Mini-Arena Reaping

[etcircenses]

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.]

Comments

[shenunigans]

"Yeah, there's a glimmer of silver in every atrociously imposing storm cloud, right?" That silver is horrible, murderous lightning that threatens to consume them all, but he won't say that. He'll be realistic with Aang, but he won't crush him entirely.

"Tell me about it. They act like their feelings on the situation negate the fact that we've lived through our own shit." He scoffs, but he listens when Aang explains. "Eight? Damn. They start them young there." He gives his chin a scratch as he considers it. "My Bro has been teaching me to fight since I was pretty damn tiny, but shit got real for me when I was thirteen and he fucked off and died with the rest of the world and left me to handle my own shit in space." Sometimes he feels like the most elegant way to admit his story is to just blurt it out. "So we're both used to this kind of thing, I guess."

[actually112]

"That's the spirit."

Yes, he's aware that Dave is being somewhat facetious. He's taking what he can get.

"I think that they want to believe we haven't. They just don't realize that they're trying to make themselves feel better more than us." Aang, for all his hyperactivity, has a keen sense of insight. Sometimes, people get hurt, and sometimes those people are kids. It's better to allow them to help fix the problem than pretend they're innocent and protected.

But then Dave just blurts out that story, and Aang isn't quite sure he heard correctly because it was so fast. Knowing Dave's way of talking, he's not sure how much he's supposed to take literally and how much is just an expression Aang's not familiar with. "In... space?"

[shenunigans]

"You've got that right. I'm pretty sure some of them are a few blankets away from swaddling us and carrying us around like over-sized babies. I don't think they really understand the gratifying independence that walking gives us. Shit, that's practically why we teach sproglets to walk instead of crawling."

He rambles and circles around the point, but the more he considers it the more factual he realises it is. He's been without adults for years and suddenly they outnumbered the kids and acted like he didn't know what he was doing. Ugh.

"Space. Yeah. The world got destroyed so me and some aliens were on a big ol' quest to make a new one, basically." He shrugs, trying desperately to pass it off as no big deal.

[actually112]

"Oh." Yeah, no, that's not 'no big deal', but if Dave doesn't want to make a big deal out of it, Aang won't either. "I hope you're able to make a new one okay." Because seriously, what else is there to say to that? 'Sorry about your world?' 'I hope I don't screw up badly enough to have the same problem?' There's not much to go on for that.

He hugs his legs, looking into the distance. "I think we'd be a little too big to swaddle. I wouldn't put it past some of them to try. Were overprotective adults normal where you come from?"

[shenunigans]

Dave doesn't expect much of a response when he doesn't give much to work with. He's a little jaded from people either plain not believing him or asking invasive and annoying question.

Aang's response, to Dave, is satisfactory. It earns him a thumbs up for his trouble, clearly happy to move on.

"Considering how big some of them are, yeah. I'm surprised they didn't try to impose curfews and good diets either." He shrugs, folding his arms over him comfortably before answering the question. "Where I am now, there are none. All the ones I knew are dead, all the ones still alive are pretty terrible." Oddly, he doesn't sound remotely bitter. "How about you?"

[actually112]

Well, he did something right. Go Aang.

"The adults can be overprotective sometimes, I guess, but only with their own kids." He thinks of Toph, looking so restrained in those fancy clothes at her parents' side. "There's too much going on for adults to worry too much about kids that aren't theirs, though." He doesn't understand it at all, coming from a culture without family units, but apparently it makes complete sense. "My friends and I have been traveling around without any adults worrying. We came across a big group of orphans that banded together and fought in the war, too." Orphans stuck with each other, because no one else wanted them.

[shenunigans]

"Yeah? Shit must be dire, considering everything sucks here and everyone is trying to adopt each other." He says that, but the concept of families only having time for one another doesn't really shock him. It shocks him more that so many people are so damn protective here.

"Sounds like the Lost Boys." He observes thoughtfully, now imagining all of these orphans in animal costumes because it makes it less dire somehow. "So are you like Peter Pan or Rufio or something?" He's got to know what Peter Pan is, right?

[actually112]

"I guess here, people feel like we have to stick together." And there's unfortunately a lack of that in a lot of his world. It's become very 'every man for himself' during the war.

"No, there were girls too. And they weren't lost. They made this whole fort in the trees to hide from the soldiers." Come to think of it, they were lucky that the Fire Nation soldiers never thought to burn the forest down to get them. "Who're those people?" 'Peter' and 'Rufio' sound nothing like the names at home, but then again, he has yet to meet too many people with names he recognized.