thecapitol | Mini-Arena Reaping

Who| All Tributes, mentors, stylists, escorts, and some citizens.
What| The mini-arena reaping.
Where| The grand foyer of the Tribute Center.
When| 7pm Thursday (11/6). Please note: This log is forward dated by one week.
Warnings/Notes| Unhappy tributes.

At approximately 5pm Thursday, all of the Tributes were notified that their presence would be required at a mandatory meeting in the grand foyer of the Tribute Center. It was to be a formal occasion, and all of the stylists were instructed to dress their Tributes in their autumn best. At 8pm, Peacekeepers arrived at each floor to escort the Tributes down to the foyer, which had been decorated in a playful, nostalgic manner. The Tributes were seated at one of twelve large, numbered tables, though they were told they could mingle, dance, or help themselves to as much punch as they'd like. By all appearances, this little fete was nothing more than a typical, if somewhat bizarre Capitol celebration.

[ooc notes: General arena information can be found here. If you would like for your adult character to react violently/riot after the reaping, you must comment to this post.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What was the point of struggling to the death? This arena is clearly designed to hurt Sandy in some way, for something she's done, like Orc's death was meant to hurt Eponine. Eponine can't see the point of her even trying when the Capitol are so obviously intent on hurting Sandy. Why give them the satisfaction of the struggle? She would much rather control her own death, to choose it herself, and die quickly and with as little pain as possible.

But she can't say that to Sandy. Eponine's sure that what she thinks is not what the Capitol want to hear, and she is learning at last, to control her tongue. She looks back at Sandy's eyes with her own hazel ones and sighs and blinks an admittance.

"They'll love you for it. A heroic death and all that, like a princess in a story. They'll love you and forgive you. It won't be forever, Miss." She smiles sadly.

Sandy shakes her head gently.

"You don't know my friends. They already love me and won't care one way or the other how I die. And I'm too stubborn just to give up." After a pause she added "Besides people who kill themselves don't get brought back sometimes. And that scares me more then finding out who in this room is totally OK with killing a little girl."

Her eyes traveled around the room for a minute and experience was already allowing her to pick out some strangers in the crowd who would probably gut her for the chance to win an extra prize. Or heck maybe just for the hell of it.

"I'm not a princess. I'm a grubby little coward who can't keep her mouth shut."

"Your friends sound lovely." But she had meant the Capitol. "But I cannot believe that after all of this time. you are still scared of not coming back. Don't you think, if you don't come back, you might just go home? Don't you want to go home?"

Eponine begins to smile though. "I think we are the same in that. Beggars dressed up as princesses. Cowards who talk too much. But... you can't, Miss, or..." Or they'll hurt Sandy more than they've hurt Eponine. This little girl is as tough as she is, but why should she have to be? It's not fair.

Sandy shook her head gently.

"There's nothing for me back home. I didn't have friends, and my family was mostly gone. Angels were destroying the city when I left. "

At least here she had a fighting chance.

"What can they do to me that they haven't already?" She questioned softly counting on her fingers. "They took away the woman who was taking care of me the softest, they took away my best friend, they tortured me till I was crazy. The only thing I think is left other then death is avoxing and I've already seen what that does to people."

It's enough to make her shiver but not enough to make her back down.

"I dunno what they did to you to win you over but it hasn't worked on me yet."

"Do you really want to be like me?" That's the only thing Eponine can offer now. She lowered her voice, deadly serious. From what she was hearing, she and Sandy are more similar than she could ever have guessed. And, as Eva had seen similarities between herself and Eponine, and tried to help Eponine, so Eponine tried to help Sandy.

She lowered her voice. "They will torture you, Miss. Lock you up. Kill people you love in front of you in so horrible ways. They will make it so you are all alone and everybody hates you and you are so bad and mad and it comes so you begin to see people they have killed all the time and you can hear their voice and you don't know if it's real or not. Please. Please. You don't want to be like that. Don't be like me. Behave before they do anything else to you. Please."

Sandy raised a blond eyebrow incredulously and held up five fingers taking one down for each of the things she'd already experienced.

"I've already been tortured, they already locked me up. I've seen people I care about killed time and time again, sometimes to protect me, and they've already driven me so crazy I saw dead people come back just to kill me."

With those four experiences she held up only her middle finger in rude defiance of the Capitol.

"And they've already made most of the Capitol hate me." She brought that middle finger up to tap her brand on the forehead before finally putting the finger down.

"So what's left? Avoxing I figure. Or sending me home. But just because I'm so scared I can barely think sometimes doesn't mean I should stop trying to do what's right."

"This is bigger then any one little girl. I'm just another little piece of the puzzle."

"You don't mind dying for it?" Eponine asks, incredulously. She just can't understand Sandy, but she feels all at once cowardly and small and selfish and in awe of this brave little girl, and sad that she'll never win her fight.

"Well that's not exactly plan A." She confessed running her fingers through her hair anxiously.

"But I figure there are worse things then being dead. Like living in fear forever."

And she'd become incredibly acquainted with fear. Fear had been her enemy, and in some places it had saved her. Fear had held her back and fear had shoved her forward.

But in the end she had to keep moving no matter how much fear tried to slow her down. She had to use it to keep running faster.

"I'm not saying it's gonna matter. I'm just one kid. But I won't know if I stop now."

It's terrifying that a child is the one person, out of the hundreds who have tried to talk to her, is the one who makes sense to Eponine. She actually listens to Sandy. And what's scary is how similar they are to one another. Except Sandy has used all of that pain and hurt and turned it into something positive and motivational. She hasn't let herself sink into a quagmire of bad thoughts. She hasn't given up. Eponine realises she needs to change her attitude to be something closer to Samdy's.

"You're brave, Miss. You're so brave." Eponine looks back at Sandy with genuine admiration in her eyes. "I wish you so much luck, I truly do."

It takes Sandy aback some that Eponine would say those things about her, but then again she's hardly the first person to tell her she's brave these days. It still sounds so wrong to her though.

"People keep telling me that, I don't know if I believe it...but it's nice to hear." She concedes.

"I thought being brave meant not being afraid, but if you guys all mean what you say then I guess you can be both. I dunno I'm still figuring it out. But I've got some really smart and strong people to help me be however I am." She smiled appreciatively.

"Good luck to you too...we could all use as much luck as we can get around here. It's worth more then people think."

Mini-Arena Reaping

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