Staffer's Retreat

[whatisay]

WHO| Every Escort, Stylist and Mentor. Any Capitolites or Peacekeepers who might have reason to oversee or visit.
WHAT| A professional retreat for the overworked, underpaid, and super underappreciated Tribute Care Teams.
WHERE| A chalet in District One, easily accessible by train.
WHEN| Before the next death roll.
WARNINGS| Typical Capitolites being entitled asshats.
NOTES| I've put up some subthreads for various activities, if you want to add more just do so under the appropriate day subheader!

Staffer's Retreat. Mandatory. The teams for each District are given a handful of days to prepare for the weekend, which, they're told, is going to be scheduled for a weekend with no big shake-ups in the Arena and perfect weather for outdoor activities. On Friday morning, they're taken by train to a small chalet tucked into a mountainside. A few inches of snow covers the ground but the sky is clear, reflected in the beautiful lake at the base of the mountain.

Until Sunday evening, their days will be packed with "professional development". The schedule looks something like this:

Friday:
Icebreakers
Trust Falls
Hypothetical Scenarios: How to Be the First Person Chosen for a Bomb Shelter
Three-Legged Race
Self-Care Hour: Mandatory Yoga
Dinner
Breaking Down Stereotypes Workshop

Saturday:
Mandatory Mentor Group Therapy: PTSD is Not An Excuse
Mandatory Escort/Stylist Workshop: Building Trust with Your Tributes
Mandatory Sexual Harassment Training: Focus on Tribute/Mentor and Tribute/Escort Relationships
Lunch
Capture-the-Flag
Group Lego-Building
Dinner
12am Karaoke

Sunday:
5:30am Continental Breakfast
Compliment Circle
Journal Hour
Farewells

Comments

ICEBREAKERS

[whatisay]

Staffers are put into pairs and asked to introduce themselves by playing Who I Am. After sixty seconds, they switch pairs.

[Make your own subthread and tag each other!]

Emily Finch

[conifer]

Emily had been pretty dubious about the whole idea of the retreat. Getting to know the other mentors was certainly a good idea, but she tended to be quite awkward with the sort of forced interaction that teambuilding exercises usually elicited. She feels very conspicuous, crossing her arms over her chest and glancing around, giving a smile that's friendly but guarded at her partner.

"I am Emily, daughter of Carla, daughter of Nerea, daughter of ... others." She falters a little at the 'others', her brow clouding over, thinking about who they might have been, her ancestors before the Dark Days.

[president_evil]

Emily might have had an easier time of it, had she been partnered with anyone other than who she was. Wesker was as pale and still as Death across from her, the dark lenses of his glasses as black and bottomless as the reaper's empty sockets.

He was straight and centered-square in his chair, but other than facing her, he gave nothing from the time she sat to the time she stopped speaking.

Only then did he move.

He lifted a hand to turn the face of his watch to him, doing quick math in his head.

"You still have - 25 seconds."

[conifer]

She smiles apologetically, beginning to count the seconds down in her head from the time he gives. "I'm afraid I don't know any further than that. I could do my paternal line back to the same generation, though I don't know if that's in the rules."

[milieus]

Jennifer was all too happy to participate in the team building retreat. She'd been hoping it would go well and didn't mind at all leading by example and getting down to business, taking a moment to recall all the fabulous names of her maternal line.

"I'm Jennifer, which of course you know. My mother was named Daria, and she was the daughter of Alba, who was the daughter of Pyrrha, who was the daughter of Eunomia, who was the daughter of Melissa." She paused, pursing her lips as she considered the generations of long dead women whose blood flowed in her veins. She'd known her grandmother, Alba, and had met her great-grandmother, Pyrrha, but the others were mysteries to her. They were nothing to her but names now... names, and a gentle note to herself to look these women up someday. Clearing her throat, she continued, "Melissa's mother was named Sonia, I think."

[perfectus]

"Sonia's a nice name." Cal's tone had an appeasingly empty feeling to it. Sonia was an alright name, he figured, but more than that, it was important that Jenny not feel too weird in front of her subordinates. He cleared his throat a little awkwardly, pulling attention away onto himself. Anything to alleviate the moment.

"I think I can name eight generations back. But at a certain point, we could all just start making things up, right?" He counted backwards in his head. Adrastea, Juventia, Maecilia, Aemilia, Seia, Calendia, Gellia, Cicereia, yeah, he could do eight."But my family is really into lineage and that's kind of unusual nowadays."

[milieus]

"Yes, that is very unusual." She noted the hollowness in his voice and wondered vaguely if Cal was trying to appease her because she was his boss or appease her for other reasons she didn't dare speak aloud in this place. Her job was trying enough. She didn't exactly need to publicly interact with Calendius all the time.

Of course, she'd never let on that anything was amiss. Instead, she sat there with a saccharine sweet smile plastered on her deep red lips. "You can name all of your mother's mothers, but can you name any of your father's fathers?"

It wasn't meant to be cold so much as a simple observation. She never meant to be cruel, but sometimes she did like to feel superior.

[fusshionable]

This is all sort of silly, honestly, but Porrim's happy to follow along if it means keeping her job and having things go smoothly. So she sits there with her pleasant smile, dressed in something comfortable yet smile, listening. "Melissa," she remarks. "You don't often hear that one." It's an old name--from Before. Not something a Capitolite would name their daughter nowadays. She purses her lips, and repeats the exercise.

"I'm Porrim, daughter of Anantha, daughter of Jule, daughter of..." Porrim pauses. "Katrin. Or Katrina. Something like that." She laughs a little. "It's difficult to remember them all. I never paid much attention to our family tree when I was younger." Now, however--that's quite a different story. Searching for clues, for signs of something...different.

[milieus]

"It is old fashioned, isn't it?" But then again, so is Jennifer. She recalls asking her mother about her own name as a little girl and hearing the dull reply about being named for some queen in an old fairy tale. Guinevere, her mother had said. At the time, little Jenny found it intolerable and had asked to go by her middle name, Drusilla, so that the other children wouldn't look at her funny. Nowadays, she finds it quite fitting. Who doesn't aspire to have queenly qualities?

She smiles warmly. "Porrim is such a beautiful name. Where did your mother come up with it?"

[capitolprivilege]

"I am Stephen," he begins, counting on his fingers, "son of Portia, daughter of Justinia, daughter of Cressida, daughter of Lavinia, daughter of Messalina, daughter of..." It's at the great-great-great-great grandmother that he falters.

"....sorry. I've got nothing past that.

[contrarianlibrarian]

While she may be Capitol through and through, this kind of exercise is one China could do without. Genealogy is fascinating when it's family trees dancing on ancient paper and accompanied by the intoxicating smell of old books. She's somewhat less fond of it when it's coming out of someone's mouth.

She smiles warmly at his apology. "If the older members of your family aren't as interesting as the current examples, that would be their fault, would it not?"

[ooc: Apologies for the late tag--I can delete if it's a problem.]

[capitolprivilege]

[ooc: nope! you're totally fine!]

He laughs. "That's one way to look at it," Stephen says. "But I'd bet you anything it's not true. My grandmother, for one, is much more interesting than me."

Jolie

[reallynow]

This is all a little too much like grade school to be truly enjoyable for Jolie, particularly when it takes a big slice out of the me-time she so dearly needs in between big events and sewing. At the very least, it's a time for dressing up nice and schmoozing. Maybe once she phones it in she can just camp at the bar and pretend this isn't a big waste of time.

She greets her match with a brilliant smile, the product of Capitol dentistry at it's finest, and proceeds to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Jolie. I like not wasting my time and being other places. Chances are you probably already knew that, so kudos. Anyway, my mother is like me only older and taller and her mother is also like me only older and he doesn't wear a wig and then her mother is even older and dead." She holds out a hand to shake, and she's enthusiastic about it at least. "If we wanna talk about something more important- I dress District Eight and I've been doing it for longer than a lady likes to admit."

[asmilinggod]

Jolie's broad smile is met with an even broader one back - albeit a lot less brilliant and a lot more...jagged. He nods along with the description of her past, appearing to pay rapt attention - and when the enthusiastic handshake is offered, he moves to take it right away, returning the enthusiasm with his red-stained fingers.

"It is just WONDERFUL to meet you, Jolie! What a wonderful family background you have." This is spoken cheerfully, without a trace of irony. "I'm Kevin! Wow, you're one of the stylists? That must be SUCH hard work!"

Says the man who has actually never been seen in anything but a suit since he has arrived.

[reallynow]

Somehow in all of her time here, she's never personally met Kevin. She's been in his vicinity and she knows about him, probably more than she cares to know even, but they've never been introduced. Her enthusiasm doesn't wane, because even crazy motherfuckers are fun.

"I'll pass on the compliment for 'em next time I see 'em." She says with a more reserved grin, appreciating the cheer even if it's coming from such a strange place. "It's a nightmare, sure, but I'd take it any day over wrangling six's tributes. You've got some colourful characters there, that's for sure." She says, to one of the weirdest people in six.

[69problems]

"I am the Signless, adoptive son of the Dolorosa... who had no troll parents and never told me about her lusus."

Yyyeah. This isn't exactly a good game for a troll to play when their species is hatched in batches of hundreds has little to no concept of familial bonds to other trolls. He's the only troll who ever had a mother, but that's about as far back as his 'family' goes. At least he has the good grace to look a little sheepish about it.

"I'm sorry. A lineage isn't something trolls really have."

At least that's kind of an interesting conversation starter in itself?

[cigne]

"Well, one family member is better than none! What is a lusus, though?"

Ever the optimist, Swann smiles at him, then holds up her hand to count on her fingers. "I am Swann, daughter of Viatrix, who is the daughter of Leda, who was the daughter of Eudora, who was the daughter of Sibyl. And Sibyl was the daughter of others, because I can't go any further back, at least not on my mother's side!"

Leonidas Cora

[lionhearted_victor]

The retreat had to be some sort of punishment towards the Staff, it's the only way this all made sense. That or they genuinely thought this could strengthen their work resolve. Either way, Leo stands up and speaks up,

"I am Leonidas, only son of Raphael and Catalina Cora. My lineage is not of importance to me, what we do now is what matters. And for the record," he'd glare at Calendius for this one, "Not a hobbit as some people claim I am. I failed to become a Tribute when my chance due to an injury to my knee, and now I make sure that others have a better shot that I did then."

[seestheman]

Really, Clara isn't sure if it is or isn't a punishment since, from what she's seen so far, most of the punishment tends to come down solely on off-worlders who go against the Capitol and most of the people in the room don't fit that profile.

"It's nice to meet you, Leonidas," she says with the brightest smile she can muster up. "I'm Clara, daughter of Susan, daughter of Margaret, daughter of Rachel...and I can't remember who her mother was. I just know that there's an Elizabeth in there somewhere." Yeah, genealogy's never been Clara's strongest suit. At least not without a computer. She falters for a moment as she tries to figure out what else to say that doesn't involve pointing out that not everyone wants the chance to be a Tribute. "I'm sorry to hear about your knee injury. I'm guessing you fully recovered if you're helping the Tributes now?"

Kevin

[asmilinggod]

"Hi, friend! I am Kevin!"

There is a very very long, uncomfortable pause. He stands there, grinning at his partner, who is no doubt waiting for the rest of his statement.

It never comes.

He just stands there, waiting for a response.

[conifer]

Emily stands there for several seconds, looking expectantly at him and blinking a couple of times before realising that's as much of an answer to the task as she's going to get.

"You've still got 43 seconds."

Jessica Wakefield

[confidentially]

It took a great deal of coaxing to get Jessica to attend the meetings. It wasn’t because of her drinking, since she could generally be counted on to keep it together most days. It was more that she had it in her head that she needed to run away at any cost. Being present, participating in the activities was difficult and she really hated it. But she had to try. Or rather, she had to pretend to try.

Naming all of her dead female relatives was harder on her than she cared to let on, though, even with her pearly white grin and magazine ready hair and outfit.

“I’m Jessica, daughter of Alice. Alice was the daughter of Marjorie, who was the daughter of Samantha. Samantha’s mother was Jessamyn, and Jessamyn’s mother was also named Alice. My family was really creative with names, if you haven’t noticed.” Her smile was forced, voice hollow, but she was participating, and that’s what mattered. “My sister was named Elizabeth. She was named from my great-great aunt, Elisabeth, Jessamyn’s twin. We had three sets of identical twins in six generations.”

[conifer]

Emily listens intently, thinking the names are really very pretty. It must be nice to have such a big family, and to trace it so far back. "That many twins? That's incredible."

China Sorrows

[contrarianlibrarian]

"China Sorrows. Daughter of Sofronia who in turn was the daughter of Thalea. Neither of whom saw fit to share with me more than that. 'Aren't we all daughters of Panem?' were their words, I believe."

She leans forward to her partner, something of a mischievous look on her face. "Personally, I think they said that only to be sanctimonious, but who am I to question?"

[sergius]

Sergius just nods, bewitched by her charming look of mischief. "Oh, yeah. For sure. Super sanctimonious. Totally."

A moment or two later, he recovered his senses with a cough. "Yeah, so anyway. I'm Sergius. My mom is Petronia and my grandma is Paloma and my great-grandma is Florentina. They're all three alive still. Yaya Florentina's own mother, Esperanza only died a couple of years ago. I guess they women in my family are long lived or something."