ab initio

[occasio]

Who| Phi and anyone on the Capitol side!
What| Phi arrives in the Capitol and has a look around.
Where| D4 floor, and around the Capitol.
When| Present time.
Warnings/Notes| None presently



[A: D4 Commons or D4 Rooms]
Phi arrives at her room with the typical Peacekeeper escort. She's half expecting the door to be locked when they leave, but she tries the knob and finds it free to turn. There won't be any damsel in distress in this tower. She can be her own knight.

With that much confirmed, she leaves the door open and turns back to the room. Her first order of business is to check every nook and cranny for something that might be useful. Unfortunately, the room is as barren of any useful tools as a prison cell, though much more luxuriously furnished.

Venturing out into the common rooms, Phi takes inventory of the kitchen and the living space. She gets the impression of being in some kind of high-class hotel suite--and there's a familiarity to it as well. There's a memory sitting in the back of her mind of a space like this, though the furnishings were much different. Likewise, she remembers Sigma being there, but that isn't the case right now.

There are other doors in the hallway that she came from, but those ones don't belong to her. She wonders if anyone is home, or if she might take a peek while the owner is unaware. Pressing an ear to the door, Phi listens close for any movement inside the room.


[B: The Capitol, anywhere]
The world outside is dazzling. After spending several cumulative days in the confines of a lunar base with only eight other people to speak of, the sheer numbers of buildings and people are overwhelming. There's a kaleidoscope of color walking the sidewalks, and it's all that Phi can do not to stare at the people. They look ridiculous, but at least that much is uniform.

She wanders as far as her feet will take her, provided she's not stopped from entering any restricted areas. She's not aware of where those are, but her ability to pick up on the behavior of others is pretty keen. She pauses at various shops, inspecting the window displays with internal curiosity, but not venturing inside. As far as anyone can tell by her expression, she looks bored with virtually everything she sees.

Comments

[occasio]

Phi stands straight when she hears the voice, pulling away from the door but showing no signs of being apologetic. She wasn't doing anything wrong, as far as she's concerned. It's not like she went into the room to look around. She had done as much with the room before this one, but he doesn't need to know that.

"Not in so many words, but they left me there." She gestures towards the room that she assumes is hers now. The door is closed now, but she remembers which one it is. Then she looks back at the one she was just listening against. "Is this one yours?"

[sociopathicwolf]

There's a grunt and a nod at that. She's a new Tribute, then, and Derek's already slotting her into the training time. He'll have to carve out an hour or two to meet with her one on one, figure out where she's at and what she needs and if she's going to listen to him or if he needs to change his strategy - he's not feeling all that charitable at the off worlder Tributes at the moment, but he won't neglect her training because of something she wasn't even there for.

For the most part.

He nods again at her question, not bothering to ask her what she thought she was doing. Most of the Tributes take it upon themselves to explore whatever they can.

"Derek," he introduces. "One of your Mentors. Not a lot of time before the arena now."

[occasio]

At least he gets down to business quickly and without any nonsense. He gets a few points for that, though Phi is still undecided if she can trust this guy. He doesn't ask for a name directly, so she doesn't bother offering him one just yet.

She's heard about these Arenas that she's supposed to participate in, but no one said anything to her about Mentors. The most she has to go on is what the name itself would imply. "What does being my Mentor entail? Training? Life coaching? Pep talks?" If it's the last one, she has half a mind to tell him to stuff it. She doesn't need that bullshit.

[sociopathicwolf]

Derek can't help but give a vaguely amused snort at that last one. He's not sure if anything he's ever said could actually be counted as a pep talk, but he is sure that there's very few people who would consider him a good candidate for giving one.

"Training. Combat, survival skills, sponsors. Try to keep you alive. Help you figure out how things work here."

That's a new one, that last one, but it's essential now that they're dealing with Tributes who not only aren't used to this world, but who generally stick around past when they should've died.

"I'm a Victor. I lived. You wanna listen, I'll help. You don't-" He gives a shrug. If it becomes obvious that she doesn't, then he won't waste his time.

[occasio]

For someone who was just dumped into a battle royale scenario without so much as a hint of forewarning, Phi seems pretty calm. Derek's offer of assistance is taken in stride, a half-hearted shrug to her shoulders.

"Not a problem. I'm not interested in dying." Right now, she's still getting her bearings, but if this game was anything like the Nonary Game... She's not about to lose. This guy says he can help. She's willing to give him the chance to prove that.

"You said there's not a lot of time left. How much are we talking?"

[sociopathicwolf]

Calm is worlds better than panicking or crying. Derek can handle calm. Calm means either a really good actor, or someone who's been in worst situations, and either of them are things they can work with.

There's a frustrated growl at that question. There used to be a system - the arenas were the same time every year, they always had the same amount of time to train their Tributes after the arena. There was no guesswork, just a schedule and a timeline.

"Week, maybe. Need to discuss your strategy." He tilts his head at her, looking her over. "You don't wanna die. You willing to kill?"

[occasio]

"Not unless I need to." Not unless someone was attacking her. If it was in self defense, she'd be willing to do just about anything. She wants to survive, but she's not going to resort to murder at the first chance she gets. "I look out for myself. That's it."

But that doesn't mean that she doesn't take notice of other people.

"Sounds like you're not used to working on a time crunch," she points out after a moment of consideration. The frustration in his growl wasn't hard to miss, and the limited time is the only cause she can see at the moment. She wonders if that's enough to get an explanation out of him.

[sociopathicwolf]

Before Aang, that response might have annoyed him, but now it makes him nod. Good attitude. Practical, survivalist, willing to kill if she needs to, if she has to skills to back it up - or is willing to learn what she can in a week - she might be a contender.

He gives a one shouldered shrug at her comment. "Used to be. Different now."

If he realizes that she's angling for an explanation, he doesn't give any indication of it, but it's fairly obvious he's not a big talker.

"Gonna need to. Know how?"

Maybe that should have been his first question, but as far as Derek's concerned, being willing to kill is more important than knowing how.

[occasio]

Phi herself is not a big talker, either. Not unless she gets onto a topic that she's knowledgeable about and has a need to educate someone. She's more likely to muse to herself than engage in a lengthy conversation. But it seems that she'll need to pry a little harder to get this one to open up.

"I know how to defend myself." Sort of. If someone with experience came at her, she might be in trouble; but she knows how to take down an average attacker on the streets. That's all she's really needed to know until now.

"How is it different now?" She presses, trying to squeeze a little more blood from this stone. "They didn't exactly leave any history books lying around when they dropped me off."

[sociopathicwolf]

They're alike there, at least. The only thing that gets Derek going is when he knows something and he thinks someone else needs to know it too - but even that's rarer these days, with how he has to play dumb.

Derek gives a grunt in acknowledgement, even though that statement doesn't really mean much. Some of these offworlders seem to think they know how to defend themselves when they've never run into anything like the games. He's giving her a little more credit, just because she's so calm about all of this, but still. "From what?"

His brows furrow a little at her question, like he's thrown by having to point out specifics and it's taking him a minute to think about it. "Not the one to ask about books. Used to have one arena a year, with District kids. No offworlders."

[occasio]

Her statement means enough to Phi. She knows how to defend herself. Even if he's here to help her, that's all that he really needs to know in her opinion. He doesn't need her whole sordid backstory to know that she can throw a punch or two, and it's getting under her skin that he seems so intent on getting more out of her when he's barely giving her anything in return.

"From whatever I need to." Her tone verges on snappish, tinged with impatience but not outright yelling. "Look, I can fight, okay? I'm not some pampered barbie doll that you're going to truss up and present like Sunday dinner. If they want a piece of me, they're going to lose a few pieces in the process."

She pauses, reining in her tone just a bit as she focuses more directly on Derek. "And if you want to size me up, there are better ways to do it than standing here and playing twenty questions."

[sociopathicwolf]

The impatience doesn't bother him. He's had worse thrown at him, and the tone doesn't matter nearly as much as the actual content right now. She can be impatient with him all she likes, as long as she's willing to do whatever she needs to in order to survive. So he just grunts in response, adding, "Good."

He tilts his head at her, as though considering what he means by that.

"You volunteering to go to the training room?"

Derek sounds moderately hopeful. Part of that is for show, but it would be really nice not to have to drag his Tributes down to it.

[occasio]

Does she want to go to the training room? No, but her choices are limited here. Either she goes and (hopefully) kicks his ass to his satisfaction, or she stands here and continues to be grilled about the specifics of her unorthodox training background. There is a third option that she might get her ass handed to her by someone who has understandably been at this in a more disciplined fashion for longer than she has... But that is still preferable to standing around and talking about it.

"Yeah, sure. If you're volunteering to be my punching bag." She has no intention of showing off for an audience like her "interview" with the Gamemakers. If he wants to see her skills, he's going to get a face full of them personally.

[sociopathicwolf]

Derek's brows furrow at her, like he's having trouble figuring out the way she'd worded her comment.

"You wanna hit me or you wanna fight me?"

Yeah, he knows what she really meant. But it's instinct to play dumb by now, and he's not going to drop that just because she's shown more potential than some of their other Tributes. And it's a way to distance himself from what she's really suggesting, while he tries to decide how he's going to decline to fight with her. It won't be the first time - he doesn't fight with anyone who he doesn't want to kill - but he doesn't want to alienate her, either.

Figuring out how to deal with his Tributes that show promise is generally the closest that Derek gets to giving a shit about not insulting someone, unless he thinks that'd be motivation.

[occasio]

"It can't be both?" Phi counters, tilting her head to the side and lifting a brow at him. She doesn't see where there's a difference, and as far as she's concerned, he's just being difficult. No one can be that obtuse.

"You're getting in my grill about this, so fine. Whatever gets you off my back, let's do it. But I'm not making a performance out of it. I've had enough of putting myself up on display so a bunch of men can hem and haw and grade me on my performance."

[sociopathicwolf]

No, it can't be both - but only because Derek won't hit her back, which means he won't count it as an actual fight. He'd let her hit him, though, if she wanted - at least long enough for him to get a sense of her abilities, before he started seeing it as an actual threat.

But he forgets about clarifying when she continues, and that sets his hackles up a little.

Derek shakes his head, growling softly. "Not a Gamemaker. Don't wanna judge you, just wanna keep you alive. Need to know your strengths and weakness to send you things to offset them." There's a paused, then he adds, "Don't expect you to trust me. You don't have to listen. We'll still get you sponsors."