thecapitol | OPEN

Entry tags:

OPEN

Who| Gabriel and OPEN
What| Waking up in a strange place
Where| The Tribute Tower
When| A few hours before Enjolras' Crowning
Warnings/Notes| N/A

N O P E.

Just one big huge N O P E.

He was supposed to be dead, right? This wasn't dead. Maybe it was angel dead. This whole thing sure was a lot like Purgatory, but... way fancier. There were free drinks here, after all.

Everything happened so quickly, though. One second, Lucifer was standing over him. The next, he wakes up on a metal cot, debunked of all awesome abilities, informed that he's in some sort of twisted Hell, etc etc. One thing was for sure. It was seriously uncool.

But apparently he showed up at a good time. There was no fight going on and, actually, there was a big party going on later that evening that he was invited to. The invitation was mandatory, but details... He really didn't like being told what to do, but he opted to hang with it for now.

On the inside, the anger was close to bursting forth and shanking someone, but he stayed calm and collected. He'd just... meet the locals or something. Learn a little more about the place.

Yeah. Sure.

Gabriel decided to tour the Tribute Tower before the big shebang...

The anger wanted to come back again when he decided to take a jacket along solely because of the chill in the air.

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Well, someone was a little touchy... Not that Gabriel minded in this instance.

"Brother, I hear you loud and clear on that one. These guys just take everything for granted and, like, the longer they're around, the worse they get about it. They don't even stop to think anymore about how they think or breathe or anything. Just all that science crap. I mean, yeah, it's great, but how about something more insightful for a change?"

After a moment, Gabriel rolls his head around on his shoulders. "Everyone's primitive, kid. No one's got it... Good job on the shoe thing, though."

In the middle of all of that, Gabriel also tucked away the information of different times and places. Made sense, after all.

Guy just nodded and made a little hmph noise. Modern people. Seriously.

"Are you new? I don't remember seeing you around but this place is big."

"Yeah, I'm new," Gabriel grimaced. "Can't stand everything about that, though. First of all, I'm used to being the veteran guy, you know? Second, just... ugh. Even the color schemes are throwing me off here."

He'd rather Purgatory, at this rate.

"Are you new, too? I mean, you're... trying to figure out how lamps work and all."

Guy raised a hand and did a fifty-fifty gesture.

"I've been here for maybe a moon? Not sure. But they threw me right into the arena, so this is my first time actually getting to see all this...stuff."

He added, "People told me things were different from what I knew back home but I didn't really think about it much when I was in there. They just kinda...tossed me in and told me to fight to the death. So now I'm seeing how right they were and trying to figure out how it all works."

He sucked in a deep breath.

"They're not really all that great with explaining things, but then what's the point? When we're here for what we're here for. I'm thinking calm, rational explanations for everything aren't exactly conducive to keeping us paranoid and off balance like they want us to be."

Edited 2013-12-16 07:04 (UTC)

Gabe shrugged. "Lots of people are bad at explaining stuff, cause they don't know the answers either."

Paranoid and off balance. Oh yeah, these guys definitely wanted that out of them and... as much as he didn't like to admit it, they had nailed the off balance part on him. He just nodded and didn't say anything to that.

"So one of those big fights just ended, yeah? That's what the big shindig tonight's for?"

Guy nodded, still focused on the lamp. He almost had the whole thing apart now.

"Yeah. Only one person gets to live. The others wake up here - or die for good. The people I've talked to said that not everyone comes back every time. But the one person who didn't die gets a special celebration, apparently."

He shrugged.

"I guess 'not dying' is worth celebrating but talk about a having low standards."

Celebrations were for great things happening. Or no reason at all.

"I say that as someone that's had more than one victorious I'm-not-dead dance in the middle of the jungle myself. There's a time and place for people celebrating still breathing as a great thing you've accomplished. Loses its punch a little when the almost-dying part is entirely avoidable."

"I've had a couple of those parties myself," Gabriel chuckled. This guy. He liked this guy. He had his feet on the ground, at least.

"You know, I've been around the block a few times. This ain't the first group of nutjobs to start huge fights to the death. Same with making the winner a big time hero of the people sort of deal. Only problem is, they always had a reason for it. Here... I don't really get it. Just solely the fact that they have too much technology that they don't know what to do with it all?"

It was definitely a political thing, but Gabriel had yet to figure who it was against. The tributes weren't even from this place. It was a puzzle. He hated puzzles.

"By the way, name's Gabriel," he finally introduced himself, watching the last of the lamp pieces come apart.

"I'm Guy. Guy Crood," he said, looking up at Gabriel with a small but friendly smile. "And as for why, that part's easy. I got it from having one conversation with one of the people from here about how he thought it all works. It's the pictures on the cave walls making them think they'll die if they leave the dark."

He cast around, trying to find a better way to word that.

"There are twelve other tribes that live out there that the Capitol tribe has power over and the games are to make them afraid. Before us, they took their children and put them in them - and they didn't revive them. But then something happened that made them not want to do that anymore. Someone told me it was because a certain person won the games - I still have't figured that part out yet. But it made them stop using their kids and start using us."

He shrugged. "Maybe they thought it was finally making them too mad. No one will get mad over strangers, so this way they can still show off how strong they are. They can show that they can take people from entirely different worlds, make them do whatever they want even if it's horrible, bring them back from the dead...and everyone will just be glad it isn't them or their kids or someone they know."

What they were doing was something he understood even if he didn't understand governments.

"It's about showing off dominance. And it makes anyone else hide in the dark so they don't challenge them. It's a warning."

Now that made more sense.

Yet, their planned seemed flawed. Sure, it was working out perfectly then by offing their children like that, but now they're offing totally strangers. The fear factor was still in place, but...

"If I was in one of those other tribes, I don't know if I would just let this one do whatever it wants so long as it doesn't hurt my own people or get too confident and try to do something about it. There must be other stuff going on to prevent both of those... Has anyone here gone to the other tribes?"

"That I don't know, but when I tried to leave there were walls blocking the way and people that wouldn't let me through the opening in them. So it's possible no one's been out to see them."

He started prodding at the light bulb now that it was cool enough to touch, trying to figure out how to unscrew it.

"Although I think there are some people here that are from this world that might come from them. Some of the other Tributes. They might know more about how the other tribes are since I think they might come from them."

The tributes or Victors or Mentors. Right, that made sense and he nodded.

Then, he observed more of what Guy was doing. At least he was less likely to be barbecued now. "Righty tighty, lefty loosey," he helpfully added.

It took a second for him to realize that Guy probably didn't know what right and left was. Ah, he was smart, he'd figure it out.

"I'll ask around, see what I can see. Thanks for the info, kid."

He knew right and left. Directions were some of the first things ever set down. You needed a way of telling someone which way the food had run off to.

"No problem. I'd hate to see people as confused as I was when I was dropped into it all. I was terrified."

He managed to unscrew the lightbulb and started shaking it, examining the filament inside.

"I'm Guy, by the way. Guy Crood."

"I bet it is pretty scary." Especially for those mortal dudes. Well, some of them. "It's definitely different. Like I said, I've seen similar stuff, but this is the first time I'm legit participating."

He was sometimes there in spirit. Father knew there were plenty of prayers giving him migraines at those times.

"Gabriel. Can't believe I'm saying this, but nice to meet ya."

"Yeah, well, the circumstances aren't great, but you're going to find that there are quite a few good people here - or at least some who don't really want to hurt anyone else. That's not to say they won't be willing to club you in the head with a rock over a piece of fruit, but they won't really want to, at least."

He kept shaking the light-bulb, trying to see if he could get the little filament loose so it'd fall closer to the glass so he could get a better look at it.

"Some won't even kill at all and just try to hide and survive. Me, I'm...a little in the middle. I only kill people that try to kill me and go after the ones that think it's fun to hurt people. If you lay off the sadism and stay out of my hair, we won't have any problems."

He added, "And even if you don't do the latter, at least outside the arena we won't have any problems. I don't begrudge anyone being desperate. Not when the whole point is to make us that way."

They had instincts, after all, just as his Father created them. He would appreciate good gestures in the arenas, but he also wouldn't fault anyone trying to win for number one. Humans were only human, after all, so Gabriel nodded.

He did wave his hand absently with a smile. "Don't worry, dude. I only enjoy the suffering of those who deserve it." Like that corner of the globe he had carved out for himself... and that kid he forced to slow dance with an alien. Classic.

"You know, I'm prooobably more comfortable with that than I should be."

If he heard the full range of Gabriel's punishments he wouldn't be, but right now he wasn't feeling inclined to dislike someone who had ill will towards people who had ill will first.

There were no seats nearby but he wasn't used to seats anyway so he gathered up the pieces of the lamp and scooted off of it to the floor, settling down to keep looking at all the pieces.

"Here, sit. Pull up a...whatever those are. A chair, I think? I like meeting people and I don't like sitting in them." He noticed other people did, hence letting Gabriel have it. "Tell me what it's like where you're from. I like imagining it."

A pause.

"Most of the time. Some of the worlds people are from here sound terrible."

"Good, then! Nothing worse than guys cramping my style."

Instead of going to the offered chairs, Gabriel just plopped himself down on the floor, too. Floors. Chairs. All the same human-made crap. Besides, sitting up high to watch people down below tinkering with things they didn't know about didn't seem very fitting anymore.

"Home?" Home. Where to even begin with home? "Well, I've actually been away from home for the last handful of years or so. Took a vacation in a place my Dad made 'til my brother found me. That place was fine. It had its problems. I mean, the locals had wars, death, illness, all that stuff, but there were parties and births. You know, good times, too. It was pretty swanky sometimes.

"Home, though. Hard to really explain that one to most people."

When Gabriel said 'a place his dad made' he assumed some kind of shelter that had the locals nearby.

"Try me," he said, now taking the lamp socket apart. "I have a very good imagination."

Close enough guess, really.

"Good. You'll need it." Gabriel shifted to get comfortable. The Gamemakers knew what he was, so there was no harm in telling others. Then again, there was no fun in just outright telling them either, and he was pretty sure someone like Guy didn't know about Christianity. Maybe.

"Well, my Dad is pretty important. He made me and all my brothers and sisters and our home and everything else there is out there. The good parts and the bad parts. Home was made originally for just me and my family, but then Dad made others, except they were a lot more mortal than us. He put them on my vacation spot before I even got there.

"Anyway, these guys, they die. I mean, I can die, too, but not from old age and that stuff. Usually it's just by, like, a handful of junk cause I'm so awesome. Anywho, when these guys die, their souls leave their bodies and come to our home, where they stay in a loop of their happiest memories for the rest of eternity. So, home is a bunch of really awesome memories, to sum up. Between you and me, it was kind of boring before that."

That was pretty much the gist of it, really. "I ditched that place, though. A big family feud broke out and I didn't want to get involved, you know? They were all just being brats, anyway."

That made Guy look up from what he was prodding at, eyebrows raised.

"Is your dad some kind of spirit?"

It sounded like it. Spirits weren't really something he believed in because he knew that things that looked amazing and otherwordly could sometimes be made by rubbing two sticks together.

That didn't mean that he was completely skeptical, though. Now that he knew other worlds existed, there was always the possibility of the magical and spiritual being real somewhere and even some of his beliefs had always been touched by an understanding that things might be more grand than he could possibly understand.

"Are you some kind of spirit?"

He mostly looked curious rather than scared or awed.

"He's God," Gabriel shrugged, "if you've heard of that sort of thing. Spirits are close enough, though.

"Think of dear old Dad and is the lead spirit that created everything else. I'm one of his first creations and... well, I guess one of the more awesome spirits out there. That's not really the name for it, though, but close enough."

"Neat." He did think it was neat, meeting a real live spirit. "Never heard of him, though. People have different theories on that, but there are a lot of different ones, and I tend to only trust what I can see."

It wasn't dismissive, just the truth. It was a little early for that in his world, if it would ever go the route of people believing in him at all.

He did seem to be taking Gabriel's word for it, though, that such a being existed in at least one place. If the man thought he was a spirit, then he was a spirit.

"Did he create all worlds or just one world?"

"Oh, there's a bunch out there, trust me," he smiled. "I once dated this chick, Kali. Goddess of Destruction. Super hot."

Gabriel wasn't going to hold Guy's beliefs against him, of course. It made perfect sense, after all. The angels were really the only ones that were supposed to be stuck with blind faith and that went oh so well.

"All of 'em, far as I know. Probably this one, too." Shrug. He never really had all the answers.

Now that was interesting enough that he stopped fussing with the lamp bits for a minute. He didn't believe in things he couldn't see, and there was a chance this guy was just crazy, but he'd already seen impossible things. There was a chance it was the truth.

There was the chance he knew the will of the being that had created everything and everyone.

Naturally, the first question that burst out of him was, "If he created all of us, does - does he love us?"

It was natural to want to know that, to know that someone that had given you life cared about you, that they were glad to have to done it.

Except, strangely enough, Guy wasn't just talking about himself. 'Us' wasn't just humanity.

He gestured back and forth between himself and Gabriel. "All of the spirits and humans he's created."

Can't say he's never heard that question before, but it did come as a bit of a shock so suddenly like that.

"Yep, everyone. He has an odd way of showing it, sometimes, but He does love us.

"Everything has its own little purpose, you know? So, love or not, some things just gotta happen."

Except the Apocalypse...

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