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WHO: Peggy Carter
WHERE: #43 - The Vincennes
WHEN: December 27th - Evening
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: n/a
STATUS: Open (Gathering Style)

When the gifts had arrived, Peggy had treated them at first with the same suspicion as anything else here. Things simply weren't that good to be true, but these gifts had people's names on them this time. With the exception of several that she couldn't begin to understand (such as that one from a man named Ivan, that she barely recalled interacting with), the rest were so kind and thoughtful that she soon found herself with a wealth of possessions she hadn't hoped to possess here.

The party had been borne of one single thought: I have nowhere to wear such lovely things and when she'd found the wine and liquor from others (including Tony, which didn't surprise her in the very least), she knew that she could change that. She'd posted a quick notice at the inn using some of the cardboard of a box and the lovely fountain pen Helen had given her, then did the same at many of the public buildings, inviting people to her home and inviting them to bring any food or drink they might like to provide, as well as suggesting this as an opportunity to wear their fanciest.

She set out her drinks (the ones she was willing to share) and made sure to tidy the home so that it was presentable. In her youth, back during her first engagement, she might have imagined entertaining like this on a regular basis, but that had been swept away by the war. Instead, Peggy was left hoping that such a gala would be acceptable and that she wouldn't simply be here alone tonight.

Setting her new record player (and her single record) down, she cranked it to begin playing the record that had come with it (a pressing of the Glenn Miller Band), and then she began to convince herself that there was nothing more that she could do.

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Strangers usually know better than to just talk to Johanna, especially those who are generally older than her. She's a firecracker, after all, prone to going off and damaging people around her with her snide remarks against the people in charge. She raises a brow at the woman who speaks to her, not entirely sure why she's bothering making small talk. God, Johanna hates small talk.

"There's pretty much one of everyone, including something to strip your walls," she says, sipping some of that without blinking. There's no smile on her face, though, too tired to play nice (she'll leave that for Finnick and Annie, who are much better at the whole 'making friends' bit than Johanna ever was).

"What are you drinking for?"

"Just to forget about this place for a little while. It's kind of dreary and abysmal, after all, and I would rather like to pretend that I'm somewhere else for a few hours. There's nothing deeper than that, though."

Helen offered a hand to her. "I'm Helen, by the way. Helen Magnus. I've been here for a few months but I don't think I've seen you about. Are you new, then? Relatively speaking?"

They're a lot friendlier in this prison than they should be. Johanna isn't someone for picking up allies, not liking to play nice. She'd rather just bluntly force her way into whatever it is she wants, and right now, all that she really wants is a drink. She caps the bottle with a firm move of her hand, not blinking as she keeps her gaze fixated on the woman. "New to the prison? Yeah, I'm new," she agrees.

"What are you? The guard? Or just someone with way too many nosy questions for her own good," she notes with mild disdain, because if they were going to send in someone to get information, she thinks they'd start off with a lot of questions that sound like this.

"If I were the guard, I think I'd be dressed better," Helen scoffed. "Hardly. I'm just yet another fellow inmate, I'm afraid, with more time under my belt and less answers to show for it."

As to being nosy, well. Helen couldn't particularly deny that but this girl had a harder edge than some of the others she'd encountered here.

"Asking questions is the only way to try and find answers, unfortunately. Necessary evil."

Johanna's life is full to the brim with necessary evils to the point that it makes her sick, but she relents just a little as she studies the other woman and decides that she should at least play somewhat nice until she finds out what use she can be to Johanna. She might be easily irritable, but she's not stupid. "So how long have you been here then? And how come no one's figured out a way to break out? Even if we're stuck in a dome with a forcefield, Katniss was able to break out," she says, her last memory being of the arena crashing down around them.

"If breaking something's all that's stopping us, I'm more than happy to offer my services in destruction," she says, eager for something to break.

"See, this is a bit trickier than a force field," Helen explained. "In that it's not a force field that stops you from escaping. It's the environment proper. Every time you try, some sort of animal will attack you or you'll forget what you're doing, something of that ilk. I'm happy to go out there with you and make a go of it, you see, but I doubt we'll be any more successful than previous attempts."

Johanna gives a scoff as she downs her drink. Why is she not surprised that they're using mutts and the environment to keep them in here? "Fucking Gamemakers," is all she has to say for that, ready to sling even more profanities, but she doubts they're being filmed and she'd rather save her lips for drinking and not speaking. "What have people tried so far?" she asks.

It can't hurt to do a little bit of recon, can it? Besides, it will help mediate the pace she's drinking at, just so she can manage to walk home instead of pass out at a stranger's.

"Well, the group I was with last month actually tried scaling the canyon proper," Helen explained.

"We found something resembling an observation pod. Computers, cameras - the whole lot. We couldn't bring anything out of it, though. It all seemed to disintegrate once we brought it out into open air. I'm not entirely certain what it all means but I want to go back when the snow clears and see what we can find out."

"But no one was there with the equipment?" It seems strange for Gamemakers to be so close to things, but maybe they did things differently back in the old days. The Games have been going on a long time, now, and Johanna is one of the newer victors. Maybe this is one of their first arenas, the kind where they had kinks to work out, still, and now they're using it for testing or imprisonment or they're just the kind of sick sadists that enjoy ruining people's lives.

Honestly, that last one seems like it's the one with the most traction. The Capitol is nothing if not aggressive in attempting to ruin people's lives. "What sort of information was on the computers?" she prods.

"We couldn't boot them," Helen admitted. "The whole lab seemed to have been abandoned and the power had been cut. Everything was layered in dust like it'd been left for quite a while. I don't know why they'd have such an elaborate setup and abandon the experiment but there you have it. More questions than answers, I'm afraid. Still, as soon as this damned snow melts I'm going back there. I'm going to stay in there until I figure out how and why we were brought here."

She'd need someone from a District that could talk to this, and right now, despite how much they drive her nuts personally, she thinks that she could really use Nuts or Volts here to solve the problem that's staring them in the face. "Maybe they didn't intend to abandon this place," she says. "Maybe they were called away, put to something else and then killed before they got back to the prison."

"Maybe there's a dozen of these," she suggests, "and they just go wherever the noise is. Which means maybe we need to make more noise. If you riot, either you break something or someone comes to stop you, right?"

"It's brusque at first but I like the way you think," Helen said, looking at the woman with new admiration. Finally, someone who seemed willing to join her in fighting and striking back rather than just eking out a survival. She could use a few more women like Johanna.

"I suppose I could count on you, then, to help test getting out as soon as this snow clears? I need a few people who aren't afraid of a little risk."

Maybe she'd judged the woman wrong. Well, probably not entirely, because it's not like she likes being poked and prodded at, made to answer questions because...well, just because. Still, she's asking for Johanna's help to break things down and regardless of any of her personal feelings, she's always willing to try a little more destruction. On the other hand, she'd better also make sure she's not walking into a well-baited trap.

"What kind of test are we talking about?" she asks, with mild suspicion that she tries to tamp down.

"Just want to plan an expedition to get out of here and if there's enough of us, we can fight back against the elements in order for one person to get through. You seem tenacious enough to be up to that sort of challenge," Helen said, keeping her voice low and steady.

"Strictly voluntary, of course. I would never force anyone into it. Still, I have to know if we can escape."

"Don't worry, I don't have any emotional ties that I can't sever if we're talking about getting out of here," she says. That, though, does kind of beg the question of what she's going back to. That's just it, though. It's not a 'who' for her, it's a what. If the Capitol or any other guards think that she's going to be held down and silenced by being trapped, then they've got another thing coming.

Johanna Mason intends to take down the infrastructure that stole everything from her and she's going to enjoy doing it. If she gets to break another place into shards in the process, then, even better. "I'm in," she promises. "Just let me know when you need me."

"Excellent. As soon as this bloody snow melts away, I'm going to plan attack. For now, I have been working on drawing maps as best I can from memory so that when I do get a chance to scale those cliffs again, I know what I'm about."

Helen gave her a tight smile. "I'm glad you aren't complacent. I think it's easy in a place like this to give in and give up. I've never been the sort."

Johanna snorts and tries to think about the last person who called her complacent. She's pretty sure that she's the one who killed that person, so it's nice to know that she doesn't have to pretend to be the meek little girl from Seven anymore. "So long as there's an enemy to fight, I'm in. Especially if it means I get the fuck out of here," she says, draining back her drink with one hard shot, searching the table for a stronger refill.

"I'll bring weapons," she says. "For me. Not to share."

"Wouldn't ask you to share them. I'll be bringing my own, for that matter. Now that we have a decent supply of them here, it's a bit less daunting to try and launch a fight against an enemy."

It was still an unseen enemy, of course, but Helen thought they could work together and close the gap of disadvantage.

Johanna lifts her glass. "Well, then, here's to fighting out way out," she says, thinking back to the last time that she'd been part of plans to spark a revolution. Funny how there always seems to be a decent amount of alcohol at these things (though Haymitch had a lot to do with it, the first time around).

"Here's to fighting our way out," Helen echoed, lifting her own glass. "And giving them hell while we do it. I think you can be in agreement that we're not going to make it pleasant for them at all."

Helen certainly intended to give their captors a piece of her mind, should she ever get the chance to stare them down. She had things to do that did not involve this detour.

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