In the name of love.

[not_cocked]

Who| De and OPEN
What| Arriving back in the Capitol
Where| Several locations, see below.
When| After arriving back after the games.
Warnings/Notes| Feel free to hit any of the tags below, or let me know if you wanna work out a different scenario o/

TRAINING ROOM|

She trained every morning, and some afternoons, if there wasn't something else to do. It felt good to move, to train, to feel like she was doing something. It was a familiar thing, even in this snazzy gym like place, with it's 3-d holograms and machines she hadn't even figured out yet. At the end of the day, a weight was still a weight, you still ran on a gym track, and even if your target was 3-d, you still shot it just the same.

There didn't seem to be much new to pick up, but there were certainly skills she could use brushing up on, since guns seemed to be far and wide here. When she wasn't working on getting her strength and stamina up, she practiced with the new and varied weapons available to them. Or watching others work with them, absorbing her "competition". The living skills area she hadn't explored thoroughly yet, but she'd get there.

It also gave her lots of time to think, to sort through things. Not that spending lots of time turning all of this bullshit over in her head seemed to help. But when jogging the track, she found her mind the most clear. It was also when she was paying the least attention to her surroundings, which had almost lead to a few disasters.

SPEAKEASY BAR|

Exploring the bars, this had been the one that she felt would be the best bet to actually enjoy. She had picked up that she'd likely be spending time in all of them, so she was hoping to explore on her own, before she ended up out of her league against her better judgement.

It wasn't the kind of dive she usually spent time in, but compared to the other's she had seen, she had a feeling it was the best she was going to get. It reminded her of rich people pretending to slum, and not even getting close. But it was dim, and comfortable, and really, having extra plush bar stools wasn't the worst thing to deal with.

"Whiskey, please." She asked, and her eyes widened when when the drink was set before her, her lips quirking up. She didn't know the brand, obviously, but this was going to be a damn good drink.

There were maybe some perks to all this.

PIER 12 CARNIVAL AND ARCADE|

Carnivals had always been a strange sort of treat back home. They were all a little run down, but a comfortable sort of run down, and they could spend the day there on a handful of cash. And knowing she was surrounded by people who also lived life going from place to place, who's home moved with them, had always given De a strange sort of longing to be around them.

She and Sammy had discussed more than once as children running away to join the carnival. Clearly they had never gone through with it, but it was one of those fantasies they'd always talked about in the dark of the hotel room.

This carnival was pretty much nothing like that, but De was still enjoying the hell out of it. The futuristic rides, the arcade games that put all her old sci-fi shows to shame...she felt like a kid again. The fact everyone treated her just a little bit special wasn't helping the feeling, and she was enjoying herself greatly, one arm full of the best cotton candy she had ever seen, the other checking the balance on the little token device they used to keep track of how much she spent.

Not that she had to worry much about that here. And it was nice to spend the day forgetting what a shit hole this place was.

D1 COMMON ROOM|

She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

Sprawled out in the couch, she was dressed in a pair of sweat pants and a tank top she managed to scrounge up, flicking idly over the screen of one of the tablets in the District suites. She should be watching old videos, researching this place, trying to figure thing out.

Instead she'd found herself accessing some list of funny animal videos.

Her brain was officially fried.

Which didn't make this kitten falling over any less amusing, and she had to press her fist to her mouth to stop from snorting too loudly.

Comments

Training Room

[hit_girl_mindy]

Great minds thought alike. Even after winning the games, Mindy found that the training room still offered her what she needed in terms of tuning out people and concentrating on building her body up. There was never really a doubt she'd be back here, just what it was she might be doing. For today she decided to take a page from Katniss's book, practicing her archery. It was a bit harder than shooting obviously: both her arms had a workout and pretty much demanded she was balls on accurate. Nonetheless, she was able to let a few arrows fly fairly near the bulls-eye, and marked her progress, engrossed for the moment in improving her depth perception.

[not_cocked]

She watched the younger girl practicing. It reminded her of her and her sister, really. The precise movements, the mental focus. She wasn't surprised this girls had won.

Walking up, she picked up a bow of her own and gave the girl a wide smile.

"Mind a partner? You don't exactly need to worry about competition now."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy was just about to grab her arrows again when she was addressed. She looked over at the woman, sizing her up, then nodded. She looked like she could carry her own weight.

"I'm still getting the hang of it, unless you were talking about, y'know, the BIG competition."

Training

[dragoon_pride]

At this rate, Kain would be practically living in the training room before long. He'd developed a regular habit of getting up early, heading over there and spending time with various weapons until he dropped. He had to develop his skills differently here than back home. He had no idea when he'd next be able to use his powers, or if they'd still come with a price whenever that chance might arise next.

So Kain was trying to see what sort of flips and jumps he could manage. Un-powered jumps felt less effective than what he was used to, but he knew he had to make do. He was practicing on the inside of the track, sometimes unarmed, sometimes using the long pole of a spear to launch himself up, flipping around to land. Often the landing wasn't the greatest, and he still wasn't satisfied. But he did have a bit of a knack even now for powering himself upward, his leg muscles as adapted to jumping as any gymnast.

He was getting right into his training himself, becoming more engrossed in getting a solid landing. His path strayed closer and closer to the track.... and his next landing brought him into a narrowly avoided collision with a runner.

[not_cocked]

She had watched him jump on other occasions, and was impressed with it. Smooth, graceful gymnastics had never been her strong suit. More like get the hell out of the way as quick as possible.

It was something worth learning.

But this morning, a particular nasty dream about her sister and these damn games had her deep in her mind. Deep enough that she narrowly avoided Kain, managing to show of her ungraceful get the hell out of the way skills in the process. She managed to go down smoothly, injury-less, but still, not really graceful.

[dragoon_pride]

Not the best landing at all. Kain gasped, realizing that he'd not only strayed too far onto the track itself, but knocked into someone. He got upright from the position he'd landed in and headed over a bit closer. Apologies and such weren't his strong suit, but he couldn't just walk away from something he'd caused.

"Forgive me... Are you all right?"

He stayed close, so he could offer assistance if she needed it. Though... Rosa, Cecil, or even Edge were far better at this sort of thing.

trainin'

[hanssome]

[The training center has proven to be a veritable hot spot for tributes now that the games had come to a finish. It shouldn't be surprising, really. Even the many who aren't in it to win are in need of practice to protect themselves and loved ones.

The wave of newcomers hadn't deterred Hans from training, but often he finds himself more interested in hanging back to the sidelines and observing. His towel is around his neck and he holds onto it with both hands, arms draped casually over his chest as his eyes flick around the room. He wants to get a good idea of his competition, what they're faltering at and what they're skilled with. It will all come in handy in the end.

Of course, he has an act to keep up, so his observance is hidden under a veil of indecisiveness. As if he's choosing where to go next, not sizing up the challengers. It's in doing so that he will make eye contact with De as she goes about her business. He doesn't want to look rude, so he'll smile brightly at her, moving a hand from his towel to give her a little wave.]

[not_cocked]

Catching the guy's eyes, she lifted a hand in greeting.

He was a looker, but didn't seem like too much of a fighter. The dude looked like some Disney prince brought to life. She'd seen him watching, looking lost, and decided to work on making some allies.

"Hey. You look a little lost." She said, putting on one of her friendly smiles. This was the 'Hi, I have control of this, what can I do for you?' variety. One of her most useful ones, really. Second only to 'Hello, I am helpless, please give me what I want.'

[hanssome]

Don't judge him for his beauty, De! He can swing a sword with the best of them, but he can't tone up for the life of him. Alas.

De looks friendly enough, the smile encourages a small grin out of him when she makes her approach. At least their goals are similar, it will make this run so smoothly.

"Me? Oh! No, I'm not lost." He fails to mention that he comes here frequently. "Sometimes I get distracted watching people when I really ought to be training." He lets out a faint laugh, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't believe we've met, have we?"

the speakeasy

[pillowmania]

Katurian spent most of his 'bar time' in the Tesserae Bar because it was close to his apartment, but now and again, he liked to venture out to the Speakeasy. Katurian found the noise in this particular bar to be barely tolerable . . . yet still somehow alluring. It was like spicy food: painful, but satisfying. He felt like he could ride away on the laugher and yells and jeers, far up into the sky until the atmosphere burned him up. It was spiritual. It was terrifying.

It didn't take him long to get drunk.

Less than two hours into his stay, he found himself in the bathroom -- the woman's bathroom -- retching into the toilet.

[not_cocked]

After a few drinks, it wasn't a stretch to need the little girl's room. And finding a guy retching in the bathroom was weirdly homey to her. But she had a feeling that some of them around here might freak out about it.

And De knew what to do with a puking drunk.

"Hey, man, you all right?" Luckily there were cups by the sink, and she filled one with cold water, after some fiddling with the ridiculously over stylized sinks, bringing it over to him.

[pillowmania]

Before he crumpled down in front of the toilet, before his legs rested against tiles made sticky from water and soap and urine, Katurian had had the foresight to close the stall behind him. Nevertheless, he heard the woman as she approached, those soft footsteps against tile, that hiss of fabric brushing against fabric.

"I'm fine," he said, trying to raise his voice above the running water, although he hardly managed a whisper. He abandoned the lie immediately. "I mean, not fine. It would be fucking insane if this was 'fine.'"

He braced his hands against the ground. (No, the tiles weren't sticky because of water and soap and urine. This was the Capitol, after all -- they probably wanted it to seem like a dive bar, scuffing up the bathroom like one might tear holes in jeans.) The room was spinning, just slightly.

"What are you doing in here?"

Katurian could debate the tiles, all right, but he still didn't know he was in the wrong bathroom.

common room

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat is drawn over by the weird sounds the female human is making and finds himself staring at the tablet over De's shoulder. "Okay," he says after a moment. "I'm pretty sure juvenile purrbeasts aren't usually this amusing."

[not_cocked]

"I think this one is high, or something." When the video finished, she looked up to see one of the strange, grey people behind her.

Tensing, she isn't sure what to do. She's been researching them, and knew one was in her district, but she had yet to talk with any of them. Of figure them out, at all. So far, her best guess had been aliens (???) but really, she wasn't sure.

Still, she didn't think this one was going to mess with her right here, right now.

"Purrbeasts, huh?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

"I think you humans call them cats," the boy replies, "which is, like, typically non-descriptive. You guys can't call a short-handled digging implement a short-handled digging implement."

He sighs. "I'm not going to eat you. We don't actually eat humans, despite that shit they were spewing when we first got here."

District 1 Suite

[pepsi_cola]

"It isn't ladylike to snort."

Victory's gravely purr slips in from the doorway, and she emerges dressed in the most tryhard nightgown that the Capitol has ever created (think of it this way - plunging neckline and a cut down the back that shows off her tramp stamp of roses with script stating NORMA JEAN and some unintentionally backwards music notes).

She takes one look at De and looks actually upset, clown-lips pouting and big lashes fluttering as if she'd holding back actual human tears.

"Ugh, do you have to wear clothing that makes it look like I don't try at all? Couldn't you wear, I don't know, anything I put in your wardrobe?"

Re: District 1 Suite

[not_cocked]

The urge to snort and spit was strong, just to piss Victory off. But De resisted, because honestly, that truly was disgusting.

"I don't know, could you put anything wearable in my wardrobe?"

If she was being fair, Victory actually wasn't the worst stylist, now she had a comparison. Especially not with party dresses. She could get into the whole classy, vintage thing.

However, she was never going to dress like some vintage drag queen when she was chilling out.

"I know it might be hard to tell without a heart, but cute kittens sometimes make you act unladylike."

[saisamour]

Marius's wandering feet would have eventually brought him to the bright lights of the carnival. Today, it seemed, was that day.

Despite knowing of it, actually winding around the throng of people as colorful as the loud, flashy booths and the fragrant, mouth-watering snacks was a different experience altogether, and it caused within him a sense of both awe and trepidation. Crowds were scary enough; crowds who shamelessly stared at and greeted him like an intimate friend made him wish he knew the secrets of disappearing magicians.

And yet there was an almost tangible enjoyment—a happiness, of sorts—in the air, that made him stay. He thought of bringing Cosette here, if she wanted to, and he began mentally ticking off the important reminders when going to carnivals.

One, stay close to each other, or you risk losing each other in the sea of people. Two, accept gifts from fans so as not to insult them, such as the blue fizzy drink he had been offered.

He was considering what the third rule was when he made an abrupt turn, right into a collision course with the girl busy checking her token device. He yelped, as a warning, but unfortunately could not stop his momentum.

He prayed she dodged sweet, fizzy drinks well.

[not_cocked]

She could not make it out of the way of him, but she did manage to dodge enough that the drink only ended up of her boots.

"Hey, hey buddy, you might wanna slow down there..." She started, before looking up and seeing a face she'd caught more than once on the replays and best of specials they always seemed to be running. It was a strange thing, like seeing a celebrity, chased by the realization that she was the same kind of celebrity.

"Hi." She gave him a wide grin, wondering if he'd recognize her. Probably not. She was still fresh meat, all things considered.

The Speakeasy

[casaerotica13]

Gabriel was very good at ignoring important and possibly emotionally straining subjects. Such as the last arena. Yet, the first time he picked up that mask hadn't really left his mind. He was still restricted, yes, but it was the most freedom he had felt since arriving in Panem.

Then there was the appearance of the Winchester. Seeing Sam was very unexpected, but also both terrible and relieving at the same time. Not to mention that it proved something in that arena. He thought he felt something. Not that he could find any Winchesters since Castiel marked up their rib cages, but it had been something.

He wasn't really looking for the other half of the set. Just noticing those around him at all times everywhere he went. He just wanted to be sure, that was all. But he was pretty sure. If the elder one had been there, he would have known. Sam would have known.

It was then that he sat down next to pretty young woman. Women had a way of distracting him, but he also recognized her and that would cause for another distraction.

For the moment, he didn't say anything to her. Just ordered his Mai Tai and continued to sit there with a grin.

[not_cocked]

"Mai Tai, huh?"

She looked over, her whiskey in hand, and her face said everything that needed to be said about how she felt about the man next to her ordering a Mai Tai. As far as she was concerned, anything that might come with an umbrella was on the cusp of too girly for her.

If you actually had balls, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Although she'd love to claim some gut instinct about the relevance of the man next to her to her life...she had nothing. Besides mocking his choices.

Speakeasy

[undercoverprincess]

Bars were something Cindy didn't really frequent back home, unless she was really down into her skullduggery phase. Parties were more her thing, big flashy clubs that played loud music and you didn't know anyone. Dancing was something she loved to do anywhere.

But sometimes, you just needed a drink. And in a place that wasn't big and flashy, because you just needed some time away from this crazy world. Where people knew you, but they didn't know you, like all of the other places liked to do.

Cindy glanced over at the woman sitting next to her, frowning a moment. She knew her, it just took a moment to place her.

"Another martini." Cindy said to the barkeep, swiveling a tiny bit in her chair. "De, right?"

[not_cocked]

Glancing up, she placed the face before the rest of her mind caught up. It came quickly though, a woman who handled herself impressively well in the arenas. Solidly places in De's "wary" mental file.

But this wasn't the arena, and she was rarely unhappy to see a cute girl in the bar. Grinning, she lifted a hand in greeting.

"Cinderella, right? Not out too late are you?"

Ok, but how could she resist? You didn't run into a chick named Cinderella ever day.

Training room!

[swill]

And wouldn't you believe it, it was his first time there. Hawkeye figured he looked far out of place before he even fully strode into the area, before he glanced this way and that with a wariness of the weapons on display and the tributes handling them that wouldn't benefit anyone with the intent to become familiar with them. Hawkeye reasoned he nearly looked like he was on safari in Africa, his personal space the modified Jeep, the target dummies were the zebra, the tributes the lions and the throwing knives, of course, the teeth. And he was watching this spectacle and trying not to look away because he was a vegetarian and hated the sight of meat, much more the raw sport shown inches away from him.

It was kind of like that, and kind of made him think twice about having thought he would do well in getting to learn what kinds of injuries he might see. Because he hadn't had enough experience with all sorts of violence on a body, naturally. Because his imagination was dull and incapable of dredging its own nightmares, obviously.

Skittish as he felt, he walked through the rooms with confidence. Lost as he was, he still some times got lost in his thoughts enough to think he might be in danger of stepping into the shooting range and becoming a fair target himself. Hawkeye was regretting not having brought a notepad and a pen, then he saw the girl and, well, he trotted over. There was a rule about not fighting outside the death matches, right? She wouldn't just deck him, right? To play it safe, Hawkeye decided with a heavy heart not to start with Hiya, Come Here Often?. "Hi. Hey," he calls. "Got a minute?"

[not_cocked]

Even if she wouldn't crow it from the rooftops, De wasn't ever the type to leave someone drowning. Especially not in this kind of cesspool.

She let her arm drop with the staff she'd been working with, and gave him wide smile, knowing that around here that was already becoming part of the friend making code.

"Hey, what can I do for you."

Setting the staff up, she leaned her weight against it, still grinning.