[OPEN]

[arachnoble]

Who| Sybille and YOU!
What| Sybille is investigating these weird new tributes. She is largely unimpressed and often amused.
Where| The D3 suites and the Training Center commons.
When| Vague, post-arena timeframe.
Warnings/Notes| There could be potential talk of what happened in the arena!

Sybille was...well, she was many things. She felt many things, too, but right now she was not pleased. These new tributes, this new form of Games, it all bothered her for so many different reasons. For one, it was easier to not care about tributes when you only saw them for a small frame of time before their inevitable death, but now they kept coming back and there was such little time between the Games. She was busier now, with more tributes and more events and just more stuff going on it still wasn't enough to distract her from how uncomfortable the Games were making her.

So she threw herself into her work. She had to get these tributes into tip top shape, and some of them were just...completely unacceptable. It's early in the morning, the sun is barely peeking over the horizon, as she makes the rounds personally to wake up the tributes in the District 3.

It's time for them to learn how to handle themselves in the Capitol. They're going to be here for a while, after all.

--

Transforming the off world tributes is going to take time, and Sybille doesn't have enough patience to waste much of hers every day. So she goes to the commons to relax, and she tries to avoid the bar but it's right there so she can't. (But she'll only have one, or maybe two, drinks.)

She stands out in the common room - she's clearly not a tribute, even if what she's wearing isn't as over the top and extravagant as some others wear on a daily basis, it's tight and somehow still manages to look like it's made out of spider webs. She looks healthy and like she's never been involved in a fight, and she looks far too relaxed to have just come out of a death match.

Comments

[splendid_roman]

Ian was not a morning person. Especially early mornings and especially when he was being woken up. And most especially when there was nothing urgent to get up for. His approach to being woken up by Sybille was to pull the covers further over his head and hope she'd go away.

[arachnoble]

Not being a morning person is not going to fly with Sybille. She's easily frustrated by her tributes enough as it is, and they should know by now they can't sleep in.

Sybille stares at Ian for a moment, before stalking over to his bed and reaching out and placing her hand on his shoulder and jostling him. Gently, at first, because after years of panicky tributes she'd rather wake him up slowly. (She really doesn't want to get smacked in the face so early.)

[splendid_roman]

He couldn't sleep through that and he pulled the covers down enough to look at her. "What do you want?" He sounded grumpy and looked sleepy.

[arachnoble]

Good, because the next part would have been dumping ice water over his head. It's extremely effective.

"Mostly for you to get out of bed," she drawls, straightening up. "District three is going to have a busy day today."

[splendid_roman]

Getting out of bed wouldn't have been so bad, had he been inclined to get up, except that he'd been too tired to put his pyjamas on last night and just stripped down to his underpants. And his dressing gown was on the other side of the room, of course.

"Doing what?" he asked suspiciously. Anything busy meant it involved something to do with the games and he didn't want to.

[arachnoble]

Well, she doesn't have the patience to wait for him, and she doesn't really care about something silly like being in only his underpants.

"Working on your manners, mostly. Teaching you how to behave in the Capitol. You're all so new to this way of life, and with this change..." she trails off, waving a hand. "Well, you all need a lot of help getting to Capitol standards. That's what we're doing."

[splendid_roman]

"What?" He was outraged that she would complain about his manners. Except that him complaining about that would probably be considered bad manners to, so he left it at that one word.

However, he did sit up, pulling the covers with him to cover himself. "I'm not going to be here long before I'm back in the arena. Manners won't matter there."

[honeyedwords]

Sherlock is already up by the time Sybille decides to go about her rounds. Well, no, that wasn't technically accurate as 'already up' implied that he'd been asleep at some point, which he hadn't since a few days before arriving at the Capitol. By now he's starting to remember just why he'd taken up morphling; the constant buzz of tension and nervous energy that did nothing to cut through the fatigue of being over a week without sleep was maddening. He's sure District 2 didn't appreciate his pacing, but he's never been fond of Brutus or Enobaria and as such doesn't care.

"You're up early," he calls from the door to his quarters, leaning against the frame. Sybille's not exactly his first choice for conversation but after hours and hours of boredom and Capitol news natterings, he'll take what he can get. "Getting started on preparing the sacrifices for the altar?"

[arachnoble]

That's not surprising, and Sybille doesn't even spare him a second glance as she bustles about. She has a small notebook in her hand and a slender metal pen she's using to jot notes down. She doesn't have the most impressive memory, and there's so many tributes to keep track of now. (She's mostly keeping note of who is the most stubborn and who's the worst at keeping to the schedule. Ability is none of her concern, and neither is where the tributes are from.)

"Naturally. That's my job, after all." She turns the page, adding another tally. "And these lambs need so much work."

[honeyedwords]

"Well, on the bright side most of these ones don't need to be taught how to fight," he says, stepping out of the door frame and rolling his shoulders, trying to ease some of the tension from them. "Just that their lives now have no worth outside of fighting."

Sherlock smiles at her, in a gesture that is as bright as it is insincere.

"Unless they happen to outlive somewhere around 95 others," he adds, after a moment of thought. "In which case they may be allowed to do something else but chances are that even if they do they'll always be defined by the former."

[arachnoble]

"And here I thought that ray of sunshine was coming from the window." She finally looks up from her notebook, snapping it shut. She smiles back at him, but she looks more genuinely amused then anything else.

"It's happened before, so perhaps one of them will be able to truly follow in your footsteps." Her voice is icy, and it should be obvious that she's not pleased with Sherlock. She knows about his lack of sleep, and even if the escort suites were far from the mentor ones, she had heard his pacing as she bustled about the tributes' rooms. "Which would be so unfortunate, but at least then the fun will never stop."

common room

[savedbyasong]

Shion was curled up on one of the sofas reading a book he had found at the library; a library of all things, not something he had expected in a city such as this but he was happy to be around so many books.

He was very obviously trying to ignore the- now all repeated- footage of the games. He looks as jumpy and terrified as someone who has just come out of a death match; even though he hasn't been in the arena yet.

He sees the woman, who must be a mentor, or a stylist, or escort from what Shion knows of the roles here. He watched her for a moment, taking in her appearance and behavior.

[arachnoble]

Sybille is used to eyes on her. She lives in the spot light, and often throws herself into it. She thrives off of it.

So she's not unsettled by Shion's staring. It's his silence that bothers her, and how he looks like he's afraid of someone jumping out from behind the bar and slaughtering him. She doesn't recognize him from any of the footage, and he's not in her district, but that doesn't mean he hasn't gone through something.

She turns towards him, taking a sip of some dark blue liquid. "Are you just going to keep staring, or are you going to make conversation?"

[savedbyasong]

"Oh." Shion blushed, he hadn't realised how obvious his staring was. "Hi."

He smiled, he didn't really know how to act around those of this world. Except to hide his anger, he wasn't stupid. "I didn't mean to stare."

[arachnoble]

The blush is surprisingly endearing, and it makes it clear that this is a tribute, and not a young Capitolite with a fondness for bodymods.

"Most people never mean to stare, so you're fine." She smiles, resting her hand on the bar. "You're new here, aren't you? One of the offworld tributes?"

[savedbyasong]

He blushed again but gave a nervous smile and nodded. "I am. Is it that obvious?"

[arachnoble]

"Painfully so." She wants to laugh at him, but she manages to hold it back. She's trying her very best to be nice to all of the new tributes, and it's kind of working, and really, it's not like Shion is really at fault for being a fish out of water.

[savedbyasong]

His blush just got worse, "It's all a bit strange." He told her sheepishly.

District 3

[gluteus]

Maximus was already awake when Sybille began her rounds. He'd borrowed a knife from the kitchen and a few small pieces of wood from the nearby park, and was sitting quietly in his suite, whittling away with a frown upon his face. The figure of a woman was slowly becoming more and more clear as he did so, and he looked up as there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

[arachnoble]

She's already got her hand on the knob when Maximus addresses her, and she has a small smile on her face as she steps into his room. She's pleased that at least one of her tributes is up early. The whittling is a bit strange. She's never seen anyone do that, and she'll have to find out how he got a knife into his room.

"Good morning. Maximus, correct?"

There's way too many tributes to keep track of, now.

[gluteus]

Though good for the soft wood, the knife would never be effective with flesh, which is probably the only reason they've allowed him to have it. He carefully sets it down, and looks up at the woman who has entered.

"Yes," he confirms as he slowly stands. "And you are...?"

[arachnoble]

She straightens her bodice, leaving the door open behind her. they do have a schedule to adhere to, after all, and Maximus is certainly more ready then any other tribute she's run across this morning.

"Sybille Matteris, your escort." Which would be enough of an explanation if he were from Panem, but that's not the case anymore. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to introduce myself before now, but I have been awfully busy getting things in order."

[gluteus]

"Escort." The word has more than a few meanings, but he's relatively sure of the one she means. He can't help the flicker of the smile, though, as he gently asks:

"And where are you escorting me to?"

[arachnoble]

"Depending on what you believe, painful death or fantastic glory," she raises a brow at that smile, but she won't comment on it. "I'm here to help you make your way through the Capitol and help you get through the Games, alongside your mentors."

Who really should be here, but...Not everyone can be as put together as she is.

[gluteus]

He stepped toward her, cocking his head as he watched her, considering.

"The Capitol is a city. And I prepare for my third arena. What wisdom could you have to impart upon me?" He asked, glancing at her arms. He doubted they'd ever held a sword. Not that he really cared, but it was a little too easy to tease.