thearena | Plain Sugar Please

Entry tags:

Plain Sugar Please

Who| Haruto Soma and you!
What| The donut wizard asked for donuts, and he got them. Lots of them.
Where| Around?
When| Week 3-ish
Warnings/Notes| High in calories?

He had been half-joking, when the little camera had asked him to smile and say what he'd like for a Valentine's Day gift. There were smarter things he could have requested, useful things, but it was so ridiculous a thing to have happen that he just blurted out the first thing he thought of. "Plain sugar donuts! Just plain sugar. No fancy stuff!" It's not like they'd send them raining from the sky just for him. He'd combed through half the Capitol on his own trying to find a satisfactory plain and simple donut and come up empty. The Gamemakers wouldn't be able to do it.

Which is why the first package of donuts to come parachuting gently from the sky was such a surprise. He had been out in the snow, intently checking the amateurish snares that he'd set, when the heard the little chime, and he had acted quickly enough to snatch the delivery right out of the air. Upon popping it open, the first thing he saw, resting gently atop some very pleasant looking donuts, was a note signed '<3 Nitou', and it's just about enough to make him drop the whole thing all over the ground. He sputters, he doubles over, he stifles his laughter... and then pulls one of the donuts from the package, holds it up to the sky in a 'cheers' motion, and takes a big bite. And it is very good. If Nitou is going to keep this game of fan-teasing chicken going, he is alright with it if it means he gets free plain sugar donuts.

It's an hour later that another package of donuts is parachuted in, containing the same note. And then comes another. And another. Eventually Haruto is left sitting on a log, a stack of five donut boxes beside him, his jacket covered in powdered sugar and a dumb grin on his face. He is unable to stifle that laughter any more. If he attracts someone that wants to kill him? Who even cares? He's got donuts. He's good. And he might even be inclined to share them, if asked nicely.

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Donuts do not exist in Thedas.

Or if they do, Hawke has never encountered them. They very well could line the shelves of the finest Orlesian pastry shops, for all she knows, likely under a similarly Orlesian name that no one can pronounce and touted as tasting of despair or something else equally pretentious. But she has seen no such baked goods in Ferelden or Kirkwall alike, not once, and that is a crying shame. A situation that must be rectified immediately.

The trail of laughter is hardly subtle. Makes Hawke see why so many people keep telling her to be quiet in the arena— Not that seeing the reasoning in action gives her any inclination to listen, of course. What it does inspire in her is a curiosity that can only be quenched by investigating the source. There’s not exactly much to laugh about, given the surroundings, and that makes any source of happiness all the odder and ripe for opportunity.

She creeps towards the log as soundlessly as the snow will allow, eyes the boxes with scrutiny, and pops up behind Haruto without any given warning, squatting on her knees and balancing on the balls of her feet.

“Well, well. What have you got there?”

If there really is a pastry shop in some world that claims to be selling Despair Donuts, Haruto is going to have to go and find a way to have words with them. Donuts bring hope, as far as he's concerned. That's the right and natural order of the universe, wherever that universe might be.

But back in the moment... all this time being an enormous killjoy towards his friends and district-mates about keeping it down, and he's the one that keeps making too much noise and getting crept up on. It figures. The moment Hawke makes herself known he gives a shout, jolts, and tosses the donut he's currently working on up in the air. And then he's up and grabbing for it and securing it again, because donuts are very important.

"What th.... you!" His shock is already fading, and any anger is gone and replaced with amusement. He liked Hawke, and they were from the same District. Nothing to worry about, here. "They're donuts. You want one? My valentine sent me a whole pile of them." At that little quip he looks skywards and gives his eyebrows a waggle. There have got to be cameras on this. Might as well play it up. Maybe he'll get a sixth box.

If donuts are the first bout of culture shock Hawke experiences over the course of the conversation, the concept of valentines comes as a close second. The joys of hailing from a world lacking modern amenities. “You’re assuming I know what those are. You know what they say about assuming.” At least wordplay is a universal constant. Unlike her ignorance towards the society of Earth as a whole, making an ass of anyone brings her actual joy. “How about this. You explain, and I eat. Start with whichever one had you laughing so hard, the donuts or the valentine.”

She reaches for one, and once it’s in hand she holds it up to look at Haruto through the hole instead of eating it right away, contrary to her claim. What can she say? It’s an intriguing shape, reminding her vaguely of a monocle or magnifying glass, and receiving clarification on the pasty can’t hurt before she dives in.

"...they say something about assuming?" Culture shock is all over the place in this arena. Despite his fantastic grasp of the local language, his native tongue is still one that can't pull off 'ass' puns of that variety. But he's not going to dwell on it, because there are explanations to give... and there's something charming about her staring at him through a donut hole. It brings a smile back to his face.

"It's a combination of the two. Valentine's Day is a holiday. They do it differently here than in my home country. You give gifts to the person you love." And that's enough to get him stifling some laughter. Either Nitou was messing with him or this whole 'woah man you're a dude I'm not down with that' thing was a great big put-upon act. Both were hilarious. "And donuts are those. They're fried sweet dough, covered in powdered sugar. At least, the best ones are." And he snatches up another for himself, and takes a big bite. That had better be enough explanation for now, because he's still hungry and hasn't had a decent donut in months.

“Think about it. Maybe it’ll come to you.” Unfortunately for both parties involved, Hawke misinterprets his ignorance as naivety. It’s an easy conclusion to draw, considering her usual company of doe-eyed elves. The language barrier is just another detail that’s yet to be explained to her in full. All the more miscommunication to fumble over in the future.

The explanation is a thorough one, but it leaves her arching an eyebrow at the one piece of the puzzle left unsolved. “So... Your sweetheart sent you sweet bread. Where’s the joke in that? It’s a funny enough shape, I suppose—” To affirm her point, she opts to stop holding the bestowed donut to her eye and tries to spin it around her finger instead... Which sends sugar flying in her direction. That interrupts her speech well enough, has her spluttering for a second, and she has to wipe at her face with a scowl setting in place from embarrassment before she can continue. Oh, the shame. “But not a laugh out loud sort of funny.”

He does think about it, though not for very long. "I'll let you know if I come up with something." It really isn't clicking. Someday, someone will explain it and he will laugh his, uh, ass off. But for now, he is just going to look a bit dim.

And at least she is confused, too. He holds up a finger and opens his mouth, ready to reveal the reason that it's all so funny to him... and then there's sugar everywhere, and he's laughing anyway, clapping a hand briefly over his mouth. "You're supposed to eat them. Stop playing with your food."

Trudging along through the trees Ruffnut is hungry. Her food has just about run out and she's hoping for something fresh to go with her dried out meat.

Wearing the pelt of a sabertoothed cat over her winter clothes she looks rather beastly herself and she feels like she's been run over given how much of a beating she's had in the last couple weeks. Her dressings need changing but she hasn't gotten around to it yet.

And then there was a boy. He appeared almost out of thin air and it startled her enough she fumbled with her rifle before holding it like a club. She knew this was not how you were supposed to use a gun but it was what she was more comfortable with.

The sight of a girl draped in a sabertooth skin waving around a rifle like a club brings Haruto's laughter to a full and complete stop. For while it is a sort of amusing image on its own, in the context of all crap that has happened in the arena these past few weeks, it's actually alarming. This girl either killed a tiger herself, skinned it, and won a gun for her trouble.... or she managed to kill someone that did. Caution was in order.

"Hey. Hey, easy." He shifts his grip on the latest unopened box of donuts so that he can put one hand up, palm flat, hoping it'll help convince her to calm down. "There's nothing to fight over. You want some? I can share."

She slowed her frantic threatening to peer at his box lowering the gun slightly. She sniffed the air as if she could smell a trap (Which she couldn't) and glanced back up at him with narrow and suspicious eyes.

"Some of what? What are those?"

She also wondered why he was so eager to share but maybe it was more like a bribe so she wouldn't just club him and take the things.

There are no traps to be scented, but there is the aroma of vanilla and sugar. "Donuts. They're sweets. Snacks. They're good." And, making no sudden motions, he opens the box up and then offers it to her. "You ever have them? You should try one."

It is one part dumbass heroic generosity and one part hopeful bribe. Yes, girl-with-a-gun, please don't shoot him or club him....

Well far be it from Ruffnut to refuse free food. It could be the death of her some day but for now she slowly lowered the gunclub and reached out to pluck one of the pastries from the box.

A single bite, then in the blink of an eye the doughnut is gone, her cheeks are bulging and she's reaching for another.

"Eee ah ood!" She mumbled around a mouthful of doughnut apparently approving of the flavor. Well done Haruto, you have her attention now.

The laugh that Haruto lets out when he sees the girl's reaction is genuine. Donuts have saved the day once again. Or at least temporarily delayed something unpleasant. He sets the open box down on the log, leaving the lid up so she's free to take more if she likes.

"Where are you from that you haven't had donuts before?" It's a little incredulous, but he's also kind of curious.

It takes her a moment to swallow down a childish amount of doughnut. There's so much he can actually see the lump in her throat before it vanishes and she takes another doughnut.

"I'm from Berk." She answers shrugging off her bag and digging it before producing a bottle of water and drinking from it in preparation for the next doughnut.

"It's an island, we don't get a lot of new things there unless we invent them or trader Johan brings them to us. We're pretty far from everyone else in the world." Which was only a guess. Ruffnut's world didn't expand much farther then what was in her direct line of sight and even once dragons allowed her to travel from island to island the world seemed much too big to imagine cultures that much more different from her own.

Hungry as he was too, he's glad to let her have as many donuts from the box as she wants. It seems like she needs them a lot more, and for once he's getting to be the one helping rather than the one being helped. He settles, angled forward, arms at rest and hands folded.

"Berk?" He hasn't heard of it, but he's glad to listen to her explanation. "I guess that would limit the sort of things you'd have. Is it a very big island?" Might not be, if the trader is only one guy that's known by his first name...

"It's big enough." She reasoned taking another mouthful of doughnut and chewing it up, unashamed to talk with her mouth full "My brother and I have been all over it though so it doesn't seem as big as it used to. Especially now that we can fly to other islands instead of having to sail to them." She tried to think of an example of how big Berk would be.

"I mean it's not as big as the Capitol but it's big enough for our village and some mountains and forest and stuff."

An elegant girl, this is not. But that's kind of alright with him, right now. Someone more elegant and polite and less wrapped in dead giant cat skins might remind him too much of people he missed. "Fly?" That has his interest, and that could mean a lot of things. He absently reaches for one of the donuts, though his eyes stay on her. "You've got planes? Or do you fly some other way?" And chomp, there goes a bite of donut that he quickly chews and swallows before continuing. "...The Capitol's pretty big. Where I'm from, it's a lot bigger."

"What's a plane?" She fired back adding the word to her list of things she did not know about. Wiping crumbs from her lip she sucked her fingertips clean for every last trace of sweet sugar coating.

"We fly on dragons. We used to fight them for like...ever. As long as anyone can remember. But then Hiccup, the village chief's son...he figured out how to train them so we could ride them. Now everyone has a dragon to ride. My brother and I share one with two heads." She made a gesture with her hands to indicate a two headed dragon by opening and closing her fingers mimicking the jaws of a creature.

"Dragons!" There's a good chance that she might miss the explanation of just what a plane is, because dragons are really interesting. Or at least personally relevant. He's angling slightly forward, listening to her explanation. "Two-headed dragons, even! That's amazing." He is even forgetting to eat his donut. "That's not entirely fair, having to share a dragon, if everyone has one, I'd think... I mean, unless you like that." Weren't brothers and sisters supposed to fight over stuff like that?

Ruffnut was used to this reaction, and in all honesty she enjoyed it. It was probably one of her favorite things about this place. Everyone thought she was the most interesting person in the room as soon as she mentioned dragons.

And interestingly enough Haruto had hit the nail on the head in a matter of seconds.

"I mean...it's OK most of the time." She rubbed her arm looking a little put out "But yeah it's not fair. Everyone else gets to ride solo but just because we're twins and there was a two headed dragon that we could ride everyone just assumed we'd handle it. And we do and Barf is great. Belch is just OK." She confessed showing immediate preference for her own dragon head.

"Barf makes this great green gas, it's really gross. And then Belch sparks it to make it explode. That's the best part really." She sighed longing to see another explosion of that magnitude.

Haruto feels momentarily bad for having brought up the negatives of the whole situation, but the description of what that two-headed dragon does and how great she finds it keeps him from dwelling on it much. "Sounds like it's the sort of thing that only you two could handle, though. That's something to be pretty proud of." Because the alternative seems to be leaving this barfing, belching dragon running wild and... no. No, that's not good.

He takes a moment to finish off his donut, and hasn't entirely finished chewing before he speaks again. "I've got a dragon, too. Not the same sort as yours, though." And he gives his chest a tap. "It's in me. Though they've done something to put him asleep." It's a silly thing to brag about, but he likes to brag. So he's gotta do it.

She does seem to take a little comfort in that and reflects back to the last time she and Tuffnut had refused to ride their dragon. It had gotten into all sorts of trouble around town.

Then she looked curious, puzzled and eager as he explained his own situation. Her beady eyes squinted and she stared hard at him as if maybe she could see the shape of a small dragon in his stomach.

"It must be really tiny to fit in your scrawny body."

To be fair...most Viking men were big beefy man mountains so don't feel bad about that scrawny jab.

He has not heard himself described as scrawny at any time in recent memory. It strikes him as so shockingly funny that he snorts and briefly doubles over, and has to fight not to descend into helpless laughter.

"No, no..." He shakes his head vigorously, all the while trying to take in a long enough breath and hold it to get himself under control. "It's magic, okay? It's a magic dragon. Haah... it's not a physical thing. It's..." There's a circular motion of his hands as he tries to think of a way to put it that doesn't sound silly. This is probably an impossible task, though. "...it's in my soul? Something like that."

Calm is settling back upon him, and he sits back slightly. "...and Dragon's huge when he's out. Big enough to ride. Even if I've got to wrestle him a bit, first..."

She doesn't seem to understand why he's laughing, but it doesn't seem to be at her expense so she'll allow it and make for another doughnut while he talks.

"So you've got a magic dragon in your soul." She repeated back to him trying to warp her head around the idea. It wasn't hard since souls were a strange and vague thing in Ruffnut's young mind.

"So when he comes out you wrestle him and ride him around and then...what? Blow stuff up?" She sounded really hopeful to that last part. Because if this guy was even a little closer to being a Viking from Berk it would make her happy.

He doesn't attempt to stop her grab for another donut, partially because he's laughing hard enough that he doesn't have the reflexes to do it. Aaah, what's the harm in letting her have one more?

"Yeah. A magic dragon." He nods as he says it. In all honesty, souls are a strange and vague thing for Haruto, too. He's overdue to be sat down and given a proper chat on how the metaphysics of what he does actually works. Thus far, 'put on ring, turn on belt, make magic happen' is more or less how he understands it. "And then we blow stuff up, yeah. Great big Phantoms that're trying to kill people. Pretty cool, huh?"

"That is really cool!" Ruffnut agreed looking at him with a whole new light of respect. "I hope they turn the powers back on so I can actually see what that looks like."

Because being one of the tributes who lacked extra powers of any kind, Ruffnut was always keen to see them in action.

"Aah, that'd be nice..." Well, wait, would it? The last time powers were on, it didn't end so great. There's a little twitch to his smile, and then he's looking away and absently brushing powdered sugar from his fingers. "Well. It'd be something. They turned it on for the arena in space. Couldn't let him out there, no room..." And no rings for that exact purpose either...

"...so hey, what's your name? I'm Haruto." That's enough bragging. Any more, and he'll brag himself right into a corner. Time to change the subject.

"Oh uh...Ruffnut." She answered a little thrown off by the realization that they didn't know each others names. It still amazed her that so few people had really intimidating names around here. How were they supposed to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies? He wasn't even like "Haruto the brave!" or "Haruto the dragon soul guy" or "Haruto the sugary!" He was just Haruto.

"Thanks for the snacks" She added in a rare display of manners.

People had such strange names, here. But 'Ruffnut' kind of seemed to suit this tough, wiry girl. He takes it in with a nod and a grin.

"Likewise. And hey, no problem. Here..." And he closes the box and passes the rest of it to her. "I've got plenty more. Might as well share my good luck." He's not going to outright come out and say that he knows how much it sucks to starve, and how hard food is to come by out here. That's got to be obvious. So he's just going to be generous... and then he's going to bring his backpack around and try to find space for the other four boxes. It's cold, and sitting around is probably not the greatest idea.

Taking the box almost a little too greedily Ruffnut eyed him once more, puzzled as to his generosity. Weren't they supposed to be killing one another? How was someone so kind still alive?

Well she wasn't going to be the one to kill him. So she tried to find a tough but cool way to depart before he changed his mind and asked for the treats back

"Well uh...don't die then."

Nailed it.

She just didn't know what to make of that, did she? He's alright with that, though. His habit of passing out food to those that seemed to need it had served him well so far. It's probably why Loki didn't try to kill him in his sleep a week or two back. So he just keeps on smiling.

"You too. Stay safe, alright?"

And alright, he has gotten three boxes of donuts into the backpack, he'll just tuck the other one under one arm....

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Plain Sugar Please

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Seems like a good spot to finish this up?

Yes, thank you this was lovely!

Likewise!