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

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?"

And there in lied how deep the indoctrination went, he only showed weakness in closing his eyes and saying, "Then I would have to accept my District's fate. They know what the stakes are, and they know that to fall out of favor with the Capitol is certain death. I would be mad at the rebels who unleashed that hell upon my people and want their heads on spikes."

He knew his District and in this hypothetical situation, the survivors would want their "liberators" blood for the horrors they see set forth. There is no sympathy in his eyes, a deeply rooted Capitol construct meant to keep people from asking questions. "I was born to be in the Games, Mentor Murphy, you understand that, right? I was born ready to die for my home." He couldn't see how fucked up this all was, becuase the man was born with the Capitol's perfectly manicured hands covering his eyes and grabbing him by the throat.

"Do you really believe that you'd be able to accept it that easily?" Because she still remembered Eddie and Jessica's reactions to their home burning, and it worried her that Leo could be so callous in that situation, even speculatively callous.

Where Leo couldn't see how fucked up this all is, Clara could very clearly. "I just...I can't understand how you can just accept this, or accept the thought that you were born to either die or kill to survive for their entertainment." No matter what he could say, it would probably never make sense to her.

"Because at the end of the day, it's better than the alternative," Leonidas shot a look of defiance towards Clara that read clearly: I will not put my home in danger. If the sacrifice of 24 children is enough for the world he's lived (and the Capitol built for themselves) not to collapse, then the District sacrifice had to be endured.

"I accept it because this nation is built on the sacrifices of others. If some don't want to put their part, then they don't deserve the kindness."

Their homes razed, families slaughtered and their lives destroyed and for what? "If I were you, Mrs. Murphy" At least Cora respected her widow status, "I'd reconsider your stance." The Capitol was watching them and no such sedition was allowed. In Leo's eyes, all Clara was looking for was a new hole in the head.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Staffer's Retreat

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject