TEAM 13 : CAPITOL
Draco : Domitian
Training Gymnasium: Day Eight
Draco grinned, welcoming some of his friends—or more honestly, the children of his grand-uncle's currently favored underlings—into his viewing room.
"I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait!" Umami (the daughter of the current minister of education and information) said, rushing into the room and looking eagerly about at the scattered displays (after the proper greetings befitting their differences in station, of course.)
"This will be a fun day." Draco agreed, gesturing to a nearby couch to ensure one of his most eager peers got a good seat.
Draco was privately tutored in this life, so he could claim no one as classmates. He was also treated as superior to anyone and everyone his age, which added a social as well as physical barrier to true friendships. He wouldn't deny that the situation was not ideal, that it was in fact quite lonely, but then even if he had been born as just an ordinary Capitol citizen, able to play with and interact freely amongst those his age, he would still have his sheer dislike about what his peers had been made into to get over.
Perhaps this odd and undoubtedly unhealthy situation, where he and those children he interacted with were merely pawns in adults' games, was not as bad as it at first seemed.
(He still wished he hadn't been born in the Capitol, though. He was very aware of the true misery and danger of life in the Districts, but he'd willingly take it after two lifetimes of inordinately lavish living built on the backs of those sorts of lives.)
Today six of said pawns were joining him for a private viewing his great-uncle had said up, a live window into the actions taking place in the Training Gymnasium at the base of the Tower.
This was not simply a present, of course; as with everything in any world, strings were attached.
"Everyone here?" Draco looked around, ignoring for the moment that everyone in the room knew that they were, in fact, here. "Great! The feeds should start any minute now."
Lotus, whose mother ran the Peacekeepers, grinned up at Draco from his cushion. "And you're sure we can Ruum about this?"
Ruum, the popular communication tool which had sprung up three years ago.
Draco kind of hated it.
It wasn't just what it stood for—it's predecessor, U2, had been much the same—he just...
Didn't like it, honestly. It felt clunky.
Not that that was important.
"Of course, of course! I double checked just this morning!" He hadn't, but then there wasn't really any point: the entire purpose of this soiree was specifically to drum up support in response to the longer delay between the Reapings and the Games. "Ruum away!"
While many of the cameras were automatically focused on some of the more interesting stations, and several were dedicated to following the best of each Team around specifically, Draco and his six peers had also been given joysticks to navigate one of the drones themselves.
As the screens flickered to life each and every teen leapt to their joystick.
Draco wasted no time panning to Team 13. He was aiming for at least one post every five minutes, and unlike everyone else in the room he didn't have to switch among the many tributes: he had twelve, and he was going to make damn well sure that each and every one got a cult following by the end of the day.
Opium was sitting closest to Draco, and as the latter typed out a small message praising Katie's clear speed in dodging practice the former's joystick hovered above a wrestling station, typing about what he was seeing with one hand as he tried to capture a good shot of both Team 18's Organza (from 1) and Team 17's Sara (from 4.)
Organza seemed to be pulling the victory, but it was close enough that it would likely pull more supporters to Team 17—hand-to-hand was not the 18-year-old's specialty, and it showed.
Across from him Lotus was focusing more on the younger members; his favorite Games were always those that were won by the younger tributes, so he was one of the few that were actively rooting for Teams 11 and 12 (though 13, for a variety of reasons, was the Team Lotus put his support behind the most.)
Umami was, as always, a very straightforward sort of person: she'd latched onto Team 18, and would likely continue stalking them throughout the rest of the party.
Harmal was rooting for Team 16—no one knew why—and Jaguar hadn't yet decided who to root for. Queen had wanted to root for Team 15—her birthday was due on day 3 of the Games, and she had been as eager to root for her age as Draco was—but the rumors said they were falling apart, so she was circling around as many of them as she could find, trying to figure out if that were true.
Today Draco's more important plans would have to be put aside, it was true, but there was some benefit to the celebration his great uncle had set up. Every second of footage covered would be stored, and he would spend the next two or three weeks reviewing every moment, every sign. But only what he wanted—which may be very misleading indeed—would be released to the public at large. By the time the Games started he'd have more inside information than any other sponsor, and he'd be able to use that information very, very well.
So, while it did mean that he was focusing on something that he might not otherwise dedicate as much time to, Draco was not about to let even a drop of usefulness slip away.
