Heretic, Hysterical and Ill-Equipped [Closed]

[whatisay]

WHO| Jason, Cole and Emily
WHAT| Jason shoves Cole in a closet and Emily rescues him.
WHERE| D7 Suites
WHEN| Week 5
WARNINGS| Panic attacks, Jason being rough and sadistic to an innocent ghost-boy.

The first few times that the boy went and sat in the District Seven hallway, Jason dragged him out to the elevator and sent him back down two floors. A few times after that, he just ignored it, unwilling to spend his time guarding the sanctity of the hallway for a District he has no loyalty to, that was assigned to him seemingly at random.

But today, when he gets in for work, before his Tributes and before Emily are awake, he can't seem to bear it. He sees the little figure skulking in the hall and it seems almost a personal insult, as if Cole set out to get here before him specifically to spite Jason. It occurs to him that Cole might have been here all night, that while Jason was having dinner and bathing and sleeping the injury was increasing by the hour, stretching over the night like the dawn is sprawling over the living room.

It overtakes him, that anger that he always keeps at bay, that wound he refuses to stitch. It moves his body as if by puppetry. Jason's face goes red, his neck tight enough to choke his words a little as he stalks over to where Cole is seated, ascetic and devoted. Jason's easily twice the kid's size and yet that doesn't matter. All that matters is that Jason's sick and tired of Tributes showing him up and humiliating him for sport.

"You! This is the last damn time-" He reaches out to grab Cole by the collar, voice hushed enough not to wake the Tributes but only just, as if he's shouting still.

Comments

I - Jason and Cole

[conifer]

II - Cole and Emily

[conifer]

When she'd heard the muffled banging coming from the closet, she was sure that she was imagining things. Emily ignores it for a while, making her daily round of phone calls to sponsors and sticking a finger in her other ear to drown out the noise. After a while, when it doesn't stop, she wanders over in the vague direction of the sound, feeling the vague dread that always came with the unexpected rising up in her, a feeling that had lodged in her during her Arena and would never leave now.

She opens the door a little, so a crack of light streams through, peering in.

III - Jason and Emily

[conifer]

Emily doesn't wait for Jason to return to the District Seven suite, instead she storms through the Tribute Centre, the anger clear on her face. By the time she finds him she's calm enough to manage not to punch him - which is a relief, because she knows he'll never let her forget something like that - but she rounds on him nevertheless.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?"

[whatisay]

"Do they not teach you how to use an indoor voice in the Districts?"

Jason's head snaps up from where he's sitting at the Commons Bar, hunched over a tabloid he's circling various mentions of their Tributes in. His glasses have slid all the way down to the tip of his nose and his fingers are tight around the base of the ballpoint pen. He's clearly spilled some of his seltzer water earlier, because one half of the tabloid is water-logged, but the glass next to him is full.

"What?" It's hardly a question; his tone is flat and unamused, as if the word were a compact syllable expressing the sentiment of justify yourself.

[conifer]

"That poor boy," she says in the same loud voice, then checks herself, more because she doesn't want to draw attention to them than anything else - there would be few things worse for her than the front page of the tabloids detailing a spat between District Seven's Mentor and Escort. "That poor boy," she repeats in a whisper that's more of a hiss. "You don't want someone around, you call security. You don't lock them in the closet."

[whatisay]

"Oh, that?" Jason furrows his brow and punches the bridge of his nose, then shoves his glasses back up. He already looks like he's done with this conversation before it's even begun.

"I did call security, at least six different times, and he kept coming back. I was just doing what he wanted by letting him stay in the damn place. Call it a mutual compromise." There's no humor in his face or tone. "Why, was he still whimpering about it when you found him?"

[conifer]

Her mouth thins into a tight line and she feels her fist clench. She breathes in sharply through her nose and holds the breath for several long seconds to try to diffuse, to prevent herself from doing something that, while she might not regret it, the Capitol would certainly try to make her life difficult over.

"Is that satisfying for you? Pushing around Tributes, when they only want to see if their friend's okay? He didn't do anything to you."

[whatisay]

"Sure, it makes me satisfied. I was looking forward to getting a lecture about it. That's my favorite part."

He rolls his eyes, then gets up from the couch, not out of any urge to intimidate her (yet) but listlessness. He holds his tongue from the real depths of his thoughts for a moment, not out of respect for Emily but because even Jason knows there are things you don't say if you don't want to terminate a working partnership, and he doesn't have the sway to get Emily replaced by another District Seven Mentor.

"He was getting in my way and disobeying direct orders from a citizen. He's lucky I didn't get him arrested. That's how things work around here, in the Capitol, between citizens and non-citizens."

By which he means not just Cole, but her as well.

[conifer]

"He was worried about his friend. It's pretty obvious just talking to him that he's not ... all there." She hates having to use the euphemism, knowing that in certain ways others would describe herself as not being all there, too. "He might not have even understood at first, especially if you went after him angry." She keeps her voice level, determined not to rise to him, especially as he makes the comment about citizens. The Capitol had taken so much from her that honestly it probably owed her the rights of citizenship, but she's not about to start arguing that and get herself in trouble.

"Look, I'm just saying that if you want Dorian to cooperate with you when he gets back, you might not want to lock up his friend. Goodness knows I spend enough time arguing with them that they should to listen to you."

[whatisay]

"You know, I get enough of having to work around other people's unfortunate mental states in my home." He scowls at her.

"Don't try to pin their bad behavior on me. Don't try to fit their backwards, counterintuitive logic that has them biting the hand that feeds them on me." Jason moves his hands up by his head, raising his voice. "All I ask for is a little cooperation. I don't even give a damn about their respect or if they like me. You'd think that given that we feed them and keep them warm, they'd do their best not to piss us off."