thecapitol | [open] CATCH ALL

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Who| ALL Y'ALL it's a ho down
What| A catch-all reaction log for the plot developments. Saves you from making 5 logs each tbh.
Where| All around the place
When| During and post lock down, 3am~ sunday onward
WARNINGS| Panicking, talk of murder and violence. Singing the songs of panem.

When things like THIS and THIS are going down it's probably a good time to touch base with one another. Face caressing, crying and meaningful stares abound as the Tributes and Staff drag their knuckles hopelessly in an effort to figure out what the fresh hell is going on.

Make your own prompts, feel free to make them closed to specific people.

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Venus waited until she had gotten a list of suspects from the television before she went looking for people and jumping to awful conclusions. She knows, at least, that most of the people close to her haven't been rounded up, but that doesn't prevent them from doing stupid things like trying to interfere with the arrests.

Ellie, Kankri, Joly - she even spares a few moments to make sure Enjolras isn't bleeding on a floor somewhere - she goes to each Suite looking for people. The elevators are still shut down, so she goes entirely by foot, kicking off her flip-flops so she can move more easily.

She runs into Joel in a stairwell and grabs him by the forearm.

"Do you have Ellie?"

Ellie is his first stop. They can both take care of themselves, but Tess just got here, she has no stake in anything just yet, and besides that she's a grown-ass woman who knows better. Ellie, though, has friends. Friends who might be targets, and the moment he hears Mindy's name announced as one of these suspects, well.

He knows he needs to find her before she does something stupid.

So when he bumps into Venus, his mouth thins into a tight line. "I'm on my way to her now," he says. Frankly, he's a little surprised Venus isn't on the list herself - maybe she's smarter about keeping a low profile than he expected. Or maybe she just got lucky this time. Either way, he'd just as soon keep her away from Ellie, in case she does something stupid. So he keeps moving, making no effort to slow his steps for the shorter woman.

"Alright, good, we can go together." Venus doesn't bother to ask if she's invited to the whatever-Joel-wants-to-do. She keeps up easily, making up for Joel's longer strides with youthful energy, determined purpose and trained athleticism.

"I saw they took Mindy, figure she's going to care about that. She grabbed Maximus and Courfeyrac, too, from my corner-"

"Great idea," he mutters sardonically to himself, but he's not in the mood to argue, so he just keeps going.

"Saw them takin' a couple from my district, nobody I know too well," he mutters with a shrug. "Heard someone say Thane's name, hope Shepard doesn't do anything stupid." He doesn't think she will, she's gotta be smarter than that, but you never can tell. When it's someone you care about, someone close to you.

"No one from Four, Five, Six or Seven." Congratulations, District Five managed to not fuck themselves over this time. It's a Christmas miracle. "Shep can fuck herself, for all I care."

There's just enough love lost there for Venus to be bitter.

"There's nothing Ellie can do but spit at the Peacekeepers." She isn't even breathing hard as she scales the steps. "She has to know that."

"Ain't you the kind and compassionate one," Joel snorts. And Venus thinks he's the asshole. Jesus Christ. He just rolls his eyes, not missing a beat as he takes the steps nearly two at a time.

"Ellie's smart, but she's still a kid. A fourteen-year-old kid, with a temper. Even the smartest kid won't always think before they act." He knows. He knows Ellie, from long experience. She's passionate, temperamental at times. Hell, he remembers her outburst at Mindy's crowning, when they announced the surprise mini-arena and the participants.

"Never was kind, never was compassionate." At least, not in the X-Statix.

"That's what I mean. She has to know like we have to tell her. Leave the heroic explosives to people who no one cares if they get punched." Herself included in that.

The door to District One is locked from the stairwell. Venus knocks, then rears back to kick it in, which she's sure the Peacekeepers still crawling around will just love.

Joel just... watches Venus with a skeptical look. Because watching a tiny woman trying to kick down a door all by herself elicits that sort of look from him. Could he help? Probably. But he won't, unless she asks.

She's 5'6! That's not tiny! That's...just somewhat petite by the standards of the other Tributes here. Look, we can't all be Captain America.

And kick down the door she does. She braces herself against a rail in the stairwell and slams her foot two, three times into the lock until there's a snap, and then she shoves through with her shoulder.

"We're not here to interfere!" she says to the five Peacekeepers waiting inside, hands up. They've already raised their tasers and guns at her. "We want to keep a friend from panicking!"

Joel doesn't react to the door kicking, just keeps his arms folded across his chest as she does so. He isn't surprised, or particularly impressed. He knows what she's scored, he didn't expect anything else from her.

As soon as she rushes forward, though, Joel hunches his shoulders a bit, his hands dropping harmlessly to his sides, a totally relaxed stance, like he's out for a walk in the park instead of in the middle of a police raid. He keeps some space between himself and the peacekeepers, but also between himself and Venus, and glances at a couple of the men in white, rolling his eyes at her as though to say how overdramatic, amirite?

"Just wanna find my kid," he murmurs, his low drawl and his stance putting on a good old boy kind of air - they know who he is, and who his kid is, and that she's not on the list of suspects. He's surly, but not a troublemaker. Not a dissident. "Tess, too, have you seen her?"

I prefer her no-nonsense style, rings in his ears, and he has to stop himself from scowling. It always bothers him to be reminded just how much the Capitol knows about all of them.

"Which one's she, the scrappy bitch with the small tits?" one of the male Peacekeepers says, snickering. One of the other Peacekeepers, a woman and clearly the one in charge, shoots him a look that shuts him right up.

"They're looking for Ellie. Let them go. Don't let your guard down. We just saw this one kick in a door."

Venus relaxes slightly, keeping her hands in sight despite lowering them. If she had to she could probably take them all out with kicks and headbutts, but she isn't about to say that she's already figured out the fastest way to do that; she's pretty sure it would just end with her getting tased.

Joel's mouth tightens imperceptibly, into a thin line. His jaw tenses with anger, but that's his only reaction to the crude quip. Under just about any other circumstances, anyone who called Tess a bitch in Joel's hearing would get a sharp retort, at the very least.

Back in Boston, Tess would kill men for less. And had.

But he keeps it in check. Could he kill these assholes? Sure, probably quite a few if he was careful. He's been up against worse odds and survived. But he can't risk it. He can't risk Ellie and Tess's lives, not when he hasn't found them yet.

The Peacekeepers clearly aren't going to help, but at least (for the moment) they won't try to hinder him, either, so he just pushes forward, waiting until they're out of earshot before muttering, "fuckin' assholes," to himself. "She should be in the tower, at least, she tells me if she's goin' out into the city," he offers to Venus.

Venus feels a pang of- not jealousy, not like that, but a sort of shunned feeling as if she is being reminded of how secondary she is. How unimportant, in the grand scheme of things. It's too easy a magic carpet to climb onto.

She keeps at a brisk walk as they go through the Suite.

"I'll let you handle this. I just want to make sure she's okay."

Joel sniffs, but doesn't say anything else. How considerate. He's not in the mood to be snippy with this young woman for the millionth time. She wants to check on Ellie, fine.

"Try not to kick down anymore doors," he quips gently.

"I'll make a point of it."

She hovers outside the door until she can hear Ellie's voice, Joel's talking to her. And then she vanishes.

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HEY JOEL IT'S YOUR FAVORITE PERSON

OH GOODIE

Re: OH GOODIE

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[cw: sexual vulgarity]

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