thecapitol | (no subject)

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WHO| Alpha and OPEN
WHAT| Alpha is not pleased with his little slip in the Arena, so he's sulking about it in public.
WHERE| The Art Museum.
WHEN| A few days after the latest Arena's completion,
WARNINGS| Is Alpha warning enough? I think that's about it, for now.

Finally, finally, Alpha had found it. A place without screens. Apparently even the Capitol understood that art needed a home without distractions to be properly appreciated. Or they just pretended to understand, like how most of the patrons here pretended they were actually interested in the works when really all they cared about was looking sophisticated.

Not that it mattered either way. What mattered was that Alpha was, temporarily, free from the constant reminders of not only his dismal performance in the last Arena, but his unforgivable ... lapse in control. To think that everybody had seen, had heard. Well. The expression it caused on his face probably explained why the other patrons were leaving him alone to glower on a bench facing a positively atrocious statue.

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For a moment, Howard doesn't realize that Alpha's there. He gets filed into Howard's peripheral vision as another statue. It's only when he gets closer, looking at the atrocious subject of Alpha's glower, that he realizes that whoops, Alpha's a person. He startles.

"Whoa, man, you scared me there."

Alpha glances at the boy, intending to categorize and dismiss him as unimportant, but the face is familiar and his eyebrows raise. "My apologies," he says absently, giving Howard a once-over.

Howard, one of the Tributes thrown into the Games mid-Arena. Possibly it didn't mean anything more than a desperate attempt to mix things up, but just in case he straightened, giving the boy more of his attention. If he had a different experience than Alpha, that possibly meant he knew something about the process Alpha didn't.

He grins. "I certainly wouldn't want to scare anyone."

The grin doesn't exactly bestow a sense of sincerity on Alpha's words, and Howard's a naturally suspicious type. He recognizes Alpha's face from some of the arena footage, although at the moment he can't remember anything about it.

"You're a tribute," he says, not as a question but as a statement. "You come here to hide from the crowds?"

"There's really no way to escape the crowds," he says with a shrug, and there's layers of meaning to that sentence for Alpha, but he's careful not to let that show. "Here, at least, they're too busy pretending to be sophisticated to swarm us. You are a Tribute too, aren't you?" It might put the boy at ease, if he thinks he's in control of the information flow on his end.

And unfortunately for Howard, he falls for it. There's a slight relaxation in his shoulders as he keeps the conversation going. "Yeah, got put in mid-Arena, after everyone got all the supplies. I might've lasted longer if I didn't get an infection. You?"

"Oh, I just made the worst mistake a man can in that situation." He indicated the bench, letting Howard know he was free to sit if he wanted, and put on an air of an old prize fighter lecturing the rookies. "I let myself get distracted. And the sickness didn't help, I have to admit."

He tilted his head at Howard thoughtfully. "Not exactly fair, throwing you in without even the chance to grab something. They must have had a lot of confidence in you." Alpha couldn't tell yet if Howard was the type to fall for compliments, so slipping one in as an observation more than anything else was a way to test that as good as any.

"Yeah, well, it's hard to stay focused when your skin's peeling off in rashes, I guess."

He takes the seat, although he pulls his legs up so he's curled up more than relaxing, and leans back with his hands behind him. It's a defensive position, one he doesn't even notice he takes. He shakes his head - he knows it's better not to give more information than you have to to another tribute, but he figures it's better to underplay than overplay his skills, and besides, compliments rankle.

"Not really. I think they probably just processed me late or something. Didn't seem like they had a niche carved out for me or anything."

Modest, possibly falsely so, possibly he's genuinely fairly pathetic -- although the last Arena made it difficult to judge anyone fairly on their skills, after all. "Well, a different experience then," Alpha says, carefully filing away observations. Street kid? Abused? Runaway? Not enough to be sure, but by appearance and attitude so far and from the files and video Alpha perused regularly, the boy wasn't exactly happy and healthy back home.

"What did you think of the experience? Did our illustrious hosts treat you well?" He grinned, wry and commiserating. If nothing else, Alpha was fairly sure Howard wasn't one of the precious few Tributes enjoying the process, though his actual opinions of it Alpha couldn't guess just yet.

"Oh man, once I died my way out of the Arena it's been awesome. There's like, forty-five different settings on the showers in the suite. I feel clean for the first time in a year."

He runs his hands over his wrists and hair, as if illustrating it. As far as he sees it, enthusing about the Capitol is a safe enough topic. It doesn't require him really tipping his hand about knowing traps and poisonous plants, which are, at the moment, the only things he has up his sleeves. That and picking locks, but that didn't really come in handy last time.

It's not even really striking Howard that Alpha's shared so little information about himself.

"The Arena sucks, but I mean, if they keep feeding us and letting us use their stuff, no one's really dying for real here...so it's like really crappy employment for really worthwhile pay. I can do anything for a few days if I know they're going to take care of me when it's done."

"Died your way out," repeats Alpha, terribly amused by the matter-of-fact phrasing. And street kid is sounding more and more likely. He can't exactly bond with the boy over enjoying the Capitol perks, since the ridiculous decadence just has bad connotations for him. But he can always fake it.

"That's a very pragmatic view on things. I can admire that in a man. And I do have to admit, this city sure is ... something. And the technology is just --" There's a gleam in Alpha's eye that is entirely sincere. " --fascinating. The things they can do, ressurection is really the least of it."

He comes back to himself abruptly and smiles at the kid again, leaning in conspiratorially. "First time I had the time, I spent a good two hours in the tub, just trying every knob."

The moment Alpha starts going on about himself is the moment you need to start looking for a way out. Although by that time you're usually in a lair and that's not really an option.

Howard squinches his eyebrows together at the word 'man'. It's strange, he's so used to thinking of himself as a kid, just one capable of taking care of himself when the universe isn't deciding to dunk him way out of his depth.

"Yeah? Like what kind of technology are you thinking? Because I was talking with another girl here and thinking that if she could take just a handful of stuff here back home, she could make a killing. The science here is insane."

When Alpha leans in, Howard leans away. It's not that he doesn't like the thought, or even that Alpha's setting him ill at ease, but he's just not keen on having his personal space invaded. Years of bullying, abuse, low self-esteem, just not into that sort of thing - pick one. He likes his personal bubble.

"I could shower all day in there. I think I probably would and the water would never run cold. That's what this kind of place is."

"Oh, all sort of technology," says Alpha casually, obligingly leaning back. "Whatever they used to bring us here for one, though of course I doubt they'd let anyone take a look, even for the sake of science." He shakes his head at this grave injustice.

He then grins at Howard. "You've got an enterprising sort of mind. And you're right, of course, I imagine many of the places they pulled us from would benefit from the tech here. At a reasonable price." Not that Alpha fully believed this talk of 'other worlds', but no reason to bring that up.

"Not to mention what they do that brings us back from the brink of death -- or actual death, if you can believe that."

"Have you gotten a look? Are you a scientist?" Because, to Howard, someone so interested in science is either a professional or a fellow scoundrel. He flushes a bit at the comment about his enterprising mind and shuffles his feet on the floor, clearing his throat awkwardly. He's well aware of what happened to the last kid like him who got too ambitious - lynched in his own home.

"I'm not suggesting nothing. I just think there are avenues to making money that the people here aren't exploring. Maybe if they wanted like...advice, instead of just a show, we could be useful to them."

"Scientist is ... a word for what I am," Alpha shrugged carelessly, smiling a little. "I prefer to think of myself of a jack of all trades type -- master of most." The smile flickered into a more thoughtful expression. "I haven't been able to really look at it, no. Not yet. They're very careful to make sure we're unconscious the entire time, I'm betting."

Alpha barked a laugh, though he softened it for the benefit of his audience. "I think as far as they're concerned entertainment is all we're useful for. Think of it as a compliment, if it helps. Trust me, there is no price too high for humanity's pleasure."

"Just seems a waste."

Howard almost asks what kind of things Alpha's a master of, but then he catches sight of a clock in the corner and remembers he has an appointment. Getting used to telling time by clock again is strange for him.

"I'll keep an eye out for you next arena." He gets up and makes an 'I'm watching you' gesture by pointing to his eyes with two fingers, then turning them at Alpha. "Sounds like you know what's up."

Alpha laughed again, returning Howard's gesture with a lazy salute. "Good thinking, my man," he said, already returning his eyes to the affront to art before him. "I'll do the same." And he would, though as of yet he wasn't quite sure what purpose Howard could serve. No reason to simply discard him. Not yet.

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