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

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

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

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"Haven't heard of her actually. But I'll keep an ear out for that name."

"Mm, I've heard that's a fairly typical reaction to the concept." She pauses, listening and digesting Mindy's words. To her credit she manages to mask her disgust, though her eyes turn cold for a second. "I see. A fate worse than death for many."

"I suppose we're not really living by the 18+ rule of thumb here." She won't push though, but she might keep it in mind. While Mindy doesn't seem like the sort of go overboard, Rose is aware how quickly it can creep up on you.

Quietly she pours two cups, watching the steam curl for a second before moving to fetch a few more things, sugar and milk, honey for herself before she brings to cups over. "Milk and sugar will make it sweeter if that's your preference." she says, carefully mixing a spoonful of honey into her own cup.

"We have a few redheads here, but very few with freckles. Trust me, she'll stand out."

She nodded, looking no less bothered. "It's a mistake for the few that get under the capitol's skin, though lately I think they're getting a little more Avox happy with it. Bottom line, stay in good graces. They can eventually bring you back, but you don't want to count on that."

It sounded like a fucking miserable existence, and it made her sick knowing it was Starkiller's fate.

"It's be a pretty shitty thing to do, wouldn't it? You can't drink, but you can totally fucking die for us! The hypocrisy would be staggering. But I don't go overboard. There are more than enough alkies around here."

She raised an eyebrow. "Milk and sugar in tea? I thought you were only supposed to do that for coffee."

Now that Mindy describes her she can picture her. Red hair and freckles, a description that matches the girl she met in the arena. But she doesn't let it show, simply nodding slowly. "Well I'll likely run into her, sooner or later."

"It seems that change is in the air. They're likely just trying to remind everyone of the power they wield." She says, lightly, as if she cares neither way. But her mind is digesting that, Rose glad that she's been stepping lightly so far.

"You're American, aren't you?" The accent is familiar enough. "You should be used to the rules not making sense. You can enlist at 18 after all, but drinking still stays stubbornly at 21." She's proud of the way that she doesn't even flinch at the way Mindy says that, though she lifts her head. "No AA meetings in this fancy new utopia then?"

"Depends on the tea," she says shoulder shifting in a half shrug. "Tea is still caffeine all in all, and some are ok with having it bitter. This is a black tea, so you might find it better sweeter."

Carefully she pushes the cup over. "You can always add after you taste. There's no real hard and fast rule to how you should have it, despite what many say."

"Of course you will. If you don't see her in the Capitol, you're gonna in the Arena. Just the way things are."

Remind them of the power they weld. That was just a nice way of saying make sure that they remind you that your life belonged to them. Anyone trying to convince her otherwise was just blowing smoke up her ass.

She nodded. "And you? It sounds like you come from a place where we're still somewhat similar to each other. You'd be surprised at how many dystopia's we all come from. None of them match up quite the same...except maybe a few. I know Dave and I can still talk about shit from our world that we recognize."

The comic book people was always weird. Having them walking around to begin with was a head trip.

"I'll start without then. If its too gross, I'll try it with the sugar and milk."

She drank, then made a face. "Ok, sugar and milk it is! Fuck."

She just nods, letting that train of topic die. She's right, they'll run into each other sooner or later, especially since they're forced into these close encounters. No point mulling over it in the end.

And that was Rose's basic meaning behind the words, a more polite wording of that fact. A safer wording of it all, one that can so easily be taken as a positive if she's pushed.

"Upstate New York, mostly," she says, sipping her tea. "And yes, my little dystopia is still in it's beginning stages so everything is essentially the same, countries and city wise at least." Another careful nod, Rose studying the liquid in her cup as she muses over it. "Interesting. So many different little takes. So many different worlds. It's a wonder they've managed to gather us all here in the first place.

Mindy's reaction gets a slight amused smile from her, Rose pushing over both the sugar and milk. "It can be quite strong if you're not used to it. Similar to coffee in many ways."

"Upstate? Not as familiar with that, me and my mentor lived in Manhattan. Looks like you guy are more refined there, or maybe that's just you? Can't really tell."

She chuckled at her own ignorance. Hey, even she can tell when she's out of her element. At least they were from the same region. "I've wondered a lot about that myself. How their tech can take us so easily. How they were able to get it in the first place. Why they would use it just to hold onto this world and its miserable people."

Mindy shrugged. "Coffee should be sweet, but doesn't usually need milk for me. Tea is new."

She laughs a little at that, one shoulder rising in a shrug. "I wouldn't say that. I spent a little of my life in the city when I was younger, but I found upstate to much more my style. Quieter, calmer, you can easily find a place where you don't have to see your neighbours which I am admittedly fond of." She sips her tea. "That isn't to say the city doesn't have it's benefits. I enjoy the energy at times."

It's nice, a little, to meet someone who knows the area she's around. Though she has to wonder what time period Mindy's from, and what the differences there own individual worlds have, assuming they are from alternate versions of Earth. It's lucky she's already familiar with such topics, it does make adjusting easier.

"They have power here. Attempting to take over another world would require vast quantities of many things, willing soldiers for one. Resources can be used up quite quickly in war, and when they already have a secure foothold here they're wise not to risk losing it but reaching too high."

"Well there are plenty of ways to take it to. Cream instead of milk, lemon for some blacks. Herbal teas, green teas, white teas. " Rose waves her hand idly as she lists them all out. "The key is experimentation I've found, until you find what blend is right for you."

"The city is where the crime is, where the big bastards are, so I really didn't have a choice, you know? You kinda have to stay where the action is, and in this case, the city is where crime lives. Makes me a little annoyed that I'm not there anymore, you know? There's sop much that's probably happening now."

She thought that, but really, she didn't mind not being there as much as she said. Without dad, a lot of whys he liked being there was gone, and she wasn't liking the idea of just being there adopted, living a normal life. That ship, she learned, sailed a long time ago.

"I can get that, but what I don't get is why they take us out of our world just to make us do the games. If their aspirations were higher, wouldn't they try to force us to be their soldiers? Instead they depower us and then throw us into the games whenever they feel like it."

Yeah, even Mindy didn't think her having won would keep her out of the games for good. After all, they had put Azula there, hadn't they?

"There are different blends?" Mindy never did bother to learn about teas, just coffee. Some education there was likely to help. "And that stuff's to relax you, right?"

"I wouldn't say that crime and action are only in the city. Crime can be everywhere, and action too depending on where you are." Another small rise of her shoulder and Rose studies her. "You seem a little young to be fighting crime. I could make a joke about the police accepting people so young but I'm assuming you're not operating with them."

"Human will is hard to break to that degree. Fight, flight or freeze is an easier reaction to provoke. And maybe their aspirations aren't that high in turn, who knows. We seem to be working with assumptions here and you know the clichéd phrase about those."

And Rose hasn't been here long enough, interacted with those who are native to this land long enough to make a proper assessment yet. But it's early days.

"Of course. There's many different things you can add to get what you desire. After all, there are many ways to take your coffee correct?" A small nod. "Some can. Chamomile is good for that."

"I was saying there is more OF it in the city. You're sort of used to it there, like an unhappy marriage or something. But you'd be right not to assume I work with the cops: its them and their bullshit that got my dad arrested. Hell, he used to BE a cop. For me to work, I had to go rogue."

She looked hesitant. "That depend on the human though. You have people who are totally willing to sell someone else out for their own benefit. Not only applicable to humans I bet, but you still have them. You have a point on assumptions, but it never hurts to keep them in mind."

She nodded. "So if they're not only for relaxing? What else would you use it for?"

"There can be, yes," she amends, half shrugging. "But I imagine a lot of that is more in line with petty crimes, is it not?"

"There are always going to be people like that. Everyone has a price I find, but not eveyone's price is easy to predict. For people who wish for glory with no care to how it's achieved I'm sure this place is heaven. But many have a seed of humanity nothing completely kills, though it doesn't always show until the final moments."

"Of course not. You can use teas for either I find, relaxing or energising. Some say that certain ones can help with certain ailments, but it all depends on what you believe in."

"Not with what I do. Petty crimes is a pickpocket here or some stupid ass graffiti. No, we were going for murderers, rapists, the guys who were yes men for the higher ups. Cops could go after the petty shit."

She nodded. "No, you're definitely right about that. There are things that people trade up for, and some give in to what they know. I know a few who can do the Arena and not have the burden of killing. They treat it as the game they call it, or they're too used to killing. The sliver of humanity, though? Sometimes it holds you back."

Donatello could attest to that.

"I believe I know about tea as much as I do about romance: jack shit. So any information you have will help."

"Ambitious." It's all she can think to say to that, though is studying Mindy a little more now. It's not every day you meet a teenager who can confess to doing such things. It's almost as if she's something ridiculous, like a superhero or such.

"Sometimes you have to do what you need to," she says quietly, tone neutral. "There's a phrase, the good of the many outweighs the sacrifices of the few, and some people apply it to situations like these." She knows she had, before she understood what this all was. "For some you need to learn how to ignore that sliver, and that is the price that they can take from you."

"Are you telling me that in this land of technological wonder information on tea is so difficult to gain?" Snarky, a little, but she means it with no true cruelty, just curiosity to see what happens.

Edited 2014-07-16 06:06 (UTC)

She's settle for the word vigilante. At best she was an anti-hero, at worse a psychopath. She knew enough that for her, the shoe fit. You just knew enough when to dial it down.

"Yeah, you do," she said, "because like I said, they will notice if you don't, and they punish you for it. As for the Spock saying, well, it applies. It kinda has to. In the end, with the Arena, victory is for those who really want it, and that might mean getting your hands dirty. You can be troubled and bothered in your conscience later."

Or stay up at night, of course. Never fun.

"No, but I'm pretty sure you figure its not been something high on my priority list. Leisure for me is kid shit where I get to turn my brain off. Most of the time I have to play adult as a sponsor, and it gets even more annoying when you have to remind people that you ARE an adult to begin with, at least for that."

There are words she's keeping an ear out for, words that she knows she should take interest in and Mindy drops one of them right then much to Rose's luck. "Punishment like what they do to those who are avoxes?" She half tilts her head, sipping carefully from her tea and she lets Mindy continue until she says another thing that coupled with Rose's knowledge of Mindy's victory gets her attention again.

"Talking from experience?" she asks, tone light, but she focuses on Mindy more than she has before. The girl can deny it if she pleases, but Rose is watching carefully to see if there is a reaction at all.

Tea talk can wait a few minutes.

"One form of punishment, yeah, but I don't want them to get creative. I already know if they really want to start ruining your life, they bring up bidding, and that'll be enough to shut you right the hell up. They already did that to a friend of mine, and he still is dealing."

Something that she was only now able to say aloud without feeling homicidal rage.

"I have a few people that like to think a kid like me isn't going to know what to do in these adult situations. In a way I understand, since some of the kids here, they just run through the Arena. But I'm not stupid enough to think playing kid is going to help my tributes. They need a good mentor who tries to get them sponsors for the next arena."

"Bidding?" Somehow that word alone makes her almost certain she knows what Mindy means, and yet she still asks. There is still a flicker of uncertainty and Rose is yet again annoyed that her powers have been stripped. It's so hard to be an aloof know it all like this.

"Children can often be underestimated," she muses, studying the last of the tea in her cup. "Perhaps it's because we do largely see them as innocent, and we often maintain that view until we are forced to let it go. But I'm quite aware what even the young can be capable of."

"But that wasn't exactly what I was referring to when I asked about you experience." A pause and she looks up, meeting Mindy's eyes. "Do you feel bothered or guilty about what you had to do?"

"Yeah. You know how sometimes people who have money get to take gladiators out and have a good time? That's what gets to happen to us. If you want to know what happens when you refuse that, ask Joanna, a former mentor. Just...be careful. You're older than me. In this case, lack of puberty is my friend."

She grinned. "Oh, they sort of know that, but we do have kids that sort of are scrappy, but not willing to kill unless they have to. You know, noble. They're good kids, actually. Clementine. Sandy. Ellie. Max will fuck you up though."

She paused. "I have things in my Arena I feel guilty about, sure. I knew I was going to coming in. But killing people as fucked as me is the price I had to pay to become a mentor. I had to make myself distinct."

"Ah," she says even so quietly and of course she was right. She doesn't have her Sight here and yet she's still right and it disgusts her. They really are nothing to them akin to cattle in many ways and she hates the way that makes her feel. She hates knowing that she's not the one in control anymore, that she's merely a puppet of sorts.

But she won't let Mindy know all that, her gaze steady and she shrugs, as if it doesn't manage. "I'll manage, if it ever comes up."

"They should learn to use it to their advantage," she adds. "They may not want to kill but they should accept it sooner, rather than later. Adults in one of these things..." She shrugs again. "Fine. I can tolerate that. But children have too many things stacked against them, it's purely not fair."

She puts her now empty cup down, straightening a little. "You did what you had to. I'm sure you're fine rationalising it, but it helps sometimes to have others acknowledge it."

"I'm sure you will," Mindy said. "You were asking all the questions I was the first time the arena happened to me. I probably didn't get outright killed for that because I was a kid not knowing what was going on. If I'd been older, I might have been more likely to get stabbed."

Unpleasant, but true fact.

"Oh, not all will. Those girl with the exception of Max are good, like I said. They're not the type to go out and kill for the sake of it. Now Sandy's girlfriend Pruna, she was a different story. The girl knew how to handle herself. But its not so easy for them, and if they don't ask I won't push it on 'em."

She shrugged. "You can't undo that kind of shit, you can only apologize later. It sucks what I had to do, but you can't change the nature of the game without facing some major consequences."

"Great minds perhaps," she says with a smirk, and now she straightens up completely, stretching ever so slightly. That and Rose knows the best thing for her to be is prepared. Especially if she is going into that arena with people she cares for, people she wants to get out of there as soon as she can.

She merely nods to what Mindy says, though deep down Rose doesn't think it's an ideal that will last. Innocence has to be lost sooner or later, and in a place like this it would be better for that to come sooner. But then again Rose has always been a cynic.

"I'm not passing judgement. Like I said, you did what needed to be done, there's no shame in that." She collects her dishes, carrying them to the sink. "And you sound like you intend to help plenty who remain in the arena, which is a just use of your time. I'm sure not all mentors are that considerate."

"That was what I meant," she said, smiling back. She was different, this one: much smarter than some of the women she'd met, somehow she could see her being some kind of quick strategist given the right circumstance. Mindy was,m in her mind, evaluating the strength and weaknesses of the tributes here. The more the punishments rained down, the more Mindy saw the inevitability of a struggle as a reality.

"Not everyone is able to deal in the Arena. I can at least show them how to handle a weapon, or how to hold something that will help them when a fight is going down. Not in me to just let people go without any kind of aid. I'd want the same myself, if I came here with no training."

Not that her training had ended anyway but still.

It helps, having been one of the minds behind an underground rebellion before being dragged here. It's given Rose the practice she knows she'll need, and it's taught her how important information is. And without her Sight she has to rely on the old fashioned way of doing that collecting. She smirks a little at Mindy's confirmation. "See, you're only proving it now."

Her fingertips press against the counter and she nods, resisting the urge to tap them. "No, it does take a certain psychology to manage these sorts of trauma, especially when the trauma is a repeated one. Giving them something is better than nothing, when it all comes down to it."

"Not being as asshole, that's me," Mindy said with a smirk. It was true, she didn't have to do this. Hell, in other circumstances training would have meant she came down hard on the person she was helping, making sure they didn't fuck up, and giving them sparse encouragement. Here, she couldn't afford to be that bad ass.

"Not to mention when there's always all new types of trauma to mess you up," Mindy piped in. "Losing friends, seeing them turned to Avoxes, having to see the threat of a Peacekeeper right on your ass. It never seems to end."

"You'd be surprised how rare that can be." Rose herself, knows she can have her moments, too focused on what she deems important to think of the little guys. The good of the many vs the loss of the few is something she's learnt to measure, to justify even though it hurts, and so she wouldn't call herself nice.

"It never will," it's cynical, but she knows it's true. "Freedom of speech is not as free as one thinks, and when it is it runs the risk of causing trouble. Those in power never want trouble, because it threatens the security of their control."

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