"Barbie" (Dale Barbara) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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thecapitol2014-09-30 10:51 pm
baaarbie) wrote in thecapitol2014-09-30 10:51 pm
Entry tags:
[Closed] A scientist and a soldier walk into a bar
Who| Dale Barbara and Carlos
What| A little easy speaking
Where| The Speakeasy
When| After the arena ends
Warnings/Notes| None right now
When the blackout had hit, Barbie hadn't wasted any time in taking advantage. He knew he wasn't the only one, but on the off chance of being caught, he'd gone alone...and it had payed off. He'd come away with, well, not a whole lot but enough.
He'd written down everything he could find out, memorized it and burned the paper. The information was important, but being found with it would make it pointless and cost him more than invites to parties. He had to pass the information off to someone else, the question was just who.
It hadn't taken long to decide, a little poking into his options reminded him of a partial conversation that the cameras had caught during the arena. Jess' favorite, Albert and that man that Cecil had a thing for, Carlos had briefly discussed the capitol and while the gamemakers had tactfully switched away to cover the conversation (and switched back in time for the riveting romance conversation) it had been enough for Barbie.
He sent a message to Carlos with a time and the location of the speakeasy but didn't attach his name, hopefully he'd still come. With Carlos' description left with a bartender he trusted, Barbie sat at the back of the dark room with drinks on the table and waited.
What| A little easy speaking
Where| The Speakeasy
When| After the arena ends
Warnings/Notes| None right now
When the blackout had hit, Barbie hadn't wasted any time in taking advantage. He knew he wasn't the only one, but on the off chance of being caught, he'd gone alone...and it had payed off. He'd come away with, well, not a whole lot but enough.
He'd written down everything he could find out, memorized it and burned the paper. The information was important, but being found with it would make it pointless and cost him more than invites to parties. He had to pass the information off to someone else, the question was just who.
It hadn't taken long to decide, a little poking into his options reminded him of a partial conversation that the cameras had caught during the arena. Jess' favorite, Albert and that man that Cecil had a thing for, Carlos had briefly discussed the capitol and while the gamemakers had tactfully switched away to cover the conversation (and switched back in time for the riveting romance conversation) it had been enough for Barbie.
He sent a message to Carlos with a time and the location of the speakeasy but didn't attach his name, hopefully he'd still come. With Carlos' description left with a bartender he trusted, Barbie sat at the back of the dark room with drinks on the table and waited.
no subject
He had returned to the Capitol to find Cecil gone; dead or in 13, Carlos had no way of knowing. The scientist didn't know whether he was relieved or terrified, since he did not have enough data to settle on either, so he felt both. In addition, he felt a sense of crawling guilt about leaving Clara to win the Hunger Games. For Carlos, dying actually was the better option, and in taking his own life, he might have robbed Clara of her chance to reach District 13.
However, he had received a message with a time and a place. The time was unremarkable, but the place, the place he recognized. It was enough to get Carlos out of the Tribute center and into a fresh lab coat, enough to let him mention that he was going out for drinks, no big deal, he deserved one or two after that arena, and enough to see him into the Speakeasy with no idea what he was looking for until a waiter shooed him over to a table in the back.
"Hello," he says, visibly surprised to see a Capitolite. "I assume you're the person I'm here to meet?"
no subject
"That's me." He gestured to the chair across from him. "I didn't know what you liked to drink, but it's strong if that appeals to you." It appealed to him. The political climate, trying to climb his way back into a favorable position so he could help his tributes and keep Jess safe, trying to do that while not making enemies of the people he was trying to help...it was worthy of a stiff drink.
He waited for Carlos to sit before extending his hand to the other man as a proper greeting. "I don't know if you know me, but I'm Dale Barbara, mentor from District 1 and what I've got to talk to you about is very sensitive." Thus why they were stuffed in a dark corner where eyes and ears weren't likely to pry.
no subject
"After everything that's happened, I could use a strong drink," he said. "But maybe later. First, I want to know what is it you brought me here to talk about, and why you wanted to talk to me."
After all, Carlos didn't know Dale, and had no good reason yet to trust him.
no subject
"I called on you because I heard part of your conversation with Albert Heinrich of District 3. I know your position on the Capitol and before you try denying or making some excuse, I wouldn't have called you if that wasn't a good thing.
I know you have no reason to trust me, especially considering the district I'm from, but I'm going to have to ask you to anyway; what I have to tell you might be helpful to someone who wants to see the Capitol fall." If Carlos even knew a little bit about how the games went before, he'd know that Districts 1 and 2 were the ones that produced the Careers, raised to murder and trained to do nothing but be a victor. If their roles were switched, Barbie wouldn't trust someone supposedly in the Capitol's lap either.
"I have to know you're willing to do something with this information before I can give it to you. What do you say?"
no subject
"I'm done making excuses to the Capitol. I tried, and...well, you saw where it got me." The brand was still there, on his temple: healed but ugly. "I don't think anyone, pro-Capitol or not, would believe me now if I said I supported anything it did." Carlos sounded tired as he said that: it had been a long three months for him.
"Listen, Mr. Barbara, I don't think this is a trap. If you were spying for the Capitol and you knew about this place, you wouldn't use it to catch someone like me. You'd be making arrests left and right and then finally shutting it down. I'll listen to what you have to say, and if I believe it, I'll make sure it gets to the right people." It was only because he trusted Barbie wasn't a spy that Carlos was willing to admit that much: he couldn't admit he had rebellion contacts to anyone else. He had pulled through the Capitol's first interrogation by the skin of his teeth and only because the torturers had been looking for information Carlos didn't have. If they ever tried to get rebellion names from him...there were too many good people Carlos could compromise.
no subject
"Part of this information is visual, this is dangerous and I'm sorry, but it's the only way to give you the information." He began drawing something that was clearly some kind of intricate machinery, a blueprint. "But some of it I can just tell you and it's your choice, recording or written, how you want to keep it."
He paused, allowing Carlos some time to choose before continuing with what he had to say, all the while drawing the blueprint he'd spent hours memorizing detail by detail.
"There was a blackout in the arena, I believe you were still there when that happened. It happened here in the city too and during that time I found out some things that I'm sure the Capitol would be less than pleased to find out I knew. This is one of them. There's an underground to the capitol and some parts of it are booby trapped. I don't know how many traps there are or what kinds they are, except this one.
This is a blueprint for the acid bomb trap that's set up down there along with instructions on how to recognize it and disarm it. It's not too far a stretch to assume it could be replicated..."
Barbie quickly but clearly wrote down the instructions along with a list on the side of the paper, a list of locations.
"This list is some of the places where these traps can be found. There's not a doubt in my mind that there are more than these ones I could find."
He slid the paper over to Carlos and quickly pulled out another one on which he began drawing another blueprint.
"You should know that one of the arenas, the fourth one since the new games began, was a nuclear wasteland. The radiation from it is leaking out of the arena and infecting the district around it. I don't know how far it spreads or how quickly it's spreading. But there is one piece of good news: for years, there's been a whisper that the capitol has nuclear weapons that it can use to wipe out rebels..."
Here he paused, writing out another list of locations labeled 'blind spots' then looked up to catch Carlos' gaze.
"Everyone knows that District 13 was wiped out by nuclear attack over seventy years ago...but here's the kicker: I found explicit evidence that the Capitol does not have nuclear weapons. Not now...and not back then. It's the longest bluff in the history of this country."
He let what that meant come to Carlos on his own. 13 must still be out there and, more importantly, the biggest threat the Capitol held over the rest of the nation was hollow. He looked back down to the paper he still had and finally slid it over to the scientist.
"This is about the only other thing that could be nearly as important as what I just told you. On this paper you'll find a blueprint for the technology that has brought all of you into our world. From what I can tell this isn't all of it, only a portion...but I firmly believe that, in the right hands, it could be expounded upon and maybe even replicated...or even reverse-engineered."
no subject
"If all this is true," he breathed, "it could change everything."
Dramatic? Yes. But this is Carlos, who wears a lab coat everywhere that absolutely snaps cinematically in the wind. How else was he supposed to react to news of this magnitude?
His eyes snapped back up to Barbie's. "Thank you," he said, and it was heartfelt. "It was really brave of you to get all this. But if you don't mind my asking -- you're from District 1. I know what it's like there. I know the kind of attitude their Victors usually have. So what made you turn against the Capitol?"
Even with all this information, even though it was scientifically extremely unlikely that Barbie was lying to him, Carlos still wanted to know. If only for curiosity's sake, or for his own peace of mind, Carlos wanted to understand the why of this mind-blowingly generous act.
no subject
"What you know of District 1 probably isn't too far off and I used to be that way too, but a few years after my victory, I discovered the real price of the Games the hard way. The family member of someone who I killed directly found me and gave me a peace of her mind. She shook what I knew and made me start to open my eyes a little more to the way things really are."
He paused, his gaze never wavering, but his expression and voice softened. "And I fell in love with a woman who's been badly hurt by the capitol and her own Games. I'm tired of watching people suffer because of the capitol."
He couldn't help his thoughts turning to Jessica. The things she had to do to survive her Games and the fallout that's happened in her life ever since, he knows she honestly thinks she's a slut and a bad person even though he doesn't see her that way. She can't see what he does and he knows it's because of their government and what it's done.
If he didn't think she'd only suffer more for it-both Jessica and his own tributes-he'd be trying everything in his power to bring the Capitol down himself. But that was why he had to turn to someone else, someone who could actually do something.
no subject
"That's good enough for me," he says. "I can take down the instructions and the locations of the traps and blind spots in code," Carlos goes on, reaching into a pocket for his tape recorder, which he always had on him because of course he was a scientist. "The blueprints, though, I'm not sure I can memorize." He looked at Barbie.
"Do you think I could leave them here? I can't think of a better place to hide them."
no subject
Carlos' question receives a nod in return. "The older bar keep is someone I've known for years, you can trust him to keep them safe.
Thank you, by the way. You didn't have to trust me, I appreciate you did. I don't know how much more good I'll be able to do from here on out, so I'm glad I could get this to you."
no subject
He wants to know how secret Barbie wants his involvement to be. It would be dangerous to tell other rebel elements about Barbie in case it got out to the wrong person, but if the rebellion got far enough, it would also be dangerous for Barbie if the seditious Tributes and District 13 didn't know he was an ally.
no subject
"When the tributes were arrested on suspicion of Penny's death, I tried to break one of them out. We were caught and ever since, I've been blacklisted and marked as a traitor." He lifted the sleeve of his jacket to show the silver bracelet he'd been given.
"It's a slap on the wrist compared to what others had to go through, but it could mean danger for not only the people I love but also my tributes. I can't get them sponsors if sponsors won't even look at me, much less talk or listen.
So, yes, for now I need you to keep it a secret. For how long you keep it a secret, I will leave to your discretion, but for now I need to pretend to be someone I'm not, even at the risk of losing friends."
no subject
"If I make it to Thirteen," Carlos promised, "I can let them know you're an ally there. I can't see that getting back to the Capitol any time soon, so it probably won't hurt you." And when the fighting started, it might save Barbie's life.
no subject
"Thanks. I have to go, I'll leave these with the bar keep." He picked up the papers with the blueprints and offered his hand again before standing.
"I'd wait a little after I leave to leave yourself, just in case. Keep yourself safe, Carlos."
no subject
All of this is said very matter-of-factly.
"Good luck to you, too."