Halle Gremlin, District 6 (![]() ![]() @ 2014-04-14 19:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! 57th games, - capitol, victor: 2nd bit coyne, victor: 56th halle gremlin |
Who: Bit Coyne & Halle Gremlin, plus their adoring Panem Idol fans
When: Arena Night 11
Where: Panem Idol Studio
What: Panem Idol!
Rating/Status: Nothing too bad / Complete log
If Halle thought the arena required showmanship, it was nothing compared to the performances required of the victors. Emotionally drained and physically exhausted, Halle still put on her brightest smile as she got ready to perform on Panem Idol. She was not a singer. She enjoyed dancing, though bouncing around to a thumping club beat wasn't exactly a skilled performance. In short, she didn't know what she was doing here--but here she was, anyway. At least she wasn't the only Victor. As Capitolites flittered around, working on her hair and nails, she tried to strike up a conversation with the old Victor from Three. "Your boy seems to be doing well." It wasn't much different than she'd say to any remaining mentors, but it was better than nothing. Someone was doing the finishing touches on Bit’s strobe light eyepatch as he and Halle waited to go on stage. This wasn’t ideal for him, but he would manage if it got the boy a sponsor or two. “Your girl..” Has done well didn’t seem right. But she wasn’t dead, so that was something. “Is managing, good thinking on the alliance with the girl from 7.” That seemed polite enough. “How is it so far?” It was different for Halle than it has probably been for him. After all there was less of this. Halle considered her response for a moment. How was it? It was terrible. Shift was dead and half her fellow victors were falling apart. She was stuck doing idiotic talent shows for money and still feeling absolutely powerless. The other victors still treated her like a child. "I don't have a lot to compare it to," was where she finally settled. In a not-so-subtle attempt to change topics, she asked, "What do they have you singing?" “Something older,” Bit said. Well older than Halle anyway but that wasn’t saying much at all. His wife would at least laugh about this when he finally got back to 3. “What about you?” Halle shrugged, trying to remember. It wasn't something she was familiar with--of course, not much Capitol music was. They'd promised the words would be there for her, karaoke-style. "Sugar something? Or maybe that was the singer. I don't know." “Blue, it’s Sugar Blue,” Bit said. “From District 1.” Even if he didn’t talk to them he did know a lot of the victors by name, the benefit of having seen all of them win and being in the Capitol for everyone’s Games save Pubreka. That and Sugar wasn’t the type to go quietly into that good night at all, he liked attention. "Wait," Halle said. "That Sugar?" She had danced with him at Attila's party, she was pretty sure--though honestly, the older Victors rather blended together for her. He was a singer? "Well," she said, her tone going dry and sardonic. "It's a Sugar Blue song, then. I'm sure they'll love it." “I guess we’ll find out,” Bit said. He was going to add something else, but he could hear Halle’s name being called over the loudspeaker. “Break a leg.” Halle's rendition of 'Arena Girl' didn't quite live up to the original, but she didn't embarrass herself, either. A year ago, she'd have been a nervous wreck, but the Halle of today was much more confident. Though she didn't know the song too well, she decided to sell it as if lyrics about her. Everybody in that audience should want the Arena Girl, and there she was. Yes, she may have been singing about how she was "the one for me," and "fine as can be," but maybe that wasn't so bad? Or the audience would just think she was in love with Dory or something. That was fine too, she supposed. Unlike the big one last year, Halle certainly wasn't going to win this competition--but as long as she (and Oyle) got some sponsorship out of the deal, that was all that really mattered. She put both hands to her lips and sent out a big kiss to the audience, waving as she left the stage. "Break a leg, too," she said to Bit as she passed him backstage. “Thanks,” Bit said, waiting to go on stage. He didn’t care about winning or losing, he cared about the kid in the Arena getting enough to eat. That’s why he was there. The stylist stopped fussing with the eyepatch and gave him a thumbs up. Bit moved easily in the faux-kilt the woman had put him in and he nodded his head again at the instructions of when exactly to get the strobe light in his patch going I know, I know, I heard you the first time. When he took the stage, the music started and he started his eyepatch, it in sync with the electronica music behind him. He spoke above the music, although calling it singing would have been a stretch, but at least people seemed to enjoy it. Halle clapped along lightly backstage as Bit "sang." He was right that she wouldn't recognize the song, but there was a good rhythm and she appreciated the eyepatch trick. She was tempted to check her tablet to see how things were going in the arena, but she'd managed to figure out how to set it so that it would go off and notify her if anything drastic were happening. It was quiet, for the moment. Unlike the Panem Idol audience. They seemed to love Bit's performance. If the Capitol had an export like the rest of the districts, Halle thought, it could be cheering. Well, at least they were all good at something. Bit came back to the backstage and the assistant made work of switching out another eye patch, one that didn’t have a strobe light and he turned back to Halle. “Well at least that part’s over now,” he told her. Unlike Halle though, he didn’t show the same restraint and pulled out his tablet to check Hugh’s vitals. Still ticking, no message from Beetee or Faraday, things were progressing as well as they could. But still it could change any second. When Halle caught sight of Bit on his tablet, she quipped, "I hope Oyle and Hugh don't meet each other while we're stuck here. Awkward." She meant to say it lightly, but now that it was out, she was suddenly worried that that's exactly what would happen. She shouldn't have said it aloud; now that it was out in the universe, the Gamemakers might push them together just to fuck with Bit and Halle. “That would be awkward, but I wouldn’t hold it against you if your girl killed my boy, unfortunately that’s part of the Games,” he told her. “But that might be a bit awkward,” he added as an agreement. He had done this for a long time and you got used to your tributes dying, it was just part of the Games. There was no point in holding it against the mentors whose tributes did the killing. Bit noticed a young girl with bright yellow hair come up behind Halle, looking hopeful. “I think someone wants to talk to you,” he told her. Halle didn't have the same to say about Hugh killing Oyle; she resented District 2 for Shift's death, and didn't know how she would respond to Oyle's. Luckily, she didn't have to say anything just yet, as she turned to the girl with the yellow hair, asking for a picture together. Before getting reaped, Halle wasn't sure she had ever had her picture taken, but in the Capitol it happened all the time. Well, at least she would never forget how she looked when she was fifteen. At the girl's request, she also gave an autograph, signing To Rubi, my biggest fan. Your 'Arena Girl,' Halle Gremlin. The kiss on the cheek Rubi gave her as thanks was a surprise, but the girl scuttled away giggling before saying anything else. "Alright." After a while (and a series of other performers Halle paid no attention) Halle was bored out of her mind. She'd long since given up restraint about checking the games and Oyle's status, but things seemed quiet enough for the moment. "Can we go back yet? How long do these things last?" “We’ll have to go out one last time,” Bit told her. “At the end and then we can get a car and go back.” He glanced at the time, it would be shortly now he supposed, it had already gone on for long enough. Then they could go back out and keep a closer eye on their tributes. Although, Bit thought. Halle wasn’t a Mentor, but maybe Miles couldn’t handle it after his brother. No it would be good training for her, he thought. Unlike the other Careers, the outlier districts had a smaller amount of mentor resources, the sooner she learned the better. Thankfully, it wasn't much longer until they were called to the stage, along with their fellow performers, to announce some big prize. More cheering, of course. Some sparkly Capitolite boy, barely older than Halle, crying and smiling as he won it all. Halle's fake smile plastered to her face as she congratulated the purple-hued boy. More pictures. The Capitolites loved the contrast between the two victors; young and old, short and tall, male and female. It exhausted her. When they were finally allowed out of there, Bit clapped his hand on Halle’s shoulder. “The car’s on its way up,” he told her as kindly as it could. It was time to just go back to spending time watching computer screens and watching tributes. |