thecapitol | Somebody Likes Snow

Entry tags:

✘ neeshka

Somebody Likes Snow

WHO| Neeshka and OPEN (paging Minatsuki and Lorne in particular!)
WHAT| Meeting a few folks pre-arena
WHEN| The day before Arena 04, during the snowstorm
WHERE| The street outside the Training Center
WARNING/NOTES| None as of now!

Neeshka had picked out one of the many weird outfits-- though she was getting a little more used to the weird fabrics and cuts, the garish colors continued to bother her-- and swanned on downstairs to watch the people hustle by in their equally garish colors outside in the snow. The watching really didn't last long, before she had shrugged on the coat she had thoughtfully brought down and bounded out in it.

Now she was tossing snowballs at passersby and grinning like a loon, completely disregarding the fact that the wind was whipping snow up everywhere. This, after all, was more like home than anything else she'd come across in the capitol. Snow was the same anywhere, and here? She got to go back inside afterwards for hot chocolate and snacks.

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A few of the avoxes were about, the wind pressing their thin clothes to their bodies as they swept snow away from the walks. Darius, his hair as garish as her coat, had a short broom and was sweeping the benches clear around a fountain whose rainbow-dyed water had frozen into multicolored mounds.

Neeshka didn't have a problem with making some worker-bee's life a little more difficult. She did't really mean anything by it, but she was mischievous by nature. So she caught sight of Darius the sweeper and grinned, crouching to gather up some snow in both mittened hands. Then she crept over, fully intending to dump it down his coat, provided he didn't spot her coming.

Fully occupied in doing his task, he didn't see her coming. He heard her, but that she might be approaching him didn't register until the sudden shock of cold down the back of his neck. He yelped, a strangely warped, distorted sound from a mouth with no tongue, and dropped his broom, jerking violently away from her and nearly stumbling over the bench.

The first thing Neeshka did? Was bust out laughing. She had an infectious laugh-- provided you weren't the one she was laughing at, anyway. Darius probably didn't find it nearly as funny as she did.

"Gotcha! Hoohoo, that was great! You looked so surprised!"

No, she hadn't put two and two together yet that he was actually tongueless.

He struggled out of his coat. The back of the thin white shirt he wore under it clung to him, wet through already, and he shivered as he tried to shake the snow out of his coat before it melted completely. He'd have to keep working soaking wet if it did. His shoulders hunched up after her laughter, and he tried very, very hard not to look at her.

The laughter died pretty quick. She'd expected him to yell at her, or throw snow at her back, or maybe make a rude gesture. Or maybe laugh, with her, she liked when people did that. But he was all... ignoring her. Acting like she was some kind of freak, maybe.

"Hey," she said, somewhere between defensive and annoyed that he'd gone and reacted all wrong. "Hey, what's wrong with you? I was just playing a little joke, gods."

Darius looked up as he shrugged back into the cold, damp coat, mouth dropping slightly open as he got a good look at her. He'd seen her on the screens, and at the Halloween ball, but never up close. And so he stared a moment, before wrenching his gaze away, looking down at his feet.

Now she was thoroughly confused, and she hated being confused. Especially when it didn't come with yelling from somebody else. This silent snubbing made her more angry than any curse could. "What, is somebody finally going to start acting like I'm actually a demon around here, now? Come on. It's not like I hurt you or anything, it's just a little snow. I'm playing around!"

He stood frozen in place, absolutely uncertain as to what he could do. The other avoxes had all hesitated in their sweeping, but gone on, never looking towards the disturbance. None were nearby now, either by coincidence or intent.

Carefully, he raised his gaze, almost looking at her face but not quite, and shook his head, expression almost desperately apologetic.

The wind fell slowly out of Neeshka's sails. That just meant she went from angry to flustered. What was his problem...? "Why aren't you talking?" she asked, tail flicking from side to side like an agitated cat's. "Was it the snow? Or is there some weird rule I don't know about?"

Yes, exactly. His eyes flicked to hers, only for an instant, trying to say that she had it right, there were rules, and one was that she was not supposed to be talking to him, to any of the avoxes, because they were invisible at best and un-people at most. He frowned, mouth parting slightly, but the training wouldn't even let him shape words.

Neeshka was used to invisibility. She preferred it, in most cases, though her kind usually came from a bottle rather than some kind of social rule. So that meant she was completely at a loss for what exactly he meant. She cocked her head at him, puzzled.

"Well, uh. No hard feelings, then?" she guessed. It wasn't bright enough out, and his mouth wasn't open enough-- and she wasn't really looking-- to see his lack of tongue, at this point.

He shook his head, quickly, and then looked to make sure no one was watching him directly interact with the Tribute. His nose and cheeks were red with the cold, but the skin around his mouth was pale from nerves. Gingerly, he gestured at his broom. Could he go back to his sweeping? Or did she need anything?

"Um. Yeah. Go for it." Neeshka made a little shooing motion with her hands, backing up. Maybe he just... couldn't talk. She knew a guy who'd had his throat cut wrong, and he couldn't talk anymore. She knew another guy who'd been cursed with silence. There was even somebody else who she also knew had his tongue cut out, but she didn't make that connection here. She just decided not to ask.

She just said, instead, "Just, uh, do it over there or something. I'll try not to, uh, hit you with any snowballs or anything."

He bowed, low and stiff, and obeyed, leaving the bench he'd been working on half-cleared to go work on another 'over there.' Shivering, wet, and behind all the other avoxes.

Kevin wasn't a complete stranger to the snow. He lived in northern America, after all. But he'd grown up in the city and he hadn't had friends since his father remarried. He'd never been able to just enjoy the snow. He'd finally convinced his escort to let him outside, that he wouldn't cause any trouble and now he was standing just outside the door, marveling at the falling snow. A snowball hit him in the shoulder. He looked over to see the other Tribute and, in a rare moment of playfulness, scooped up a handful of snow and threw it back at her.

Ohoho, a challenger! Neeshka stuck her tongue out at Kevin playfully, trying to duck his shot and grab another handful, herself. "Come on, that was terrible, it fell apart before it even hit me!" she called over tauntingly as she hurriedly packed snow together. Her tail, wrapped in a very long sock that kept threatening to slide off, flicked cheerfully from side to side. "Try again, mister, I bet you can do better!"

He watched her briefly before grabbing another handful of snow. This time, he packed it together, hard. And threw it at her. "Like that?" he called back.

Well, it didn't hit her face. It did, however, hit her shoulder. "Ow!" Still, she grinned, because it didn't hurt that much, and besides, they were going to try to kill each other in a day or two. She could put up with a snowball.

"Yeah!" she called back. "You're getting the hang of it-- try this one on for size!" She hurled her own snowball at him, and then immediately scrambled for cover behind a snow-littered bench to avoid retaliation.

This one did hit Kevin's face. He stood still for a moment, stunned and sputtering, before grabbing another handful of snow, packing it as he ran. "I'm going to get you for that, you crazy bitch!" But he was laughing. It sounded child-like and almost carefree instead of his usual sullen, bitter, and defiant.

"Bahaha!" Neeshka took off running down the street, hopping over snowdrifts and dodging around a passerby or two. She even looked over her shoulder to stick her tongue out at Kevin tauntingly. For once, that didn't even mean tripping on something. In a city, Neeshka was good with keeping aware of her surroundings-- it was only in those jungles and things that she sucked at it.

Kevin chased after the other Tribute eagerly. This was completely new for him, running around in the snow like this. Eventually, he realized that he probably wouldn't be able to get much closer to her and threw the snowball, hoping it would hit her and not someone else. These Capitol people were too much like Yvette for him to risk that on purpose.

It got the back of her leg, and she yipped, jumped, and rolled sideways to duck behind a bench. Her tail was still pretty obvious, flicking left and right as she gathered up another of her own.

She had it ready when he was starting to catch up, and jumped up to throw it, hopefully before he got too close.

Kevin yelped as the snowball brushed the top of his head, crumbling to drop small pieces down the neck of his shirt. He laughed as he ducked behind his stylist who happened to be passing by. He packed a handful of snow, not thinking anything of the piece of ice at the center.

Chris was actually looking for a good bar, not some fancy place, but somewhere that he could find a real cheese steak and beer. The snowball drew him out of his thoughts and he looked around for his attacker.

He had seen her at the costume party and grinned at her as he scooped up some snow. "You know you shouldn't pick a fight with a pilot kid."

He lobbed the orb in her direction moving for cover behind a bench. Yeah it was silly, but looked like the kid just wanted some fun.

"Kid?" Neeshka repeated in offended disbelief, which resulted in her getting the snowball in the side of the head. A clump of snow stuck to her horn, and she dropped immediately to get a return-fire missile. "I'll show you 'kid', mister!" she retorted before firing, trying to catch the top of his head over the back of that bench. She had pretty good aim, too-- being a rogue meant throwing things was generally important.

He meant it in a good way! seeing the snowball coming he tried to duck, his booted foot slipping on the ice and...

Well at least gravity still worked, though ow his tailbone would be bruised after that one. The snowball on the other hand, brushed the top of his head.

"Nice throw." He didn't waste time on the ground, scooping up another ball.

Neeshka wasted no time in pointing and laughing, but it wasn't really meant maliciously. Just because people falling on their butts was always funny. "And nice fall! Can you aim better than you balance?" Nevermind that he'd already hit her once; he could probably do it again. She hopped back, grinning, taunting him to give it a shot now that she was actually paying attention to him.

"This proof?" He lobbed the snowball at her rolling to his feet scooping up another ball as he ran for cover behind the fountain. He had been in enough snowball fights with his sister to know staying moving was the key to not getting pelted.

Laughing as snow sprayed over her, Neeshka used the opposite side of the frozen fountain for cover. "Gettin' there! Still not convinced!" She tried tossing another at him, but this time her aim was way off. That's what came of trying to taunt and throw at the same time.

Her missed shot gave him time to launch his next snowball in her direction still moving. He was sure he'd peg her again.

And he did, right on the shoulder! "Whoops, watch it, buddy!" She didn't even bother to brush it off before following up with a clump that, while not particularly well-packed and falling apart even as it flew, was much better aimed this time.

He batted it away with a chuckle. "Not that bad, but you should pack it more." Okay so he had an advantage with big hands.

"Oh, you want me to throw harder ones?" Neeshka asked, all teasing innocence, as she packed together a more sturdy one. "I was trying to avoid messing up that pretty face, but if you want, I can play harder."

She launched the new one his way. It wasn't super hard, but it was much better packed than the last one.

He chuckled a little. "Miss if I was worried about my face getting messed up, I wouldn't have joined the air force." He managed to move enough so that it hit his shoulder instead, though he launched another ball at her.

She was ready for that one and swatted it out of the air in a rapid movement. Then she gave Chris with a self-satisfied smirk. "The name's Neeshka," she told him. "I don't think anyone's called me miss... like... ever." The tail and horns usually got her the worst of human nature, rather than the best.

Hey she's not trying to eat him so he's being on best behavior. "I'm Chris. And nice to meet you." He holds back another snowball for a moment.

Lorne wasn't very fond of snow. In fact he wasn't very fond of any force of nature that could ruin a good suit, but that was the least of his problems here. He still hadn't meet up with Lindsey, which was unfortunate. The next arena would start in a few days and he didn't have any more allies than he did last time.
That was when he saw her playing in the snow. He stood there watching for a moment, snow in the face really wasn't a good look on him.

Too bad, since that's what Neeshka was aiming for. Lorne was pretty much impossible to miss, what with the green skin and all, so she figured it was pretty safe to aim for him.

"Hey Lorne!" she called, to make sure he was looking the right way, and pow, she lobbed it. Her aim wasn't perfect; it might not wind up where she intended. Then again, it might.

Man she packed that thing tight, He was lucky it didn't break his nose.

"Hi there." He said wiping his face clean. A chill ran down his spine as the cold hit him.

She wasn't trying to hurt him, geez. She grinned at his snow-covered face. "Not so green right now, are ya?" she teased, crouching down behind a bench like she expected retaliation. Obviously she wasn't afraid of retaliation, but she did expect it. Everyone else so far had given as good as they got, pretty much-- well, except the tongueless servant guy. But that was kind of an accident.

Kind of.

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Somebody Likes Snow

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