guided tours! 50 bucks! /enzo + av

When Eleven ends and Ten begins, Avriel is sketching on a piece of a scrap paper and he barely notices. Fields empty from the fall harvest slowly turn into rolling grassy fields. The animals stay far away from the train and its noise, but if Avriel were to look up, he'd see little spots in the distance– cows. He's never seen cows, not in person.

The ballpoint he borrowed off one of the stylists flies over the paper and ever so slowly, an arm forms on the white. His foot, detached with the panel open, sits beside him on a seat. If they could give him a foot, so realistic that sometimes he forgot it wasn't his, then Avriel is certain he could give Kass a better arm.

"We're approaching the city centre so get your foot back on, Lafayette wants you in a suit for Saffron's dinner," Gloria snaps at him. The day's barely started and she's already in one of her moods. It could be because Avriel tripped getting off the train in Eleven or maybe it's her cigarette and iced coffee diet, the answer is uncertain. Either way, Avriel knows not to make her tell him twice.

He pushes the sketch into his pocket and hands Gloria the pen back. He's not allowed to have anything that could be considered sharp unsupervised on this tour, even though he's been living free now for six months. "Protocol," the Peacekeeper who'd frisked him had drawled.

Sure.

Ten is really big. He stares out at the fields as the stylists prod his hair into place and Laffy makes last minute adjustments to his outfit for the day. Avriel is trying not to think, which is actually pretty easy. Scout is sitting in his cupped hands, big dark eyes on the world rolling by so Avriel follows his lead.

By the time the train pulls into the station, his foot is reattached and his hair is perfection so he's not allowed to touch it. Gloria's forced an iced coffee into him in the hopes that the caffeine will perk him up a little for the cameras but all it's done is make Avriel's heart race.

"The Emberstatts are victor royalty, Avriel, if you mess this up..." Gloria starts and then her voice just fades into background noise.

Avriel is going to mess things up, that's a given. He nods though, eyes on the train door. He can already see the crowd through the window. Will he see Ariel's family in the crowd, will he recognize them? There's a photo in his pocket, it's been burning a hole in it for six months now. He'd found it in the pile of tribute items they'd let him look through after he'd gotten out of hospital and recognized Thad right away.

If he could find one of the other people in the shot, maybe he could return it to them.

"Avriel, are you even listening to me?" Gloria says, as the door begins its decompression.

"Nope," he says and then steps out into the winter sun before Gloria can yell at him some more.

The sun is so bright at first that it's hard to see the extent of the crowd at the platform. His name booms out over Ten's square via loudspeaker and a cheer erupts when they see his face. Avriel blinks, stepping back slightly into the safety of the train, but the door is shutting on him, it's too late.

He squints, then someone is leading him by the arm up to a mic and someone starts the chant, "SPEECH, SPEECH, SPEECH!"

Adrenaline rushes through him and Avriel's mind goes absolutely blank as the crowd eventually quiets and waits for him to say something. "Uh, I don't know how–" he starts and is interrupted by a wave of cheers from the crowd, "I don't know how to thank-you for... for Ariel, she meant a lot."

Av raises his arm and his sleeve slides down a little to reveal the combined friendship bracelet he still wears. He would have given up on day one without her and Blade, he would have walked into the lake, he'd even thought about it. Ariel had been so gentle and kind though, he hadn't wanted to leave her to the wolves, he'd wanted to stay just to protect her.

"I never met Thad but–" he pauses when the crowd erupts at his name as well, "But he uh, he seemed like a good guy too."

Then he waves, "Thanks for coming to say hi."

Avriel backs away from the mic after that and turns to head down the stairs where his entourage is probably waiting for him. Whether there's a victor there to greet him or not is uncertain, Avriel's only got one thing underlined in red on the itinerary today and that's Saffron's dinner at five.