[OPEN]

[xanthous]

Who| The Psiioniic, the other trolls, and YOU! It might lean heavily towards trolls, but anyone is welcome to join them!
What| Watching the final week of the Games.
Where| The Training Center common area.
When| Final week!
Warnings/Notes| Trolls everywhere. And also mentions of violence, death, and etc in passing.

It's probably not unusual for people to group together and watch the violence unfolding. The Psiioniic certainly doesn't see why it would be strange, and he looks remarkably unimpressed as a recap plays some especially gory scenes. He seems to be prepared for a crowd, with plates of food nicked from the District 2 suites scattered around him. He even prepared a sign for his little shindig:


Of course, most people won't be able to read the sign, and do you even know how long it took him to find a marker even close to the proper shade of yellow? Too long, that's what. But now he's prepared for the final cullwatch, and ready to spend time with members of his species. And people who might be curious as to what the hell he's scrawled on the sign.

(You would think something like "fiinal cullwatch" is pretty self-explanatory, but you could never be sure with aliens.)

Comments

open for mingling

[tis_allgood]

There's no reason for Cuthbert to avoid a party, especially after he's gotten such nice new clothes from his stylist. He can show them off and meet some new people, this is like catnip for him. He's smiling to everyone and tipping his hat to any ladies he comes across.

So far Cuthbert has had a good time with the trolls he's met, even the one who hates him. But this is a new one was a little different and he still hasn't figured out just yet what that means. He had heard about the troll with more than two horns, and now he had a chance to see him first hand.

"Hile, horned friend. At least, I hope we may yet be friends. I am Cuthbert Allgood, and I would ask what you've written here for all to see."

[xanthous]

There are all sorts here at the Capitol, aren't there? The Psiioniic looks unimpressed by Cuthbert's appearance, but he's used to trolls wearing body suits and with hair bigger then their whole body so he can't really be impressed by Cuthbert's hat.

He's less impressed by the way he speaks, immediately labeling him a pretentious highblood douchebag. He doesn't even know all of those words he said. "Right." He shakes his head. "It thayth final cullwatch. That'th what thith ith. We're watching the final cullth."

You'd think that would be obvious by all the food around.

[tis_allgood]

It happens to be a very dapper hat and Cuthbert feels very dapper wearing it, no matter what anyone else thinks. And his colloquialisms would be more welcome in low places than the one he came from, he's kept a lot of the local color in his vocabulary because he knows how annoying it was to his father and his father's friends.

That said, he is unfortunately amused by Psiioniic's lisp, even if he isn't cruel enough to mock it outright. It does bring a smile to his face, and he can't hide it.

"You're celebrating the remaining deaths? I'm not sure the victims would appreciate it so much."

[xanthous]

Psii thinks it's a silly hat. How can it be a proper hat without horn holes? Even if there's no horns to put through them, it just looks wrong without it.

He snickers, waving a hand. "We're all victimth here, aren't we? We've all died and get brought back, and the poor athholeth in ther enow are jutht going to wind up back here. Why not watch and thee how they go?"

Don't question his alien morals. Or question them and have more troll problems.

[tis_allgood]

"I'm more concerned that this means people here were watching my demise. 'Twas not my finest hour."

This may require more booze to go smoothly. It wasn't watching other people die that upset Cuthbert, he'd done a bit of that himself over the years and he saw the appeal even if he didn't make a habit of attending public hangings. He wasn't sure about the celebration though.

"Are you expecting some particularly spectacular amusement to come from this?"

[xanthous]

"That'th unfortunate."

And by unfortunate he means he hopes it's on the recaps. So far they've only been showing things that have been emotionally charged and epic, but they might show some of the deaths more tinged in failure soon.

"No? There'th not much elthe to do bethideth watch or train, though. Tho why not have a gathering."

[tis_allgood]

He would be so unhappy to see it again, falling into his own trap was humiliating, even if he did manage to kill someone else first. Seeing it play out again and again is just rubbing salt in his wounds. Not that the Capitol is above that sort of behavior.

"So long as we are feasting to better luck next round and not at the joy of watching corpses pile up, I will drink with thee."

[xanthous]

Welcome to how he feels about his suicide. It was something he did purposefully, but he wasn't expecting for it to get played as much as it had been because the Capitol was fascinated by his powers and primary colors.

"Thure, we can do that. I don't really care what people take from thith, ath long ath it'th not thomething mopey."

Not like he can really complain about people being mopey.

[tis_allgood]

"Do I look like the sort to mope?" There's always a smile on Bert's face, or something close to one.

Of course, that's perfect timing for his own ill timed end to come up and he gets to watch with a sour look on his face while he kills Sherlock and then falls into the trap he dug.

"Damn waste for a perfectly good trap if you ask me."

[xanthous]

The Psiioniic snickers. "You look like you're moping right now."

He eyes Cuthbert up and down, and admittedly the trap wasn't bad. It did kill someone, after all. Even if it was because of embarrassing failure.

"It thtill therved it'th purpothe, heh."

[tis_allgood]

"So it did."

He sighs and shakes off the last of his bad feelings about the whole thing. He is talking to Psiioniic for a reason, and it didn't entirely involve the sign and the cullings.

"But I will argue that moping over the loss of a life is more valid than moping over the return of an old friend. I will stop being sour and embrace the chance I've been given to try again. How about thee?"

[xanthous]

He still finds the fact he ran into his own trap hilarious, but his laughing is wheezy and more obnoxious then it would be otherwise. Sorry, Cuthbert.

"I'm trying to find a way to kill mythelf." He's only half-joking. "We're monitored eckthtremely well. Did you know that?"

[tis_allgood]

The laughter is something he is, sadly, used to.

"If you mean that there are those here more aware of our movements than they ought to be, I'm well aware. You are not looking at a fool, no matter what you may have heard."

He considers the implication for a moment.

"Is that the reason you don't wish to reconcile with Sai Signless? You are afraid that it will be a matter of public knowledge?"

Re: open for mingling

[shambler]

That is one huge hat. It's so big even R's impressed.

Someone stuck a drink in his hand while he was wandering around, the glass of wine sitting there looking pretty and untouched. It's basically eye-candy at this point. Some expensive vintage R has no idea where it came from. As far as he's concerned, it magically appeared in his hand.

He's more interested in that hat anyway. The zombie shuffles up, the closest thing to a sidle a corpse can manage, and decides maybe he could start things off by being friendly. Gift-giving, right? That's what you do? R can't quite remember. He has these blurry snap-shots of Do's and Don'ts from his previous life swimming around in that Dead fog. Making a guess, R holds out the wine glass like a peace offering and maybe it is: it still feels weird to be around Living people who aren't wigging out about a corpse stumbling around.

The hat gets his attention and the guy's big open, friendly smile reels him in. R's a sucker for smiles. Maybe it's because he was stuck in a world that had killed off most of them.

"Do...you want this? They said...it's good."

[tis_allgood]

"Aye? Seems you may have had too much, you look fit to faint dead away."

Cuthbert was very amused with himself when he took the glass and gave R a wink. He thought this might be some kind of ploy by R's stylist to make him look more threatening in the arena later on. But he was friendly enough, considering his look. Besides, this was a friendly gathering, so far as he could tell, and it didn't seem right for anyone to start trouble.

He did notice the attention to his hat. So he took it off and rolled it up his arm and back onto his head. Useless, but still a fun party trick.

[shambler]

R was still trying to work out if that was a sly nod to his zombie status or he really could pass for human thanks to the stylists. Maybe a human with a foot in the grave, but...human. Should he feel offended, amused? Flattered?

"I'm...good, but...thanks," R fumbles like he's got mittens for hands, torn between all his options. Luckily he's saved from having to come up with anything wittier, the zombie's mind blown when the other Tribute takes off his hat and suddenly it's doing things no hat's ever meant to do. R gapes as it travels down the guy's arm, popping back onto his head like it's no big deal.

It's probably a good thing he handed the wine glass over. R would've dropped it all over their nice shoes because he's too busy gaping like a little kid with a bad case of rigor mortis.

"That's...that's...amazing!" R even finds it in him to tack on exclamation points. Seriously, you could do it over and over for days and he'd still be shocked and awed.

[tis_allgood]

Bert wasn't all that familiar with the zombie concept, which means he really does just assume R was a human with some odd quirks. Odder than most, for sure, but nothing beyond what he could handle. At least, as far as he knew.

"You are too kind, sai, 'tis only a trick."

But oh did he ever love the attention, he fed on this sort of attention like a tick. He took the gaping as a sign that maybe R wasn't all there, which Bert certainly understood and accepted. He had some antiquated views on women and society as a whole, but a person's mental capacity was one area he actually couldn't find ridicule for. Which explained why his tone was much more gentle and kind when he spoke again.

"Tell me you're not a competitor here. I cannot believe they would pull you here to kill and be killed for their amusement."

[shambler]

Make that "most awesome trick ever" and then they can talk.

R hunches his shoulders, shrugs, not offended because that was his reaction once it sank in why he was taken. Maybe it was because he was the most coherent zombie around - or he thought he'd been, until he met Karis Needleteeth. "I'm...Tr...ibute. District...Four. Rr?"

Realizing that sounds like a groan and not his name, R reaches up to point at himself.

"Name. R...Yours?"

It's kind of a shocker to ask for names and have the people he's talking to actually know theirs. Anyone who can pull magic with a hat like that? R definitely wants to know their name. R thinks he looks young for a human - not that he's the best judge of ages - with dark hair that's long for a guy, long enough for a zombie to entangle their fingers in and that's about where R probably should stop thinking. Yeah. He's getting borderline creepy.

The zombie's eyes drift back to the hat almost longingly, like he wants an encore.

[tis_allgood]

He took that to mean he was talking to someone named "Arre" or something similar, since a single letter for a name would be silly even by his standards.

"Cuthbert Allgood, though you can call me Bert, most friends of mine do. 'Tis far easier to yell than 'Cuthbert' when I've upset them, and that happens far too often for either of our likings, if you ken it."

Cuthbert was prone to babbling even in the best of circumstances, but it was almost as if he wanted to make up for R's lack of verbalization by offering some of his own. And just because he was a total sucker for the attention, Bert tipped the hat off his head again and rolled it back on just like before.

[shambler]

Bert was a way easier mouthful than his full name. R bobbed his head in a nod, about to rattle out that made sense when Bert pulled the hat trick. R forgot all about what he meant to say, gaping all over again like it was his first time seeing it.

"Ugh....I...." R was dazzled like he'd seen Vegas for the first time ever. The zombie gave a slow shake, trying to focus on having a conversation here like a person and zombie-ing out. C'mon, keep it together. "Cuh...ool name. How...learn...?"

R's grammar sucked today - he'd blame the magic trick because who wouldn't find that awesome? - the zombie's hand coming up to kinda-sorta point at Bert's hat. It sat there raked at an angle that frankly, looked really, really cool. R gathered Bert was a talker, got a little motor-mouth going there and that was great, that was totally fine. In fact, he liked listening to Bert's chatter. It made him feel like he was right there with him, just two guys discussing the coolest trick in the book.

[tis_allgood]

"I take it as a good sign that I have taken your words away. If you are asking how I do it, then the answer is practice. I am certain I could show you, if you had a hat and some time."

And maybe a bit more flexibility, but that could be a lot to ask of R. Still, Bert was willing to try. Especially when this was feeding his ego like no other.

"Tell you what... why not take my hat and I will convince the woman who gave it to me to get me another. That way you can practice now."

[shambler]

"Taking them away"? Try "making off like a bandit".

R's hand wobbled out to take the hat, touched because he was still unused to Living showing little acts of kindness like this to him. It wasn't normal. R knew this wasn't the status quo and it would be a lot different if this was back home. Didn't matter. R liked Bert and he liked the hat and he liked how he talked like it was an easy-going saunter. Swagger? R's torn between either word at this point. They both work with Bert, if you ask him.

"Thanks...Bert," R's groan sounds surprised, coming out soft because he doesn't know what to say. "Try...learn...ing...now?"

R can move fast for a corpse, when people like Bert light that fire under him. R's hungry for a hobby that isn't the same-old.

[tis_allgood]

"You are most welcome, my new friend. If you wish, we can practice now."

This was turning out to be much more adorable that he would have expected out of someone like R. But the capitol is full of surprises.

"The move is simple enough, 'tis just the timing that must be mastered."

He rolled his arm to demonstrate the way R would be able to mimic the movement. The trick is the make sure the hat is turned the right way to get it back on your head.

[shambler]

His new friend. R liked the sound of that. He rather have friends than a long list of people who would love to head-shot him or were pissed he ate a relative. Friends was much, much better. R would've nodded along at anything at this point, still enjoying this funny little feeling located somewhere where his guts should be. Bert? Veryawesome. R was glad all over again that they met.

"I'll...try," R said, after watching Bert's arm showing off how flexible he was. R's movements were much more stiff and jerky, not quite rolling like a fluid wave.

"How's...that?" R asked.

[tis_allgood]

Bert was actually tactful enough to not laugh at that.

"You may need a bit more practice, but I've no doubt you'll master it before long."

He smiled broadly and clapped R on the shoulder. R was a good man, even if he wasn't exactly what Bert thought he was. It did hurt a bit to know that they might be enemies as soon as the next arena started.