thecapitol | Speakeasy Conversations [OPEN]

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Speakeasy Conversations [OPEN]

WHO | Riddick and OPEN
WHAT | Looking for some information. And maybe a good beer.
WHEN | After his death, late week 4
WHERE | Speakeasy
WARNINGS / NOTES | As always, Riddick's language

So he hadn't been punished inside or outside the arena. Which meant either his conversation with the bartender at Speakeasy hadn't been overheard and registered by anyone important, or they were biding their time to see what he did with the information. Riddick was tentatively betting on the former.

Which meant it was time to get more information. Freshly revived and returned to the capitol, he spend a day getting reacquainted with the city and finding out about the whole curfew thing before stopping by the bar. He paced inside and went immediately to the bar. It took him two drinks-- cheap beer; he wasn't wasting credit tonight, not yet-- before he got around to mentioning Lilium and Conscientia.

Plenty of time for a chat with anyone else who happened to be in the bar, right?

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"Good game, handsome."

Conscientia leaned across the bar, teeth flashing white behind her vivid red lips. She was decked out to the nines in a boxy, pin striped suit, hair bleached white, cropped tights, with swirls shaved in.

She wasn't worried about riling him up. He could take it. And if he couldn't, she could handle him. She wasn't a woman too worried about standing her ground.

If she was going to think that would rile him up, she had another thing coming. He looked her up and down, smirked, and said, "Then you weren't watchin' that close, were you?" Considering he didn't kill a single person, he tripped one and made fun of another and helped a few more, and then froze to death swimming to the edge of the water barrier... yeah, it wasn't that great of a game, from most people's perspectives.

He was pretty content with it, though, he supposed.

"Around here, about the only remaining meaning to the word good is entertaining."

Her words were drawn out, a long slow drawl, and exaggerated capitol accent to match her exaggerated movements. and exaggerated features, for the matter.

"Oh, well, entertaining." He drew that word out, too, but none other. Even managed not to drop the G. "'Least I got that goin' for me. About all I'm likely to be in there, anyway, unless somethin' changes pretty big."

He wasn't entirely sure this was the woman he was supposed to talk to, but he'd heard more said here, freer than anywhere else, so he had a feeling about it. Anyone who would suggest he talk to the owner probably implied the other employees were also trustworthy, to an extent.

"I don't blame you. I wouldn't spill blood on command, either."

She shrugged, flashing him another bright, white smile.

"So can I get you anything? A drink? A few?"

Nice of her to say so, he guessed. "Never turn down a drink. Hopin' I'm here for more than that, though." Because he could get drinks anywhere he wanted, if that wasn't the case. Even if the last time he came here his had been free, he wasn't expecting that again.

"Oh?"

She arched an eyebrow. Was this one of them, then?

"And who told you that?"

She started mixing the drink. it wasn't often she played bartender personally, but he had her attention.

"Gal named Lillium. Nice chick. Gave me my drink for free, after dancin' around a subject for ten minutes." Not that he minded so much, really, at the time. He understood the caution-- at the time, he'd been just as bad. Maybe even worse. "Told me to talk to somebody named Conscientia."

He watched her with little apparent interest of his own, though behind the glasses, he was definitely trained to her face.

Her lips curled up at the mention of Lilium, in an obvious endeared way.

"I guess that means you passed the test."

She slid the drink over and leaned across the counter towards him.

"Welcome to the club."

"Oh, so there's a club?" Riddick took the drink and leaned an elbow on the bar, himself. "That's gonna be a new thing. Never been in a club. Maybe somebody oughta let me in on th'nature of this 'club'." He could guess, of course, but tonight he was a bit tired of the dancing around. He wanted an answer or two.

And if she was talking opening about it, who he had been invited here no behalf of, she either must have known it was safe, or else knew the risks she took and deemed them necessary.

"So to speak."

She glanced around. It was a quiet night, and she trusted most of the regulars, but better safe then sorry.

"I've got your t-shirt in the back."

"Free t-shirts, too. Sounds like fun." He tossed back the drink, not giving the alcohol any proper reverence, and pushed up from his chair. If it was time for answers, then he was going to go see about what they were. "Let's hope you got one in my size."

"I think we've got at least one..."

And she lead him back, through a hallway, into a quiet private room. She had willingly let the Capitol but a monitoring device in her office, and did just enough business in there to satisfy them that they had heard what they needed. But it did make very delicate news need to be elsewhere.

"So, Lilium says you're a good candidate."

"That'll be a first," Riddick commented, looking around with mild interest at the room they were in. "Maybe you guys can give me some plain talk about what I'm a good candidate for. All I remember is talkin' around how much we didn't much like the whole Capitol arena killing thing, and how much I did like screwin' the arena folks out of the money to buy me booze."

He was moderately sure this was some kind of resistance movement, by this point, or else maybe some kind of spy-on-the-Tributes gang. Either way, he wanted details.

"We need...special candidates. And that's a damn good start."

She reached down, pulling the lapel of her jacket up so it pinned to her throat, an embroider mocking jay caught in flames now revealed in the jacket's new style.

"Not everyone here approve of the Games, of this whole...thing. And we're doing something about it."

Riddick had spent weeks between arenas learning as much as he could about these Games, so it would have been impossible to not have heard about Katniss, the "girl on fire" shit, and that particular symbol, previously enshrined in the form of a pin. Even if it wasn't exactly what the important people wanted people to be talking about.

So he eyed that thing with curiosity but no confusion, and nodded. "And what are you doin' about it, then? And what're you expectin' me to do?" There wasn't acceptance there-- yet-- but there wasn't derision, either. Just a flat pair of questions.

"Right now? Nothing loud. Not here."

And she wasn't sure she wanted to go into all the details of 13 yet.

"We're gathering number. Growing a support system. Here and in the Districts. Giving them the means for when they're ready."

"I ain't gonna be much use in dealing with the populace, lady," Riddick pointed out, arms folded across his chest and regarding her coolly from behind his sunglasses. "That's not my thing. I don't even get along with the populace, usually."

Now, if she wanted him to kill someone... or not kill someone... or make some kind of contact that might require killing someone... then he'd be useful.

She shrugged.

"You're strong, you're tough, and you can access the arena. Seems like there'll be some sorta use for you, somewhere."

Some sort of use, somewhere. Right. Riddick didn't like ambiguous agreements. Nor did he like being left out of the details. "So you just brought me in here to say maybe you got soemthin' I can do, and maybe there's a plan, and maybe I should be in on it? Unless you got somethin' concrete to tell me, there's no point to any of this shit. So do you got a point, or do I walk out now?"

She arched an eyebrow at him.

"By all means, feel free to walk up to President Snow and take him down. I'm sure it'll work well."

She gave him a moment, before leaning back and watching him.

"This situation...moving in it is tight. Maybe you haven't noticed, but the Capitol doesn't exactly give us the heads up to what's going on and leave us plenty of alone time to make plans."

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Speakeasy Conversations [OPEN]

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sorry for the reply, had to grill Lilium-mun

figured that's what that PP was about XD

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