[open] Carrying those fears around;

[unlikelyherald]

Who| Adella and you...?
What| Waking up in the Capitol, dealing with culture shock and her death.
Where| Training Center, Central Commons, D12 suites
When| Late Week 4.
Warnings/Notes| Mentions of death


a]
Waking up alone in the Capitol was far more jarring than Adella could ever have expected. The wounds on her stomach and shoulder were gone, not even the ghost of pain remaining. She was slightly unresponsive to the aides who came to assist her. When she's shown to where the District 12 tributes live, she locks herself in her room, curled into herself for hours. Sometimes she sleeps, sometimes she lies awake, playing over the events in the Arena in her mind, trying to figure out if it was all real or some elaborate Fade nightmare.

When she finally emerges, she's a little more personable, sitting in the common room and attempting to figure out the technology in front of her. It's not going well.

b]
When she ventures out of the District 12 suites, she chooses to leave with purpose. Cullen had mentioned that there were others who had died before she'd arrived in the Arena, so she sets out to look for them. Not sure how to track them down she visits the Training Center, as well as the Central Commons, asking anyone who looks like they might be willing to stop for a moment if they'd seen Josephine, Cole, or a woman named Lavellan.

c]
In the Commons she does get pulled in by the screens displaying the games, seeing for the first time a replay of her own death as well as live footage. It's a sick experience, and yet she can't pull herself away, finds herself sitting and watching, worried for her friends still in the Arena.

She doesn't know how to help them, and anyone might see her sitting white knuckled as she watches whenever they appear on-screen, Cullen's lucky coin gripped so tightly in her hand it's left the mark of Andraste's face on her palm.

Comments

[unlikelyherald]

She knew that her friends couldn't all survive. She'd heard the stakes of the Games, learned a little more about it, now. Still, watching them start to fall, it was heartbreaking. She wanted to scream at the screens, at the people who had created such an abomination against all human decency.

But she was silent, and watched the screens, hoping it would keep showing people she didn't know, hoping that those that were left were safe.

She hears the man speak, but isn't paying much attention to his words, not until he clearly focuses on her. Frowning she looks back at him, tilting her head to the side.

"Excuse me?"

[whatisay]

"I said, you were never going to win with a cross-District alliance. It's against the purpose of the Games. God, it's like you Tributes don't even bother to understand the game you're playing before you go in and make fools of yourselves."

He exhales smoke that seems to make the inside of his nose and the roof of his mouth go numb. It relaxes him, and there's an expression on his face of something losing tension, of the perpetual tightness in his temples going a little slack for just a moment.

He waves a hand. "Dorian's one of mine. Believe me, he was at enough of a disadvantage before you all decided to tempt fate."

And it's clear from looking Adella up and down that he doesn't think much of her, either.

[unlikelyherald]

"You say that as if we volunteered for this game," Adella replies, a little coolly. She isn't a stranger to the look he's giving her, she gets it often enough back home and it has about as much effect on her now as it did then.

"Dorian is one of my people. He is from my world, and I will look out for him and he me, regardless of what kind of factions your Games have invented. If he's one of your charges, you should respect that I want to keep him alive." She doesn't see how it should matter, once they're in the Arena they're supposed to be ripping each other apart, who truly cares what District you're assigned to? It certainly makes no difference to her, she only knows as much about the world as what people have told her so far. District 12 is little more than a number she was arbitrarily assigned.

[whatisay]

"It doesn't matter if you volunteered for the Games. I'm giving you a little helpful advice. Act grateful for it," Jason snaps, sitting forward in his seat and resting his elbows on his knees. His upper lip curls to reveal white, straight teeth that teenage orthodontics wrangled into order.

"It doesn't matter a lick if you want to keep Dorian alive. The Games are there to teach the Districts not to trust each other. You get yourself a cross-District alliance too big and the Gamemakers are going to start chucking every mutt and boobytrap they can think of at you. Duh." He rolls his eyes and leans back again, looking more energized for the ranting.

"So if it pleases the missus, stop painting a target on my charge's back."

[unlikelyherald]

"We aren't from your Districts. We're from our own worlds, where we've created our own alliances. If you want your Districts to keep from trusting one-another, maybe you should be using your own people." Or be finding a better way to solve their problems, but she doesn't know the situation well enough, and she's been trying hard enough to keep a semblance of being amused to be here, at the very least. When you approach her with the hostility that Jason obviously has, however, she tends to bite back.

"I don't see what having a bunch of strangers kill each other accomplishes. They don't know us."

[whatisay]

"Right, because I'm the one in charge of that." Jason laughs, and it's a sick, mean sound, one that seems to have had a long time to ferment into something bitter and sour in his chest. "I'll pass that right up to President Snow himself. He and I get tea every Sunday between walking his Pomeranians."

He rolls his eyes and slouches back, deeper into the chair, as if the embrace of cushions is the only one he knows and trusts. "If I had my way we wouldn't have the Games either, but since they exist, you might as well take advice on strategy. Your strategy sucks and I just told you why. It's politically unpopular."

[unlikelyherald]

"Well, I really don't care about what's politically unpopular." Which is absolutely the truth. Even in her own world, she'd been comfortable going against what the Chantry would have wanted, if they'd been in control of the Inquisition. She cared about what was best for her people.

[whatisay]

For a moment, Jason blinks, stunned by how stupid he finds Adella. Then his lips turn a bit white.

"Too bad, because I do. I want to get Dorian out of these Games and you're making it harder." He starts to count off on his hand, fingers flying forward like cards being dealt. "Let me break it down really simply for you. Inter-District alliances are politically unpopular. Politically unpopular Tributes are never allowed to win. Thus, you could probably just save yourself some time and jump onto the explosives under the platform at the Cornucopia rather than jeopardizing my Tribute."