And all the people hurried fast, real fast [OPEN]

[arosewiththorns]

Who; Rose and Open!
What; Rose exploring, attempting to make new friends??
When; The Days after Rose leaves the arena
Where; Mostly around the tributes tower, possibly around the capitol if you prefer I am coo with whatev
Warnings/Notes; Trolls are Rose's trigger, so. Be aware it's gunna be neg CR for any Trolls? And unsure face at any other aliens.

Rose has only been out of the arena for a few days, and it's a few days she's spent mostly by herself, reflecting as well as trying to find out what she can about this new place. The news of District 3's annihilation is still new enough that she hears it, stores it away. There's obvious unrest in this place and she can practically hear the whispers of rebellion. Good, she might need something to do.

Because reflecting is more just her beating herself up. She had lost controlled completely, let herself be devoured by a power she's tried so hard to tame. Se doesn't blame Bro for what he did, after all, when there's a rabid animal, you put it down. He did what he needed to do, and she can't hold it against him.

So Rose tries to occupy her time with wandering, exploring where ever she can get into. It's not too hard, she's a tribute, though she's quickly found the way the Capitol people so easily recognise her, the hushed whispered and obvious staring to be an annoyance, making her feel even more unsettled. So she spends little time outside of the tribute tower, prefering to go out in shades and a headscarf when she does leave.

But the tower has more than enough to study, from rooms to people, Rose studying anyone she runs into to try and judge if they'll be worth her time should she speak to them

Comments

[shenunigans]

It's been a big week for Dave, a big fortnight and a big month. Has it been a month? For a Time Hero, he has a hard time keeping track. The meteor skewed his perception something fierce, he thinks. He's not used to being surrounded by so many people, different people, his social circle is expanding more than he ever imagined it might in high school. He's best friends with a Queen, her princess sister, he's in a dorm with Captain America. It'd be a dream come true, were it not for yet another game full of carnage and emotional torture. There are parts of this place he hates, but it's no different from home. At least here, he knows where his friends are. Sometimes he'll glance around and he'll think he sees a Ghostbuster shirt, or a bushy mass of black hair, or his sister.

His eyes follow the figure of Rose when she passes nearby him, she's way too old to be the girl he knows, so his head falls down again while he's slumped against the wall waiting for Terezi to show up. They were due to hang out soon, to get their minds off the dark shit and start fixing their friendship. Dave might not know what month it is, but he's always ten minutes early.

[arosewiththorns]

It's the sunglasses that catch her attention first, the light refelcting back at her and Rose stops to study him. It's been awhile, a long while but there's no way she would ever forget a face like that and Bro had told her he once saw him here. She even without her Sight she knows, and she's quick as she walks over to him.

"Dave." It's not even a question, it's a statement for Rose and yet she still feels some seed of doubt, of nerves. An odd feeling, and she knows it's only because she can't be certain like this, too used to knowing all and now finding herself with uncertanty she's never had to deal with. But this close she's almost certain, something in her heart confirming it all for her and in a rare act for her she can't help but hug him, her grip firm and her forehead pressed to his chest. It's not 'her' Dave, but she'll take it.

[shenunigans]

Dave is practically buried in his communicator by the time Rose is making her approach. Terezi isn't here five minutes early, so she might as well be late. He'll pester her with a few discreetly passive aggressive messages to pass the time. He really wants to see what the arcade is all about.

His head snaps up when his name is spoken, because it's a surprise and because it sounds like Rose. Mostly. There's an edge to it, something more mature. If that's even possible for her. He doesn't have the time to respond when she's moving in for the hug, and he's still trying to deny the fact that he knows her deep down. "Come again for big fudge?" There's a slightly frantic edge to his voice and he doesn't move to hug her back, though he isn't struggling or moving away from her.

[arosewiththorns]

She realises almost instantly that she's put him off his game, and it's not just the hug. After all it's not every day you run into the alternate self of your little sister, only to find her to now apparently be the elder sibling. Stupid of her to be honest, but it's been a rough few days, she's allowed to react a little on emotions rather than what makes the most sense.

Still she lets go and Rose steps back. She's good at wearing masks so it's too easy to hide how she feels about seeing him. Some sort of relief that he was ok, that he hadn't gone and done something stupid. And it is nice, to see a familiar face of sorts and Rose knows Dave like the back of her own hand.

Just. Not this Dave. And that's a little saddening, but she's not going to openly show that, instead forcing herself to smile a teasing sort of smirk. "I don't think I've changed that much over the years. Almost the same hairstyle even."

[shenunigans]

Dave almost wants to hug back, for all he'd been frustrated with Rose, he'd missed her something fierce. He'd never in a million years want his Rose here, not with her martyr complex and unlimited access to booze regardless of her age. He misses her, the old Rose, but he couldn't take care of her here.

So this older Rose, the one he's skeptical of, he's starting to think she might be like Terezi and Karkat, at a different point on the timeline. Much, much further ahead. He doesn't much like the idea of that, he thinks, someone knowing the mistakes he makes and holding the answer to everything they did in their hand. So maybe, just maybe, she's from a different timeline entirely.

"Rose?" He asks, but he knows it's her. His eyes squint behind his shades curiously. "I leave for five seconds and I miss everything, huh?" He asks dryly, hoping she'll take the cue to elaborate.

[arosewiththorns]

Rose at this age likes to think she has a firm grip on her self. But she knows deep down that she's still shaken up by this all, a little too on edge, a seed of uncertainty that she tries to refuse to water. It's hard not knowing everything, not be able to see what your enemy is planning in degrees. She's grown used to it again after the silent years of her insobriety, and it's odd to not have it. Reminds her too much of the past.

And it's harder still, to not have Dave by her side. She had never realised, never let herself realise actually how much she had come to depend on him. And here, staring at the face of his beta self doesn't help as much as she'd like. He doesn't know her like her Dave does, and she would never burden him with the things that her Dave has shouldered. Her confidant is not here and she's going to have to grow use to that.

"What can I say. We grow up so fast, don't we." But she can hear the request he doesn't speak, too used to decoding Dave speak and so she finds herself shrugging ever so slightly, brushing a few strands of hair back. "The Scratch worked, in case you couldn't tell. Congratulations are in order, I suppose?"

[shenunigans]

Towards the end of his journey, he had less and less of Rose as a support. Just increasing frustration and disdain for the fact that she wasn't listening and throwing herself down wells. Wells full of booze. It's plain weird not being able to talk about shit with her, even stupid shit. So in a sense, he feels like he's been without Rose for longer than he's even been here.

"You finally grew into your face, congrats." Is he saying she looks hotter? Absolutely not. Is he thinking it? A little bit. God, he hates himself. He perks up a little at what she's saying, raising his brows as if he's impressed before he covers his ears dramatically.

"Woah, spoilers." He gives her a dirty look before dropping his hands. "That far ahead?"

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

Stepping off the elevator into the training room, the Disciple isn't really paying much attention to the tributes around her. She can place them of course and the difference between Capitolite and tribute is easy even with humans. She even vaguely knows of Rose, the one who blinded the Initiate. It was hard to miss the coverage when she had spent days doing little else but watching it. The figure reminds her of the Dolorosa, in elegance and perhaps the way the Disciple has seen her fight.

A bit violent really but she had met several humans who could give trolls a run for their money. She's not sure how she feels about this human honestly, given her strange current relationship with the Initiate. It might be best to just give her a wide berth and press on. Which would be easier if she wasn't exactly in her way past her into the room.

"Excuse me." She tries to step around.

[arosewiththorns]

Rose is keeping to herself in the training room, slowly going over the weapons though in truth she has no intention of training yet. She'd rather judge the others who have, see what skills they posses and refraining from showing her own. It seems wisest after all, with her small stature and her age she knows people are going to overlook her and well. Let them. It will make things easier for her.

She lifts her head slightly when someone speaks, her attention more on putting the sword back on it's stand as she steps out of the way. "Oh, of course, sor-" the words die in her throat when she looks up and there's grey skin, grey skin and those fucking horns and her grip goes tight on the pommel of the sword, Rose's entire body language changing as she goes on the defensive, practically snarling.

"You."

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

The Disciple takes a step back, then another, when the hands tighten and the body shifts. Too long she's been a fighter to not recognize that. Her body starts to shift into her own stance, her own readiness to fight. Then the word, accusing, like a slur or a weapon in itself. It snaps her out of the automatic response and right into confusion.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Her guard drops, hands slipping out of fists to hang loose. She's never met this human before in her life. She's new, they couldn't have ever met.

[arosewiththorns]

"No," she spits and there's no hiding the hatred in her eyes. She's already run into one troll in the Arena, and to now see a second. She doesn't like it, not one bit. Enough that she ignores the way her mind tells her there's something odd, that she knows this isn't the Batterwitch's doing. This kind of repulsion has been learnt over time, over watching her people slowly be weeded out and knowing what was going to come from it all.

Her guard stays up, Rose not trusting the troll even when she drops her own guard. It could so easily be a ploy after all. "But I know more than enough about your kind than I care to. Of what you're capable of."

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

Her face falls. Oh--what happened to her? What horrible representative came to her, speaking sweet words or no words at all, just knife and horror. She knows her race is horrible, the worlds they've destroyed. The armies, they're not kind. The worst examples of their race.

She doesn't understand though. Their world is destroyed, no human speaks of the trolls, none knew of them. She frowns, shaking her head.

"What--are you not from this sort of world then? I didn't think...What happened?"

[arosewiththorns]

She's not buying this confusion, though Rose is at least wise enough to keep her voice lowered. They just look tense, some sort of minor disagreement. It shouldn't attract any unwanted attention. For now at least.

"What happened," her laugh is a bark and while Rose knows, Rose has seen, what happened to their race, she still doesn't trust them. The Batterwitch was enough of an ambassador to judge them as a whole. "Your lovely Empress," and the word is practically dripping with mockery when she says it, "Decided she was going to make herself a new home, ignoring the fact that Earth was very much not vacant."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy is, for once, not in the training center. In fact, she had been pointedly trying to ignore the fact that she got hungry, but you really couldn't do that for a long time, so now she was in the kitchen, helping herself to what was as similar to a Cornish hen as she could get. She wanted it to taste GOOD, so naturally it was taking a little while, basting and all of that, but soon her hard work is rewarded when there's a mouth watering smell of poultry from the oven.

Mindy cracked her hands, grinning. She still had it. Glad she felt in charge of something these days.

[arosewiththorns]

Rose's own hunger eventually guides her to the kitchen, brushing past the avoxes she encounters like someone who's a true Capitolite. She can tell that's how it's supposed to be, just like she knows contact between her and them is only going to ever impact their lives so. She'll leave them be, for now.

Whatever's being cooked smells absolutely delicious and Rose follows her nose and finds. A girl, fairly young Rose thinks, and something about the way she holds herself lets Rose know she's not an avox and well. She might as well speak.

"Hello. I didn't realise other would be down here."

[hit_girl_mindy]

She looked up, seeing a fresh new face just rolling through the Avoxes. That did annoy her a little, think of Azula, but what the hell. No point in already jumping to conclusions right off.

"Hungry. Only way you're gonna get something good is cooking it yourself. You hungry?"

[arosewiththorns]

Right now Rose isn't looking to make too many waves, at least not so openly. Better to play along and get her bearings before she starts to push those unsaid boundaries.

"I've heard that," not that she can say it's completely true, her mastery of the kitchen still at a very beginners stage. But hey at least she can cook pasta without setting it on fire. "I could eat. But don't feel you have to share, I wouldn't expect you to with someone you just met. That smells like it would have taken quite some time."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"It did, but its a whole chicken, and I don't trust keeping leftovers because they'll just be gone. We have a few 'growing boys' in my District, and the chicken wouldn't last half that time. Besides, its sorta my job to ease people back into civilian life, I guess."

Maybe not, but it was a lot better than having people stumbling around.'

"What's your name?"

[arosewiththorns]

"Yes, I suppose it becomes hard to monitor property in a place like this. Kind of like a shared house in many ways." A crack of the lips in a faint smile. "I wonder who will be the first to start leaving passive aggressive post it notes."

She takes a seat on a stool that's been set by the counter, studying the room carefully. "Rose. District 8," she adds as an after thought. "What do you mean by it's your job to ease people back into this?"

Few days later~

[aboveangrybees]

It's hard not to notice someone that isn't from the Capitol once he's been here long enough. He had thought he could blend in when he first arrived, but now he knows that all the tributes somehow stick out like sore thumbs even when they tried not to. Even if the look was right, there was an air about them.

So, he couldn't help but to notice the woman with sunglasses and an headscarf - the latter being something no one else is wearing. She seems new enough to think that would make her fell into obscurity in the crowds. Maybe it's some sense of curiosity more than anything, but he finds himself falling into step next to her before he can realize what he's doing. So, he decides to roll with it.

"You know, if you're trying to keep people from noticing you, it's not working."

[arosewiththorns]

Rose doesn't care so much about blending in as she does about making herself a little less recognisable. Her hair may be fairly normal even if it's quite a fair blonde but it's her eyes that can cause problems, a noticeable violet, colour too strong to be normal. She understands why the Strider's feel so strongly about their shades, it does make her feel a little more ignorable like this.

It's not too hard to fall into step with her, Rose's stride matching her petite height and she looks up as Steve's shadow falls over her, brow raised and the smallest glimpse of her eyes over the shades. It's not a familiar face, but something lets her know that he's one of the tributes too.

"They can notice all they wish," she says after a pause, glancing away and studying the crowd with a neutral expression. "I just prefer to not have them recognise me. Something about a stranger gushing to you over the way you killed a man can suddenly ruin your day you know."

[aboveangrybees]

"Tell me about it," it's a remark of pure understanding. Though, more often than not, people gush at him about how awesome he died and how amazing it was he took Shepard down with him. How they can't wait to see what pushes him to kill again in the next arena. Sometimes ask if he has bad luck with sledgehammers - something he's starting to wonder.

It's also why he keeps to the Tower and the few more secluded spots around the city. Better than not knowing how to avoid people without losing their support. They are the reason he and most of his group were spared the food grown in the arena.

"Worst part is- most don't even get what's so wrong with asking us that. Seems normal to them," and he hates that most. People ignorant to just how horrible this is because it's what they've always known.

[arosewiththorns]

She was right, she can tell as soon as he says that. Another tribute, someone who will have some grasp of what this was all like to go through. It's a relief, especially after she's had one or two people come up, wanting to gush over the way she had taken down her opponents, talking about her power as if Rose wasn't incredibly disgusted in herself for losing control so very quickly. It wasn't a moment she can take pride in, not the way they seem to want her to.

But the things her stylist has told her has her watching her tongue, Rose knowing she can't be so cutting with this crowd, not if she wants to make it next arena.

Hi point about the head scarf is valid at least and Rose undoes the not keeping in place, drapping it like a scarf around her throat. It fits the rest of the outfit at least, Rose trying to get more used to bright colours.

"I suppose if you're raised in this sort of place, watching these things happen for over 70 years..." she pauses, shaking her head slightly. "You get used to it. Normal becomes whatever is the loudest opinion is after all."

[aboveangrybees]

"Hm," it's just a noise of agreement, but if she looks at him, his jaw is clenched tightly. He might agree with the fact, but he most definitely doesn't like it. People shouldn't be forced to live like this, told this is right until they are entirely blind to it. Their ability to even think for themselves taken away, it's despicable.

But they are under surveillance and Steve can't give himself away, so he doesn't comment further. The crowd would afford them some privacy if they spoke quietly enough, but he doesn't know if she's willing to risk it with him.

"Well, if we travel in pairs or groups, people approach us less in my experience - though it feeds gossip," Steve gives a wry look, because he doesn't like feeding gossip, but until SHIELD said no, he had paparazzi on his tail for a while. It's not as new an experience as he wished it was.

[arosewiththorns]

She doesn't mean that it should be, but. It is what it is and Rose isn't looking to try and bring change on another world. And something about all that she's learnt despite how new she is here makes her certain that it wouldn't be tolerated here. And with some of those she cares about here...

She knows how to bite her tongue well enough now.

"It's good to know at least somethings never change." She laughs a little at the way he brings up the gossip and oh how she's familiar with that. It's her old enjoyment for causing those sorts of rumors that makes her step a little closer to Steve, her smile teasing and she offers her arm to him, a flip on the norm. "Perhaps we should give them something to actually work themselves into a frenzy over.