thecapitol | (no subject)

Who| Elsa and whoever might be up fairly late
What| Elsa goes up to the roof to admire the Capitol
Where| On the roof of the living suites
When| Present day, sometime after midnight
Warnings/Notes| N/A

The weeks following her time in the arena have truly been the hardest that Elsa had ever experienced in her entire life. Not even losing her parents had been as painful as the knowledge that she had killed Anna. All of her life, she had avoided her sister in order to keep her safe and yet when she finally felt like she could be around Anna without hurting her. She had been wrong- her powers had returned and everything had gone horribly wrong.

Ever since then, she'd done exactly as she had her entire life; shut herself in her room and keep everyone out. It was painful and lonely, but she knew it was what she deserved for hurting Anna.

But even those who felt like they were monsters grew restless sometimes and as the days ticked by, Elsa found herself wanting to get out and explore a little. This world was new and foreign and her brief glimpses of it before had been intriguing. The technology was confusing but fascinating all at once.

Finally, the curiosity got the better of her. Late one night, after the noise outside died down and it seemed like everyone had retired for the night, Elsa made her way out of her room. It was too late for her to want to leave the building entirely, so she opted instead to go somewhere she thought she could get a small taste of what she wanted.

So eventually, she made it to the roof. It was the first breath of fresh air she'd had in weeks as she stepped out into the cool night air. Elsa stepped forward until she was near the edge of the building. The view was absolutely breathtaking, she could hardly believe what she was seeing. It was so different from Arendelle, with it's lights and large buildings- to be honest, it was a little overwhelming on top of beautiful.

Suddenly Elsa felt really small and alone. She wrapped her arms around herself and let out a small sigh, closing her eyes. There was no sense in missing Arendelle. She didn't belong there now- if they knew she had killed Anna, then they would shun her- or worse. In her opinion, now she belonged here. With the murderers and the monsters, because that was exactly what she was. If anyone deserved to go back to Arendelle, it was Anna.

Elsa continued to stare out at the twinkling, colorful lights of the Capitol, arms folded over her chest. As horrible as she'd started to feel, she didn't have any particular urge to go back to her room at the moment. So she allowed herself to zone out, imagining what each of the buildings might have in them. So lost in her thoughts, anyone could come upon her and she wouldn't notice.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, she hadn't been expecting to hear that. It didn't seem like anyone was working to get them home- she would have thought that it would end in punishment. But here he was, trying to figure out a way to make it happen. It was hard not to feel a least a little hopeful, if only for Anna's sake.

"That's really great of you," she said, though she couldn't shake the worry. "But please be careful- they must not approve of you doing this. It would be really sad if they hurt you."

"Oh, I know," said Carlos casually. "If they found out what I was trying to do, they'd -- well, I don't know what they would do, but I imagine it would involve restriction of my access to scientific materials and also pain. I wouldn't even be telling you about this if I thought they could hear us over the wind. It's really strong up here, and it's probably wreaking havoc on their microphones."

He looked a lot calmer than anyone discussing torture and concealed bugs ought to. Carlos had a casually resigned, seen-it-all-before sort of air as he fiddled with a couple of the device's dials. What did the dials do? Who knew? Who could really say? But all scientific devices needed dials, and switches, and blinking lights, though the lights on this one were still dark, because Carlos hadn't activated it yet.

Edited 2014-03-05 16:55 (UTC)

"Wait, what?" she asked, her eyes widening. Was he saying that they could hear them? Or at least, they would be able to under normal circumstances? She didn't know how that was possible, but the idea was horrible. She started looking around, as if suddenly she was going to see whoever might have been eavesdropping on them. "They don't give us privacy?"

Oh, no. She didn't know? Carlos's brow creased in sympathy -- he remembered how he had felt when he'd first been told about the constant surveillance by government agencies that was part and parcel of living in Night Vale. He stood up, no longer tweaking the device's settings, and looked at her. Poor girl.

"I don't know how to say this," he began, "but...yes, we're being watched. And listened to. All the time. We were recorded in the museum, and it's the same out here. I'm sorry," he added, and meant it.

Edited 2014-03-09 01:32 (UTC)

It was a very jarring thing to hear, to be sure. She had known, at least, of the fact everyone could see her in the arena. But to find out that they were watching them here and now, outside of it when they were going about their normal lives? It was... oh, it was awful.

She tried to stay calm, though. There was no sense in panicking, it wouldn't change anything. She closed her eyes and took in a long breath, exhaling slowly.

"It's fine," she said. It wasn't fine. "I appreciate you telling me this. I'm not sure I would have found out otherwise." Her voice was calm, to her credit. But she felt very, very violated. "But... please. Whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it. Get us home."

He took a step closer to her so that they could talk more quietly, still full of sympathy. "It's not that bad once you get used to it," Carlos said, as gently as he could. "They monitor everyone -- every single person in the city. That's a lot of video footage, a lot of recordings, and their archives must be immense to store it all. But, think of it this way. You're not the only one who's being watched, so you won't stand out. To whoever's on the other side of that camera, you're just another face and voice to file away and forget about. They've seen people like you a thousand times, and probably, they're pretty bored of it by now. Unless you do something careless, like mention words like 'revolution,' or 'democracy,' or 'dirty bombs,' or 'marijuana,' I promise, they won't be paying much attention to you."

Despite her feelings on the matter, Elsa couldn't deny the truth in his words. If they were being watched, there were so many people out there that it must have been really hard for anyone to stand out. Regardless of what happened in the arena, she felt that aside from that she was pretty ordinary. She didn't stand out, they had no reason to keep a close eye on her.

So she nodded. "I'll be sure to avoid those things," she said. "They have no reason to keep a close eye on me, I didn't do anything." After a pause, "But... please be careful yourself."

She took a step back. "And please, I... think maybe you should go. If they find out what you're doing, I- well, I don't care what happens to me, but I don't want Anna to suffer because I was caught with someone breaking the rules." She tried not to sound accusatory- mostly she just sounded scared. She felt bad, but what could she do? Anna's safety was important to her.

Carlos didn't like it, but he nodded. "I understand," he said, picking the machine up off its tripod. "I'll try again another night. The rooftop isn't going anywhere. At least, I think it isn't, since the geography here has so far been extremely reliable and the city layout appears to be stable," he added, half under his breath. He folded up the tripod and tucked it under his arm, but paused before he turned to go.

"Listen. I'm sorry about all this. The Games, and the cameras, and the constant surveillance, and the omnipotent government -- I forgot, for a while, what it was like to not be used to things like unpredictable city officials and municipal monitoring." He'd been living so long in Night Vale that he had stopped caring about cameras in his showers and the constant threat of re-education. Talking to Elsa -- seeing her horrified attempt to stay calm as she was told how her privacy had been violated -- had reminded him how normal a reaction that was, how there were people here who hadn't learned to live with what Carlos had. People who shouldn't have to. His strong jaw set firmly as he went on: "But I promise, ma'am, science is doing everything it can to find us a way out of this."

Elsa felt grateful that he understood- it was painful, having to send him away when he was so terribly nice. He apologized for things he didn't have to, he had reassured her as best her could. But she didn't want to be guilty by association. It was as she said, she didn't care what happened to herself, but Anna- and even Prince Hans- was a different thing entirely. If they got hurt because of her, she wouldn't know what to do.

So as he finished, she gave a nod. "Thank you... Thank you very much." She relaly did sound like she meant it. There wasn't much left to say, though, even if she ached to apologize for having to cut their conversation off the way she was. She tried to smile, even if it came out a little pain, just to show even more that she meant it. After a moment, she turned away and stepped back towards the edge of the roof, so she could look out over the lights once more.

He didn't judge her for it, not at all. Carlos knew that you did what you had to do to survive in places like this, and he couldn't fault Elsa for looking out for herself and her own.

So, with a sigh, he picked up his highly specilized, very scientific equipment and left the roof.