"I am very, very new as of the last arena. The name's Hiccup," he said softly.

This was so awkward. He didn't know most of the people he was in here with and was fairly sure they'd all been stuck in Panem longer than him. That made it so there's almost a terrible futility to trying to be kind to someone else.

What did it even matter in this place? He almost wondered if anyone he tried to be gentle with would just see it as some kind of naive sentimentality. What use was kindness against this?

"I just - I just wanted to see how you were holding up, that's all. We've all gotta look out for each other, right? And hope that gets us through this."