thecapitol | open spectator log because why not

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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 mean basically they all decide to make that a thing, and they wouldn't. Not unless it was being made an actual, say, mini game or something. Otherwise its just mean spirited, but without people watching. What would be the point of that?"

She nodded. "Why have guns when we hack away at each other, or have liquid nitrogen fall on us or something like that? It makes the game last all the longer, and really keeps people at the edge of their seat."

It made sense and Sandy couldn't particularly argue with it on any level.

"All I can think is that guns and lasers would be flashier. But when one person with a gun can take down five people in a few seconds, the novelty probably wears off."

When did she start thinking like the Capitol programmers?

When did she start using words like "Novelty"?

"It's just as well...dad said all the best heroes and villains fought with their bodies and whatever superpowers they had. Guns were useless."

"Flash doesn't sell. A gun will end shit pretty quickly when you know where to fire, or how to sniper. The equal is maybe an arrow, but you have to have a crystal clear shot for something like that. The Arena is enough to make a quick kill harder than it should be. They want things as messy as they can be."

She was pretty impressed with Sandy now though. She was starting to get a hang of how this worked.

"Guns can fucking help. I would have been in a pretty bad place without one."

"Uh...I'm sorry are we in the same Capitol? Flashy crap sells like crazy here. Look at our stupid outfits!" She protested.

"And I just know what my dad said, if he said guns were useless back in the day then that's how it was." Her faith in his stories was solid as stone.

"THEIR flashy crap is different. It's gaudy as fuck, but its fashion, its supposed to be weird. Flash in the sense of the game makes it over too quick. The Capitol doesn't want that kind of an end, they want things slow, deliberate. The whole point of the games is seeing the worse of ourselves."

She shrugged. "I'll take a good gun over a bear trap any day."

With people she liked, anyway.

Sandy shrugged her narrow shoulders, she did that a lot around Mindy.

"I think our ideas of what flash means are different." She concluded.

"I didn't even get a shot off when we had to hunt down some escaped mutations. One of them got in my mouth and burst out my chest."

"Yeah," she said. "Oh well."

She winced. "Christ Cassie. You ever NOT die in some epic mess?"

That actually caught her by surprise and she looked thoughtful for a moment counting on her fingers.

"Let's see, head ripped off by a shape shifter tribute who's gone now. Eaten alive by spiders, monster burst out from my chest...I didn't die that time but I came close. Eaten alive by a zombie girl, eaten alive by a giant eel...and blown up fighting someone."

She sighed "When you line it all up like that I totally suck."

Mindy shook her head. "It's even more fucked up that our fight was the least fucked up death you had. Eaten alive, Jesus fucking Christ. I can't even imagine letting any more shit like that happen to you."

She took her hand, meeting the girl's eyes. "I know you don't trust me. I get that. But I won, so I don't have a reason to fight you anyway. Now, I just want to help you last longer, and hopefully have a death on your own terms, if it comes to that."

The fierceness of her eyes made Sandy uncomfortable, but she forced herself to keep the stare. It even made her heart thump faster and harder in her chest.

"Alright, it's not like you can protect me in the arena anymore I guess. So I guess training can be a thing. The more skills I learn the better chances I have right?"

And if she threw herself into learning like her life depended on it, surely some of it would stick right?

"Damn right. Hell, you're halfway there. Its really all about applying the skills you already have. You've already been through the wringer, and you fought like hell to take me out, even to the point of almost killing me. Next time, you hopefully won't have to go that far."

She didn't want to make Sandy a killer like her, after all. That would just be wrong. She liked Sandy fine as she was.

Sandy couldn't help but make a sour face at being reminded of how far she'd been driven by Mindy last arena.

"I don't have that many skills. I'm just stubborn I guess, or too afraid to die."

"Those are both skills dumb ass," Mindy said, playfully nudging the girl in the ass with her foot. "To light a fire under someone to do this is hard to begin with. You could be scared, but you choose not to. That takes guts."

Sandy looked puzzled and pouted.

"Being stubborn may be a skill, but being afraid isn't. And I'm always scared. Especially in the arena." She'd misunderstood Mindy's intentions with that comment.

"Being afraid isn't something that you should overlook. Keep in mind that the person who acts like they're not afraid are the ones who are likely to get killed. It helps to have caution because then you can be honest with yourself. It's the first step to conquering the shit that scares you."

She hesitated, drawing back into herself to think about the nature of fear and how it had kept her going even when she was in too much pain to think.

Looking back at the TV screen she watched as Pruna fearlessly fought against two grown adults of questionable sanity. Where was the line between cautious and fearlessly reckless?

"I guess that's something then." She sighed still recognizing the long climb she had ahead of her.

Mindy reached over and put her hands over the girls to reassure her.

"Dude. Be patient. Being smart and being strong aren't things you just get born with. You make a lot of fucking mistakes, and sometimes they can kill you, other times they can make you grow. Pruna is an expert at crossing the line of dying. Just because you aren't doesn't mean you suck. It just means you have to learn how to use it to help you."

Sandy glanced back at Mindy listening to her words thoughtfully.

"You really think so huh?" Hearing her encouragement, it almost made her believe that she could be strong. That she could be brave.

That she could have hope.

"There's nothing for it but to try."

"Yeah, I think it could work. That other stuff we can work on, you know? For the second arena I was practically married to the training room, but that wasn't all. I had to review video too, so I had more of an idea how everything worked in the Arena. It's all about getting yourself informed."

She sat back. "But holy shit does it help to be fast."

"Didn't help Pruna." Sandy noted pointing as the fight ended. Pruna had escaped but the adults had gotten her tokens and were running off to cause more trouble.

"If she doesn't get enough tokens it won't matter how many people she kills. And time is running out." Sandy was mostly restating what they already knew, but it was to suppress her anxiety. The way she gripped at her chair showed just how worried she was.

"Pruna had two fucking people ganging up on her, which just shows how good she is. How do you think they would do taking her on alone? No, they know better: Pruna would fuck you up."

She sighed. "Yeah, that sucks. Fucking tokens. She'll have her work cut out for her. But if nothing else happens, I think she can do it."

Sandy drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs while she watched and waited.

"How can you be so hopeful? You're the one who's all cynical and realistic and don't lie usually."

It seemed to clash with the idea of having any hope of good things coming.

Mindy laughed. "Because I'm the one who fought her. Just because I see things realistically doesn't mean I don't have hope. Hell, I HOPED you would kill me when we fought the last time, did you know that?"

She wasn't lying, after all. She DID say "if nothing else happened".

"Yeah, you said something like that." Sandy muttered still not entirely sure what stupidity had driven Mindy to think it was a good plan. How could someone be so brilliant most the time and then make such an obvious mistake?

"You just don't seem that hopeful to me. Hopeful people are happy. You only smile when you're winning."

Mindy was quiet a little here. So. Sandy had a point, of course. Maybe that was what made it hit home so much. Maybe it was why people constantly things that made her feel like she was some kind of alien.

"I have hope. I get happy. When I'm with friends, yeah, I'm happy. When I'm not, I'm here, and my mind goes back to where I need to be focused."

Revisiting past pain no one needed to know about.

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