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Post by Seryna on Oct 10, 2014 14:20:02 GMT -5
Rowan White lay on her back on the ground, her eyes closed. She was breathing deeply through her nose. It was her best coping mechanism for nerves and right now, she had nerves.
"Victor Rowan?" A stranger's voice inquires politely. Rowan rolls to her feet, her eyes instinctively searching for her children befor remembering that she had left them home with Grant. She turns to evaulate the speaker. It was a petite redheaded woman, accompanied by a dark haired, pale skinned man. They both wore politely interested expressions and tailored sea - green clothing. Rowan wondered which district four victor they were dressing towards and decided that she didn't care. Capital people, thats all that mattered.
"What do you want?" She asked harshly. "There has been a proposal." The woman extends a white envelope towards Rowan. Rowan glances at it and makes no move to take it.
"From whom?" "Best we don't say."
"The President. Or the Head Peacekeeper about some imagined infraction. But..." Rowan lifts her eyes to the sky. She watches the leaves move slightly in the breeze. The Capital people are uncomfortable with silence and prompt nearly immediately.
"Victor Rowan, please accept-"
"No." Rowan looks back at the two. "Why didn't this go to Conrad?" "We couldn't find him." "Really. You couldn't find the victor whose followed by the other victor who is an actual Tank."
A beat of silence.
"Or Victor Rory?" Rowan affects a little accent for how they like to refer to victors. As though they forgot how they attained thier new status. "She's not an ideal candidate."
"Oh, frell." Rowan laughs. "And I am? What sort of dren job is this?"
"Victor Rowan, please.." "This isn't a good time for me, you see. In two days, we're going to meet the kids who are going to die. Or you know, say goodbye to one my my kids. So I'm not really caring about your little... whatever."
"Your children are safe." The man spoke and his voice carried authority. Ah, so he knew about the Deal. And Rowan wasn't being threatened, she was being coerced. That meant that she adjusted her Game.
"Give me an hour to gather every one. Then bring your envelope. District Seven decides things together. We're allied. Remember?"
Two minutes later
"Rory?" Rowan pounds on Rory's front door. "Rory. Open up, it's important."
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CuteLikeMurder
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Post by CuteLikeMurder on Oct 10, 2014 14:58:45 GMT -5
Aurora had been sleeping, intertwined with her husband when she first heard someone at their front door. It was one of the first nights she wasn't overcome with nausea which she had first told June was just nerves. He seemed to take her at her word with the Reapings just around the corner. But it had been weeks of this. And the nerves excuse would only take her so far. Junius was intelligent enough to figure it out. Then of course that would make this very real for the both of them. And Aurora didn't think she was ready for that.
He stirred when she awoke and Aurora kissed him very lightly on the cheek. "It's probably nothing. Just go back to sleep."
Whether he'd listen to her was another story entirely.
She slid out of bed and put a robe on. And after carefully checking to see who was at the front door, Aurora opened it for Rowan.
"Rowan?" she asked, before she moved aside to allow her former district partner through. Once she was inside, Rory glanced around outside to see if Rowan was being followed or tracked. She concluded when she saw nothing out of the ordinary that someone was watching.
"Follow me into the kitchen... We can talk while I make some tea."
She walked into the kitchen, filled the kettle with water and placed it on the stove. Once that was done she turned to Rowan. "What is it, Rowan?"
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QuinnTalon
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Post by QuinnTalon on Oct 10, 2014 19:10:05 GMT -5
She'd stirred, and then pulled herself out of his arms, and once that happened he was wide awake. He tried to go back to sleep. Tried and failed because he'd gotten used to sleeping in the same bed with another person. Also: It was two days before the Reaping. It meant that there'd be someone coming from the Capitol soon to gussy them up. It felt like they came sooner and sooner every year, and June wouldn't be shocked if they showed up in the middle of the damned night at some point.
So June gave in, wrapping a robe around himself and heading down the stairs. At the very least, he could get a cup of tea and sit out on the porch. It as a lovely night for it.
"Good evening, Rowan." One of Rory's compatriots. The Victors--Rory's friends--treated him in...a sort of spectrum of ways. With Janus and Ember he seemed to somewhat belong. With Apple, it was thinly veiled distain and distrust. Morgan looked at him as though he didn't trust him, but he put up with him. Zale just 'tolerated' him, though he supposed Zale tolerated everyone.
"I thought I'd get some tea, and head out onto the porch. It's a mighty nice night for it." She was here late enough that he assumed she didn't want him participating in whatever is happening.
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Post by Seryna on Oct 11, 2014 3:47:24 GMT -5
"Thanks, Rory." Rowan stated as she followed Rory inside her home. The woman took a seat at Rory's kitchen table and took in Rory's attire. The arrival of Rory's husband similarly dressed made Rowan shake her head ruefully at herself. "Hello." She stated to Rory's husband, which was the mental label June always wore in Rowan's mind. She and Rory had been similarly trapped. This one didn't seem too bad. Rowan wondered for a moment if Rory had the same Deal she had as she stared at June for a beat.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. This probably could have waited."
Rowan stated to the two. "It was just Capital people... My first thought was to come brain storm with you two. I told them to come back in an hour, but if you'd rather not... I could handle it."
She didn't really want to handle it alone. Rory had helped in Rowan's surgery and defended her from panther and tribute alike while Rowan recovered. If this was some Games thing - as 98% of their lives were - then Rory should be involved. That the Capital people had the nerve to state that Rory wasn't appropriate made her just that much more eager to share it.
"They - the Caps - were looking for me and Conrad specifically. When they couldn't find him, they came to me with some sort of proposal. They said that you weren't suitable," Rowan grins at Rory. "So of course, that sounded like fun."
She looks to June, including him with an impish smile.
"- so I said I wouldn't take anything without us being together. You have any clues? "
He was Capital at one time; even if he was now a district seven man. Some people may not think so, but her own husband had once been Capital. She saw how people's polite smiles and crystal stares affected Grant. The forced smile. The superficial greetings in town. He tried, dammit. She was fairly certain he was as sincere as could be. Unless he was just that good of an actor... but no. The man sitting at home with their children was her husband and he was district seven, now. Which was how she would treat June.
Thinking that she could have implicated him in Capital business - or said he was in league - she elaborated, without saying too much for the bugs. Everything she'd said was likely reported by now.
"What would be important two days before the Games?"
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CuteLikeMurder
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Post by CuteLikeMurder on Oct 19, 2014 9:39:20 GMT -5
She reached out and gingerly took his hand into hers. She didn’t say anything but the message was clear, “Please don’t leave me. I need you here.”
There were some that didn’t understand it. Other citizens of District Seven, Apple being chiefly among them. Some of her fellow victors. Some of her friends. It hurt to watch people turn their backs on her. However, she loved June. June loved her. It didn’t have to make sense to anyone else.
Aurora smirked at the look Rowan gave them. It wasn’t like that... It was a little like that. But the robes were mostly because her house was a bit drafty at night.
“The Capitol’s henchmen visiting you in the dead of night and looking for Conrad as well,” Aurora replied. “It doesn’t sound like something that could have waited until the morning.”
Aurora glanced at Rowan. It was clear to her that the girl waited some backup on this. And Rory was happy to oblige. They had gone through so much together. And aside from Jasmine, Rowan was the closest thing that Aurora had ever had to a sister.
“If they are asking for you and Conrad,” Aurora began. “Then this is undoubtedly about the Games. Why they’d exclude me, Apple, Brendan, and Tank is odd. The fact they named me specifically, doesn’t sit well with me.” She glanced at June and then back to Rowan. “Perhaps it is something that will directly involve our tributes this year.”
There was another look to her husband. He had been a Capitol Citizen most of his life. Maybe he’d have an idea. “Have you heard of anything like this before with other districts?”
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QuinnTalon
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Post by QuinnTalon on Oct 19, 2014 21:43:07 GMT -5
June knew what Rowan's husband fought with.
He knew it too. It wasn't something he ever mentioned to Rory, but he was sure she saw. He was looked at with suspicion and thinly veiled distrust by a good portion of the people he came into contact with here in District Seven. Even now, more than five years after his marriage, there were people who treated him with barely concealed hostility.
the Capitol had done this. Had created this 'Us versus Them' attitude, when June knew in his heart of hearts that there was more than one kind of oppression. More than one sort of cage.
The Districts themselves were pens with electric fences, keeping their slaves and servants confined. They barely fed these people, and eventually fear would turn to hatred, and there was a philosopher who lived years before the Dark Days who said that hate, when it overcame fear, became deadly.
But most people in the Capitol--the sycophants and glittering pawns paraded about for the Districts to hate? June knew that they lived in a different sort of cage. A gilded and beautiful cage, dressed in finery and stuffed with so much decadence that there was no need for electric fences. Those birds?
Their wings were clipped. They couldn't fly to save their own lives.
There were fewer people in control of this than anyone really had any clue of. The President and her advisers. Everyone else were lambs for the slaughter. Everyone else were pawns in a game, and only one side knew the rules. Only one side could see the whole board.
So no matter how hard it was, June had resolved to be kind. To prove that he wasn't what they thought of and saw on the screens in The Capitol. To show that there was decency and that they all weren't monsters. He had hope that eventually, they all would accept him as some of the others had. There was a reason his hands weren't as smooth as they'd once been.
He might not be a lumberjack, but he'd learned a thing or two from them.
His fingers twined around his wife's, her silent plea answered when he took a seat next to her. "I have to be honest with you. I was in a better position to hear things than most, but I can't say anything like this has ever reached my ears."
Was.
Because June was sure that they knew he was no longer 'Their Man'. It was in the way his father talked to him now. The way his reports were 'picked up' and in the way his presence in the Capitol was rarely demanded. He could only hope they'd written him off.
But he knew that wasn't likely.
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Post by Seryna on Oct 20, 2014 4:59:31 GMT -5
"If we don't know what it is, I suppose we'd best accept the invitation and look it over." Rowan mused. "We can try and round up the others in the morning."
She sips her tea and is quiet for a moment. She considers what sort of offer the Capital could be extending to the mentors.
"I suppose it has to be considered. It must be something to do with the Games. It must be private as we aren't being coached on a public announcement. They found me when I was by myself, so... they don't want it getting out, I'm guessing."
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CuteLikeMurder
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Post by CuteLikeMurder on Oct 21, 2014 9:59:49 GMT -5
“If June doesn’t know about it, then I am worried. It means they could be trying something new...” Aurora said. Sometimes she wondered if June would have chosen this life if had been given the option. It seemed for a while June had exchanged one cage for another. And this one was less glamorous. District Seven was windy, cold, and damp. A hard place to live at times, no doubt. But there was a saying in District Four that Rory had grown quite fond of. “Hard places breed hard people. And hard people have the power to change the world.” “There’s no doubt in my mind that is has something to do with the Games,” Aurora said. “It makes sense they were approach you or Conrad and exclude me specifically. Though, it’s odd. They have to know we don’t keep secrets from each other.” Save for one, Aurora thought. Her free hand-absentmindedly went to her stomach. She told herself that June had to be the first to know before she made this public knowledge. But then she had to find a doctor, so she told Chase. He was safe. His code of honor would prevent him from revealing her secret. Then of course Ember just took one look at her when she stopped by on her way to District 12 for the Reapings, and guessed. That had been a few days ago. And Rory knew that Ember had told Jan. So that was three. Wistar and Max didn’t even know. Though she knew they had their suspicions. “Chase was supposed to come by tonight,” Aurora told the group. “He must have gotten caught up with his clinic… Rowan, at first I thought you were him until I heard your voice.” She glanced at June. “Could you call him for me, please?”
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QuinnTalon
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Post by QuinnTalon on Oct 21, 2014 11:42:54 GMT -5
It wasn't a surprise to June that Chase Goldman had planned to stop by. Rory had an odd sort of flu the past few weeks. It would come and go, and June had gotten worried enough that having the Healer stop by every now and again wasn't such a hardship. Besides, Chase was a pleasant enough fellow.
He was one of the few Victors of the Hunger Games who'd never held a weapon in his hand. Even Rowan and Tank had done some sort of violence, even if they hadn't killed a single soul in the Games. Chase? Chase hadn't even done that much.
Then again, he hadn't had to. He'd allied early in the thirtieth Games with a rogue Career from District Two. Their arrangement had been a simple one. She'd kept him safe, and he'd patched her up whenever she'd gotten into a fight. Seeing as the 'Natural Alliances' Tributes that year had all been painfully young and died early in the Bloodbath--by design, it seemed to June--it had been a smart move on Chase's part.
Especially considering he'd been written off by a lot of sponsors from the beginning. A Tribute who wouldn't raise a weapon didn't have much hope. If anyone had bet on him to win, they were a good deal richer the day he'd been Crowned.
The Odds and Rankings had him dying extremely early.
"Of course," He squeezed her hand, moving to the viewer to contact the young doctor. He'd used his winnings from the Games to fund his clinic, and CHase often got caught up there. When he didn't get an answer, June nodded to himself.
"He must be on his way...." And then there was a knock. "...I'll get it."
Chase Goldman was the only son of a Healer. A brilliant man from District One named Cashmere, who'd fell in love and married Chase's mother. How that had come about, June hadn't the foggiest. Apparently there'd been some sort of sickness that threatened the population of the District and the Capitol had allowed a few Healers from outside of it to come help.
Apparently, CHase's father had never left.
As such, Chase was a showcase of the most desirable traits of both One and Seven. The young man was tall, with soft, delicate features and bright blue eyes. He was lovely the way many in District One tended to be, but there was a heartiness and a stockiness and an open, honest smile that June had never experienced from one of the Luxury District. That piece of him? That was all District Seven. Right down to that almost-rebellious fire and relentless intellect.
He'd have been a masterful Attendant in District One. Thankfully, he hadn't been put into 'Whore School'--as they called it in Ten--and had ended up a bright and promising Doctor here in District Seven.
"June." He nodded as he passed him, smiling that bright, beautiful smile at the two women. He was the youngest Victor from District Seven. There hadn't been another in almost five years. "Rory. Rowan, I wasn't expecting to see you."
He had a black bag that June knew was a medical kit. He'd come by to check on Rory, though he'd likely wait for Rowan to leave before he did it.
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Post by Seryna on Oct 22, 2014 22:32:34 GMT -5
"I suppose we should decide if we'll let them have they're little secret." Rowan wondered. "I don't like that they tried to exclude you, Rory. I'm not inclined to be jerked around."
As Chase arrives, Rowan smiles at the man. "Chase, hello. Good to see you. I hope that you've been well since we've last talked? " Curiosity glinted in her eyes. "Have you by chance seen Tank or Conrad? There's this thing that we should look over together." Taking in Chase's black bag, Rowan stood. She wasn't going to say a quick word and run, but she didn't want to overstay her welcome when it was clear Chase had business to see to with her friend.
"Think I'll head out for a few." Rowan stated along this line. "How about you come by my place when you can? Sure Officer Friendly will come by to honor us with his offer. Once we see what it is..." Rowan trails off. She didn't see much point discussing it for any longer when whatever the offer could be was so vague. Her friends had things to attend to and she should see to getting her kids fed sometime today.
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Post by Seryna on Oct 31, 2014 14:12:02 GMT -5
As its been several days with no posts, this will be closed. Post in NEW thread request thread to request a continuation thread
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