thecapitol | [CLOSED]

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Who| The Signless, Peeta, and Cinna (not all at once!)
What| Signless meets his mentor and stylist properly.
Where| District 12 suites; prep center
When| Now-ish probably!
Warnings/Notes| Probably none. If anything comes up I'll add.

The Signless has spent a good deal of time in his room since he died and was brought back to the Capitol. It's not that he's antisocial -- he's quite proud of all the alien acquaintances he's made -- but there's simply so much to take in and a good deal of it he can get to without walking more then ten feet. He spent a good several hours messing with shower combinations once he figured out how it worked, and even though he's used it a few times now, the idea of being able to order any food you like at any time and have it appear immediately still enchants him.

The Capitol doesn't have much of the sort of food trolls recognize, so he's been being adventurous and picking at random. Today that means some sort of shellfish in bright green sauce, which is turning out to be remarkably good even if it may be a little strange to eat it while sitting cross-legged in a pile of blankets and pillows in the middle of the floor.

***

The Signless has been here before, but he's still not necessarily comfortable in the prep center. It's so sterile and, well, alien, far more alien than the rest of the Capitol. He thought the first time they brought him down here and did their very best to remove fourteen solar sweeps of calluses was the last time, but here he is again, because apparently there's someone else who'd like to see him. He hopes they aren't going to try to scrub the bottoms of his feet off, whoever they are.

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Ah, shower combinations. Peeta still has to laugh at himself for dealing with that one. Showers were not something they had back home, not until he came to live in the Victor's Village. He almost missed that place at times, until he was able to eat here. All the food you could want. Anything you could want, actually. Even now, it's all still very strange to him, and he's noticed how strange it is to everyone else.

But he was really surprised to see someone sitting in the middle of the floor in a bunch of pillows and blankets. So when he came in, he didn't say anything for a minute, grabbing a glass of orange juice first.

"Having a picnic?"

The Signless looked up at Peeta the moment he spoke, clearly spooked until he saw that this person wasn't threatening and relaxed. He had expected Karkat -- Karkat was the only person that ever came into his room without knocking.

"Lunch," he clarified. "In the middle of the day, which is strange, but I'm getting used to it. Who are you?" It seemed a little rude to ask, but then, this person had just sort of barged into his room.

"I'm sorry, I really should have knocked," Peeta apologized sheepishly. "I'm not used to all of these rooms being occupied, I promise, I won't ever do this again." It was strange to be back here all the time. Really, Peeta hadn't spent a significant amount of time here since his own games. They had stopped here every so often, but everything was different now. There were a lot of people here.

"I'm Peeta, and we obviously haven't met yet, but I'm one of your mentors," He could leave it at that, but. "You don't have lunch in the middle of the day back home?"

"Mentor. Right." He pondered this word and what it probably entailed, and decided he didn't much care for it. It meant this person wasn't a fellow tribute, and thus was likely a native of this world and someone who wholly bought into the idea that a forced death match was a perfectly lovely form of entertainment. And what could this alien male possibly teach him? How to die in a more entertaining manner? He certainly wouldn't get very far trying to teach him to kill other tributes, and if he had any delusions of that, the Signless was going to have set him straight soon.

"And no, we don't. Trolls are nocturnal. Right now I should be asleep." He was trying his very best to adjust to a diurnal sleep schedule, and he was to be fair doing alright, but it still felt fundamentally wrong to be up and about at a time when he should have been dreaming. "For how trolloid your species is, there are a few fundamental differences that've made getting used to life here difficult."

"Is it okay if I take a seat?" Even while he said this, he was taking a seat. Because it was apparent that he hadn't ever met a mentor, which was a shame. And entirely his fault. Haymitch had yet to make his appearance, and he and Katniss were both not available, and who else was going to help them win?

"I don't really know anything about trolls, I'm sorry. I've never heard of them, and I would have never guessed you were a species of some kind... you do sort of look like some of the weirder Capitol people," He laughed. "I'll never get used to their fashion stuff. I don't know if I can ever get used to all of it..." He looked down, clearing his throat.

"But right. I'm your mentor. I'm here to help make sure you don't die. And I will do everything in my power to bring you out of that arena alive. That's what I do." Even if this might be his first.

"The way to get out alive is to win, correct?"

He set the bowl of seafood and sauce very deliberately aside.

"I don't ever plan to win. To win requires the knowing murder of other sentient beings, and that's something I absolutely refuse to ever do. I'll provide you with as many amusing deaths--" He wrinkled his nose at the phrase. "--as you like, but I won't ever win, barring some sort of miracle or drastic rule change. I'm sorry. You seem like you mean well, which is why I'm being honest with you."

That was right. Peeta didn't need to say anything to that, only giving a nod. That was the way to win. But here he was, meeting this new guy, and he didn't even want to win. It wasn't that he didn't think he couldn't, or that he would be unable to. It was that he would do everything to not win.

"No, it's good to be honest with each other. If you're not honest with me, I can't help you at all," Peeta paused. "And I still want to help. There is another way to win, without killing anyone personally, but do you mean you won't do anything, because in the arena there will be killing?"

He shook his head. "I'll try to stay alive, so long as that doesn't require hurting someone else. I understand that others won't be following that same philosophy; I understand that many believe murder to be inevitable in survival and while I don't agree I won't judge."

After all, he was from Alternia, a planet where it was kill or be killed. He'd met so many lowbloods who truly believed there was no way to end their enslavement and oppression except through violence because it was the only language their oppressors spoke. He understood that feeling of hopelessness, and it made him sick just thinking about it.

"I'd simply much rather avoid confrontation entirely if possible. Tell me about this other way."

Peeta nodded. "I understand. I really do. I'm not really the kind of guy who wants to go into the arena for the glory of it, like the Careers did. So I know how you feel, but I also know how the others feel," He sighed. "You, as a general you, I mean, don't want to die. It's just basic instinct, sometimes."

Do you mean you won't kill? Katniss asked again in the back of his mind, and he answered it like he had then: No, when it comes down to it, I'll do what I have to. I just want to show them... Peeta gave a grim smile.

"Well, that's exactly what I was going to say. To survive, you'll need to avoid confrontation. That means you need to be able to hide and not be seen from everyone around you. But it's not that easy, in fact, that's a lot more difficult because the gamemakers will work on flushing you out so you have no choice," Peeta paused. "Are you against killing animals, too?"

The Signless pondered that. His Disciple had killed animals, and he'd eaten them, because that was often all their was in the wilds. Would it be so different, doing it himself?

"I think I could. Animals are less likely to be intelligent on the same level as I am. It's mostly killing other intelligent life that I'm uncomfortable with." He thought back to the last arena, and decided he would have easily killed one or two of those piranhas to keep them from chewing his face off. "I've learned a lot about trapping already, in the training center, since I haven't been touching the weapons. You know, on principle. Do you recommend I practice with some anyway?"

He didn't like the idea, at all, but he had used sickles before on vegetation and for defensive measures against Alternian wildlife. Nothing that had required much finesse, but certainly enough to know they were a sturdy and easy to use choice of blade.

Peeta gave a nod. "Absolutely. If you're not going to fight, you have to survive, and you're not going to be able to do that without any food or water. Trapping is going to help save you're life, so it's good that you've been learning how to do that. I'd also recommend spending time at the plant station, so you know what you should and shouldn't eat."

He wasn't sure if right now was the time to bring up mutts. They weren't really intelligent, in a sense. They couldn't talk to you, you couldn't talk to them and have them not attack you. But there was some kind of intelligence there, something that you didn't see in regular, normal animals. Just thinking about the dogs with their eyes... he clenched his jaw rather then shudder, looking at Signless.

"I think you should. You can use a spear or bow and arrow to catch fish, squirrels, rabbits, any kind of animal. And I know you don't want to kill anyone, but there might be times you'll get in a fight. You're going to need to protect yourself, so learning how to block? That's something you need to know how to do."

He nodded along as Peeta spoke. Really, the young man was impressing him. After dealing with Effie primarily it was nice to talk to someone who would work with him rather than just giving him Looks until he did what they wanted. Besides, what Peeta was saying was making sense. Even if some of their fruit overlapped, as he'd learned with the oranges, the vast majority of plant life here was going to be different. Animals were a little easier to judge, but plants were tricky.

"I'd be alright with defensive fighting, I think, if there really was no other way." Maybe if he'd been able to warn Hyperion away-- no. No, no no, no post-Arena guilt. Stop that. "I'll see what I can do. Karkat may be able to help train me on sickles, since he's an expert with them. Would that be frowned upon? Practicing with someone of another district?"

Edited 2013-06-09 04:08 (UTC)

He had to ponder on that, silent as he thought about the question. Was it frowned upon to train with someone from a different district? For his games, you sometimes ended up working at the same station as other tributes, just because you always tried to learn the same things. The ones that would help you survive. But this was a different time, now. All of these tributes could move around the different rooms, something they weren't allowed to in his.

Why not learn from your friends? "No, it wouldn't be a problem. The only people who'll see you doing that are the gamemakers and any other tributes, but the gamemakers aren't allowed to reveal anything they see in the training room. So if you have a friend who'll help you out, go ahead and use them. You could always trade knowledge, too; that might be polite to do."

Okay. So he had his non-fighting tribute learning how to use a weapon for defense, so that was a plus. And they both agreed on learning a few things like what plants to eat, and how to trap. No one ever knew what the arena was going to be like until they were in it, so that might be all he could do in that regard, so now it was onto the tough stuff.

"I'm sure you already know about sponsors, right? Even if you don't fight, we need to figure out a way to make you..." What was the right word? Popular? Appealing? "Make you someone that people would want to support. We want people to like you, in some sort of way."

Peeta thread!

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