thecapitol | Rude Awakening (take 2)

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Rude Awakening (take 2)

WHO| Gary Epps, a good chunk of District 11, and maybe you?
WHAT| Someone died and suddenly Gary realizes that this place isn't very fun anymore. It only took him two months!
WHERE| Rooftop of the Tribute Center
WHEN| Soon after this broadcast, into the late morning.
WARNINGS| Public execution and descriptions thereof, along with standard murdergame fare.

A - just after the broadcast - CLOSED to D11

When the intro music for Panem Nightly startles Gary awake from where he fell asleep on the common area couch, he's expecting something a little more...lighthearted. The usual gossip, trends, pandering. He will admit, the anchors don't seem too troubled by what transpires, and at first Gary is almost able to convince himself that they must not be taking it seriously because it, like the Arenas, wasn't real. It's only after he wonders if the sound of the gunshot was from the television or from downstairs that he hurries to his suite and locks himself in the bathroom. He's eaten something unpleasant and he doesn't want to throw up in his room. Yes, that's why he's curled up on the tile. Everything will be okay.

In a remarkable show of patience, Gary waits until he doesn't hear anyone outside before he decides to leave. He's not sure what he needs when he goes to the elevator. Some fresh air? Probably. Is it after curfew? He's not sure he cares enough to check, but the roof should be safer than the city. Before Gary really has time to consider these things, or why he's suddenly so concerned about them in the first place, he finds himself on the rooftop gardens, pacing anxiously along the path with arms crossed and frantically rubbing his sides. Well, he's found the fresh air--but he still doesn't know what he wants. Company, Gary thinks, and yet the prospect of someone finding him terrifies him for reasons he's not quite pieced together yet. He keeps walking until he gets an idea.

Gary does not get an idea.

B - the rest of the morning - OPEN

It takes a little bit for Gary to finally calm down and actually think for a minute. He knows he wants to--needs to--talk to a lot of people, but he also knows that he can't do that just anywhere. The fact that he responded to a Lonestar post is not excused now that Lonestar is dead. And really, would anyone who saw that be interested in hearing from him so soon after his passing? Gary seriously doubts it. Maybe after the Arena. Maybe during the Arena. He'll figure something out.

In the meanwhile, Gary thinks he knows what he wants, and that's to stop thinking about all of this. Company is usually very good at helping with that; if anyone comes onto the rooftop that morning, whether or not they are expecting to find Gary here, he'll flag them down from his perch on top of a bench and try to look as relaxed and not desperate as possible. "Hey!" he calls. "Got a minute?"

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The hug is a surprise initially before Milla naturally returns it. Only changing her grip when Gary speaks to try and move him towards a spot to sit down. "Of course we can, darling."

The psychic says, her tone automatically shifting to something parental and soothing as she casts a glance back over at Haruto. She motions with her chin for him to follow as well. This might be a two person job. Be it, she hugs and Haruto talks. "Take what time you need, okay, baby? We're right here."

There's hugs involved in this? Haruto's not sure that he's up for hugging anyone to fix this particular problem.... but yeah, he can talk. He averts his gaze briefly, trying to be all cool and smooth, himself... and he follows Milla's lead.

"We're all in this stuff together. Alright?" Once they've reached an appropriate sitting spot, Haruto has himself a seat. "This is pretty new for you, isn't it?"

Gary is conflicted. On the one hand, he quite likes the positive attention and assurances he's getting and feels that it's definitely helping him feel better; on the other, it's still really embarrassing. Maybe it's just because he doesn't know these people as well as he'd like to, he thinks. But then he thinks about if he replaced Milla and Haruto with, say, Clayton and Rick, realizes that it wouldn't be any better, and decides that there's no avoiding it. Just going to have to be a dumb baby about it. Gary doesn't want to be a dumb baby. Goddammit.

He shuffles with Milla to a nearby bench, somewhere between relieved and sullen, and when he sits his head goes immediately into his hands. Keep it together, Epps. "I...I guess so." He rubs his eyes for a moment and then sharply looks over at Haruto. "--It's not for you?"

Seeing someone be shot in the head tends to be an experience that isn't easy to deal with, so Milla isn't about to fault Gary's reaction. At his age she would have had about the same panicked reaction. She rubs soothing circles against his back when they settle on the bench.

"For some people it isn't, dear. Certainly doesn't make it any less awful of a sight."

Haruto nods once, and seems ready to say more, but Milla beats him to it. And does a better job of it, as well. "She's right. It's terrible. No one should have to be used to it." But here they all were, stuck in a situation where they'd have to get used to it. He leans his weight forward, arms resting on his knees.

Gary's direct question went unanswered. Maybe he hadn't seen an execution quite like that, but he's seen plenty of death. And if he reminds himself of that, then... then what happened below won't disturb him so much. Hopefully.

Gary is sufficiently distracted by Milla's answer to forget that Haruto didn't provide one of his own. His head snaps around to face her.

"It shouldn't be." The response is immediate, though Gary's expression is not nearly as certain as the declaration he made. He understands--at least, he thought he understood--that his world has problems. There are bullies, jerks, slimy businessmen and their unsavory hired hands. But these are little problems, in Gary's little corner of the universe. They exist in comics and on television. People die, but they don't really die. If they did, the world would be an unhappy place. Panem, to him, seems like a happy place. The contradiction is still too baffling for Gary to really process in full.

"Do you think--" he stops, brow furrowed and very uncertain. "--Do you think, maybe it didn't really happen? Like, maybe it was staged?"

Milla glances at Haruto once again before Gary speaks, glad he's staying with them. If anyone should be your ally, it should be your district mates. At least in her mind.

"Baby, I've seen my fair share of guns in my life, I hate to say it- but that was very real." Milla hates having to burst his bubble, but lying wouldn't help. Gary was already oblivious before hand, indulging it would help him in the long run. The Mental Minx wants Gary to survive, just as much as she wants Haruto and her friends to get through this nasty place. "Staging something like that wouldn't help them in the long run. Not with the game they're playing with us."

Haruto frowns and looks away immediately. He doesn't want Gary to catch him being dismissive or rolling his eyes. He's still clinging to that? It's understandable, he supposes, but it's no less frustrating to hear it over and over. "They don't have any reason to fake something like that. He crossed the Capitol, and they're showing what happens to people that cross them. They want us... they want everyone to be scared of what they can do. In here and out there." And he makes a wide gesture out at the city around them.

"Not even like--as a bluff?" Yes, it is a hopeless argument, and the more Gary makes it the more hopeless he realizes it is. There's a few more starts and stops, failed attempts at making stronger claims. He falls silent and stares at his feet.

"...I was supposed to tell him something."

Milla is very appreciative of Haruto's support, he's certainly being sterner than she would be when explaining this. The psychic woman knows Gary needs a bit of both in this moment.

"This isn't something you can easily bluff, baby." She leans in to give the teenager a parental kiss on the forehead. Gary's response makes her pause though, "Tell him something?"

Edited 2015-01-10 01:29 (UTC)

"They don't give enough of a damn about us to bother to bluff." Haruto has more than enough sternness to counter Milla's softer approach, and he's glad to provide it. It's useful to him, too, to say some of this stuff aloud. Though he eases back, when it turns out that there's something that Gary had meant to say.

"...him as him? Him as Lonestar?"

"If you have decided to tell secrets," says Thorongil, stepping out from a patch of shadows a little darker than the rest, "you have chosen a good place. They have trouble hearing us up here, if we keep our voices down. But I can tell you that the death was no trick or illusion: his blood still stains the steps outside."

Also, hi, he doesn't say. Sorry to startle you, he also doesn't say.

Edited 2015-01-13 22:50 (UTC)

Jesus Christ. Gary might have taken some time to pout about how mean Haruto was being and squirm out of Milla's embarrassingly direct affections if not for Thorongil, strolling out of the gardens like he owns the place. For a moment Gary is struck with the vision of a Peacekeeper, suddenly stepping into their conversation to take them away and lead them down the blood-soaked steps out front, and he visibly hops in his seat.

It is, of course, only another one of his helpful districtmates, and a pretty chill one at that. Gary crinkles his brow in uncertainty.

"They can't?" He frowns and looks between Milla and Haruto. Well...surely Thorongil wouldn't lie about something like that, and he seems like he knows what he's talking about most of the time. Gary shrugs and continues, regardless of any lingering doubts, and continues in a stage whisper. "The last Lonestar broadcast. He said, if I wanted to help out, I just needed to say so the next time. But...there won't be a next time, will there? What am I supposed to do?"

Milla can believe as much, it's much harder to proper mic and set camera's up in a place meant to look open, much less with the noise of the city around them and natural winds that whip past the building offering their conversation some cover.

"We'll have to figure out another way to do what Lonestar did." Milla answers very softly, her expression shifting to something cooler and more thoughtful as she looks at Thorongil. She recognizes the man from their suite, even if they haven't had a proper conversation yet, she has seen him around enough. "See who we can trust with what you have in mind, sweetie."

Haruto is a little startled by Thorongil's sudden appearance, too, but quickly relaxes. He trusts the man, trusts his loyalties, and trusts him to be both sympathetic and quiet about all this. Though it is new to him that it's harder to hear what people are saying up here, it's welcome news. When Gary looks to him for confirmation, he gives both a nod and a shrug. Hopefully that communicates a satisfactory level of 'it's news to me, but okay'.

"If not us, then someone'll step up." He shifts his gaze away from Gary, and sets it on Thorongil. "I think there's more happening here than a lot of us know about."

Lonestar broadcast?

That is something Thorongil does not know about. It happened while he was still picking up how to use the Network, and because he missed it, he knows little about the rebellion. However, he's not going to stop and ask for explanations now. He's confident he'll pick it up as he goes along.

"Gary, what do you know?"

Gary's expression softens at first. He probably could have come to the conclusion himself that others would know how to pick up the slack--there are plenty of intelligent people around here, much better at electronics and things than he is--but it's soothing to hear those reassurances from his friends and not just his own head, desperately clinging on to some new hope like he usually does. It's Thorongil's question that puts him back on-edge again. Gary shuffles in place and chews his bottom lip.

"Well...n-not much, I guess," he shrugs, offering a strained grin. "Just what was on the broadcast, you know? I just kind of skimmed and, uh...posted some stuff."

Gary stares at the ground and anxiously kneads his hands together. That 'stuff' was funny at the time, like most things are for him, but it also made a lot of people angry and Lonestar didn't trust him for it. Like maybe they thought he was on the Capitol's side and would rat them out. Maybe they still think that, and are looking for someone to blame. No one except Signless has brought it up directly, but now that someone's dead, Gary's thoughts are going to unfortunate places.

Haruto listens in silence to Gary's explanation, until he admits that he posted 'stuff'. The Lonestar broadcast was something he had only skimmed and refrained from commenting on, for lack of a full understanding of the situation, but he had a general idea of Gary and the 'stuff' he liked to talk about. So there is a sigh. But he does make the effort to not palm his face or look too explicitly disapproving. This is supposed to help, after all.

"...you wanted to apologize. Is that right?"

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Rude Awakening (take 2)

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arrives 15 minutes late with starbucks -- is here cool to jump in?

yup, this is good!

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