MST10000BC

[acroodawakening]

Who| Guy and any of his CR, his district mates if they're hanging around, or any acquaintance that would be willing to stop by after seeing this
What| Guy invites his friends to watch his expose with him so he can pretend it doesn't bother him. There are tiny sandwiches and bubbly drinks
Where| The District 6 Common area
When| Present
Warnings/Notes| DRAMA and scary stuff at the end of it.

Everyone who was coming was probably already there, so Guy climbed up on one of the armchairs and stood there as if presenting a speech.

"Okay, okay, so - preemptively, I just wanna say thank you for being here on this auspicious day. I just know the Capitol is going to present my life story masterfully, with sensitivity and grace, and I wanted you here with me while experiencing the joy that is me."

The sarcasm was thick enough that if there'd been a pit full of it, it would've trapped many animals so that scientists could study their bones thousands of years later. So many animals.

"Ah, there's probably going to be a part around the beginning where I have to cover my eyes. If I have to do that, can somebody prod me when it's over?" His face went a little more sincere. "Seriously, though, thanks. I do really appreciate you being here." He raised his eyebrows slightly as if mentally preparing himself for what was to come. "I have no idea how this is going to go, so..."

He needed this. He needed to treat it like there would be a scary part of the story where he'd cringe, that would be over quickly, and he needed to try to laugh the rest of it off. It might not work, it depended on how bad it really was going to be, but he wanted to at least try, and that was a lot easier with friends than trying to do it alone.

Comments

Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[acroodawakening]

If anyone wanted to chit-chat before the viewing, there was a little time.

OTA

[acroodawakening]

Guy himself was sitting perched at the head of one of the chairs, seemingly cheerful, but the way he kept zoning out and how he was twitchily playing with the frayed edges of his poncho with his hands betrayed that maybe all the good humor was only half sincere.

He was definitely a little nervous, but seemed cheered by his friends being there, as if it made him feel a little more secure.

He had reason to feel insecure, judging from the small burn scars on his arm and cheek that hadn't been there before.

[69problems]

The Signless couldn't not be here, especially not after the last two mandatory viewings had been so very... intense, was probably the right word. He'd promised to be available for Guy in human-friend capacity, and while he hoped things wouldn't go all that badly, there was always a chance. He'd even brought his tribble along -- in his experience at least having something small and soft and round nearby was pretty comforting.

"I can't imagine they'll find anything that bad to say about you," he said to Guy in what he hoped was a reassuring sort of voice. There was a difference between 'backwards caveman' and 'genocidal destroyer of worlds', after all.

[acroodawakening]

"I know," he said, but he had a twitchy sort of unease anyway. "That's comforting, at least. Anyone who knows me would think any made up dark seeecrets were ridiculous."

It was more than that, though.

"You know how sometimes there are just so many things hanging in the air, a bunch of tiny little things that have happened, even ones not related to each other, that it feels like they're all going to come together as something extra bad? And the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up and do that tingly thing and it goes all the way down your arms instead of halfway?"

Yep, that was it. It was That Feeling.

"That's how I feel right now. Just...my instincts going off all over." His made some wild gestures with his fingers. "All...wiggly."

Especially since he apparently got away with offending Penny without any punishment.

[69problems]

The unfortunate part was that the majority of people watching this didn't know Guy and would probably believe it completely.

"...Well. It's probably better to be braced for something bad, just in case, instead of being blindsided. Especially here."

[acroodawakening]

It was a problem but not one he'd considered would be that big of a problem, considering their public perception of him was already so skewed.

He wanted to try not to think about it anymore, though.

Fortunately, a distraction presented itself, because he noticed the little fluffy animal in Signless' hand.

"You have a fluffy thing. Can I pet the fluffy thing?"

Re: Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[hit_girl_mindy]

"The party start yet?"

Mindy arrived, sporting her own popcorn, hair in braids and actually looking pretty precocious.

"Oh good, I got here early. Guess I get the best seat then!"

Re: Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[acroodawakening]

"Noo. You get the feet seat," teased Guy, in a brotherly fashion, kicking at the seat of the chair he was perching on top of with his bare foot and moving both his legs to rest on the same armrest so she actually had room to sit in it. "I'm going to stick my feet on you the whole night. I need a leg rest."

Re: Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy snickered. "Dude, if you're even thinking of that, you better tell me that you showered today. I'm not about to start watching and eating popcorn while smelling your stank all night. This is supposed to be something we actually want to laugh about."

Though in retrospect, maybe she could see herself laughing about this later.

"Who else is coming to this?"

Re: Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[acroodawakening]

"I actually bathed yesterday in anticipation of people being crowded in a room with me and not having the same ideas on hygiene, thank you very much," he said, "and I dunno."

He shrugged.

"I left it open but some people might have other stuff to do or might not want to be next to me if anything intense is on there because that could get awkward, so basically whoever's comfortable with coming. I didn't want to invite anyone specifically in case they were uncomfortable with it."

Re: Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[dividedgirlofmine]

"I didn't bring my own beer," Susannah says, standing once more on her prosthetic legs by the elevator, "but I don't have to drink it. Is there room for me in your watching party?"

She's wearing the necklace Guy made for her.

Re: Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Boooo," Mindy said, pretending she cared about the beer. "You mean we have to see this sober? That's just cruel!"

She motion for a seat near them. "Don't get too close to Guy. His feet stink will kill you."

Mind if we make it all three of them?

[acroodawakening]

"Bathed yesterday. That's a single day." He was sitting on the headrest of the chair and now he took his feet off the armrest and started to poke at Mindy with his toes.

"I've gone much longer and no one's shriveled up and died on contact with the way I smelled."

not at all!

[dividedgirlofmine]

"So've I, actually," Susannah says, taking a seat next to Mindy. "There's not always somewhere to bathe when you're makin' your way on foot across all of Mid-World and End-World too for that matter. Or, in my case, on wheel, piggyback, and stump."

She smiles hesitantly at Mindy. "That was nice shootin' you did back at the end of the arena. I'm not surprised it got you the crown."

Re: Before the Expose (Mingling if anyone wants)

[bringinghopewithme]

Bunny wasn't in the habit of checking his comms much, but he was in the habit of travelling throughout the districts as much as possible, so on one of the rare times that he did check the Tributes' messages, he fortunately happened to be in Guy's neighborhood.

Well, why not? He hadn't crashed a party - not with the intention of having fun there, anyway - since the time he stole cacao from the Centzon Totochtin. And it was probably a good idea that he see the sort of spin the Capitol was putting on the Tributes' lives.

Not to mention meet some more tributes he could be reasonably sure were decent sorts. He couldn't picture Guy palling around with indecent sorts.

He arrived just late enough to ask "What did I miss?" before leaning over to sniff curiously at the nearest bowl of popcorn.

The Main Event - The Viewing

[acroodawakening]

"Oooh, it's starting," said Guy as the beginning of the expose flashed on the screen. "Where's the throwing popcorn?"

He gestured to the area in front of him.

"The throwing popcorn needs to be in a centralized location," he said in a mock serious voice, as if it was an absolutely dire logistics problem. "We all need immediate access."

He was hiding his anxiety very well, judging from all the goofing.

[ooc: This one is meant to be one giant clusterbomb of a thread so just keep tagging in one continuous thread, after the lowest comment down after refreshing.]

[capitolprivilege]

Stephen wasn't actually watching at first. He was doing a quick headcount and texting the Escorts of the non-D6 guests. He wanted to make absolutely sure everyone was accounted for and no one was using this party to skip out on mandatory viewing -- that would get them all in trouble.

It was a little rude, honestly: he was sitting there tapping away at a tablet as though he didn't care about all the lies they were about to be fed about Guy's life. Way to be one of those jerks who text during movies, Stephen.

[hit_girl_mindy]

And someone happened to notice said rudeness.

"We're not boring you, are we?"

[acroodawakening]

Guy punctuated Mindy's words by lightly throwing a pillow at the side of Stephen's head.

"You're supposed to be helping me with how the Capitol portrays me all wrong, right? They probably didn't listen to any of the things you wanted them to do and got it wrong again. How can you help me if you're not watching to see how they mess it up?"

He gestured to the TV emphatically.

[capitolprivilege]

The pillow hit him square in the side of the head, finally catching his attention. "Hold on, hold on!" he said, still tapping at the tablet. "This party took paperwork, you know! We have to make absolutely sure everyone is accounted for, and Purnia is yelling at me -- just a second --"

It was actually a few seconds before Stephen turned off the tablet screen with a wave of his hand and looked up.

"Okay, okay, I'm watching!"

The Unexpected Guests

[acroodawakening]

After the viewing, the District 6 common room had some unexpected visitors...

[ooc: same deal. One giant clusterbomb of a thread. I will post to this when the other stuff is wrapped.]

Re: The Unexpected Guests

[acroodawakening]

The door opened and two Peacekeepers suddenly marched into the district six common room.

They were both armed and they had orders.

"Guy Crood," one of them said. "You're to come with us."

Guy blanched at the sight of them. It almost seemed that the color in his face drained out of his body through his toes and sucked out all the spirit with it. His shoulders sloped and he even wobbled a little in place.

It was starting to make sense now, the egregiously wrong expose, the long silence after he'd been flippant at Penny. He wasn't sure what sense it made but now it all felt like some ominous portent, like they were the pieces of some sort of plan.

That was what they did, wasn't it? They didn't just hurt people, they did it in complicated ways. They made games to do it. They had systems.

His eyes wide, he looked at them, not resisting, but hesitating, not wanting to leave unless they absolutely made him.

"It's her, isn't it," he said slowly, his voice quavering. "I was hoping she forgot."

"You're to come with us now," said one of the soldiers, grabbing him by the elbow to guide him along.

[bringinghopewithme]

There was little more futile than attacking armed peacekeepers when the only weapons available to any of them were improvised, but Bunny could no more let them take Guy to the punishment he'd already been afraid was coming without a fight than he could stop breathing.

They'd brought him down, made him agonizingly slow, but he was still faster than these humans who'd never been anything but mortal, so when he slipped into action, it was quickly.

He grabbed a chair and smashed it against the wall, breaking the legs off in his paws. He threw one as soon as he had it free at the arm of the peacekeeper grabbing Guy. It was no magic boomerang, but it was heavy, solid mahogany, and it flew where he aimed it.

He attacked the other peacekeeper as soon as the chair leg had left his paw, moving smooth and sinuous as he tried to separate the human from his weapon.

Maybe if Guy hadn't already come to him in fear, he'd have paused long enough to protest verbally, or to think about the consequences of attacking peacekeepers, but just then, his mind was filled with the dual knowledge that his friend needed protecting, and that he had been made too slow to be able to waste time asking questions.

[acroodawakening]

The Peacekeeper hit by the chair leg reeled back and then pulled out a taser.

"No, please! Please don't hurt him," Guy said, trying to get between them. "He's my friend, he's just trying to -"

The Peacekeeper backhanded Guy aside, viciously, knocking him into a coffee table, and called into his headset, "Backup! We need backup on floor six."

Then he turned to face Bunny, who was duking it out with his comrade, held out the tazer, and fired.

[capitolprivilege]

Stephen was furious. It wasn't all that intimidating, the figure he cut as he walked up to the peacekeeper without the tazer, but he wasn't hanging back.

He knew Cyrus had told him to be careful, not to jump into fights, and he was listening -- as far as physically being in the fight was concerned.

"Why is Guy Crood being taken into custody?" he demanded, tall enough to look the Peacekeeper in the eye. "And why wasn't I informed?"