'Cause we all wanna party when the funeral ends and we all get together when we bury our friends

[etcircenses]

Who| TYP Children and You?
What| TYP Children have the opportunity to look around.
Where| The Tribute Tower main floor.
When| Now through the week leading up to the arena.
Warnings/Notes| TYP children showing up early is not mandatory. This is merely an avenue for those NPC players who were interested.

In part with the President’s wishes, the District children are not training or living in the same building, but rather, a refurbished old Tribute tower as was used in the days before Tributes were offworlders of vast number. Mentors, Escorts, and Stylists alike will need to travel to the new building to work with them, then travel back to see to their offworld Tributes. Public appearances are minimal so long as the Tribute is kept busy with training and private interviews. There is, however, a brief chance to meet a few of them before the arena, should you catch them on a visit to the offworlder’s tower, restricted to the main floor. Through this, the lucky few District children able to show are allowed fleeting glimpses in person of those they will be competing with and possibly even a chance to talk to them in person.

Comments

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn, who has faced down her uncle in a rage, not to mention the Witch-King of Angmar, doesn't even bat an eyelash at that glare. She simply inclines her head a little at the thanks, withdrawing her hand much as she would from a skittish horse.

For a moment, she sits in silence, her eyes downcast. She almost looks like the demure lady whose part she played for so long, but for the callouses on her hands and the scrapes on her face and arms from sparring. When she does speak again, her voice is low and soft, "I remember seeing you on the television, when they chose the names. Your sister..." She cuts that sentence off, closing her eyes. "I know how it is to lose one you love to blood and battle, while you can do naught but sit and wait for word of their end. I am sorry. I know that means little, yet still, it is so."

[silencedriot]

Bacopa stares at the bread roll instead of making eye contact. She starts tearing it apart in her hands, but unlike before, she's not really eating so much as picking.

"Don't act like you know how I feel."

Her eyes are flinty. She rips into the bread. "It's not battle. They were big and she was small. Don't need to wait, either. There's always a screen you're supposed to be watching, even if you're working the fields. You see when people die."

And now she's going to be projected on that screen, and her little siblings will watch her die like she watched Rue. She wants to lash out, and frankly, she would lash out at anyone who speaks to her no matter what they say.

She chews the inside of her cheek, glaring at the bread. "Sorry about the person you lost." Maybe it's also an apology for her rudeness and her misplaced anger. Who knows?

[shieldofrohan]

"And I'm sorry to have overstepped," Éowyn says, and means it. She's quiet for a moment, looking down at her hands. When she looks up, it's with a sigh, her lips pressed together tightly. Her voice is low, but the intensity of feeling behind it is unmissable.

"I don't expect your trust. I've done nothing to win it, and hope I'll never have to. But I'd have you know that I stand for you. I'll not raise a hand against you in the Arena, and if you have need of sword and shield, or of shelter, then look to me. There's only so far I'll purjure myself for this place. I'll not kill those whose only crime is to be born." She gets abruptly to her feet, raking one hand back through her long, golden hair. "I would tell you to be strong, but I fear you've had no choice in the matter. But have faith. I will not let you fall as she did, not while there is yet breath in me."

[silencedriot]

Bacopa listens and keeps her eyes on the bread. She doesn't believe the woman, but she doesn't know why she would lie, either. Bacopa isn't big and strong like the other Tributes. There's no threat in letting her live, and there's no glory in killing her. No reason to lull her into complacency.

But she doesn't trust it, either. People feel one way, but then they don't follow through. She saw it in the riots after Rue died. She saw it in every Hunger Games arena before the offworlders came.

"Thanks, I think."

She keeps her eyes on the bread.

[shieldofrohan]

"I don't need your thanks, nor seek it," Éowyn says quietly, and gets to her feet, smoothing her skirts. "Only to have you know where I stand, and others with me. There is courage and goodness yet in the hearts of Men, even here." And she thinks of what she has heard of Aragorn's speech before the Black Gate: it is not this day, she thinks, it is not this day either, that we fail and fall to ruin. But what she says, instead, is "Be safe, child. And know there are those who stand with you, when it comes to it."

And she bows her head a little, and turns to walk away.