I'll wait until you have to go. [open]

[reallynow]

Who| Jolie with prompts for Steve, Tony and Oceana and then an OPEN
What| Jolie catches sight of Steve during pre-arena prep, runs to tell Tony. Later she has news to break to Oceana and then she's doing something crazy like her job.
Where| Tribute Tower, The Lobby
When| Just prior to the Arena and then within the first week
Warnings| Probably talk of sex and whatnot because it's Jolie. Nothing major.

OPEN:
The guilt from not properly being around during the big send off is chewing at Jolie, so she's making it her mission to keep her eyes glued to the damn screens.

Today's bout of multitasking involves a Pina colada at the lobby bar and her sketchbook on her lap as she fiddles with a pencil that seems to change colours when she taps it against her book. She grunts every so often when she clearly uses the wrong colour, but it's just sketching.

Peeking closer reveals that she's very wistfully designing crowning outfits for her tributes. She's done this about a million times and it never gets old for her. Her smile is wide when her focus is on her book, but it becomes grim when she looks up at the screen.

"I'm gonna need a goddamn miracle." She murmurs, raising her drink to her lips for a long, long sip.

Steve:
For all her infatuation with Steve started as a crush, his post on the network and subsequent disappearance hurt more than a simple phase of affections should ever have felt. Even if she's moving on in other ways, there's still something about Steve that draws her in and keeps her interested. Her admiration and respect for his strength in personality and his kindness ended up out-weighing her interest in his looks, but there's something unattainable about him that kept the chase in her.

And then he was gone. And it seemed like even finding out where he was had to be a chase in itself. It's dangerous to pretend she's even remotely interested in his wellbeing, but her heart aches when someone drops the news about him being back. Maybe it isn't love, as such, but it's sincere care and concern. When she makes her way into the Nine prep room, it's under the pretense that she's helping Oceana.

What she sees is. Well. It's both better and worse than she expected. She exhales, faint amusement in her voice when she does.

"Did they leave you in the wash too long, baby?" She knows this is bad. Bad and traumatic and a nightmare to deal with, but humor is how she handles these things.

Tony:
The moment the tributes are sent up unto the Cornucopia, Jolie is making her way gradually toward his suite in Twelve. It's a bit of a journey, so she's probably not there prior to the live performance. She can't very well turn and run with the kind of urgency she'd like to use, not when the press is in full force and he'll to deal with. It's probably closer to midafternoon when she makes it there.

She knocks carefully on the door, but she doesn't dawdle around before inviting herself in. It is, perhaps, a more subdued entrance than he's been afforded before. That makes it all the more suspicious.

"Hey." She starts slow, pressing her lips together before she decides it's best to just get it out. "He's back, Tony. Steve is back."

Oceana:
Jolie, unfortunately, does keep a lot from Oceana. It's part of a mechanism for protecting the dumb kid, but sometimes Oceana is the only person Jolie ever wants to tell her secrets to.

She doesn't need a reason to pop by and visit. Hell, she doesn't even need a reason to drag her out onto the town if she needs to. She just can't shake the idea that she seems..suspicious. Oceana can probably read her like a book by now.

Still, they're walking the town with Jolie latched onto Oceana's arm. Her hip bumps against hers to guide her down a corner and give her a detour, smiling all the while.

Comments

[reallynow]

Any of that grace Jolie has is starting to wane as she takes in the situation and starts to circle Steve curiously. The way she walks is a little like a cat studying a statue they don't remember seeing before, mildly offended and very confused, all tense shoulders and wide eyes. She needs to get her shit together and she knows it, so she stops in front of him and squares her posture.

"It really is you." Her voice is low, still in a sick kind of awe. She feels a little like she's being fooled, but there's no way to prove that. "I didn't think you were coming back." And now she sounds cold, ambivalent to his suffering because sincerity would be a death threat to both of them.

"You fucked up." She says finally, expression as stern as she can make it. She's taking in his outfit now, reaching out to fuss with fabric that isn't hanging evenly. It won't matter much when he's out there, but it's something to focus on.

[aboveangrybees]

He knows Jolie, he figures he has a good idea what she's doing, but where before he would play along and not take it personal, now it feels like a slap to the face, her awe and staring reminding him of the scientist. Of how they would watch him change as the serum was slowly removed from him, how they poked and prodded even as he screamed in pain as his body regressed. How they were fascinated like he was something to be pulled apart rather than a living person.

His eyes train themselves on the floor, flinching back a little when she reaches out to deal with his clothes, but he doesn't stop her, knowing he can't. Her coldness makes him unable to trust what her actions will be next, if she'll sell him out more to save her own face. He knows he'd let her do it too.

And even knowing where her alliances actually lie doesn't change that she's a Capitolite, that he would get beaten just for the wrong comment right now. They have no patience for a dirty rebel, for a traitor who's already given them a months worth of grief, Steve knows that. Knows what talking back does because he didn't learn his lesson fast enough the first three weeks.

Still a lesson hard learned when a smart remark almost crosses his tongue but he bites it in time, afraid of the consequences. Knowing they won't hesitate to just blow him up for one more transgression. He can't risk that.

[reallynow]

There's a lot beyond either of their control when it comes to the Capitol, to the system and to how it influences a person's innate wariness and paranoia. Even when you understand, even when everything seems logical, things that shouldn't hurt really get under your skin. Jolie knows the state Steve ought to be in. She's seen her friends Avoxed, she's seen them stripped of everything but fear. She should be accustomed to this kind of reaction, not ashamed of how well her cover works.

There's very little she can do to right it now. Things are going as they should be, but she wishes she could do more to comfort him. She tries to ignore it, focusing on adjusting his outfit as deftly as she can without lingering too long and inflicting herself on him.

She's weaker than she wants to be. Probably at the fault of both of them. She can't help tapping her fingers gently under his chin so she can try to make him look at her.

"You're going to try, right? Oceana needs a win. Your District needs a win. You need a win." It's his best shot at escaping more torture, but as idle conversation it could be seen as her urging him to win to redeem his reputation. "Keep your chin up, alright? The ground won't help you."

[aboveangrybees]

It takes a second longer than she's probably expecting to get him to look up, but he eventually does, though very reluctantly. More for how he's unsure he can keep his words in check if he looks at her. It's easier to remember not to speak when he isn't looking at someone he's used to speaking freely with.

And maybe he should have kept to that strategy, because what she says has him replying before he can think better of it, before he can remember that maybe the Capitol didn't want him to realize what he does, but the words stumble across his lips.

"I have to try, it's my last chance," he bites his lip after, clearly looking like he shouldn't have said that, maybe they were vague enough. Maybe the Capitol won't realize he's aware that they don't plan to bring him back, that he's too much of a hassle, that once he dies this arena, he's dead for good. Maybe, just maybe, the Capitol will think he means it would be his last chance for redemption, his last chance to be a good tribute.

He can't just stay quiet after that, he needs to roll with it, he needs to say something more, "Ground keeps my feet, helps with something."

[reallynow]

Every second feels a hell of a lot longer than it ought to. It's like dragging off a band-aid and feeling every uncomfortable tug. It's not as if she needed further evidence to solidify the fact that something is wrong, it's apparent just by looking at the physical changes. It scares her a little that his appearance isn't the strangest thing about the way he's acting. It's the way he can't look at her and can't talk to her that makes her chest tighten and ache. She's struck by a very sudden urge to cry, not just for her own bruised feelings but for him and everything he'll have to keep sacrificing from now until however long he has left around here.

She tries not to let a smile slip through when he speaks, clasping her hands together in front of her instead and nodding. "That's the spirit." God, she wishes she could encourage it more, but as usual they're limited in their words. She already feels like she's lingering too long, like she needs to remove herself from the situation and let him breathe, so she takes a few steps back to make that much clear.

"Just.." She starts, suddenly unsure of what to say for a stupidly long moment. "Just don't run into a tree, alright?"

[aboveangrybees]

Steve relaxes some when she steps away, clearly glad to have space, something rarely afforded him lately unless he was strapped down or locked away. Something he has come to find a greater appreciation for now that everyone is out to get him. Well, not everyone, but enough people. Or so says the fear clouding his thoughts. It might be wrong, but he can't shake the thinking either.

He gives her a nod, looking away again, unwilling to risk his tongue getting away with him again. With slipping up, with snapping, with being too familiar, it's all too much of a risk right now. Not when he feels a quirky comeback pushing to cross his lips, but he holds it back.

"I'll try," but then he pauses, realizing something that hadn't crossed his mind recently, brings to mind a message he would like her to deliver. It's risky, so he barely whispers it, something she can ignore or run with or possibly not hear at all. "Tell T-... him sorry for me?" Because Steve doubts he'll ever get the chance to do it himself. At least it could seem he's apologizing for being a rebel, for betraying him, and maybe he is, Steve isn't entirely sure why he says it, just that he wants to, needs to say it.