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

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

"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."

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."

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."

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."

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.

"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."

"Your sister is here?" Éowyn's concern was immediate and genuine. It was bad enough to be trapped, but if she tried to imagine Éomer being trapped with her... on the one hand, it would make things easier for her, but on the other hand, how it must ache to be set one against the other. To be forced to watch your kin suffer that way. She thought of saying that she was sorry, but it felt hollow and meaningless. Instead, composing herself as best she could, she said, "Training cannot wholly be lost. Never. Even if the body fails, the mind can still be honed to master it."

Anna nods. "Yeah, she's been here even longer than I have." Sometimes, Anna even forgets that she was here once, too. She doesn't remember any of it, and it's easily forgotten. "But her and me--we're fine. We help each other cope, and we're stronger together."

The princess huffs. "I suppose you're right. It's just...it's really, really frustrating! I put in so much hard work before my second Arena, thinking that if I worked hard enough, I'd be fine...only to find out I was right back where I started from afterward."

Éowyn half-smiled, rather ruefully, and shook her head. "It is some loss, I suppose, to have the fitness of it taken from you. But the skills, you can still learn, can you not? You will not forget what you have taught yourself?" Then, rather more worriedly, "Will you?" It wasn't outside the realms of possibility, given everything else seen here.

Anna's expression goes a bit murky, confused and sad that she doesn't have a better answer, here. Or a better understanding of how all this works. Ten months is a long time to be in one place, and yet there's so much to worry about that she can't fathom all of it at once.

"I'm not sure," she admits. "You can relearn--you can go back to square one and practice it all over again. But all I know is that I was decent with a pair of knives, once, but if I picked them up now I'd probably drop them."

"Oh," is all Éowyn manages for the moment, and frowns deeply. This is not only strange, but more than a little worrying. Some of it makes sense, or at least what passes for sense in this queer place: she knows, as fighters and riders alike must know, that some things are learnt by the muscles as much as the mind, and if their bodies are reset after the fighting, by whatever strange magic this place posesses, well, it stands to reason that such muscle memory would be lost. But how far does that run? If she learns the herbs that grow here, or the skills like camouflage which the training gym provides for, will she forget again? How much more can they take, if they can take even our memories?

She looks down at the flower crown she's weaving, then back up at Anna, and forces a smile. "Still, you cannot deny that to get some proper exercise in such a place has no mean value of its own."

Anna truly does feel bad, to have to be the bearer of bad news. She feels like it happens far more often around here than she'd like. But Éowyn needs to know, needs to hear these things as soon as she can.

Anna smiles back, encouragingly. "You're absolutely right. I should exercise more often, actually." She pats her stomach. "I eat way too many sweets for my own good."

"And so might I, if they were ever in such profusion," Éowyn remarks dryly, swallowing back her fear and upset and managing a slightly stronger smile. "Whatever else can be said for it, this place has no shortage of luxuries."

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

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