wickedgoogly: (050)
Rose Lalonde ☼ tentacleTherapist ([personal profile] wickedgoogly) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2015-06-18 12:03 am

[open] 'cause if this is the life

Who| Rose and OPEN
What| Rose returns from the arena and adapts to life in the Capitol.
Where| Training Center and the city; various prompts.
When| The weekend of week three on into week four.
Warnings/Notes| Brief mentions of avoxing and brainwashing, nothing else expected.

After her death in the arena via painful lightning strike, Rose eventually revives in time to be hauled off for a sit-down and explanation of how exactly she fucked up, and how she's not allowed to again or else. They show her videos and pictures of two people she's never met, men older than her, who lost a tongue or his own free will for pulling stunts like hers. She is lucky, they tell her, to be let off with only a warning, as if the images won't haunt her for time to come.

Afterwards she's returned to the tower, and sent to the District 5 suites she'll be living in. She only barely looks over her new room before retreating to the showers. Wrapped in towels, for she doesn't trust there not to be cameras, she sits under the cascade of hot water until her fingers turn pruney, and then a little longer after.

A. District 5

It's after clean, dry, and dressed in new clothes that she finally gives her new living quarters a proper look. Her room is comfortable enough, and no one thinks to mention that it used to belong to a recently avoxed traitor. The thought of personalizing it occurs to her, but she holds back yet, not ready to engage with the idea of making a home out of a glorified holding cell.

The rest of the suite isn't so bad, with its kitchenette and common area for sitting in. She sits there from time to time, either to watch the games with an expression tight and unreadable, or with the TV off to engage a hobby. (She likes reading, and it's only so long before she picks up knitting materials.)

B. Out in the Capitol

She doesn't stick in the tower for long. Back in the arena she only heard of what lay outside, and so she sets to seeing the Capitol for herself. She strides along streets, gawking plainly at the buildings and extravagantly fashioned people, and pokes her head into shops.

Some she lingers in longer, like bookstores with their many offerings, or a singular craft store. Merlyn did promise a shopping trip when she first met him, and while she's not so sure of their standing after her violent end, she'd rather not discard the opportunity if it still stands. Still, she admires the selection, and leaves with some nonthreatening wooden knitting needles and a couple skeins of yarn.

A music store eventually becomes host to a show as, requesting to test one of their wares, Rose settles into an impromptu violin solo. It's all improvised and it shows, starting from curious tests for tuning, slipping into short melodies, then progressing steadily into an aggressive torrent of sound. She skitters up and down scales, plays notes short and harsh, then drags out others like agony made to sing. There's no direction but the feelings of the moment, and as a result it ends rather abruptly as the tide of feeling breaks. She lowers the instrument, breathing hard, and soon after asks if the credit card she's been given will be sufficient to purchase the instrument. She's told yes, and one afternoon can be seen walking back to the tower with the black case at her side.

At other times she stops into sandwich shops of cafes for snacks, either in afternoons after the classes they send her to or on the free days of the weekends.

C. Training Center Roof

It's in the evening that she ventures up to the roof to take in the view of the city and the various plant life set about. It's nice up here, cooler than she expected in the June evening, but pleasing for that reason.

She's brought her violin, and it's up here that she sets to playing it properly in short, sweet pieces.

D. Training Floor

It's only so long before she goes down to see the floor for which the center has been named. Here there are the many weapons and stations set up for learning, and while she could try her hand at something new, she mostly sticks to the teaching areas. Edible plants, trap-making, fire-starting: these are important skills, ones she wishes she'd known more of during the arena, and she is studious and attentive to each.

Eventually she does try weapons. With knitting needles not on offer, she takes instead a pair of stilettos - the knives, not the shoes - and practices against a shapeless dummy with them instead. She feels rather silly facing a featureless, immobile target, but she refuses to face the humanoid ones. Still, she ends up mostly poking at the thing, unable to motivate herself to practice serious attacks.
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (I found my mind in a brown paper bag)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-06-30 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
It was televised, which means that she can't say much about her death that Linden doesn't already know in intimate detail.

"Don't worry about how much it means," he suggests. "Just try taking it at face-value, when someone tries to look on the bright side for your benefit."

He leans his head back, closing his yellowed eyes.

"No, not another Tribute," he sighs. "Mentor, District 6. My name is Linden Lockhearst."
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (I still fight while I can fight)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-07-06 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
Nor is it Linden's, so he ultimately can't take it too hard when she deigns not to.

"You haven't met your Mentors?" he asks, brows raising toward his dark hairline as she straightens from where she'd been kneeling by her instrument case. "Yes, go ahead and sit. You're in 5, which..." he pauses, giving it some thought before he has a moment of epiphany. "...means that you don't have a Mentor right now. That's bad luck."
dead_black_eyes: "Poison" (I wanna love you but I better not touch)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-07-14 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
"The first point, and the most obvious one," he answers with a quiet, wry laugh. "But there are other points. Other tidbits, and I'd be glad to share them. After all, it's not like Six's Tributes are actually from my District these days. Besides... we have a friend in common, and I am not entirely uninformed when it comes to you."

He pulls a carton of cigarettes from his pocket.

"What do you know about Sponsors? Much at all, yet?"