thecapitol | (no subject)

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, well I had breakfast with a potential sponsor, and did some shopping...these stylist, they can be fabulous, but they're not always so hot on casual clothes...and lunch with my escort..."

She checked each off on her fingers, before twisting her hands to show him the pink nails, tipped with tiny pearls.

"And I got my nails done."

A busy day. Just like all the rest.

"What about you?"

"I haven't met a single sponsor," Blaine said. "I should probably work on changing that, shouldn't I?" Blaine had been so focused on learning what he could about how this place worked and what previous Arenas had been like, he hadn't even thought about all of the PR needed to survive.

"Oh honey, you won't have any trouble charming all of them."

She was clearly starting to get her energy back, hands moving more freely now as she spoke, voice more dramatic.

Blaine smiled at the compliment. "I'm sure you aren't having much trouble either. You're pretty, blonde and you have a very elegant accent. I'm sure people will see that you're a good bet." He didn't seem to think there was anything strange with complimenting a woman he didn't really know. His voice was very platonic as he complimented her, giving her a careful but accurate assessment of her attributes without making it sound as if he was shopping around for a girlfriend. He didn't want to lead her on, after all, but he liked that she seemed to be revitalizing as they spoke.

She clearly puffed up under the attention. It felt much more sincere coming from him than from the Capitol people. There was such an unpleasant context.

"Well, they enjoy me at the parties...but they aren't so keen on giving me money in the arena." She laughed, a bit off. "I die too fast. Lordy, that's still a strange thing to say."

Blaine winced a bit. "I know what you mean," he said softly. "How many Arenas have you been in?" he asked carefully, not wanting to bring up unpleasant memories.

"Oh. I've been here for all of them."

She was quiet for a moment, thoughtful. She was so scared that first arena...it seemed so long ago now.

"Well, not all of them obviously, just...all of these."

"Oh... Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize..." He felt horrible as he thought about all that she had been through. He wondered how she had managed to do it while still remaining sane.

And then she felt horrible for bringing everything crashing down. So instead she waved it off with a bright laugh.

"Well, it could be worse, right?"

It was worse before, for the children here. At least there was that.

"It could be," he agreed. "At least we get a chance to get to know each other between each one. It would be hard to not have any friends."

"And if you...ignore certain things, this place isn't half bad. They have some wonderful restaurants. Shopping, spas...some of the stuff here is just mind blowing."

Lottie was on the cusp of technology, so this city was, if she ignored the elephant in the room, amazing.

"It is," Blaine admitted. "I can see why the citizens love living here. They don't have to deal with the things you have to ignore."

"I imagine that makes life much better."

She laughed, because, hell, it was much easier to laugh.

Blaine nodded a bit and then shrugged. "Let's focus on all of the good things though." he said. "Like these coffees. They're delicious." That was going back to ignoring the things that they needed to ignore, but at least it was better than wallowing.

"Oh my, yes they are."

She took another sip, before setting down the cup. "Once, Big Daddy got these coffees straight from...from Turkey, or Persia...I can't remember which. It was probably the best stuff I'd ever had. Though this is close."

"Big Daddy?" Blaine asked, wondering if she was talking about her father or boyfriend, he had heard terms like that used for both. He thought he'd also heard it used for a gang leader, but she didn't seem the type for that.

"That's my papa. He practically runs New Orleans, and-"

She trailed off for a moment, because at this point she'd be offering some of the hospitality she could offer at home.

Which she couldn't.

"Well, if we ever end up home, I'll show you around."

"You're from New Orleans?" Blaine asked, clearly pleased to have heard of it and at the idea of it. "I've always wanted to go!" There was a pause as he remembered that didn't mean she was from his world. "What year was it for you?"

"Born an raised. It's 1925 there. Or was when I left."

She pouted slightly, before shrugging.

"It's a beautiful place, you should go as soon as you can!"

"1925?" Blaine asked. "It's 2012 for me," he admitted. "It was Christmas so it was pretty close to 2013."

((OOC-Oh snap this is what I get for not reading tags ahead of time. Do you want me to rewrite the other?))

[LOL. Nah, we can just chalk it up to her being tired? and him being too polite to say anything? Unless you want to?]

"Oh, wow, that's...that's a long way aways."

She laughed, shaking her head. Almost a century between them.

((Sounds good!))

"Yeah, but at least all of the places are pretty much the same? When you say 'New Orleans' I know what you're talking about. That's not always guaranteed here."

"True, true...where are you from, than, doll?"

She stirred the coffee, before taking another drink. The bottom was starting to get very sweet indeed.

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