thecapitol | open spectator log because why not

Entry tags:

open spectator log because why not

Who| Anyone who wants to spectate but doesn't want to make a million logs
What| Spectations, spectactling, spectalary. Gathering together to cross fingers and watch the mini arena.
Where| The Commons
When| All through the mini-arena. However many hours people feel the need to watch.
Warnings/Notes| Watching your friends die, kind of a huge bummer.

In one of the many tasteful bursts of helpfulness the Capitolites are prone to having, the commons are full of bowls of snacks and drinks. Popcorn or many varieties, candy and drinks are spread across the table, as if it's a delightful addition to the decorum right now. In another bout of helpfulness, there's also over a dozen tissue boxes spread across the room, nested between couches and chairs. Basically, it's all super tasteful.

It's probably a little sickening watching the Arena on the screens in the common room, but it's hard not to keep a close eye on your friends. Surely some people will opt to keep their viewing in private, but perhaps others are inclined to gravitate toward other people while this shit goes all the way down.

As far as parties go, this one is a real stinker.

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"I didn't say I do that! It's just like, this trend. People drink milk and try not to puke. It's stupid. Waste of good milk." Howard sneers on that last bit, as if wasting food were a crime on par with child abuse. He chews the corner of his lip.

"Howard. Veteran of six Arenas now. If you got questions, you know."

Howard leans back. He can't help it. He can't hold Orc's gaze.

"This is between him and me, Orc." It sounds weak, whiny coming from him now, but Orc had to know it wasn't the easy decision, didn't he? "Would you have just left him in the bottom of a stairwell waiting to die in pain? I thought that was what he was asking me for!"

"No." Orc grumbled "I'm your friend, and his friend. So that means it's my business too."

And Orc had long since learned that when you were as big as he was, you could make anyone's business your business.

"You didn't kill me when I was begging for it. What makes this any different?" And he had begged, many times back in the FAYZ.

"Because then what would happen to me? You were going to leave me alone in the FAYZ and you didn't even care what happened afterwards, was that it?"

Something about Howard looks frantic now, desperate, the clinginess shading him with a certain awful pallor. It's not just the memory of the harsh times, of practically being Orc's life support, of Howard's own flirtation with just...not, anymore. Just not being. Poofing on his fifteenth and being done with it.

It's the idea of a life without Orc or other people to hide behind and lean on.

"It's not always about you." Orc answered calmly. "I should have been thinking about you sure. But you should have been thinking about R. You're his friend."

Hypocritical perhaps but Orc had been called worse.

"Just admit you screwed up."

Feared, yeah that was a word for it.

"Well, Dad was a bad guy for a long time. He told me about it, but then one day he decided to go straight. Clean up his act." She shook her head.

"Too little too late. When the Mayor made metahumans illegal they came and took him away. I haven't seen him since I was five." She paused.

"Well I saw him once...right before I came here. He was fighting Spider-man." She added hastily "A hero from my world. He went away a long time but then he came back. But he was just an old man..."

A deep breath as she forced herself to remember the horrible night.

"He and a bunch of bad guys killed Spider-man. Then I ran away."

"Are surprised they're fairing well?" he asked, giving her a slightly pointed look. "The way I've heard it, you're a good mentor. I've never seen you in action, but considering Hans has seemed to fair well under you, I see no reason to doubt that fact."

He shrugged in regards to the rest. "If something has gone on for so long, it only makes sense it would eventually get stale. I'm sure it's no more meaningful than a simple attempt at freshening up something that's grown boring."

Hanji can't really admit it, but she already wonders that about herself. Especially after that whole bit of torture she lowered herself to. She'll kill to survive - because hwo really wants to die, at the ned of the day?

The mention of books takes her mind off of the rather morbid thoughts running through her head, "Oh? What sort of books do they have here? Anything good?"

"Now you're just changing the conversation!" Because Howard totally wasn't taking refuge in turning his upset onto Orc. "I did what I thought was best. What else am I supposed to do? Sorry I can't psychically tell that someone who's moaning in pain and not getting better doesn't want to come back to the Capitol?"

His mood seemed to perk up a bit at her question. "They're endless. Science, biology, geology, all kinds of living creatures, and even histories going back hundreds, even thousands of years." Though he was sure some of those had been editted by the Capitol after the fact. He couldn't help but sound a little more excited as he went on. Having such a wealth of information at his fingertips was something he hadn't gotten used to yet.

"I've been focusing a lot on animals, insects, reptiles and things of that sort since most of the past arenas have involved some in various capacities. It's just things available in this world, though. Nowhere else."

Mindy chuckled. "Yeah, trust me, I know who Spider Man is. He's one of the most popular comic book guys in my world. But wait. If your old man went good, why did he and those thugs kill Spider Man at all?"

Obviously she would query about other things later.

"No. But it's hard to avoid it... and I've never seen the beginning before." He jerks his head towards the nearest screen, showing the scramble at the Cornucopia. "I am usually fleeing that."

Hanji propped her elbow on the sofa's armrest, chin cupped in her hand as she listened to him. Fascinating. They hadn't had a huge number of books at home. Especially about history. Or much of anything really. She'd managed to fill more than a few notebooks with information on Titans herself, but they were private journals. Not publishable manuscripts.

"Ah, so nothing that we could use back home..."

Which was a shame. Then a thought occurred to her and that gleam crept back into her eyes, "...what do they have on technology?"

"I didn't mean you personally." she'd meant 'you' as in people in general. Clementine pulls a face as he goes on, agreeing with his points, "Gross." Even with her memories of before she can't imagine such waste.

But questions, yes, she has them. "Is it... always like that?" Clem nods towards the screen.

She was new. It wasn't often that she saw a kid around here, and she had to wonder what was going through her mind right now. So why not go ask?

"Hey," she said. "Just got in, right? You dealing well, with all of this?"

"Hey." Clementine replies, looking up at the other girl and blinks, surprised to see someone else close to her own age. "Um, yeah. Just a couple days ago, actually."

As to how she's dealing with it... Clem shrugs one thin shoulder. "I'm still working on believing it."

"Wish I could tell you it's not a big deal," she said, sighing. "Technically, you should have arrived during our break. We already had the big Arena fight. They just decided to add a little more fuckety do by adding another mini arena and choosing certain people. They tell you your District already?"

"So this isn't the normal arena?" That surprises her. If this isn't the usual then what is? Better, worse? "District Six." Though what those mean besides what room you stay in Clem is also yet to work out, maybe it is just as simple as where you sleep.

"Nah. If it were, you would have been shuffled into it like everyone else. Only way you get out of the Arena and back in the capitol afterward is when you get killed."

District Six. Ok. She'd have to see who was mentoring there. What district was Sandy and Pruna in again.

At that sentence Clemetine tenses. "How... I... how do they bring you back here after you die?" Coming back after you die, there's only one way she knows that to happen and it's not really coming back, it's wrong. But if others she'd talked to were telling the truth they had died before and they weren't Walkers, they were normal. At least, they seemed normal.

"How did they bring us here to begin with? We're all from different worlds, you know that, right? We're not all humans either, so how did they manage that? There's a lot of questions, and not much answers. What I know is that they do it, that they CAN do permanent death anytime they want, and that they can augment your features if they feel like punishing you."

"I've been told... and this place is nothing like where I came from." Whether that's for the better is debatable.

She doesn't know what 'augment' means but doesn't want to show it by asking, instead Clementine focuses on the larger picture that the other girls words create. "So we're completely at their mercy." It's a horrible idea. "Do they really enjoy this?" she gestures with a disgusted expression at the screen.

"It depends on who you ask. The Districts, they don't get a say in what happens, and if they're glad about anything, its that its us and not them, like it used to be. We live in the Capitol, and they benefit the most, so they see it as a game. At the heart? I think the government sees our suffering as a necessity, and so long as we get to benefit from their care after the Arena ends, its not an issue. For us, well, a different story."

As much as it felt wrong, the way Howard was arguing it was hard to disagree with.

"Just admit you screwed up so we can move on." Orc pressed. "It's not the worst thing we've done."

He could have said the worse thing "You've" done but Orc didn't want to start running down a list of things that Howard had done that was morally questionable. So including himself made it easier to swallow. Together they had done plenty of awful things.

He understood at least part of it. Anger had saved his life and the lives of others...but it had also ended lives.

"How can I use it without being bad?" He asked feeling exceptionally childish.

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