A return

[knifewithnoname]

Who| Pruna and open
What| Pruna returns and tries to make sense of things
Where| Tribute tower lounge
When| When she returns
WARNINGS | Likely swearing
NOTES|

Pruna looked around the room. It wasn't the same one she had been put in last time but it was practically identical. She wrinkled her nose as she sat down on the bed.

She remembered this place, the stupid hair people who called her Pruna and the arenas, the technologies and the people who were her... friends? But she had forgotten, she had went home and forgotten. Forgotten everything, all the training, all the things she had learned. All the cool things she had wanted to show...

She jumped to her feet, scowling at the room. Well however stupid this place was at least it was a stupid place she knew, it wasn't the temple. The place she was going to be taken in the stupid cold mountains.

But she remembered this place got stupid cold too, she remembered the snow and the hats. It wasn't cold now though, she was in a training uniform and as she went to leave her room she spotted some soft almost slipper like shoes. She put them on, frowning at the feeling but keeping them on as she slipped out into the corridor.

She stopped outside a door, Sandy's door. If her girlfriend was still here, Pruna didn't know how long she had been away. She raised her hand as if to open it and then scowled. She remembered the last time she had seen Sandy's face, scared and almost leaky eyed and she remembered pain. Lots of pain.

Why had she done that? Pruna frowned and stepped away from the door, and stormed out of the suite, riding the escalator down to the ground floor and the lounge.. She was a servant of the shadow god, someone who killed when she was told to. Someone useful. Why had she tried to save a stupid leaky eyed weakling?

All the reasons were in her head all muddled up and she flung herself onto a sofa, memories of eating ice cream with Sandy being mixed up with memories of eating honey cakes on a rooftop. She grabbed the controller and turned on the television, flicking through channels to try and find one that would catch her up on what had happened whilst she was away.

Comments

[designatedfreak]

"Hey, you gonna share some of that couch?" Max was taking a rare break from training and Courfeyrac. Truth be told, her brother was causing all sorts of confusing thoughts in her head, thoughts that really weren't appropriate for siblings to have with each other. Yeah, she caught the pauses and looks, the slight flush of the face that he probably believed their training routines hid. Max saw it all and it was...confusing.

When he finally took his own break from training, Max didn't follow him back to his room. Instead she stood behind until her training dummy had to be replaced as she had worked out her confusion and frustration on the object. Now she stopped herself from immediately running to Big Brother and instead paused by a slightly familiar face pouting on the couch.

Pruna. Pruna and Sandy. They, like most of the Capitol, were simply vivid dreams come true, although word was Pruna has also vanished last Arena. Well, it looked like it was a week for reunions.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna looked up at the voice, her scowl getting darker when she saw the woman. She didn't know her and she knew that when she was here before she had known adults who had been nice to her.

It was probably why she had become so weak.

"Be getting your own fucking couch." She growled though at the same time she did move over to make room. She didn't want to give anyone an excuse to have her punished, but she wasn't going to be playing nice either.

[designatedfreak]

Max flopped onto the couch and shoved her feet up on the coffee table. She looked quite at home sitting next to Pruna. "Wow, the mouth on you." Had the girl been this hostile when they were kids? "Figured you'd be helping Sandy with her moves, or are you two fighting?"

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna just rolled her eyes, there was nothing wrong with her mouth. They were good curses that Howard had taught her.

"I have no been seeing her yet." She wrinkled her nose, she still had no idea who this girl was but somehow she knew she should be with Sandy.

Of course she could have just watched reruns of the arena. "I did only just be getting back."

[designatedfreak]

"Me too." Max shot her a grin. "They were probably keeping us back because we kick so much ass." Of course that meant Max got to live her life whereas Pruna looked the same as she had last time Max saw her.

"Courfeyrac was a big baby about it, but you know how boys are, all emotion, emotion, emotion."

[hit_girl_mindy]

So maybe MAYBE Mindy might come to the lounge from time to time to find Sandy, hang a little bit. It was all she could do to appear that things were normal. She had a job, and that meant she had to keep the face that she accepted everything happening as a matter of course. She'd had Hit Girl as an alter ego for some time. What made this any different.

Finding blind spots. She'd do her best, and it was something at least. Now, though, she could do with a little turning her brain off. She was bound to grab Sandy and tell her this when she spotted someone who looked pretty familiar on the couch. But no, couldn't be. Could it?

"Pruna?"

[knifewithnoname]

At the sound of her 'name' Pruna looked up with a scowl. Mindy... Memories assailed her once again, her and Mindy fighting, Mindy killing her, Sandy trying to kill Mindy. Mindy winning the games. Because she was strong and didn't care for weaklings like Pruna had...

"Mindy." Pruna blinked at her, scowling still.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy was slightly taken aback by the face. They'd trained together before, after all.

"What? Are you pissed about me bonding with the duck? I'm sure he still loves you best."

Assuming Sandy got to her first.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna blinked, "You did be bonding with duck?" Did she care? She wasn't sure. Duck was another stupid thing she had cared about, stupid duck had been weak and pathetic.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Well yeah," Mindy said, shrugging. "I had to while you were away. It missed you. Oh...um, how much do you know? I mean, about the shit that's been going down since you were gone?"

[earthborn]

There was something a little bit perfect about coming down in the morning to find Pruna sitting there. Maybe her hair was a little longer, the scowl a little more pronounced, the callouses on her hands rougher.

"Kid?" Shepard never once called her Pruna, not once since the girl had told her that she had no name, "You're back. And...wearing shoes."

Small miracles, all around.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna had only seen a few people so far, and Shepard was the first to get a smile. "I do be being. Effie and Cinna did be getting them for me before I did be... no be being here and they did be being in my room. They do be being soft."

[carsassian]

Garak couldn't specifically recall ever having seen this particular small human lurking around the Tribute Center, but then again, the children weren't generally his most pressing concern. Most of them seemed woefully ill-equipped to be in such a world. Not that that necessarily distinguished them from the adults, of course.

Still, this girl caught his interest. Children were strangely adaptable to their circumstances. He had seen that on Bajor, and again in Ziyal and Jake Sisko, even, to some unflattering degree, in himself. Those who were strong and meant to survive would do so regardless of whatever hardships they had to endure. Those who had been in Panem for sometime were exhibits of that already. They detached, grew desensitized to the violence around them. They became almost Cardassian in that way. This girl didn't appear to be like that at all. This girl seemed new, deflated.

He approached with a wide, cheerful smile, which he hoped wouldn't completely scare her off. Most of the Capitol had gotten used to his reptilian features by now, but there was no way to tell with newcomers.

"There's a human dish that usually makes me feel a little bit better when I'm looking like you do now." He waved as soon as he was sure he had her attention. "Have you heard of gelato, my dear? It comes in any flavor you can imagine, including some you'd probably rather not, and it's fantastically good."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna looked up at the words and wrinkled her nose. An alien. And one she had never met before. She didn't smile back, he was probably stupid.

But then he offered food and her opinion of him changed, her frown turned thoughtful.

She realised suddenly that she couldn't remember when she had last eaten. Before she had proven her loyalty. Taiwin had left her a honey cake but she had stomped on it in anger and the morning she had spoken to Elena (was it this morning? Or yesterday?) Kant had taken her to the kitchen, sat her on one of the worktops and made her drink a mug of warm milk with honey. Milk with honey was one of her favourites but it had tasted strange, it had taken her so long to drink the small mug that the milk had gone cold and the honey all congealed.

"I did no never be hearing of it. But there do be being many things here I did no never be hearing of." And most of them had proven delicious.

[carsassian]

"Well, it's one of my absolute favorites, and there are a great many human foods I've never heard of as well. Perhaps we can teach each other something or another about them." He extended a hand toward her, his skin was strangely greyed and certain patches were covered in glossy scales. His fingernails were slightly long, Garak hadn't bothered to trim them in quite some time. They cultivated a certain image of brutality that seemed appropriate given this environment. His movements, however, were entirely deft and light.

"My name is Garak," he announced, his voice perhaps slightly loud given the space. Cardassian hearing being what it was, he couldn't be sure. Volume-control had always been something of a problem for him. "May I ask your name? It would make a conversation easier, if we're to have one."

[knifewithnoname]

She studied the hand, he didn't look like an alien troll but definitely an alien of some kind. She remembered Sandy teaching her about shaking hands and she reached out herself and put her small hand in his. Her hand was rough, more calloused than it probably should be at her age.

"I will be remembering it Garak, they do be calling me Pruna here. Do you be knowing where we can be getting some of this...gela...to?"

[carsassian]

"Lovely to meet you, Pruna. And yes, I do know a place to find gelato." He shook her hand lightly, buoyantly, in a quick easy motion. His subsided, but gently, with an intentional sort of politeness. Manners, Garak had noticed, were generally quite important in this society.

"It's not far from here, if you would like to accompany me. I was going to go find some just now when I noticed you there."

[carnagecarnival]

It's the second time in the shortest little while that he's seen someone what all he looked at in unsureness they were really being real. Two of his own returned in one goddamn day? It's got to be a motherfucking daymare without the horror come yet, just the good before it gets snatched on away.

He's still in garb from his ritual, all paint and glitter cover and bleeding palms. Praise the Messiahs. Praise the motherfucking holy two, they've heard his prayers, at least a few.

"LITTLE SISTER!" He calls across the room. He picks up the pace to run to her.

[knifewithnoname]

The words make her flinch but her head snaps up to look at who is calling them and she grins. The Initiate, someone who is very much not stupid.

"Hello." She looked at the paint, glitter and blood and her smile grew. "I do be being back."

[carnagecarnival]

"She does so be! IN FLESH ALL ALSOLIKE! He did so think she was as to being a motherfucking wraith of vision first. IT IS A MIRACLE TO BE BEHOLDING HER GLORIOUS RETURN," He says, enthused. "Tell him, is she well?"

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna grinned more and bounced up off the sofa. "Of course I do be being well. How do you be being." She looked a the glitter again, "You do be looking cool."

[keep_surviving]

There's a brush of soft hair against Pruna's cheek and there's Diana, leaning over the back of the sofa to smile at the young girl like a cat who's just spotted a mouse.

"Hey there, Dewbie. Long time no see."

[knifewithnoname]

She blew at the hair in annoyance and looked up. Looked up and sighed dramatically. "You do still be being here then, bitch?"

[keep_surviving]

The teens smile evolves seamlessly into an amused smirk. "Yes, I do be, Dewbie."

She pushed herself off the back of the sofa and walked around to sit beside the younger girl with such flair you'd think they were on Broadway.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna glared at her and sighed dramatically again. "Do you no be having other people to be annoying?"