thecapitol | (no subject)

WHO| Guy and Julian, Guy and YOU
WHAT| Guy's post-arena stuff
WHEN| Catch-all, week 6 through to right before the Crowning, some threads timed after
WHERE| All over, just state where you're catching him in the subject
WARNINGS| cw: violence and mild gore in the Azula thread

Guy's Room - Closed to Julian

Guy was not having a good time of things right after the arena.

He was a lump now. Apparently that was the next stage in human evolution where he was from, lumpdom, and the stress of the last arena had caused him to evolve. He was a creature of the lump, a Lumpy One, living in his little nest under his blankets in his room. That was the place he slept every night, rather than using the mattress, which always left him with the creeping feeling he was sleeping in some creature's open mouth.

It was a comfy nest and one he apparently had decided he was never leaving from again if he could help it.

District Six Common Area - Open

A few days had passed since the arena and Guy was feeling a little better. The feeling of being trapped in this place was growing more and more intense as time went on, so he'd spent quite some time walking around the city.

The people there and their attention irritated him, though, and the city just wasn't big enough. Other than the parks, it wasn't full of things he actually wanted to see, just endless concrete and glass.

It wasn't natural, having all these people crammed into such artificial places.

So he was back in the District Six common room because even if he had to stay still, it was safe from the outside world.

Right now he kneeling on the floor working on something, curled around it with the same interest a child might show an anthill. He'd broken a vase for the pieces and gently ushered away the avox that had tried to clean it up, planning on cleaning it up himself so the poor thing didn't have to. He was working with the multicolored pieces, sanding down the edges so they weren't sharp and scratching holes in them to make them and other odds and ends into a little necklace.

A thank you gift for someone.

Though occupied with his work, he wasn't averse to talking to people, though. (When was he ever?) So any of his district mates - or visitors passing on through - would find him fairly chatty if they struck up a conversation.

Training Area - Open

Guy knew he needed to learn to fight better, which was why he had decided to spend more time in the Training Center. There was only so much you could learn by throwing things at targets, though, and he didn't quite trust the trainers so he was hoping people he knew might be willing to teach him things.

Of course, he had plenty himself he could teach in turn, something people passing by might see as he occupied himself in the areas that taught survival skills. Fire sprang from his fingertips within seconds the times he worked on making them, and the complicated traps from vines he made snapped up the dummies he tossed into them and flung them around violently.

No reason he couldn't work on getting better at the skills he already had, right? and there was always the chance someone might be interested in learning and teaching him something he didn't know in turn.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The words are delicate. Her showing the footage of Penny was a bludgeon, but what he said next was a scalpel - calm and sharp and precise.

"If she does? Then at least someone will actually miss me when I'm gone."

He didn't know exactly how she'd been regarded when she went home victorious but he didn't have to. That kind of brutality wouldn't be looked upon kindly by many and she was a nasty enough person that he doubted she was loved - truly loved - by many.

And if that really didn't bother her she wouldn't be so desperate to control people and drag people like him down.

Someone truly strong and truly loved wouldn't have gone out of their way to watch the misery on his face.

Edited 2014-04-13 15:35 (UTC)

"Yes, in this world and in your own. I wonder if they're still mourning you there."

Rising up once again she felt his words still crawling about inside her like ants. She would have to retreat soon or risk an outburst.

...then again would an outburst really be so bad?

"If your world is as dangerous as you claim then I imagine they can't afford to mourn you for long or risk their own lives."

He was feeling just as angry and conflicted. And terrified. Absolutely terrified over his mistake but he wasn't about to let her see it.

"The funny thing about people like us is we can manage both. Surviving and not being cold, dead, hateful carnivorous birds inside like people like you."

He'd never forgotten his parents and sister, never stopped carrying his love for them or their love for him with him. That never stopped but when they died he hadn't stopped, either.

His family would survive but they would also remember him as the one that coaxed them out of the dark.

He waved his knife vaguely. "I'm very secure in the knowledge my family would practically lay down on a nest of fire ants for me. Bad approach."

A tactical error, especially considering her own sensitivity.

"Well we can't all be as warm as you." She sighed "But I'm sure there are times even you wish you could be cold."

She'd reached her limit, she had to do something and so she lashed out with an aimed kick to his head to knock him into his own fire.

He was still on edge from the mini-arena and that was the only reason he didn't go in face first. Still, most of his right arm briefly dipped into the fire and hot ash was knocked up to his face, burning his neck and cheek, blisters forming instantly.

He shrieked in pain, but then it turned into an animal sound of rage as he lunged at her with the knife, wielding it with his unburned hand.

The Peacekeepers and trainers were rushing towards them to break it up but they had time for a few seconds of struggle.

The release she felt at his scream of pain was a rush of delight. It blazed through her like a bolt of lightning and left her feeling wired. So when his knife came for her she glanced to the side and offered a quick lash of her arm to guide it further off course.

"Next time I see fit to offer you anything, you should be more grateful." She hissed at him bringing a knee to his stomach so she could stun him long enough to try and move aside before the peacekeepers settled it.

The knife was sent off course but the pain of his burns, the relentless stress of the arenas, feeling preyed upon by the Capitol, and seeing her as a predator had put him in a mental place he hadn't been in often since he was young.

It only came out when he needed it, when he was backed into a corner.

Those times were the times when he was an animal thing in a world of dangerous animal things, and the teeth and claws came out, whether they were in the form of a knife or his actual teeth and nails.

Her parry had brought him in close enough to bite her upper arm, so he did, hard, until he tasted blood, and as he was pulled away from her by the peacekeepers, he pulled away a chunk of flesh with him.

The bite was so fast even she was caught off guard. She cursed and struggled as the Peacekeepers drug her back and felt the throbbing pain in her bicep.

The slow spreading stroke of blood running down her arm.

Her eyes blazed with fury as the Peacekeepers had to hold her back, it took four of them.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" She spat. "This is how you repay a warning? This is how you show you're better then me? By acting like a beast? Then die like one!"

The pain was numbed by her anger, she would shed no tears in front of this savage.

He spat blood and flesh in her direction with contempt.

He bared his bloodstained teeth at her, blood still dripping down his chin.

His eyes glinted like the light of the very fire she'd burned him with and his voice was eerily calm.

"No," he said, "This is how I fight back against animals."

The Peacekeepers started to drag them away from each other.

Edited 2014-04-13 18:38 (UTC)

With a frustrated snarl she shrugged off the peacekeepers with an equal amount of contempt. Sure they were protecting her but they had yet to punish him for his insubordination.

She needed her medication, she felt it pulling at her from the pocket she kept her pills in. But she would show no further weakness in front of him.

"Call me what you like, but everything that happens now to you or anyone you've grown close to will be on your head and no one else."

Time to take her leave before the urge to charge at him could overwhelm her logic.

Guy had no answer to that because it was true. He had brought ruin on himself, possibly his family, and maybe on the new friends he'd made. All because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, because pride had made him refuse to accept yet more insults.

But he hated her. He hated Azula so much that he waited until she was gone to dwell in his despair. Then he bowed his head and tried not to weep, barely hearing the Peackeepers telling him he had to get up to get medical attention for his burns, the taste of blood and something even more bitter still on his tongue.