thecapitol | Beware the Tiefling

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Beware the Tiefling

WHO| Neeshka and OPEN
WHAT| A very angry little demon-child
WHEN| Morning on the second day of Arena 05, after she's been revived and released
WHERE| Stalking the streets
WARNING/NOTES| As the title says. Beware the tiefling and her angry-words.

Neeshka is not a happy camper. She didn't even last a whole day. Not a whole day! Some-- some bitch just came up behind her and mocked her, not even to her face, and as she was trying to turn around, bam. That was it. She hadn't even had a chance to see who her attacker was!

Oh, she knows now. She's seen the instant replays. And next time she sees that blue bitch, someone is getting cut. Or something. Neeshka is better than that, and she knows it, and that just makes her more angry. So instead of sitting and stewing in her rooms, she's walking and stewing, and for once not paying attention to the shop windows or the pockets of people around her. She's just walking, shoulders hunched, hands in her pockets, toes kicking at the snow, and tail lashing about.

Approach at your own risk. She's not likely to be very nice, if you mention her horrible, embarrassing death....

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On the whole, really, Neeshka wasn't so bad-- Ariadne just caught her shortly after being mocked and then summarily killed before she had a chance to even respond, and then questioned her skill level. Neither one was bound to have her in a good mood.

Besides, why would the capitol kill somebody who was so gung-ho about the Games? "Well, sure," Neeshka shrugged, back. "You've also gotta be fast and lucky and good at hiding. And have somebody to be the brawn while you strike from behind."

She did understand it, at least - she'd been there once. It wasn't like dying again and again was all that good for the self-esteem. Providing, however, that it was just a momentary blip - Ariadne honestly couldn't say that the Tribute had stuck in her mind terribly well, though that didn't mean much; she just wasn't interested enough in most of them, though she watched the Games intently - she'd probably be fine.

"I wasn't that good at hiding. Or being fast. Luck might have had something to do with it, though."

She frowned, tipping her head again; at first glance, she thought that it might have just been because of the Games, seeing Neeshka in action, but now she remembered. "I killed you once."

"You did?" Neeshka squinted at her, thinking back. She'd only died three times now, of course, and she'd not even seen the third one. So though the thought of dying and the surprise of coming back had mostly displaced the face in her memory, it didn't take long to come back. "Oh! Right! Haha, at least I got to put up a fight on that one. That wasn't too bad."

Well, all right, it had sucked... but she'd come back. That was something. She gave a nervous sort of laugh. "I seriously thought I was done for, that time. Nobody'd told me about the coming-back part."

It was interesting how they'd hit the point of forgetting who'd been killed, and by whom; Wyatt's death still stood out in her mind, but after that, they all seemed a blur. Especially all of those she had racked up in her third and final Arena. "They tend not to. I think they like the element of surprise. It was probably to keep people from just killing themselves, though I think it's failing a little bit now."

"Yeah, not gonna work so well unless they start not bringing people back for suiciding," Neeshka agreed. The rational-- and interesting-- conversation had effectively diffused her bad mood, at least for the moment. "More dignified to do it yourself, I guess, but not as entertaining for the folks watching. Probably more entertaining to watch people who don't know, too-- why else keep bringing in new people?"

She tipped her head to one side, wondering if the Capitol would hear that and get an idea in their head that it was a decent idea; it was, from their perspective. If those Tributes wanted out so bad, then they could stay out.

Suppressing a bit of a shiver, she lowered her eyes, the entire gesture appearing as little more than a slow sort of blink. "It must be. Especially if some of them have been in for a number of Arenas, and only seem to hate it more and more each time around." At least she had gotten into the swing of things, the idea of killing for fun.

Though the thought still plagued her; she wasn't wholly certain that she still had any sort of morals remaining at that point. She was fairly willing to do anything now. Not like the comparatively hesitant girl who came in.

"It doesn't bother me that much, really," Neeshka shrugged. "I mean, dying like that bothers me! But not having to fight. I had to fight my whole life just to stay alive. This's just making it official." No, all she had problems with was the part where she had no real freedom to run away if she wanted to-- not that she really wanted to-- and that her one friend here seemed bothered by it. She wouldn't mind getting Wyatt out of the arena fighting sooner than later, if she could manage it.

She just doubted she had much say in the matter. Maybe if it came down to her or him, but she didn't think that was likely at all.

"Then I suppose you just have to do everything you can to prevent yourself from dying like that," Ariadne replied with a mild tip of her head. It struck her as fairly obvious. If you hated dying in ways you didn't have control over, then you just had to fight back and win.

"Well, yeah," Neeshka agreed, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. And Ariadne was right, it was awfully obvious. "I'm not about to just let it happen!" She was still confused and annoyed as to how it happened this time. How had she not even had a chance to fight back? So not fair!

"But you did," she pointed out. "So something went wrong with your plan. Which means you need to fix it."

"And it was my first time getting taken by surprise like that!" Neeshka protested, defensive again. "I'm going to do better next time. Didn't I already say that? Gods. I'm not stupid. I'm pretty sure I said that, too." She didn't need to be reminded that she'd failed, and failed hard, again in this conversation.

Ariadne merely twirled a finger in the air, looking perhaps a little exasperated. "It's fine to say things, but unless you can properly back it up, then it doesn't mean anything. You can't just walk around moping in the Capitol when everyone else is back at the Training Centre."

She lifted her eyebrows pointedly, the movement almost imperceptible, but indisputable.

"Oh, come on," Neeshka exclaimed, decidedly put out by the implication that she was somehow slacking off. "It's been one day. Nobody's actually working yet. Everyone's still in the arena, practically, anyway!"

And being out here helped her keep her hand in, in other ways, anyway.

"You say that now," she trailed off, shrugging. By this point, she was almost leaning towards just teasing Neeshka, now that it showed; Ariadne was just as deadpan as she had been before.

And Neeshka was really, ridiculously easy to tease, too. She glared, looking somewhere between defensive and hurt. "I'm not allowed one day to just be pissed that some bitch snuck up behind me and made fun of me before I died? It's not like most people in this stupid city work all that hard."

"Some of them do. She might've been one of them." Or she might have been previously trained with a lucky break. Or she might have just been a royal bitch. There were plenty of options, really; Ariadne couldn't exactly say which one it might have been without going back and watching the tape.

"Oh, come on, she was brand new!" Neeshka knew that much. "So wherever she's from, maybe they just grow them mean and sneaky." Maybe she was just jealous that she wasn't that mean and sneaky. If she'd been the one mocking someone behind their back and snapping their neck (yeah, right, she wasn't strong enough to do something like that) maybe it'd be different.

But she wasn't, she was the idiot it happened to, that was all.

"I've heard they do that in a few of the Districts. It's possible," Ariadne confirmed with a mild shrug. The Arenas did strange things to people sometimes anyway.

"Hells." Neeshka huffed out a sigh. "Well, fine, I'll practice more-- tomorrow. Today I am going to enjoy having a reason to be grumpy." So there. She almost stuck her tongue out at Ariadne, but decided at the last minute it would look childish, so she merely nodded firmly instead and crossed her arms. Which didn't really look much less childish than the tongue would have.

Everyone was allowed their moments, she thought. Tipping her head to one side, Ariadne gaze Neeshka another brief once-over.

"I'll let you get back to it, then."

"Thanks so much." Neeshka was feeling a little better about life, anyway, so she folded her arm across her middle and executed a semi-accurate courtly bow to Ariadne. She straightened up with a lop-sided grin. "See you around, I guess."

The bow amused her, if nothing else; she merely cracked a quiet little smile, shaking her head imperceptibly to herself as she proceeded back on her way.

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Beware the Tiefling

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