blah blah void blah blah spiders blah blah science [open]

[youbarium]

Who| Carlos and anyone
What| Since Carlos's survival hinges on his ability to act like he doesn't care, he's going about his business as usual. Even though he and Cecil had a very short-lived but very public romantic relationship, he's acting like he doesn't care. Come make his life harder. Come ask him how he feels.
Where| The D10 rooms, a coffeeshop, and the Speakeasy
When| After Penny and Cruentus's classy, classy announcement.
Warnings/Notes Possible mention of torture, drinking in the last prompt. Also, the first two prompts will involve Carlos denying any real feelings for Cecil. If you want an honest discussion with him, it'll have to be in the Speakeasy.

PROMPT A: D10 common room

Carlos had known what to expect. Penny had announced that Cecil would be avoxed, after all. He had known this was coming.

That had not made keeping a straight face during the broadcast any easier.

He turned off his communicator and knew that if he was going to make this act convincing, he couldn't hide up in his room all day. Carlos hated this act. It was like he had told one lie in the Arena and hadn't been able to stop lying since. It disgusted him. However, he knew that at this point, he had no choice.

There was no need to fake the irritation on Carlos's face as he walked out into the D10 common area and sat down in one of the chairs. He pulled out a notebook and began to scribble in it. Was he writing or drawing? It would be hard to tell...

PROMPT B: TRIBUTE CENTER COMMONS: GENERIC CAPITOL COFFEESHOP

Here Carlos was, sitting in the very place Dave had brought his last words to Cecil, drinking something too hot for the midsummer weather and talking into his tape recorder. If you get close enough, you might hear snatches of what he was saying:

"--correct about my impending death--"

"--new tactic--"

"--willingly cooperate--"

This part of the Tribute center was open to the public: anyone might pass by and see him.

PROMPT C: THE SPEAKEASY

Carlos wasn't one to drink out of sadness. Not usually. He had been in and out of the Speakeasy these past few weeks, having important discussions about the rebellion.

This time, though, he was after some self-administered emotional numbing.

"I don't even know what's in this," he muttered to himself, staring at the half-empty glass in front of him, which was a mass of swirling colors.

PROMPT D: ELEVATORS

Being two floors from the top meant that Carlos stood a solid chance of sharing an elevator on the way two and from the D10 rooms. He was used to it, and usually, didn't mind it. Today, however, it was all but a guarantee that whoever he ended up in the elevator with would be awkward as hell, and Carlos was really tired of dealing with it. He shifted from foot to foot in his lab coat, trying not to sigh when the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

Comments

[youbarium]

"I wonder what religion they practice here," Carlos mused. "I haven't seen any temples, or churches, or bloodstone obelisks anywhere."

[splendid_roman]

"Maybe they're not allowed a religion. No one can possibly be more powerful than President Snow." He chuckled at his own terrible joke and then sipped at his drink.

[youbarium]

"A religion must have existed on this world at some point. Their names are all very Roman, but they don't seem to worship any of the Roman gods." The almost idle turn their conversation had taken was almost relaxing. It was a question Carlos was mildly curious about but not one that he had to devote any real worry to.

[splendid_roman]

"Religion does seem to be something that early cultures all have in common," he said thoughtfully, sipping at his drink. "I can't imagine this place values history very highly, though, so I don't suppose we'd be able to find out what their religion was like."

[youbarium]

"There are pieces of art that survived the cataclysm in the art museum," Carlos suggested. Then, a pained look flashed across his face. "I went there with Cecil a week ago. I would have gone sooner, but after Arena Nine, it was hard to make myself go in. I kept thinking that if I did, the door would shut behind me and I'd be trapped." He knew this fear was perfectly irrational, but just because something was irrational didn't mean it wasn't real.

[splendid_roman]

Ian could understand that fear - he'd ended up with a few irrational ones himself and not all from the arena either. "Something like that happened to you in the arena?" he guessed.

[youbarium]

"It was more the setup of the whole arena. Being trapped in a museum for a month makes you think twice before going in one again, even if you know it's not the same." Carlos pulled his glasses off and twirled them around in his fingers. It gave him something to do with his hands, something to look at that wasn't Ian. "I can't listen to recordings about Pluto anymore, either."

[splendid_roman]

"Oh, that." Ian frowned into his glass. The museum was the arena he hadn't seen much of, since he'd set himself on fire at the start of it. "The capitol really knows how to ruin all the fun," he said, trying to make a joke and lighten the mood a little.

[youbarium]

Carlos broke a smile, more than willing to let the mood lighten.

"Do you know, they reclassified Pluto a couple of years ago? It's not considered a planet anymore, just a trans-Neptunian object that's part of the Kuiper Belt. Panem's information is out of date."

[splendid_roman]

"They did?" Ian looked surprised at that. He hadn't expected to find a time when there were fewer planets in the solar system than there were now. "That doesn't seem fair to Pluto."

[youbarium]

"I know," Carlos said, absolutely sympathetic. "It's a lot to accept. I grew up thinking Pluto was a planet, too. The problem is, unlike the other eight planets, Pluto hasn't cleared its orbit. There are other dwarf-planets very like Pluto that are in the same section of space. Pluto was just the biggest one we knew about for a long time."

He hadn't wanted to accept it, either, but he couldn't argue with the science.