thecapitol | Get up come on get down with the sickness

Entry tags:

Get up come on get down with the sickness

Who: Azula and open to all
What: Azula is sick, come poke the bear
Where: District 5 suite, Training Center Commons and the Ember Island Day Spa, take your pick
When: Before things get all hellish in the arena
Warnings: We're probably OK but I'll update this if something comes up.

She felt like hell.

Azula had not felt this bad since the cold turkey withdrawl from her medication she'd been forced into in the jungle arena. But this time she didn't have Diana to comfort and take advantage of her weakened state.

Face flushed and slick with sweat she was running one of the Avox's ragged as he refreshed her ice water and fanned her. A bowl of melting ice cream sat on the table in front of her but just looking at it made her stomach churn.

"This would be a poor way to die." She observed wiping sweat from her forehead with a wash cloth. Normally she would hide away in her room during such obvious weakness but the admittedly luxurious room still felt stifling and small in her current state. At least out here she could feel the flow of air conditioning.

Unable to stop herself from working she turned the television onto the broadcast of the arena just in time to watch Shepard and two younger tributes fall through a floor into a basement. That did not help her mood.

Sipping her water she swallowed gently and growled at the Avox "Fan harder."

******************************************************************************************************************************************

While she could just as easily have taken room service all day, Azula took it into her fevered brain that getting her blood flowing would help her lift the fog of misery that the sickness had settled over her head. And so with some effort she had the stylist help her dress and shuffled through the Tribute commons towards the bar. That would be enough of a walk and she could get a stiff drink to help relax.

After all an alcoholic haze was always more preferable to a fevered haze.

She realized after leaving the elevators she was starting to slip into a state of tunnel vision and was ignoring all the world around her as her ghostly pallor and modest, understated outfit almost made her unrecognizable to those passing her by. Each step drew her closer to her goal and she felt a little better about being able to fight and conquor such miserable feelings.

And then...suddenly and without warning a stabbing pain in her leg.

Pitching forward she caught herself on a pillar and hissed through clenched teeth. The pain seemed to give her clarity and she looked down to see where the knife that had to be buried in her leg was. But there was nothing. Just her leg, bent at the knee while the pain shot through her muscles.

A cramp? Some kind of spasm? It hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes despite her high pain tolerance. She had been so caught off guard that she actually felt dizzy from the pain.

Breathing hard and feeling a tremble race through her she leaned hard against the pillar and hoped no one had seen.

********************************************************************************************************************************************

The Ember Island spa had always claimed many health benefits to their treatments and while Azula was firmly in favor of science and medicine...she wasn't one to shy away from being pampered in the name of her health.

Sinking into the open air hot springs she let the attendant blather on about the vitamins and minerals and how the seaweed she was wrapped in would help pull the toxins from her skin, but none of it really mattered to her.

She was shivering.

Steam was rising from the hot water that she was up to her shoulders in, but at her core she still felt like she had swallowed ice. Her teeth chattered and she snarled a demand for another stiff drink to warm her up from the inside as the hot springs fought to warm her from the outside.

First a fever that lasted all morning only to give way to chills? What sort of sickness rebounded so sharply?

Miserably Azula sank up to her chin and took deep slow breaths to keep her traces of hydrophobia at bay. The spring wasn't that deep but in her current state she felt particularly vulnerable and exhausted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So maybe, just maybe, Mindy had decided to drop into spa because she heard that demon Azula mention it. Having all this free time with none of her friends was infuriating, and she felt pretty damn restless. So for once, JUST ONCE, she decided she might take a stab with this frou-frou shit. No one could see her anyway, so all the better. If she hated this, she would never have to do it again.

They'd done the whole thing, including giving her a much needed pedicure, despite her hesitance there. Her feet tended to get pretty well worn down with all the training. In any case, she had to admit she felt like a million dollars, and at the end of it all, she was finally able to relax in the springs...or so she thought.

Who should be here but her sworn enemy- and she didn't look any better than when she'd been at the party a day ago. Out of respect though, she kept to herself, letting the hot water work its magic.

Azula didn't notice her at first. Her eyes were closed and lips pursed as she tried to ignore the way her skin felt cold and clammy out of the water.

When she opened her eyes and spotted Mindy however her lips drew into a frown. Sure their last encounter had ended with Azula coming out on top...but she was ill today. She was weak.

Mindy would press that advantage if need be. She was ruthless enough.

Maybe if she just kept her mouth shut they could ignore each other in mutual hate.

Mindy was all too annoyed at how their last encounter ran, and she had doubled her training sessions as a result. But that was another story.

"Not looking like your usual repugnant self Azula," Mindy commented idly. "Did you finally get to second base with Diana or something?"

Oh yeah. She went there.

There was a visible twitch in Azula's eyebrow to show her displeasure. Clearly she was ill if she let such a tell slip past her defenses.

"Diana is in the arena and you know that." She countered with a stoney set to her features.

"But good job finding a more complex word to attempt to insult me with. I'm sure you spent a good long time looking for something more poetic then our usual banter."

"Was that supposed to be an insult? Fell flat. Clearly you've had better days."

Mindy looked at her nails, still quietly marveling at how actually neat they could look. She could likely only do this every once and awhile. She had too many sessions at the punching bag to warrant them being done.

"Hey, for all I know you could have had some on the side. Either way, you're looking less bitchy that usual. I like it."

Azula rolled her eyes and found that even that felt like a major effort.

"Of course you would like it. You're every bit as sadistic as you pretend not to be."

Eyes closing again she took a deep breath and felt the steam slithering through her sinuses to try and clear her groggy head. Another shiver and she dared to sink back to her neck to try and ward off the unpleasant chills.

"Me liking that you don't have your face stuck on permanent bitch is 'sadistic?' Learn something new every day."

She did notice the sickness of course. Being someone who'd had to mark Azula's poise, she knew when she was strong and prideful. This was hardly one of those times.

"Now, granted, I AM pretty sadistic, I just keep that to myself. You're that way too, you just hide it by acting all superior to everyone. I'm surprised you're not one of the Capitol's flunkies, like that useless lobster fuck."

"When have I ever hidden my sadistic nature?" Azula protested sounding confused but still exhausted by Mindy's desire to force a conversation on her.

"I've always been very up front about enjoying the suffering of those I dislike. That's one of the reasons you decided to make me one of your favorite people to irritate."

and more to the point.

"Who are you referring to?"

"Oh, you try to be all 'I'm just better than you, you totally misunderstand my intention,' kind of crap. You should just be awful and upfront about it. You're a comic book villain. Embrace it."

She grinned. "True. And yet, this place somehow keeps making us come together like this."

Mindy made an irritated noise. "Zoidberg. Whose now a Panem citizen and suddenly all about the games."

"I'm not convinced it's fate. I think you're going out of your way to make it happen." Azula protested rising up out of the water to reach for her drink. "And I am not so one dimensional even if that would make it easier for you to hate me. I can be better then you, misunderstood in my intentions and a bitch all at the same time. It's called being an adult. Something you continue to grasp at in all categories outside your vulgar language and your combat abilities."

This was really getting to be too much. She shuddered from the unpleasant feeling of cooling water and air on her skin and as soon as she'd had her sip she sank back into the water.

"I'd almost forgotten about that Disgusting creature." she confessed.

"Oh right, I forgot, you are so misunderstood in all your intentions. You really, at heart, are a caring and wonderful mentor, we just haven't all caught up to you because we think too small. Spare me. For all your posturing and garbage, you're probably just scared to think there's not much more to you besides being a former mentor and a bully. But you will ride that 'better than you train' until it crashes, won't you? I can't see how anyone could really enjoy yourself that way."

At the talk of Zoidberg, her face darkened.

"I can take being a bitch, and from this Panem dump as the reason you're how you are. When someone from a different world opts out the game to be a mouthpiece for this place, that's the lowest you can go."

This was turning into another one of their circular conversations.

"I've told you before and I'll say it again. Just because YOU ignore the different aspects of my personalities that you have personally witnessed doesn't mean the rest of the world is so blind."

She closed her eyes relaxing further, trying to imagine the seaweed sucking the toxins from her skin.

"It's difficult to expect someone with an exoskeleton to have a spine." She mused. "He never seemed that bright to begin with. They probably offered to keep feeding him instead of making him get a real job."

"Oh I'm not saying you don't have them. I'm saying I've seen what you are at your core. I mean come on, people who really fight each other, and I mean really? They get to see that part of the person a lot don't. If you were two dimensional no one would want to be around you. So in a fight, we saw each other without the makeup and varnish and shit. All those shots about how I'm an animal and I'm a brute, but you're just the same in fight, you just surrounded yourself with all of this. I prefer real life, blood sweat and tears. That's why you have it much easier."

Saying that, of course, didn't make Mindy feel better. Now she just felt like shit.

"He's a doctor, supposedly. Of being a little bitch, I don't know what specifically. Hey, shouldn't you be at home? You look fucking bad."

A hand slithered up out of the water and mimed talking.

"Clearly you weren't paying attention in our fight then if that's the conclusion you came up with. Give it another few years and maybe you'll figure out where you went wrong with that assessment."

There was just no excuse for experience.

"The specialists here have assured me that this treatment should help me relax and allow my body to more effectively fight off the illness." she reasoned.

"Oh sure, whatever. I'm supposed to believe that I was 'wrong.' You can say what you want, but until I see otherwise, I'll just chalk this up to bullshit. You didn't win easily, in case you forgot. That loss is only temporary anyway, like most things."

She chuckled. "I don't know. I find it funny that you weren't the only one that was fucked up during the viewing. I'm wondering if this wasn't part of some shit by them, to stir things up."

"With how hard it is for you to even consider you may be wrong your pride is impressive even by my standards. Of course it's that same pride that allows you to tell yourself you can do things impossible by normal people standards."

That was even more confusing. "What would give you that idea? Does illness not travel from person to person where you come from? We may be the epitome of technology and science here but we haven't conquered every disease.

"That's saying something," Mindy said, and gave the girl a grin. "Oh come on. I've always told myself I could do the impossible, otherwise how the hell would I have gotten this far in the first place?"

That held no malice either.

"Oh come on. That went to several people, and there's only a few of us mentors here. This is one of those times where I think it would pay to be a little suspicious. God help you if you have to report to crab man for a diagnosis."

"My point exactly." she hoped to end the discussion on pride there since Mindy refused to acknowledge her being correct.

"You don't know how many people in the city have caught something. Just because a handful of us were at the same party...and what point would it be to purposefully infect us?" She pointed out.

"You're being suspicious because you hate the Capitol and you have nothing better to do with your time now that you're out of the arena."

This was punctuated by another stabbing pain in her leg that caused her to tense up and clench her teeth. She wouldn't cry out though, not in front of Mindy.

Mindy always chose to disregard Azula's points even if they were correct. No point in feeding that massive ego more than she ought to.

"You can think what you want, but this has nothing to do with my feelings on the Capitol. This is my paranoia pure and simple. But then again, if you're feeling so good, maybe you don't need to go see anyone?"

Which was a lie: Mindy completely noticed her tense up a moment ago.

"I'm positively touched by how concerned you are for my health and well being." She grumbled at confirmation that Mindy had caught her. She felt like crap and there was no denying it. This spa treatment was barely helping to ward off the chills and every minute she spent in the spring was risking her hydrophobia over powering her exhaustion.

"As much as you suffering in pain amuses me, and even if it were reversed you'd watch me suffering with fucking glee, you shouldn't be here. You're shivering, and you look like you're going to drop at any minute."

The suggestion was in the air, and though she knew it was coming and cringing, it would piss her off more if she offered and was rebuffed.

"This was supposed to be helping." She continued to grumble no longer having enough energy to argue.

"I wasn't planning on staying long. After all I do have a job to do." And by god if she had to handle each sponsorship from her tablet she would. "I won't let a little chill stop me from taking care of my tributes."

"It might if it was something simple. But you're showing weakness in front of me, so its pretty fucking clear you're beyond something simple. That probably requires immediate attention."

She snickered. "Um. Not sure how effective a corpse will be in helping their tributes."

Azula groaned and barked out "FINE!" And her irritation echoed throughout the chamber. It was enough to see an attendant coming out to see if everything was alright.

"I'm leaving." Azula informed the attendant who expressed surprise and confusion. "If something is wrong with the treatment Miss Azula we can make adjustments..."

Azula stopped her, "No, this was supposed to be a relaxing and soothing treatment but I'll experience neither of those feelings so long as she's here." Azula cast an accusatory glance at Mindy as if it was her fault Azula was sick in the first place.

The attendant seemed flustered and unsure of what to do, finally she settled for shuffling off to get Azula a robe so she could be led off to have the seaweed removed. As Azula waited she fumed as much as her tired and aching body would allow her.

She had paid good money for this treatment too. Such a waste.

Well that was unexpected. Fun, but not expected.

Figures. Even when she was actually trying to be concerned, it was misconstrued as being cruel.

"Man, I'm a bitch even when I'm trying to be nice," she chuckled to herself. "I really suck with people."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Get up come on get down with the sickness

For once NOT in the training area!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject