thecapitol | (no subject)

Who| Everyone
What| Lockdown
Where| Tribute Training Center
When| Starting around dusk
Warnings/Notes| None atm. If your character tries anything extravagant, shoot the mods a pm.

Dusk was falling when it started.

Anyone in the District 12 suite's would have heard heavy sounds above them moments before a loud explosion rocked the entire building. The electricity flickers once, twice, then goes out, replaced by cool, blue glowing lights running along the ceilings. Avoxes appeared silently, as they do, herding people from one room to another.

Once the door shuts, it doesn't open again until the last person is there, sealed shut. The windows in the rooms with them were darkened, and the computer would not respond to any request to show anything. However, food could be called to the room, the trays appearing as they normally do. But the doors would not budge, and the cool blue lights stayed the only light source, the only power.

Although there was nothing to see, there was lots to hear. Banging, foot steps in the halls, on the floors above, explosions, straining metal collapsing, scraping down the side of the building. Occasionally the repetitive rapping of gun shots. Yelling. Screaming. Those near the top of the building could smell smoke, at times strongly. The elevator can be heard moving up and down, even though it doesn't respond to any calls from those trapped.

The sounds last into the late night, finally quieting around midnight. Finally, at 1 am, a calm, cool voice comes over the loud speakers.

"The rebellion forces have been repressed. We will be clearing the building for the next few hours. Please stay patient and sleep well."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Welcome to the world gone mad," Lindsey muttered in greeting when the elevators deposited him there shortly after Clint. He looked about the large parade area where lights were dimmed and it really didn't look like they were leaving anytime soon.

"This has to be the worst sleepover ever."

Clint glanced over at him as he stepped out. "I'll braid your hair if you make the brownies."

"A bit lacking in the ingredients, but I'll substitute it for the drinks if I can get my hands on any?"

Lindsey gave the other man a look up and down. He never met this tribute before. "Any idea what's going on up there?" That was where all the noise was coming from.

"Even better," Clint said with a smirk.

He shrugged at the question, still scoping the area, looking for possible exits and perches. "Rebels, they said. Didn't know we'd gotten ourselves stuck in a civil war."

It was large and empty and reminded Lindsey of a circus ring where clowns parade. Or perhaps that was just his own bad experience with this place.

"It isn't that apparent." Lindsey gave a glance around for eavesdroppers though he wasn't saying anything particularly bad. "Oh, there's plenty of unrest... but I wouldn't say it's a war. Just a lot of unhappy people subdued by a happy dictatorship."

It did not at all remind Clint of a circus ring. Not the kind he remembers, anyway.

"Who's unhappy?" Clint asked with a frown, though his tone was light enough to be taken as a joke if someone wanted to interpret it that way. All he'd seen was the Capitol, and it seemed like they were mostly happy.

Given, Lindsey never had the misfortune of actually working in a circus before. It was more of a metaphorical comparison.

"Right?" The urban cowboy chose to answer it as a joke although he accepted that it might be an honest question. "Beautiful fashion, great food, rising empire, what's to be unhappy about?" There might be just a bit of sarcasm laced into the words although most of it was the honest truth for him. Except for the fashion bit. Purple spandex wasn't his thing.

...Clint will make no comment on purple spandex.

"And killer entertainment on top of it all," he added dryly.

"Absolutely to die for," Lindsey concurred with his cutthroat grin.

"I'm Lindsey, District 5... Power." It turns out, adding in what his district was about made the whole thing roll off his tongue that much smoother. Quite a good ring to it too.

"Don't think we've met."

Clint had a smile somewhere in that category himself. "Don't think we have. Clint, District 6. Wood."

Well, lumber, but whatever.

That was met with a sympathetic chuckle. 'Wood' didn't sound half as impressive as 'power' did.

"I'd say it's a pleasure, but don't think we're in the right situation for that." He turned his head as the elevator brought a few more tributes down, but there was hardly more than a dozen of them here.

Clint didn't really care so much about that. As far as he was concerned, the whole district business was just part of the Capitol's bullshit. He'd be just as happy to be from the sewage district.

"Are you kidding? That's what this whole damn place is about, isn't it? Pleasure?" He barely glanced at the tributes who arrived, but he kept watch on them in the corner of his eye.

"For them you mean, sure. That's about the currency here, and it's all we have value for." Lindsey shrugged though like that didn't bother him.

While keeping an eye out for anyone he knew, Lindsey's smirk raised marginally when he noticed that the ones he did recognize were probably not the best for his health. Just his luck.

"Then you get things like this that disrupt everything and cause them to be all uptight. Not too pleasurable here."

Clint shrugged at his comment. "I've seen worse."

Lindsey rolled his eyes. "Clearly, but you missed the point there, Clint."

"Yeah? So enlighten me."

Lindsey stepped back to give the guy a look. Was he for real? "This is just the tip of the iceberg."

Absolutely for real, but not as clueless as he liked to pretend.

"What's hiding under the water, then?"

"A lot of crap and discourse. You'll get the feel of it after a while of being here, but there's definitely discontentment between the Capitol and all those districts we represent."

Yet Lindsey shrugged like he really didn't care, which he didn't if it didn't affect him. "Either way, we seem to be stuck here."

Clint cared, and Lindsey hadn't told him anything he didn't already know. He just wanted to see what the perspective of the other tributes was.

"Yeah, that's the long and short of it, huh?"

"Yup. All in a nice colorful nutshell." He looked around them and the place they were stuck in.

"And looks like we're the meat. Hope we get out of here soon... not that I mind the company," he gave Clint a slight grin, "but this place sucks."