thecapitol | open - One More Soul to the Call

Who| Leonidas and open to all
What| The Bitchy Hobbit recovers and trains
Where| Various Places
When| Early January, after the D1 Battles
Warnings/Notes| None other than Leo being Leo.

I- A Capitol Hospital

It's been weeks now and the physical wounds had long healed but Leonidas still nursed a gaping maw in his emotional well-being. Everything was turned on his head as he recovered from his injuries: the Capitol had lost two Districts but only saved their own. Would they extend that kindness to their other favorites? Would they protect District 2 like they did for District 1? There wasn't enough support rallied in the outer regions, of course they failed. Of course the Rebels won Twelve and Seven, they'd been ungrateful and sore losers…

No, that wasn't right. Cora rubbed his forehead as the already worn out Capitol propaganda he's been fed since birth was chipping away. Jet Link had a point: he wasn't safe. He wasn't a Capitolite that the government would expense money to save, he was a Districter. Hell, he was a crippled Districter that proved his worth by killing nameless allies of the Rebellion. There was nothing he could drudge up and show to the unyielding eyes of Snow that was worth the effort.

He disregarded what the nurses said about his injuries and would be found grabbing a nearby cane to get the hell out of this sterile wasteland. Like hell they were treating him like some pathetic whelp of a man, bed rest his ass.

II- Detainment Center

A. Main Lobby
With the Tribute Center indefinitely closed, there was nothing to go back to and Cora was quietly seething. So he had to go to the Detainment Center to work now, huh? To see what could be done for the war effort.

It's not like he can go back to his home District now that the Capitol has definitely closed down all routes and the sheer amount of documentation would prove fruitless. He'd have to resort to more illicit ways to contact his family and friends back there, as well as Fairweather's. Hey, a promise is a promise and Leo's word was law.

He's surveying the current crop of soldiers now, screening them for possibility of combat and their health. In order to be a licensed coach, Cora had to be licensed in physical strength and therapy. It's also a good way to see what little remained of the Capitol's generosity.

B. DC - Training Center

He couldn't stay away from his own training though, in case he was called back to the war front. But this time…this time Leo wasn't so sure that he would remain in the Capitol's side. Jet made a point: he wasn't dying for Panem, but for the Capitol's sake. The man knew that his loyalty was never to Snow but to his people. How dare he use that against him…

But it added weight to what Merlin once said: that this government was destined to fail when it broke their promises and made selfish choices. This conflict played out on the sheer brutality he inflicted onto the dummies, landing killing blows and goring them with his spear. Those who approach Cora in this state run the risk of facing the Districter's wrath.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The last person Leo wanted to see in that moment was the walking contradiction that was Emily Finch for some of the reasons that he's in conflict with. Would she still stand with the Capitol after seeing what happened to her former home? Well, if she's here, it was clear which side she took and ran with it.

I shouldn't be so harsh to her; she's surviving as best as she can. Just because I would rather die than become a Capitolite...doesn't mean she has to go down with me, he thought about this long and hard before giving her a grim smile.

"Hello Finch, been a while...I'm alive," he answered the question.

Edited 2016-01-12 01:08 (UTC)

"That's good, at least." It was also telling: alive was scraping the barrel of existence. But what chance had any of the mentors to thrive, especially now war was upon them? "District One, right? At least you're safe now."

"District Seven, got injured fighting off the rebels there, ran into one of my former tributes," he admitted, he was defending her District when he was injured though there's no ill will in that. War is war and the Districts needed to stick together through this mess. Though it begged the question of why his brain didn't include the Capitol in all this.

Slowly but steadily, the indoctrination had begun to weather itself away with reality, but he should not admit to such thoughts out loud.

"Is your family safe?"

Surprise flits across Emily's features as he admits he was in Seven. "I... I see. Too bad I didn't run into you out there, we might both have avoided getting hurt." Or not made it back at all, but she doesn't want to think about that. Her expression turns a little darker as he enquires about her family. "My father and the two little ones were taken into Peacekeeper custody before things got explosive. They're safe in a camp out away from the front." Potentially under lock and key, but it was better than the alternative. "No one's seen my mother. I'm hoping she just disappeared into the forest somehow." She's not too hopeful about that. "And my older brother..." She falters. She was certain that she'd seen Matthew lurking outside her house in the Victor's Village just before the building had exploded around her. "I don't know where he is."

"Your mother's a native of the land, she has better chances of surviving than most of the rebels that only know about Thirteen's layout," Leo tried to be assuring...in his own particular way. There was a lot of fire and bloodshed in the thickets of the District but being objective helped.

One look at Emily though and piecing together the fact that she was aware of the conflict but not in it...she was at the attack.

"I take it you've already given your statement about the matter," he stated, both concerned and intrigued. "You're lucky you know that? We don't have the luxury of a cheap death."

Not unlike the offworlders.

She nods, knowing that her mother could survive for months deep in the forests if needs be, but that every day her disappearance dragged on would mean another day she'd be seen as suspect, and in which her father and younger brothers would be interrogated about both her and Matthew's whereabouts.

"My house is gone," she says simply, as though she's just accepting it. Out of all the awful things that had come with being a Victor, she'd always been genuinely grateful to the Capitol for the home they'd provided for her and her family. "There was a noise, then the heat and smoke. It-- it felt like I was back in the Arena." That's the first time she's admitted that last part, and she hates herself for it, for having felt the panic and weakness that had come with so many of her nightmares and flashbacks made real once more.

In any other time and place, Leonidas would've told Emily that the flashbacks are part of the deal with being a Victor, essentially to suck it up for the good of Panem. But the war has worn down the pro-Capitol stance to the point that it's now a thin veneer of the armor it once was. It was becoming obvious for Leo that Snow's stance was not to preserve Panem but to keep the Capitol in power, Districts be damned.

"Have you talked to someone about the flashbacks?" he asked, concerned that she too would falter in the face of a Peacekeeper's gun.

"Only Quintus." He seemed to be the only person she knew with actual combat experience outside of the Games, and he'd never brushed aside her feelings despite being so far up in the Capitol chain. "But no one professional, if that's what you mean. I learned first hand how bad the counselling for Victors was, I'm not going back there."

"Let me guess, all they do is prescribe morphling and tell you the Capitol is great an all," he grumbled under his breath, he's had a few visiting psychiatrists try to feed him even more propaganda and immediately hauled ass at the thought of facing his wrath again. One even claimed that Leo punched him in the gut, though later disproved.

"You keep all that bottled up, you'll end up making stupid decisions," he stated outright, blunt but probably needed to be heard. Everyone handled Victors like Emily as if she were made of glass at times but Cora can see that under that fragile demeanor there was a survivor.

Emily shrugs. "I've kept it bottled up this long." Something that surprised her sometimes, when she thinks about just how long she's been keeping on. "Although if you have any advice, I'll take it."

"Dunno, can a Capitolite accept the aid of a Districter?" Leonidas hasn't forgottent this facet of Emily's life. She decided to take herself away from her origins, her identity and for what? She was a soldier like him, expendable and broken...what advice could he even offer her?

"I'd say talk it out with a trusted friend or lover. You have those two aspects covered, don't you?" He reads Celebrus like a good citizen, or because there was nothing else.

open - One More Soul to the Call

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