amplifying: (_insubordination)
( system monitor v.2 ) ([personal profile] amplifying) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2013-05-14 11:04 pm

circuitry ◎ ( open! )

Who| Beck and YOU!
What| Adjusting isn't easy. Still.
Where| All around the Capitol.
When| Ummm, from now until near the beginning of the Games, maybe? It's a catch-all log so I'm pretty flexible!
Warnings/Notes| TBA.

LOUNGE

Okay, so he wouldn't lie- the lounge area here isn't all that bad.

The feel is modern enough and the colors are nice (they're not the colors he's used to, but it reminds him enough of home to make him at least feel somewhat settled), and the couches are nice and soft. It even had a bar...but they didn't provide the drinks that he was used to. Some of them tasted kind of funny, and if he drank too many, he couldn't walk right, and sometimes made him a little sick afterwards. Yeah. Now he knew why Daniel talked so little about feeling 'nauseated'.

It reminds him of hanging out with Mara and Zed in the clubs. Even though the lounge could be one of Beck's favorite places to be, it's also the place that makes him the most homesick. A lot of the time when he sat here, he would find himself thinking about home, and what was going on, and whether Tron was trying to find out where he was...or even what was going on in the revolution.

He missed Argon and Tron a lot, to the point where it felt like he hurt inside.

Beck was in the lounge now, sitting in a corner a little farther away from the middle. More times than not people with the craziest of styles would come in with cameras that were flashing, and cameras that floated in the air. Some people asked for full-blown interviews, others asked for pictures for a feed. What was nice was that some people were more popular than Beck was.

They asked about his home and why he wouldn't kill anyone. He gave answers.

Simple as that.

He had the Games back home, and he managed to live through those without derezzing another Program. And maybe, he could do it here, too.


CAPITOL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Okay. So every User had a skeleton. With skeletons came muscles. Tendons connected the muscles to skeletons. Ligaments connected pieces of the skeleton to each other.

Beck was buried into a rather large medical book, with many others stacked up beside him. If the Games were going to happen again, he would have to learn more about the User body before he went out a second time. If he wanted to survive a day, then he'd have to learn about the body. It was complicated, and a lot of it was more annoying than not, but he could deal with this.

This is something he could operate.

You might find him there still reading over various bodily functions or gross things like that, or maybe pacing around and getting his bearings. He can only read big books with big words for so long, anyway.


ROOFTOPS

While the lounge was nice, it didn't give Beck the time to think.

Well, he thought about things, but not about what life was going to be like for him, or what he was here for. The lounge made him think of home and his friends, of Tron and the clubs. It made him think about the good times he's had before, and how much he utterly misses all of it.

But the rooftops make him think of now. Of the future.

The wind blows through his hair as he makes his way past the very many gardens, some more eye-catching than others. One is just filled with flowers and flowers galore, the other has a covering of branches and vines that you can actually sit under, if the sun's a bit too harsh. But Beck prefers to stand near the edges of the building. But not because he's planning on doing something he really shouldn't.

He can see everything up here. From all of the buildings, to the land beyond. It gives him a chance to stand and think. What's he going to do when the Arena happens again? What will they expect him to do? Could he even have a chance, now that he knew his body a little more than before?

...Beck didn't have any good answers for those questions. And for the time being, he was going to wait for the answers. It wasn't like he had any other choice.

But as calmly as he took this, he felt anything but it.

He worried. He worried about himself and the others that would have to compete again out there. What would Tron say about all of this? Would he be disappointed, too? What would he expect Beck to do?

As he stands by the edge, he lets his head hang, and sighs. What would Tron do?
Or, what could he do?
shambler: (026)

[personal profile] shambler 2013-05-16 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
Today R's riding the elevators, indulging his hobby. It's like a little piece of home. While there's not a whole lot to see compared to the airport conveyors, R still likes the repetition, mashing his finger against the button and feeling the elevator shift as it starts up all over again. Sometimes it's the little things that get you shuffling from one day to the next.

For the most part anyone who gets in the elevator ignores him - they sometimes give an offended sniff as the perfume he's soaked in wafts out in waves and then they're in a hurry to get out; other times they glance at him and then do that whole "let's pretend we're not in the same space" deal. (R almost thinks he remembers that when he was living. Apparently elevators are awkward).

The zombie's taking a break and leaning heavily against the side of the elevator when he comes in, alive, not chewed up. His head looks a lot nicer when it's in one piece.

R recognizes him immediately. Now he wishes he could dig his own grave, right here. Right now.

Beck.

The doors are already closed by the time R realizes he wants to make a get-away. Uh oh. This could go south really, really soon once Beck realizes who he's sharing an elevator with. R's already cringing inside.
Edited 2013-05-16 21:34 (UTC)
shambler: (049)

[personal profile] shambler 2013-05-17 10:18 am (UTC)(link)
It's impossible to press himself against the elevator wall until it absorbs him. Crap and crap.

With nowhere to go, it's only a matter of time before Beck realizes his mistake - R watches, mute, as he steps back and then does that elevator-thing where you sneak a glance over at whoever you have to share this space with. He remembers that, vaguely. He also sees that realization cross Beck's face as he recognizes him and the hope that maybe it was too dark dies before it can even begin. The man's face freezes like a mask. They stare at each other. R would look away first, only he’s stuck.

They go up a few floors, hit the top and…the doors don’t open like they should. The soothing music continues to play. The lights flicker overhead.

They’re trapped. Together.

R tries to stop looking at that spot where he first cracked open Beck’s skull. It’s harder than he thought it would be, his eyes keep wanting to wander over and he tells himself it’s because of guilt, not guilt-colored-with-hunger. They’ve been feeding R this substitute so he’s not trying to shove people through the muzzle but there’s something about it that’s not…enough. Like Tofu. Or what Tofu used to be like. And Beck? Those were some of the most interesting memories R had stolen. The zombie drags his eyes away before he burns a hole into Beck’s basal ganglia. That new hunger’s greedy for more.

You need to say something.

It’s harder than usual jump-starting his groans into words. “I’m…sss…suh…sorry…about…”
Edited 2013-05-17 10:21 (UTC)
shambler: (030)

[personal profile] shambler 2013-05-23 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
It's okay, Beck says. R can't say he agrees. Judging from the hesitation and the way they were both trying to avoid eye contact here, maybe it's a lost cause trying to pretend it's no hard feelings. This is probably the part where he should lie - swear up and down that no officer, he did not enjoy stealing Beck's trippy memories. Killing someone random like Beck is still hard to swallow, leaves R with a dirty feeling despite the fact he's rotting.

The memories, though. R can't say he didn't want to hold onto every weird, bright spark of a memory he's taken, from the others and from Beck.

So yeah. Maybe he did want to, when he was prying the poor guy's brain's out. It was the only time he felt like he could live. (And Jesus, how Beck had lived!)

R slowly realizes his silence isn't helping here. He wishes the stare he gives Beck isn't stupidly guilty, that half the time it feels like his face froze that way.

"Didn't..." R's head hangs down. "Was...too...hungry. Can't...stop. Wish...I could."

Talk about today being epically awkward. There's got to be a better way to clear the air between them. R looks at Beck, that tall lanky frame of his, and the guilt tries to claw its way up his throat again. Moaning uncomfortably, R looks away first.
shambler: (087)

[personal profile] shambler 2013-05-26 06:42 am (UTC)(link)
R grunted at that. Usually the fact he was lurching or looked obviously dead was enough of a tip off to the people out there - being told he had something missing in his eyes was new. R could make a guess what it was. That little spark you could see in people like Julie, this invisible something that seemed to flood out from the heart and through the blood-stream in a constant pulse. It was the exact same thing R saw - felt - when Beck died in the Arena, that exact moment when the spark faded and Beck left the building and all that was left was a still-warm corpse in that grey no-man's land where he hadn't revived as a zombie just yet.

"Dead. Stuck this...way. Ww...wanted...to make it...fast. New...instinct."

Oops and that wasn't what R wanted to say now that it was already bleeding out of his mouth. How was that supposed to tell Beck it wouldn't happen again?

R swallowed, remembering what it felt like to be Beck. All those flashes of colors, hues he'd never seen in the other memories and had a feeling he never would. The sound of the light-cycle. It was a weird feeling, facing someone you knew and didn't. The lights flickered again overhead, R craning his head like a moth seconds away from being burnt to a crisp.

The zombie eventually wrangled his attention away from the flickering lights and focused on Beck again. "Now...you know. Second...chance?"
shambler: (031)

[personal profile] shambler 2013-06-01 09:30 am (UTC)(link)
Patient. Normally R could rock patient. He could out-patient just about anyone with a pulse. (Other zombies, not so much. Sometimes he got the impression corpses like M viewed him as a newbie, itching to be on the move, obsessed with creepy things like music). Somehow being trapped in an elevator with one of his victims made R feel like being patient was out of his reach, his eyes still guiltily on Beck.

Oh yeah, he knew. That was one of the first things plastered on the top level of the brain, a name, a "this is who I am", the more important, personal things then deeper and deeper inside. R could definitely say he knew his name already.

"Know. Sorry. I'm....Rrr," R said, hunching his shoulders awkwardly. "Thank you for...chance. Try to be...good."

The zombie had to pause then, working out what else to say. He didn't feel he deserved that smile, uneasy as it was, because most people would be pissed about being killed and eaten like a User buffet. Program buffet? What was Beck, anyway?
shambler: (046)

[personal profile] shambler 2013-06-09 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Beck opened up, and not just with what he said – he was opening up a lot more with his body language too, R noticing he didn’t hunch over or face the wall or try to unconsciously present himself as a smaller target like anyone in their right mind, stuck in an elevator with a zombie, would. R felt even crappier about eating him now. If he had a choice, he wouldn’t kill anyone…but if he had a choice, he’d rather chew up someone who deserved it.

The question was a good one, R not sure how to answer it. It wasn’t really something people really talked about, humans or zombies and the Boneys definitely liked things the way they were. Someone like Beck would kick their status quo to pieces. They’d probably kill him even if they weren’t maneaters, just on principle.

R struggled to think of good, solid advice aside from “put a big, solid door between you and me”.

“Re…cognize…signs? Stay away…from me in…Corn…ucopia.”

Probably the best thing he could say for now. They started him starving last Arena, probably to give the other Tributes a nice, hungry speedbump and they might do it again next one. If Beck was smart, he’d let R get to someone else instead.
shambler: (085)

[personal profile] shambler 2013-06-16 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
R looked surprised at that one coming from Beck, his mouth parting.

"Um..." he wheezed to stall, trying to think. "Need help...keeping busy. Talk....ing...maybe? Human...things."

It did help they fed him some kind of flesh substitute in the Capitol. It didn't make the hunger go away - all it did was put it down to a manageable buzz in the back of his skull and in his bones, nothing like that driving force that made him jump someone like Beck and he sometimes felt irritated, unsatisfied. Talking and hanging out and aping being a person like everyone else was distracting. R could use distracting. The zombie shrugged at Beck, not sure why he'd be so keen on helping one of the Tributes who killed him.

The thing was he did know why, thanks to feeding. Beck was genuinely a good person. Maybe this was him doing what he did best, getting in over his head like everything else because he stepped up to the plate.
xanthous: (pic#3430323)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-05-16 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
He's not really sure why he's at the library. He can't read the language here. He doesn't know what the Capitol did to him so he could understand the spoken word of this place, but as he looks at the writing all he can see are illegitimate lines and curves and he gets so lost. It's a far cry from the sharp lines and angles of Alternian, but he's almost certain he can learn it.

Almost.

He has a stack of children's books in his arms, but he doesn't get too far before even that becomes too much for him to carry and he has to drop them. Beck's table is the closest one to him so he doesn't even care if it might be rude, those books have to leave his arms right now.

Wow.

Humans are so gross.

The Psiioniic makes a noise of disgust at the diagrams he sees. That's just not normal.

"Why are you reading that?"
xanthous: (pic#3430342)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-05-19 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
He ignores the books on the floor, throwing himself into the seat opposite of Beck. He sits awkwardly, like he doesn't know where to put his limbs, and he blinks slowly at Beck.

"How can you...." He motions at the book and Beck. "How can you not know about your body? Are you pan damaged?"

He reaches for one of the children's books, deciding this table and time is as good as any for trying to learn this ridiculous language.
xanthous: (pic#4016254)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-05-22 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
If both were possible, both would be good.

He looks up from his book, already feeling a bit overwhelmed by just how unfamiliar the lettering is. "I can't thay that maketh a whole lot of thenthe to me," which is true, because. Aliens. They're confusing and he doesn't really know all of their lingo. "But I gueth what you're thaying ith...you were an intangible being in thome thort of computer network, but now you've been made phythical?"

He pauses, idly tracing patterns over the book's pages with a claw as he stares at Beck. "How could they manage doing thomething like that? What kind of technology could put a mind into a body?"
xanthous: (pic#3430325)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-05-27 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
It's okay. By now he's used to people being unable to understand him.

He taps at his teeth in though, before nodding decisively. "Or they managed to figure out how to tap into a neural network, and you're all organic." He smiles sharply. "After all, organic beingth are more entertaining when they die, and ithn't that what thith plathe wantth? Organic deathth, and not robotth that are rebuilt over and over? Where'th the drama for that?"

It should probably be frightening how much though he's put into what the Capitol is up to, but it's not like he has much else to do.
xanthous: (pic#4532426)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-05-30 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
The Psiioniic knows all about organic networks. Or, well, how to hook an organic body to an information network, and he has the scars to prove his first hand experience.

"I have theveral pointth," he says with a laugh, crossing his arms over the book still in front of him. "But hey, at leatht you're a miracle of thienthe."

Which might make Beck feel better, but from what the Psiioniic can see it won't. He can't say he knows what Beck feels at all, but...he knows he wouldn't enjoy being shoved into a different body, as much as the body he has is worthless.
xanthous: (pic#5609812)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-06-04 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
He's awful at helping. Really, truly awful.

"Not really," he grumbles, tracing a claw over the book again. He straightens up, pushing his shoulders back. "What happened to me wath almotht the exact oppothite. I wath taken from my organic body and partially implanted into a network."

It was a painful process, and it had been a long one too. "I wath theparated from it to come here."
xanthous: (pic#5609814)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-06-09 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
It definitely was.

He shrugs. He's been trying not to feel too sorry for himself (and he hasn't been that consistently successful), but...talking about what happened to him is still a strange thing. It's easy to talk about it on a purely scientific level, so at least Beck hasn't actually asked how it felt. "There'th a lot of thingth I didn't know they could do."

"Uther? And, well, people are naturally terrible. It'th what maketh thpecieth tho familiar."
xanthous: (pic#5842670)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-06-12 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
Beck, he might just come to like that about you.

He taps his thumb against the book, quirking a brow. "Well, they do, but that doethn't really help." Which he hates more than anything. He hates not knowing what could happen to him at any moment, and he hates not know how to figure out how to best their technology. "I haven't really seen any technology like theirth, either."

Slowly, he nods. "Everyone hath thomething terrible about them."
xanthous: (pic#3430321)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-06-16 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
He shakes his head. "Ath far ath I can tell, nobody knowth what they're capable of."

He leans forward, narrowing his eyes at Beck. He doesn't know if he can trust them, or what he's up to. Hell, he doesn't even know what the man is capable of.

"Uthe it in what way?"
xanthous: (pic#4016309)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-06-21 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
Movements, rebellions. Things that the Psiioniic used to believe in. He used to believe that you could change things, but now, now he's worn down and tired of fighting to change a system that won't allow itself to be changed. He's tired of trying to make things better, because it just makes everything worse.

"And why thhould we do that? Tho we can get thquathed down and killed off permanently? What do you think ith going to happen if we turn againtht them? If they can change who we are, how are you thuppothed to fight them?"
xanthous: (pic#3430320)

[personal profile] xanthous 2013-06-26 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
He doesn't say anything for a long while; he just stares at Beck with his shoulders hunched and his defenses up. He's wary about rebellion, and he doesn't really know if they could ever find out enough to overthrow the natives.

But most of all, he doesn't want to go back to the life he had before hand. He doesn't want to go back to being Helmsman. "What about thothe that don't want to get out?"
teethofneedles: (shark-tooth grin)

[personal profile] teethofneedles 2013-05-20 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
Karis stalked around the Capitol like she owned the place. She ignored her handlers at times, but never quite pushed it into the territory where they were likely to call security on her. She still tended to go where she wanted (within reason). And today she's in the lounge. She catches sight of Beck from across the room and almost instantly, she's grinning. She remembers him well enough. She crosses the room with an arrogant swagger in her stride (well, as much as was allowable, considering her dead condition).

"Well, lookie here - it's dinner."
teethofneedles: (Bamph!)

[personal profile] teethofneedles 2013-05-21 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
"What if I wanna brag about?" Karis laughed, "Put on a show for the cameras? Or maybe I just wanna see you squirm?"

She leans down, getting into his personal space. She likes to see people cower. She likes the way he hunches his shoulders and the way he freezes.

"Feeling better?"
teethofneedles: (I don't think so.)

[personal profile] teethofneedles 2013-05-25 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, this was great. This was delicious and Karis was enjoying every second of it. She moves a bit closer, crowding him back into his chair with another of those nasty-sounding laughs.

"Why? Give me a reason, lunchbox."

She reaches out to poke his shoulder insolently.

"You're not gonna make me."
teethofneedles: (shark-tooth grin)

Blarghl, sorry about the huge delay.

[personal profile] teethofneedles 2013-06-07 06:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Karis snorts with laughter when he swats his hand out of the way. He's trapped (he knows it, she knows it, they all know it). But she can't really hurt him here, can she? All she can do is cajole and use her words. They'd drag her off if they thought she'd actually hurt him. So she gives him a patronizing pat on the shoulder (well, if he lets her).

"Don't what?"

She leans in again, one eye blinking in a rather perverse and unnerving wink, "You're mine again, next time. Maybe you'll actually put up more of a fight - it'd make it more... entertaining, anyway."
teethofneedles: (bahahaha)

[personal profile] teethofneedles 2013-06-09 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
Karis didn't really mind if people paid attention to her harassing him, so long as they didn't do anything about it. She laughs at his defiance, though. It makes her happy. It makes her want to hurt him. It makes her feel something and that's all she cares about.

"Ohhh, you've got spirit, huh? I don't fight fair, lunchbox. Just warning you now. But if you wanna take me? Yeah, we can go."