You Talk Far Too Much for Someone So Unkind [OPEN]

[whatisay]

WHO| Jason and OPEN, especially to D7 Tributes
WHAT| Jason's D7 District post!
WHERE| D7 Suite
WHEN| After the mini-Arena.
WARNINGS| Jason being awful.

The first thing Jason does when he gets back to District Seven from his week off on Monday (at about five a.m.) is wake Cassian, and thus the rest of the floor up, by screaming at the Stylist about how August 31st is, actually, a real date and that scheduling forty-seven meetings for it is, at best, unfathomably stupid and at worst an attempt at outright sabotage.

The second thing Jason does is slam out new schedules for every single Tribute and slap them onto the front of each door. To his credit, everything is set up so the Tributes can maximize their incomes and media exposure, and it seems that he's back to courting Sponsors with a vengeance. On the downside, there's very little room left for Tributes to relax or do anything of their own volition. Furthermore, there's not all that much time for Jason to do anything but aggressively catch up and work intensive overtime.

The yelling, throwing things and shoving Avoxes around has been dialed up to eleven, and seems aggravated all the further by any attempts to offer condolences or point out the small details that he seems more prone to miss than he used to.

Friday, after a full week of working his Tributes into the ground, chainsmoking and meeting with Sponsors in hallways and dance halls until he actually wears a hole into his dress shoes, he sets up with an anonymous-looking videographer in the District Seven Suite. The hologram window is set to a peaceful forest. Jason sits on the couch with, oddly enough, a capuchin monkey in a diaper leashed to his wrist and sitting on the backrest.

"Alright," he says to each Tribute as they enter at the scheduled time. "You're going to record your apology to District Seven for fucking up the last Arena and letting their children starve."

Comments

[whatisay]

"Before you lost again. I hope the next letter is them sharing their recipe for stone soup and boiled leather." He folds his arms and shoots a glance at the monkey, which is chewing its claws.

"Mandated therapy pet. He's supposed to help me with my provider's complex, whatever that is. Apparently I can only function if I'm taking care of a monkey, but I told them I already have a younger brother."

[ruffntumblenut]

She snorts and laughs at his little joke and that's enough to get her to move in front of the camera, but she's still talking to him instead of apologizing.

"So the whole reason you're so mean to us all the time is because you just wanna take care of us? You're more like a viking then I thought." She teases "Or maybe more like a Berserker."

[whatisay]

"According to my therapist. Have I mentioned that psychiatry is a sham, and I'm paying four hundred assi an hour for the privilege of being told fortune cookie nonsense?"

The ideographer sets up, and Jason keeps talking.

"Alright. Apologize, keep it sincere and simple, and try to make it sound like you. Are you ready?"

[ruffntumblenut]

"No, you haven't mentioned it." She shrugged not in much of a position to argue with him. "But if that monkey makes you break less stuff and shout less? I'm against it and think you should give it to me right after this."

She could name it Tuffnut, maybe it would be smarter then the original.

Once they began Ruffnut tried to look sympathetic, it rarely worked on Stoick back home and she doubted it would work now.

"Hey guys...sorry about the whole...not winning thing."

Off to a nice awkward start.

"Yeah I just really wanted to see what that Iron Maiden thing was all about right? And I mean...it looked cool didn't it with all those spikes? But I guess I probably shouldn't have turned my back on Wednesday huh?"

[ A sheepish grin and she's glancing back and forth between Jason and the guy filming her to see how she's doing.]

So uh...I'll do better next time and...OH! Oh hey while I'm doing this, I wanted to say hi to my buddy Hemlock! I'll be writing to you again soon I just gotta finish my next set of necklaces! I learned some stuff at school that might make them even better! I thought maybe I'd send you some keychains this time but then I was like "Does Hemlock even have keys?" So yeah..."

So much for simple.

[whatisay]

"I would, except that I want to get my deposit on it back after the trial weeks are over." Ruffnut may be the only one who not only doesn't mind but actually likes Jason's temper, but he doesn't appreciate that windfall. It's a non-issue to him.

"Don't smoke. It'll get in the frame," the videographer says to Jason, and he puts his cigarette out. He watches Ruffnut as she goes through her awkward schpiel. He drums his finger on his knee.

"Alright, cut. Do it again. Streamline it, trim it down."

[ruffntumblenut]

"Huh?" Getting cut off mid rant threw her off and she blinked confused trying to rewind back to the start in her head.

"Trim what down? That was great! I actually felt like I was talking to them for a minute there. Like really talking not fake talking."

Fake Talking: The art of using words but not meaning a single one of them. Ruffnut has noticed this happens a lot in the Capitol.

[whatisay]

"I know you were, but it took you too long to get to the point. I want you to do it again."

Not because he actually plans on delivering the clips to anyone, but because this is all sort a mind game to try and get the Tributes to take this whole nightmare seriously.

[ruffntumblenut]

"Ugh fine you friggin' rasa frackin..."

She trails off not even using proper curse words and blows some exasperated breath up to her bangs messing them up before she speaks again.

"Hello District Seven. Sorry I suck. I'll try harder. Don't worry sooner or later one of us is gonna win and you guys can eat again."

The lack of enthusiasm leaves much to be desired. Here she gestures at Jason as if to say Well?

[whatisay]

"Alright, that was even worse than the first time. I've never met someone so opposed to learning that they actually get worse with practice, so huzzah, good job." Jason waves a sarcastic hand (the monkey on his shoulder tries to imitate it).

"Talk to them again. To them. If one of those District brats was in front of you with doe eyes and jutting ribs, what would you say to them?"

[ruffntumblenut]

Unfortunately for someone with such a lack of interest in bettering her mind, she has a vivid imagination and she can't help but see Hemlock looking betrayed now.

"Look I'm sorry alright? It's harder then it looks to survive in the arena! And I'm doing the best I can but accidents happen. All I can do is keep getting back up again when I get knocked down. Same as you."

She's looking at the camera but it's clear her mind is elsewhere.

"Life hurts. It hurt back home and it hurts here. Some people hurt different like...being hungry or getting ripped into pieces. But in the end it's all hurt. And if you let it kill you then the hurt is gone sure. But if you keep getting back up every time then you get stronger. And even better you annoy the hell out of whatever keeps trying to hurt you."

"So just...keep getting back up. Keep trying to enjoy yourself and eventually it'll be harder to knock you down. And eventually I'll win. Eventually everyone's gonna see how tough we are and back the hell down and respect us for how much we can put up with."

"And we've put up with a lot already."

[whatisay]

"Cut." Jason flips a hand up. "Boo hoo, Thorston. They don't care how much you've put up with. No one here cares about how much you put up with except maybe those Avoxes who'll have to start changing the sheets if you wet the bed."

He gets up (the monkey jumps off his shoulder and to the backrest of the couch) and paces, gesturing with his cigarette. "What you're doing now is telling them that it doesn't matter if you lose, because you can get back up again. Well, they can't. They're going to starve."

He gets right up in Ruffnut's face, leaning in and poking at her with his cigarette. "They're going to die because of your stupidity. Now do it again."

[ruffntumblenut]

OK ouch. Normally Ruffnut could put up with whatever someone dished out verbally but she had been speaking from the heart just then and he dismissed it. Had she really gotten so soft?

The last straw came when he poked her with his cigarette. "OW!" Her hand swung up and swatted at the glowing tip which just burned her again as she crushed it into his fingers. "Don't burn me!"

She wanted so badly to headbutt him right now. To kick him in the knee, to punch him in the gut. Suddenly she understood why no one liked Jason. Because there was no way she could physically punish him enough in the space of time it would take for the peacekeepers to detain her and drag her away.

[whatisay]

It's an electric cigarette, so it won't actually damage her, but it is hot enough to be a bit painful.

"I'll treat you how I want, Tribute. Just be grateful you're that instead of just a Districter who didn't get Reaped." He towers over her. "I want you to record it again. I want you to feel sorry for how you fucked this up for everyone. Now sit down in that chair and do it again."

[ruffntumblenut]

It's the thought that counts.

"You can't make me feel worse about it then I already do. Especially not by acting like a jerk. Geeze I thought you were supposed to be good at your job." She shot back glaring up at him in defiance of his position of authority.

"It's not like you're the one who's starving. So stop acting like you care about the District more then I do. You've already made it pretty clear you don't care about anyone."

[whatisay]

"I am good at my job, which is more than you can say." Nothing Ruffnut's saying is actually striking bone for Jason. He's dealt with nastier Tributes who got much more personal. He's lost his mother recently, as the chattering imp on the couch reminds him, and so Ruffnut just pisses him off rather than wounds at all.

"Now I want you to record how bad about it you claim you feel, and then I'm going to play it for you every night before your Arena, so help me god."

[ruffntumblenut]

"You're making it really hard for me to focus on feeling bad when you're being such a jerk! So no! Bad at your job. Bad Jason Bad!" She shot back wagging a finger at him and making to leave. Who knew that the last straw for Ruffnut dealing with him would involve talking honestly about her feelings?

Of course it's not as though Jason didn't have ways of keeping her in the room. She's just too hot headed to remember.

"S'probably never felt honestly bad about anything in his life." She grumbled more for herself then anything.

[whatisay]

Jason snaps his fingers and one of the Avoxes closes the door Ruffnut's about to use. He folds his arms, ignoring the comment because how little she knows.

"Go downstairs and do two back-to-back sets of your workout routine. Then back up here. We'll do one take from there and it had better be perfect."

[ruffntumblenut]

"It's never gonna be perfect enough for you so why even bother?" She shot back trying to force the door open now. She didn't want to lash out at the Avox, that was Jason's job, but it annoyed her that this one was getting in her way.

At least the first part didn't sound so bad. She could do her routine at her own pace and by the time she was done maybe he'd have gotten some other poor sucker to torment.