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Who| Signless and Beck | Signless and OPEN
What| Signless has a chat with the new D12 stylist and does his best to stay occupied.
Where| Around the Tower
When| Arena Week 2
Warnings/Notes| None I can think of!

A. For Beck | D12 Stylist Area
Stylists are, admittedly, not Signless's favorite part of the Tower staff. He doesn't like being fussed over and prodded and put in outfits that are more impractical than they are comfortable. It's incredible how much he misses Cinna and Cinna's understated style, even if the stylists that have been looking after Twelve since Cinna left have been giving him increasingly more and more freedom in what he wears. There are some perks to seniority, he supposes.

It's therefore with only a little trepidation that he steps into the domain of Twelve's new stylist, an as-yet mostly unknown entity to him. When she introduced herself over the network he was still steadfastly ignoring his communicator and so he has no idea what to expect from her. These tattoos aren't going to update themselves, though, and she's the best place to start.

"Miss Scordato? May I come in, or are you busy?"

B. OPEN | Tower Commons
A new rack of Celebrus is always something to at the very least take a glance at. Most of the time Signless just hopes he and those he considers his have been overlooked, but it seems this time he hasn't escaped a mention. Frankly he's surprised there wasn't more of a focus on him given his connection with the Initiate, but he's grateful that connection wasn't mentioned or, god forbid, the focus of a whole tragic chunk of an article.

No, they chose to talk instead about the time he thought providing a mercy kill as someone who'd never killed before was a good idea. They chose instead to focus on a relationship with the Psiioniic he doesn't actually have (wrong quadrant, still very much up in the air) instead of the relationship he does have and has had for months. It's not really that bad but he knows his small but dedicated group of fans are going to have a field day about what they see as confirmation of their 'ship'. Panem humans are weird.

"At least cloaks are finally in fashion," he mumbles to himself, flipping idly through the pages.

C. OPEN | Around the Tower
If there's one thing Signless has noticed about Capitol fashion, it's that male humans seem to wear an awful lot of dresses. He may be somewhat biased by the large amount of drag queens on staff, but he still feels as though that might be something he should get in on. And why not? Leggings are 'feminine' clothes (apparently?) and those are perfectly serviceable and comfortable. The right dress should follow the same principle -- and, furthermore, should show the Capitol that he's making an effort to adapt to their norms and lifestyle.

Alright. So it's possibly a little flawed, as plans go, even if it comes from a good place. It doesn't stop him from talking with Beck, and it doesn't stop Beck from making the dress or setting him loose on the Tribute Tower with it on. As expected, the dress itself is quite comfortable -- he asked for one that wasn't restrictive and that showed off the floral tattoos on his arms, and that's exactly what he got. He doesn't even mind the makeup, simple black eyeliner and red lipstick; it's no worse than any of the other makeup he's been put in and for once it actually suits him. No, the real problem is the heels.

Signless doesn't like shoes at the best of times. He's worn heels all of once, a pair of low chunky blue things that were part of his disguise during the first jailbreak. These heels -- bright red, fairly tall, strappy -- are an entirely different beast. When he's not wobbling around like a baby giraffe he can be found sitting on the nearest flat surface giving his feet a break.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Leo is a bitch, but not a heartless bitch. "You and your fellow trolls fit that category quite well but hey, you have something going for yourself."

What that is, the coach doesn't know it yet, but the Capitol's love of the trolls does not wane in the slightest, especially the noisy one. Karkat was it?

"Have you tried something called a doctor? They're professionals that deal with health problems and can examine you for it."

Never mind that first part.

"I know what a doctor is. I'm a sub-human alien, not stupid." There's no real annoyance in his tone, at least. If anything he's just amused. Sure, a trip to a troll doctor was usually a lot more fatal than a trip to a human doctor, but they weren't that different otherwise.

"It wasn't a medical issue in the first place, anyway. It was nothing a doctor could have fixed."

"Oh? Did you come with the damage into Panem?" there was a curious, almost predatory smile to Leo's face, as if finding someone's weakness to exploit...or watch out for. "Were you really the Troll World's savior? How did you come about that title while being a pacifist?"

A lingering question that bothered the man to no end. "A savior is supposed to be a liberator, there's always blood to be shed."

The smile fades from his face, replaced by a look that is carefully steely. He knows what this is going to turn into. He's had people try to poke holes in his work before. Leo is not the first to call him damaged and he's not the first to try to get him to admit that pacifism and revolution don't mix.

"That title was given to me after my death, by people who never knew me and barely understood the message I was trying to convey. I never thought of myself as a savior. I'm not that full of myself. All I wanted to do was introduce a new way of thinking so that everyone might be able to live happier and safer lives.

"Yes, trolls died in pursuit of that. Trolls have always died, often for far less. You were prepared to risk death to honor your district in the Games, weren't you? To make a better life for you and your people? It amounts to the same thing."

Sorry, Leo. He'll tease you as much as you like about anything else, but this is one thing he isn't going to bullshit about.

Hearing this... well, now the coach hears this and his admiration for the Mentor he thought as weak grew. So the troll had fought before, without refining but still. And, in a sense, he died for his ideals. Rebellious ideas but lately, Leo's been questioning a lot about his lot in life and the Capitol. To see someone actually die and then raise themselves into a more synchronized Victor, he has to raise his hand and give the Mentor a salute.

"You know, I respect that, Signless. Not the whole slaughter thing, that I already do. But that commitment."

And the fact that he made no use of this background, it was a tragedy.

Edited (Added more!) 2015-07-15 04:46 (UTC)

That's more than he ever thought he'd hear from Leo, and he has to admit it's a pleasant surprise. Much as he tries to remain humble, a Vantas is a troll that craves validation. It's nice to get praise now and again.

"I told you I was perfectly capable of hate, the first time we met. I hate hypocrites. To say that I follow a philosophy of nonviolence and compassion and then go against that philosophy simply because it's more convenient would make me far more of a coward than refusing to fight ever would. I made an exception once for a mercy kill, because it was done out of compassion and with consent, and I don't intend to ever have to do it again."

It occurs to him that this is a very serious conversation to be having in a cherry pattern dress and heels, but you know what, this is his bread and butter. He can talk philosophy any time, anywhere, wearing anything.

Compassion and consent in the heat of battle...these were not terms Leonidas would consider given his upbringing. Compassion got you killed and a kill in the Arena didn't require consent last he checked.

"You stuck to your guns and you did it only when you had the permission of the vi-" the proper term would be used, "The recipient." As crass as Leo could be, there was a degree of sobriety that comes with discussing the philosophies of death. "Even with the consequences that would carry."

He nods. "Even then."

Some of the consequences were not ones he foresaw -- he'd hurt people he hadn't intended to, created far more pain than he meant to prevent, but that had been his mistake and he'd long since admitted to it and done his best to atone. No point in complicating what was already a very delicate conversation.

"Killing itself is not the issue for me; it's the context that surrounds it. So much of the killing that happens in the Arenas happens simply because someone wants to stay alive, and how can I condemn that? Killing a threat or providing a good show for the audience here gets a tribute that much closer to winning or to having another chance at the game. I would rather die than kill an innocent, but to hold everyone to that same moral choice would be unfair. Does that make sense?"

What he doesn't say is that he does judge those who kill primarily for pleasure or as a show of power, but he knows that won't go over well here. There's no point in inviting the inevitable argument about it.

"So self defense doesn't qualify for a reason in your book?" Leonidas was even more intrigued than annoyed now. "Most of the Mentors here, that's what they use to justify themselves. That they did it to keep living...I had my tributes behave like that."

They were already out anyways, there was no reason to not discuss that strategy, "There's a balance to strike in the Arena: enjoy killing too much or too brutal, I won't allow it." As twisted as this morality was, Leo did not want to allow the needless show offs of the previous careers.

He shakes his head. "No, no, that's what I was saying. That self-defense, that simply wanting to survive, is a reasonable justification for killing -- especially here. It doesn't mean that it's one I would feel comfortable using, but I don't think those who do are doing anything wrong."

Emboldened by what Leo's just said, he takes a chance: "Those who kill simply to kill, I have less understanding for. I know the Games are in part built around the spectacle of watching others suffer, but the tributes who take joy in that... I don't know. I think you're right, that a careful balance is needed between the kind of killing that makes someone a good candidate for Victor and the kind of killing that makes someone a monster."

"A Tribute of mine, Jet Link, he mentioned a past tribute that delighted in this bloodshed, this is not meant to be a killing joke for some unstable mind to take advantage of the situation and-"

Cora remembers one story, and he decides to share it with Signless, a way to bridge their ideologies, "I used to train treibutes, and prepare them for the reaping, given that my own never went anywhere. One of own Cadets, selected for an Arena in the mountains...a good one and this was something that was supposed to be an ensured Victor. I will never forget the smile the District 1 Tribute had when he crushed the boy under a rock slide. That is...a look of someone who wouldn't honor the sacrifices, someone truly empty. I will never allow such monsters in my teams."

A rare sight: Leonidas haunted by something so vicious that it defied the standards. "Not to mention some of the brutalities some of the Mentors have experienced in their own. Yourself included." Did...did he just recognize the troll as a Mentor while sober?</>

It's something of a shock to hear himself included as a Mentor, and even more of a shock to hear a native of Panem admitting that the Games he went through had their share of atrocities. He's used to the sentiment that the tributes of the Neverending Quell have it easy -- they get to try again if they don't win. Most Capitolites neatly ignore the fact that the more arenas someone loses, the more bloody, painful deaths they remember in excruciating crystal-clear detail.

"I like that. It's right that the people who participate and die in the Games should be honored, not treated like animals being hunted for sport, as though they're not still people."

"My students are reminded that what they're doing is a sacrifice, these are fellow children and they were reaped with a purpose. They will honor each death in the arena, even if they don't make it to the finish line," Leonidas spoke with a deep sense of duty, "We prove our worth to the Capitol...we mourn the dead. Even now, Tributes can come back, but not all of them do."

Cora has seen some of Signless' rounds, and none of them were particularly pleasant. Yes, the trainer had a grudge with destiny denying him his chance to be a Victor... "When you died in the Arena, you remembered your deaths, right?"

Signless is starting to think he's vastly misjudged Leonidas Cora. Well, that's a lie -- he started thinking that much earlier in this conversation -- but this is just cementing it. It seems Leo isn't the only one who's gaining a newfound sense of respect for a fellow staff member.

"I do. Every one -- except for Arena 10; I was delirious then, I don't remember more than that it took a while. She cracked my horn, that hurt enough to stand out." He shrugs with one shoulder, his expression rueful. "But the rest of them, yes, I remember in detail. I've been stabbed, garroted, poisoned, dismembered... It makes for interesting nightmares, when I do manage to dream."

Edited (I DECIDED I WANTED SOMETHING ELSE) 2015-08-22 05:28 (UTC)

When you manage to dream? Do trolls dream of alien sheep? Leo pondered for a moment before he voiced his question, "And no help to guide you through it, I take it?" Blackwood eloped, and there's no real reason for the Capitol to make such an office available again, takes away from the drama and such.

But Signless was able to change something in Cora: gone was the romanticism the Capitol painted. He was seeing a man who by all accounts should have been dead a few times over and he remembered it all.

"I wouldn't say none at all. I had loved ones to comfort me and fellow tributes who could empathize, but that isn't the same as the care of a professional. We make our own patchwork web of coping mechanisms here and hope that's enough."

He's almost glad that the tributes are left to their own devices in that regard, left to comfort each other and be united in their understanding of the horrors of the arena. Blackwood meant well, but she could never truly understand, and no Capitolite who tried to replace her could either.

As much as Leonidas lived for the Games, growing in a home that praised them as the ultimate expression of one's love for their nation, things were hidden from the man's eyes. The veil set by the Capitol fell apart under the frailty of their image and behind it were people like the Signless.

They were reaped here in the place of our own.

A little seed of horror was planted in Leo's mind and it would take a while to let it spread like a constricting weed into the images he's been fed all his life. What really happened after the Games? Torin handled himself well enough but it was seeing a war veteran at times.

"I'd think with all the care and services, they'd give you counsel. But there's no real way to talk about dying and coming back without sounding like a Stephanus Rex novel."

At the mention of Steve, Signless lets out a little involuntary groan.

"I already feature in enough of his writing, thank you very much, and I don't think there's anything in there that I or anyone else might find helpful." Still, he's smiling -- for all that Steve is yet another of the strange and overly-familiar fans he's had to deal with especially since becoming a victor, he's mostly harmless, an oddity to be amused at rather than truly offended by.

"I think, honestly, that it's better for ratings if we all end up just a little bit broken. The Capitol likes a tragedy. They like a struggle. If we're left to comfort each other and cope as best we can, it makes for better television when they catch it on camera."

Leonidas shrugged at the broken part, "As long as it's a struggle and not a torture fest, I can get behind that." Because of course he was, he was born into this. His mother and father happily put their child and passed the same loyalties their parents did onto him. But was it worth it?

But he grins at the unfortunate fanboy author, "You have? Well, well, looks like your presence here will remain long after we both die. Or until the Capitol blacklists Rex's work, whichever comes first."

"Oh, I have. He's very fond of Roland, so by extension I'm required to appear in every piece of Gamesfic he writes. Sometimes a chapter or two appears in the back of one of the magazines. He's got some very interesting ideas about how my genitalia works."

It's nice, after the relatively heavy subject matter they've been discussing, to take amusement in something so ridiculous.

"I'm not entirely sure that's how I want to be remembered."

"I've read some of those before coming here...does troll genitalia really have a tentacle?"

This is by far one of the strangest questions Leo has ever thought up. And he's just worried about his own psyche that he's actually saying it out loud.

"I'd rather have first-hand information, I think there's a few gaps in Capitol fics. And you don't choose how people remember you, if you haven't noticed."

'Some gaps' is putting it lightly. 'Wild mass guessing' is more like it, no doubt fueled by the alien nature of the trolls and the odd vocabulary they use. Bulge is a word than can apparently mean a lot of different things to a human, Signless has found.

"I'd just rather be remembered for what I did than who I did," he says with a wry smile. But there really is no helping it -- and at least if he's remembered for this, he'll be remembered for loving someone who really is very dear to him. That isn't all bad.

"And mine does, at the very least. Trolls are a species with a good deal of variation between individuals, so I can't speak for the rest of them. Certainly all the ones I've personally had the honor of seeing naked have had one. Or two." In some ways the Psiioniic is just as much of a mutant as he is.

The look on Leonidas' face after that explanation? There's nothing like it, a mixture of horror, fascination and confusion at what part goes where and how would a human be able to handle something around their-

"I don't regret that question," is all he can say for a moment. Good job Signless, you temporarily broke Leo. "How does it all fit?"

There's something very gratifying about that expression. Signless is always pleased when he discovers he has the upper hand in a conversation with a native, and he'd say this counts.

"How does it all fit where? There are a lot of different places one might want to fit."

Alright. Now he's just doing it on purpose.

"Your genit-" He then remembered something that was mentioned in Signless' Crowning, something rather disgusting in the Districter's mind.

"You don't actually have intercourse, do you? You do something with a bucket."

Well, there went any chances of Leo actually eating anything unless he gets some brain bleach or hit his head enough times to dull the mental image.

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nsfw for genitalia discussion

bless this thread

it is a gem

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