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

[gardienne]

"You wish for my hand?" Eponine laughs nervously. You know, always she has dreamed of this. It has happened before, of course, in the Capitol, but not for a long, long time. And even then, it had mostly been Sigma or Ian. Her dad or her gay best friend. But now - oh!

Her face breaks into a smile and she relaxes.
"Can you dance, Sir? I love to dance! I have learned a bit here. But you are new? Have they shown you how?"

[a_minute_younger]

"Of course I know how to dance!" Gary does not know how to dance. Not well. Eponine does not need to know this. "I can do just about anything for a lady as lovely as you."

Still waiting for that hand. He's starting to fidget a little bit.

[gardienne]

She laughs at his compliments. "Yeah?" She takes his hand. "I've been learning the waltz a little. I like that one. But I think this music is too fast." She adds, doubtfully. "Might I have your name? I don't know you!"

[a_minute_younger]

"Gary," he says, eagerly pulling her to the center of the dance floor, "but you can call me Autumn, because I'm falling for you."

Yeah.

[gardienne]

"Autumn?" She's blank. Totally blank. She's not cottoned onto the Americanism. But she laughs anyway, whilst she tries to awkwardly dance to the music.

"Anyway, you cannot fall for me. You do not know me! I do not think you should like me so much if you did, you know? I do like your jacket, though. Red is my favourite."

[a_minute_younger]

Gary is going to let that one pass--if she can't get the joke, the least he can do is troll her for as long as humanly possible. Besides, 'Autumn' doesn't sound half bad for an on-the-spot nickname! He can get behind this.

"You don't believe in love at first sight?" he grins, enthusiastically starting to dance. Gary is not a good dancer, but he is, at the very least, quite energetic about it, and is more than happy to lead Eponine along with twists and twirls and stray bumps of the hip if she doesn't shoo him off first. "Maybe I wore red because we were fated to meet!"

[gardienne]

"I have thought I have loved men at first sight." Eponine replies, simply watching Gary move as she thinks. "But... but too many men say I am horrible, or they don't want me." She laughs though, as he bumps her, and begins to try to copy his movements. She's not a brilliant dancer herself, certainly not a natural movement, but she laughs a lot.

"You are so good, Gary!" She chuckles. "Perhaps it is so -the fate. I should like to think that it is so!"

[a_minute_younger]

Encouraging Gary is a dangerous thing to do, but at least in this case it's only dancing. He is suddenly inspired to reach for Eponine's hands so that they can swing a bit more in sync.

"Well those men are dumb and they should feel dumb," he says sagely. "Their own fault for missing out! I guess that means I just get you all to myself, huh?"

[gardienne]

"I suppose that is so." She laughs as Gary pulls her through the motions of the dance.

"Is this the first Capitol party you have been to? They are not all so like this. They are usually more grand than this, and fancier clothes and the like."

[a_minute_younger]

Gary scrunches up his face and shakes his head, leading Eponine into a spin. "Nah. I went to that gig after the last Arena, the, uh--the Crowning!" He nods at himself. "Fancy clothes is right. So much leather." The teen stares off for a moment, as if awestruck at the memory. "What did you wear?"

[gardienne]

"They gave you leather?" She asks. She can imagine Gary in a leather jacket, actually, and in her head, he doesn't look half bad.

"Me, they joke with. I am in prison in Paris, where I am from, yes? So they find those clothes, those rags - " She spits the word savagely - "and I am dressed as I always were, with no shoes and my skirt held on my hips with a bit of string and these -" 'She touches the cuffs clamped firmly on each wrist with her free hand, "they joined them with chains and my feet as well. It is how I was in Paris, you see? Do you see, Sir? You dance with the devil himself."

[a_minute_younger]

Gary would like to think he looks good in leather, too. He tries to think about this more than he thinks about the image Eponine paints of herself in rags and chains and in prison. Vaguely he wonders if she's being a bit melodramatic. The way she says it, Eponine sounds like some kind of beggar. Surely she can't be!

He decides to humor her, only a little bit and not very well. "If you're the devil," Gary croons with a sly smile, "then the devil is the prettiest girl I have ever seen."

[gardienne]

"And I think you say that to every girl who gives you a glance, eh?" Eponine laughs. She's not offended. It doesn't really bother her at all. "I know your type. You say you are for me, but tomorrow, you are for Felicity or someone. But if you wish for me tonight, then I do not mind in the last. You are handsome, you know?"

[a_minute_younger]

He's been found out! Gary plays it cool--intentional, even, tugging nervously at the collar of his shirt.

"You really think I'm handsome?" It's also easier if he just skips over the accusations altogether. Like they never even happened! Magic!

[gardienne]

"Of course." Eponine doesn't really care if he's ignoring her accusations. She knows she's right, and she really doesn't care about that right either. Sometimes, she thinks, it is nice to have as much fun with boys as they have with her.

"Don't you think you're handsome? I think your hair looks like a buttercup, and just as silky."

[a_minute_younger]

Gary's smile returns almost instantly, just as smooth and a touch devious as before. "Oh I know," he grins. "I just wanted to hear you say it again. A buttercup, you said?" Gary smooths back his gelled black hair with a quick swipe of his hand. "Yeah, a peanut butter cup wrapper, maybe. I keep telling my stylist I want it highlighter yellow and they never listen. One day."

[gardienne]

"That is a trick, then." Eponine laughs, though her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes. She's not too good at hiding her real feelings, and quite honestly, it is a little tiresome to keep stroking an ego.

"You should look good in blonge. You know, they have changed my hair all sorts. They can do anything here. They make my cheeks fatter sometimes, and make my hair shine, and my eyes. They have given me cat ears and sharp teeth that hang from my mouth and even a bigger chest. It is not well, I promise."

[a_minute_younger]

Oblivious as ever, Gary of course doesn't catch anything artificial about Eponine's laughter and blazes onward as if he has made a brilliant joke. Which he thinks he has, if his joining laugh is any indication. "Ah, I'm sure you don't need any of that mess," he assures with a confident nod. "It's pretty cool what they can do though, isn't it? Do you think I can get them to give me those horns that some of these guys have on? You know--" Gary briefly mimics a pair of troll horns by pointing his fingers above his head. "--the orange and yellow ones! Why do so many people have those?"

Warnings for racial language

[gardienne]

"They're trolls." Eponine stares first at the trolls, and then back at Gary. "They're not people. They are trolls. The Initiate - that is his name: it is a strange name, I think. Anyway, the Initiate says he is from a different planet, not Earth at all. I do not really understand so much - where I am from in France, there is just France and England and America, and the countries where the coloured men come from. And no Panem - so perhaps they speak the truth also? But so. And I suppose they are like animals, they have horns. But if they seek here to make me a cat girl, then they might give you horns too. You could ask?'

[a_minute_younger]

Gary flinches--genuinely, but he's quick to pass it off as a joke. "Well no need to be rude about it," he huffs. "Everyone's a people! Even if maybe they think they're not human people. That's their choice."

[gardienne]

"Animals are not people." Eponine is genuinely puzzled as to why Gary's taken offence at her words. What has she said? "Are trolls animals? They have horns like animals, but talk like us. I do not know." She shrugs. "But the Capitol can make you into an animal or a troll or anything else if you ask them to. Sometimes if you do not ask them to."

[a_minute_younger]

"Well--yes." Gary purses his lips and furrows his brow. He's not exactly sure why she's so puzzled. Is Eponine really that out of the loop? Some people are just more sheltered than others, he supposes. Gary folds his arms and has a good think.

"Uh...Animals aren't people, right. But sometimes people think they're animals. And they want other people to recognize that they're animals, too! Or aliens, or whatever." He pauses to make sure that Eponine is following. "So they dress up or have surgery to look like what they identify as. But they're still people! Just not humans, technically. You follow?"

[gardienne]

Eponine shakes her head. "You're talking through your arse." She says bluntly. "A person is a person and an animal is an animal. I might look stupid, you know, and read a bit funny, and find to write a bit hard, but I am not stupid. I know lots and lots of things, and I know all about people. People don't think they're animals. Not unless they're mad." She is actually quite offended, thinking that Gary is taking her for a ride.

[a_minute_younger]

Gary gives a dramatic pout. "Wha--am not!" He pauses mid-dance to shove Eponine in the shoulder. The gesture itself is rude, but it's done gently and with the intent of play. Gary doesn't think far enough ahead to consider if Eponine will get the joke. "I might talk through my ass most of the time, but not this time. I promise."

[gardienne]

"Perhaps it is you who are mad then?" Eponine retorts. He might be finding this all very funny, but she is completely bewildered. "Truly, I don't know what you can possibly mean, for where I am from, and that is Paris, you know, in France? Where I am from, people are people and animals are animals and the closest change comes when men call me a bitch or those high up toffs call us rats or alley-cats or mangy beasts and the like. But it is not because I dress as a dog or a rat or a cat."

She doesn't bother about the push at all, but she does stop dancing simply to air her point. She really, really doesn't understand what Gary means at all.