thecapitol | Open!

Who| Helena Wayne and OPEN!
What| Helena dealing with undeath and meeting new people.
When| Post-Announcement
Where| District 4 Suites; Common Area; Training Centre
Warnings/Notes| None as yet?

[Prompt 1: District 4 Suites]

For the past few days, since returning back to life, Helena has holed herself inside of her room, fiddling with the communicator, studying a map of the city (because it was always good to be familiar with your surroundings) and listening to this whole destruction of District Three thing. She doesn’t have any emotional connection it, not yet. She’s still dealing with the fact that, somehow, she’s alive after having been killed.

I’m going to kill Loki. Possibly literally.

Still. It’s time for her to venture out. She can’t stay holed up forever. It’s not like her.

[Prompt 2: Commons]

Food. Food is good. Food is always good. Though what she’s craving is something hideously junky and laden with carbs and sugars and possibly everything that’s bad for her, she’s fought against the urge. If she’s going to stay in tip-top shape, if she’s going to win next time (and Helena really does hope that she’ll win), then she needs to stay healthy. Lean meats, lots of veggies, milk, and water. All the things a healthy, growing teenage girl needs.

And all I really want is a cheeseburger topped with bacon, chili, onion rings, and barbecue sauce.

But no. She can reward herself later. For now…well, for now, she’s going to try to be serious and healthy about this.

[Prompt 3: Training Centre]

She’s a fierce little fighter, but there’s not a lot of finesse there, as anyone watching would see. She’s a tough brawler - all street fighting fury but no martial artistic finesse. But she is working out her anger and her frustration, which is probably a good thing. She needs to be calm, cool, collected, and centered. She’s lost, but this place more than anywhere makes her feel comfortable at some sort of level. After all, this was what she’d done for hours at end back at home. Fighting, training, honing.

Between it all, though, she takes breaks. Rests. Watches everyone else, and scopes out the competition.

And maybe the possible allies? I don’t know. Can there be such a thing here?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Course they do, you don't think everyone takes the official rules seriously, do you?" Joel snorts. "Everyone's got folks they try to look after. The Capitol just rigs the arenas so they're nearly impossible to survive for long regardless of whether other tributes are tryin' to kill you."

"Well..." Helena trails off. She seems a little sheepish. "Okay. I may have been a little naive here." Granted, her first time in the arena, when she'd tried to team-up with someone, she'd ended up dead.

"Great. So if someone doesn't manage to kill me, the Arena will." That was about as comforting as a crowbar to the head. She was going to have to be smart there, then. Not just with people, but with her surroundings as well. More than she had expected.

"Are you someone I can count on to have my back?"

"That is the point. Only one person survives every arena," Joel points out. "Everyone else dies, every single time. No exceptions. Chances are, you'll die a lot."

He sighs, glancing over the weapons racks. "I won't kill you. I don't, mostly, unless we get attacked. I've got some kids I look after, though. But if you need help and I can help you, I will." That's really the best he can do.

"Gee, how comforting," Helena says off-handedly. A constant cycle of death and rebirth didn't sound fun at all. Should've just called myself Phoenix instead of Robin, clearly.

She nods, places the bow down, and holds her hand out to Joel. "I appreciate that," she says. "I won't make with the killing you either. Unless, you know." He asks her to or something. Which would be weird, but then she's already made a similar sort of deal with Sirius.

It's like the plotline of a ridiculously bad Lifetime movie.

She's not surprised that he seems to have kids that he looks after, though. Whether he means to or not, Helena senses something paternal in him. Or maybe it's just that he reminds her of Bruce. Either, she smiles up at him. "And thank you. For the pointers. I'm going to keep them in mind." And maybe practice more with the bow. It really does seem like a fun weapon.

"Don't hurt my kids, you've got nothin' to fear from me," Joel says with a nod. Something tells him this one - clearly not much more than a child herself - probably won't actively threaten Ellie or the others.

"And sure. Anytime." Which - is true enough, he realizes with a slight jolt of surprise. It surprises him how much time he spends here, showing other people things. Teaching. Sharing what he knows.

"My name's Joel, by the way."

"Oh, jeez," Helena says, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. Manners." This place had clearly already robbed Helena of one or two. "I'm Helena." She reaches her hand out to Joel for him to shake. "It's an honest pleasure, Joel."

Manners aren't really something he thinks about, but it is a good idea to know what to call someone, in case you need to yell at them. Having a name is better than having to shout 'hey you!'

He's still weird about shaking hands, but he only hesitates for a moment before taking hers. It's maybe a little awkward, due to him being long out of practice, but it's firm, nonetheless, his hand calloused from years of hard labor and heavy lifting.

"Nice meetin' you," he drawls, dredging that up from his memory. "Good luck with the training."

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