thecapitol | Little girl, little girl [open]

Who| Clementine and OTA
What| Clem wakes up from her first ever death in the arena, then goes up to the roof with her thoughts
Where| District 6, then the roof
When| End of week 5 of the arena
Warnings/Notes| Inevitable angst

Prompt A: District 6 Suite

Clementine wakes up, that's the nightmare. Not the six weeks proceeding it.

She never thought she'd be so unhappy to discover herself alive. It's not just the shock of it or the horrible memory of dying, it's the fear of what she did in the space between dying and waking up. Clementine remembers a girl who tried to save her and then she remembers trying to warn her but she's can't recall clearly if she actually got the words out before she died.

The fear of it overtakes her as she sits up on the bed, pulling up her knees to bury her face in them, arms wrapped tight around her legs to muffle the sound of the first sob. She should be stronger than this, better than this. Instead she'd been stupid and possibly gotten other people killed. Nevermind what the Capitol did to the food, she's still going to blame herself now for her actions.

Prompt B: The rooftop garden

Hours after waking up Clementine has calmed down but in desperate need of fresh air, a space to clear her head away from the view of any screens. She's started to get a picture of what's happened since she died; what happened after, who else she knows who's died and who is still left alive in the arena.

Joel, Sabriel... they took care of what she'd become. She'll have to thank and apologise to them when they come out but all of that seems very far away as she looks out at the gleaming city from the balcony, her chin pillowed on folded arms over the railing.

It's so wrong, those people out there enjoying the spectacle of the games, not understanding the real horror of what the tributes go through. Clementine doesn't understand how they can be so removed from the suffering happening under their very noses.

[[ooc: Prompts are in prose but reply in any format you wish!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"The girl who won before they started bringing us here." she knows dimly of Katniss, nothing of the exact details. "That's your district, right?"

Leaning over Clementine tastes the sauce, "It's good." and then once the other two herbs have been added, "Whoa, that's even better!"

"No, she's from District 12," Mindy said. "District 9 isn't known for anyone that fucking cool, except maybe Eva."

She grinned. "That's the only way you can have a good pizza. Without herbs its just some sauce and cheese."

"You've got some nice people there though. Like Steve and Dave."

At this point Mindy could probably say anything about cooking and Clementine would believe her, she licks her lips a little. "I'll have to try making one sometime."

"Dave I know, but who the hell is Steve? I'm thinking more Riley, Elsa and that gladiator guy."

She nodded. "It takes awhile, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be all right. It's good to know how to cook for yourself anyway."

"Oh! I know Riley too, she's Ellie's friend." Clementine nodded, "Steve's nice, he's this big tall blonde guy."

She looks determined, like she does at any potential new challenge. "It'll beat canned food any day."

"Oh yeah, she's Ellie's 'friend' all right," Mindy said, smiling knowingly. "I'll have to look up this Steve guy. I might just be brain farting though."

She nodded. "Oh hell yeah. I say this as a girl raised on both."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clementine frowns at the tone Mindy uses, the way she says friends as if it means something different entirely.

"It means I had to live on canned food just like you, duh," Mindy said, ding her best not to crack a smile.

At this Clementine rolls her eyes, "Why'd you say Riley is Ellie's friend in such a weird way?"

Um. Well now she was in trouble.

"They know each other from their world. They're close. Real close."

"Like... best friends?" It still seems pretty off Mindy would say it like that.

"Best friends, sure. Beyond that, not really at liberty to say."

Connect the dots, Clementine.

"It's a secret." Clementine says in realisation, she nods and let's it go. She'll think on it more, probably the next time she's with the other two girls, but if it's Ellie's secret she likes her enough not to go pry. "Okay."

"It's insane that Riley is here to begin with, since she supposedly bit it back home. Imagine having to deal with seeing that, or hell, being the person told they died. Not a good situation for anyone."

Mindy was all too familiar on the former.

Clementine starts, "She -- I... I didn't know that." she really didn't, it had never come up in conversation.

"Better not to mention it then," Mindy said, "but in case you wonder why there's tension, there you go. The Capitol are dicks. You think they would have just brought her here family wise like the others, but as you see, Riley's here to stay. Considering it was her and Ellie before Joel the Wonderfuck came along, it makes things even more complicated. Hopefully they're all playing nice now though. Last thing anyone wants is some reporter asshole writing an expose or something."

"Darn. No of course not." she says softly. That was so -- and she thinks of Lee, what if they brought Lee here, or her parents or... or anyone of the people she'd lost, how cruel that would be.

"... why'd you call Joel that?"

"We don't get along. He's the kind of guy who pretty much gets along with only some people. When it comes to kids, he's usually protecting the or telling them they should stay kids or whatever. You can guess where I fall."

Not that he didn't have some points, but she knew by now that the two of them were just different. "Only thing we agree on, barely, is Ellie."

"It's really annoying when adults don't think you can do something." she agrees, knowing that feeling well. "I don't think he's bad though, he cares. I thought Ellie was his daughter at first." But then she'd called him Joel, which corrected that idea before Clem could mistakenly say anything.

Mindy shook her head "He pisses me off. It's not the same thing as me thinking he's bad. We just don't get along, and we're both fine with that. Definitely not Ellie's dad though. From what I saw in the Arena, he had a daughter who...well, probably didn't make it."

"We come from similar sorts of worlds, I've seen a lot of guys like him." Clementine nods though, accepting it. "... seems everybody they bring here has a sad story."

"Yeah, and I don't have to tell you that he likes his world as it is. If he's protecting you and Ellie, all the better, right? You guys are going to be in the Arena until you get out, better you're not getting slaughtered alone. As it is, I'm worried enough about Ellie's ass."

Clementine stares at her then, "... what do you mean likes it? No one likes living like that. It's the worst way to live." she nods though. "Groups are always safer."

"I mean that he likes things that make sense. Kids are kids, adults are assholes, that kind of thing. I'm sure he doesn't like being here aside from not having to deal with those zombie things in his world."

"... oh. That makes more sense, yeah." Clementine looks a little embarrassed over her mistake but pushes through. "That's kind of sad."

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hit_girl_mindy - 2014-07-15 14:31 (UTC) - Expand

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