[UNRECORDED]

[weyountrinket]

It's been... a fair amount of time since Weyoun's last seen District 12. He admittedly hadn'y paid all that much attention to the scenery on his way home, the morning after Caro's return and that dreadful 'celebration' the night of. And he couldn't say he was exactly sorry to see it go. 12 is generally miserable from what he could tell, filled with miserable people - and whiile he felt sympathetic to their plight, also finds he has a kneejerk hatred of what they've done to two certain Victors. He's madder on Caro's behalf than Walter's... but he's still actually mad for Sullivan, despite whatever problems he has with the man himself.

Returning to the Capitol and his normal life comes with its own set of problems, however. He quickly finds himself even more overwhelmed by his already-busy social schedule. Why, he was the escort for the winning District, of course he has to show up to three million parties he'd rather not. And laugh and network with three million people he'd rather never interact with, ever, and keep a close eye on every thing he says and does lest he let the wrong thing slip to the wrong person. It's really rather exhausting keeping up with the social politics of the Capitol. It's even moreso when one's close friend is Amber Sweet, and one gets stuck with occasionally tracking her down when she's in an alley scoring.

He's never sure how he really gets her back in the states she's always in, drugged out and generally either uncooperative or just out of it entirely. He never quite gets past the looming judgement of his father - but he's never quite sure if he's damning himself with this friendship or not. He simply knows his father is judging.

It doesn't take long for him to be entirely exhausted of his life, his family, and himself. But it's Amber that actually gives him the solution, even if she might not remember it.

It's after a night of particularly hard partying. Weyoun's already got her back to her apartment and sent those goddamn obnoxious bodyguards away to be obnoxious elsewhere. He slumps on the edge of her bed and rubs his hands over his face. It's time for 'keep Amber from doing things her father will regret'. It's weyoun's least favorite game.

"Weyouuunnn," Amber whines from somewhere behind him, in a tone of voice that he knows by now means 'still fairly high.'

"Whatever it is the answer is emphatically no." He removes his glasses to rub his eyes. What time is it, anyway? 3, 4 in the morning?

"You don't even know what I'm going to say!" He can hear the pout without ever having to see it. "Why aren't you any fun?"

"I don't need to." Which is true. Whatever it is she wants when she's like this, he's having none of it. "I'm tired, Amber. I can't do this anymore."

She sounds both petulant and maybe a little concerned, despite the fact she's still slurring quite a bit. "Can't do what?"

"Everything," He admits, flopping backwards to stare at the ceiling. He can't remember when the last time he actually slept was. "My life. This."

Of course she's got to roll over and mess with his hair. Weyoun rolls his eyes and she smacks him on the shoulder.

"So... Don't." She says it's like the easiest thing ever. He supposes for her, it is. Her escape just comes in a little glass vial.

"I have responsibilities. I have... things to do. I can't just check out." And it's then he realizes he sounds whiny and petulant now. Sigh. What would his father think.

She's mostly rolled against him and he knows what it is she's going after, so he hefts himself back up to sit on the edge of the bed again; he's having none of that right now. Of course, this just ends with her kind of leaning against and draped over his back. "Go and slum it in 12, or something." She mutters against his suit jacket then shifts so her head's mostly leaning on the back of his shoulder. He's fairly certain she sounds a bit like she's going to pass out soon. "Make some fucking thing up about your Escort bullshit and go back to 12 for a while."

"I -" Weyoun starts then just shuts his mouth again as realization hits him. That really is a very good idea, actually. He hadn't even really considered leaving the Capitol entirely for a while. "That might work."

"See!" She slurs brightly, hugging his back surprisingly tight. "I have good ideas. Now, could you may-"

"No."

Amber sighs theatrically, "You used to be fun."

He peers over his shoulder and quips right back, "You used to be sober." But that was many faces and hair colors ago.

"Jackass." She doesn't so much elbow him as attempt to sort of elbow him, which isn't really all that possible to successfully pull off given her current position. "Come back when you're done fucking with the peasants, though, alright?"

"Of course, Amber." He means it even if he wishes he didn't. He makes arrangements the very next morning.

A couple days later, and he's disembarking the the train to 12. He supposes there might be something here for Capitol visitors - not just officials, but tourists, though he's fairly certain this district gets very little in the way of tourists. He greets the mayor and leaves his things for the moment in the relative safety of the Justice building before he embarks on his stroll to the Victor's Village.

Sullivan's house gets a quick look as he passes, but of course that's not his intended destination. That would happen to be Caro's. He approaches her front door with a surprising amount of awkwardness and politely knocks. Hopefully she's home.

Comments

[caroflower]

Caro laughs. "Well okay, one visit from a Peacekeeper. He dropped by to fill me in on why I was suddenly even less welcome in the Hob than I already had been. Oh," she adds after a moment, "not in the way that would usually be meant. He was genuinely telling me about something that happened."

Caro catches the frown. She can't quite imagine someone from the Capitol preferring to be all the way out here, but it is what it is. "Sounds thrilling," she says at last, pulling a face.

[weyountrinket]

Weyoun's eyebrows remain in the same position. He inclines his head and just... gives her a look for a moment. "And what is it that happened?"

"Oh, it is. So very." He doesn't even attempt to feign enthusiasm for that. But his general disdain for aspects of the Capitol life isn't exactly hidden, either. It's just never smart too complain too loudly lest anyone hear about it who shouldn't. And even if he thinks Caro would never, he can't quite break from the habit of it.

[caroflower]

"Well I uh, had a run in with my parents," Caro says. "And then they had a run in a couple days later. Not with me." How informative.


"Well, if you're wanting a break from busy Capitol life, you've come to the right place. Absolutely nothing happens here." She toasts him with her glass of water.

[weyountrinket]

It doesn't take very long for Weyoun to hazard a guess at who it was her parents had an... encounter with, but he's going to keep at this anyway. He'd like to hear what it is that happened from her. "I... see. And who was it with?"

Weyoun considers that, ever so briefly. "I could do with less happening in my life honestly." At the very least he doesn't have to worry about all the goddamn parties, though he's fairly sure he just traded close proximity to one addict for semi-close to another. Walter, however, seems to be considerably less high maintenance than Amber. Then agai, literally everyone is less high maintenance than Amber.

[caroflower]

"Walter. He apparently beat my father half to death in the middle of the Hob. Which is why I haven't been back since the Peacekeeper told me about it." Caro smiles as she relates this to Weyoun. She realizes a little too late that she calls Walter by his first name when she should probably still be using his surname. Goddammit.

She gives Weyoun a look. "Did you come all the way out here for a vacation?" she asks after a minute. "Seems like kind of a rotten place to pick for that." She feels a little bad. Did he really not have anywhere else to go?

[weyountrinket]

"Well." Weyoun presses his lips into a thin line; he looks rather pointedly disapproving. "I'm surprised Mr. Sullivan let him live to tell the tale."

He awkwardly folds his hands in his lap, because he's otherwise not really sure what to do with himself. "I don't really do vacations, no." He knows of the concept, but... that's about it. "I don't know, it is kind of..." He pulls a face like even he can't quite say it. "...Quaint." The sad thing is he really doesn't have anywhere else to go, but he's not about to admit that.

After a moment a realization dawns on him. He smiles again, in a slightly puckish manner. "Since when do you call him Walter?"

[caroflower]

"Well I guess there's no point in threatening someone if you kill them right after." Caro frowns at Weyoun's disapproval. Don't make her get mad about this, Weyoun.

She's suspicious. "I really can't imagine what kind of official business you'd need to be here so early for, but if you say so." If it's what she suspects, she really can't fault him for wanting to hang around people he actually gets along with. Or at least doesn't hate or whatever. She's just surprised that out here is where he'd come.

"Quaint?" She laughs a little. "I guess. It just looks miserable and hate-filled out here to me, but I freely admit to bias." Feeling a little bitter, are we Caro? Oops.

Oh no. She sighs. "He is my only neighbor, and the only person in the district I actually get along with." Weyoun, don't even start.

[weyountrinket]

"I suppose." Weyoun's at least polite enough to really argue about this. Personally, though, he doesn't really think they deserved to live to learn a lesson to begin with.

He shrugs. "I really have done none of this before and, well, my predecessor has really been no help in the advice department. I figured I might as well." That's close enough to the truth. Yelgrun has mostly laughed at his any attempt to learn from the man how to possibly run this sort of thing. And... he really did need to get away. It's just this is the only place he could go, and it happens to have a couple of the few people he doesn't despise.

"I had been attempting to be polite," He grins crookedly. "But yes, 12 is very... aggressively unpleasant." And yet he chose it over the luxury of the Capitol.

His expression only seems to get more impish. "Oh, of course, of course." He's not even remotely convinced at all.

[caroflower]

Caro's scowling a little now. Of course Weyoun doesn't get it. "That's probably the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me," she says, crossing her arms. That might have been unwise to say, but she's irritated.

Okay Weyoun, if you want to say you're out here for work purposes, that's fine. Caro won't press further.

She laughs at that. "That's a polite way of putting it, but yeah."

Oh for fuck's sake. Walter's getting her in trouble and he's not even here right now. Speaking of which, she was going to start on something she could take a couple servings of over to him later when Weyoun showed up.

"I was actually about to start cooking when you got here," Caro says ignoring Weyoun looking all smug. "You don't mind if I get back to that, do you?"

[weyountrinket]

The irritation piques Weyoun's curiosity, and when she bites back with - that, he understands why. Oh. He does a splendid job keeping the amusement from his face and voice. "It was very... thoughtful of him, yes." If he had tea or something he'd be politely sipping it and shifting his eyes away. Alas, he does not, so he settles on just shifting his gaze and sounding vaguely disapproving. "But he shouldn't have let them live."

He's going to go right on like he hadn't said that.

"By all means, don't mind me." He's actually pretty interested in the fact she cooks. And what it is she was going to cook... There's a moment of 'oh should I leave' awkwardness, but it's brief. He's too curious to let that get to him.

[caroflower]

Caro blinks. "Oh. That's not the part I thought you were complaining about." She grins. "Well, I'm pretty sure that Peacekeeper would have had to arrest him if he'd actually killed my father.

"Okay then," she trails off, a little uncertain. What was she going to try making today? Oh right. "Um, it's not going to be anything like you're used to, but if you're still here when it's done cooking..." She trails off again and shrugs. She at least sort of offered.

She gets up and rattles around the kitchen for a few minutes. She cuts up and starts boiling some potatoes, and then starts cooking the onions and other vegetables.

She glances over her shoulder and kind of shrugs at Weyoun. "My mother didn't let me cook much, so I can't promise quality, by the way."

[weyountrinket]

"Most unfortunately," Weyoun sighs rather theatrically and frowns.

Weyoun settles forward in his chair. His elbows end up on the table, his chin leaning against his hands. Of course it'll be different than what he's used to, but that's the fun part, isn't it. "What are you making?"

He watches with interest. It's not a feigned sort of interest, either; when he was a kid he'd sneak in the kitchen and watch, too. "Our mothers have something in common. Though... very different circumstances."

[caroflower]

Caro snorts at the theatrical sigh, but doesn't say anything else.

"Cottage pie," she says after a moment. "I have no idea if they have that in the Capitol or not."

She adds more vegetables and then the meat. She keeps eyeballing the potatoes while she cooks the rest. She kind of hates waiting for stuff to boil, honestly.

"My mother could never make up her mind whether I should be helping her cook or if my mere presence was going to ruin the food somehow. So I sort of know what I'm doing, but not really."

[weyountrinket]

"I've heard of it, yes." And have had much fancier versions but why even say that? That'd be... well not necessarily rude, but in bad taste. Besides he's quite interested in what she comes up with.

He frowns deeply, fairly certain he'll have to pay her parents a visit while he's hear. He'll find a way to swing that, he thinks. Though threats are so very rude it seems like such uncouth behavior is more than justified at the moment. "Mine just... wanted me to focus my attention elsewhere, on studies she thought were more appropriate. So I talked my way into the kitchen and convinced them to teach me everything."

He's a little self-conscious about that. He's from a very privileged background, growing up in the Capitol the way he did; having staff wait on him when she likely lived on very little. It bothers him. "Neither of my parents were terribly happy when they found out."

[caroflower]

"I'm surprised. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing the Capitol would make fancier versions of." Caro's kind of assuming here.

"You can cook?" She actually stops what she's doing to turn and look at him for a second. "Huh."

Slightly embarrassed, she turns back. Oh good, the potatoes are done, she can start mashing them now. After an awkward pause, she figures maybe she should ask.

"Okay, so since you're here early, what can we actually be working on?" Caro wouldn't mind a project of some sort, to be honest.

[weyountrinket]

"If it exists, the Capitol will find a way to make it a fancier novelty for at least a while." Which is unfortunately true. Not every dumb Capitol trend becomes a big thing but there sure are lots of them.

"Yes," Weyoun admits with a shrug. "It's made for an interesting hobby."

He taps thoughtfully on his chin for a moment. "Figuring out your Victor talent might be a wise use of time."

[caroflower]

She snorts. "That sounds about right."

"It's a useful hobby too, at least." Maybe Weyoun can recommend some cookbooks or something.

She finishes mashing the potatoes, and begins layering everything in the dish so she can bake it.

"Oh hell, I forgot about that," Caro grouses, grumpily ladling mashed potatoes on top of the meat and vegetable mixture. "We might actually need all the extra time just for that."

[weyountrinket]

"It is, yes. I rather like knowing I'm not quite as helpless as most of my fellow Capitol citizens. It seems as if some of them can't even tie their own shoes." He wishes he was kidding.

"I don't think it's quite that bad," He consoles. "It's a pity killing techniques can't actually count as a talent. The Capitol viewers would love it, I'm sure, but... unfortunately."

[caroflower]

"What, you mean there's not a shoe tying machine?" She grins at Weyoun over her shoulder.

She gets the food in the damn oven finally, and sits back down at the table.

"I'd suggest flower arranging, but I don't actually give a damn about flowers."