thecapitol | [Open]

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Who| Emily and YOU
What| There's a new mentor in town
Where| Various locations in the Training Centre
When| A few days after the end of Arena 12
Warnings/Notes| No warnings inherent. Prose and brackets both welcome.

a) District 7 suite - mostly for D7, but feel free to crash the pancake party otherwise

Every available surface of the common room is covered in silver platters laden with pancakes, along with various fruits, nuts, sauces and syrups to top them with. In pride of place are several large jugs of maple syrup, one of District 7's main exports, and Em might get a little offended if her tributes eschew it entirely. She'll give a reserved, polite smile to anyone who walks in, mentally sizing them up and trying to figure out if they have any chance in the Arena at all.

"Hello, there. I'm your new mentor."

b) Training Centre - open to all

She's positioned herself near the survival station - campfires, ropes, plants of all sorts - a place that's not nearly so popular as throwing around a sword or axe, but the one where she feels most qualified to give advice. She'll happily talk to any tribute that comes in to train, whether they belong to her district or not: as much as she wants to guarantee a District 7 win, she's not going to put the other tributes at a disadvantage before they've even got into the Arena. She's had enough of that duplicity for one lifetime.

c) Rooftop - closed to Jason Compson

Even out in the districts, Compson is a name that brings recognition, but only vaguely so far as Emily's own knowledge goes. She's fairly sure that he used to be the escort for District 10 - Calder's district, she thinks with the twinge of bitterness and shame that always runs through her thinking of him - and that makes her feel even more nervous about meeting with him. She tries to push it aside, to assume her usual mask, knowing that they'll be working together now, and that both of them surely have the interests of their tributes at heart.

She rises on hearing footsteps approaching the bench she's seated on in the rooftop gardens, offering a hand for him to shake, if he so chooses.

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Even though the joke was at her expense Ruffnut grinned that crooked grin of hers. She was used to people laughing at her and even if she didn't always like it she had developed a sense of humor somewhere along the way.

When she brought up ranged weapons the blond girl nodded and looked surprised that she hadn't considered that before. "Well yeah, everyone back home has to learn how to shoot a bow and throw a spear." It wasn't her favorite weapon because it lacked the flash of dragon explosions but if given an option she'd grab a spear.

"Haven't really found too many of those in the arena though." And again the obvious solution of making her own hadn't dawned on her.

"It's true that a bow is a rather expensive sponsor gift," she concedes. Although she remembered there being a couple in the Cornucopia in her own Arena - though she'd strongly advise Ruffnut to run in the opposite direction of the bloodbath that was sure to take place there, regardless. "But one thing a lot of Arena environments are sure to have is trees." She lets the hint hang in the air, wanting her to come to the conclusion of making a bow rather than suggesting it outright, so that it's not solely Emily telling her to do so.

"Trees right..." Ruffnut could tell she was trying to get her to think for herself, Hiccup liked to play this game too. She visualized a tree and another tributes finally arriving at the clear and obvious solution.

"So I should knock the tree down and flatten the other tributes to take their bows and arrows!" She deduced looking like a pleased puppy awaiting her praise. Just how she was going to knock the tree down didn't really matter right?

Emily resists the urge to facepalm. "You could do that," she says tentatively, "but it seems like a lot of effort to go through. Besides, while you're knocking the tree down they'll probably sneak up and steal whatever other supplies you've got." Or worse.

She leans against the counter. "In my District, our main export is lumber. But as well as knocking down the trees, we learn how to craft things from the wood. How about I teach you how to make a bow from a branch?"

"oh yeah!" The look of comprehension finally dawns on her face like the light of a rising sun and she grins again.

"They did say something about lumber. That's why they keep making me wear plaid things. What does plaid have to do with lumber?"

At least when the training got around to it Ruffnut would prove somewhat more capable at learning how to make a bow. It's not as though it was a complex device after all.

"It doesn't have too much to do with District Seven," Emily admits, "though the popular image of treefellers is big bearded men wearing plaid. Lumberjacks. You're lucky, though. My year they made me just dress as a tree."

Bearded men Ruffnut could understand. Plaid still felt weird to her.

"Well at least I'm not a tree." She laughed at the mental image. "Could you even move like that or did they use like...actual wood?" Her crooked grin spread from ear to ear clearly enjoying the conversation.

"They didn't use wood, though I almost wish they had." She looks uncomfortable and itchy just at the memory. "The skirt was made of pine needles."

Well if Ruffnut was laughing before she was on the verge of a full out chortle now.

"I have got to see that! Tell me there's pictures?" It would make her feel better about some of her own more humiliating outfits in the last few months.

Still there was no malice in the request, just a grin. It was rare for Ruffnut to get along with other girls given that she and Astrid were the only two girls in their age group back home. But this one was actually making an effort and from the smile on her face? Ruffnut appreciated that.

Emily pulls a folded, glossy page from a Capitol magazine from her pocket, having anticipated this sort of question. The edges are worn and the colour faded from age, and she grimaces a little as she unfolds it and holds it out for Ruffnut to see.

"It doesn't look so bad, but boy was it a pain to wear. Leaves kept dropping off all night."

The laughter dies away as her eyes get wide in shock at the existence of such a picture.

"Do you just...carry this around with you wherever you go?" She wondered out loud torn between another burst of laughter and stunned respect that Emily didn't mind sharing this horribly embarrassing bit of her past. Then she pulled a face.

"You weren't like...exposed by the end of the night were you?"

"Oh, goodness no!" she exclaims, laughing a little, more amused than embarrassed. She didn't see the need to be shy about sharing, not when the whole of Panem had seen her dressed in it at the time anyway, and besides there were far more important things for her to be ashamed of than the dress she'd worn to the opening ceremonies, so long ago now. "It's just that I expected questions about my Games to come up, meeting you all for the first time and everything. I wasn't exposed, but I may well have been if I'd had to wear it a few hours longer. I left a trail of leaves wherever I went."

That was enough to make Ruffnut laugh again and relax. So this girl was someone from this world but she wasn't as crazy as the rest. She was practical and a viking could appreciate practicality even if Ruffnut didn't always act like it.

"I guess it's easier to get weird with your clothes here since it's so warm inside. Back home you pretty much wear fur and leather all the time or freeze to death." That wasn't to say The Capitol couldn't get cold, but no where near what Ruffnut was used to especially with how easy it was to find a place to warm up.

"Do you miss your District?" She added curiously. She'd heard some of the other tributes had gotten to visit District seven but she'd never been.

"Yes, very much." She smiles sadly. Her homesickness wasn't as bad now as it had been in the past, having only returned to the Capitol in the last few days, but she'd found herself experiencing a huge amount of culture shock compared to Seven. "I imagine you must miss your home, too." As much as Emily missed her District, at least it was still on the same planet.

Ruffnut had done her fair share of complaining about being away from home but she stopped to consider for a minute. Did she miss it?

"I Miss my dragon." She started dipping her toes into the pool of emotions she usually tried to avoid. "And I guess my friends...my stupid brother. This place has all kinds of great stuff, and the food is amazing. And I've never been so warm in my life without being on fire." She sighed wistfully.

"But I wanna go flying on Barf and Belch over the ocean and make things explode. And I wanna see the stupid look on Tuffnut's face when I show him some of the stuff around here like the shower buttons or the food box or the magic windows."

She was well aware that the preferred term was Television but she didn't particularly care.

"I miss my brothers too," she replies, feeling a pang of homesickness just mentioning them. She frowns a little though, one of the words being completely unfamiliar to her. "What's a 'dragon'?" The way Ruffnut mentioned it, she imagines it's similar to a dog.

The dumbstruck look on Ruffnut's face was not as intense as the first time someone had asked her that question...but she was still clearly baffled.

"Seriously you too? I just...I've grown up with dragons all my life it's weird to meet people who don't know!" She rummaged around in her pockets until she produced a small plastic model of a dragon she had found in one of the toy stores in the city. It was based off the robotic one that had terrorized the Theme Park Arena last year. Ruffnut just thought it looked cool. Not as cool as the actual dragon tribute named Iskierka but pretty cool.

"Dragons are like this but with scales and skin and sometimes fur but mostly armor plates and scales." She explained in a vague way. "They fly and spit fire and love to eat fish. Back home Vikings and Dragons were enemies and we fought all the time. But then the son of the village chief...remember that kid Hiccup that was here before? Or...did you see him? Anyway Hiccup taught us how to train dragons and ride them. Now Dragons and Vikings are best friends and almost everyone has one."

She listens intently, enjoying hearing her talk about something she's clearly so passionate about. She'd avoided most of the footage from that arena, though she recognises the animal that Ruffnut holds up. "They look like they could cause a lot of damage. It's impressive that you ride them."

That little stroke to her ego makes her lift her chin with pride.

"Yeah they are TOTALLY destructive. That's the best part! some of them shoot acid. Some of them can freeze you, There's even some that can smash stuff just by roaring!"

Unlike Hiccup, her interest in dragons was much more destructive then academic.

"Well in that case, it's too bad you won't have one in the Arena. You'd win for sure then." She tries to think how much money she'd need to raise from sponsors to have a dragon parachuted in, and knows it will never happen.

"Yeah, and you can't teach me to breath fire...right? That's not a thing people can do around here? Like with magic technology or stuff?" Because anything Ruffnut didn't understand was magic technology.

"I figured out how guns work, those are kinda cool. Not a big enough explosion for how loud they are though." She mused thinking back to her first experiments with a gun in the Mall arena. Thank goodness Hiccup had been there to take it apart and figure out what it was or she might have killed herself on accident.

"It wouldn't surprise me if some of the Capitol scientists had figured out a way." If they could change people's skin colour then fire breathing surely couldn't be out of the question. "I don't see the Gamemakers letting you, though. Too much of an advantage."

"If you see a gun, go for it." Emily despised them - at least with the axes that Tributes of her District had traditionally gone for in the Arena there were other uses; guns were designed solely to kill - but they were a definite boon when it came to the Games. Perhaps that's why the Gamemakers gave them out so rarely. "Although I'm not sure that trying to make explosions is the best strategy. If it goes wrong you could be seriously hurt, and they give your location away too. I think we need to go for something more subtle."

"Aw that's no fun." She was clearly disappointed that explosions were not the answer to all her problems. Still if Emily had survived the arena and won that meant she had to know what she was talking about.

"Alright, I can do that. With you on my side this next arena is all mine!"

She clenched a fist letting her confidence fire up once more. So what if she didn't have Hiccup or Astrid. So what if she didn't her dragons or her brother? This wasn't their story anymore. This was about her.

"I'm gonna give this my all." She promised.

For the first time since she'd returned to the Capitol and taken up the role of Mentor once more, Emily actually feels rather confident. She's unsure that Ruffnut can win without more training - she needed to think more tactically and subtly - but those were things that could be taught, and she was certainly willing to listen. Emily grins back at her.

"That's all I need to hear. Now, go on and finish your pancakes, and I'll be in the training rooms later on to show you how to carve a bow."

[[ Seems like a good end for now~ Ruffnut will re-appear when the crowning comes around so she can reconnect with Emily and discuss her performance :) ]]

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