[open] making today a perfect day (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[rediscover]

Who| Anna and YOU!
What| General merrymaking, flower crown distribution, and probably skipping.
Where| All over the Tribute center!
When| Post-Arena, pre-Crowning
Warnings/Notes| Excessive...cheer???




It's been a few weeks since Anna came out of the Arena, and as such she's managed to dispel all of her gloom and moping by the time the finale comes around and the Victor is announced. She's overjoyed that one of her friends will be crowned this time, and for the princess, it's just plain been awhile since she's had a few nice things going on in her life, so she decides to give in to a little merrymaking.

The tension she still holds with a few of her friends aside, Anna's got a few good reasons to celebrate--even if she's had some awkward moments and slip-ups, and there are an uncomfortable amount of people wearing Commemorative T-Shirts featuring a very close-up rendering of her and Bro kissing--so she turns to one of her favorite hobbies: making flower crowns.

Normally, she does this kind of thing in her room, but this time, she decides to take it to a new level. For the first couple of days, you can find her spread out on her stomach on the floor of the District 4 commons, flowers of all sizes, shapes and colors blanketing the floor, making crown after crown. She spends quite a bit of the time she's working humming to herself, occasionally breaking out into song when she feels particularly happy, and she's happy to take requests. But by the third day, she decides that it's not enough to simply decorate her District-mates, and takes the whole operation down to the lobby, where she settles in on the rug by the hearth and sets to work, turning out lovely crowns of roses and daisies, daffodils and asters, and even some exotic flowers whose names she doesn't know, just that they're lovely and fragrant and people should have a chance to appreciate them.

And when she's exhausted her supply, she'll spend the next couple of days sashaying about and distributing them. Many of them go to her friends and loved ones, but she also takes care to hand them around to perfect strangers, too--who doesn't need a dose of good cheer, after all!

Comments

[rediscover]

Anna's never been your typical princess. She's too spirited, too excitable and fun-loving to act with restraint and be all gentle manners the way she's supposed to. She tries, of course, and she has manners, it's just difficult for her to remember to use them at times. So she just shakes Éowyn's hand gently before returning to her work, sensing a little hesitance there.

As Éowyn goes on to explain her own origins, Anna just chuckles, shrugging her shoulders. "And I've never heard of those places, either! But that's pretty normal, around here. We all come from different worlds, after all. But I love hearing about other people's homes! Everyone has an interesting story, around here."

[shieldofrohan]

"It's true, then? That we are so far from home?" She looks crestfallen, even through the veneer of diplomacy. "I had yet hoped... but hope seems a fickle friend, in such a place as this." Glancing to Anna as if for permission, she began to gather flowers and weave her own crown. It had been many years since she'd made something like this, but it kept her hands busy, and after a few false starts, she started to produce something that would hold together.

"Will you tell me of Arendelle?" she asked, after a moment, reaching for a spray of something like kingsfoil. "I mean, if it is not too great a burden of homesickness. I have had my fill of this place, and more; fain would I hear of other lands and other peoples."

[rediscover]

Anna tries to keep her mouth from twisting in regret. Tries to look brave, like that very thought doesn't bother her pretty much constantly. "It's true," she admits. "Everyone here has somewhere else they want to be, and can't get to."

She watches as Éowyn starts to make a crown of her own, nodding encouragingly. After all, she's happy for the company, and she knows how nice it can be to have a distraction, something for your hands to do. And her request falls on a kind heart; Anna's happy to talk about her own home, if that will help. "Sure," she says softly. "I'd be happy to."

She takes a deep breath, trying to recall her home; it's been nine months since she saw it last, but there are some things you can't forget. "It's beautiful, to begin with--it's on the seaside, with a quaint little village full of happy people. Everything is colorful, painted with pretty designs--rosemaling, it's called. And the castle, where I lived, was old and big and spacious, and warm. And then, when you go a bit further in, there's woodlands, with huge trees, and then mountains. And when you get to the mountaintops, the view is like nothing else. It's positively magical."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn smiled a little, picturing it. It sounded like a pleasant place, reminded her a little of Merry's descriptions of the Shire and a little of her own home and a little of something else, of places she had only visited in stories. "I've never seen the sea," she said, wistfully, and shook her head. "Only heard songs and tales of its splendour. In Rohan we have mountains aplenty, and forests too, but we are many leagues from the Sea. Is it truly as beautiful as they say?"

[rediscover]

Anna's expression had grown wistful while she spoke, but now she pauses while she slits open another flower stem, staring a little. "Really? Never?" She can't quite believe it. "That's really too bad. It's so pretty," she confirms. "You can stand on the shore and let the waves lap over your bare feet."

Thoughfully, she gives a little hum. "You know, your bedroom has a projector that can make it look like the sea is right outside your window! It's not quite the same, but it's nice to look at. And there's a restaurant in the city that's like walking underwater, with fish swimming all around you, even over your head! Behind glass, of course, it's totally safe."

[shieldofrohan]

"It sounds beautiful," Éowyn commented, with a little smile. "Perhaps you can show me, some time?" It wasn't just courtesy that made her say that, either. Even if her hate and dread of this place burnt as strongly as ever, even if she didn't quite dare to admit to any beauty in a cage like this, it was still hard not to marvel at it all. "We used to go swimming in the Anduin as children, but that was hardly the same. Still," she couldn't help adding, with a small sigh, "I cannot help but miss it. Even before I came here, I found myself missing Rohan at times. My people are horse-lords, and it is their blood in my veins. To be so closed-in here... do you not find it stifling? Even without all else, I wonder that its citizens can bear it."

[rediscover]

"Of course! Any time you like, really. I'm always happy to show anyone the ropes. They didn't have any of this fancy stuff where I came from, either, so I know how hard it is to adjust. Imagine my surprise when I discovered you could make food come out of the walls!"

That was a red-letter day for Anna. Éowyn brings up feeling closed in, and Anna's mouth twists. "I do, yeah...everyone does. It's not the best situation by far, but we try and make the best of it. It's about all we can do."

[shieldofrohan]

She knew that feeling. Hearing it said so abruptly, though, brought a sick twist of guilt and dread. Had she really broken loose of all that time spent stifling in Théoden's court, only to stifle here instead? And was it not cruel of her, knowing that, to be so harsh to those she met here?

For a moment, her hands stilled, and she lowered the woven flowers into her lap, biting down on the inside of her cheek to force back the sudden, wild urge to scream or cry. "...I suppose it is," she said at last, picking up her work again. Weaving tapestries in Edoras. Weaving flowers here. Does it never end? "And, at the very least, it is a place of great wonder, such as I could scarcely have imagined. But I must ask... are there at least some parklands, some fields, where we can go? Even a garden?" She smiled a little, sadly and a bit self-consciously. "I need to see the sky."

[rediscover]

Anna's expression grows a little concerned, watching the other woman as she pauses, wishing she could help but knowing that there are some things that you just needed to work through in your mind, and not talk out with a perfect stranger. "It's true," she agrees softly. She's an optimist, through and through; she's all for making the best of a bad situation, and always has been.

Éowyn asks about a park, and Anna's face splits into a grin. "You're in luck! There's a really nice park in the city--lots of beautiful flowers and grassy spaces, and benches to sit on. It's perfect to take a lunch and spread a blanket over the grass, and enjoy the nice weather! I'd be happy to take you there, too!"

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn managed a smile, closing the ends of her flower crown together and starting to add little red flowers to it at strategic points. "I'd like that," she said, and meant it. It wasn't home, but being somewhere green and growing would be a huge improvement on this coldly sterile place. She could see the sky, and feel the wind on her face. That would be something, even if it wouldn't lift the weight off her heart. Maybe there might even be somewhere with horses, or whatever the local equivalent was. She couldn't go home, not yet, but she could at least remind herself how it felt to be there.

"Are there stables? It wouldn't be the same, but I miss being among the horses at home. It always used to set my mind at ease." She smiled wistfully, reaching for a few more of the little red flowers. "Sorry. I fear you may have to field a few more of my questions - you're the first I've met who seems so glad to answer them!"

[rediscover]

Anna tilts her head, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "You know, there must be--there are horse-drawn chariots for the Games, after all. I bet we could find them and get the horsemaster to let us take a couple of horses out!" She's very, very confident in her ability to use her charm and cuteness to get what she wants. Not in a manipulative way--it just sort of happens.

And, well, she really wants to help Éowyn. Her heart goes out to her, really. And she's glad to help if it means bringing a little happiness to someone else.

[shieldofrohan]

If Éowyn were prone to such displays of emotion, she might tear up a little. It's remarkable to her, just how much difference it makes to have someone here who genuinely seems to wish her well. But she's made of sterner stuff than that, and she just smiles gently, still working away at the crown she's making. "Thank you. For your kindness, and for your help. I suppose you must know how strange it feels, to be brought here so abruptly." Her smile twitches a little wider, and she shows Anna her finished crown, white and red and gold. "There. What do you think?"

[rediscover]

"I do," Anna agrees. "And really, you don't have to thank me! After all, it doesn't cost anything to be kind, or to help someone who needs it." It's a remarkably Disney Princess-like outlook on life, which means it's highly appropriate for Anna to have.

She surveys Éowyn's handiwork, looking delighted. "Oh, it's lovely! You might even be better at this than me," she adds with a giggle.

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn actually laughs at that, putting the crown down in her lap. "Hardly. But perhaps weaving tapestry braids and weaving flowers is not so unalike, after all." Then, with her most soberly ladylike expression, "A noblewoman must be learned in all such arts, after all. One never knows when one may need them."

As she lets herself break into a smile again, it occurs to her that this is the first time since coming here that she's laughed so freely. The thought comes as a stinging kind of blow, and wipes away the momentary relaxation. She clears her throat, looking down at her work. "When I was a girl, I used to make them for my brother. He hated it, of course. That's why I did it. But I suppose that it comes back to you."

[rediscover]

That gets Anna laughing, scoffing into her fingers. "Oh, yes. The most useful thing I ever learned was how to do needlepoint," she chimes in, trying and failing to sound completely serious. She's never been good with a needle in hand, never been able to embroider a cushion all that well, but she can do the things that matter here: she can run, and jump, and fight with a sword, and she can make flower crowns in the hope that they lift someone's spirits.

"I've found that boys don't tend to be very pleased by them," Anna agrees. "Maybe that's why I give them to so many of the boys around here. Their reactions are priceless."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn smiles a little, shaking her head. "Men find pride where they can. As do we all. 'Tis only that we women must learn sooner that flower crowns and pretty jewels do not define us. Or weaken us."

What she doesn't mention is how long it took her to learn that lesson, or that for many years she, too, would have been open in her hate for such frivolous things as flower crowns. But the war taught her lessons that are still opening themselves up to her, and that was one of them.

[rediscover]

Anna sets her work down for a moment, listening intently. Éowyn seems very...wise, somehow, though Anna's not sure that's the right word for it. Worldly, maybe. Like the kind of person you should listen to and take advice from. "Makes sense," she agrees softly. "It seems like boys are raised to think that those kinds of things are unnecessary or silly. But I don't see anything wrong with them. They make life a little less plain and boring, after all!"

[shieldofrohan]

"Sometimes, a little brightness can go a long way," Éowyn agrees, looking at the younger girl with a nod. "I'm glad someone here is able to give it." Her laugh is a little harsh, but that bitterness is all aimed at herself; ducking her head a little, she reaches for some more flowers. "I never had it in me to bring simple joy to people. Not even to myself. That someone here can - that you are here - is a gift to all of us."

[rediscover]

Anna can feel her cheeks reddening, and she gives a little wave of her hand. "Oh--it's nothing like that. I just...I want to do what I can. I want to help people. It isn't much, but if I can make someone smile when they're having a bad day..."

The princess shrugs her shoulders, smiling down at her hands. "Then it's worth it to make a million flower crowns for perfect strangers."

[shieldofrohan]

"You see," Éowyn says seriously, "that is precisely why I say it. For myself, I should fight battles for anyone I cared for, suffer great hardships to protect them, hold my tongue and remain there to guard them... but never once think to bring them flowers or make them smile. The world has no shortage of grand deeds. But it has some deficiency of such simple pleasures, and those who value them." Putting her flowers down for a moment, she reaches over to press Anna's hands in hers. "Do not doubt for one moment that I mean what I say. Your kindness is a greater gift than aught I possess."

[rediscover]

Anna can sort of see Éowyn's point, now that she explains it further. And it makes her feel good, to know that what she's doing isn't just seen as frivolous or silly. Maybe in her own way, she's helping people when they don't expect it or think they even need it.

Her cheeks flushing pink, Anna smiles up at Éowyn, shifting her own hands to give the other's a little squeeze. "Thank you. That's really nice to hear."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn smiles back, releasing the girl's hands and picking up her work again. "I am glad. Too many truths are hard to hear; it is always good to find one which brings joy instead."

[rediscover]

Anna, too, goes back to her crown, weaving in three blown white roses to adorn the top, like jewels. "Well, if you ever need to hear something cheerful, I'm your girl," she chirps. "I'm in District Four--I'm usually there, if I'm not out and about."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn finds herself smiling, reaching up to adjust the crown she's wearing before going back to her weaving. "Four. I shall remember. And if ever you are in need of aught I can offer in return, you may find me in Ten. Or in the training rooms," she adds as an afterthought. She's already spent a fair amount of time there, although she's only been in the Capitol a couple of days.

[rediscover]

"Ten," Anna repeats. "That's just one above where my sister is, in Nine. I'll be sure to remember that." Éowyn's mention of the training rooms has her smiling sheepishly.

"I should spend more time there, really. There just never seems enough time, and the fact that all my hard work resets after every Arena is discouraging."