thecapitol | A dream I dreamed // OPEN

Who: The Disciple & Anyone
What: Exploring the center from the elevator doors
Where:Training Center Elevator/Any Floor
When: Today, anytime
Warnings: Probably tears.

Too many hands had touched her this morning for comfort. A woman used to living alone and running if people came too close was not suited to strange aliens manhandling her or others insisting that her clothing be changed. Her hissing and tearing at the clothing they pressed at her just got hurt scared looks and she felt a pang. No stronger than grubs, these creatures with their clothes and devices held out pleadingly. Eventually guilt and a sense of inevitability made her take the clothes she was offered and let them pull the knots from her hair.

They called themselves humans when she asked. Humans. Aliens. Was she merely a creature to them, to be kept for their amusement, killing and playing their games. Hardly. She pulled on the only thing she had managed to save from their hands, a long skin and fur cape, and held it closed over the clothing. As much as she liked the leather and fur that adorned her outfit, she almost wanted to tear it off.

The Disciple did, at least, want to find out where she was being kept beyond these rooms. A way out was probably too much to ask at this point, given that they had subdued her before. Their words and explanations flew over her head, things she didn't know of or understand. They at least managed to explain the elevator to her and when she asked if she was to merely stay here, they encouraged her to go look around. Technology she didn't quite understand swept her up and down until her stomach was queasy and at each new floor, she surveyed the area from the elevator doors and occasionally stepped off to explore.

She's not as silent as she hopes with new clothes to adjust to and the ding that precedes her at every floor makes any hope of a silent entry impossible.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Disciple is a little startled to be greeted so casually and compassionately but she pulls herself up straight and shakes her head. There's a long moment where she looks around--It's the same as the other floors honestly. She's not sure what she expected.

"I was exploring." She admits, staying in the door of the elevator for the time being, one hand on the frame to keep the doors from shutting, "I live on the seventh floor."

At least she thought it was the seventh. She remembered the particular decoration of the main room so it was merely trial and error when it came to that.

"You new?" Venus sets the book on the table, idly moving its cover to face away from Disciple with her fingers - never show off a logo or identifying brand, in this case a title. "I didn't see you on the screens last time."

One of her flip-flops has fallen off her feet while she dozed. She inches her toes around for it, trying to redress herself without having to bend over or get out of her chair.

"I am." She was a little curious as to why...or how someone could fall asleep in the middle of a room. What a strange trust for this place. And there, her reaching for a shoe with just the tips of her toes, as if time was not a precious commodity. She was trying quite hard not to show the confusion or curiosity in her expression but it never quite worked out.

"There isn't a need to get up. I am intruding."

"Hey, handshakes are healthy. They're like exercise for your fingers, or something." Not that Venus hasn't been hitting the gym, although the reset at the end of each Arena is nice. It means she doesn't have to worry too much about losing her money-making figure.

She manages to slip the shoe on and stands, stretching her arms up behind her head, trailing fingers over her shoulderblades. "District seven, you said? Well, guess it doesn't really matter, half my kills were from my own district last time."

Her eyes catch the signs that this woman is fit and active, an opponent she knew, but she couldn't help admiring that hardship didn't seem to show on her body. She needed to put on some weight before the arena if she hoped to go up against others like this. Living hand to mouth had had its toll on her body.

"Handshakes...Trusting." She kept her hands loose at her sides, not sure what to make of that last bit. Was she bragging or simply showing how little she cared about the District assignations? A threat? She settled on the idea of a warning.

"Coincidence or deliberate?"

There's a coffee machine in the District 5 Suite Lounge. Venus heads over to it and sets it up, fiddling with a packet of sugar in her hands and counting, mentally, how long it's been since she had her last pill.

"Coincidence. I didn't go out looking for targets, they kind of came to me." She shrugs a bit, taking on a sheeping grin that tugs at the bottom of her gums, then jerks a thumb at one of the rooms. "I think that one in there's still pissed about it."

She pauses, tilting her head at Disciple.

"Hey, um." Venus taps a finger to the corner of her mouth. "You got a speech thing? Because I mean, you can work with that, on the camera."

It takes her a moment to realize what the woman means. A speech thing. A problem with the way she speaks or perhaps simply she means the short way she's been replying. She's not actually sure what was referred to.

"I can speak if that's what you asked. I'm just not used to speaking with others again." If this woman wanted to take this a certain way, let her. There was little point in trying to explain why just yet when it would lead down a path of infinite questions.

"Why's that?" Venus runs her hands through her hair and rubs her palm over her shoulders. Falling asleep in the chair has made her stiff. She doesn't really look at the Disciple; the idea of there being a threat is so distant.

"Isolation? Are you an astronaut? A hermit? You don't look like a nun."

What's the best way to explain it...The truth is simplest.

"I was a hermit. Exiled really." She pauses to tug at her hair and shrugs, "I was to be executed. You don't get a chance to speak to many people when you're on the run."

"Executed, huh?" Venus runs a hand through her hair and starts to wander to the kitchen. She doesn't seem fazed by the idea of executions. "So I guess you like this whole living thing?"

She pauses. "You know if your District's got any pop tarts?"

She raises an eyebrow and shrugs once, lazily, "I don't know what they are. So no."

"And yes I do. Don't we all?"

"Eh." Venus' shrug is much more animated than Disciple's, a sort of sitcom shrug taken from television instead of from genuine body language. "I can take or leave this whole living thing. Whatever makes a good show, right?"

"What a sad life then." She can't help her critical comment, who really doesn't care if they live or die.

"A good show is worth more than your life? I suppose they find you a good fit for this."

"Well, I like to think I did pretty well for myself." She grabs a plate from the top cabinet and pulls a frying pan out. She knows she can wait for Avoxes to bring her breakfast, but she needs something to do with her hands. "Guessing you won't be much of a contender."

"It remains to be seen. I just arrived. Maybe this place will twist me into whatever it wants at some point or another."

She watches her gather dishes and things and frowns, "I should let you eat."

"Some of us don't feel like it's twisting." Venus shrugs and makes a 'shoo' motion with her hand. "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."

She doesn't seem to take offense, turning to leave. What use is it to try to befriend someone who seems to love this. She steps into the elevator and lets it whisk her to some other floor.

A dream I dreamed // OPEN

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