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

[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.

[perfectus]

Rude, Jenny. He didn't miss the shade exactly, but it wasn't in Calendius' nature to respond to it. Not because he couldn't, but because it would have let on that he had noticed in the first place. And, even if he weren't looking to get/stay in Jennifer's pants, she was still his boss. If unpleasantries could be avoided, he'd rather avoid it.

"I think Crito's father was named Marcus? He told me once, but he didn't even seem to know that much about his family tree." He shrugged his shoulders, a gesture meant to convey both his lack of concern for the apparent discrepancy and a general acceptance of the ignorance. "I think it's just a thing in the Districts."

[milieus]

Her lips twitched every so slightly as she met his gaze. It was her most professional look, the most detached one she could muster, but she was still certain that she was somehow betraying herself by even looking at him.

"That doesn't surprise me. Sometimes it's difficult for people out there to keep track of basic things like lineage. But Two isn't so far removed from us here. " She folded her hands, dispelling all nervousness with that practiced motion. "Whoever they were, I'm sure you must have inherited their wit and charisma."

Jennifer gave one of her trademark polished laughs, just to keep things distant enough.

[perfectus]

"Gee, thanks, Jenny." Cal smiled back, expression very nearly matching Jennifer's. They could do the distant-thing. He could do the distant-thing. No problem at all.

"But you know," he said, expression turning suddenly thoughtful. "I think if we really wanted to, my family could figure it out. Everyone in the Districts gets microchipped, so, hypothetically, you could track them down based on their families if you really wanted to. People just don't."

It wasn't meant to be a profound statement. In fact, it wasn't. It was just an idle thought. Still, the more Cal considered it, it was kind of fascinating. The Capitol really could keep up with the whereabouts and goings on of anybody they chose. They just didn't. The lives of District citizens just weren't meaningful enough to bother.

[milieus]

"Would you like to know?" She was genuinely curious. For all her fascination with Cal and her budding emotional attachment to him, he still had the capacity to surprise her. He was, at times, an enigma. A perfect, sculpted, tanned enigma. "If you wanted to, I'm sure I could pull some strings for you and research your ancestry."

It occurred to her then just how eager she must have seemed, wanting to examine and piece together the parts of his past that he could only ever imagine or blindly grasp at. It made her feel so important to make the offer, but beyond that, she wanted to give Cal something no one else could ever offer him. But sounding too excited about the prospect of pouring over his family tree was likely going to raise a few eyebrows. "If nothing else, it might be something interesting to puzzle over on my evenings off. A relaxing little side project, if you will."

[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?"

[fusshionable]

Porrim nods. "Pretty, though." It reminds her of some of the Tributes' names, actually--like Darcy, or Jane, or Elsa. Simple names.

Jennifer's question has her pausing again, because a few months ago, she could have answered flippantly, but now she's not even sure her mother ever really chose her name, so much as the stars aligned and that's how Porrim came to be. Sometimes she wonders if she was ever really born at all, but that's stupid. So she merely smiles.

"It's an old cultural name," she says, careful not to name any specific culture. "My sister, too--she's Kanaya. Our mother wanted our names to fit us, I suppose."

[milieus]

"Mothers usually know what's best." She smiles thoughtfully. "They have an intuition for things like this, especially for their daughters. I can't imagine a different name for myself now, though I often wonder what my mother would have chosen if I had a brother or a sister. I wonder if she would have kept the old fashioned theme."

[fusshionable]

"I know that all too well." She tilts her head, thoughtfully. "It's an interesting thing to ponder. I always wonder, if I ever happen to have children, how I'll ever decide on names. It's an awfully big decision, after all."

Porrim leans back in her chair. "Anything exciting happening around your office, Jennifer? I imagine your day-to-day is quite the little melodrama at times."

[milieus]

Oh, there was plenty of interesting things going on in her office, between the awkward tension between herself and Calendius and her sneaking suspicions that Jason was using the room for matters of his own when she wasn't around. But she held her tongue for now. No need to spill the beans just yet.

"It's a lot of procedural nonsense most of the time. You never realize how demanding people can be until you're put in charge of babysitting an entire tower full of them." She shakes her head, giving a charming laugh. "Thankfully I have you lovely escorts on the team. I know we all get so caught up in District rivalries, but I find it all so reassuring that we're in this together. We have peers to lean on when times get tough."

[fusshionable]

Porrim waves an airy hand. "Oh, pshaw. Honey, we're all just doing our best." She shrugs her shoulders again. "I think all of us thought this whole retreat thing was a bit hokey, honestly, but look--I think it's good for us, as a team. We all come away knowing each other a little bit better, and that will make us stronger in the end."

Never mind the fact that Porrim has very sincere doubts about wanting any of them to be stronger as a team. No, she'll hold her tongue where that's concerned.

[milieus]

On the other hand, Jennifer had no doubts about the importance of team building. A united front was needed when it came to dealing with these foreign born Tributes. Any crack could be exploited, and that was a danger Jennifer didn't need to deal with.

So she plastered on a pleasant smile. "We're all in this together. Alliances can change in a heartbeat. Who knows, you may be reassigned tomorrow. So you'll want those connections solidified now."

[fusshionable]

Porrim's own smile goes a bit tight around the edges at that, and she lets out a little laugh.

"I certainly hope that's not insider information," she chuckles. "I'm rather attached to my job."

[milieus]

"I wouldn't worry so much, Porrim." Jennifer's voice is firm, but gentle. "Your hard work in Five has been noted and is appreciated. You've really turned things around there. To think, only a few months ago you had all those troublemakers causing problems for the Peacekeepers. With you at the helm, they're all so well behaved, in the Arenas and out."

[fusshionable]

Porrim's smile relaxes, widens at the praise. "Good to hear it," she replies. "I feel like some of them have really straightened out their acts...with my help, of course. It's good to make a change. When I came onboard, they were throwing yogurt at each other and committing acts of treason. And now look at them!"

Now they've got Porrim contemplating acts of treason. That's a real turnaround, yup.