aintyourdad: (Default)
Joel ([personal profile] aintyourdad) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2014-06-30 10:22 pm

open;

Who| Joel and OPEN!
What| Joel's (not so) auspicious return to the Capitol. The arena messed him up pretty bad, and now he's got stuff to catch up on here.
Where| Various; see starters.
When| Week 6, possibly into week 7.
Warnings/Notes| Lots and lots of manpain. Probably some cussing, possibly discussion of child death and zombie violence.

[ 1: D8 suites; ]

Joel spends the better part of three days after his return in his room. He's got a stash of food, and he's used to not bathing for long periods of time. He can't bring himself to leave, regardless. Not after all that happened. Not after Sarah. He couldn't save her, again. He couldn't save Riley. He couldn't save Clem. Clem. Christ. And now Ellie's alone in that hellish place, and he can't face it.

He can't.

[ 2: D8 common area; ]

When he finally emerges from his room, bleary and sleep-deprived and thinner than before he went into the arena, Joel makes a beeline for the kitchen area. It's one of the things that he can always do to calm himself down here - cook. Fresh food, good food, is in abundance here, and Joel takes advantage of it. It's almost therapeutic for him.

Of course, there's no avoiding the multiple television screens that are always on in the common area, proclaiming the latest "news". A news report catches his eye, and for a while he's enraptured, unable to look away as the anchor details the plague, the quarantines - and an entire district, blown off the map.

Joel's face darkens, into a scowl, something tight and disgusted but not surprised, not horrified. If anything, it's all too familiar. No wonder it's so quiet around this place.

"Jesus Christ," he mutters, and then goes back to his cooking.

[ 3: Training Center; ]

Eventually, by the end of the week, in need of something else to occupy him, Joel ventures to the training center. He doesn't think training really does him much good - his skills were all acquired through long practice. But it gives him occupation, and it can be a good idea to check out who else is around, and what they're doing

Size up the competition, so to speak.

[ 4: A coffee shop; ]

By the end of the week, with the quarantines lifted and the fear of disease essentially gone, the city is getting back to normal - well, normal by Capitol standards, anyway. It's strange, to see a place recovering from a disease. Joel's world never recovered. It just fell apart, completely.

But there's no point dwelling on it. If he does that, he'll just start to think about things better left alone. His old life. Sarah. Hell, even Ellie. At least getting out of the Tribute Center gets him away from all the screens for a while. He watches sometimes, to see if they're following Ellie at all, but just as often he can't, doesn't want to, doesn't see the point. So he finds a coffee shop, a secluded one, away from the big touristy areas. Good strong coffee is what he needs.
notdavinci: (facepalm)

2!

[personal profile] notdavinci 2014-07-01 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
By all rights, Siroc ought to be doing something usual. His fingers and even part of his brain are almost itching to get ahold of some materials, something to read about the obviously advanced science of this world, or the history itself. The basic gist of Panem's organization is clear enough, but it's so HARD to find more, and Siroc is incredibly bored without being able to.

So, naturally, as the bored and vaguely gifted are prone to doing when there is nothing else to catch their interest, he's experimenting as he can. The fact that this experimenting involves him being crouched behind one of the screens, studying the wires and cords connecting the monitors. And potentially using the edge of a knife to very carefully strip away the coating of a few of them.

What happens if he pulls the wiring inside each cord apart? Well, besides a few sparks that Joel might notice anyway? What happens when a bored genius decides that it is time to try connecting the exposed wires of two cords together?

Well, there's a loud popping noise, a spark, some smoke, a picture going dead and the smell of burnt hair, that's what. Considering this happens right around the time he hears Joel speak, Siroc can only contend that that was also meant for his little explosion, and he's peeking out from behind the screens, hair obviously scorched, as he spots one of his district mates, and offers a sheepish smile.

"That was surprisingly unexpected. I hope you weren't watching that."
hit_girl_mindy: (Black and white (Mindy))

3

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-01 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
When you have unresolved issues and a lot on your mind, there's the ever present need to just PUNCH things, and Mindy had her outlet. With just a grey top, blue shorts and her hair in a pony tail, she looks far from the girl she was when she was crowned at her party or even lounging around the suite: here Mindy meant business, and it was obvious more than a few things were on her mind.

When her fists hurt she switched to kick: nice, solid kicks that made the bag swing and sway with the power it packed. She paused when she heard someone approaching and, seeing it was Joel, swore.

"They got you. Shit."
notdavinci: (Default)

[personal profile] notdavinci 2014-07-01 09:04 am (UTC)(link)

"It IS rather repetitive." Siroc admits, making a face, and running a hand through his slightly scorched hair, though at least he's managed to keep his eyebrows this time. "I'd actually wondered if these things managed to show anything else. It would seem that the theory that indoctrination works through rote repetition IS, in fact, alive and well."

And here he'd thought the churches were the best at that, but apparently, in a world without those, brand new methods and channels were faithfully exercised instead. Snorting, he turns away from the chaos he's managed to create, for now at least. Spare wires can, and do always come in handy, after all, once he worked out the best way to disconnect them without managing to kill himself in the process. For now, though, he stays there on the floor, not doing much of anything just yet.

"They did air footage of you already." he adds, a little bemused by a culture that has to witness everything, and that bemusement definitely shows. "Looks like one hell of a tough break."

hit_girl_mindy: (sultry for some reason)

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-01 12:49 pm (UTC)(link)
She would have been happy to hear Joel's assessment about her childhood, but that was neither here nor there. What did very much bother her was knowing that Ellie had no more protection now, and it was still that very, very fucked up Arena. Riley had gone down, Sandy and Clem had bitten the dust, and it just looked like it as getting worse.

"Well. She's damn good when some psychopath isn't stabbing the shit out of her. Wish she still wasn't, but maybe she has a good chance now to show the sponsors what she can really do. Starting to wonder if she's better off out there than here though."

She cleared her throat. "Did you hear about Starkiller?" Because she KNEW he heard about District 3 by now.
smarterthanthem: (Firelight)

3 <_<

[personal profile] smarterthanthem 2014-07-01 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hi."

It's a very quiet greeting from a girl who's nervously rubbing one arm and trying not to shuffle her feet as she does so. Approaching Joel was nerve racking, she knew what he'd last seen of her even though she hadn't yet been able to bring herself to look at the footage, might never be able to.

She doesn't know what he'll think to see her again after that.
hit_girl_mindy: (Black and white (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-02 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah," she said, smiling a little. "But then, she survived that fucked up world with you. She's got to be."

And now for the unpleasant part.

"Starkiller is a tribute. I would tell you he's a Sith, but that probably means nothing to you. Basically he attacked the Arena forcefield when people got their powers. It killed him, and when they got him back, they avoxed him."
hit_girl_mindy: (short hair)

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-02 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
Mindy raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. "Hey, if they're going to go and give people their powers, why wouldn't you attempt it?"

That was a good question. "Gossip, I guess. But still a lesson to learn. I knew him, so...it kinda sucks. Just hoping you never do anything that stupid."

She SAID that, but there was an air in the way she said it. Never do anything stupid...without being careful.
hit_girl_mindy: (For serious)

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-02 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
Mindy had her own people to look out for IE her whole district. That was the trap in winning the Arena: you never really won, not really, and there were still people that needed you.

"He's the kind of guy who has balls. The Capitol wants to cut them off as soon as they can. He was just dumb enough to do it openly. He gave them a reason."

She gave a few kicks to the bag, then a hard right. "Then again, are we really living the dream?"
notdavinci: (hair in face)

[personal profile] notdavinci 2014-07-02 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Siroc counts himself, lucky, really, that the only footage anyone was likely to have gotten was not actually dramatic so much as he'd gotten himself caught in a bad situation, tried to make some quips to keep things interesting and take his mind off the fact he was about to die and then the actual dying. If he had been with anyone from home, especially his friends, or had been around long enough to meet an undead Ramon(facing the facts, it WOULD have been Ramon and Siroc hopes they never find that out), he doubts he would have handled it so calmly as his district mate here.

Actually, he is almost afraid of the fact that the other man seems so, so jaded about all of this right now. What other horrors piled up on horrors could bring someone to that? He wants to ask, but then he's wincing as a shrill voiced reporter on another screen begins delivering "news" again.

"I think I'm losing brain cells as we..." On the other hand, given the way that Joel's expression changed as he repeated that, it probably wasn't a great idea to keep that line of conversation up.

"So, television. I don't like it."
hit_girl_mindy: (Stop breathing my air (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-02 05:17 am (UTC)(link)
"So you feel alive?" Mindy said this, curious as she gave a few more stiff blows. "I'm assuming you mean, you know, the inbetween times when you get to be in the Capitol. Or are you talking about the Arena, where your blood is pumping and you have to avoid dying? Guess that's pretty alive too."

Far as she was concerned, what Starkiller shouldn't have done was tip his hand so early, give people reasons.
hit_girl_mindy: (Striking a pose (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-02 01:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy hit the bag a few times, and then changed things up with a flying kick that really shifted the bag. She grinned to herself. Good. It'd gotten better.

"If its good enough, sure," she said. "Just have to make sure that you never, ever do anything that calls attention to yourself. Shut up, keep your head low and don't offend anyone. But you're probably used to that from your world, right?"
smarterthanthem: (Regret)

[personal profile] smarterthanthem 2014-07-02 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Clementine swallows, looking into his face, feeling the weight of his hand on her shoulder.

Alright? No, not really. She still isn't making peace with the fact that she died and worse she's not forgiving herself for the circumstances of how it happened and what came after. "I'm doing okay, I guess."

How does she even begin to talk about this? Well, it seems best first to reciprocate his question. "How are you?"
hit_girl_mindy: (True Uncertainty (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-07-02 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy sighed. "Yeah, I guess not. Then again, you probably guessed it wasn't you I'm worried about anyway."

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