thecapitol | so here's my hope, my tired soul. ( open )

She's been here for a day now, enough time to convince herself that this isn't some kind of awful dream. In a lot of ways, it's almost surreal. For one, she's clean for the first time in months - actually, truly clean. In part, thanks to the efforts of her prep team, who had tsked at the filthy and matted state of her when she'd been brought in.

So here she is, squeaky clean and sitting in the corner of the common area in front of one of the many television screens. Watching one of the programs that seem to run around the clock. This time, it's highlights from the last arena.

Beth's no stranger to violence. Her life has been full of it for the last two years, ever since the dead stopped staying dead. She's seen a lot of it. But this is a full highlight real of awful, grisly murder being narrated by people with chipper voices like some kind of sick sports event.

"I'm gonna be sick," she mumbles quietly, mostly to herself.

TRAINING CENTER RESTAURANT

They give her more food than she's ever seen in her life, and Beth looks down at it like it's an alien thing. Like it can't possibly be real. She's perched on the edge of the bar on a stool with a plate heaped high and for a moment, she doesn't make any move to eat it. Because even before everything went wrong, they never had food like this on a farm where they grew mostly everything they ate.

She sort of just looks at it, fork in hand, like she's in shock.

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Now there's a good question. Haruto breathes in sharply, not quite laughing, and looks briefly down into his coffee cup. "It's probably normal to them. If something's normal, why think about it too much? Why not just enjoy the fun?" He takes another, longer drink of coffee, then sets the cup down and shifts in his seat to better face her. He's had time to think on all of this, but not much chance to talk about it. Risky business, that. But....

"Or maybe they're cheering so that they're not the ones thrown in here."

Beth's never been presented with the idea of surveillance, she's never had to keep her opinions to herself for fear of retribution. She's probably going to get in trouble with running her mouth about how all of this is sick and incredibly immoral if someone doesn't tell her otherwise.

"I guess that makes sense," she mumbles, her gaze returning to the cheering crowd. Most of them are cheering with incredible passion. They look happy. It's hard not to feel a little sick to her stomach again.

It's nice to be able to talk about it, but he's not really helping here, is he? Haruto's expression softens somewhat, and he shifts his chair a little closer. "...hey. You wanna go do something else?" Watching this stuff until you couldn't take it anymore wasn't healthy. He had once tried to take in as much of it as possible, to get himself ready for what might be coming. And then he had started to have a hard time sleeping. Now he tries not to pay it too much mind.

It's kind of a whim, a split-second decision, especially since they're basically strangers, but it's true that Beth doesn't want to sit around watching this any more. She considers it for a minute before nodding, getting up from her place on the couch. "What were you thinkin' of?"

Haruto hadn't been thinking of anything in particular up until he asked the question, but he's good at improvising. There's a little shrug of his shoulders in an attempt to look cool and relaxed about it all. "How about out? They'll let us into the city. There's lots to see." Ahh, and then it comes to him what they can do, and he smiles more brightly. "I'm still looking for a good donut shop. I could use a second pair of eyes to try and spot one. How about that?"

"A donut shop...I almost forgot that donuts existed," she admits, just like she forgot about ice cream and cake and everything else that was delicious and didn't come out of a can. The city might be a terrible place governed by terrible people, but there are so many things she'd like to eat again.

Donuts just got placed on the list. Beth glances over at the exit to the tribute center. "Lead the way?"

"You... really? Really?" And bam, he is up on his feet and right on over to her table, having found his mission for the day. "That's terrible! There's no time to waste!" He's mostly exaggerating for comedic effect. Mostly. He looks to the exit right after she does, looks back at her, nods once, and starts backing towards it at an excited trot with the expectation that she'll follow.

"...hey, so, what's your name? I'm Haruto."

His enthusiasm is actually really endearing. The exaggeration gets a smile out of her, and a partial laugh as she gets to her feet. It's nice, to be able to be excited about something as frivolous and silly as doughnuts. Nice to be able to have a moment that isn't death and despair all the time.

"It's Beth. Nice to meet you," she's up on her feet and moving towards the exit. "It's not just doughnuts. I just remembered that we used to have ice cream. And pie. There's a lot I gotta catch up on."

so here's my hope, my tired soul. ( open )

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