Alex Rider (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
luckofthedevil) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thecapitol2013-03-10 12:44 am
luckofthedevil) wrote in thecapitol2013-03-10 12:44 am
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Who| Alex and OPEN
What| Various stuff
Where| Around the Training Center and Capitol
When| Between Arena 5 and 6, b/c why pick exact dates
Warnings/Notes| n/a
[Pre-Lockdown: Training Center, Rooftop]
Alex was rather fond of the rooftop. Even with all the space the Tributes were given, he ended up feeling antsy. Sometimes he could go down to the gymnasium and work it off or take a wander around the Capitol to stretch his legs. But there were times when the view from the roof and the feel of open air was the only way to scratch that itch. He was well aware there was a force field around the edge; he'd found it the first time he visited the roof and tried to dangle his feet over the side. So now he simply sat cross-legged as close as the force field would allow, looking out over the Capitol.
[Pre-Lockdown: Training Center, Gymnasium]
Alex was a regular at the gymnasium. Every morning before breakfast, he'd run laps around the perimeter for half an hour, then spend another hour lifting weights. For the rest of the morning, he'd work at a station or two, different ones each day. Mostly he worked on the survival skills, and before he left he always ran the ropes course one time. That much, he didn't particularlly care who saw. But he looked for the part of the day that not many people came to the gymnasium, and that always changed when more Tributes arrived. And when there were as few people as possible, he would come back and quietly run through the katas he'd learned at his dojo.
[Post-Lockdown: Training Center, District 4 Suite]
Alex was usually a quiet sleeper, even when having nightmares. A little thrashing here and there, and sometimes he'd wake trying to scream, but nothing would come out. The attack on the Training Center had set something off however, even more than the Arenas themselves. Alex had forced himself to stay awke that night, listening to the faint gunshots and the yelling a couple floors up, unwilling to fall asleep in front of so many strangers. It was bad enough there was absolutely no privacy in this place; he preferred to keep some things to himself.
After the lockdown, his usual nightmares took a more violent turn than usual. They'd been about Egypt for months, ever since he'd arrived. But after the Lockdown, it was always about the raid on the compound. Sometimes Lewinsky missed and Razim shot him. Sometimes they rolled off the bridge into empty air, his hands around Razim's throat. Sometimes, Razim managed to grab the gun before he fell and shot him on the way down. Either way it always ended with Alex waking, drenched in sweat, his sheets tangled around his body, and the sharp odor of gunfire in his nose.
This morning, he jerked awake just before dawn. After a few minutes of laying there, waiting for his beating heart to return to a more sedate tempo, Alex extracted himself from his bedding and staggered out of his room and into the tribute suite. There wasn't a point in trying to go back to sleep, so he just splashed a little water on his face and went out to the common room to wait for the sun to rise.
[Post-Lockdown: Capitol, Art Museum]
Alex had seen the Art Museum a few times as he explored the Capitol, but he hadn't been inside it until now. Maybe because it made him think of the various times he and Jack had poked around the National Gallery and the Louvre, or all those museums in Cairo they had popped into... He finally decided he wanted to see what Capitol people considered 'art'. Because if it was anything like what they considered 'fashion', it might give him a laugh.
And he'd been right, there were plenty of extremely odd pieces, even by postmodern standards. Some of them had actually been interesting to look at, even if he had absolutely no idea what they were even supposed to represent. And then he came across something in a more familiar style... and he froze. Because it wasn't just familiar, he'd seen it before. A vase containing fourteen yellow sunflowers.
What| Various stuff
Where| Around the Training Center and Capitol
When| Between Arena 5 and 6, b/c why pick exact dates
Warnings/Notes| n/a
[Pre-Lockdown: Training Center, Rooftop]
Alex was rather fond of the rooftop. Even with all the space the Tributes were given, he ended up feeling antsy. Sometimes he could go down to the gymnasium and work it off or take a wander around the Capitol to stretch his legs. But there were times when the view from the roof and the feel of open air was the only way to scratch that itch. He was well aware there was a force field around the edge; he'd found it the first time he visited the roof and tried to dangle his feet over the side. So now he simply sat cross-legged as close as the force field would allow, looking out over the Capitol.
[Pre-Lockdown: Training Center, Gymnasium]
Alex was a regular at the gymnasium. Every morning before breakfast, he'd run laps around the perimeter for half an hour, then spend another hour lifting weights. For the rest of the morning, he'd work at a station or two, different ones each day. Mostly he worked on the survival skills, and before he left he always ran the ropes course one time. That much, he didn't particularlly care who saw. But he looked for the part of the day that not many people came to the gymnasium, and that always changed when more Tributes arrived. And when there were as few people as possible, he would come back and quietly run through the katas he'd learned at his dojo.
[Post-Lockdown: Training Center, District 4 Suite]
Alex was usually a quiet sleeper, even when having nightmares. A little thrashing here and there, and sometimes he'd wake trying to scream, but nothing would come out. The attack on the Training Center had set something off however, even more than the Arenas themselves. Alex had forced himself to stay awke that night, listening to the faint gunshots and the yelling a couple floors up, unwilling to fall asleep in front of so many strangers. It was bad enough there was absolutely no privacy in this place; he preferred to keep some things to himself.
After the lockdown, his usual nightmares took a more violent turn than usual. They'd been about Egypt for months, ever since he'd arrived. But after the Lockdown, it was always about the raid on the compound. Sometimes Lewinsky missed and Razim shot him. Sometimes they rolled off the bridge into empty air, his hands around Razim's throat. Sometimes, Razim managed to grab the gun before he fell and shot him on the way down. Either way it always ended with Alex waking, drenched in sweat, his sheets tangled around his body, and the sharp odor of gunfire in his nose.
This morning, he jerked awake just before dawn. After a few minutes of laying there, waiting for his beating heart to return to a more sedate tempo, Alex extracted himself from his bedding and staggered out of his room and into the tribute suite. There wasn't a point in trying to go back to sleep, so he just splashed a little water on his face and went out to the common room to wait for the sun to rise.
[Post-Lockdown: Capitol, Art Museum]
Alex had seen the Art Museum a few times as he explored the Capitol, but he hadn't been inside it until now. Maybe because it made him think of the various times he and Jack had poked around the National Gallery and the Louvre, or all those museums in Cairo they had popped into... He finally decided he wanted to see what Capitol people considered 'art'. Because if it was anything like what they considered 'fashion', it might give him a laugh.
And he'd been right, there were plenty of extremely odd pieces, even by postmodern standards. Some of them had actually been interesting to look at, even if he had absolutely no idea what they were even supposed to represent. And then he came across something in a more familiar style... and he froze. Because it wasn't just familiar, he'd seen it before. A vase containing fourteen yellow sunflowers.
option four!
But she needed to know what the Capitol liked first. Hence why she was at the museum that day, idly taking notes and sketching out ideas as they came to her. When she spotted Alex, she initially hadn't intended on greeting him. No, it was his reaction to that one piece that had her curiosity.
"Something wrong?" Ariadne asked, stepping up beside him.
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Hearing someone beside him, he glanced over at Ariadne.
"It's a Picasso," he said. "I saw it in the National Gallery."
What was it doing here?
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Her eyes lingered on him instead of the image, trying to read his thoughts of it.
"What do you think of it?"
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He mentally counts the flowers again, making sure there really was fourteen instead of twelve like in some of the other sunflower paintings. He was pretty sure it was the one from the National Gallery.
"Did you ever see a movie called Planet of the Apes?"
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"Hasn't everyone?" Ariadne asked then, tone almost a little teasing. It faded quickly enough, as she thought about that; if the things she'd been hearing had any accuracy to them, maybe that wasn't quite so far-fetched an idea. Things about this really being the same world they all knew, but years in the future, perhaps.
Strange to think about, though.
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"What year was it, for you?"
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"2010," she replied, "What about you?"
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