thecapitol | In the evening, I've got to roam

Who| Jet and Open
What| Some books about psychology, law and weddings...? some maps, some painting and some technology (sorta)
Where| A book store and the training center
When| After the crowning but before the special arena
Warnings/Notes| Scenarios are in separate comments in the post to keep things organized! Feel free to tag whichever or more than one, if they ping you. If you want some other scenario, just let me know!

Things had been quiet enough with only a few remarkable events here and there, right up until the crowning and the surprise reaping that had set him back on edge for a little while. It could have been him or, worse, Albert...instead there were other names he recognized called, including one that made him very uncomfortable, but there was nothing he could do...which made it worse. Nothing like a dose of reality to bring back that feeling of anger and helplessness that he'd seemed to have finally shaken for a little while.

Some practice targets had suffered for it when Jet had slunk off in the middle of the night to take some of his aggravation out on them for an hour or so, but he kept it to himself. Instead, he tried to force himself on focusing on other things.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You've gotten very good." In a pop-art Andy Warhol kind of way, though the sky is beautiful and obviously painted with love and care. "How long did you spend on this?"

It had been at least a few hours before Albert had woken to an empty bed, the pillow beside his possessed of only residual body heat. Albert must have been more tired than he thought to not wake up when Jet had rolled out of bed, though it's something of a norm for them. At least it used to be. Albert had gotten used to Jet's restlessness and light sleeping habits and often the American would get out of bed and entertain himself for a little while until he felt he could sleep again. Albert had developed the skill of cracking an eye open, mumbling a query to if anything was wrong, and if he received a no he'd fall right back to sleep. Still, it had been a long time since Jet had done that and Albert has to wonder if something actually is wrong.

Finding Jet gone this time, Albert had followed his instincts in going to look for him, first the District 2 suite's kitchen, then the common area on the bottom floor. This had been his third stop and Albert had entered the training room in virtual silence, barefoot and only in his long pajama bottoms. He still takes comfort in being able to feel the floor against skin on the bottoms of his feet instead of listening to metal clack as he walks.

He takes his time examining his fiance's handiwork, eyes tracing the lines and brush strokes. "Couldn't sleep?"

Jet jumps a little at the voice but smiles when the he looks over, the brush he'd been holding falling back into one of the jars of paints.

"Thanks. The sky took a while, I wasn't really keeping track." Which meant he'd left the bed empty a long time and potentially made his partner worry. Guilt crept into his expression and sheepishness tinged his voice. "Sorry, I didn't realize I'd be down here this long. I didn't wanna wake you up just cause I was restless."

"It's alright. I only would have panicked if I couldn't find you by morning." Albert moves away from the painted wall and settles onto the floor next to Jet, crossing his legs and hunching forward to peer at the other paintings.

"Schematics? For..." He tries to make sense of them but while Albert was also fairly skilled at his own inner cybernetic workings, this is beyond him. He let's the word float, raising an eyebrow at Jet in askance for him to finish the sentence.

Jet's hand finds untamed hair as he looks over the glorified scribbles he'd made. Now that there were other eyes on them, their imperfections were glaringly obvious and it made him want to grab them all and rip them up in frustration.

"Well..a transporter, in theory. But, honestly, I don't really know what I'm doing. When Q and I were working on it, I never saw any plans myself and that ass never explained anything." As Q was one to do. "But I remember what the parts looked like and where we put them. I was hoping messing with cars for so long would give me some ideas but, as it turns out, cars and transporters are really different."

"I didn't get much of a look at it either." He'd been around when Q was working on it but they'd ended up talking of other things. "There might be others around who have knowledge of such advanced technology, but I don't know yet just who we can trust."

Digging into a pocket, Albert pulls out a pack of cigarettes and taps one out to offer to his fiance. He's rarely without them since his little adventure with Kili to find some, a nasty habit he knows, but it keeps him calm. Especially when talking about things like this. "I'm not sure they wouldn't just pull us back anyway. We need a look at the tech that brought us here."

Jet takes it somewhat gratefully and waits to light it before speaking. "Yeah, I figured there's probably someone better at this crap around, but you're right that you don't just go around asking who knows how to build stuff like that. Guess I was just hoping to get what I remembered down before I lost it." Not that this was exactly helpful when--to someone who knew what they were doing--his 'diagrams' would look like scribbles.

"Anyway, that's kind of why I thought a transporter might help--not to escape, but to break in. If we could even get it working."

"Clever," Albert grunts approvingly around his cigarette. "We'd only need to use it once to get in and out again. Not alone, though. Eventually we may have to try and trust someone with this or other things."

He inhales and exhales slowly, letting the smoke curl through him comfortingly. "If we could find a way to synthesize those mushrooms, that would be another option as well." And also require help, but having their cybernetics back even for a short time would give them an advantage, even if it's not as monumental as it would have been in their previous environment.

"That would be helpful." He pulled one of the papers over to him, retrieved a pencil he'd stuck in his pocket days ago, and began absently sketching out said mushroom.

"I could fly recon around this whole city before they even knew what was going on. Maybe even further." Probably wouldn't even be able to try and shoot him down unless they had random anti-aircraft weapons lying around. And imagine how much he could figure out if only he weren't grounded. That was a bitter thought.

He gathered his papers and stood once the sketch was finished. "We should try to go back to bed...you need your beauty sleep, after all..."

"And the pot calls the kettle black." With a smirk, Albert leans over and roughs up Jet's hair as he stands. He'd at least been asleep for some time before coming down here. By the look of the walls, Jet had barely spent time in bed at all.

Albert takes some of the papers from Jet to help carry with a playful smirk. "You should sleep though. I'd prefer to be engaged to a man, rather than a raccoon."

His hand instinctively jumps up to try and smooth out the 'damage' Albert had done even though he knew it couldn't really be messed up in the loose state it was in now.

"I'm not a raccoon." It's said a little childishly but he smirks and bumps Albert's shoulder with his arm as he turns to head out of the training center. Albert did have a point, Jet's complexion was very pale, so any dark circles under his eyes often looked twice as bad as they were because of it.

"I'll sleep if you sleep." Which meant he intended to curl around Albert as tightly as he could, that feeling of powerlessness that had driven him down here--now more vague than anything--fueling the clingy inclination.

The German huffs at the bargain Jet set on the table, but it's a fair point. Even if tonight Albert got more sleep already than Jet did, he's not generally in the habit of sleeping much in these surroundings and it's starting to show. Jet's not the only one who may end up looking like a ring-tailed rodent.

"Fine, if it gets you into bed," he sighs, but it's an affectation. He knows what Jet means by his caveat and to tangle himself up in his partner sounds like just this side of heaven.

In the evening, I've got to roam

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