In times of pleasure (nocturne + may) D9-apartments

[Deleted]

[presto] may rhodes. sixteen. female. district nine. [/presto] THE ROSES OF THE CIMARRON

It was night three of being in the capitol and May still wasn't used to it. She would wake up almost every hour or at least that's what she did for the first two nights. She had come up and passed out after dinner tonight but she was up again. She had slept maybe two hours in that time and she was just not getting to sleep now. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her other than the fact that she was having constant nightmares. She wondered if she really would be able to get home. Almost every fiber of her wanted too but there was the fact that she had to wait for twenty-three others to die and one of those being her own district partner. The other thing was the fact that she'd have to kill. Would she be able to do it to get home and to keep herself alive? Would she be able to live with herself after that? She wasn't sure and all she wanted to be was numb again. She wanted to not feel and to just zone out everything around her. The only problem with that was, that each time she tried to just zone, her sister faces came to mind. And then Bryce's voice would come into her head. Right now May was being left alone by images and by voices. She liked it that way but she was slowly slipping into a state of unrest and in that state the memories would come flooding back to her. It took her a few moments to realize she may be relaxing too much at the moment. The next thing out of her was a small scream as the glass of water she was drinking became red. It was a figment of her imagination but it freaked her out and she nearly dropped the glass before she focused on it again and told herself that it was just water. She took a deep breath, she'd kill to have anyone up with her right now. She didn't care if it was her mentor or her distract partner. She wondered if Kent was still up and if he'd be willing to chat with her. She loved her stylist or something of the likes of that feeling came to mind when she was with him. He wanted to not only make her pretty for the capitol but tried so very hard to make her believe that she truly was beautiful. What she'd give to have him here right now? May would actually give anything to have her sisters with her right now. If they were here she'd be able to be the rock that they could stand on instead of the mess that she currently was. Everything made sense when she knew what was up with them. She prayed Sammy was keeping his promise to her. The young boy had come to see her off when her sisters had not. She was sure that April and June were just trying to find each other at the time and things all happened so fast. Still the young boy had promised that he'd look out for them and for some strange reason May had believed him. Still she had to wondered if he was truly doing so. She'd never know now would she. She wouldn't know unless she got home. She was wondering what her parents were doing. Where they going on with life like they still had a child or had they tried to ignore the fact that their children were gone? Did they just write her off as dead? There were so many question running through her head that she wasn't sure what to do with them. She curled up into a ball and looked straight ahead of her. She was trying to will her mind to go blank. "from the truth of a thousand lies"

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[L△LIA]

It wasn't nearly as difficult as he'd thought it would be to steal one of Colgate's shirts. When it came down to it, Nocturne had simply walked into his Mentor's room when no one was around and taken it. Honestly, he could have stolen anything he wanted. This, however, was exactly the thing he was convinced he needed. Wearing it, with his hair combed neatly and his scruff freshly shaved, he was convinced he looked as clean-cut and stodgy as could ever be possible.

After several minutes of practicing his most up-tight facial expressions, Nocturne O'Leary emerged back into the common room, searching for his District partner and a bit of amusement. When he found May, she was curled up like an abandoned kitten and he almost broke his carefully planned character, the corners of his mouth twitching downward into a different kind of humorless expression than he was intending. He wants to think he knows a little bit about what she's feeling right now, but that's hard to believe when he's not the one who left who-knows-how-many friends and family members behind. May did.

There's a strange flicker of jealousy in his chest over her ability to feel that kind of misery.

Marching up to her, he clears his throat in the most important-sounding way he can manage. "This is a time for serious faces!" It's a pretty good imitation of Colgate's voice, even though the words themselves are exaggerated and aiming for a reaction from the girl before him that is clearly anything but serious. "What do you honestly think you're gonna achieve, acting like you're already dying?" As those words of welcome from the train slip from Nocturne's mouth, it's all he can do to keep his face from splitting into a shit-eatting grin.

Sitting down beside her, his posture rigid and eyes silently laughing at his own joke, he motions to May to sit up with him and participate. "You've got to focus on your training. I want to see your stodgiest face. This is very important. Don't make me clean your mouth out with... soap." It's all he can do not to laugh and while he doubts that Colgate would approve of this behavior any more than the drunken antics from the day they met on the train, his Mentor was wrong. This is the kind of feeling he needs to hold onto in order to survive and looking at May curled up, maybe it's something she needs as well.

[Deleted]

[*presto] may rhodes. sixteen. female. district nine. [*/presto] THE ROSES OF THE CIMARRON

It was ironically funny how messed up May was right now. If she hadn't ever found her sisters again, would she be any different? She didn't have friend back at home. Or rather she didn't have many of them. People generally left her alone because of the fact that trouble always seemed to follow her. Even as a small child she didn't have many because games of tag or just merely running around could cause skinned knees and bruised egos as she liked to play with the boys. May was the rock for her sisters and the girl who found her way into just about everything. The only thing that changed when she was adopted and when she was pulled from her sisters was the fact that she was focused on one thing and one thing only. Finding her sisters again and never letting anyone else in. Never letting them in because of the fear of being betrayed and ripped from them. Now what had happened. She had found what she wanted only to be ripped away. This had to be punishment of some sort. She might have been completely different had she not met her sisters before this. She may have been numb and completely into making sure she learned every single thing she could about killing the people around her with no remorse or very little guilt. Because in that right she'd have to get home to go back looking for them and she'd be fighting for the parents that raised her, or would she be fighting for herself? She really didn't know right now as she had met her sisters. She had, had a reunion. She was he father's daughter and that was all. She had more people to fight to get home to and she was feeling once again and that was something that would end up breaking her she was sure. She didn't want to lose her district partner either but she knew that would happen she just hoped it wouldn't be by her hands. She was broken from her thoughts by a voice. At first glance she thought it was Soap but upon letting the words and the tone sink in she knew it was not. A small smile came to her face and she couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. "Nice Nocturne. How'd you do it?" She was curious now. Life came back into her eyes and her features as the curiosity came back. She may have still been curled up but now someone was with her and she could focus on something else other than the issues that had been running through her head. May eventually sits up with him almost hanging on his every word even though she's already called him out on it. He was doing pretty well acting like Soap though. "Yes sir!" was all he ended up getting out of her before she actually busted up laughing for the first time in she didn't know how long. She actually rolled off the couch and upon composing herself sat back down. "oh man Nocturne. I need that." There was cheer in the common room of district nine even if it wasn't going to last for very long. Sure Nocturne had been drunk when they met and his antics May didn't exactly understand. Tonight she felt like she finally realized what it was. Or at least that it was a way to help them not fall into despair. They were after all likely not going to go home. They might as well have fun while it lasted. Sure it was an odd way of thinking it but Nocturne was just the friend that May needed to see her through the dark times. At least that's how it felt right now after laughing so hard at him trying so hard to be Colgate. "from the truth of a thousand lies"

[L△LIA]

It might be easy to say that Nocturne Vargas — hereafter AKA: Colgate O'Leary's long-lost doppelganger — is not himself at the moment. However, he is never himself, you see. He is not a child fallen down a rabbit hole; he is a one-man Wonderland.

Tonight he has decided that the lost girl beside him might need a character or two to help her through her own underworld journey and whether or not she has spent the past few days thinking him strange, when the first of her small smiles sneaks onto her face, he begins to think she's beginning to understand his upside-down logic. There's something reassuring about the beat of laughter thrumming through her. Despite her question, he maintains his stoic expression, raising his eyebrows to remind her that her face is suddenly the opposite of a serious expression. It must translate, as she sits up — "Yes sir!" — and complies for a fractioned second... before laughter returns.

Despite his challenge, this is what he was really asking for and it tugs at the corners of his own lips, hitching them up against his will as he struggles to stay in character. When she gets so caught up that she rolls off the couch and onto the floor, he finally cracks, sniggering to himself as she thanks him. However, while she may be playing right into the Vargas boy's hand, she has not succeeded in Nocturne O'Leary's challenge, the consequences to which were fairly outlined.

He's wracked with laughter as the words skitter out his mouth, "We were supposed to be having a serious moment, Miss Rhodes!" Even before the last of the sort-of-scolding is out, he's already reaching into his pockets, pulling out handfuls of miniature bars of soap that he's been squirreling away from the bathrooms over the past few days. Some are deceptively simple squares that smell of roses or honey and others are shaped like miniature animals, flowers, or — his personal favorite — Colgate O'Leary's face. Without warning, he begins lobbing the soaps into the air around them: tiny, ridiculous projectiles bouncing all around. Laughter ricochets through the room and he tosses one or two of the couch pillows into the mix for good measure.

The best he saves for last, Wonderland-Colgate mock-menacingly tossing a bar of Soap-soap from one hand to the other as he eyes his target. "I warned you that we're gonna have to clean that smile off your mouth, May." By now his own smile must be at least twice as wide as hers. Maybe this rogue grin is truly his or perhaps he stole it from someone back in Nine, but if this silly moment is just him flipping the world up and over again, then he has no explanation for why it feels so much more normal than moping around like so many of the other stone-faced Tributes.