Claudia and Her Brand New Job

[stilest]

Who| Claudia, the Initiate, Redglare, Enjolras, Venus
What| meeting the new stylist
Where| D5 Suite
When| A day or so before the date auction
Warnings/Notes| ??? (language, probably, considering the Initiate)

Claudia's stomach is full of butterflies. Absolutely full. This is going to be her very first day on the job as a REAL Stylist--not just a prep team worker like she's been the last three years. And she's going to be in charge of dressing not one but two of the trolls.

One of which is the Initiate, who rumor has it gave the last person to hold Claudia's job a nervous breakdown.

He's not going to scare Claudia off, though. Not with some of the things she's been through in the name of babysitting. She can totally handle it.

She consults her list of her half of the District Five tributes one last time:



Well. Might as well start at the top.

Comments

[orestes]

At the snacks, his expression shifts to one of pursed lips and a furrowed brow. This isn't exactly what he'd been expecting. It certainly isn't the sinister den of terrible borderline human experimentation he'd experienced before. Still, it was hard to forget his past incidents with stylists, and Enjolras remains wary of her. As she speaks, he regards her warily and the furrowed brow never quite goes away, even if the lines around his mouth lessen.

"My affinity for liberty is, I suspect, remarkably well documented by now." Probably too well for his own good, really. Outside of cockades and the red cap of liberty, however, he can't really see what all this has to do with fashion.

you don't have to reply with the exact words of his explanation, just sum up what he does explain?

[stilest]

She nods slowly and chews a little on her pen cap. "The problem," Claudia says after a moment, "is that ideas like 'liberty' and 'philosophy' are really hard to illustrate. They're way too abstract. France would probably be easier, but I don't know much about it besides that it's your country and the country of Lady Oscar and that it's not around anymore. I've asked my mom--she's the head librarian of the main branch of the public library--to check if there's any books with photos and things like that, but knowing her she'll probably grab something really dry and boring. Do you think you could explain stuff about France to me? Are there any symbols, like the ones we use for the districts?"

But what would be the fun in that?

[orestes]

If anything, his frown deepens and the furrow increases. It's a surprisingly natural look for him, one which she would probably be unsurprised to know that he wears quite frequently, especially while in the Capitol. It isn't that Enjolras goes out of his way to be confused or disappointed by the happenings around him, rather that they very seldom adhere to the stringent guidelines which he chooses to live by.

"At the time of the Revolution, French citizens were required to wear a Tricolour cockade to mark their political allegiance." He says finally, thoughtfully. "It was a symbol of the nation and of the unity of the people and their government."

Which is simplistic of course. When it was introduced Louis Capet had even deigned to wear the cockade if only to appease the people. As a true Republican, the Tricolour holds a certain, almost sacred, meaning to him which is difficult to convey to someone who doesn't know the history of his country. He holds a certain suspicion, of course, that Claudia would be disinterested in a long tirade on the politics of France at the end of the 18th Century. Not many people even in his own time cared for such things either. At least, not as much as he did. "In a way, these cockades were similar to the symbols your people use for the Districts."