Mass murder was the last straw [OPEN]

[formersurgeon]

Who| Joan Watson and OPEN
What| Joan is talking to friends, and to people she hasn't met yet, looking for allies to help her bring down the Capitol.
Where| The Speakeasy, the Training Center, the park
When| After the revelation of District 3's destruction and Penny's predictable lies.
Warnings/Notes| If you would like Joan to approach your character in one of these places, tag in with what your character is doing and I'll have her initiate contact.


I. The Speakeasy

"The Speakeasy's theirs."

That's what Wyatt had told her when they had only moments to speak freely to each other while the Capitol was unable to look in on their thoughts. So when Joan goes looking for potential allies, she starts there. The dive is, as always, dark and loud, perfect for hiding lips and faces and drowning words. She goes to the bar, orders what passes for beer in Panem, and carries to a booth in the corner where she can see the whole room, as well as the door. She looks for people she knows, people she recognizes.

II. The Training Center

Joan has met a number of people in the training center. It's one place where she knows she can find Tributes without going floor by floor, which would be both time consuming and suspicious.

She walks into the gymnasium and surveys the stations. If she sees no one, she makes her way to the shelter-making station, and looks over the different supplies.

III. The park

Joan isn't exactly looking for anyone in the park. Instead, she's looking (without looking like she's looking) for spots that might be sufficiently free of cameras and microphones to make good meeting place for sensitive conversation.

Of course, that doesn't mean she isn't also aware of the people around her. Sitting on benches, passing her by...following her...

Comments

The Speakeasy

[formersurgeon]

[the_marshal]

Wyatt's no stranger to the Speakeasy. It had been his refuge even before he'd known its secrets. Bawdy and loud, smelling of liquor and sweat, it had been the one of the closest things to home he'd had.

His affection for the place had only grown the more he'd learned, as he'd made friends with the staff, come to know the faces of the regulars over rounds of beer and cards alike. It was his unfailing go-to, there even when other comforts failed him.

Even if it couldn't really make feel any better either.

Arriving alone he squeezed his way up to the bar and ordered himself a double.

[formersurgeon]

Joan saw Wyatt enter the bar, and she couldn't help but smile. It had been far too log since she'd seen her friend, and considering he was one of the people she trusted implicitly, it would be good to reconnect. She could speak freely with him.

She got up from the booth and crossed the room to him, half-finished drink in hand.

"Hey, stranger," she said, sliding onto a stool next to him.

[the_marshal]

He'd come looking more for liquor than company, but he wouldn't deny the latter. Especially not from someone he considered a friend.

Turning, he found a small smile for and gave her a little toast with his glass as it raised to his lips.

"Hey, yerself."

[silberfuchs]

He shouldn't be here. The last thing he should be doing after everything is getting drunk, which he's attempting not to, but he just had to get out of the suites for now, what with everyone distraught over the recent news, Eponine trying unknowingly to commit suicide by confronting a Peacekeeper directly, and Jet still in the arena, he needs a crowd to blend into for privacy.

Only he spots Joan across the way and while he'd come here for solitude, he's found her to be a calming presence and wouldn't mind her company. Still, it's up to her, so he just nods pleasantly in her direction, nursing his beer.

[formersurgeon]

He catches her eye, and she gives him a smile. She likes Albert and considers him a friend. She also knows that he has more than enough reason to detest the Capitol. Perhaps it's worth knowing exactly how far he'd go.

She's done with her beer, so she leaves the glass on the table when she gets up and approaches him.

"Hey," she says. "Mind if I join you?"

[silberfuchs]

"By all means," he motions to the vacant seat beside him and gives a tight smile, sounding far more tired than he means to, but after the day he'd wasted wallowing in self pity and sleep immediately after the arena, he hasn't been able to get much more. He tries to cover for himself with another, more genuine smile and polite conversation.

"How are you, Joan?"

Re: The Speakeasy

[celebrityskinned]

This isn't the first time Venus has paid a visit to the Speakeasy to get under the radar. It was one of the first blind spots she was able to locate, and though she doesn't want to go there often enough to attract attention, she would like to build the reputation of someone who would go there alone as often as with company.

She gets herself a slice of cherry pie with ice cream on top. She's watching her figure before the next Arena, but she has a penchant for sweet things and her fight (breakup?) with Enjolras has given her an appetite for indulgence. Sugar isn't better than alcohol in drowning a heart, but it's less likely to get her into trouble.

"Joan. Fancy seeing you here. Want some company?"

[formersurgeon]

"Venus, hey! Yeah, of course, please, have a seat."

This is good, Joan thinks to herself. She's wanted to talk with Venus ever since Cecil's broadcast and the resulting fallout. Venus wanted to know if they got anyone out of District 3, and Joan wanted to tell her what she knew. And see how far Venus was willing to go in working against the Capitol.

The fact that she's in the Speakeasy might be a good sign.

"They have pie?"

[celebrityskinned]

"They didn't, but I asked for it." Some Hollywood habits die hard; using her status as a media darling to get trivial special favors is one of them. She could send a rider to any restaurant in the Capitol and probably get what she wanted.

She takes a seat, straddling that line between looking serious and glum. Her usual pep is muted.

"You wanted to talk?"

[youbarium]

Joan will notice Carlos in a booth across the way. It seems like he's waiting for someone. There's a glowing green drink in front of him, and under normal circumstances, Carlos would be fully occupied trying to find out how exactly it was glowing.

Now, however, he's just sort of staring at it listlessly. As Joan watches, Carlos will pull a small handheld device out of his lab coat pocket and wave it halfheartedly at the drink. The device hums, but doesn't otherwise seem to react. Carlos sighs, and slips the device back into his pocket.

[formersurgeon]

Joan catches sight of Carlos, and feels a twist of guilt. She's seen the love confession, of course, the Capitol doing what the Capitol does by gleefully rerunning it for a few days after it happened. She knows that Cecil is important to him. And Joan feels responsible for what happened. She was the one that sent Cecil after that information, and she failed to protect him. There must have been something she could have done, should have done.

She's never been one to shrink from responsibility, though. So she gets up and crosses the room to his booth, wondering if he'll remember her.

"Hey...Carlos, right?"

[youbarium]

"Oh -- hey," he says, recognizing her face after a moment. "I remember you. We met in the Arena a few weeks ago, right?" Carlos has managed to muster up a friendly smile, but it's clear that not even seeing Joan again has helped with whatever has him so down.

The Training Center

[formersurgeon]

[grimbiker]

Sirius had already done a cursory exploration of the Captiol. As a new arrival, he wasn't entirely able to slip through unnoticed but he had a better chance at it now. But there were some pretenses he need to keep up, especially in the wake of District 3's destruction. So he was in the Training Center, not practicing with weapons of any sort but instead learning how to create a shelter, how to start a fire, how to do all the little things that would keep him alive.

Not that he thought he'd ever end up using it.

He was currently crying to construct some makeshift shelter out of branches and fallen leaves. It kept collapsing on him.

[formersurgeon]

She recognized him as a Tribute, but he was new, and she hadn't paid enough attention to him to put a name to the face. She watched him fumble around for a few moments before speaking up.

"Looks like you're about as experienced at this as I am."

She gave him a small smile.

Re: The Training Center

[medecin]

[Fully recovered from his bout with the horrible illness that had swept through the capitol and rendered him pretty helpless for a long time now, Joly felt a bit, a lot, unsteady in terms of his ability to do much of anything physical. So far, both of the arenas he'd entered had ended with him not needing to actually fight, but he was not going to have that luxury forever, and even though the almost-doctor in him recoiled at the idea of killing anyone in this sick farce, he knew perfectly well that it would come to needing to defend himself, or any of the others eventually. And now there was Eponine, as well. He did feel something of a duty to defend her if it came to it, even though she did not seem exactly likely to join their group in the arena.

There were simply too many factors now, pushing him toward improvement for the sake of the others if not himself. And then, there was District Three, and the horrific lies being spread about what had happened. If anything, that was a call that could be used to spark rebellion, and he ought to be ready for that fight as well.

So, here he was, grim faced, and standing before a training dummy, knife in hand as Venus and Enjolras had taught him, strategically stabbing and slicing those key areas of his target that would ensure almost instant death, and well, that were as painless as possible for a living victim. If his grip slipped from time to time into the one he'd used in the dissecting rooms, or in the minor surgeries he had been tasked to do in Paris, well, that one could still help a little, couldn't it?

[formersurgeon]

Joan saw him practicing on the dummy, and there was something about how he was moving, how he held the knife, that drew her attention. She came over, watched him for a moment before speaking.

"Hey," she said to get his attention, hopefully without startling him. "You have an interesting fighting style. Are you a doctor?"

[aboveangrybees]

The news of District Three was levels of injustice that Steve was both deeply appalled by and unfortunately not all that unfamiliar with, but had always hoped he'd never have to witness again. Still, having to keep quiet, not being able to do anything to fix this, to help people, it itched under his skin til he needed an outlet or it would fester there like a poison.

He needs to punch something.

So, he finds himself down in the training center taking a breather after beating the snot out of a punching bag. He preferred it to the human shaped dummies around.

[formersurgeon]

She had come in at the tail end of his onslaught against the punching bag, watching quietly. He's powerful, clearly. And if she had to guess, Joan would say there was a fair amount of anger in his exercise. She wonders if he's angry over the same things she is.

"Hey," she says, approaching. "What did that punching bag ever do to you?"

Hopefully some wry humor will help break the ice.

The park

[formersurgeon]

[swedeandlow]

Kurt Wallander was avoiding the training center. It was easy enough, considering the outbreak, but still. He'd scoured back over the surveillance of Cecil, whenever Penny was occupied, looking for any links. Then he found one.

Or, might have found one.

Joan Watson.

He knew the stories, of course. Had met her Sherlock before he'd been let go. The fact that she knew Cecil--

He'd been a peacekeeper too long to believe in circumstance.

So he followed her. He left headquarters just as the screams started, intercepting Joan just as she was slipping into the park. He followed her about twenty feet back, casually, but kept his eyes on her.

He wanted her to know.

[formersurgeon]

She was being followed.

Being able to tell when you're being followed was an important skill for detectives, and apparently Tributes. She was relaxed about it, turning her head to look at the trees, the pond, the flowers,the other people, while checking her tail out in the corner of her eye.

It was a Peacekeeper. Maybe the same one that had followed her and Sherlock?

It seemed useless to have him spy on her. Either he wanted to arrest her or talk to her. She couldn't stop the former, and didn't want to prevent the latter.

So she stopped and turned. Looked at him squarely and raised her eyebrows.

Re: The park

[atippleoftransparency]

After being locked up inside the lab working on the cure for the sicknesses that had run rampant in the Capitol (well, the literal illnesses), Lyle was taking the opportunity to get outside for a bit. Outside wasn't, however, a particularly diverting place, so he perked up when he spotted someone familiar. He'd never really followed up with Joan after running into her in the first Arena. Might be worth doing so now.

He rolled up out of the grass where he'd been sprawled and crept off after her. He was being reasonably quiet about it, but he wasn't trying terribly hard to be sneaky this time.

"Boo."

[formersurgeon]

Joan had been paying attention to her surroundings, so she was aware of someone following her. She was surprised when he called to her, though. She whirled and drew back, then realized she knew him.

"Oh, hey. Lyle, right?"