thecapitol | (no subject)

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Who| Alpha and OPEN
What| Alpha's pissy and drinking.
Where| A bar, quiet and focused on drinking.
When| Post Arena, Pre-Lockdown
Warnings/Notes| Standard Alpha warnings, in particular homicidal thoughts, otherwise none so far.

There was a part of Alpha, a few parts actually, that were starting to suspect that the Games were all some big plot to humiliate him for all to see. It would explain a lot. He pondered this possibility darkly, along with the problem of Ballard, not to mention the problem of Howard.

And, as always, the ever-present issue of not being where he needed to be. These problems and more, since multi-tasking was a necessary skill of Alpha's, he considered while he sat at the bar in the first dive he could find where nobody would bother him for autograph's or what have you, nursing a tumbler and glaring moodily at the rows of bottles on the wall.

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Alpha had mostly ignored the past Victors and Mentors. Now he considered keeping a closer eye on them, because, judging by Eva and what he knows of them, they're probably the most unstable group of people in the city.

"A connoisseur," he repeated, turning the word over in his head. "Flattering. I've never been called pragmatic, either, this is a night full of new experiences. I like to think of myself as a man of passion."

That's putting it lightly, although it's not as if Sponsors are the most predictable either.

"I guess that all depends," she leans in close, not seductively but woozily, "on what it is you have a passion for, and whether it's worth even calling it a passion."

"Does it?" said Alpha, lifting a hand to push her firmly back towards her own seat. He was not in the mood to have drunken middle-aged women falling into his lap. "Are you the one to ask, to make sure I'm worthy of word 'passion'."

Her tone changes there. Something steely and violent glints in her eyes. Muscles in her jaw tense. "Don't touch me."

And she takes another drink.

Alpha paused and a slow smile crept onto his face. "Not the cuddly type? And here I was hoping we could top off this lovely night with a snuggle."

Eva reaches a hand over and places it on Alpha's shoulder. She tries to make it slinky but it's clearly retaliatory. "No, I'm plenty cuddly. But you're not understanding our relationship here. You're a Tribute, I'm a Mentor. I can touch if I want, but vice versa..."

She wags a finger.

Alpha let the smile sharpen into something sharper, more predatory. "Is that so? Sounds kind of boring to me, not to mention a waste of my not inconsequential talents in the touching department." He pointedly didn't remove the hand from his shoulder, instead leaned forward. "But if you're asking me to lie back and think of the Capitol--well, I don't really have a choice in the matter, do I?" If not for the biting tone, just by words alone, someone might think he was flirting. But Eva's not exactly his type.

Well. Alright. She's a little bit his type. But his type usually ends cut to ribbons and left to rot, so it's not terribly flattering.

Eva licks her lips and narrows her eyes. Her teeth make a noise inside her skull as the front ones grind against the back ones. "I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm older than you. I've long since gotten bored with toys."

She removes her hand to signal the bartender for another drink. "I'm only reminding you that I can."

"But I'm such a fun toy," Alpha protested mockingly. "And I'd say something about my fondness for the older ladies, but as you've made clear, it's not about what I want."

He took a small sip of his own drink while she gestured at the bartender. Eva was proving a far better distraction than the alcohol he'd come here for. "I do appreciate the reminder. Such a good mentor, keeping us abreast of the situation. What would we do without you?"

"Oh, you'd just die," she says, and then she throws back her head and cackles. "Oh, oh wait, hahaha, you're doing that already, we're all doing that already!"

She smacks the counter and chugs the next drink that comes. She leans forward and rests her head on the counter. "I'm so hilarious, Alpha. I kill me."

"Huh," he said thoughtfully. "So much for your mentoring skills."

Alpha watched her display with raised eyebrows. "You do have a way with words," he said dryly, then added, "Although you're not actually the one dying, in this scenario. You are in fact in this position because you didn't die, while everyone else did. So in that respect, you are quite good at what you do."

"Good at what I did. There's a big difference. They give you so much direction when you're a Tribute and once you get out it's like...like..." She frowns and runs a finger along the rim of her glass.

"It's like being blindfolded and walking along a field full of mines. If you step wrong, you may die. Or, more likely, you'll just blow your foot off, and have to crawl the rest of the way across with a leaky stump for a leg. And you can hear the moans of all the people who've blown their legs off already but you can't see them to figure out how they got that far across."

She wags a finger at him. "It's no fun, and you'll never get to exorcise that angry streak. Never."

Edited 2013-03-25 03:54 (UTC)

"Eloquent," said Alpha flatly, watching the finger waved in his face with an amused expression. "Maybe that's the bright side to getting sent into the Arena again and again." And again, and again, and again and it was all such a waste of his time.

"I'm allowed a whole new playground every other month in which to...vent my frustrations. Whereas you, you've got--well." He waved a hand at the bar around them. "Doesn't have quite the same kick."

She nods. "Your future," she says, gesturing to the bar. "If you win before they put you out to pasture. Get a good long look at it."

She sighs and watches her reflection in the glass. "Now all I get to do is beat up Avoxes."

"My future," Alpha repeated with a snort. Hardly. In his future was escape, and home, and Echo. "Oh, well, I'm sure I'll find some new outlet to occupy my time. Perhaps I'll come by to visit you, remind what it's like if you're still interested. How often do they take inventory on those Avoxes, wouldn't notice one or two missing, do you think?"

She smiles at his little snort. "Oh, what, you think you're better than this? That you're such a smart little snowflake that you'll get some other prize on the other side of the door?"

She frowns then and waves a finger at him. "You best not tempt me when I'm drunk, sir. I might take you up and hate myself in the morning."

"You have no idea just how much better I am," Alpha said, resisting the urge just barely to snatch her finger out of the air when she started waving it at him again. "Isn't susceptibility to temptation one of the best reasons for getting drunk?" he asked, then added casually, "Does this mean this right here isn't what you look like hating yourself?"

That hits a nerve. Eva's face grows serious. "Oh, you're mean. That doesn't make you better. Everyone goes in thinking they're better and then they come out all wise, eventually. Maybe not at first, but eventually."

"Except for the ones that don't come out, of course," Alpha pointed out. He leaned close, smiling a wide, toothy grin that had been made perfect by the Dollhouse long before he'd come to this city.

"You think this is new to me? I was born in blood. There is nothing I've done here that I haven't done where I come from and wouldn't do again, and I don't need some hyped up child killer preaching to me about how the Arena will 'change' me into a bitter old bitch who can't stand who they've become."

He leaned back again. "And frankly, that's just hurtful. I'm really very nice when you get to know me."

"Oh, I don't mean you'll get traumatized by the bloodshed. I mean the afterwards is just so...violating." And awful, being a tool of the Sponsors. "They use you up here. I'm not supposed to tell anyone that, but don't think these Sponsor gifts come for free. Sex is always in demand."

She stands up and sets her empty glass down decisively. "And if you're going to act as if you're a above me, I'll just remind you that one of us here has won these games and you've lost...I don't know, at least two."

At this Alpha only laughed. "Should I refer you back to 'nothing I haven't done before'? I have experience in all manner of fields, and frankly, whore was one of the easier ones. And I was one of the best." In fact he found this setback to his life in the Dollhouse infuriating, but he was nothing if not good at playing up a part, and unaffected was a handy one. It didn't pay to let them see how truly angry he was until the cameras were off.

"It's not really the same thing, is it?" he sneered. "There's a different class of Tributes now, not to mention different stakes. If I do win, as you've made very clear, I'm trapped here without even the Arena to...let off some steam."

"Oh, I'm not asking if you're good at it, I'm asking if you like it." She reaches over and touches his neck, stroking.

"And perhaps the stakes are different. I hardly believe they're higher or harder now, though."

"Oh, I more than liked it," he replied, knowing Eva wouldn't understand the subtext to that and not much caring. It was different, being a whore programmed to fall in love with the john...right up until you remembered everything, of course. "But I believe we've already covered how it doesn't matter what I like or want?"

He allowed the touch, thinking only briefly of how easily he could break each of her fingers, pointedly didn't touch her back, just met her eyes steadily. "That's your opinion, of course, and an educated one I'm sure, formulated from your front row seat." He tilted his head curiously. "You asked me what it was like to kill, but you've killed yourself before. Seems you'd be more interested in what it's like to die."

A strange sort of smile crosses Eva's face. It could almost be described as excited. She leans in and whispers in Alpha's ear, "is that an invitation?"

Alpha smiled also, a slow, not especially friendly smile. "Does it need to be?" he murmured. "As you've made abundantly clear, whatever you want from me you can just...take. Your wish is my command."

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vissernone - 2013-04-15 01:09 (UTC) - Expand

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