thecapitol | arrival;

Entry tags:

arrival;

Who | Kili and anyone in the District 7 suites!
What | SURPRISE NEW SUITEMATE! Possibly barging right into your room. Also general confusion about technology.
Where | The Capitol, District 7 Suites
When | Uhhhh sometime between post-tour and the start of the arena.
Warnings/Notes | dwarves are very upsetting.

A. Kili arrives and is a little shit.

Despite having some form of explanation of what they're doing here in the Capitol, or what he's doing there specifically, Kili is still carrying about by the time he's up in the District 7 Suites. Between the questions he's trying to ask and being almost dragged along, once the door closed, there's not much decrease in the sheer amount of noise he's making.

"You didn't say what this... card is for!" He calls after them, looking at the strange little thing in his hand.

He weighs it on his palm and frowns at it. Certainly not metal, but it seems to have his name on it and a string of numbers engraved in it, which puzzles him. Credit card. And then he turns around and sees the rest of the entryway and can't help but balk at the sheer amount of glass and open space. This was certainly not home by any standard. His gaze immediately goes to the nearest piece of gleaming metal and don't mind him as he tries to pry it off the wall.

B. Kili is barging into your room whoops.
While he's exploring around the suites, Kili has little mind for the fact that people's private areas might be behind those closed doors. He makes a bit of noise as he moves about, trying to process everything he's seen so far. The first couple doors don't seem to lead him everywhere but this one, he has a good feeling about.

So here he is, pushing your door open, glancing around at your room, nevermind him.

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It's almost like listening to Balin tell the story of the Battle at Azanulbizar, of just how Thorin had stepped into his role as exiled King Under the Mountain, but with less happy endings. Sure, they were both alive again, but at the cost of having to suffer and die again. If nothing else, it's the thought of dying not once but several times that scares Kili.

"Oh," he says, despite it being an absolute understatement to the pain she's speaking about. "Has anyone gotten out of this place alive?"

She shrugs, not sure if he means back home or simply here. Is living here really living or is it simply just existing to survive. Really she's not sure what she'd do if she won. Hate it all the way.

"If you win, you can live. But if you win, you'll never leave. You have to be paraded, celebrated, living here as a Victor. Mentoring the new Tributes they bring in to take your place."

That would almost be worse, Kili thinks, having to help those who were about to die, only to likely see them do so time and time again. He shudders before he can stop the reaction. There's no way this sort of thing can be real. Surely someone protested before now and the whole thing was shut down?

"Doesn't seem real," he furrows his eyebrows, considering.

She takes a seat now, at least convinced that he's not going to attempt to dismantle their floor piece by piece. Of course it's startling and it doesn't seem real at all. She sympathizes.

"I know. It won't really seem real until you step in. You're going in soon, so get ready. I had a long amount of time to get used to thinking it might not come at all, maybe they had canceled it...Just do your best. I don't know how you feel about murder so I can't advise on that, but I'd be willing to help you if you need it."

It all seems like a nightmare that could never come to life, especially with how easily terms like murder are thrown around. Like it would be easy to gut another dwarf or man, like it would be simple to watch the life die from the eyes of a friend. After a moment, he silently wishes that none of the company would ever come here.

"They could still cancel it, couldn't they?" he tries to be hopeful, even if it falls completely flate.

The Disciple wants to be hopeful right back but she saw too much--knows too much really. She knows nothing would cancel their arena. Not fire or storm or alien attacks. She simply shakes her head.

"They won't. They never have. My matesprit has been in three I believe, or four. I've only been here for one, but it was enough. It's just--I wouldn't say it's easier to give in, but steel yourself so you know what to expect. Or you'll easily get lost in the horror. You don't have to kill, I haven't, but I would suggest defending yourself at the least."

Defending himself, Kili can easily get behind. He's needed to do so many times before in his life, both in training and on the road, but never in an out-and-out battle. Minor skirmishes, though, didn't quite seem to compare to what might face him and he felt utterly unprepared.

"I've experience and training with weapons." He nods slowly, trying to push more hope into his words. That would give him a better chance that he would never have to kill, right? If he could simply intimidate others into throwing down their arms. But he had never been a bully, didn't have the composure or the beard enough for it.

"And with hand to hand combat? And can you survive off the land, if you need to? We never know what we might find in an arena. In the last one, everything not given to us by an outside hand was poisonous. The beasts, the grass, the fruits. But in others, you might be able to eat them. It's--not always clear. Eating a little at a time might be best." She rattled off basic tips, just things she had learned from her time in the arena. She didn't wish the games on him but he would have to face them anyways.

"I'm not--trying to scare you. Just trying to help you stay alive. We've no time for you to train or learn anything here. All I can offer is what I know and learned."

None of that scares him in the bit. He knows how to live off the land, to find shelter in storms, to camp outside the mountain for extended periods of time. Her words seem to imply that there might be others who can't, which puzzles him. Even the most wealthy dwarves and men knew how to live in the wilds if forced to do so.

"Yes, I know how to do all of that," he replies with a bright smile. This actually sounds a little fun, minus the murdering people thing. "Are there those who can't?"

"Plenty." She crooks a smile, "There are those that don't' come from worlds where they're expected to survive on their own. I assume it's much like this world. People often don't leave their towns, they have no need of the skills. Food is paid for. Even on my world there would be many who did not know survival skills, they could simply pay for things they needed, never needing to learn how to make a fire or something so simple."

Kili raises his eyebrows at her response, not sure how anyone could survive in the world if they didn't know how to hunt or camp. Perhaps they simply stayed inside these giant glass fortresses where the elements would never reach them. Maybe none of them wanted the freedom he knew he craved even now to run out in the woods or across fields or sleep under the stars.

"Well tha's no way to live," he grunts in response, shaking his head. "Where's the fun in that?"

She laughs, soft but genuine. Of course, she was of the same thought. Such a boring safe life, and not safe at all, because in a world where anything could happen, much of it could be bad.

"I agree and they learn to do such things if they wish to survive. There are places in the Training Room that teach things like that, how to fish, hunt, gather plants and things. Use weapons. If you're still with us after this Game, use the training room to your advantage."

The Training Room. Kili mentally notes it on the growing list of things to think about after the Arena, even though he already knows how to fish, hunt, gather plants, and use weapons. Perhaps he could learn other things there, though, like where all this light came from. As far as he can see, the gems in the wall illuminate by some kind of magic.

"Can you learn about the wall gems?" he asks, curiously with a brightening smile. For as many lessons as he slept through while younger, he does enjoy learning new things.

"The wall gems?" She gives the bright shining panels a look and finally notices the lights. They could be gems, if you didn't know more about them.

"The lights you mean? I think so--I was never much for technology but I think there's a few people in the training room who specialize in it? I've never really gone over there. I like to train in more..." She wants to say practical things, but that seems rude given his interest.

"Things I'm used to. I really should branch out more but the first two weeks after my revival are usually spent training my body back into some semblance of fight shape."

From what he could see of the panels, they didn't look like any lights he knew of. Most of those required some sort of flame and he had yet to see any of the panels flicker as if they contained one. Still, he perked up at the mention of some sort of specialist in the training room. He would definitely have to visit there to learn more about this 'technology' business.

However, his eyebrows furrowed at the mention of training her body.

"What d'you mean?" he asked, canting his head slightly to the side.

"About what? Training?"

She holds out her arms. They're slightly thin with vaguely defined muscles, thin faded scars and unpainted nails that look a little too brittle at the ends. Her fingers are the parts of her that really show how thin and malnourished she must have been, a little too bony to be healthy.

"When I arrive here after death, I go back to being the person I was when I first arrived. I was on the run, taking my food when I could find it and hiding deep in caves for several days. Water was more important than food and since I was constantly on the move, I couldn't just stay somewhere and get a reserve." She shrugs, "So I'm thin--not very good for fighting when I get here. No food means little muscle. So I try to eat well."

She doesn't mention that food becomes scarce towards the end and the more fat on her body, the longer she can last.

Well, in Kili's opinion, everyone here is too thin and too tall, but he knows part of that comes with being a dwarf. They were built for strength and feasted regularly on meat to help growth. Still, she's thinner than many humans and elves she's seen and that's startling to him. Trying to help, he pipes up when she finishes, "Meat helps. For dwarves at least."

Of course, vegetables could be considered helpful too, but most of a dwarf's diet consists of meat and beer. Still, it's helpful for him to catalog away that if he did do any kind of training, he would be back to square one when he woke up again. That's not exactly comforting, but he's grateful that he's at least in good health.

"And trolls. I prefer meat honestly, rare if I can, but I have to ask special for that. Trying to cook on their sorts of things is a test in frustration. And they don't let you build fires in here, so don't even try. They just call the escort and someone to put it out, and then you get scolded like a wiggler caught with your prongs in the pastryvessel." She shrugs with a little sigh, but with good humor, as if trying to share that exasperation. Technology is enlightening but frustrating, on a good day.

"Sweets too, Sugary things. You can get tons of those too, the Capitol has a love affair with them."

Trolls. Oh. That’s what they are. They don’t look anything like the mountain trolls Kili has seen. In fact, they don’t look much like orcs either, which had been Kili’s first guess until she began speaking in something other than Black Speech. The insistence on rare meat is a little odd, but dwarves don’t exactly eat it much more well cooked than that some days.

“They don’t let you cook here?” He asks, clearly the most important question. Certainly he’s nothing like Bombur, but half of the fun of camping is cooking and he’s heard from Venus that there will be camping during the arena.

Though, he quickly follows it up with, “What’s a pastryvessel?”

Priorities.

She shakes her head, wrinkling her nose as she points out the technology in the kitchen. Ovens, microwaves, strange things that could bring you food if you wanted actually but it felt too weird. She liked to cook things herself.

"If you can figure out their machines, be my guest. Cook all you like. Infernal things." She mutters the last words under her breath.

"And it's a vessel you keep pastries in. What do humans call them...Cookies or cakes? I can't remember."

Kili follows her gaze to the kitchen and it's the first time he's truly seeing that all the metal there belongs to strange things with numerous buttons that Kili can hardly imagine having any kind of function. When he looks back to the Disciple, he does what he can to simply smile, to find delight in the cultural differences between them.

"Cookies!" He supplies brightly, though he thinks for a moment before adding, "Or sometimes cakes. Depends. Cookies are the hard crunchy things and cakes are moister and bigger."

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