tell me how you got so far

[reassures]

Who| Nill and YOU
What| Nill just got dropped off. She has somewhat questionable ways of dealing with this.
Where| District 9 suites, training room.
When| Throughout the day.
Warnings/Notes| Vomit and mentions of character death in the D9 one. Also crying.


(a) - District 9 suites, morning

It's just barely past nine in the morning when Nill wakes up on the hard metal cot, shivering and disoriented, and all of it's in her head because Nill can't figure out how to cope yet. The guards - whatever they are. Nill could hear one of them trying to tell her they were peacekeepers, on more than one occasion, but it goes in one ear and right out the other. The guards try to get her to her feet, get her moving, but every time she tries to so much as stand all the strength saps out of her limbs and she slumps. One of the guards must either be frustrated with her or sympathetic, because every time it happens she feels a hand against her shoulder shove her back towards the cot so she doesn't end up flat on her face on the floor.

It feels like hours before she can move right, but one of the peacekeepers mutters about her being one of the longer ones, confirming it's only been about 30 minutes, and it's the last really independent thing that either of them say for awhile. Nill wraps her arms around herself as she's lead through the facility and to the elevators, trying to piece together the situation in her head.

The last thing she could remember was dying. Her breath shudders out of her in something that might have been a whimper if she had the vocal chords to pull that off, and one of the guards curses, tells her she'd better not collapse again. Nill simply leans back against the elevator wall without sparing him so much as a glance, no matter how sick the memory makes her feel.

The last thing she had done was get she loved killed, and then she had died. Horribly. And suddenly she was waking up here, and though the setting was less alien to her than it should have been she wasn't capable of making the right connections, because there was nothing to connect. Nill had no idea where she was or what she should be doing, but she doesn't get to linger on it long, because the memory of the death is the first thing that makes her realize she doesn't own the clothes she's currently wearing. Panic spikes in her chest when she realizes that not only does she not own the clothes, but whoever picked them gave her a top low-cut in the back so as not to restrict her wings. Whatever had revived her had been able to look at her long enough to make that realization, get her clothes, and dress her.

With panic comes adrenaline, and with adrenaline some of the disorientation seeps out of her, her mind going more and more on high alert with every pump of blood rushing through her. It's only then that she notices the guards are talking, and she feels more and more violated with almost every word they say.

"--not gonna do well, not like this..."

But they notice that she seems more aware of them now, and one of them actually grins at her. Tells her how pleased they are to have her for the games. They can't wait to see how she'll do, they're sure she'll be great. At Nill's utterly confused expression, another tells her, it's the hunger games, the hunger games, they're fantastic, just you wait. They're sure she'll make it past day one, she obviously has some hidden talent that will make her the best killer, and Nill doesn't even notice the patronizing tone because her mind is stuck on the part where she needs to kill everyone else playing.

They stop in front of a door and grin as they open it, gently nudging Nill out of the elevator and into the suite. This is where her district stays, one tells her. She should remember it. District 9. The other says he'll be rooting for her. The patronizing one's grin widens.

"May the odds be ever in your favor," he says, before the elevator doors slide shut.

Nill stands there, staring at the doors. It takes about ten seconds for the trembling to reach from her hands to her shoulders, and then to her wings, easily visible to anyone that might look her way. Then all of a sudden she slaps a hand to her mouth, and turns around, eyes darting. A second later she's made it to a stylish looking potted plant near the entrance of the common room, where she falls to her knees to vomit into the pot.

Enjoy your new suitemate, District 9.

(b)

It's a few hours before Nill gathers up the strength to actually leave the suite - and believe me, it's entirely will power that lets her manage as much - but when she does she immediately heads for the training center. She hadn't heard as much of what the peacekeepers had told her that morning, but it's not difficult to manage. After all, it's just an elevator trip. The people running this place really, really want their tributes to have easy access to facilities like this so they can get better at killing each other apparently.

She spares the whole place a cursory glance as she steps inside, focusing more on the people than the actual weapons stations. She spends a good minute or so looking at everyone, assessing, before she quietly steps over to a station that seems to be for learning how to tie knots.

That's where Nill stays for most of the rest of the day, tying knots, and trying but failing to be subtle about looking at every single person that comes in and out of the training center. If not for how pale she still seems to be, it might look like she was trying to figure out who the strong people were, with the way her eyes linger on everyone.

((ooc; Previous cr permissions!))

Comments

(a)

[revvinguptheharley]

It's early in the morning for Harley. Normally she's an up all night sort of girl.

So it's surprising as she comes shuffling out of her room in PJs, clingy shorts and a loose T-shirt with a picture of a black cat on it.

She yawns and shuffles her way over to the kitchen area practically slumping over the kitchen island and patting the area until she finds an apple. A fresh crunch and some chewing before bleary eyes blink and notice someone throwing up in a potted plant.

"Hey kid, why are you yakking all over Charlie?"

yes, she named the plant Charlie.

[reassures]

Nill actually doesn't hear Harley come out of her room at all, but it's mostly because she's too busy puking. Which she's distantly kind of confused by, because before she woke up she hadn't eaten in awhile, and the fact that it seems like she had food is strange and concerning.

By the time Harley's gotten an apple out Nill seems to be finished upchucking, or at least there's nothing in her stomach since she appears to be suppressing a dry heave, and she has her head leaning against the pot that evidently belongs to Charlie. Except Nill doesn't quite register that the name belongs to the plant, because as soon as she hears Harley talking Nill bolts upright and scrambles back and away several feet, her wings snapping shut against her back. Her eyes settle on Harley, before darting around the room and settling on Harley again, panic written across her face.

[revvinguptheharley]

Already Harley's foggy, sleepy mind is putting the pieces together. Mysterious new girl who looks scared out of her mind?

Tribute!

She rubs the sleep from her eyes and snags a glass out of the cabinet filling it with water. and coming around the side of the kitchen island approaching slowly with both hands visible.

"No need to freak out kid, I'm your mentor. I'm here to help you." she cooed in her most soothing voice. As her brain kicked into gear she was examining the girl from top to bottom reading her body language as best she could.

It seemed like the message it was sending was "OHNO OHNO OHNO!"

Clearing her throat she spoke again.

"I'm Dr. Harleen Quinnzel. But you can call me Harley. What's your name?"

[reassures]

Harley is very good at reading body language. By the time she's gotten a glass of water and come closer, Nill isn't quite so on edge, doesn't seem quite so intent on being as far away as possible with 0.6 seconds to manage it. But despite that, and despite Harley's soothing tone, Nill doesn't understand what she's saying. The words make sense but the meaning of it doesn't connect at all, and Nill has no way of understanding with the limited information she's been given. At first she just looks confused and wary.

A mentor? For what? And she was mentoring Nill no less. Helping. What on earth could she be planning to help with?

Nill's almost sitting up properly when Harley says doctor, and she freezes immediately. Her eyes so a little wide, and her posture stiffens just a little, her eyes never once leaving Harley now. She barely even registers her name, because now Nill thinks she understands this. She has to kill people to survive, and they sent her to a doctor first.

For a moment Nill's hand brushes against her side, before resting flat on the ground. Anyone unfamiliar with fights might not recognize it as checking for a weapon that no longer seems to be there. A few seconds go by before Nill lifts a hand and gestures to her neck awkwardly, trying to indicate that it just doesn't work quite right.

[aboveangrybees]

The morning started early for Steve like always, a run and breakfast was already under his belt, his hair still damp from a shower and his face fresh from a shave. The day held nothing special for him personally, perhaps seeking some familiar company or some drawing, his sketchbook in hand, but any tentative plans he might have had are out the window when he sees an unfamiliar girl bolt for a planter.

His eyebrows reach for his hairline, but he's quick to make his way over to her, careful not to touch or crowd. She must be new, brand new, he doesn't want to make it worse by closing in on her, that could worsen panic.

"There you go, just let it out and try to focus on breathing, okay?" Steve crouched down, keeping a comfortable distance, his voice steady and calm. Sympathetic. "Just count as you breathe in and out."

He wishes he could tell her it's alright or you'll be okay, but he knows those are lies right now.

[reassures]

The situation is helped that when she bolted for the planter, Nill had caught something... close to human shaped out of the corner of her eye. Normally she would be more observant about something like that, but every so often instincts like that are overridden by the extreme and sudden need to empty your stomach of all potential contents. Such is Nill's case today.

And in Steve's case, making sure to keep a distance is a wise decision. Nill sees him approaching, and lifts her head to glance at him, but it's only a moment or so before another wave of nausea hits her and she needs to lean over the pot again.

Whether it's luck has yet to be seen, but Nill's stomach doesn't seem to have much more in it. After the second go she shudders, and dry heaves before resting her forehead against the rim of the planter. She tries to focus on her breathing, but it doesn't seem to accomplish much, and that actually upsets her to the point that tears gather in her eyes. But by then she's with it enough that she decides listening to the stranger's advice might be a good idea. She spares him a brief glance, as if making sure he hasn't moved, before she closes her eyes and tries to count. Deep breaths in, mostly even breaths out. It takes several minutes, but by the time she opens her eyes and looks his way again she seems to have her breathing mostly under control.

[aboveangrybees]

This is easily the worst reaction he's seen, but he can' blame her. It's all pretty horrible and panic worthy.

Steve evens his breathing along with her's, as if leading her, it's a subconscious action, but even when he realizes he's doing it, he doesn't stop. He waits until she opens her eyes again, not moving any closer or further away, just patiently there. It's a lot to take in, he can wait as long as she needs.

"A bit of a rough start," he says it good naturedly, but the concern is still there. "Feeling any better?" He supposes she wouldn't, but he does hope she's at least feeling a little less panicked.

[carnagecarnival]

Throughout the time he paints, set by a small section of wall, sometimes he has to go back to the camouflage station to take ever more paint. Back and forth he goes, as he continues on in his daily graffiti. He sees everyone who comes in and he sees them when head on out. Them what linger are particularly noticeable. She doesn't slip his sights.

He can see a fear on her, visible enough with having felt fear all his life. But she ain't seem to be trembling none and she ain't got no protests. A subdued fear. A preparing one.

He's not heading over to serve her, shit ain't that dire. So long as she ain't apt to drop anything his avox conditioning will stay down and out of the way. He is not an avox anymore, he tells himself. But he can't just leave her like that without trying to say something.

And so, he approaches. A seven foot troll with waving horns and facepaint. He greets her with a nod and says, "Got gander on for some ninja up in particulars done?"

[reassures]

In all honesty, Nill had seen this person going back and forth a few times. She'd even considered trying to communicate with him once or twice, but hadn't because she recognized him, but not right. At the moment she can recognize what he is specifically; the horns are tell-tale, but she's met enough trolls (she thinks) and she can't remember enough (she thinks) to have no idea if this is one she's ever actually seen before. In the end it had seemed better not to bother him.

As he approaches her however, her eyes go a little wide. It's not inspired by fear so much as the fact that she had no way of realizing just how tall he was up until this point, but now that he's only a few feet away she realizes just how massive he is. For a moment Nill is entirely distracted from her knot tying, although she hadn't been very invested in it to begin with, and he's a giant while she'd sitting but when she climbs to her feet he still towers over her mere 5'4".

This guy has a sort of strange vibe coming off him, but it's been so long since Nill had to rely on those that she's not sure the judgment is accurate. But he had asked her a question, albeit a strange one, and once she wraps her mind around the meaning of it she peers past him. Her eyes dart around the room for a moment before her attention returns to the the troll, and Nill offers him a helpless shrug, accompanied with a slight flutter of her wings. At this point she honestly has no idea.

[carnagecarnival]

It's clear she understands him. Right off the bat he can tell she's well and worked through what he's said. But she doesn't speak. He follows along with her body language clear as any word, what with having dealt Kurloz and other avoxes, not to mention his ownself.

It doesn't shock him, but it most certainly brings him surprise. It just manages to hold him more than the flutter of wings. She's mute.

He thinks back. What all had Kurloz taught him? It was hard to forget exactly, what with the fear impounding upon it, but he had to recall the right pieces.

He takes a step back and raise his hands. He moves them in slow pattern as he calls up what he can of the miming. Can/do you follow/understand? Perhaps he's being a fool. There was no reason she should understand the strange hand motions Kurloz had.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus doesn't tie knots out of any particular desire to learn the skill. She does it to kill time during her mandated half-hour breaks at the gym. Five hours at the gym: fifteen minutes to warm up and cool down, four forty-five minute spurts at the punching bag, on the balance beam, on the mat, through the obstacle course, and then the breaks that she'd rather not take but that she knows are necessary to keep herself from getting injured.

Discipline's a part of being an athlete, being a warrior, and she'd be remiss to cast that aside in favor of pushing herself to breaking.

She doesn't talk for a moment as she joins Nill at the station. She's breathing heavy but in 'recovery', in through her nose and out through her mouth with her back straight, and she wipes sweat away from her forehead and neck with the towel she slings around her shoulders. She looks much more at home here than Nill does, for sure.

Her face has a brand burned in that disfigures what otherwise would be quite conventionally pretty. It warps the skin over her left cheek, tugs at her mouth and nostril and lower eyelid, rakes harsh ripples up to her ear.

"Hey, you been doing this long? I haven't tried this station before."

[reassures]

Nill didn't even change into something that could be considered gym clothes. It's just been that sort of day for her, and even though it's been a fair amount of time since she got her and she's doing considerably better than, say, when she woke up on a metal cot this morning, it's still been fairly trying. Typical newbie stuff when pulled into a dystopian past/future.

And even though Nill had trained a lot for nearly a year (uselessly now), even in her best condition she had never been anywhere near Venus's apparent capabilities. Nill barely even registers the scar - she's too busy looking sort of quietly impressed with Venus in general, from what she's seen of her so far today. She doesn't expect Venus to actually speak to her, and when she does Nill looks a little surprised for a moment, before looking down at the knots she'd been working on throughout the day. There were only about five different pieces of string, but she'd probably done most of the knots at least ten times by now. Unsure of how to answer nonverbally, Nill offers a very tiny smile and a shrug to accompany it, before holding a few of the knots up. Long enough, maybe.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus doesn't quite get the cue that Nill can't talk, or is at least choosing not to. Maybe her brain's just a bit too fried, turned gelatinous by the exercise. She's feeling the endorphins, the flush through her head that combats the hardships for just a moment. It makes her calm; it makes her stupid, too, slow and deep like an ocean.

"Those look way better than I can do." She reaches over and takes one of the knots, looking at it and trying and failing to figure out how Nill did that. She sets it back down and holds a hand out. "Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Venus. What about you?"

And after a beat, assuming Nill's just shy, she says "no worries, I don't fight anyone outside the Arena."

b

[smarterthanthem]

Here's a thing, the next person to walk in the door of the training room is a young girl of eleven (almost twelve). She's wearing a battered and dirty looking baseball cap on top of pristine new Capitol made clothing and completely uncaring at how much the two things clash.

Clementine tries to come here at least twice a week. She knows she's smaller and weaker than most every other tribute, perhaps the youngest child in a game that was once filled only with child contestants. Now though those other tributes are adults, older, stronger, more dangerous so she knows it's better she work as hard as she can to improve herself and try maybe next time to actually win.

The more skills she can gain the better her chances.

That's what brings her wandering over to the knot-tying station, one she hasn't actually visited before in favour of advancing her skill in the use of a bow and other weaponry. But maybe this will help too (if she'd know how, had rope, maybe she wouldn't have died the way she had last time). Seeing it already occupied she asks first, "Hi. Is it okay if I work here too?"

[reassures]

Clementine actually wanders over to the knot station during one of the few times that Nill has been preoccupied with a fairly difficult knot throughout the day, and as such, Nill doesn't really notice Clementine until she's asking for permission to join her.

Nill looks up, ready to offer a very small smile and a nod of consent and she freezes when she sees Clementine, expression frozen in place.

Clementine is the youngest person that she's seen here so far. Seeing people younger wouldn't necessarily surprise Nill, and the idea of it threatens to make her sick again, but now, looking at Clementine, Nill has no idea how to react. She looks so young, and when Nill looks at her and understands just how young she is it makes her want to cry. It takes a few seconds, but once she's got it she nods, before gesturing for Clementine to take a seat wherever she likes.

Nill offers a very small, warm smile, the very best she can muster. All the while she despises this place more and more.

[smarterthanthem]

"Thanks." she smiles gratefully and sits down cross-legged nearby. "I'm Clementine. I'm in D6."

If she has any feelings over the reaction the girl has she doesn't bring it up, letting her work through it on her own. It's almost like a reflex to adults and anyone older than her really amongst the tributes, only the Capitol folks don't seem to bat an eyelid. Clem's accepted it by now, that reaction lets her know it's a good person she's dealing with.

That she didn't speak in answer the first time hadn't occurred to Clementine as unusual.

[hit_girl_mindy]

A moment after the grand introduction of Nil to plant, Mindy walks in, curious to see why Peacekeepers would be at her suite at all. She'd been training just a little before breakfast, having a bit of a jog, as much as you can have post Eva with your every move being watched. She opened the door and found her question immediately answered.

It was a girl, new obviously, and she apparently had gotten sick all over the plant. She wrinkled her nose, shaking her head.

"Great, better get to that before it stinks up the place. Who-"

And then she noticed the wings, staring in fascination.

"Well shit, that's new to me."

[reassures]

At this point Nill and the plant are very well acquainted, though Nill sort of wishes they weren't, if only to spare the plant the mortification of it's unfortunate existence at this point in time. By the time Mindy wanders out Nill mostly has her innards under her control, and she spares Mindy a brief glance when she speaks up.

At which point Nill realizes that Mindy is a little kid, and her eyes go wide. The cursing should maybe register as odd or unusual, but it doesn't, and the most important thing in all this is the fact that Mindy looks like a little kid. A little kid that is paying attention to her wings.

Mostly incapable of thinking up a proper reaction at this point, Nill wipes the back of one hand across her mouth before sitting up, and lifting a hand to offer Mindy a very slight, vague sort of gesture that counts as a wave, her feathers fluffing up a little before settling once more.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy found it hard to take her eyes off the wings: after all, it was not everyday you saw wings on someone, especially when she figured things like that were taken away by the Capitol anyway. Maybe these particular wings didn't do all that much, so they wouldn't interfere with anything in the Arena.

That, or they just liked the wings enough to keep them on the girl?

Mindy found herself waving back dizzily. "Right. Wings. So, what's your name kid?"

b

[wizardplease]

Watching terrible things on tv monitors wasn't doing him any good. Having determined that the training area existed and that he really, really ought to use it, that's where he'd taken himself. And he'd spent some time getting accustomed to using a sword that wasn't his usual one, taking easy, one-handed and fencing-like swings at a training dummy. But his heart wasn't really in it. And this was something he was already at least somewhat proficient at. There were things to practice here that he didn't know a thing about, weren't there?

He finds his way to the knot tying station, but immediately finds the girl hunkered down there more interesting (and more concerning) than the knots. "Hey." And he offers her a kind smile. "Everything okay?" It's probably not. But he's not sure what other question there is to ask right now.

[reassures]

What an unfortunate question. Nill looks up, and hesitates a moment, before offering a very slight, albeit somewhat awkward smile, and holding up one hand to offer him a halfhearted thumbs up. It's sort of not, but she figures she's probably handling things a little better here now than she had, say, this morning. At this point this is sort of the best she's done for most of the day as far as emotions go, so she's counting it for as much of a small victory as she can.

She pauses, and thinks better of leaving it at that, before pointing at him and tilting her head slightly, trying to make the intention as obvious as possible. Was he okay?

[wizardplease]

There's a sort of waver to his smile, a sign that he realizes it was an unfortunate sort of question. Her halfhearted thumbs up says an awful lot. "Ah, I see..." She didn't look like the sort of person that was at all suited to being in a place like this, or to preparing to be thrown in an arena to fight to the death. That she'd managed even kind of a thumbs up probably said something about her strength of spirit.

When she turns the question around via miming, he's surprised. Partially because it seems that she can't actually talk, partially because he actually seems to have understood. "Me? I'm fine. I'm a wizard. These sorts of things happen to me all the time." And he grins confidently.

[A]

[the_dancing_dork]

Leo had just gotten up, being way too use dto getting up early due to training back home. He was feeling a little better, at the very least his vice didn;t feel like it had lead in it anymore. He moved to walk out of the room and see how long his body could last...

...just in time to see a girl that he didn't recognize throw up in the plant. Well at least she managed to do it in something.

He hesitated briefly, not wanting to scare the girl with his appearance. But his good-nature ended up winning out and he walked over, kneeling down once there. He cringed at the smell of the now vomit-filled pot before looking at Nill.

"Hey, are you okay?"

[reassures]

Given the time, she probably would have gone for a garbage can. However, you can't really control the speed with which your stomach violently rejects pretty much every aspect of existence, including its own current contents.

Her stomach seems pretty empty by the time he kneels down, but Nill hadn't heard him coming and starts almost immediately as she sees him, first instinct kicking in as she quickly scoots a foot or two away.

Nill doesn't get as far as she might normally, because she actually looks at him as she's moving and stops to stare just a little. Normally she's actually rather good about these things, and she should be - people in her own world have a tendency to look like dogs pretty frequently, and she's even seen a few dragons. But Nill has never so much as seen a normal turtle in person, let alone one bigger than she is that's evidently capable of speech.

Sorry Leo, she heard you say something but the words didn't register at all.

[the_dancing_dork]

The surprise didn't surprise Leo at all. He'd hav ebeen shocked if he didn't get that kind of reaction. So clearly this girl must not have known Donnie like everyone that he's talked to has. So she was new, like he was.

"Whoa, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." he backed up a little and tried to give her a friendly look, "I guess my looks would kind of do that though. But I won't hurt you, promise."

Not like he was in any state to hurt anyone even if he wanted to anyways.