thecapitol | (no subject)

Who: Sandy Marko and open to all.
What: Seeking inspiration
Where: Training Center Restaurant
When: Mid day.
Warnings: Not yet?

Having come in from her morning run through the city Sandy had showered, changed clothes from workout to casual and was sitting at the restaurant with an over sized stack of red velvet pancakes with cream cheese icing and whipped cream with some kind of glittering gemlike sprinkles. A half drank glass of milk sat next to a plate of sausages, one of them with a fork sticking out of it and a bite missing.

She had taken a few bites out of it but was deeply invested in using a pencil to try and map out her next painting. On a paper in front of her was some kind of gooey dripping monster.

It had been awhile since she dreamed about the monsters that had fallen from the sky. About the last horrible thing she'd done before waking up here. Maybe someone in that church had gotten away.

But she wasn't hopeful enough to lie to herself about it.

Having had a nightmare about them (Despite Effie's special sleep tea and Pruna's anti-nightmare head poke) Sandy decided the best way to get it out of her head was to put it in paint.

And so here we found her, wasting another day when she could, should be preparing for the next arena.

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He nodded. If one escort knew about the tea then they probably all did.

"I can't help thinking that dying sooner rather than later in the arena is far better. If we're going to come back here anyway what's the point of prolonging it?" It probably wasn't the best thing to say in public, but if questioned he could just say he was scared of the sort of things that happened in the arena.

"Because it's boring." Sandy explained as best she could. She had asked the same question once of another tribute and this was their theory that she had adopted.

"And if you're boring, there's no reason to keep bringing you back. Sooner or later they just...won't." And then they would finally have to answer that question of what really waited for them in death. Sandy had once hoped it would be angels...but now she was sure there were more devils that might be waiting for her.

"I suppose you're right." He sighed. "I already had a lecture about being boring last arena and how I'm not going to be getting any sponsor gifts in the next arena." He was planning on testing that, but not on saying it out loud.

That got Sandy's attention "Did you kill yourself last time?" She was already worried her performance in the last arena would have somehow made even less popular.

"No, I didn't," he said quickly. He could see the use of it, but couldn't bring himself to do it. "I just hid until my supplies ran out." And then ended up being trampled to death, but that wasn't the point. "It apparently didn't go down very well."

"Oh." Sandy answered feeling dumb at having asked the question now. "I thought about it...but now that I promised Ashley to stay with her I can't. She'd never forgive me if I took the easy way out."

The fact that she wasn't even old enough for puberty and she was considering suicide was a rather grim fact that was not lost on Sandy. Even if it was only a temporary death.

He nodded, glad to hear that, although he liked the idea of the children being killed at the start by some method that didn't cause too much pain so they wouldn't have to suffer later.

"I don't think it is an easy way out. Specially when you get back here and get complained at." He grinned, trying to lighten the mood a little.

It didn't help much. Sandy gave herself some stalling time by shoveling half a pancake into her face.

As she chewed she considered all she'd seen and done and swallowed hard.

"So do you think it's just...gotta be this way?" She asked bluntly despite knowing what this sort of talk led to. Mean looks, more threats. Probably punishment.

"No." He shook his head, then looked around, wondering how much he could get away with saying when they were being listened to.

He lowered his voice, even though it probably wouldn't make much difference. "We have to go in the arena, we can't avoid that. But it's up to us what we do while we're in there. What's the worst they can do, tell us off?"

Sandy didn't seem too convinced, "They could turn us into those guys." She jerked her thumb in the direction of a nearby Avox who was cleaning a table. Ever since she had learned what the Avox's were she had been horrified by the idea. Losing her tongue would be one thing but brain surgery? The thought alone had added a fresh new element of nightmare fuel to her drug induced sleep each night.

Ian looked over. He wanted to protest that they wouldn't dare, but perhaps they would. They could always use another clone of them to put in the arena. "I'm sure it wouldn't come to that," he said more confidently than he felt. "That would be a last resort, not a first warning." He ignored the fact that he'd had a warning already.

"You sure about that?" Sandy wasn't so sure herself and even if he was right, the cuff on her arm was proof enough she was being watched. She was a troublemaker just because she was stupid enough to speak out.

Still, this guy was supposed to be smart right? For a grown up?

Edited 2013-09-14 13:57 (UTC)

"They wouldn't go to all the effort of bringing us here just to get rid of us." He was sure about that. "I think they'd do everything they could to get us to do what they want, before resorting to turning us into Avoxes." If they were an Avox then they couldn't participate in the arena, he presumed.

She wanted to believe him. But life had kicked her around enough that Sandy didn't have much faith in people acting logically. None of this world made sense to her.

"I sure hope you're right." she muttered turning her attention back to her drawing and resuming the work. "Because I really hate what they want us to do."

"Me too," he agreed, and finished the last of his meal. "I'll leave you to your drawing." He smiled at her and suited his actions to his words.