'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

[seestheman]

Clara fully believes that District 10 can get another win in this Arena, but from the little bit she knows about Bison, she's pretty sure that it won't be from him. She can't hope that he'll prove her wrong, that he'll be another unlikely winner who'll have the chance that she and her fellow Off-world Victors don't have and can return home to his loved ones triumphantly.

She isn't going to tell him that she's certain that he's going to die. Neither of them need that. Instead she's going to focus on the here and now, on the very much alive boy in front of her. She reaches out her once again flesh and blood right hand to him, trying to look as warm and unimposing as possible so that he feels a little bit more at ease. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Bison. I'm Clara." She's sure he knows who she is, but at the same time she figures it might help him shake off his nerves a little bit. "Are you enjoying the Capitol so far?"

[byeson]

"It's- yes. Yes, I am."

It's not that he's enjoying life right now, but he's enjoying the Capitol. He likes having enough food in his belly. He likes having a bed to sleep in that's warm and doesn't smell like several family members. Maybe he's trying too hard to enjoy life in the few days remaining, or maybe it's honest.

He takes Clara's hand and gives it a shake that's both firm and tentative.

"I ought to congratulate you. I- I want to tell you that when you won, my family ate a turkey for the first time. A whole turkey. We split it and I got one of the legs."

[seestheman]

Clara's very careful to tread lightly, trying not to give him any sort of false hope that she can save him while not discouraging him from trying to win on the off-chance that there's something inside of him that's escaped everyone's notice. "I'm glad to hear that, I was worried that..." What, it would be too much for him? That he wouldn't be able to try to find something to give his final days a silver lining? "...it might be a little overwhelming."

She doesn't know how to respond to that. Clara's never been able to see her win as a good thing, not for her or her loved ones or from the point of view of the people of the Capitol who still begrudge her from taking a win from someone who deserved it (even if one of the ones they viewed as deserving the win eventually turned out to be a complete traitor in their eyes). And to think of something like turkey, something that was a staple in her house growing up, was something so rare and treasured that his family only got to have something that her family had every year when he was a teenager...well, it almost made everything worth it. "The legs are the best part," she says, giving him a slightly closer to real smile. "I'm glad my win did something good."

As nice as it is to talk about things like creature comforts, she needs to get down to business. She doesn't have much time with her new Tributes and she needs to make sure that he's prepared for what's out there so he has something resembling a fighting chance. "So, Bison, tell me about your family." AKA give her something that she can try to use to appeal to the sponsors on his behalf.

[byeson]

"Maybe I'm not feeling anything enough to be overwhelmed. I'm just letting a little bit in at a time." Bison shrugs.

"I have six brothers and sisters and two dead. I'm the oldest." He awkwardly fidgets, running one rough, broad hand over his wrist. "It's probably for the best that I'm about to die. They'll be hungry, but sometimes the children and siblings of Victors get Reaped just to show no one's safe. Better it be me than one of them."

He doesn't realize, starstruck as he is, that Clara has a child too - that part of her mythos will click with him later. Instead he just speaks of self-sacrifice not as if it's a kindness he partakes in but a state of being, something he's been waiting in suspended animation for for his entire lif.

[seestheman]

"That's a good way to go about it." She doesn't complete the thought that's on her tongue, that she couldn't blame him if he let it all in at once since she had her doubts about him surviving the Arena.

Clara's soft smile almost breaks at the mention of children of Victors. It's something she's hyperaware of, that never really leaves her mind. She constantly has nightmares about seeing the lists of new Tributes, terrified that her son will be on there (and, just to make matters worse, he'll be a version of him that she doesn't know, a teenager or a grown man who's been forced to live without his mother because she was stuck here). At least with Alex, if they were to ever bring him back, she knows he could handle it, but David...she has her doubts.

She somehow manages to fight to keep the smile on her face, though there's something else behind it, a twinge of something painful and afraid, "What are they like? I'm sure that having that many siblings meant that you never had a boring moment at home."