[OPEN] Curfew Mingling Log

[etcircenses]

Who| All residents of the Tribute Center
What| The curfew is now in effect.
Where| Each floor of the Tribute Center.
When| 11pm-7am
Warnings/Notes| Each floor will get a log to mingle. Locate yours below and have at it!

Over the past couple of days, tributes may have noticed increased activity and discussion between Peacekeepers and that Escorts may have appeared to be on edge. Any attempts by tributes to discover what is happening are quickly shut down, but in the end they don't have long to wait for an answer.

As of today, Tributes will be told via Peacekeeper, Escort, or one of the notices now hung up around the Tribute Centre, the following order:

Mandatory Tribute Curfew

11pm - 7am

For the safety of citizens and Tributes a curfew is now in effect for all tributes. Between the hours listed above, all Tributes must report to and remain within their designated district suites. Any Tributes who fail to return to or are discovered outside their assigned floor between these hours will face disciplinary action.


You didn't think it had escaped the Capitol's notice how many of your little acts of rebellion occurred after dark, did you?

The time is now 11pm.  Do you know where your District mates are?  Time to check in and mingle with the people you live with.  Have fun, everyone!

Comments

[pythianjudgment]

-- A -- (Closed to Albert)

Terezi didn't have any intention of coming back to her room so soon. She was more than happy to be rooming up in D5 with Fraysong. It meant that she didn't have to spend the night alone... and she didn't have to worry that they might drag him away and avox him again.

Their parting just before curfew is a long one, and just barely makes the cut off before eleven pm. Still, it feels painfully short, and there's a nervousness in Terezi's gut as soon as the elevator doors shut. She wants to jab the up button to bring the elevator back, but she doesn't dare. She doesn't want to get either of them into trouble again.

So she goes to the only person she can think of going: Albert.

-- B: Sometime after midnight -- (Everyone in D3)

There's only so far that you can wander without leaving the floor. Terezi has traced a path from her room, through the kitchen, through the commons, back to the hallway, and back her her room. It's surprising that the carpet hasn't worn down from her circuit.

She's restless and she knows it. She wants to be anywhere but here, whether that's outside the tower or just curled up in Fraysong's room. Not knowing what is going on out in the rest of the world outside this one floor is slowly eating away at her thoughts. She needs a distraction, and fast.

It starts with just pulling the covers off of her bed and dragging them out into the common room. A little TV might help her sleep, if she can find something that's not death arena footage. But then she finds a better use for those sheets.

It's just a small fort at first. Just a sheet thrown over two adjoining couches and a chair, but it's something to do. The smaller space under the blanket feels a little safer, a little less vulnerable. But she's still alone, and that's not very comforting. It's probably not comforting for anyone else, either.

After some careful consideration, Terezi heads around the floor, knocking on everyone's door--regardless of wakefulness or apparent mood. They all get the same greeting:

"Come build a blanket fort with me."

-- C: Anytime between midnight and 7am -- (Everyone not in D3)

At some point during the night, Terezi curls up under her blanket fort and cradles her communicator in her lap. There's another blanket thrown over her shoulders and the eerie light from the comm casts a glow onto her face. If there's anyone who might want to check up on her, she's awake and attentive...

[silberfuchs]

Albert too is restless, though he contains himself mostly to his room, or intends to at least. Jet may have only just left his side a few minutes ago to go downstairs but the absence of his fiance is already a gaping wound. He may or may not be trying to fill it by sending Jet a sappy little voice message already when Terezi knocks on his door.

He nearly drops his device, scrambling to grab it and snap it shut before answering hoarsely. "Come in."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi doesn't need more than that to come into the room, making sure to shut the door behind her. She's trying not to let it show, but she looks worried. It's in the way she approaches the bed and the way that she stands there, subconsciously wringing her hands together. It feels weird to just climb onto his bed without invitation, but weirder yet to just stand there and not say anything.

"They wouldn't let me stay on floor five."

[silberfuchs]

"I know. They wouldn't let Jet stay here either." He sits heavily on the edge of the bed and lets out a sigh. It could be worse, they could have carted him off to who knows where and Albert would never know what happened, but he'd just been taken back to floor 2 and he'll see him in the morning. That's what he tells himself to try and dull the ache of absence, at any rate.

After a moment he realizes Terezi is still standing at the door and he pats the edge of the bed beside him, an invitation to sit, to talk if she needs it. He suspects so, else why would she have come to him? "It's just for the night, only a few hours."

[pythianjudgment]

Only a few hours, he says. "It doesn't take that long for them to grab someone." That someone being Fraysong, of course.

Albert offers a seat on his bed, and after a bit of hesitation, Terezi sits down next to him and pulls her knees up to her chest. He doesn't seem nearly as worried, and she can't help but wonder how he does it. How does he stop worrying, how does he know it's going to be okay?

"The last time they took him away from me, they cut out his voice. I don't... want him to disappear again. I don't want anyone to disappear."

[silberfuchs]

Oh he's worried. He's worried they'll haul Jet off still in the dead of night. He's worried they'll gas an entire District floor for being too much trouble, his or Jet's, and they'll never see each other again. He's worried they'll decide to extend the curfew around the clock, that Jet will do something stupid to try and escape, that something will happen to Jet before they can finally get married because that's just the course that Albert's life always takes and just further proof that his love is a death sentence. He's anxious and terrified and utterly helpless.

But that's not what Terezi needs. Terezi needs a calming presence, she needs to know it will be alright even if Albert has doubts of his own. He keeps his voice even and patient, betraying nothing of the panic he's managed to fight down. "No one's going to disappear. You have your phone still, you can call him and keep in touch. It's going to be alright."

[pythianjudgment]

Yeah. She can still call him to make sure that he's okay, even if she hasn't yet. It feels like such a wriggler thing to do. They've barely been separated for even ten minutes, and she's already terrified of what might being going on without her knowing. Not that knowing would be any better. She's not sure what she would do if they carted him away while they were speaking together. Try to get to him, probably. Be sedated, most likely. End up in jail again--She stops that strain of thought right there.

Instead, she leans herself against Albert, her shoulder pressing against his side--so long as he'll allow her to. "It's going to be a long night. I don't think I'm going to make it."

Her attempt at dramatic humor falls a little flat, but it's clear that she's trying to make the best of this.

[silberfuchs]

He recognizes it for what it is and chuckles, pulling her a little closer as he wraps one arm across her shoulders in solidarity and comfort. "Then we can lament the lack of our - what would you call them, quadrant-mates? - we can lament that together."

He's proud of her for keeping it together. He knows how hard that is to do considering he's doing the same. Hell, he was on the phone with Jet immediately before Terezi came in. He couldn't even go ten minutes. Congratulations, Terezi. You have more self control than a hundred year old former cyborg.

"What should we do to pass the time, do you think?"

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi nods when he gets the term right. Quadrantmates. She's glad that he used that one. That is probably the best way to describe what they are right now. As it stands, Terezi thinks that Jet is holding himself together much better than she is. She does not, however, know that he was trying to call Jet already. Not that it would change her opinion too much.

He asks what they should do, and she has to think about that one. What can they do? They're confined to one floor of the building. They don't have to sleep, but they're not allowed to leave. Which is probably good, since Terezi doesn't think that she'll be able to sleep anyway.

What she really wants to do is cause some kind of destruction. Something that will send a message that this isn't okay. Or at least something that feels productive in some sense. What she finally settles on is a little of both, but not outright troublesome:

"...We could build a blanket fort."

[gardienne]

Eponine had wondered why they hadn't drugged her that night. Not that she'd wanted to complain or anything. It just meant that she'd have to sit and wait until exhaustion took her and she could sleep. She didn't even bother to try the door, simply presuming it'd be locked.

But Terezi's voice drifts through the wood, and Eponine moves over to the door, hugging her blanket about her.

"You want me? Me as well?"

She reaches for the door handle, hesitates... it's going to be locked. Going to be.

"Do you think I'm locked in?" Eponine draws her hand back. It makes her... it's not scared, exactly. But it's horrible to get your hopes up, even over something so stupid as a blanket fort.

"Miss? Will you try the door?"

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi is glad that she's not actually required to answer Eponine's first question. She doesn't particularly want Eponine, but even as annoying and frustrating as the girl is, she still falls under Terezi's desire to help out her district-mates. She'd have to be much worse not to get even the smallest bit of sympathy.

Though Terezi still has to question her intelligence to just assume that her door is locked without even trying it. When Eponine asks if she'll try the door, it is probably a good thing that she's not capable of seeing the face that Terezi makes.

"One open door, coming up." Terezi reaches for the knob, expecting no resistance in opening it. If it's indeed open, she'll gladly greet Eponine with a dry "Happy, princess?" and tell her to grab some blankets and pillows from her room.

[gardienne]

"I'm not a princess." Eponine grumbles, but she drags her quilt and her pillows as bid, and follows Terezi from her room.

"Always they lock it - perhaps if we are all locked in though, they don't care. That will be nice."

She used to like sitting outside Marius' door. It had always comforted her to hear him snoring, like in the old days. Now, perhaps, she might be able to.

[pythianjudgment]

"It's a phrase. For when someone asks you to do something that you know perfectly well that they can do themself." Like open a door. Honestly, she doesn't know why she couldn't have just tried the knob. Is the prospect of being locked in her room that terrifying? Maybe there's something that she's not understanding here.

"Why do they lock you in there?"

[gardienne]

"So I can't stay in my house." Because Eponine has a house all of her own now. "So I can't make trouble. I hate being locked in, Miss."

Every time, it's a horrid reminder of the cell door clanking behind her as she was pushed inside in Paris, in the Capitol, in handcuffs or shackles and manacles and the like. Bad things happened in those places.

"Did you not notice? Every night, they come. Sometimes to make me sleep, and sometimes just to lock me in. That is why I wouldn't try the door, for for so many nights I tried, and no, and it just makes it worse then."

[pythianjudgment]

"Nope, I haven't noticed. I've been staying on Five." Though she carefully neglects to mention why exactly she's been staying there. She doesn't think that Eponine will care for that information too much, considering her anger at Initiate the last time they spoke about him--and it's really none of the girl's business anyway.

"Maybe if you didn't act out so much, they would feel the need to lock you in. Has that crossed your mind? You know, not rocking the boat? Picking your battles, et cetera?"

[gardienne]

"I know." Eponine sighs. "I know I should bite my tongue. But I am so fed up, sometimes, of being told what to do, you know? This is all that - well, no." She catches herself before she complains about Cyrus. She can't blame him. She has to maintain the facade of Capitol support.

"Well, it is my fault. But I am trying to shut up."

[pythianjudgment]

"That is pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Imagine that." Or at least that is what she wants the Peacekeepers and the microphones and the Capitol to hear. She doesn't have the luxury of offering even the slightest amount of favorable opinion for the outbursts that Eponine is typically known for. Not if they've been resorting to simply locking her in her room.

"Here, take that end." Terezi tosses a random sheet to the girl, waiting for her to either grab it or pick it up from the ground. "I am building a blanket fort, and if you are not going to sleep, then you are going to help."

C

[carnagecarnival]

[And considering as their species is nocturnal, that would be him.

It's a small miracle, after saying goodbye and wondering on whether to say good night or good morning. Now he can just drag that good right into hello.]

Hey sister. SUP.

[pythianjudgment]

[The sound of his voice is a relief in itself. Despite her own worries, she smiles wide--warmly, even. Her voice is quiet, as if she's trying to keep their conversation between just the two of them.]

Hey. Nothing. Just lounging on the floor under a canopy of shitty bedding.

Is everything okay up there? They're not chaining you to the wall or anything, right? [She laughs like it's a joke, but she's not entirely sure that it is.]

[carnagecarnival]

[He manages to wince and laugh at the same time. Joking about such things highly possible, he's about it.]

Not current. REAL DAMN RUDE AS TO BE MOTHERFUCKING FRANK. The travel brochures all got at saying there'd be the shiniest chains possible but is there being any? NAW.

Nice canopy.

[pythianjudgment]

[It's hard to catch herself from sighing in relief. He's fine. He's okay. She tells herself over and over, willing it to be true. And it is... for now.]

It's a fort, not a canopy. Albert helped me make it. He is surprisingly good at construction.

[carnagecarnival]

YOU'RE THE ONE WHAT SAID AT IT TO BE A CANOPY OF SHITTY MOTHERFUCKING BEDDINGBITS.

S'good you ain't being on lonesome.

[pythianjudgment]

Not as lonesome. [She corrects him, putting the emphasis where it belongs. Albert is good company and she's glad to have him, but she can't curl up with him the way that she did with Kurloz.]

...I miss you. [She ducks her head a little, embarrassed.] It's not the same. You know?

[carnagecarnival]

[He understands. It aches some, though, to hear her confession.]

YEAH, I KNOW. Miss having you nearways too. [He won't do something as foolish as try to brush hair from a hologram image.] STILL HERE THOUGH. Still got ourselves ways as we can talk.

[pythianjudgment]

Yeah. We do. [And she's thankful for that much, at least. It's miserable being two floors apart from him when he's normally right by her side, but at least she knows that he's okay.]

You should come see the fort that we built when the curfew lifts. First thing. As long as they don't knock it down sometime tonight.

[She doesn't say it, but part of her just wants him over here as soon as possible--even if it's for something stupid like a blanket fort.]