thecapitol | What pretty cheeks they have, what pretty frocks they have!

Entry tags:

What pretty cheeks they have, what pretty frocks they have!

Who| Luna and you!
What| Luna tries to adjust to Panem. It's a little much, to say the least.
Where| Around the Capitol, then various places in the Training Center
When| Today
Warnings/Notes| None currently.

The Capitol
When Luna's taken to the suites and left to ponder her future, she doesn't know what to do. Waking up from what she knew had been her death, hearing she was going to be participating in another game, being expected to kill others as part of that game...she can't go through with all that again, she just can't. It's not long before she starts to feel a need for something more open - fewer walls, more nature if she can find it. Her body feels heavy and alien too, and the thought of staying inside makes her chest hurt. Leaving the Training Center makes her anxious too, but there are no locked doors on the way out and she knows there are people outside, she'd seen them as she was being escorted by the Peacekeepers. So when she steps outside...

It's almost overwhelming. All the colors, all the noise, all the people. Luna's only seen scenes like this in old records, and experiencing it for real is astounding - and intimidating. Curiosity wins over timidness but just barely, so she wanders the streets trying to stay out of people's way (difficult, given the bustling streets) and glances at colorful displays with a mixture of admiration and hesitation. She's not yet sure she's ready to go inside anywhere; shyness has been her cover before, but now the truth of it is coming back to bite.

Training Center (gym, rooftop, District 6 suites)
Eventually Luna returns to the Training Center, because she can only stay outside for so long. She stops by the training sublevel first, quickly recognizing how out of place she is among the people gathered. The gym is for people who want to improve themselves and increase their chances at survival and victory. Survival is something that appeals to Luna, but victory...isn't. She lingers there a little longer, just to observe and maybe talk with one or two people, but it's not too long before she goes exploring further.

And while the Training Center makes her uneasy, the rooftop doesn't. Even the Capitol doesn't have a lot of nature, so when she looks around and browses the gardens something in her heart settles down a little. She spends a while sitting near the edge of the roof looking down at the city below, and thinking of happy things. The whirlwind of life in the Capitol, the freedom of leaving the facility, surviving on her own outside. The fact that she's alive at all to see this right now. Not dying alone, but getting to be with...

When Luna starts crying, she takes that as her cue to leave. As far as she knows she's alone, but she could have missed something and she doesn't want anyone to see her like this right now. She sticks around for a few moments longer to compose herself, and then starts to head back down to the District 6 suites to see who else is there. It seems that she's going to be here for a while longer, after all. She'll need to figure out what she can do in the days ahead.

Threaded | Flat

The District's other recent arrival is sitting in the suite, ladylike and demure, working at a piece of embroidery. Sansa has taken to Capitol fashion, but something in the way she wears it - something indefinable in how she sits and holds herself - makes it look like she's still wearing Westerosi gowns. Her auburn hair is coiled up on top of her head, and she's humming quietly to herself as she works.

She looks up sharply when Luna enters, and for a split second there's an almost feral wariness to her, a habit of suspicion that she hasn't yet shaken. Then it's gone, and she offers the other girl a warm smile, getting to her feet.

"Hello," she says, with a little half-curtsey. "I don't think we've met. Are you all right?" She's too tactful to point it out more explicitly, but she's good at reading people, and can guess that Luna's been crying.

It's not long after Luna arrives that she might be greeted by a certain canine that has made the floor his personal play area while his master works. Wearing a neckerchief that bore a big red 6, Foxy was usually hiding and searching for treats and people to pet him. He's keen to see and nip at the feet of new faces, his version of a welcome wagon.

The moment Phillip found the new tribute paperwork, he'd berated himself for letting his office become a mess again. It's been a rough time at District 6, with Linden eloping and now the new Arena reaping native children again...it's gotten to the point that Gray is starting to live up to his family name, as the beginnings of silver hair start to follow a line from his forehead. But Phone Guy is resolved to do his best and be the Mentor his friends need.

Everything will be okay...everything will be okay, we'll do our best and we'll pull through is what he tells himself as he stepped outside and spotted a new face. She seems like she's been through a rough day, so Phil draws closer.

"Hello? Uh hello? Um, are you okay?" Worth a shot.

"Cry your pardon miss," he says, automatically reaching his hands - all organic fingers on his left one, the first two on his right two made up of all cogs and gears covered in clear rubber - out toward her shoulders in case he'd startled or jostled her. Wouldn't do to upset a possible Capitolite by knocking them over, though she doesn't look much like one. Clothes aren't impractical enough, hair doesn't look quite enough like rock formations have started spontaneously growing out from her skull.

Still. Best be cautious. "Used as I am to the paths of this city, forgot I can't just take myself out of the crowd and stop looking at them. Of course others would be avoiding that crowd too. Didn't knock you too much, did I?"

For his part, with his high collar, plunging neckline, and outfit specifically fitted to his skinny form, Roland looks more like a Capitolite than he'd be comfortable with, if he knew it. Still, none of them would leave their hair down over their shoulders like that, and certainly none of them would dare show a face that's got so many bags and wrinkles on it. Small favors. Roland may be acclimating to this place, but at least he still looks old.

Cullen makes his way to the roof nearly every evening, these days. It's a good escape from - everything, and the little shrine is up here, which is nice. He makes a habit of lighting a candle, most nights, and saying a quiet prayer for those whose fate he isn't sure of - Josephine, Cole, Dorian, Bull and the others. Whether they're dead, back in their proper versions of Thedas, or - something else, they deserve to be remembered.

He hears someone crying, and pokes his head around a corner to look. It's not that he means to eavesdrop, he simply doesn't want to see anyone in pain or hurting. "Are you alright?" he asks, carefully.

When Kyle arrived in Panem Sigma was unable to tolerate grief - it sapped the strength from his bones and made him a slave. When Phi is sent before him he must ease himself into a seat, but it is easy to summon his patience. By the time Luna has arrived he has shut the door behind his former self.

Yet he finds himself, somehow, en route to the Tribute Tower in an armored car, too late to hope to see her. In reaching the rooftop he realizes he's made a mistake. Luna is alone, poised above the horizon like a bird before flight. She seemed to be at peace with her freedom, perfectly content, and who was he to take her from it? Satisfied that all is well, he has almost turned to leave when she begins to cry.

For the first time in his life Sigma understands that there are people the world was better off without, and that he is among them.

He becomes a shadow in the garden door, unable to move or breathe. Why had he come in the first place? He knew before he'd arrived that this was all outside of his control. Perhaps they were a cursed pair, fated to meet wearing one skin or another, but unable to connect. The two of them parents, having never parented. Wholly loving one another but not in love.

He's still considering this when Luna's body turns towards the exit, directly in his line of sight. To turn away would sever her from him and set them free, but it would be the ultimate betrayal.

And Sigma does not have the strength to betray her again.

"Luna."

When Karkat first spots her, he thinks it must be Sansa until the details catch up with him. Both redheads, sure, but the style is different, the height, the age--this person is no 13-year-old. Karkat for his part is impossible to miss, being a grey, horned alien in a place of mostly humans, after all. He's the only one in the District.

He leaves off from what he was doing (writing a book review now that he has some mind to concentrate again), and calls over to her. "Are you new, or are you looking for someone?"

She's not someone he's seen before, in any case, and these days he tries to keep track of who cycles into his District.

Phi has only been here a few days, but she can be found in the training center, already hard at work making up for lost time. Her Mentors have impressed upon her that she's already at a disadvantage for having arrived so late, and she means to rectify that. Some of the stations are physical skills, some are survival skills. She travels to each of them in turn, spending an hour or so honing her aptitude before moving to another one. Wash, rinse, repeat.

She's just walking away from the campfire station with the scent of burnt wood clinging to her clothes, when she notices the familiar visitor. The sight of Luna standing there brings a flash of memory with it of a different time and a different cavernous room, and Phi stops in her tracks. Once again, she wonders what Sigma has gotten himself into.

But which Luna is this? The Luna who made it to the end of the Nonary Game with them? The Luna who went through the Number 9 door and left them to die? The Luna that Sigma had stayed behind for, like the sentimental idiot that he was. That memory still stings, even if she knows it was a necessary timeline.

Or maybe it's another Luna entirely. Phi doesn't expect to figure out that answer without talking to her, though. If there's any hesitance in approaching her, Phi doesn't let it show on her face. She lifts a hand briefly in greeting. "Long time no see. Luna."

Threaded | Flat

District 6

D6 for the win

the Capitol

Roof

Rooftop

D6; sorry this is late!

Gym/Training area