thecapitol | open;

WHO| Ellie and OPEN
WHAT| Ellie doesn't react well to anything, really
WHERE| In the middle of the street, making a scene, then back in the common room
WHEN| just after the interviews
Warnings| physical harm of a child

IN THE STREET
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Hawkeye was back. That was all the proof she needed, really. They could bring anyone back - even if they were gone - and she was too fucking angry to think twice as she marched out of the tribute center. She had to find wherever the scientists were - whoever they were - find them and convince them to bring everyone back. Everyone.

She was finished with them manipulating her life, making her live horrible tradgedies over and over and then not living up to their end of the bargain. And this was it: she died, for their entertainment, everyone she loved died, but - and this was a large but - then they came back.

After all the shit that they went through, they owed it to them. They brought Pierce back, they could fucking well bring back the rest.

"Where do you think you're going, Tribute?"

She hadn't even noticed them. She had been so fucking determined - reading the sign on every building she passed - that she didn't notice the three peacekeepers stepping in front of her.

"None of your fucking business," She snapped. She hadn't been there, when Eva had died. She hadn't been there when all the shit went down. She didn't know.

Though she should have.

"Want to say that again?" The largest one said, unbuckling his baton from his belt. Unfortunately, Ellie had never been good at self preservation in the face of unjustified authority, and though she took a step back, her face took on a decided grimace.

"Yeah. I will. I want my FUCKING friend back you fucking sack of shit and I don't fucking care what y--"

However, she didn't get through the whole sentence before she let out a strangled yelp, the taser buried into her side and the shock running through her like lightning.

IN THE COMMON ROOM
(Totally open to multiple threads!)

Ellie groaned. Her whole body was sore, complaining darkly against the unnatural current that had made her collapse. She lay on the couch in the common room, someone had put a blanket over her and she must have passed out at some point. She sat up, and groaned again. Fuck. That was such a stupid idea.

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"Yeah, so they can rip her away again? So that they can laugh and be like 'look, she's dead, but maybe for a little while you can almost touch her'? I'm fucking - I'm done. Tess-" She stopped, hesitated, and then frowned, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I like Hawkeye, I like Tess. I would rather have them around than not. You know that. And I know it must be tough as shit for you but... Her and Hawkeye -- it's different from- from Riley, for me. You know it is."

"Yeah," he says after a moment. He may or may not actually get it, but that's beside the point. Keeping Ellie safe and with him, is the point.

"I'm doin' what I can to get us out of this," he assures her.

"... Yeah, I know. I know you are. I just - what if this is it, Joel? What if this is all we fucking get, as some fucking puppets for some freak fucked up show? I like having a bed, that's awesome, and I like not being attacked by fucking infected every day or having cannibalistic assholes after me - at least most of the time - but I still... Sometimes, some parts of this? Some parts of it are almost worse. And it's almost always the parts that I should be thankful for."

He winces a little at her words, giving her a slightly pained expression. "Don't. I've already got Tess tellin' me she'd rather be dead, I can't -"

His brows furrow and he shakes his head a little. "We've been through worse than this, we'll figure it out. We just gotta keep our heads on straight."

Someone has to. And sometimes, he feels like he's drowning, himself.

"That's my fucking point though," She says, not willing to be pacified, and wincing as she wrenched too quickly upward - the sudden shooting pain making her feel nauseous.

"That's-- that's just it, Joel. Things aren't going to get better, they're going to get worse. You know as well as fucking anyone that people with this kind of power over people's lives... they like to use it. We can't just buckle down about this."

"Ellie."

He grips her arm gently, just above the elbow, and gives her a significant look. "This ain't the time or the place." This isn't private, there are cameras everywhere. She just got tasered, for Christ's sake, she doesn't need to get into any more trouble.

But that doesn't mean Joel isn't quietly making a few plans of his own.

Unfortunately, the taser had the opposite affect than was meant, and despite being in severe pain, the anger slightly overshadows it.

She wrenches her arm out. "I just meant the fucking petition," she lies, but then again, now that she's thinking about it, it's half true. "I want out, Joel. I want to do it."

He lets her go, doesn't fight it. "Okay," he says, pacifying. "Okay. We'll do it. You, me and Tess."

He doesn't, at this point, expect any of them to actually succeed, but that's not really what he's saying, anyway.

Since when did he start speaking in fucking code?

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