thecapitol | (no subject)

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(no subject)

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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"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."

"I may take you up on that, someday." Her smile is a mirthless one. "Put his on my tab, bartender," she says, before swaying and stumbling out the door.

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