Show's Over

[wizardplease]

Who| Haruto Soma, Kousuke Nitou, and anyone they may bumble into.
What| The Kamen Riders have had some of the ride thumped out of them by the Capitol.
Where| The District 11 suites, District 5 suites, and rushing from one to the other.
When| The Monday morning after the end of the mini-arena.
Warnings/Notes| Mentions of torture (will add additional warnings as needed.)


A - District 11 Suites

It was a lack of complete understanding of his situation, coupled with his natural heroic impulses, that had gotten Haruto in trouble at the "prom". The Capitol authorities were sympathetic, in their own iron-fisted way. They treated him to an intensive eighteen-hour "history lesson", with a solid focus on instilling some proper Panem values into the young man. The Games had a purpose, after all, and they had made sure that Haruto was more than aware of it. It wasn't likely to leave his mind anytime soon. Their generosity didn't end there, though. He seemed to be the sort of person that wanted to be in the spotlight, even when it wasn't really about him. So he was provided with a room with a wrap-around view of the latest arena, with the volume set high enough to ensure as much of his undivided attention as possible. There were a good twenty-four hours of footage to show, and they couldn't just have him nodding off and ignoring any of it. They needed reactions, to cut-in during the public broadcast. And he certainly gave them, reacting both to the gruesome deaths of relative strangers and to the fates of those he'd come to know somewhat better.

And then it was done. And then he was dragged back to his District's suite by Peacekeepers. And now that he was free, Haruto barely knew what to do with himself. He stumbled for his room with a hand on the wall to steady himself, fully intent on simply collapsing into his bed, but once there he knew that he couldn't rest. Nitou had been throwing punches and chairs right along with him. He had to be sure that he was alright, before giving in and passing out. And so he somehow managed to get himself changed into clean clothes (though the door was left open the entire while), and vaguely groomed (passing a hand through your hair is grooming, right?), before rushing for the elevator in a sort of windmilling, stumbling stagger. Districtmates are more than free to run into him and wonder what in the hell happened to him.

B - Training Facilities' Elevator

It's a short ride from the eleventh floor to the fifth, but Haruto is twitchy as hell and easily distracted. He jolts when the elevator comes to a stop. He jolts and stares whenever someone steps on to join him. Quite plainly, he's somewhat delirious, and there's a good chance that he's going to miss his floor by accident at least once. But he's trying to keep it together, damn it. He's really trying.

C - District 5 Suites

It doesn't matter if he's allowed in or not, Haruto Soma is barging in anyway. "Nitou!" It's a strangled and awkward shout, quickly followed up with a somewhat calmer "Kousuke Nitou. Is he here? Is he?" It's rude to come barging into someone else's living space early in the morning, making that much noise, but Haruto doesn't much care right now. The most important thing is making sure that his fellow Kamen Rider is alright. Once he knows that, he can rest. And damn it, he wants to rest.

Comments

C

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Haruto?" Nitou sounds a little worn out too. He never even made it back to his room; he just faceplanted onto the couch once they'd cut him loose. He also appears to have one of his arms stuck underneath the couch cushions, which is making it difficult for him to get up, or even to roll over and look to see if Haruto is coming. "Haruto? Is that you?" Even if he's mostly yelling into the couch itself. Moving is hard when you're sort of awkwardly trying to extract yourself from your exhausted faceplant and are failing miserably.

[wizardplease]

Haruto wastes no time following the sound of Nitou's voice, muffled though it may be, to its source. The enormous sense of relief that he feels upon finding him is quickly muddled up with a whole lot of other feelings, though. He stumbles to the end of the couch that Nitou is not on, plants his hands and leans forward... and then in short order flops forward. "Nitou. Nitou, what.... what are you doing?" Even like this, the guy still confuses him so much.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou wiggles around a little more and finally withdraws his arm from underneath that couch cushion. His hand is clutching a bottle of mayonnaise, and he finally manages to sit up. "I'm checking on my stash, man! Gotta make sure they haven't replaced it with...with..." He shudders. "Miracle whip."

[wizardplease]

This shouldn't surprise him. This shouldn't surprise him at all. But, feeling really serious about everything that had just happened, he had hoped that Kousuke Nitou would also be feeling serious for once. He snaps upwards, pulling himself forward along the couch. "That's what you're upset about!? All of that, and..." He stops for an instant, blinking blearily. "What did they do to you?" Because really, to torment Nitou all that was really needed was to sub out his mayonnaise for something else.

This also suddenly made that jar of Miracle Whip in the corner of his cell make a bit more sense. Which also made him feel faintly offended. Damn it, were they mixing him and Nitou up?

[infinitemayonnaise]

"I got a history lesson, Haruto." Nitou sounds tired. Very tired. "A history lesson, front row seat for that Arena thing, oatmeal, and Miracle Whip." Tired and disgusted. "So I thought the least I could do, when I got back, was to make sure they hadn't switched everything else out for that." It's part checking on a security blanket and part doing something that isn't thinking about that history lesson or the Arena or anything that involved a bunch of people dying. "How about you?"

[wizardplease]

Haruto's head bobs absently for each thing that Nitou confirms. Yes, yes... alright. So they got the exact same treatment. And now he is completely out of angry energy, and just crawls onto the couch to have a proper slumping sit. "The same. The exact same. Geez, even with the jar of knock-off mayo... do they think I'm you?" Yes, now is a good time to make jokes. Jokes were better than thinking about the history lesson, or the arena.

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Doesn't matter who you are, that stuff's pure evil! Just like them!" Sure, this is an easy enough thing to latch onto and complain about. "Couple that with oatmeal, and..." He shudders, then squirts some of the mayo out of the bottle he's holding into his mouth. He brightens up. "They haven't found this."

B on the way to C?

[celebrityskinned]

Venus is still hungover, well over twenty-four hours after the prom. Lights are too bright, sounds too loud. Her head feels like it's stuffed with a hot, damp blanket. Her stomach feels sore and rashy, her throat ragged and dry. She has big sunglasses on that don't block out enough of the fluorescent lights beating down in the elevator.

The glasses do, however, hide how red her eyes are from all the crying.

She gets in the elevator with Haruto and slams her hand against the buttons, trying for floor five and instead hitting seven and six. "Son of a bitch," she mutters, fiddling with it more. "What floor are you going to?"

In this instant she doesn't even notice that Haruto's staring at her, doesn't absorb how he's as shaken as she is.

A fine idea!

[wizardplease]

"...five." Haruto's response is quiet, and slightly delayed. He's finding himself somewhat less concerned about getting where he's going, and more concerned about the state of this woman that's just stepped onto the elevator. Had she been through the same sort of wringer he had? Or a different one entirely?

"Rough night." It was supposed to be posed as a question, but the inquisitive tone didn't make it into his voice. He didn't have the energy for it. But really, did it need to be asked? It seemed pretty damned obvious, on her part especially. "It's going to be okay." Because of course it would. He'd make it okay. Everything would be fine. He... just needed to remind himself a few more times.

[celebrityskinned]

"Oh. That's my floor." Everything from her mouth sounds like it's coming out automatic, without any inflection beyond what's inspected of it. She rarely sounds so disingenuous in anything, but she's curled up in misery and that leaves little room to emote for the outside world.

She pauses, then looks up at him, realizing this isn't her roommate with the mayonnaise. She almost apologizes but hey, she hasn't said anything out loud. "Says who?"

[wizardplease]

"Really?" He, too, is engaging in automatic conversation. That's what you're supposed to say, so that's what he's saying. It's when the casual prattle doesn't continue onwards that he lifts his head higher, and really looks at her and thinks about things.

"...Me. Says me." He inhales sharply and passes a hand over his face, taking a moment to rub at his eyes. Come on, Haruto, pull it together.... "Arena's done. It's over. We'll regroup. We'll figure something out."

[celebrityskinned]

"Yup. All hail the drama District." She doesn't seem to have too much pride not to press her forehead against the cool elevator wall. Her head is still pounding. Her skin feels hot to touch.

"Listen, kid. I been through too many Arenas to feel cheered up by a pep talk. Maybe you can still run on hope but you try being here a few years while everyone around you dies or gets hauled into these mini-Arenas and get back to me, okay?"

Probably rude. Venus on a better day would be so much kinder to someone trying to think positive.

[wizardplease]

"Drama?" This bit of conversation is a little less automatic and a lot more confused. Nitou's in the drama district? Well, he'll fit right in, won't he? He stifles a groan and leans back against his side of the elevator.

"I can run on hope forever. It's what I do." Everything's too fuzzy at the edges and jittery and awful for things to be rude. Or, if they're rude, for it to matter that they're rude. Haruto has already shoved one foot into it, and he's all set to shove the other one in, too. "What've we got, if there isn't that?"

A! Since no one else is doing it and I can

[elfstone]

He sees Haruto stumbling towards the door, and it does not take a genius to guess what happened.

"Haruto!" He steps forward, starting almost, reaching out a hand to take the young man by the shoulder and steady him. Thorongil looks concerned -- no, genuinely worried. "Haruto, what have you done?"

Just the right guy for the job

[wizardplease]

Haruto is indeed steadied, and he even hesitates a moment, staring blankly at Thorongil. His jaw works and his mouth opens as he tries to find the words, and there are words, but none of them are ones that he wants to say. He threw a fit. He made trouble for himself. He was wrong. Things that he hardly wants to admit to himself, much less anyone else. So he swallows them.

"I'm fine. I need to go." And he'll just be trying to push past. No one else needs to be bothered with this.

shhhh stridad is here

[elfstone]

"Whoa now! Not so fast," says Thorongil, and Haruto won't get more than two or three steps before he has a very tall, very solid man in his way. "I do not know where you are going, but you are not fine, and you will not get far in your state."

He can tell that Haruto is exhausted, but understands that whatever Haruto is off to do probably can't wait hours. It can, however, wait long enough for Thorongil to get some water into him at least, and probably a bite of food, too. His best guess is that Haruto has spent the night in a cell; that was the punishment Thorongil himself had been threatened with when he had caused trouble.

[wizardplease]

"I'm fine." He's insistent, still trying to shove on past. He's not likely to get far, but he's not about to let anyone stop him from doing what needs to be done. "It's not far. Fifth floor. Fifth district's floor. Nitou. I need to find Nitou!" He's not looking at Thorongil as he does any of this. All his focus is on the doors to the elevator, as it should be. He doesn't need to be fussed over, doesn't dserve it. It's all his fault that it came to this. He started it. He needs to face it.

[elfstone]

No.

Thorongil places himself, very firmly, in Haruto's way. His hands Find Haruto's shoulders, which means Haruto is going to have to look at him.

When Haruto does, he's going to find it hard to meet Thorongil's eyes for long. For a moment, Thorongil says nothing -- he only fixes Haruto with a piercing look, a hard look, a look that will accept absolutely no argument.

Then, quieter, Thorongil says, "You will do him no good collapsed in the elevator. Nitou can wait, Haruto -- a few minutes' difference will not significantly alter whatever state he is in right now -- until you've taken enough food and drink to walk unaided."

[wizardplease]

It is not often that the people around Haruto call him on his reckless need to go out and be a hero. This is the first time in a very long time that someone has attempted it, and he doesn't like it. He twists himself to try and get out of Thorongil's grasp, and fully intends to meet and hold his gaze, but he finds both things to be surprisingly difficult. It's exhaustion. Has to be exhaustion. He can't back down, not now, not to anyone, but....

"...a few minutes." His head shifts slightly to the side, eyes lowering. "Just a few minutes." If that's all that he wants, then he can do that. "I don't know what they did to him."

A! I think we can coordinate a second person to intercept?

[a_minute_younger]

For someone who actually participated in the latest Arena, Gary is far more chipper about being back than he probably should be. It's something of a front; he made mistakes, made people angry, he died, and even though he was expecting all of these things to happen in some capacity or other, Gary is startled at how unprepared he is to deal with them all. The best he can manage is to fall back on reliable methods of coping. That is, to forget that any of this actually happened. Nothing is wrong.

This doesn't mean that he can't be relieved to see Haruto back in the dorms. Gary immediately picks up his step after he wanders out of his room and sees Haruto hurry past, jogging alongside him on his way to the commons.

"Hey! Hey, Haruto, you're back!"

But of course!

[wizardplease]

Having navigated Thorongil's concerns, Haruto was determined that this time he would make it to the elevator without disruption. It is not to be. He hears Gary before he sees him, and has a reflexive shoulders-up-nose-scrunched-oh-no reaction. He'd had to watch this guy not only make a complete ass of himself, but cause actual harm to others. If he started dealing with the guy now, he might just start shouting and not stop.

"Yeah." So he'll keep things short. "And now I'm going." And he'll just keep striding on forward.

[a_minute_younger]

Gary has just enough social perception to realize that Haruto is unhappy, but not enough to realize that his unhappiness is directed at him. He keeps following, looking a bit concerned.

"Come on, guy," he says, offering an encouraging smile. "What's the matter? Did you get stuck after curfew or something?"

[wizardplease]

That was not the thing that Gary ought to have said, if he wanted to keep the discussion calm and friendly. "Did I...." Haruto plants a hand on the wall by the elevator, inches away from the buttons, and turns his head to give Gary a naked look of disbelief. "They hauled you all away, we stood and tried to do something, and...!" And he just did not have the words right now to succinctly explain the last almost two days.

Elevator forgotten, he pushes off from the wall and advances on Gary, more frantic than angry. "You died. How're you standing here and just... just grinning like that?!" No, really, how? How could they bring the dead back to life? This was the first that he was forced to really, really think about the question.

[a_minute_younger]

Oh, now that anger is definitely directed at him. Gary stops in his tracks and flinches back, expression slightly baffled.

"Well I didn't...really die," he says, slowly, "otherwise I wouldn't have come back!" Obviously! Seems like pretty clear logic to him. There are more confusing things about this conversation that Gary wants to investigate. "You were mad that they took us out after the party? Why?"

[wizardplease]

"You died! You died! You fell to your death! They made me watch it from... from five different camera angles!" And now his cool is completely lost. He throws his hands up partway, then balls them into loose, tense fists. "Of course I was mad! There were little kids there!" And now he's doing it. He's reaching out to grab Gary by the shoulders and just shake him. "What's your problem, here?! What's wrong with you?!"