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

[69problems]

"Ah, no. Troll parents don't care for their young. Our nannies are our only guardians -- except in my case. A dangerous parent is a parent that makes a young troll strong and teaches them survival skills. Even my mother was dangerous, though never to me."

He wonders if he might think of his mother differently if he hadn't seen her chainsaw daywalkers in half with startling regularity, and decides she probably wouldn't. She always had that dangerous edge to her, even at rest. He's too caught up in this train of thought to answer her question about the name -- the answer is no at any rate.

[cigne]

"So how did you have a mother?" Swann asks, not meaning to be blunt, but still cursed with Capitolite naivety. "Did she decide not to give you up to the animal nannies? Because I wouldn't give up my baby, even if it was a troll. I would keep it."

She does not seem to notice that her statement might be insensitive or condescending.

[69problems]

He almost doesn't notice either. After being in Panem for almost two years now (and how strange is that) he's more or less desensitized to Capitolites and their bright-eyed smiling ignorance. That's far less important than forging friendships and connections with the people he's going to be spending so much time with now that he's a Mentor.

"Trolls don't carry their own young like humans do," he says, fully knowing that this is not a very fun conversation topic and trying to keep it as vague as he can for that reason. He remembers the first time he learned about human reproduction and how horrified he was.

"We have one mother grub who lays each generation of eggs for us. My mother was one of her attendants, and she adopted me after I hatched. As far as I know she's the only troll who ever raised one of her own species. She really was an extraordinary woman."

[cigne]

"Oh! Oh that's wonderful!"

She's too swept away by the loveliness of the tale to worry about the more disgusting details of troll reproduction, which seems to lack any of the warmth of humans.

"She sounds amazing. I'm sorry she's gone."

[69problems]

He shakes his head with a small smile.

"Better gone than here." Then realizing who he's talking to, he amends: "She was always very interested in fashion, even though she had so little to work with. I don't think she'd even know where to begin if she was brought here. She'd be overwhelmed."

It's not the best save but it's not a lie, either.

[cigne]

"Fashion, really? I didn't get the impression that it's terribly popular in your world, at least not based on your Crowning!"

By which Swann means that his Crowning was sad and dark and there were bugs on all the food. She smiles at him all the same, then seems to have a revelation and points at him.

"Oh, well, I think she'd like it here then! She could be a Stylist assistant, work with the trolls! I'd sponsor her petition, if she were here."

[69problems]

Fashion isn't terribly popular with trolls, unless it can be weaponized or used as a show of power. In that assumption, Swann is pretty much entirely correct.

"I think she would like that. It would be a change of pace to design for someone other than the same four people she dressed all her life." He gives her a smile full of triangular fangs.

"If she ever does come here I'll be sure to hold you to that."

[cigne]

She smiles when he does, even though his fangs unnerve her and she's fully aware in that moment of just how not human he is. "Of course. I always stand by my word."

Tilting her head, she thinks about what he says, 'four people'. "Do you have brothers or sisters?"

[69problems]

"Oh, no. I call them my family but I use the term loosely. You might know them, actually, they've both been in residence here: the Disciple and the Psiioniic. We would often meet people as we traveled but they were the two who decided to come along."

Which is a very abbreviated version of the actual story behind their family of two becoming one of four, but explaining that in-depth includes explaining his radical anti-Imperial philosophical revolution and he doesn't know how well that might go over with a native Capitolite.