Boom boom boom

[gamemakers]

Who| ALL people who call the Tribute center home, and anyone who might have been there on business.
What| Lock down
Where| Around the Capitol, and in the Tribute Center.
When| Feel free to tag in if you died any time in the first 3 weeks. (So if you die tomorrow, you can feel free to back tag in, if you like)
Warnings/Notes| Use this post both for threads before, around the city, and after the Peacekeepers and Avoxes gather everyone. More information about the state of the city after this will come tomorrow in the Deathroll. If your tribute character is out and about, they should expect Peacekeepers to escort them back within 15-20 minutes (and you can feel free to handwave the peacekeepers)

The people lurking around the docks, wearing plain clothes, rough clothes, might stand out among the Capitol Citizens if 'District chic' wasn't a style that came and went on a regular basis. As it was, they barely stood out, people trying too hard to look like they didn't belong and that they did, at the same time. 

Sorta like everyone else around them. It was hard to act suspicious in the Capitol.

It was a bit strange, people getting on the Shore to Shore boat dressed like that. Not normally what anyone would consider club wear, but 'normal' was not highly regarded around these parts.

However, it wasn't long after the boat had left the dock that it made it's grand exit.

In an explosion that sent a fireball high into the night sky, lighting up the bay, and sending high waves lapping at the shore, the boat was obliterated. Rescue operation were swift, but there just wasn't much left to rescue.

Siren's filled the city, automated voices urging people from every street corner to return home, lock the doors, stay inside. And for the Tributes wandering the city, it was more then automated urging. Those in the Tribute training center were gather up by Avoxes, and brought down to the common room, the elevator refusing to work for anyone who wasn't in the process of gathering up Tributes, Mentors, Stylist...anyone lingering in the building.

Those Tributes not already at home found themselves flanked by Peacekeepers and escorted back, deposited in the same common room, and told to wait. 

Eventually, hours later, everyone was cleared and the elevator opened, although the front doors still refused to allow anyone out without a special clearance no one was being offered. A recorded voice told them emergency alert instructions would be available for them in the morning. And then their doors locked behind them for the night.

Comments

[tailforbrains]

Actually, the staring was what Neeshka was more used to. The pointedly not looking away but not-quite-staring was a little weirder, but she was getting used to more varied reactions to the obvious signs of demon blood.

"Nope, not that I remember. I mean, they drag us places all the time, but usually they don't do it with guns, you know?" She flicked a glance to the nearest peacekeepers, herself, and kept her voice low-ish, at least. "Just fancy clothes and insistent mentor-types."

[hasacondition]

He nods thoughtfully, keeping his eye on them himself. So if this is something new, then something bigger must be happening-- if up until now they've controlled them more subtly, there has to be a reason for an explicit show of force.

And a sudden explicit show of force is going to be something he doesn't want to snoop around in.

"So they went out and found you to bring you back? They pulled us all out of the upper floors."

[tailforbrains]

"Yup. I was out shopping, and they just suddenly all swarmed up. Though they'd decided I was breaking a law or something." She looks a bit sheepish at that, almost like maybe she had been but isn't quite dumb enough to admit it. "Why'd the bother to bring you all down here, though? Might as well let you hang out wherever you were, so long as they've got people all gathered up."

She looks around again, this time with eyes narrowed. "I guess that probably means they won't let me go upstairs, huh?"

[hasacondition]

He notices that look, though it just makes him cover his mouth with his hand as he looks down seemingly in thought. Still, it was something to think about-- if they locked the entrances and exits, it'd be enough to be sure they were all in the building.

He shakes his head slowly. "No, probably not."

And then he lowers his voice. "Whatever happened might be something that can be done from a room-- maybe it's not enough just to keep us in here, maybe they need to make sure we're not making it worse."

[tailforbrains]

"You think something happened, then?" Neeshka lowers her voice a little more, and adds, "Something they think one of us did? Or something that means we might be in danger, d'you think?"

Either one seems both intriguing and dangerous. Neeshka isn't sure which she'd prefer to happen. Probably something that means they might be in danger, since if one of them got into trouble, it might mean more shootings, or at least more curtailed privileges-- and Neeshka likes her privileges!

[hasacondition]

He laughs nervously, eyeing the nearest Peacekeeper-- or, more specifically, their weapon-- before studiously avoiding the television, where living proof against that theory was still being played out. "I don't think they care about whether or not we're in danger."

But, if it was something one of them did, he'd expect a little more pressure. Didn't that one kid say they mixed up the entrances to keep people from forming alliances? He'd think they'd try to get them to sell each other out, or at least make an example of what happens if they disobeyed. He chews this over, before guessing. "Maybe whatever's going on, they just don't want us to make it worse."

[tailforbrains]

Neeshka still isn't used to the whole television thing. She'd stuck on the idea that they're some form of illusion, and thus not necessarily actual footage, just something people made up. When it's not Games stuff, anyway. So she's mostly been ignoring them.

"I'm not interested in making anything worser. I just want to do my shopping and snooping in peace." She huffs, not particularly annoyed by it all at the moment, anyway. Just put out at her day being ruined. "This better not get in the way of the free food at parties."

Hey, what else does a Tribute killed early do with her time, anyway?

[hasacondition]

He laughs quietly, bringing him out of his train of thought. "It's probably the snooping that concerns them."

But that was good, wasn't it? At least someone around here is getting something done. He glances over to make sure they're not being overheard (he's got no way of knowing for sure, of course, but he can at least do what he can) before he poses the question, hand blocked by his mouth like that'll make it quieter. "Find anything good?"

[tailforbrains]

"What, with the snooping?" Neeshka snickers a little bit. "Mostly stuff about, you know, who owes money to who and who's betting on what. Nobody really talks about anything interesting here." Interesting, in this case, meaning something she could use to get leverage or money, whether through selling it or through blackmail.

Not that she has too much experience with selling information or blackmail, being more of a straight-up roof-walker and pocket-picker, but she's willing to branch out if she has to.

[hasacondition]

"Well, why should they, when we're just being forced to kill each other for their entertainment?" he asks mildly, though he still accompanies it with a glances around the room to see if anyone's paying attention to them. But there were bets, at least... he had to wonder how involved everyone got in the proceedings. Maybe it was worth paying attention to some of that.

"Who knows, maybe someone out there knows what's going on. You might have more to listen to after all this."

[tailforbrains]

"Not if they never let us out of here," Neeshka counters, a bit sourly: patience is quite obviously not one of her virtues. But she does take the comment in stride to consider later. Maybe she can find out more once they let them go. They do have to let them go sometime.

"Anyway. I'm Neeshka." She sticks out her hand, trying for a cheeky grin and going back to a normal volume for conversation. "I'm from Neverwinter, but I bet you've never heard of it, right?"

[hasacondition]

"Hey, they have to let us out eventually. How else will we go on killing everyone?" And he smiles sarcastically and bitterly, because what's the point of kidnapping people for death fights just to lock them up the entire time?

"Bruce," and he half-smiles back and takes her hand. "And I can't say I have, sorry."

[tailforbrains]

"Eh. I'm used to it. Nobody here ever has. I guess whatever world I come from is a lot weirder than everyone else's, or something." She shrugs it off. "Guess that means you've never seen anybody with these before, either, huh?" She pokes the tip of one horn lightly and grins wryly, her own self. Sarcasm isn't something she does, but she can laugh at herself, a little bit.

[hasacondition]

"Maybe it's just easier to figure out? I haven't asked everyone if they're from where I'm from, I'm just assuming."

But he smiles, at her attitude if not her appearance. "No, but trust me, it's not remotely the weirdest thing I've seen."

[tailforbrains]

"Yeah?" Neeshka's curious. There are weirder things where she's from, of course, most of them just don't wind up actually talking to people instead of just eating them. But though she's seen a couple pretty weird things here-- that six-legged guy with all the eyes is pretty strange, for example-- for the most part everyone seems pretty normal. "Like what else have you seen that'd get more stares than horns and a tail?"

[hasacondition]

"I doubt you know what New York City is, but picture big buglike aliens coming out of a hole in the sky to break a big city, and you'll get the basic idea."

On top of a few other things, but it's nicer to stick to that destruction of New York instead of the one he's responsible for.

[tailforbrains]

"Huh. Yeah, I guess that's pretty weird. Weirder than this, anyway." She flipped her tail lightly and shrugged. "We've got a grue here, that's pretty weird. Have you seen him? Some, I guess his name is?" She was still kind of stoked that someone that she recognized the species of (beside human, of course) was actually around. "Now those are weird."

[hasacondition]

He laughs a little, but it's not really fair for him to point out the pot and the kettle here. "I can't really say without knowing what a grue is."

[tailforbrains]

"If you'd seen him, you'd know," Neeshka assures him, but she launches into a description, anyway. "He's all gray and furry-looking, and he's got six legs and like, eight eyes. Kind of looks like a big spider turned into a person. Usually you only run into them in the dark, like a dungeon or a cave or something, and they eat people, but he's been out in the light and not eaten anybody, that I know of."