thecapitol | The Tribute Youth Programme: July

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The Tribute Youth Programme: July

Who| Adults who act as chaperones on the field trips. Any Tribute character aged 18 and under. This is ICly Mandatory for Tributes under 18 so your character will be there even if you don't tag in.
What| July's TYP round; Summer School Blues, field trips, and more...
Where| A private school building within the Capitol, a waterpark, a zoo.
When| Regular school hours (8 AM to 3 PM) four days a week (Monday-Thursday)
WARNINGS| Mind-altering juice boxes, indoctrination. Place any needed warnings within comment headers.
NOTES| If you would like your character to be caught trouble-making, please contact mods. We are looking for both Mentors to speak of the District they hail from (or represent), and Capitolite characters to talk of Panem's greatness. If you would like your character to stand as a guest speaker for the next round, please refer to this post. The fantastic Tribute Youth Programme uniforms are designed and drawn by Reiko.

The Tribute Youth Programme is back in full force. The Teacher missed you all!

Class will go much like it did before, anthems, uniforms, and all. By now the new badges should all be sewn right in. You still have the opportunity to earn more, and on top of all this, your letter replies have at last come in! Along with all the (questionably subsisting) pet bats promised of Panem Nightly.

This time is extra special, however, for there is a secret surprise planned for next month that the Teacher is preparing for. Something about partners for tents and canoes? Whatever that means. Maybe if you sign up early you'll get a partner you like. And perhaps asking among the adults if any would like to chaperone for the mystery trip.

As for this current trip, those who earned the bonus will get a free ride around the park on one of the elephants, front row seats to a live performance in the aquarium area, and a custom photo souvenir with their favourite animal.

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[Stephen looks relaxed and at ease. It's not the first time, after all, that he's stood in front of children and told them why their death sentence was a good thing. His smile isn't genuine, but it's a very, very convincing fake.

He's also perfectly groomed. There's no glitter, and the shimmer is limited to the lining and lapels of his suit-jacket. The piercings up and down his ears are small, and the makeup is understated and tasteful.]

Hello, everyone. Some of you I know, some of you I don't, but just about all of you talked to my brother, Cyrus Reagan, last month. I'm sure he had a lot to say to you about responsibility and reciprocation. He always seems to have a new way to say follow the rules, doesn't he?

Yes, he is like that all the time.

[A flash of a grin, which quickly fades.]

But we Escorts are pretty guilty of that, too. It's an easy job for Tributes to resent. You give us your lives in the Arena, and then when you come back, here's your Escort, asking you to do more. We're always making you get dressed up, smile for the cameras, go here, go there -- it's not fun.

We know that.

But part of growing up is doing things that aren't fun. No one wants to eat their vegetables -- until they realize that it's the candy that gave them the bellyache and made them cranky all day. No one wants to wash behind their ears, until their hair starts feeling disgusting and their friends tell them they smell weird.

[He makes a face, a sympathetic wince.]

That's when you start to remember who told you to eat your vegetables and wash up in the first place. I know we have some aliens here who were raised in a different way, but for most of you, that'd be your parents, or your guardian, or whoever was responsible for taking care of you while you were growing up. They told you to do a lot of things, didn't they? Some of them, you didn't understand at the time. Some of them you still might not understand. But there was always a reason.

[A breath, a further sobering, a gentler tone.]

Sometimes, when you didn't obey, you were punished. You might have resented that, too. But the truth is, no one likes punishing their children. Seeing them sad, seeing them angry, is hard. But a good parent is patient. A good parent knows that a child acts out because they're too young to understand why the rules are the way they are, and knows that one day, that child will grow up, and will understand, and no one will need to be punished anymore.

[Acting out is childish, Stephen is saying. Be grown-up. Be part of the system. Even if you don't understand it yet, pretending you understand it and obeying it is cool.

Of course, there's another side to the parent-child symbolism, for the sharper-minded. If the Capitol is like a parent to the Tributes, one day, the Tributes are going to have to grow up. One day, they won't need the Capitol anymore.

But Stephen means the former. Of course he does. Why wouldn't he?]

Some of you understand already. It is the very rules we ask you to follow that have made Panem, well, what it is today. It works like a well-oiled machine -- in fact, I've always thought of District Six's transportation industry as the wires and the pipes that ensure that each part gets what it needs. But it's not just Panem's efficiency or stability that makes it great. Panem is beautiful. From the lush fields of the Districts to the shining skyscrapers of the Capitol, Panem is living proof of what the human race can achieve -- with the right set of rules to give it focus.

[Stephen gives a smile that's a little shy -- the shyness lends it sincerity.]

I'm proud to call the Capitol my home, and it's always been a private hope of mine that one day all of you will come to think of it as yours, too.

So, in that spirit, I'd be glad to answer any questions you all might have. I might not know the Capitol in quite as much detail as Peacekeeper Falxvale, and I'm no minister in Snow's cabinet, but I can certainly tell you a thing or two about more ordinary life in the Capitol, and I also know a thing or two about what it's like helping to represent a District in the Hunger Games that you aren't from.

[On the one hand, listening to this guy is making her stomach knot up again. How can all of these grown ups speak so passionately about the Capitol? How can they say it all with smiles and absolute unshaken belief in what they say? She almost wishes she hadn't figured out the trick about the drugged juice boxes just so she could zone out and enjoy these talks at face value. But all she can think about now is that this is how Effie must have felt once. She raises her hand and when called upon asks her first question]

How did you get started as an Escort?

There's a special school you have to attend for two years. Then, once you have your certification, you get assigned to a District.

And you don't get to choose which District?

[Funny, Effie always gave her the impression she wanted to come to District 12...then again she wouldn't put it past Effie to try and lie to put a positive spin on things]

So if being an escort is all about making people do stuff that's not fun because it's important...does anyone actually have fun with it?

Edited 2015-08-01 15:22 (UTC)

Nope, we don't get to choose. The most popular positions are the Career Districts -- One and Two. At least, they were before the Quell shook things up.

[A grin.]

As for whether or not we have fun with it, that depends entirely on the Escort's relationship with his or her Tributes. A bad Escort-Tribute relationship, which you can see in action in District 7, won't have any fun at all. But I've very much enjoyed getting to know the Tributes I work with, and I think most people here would be lying if they said there wasn't at least one Capitol party they had fun at.

[A few desks away Ruffnut snorts out loud in clear agreement with you about Jason!!!]

[Once again Sandy is...utterly baffled by how kind and friendly Capitolites can be, while clearly being happily involved in the same system that has seen her killed so many times. It's confusing for the poor girl so she decides to end on an easy question. One that won't trouble her conscience]

What's the wildest, strangest party you've ever been to?

[He bursts into a laugh.]

Oh -- I need a minute to think about that.

[He knows the answer to that, but it's not one he can talk about in front of kids. Stephen takes a second to search for a party he can tell Sandy about--]

Probably...the one that was completely underwater. That was really cool.

[ OK, now he really has her attention]

But how did you breath?

Oh, there were a couple of ways to do it. What I went for were tiny oxygen-processing machines hidden underneath cosmetic gills. I don't want to get too technical about how it worked, but it pulled oxygen from the water and recycled the air I was breathing. Other people wore oxygen tanks, but I liked the gills better.

[ Gills...cosmetic gills with actual functioning breathing machines? The Capitol was SO AMAZING why did they have to ruin it with subjugation and corruption!?]

Wow.

[Yeah that's about as far as she can get]

How did the food and...everything not float away?

There wasn't real food, not exactly. There were only differently flavored drinks, served in beautiful little bottles kept shut with valves that only opened if you pinched them with your teeth. I might still have one of them somewhere.

[ She nods in understanding and from the look on her face he has clearly satisfied her curiosity with such a magical sounding party.]

Too bad it doesn't seem like Capitol parties repeat themselves. That sounds so cool.

[He smiles at her.]

Maybe one day, if a mermaid wins the Hunger Games, the Crowning will be something like it.

[To the room:]

Any other questions?

[Gritta, being relatively new to this schooling and naive in general, has actually been drinking the offered juice boxes. Which may the reason that she's been able to watch Stephen's speech so placidly. Even the bits about your parents knowing best and there always being a reason for what they had you do. Well, of course there was a reason mother had her devour the emperor, it's all very understandable even if she didn't want it in the least... if she hadn't been slightly sedated, she might have had it in her get upset. It's easy to move on to the other topics he covers. She certainly has questions that she'd like to have answered. And so when questions are opened, she raises her hand and waits to be called on.]

...what is your favorite place in Panem? If it's all very beautiful, then what part do you think is the most beautiful?

That's easy. It's the Capitol.

Sure, the other parts of Panem have their charms. The ocean is lovely, and the mountains out east are nice. But not only does the Capitol have the most breathtaking views in all of Panem, but it also contains the best of Panem's beauty. Here is where the art is. Galleries, gardens, orchestras -- even our buildings are designed with beauty in mind.

Visiting the Districts is nice, but I'd never want to live anywhere besides here.

[Gritta makes a small, interested sound, taking in that response.]

Have you visited all of the other Districts? Do you get to travel much?

No, no, not all of them. There's no way even I could get approved for that much travel. I've visited Six multiple times for work, obviously, and I went to One and Two when I was much younger, but Four's the only one I've spent much time in.

Not many Capitolites make the trip to the outer Districts.

I see... [And she nods slowly, to go along with that bit of understanding.]

Why wouldn't they? I hear that District 7 is very beautiful, too... just as an example.

The thing is, most of the outer Districts aren't easily visitable. For one, there aren't really places for Capitolites to stay. Their infrastructure is all work, no play. That means not many people want to visit them, and therefore, the government isn't likely to approve your request to make the trip.

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The Tribute Youth Programme: July

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w o wwww wrong journal

I thought that face seemed different.

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1/2

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call the thread finished?

Done and done~

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