threadthefire | 4th Design [voice/action]

[Cinna's normally genial tone seems a bit thin today as he delivers the following announcements.]

Cast for the current production, please see me as soon as possible so we can do fittings. Additionally, Miss Rosella, if you'd like to stop by I have some samples for you to look over.

[Action]

[Throughout most of the day, when he's not with customers he's been sitting silently in the back, threading the day's fortune through his fingers. The cookie remains crumbled on the counter, uneaten. Should you stop by, you may find him lost in thought and have to call his name a few times to get an answer.]

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From:

aimandfire.livejournal.com

Katniss isn't a stranger to Cinna's shop but it would be a lie to say she has found her way here for no reason in particular. The fortunes, which could all mean nothing, still jar her and she wonders if Cinna has received one too. She catches sight of it as she approaches him and when she pauses at the corner of the counter, she rests her hands on it, fingers curled lightly.

"Can I help with anything?" It's a more useful greeting than 'hello' in her opinion and potentially distracting.

From:

threadthefire.livejournal.com

Cinna's shaken from his reverie by the familiar voice. His best bet. The one person he'll always bet on.

...the one he won't live to see succeed?

"Ah, my muse. No, I'm just relaxing this afternoon, why do you ask?"

From:

aimandfire.livejournal.com

The pinpointing of 'muse' isn't how she thinks of herself for him. They are friends and they are friends in great part because Cinna requested District 12 for reasons still beyond her understanding, but if there is one person in the world she might believe in doing something because it was a shot in the dark chance, it's probably Cinna. The more she had spoken to him in the months before arriving here--about her Talent and wanting to talk about other things but being unable--the more she knew about him even if nothing telling was ever explicitly stated. Few things can be though and they are both familiar with that.

There is no reason for her to lie to Cinna here that she knows of and even at home the extent of her 'lying' to him at this point only consists of what she does not tell him, mostly because phones are about as secure as anything else; they aren't. So when he asks her that, though she considers asking him about his fortune, about the uneaten cookie, she opts for something else.

"I don't have anything to do here," she gives him a small smile, not self-indulgent but honest with that undertone of disliking the feeling of being useless. Gale has it worse, bedridden and she has had half a mind all this time not to leave the apartment--worried he would leave or...or something. She doesn't even know. But she has found her away here anyway and she idles with it, gaze finally resting on Cinna's hands and the fortune threaded between his fingers.

From:

threadthefire.livejournal.com

"In a grander sense, none of us do, trapped by the whims of this place and isolated from our homes and our true callings." The fortune is tossed aside as Cinna stands, a slight smile. "But you're talking on a more day-to-day matter, aren't you?"

He heads to a worktable, strewn with large sheets of paper with drawings on them. Motioning for her to join him he waves at the sheets. "I could use some help this afternoon, if you're looking for work."

And truth be told, he can use the distraction. While certain he understands the meaning of the fortune he had in his fingers, it's not something he wants to dwell on overlong and helping Katniss help him would be a welcome task.

From:

aimandfire.livejournal.com

She follows him, gaze sweeping over the drawings, ever with an unhidden admiration for the obviousness of Cinna's skill even in the simplest of lines.

"Then I'd be glad to help," is all she says, standing at his side almost close enough that her shoulder brushes his arm.