thecapitol | Staffer's Retreat

Entry tags:

Staffer's Retreat

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Have you ever considered trying to learn? Those sound like they can both be inherent traits as well as learned traits." Clara knows that, logically, she has no place to pry, but at the same time she can't help it. He seems nice enough and it'd be a shame for him to get caught up on the wrong side of whatever winds up happening in the Capitol (or at least what she hopes will wind up being the wrong side).

As much as she wants to dig deeper into whether District 2's party scene is like a Diet Capitol social scene or if it's a little more normal than that, she can't help but have her curiosity piqued by the personal part of his response. "So what do you do for fun then? You have to do something other than work, right?"

Leo merely glanced at her, confused at her curiosity towards his set of skills not relevant to the games themselves. "If you mean that I become a mason like my father, it's not farfetched for me. It's not a family obligation that I learn those skills when I already serve the Capitol in my own way."

Clara's question about his pastimes earned her a laugh or two, "I go out of course...granted I'd rather be paid for it. I escort socialites." Yeah, that was a thing of his.

If he asked, Clara could probably come up with reason that isn't incriminating. Or at least she hopes she could, or else she could be in big trouble. "Do you ever wonder if there are other ways you could serve the Capitol?"

"Oh?" While, on some level, Clara's unsurprised by the fact that gigolos are a thing in the Capitol, she had been convinced that they were currently all Tributes or Victors, considering what little she knew about the bidding system. "Do they at least pay well for your company?"

The question earned Clara a smirk, "I'm serving them now, putting my failures to good use and making sure whatever happens with the Arena is most favorable to my District. I don't usually think about that sort of work...though I have helped my father in supervisiong construction. It's that there hasn't been that much demand."

And there in lies one of the critical flaws of the Careers: they have a skill set that they are too proud to discard, or at least in Leo's case. As the requests for infrastructure declined, so did the need for masons and workers. There had to be other ways to keep the family afloat.

"Well enough that I can send funds and live comfortably." Being a paid date was a handsomely paid necessity.

Clara knew what it's like for the local trade to start to dry up. Sure, she had never worked in a car assembly plant herself (thankfully, in her point of view), but she remembered when things really went from bad to worse in Detroit. She wouldn't wish that on anyone's home town.

Instead of prying about that, or about his life as a gigolo (because, really, that's what he was, not that she was going to say it to his face), she smiles and nods, trying to find a topic that she can easily switch to without making it awkward. "Do you ever miss your home or your family?"

Leonidas sat back at that question, "I do but I know they are watching, cheering us all on, while we work and bring the gold so to speak. What about you? As an offworlder, you must miss your loved ones as well."

He meant no insult when he asked that, merely inquiring how an offworlder's mind worked. Did they ever forget? Or did they become part of Panem and accept the gifts the Capitol had bestowed on them?

His words were a stark reminder of the biggest thing she had lost in being brought to Panem. More than her basic liberties, or her hand and eye, or Alex (in a way), she had lost her happy, stable family. (Or as happy and stable as they could be considering the months before she'd been dragged here.) Not that she liked the idea of David being able to turn on the TV and see highlight reels of his parents fighting in the Arenas, or any part of the Arenas, but at least that would be something. "Of course I do," she said, realizing after the fact that her voice had a rough edge to it. "I mean, my husband's here of course, but I miss my son everyday." Not that she truly wishes that he were here, because that would be too much for her to handle, especially since it would mean he'd almost definitely be thrown into the Arenas, despite the fact that he was only eight.

Even if he was from the Districts instead of the Capitol proper, Clara didn't want to come off as any more vulnerable than she had to. And right now she felt more like a bare nerve than anything else. "Though, I doubt he'd be able to hold his own in the Arenas, so it's for the best that he isn't here." Which was true.

To hear Clara talk about her son so fondly...reminded Leo of his own mother. Catalina was stern but so doting and supporting. David sounded like he was one of those children that were best left to be flighty and useless in battle. But unlike the offworlder Victor, the Cora matriarch would have no qualms offering her child to the Games. She had such a pride and love for her nation, passing it to her boy, her only son.

"It is for the best, not all children are built to fight and die," Leo shrugged, "Some need the nurture, and suited for other tasks."

So militant and yet...comforting.

Clara found little comfort in that thought. If anything, it only unnerved her all the more. The idea of a child being built to fight to the death...well, it made her stomach twist in the worst way. She knew she should let it pass and ignore how much the thought bothered her, but instead she decided to open her big mouth.

"I don't believe any child is built to fight and die. Or adults, for that matter," she added. "All children deserve to be nurtured and loved and be allowed to grow up to find what makes them happy, no child deserved to be sent into the Arenas before their lives even began."

Leonidas was pretty sure about one thing: wherever Clara lived, there was no strife, no Arenas..."What an idyllic way of life," he said without a hint of irony to his voice. He wasn't going to deny that one day, he'd be old and hopefully there for his hypothetical child. "You speak like it's not done out of love for the country. My mother was upfront about that, about my role in Panem and I accepted it. I was ready to die for my country. Surely you have families like that in your world, willing to defend their nation."

A little boy who from age eight had been taught how to forage, how to trap and how to kill, to not show mercy to the opponent, Leo was a relic of those times now that the offworlders were becoming a permanent fixture. He was now irrelevant.

"Maybe it is," she muttered. She'd been told in the past that she was too optimistic and idealistic, and something about the quality of life in Panem (or lack thereof) only dragged that out of her all the more. "But patriotism shouldn't lead to people throwing their children to the wolves for entertainment." Clara couldn't help but feel like that, should she ever meet Leo's mother, she'd have quite a few unpleasant words for her.

"Haven't you ever wondered what life would be like without the Games?"

"It's not throwing them into the wolves, it's fighting to maintain the balance that anarchy brought upon this country," Leo's tone steeled up, "The Districts understand this plight and for the benefits they receive, they would have make an equal sacrifice."

His indoctrination would answer the question for Clara, "Anarchy. Every District would fight for the power to control the country and then what? Another war. Are you saying we should engage in war and hope for a different outcome?"

There was something about Leo's answers that made Clara's stomach twist. Was this place really so fucked up that there was a casual acceptance of children killing each other because they truly believed it gave them peace, even in the Districts? "No, but I am saying that I know that there can be another way for all of this to work. Where I'm from we have a central government that has local representatives there to voice their constituents' needs." Not that it really worked that well where she was from, but Leo didn't need to know that right now. After all, it was better than the way things in Panem currently worked. "Maybe if the Capitol cooperated with the Districts, things might work a little smoother."

"The Capitol does cooperate with the Districts," Leo was a stubborn one, Clara, but at least she does bring up something that even the Career Districts would prefer to have: more representation. "I suppose if the Capitol would be more willing for a representative to give them a more complete picture of Panem, this unity would be strengthened."

Not to question the Cabinet's decisions but some of those choices had a lesser impact than they'd promised..."What happened to your government then?"

Clara wanted to point out that it was less cooperating and more ruling them with an iron fist, but she realizes that probably wouldn't help in this situation when Leo seemed so brainwashed by the Capitol's teachings. "Just imagine, what if the Capitol had listened to the input from the Districts about who preferred to have more Tributes in the old version of the games. You could have had more Arenas built around people who wanted to be there to bring glory to their home District." Which, truthfully, wasn't how she really saw it, but she knew that it would probably be for the best to parrot that line in this situation.

Okay, that question took her aback slightly. "It was still functioning when I left. They were actually voting on an important piece of legislation on the day I was brought to Panem." She wasn't going to mention how many opinions on that legislation had been swayed by what had happened to Alex, since that didn't seem too important. Hell, she only knew about the vote on the Dreyfus Act because it had been mentioned on the news the evening before.

"You make it sound like it hasn't been done...But then only three Districts would participate,four at most," Leo pointed out the so-called fallacy, "The Outlying Districts have no resources in training their tributes, no means of making the warriors the Capitol expects them to be. And it defeats the purpose of the Games themselves: that sacrifices must be made to ensure the safety of Panem. Your world, did have wars? Panem doesn't have wars because of this sacrifice."

And there in lies the underlying motivation for Cora to be just enough of a patriot to the Capitol as if to not sound seditious: stability. His mother may have gladly sent her child to to his death because they all understood the unfair contract.

"Well, why don't they train the other Districts like they trained you in yours?" There's a reason for that, she knows that full well. She doesn't know exactly what the reason is, but she knows that there is one. "But is it really worth sacrificing your children?" She tries to keep the perturbed edge out of her voice, but despite her best efforts it comes out.

"Of course we have wars where I come from, but we generally don't try to keep them in check by televising murders and bringing in people from other worlds to fight our battles for us." And she knows that isn't completely true to some point, but right now she's on a role and doesn't want to think too hard about the atrocities that have been done in her homeworld, or about OmniCorp's military robots that have been sent out to keep peace in other countries through intimidation.

"And in those wars, do children fight as well? I could imagine so, especially when the countries are invaded," Leo was calm at the accusations, because it is something bred into him, "Two children per District, versus how many in the battlefield? In the explosions war would set off? It's not a perfect system, but there's no such thing. While I personally would honor the dead with respect, I'd rather enjoy the peace they give their lives for."

Spoken like a true Career.

"No, because they're children." And that's a lie and she knows it. She saw some of the footage that came out of Iran in the early 2020s when it got all that news play, or the documentaries about child soldiers in Africa, and that's not counting the civilian casualties. She can rationalize the lie to herself by reminding herself that wasn't her government sending children into war though (only bringing it to them instead, in some cases).

"But that's the thing, there are ways to enjoy peace without sending people to their deaths."

"I'm all ears then," Leonidas shot back, "The Capitol has tried negotiations and peace treaties but the enemy simply didn't abide by the clauses." Mostly because they were draconian in nature but that's not what they taught in the Districts. The levels of wealth and favor were different but the message remained the same. "Unless you want a repeat of District 3 in your midst, the Games serve a purpose."

In due time, this hard-headed stance would lessen and Leo would find himself at odds with this same sort of thinking. But in this moment, he is every bit a Career as he was at twelve years old and with eleven years of resentment to his fate.

"I'm more concerned with a repeat of District 3 if things keep going the way they are now," she shot back. "There has to be a way to reach peace without anymore bloodshed, both in and out of the Arena." Which was admittedly idealistic to hope for at home, let alone in Panem. "If the Districts were given something that made them want to abide out of something better than fear, wouldn't that be better?"

"District 3...they knew what they were doing and they knew they were betraying their nation. What does your world do with traitors?" Leo figured her world was similar to Panem so he uses that against her. He doesn't mesh well with the perceived holier-than-thou attitude Clara was using. "I'm guessing your government didn't pardon them, did they?"

"They don't kill their entire families," she said scathingly. In the days following the destruction of District 3, her thoughts had constantly turned to the people who the Capitol had so blithely wiped out. And...yes, she's ignoring what her own government had done horrific acts to the people they perceived as their enemies away from the home front. She had watched the news, obviously, and seen the way that the military had implemented OmniCorp's drones overseas (and tried not to think about how they had used Alex to try to implement that at home). "There are places where I'm from that punish a traitor's entire family, and they're scorned for good reason. Would you want your family punished if you did something out of line?"

"Ah but how do you claim the moral high ground? If you recognize that your governments used the same tactics?"

Both were at an impasse and Leo wasn't about to throw his government, those who saved them from the Dark Ages, just to give an offworlder the reason to win the argument.

"We could be at this for days, Mrs. Murphy. We could debate government tactics or you could understand that you're not in your world. You're here for the time being and you understand that this is what Districts face if they betray the Capitol. Do I understand that there was great loss of life? Of course. But the innocent paid for the rebellion's actions."

He shows no mercy to traitors, they jeopardize everything he was raised into.

"No, I'm not in my world." Which was probably the first thing they've agreed upon through this entire conversation. "But I can hope that maybe your world can learn to see reason and not destroy innocent lives for entertainment because they choose to hold to the belief that it somehow makes things better." The look she gave him was almost pleading, as if she was begging him to take her side and see how off all of this was in her mind. "What would you have done if you had been here and the Capitol had chosen to do the same to District 2 because of the misguided belief that it could bring peace?"

Staffer's Retreat

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