thecapitol | The Binding of Isaac

"A lot? Well..." He quickly gave up on thinking of a way to make up a good answer to that question. Whether he actually tried in the first place was probably questionable. "No, not all."

"But I've got a bit, though." As of this morning. That was enough, right? "And I'm a pretty fast learner when it's not somethin' stupid like math or whatever."

Which, ordinarily, he'd say makeup was. But he had to work on his own cover for this stuff, and helping someone and feigning a bit of interest probably couldn't hurt.

He shrugged. "Yeah, okay, sure. I've got a bit of experience already, though. Used to do this back home to avoid unnerving people."

And because for a long time, he couldn't bear to look at his own dead reflection himself. That had changed, though, when Simon taught him to accept what he was.

"And I've got a sister." Not that he'd paid that much attention to her make-up regimen. "But then, I didn't have to buy my own too much. Government gave out cover-up and contacts to people like me to avoid inciting a panic. So I don't know too much about the differences in all of these things. Was going to try a bunch of things to see what works, but I wouldn't mind a few tips."

Firo nodded.

"The girl I lived with back home never used it, so I can't give you much in the way a' tips from her." Ennis hadn't even been allowed food at some points; Szilard definitely wouldn't have given her something like that. But now there was the simple fact that it just wasn't on Ennis's radar.

"I'd say some a' the makeup here looks like it would 'incite a panic.'" He grinned as he borrowed Kieren's words. It was an exaggeration, of course, but so much of this really wouldn't fly back where he's from. "But I guess that's the style... Jolie's pretty big on that stuff, so you could try copyin' her."

"Unless you wanna go for somethin' more subtle..." Or needed to because of some secret mission.

"Uh...I don't think Jolie's style is what I'm going for. At all. I was thinking of going a thousand times more subtle."

He wasn't even thinking about the mission, just the fact that he didn't want to go around looking ridiculous, which on him, that's exactly how that much make-up would look.

"Besides, if I try copying anyone's style, I'd rather copy a man's style. Not that I planned to just copy a look in the first place."

Unless copying the 'not dead' look the other people here had counted.

He laughed. Even as he'd suggested it, he'd wondered if anyone in their right mind would want to do makeup like that. She had a style all her own. "Only a thousand?"

He scratched his head. "Huh, that's gonna be harder. It's not really something people do where I'm from, you know?" Ah, the tolerant 1930s.

"I guess you'd hafta look at those magazines or whatever. We could probably pick some up."

And maybe happen to find stuff that certain people who definitely aren't rebels would appreciate it.

He laughed. "Well, maybe a bit more than a thousand."

If there was a number he could put on it at all.

"Where I'm from, it's mostly that the...well, people like me are expected to wear cover-up. Some don't, and I stopped recently back home, but people don't like being reminded that the person they're talking to is dead."

And cover-up was one way to cover that up. Of course, Kieren was tired of denying it, and Simon had taught him to appreciate what he was, but that was a different place. Here...it made no statement one way or another, and all he'd be doing would be freaking people out. Besides, he had a mission, and a variety of foundations was a part of what that mission needed.

"Magazines would help. That sounds like a great idea. Maybe get a variety of things, just to see what works best."

Hearing about Kieren's world was kind of interesting; Firo couldn't really wrap his head around it, but it sounded bizarre. He chewed his lip as he considered the words. "They don't, huh? Seems to me like they should just deal with it--you bein' dead is a much bigger inconvenience to you than to them."

Or, at least, he'd assume so.

"I bet there's a place somewhere on this street that's got 'em. Should we keep goin'?"

Yep, just two guys with a definitely-not-suspicious reason to snoop around that stuff.

"I suppose." He hadn't really thought of it in those terms, exactly. "Although, to be fair, I do understand why they'd be unnerved. When we go rabid we are quite dangerous, and there was a time when there weren't any of us that weren't rabid."

He understood why they were nervous, even if he did feel they took it a bit too far, and that now that things changed, they should try to be a bit more accepting. After all, they'd never intended to become what they'd been, and they weren't that any more.

"Oh. Yeah, you did mention that..." It was still kind of hard to imagine.

He grinned and raised an eyebrow. "'Cause normal people are always so tame and safe, right?"

Well. It wasn't quite the same thing and Firo kind of knew that. But he never played fair or logically when it came to making an argument.

"Well, they generally don't go from being perfectly amicable folk to trying to eat you."

There was a difference there, and Kieren wasn't going to deny it. Sure, he didn't like always being treated with suspicion, and with how people got riled up they could be just as dangerous, but...well, it was different.

"I understand why they're wary, I just don't think pretending we aren't what we are or punishing us for it's the solution."

By having them 'volunteer' whether they want to or not, or sit somewhere out of sight at bars.

Edited 2015-05-24 02:09 (UTC)

Firo couldn't hold back a sigh as he thought back to certain experiences in Alcatraz. Namely, getting splashed with blood in the prison yard once a certain someone decided to chow down on an obnoxious fellow prisoner. "You know, a while ago I woulda' agreed with you... But you'd be surprised."

But Dragon was hardly representative of most people.

"Definitely doesn't sound like it. Stuff like that just makes people mad and I know I wouldn't wanna piss off a bunch of people who'd eat me."

Almost as an afterthought, he added, "I guess it's just mean, too."

He was surprised by that response. "I suppose the desperation during these 'games' must bring out some...disturbing survival tactics, sometimes."

At least, he's assuming that's where this guy found out otherwise. As for not pissing off people who'd eat him...well, he'd argue that their eating people had nothing to do with anger, but there had been some terrorist acts that relied on a drug that made them go back to being rabid, so in the end, that's exactly what happened. And of course, Kieren's problem with it boiled down to the fact that it was just mean, really.

"I guess it just shows that wherever you go, you'll find people who put their ability to push others around before plain old common sense."

Now he was referring to both back home and the Capitol, although if asked he'd say he was only thinking of the former.

"Of course, for all that I still miss being back there."

At least back home any injustices were the injustices he knew and understood. Back home he had his family and boyfriend beside him. Back home was familiar, and as crazy and crappy as things could get, people were at least hurting others out of fear, not entertainment.

Edited 2015-05-27 17:18 (UTC)

Though the frequency of cannibalism isn't exactly an amusing topic, Firo laughed. "You know, I bet you're right, but that wasn't what I was talkin' about..."

Firo nodded his head in wholehearted agreement. "It's how the world works. People aren't gonna change, no matter where you go." Despite the familiarity of brutality and cruelty, it wasn't exactly a comfort.

"Yeah?" His smile was bittersweet as his mind drifted away from their task to his own home. "What kinda stuff do you miss?"

"My family. My boyfriend."

There was a lot more to it than that, but remembering that there were cameras on them almost everywhere in the city, he decided not to get into it. Not to get into...well, missing not having cameras on him every moment, and even if he wasn't always happy with how things were, having some ability to argue back without immediately needing to fear being punished. For all the restrictions on travel, the dangers of being sent back to the Treatment Center if he was seen as non-compliant, having people try and have him confess to a crime he didn't commit, at the very least he wasn't expected to act like he was happy about it. They at least gave him that.

Of all the terrible things they had to endure in Panem, being separated from loved ones seemed like the worst. He nodded. "Yeah. I miss my family too."

He lowered his voice, "'Least they're not here."

If the Capitol wanted to pretend he was glad to suffer, they might at least be partially right. But that feeling only came so long as he thought of how much worse it'd be if someone he loved were going through this.

"Yeah," he said quietly, "Me too."

Simon wouldn't make it, he had no doubt of that. Simon wouldn't be quiet about his discontent, even more so than Kieren, and in a place like this, that would likely mean he'd be doomed. As for the rest of his family, they might be less likely to get themselves killed immediately, but that didn't mean he hated imagining them in this place any less.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, trying not to let his agitation escape into his voice. "I gotta wonder what they think happened to us, you know?

He tried to smile, like it was something humorous. It's not really, at least to him. "They're gonna be pissed if they think I just ran off."

"Yeah. I suppose my family will be worried something awful happened to me."

He hoped they didn't think he'd offed himself after Amy was murdered, or that someone dragged him off and killed him, too. However, with the way things could be in Roarton, he suspected that was what they'd assume with him suddenly disappearing. It wasn't like the undead didn't sometimes get killed and disposed of without much investigation going into where they'd gone, after all.

Although, to be fair, something awful had happened to him, it was simply that the culprits weren't the sort they'd ever find.

Edited 2015-06-17 01:57 (UTC)

Firo already felt guilty about vanishing off to prison right before coming here. The longer he stayed away, the worse it probably was for the people he left behind.

He nodded, shoulders slouching. "And no way to help 'em out. Just seems cruel to leave 'em worryin' like that."

Even though it wasn't necessarily their fault.

"Yeah. I just...my dad already had to find my body once. I don't want him to have to worry about finding it again."

And while he wouldn't, Kieren knew that his dad would dread that possibility, and for every minute he was missing, that possibility would seem real.

"At least he won't, but...I wish there was some way to let him know that he won't."

Firo's sworn to die for his Family if need be, but he knows none of them would relish finding his body. He imagines it's exactly the same for this guy's family so he nods.

"Not very fun to go around your life wonderin' stuff like that, huh? And who knows how many years he'll be like that..."

Kieren shook his head.

"I don't want to think about that." He didn't want to imagine his dad suffering for years, wondering what had happened to him and...well, part of him still hoped he wouldn't have to. Part of him hoped he'd find some way home before then.

Firo shrugged. "Sorry. Just thinkin' out loud."

"Guess there's no point in us thinkin' about it anyway."

The Binding of Isaac

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