in her asleep at her own work bench, head pillowed on her arms.

Around the workshop there was a tangle of wires, lights flashing on projects started but never finished, tools piled haphazardly, the gentle whir of machinery she had turned on and forgot to turn off, heedless of power concerns, and in the middle Valeria snored, loud enough to wake the dead.

Comments

No worries!

[electriccandlelight]

Valeria awoke with a snort, the noise filtering through her brain until it translated as Intruder and she sat up in alarm. Too fast, the room swayed alarmingly for a moment and she blinked, shaking her head. "Uh, wha?" she said eloquently.

Wrong icon. And almost tagged this from Cerni's account. *facepalm*

[retrieverchef]

"Ya all right?" he asked, actually a bit concerned as he reached to steady her. "I just came to see if you had any ideas for that ball that's coming up."

*pats* It's been a long week and it's only Wednesday...

[electriccandlelight]

Valeria waved him away impatiently, other hand at her temple. "Fine, fine," she said. "Hardly the worst headache I've ever woken up with, and it's already fading. I'm--" She stopped, blinking, for a long second before going on. "Did you say ball?"

It's a long two weeks for me. Tech week now and performances next week.

[retrieverchef]

He nodded, feeling as tired as she looked. "Yeah. Masquerade ball, no less." He sighed lightly. "I don't suppose you'd be open to suggestions?"

so talking about late tags...(food banks are busy in nov who knew?)

[electriccandlelight]

"A masquerade. Ball," Valeria repeated, sounding each word carefully as though she could change it's meaning if she squinted at it hard enough. She twisted to look at the nearest calendar, of which there were several. "A Halloween Ball," she said and it was at a near eardrum shattering pitch. "Suggestions! What can I do with suggestions, I have nothing! No time, no ideas, nothing!"

[retrieverchef]

"There were these two brothers," Eliot said cautiously. He didn't want to get either of them in trouble for this and he had no doubt that there would be massive amounts of trouble if certain people in the city learned exactly what he was thinking. "They were gunslingers. Led a group of men. They became a legend during their lives. People couldn't decide if they were local heroes or if they should die for what they did. I've always thought highly of them."

[electriccandlelight]

"Two brothers," muttered Valeria disdainfully. "What can I do with two brothers I've got four Tributes and--" the rest of Eliot's suggestion sunk in, one word in particular. "--Gunslingers?" She lifted her head from her hands and swiveled to to squint at Eliot. "You hate guns," she said, although her mind was already pondering how she could work something that wouldn't step on another District, the one with the cows...

[retrieverchef]

"Yeah, I do," he confirmed with a gleam in his eyes. "But they have their uses sometimes. And you did say a while back that you wanted to do something with guns. Besides, sure there were the two brothers but they had a whole band of men. Including another pair of brothers. Although they weren't exactly heroic."

[electriccandlelight]

"Brothers against brothers," Valeria murmured thoughtfully. She hadn't done a narrative in a while. "Good and bad, I could do something with that. There could be photoshoots." She'd have to talk with the escorts about that. Tapping a finger on her chin she stood and finally focused on Eliot, looking him over as she'd done a dozen times before. "What's the story, the gunslingers, what I am working with here?"

[retrieverchef]

Eliot didn't answer right away. He smiled, a familiar gleam in his eyes. Well, familiar to his team or his brother.

"Jesse and Frank had been soldiers as boys," he finally began. "Defending their country during an invasion. Well, more like tryin' to. After the war, they tried to go home but the country that had conquered them was taking people's homes, their money, things they needed to live. So they decided to fight back. They gathered a group of men and started holding up trains, robbing banks to get back what had been stolen from their people. They became heroes to their people. One time, a little girl got hurt durin' one of their robberies. Jesse paid for her doctor. Of course, they ended up with a price on their heads. Not that it mattered. No one could get close enough to them. His best friends were Charlie and Robert, the other pair of brothers. Jesse had decided to move his men out of the area for a while, let the invaders give up lookin' for them. Would've worked, too, but Robert saw the posse gatherin' to hunt for them and got scared. Shot Jesse in the head while his back was turned."

[electriccandlelight]

Valeria was impatient at the best of times, and this wasn't even close to that, so she was tapping her foot by the time Eliot finally started speaking. She closed her eyes and let the story play out behind her eyelids.

Not one for sentimentality, all she could think about once he was finished was the best way to utilize it. "Tragic ending," she murmured. "Everyone does like a bad boy, especially with a heart of gold...I think I can get more out of this than a little Halloween costume..." She trailed off, ideas already racing. She'd need to contact the Escorts, they always preferred that she discuss things like this with them first. So stifling.

"But!" She burst out after a short time of thought. "That's for later. As for now, I think I can whip you up something in that vein." She turned back to the bench. "It'll have to be...low-key," she shuddered at the thought, "--but I'm sure I can manage something. Have your measurements changed? Lost, gained weight, muscle, what have you?"

late tag is soooo late!

[retrieverchef]

"Not as far as I know," he replied. It wasn't as if there was much chance for that in between dying every few weeks. Not that he normally lost or gained much weight outside of the occasional disaster like North Korea.

ah no worries!

[electriccandlelight]

"Good, good," said Valeria dismissively. "I'll have the team take your measurements anyway for future Styles, just to be exact, but I can go on the ones in your file for the party. And they tend to have heeled boots don't they? That's good, considering your height situation."