District Thirteen, Panem, Saturday Evening (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

Well, that had been an unmitigated disaster. All that training, all that work, all for nothing. She'd been subdued after dinner, save for a 'friendly discussion' with Gale where she'd politely explained he was acting like a controlling jackass and he needed to cut that shit right out--which he hadn't seemed to appreciate at all, even though she'd only trying to be helpful.

After dinner, the schedule printed on her arm informed her that she was supposed to be cleaning up in the kitchens. Karla ignored that--hey she was already on record as being insubordinate, right? Why mess with a good thing?--and instead wandered around until she'd found an empty room to hide out in for awhile.

Maturely. As you do.

[NFB. Open to everyone in Thirteen, PCs and NPCs alike. Posted and Gale-modded with permission!]

Comments

[wwiii]

Karla wasn't the only one currently looking for an empty room to hide away in, it seemed. Warren, still reeling a little from his failed test and feeling the claustrophobia ten times worse now than he'd felt since their arrival in Panem, had spent a bit of time wandering. He'd skipped out on dinner entirely, had actually passed his share of food on to somebody else in exchange for them doing his chores for the evening, and had wandered off to find some quiet place where he could close his eyes and not freak out.

He flew. He didn't take to this feeling of being caged so well, at all.

It actually took him a minute once he'd stepped into the room to realize that he wasn't alone.

"Oh... I..." Was he interrupting something? He wasn't so sure at the moment. The walls were closing in and now that his wings were back to their former glory (with maybe a bit more dust than usual and a few lingering pinfeathers,) he was aching all the more to get out and stretch them. "Sorry. Did you want to be alone?"

[glacial_queen]

If that had been Gale or Coin (or even Peeta), Karla's answer might have been different. But this was Warren; even more than just her boyfriend, he was a friendly face from Fandom. Someone who found this place just as strange and alien as she did, maybe even moreso.

So she looked up at him and shook her head, giving him a gentle smile as she did. "Not if you're offering company," she said, patting the ground next to her in invitation for him to sit. "Come here. You look like you could use more scritches."

This whole 'regrowing feathers' deal was like a molt but ten times worse she'd found.

[wwiii]

"I'd settle for a good stretch," Warren sighed, making his way into the room and taking a seat beside her. "Or a window. A window would be great, right now."

From there on the floor, at least, the room seemed a little bit bigger. That helped, some.

[glacial_queen]

Karla was pretty sure that they were too far down for a window to show anything but dirt, but she kept that unhelpful comment behind her teeth and just sank her fingers into his wings.

"You were scratching again, weren't you?" she asked, looking down at some of the more ragged feathers under her hands.

[wwiii]

"It itches," was Warren's reply, a little too tired and shaky to be very close to whining, at least. "I've been careful about it, at least."

Because when your fingers seemed to be very stubbornly tipped in claws, there wasn't really much choice but to be careful about scratching. There weren't any bloody streaks from it this evening, at least.

[glacial_queen]

"You're doing them harm," Karla chided. She moved over to where they seemed to be the most ragged and scratched her nails along the skin beneath. "We're going to have to see about trimming those--your nails. They're still a lot longer and sharper than you realize."

So far, there hadn't been any unintentional scratching on Karla yet, but part of that was because they were still rather tentative around one another. And since she wasn't sure how long the tentativeness or the claws were going to remain, Karla wanted to make sure he was aware of them.

[wwiii]

"I realize," Warren sighed, closing his eyes and trying not to slump back against her as she scratched. "I'm a mutant, not completely numb. Just because I heal quickly doesn't mean I don't notice when I scratch myself."

Or when he woke up with blood in his clothing, or when he snagged them on inconvenient bits of fabric, or. Or. Or.

They were kind of difficult to ignore.

[glacial_queen]

"I didn't mean to suggest you were," Karla said, pressing an apology kiss to the top of his head. "I'm not trying to nag."

It was just a little worrying that everything else had long-since gone back to normal and they'd remained.

[wwiii]

"I know. I know, I'm just..." Probably more dismayed about the claws than she was? Yes. "It's been a long day."

A very long day.

[glacial_queen]

A long day on top of a long week on top of a long month on top of a very long summer. Karla understood.

"I'm going to see if I can't convince Coin to let me go topside tomorrow to scavenge for useful herbs," she offered. "I know she used to let Katniss and Windy go hunt. Maybe she'll let us do something similar. If she does, you'll come with me, right?"

Yeah. Because there was the chance Warren would turn down the opportunity to get out from Thirteen.

[wwiii]

The real challenge would be convincing him to come back underground after the fact.

"Please?"

He couldn't sound more hopeful when he said that if he tried.

"I need... I need to not be down here for a bit. It's too much. I can't breathe."

[glacial_queen]

"I get that," Karla promised. She remembered how hard it was for her to stay on the island after thinking that Katniss had died in the Games. And Thirteen, with its sterile atmosphere had to be drawing up worse memories on top of the claustrophobia.

She wrapped soothing spells around him to help ease the tightness in his chest. "I'll get Coin to agree with it if I have to use Black Widow Craft to make her. We'll get a day outside."

[wwiii]

"Thank you," Warren murmured, curling up in those soothing spells and willing himself to relax a little more. "I was doing okay until today. I was."

And then... very not so much.

"I washed out in the testing. They buried me alive."

He hadn't taken that so well.

[glacial_queen]

"Mother Night and may the Darkness have mercy," Karla breathed, wrapping her arms tightly around Warren before realizing that that might not actually be the most comforting gesture she could make right now. "Are you--is there anything I can do to help?" she asked, torn between continuing the hug and going to string Coin up by the woman's own tits.

[wwiii]

"This is plenty," he murmured, leaning back against her. "I mean, they need to know if that kind of thing will be a problem, right? And..."

He chewed on his lip, looking over his shoulder at her. "It has been, before."

[glacial_queen]

Karla's hand twitched, an unconscious desire to brush her hand against the temple that Warren had bashed his wing into. She stilled the movement, keeping her arms wrapped around him instead. "Maybe they do, but they don't have be so...so...jerky about it."

Yes. That was an eloquent way to put it. Gold star for Karla.

[wwiii]

Hey, it was just about eloquent enough for Warren to be able to grasp at the moment. It worked out nicely.

"I... guess not." He shrugged a tiny bit, eyes toward the floor. "It's something I'm going to have to get over, either way."

Desperately so.

[glacial_queen]

"Somehow I don't think that unexpectedly putting you in that situation if going to help you do that," Karla said, giving idle thought to all the ways she could make Coin suffer.

"I didn't make it in, either," she added. You know, in case he'd missed that.

[wwiii]

Warren nodded a little, frowning over his shoulder at her again.

"What was your test?"

If they buried his girlfriend alive, someone was getting a wing to the mouth.

... Or claws.

[glacial_queen]

If only Karla knew what Warren was thinking, she might had added that to her list. "There was a daycare on fire," she said quietly, looking down. "We were told to disregard and move on. I didn't listen. And when they yelled, I ripped the ear piece out and kept going. Because I'm stupid," she added, still sounding a little bitter.

[wwiii]

"Because there were little kids burning," Warren replied, frowning deeply. "It's not stupid, saving kids."

It wasn't.

The most important thing he'd done in Agio was lock himself away with the orphaned and dazed children, telling them stories and trying to keep their spirits up.

[glacial_queen]

Cora would agree, most certainly!

"But they weren't vital to the mission," Karla said and if she hadn't been bitter before, she was now. "Their safety mattered less than whatever target we were supposed to be reconning."

[wwiii]

"According to them." Warren's voice was smaller and more tired than it had been when he'd come into the room, now. "But they're kids."

He was kind of stuck on that point, yes.

[glacial_queen]

"I know," she said softly. That was why she had failed, even knowing that it was a simulation. "I just...couldn't let it go. Even if there weren't really children in there. I couldn't let it go."

[wwiii]

"Maybe that's not entirely a bad thing, if that's what they were asking you to do," Warren murmured, turning around to face her and carefully wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "It... isn't so great for Katniss, but..."

He wasn't even sure where he was going with that. But he kind of needed to believe it, himself.