Drinking cinnamon coffee, or decaffeinated tea.

[seestheman]

WHO | Clara and OPEN
WHAT | The first meeting of Clara's breakfast club.
WHEN | Present time.
WHERE | District 10's suite
WARNINGS/NOTES | None right now, will add any if they crop up!


Clara's been meaning to do this for a couple months now, round up her collective of friends/various adopted kids/Districtmates and have breakfast. After waking up far earlier than she has in weeks and shooing a couple Avoxes out of the kitchen, she sets to work, getting the prep stuff out of the way and organizing all the various ingredients on the counter so she can knock out each dish as she goes.

Depending on when they wake up, residents of 10 will most likely smell something cooking, whether it be hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, a variety of breakfast meats, or other breakfast staples. The sight that will meet anyone who comes into the kitchen is one of organized chaos (that will most likely devolve into something much more unorganized as more people join in the food-fray).

Comments

[needlebearer]

It takes Arya a second to cotton on to what she means there. "...From the dead?"

[seestheman]

Clara gives her a nod, realization starting to creep in. "Yeah. Has anyone told you about that part?" About how something that should be so permanent isn't and it's so wrong, not that she's going to mention that part.

[needlebearer]

Arya shakes her head vigorously, looking in equal parts intrigued and dismayed. "They can really do that?"

[seestheman]

Clara nods, trying to figure out the best way to go about saying it. She remembers when she found out and how well she didn't take the news. "Yeah," she says softly. "None of us are completely sure how they do it, but they do somehow. Most of the people here have been through multiple Arenas." Herself included, though somehow she only managed to die once despite her low score and all the odds against her.

[needlebearer]

She feels sickened and outraged, realising that she's almost certainly going to die in there and they'll keep bringing her back. It makes a mockery of death, which is the one thing she believes in any more. But then something else occurs to her, and she looks a little hopeful. "Could they bring back other people? Ones that aren't in this world."

[seestheman]

That isn't the kind of question a child should be asking, and Clara tries not to show how much it hurts to be asked that by a girl who looks so close to David's age. "I...I'm not completely sure," she finally says after a moment. "They might, if they brought them here to fight in the Arena. They've brought people here from the same place, but different times." She doesn't add that she has first hand experience with that, instead only adding, "Would you really want them to bring someone here just to go through this?"

[needlebearer]

Arya doesn't answer for a moment, because she knows how selfish and callous her honest answer would be. She desperately wanted her father and Robb and Yoren and Syrio to be resurrected here, confident that they'd beat all the other Tributes too. Her mother and Bran and Rickon, though... she couldn't bear to think of them being butchered all over again in a foreign land for entertainment.

"No," she says finally, though it pains her to do so. "I just want to know how they do it. So I can take it back to Westeros with me."

[seestheman]

Clara can't help but try to subtly watch the girl's face. When she answers, Clara gives her a warm, but sad look with a not-quite smile. "I can understand that." Clara would be lying if she said she hadn't thought the same thing, not to bring back the dead, but to fix Alex, as selfish as that may seem. "They probably do it with some sort of weird piece of technology. I doubt they'd willingly let it leave the Capitol."

[needlebearer]

Arya's frustrated to hear that, but she didn't know what else she'd been expecting, really. She decides not to push the subject too much, knowing it wouldn't get her anywhere.

"Does anyone ever get sent back? Or are we here forever?"

[seestheman]

There's a bizarre sense of deja vu that comes with that question. It's one she asked in her early days, almost a year ago. It's one that she still doesn't have a complete answer to.

"I don't know. I like to think that they send us back when we die," she finally says softly. It's the one thing she has to console herself, that David's life hasn't been thrown into upheaval all over again because she and Alex are here.

[needlebearer]

Arya doesn't believe that for one minute. It's the sort of answer that she might have told a younger child to placate them. "Dead is dead," she says a little bitterly. "They just stop choosing to revive you, that's all."

[seestheman]

"Maybe that's true," she murmurs, trying not to let that idea sink in. "But it helps me sleep better to think that my son didn't lose both his parents because someone from another world thought we'd be more interesting in a death match than at home with him." Not to mention what Dennett had told her about the things that had happened in the days after she had been brought to Panem, that he remembered her being there. Or maybe it was some sort of paradox.

"The important thing is that you keep giving them a reason to revive you, in that case."

[needlebearer]

"Like killing lots of other people." It seems the most obvious reason for them to keep interest in her, though she says it a little cynically.

[seestheman]

"Or making them think you're entertaining," she says pointedly. She refuses to encourage a young girl to go on a murderous rampage in the Arena, even though she should because that's her job. "Build the right bonds, make them think you have a crush on someone for the sake for an interesting story. You don't just win this by killing, you win this by having the right bonds and using them the best you can."

[needlebearer]

Arya wrinkles her nose at the thought of having to pretend that she fancied someone. She'd prefer to go on a murderous rampage, if those were the options. "I'm not particularly entertaining," she replies, imagining they'd make her sing or juggle or something if they thought she were.

[seestheman]

While Clara doesn't know exactly what brings about that look on Arya's face, she can't help but laugh a little, reminded slightly of her son making a similar face at the idea of him having a crush on one of his classmates. "I'm sure they could find something entertaining about you. Maybe something about what your family's like? Or how you used to spend your time at home before you were brought here?"

[needlebearer]

She tenses at that, her look turning serious and intense. "They'd better not talk about my family."

[seestheman]

The way Arya hops to the defensive wipes all traces of the smile from Clara's face. "You're going to have to prepare yourself for the fact that they might. It's one of the little perks of being a Tribute," she says, trying to fight back the edge of sarcasm in her voice. "There's a decent chance that they'll try to pry into every part of your background for entertainment, even if you avoid bringing them up."

[needlebearer]

"There's nothing entertaining about it," she snaps, then realises that she shouldn't take her anger at the idea out on Clara, opting to just stare at the reflection of the overhead lights in her now empty plate as she tries to let it diffuse out of her.

[seestheman]

"No, there isn't," Clara agrees, trying not to remember the footage of David played at her crowning, or how they knew exactly what her backyard looked like enough to recreate it brick-by-brick. "But that doesn't change the fact that they see it as entertainment and the best thing you can do is act like it doesn't phase you."