omg, bunnies!

Coming home was rough. Illiana Annwn hadn't wanted to stop in her former District, but she had--just to check up, she had assured herself, but three days later the eighteen year old hadn't left. She had gotten a job, as a Healer. Lana's time with the Uprisers had been useful as far as medical training went and when she returned home one morning to find a man bleeding on the side of the road, it kicked in. A few bandages later she found herself running into town, calling for an actual doctor. It was rather surreal the way everything played out and the Healer just up and offered her a job as her assistant. Priya, the Healer, was in her thirties but had already grown weary of her job. People often died because medicine and bandages were hard to buy, in her mid thirties she already looked like an old woman who just wanted to relax.

Now that Illiana had that job, she didn't have to register for a hard one, she was officially one of the few free-lance medics allowed in the District. Her family lived miles away, Lana was sure she wouldn't have to see them but... But it was hard to know her 'mother, father, and remaining siblings,' were sitting pretty on their ranch working harder than ever to pick up the slack that Illiana had left a month ago. A month. It was unreal to think that only a month ago she had been a pretty little weakling, fluttering around the ranch and running with the wind. Her hair had been her main concern and make-up had been mandatory. Her long, white-blonde hair was now pulled back in a pony-tail and only eye-liner was present on her smooth, pale face.

Her sea-green eyes darted from worker to worker, a small frown on her feline face. It was winter and a chill had set in her bones. The weather assured that she would not be allowed to leave her District until spring came and everything thawed out. The sky was a beautiful dark grey, gloomy none the less, but it had managed to capture her solemn, sullen mood. Lana Annwn didn't care how stupid she looked just standing near the hard-working people, a medical bag slung over her shoulder. She was far too busy being self-absorbed and thinking about all her troubles to remember why she was here, her depressing job, and life in general.

Illiana could have jumped out of her own skin. She had only just realized how creepy and stupid she would look just standing there with a blank expression on her face. That was the exact moment the girl spoke. Her head turned in the direction of the girl, but Lana was still in a haze, recalling her family. There was mother, father, her two sisters, and her brother. There was the family animals and the mockingjays that were seemingly always watching.

Enough of her was conscious to the point that she could understand what the girl was saying. It was frightening to hear the bitter hatred in her voice, to acknowledge the hard look on her face. Instantly the sympathetic girl wanted to apologize for being so useless, but the stronger side of her that resembled Arcadia London, her sister and the hopefully winner of the Hunger Games said no. It was cruel to get upset with a Healer for being too busy to help regular citizens with their regular lives. If this girl was dying, she would not even dare to look at Lana Annwn funny because that might insult her and cause the Healer to make a mistake while working on her.

It was shocking to realize Illiana was calculating enough to plot that in her head. She herself would never do such a thing to a girl who probably was usually nice. That would be an awful, mean, pointless act of vengeance that would only ever hurt every other worker who had to pick up the sick/dead girls slack. She winced, blue-green eyes clouding up at the thought of the vital, breathless girl lying dead in Priya's home, waiting to be picked up by her family. If she even had one.

She shook her head and walked over toward the girl, not too fast nor too slow. Lana had became very self-conscious after starting to interact with people. She did not wish to seem too eager to be going over to the girl or unsympathetic to her situation. "I'm sorry," she began upon arriving before the young lady. "My mentor, Priya--a Healer, sent me here to check up on you all. Make sure nobody had any bad wounds of any sorts. I-I would..." Lana trailed off before she could finish that dangerous sentence that would earn her another job. I would help If I could. Saying that would be like saying 'Sorry for your loss.' It didn't do anything to help the hard workers of District Eight, only serve as another reminder that Illians life was mildly easy because of her good fortune, and this adolescents, was not.

She hesitated though, looked at the sweat-covered faces of the people surrounding her. Helping out for just a little while wouldn't be that bad. What if she fled the scene of this atrocity and somebody got hurt while she was across town? Might as well stay, just in case somebody got injured. Might as well help. Might as well.

"Where do you need me?" With that bold statement Illiana looked straight into the face of her accuser, strong. She had not stuttered nor faltered while uttering that last question and it was pleasing. After only knowing the life of an average person for a few months, Lana Annwn was always excited when she managed to fool people into thinking she was just like everybody else, and had not been raised with only the few people that made up her family, as company. Life could be extremely wonderful when you interacted with others.

Her smile was soft. Kind. Illiana hadn't been raised around people, but the stories she had heard from her siblings and Upriser friends were horrifying. Peacekeepers that laughed when people were whipped for committing such an atrocious crime as walking around in a fashion considered 'too cool for school,' or something like that. Her sister had told her man times that officials did not care for the people they watched over, but Lana Annwn, Queen of the Innocent, could not believe that. She was a hopeful person who hated to think that there were so many sadist in her home District and beyond. It was infuriating really.

"I understand. I am called Illiana, I suppose you wouldn't see me around that much. I'm rather new to ah," she fished for something to say. You don't say 'normal life?' Do you? "I'm a new Healer, never was that social before I got my job." The explanation would have satisfied Illiana if she were on the other end of the conversation, and it seemed reasonable. She mentally sighed, happy that her social skills weren't all that bad as people would think they would be.

She dropped her medical bag, inspired by the blistered-handed girl dropping her load of weeds into a nearby basket. Lana gently grabbed her hands, inspecting them with the eye of somebody who knew what they were doing. Having haled from District Two (although she had been taken away from her birth District before she could ever know it as home) the woman had been born with a light, doctors touch. She crouched down and unzipped one of the side compartments of her bag. Lana felt herself biting her tongue. Saying something like You should really have gloves on to protect your hands, seemed insensitive. People of a lower class District didn't have money to buy gloves, and its not like the Capitolites would ever spare an old pair of their glorious, hand-made gloves for the dirty workers of such a filthy District to wear. That would be weird, almost as weird as giving the doctors of poor Districts enough supplies to bandage patients hands because they had no gloves and...

Well she had certainly worked herself up thinking about the way rich people treated her friends and family. It was god-awful of them. Hadn't the rich ever heard of charity, or was that just one of those pretty words they used as a name? Lana had heard names like Faith, Hope, and Charity were popular at the moment. As if the Capitolites needed an extra of that, they had oodles of faith in their government, tons of hope for their bright futures, and were oh so charitable because sometimes they ate their meal and didn't barf it up so they could eat another meal within the hour. That was like sooo great of them not to waste all that food. She shook her head as finally a bandage appeared in the middle of her messy pack.

The woman stood up and looked at Senia. "May I?" she questioned, holding out the bandage.

ooc- the funny part is I have four bandages on my hand because I got blisters from the bat at the batting cages >.<

She was a people person. If Illiana was not naturally good at reading people and hadn't had more conversations with herself in the mirror than she could count, maybe she would have been horrible at dealing with strangers, yet here she was, a normal member of society. Yes of course she was a little too formal when it came to addressing people, and sure every now and then she would stare at a person her expression a blank one, because she did not understand a joke or comment. This was one of those moments where Lana couldn't tell if it was her mistake that had prompted the young worker to utter such a strange saying, or plain insanity on Senia's part.

Lana did not have enough faith in herself to immediately blame Senia for the way their conversation had gotten very awkward and confusing all of the sudden. "I'm sorry," she said, desperately trying to keep the hurt and shock out of her voice, but failing anyways, "Did I do something? Like I said, I'm new to here and I would hate to have..." she looked hopefully at Senia, not even knowing what she had done wrong. When you leave me, I will never know you. It was an ominous statement that nearly prompted Lana to flee the scene of the statement. If she hadn't been a curious person, constantly interested in learning more (especially about people) Lana Annwn would not have risked sticking around to see what Senia said next. She would have run home to Priya and cried her eyes out because the world was so very hard and too often she found herself puzzled.

How many times had the eighteen year old gone home and asked Priya what an 'epic fail,' was, or who this strange Alligator was and why people always said 'See you later,' beforehand. She was a foreigner, unaccustomed to the strange phrases and gestures people often made when speaking to her. There was only so much her regular, run of the mill siblings had taught her about how to act around people. They hadn't explained some of the odder habits of man. Nobody bothered to explain people to me, I had to constantly try to decipher the things people said when interviewed for the Hunger Games, or use my own brain to figure out what a cup of tea had to do with somebodies hobbies or interests. I might as well be a toddler trying to learn how to speak except its even harder for me. I was taught the wrong language, too formal and strict instead of easy and abbreviated like it is in the real world. Nobody expected me to ever leave my home. Teaching me was never a priority.

Sadness overcame her at the thought. Her family had given so much to her: their love, appreciation, counsel, and support even during the darkest, loneliest days of her life. Knowing that there was so much they had held back tinged her childhood memories with stinging, biting resentment. Like a paramour who only knows one side of the man she has an affair with, never truly knowing the other side until his wife discovers their hidden love. Her family had tried tried to sweeten the world and hide all the badness from her. They had never told her of how awful and dirty-minded men could be, or what gossiping, back-stabbers women might become. She had experienced life through the eyes of a spoiled, secret mistress who had to suddenly meet the other side of her man, one that wasn't nearly as kind and dreamy as the rich, smiling one she had once known.

Her whole head was so fixtated on that one bitter thought--the realization that her life was not as it had always seemed. Lana barely managed to catch Senia's reply and even then her eyes were hazy and her head up in the clouds. Coming in contact with epiphamies is always a trip, but when you have to suffer them with the cool, lying eyes of a stranger on you its that much harder. A forced smile was in place on her face--Senia did not need another reason to believe she was cookoo--but it had been and was fading fast. Not a good liar, what an understatement. Already her faze was mirroring her thoughts, confusion and disbelief etched in her every feature. It gave her a likeness to a woman of the Capitol who had had too much surgery and had a permanent shocked expression on her tightly-pulled back face. Minutes, hours, days passed and Illiana stood frozen and trapped within her own mind, trying to decipher the meaning of a hard-working native of District Eights harsh words.

ooc- sorry for going all 'mistress analogy' on you but I couldnt help myself. Basically it means that Illiana feels like a woman who is finally realizing her life wasn't/isn't all she thought it was as bigger, badder things happen to her.

Illiana regarded her with serious, wide eyes. She got it. To the on-looker, one would notice the way her feline face hardened as she fully understood what Senia was saying. Those words had a bite, they cut deep into Lana's heart and made her want to laugh, cry, and yell all at once. It was strange how being out here in the fields turned her into such an overly-emotional, dramatic mess. A few silent moments passed, still as a statue Illiana stood over Senia--her mind was working over-time in an attempt to register those words and come up with a sufficient reply. Her mouth opened, then clamped shut. She blinked, once, twice, thrice and finally the truest answer popped into her head.

"You're right, but also terribly wrong. Yes my life has been long, not hard. Yes being around me might be dangerous, but no I'm not a criminal. I grew up here, in District Eight, raised by humble, cowardly parents who dare not oppose the government." She shook her head and stray, fine, golden hairs slipping out of her tight bun to frame her face. "Listen, to put it simply I'm a Healer not a Fighter." Illiana did not mention her past time spent as an Upriser and she didn't tell the girl that she had spent time in the woods training runaway Healers, and would return in a few days time to check up on them. That would be putting too much trust in a stranger. That kind of information was not to be casually mentioned in civil conversation--rebellions were left to be spoken about behind closed doors, far, far away from District spies and Peace Keepers.

Even she knew that. Miss Annwn was new to the world but she was not blind, deaf, and dumb. Her senses worked perfectly well. Even her instincts were just as finely honed as the next average, District Eight citizen. Trying to survive was on of those instincts and getting accused of rebellious actions was not on her list of To-Do's for the week. Senia seemed like a perfectly nice girl, hard around the edges, but that was to be expected when you grew up in a lower district. But... But even hard, kind people would sell their soul for a good meal if they had a hungry family. Which many did. No matter how well you knew a person, you never knew them fully until the day they let a brigade of Peace Keepers arrest a group of suspected terrorists.

Illiana's own clear aqua eyes followed Senia's gaze to a guy around her age. He looked like Senia, probably a sibling or some other relation. Lana didn't really care much, she was more intent on the expression than the face of this guy. He was glaring at Senia like maybe she was offending him in some way. Maybe he's heard what she's been telling me and doesn't think its nice. And maybe a flying heard of bunnies will soar across the sky screaming, 'Death to the Capitol! Long live the Rebellion!'

As if. The more likely reason for his distasteful expression was that Senia and him had bad blood between them already, and he was simply glaring at her as per usual. Sort of sad to think that a world where kin hated kin was more likely than adorable, soft bunny-rabbits making their way across the sky, but well, that was the way the world worked. She sighed and turned back to Senia, having realized the girl was done talking to her. "Yeah, I get it, if I were yo--" Lana's eyes darted back over to the unnamed family member of Senia's. A Peacekeeper out to make sure everybody was still working had come up behind him, obviously having watched him glare daggers at poor little Senia the hard working teenage girl. The Peacekeeper just pulled out a long, deadly looking whip and flicked it toward his back. The sound of air being cut and finally the whip making contact with clothing then skin came before the screams and gasps.

People around him gasped and jumped away, afraid that the Peacekeeper would wound them too. Senia's Potential Kin fell to the ground, a look of pain on his face and a cry of pure anguish having broken the near silence. Everybody watched as the Peacekeeper struck once more, then walked away. Bye bye sadists with a weapon, nice seeing you. He didn't bother to make sure his victim was still alive, didn't seem like he cared that much. In a split second of violent rage Lana Annwn, the delicate butterfly girl who just let the wind carry her where it may, felt anger. She wanted to--she w anted to grab that whip and flick it in a careless manner such as the Peacekeeper had. The woman wanted to slice right through him and do it all with a twisted smile on her face even if the action would later haunt her in her sleep.

Illiana looked at Senia, then back at the guy, then to her medical bag and opened her mouth to say something but she couldn't force her body to move. She just stood there quivering, angry, sad, frightened and ultimately scarred for life. This was a living nightmare. District Eight should have a sign at its border proclaiming, 'Welcome to Living Hell, enjoy your stay while you last!'

And you won't last long. This place, its a fearscape fabricated of mans deepest, darkest nightmares. Children lay dead in the ground eaten up by the worms before their nineteenth birthday. The food you eat, the water you drink... none of it is free. The air you breath is property of the Capitol. Slavery. The people of this fearscape are enslaved, not according to religious beliefs, skin color, or any other trait that man may posses, but simply because when the world ended, their ancestors weren't strong enough to tell some bullies to shove it. So they got the Capitol, and the Capitol got generations and generations of useful, submissive slaves like Senia and Illiana.