thecapitol | (no subject)

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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.

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It's late in the day but early for Jesse, who never rises before noon unless he has to be somewhere. Fresh out of bed, dressed in nothing but boxers and a t-shirt and smears of last night's makeup, he shuffles through the room on his way to the kitchen. He doesn't even notice Guy there until he's on his way back out, coffee mug in hand. At that point, he pauses and squints. He doesn't quite get what he's seeing. Some kind of art project? He's curious, but he doesn't want to interrupt.

Joel didn't think training was really worth his time for the most part. The skills he had, he'd picked up piecemeal over the years, through being forced to use them in actual life-or-death situations.

He just didn't see how firing a gun at a target or punching a big bag could compare.

But he actually spent a relatively large amount of time in the training area, mostly to see who else was making use of it and what they focused on. Sometimes, he even helped people with survival skills if he was feeling particularly charitable.

When he spotted guy, with an elaborate trap-like thing, he approached carefully, making sure Guy saw him well before he got close, not wanting to startle him.

"That looks useful," he said conversationally.

Julian had kept a close enough eye on the Arena after his death, at least the people he was concerned with, to know exactly how badly things went for Guy. And it was worrisome to him--he could sympathize, but he couldn't truly know how badly it had affected him without checking up.

And, well. He was a doctor. Meddling in other people's affairs came with the territory sometimes.

District 6's rooms were...not quite as loud as 7's, which was a blessed difference. After Justin's racket, Julian would take what he could get. At least he could be fairly sure that Guy would hear him knocking, and he could hear his friend's reply.

"Guy? It's Julian. Are you in there?"

Ziva stalked around the training area, trying to do her job, and see what the other Districts had to offer. There were disappointing few people utilizing the facilities, which was annoying to her. She couldn't exactly analyze what the people she was expected to help keep alive would be going up against without seeing them in action, and watching feeds of the Arena only did so much for that, in her opinion.

But at least one of the District 6 Tributes was down here. Good. At least one of them had some initiative. Not that she'd introduced herself to him yet--she knew his name, but only because it was strange, and he was a strange man. But she'd not spoken to him as of yet.

Time to change that. She approaches on quiet, light feet, crouching close by.

"You will want to be careful, when you build a fire. Heat is vital, but the smoke and light will give away your location."

"Uh-duh. That's why my first arena I only made them to fight the death lizards. Back home, fire kept away some animals but it'd attract the attention of a few that weren't quite as afraid of it."

Smarter animals, for instance, big cats like Chunky? Weren't easily intimidated.

He wasn't really trying to be rude, but he was always on edge when strangers approached in the Capitol since it wasn't all Tributes and therefore some were rude or creepy. This was also an area of expertise that he didn't feel like getting lectured on. He was ignorant about so many other things - a fact that some of the people in the Capitol used to make him feel bad - but fire? Survival skills? That was where he got to be the smart guy and he was going to sass anyone that tried to talk to him as that wasn't the case.

"I'm aware of the fact situational awareness is a thing. You learn that pretty quickly when there are always things trying to eat you."

"Staring is about as obtrusive as asking what I'm doing, y'know," he said, without looking up, though there wasn't really any malicious or annoyed tone to his voice.

In fact, it sounded more inviting, like he was open to conversation even though he was concentrating.

"This is how I eat most of the time back home. Don't get me wrong, I'm handy with a spear and Grug and my mate Eep are even better, but traps are the way we usually do it and we just work together to herd animals towards them."

He adjusted something at the base of the tree.

"People are a little harder to fool, though. I'm working on some designs that are easier to hide in the brush."

His voice was muffled and not just by the door.

"Nooo."

Yes, obviously.

Ziva actually laughed. It's a pleased sound, not mocking, though the smirk might be a bit much. "Good. You do have a head on your shoulders. That makes my job easier."

She also didn't mind the rudeness. Not at all. Her own social skills were...underdeveloped, and she was just as capable of delivering insult without truly meaning it. It showed in her awkward speech more than anything these days, because she hadn't bothered to change the way she talked around the Capitol.

"I did not watch you, before. I was in District 6. I have always taken...liberties, when it comes to having to observe. So far, all I know of you is the face you wear."

Her smile is sharp, like the knives at her side. "So show me what you already know, so I can teach you something you may not."

Nice try there, Guy, very sneaky. Unfortunately, Julian is not fooled at all.

"May I come in?"

Anyone else, at any other time, he might have just...invited himself. But it was wiser to be a bit more mindful of people's boundaries, when stuck in a situation like this.

There was silence for a little while.

Then, finally, "Okay."

When Julian entered he'd find nothing but a lump of blankets and pillows on the floor, next to the bed, which had been shoved to the side as if it was simply in the way.

One of the lumps was suspiciously Guy-sized.

"District six, as in you were in District six like you grew up there, or like you're one of us that got put there and won an arena?" Guy asked.

He didn't trust Capitol people easily. Some seemed fine, like Cinna, Katniss, Peeta, and even Effie, but others were fairly terrible and he was sometimes slow to warm up to them.

He had sympathy for the ones that few up in the districts, certainly, but not all of them were nice. Lestat, for instance, had been a jerk.

"I grew up there. In the desert." She tilts her head, as if she's trying to get a better look at him from another angle, considering.

"If you do not trust me because of that, it would be wise indeed. I am not going to tell you that you should, because it does not matter."

She waves a hand. Take her advice or not, she has others that she could impart her skills to.

"Traps mean you don't have to be on all the time," Joel pointed out with a nod. "Don't suppose you'd be willing to share a few tips?" He would, of course, be happy to help Guy out with anything he could in return.

"Sure." He smiled. "A lot of it is improvisation, though, but I can teach you what to look for."

He gestured up at the trees they'd set up there.

"To start off with, you have to see what you have in the way of trees and how pliable they are."

"Depends on why you're teaching me. Are you one of those mentors?"

He needed to know more about her first. He tossed twigs on his fire and coaxed it into a roaring little blaze, crackling away with very little smoke.

"Because the last mentor that tried to teach me things thought his biggest priority was making sure I took a bath and he told me the Capitol was better than my 'horrid little world.'"

Lestat had been a horrible first exposure to his mentors.

"So if you actually want to help me, fine, but if you're going to be like that and tell me how lucky I am to be here and how I should be happy to play my little part in your world's severe dysfunction, I'm not interested."

"I am." She shrugged. "But that is not what I am here for. I do not care if you bathe, certainly. And I would rather not be here either."

She prefers the heat and the sun, losing herself in the wilderness for days at a time. The Capitol is a cage, it's cold and she hates it.

"I am here to do my best to see that you survive. That is all. I am not here to be your friend, no. But I am also not here to tell you lies."

He glanced up at her and then back to his fire.

"So no telling me I should be happy to be here or pretending any of this makes sense?"

Julian is quiet, stepping lightly over the carpet with bare feet. He crouches next to the pile of blankets, able to see the slight rise and fall of them from Guy's breathing.

He smiles slightly, reaches out, and lays a hand where he guesses Guy's shoulder is.

"Would you mind terribly if I kept you company for a while?" It's blessedly quiet in here, peaceful, which is something he desperately misses. And he knows that after what Guy went through at the end of that Arena, he might just need the company as well.

There was a quiet rise and fall of his chest, but he didn't squirm away and he eventually said, "That would be nice."

In fact, he scooted slightly under the blankets to get closer, a hand wrapped up in blankets resting on the one Julian had put on his shoulder.

He shifts so he's sitting, cross-legged, without breaking contact. Guy's still under the blankets, but really--Julian doesn't blame him. He thinks he would be too, if the same thing had happened to him. As it was, he'd just kept himself isolated from everything in his own way...not that it had been difficult, dying early as he had.

"There's too much light pollution to see the stars here, or I'd offer to show you," Julian says, when the silence gets to be too much for him.

"You have names for them, don't you?" Guy said, voice still muffled. "You'd have to have names for them if you travel around in the same ones a lot."

"Don't worry, I'm pretty good at improvisin'," Joel said with a wry sort of half-smile. Twenty years of having to make do with whatever he could find had made him pretty adept with things like that.

"I suppose you could use strong rope or twine if there aren't any trees," he offered.

Kevin watched Guy set traps. It wasn't the traps themselves that caught his attention. No, it was the way they threw the dummies around like they were ragdolls. None of the other Tributes that he'd seen made them like that. He bit his lip. He'd talked to this guy before and he'd seemed okay. Making up his mind, he walked over to him. "Can you teach me how to make them like that?"

"Sorry." Jesse shuffles over to a chair and takes a seat. He's a little too groggy for good conversation, so he sips at his coffee for a minute or two, first. Then, finally, he asks, "What is it?"

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