(no subject)

[cherrypie]

Who| De, Lottie, Elias, Effie and open!
What| Choose your own adventure! Each character is cruising around the city.
Where| Around the Capitol. Check each character for details.
When| Over the course of the week.
Warnings/Notes| Just lemme know who, and if relevant where and when in the subject.

She already hated this city.

It was everything De loathed about being in a big city, rolled up and amped up. If she thought preppy hipsters were bad...well, she'd take an army of Hipsters over these soul less assholes. Everywhere she turned, there were primped, phony looking people. She wasn't even sure most of them counted as human anymore. And there was no escape.

She sought out what she could find. The roof. Bars. The hot springs. The arcade. Places that on some levels felt normal for her. She knew she should be sucking up hard to sponsors, but she just couldn't bring herself to grovel to the people doing this too her. It wasn't happening.

The one things she did do was watch the videos. Study her competition. If she was going to win this, it wasn't going to be because some rich dick bought her out of it.

---

Lottie was sucking up. She wanted out. Momoko has lit a fire under her fluffy butt, and she was sucking up to every sponsor she could find.

She knew she was good at it, too. The entertaining part. She just also knew they all realized what a hopeless bet she was. Still, after Momoko's win, maybe...maybe they'd take a chance on her.

It was exhausting though, going from party, to performances, to things that bordered too close to dates for Lottie's comfort. And in between, she took in the sights on her own, or tempted out a friend. Indulgent spa days, shopping trips, museums. Busy, busy, busy. Busy enough she fell asleep quickly, deeply, and hopefully, with minimal night mares.

Of course, keeping herself always running till exhaustion, sometimes that exhaustion struck at terrible times. Like in the common room. Or District 8's dining room. Or a bench in the training center. She would take it where she could get it these days.

---

This was getting ridiculous.

Every day, new information for the Escorts to deal with. Longer hours. Effie hadn't seen her own bed in what felt like months.

The Training Center, of course, had exemplary lodging. But she wanted her own bed in her own room in her own house. And a day off. Oh, when was her last day off? Of course now she was helping Cinna with this history fashion show, and that was more work...but in a way it was nice to have a break. To be doing something else.

Work took up her days. Work and getting sponsors, sweet talking the rich of the city took up her nights. It use to be her favorite part of this job, entertaining and rubbing elbows with the elite...now it was just another few hours of work, work, work.

She took her free moments where she could get them, setting work to the side and just enjoying a quiet moment.

---

Elias was using his mentor position to watch and study everyone around him. No one question a mentor sizing up the competition.

Of course he wasn't really sizing them up for competition. He took those notes as well, too. He wanted his Tributes to win. But he was also looking for other things in the Training room, the Commons, pouring over the tapes.

It was nice that he could obsess over this completely legitimately. Nights he left his work behind, roaming the city. Often to court sponsors, but just as often to tend his own mind, letting the things he'd seen shift through and find their places. Finding quite places to wander.

Comments

Effie!

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy didn't particularly like Effie. In fact of all the people she'd met so far the powdered and prim woman was firmly middle on the list of people Sandy didn't mind. But since it looked like she was going to get another chance to be killed she thought it might not be a terrible idea to talk to someone who had promised to help her.

So with a little help from one of the wordless servers in the training center Sandy tracked down the elusive and busy Ms. Effie. A knock on the door and she waited to see if the woman was in.

After all her mother had taught her some manners.

Re: Effie!

[mannersmatter]

"Come in!"

Really, between Haymitch and Mr. Stark, Effie wasn't expecting it. And the little things counted with her, so when she saw the girl, a bright smile broke across her face.

"Some in, sweetheart!"

Re: Effie!

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy came in and managed a weak smile shutting the door behind her.

"Um, hi." Sandy really wasnt sure where to start so she walked in and glanced around feeling every bit as awkward as she appeared. "Nice place..." She managed.

De with R on the tower's roof?

[shambler]

The roof isn't a bad place to be stuck on. It's not the first time he's been trapped somewhere (try wandering into a corner and being unable to turn around - that sucks) and R's dead enough not to start panicking when he can't get the door open. Instead he wanders around the roof, listening to the crowds below, watching them mill around. From here, he could almost pretend they're a swarm of Dead. They're not going in the same direction and the pace is all wrong, but for awhile he's not as homesick.

The sun passed overhead. Day bleeds into night. The idea his team is pulling out their rainbow hair because they could've had someone more manageable, like any other Tribute, doesn't cross his mind. Nothing does, just the usual vacuum.

R decides to go lurk in a shadow by the door. The zombie's still there when someone finally hits the roof, his eyes unfocused but ready to snap back to attention at a sign of movement.

[cherrypie]

It's freezing up here, being winter in the Rockies, and she is usually left alone. Which is exactly how she likes it.

Letting the door click close behind her, she's almost to the edge when she realizes no, tonight, she isn't alone.

"Hello? Just gonna lurk back there?"

District 10 Suites?

[the_marshal]

One night, when Elias returned home, Wyatt was waiting. Sitting silently in the common room, working one of the dinner knives over a lump of unshapely wood, separating rough bark from clean flesh beneath.

Normally, he'd have worked on his carvings in the privacy of his own room - out of sight of the escort who would undoubtedly have a word or two to share on the matter - but, he didn't want to miss the mentor when he came through.

At the sound of the door, he looked up, knife pausing. He smiled and bobbed his head politely in greeting. "Evenin'."

[nofunandgames]

"Waiting up for me with a knife. Should I be worried?"

He flashed Wyatt a smile. Of all the people in this building, Wyatt was the least likely for him to worry about.

He came in, setting down his coat, and going to order a drink from their food dispenser. One of the few things he missed from the Capitol when he went home. But it was easy to miss an endless supply of whatever food you wanted in the District. Even his fairly well feed District wasn't anything near fruitful.

De!

[doc_holi]

Holiday wasn't doing a lot of things... Actually, she didn't really seem to be doing anything about her situation. Her mind hadn't caught up to the reality of all of this yet and she had yet to act, which was a terrible thing. She hadn't looked for sponsors, she hadn't attended any parties, she hadn't made out an application to get out of the Games. Just... nothing.

As if shutting things out would work. It's not like any of this could possibly be real anyway, right?

Perhaps a night out would do some good. The Capitol people made her sick, but nothing else had worked so far. On her way out of the tower, however, she noticed someone else walking by. "Hello."

Holiday hadn't really tried for conversation since she had arrived, but she wanted to change something about the deadly routine she was stuck in.

[cherrypie]

"Hey."

Another tribute, but De was fairly certain this on hadn't be in the last layer of hell with them. Or just barely. She wasn't to the end yet in her rewatch. She could only take a little every night.

"What's up? Getting some questionably fresh air?"

Lottie

[mediumdrip]

Blaine had been desperate for friends to distract him from this place. He'd managed to find a few good once, he thought, and it never helped to find more.

That was why when he saw the pretty blond girl who looked as exhausted as he felt he ordered her one of those warm caffeinated drinks that was sweet and creamy. When he sat across from her her slid it over, hoping that she wouldn't think he was being too forward.

"You look like you could use this," he commented.

[needsaprince]

Lottie snapped back from the fuzzy brained place she at been in, before her eyes went between the boy, and the drink. Boy, drink.

"For...me?" She laid a hand on her chest, touched. She had seen this boy around a bit, but they hadn't talked...and he was bringing her gifts?

Elias

[thebiddingbaron]

The event was one for sponsors. Baron wasn't hosting it but he was in attendance. He was just finishing having listened to one of the more influential sponsors recount a tale about the newest Arena when he moved over to the food table.

He saw Elias there and chuckled to himself. "My dear boy," he said. "What a pleasure to see you here." His tone was light but there was something in his eyes that hinted towards the memory of the last time he had bid on Elias.

[nofunandgames]

No one who bid on Tribute was going to be their favorite.

But the Baron? He made Elias's skin crawl in ways he had never even imagined possible.

And yet, he plastered on a soft smile, turning to him.

"Same. You must be busy, I imagine you are on many VIP lists."

LOTTIE-CHU I CHOOSE YOU!

[polyturtle]

Or in the elevator. Which Donatello just came on.

"Er..."

He wasn't sure what to do. Wake Lottie up? Let her sleep? He...wasn't sure.

[needsaprince]

She had just leaned up against the corner for a moment, before pressing the button.

And then...slid down the wall, curling up against the corner. It was warm, and quiet.

She sniffed in her sleep, mumbling.

De

[kind_of_a_nerd]

Atticus had no illusions that he would ever manage to win this thing, but he wanted to at least attempt to give himself a fighting chance. It was gruesome to watch, and he occasionally flinched or looked away. He liked a violent movie as much as the next twenty-something, but the knowledge that this was real made it a hell of a lot harder to swallow.

[cherrypie]

So this guy was either completely normal (As far as she'd seen) or a were wolf.

Those were not really the best chances for De. And here it seemed moot but...in the Arena? yeah, she wanted to know which she was facing. And what his rules were. Cause they sure weren't any were wolf lore she knew. And now seemed a much better time to figure out then in there.

"So, are you tall, dark, and furry or just tall, dark, and handsome?"

She flashed a toothy smile, snagging the chair across from him and sitting down.

De! Roof.

[lassoftruthiness]

Diana had very rarely been without the power of flight, in her lifetime, and she was starting to miss it desperately. Now, when she need a moment away from the press of the Capitol and it's...everything, she liked to come up here to the roof. It wasn't anything like flying, of course, but it was peaceful and slightly nearer to the clouds.

On an evening like this she could tilt her head back until all she could see was the sky and pretend she wasn't grounded, was only waiting for a chance to leap up and soar.

[cherrypie]

"Hey, sorry, am I interrupting?"

De enjoyed the roof to herself, and she wasn't going to deprive anyone else of the chance any time soon. This woman was new, and she was pretty sure that was a fairly traumatic moment for most people.

For Lottie!

[itsananimalthing]

It wasn't hard to spot Lottie making an idiot of herself at all the events. Riddick only went when he was too bored not to, or his escort or mentor insisted, and usually he wasn't exactly friendly when he went. That seemed to have been deemed his "strategy", though: being cool, aloof, and mocking. Whatever kept the tabloids happy, he guessed.

Today he found the one Lottie had decided to visit, and wandered over to her when she had a lapse in conversations. "Got any winnin' offers yet, sister?" he asked, nudging her lightly with one elbow, hands tucked into his pockets.

[needsaprince]

"Oh, I wish." She said with a dramatic snort. There was a brief flicker of something on her face, before she fanned herself.

At least her Stylist was good. She always thought that.

"What about you, handsome?"

Who: Lottie & Adel Where: The Capitol Park

[warrior_become]

When Adel runs across the bubbly blonde she's slumped over, napping on a stone park bench. The andalite had been grazing, enjoying running through the open fields of the park and getting away from the horrible claustrophobia of the Capitol's buildings, when she came across the familiar face. She pauses, reluctant to wake the sleeping human.

[needsaprince]

In Lottie's head, when she slept, she looked like sleeping beauty. Long eyelashes brushing her cheek, blond curls falling across her fair skin.

In reality her head was crooked back awkwardly, she was snoring away with the grace of a pig, and there was possibly a bit of droll on her cheek.

It was lovely.

De, once the earlier thread is set!

[hasacondition]

He'd been trying to avoid watching more of the games, not seek them out; he didn't have any interest in playing to win, and he didn't want to have to watch this, especially not when it was all over the place already. So he just glanced at the television in the room while on his way out of it, before stopping to see who exactly was watching.

This was awkward, but he owed her an apology-- not least because he can't remember what exactly he did.

"That's not exactly my idea of good TV."

now seems good to me

[cherrypie]

She glanced over quickly, and then when she realized who it was, turned away from the TV.

"Well, you know, the cable sucks here." She said with a shrug.

She wanted to say more, but wasn't sure what else. Sorry for the bad Bruce Banner joke? Seemed a little awkward.