thecapitol | Storing Food for the Winter

Who| Kousuke Nitou and you!
What| After the Arena, Nitou's coping mechanisms prove to be strange.
Where| All over the place, specific prompts for different locations inside.
When| A few days after the Arena.
Warnings/Notes| Talk of Arena death and violence, obscene quantities of mayonnaise.

[A - Around Town]
Between the starvation and taunting with Miracle Whip during his re-education session and the even worse starvation that had come from the Arena itself, Nitou was starting to develop some issues. Food had always been important to the guy, and mayonnaise the most important of all. He put it on everything. Everything. Having that taken away, combined with the general trauma that was the Arena. He'd accidentally killed Gary, he'd seen a bunch of other people die, he'd died after a chestburster popped out to say hello and then he and it were eaten by Chimera...To make that even worse, somehow, the Capitol media had gotten it into its head that he was in a relationship with Haruto, of all people. HARUTO. That was just disturbing. Nitou's favored coping method for dealing with upsetting things he couldn't actively work to fix had always been to move on to the next thing, the next great adventure, never to let on that he'd been hurt. But he couldn't really move on here in the Capitol, could he? Couldn't pack up his tent and wander off to a more hospitable environment.

He'd already taken to ensuring that he had a decent mayonnaise hoard stockpiled in the District Five apartments, but something about that Arena death kicked that need into overdrive. It was a relatively harmless, mindless activity, and making sure he had enough mayo provided him with a sort of security blanket. Problem was, in his desperation to do something after his death, this hoarding behavior kicked into overdrive, and Nitou needed more mayonnaise. There was only one thing to do--stockpile even more mayonnaise. But first, he had to get this mayo to stockpile from somewhere.

So there he is, out and about, gathering the mayonnaise in a whirlwind shopping trip. He has carts full of the stuff. Enough that it's not surprising he's lost his grip on one of them, and it's rolling wildly out of control and away. "Hey, you! Look out!" Those who don't get out of the way or stop the cart in time are likely to get mowed down by it--and "I got hit by a runaway cart of mayo" is an awful thing that no one wants to have to tell the paramedics.

[B - Common Areas]
And what is one to do with a mayo stash? Hide it. If he hides enough of it, then there's absolutely no way the Capitol will be able to find and take away all of it. Clearly, this is flawless logic.

"'Scuse me." And there's Nitou calmly reaching around the person standing next to that lamp to hide a bottle of mayonnaise in the light fixture. Or reaching under someone to shove a bottle underneath some couch cushions. Or climbing on a ladder armed with a roll of duct tape with the clear intent to tape a skinny squirt bottle of the stuff behind the curtain rods. Or uprooting a potted plant so he can hide some mayonnaise underneath. Or hollowing out a book to create a secret mayo-shaped compartment. He might even be found jimmying open the tank of a toilet in one of the bathrooms to hide a bottle in a ziploc baggie containing a mayonnaise bottle inside if he really starts running out of hiding spots. Of course, hiding things in front of people probably defeats the purpose, but he doesn't care at this point.

[C - D5 Apartments]
If there was a place in the Tribute Tower that could be said to be the epicenter of Project Mayonnaise, it was here, where Nitou actually lived. There had been small caches of mayonnaise scattered around the apartments here and there before, but this was different. There was Nitou being cheerfully eccentric, and then there was Nitou displaying terrible coping methods and overdoing it in some weird mayo-based cry for help.

If anyone would care to confront Nitou about this mayo-caching behavior, he's in his apartment, where he's in the process of shoving a ridiculous amount of mayonnaise, probably what he couldn't find hiding spots for in the rest of the Tower, under his bed--and there's a new "chair" in the corner. It's actually a bunch of jars of mayonnaise stacked together in the shape of a large armchair and covered up with a slipcloth, and it definitely looks just like a pile of mayonnaise pretending to be furniture.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She doesn't look entirely satisfied "That will have to be a start. But I'm going to refine your already existing skills till you're even more capable then you already are."

Maybe that would provide him with some amount of comfort.

"You've slid by on what you already know how to do for this long. The only way we're going to improve is to work harder. To look deep inside yourself and find what we can either improve...or remove."

Casting a glance around the room she added "Such as an unhealthy obsession with jars of condiments."

"Heh, I'd have to work pretty hard to get more awesome than I already am." He didn't seem to mind working on his existing skills. "More swordfighting stuff would be cool, I guess. Might help if I get another bad roll of the dice."

Of course, that whole "not minding" things he has going vanishes when she calls him out on his obsession. "It's not an obsession! It's just a stockpile!" He nods in satisfaction. "For emergencies."

His sharp defense only seems to further her point.

"I am not a medical professional, but I'm almost sure that if you ate all of this mayonnaise it would kill you." she began pointing a finger lazily at his forehead.

"Be honest right now, are you even as we have this discussion thinking of places you haven't already gone to collect more mayonnaise and places you could stash it if you found more?"

"I'm not going to eat it all at once!" Nitou protested indignantly. "And I can handle a lot of this stuff. Probably more than most people." Years of gluttony will do that to a person, after all.

He blinked at that accusing finger pointed at his head and that question. "...maybe."

That seemed to satisfy her for the moment. Knowing she was probably right always made her happy.

"When exactly did this obsession begin? Was there a moment where you first had mayonnaise and just decided "This is what my life is going to become?"

Really the more she pressed him on the matter the more ridiculous she felt about it.

"I dunno." Nitou shrugged. "I've just always really liked it--it's my favorite food!"

"Condiment." She corrected him. "It is not a food. It lacks the nutrients to qualify." At least that was her opinion.

"Think back now to the first time you had it. Where were you in your life? What was it on?"

"I dunno, I guess Grandma gave it to me on something when I was a kid. On something like takoyaki, maybe?" Azula, you might as well ask him when was the first time he noticed that water was wet or grass was green.

So much for that line of logic. She was willing to run with it though.

"So as that has been a constant in your life. And now that things are different you've surrounded yourself with something that you trust. Something that brings you comfort." She reasoned and then added "But you've taken it too far. We need to dial it down to a more manageable level. Perhaps find you some other ways to express your love of it."

Casting a judgmental gaze around the room "Perhaps I could pull some strings and get you a job advertising for the company that makes it."

"Aw, come on, there's never enough mayonnaise!" He would have protested more, but he seemed to like that advertising job idea quite a lot. "Hey, I'd do that!" Nitou grinned and gestured at himself. "You know I'm good looking enough for the job."

Azula hated to lose, but she could at least count a compromise as a victory for herself.

"Very well, if I get you in contact with the company and propose the business deal, you have to promise me to get rid of most of this mess. The less jars of this you have the more room you'll have for things like T-shirts with the logo on it, furniture shaped like jars and so on and so forth. These advertising jobs usually come with plenty of swag."

The term felt so undignified but it was the best descriptor she could come up with shy of calling it useless junk.

"Hey, don't worry, I'll take care of it." And there was a not-at-all reassuring grin along with that. The idea of renting a storage unit somewhere may or may not have just occurred to Nitou. And hey, if he was on a company's payroll, they'd have to give him a bunch of mayo, right? All he could eat? "I can so do that for some swag."

"There's a good boy. I've already got the Intitate working for the company that makes that soda he loves so much, it should be child's play for me to have them draft up a lucrative contract with you." She examined her nails in a casual way to indicate just how easy it would be.

"Just make sure you do as I always expect of my tributes. Carry yourself in a respectful and dignified manner. Try your hardest. Even the most forgiving company doesn't want a problem child as their figurehead."

Hence why she had such a hard time promoting some of her other tributes.

"Respectful and dignified? Aw, sure, I've got that. When am I not?" He'd at least carry on cheerfully, if nothing else. But he liked the idea. It might get him to behave a bit better. "It's me! What could go wrong problem child wise? It's all just part of my charm!"

She couldn't help but smirk and raise and eyebrow at his confidence. Did he really not see how many different ways he could get in trouble? Well he was still newish. Perhaps he just needed more time to become more perceptive to the threats of living in the capitol.

"Well for one you could die of heart problems in association with overwhelming cholesterol." She mused taking the time to examine one of his jars and the nutritional value of its contents.

"But I agree you are charming in your own way. So I'll keep working for you as long as you keep working for me you charming prince of condiments."

"Hey, I keep active, and I got a good metabolism! It's nothing to worry about!" Nitou remained just as cheerful as ever, and he gave Azula a charming wink to go with that. "And I'm real good at doing charming!"

Storing Food for the Winter

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Seems like a good place to fade to black if you'd like to get the last word in?

Sounds good!