thecapitol | People In Glass Houses...

Who | Timaeus Nadir and guests
What | Timaeus is hosting a picnic get-together/catch-up.
Where | The picnic will be taking place in the Tropical Habitat Dome.
When| We'll be using a bit of wibbly time so that people who want to attend can.
Warnings/Notes| None as of yet.

(This is an opportunity for me to make some new CR as well as catch up with ongoing relationships, but I also want to encourage tagging around between characters! Feel free to do whatever you like in the setting with whoever you like! Also I will be backtagging this so don't feel you've missed the boat if you haven't tagged in immediately <3)

Timaeus certainly knew how to organise a gathering- even if it wasn't an outrageously opulent celebration to be held on one of his own yachts. This one was to be held under the expansive dome of the Tropical Habitat- the entire location rented out for the day to Timaeus and his guests, a loosely private affair- formal invitations as such hadn't been extended, but those welcome knew they were. Naturally, all tributes and victors were included in this group.

The Dome was a beautiful piece of architecture in itself, though antiquated when compared with the technology used for the Arenas. Rather than invisible forcefields, the climate of the interior was separated from the outside by elaborately curving steel and glass. Inside, tropical plants of all types thrived- there was a still, green pond and, deeper inside, a cascading waterfall. Butterflies in hundreds of colours, sizes and shapes flitted about, tropical birds swooped between the trees, brightly coloured fish darted in the water.
Blankets and cushions had been scattered in the main clearing with hampers of food, but there was plenty of space for the guests to break away from the gathering if they so desired- the dome was full of winding paths through the greenery- some even climbing around the trunks of the largest trees and leading to viewing platforms above. In a temporary gazebo in the clearing, a string quartet played music that wasn't quite the classical pieces Tributes were familiar with.

Timaeus himself seemed in a brighter mood than he had been for months, more than happy to make conversation with anyone who approached him- though he was certainly keeping an eye open for particular individuals. Some that he'd met, some that he'd lost and had returned to him, and others still that he had yet to meet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Good." Howard's voice is serious. "He needs people looking out for him. Apparently I suck at it."

There's a certain bitterness there, an unspoken 'maybe he doesn't even want me to anymore'. Jealousy.

"But I'm his best friend, so just don't horn in on that position, okay?" He says that lightly to cover how seriously he means it.

Her eyebrows raise up her forehead and she puts her hands up in the air.

"I'm not trying to, like, invade your territory or some shit, Howard. I'm just not out to make any enemies, and I didn't want you to be pissed with me."

She let down her hands a bit and made a calculated risk of reaching out and punching his shoulder incredibly gently. (She really hoped she wouldn't regret it.)

"Okay? We cool?"

Howard flinches when she reaches for his shoulder, but takes the punch in the manner it's intended. Friendly.

"We're cool. And it's not your fault. I watched the tape, I know it was an accident." He cracks his neck. "I'm glad you and Wyatt ended up putting the water to good use."

She notices the flinch but decides it's probably better not to bring it up and just roll with it.

"Yeah. And then I had to go and fail him too," She said, trying to make it a joke but it came out a little too tight. "Turns out I'm no better at keeping people alive here than I was back home." No one but Joel, anyway.

"Anyway, like, how are you? I haven't seen you in a while."

"You try and keep people alive, you're going to get disappointed. I tried to take an arrow for my ex this Arena, and the she goes and asks for death after I get killed in the process." He clicks his tongue and shakes his head, somewhere between exasperation and humor.

"I'm, you know. I'm okay. Same as always. You stop being fazed by this after a while."

Liar.

"At least here they come back," She says, and there's something in her voice that makes it really obvious that she really means it. That it was one of the only things in this place that she had latched on to and dragged close to her chest. Here, people came back. She resisted the sudden strange urge to ask about his ex.

"Oh really," She says, a little sarcastically, and not really believing him though she let it lie. She'd never met a person who was 'okay', so she wasn't sure she knew what it looked like.

"Well I'm not, yet. I can't even get over the parties." She pulled aside a large leaf to look back at a bunch of the guests. "Do they throw parties like this for everyone? I heard people used to have birthday parties and stuff, ages ago." She let the leaf drop back into place. "Do I get one even if my birthday passed in the arena?"

"Most of the time," Howard says, drizzling a little rain on her parade before he moves to sunnier topics. He picks at the bark of a tree with his fingers and pulls off a piece, rolling it in between his fingertips.

"These parties are lame. Birthday parties are way better. Promise if you have one I'll take you out for it? I'm not super good at birthday parties but if you've never had one, it's not like you'll notice when I'm fucking up."

Most of the time was better than never, and she wasn't going to let it go.

"Well, I mean, I would have already had one I guess. I was only a few weeks from my birthday when I was brought here." She paused, frowning. "It's weird, you know. Time is weird in this place. The Arena kind of threw me off my game, I think. Lost track of the days." She shakes it off, and then turns and grins at him.

"So I guess that means you need to take me out, huh?"

Howard raises his eyebrows and scratches the back of his neck. A smile crosses over one half of his face more than the other. "I guess I kind of walked into that one. Okay, sure. So tell me, what did they tell you about birthday parties?"

He's making a mental list - arcade, birthday cake, some present he steals for her. Maybe inviting Orc to prove things are really okay.

"Uh, I heard that you're supposed to give me a pony," Ellie said, grinning widely and unapologetically. "Something something candles something something spankings - I'm sure I don't even fucking know. People all have their own different stories, you know?"

"I just thought it would be fun to actually fucking do something more than people just remarking how a kid even made it this far."

"Ask your Mentors for a pony, you ain't getting one from me. Or spankings." He raises an eyebrow and makes a silly face.

"For me, birthdays was like, cake and presents. And laser tag. And you invited all your friends. You got a list of cool people you want to pretend to shoot with lasers?"

She snorts at the face, but then seems to take the rest seriously, though she makes a bit of a confused face.

"What the fuck is laser tag?" She asks, and then shrugs.

"I don't know. Is it supposed to be a big deal? I don't really think anyone is going to want to hang out for it, but uh... You, Mindy and Venus obviously, and you can bring Orc if you want... I don't think Wyatt or Hawkeye would really be in for tagging people with 'lasers' or shit."

"Oh-" She adds suddenly, "And R, duh, if he promises not to eat anyone and at least try to pretend to play the games."

Edited (i will stop forgetting people eventually) 2013-12-22 13:28 (UTC)

People In Glass Houses...

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