round 05 [video]

[districttwo]

[Post this, Cato has finally emerged from the common room. and he is...full of unease but playing it cool. Oh so cool]

Are there mutts here?

[he hesitates] Is that part of the rehabilitation process? If inmates get...out of line are they fed or forced to square off against muttations?

[The saddest part about this, barge, is that he is beyond serious. Don't expect anything beyond nods and okays as far as responses go however.]


[Private to Dylan]

...There was...a thing. I thought it was a small mutt but it was just a regular dog I think but...

[and he lets that hang. Because. Dogs. He can't handle it.]

Comments

[Private]

[most_feared]

[God... dammit.]

You uh... what they're not tellin' you is that in some places, like my world, people can turn into dogs and back again. They're not Muttations or whatever. They're people. We even have people that stay dogs, and just talk and go about their lives as dogs. Because that's just who they are. They're not born messed up or anything.

So, you gotta be real careful here, because you might hurt a person.

Re: [Private]

[districttwo]

...Wait-you're telling me it's a person?

[Cato is stunned.] You're telling me that it's not a muttation but it's a person and then it's not?

[Cato that's the wrong thing to say. Seriously. Because the muttations that they brought out-borrowed genetic appearances from the tributes. It was designed to fuck with people.]

....But it's possible, for people to become those things? [He doesn't sound angry, just-scared.. terrified] I wasn't watching where I was going. I t-tripped and it chased me and that was a person?

[Private]

[most_feared]

It's possible that it's not, but yes, there are. There are even werewolves here and they're not going to appreciate hearing about what horrible monstrosities they are because of what they are naturally, so you might want to cool it. It's even possible for people to just be a dog where I'm from. I know one. He's about a foot high and wouldn't hesitate to give you a piece of his mind if you stepped on him.

You tripped and it chased you. Did it even so much as bite you?

Re: [Private]

[districttwo]

No.

[But it growled. It barked. Cato looks terrified.]

...No. No. No bites. [Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.] It didn't bite me. It didn't rip me apart. It didn't eat me. It barked. It growled. It chased. But it didn't eat me. It didn't.

[He hesitates. He was babbling and he knows it.]

I'm sorry.

[Private]

[most_feared]

Look, kid, I know you're real scared. But sometimes people getting scared in certain ways makes other people think you wanna hurt 'em.

I don't think it would have hurt you. I think it was probably tryin' to run you off 'cause you scared it, too. [He doesn't know how scared Tommy would have been, but he knows he's super reluctant with his identity and that says enough.] The best way to get over bein' scared is learning more about somethin'.

[Private]

[districttwo]

[There's a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead.]

...Okay.

...Is it. [slowly, stuttering.] Are they going to come back and kill me for what I did? Should I be armed?

[He almost asks should my warden know. progress.]

[Private]

[most_feared]

Honestly, if it never even bit you? It was probably just yellin' at you for not watching where you were goin'.

Nobody's gonna put a hit out on you over it. [Don't worry, he is going to talk to his warden.]