Guess who's back!

[mannersmatter]

Who| De and/or Effie and/or Lottie and/or Katniss and/or other NPCS AND YOU.
What| Them around the city, doing things, meeting people.
Where| Mainly the Training Center, but any setting is good!
When| Around this week.
Warnings/Notes|

I made a thread with a tag for each character, so just tag in there! if you'd like any of my other NPCs besides Katniss, just PM or private plurk me so we can hash it out real quick.

Let me know if I can add anything, and I am down for minor assumptions/handwaving some things!

Comments

Effie!

[mannersmatter]

With Peeta and Katniss here, the load had lighten, significantly. She finally had a moment to breath, now they were taking over more of the duties she had been trying to cover.

Although they weren't very well trained either. But you worked with what you had. Even if that wasn't optimal. It had never been with Haymitch, either, and they had managed.

Somewhat.

Still, Effie was getting back to her old habits. Mainly that of trying to be as many places as possible, look as good as possible doing it, and talk to as many people as she could while there. The plan to be open and friendly to the other teams had served her well so far (especially in one noticeable example) and she planned to keep with it.

The game was changing and Effie Trinket would not be left behind.

District 12 Suite okay?

[69problems]

They could brush his hair. They could shave his scruff. They could polish his horns and whiten his teeth. They could dress him in as many flowing black silk shirts and leggings that mirrored the colors of his horns as they liked. But so help them, no one in this place could very well force the Signless to wear shoes, especially not now that Cinna thought it would help enforce the gentle, humble image they were going for.

He sat in the common room of the District 12 suite, reading the last issue of Celebrus and absently munching on a bowl of caramel corn. Noticing Effie enter, he immediately took his feet off the couch and put them on the floor, but he was fairly certain she had the eyesight of some kind of bird of prey and had already seen.

Stylist areas I am so sorry

[knifewithnoname]

"You do be leaving me alone!" From one of the treatment rooms an angry voice was raised, and there was a crash and Pruna came storming out, eyes blazing in anger. A young stylist followed, tweezers in hand looking like she was about to cry and quit, dream job or not.

Pruna kicked a wall hard, despite her bare feet, and then a chair in the waiting room. Not happy with how little damage that did she picked it up, intending to throw it against the wall.

Re: Effie!

[justoutrunyou]

When Sandy bumped into Effie it was mid day, and judging by the way her hair stuck out everywhere and the yawn she greeted her with, Sandy had only just woken up and wandered out.

"Oh...hey." Was her less then excited greeting. Their last conversation had been undeniably dark.

Re: Effie!

[sleeplessinalternia]

Who's this smaller, younger version of the Signless sprawled on another District Twelve couch, this time on his stomach? Why, it's Karkat Vantas, District One tribute and unexpected boy heartthrob. (For some reason, a large portion of Capital girls between the ages of ten and thirteen had decided that the surly young troll was absolutely dreamy and also not surly but brooding. Duh.)

Currently Karkat has a child's alphabet book in front of him and is studying it intently, while scowling. It wasn't fair that Signless had already taught himself how to read human letters and he was still behind. (Signless also had a lot more free time than him, given that he wasn't stuck being constantly photographed and interviewed by the human equivalent of Stripebeast Rhythm but whatever.)

An incredibly thick bodice ripper lies next to the couch on the floor as a reminder of Karkat's goal in all this.

[setfires]

When he saw her sit down for a moment he comes over and sits next to her. "Do you have time to take a little bit of a break?" he asked as he held up a bottle of brown, and clearly alcoholic, beverage and two glasses.

"I thought we should toast to our Victors." After all, Peeta and Katniss might be back, but Haymitch was gone. It seemed like their little family couldn't be together all at once.

De!

[cherrypie]

Physical activity was always a good answer to having far too much to think about at night, De had found. If you exhausted yourself into a near comatose state, your brain didn't get a chance to spend the night over thinking things.

Occasionally it still snuck up on here, late at night. She'd try to focus on the bed being was more swanky then any roadside motel, on the unlimited supply of pie at her finger tips, at the lack of demons hanging around. But it kept trickling back, back to still wondering if this was hell. Back to the new, and unwantedly complicated delima of who the monsters around here really were. Back, most often, to wondering how Sammy was doing without her.

So yeah, shit sucked.

She could be found most often down in the training center, working herself ragged, and always happy to spar. Even if sometimes she got too rough. Except when her stylist wrangled her into some trumpet up outfit to go rub elbow with a bunch of trumpet up douchebags.

If this place wasn't hell, it was sure doing a good job faking it.

[lassoftruthiness]

When she wasn't training with someone else, Diana preferred to stay in her rooms to practice. She didn't enjoy the gawking or calculating stares of the other Tributes, Mentors, and whatever other Games staff wandering through the training center rooms.

But sometimes she could still be found wandering herself through the center, taking in the other Tributes, those who would need help, those who hinted at a viciousness that would need to be watched. And, occasionally, she'd come across someone she already knew, such as now.

She hesitated to interrupt De in the middle of training, and frankly she enjoyed watching a clearly skilled and experienced fighter in their element, so she hung back at first, leaned against a nearby dummy while she just watched.

[tis_allgood]

Cuthbert was always looking for a good sparring partner. That and he was never going to say no to potentially rolling around with a woman, even if she was older than he was. Clearly, women of every age wanted him. And even if by some miracle they didn't, he could still get some training out of it. It was a no lose situation challenging her.

He was watching her practice before he approached.

"Care for a more challenging partner? I'm certain there's a thing or two you could teach me."

[morethathityou]

Callista was down in the training center too. She used their fake swords to keep up her skill with the blade, though it was nothing like a lightsaber. She didn't plan to use those skills in the Arena, but she didn't want her body to waste away. Not when it had been such an important gift to her.

"Would you like a sparing partner?" she asked De when she saw the other woman. Considering their brief meeting in the Arena she thought it might be a good chance for them to find out more about each other.

Lottie!

[needsaprince]

She was just tired.

Of, sure, she could put on a happy face when she was forced out. But she didn't want to go out. She didn't want to party. She just wanted to curl up and sleep all day. And she had no idea why.

Even here, going out to the balls and parties had been at least one bright point. But instead the normally bright and bubbly girl found herself...deflated.

The last arena...she couldn't place it, but something about it had made her feel so awful. Dirty and unclean. The dresses, the castle...a fairytale. What she'd always wanted.

And they'd ruined it all so horridly.

So the little blond had sulked around, and avoided everyone and done her best to do the one things she'd never done before.

Be alone.

Re: Lottie!

[amourtician]

Jay spotted Lottie in the training area, while he was watching everyone, trying to figure out where to begin training and whether it'd do any good at all.

She didn't seem to be busy and she didn't look threatening and he hadn't spoken to anyone since that morning, having not found the Initiate like he had meant to.

Plastering on a smile that he didn't quite feel (the dread of the upcoming Arena was starting to really catch up to him), Jay approached Lottie.

"Morning, darling! Can't decide where to start?"

[polyturtle]

It had been awhile since Don had seen Lottie. At first, he'd been worried that she'd died, as in she'd died died. But then he'd heard she just...wasn't coming out of her room.

That worried him. It worried him greatly. Of all the people to be destroyed by this place, Lottie was someone Don didn't want to experience that. And so he went to the District 8 floor, ignoring the confused stares he might have gotten from the Tributes there.

He knocked on the door, speaking quietly as he did so.

"Lottie?"

This will end well

[akingalways]

All right. He'd had it. No more of the sulking and avoiding. Jack knew that there was a Tribute in that room. A female Tribute who needed all of the help she could get to toughen up. Sharon, right? Shirley? Chanson...?

Whatever. She was blonde. And she wasn't coming out of her room.

That was going to change.

"GOOD MORNING!"

It was the crack of dawn when, all of a sudden, this giant ray of sunshine burst into Charlotte's room, with a mighty fling of the door and throwing open of the curtains. Behind him were two Avoxes, one with a training suit and the other with a glass of orange juice and a bowl of cereal.

"Jack Atlas has decided it is time for you to begin your training anew!" The King of Victors crossed his arms as he hovered over Lottie's bed. "So now, you need to get up and have breakfast so you'll be nourished for your session!"

[gruesome]

The party last night had been the last straw. It had been bright and full of women in dresses like the ones she favored, everyone in little tiaras. He had sought her there, and she hadn't been.

So Some would come to Lottie.

Some random hall? Put them where you like otherwise.

[the_hit_list]

The problem with skulking around is that, in a confined space, there were only so many likely places to be. Throw in almost a hundred unwilling tributes, and things can get rather crowded. Tim wasn't trying to avoid anyone specific, but he was wandering the training center fairly late at night. That was odd enough, as far as natives were concerned. They did love their schedules. But he could blame it on insomnia or a stomach ache if they asked why he was pacing all over alone.

It was harder to hide that you were discreetly gauging camera angles when you were having a conversation that you weren't paying attention to.

He was getting nowhere, anyway. Tim hadn't expected to find blind spots, but expectations and hope weren't the same thing. He was about to call it for the night when he heard heavy footsteps. Options streamed through his head, some more alarming than others. Tribute, sponsor, stylist, prep squad, reporter, Peacekeeper. He couldn't rule out any of them, but that last one was most likely. It could be random, but he picked up his pace down an unfamiliar hall and took a sharp turn -

And almost ran over a blonde. She looked vaguely familiar. A Tribute, he thought.

"Woah, sorry. I didn't see you -" Tim thought he heard the other person still coming. Time to be somewhere else, but if it was someone coming to see what the tributes were up to, he couldn't leave her there. "Hi, I'm Tim. Let's go this way."

Re: Lottie!

[big_badass_hero]

Chris had noticed the bubbly Southern Belle had been missing lately and knocked lightly on her door. "Lottie? Ya doin' okay? Hey, she was one of his district mates, and well, okay he was protective over her, not like he would be some others, but he still felt he should keep an eye on her.

"I'm here if you need a shoulder."

Re: Lottie!

[revvinguptheharley]

Still it was so hard to be alone in a place like this wasn't it?

And more difficult when she walked out of her room into the suite area to find none other then Harley Quinn apparently in the middle of making a sculpture out of various desserts. There was a horrible mess around the kitchenette but the subject of her work seemed to be a talk, broad shouldered pale man with green hair.

For being made out if food, it was impressive.

[mediumdrip]

"Lottie?" Blaine asked when he saw her blonde hair in the distance. He had been so worried about her since he hadn't seen her much in the Arena. They hadn't talked about anything that had happened there. He thought he might give her the chance to yell at him about how things had played out for him, considering almost everyone else had expressed at least some disappointment.

Seeing her however made most of his guilt disappear. He was more focused on her and what she needed. "How have you been?"

Re: Lottie!

[carnagecarnival]

The Initiate Alternates time in the Training Center between cull practice and making use of the paints there, depending on which ever kind of mood he's in that day. They wash his paintings off every time, but it's not as if it's his proper medium anyway. He finishes up today's piece and rises, his large, clawed hands all kinds of death and cull-colored in the eyes of a troll, and a pleasant rainbow mess in the eyes of perhaps everyone else.

He's just leaving the Center when he spots her. He looms over, looking almost curious, paint still dripping from his fingers.

"A SISTER looks lost," he says.

Sometime after she's feeling a little better

[tis_allgood]

Bert has been wandering the city as much as he can recently, there was just too much to see. But today he saw something unique, a woman who looked to be another tribute being cornered by a few very excited citizens of the capitol. Clearly he cannot stand to see a lovely young woman upset like that.

"Oh goodness! It's Katniss and Peeta, out together in public and talking to anyone who comes by!" He called out loudly from behind a tree, hoping to distract them long enough for his fellow tribute to escape.

Katniss!

[inciting]

Mentoring was different than she expected.

Under different circumstances, it might be something she would enjoy. It was hard to tell, here and now. This was like a complicated dance of putting on mask after mask, and she wasn't sure how long she could keep it up.

Not that she had much of an option.

Still, she was better at it then she would have guessed. She spent her days helping her tributes as best she could. And listening and watching among the others. There was a sensation of them all being in this together, very different from her games. She wasn't sure how she felt about it.

At least Prim and Peeta ware here now. It was a little touch of sanity. Familiarity. Home. The though of Prim here still made her watch over her shoulder, knowing the message there was loud and clear. But the two of them helped her stay sane.

Re: Katniss!

[andproper]

Katniss.

The sight of her sister was a reassurance, but a worry too. Watching what she said... she had lots of practice with that. Back home. Their mother, Gale, the district mates who worried about her.

She felt like she always had to say just the right thing, for everyone. She had to project the image of being okay, so they wouldn't worry - but not so okay they'd worry about not needing her. Unless they needed to worry about her in order to distract themselves from other worries entirely. Not to mention watching her Mother's mental healthy day in and day out...

It didn't matter, though. They were family - and the ability to protect those who she cared about... that was important. So there she was next to Katniss. Reaching out to take her sister's hand in her own. A little squeeze to say "I'm here, Katniss."

Party sound good?

[akingalways]

So of course the first time he would meet Katniss would be at a luncheon. Maybe she was being evasive. Or maybe it was just coincidence. Or maybe it was the fact every time she was generally at these functions she was surrounded by people, thus making it impossible to get near her.

But this time Jack had her in his sights, and he stalked over, not intending to let her go without giving her a proper introduction.

"Katniss Everdeen." His giant shadow likely looming over the girl, Jack stood behind her, hands on hips. "So you've shown yourself at last."

Re: Katniss!

[sleeplessinalternia]

In his quest to learn how to read Human like Signless has already, Karkat has managed to procure an audiobook of a popular young adult novel (about the forbidden romance between a bat-muttation and a District girl) and is listening to it while attempting to read along as well.

He looks up to rest his eyes and there she is. Katniss. One of his two Hunger Games real life heroes.

He has no idea what to say to her.