thecapitol | Conscientia

Entry tags:

Conscientia

WHO| Open
WHAT| Night life at the Speakeasy
WHEN| Evenings this week
WHERE| The Speakeasy
WARNINGS/NOTES| Feel free to use this party post style, or however you like if you would like to set any threads here.

The speakeasy was a classy joint. Wood panels, and soft velvet, and usually some kinda of live music, something mellow and easy to relax to. It was big, with low ceilings and with many back rooms, some easy to access, others less so. Easy to get lost in. And it gave off an air of class, of comfort, and being a part of something a little different from the rest. The kinda place where everybody knew your name, and everybody knew to be discreet about it.

It was the perfect place to grab a drink, sit, talk, and relax. No one over heard you, no one got in your business, but everyone was glad to talk if you wanted to find a friendly face. The owner, Conscientia, made her round every now and then, saying hello to her regulars, welcoming those who were new.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She was used to awkward. Even Arthur had been awkward in his own way.

"It's surprisingly good. I think the Tributes are doing considerably better than if they just had the Morphlings to cover them; I was lucky. I could just wing it. I'm not sure about some of the others," she replied, shrugging a little. They'd held their own until the massive series of deaths last Arena that left but a handful standing. And against Don, she couldn't exactly say they weren't trained - she wouldn't have been able to win either.

"You're good for them. The Morphlings..." Well. They were the morphlings. Not really who he would want.

"I can't really blame them though. I can't say it hasn't been tempting at timed." He let out a soft laugh. "Cheerful conversation so far..."

She ducked her head, stifling a soft, wry laugh. He didn't even need to continue the sentence; she already knew exactly what he was getting at. "I hope so. It's not like the Tributes are given much to work with now. Not compared to when they were from the Districts, at least."

Ariadne hesitated, inhaling slowly before cracking a small smile. "You're right, though. This isn't exactly the best topic." Another pause. "But I'll admit, I don't really know what else to talk about."

"It depend on the district. Some got plenty...others..." He shrugged. "Part of the reason Katniss and Peeta's double win was so monumental was because the children from 12 are untrained and half starved whenever they arrive here."

10 had well fed kids at least, many strong from their farm work.

"It's actually good. You have to play her you might as well know the rules."

She nodded at that; she'd looked into some of the other Districts as much as she was allowed, partly because she wondered how exactly they came about their affiliations. It still didn't seem to make much sense to her, but she didn't think anyone but the Gamemakers themselves would be able to answer that. And if she got in front of them, it wouldn't be to ask them things. Well. Maybe a few things.

"I've tried to find as much as I could about the past Games as possible. It was a little bit harder on my own, I'll admit, but I think I have a decent grasp on the rules by now." Ariadne paused, frowning a little. "It's harder outside the Arena than it was in."

"Yeah. If you ever need to see more from the Games, I can help you get clips, and everything..." He sighed. "Not exactly light viewing, but it can be helpful."

He paused, chewing over how to edge into this.

"It's hard everywhere. It's worse outside the Capitol."

"I'd love that," she replied, her voice even. She was torn - she appreciated the offer, the assistance, but the imagery really was horrendous. She'd already managed to find some things, but if Elias could get her more of that, then it would be even more that she knew. Ariadne hated not knowing as much as she could about a place, especially if she had the opportunity.

Her eyes slid to him then, frowning a little. "What do you mean?"

"The Districts. Each one had it's own little world of horror. 10, for example...we get food enough, although never the good cuts. But tripe and tongue keeps your stomach full." He knew that, some districts, would gladly trade their place for a warm bowl of tripe stew every night. "But because our stock is so valuable, and our work requires we be spread out, we have some of the harshest peace keeper presence. Second, only, I believe to 11."

He shrugged.

"Every district is a horror story. Even the career districts."

Her fingers tapped against the table softly as she listened to that - she knew things weren't great, had managed to pick that much up from the fact that the Morphlings were the way they were.

"And then the Capitol was bringing people in from those Districts to fight in the Games," she murmured quietly, sure that if food was difficult to come by outside the Capitol, then chances were that some people would give anything to get inside it. The food, the parties, the adoration - it might actually be desirable to some people. Thoughtfulness was written across her face as she thought about all of that, wondering what the state of her own District was, what the rest of them were like. She'd only met a small handful of those originally from Panem; none had been terribly forthcoming.

She opened her mouth, pausing before simply closing it again. She didn't know what to say. But she didn't like it.

"If you won, your district ate, and well, for a year. Now, if we win, they eat until the next arena."

Which really, was better in the long run. Which was part of what the Capitol planned for sure.

"The power structure here is...well, it's skewed, deeply."

"That's an understatement," Ariadne murmured, her frown growing deeper. There wasn't that much time between each of the Arenas; there was hardly any time for the Districts to get comfortable with eating properly before it would be off to the next District.

"We can't just sit here like this. We live comfortably in the Capitol, representing these people," she murmured, "But still, nothing's changed."

He smiled, realizing that might seem a little strange to her. But it was exactly what he wanted to hear.

"You want to change it?"

It did seem a bit strange that he was smiling at that; she blinked in response, lips parting in mild confusion before she looked down to her hands and back to him again. "It's not like I'm doing anything else with my time here."

Ariadne was the first person he'd decided to approach with this, and although everything had gone smoothly with Wyatt, there was a knot of nervous energy he doubted would ever leave. Fear he was putting his trust in the wrong person.

Because one person could bring this whole things down. And these people, they didn't understand how it was to live in the districts. But maybe that would help, in the end.

"There's a rebellion."

Three little words that seemed to make everything she'd seen in the Capitol that was strange suddenly click. Those rumours of the District 12 Victors disappearing, the demonstration involving Tate's death, the mutts at one of the crowning ceremonies. At the time, she'd merely put it off to everything still being utterly bizarre, to it being the ways of the Capitol. Now she wondered if it wasn't a series of responses.

"A rebellion," Ariadne echoed, looking at him steadily. "What do they do?"

He shrugged, not sure how to articulate all the small things, the micro rebellion going on in the Capitol. Not sure how much he wanted to tell her till he was entirely sure. What he knew about 13, about everything.

"Right now the Capitol has done much to undermine the Rebellion. They were going strong, and then...all of this. When it's not your children being taken, when you are getting more food...it makes it easier to take it."

She nodded a little, understanding that. There was less to fight for if they weren't actively getting killed.

"Still, they used to eat for a year, and now it's barely a few months. Now they have us as representatives, and no one here even asks questions about what the Districts themselves are like. They just wear it as a number, like on a jersey," she mused, tracing her fingers against the smooth surface thoughtfully. If she was bothered that Elias wasn't telling her everything, it didn't show; she knew that he couldn't be, but this wasn't like Cobb hiding things from the team. This was the reverse, keeping things from people to protect them. She couldn't blame him for that.

"In a way it is better though. Before, the winner was almost always 1, 2, or 4...other district had little chance. So you would go for years without real food, without celebration...now every few months..."

He trailed off.

"When you are so desperate for anything, little things can see like so much more than they are. When you are so use to being so far down, being allowed anything seems so much better. Even if you are still...not really getting much."

He laughed.

"They don't even know."

Ariadne didn't know how long it had been since District 6 had last won; it wasn't like she could tell just by looking at the Morphlings, who looked like they were about to keel over at any given moment. But Elias did have a point - she supposed that a little bit was better than the nothing they were used to, even if it was less than before. It was just sad that there was such a skew towards certain districts.

"There has to be something we can do, though. There must be someone out there who still disagrees with what's going on here. It might not be their children, but to kill and revive people over and over again? It's not humane."

Here it went, now or never.

"There's a 13th District."

It wouldn't have the impact on Ariadne it had on him. That 13 was still there, that it was still functioning. And that it was helping them.

"They were...cut off in our last war. We were always told they were destroyed. But they weren't, and they are supporting the rebellion."

"But they-" She paused, letting the information sink in. A 13th District, unannounced by the Capitol, virtually ignored by them. That she'd gone this long without hearing a word about it told her everything.

It definitely didn't have the same effect as it would on a Panem resident; she wasn't familiar enough with anything for that. But she could still recognise that it was a bit of a game changer for the rebellion. "Does the Capitol know?"

"They must, on some level. They hide it. But I don't know how much they know."

He leaned back, playing with his now empty cup.

"13 is dangerous. How each district has something is specializes in...13 made weapons. Particularly nuclear ones."

"Denial?" Ariadne frowned. It didn't seem right, to have the Capitol know about a district like that, that was potentially dangerous to them, and not do anything about it. Not when they weren't above murder for sport.

"That doesn't have any connection to the last Arena, does it?" She asked then, remembering vividly the way the Tributes had all taken ill so quickly, some dying out of reactions alone. "It wasn't a warning, was it?"

"To us, maybe. They sometimes show people 'exploring'" He made quotations in the air. "13, but the clip is the same clip, looped every time. For who knows how long."

The thought had been bouncing around in Elias's head as well.

"I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. Remind them what radiation can do?"

Her frown was doubtless going to end up firmly engraved between her brows after this conversation, for how much she had been doing it. She just couldn't believe that there was something like that out there.

"It would definitely do that. If it was a warning, then it might be safer to keep things quiet for a bit. Let them think that it worked."

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