New Master [Open]

Gwen felt uncertain. The fury that had been flowing through her veins had been cut off at its source and she felt drained. Surprisingly, the Avox actually felt guilty, an emotion she did not experience often. However she had been here not even a day and already her master was near tears. She bit her lip, a growing habit, and pointed her toes inward staring down at them letting silence fall over the apartment.

Gwen finally tilted her head up to look at the master. Slowly, carefully, she took a step towards her. The master felt just like the avox, frustrated. Gwen could see her pain, but had to get over the fact that Capitol citizens might actually feel that kind of pain.

Gwen reached out, a painstaking process, and put her palm on the master's back. Trying to comfort the woman Gwen finally gave up on trying to be formal and cautious. She wrapped her arms around master and attempted to keep from crying again. After of a moment in an embrace, the avox pulled back and did the sign for sorry with a sincere apologetic face.

Gwen looked down at the items. Paper and pen. She had not been allowed to think about using them when she worked in the Training Center and now they were being offered to her to let someone else know of the horrors she'd been through. Slowly, Gwen took the pen in her right hand. It felt funny and unnatural. Taking a deep breath Gwen managed to set the tip to the paper and scrawl out two words.

Gwen Halls

The handwriting was atrocious but it amazed the Avox that she could still write her name. It had a special meaning to her and a smile crawled across her face. Without really thinking, Gwen set more words to the paper. She didn't want this feeling to end, not this soon anyway.

District Eight

All of the letters were awkward and hard to read but Gwen adored it. She put the pen down and ran the tips of her fingers over the ink. She wrote these words. She wrote them of her own free will. There is nothing anyone can do about what she just did. Gwen started bouncing up and down, giddy with the adrenaline of law breaking. It was the same kind of energy that had pumped through her body when she slammed the dish down or refused an order at the Training Center. Although this was simple and easily covered up Gwen couldn't get over the fact that it happened. This was one of the moments she would carry with her and open up in her mind when the darkest of days descended.

Tucking this memory away in her brain where it would not be lost or forgotten, Gwen pushed the paper over to master, running her hands over the ink one more time before surrendering it completely out of her possession. Something told her the Capitol citizen would not see anything special about this moment.

Gwen had experienced a lot of different kinds of hunger in the past. Hunger for food, silence, love, for something other than Panem. However she never thought she would desire more than anything to write down words on a pad of paper. Writing her name and district had torn down the gate that was keeping Gwen from communicating. She wanted to feel the pen in her hand as it swooped across the paper, leaving a language behind it.

Master said her name was "Rella Tealy." A Capitol name, but not too terribly strange. Gwen liked it. It was a good name for a master. Rella... like really or real. Like she was actually there and an actual person, not some moving lump of plastic surgery. She was a human being like Gwen. Yes, Gwen enjoyed her master's name.

Fixing her hand into the proper position, Gwen set her utensil to the paper again. She wrote a little faster than before, but just as carefully.

I had parents and three brothers and a sister. Do you have a family?

It may have seemed like a strange question but you never heard about the Capitol citizens as having families, it was a very individual place. You were on your own in the Capitol, at least it seemed like it. If Capitol citizens didn't have families then maybe that is why they try to fill their lives with skin dyes and Hunger Games; they never felt what everyone else did. If they did have families Gwen would have to dig a little deeper to see why they acted like they did.

For a moment Gwen considered the idea that the District people were the weird ones however she quickly discarded it because it felt all to natural and right. Plus being a District person she didn't like the idea that she didn't act like humans were supposed to. Also the idea that humans were supposed to be obsessed with physical appearance and killing children made a shiver run down her spine.

Gwen Halls

Gwen listened intently as Rella told her about her family. She had a twin, interesting. Gwen wondered if they really looked that much alike with all the surgeries Capitol citizens get. Her master... Rella tuned out for a moment. She seemed to be remembering something from long ago. Gwen let her have her moment since it was apparent that Rella didn't think of her family as often as Gwen did.

Gwen got stuck in her own little world just as her keeper had. She thought on her parents, wondering if they thought about her. She thought of her older brothers. Had they been softened when she was taken? What of her sister? Have any of them died? These were all questions Gwen had pondered before but it seemed to have a heavier effect now.

Gwen was awaken from her trance when Rella pushed the pen and pad of paper towards her. Gwen looked up at her wondering what else she could saw when Rella asked her a question. No not a question, the question. What had she done to become an Avox. In the Avox world every single one of them had a story, but they could never tell someone or vent their feelings. Gwen has been given this opportunity; something most Avoxs can't even dream of.

Gwen took the pen and set it to the paper with more confidence than before. The ink bled a dot onto the paper as Gwen tried to funnel her experience into the pen. After a moment Gwen went with the abridged, simple version.

I wanted peace from my large family. I went outside the gate into the forest. Caught.

Gwen felt her nose start to run. She had only wanted a moment or two to breath but the Capitol didn't want that. They wanted the people of the District to live in their little alloted places and do what they were told. Gwen was taken straight from the forest and to the Head Peacekeeper. When asked why she was outside the fence she remained silent, so they made up a reason for her. Gwen can't remember what is was, but it was a whipping error.

"Now I'm feeling generous I won't have you whipped," The Peacekeeper announced, making Gwen relax a little, but only a little. The Peacekeeper called over one of his underlings and whispered something to him. The underling then took his spot next to Gwen who was already held in place by two Peacekeepers. Overkill much? "In fact I'm sending you to a better place."
Something was stuck into Gwen's arm and immediately made her sag under her own weight.

Gwen shook her head, shaking the memory loose from her main focus and pushed the paper towards Rella. Gwen gave a sniffle and blinked back the moisture that was collecting in her eyes.