First Dispatch. How Utterly Dreadful. Voice.

[trinkett]

[Anyone who meets Effie in this post will meet her in full Capitol fashion and makeup. She landed in the shop, you see. A stiff turquoise-blue structured gown, fortunately, landed beside her.

And the wig -- thank the Senate! There were plenty of wigs and there was HER wig, tight and blond and curled and fabulous -- and the new violet wings sprouting from her shoulders were quite irregular but one never drew attention to one's irregularities. If anyone asked, they were Fashion. With any luck everyone who was anyone in the Capitol would be wearing similar ones, soon.

The makeup took a bit longer. Effie finally settled on green because green is one of her Power Colors and it IS almost spring, after all. She drew her lips in a pursed bow to reflect her dissatisfaction with everything.

It had only taken a quick readthrough of the Guide for Effie to grasp somewhat what was going on. It wasn't terribly shocking, but it was highly disappointing. She'd wanted to be in the Capitol for Katniss and Peeta, not transferred to a new post just at the height of a possible professional and personal triumph. Her charges were brilliant! Cinna had shown their fire to everyone. The sensation had been rampant and her promotion near-assured. Effie Trinket's star had been rising in the Capitol, the heart of Panem and civilization.

And then Someone had Bumped her. It was the only explanation for all of this business of waking up in a clothing store in what was obviously a cheap, outlying serfdom of Panem. A lesser woman would have called that Bumping Someone a dirty word, but Effie had dignity and would find other ways to trample that usurper into dust once she got back on her feet and back to the Capitol.]

Attention, Attention:

[Her usual rather chirpy voice is a bit tempered by the fact that she has only recently awakened in a clothing shop in a strange town.]

Would any available Peacekeepers in District Luceti please report to the Clothing Emporium? I repeat: any available Peacekeepers. The Diplomatic Escort for the Tributes requires a full compliment of Security. [Yes: she was still clinging to what she assumed was her now-stripped title and position.]



Thank you.

[[[[IMPORTANT NOTE: While Effie WILL be in full Capitol couture clothing and makeup for this post, some of my icons are simply those of her PB, Elizabeth Banks. I will probably try to MOSTLY use the icons from the Hunger Games movie but just assume she's all made up and dressed to the very weird nines even if you get a plain Elizabeth Banks icon! THANKS.]]]]]

Comments

[trinkett]

"It must be so," she agreed vehemently. "For why else would I be dispatched here?"

It was perhaps not a question she expected Sharpe to answer.

[greenjacketed]

And yet he tried to answer it all the same: "Every man, woman, and child in this place could ask the same question. Though I would treat the word 'dispatch' more lightly, Miss Trinket. For this ain't like no proper assignment I've ever had nor heard of."

A huff. "These Peacekeepers you're looking for..." Sharpe trailed off, eager to have the lady fill in the missing details.

[inyourfavor]

She looked at him. The fiction she'd constructed for herself to make sense of this place stood firm, but something about this fellow was making her a bit wary.

"Your name, first? If you please?"

[greenjacketed]

"Sorry, miss." Once again. Oh, he hated apologizing. But some people had to be apologized to. "Major Richard Sharpe."

[inyourfavor]

Ah, a military man of rank. It was promising.

She dropped a brusque curtsy. "A pleasure, Major. As for myself, I was working in quite a high position in the Capitol."

Said with the implication of and I shall again, once I figure out how to climb back into Their good graces.

[greenjacketed]

"Whose Capitol?"

Ah. That about confirmed it. Both Katniss and Clove spoke of the dreadful place. But Sharpe persisted in playing dumb soldier as he returned her curtsy with a stiff bow.

[happyhungergames]

"In Panem. The Capitol is run by the Elite, of course, and they make sure everyone remains quite satisfied."

[greenjacketed]

"By the elite," he echoed -- then added: "And President -- ah, what was it -- Snow?"

[happyhungergames]

".....How do you know that?" Was he, too, Panemanian?

[greenjacketed]

"I know it," he was practically petulant, "because I know things. Can know things. And do know things. Many things. This among'em."

Sharpe stepped aside until he felt his rifle-brown wings press against a shelf of assorted sweatshirts. Presumably, it was to be less of an imposing figure in the middle of the shop's aisle.

"And you've made it clear enough where you're from. Ain't hard to put two and two together."

[trinkett]

"You have met Miss Everdeen."

Katniss had, after all, signaled her over the journals.

[greenjacketed]

A little more gruffly than he'd care to admit: "Aye. And who are you to her, Miss Trinket?"

[trinkett]

"Her Chaperone."

[greenjacketed]

"You?"

His brows went up in honest disbelief, for he could imagine no scenario in which a creature such as this could ever play matching chaperone to the hard, sad girl he'd come to begrudgingly accept as family. Or something like it.

Sharpe expected Katniss didn't care much for the arrangement, but he wouldn't say so aloud. "You can't be her chaperone and work for the Malnosso, Miss Trinket. It don't work like that. Pick your side."

[happyhungergames]

"My job, Major, is to make sure that Katniss remains on the right side. The good side. The winning side.


The surviving side."

[greenjacketed]

"A survivalist, are you?"

Funny. She didn't look it. "And you work for your Capitol." And Sharpe had never liked the sound of the Capitol and its wasteful ways.

[happyhungergames]

"Everyone who is anyone works for Snow's administration, yes."

[greenjacketed]

"...Well, I don't."

Which -- he supposed -- made him no one. And Sharpe wasn't sure just how that notion settled in his stomach. Of course, the point was moot considering he wasn't from any place where this Snow bastard was an issue. But the Capitol's politicians reminded him near enough of those from home that he couldn't quite shake the bullheaded pride in his voice: "Proud of it, too."

[trinkett]

"You seem proud enough to burst all those buttons, as a matter of fact."

It wasn't QUITE a reprimand. Maybe the small unformed conjoined twin growing out of the reprimand's spine.

"Now I might ask you: what have you to do with Katniss Everdeen?"

[greenjacketed]

Major Richard Sharpe smiled the smile of a man who knew he was about to piss someone quite royally off. It was a rare joy, to really stick one's foot so firmly out to trip up another's day. He hadn't done it in quite a while, on account of most folk in this town being pleasant and peaceable people. But everything about this woman screamed -- nay, more than screamed -- all about a lifestyle he managed to envy and resent at the same damn time.

"Bloody hell, ma'am," he spoke roughly and unapologetically, "I live with the little lass, don't I?"

[trinkett]

"Not ANYMORE you don't!"

Was he HOPING Katniss would be slaughtered in the arena due to lack of sponsorship?!

[greenjacketed]

"...Eh? Fancy you can evict me, do you?"

Sharpe knew he was doing one of those things he really shouldn't have done. Each syllable was accompanied by that wrenching sensation in his gut -- the one that promised provosts and punishment once his sins were found out. And -- oh -- be sure your sins will find you out. Numbers. Thirty-two. Twenty-three. Just about all the religion he knew with certainty, for the words had been written in large letters above the orphan's heads at the foundling home.

But despite the instinctive guilt, Sharpe's grin widened and he kept on sinning. "I don't care much for your chances, ma'am."

Oh, sure. He could tell her that Katniss allowed him to live there. He could tell her how the girl kept him fed and shared stories. He could explain how very much he wanted to see the girl do well in this town. But were he to breathe any word of these things, he'd risk casting even the slightest blame upon the girl herself. And God Above, he'd hate to do that.

THAT SMUG SMILE

[trinkett]

"I don't like YOUR chances once I move in, too!"

With a long enough lever, Archimedes could move the world. With enough passive aggressive housemate behaviors, Effie Trinkett could send Sharpe scurrying for new digs. Unfortunately poor Katniss would likely find herself the fulcrum.

SO SMUG.

[greenjacketed]

"Best seek permission first, Miss Trinket."

Ah, war. How he missed it so. Perhaps it would be like no war he'd ever fought before, but Sharpe was a soldier. He could adapt.

[inyourfavor]

"Permission!" Effie bristled. "Why, she'll welcome me with open arms! We're old friends, Katniss and I! She looks up to me for her moral well being, not to mention her morale!"