thecapitol | Come away little loss, come away to the water [open]

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Come away little loss, come away to the water [open]

Who| Clementine and OTA
What| Catch-all for Clementine things since the end of the arena, Clementine dealing with her canon-updated memories
Where| The Tribute Center and out in the Capitol, choose from the prompts or make your own
When| Anytime between the end of Arena 12 and now
Warnings/Notes| Talk of violence and children in harmful situations probably.

It's been a strange few weeks for Clementine, how do you describe the sensation of waking up with a whole new bunch of memories in your head? It made the usual disorientation in coming back from the arena pale in comparison.

The memories were... good, bad. A lot of bad. The good was Kenny, alive, really alive. The bad was everything that had happened after that discovery, Carver and his camp, the things Clementine had done and witnessed in the span of just a couple of days. Things she now had to reconcile and fit in with her memories of Panem, ending with everyone surrounded by Walkers and Sarita...

So it's not all surprising that Clementine has been a little reclusive since coming back. She hasn't actively avoided people, far from it, but she has taken a little more time to herself and her thoughts.

Prompt A: District 6

There's nine people living in the District 6 suite (not counting their support staff) and only one big television to share between them in the big lounge area. That can lead to some squabbles over what to watch and a general first-come, first-serve attitude to grabbing the remote whenever it was spied outside of someone's hand.

Clementine takes advantage to temporarily being on her own to set up the gaming system she'd asked for after spending hours at the arcade downtown, putting in a rather bright and colourful racing game which has nothing to with violence or horror. She'll settle for racing against the computer controlled characters for now but if anyone else wants to join in she probably won't say no.

Prompt b: The park

It's extra cold out in the Capitol today and despite that Clementine still ventures outside of the Tribute Center.

She's wrapped herself up in a thick coat and scarf, got a cup of hot chocolate from one of the many, many coffee shops dotted around the Capitol and come to the park with a bag of bread in hand. The ducks here are probably pretty spoiled already by visitors, looking well-fed despite the season, but they still come swimming over the moment Clementine crouches by the bank and sets down her drink on the frozen ground.

"Alright, hang on." she mutters at their insistent quacking, opening up the bag of bread to start tearing off small pieces and throwing them into the water where the ducks immediately set in on squabbling for the food.

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It's a novelty to actually have food enough to consider feeding it to the ducks, rather than hoarding it all for herself.

"I think they'd sink before they burst." Clementine says smartly as she looks up at Joel, "And they haven't done that yet."

Her gaze softens looking up at Joel who she hasn't seen for a good while despite her best efforts. Not since Ellie didn't come back. She hadn't even seen him in the arena at all, it had worried her but she knew Joel could take care of himself a lot better than most people. "Hi Joel."

"I dunno, ducks are pretty floaty," Joel comments, his lips twitching faintly.

"How've you been, kiddo?"

"Pretty tasty too, but I don't think anyone would be happy if we ate these ones." though these ducks were fat enough to feed a good few people. Maybe this was where all the Capitol restaurants got their supply of duck meat from.

"I've been okay." the reply is out of her mouth before she even thinks about it, an automatic response. A few seconds later and she knows it's a lie but doesn't correct herself, not yet anyway. "How have you been?"

"Yeah, they're pretty well-fed," he says lightly. "That's what happens when there's plenty of food to go around."

Well, relatively speaking. He gets the feeling things are different in the districts, though he's never seen for himself.

"I'm fine," he says automatically. Of course no one is really fine - how could they be? But what else is he supposed to tell this girl?

"Hey Joel," Clementine says after a moment, the question worming it's way up now she's talking to someone she knows she can trust with these sorts of things. She has to ask somebody about the thing she's been sitting on ever since she came back to life.

"Have people ever woke up from an arena and... and remembered stuff they didn't before? Has that ever happened to anybody?"

Joel glances at her, frowning a little at her question. "Ah, I don't know," he admits after a moment's thought. "No one's ever told me anything like that, at least.

"Why, did that happen to you?"

It was a pretty transparent question and Clementine can only nod in confirmation before standing up. She plays with the plastic bag of food in her hand while the ducks quack in annoyance at the supply of food being momentarily cut off.

"Um, yeah." she presses her mouth tight before continuing, "I can remember three whole days back where I came from that I didn't before the arena, I'm sure I didn't."

Joel makes a slight face. It's always the kids. Always.

"Probably just them messin' with you. Best to just try not to think about it too much."

"I figured that." she agrees that the Capitol must have done it to mess with her and she knows why, "They brought people from my world here before the last arena too."

Clementine hadn't really had a chance to talk to Joel about that either, not with how he'd locked himself away after Ellie vanishing.

She stands up then, picking up her drink to take a sip, wanting to be more on a level with Joel.

Joel has to think back a little - a lot of things are kind of hazy before Ellie left. But then it comes to him. "Nick?" he offers after a moment. He thinks the guy's name was Nick, the one who recognized Clem.

"Yeah, you met him?" she looks a little surprised and nods, "There's Luke and Jane as well, and a girl called Beth. I never met her at home though, but she said she's from Georgia and she knew what Walkers were. Called them that, too."

"And Luke, and Beth," he says affirmatively. "It's good, to have people from your world with you. If you have to be here, might as well be with some folks you know you can trust."

"Yeah. I didn't know Luke or Nick very long before but they helped me," after the discussion on whether or not she was bit by a Walker or a dog was worked out, after she almost got killed after being locked in a shed for the night with no medical care on the bite wound just in case it was the former (she's still a little sore on that). "And Beth's really nice too, I wish I'd met her at home."

"Beth's real nice," he agrees quietly. "I don't know why they keep bringin' in so many young people from your world, though."

There are too many kids here, period, but they do seem to give preference to a few places.

"Me neither... I was the only one here for months, now there's suddenly... I think maybe five of us?" Possibly more, Clementine's not sure if they brought in other she didn't personally meet during her apocalypse. "Who knows why the Capitol does anything."

That she punctuates with a roll of her eyes.

The worst thought is that it's something to do with her, something she did that's causing this to happen. Maybe it's because she's popular with the Capitol crowd, maybe it's a punishment though she's not sure for what.

"Usually I figure they do stuff to mess with us because they think it's funny," Joel says, his way of agreeing with that eyeroll of hers. To him, it's just as bad - if not worse - as being actively evil. They don't even seem aware most of the time of the horrible shit they do.

"I wouldn't think about it too much. At least you've got some folks lookin' after you."

They're toys, distractions, that's all they are to these people. It's still horrible to think about even after months of being forced to put up with it, however by this point Clementine's become resigned. She needed to deal with it and keep waiting, hoping for a chance to escape someday.

"You're right, I should try and be positive, I guess." she blows out a puff of air. "I wish they didn't have to, though."

Mostly he just thinks kids need something to be hopeful about. Even if it's completely unrealistic. Kids shouldn't become jaded before they have to. It's one thing to know the world is pretty shitty, but something else entirely to lose all hope.

Even with Ellie gone, he doesn't want that for Clem.

"Yeah, me too, kid," he says with a sigh. "We just gotta hang in there."

She nods and moves over, giving Joel a nudge with her shoulder. "We will." she's encouraging him as well as herself, she knows how hard it's been on Joel since Ellie. Clementine would like to see him happier again.

"Want to go grab something to eat?"

Unfortunately, Joel isn't a happy man, by and large. He appreciates the sentiment, though.

"Sure," he says, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Burgers?"

Never doubt the determination of a little girl, Joel, she'll figure you out some day. Hard won smile by hard won smile.

"Burgers sound great. Especially if they have bacon on them."

She balls up the empty bag of bread to toss in the trash, ready to head out to find a nearby diner.

"Bacon cheeseburgers it is," Joel says - Clem is a girl after his own heart, really - and leads the way.

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Come away little loss, come away to the water [open]

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