thecapitol | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

WHO | Adel-Makim-Zalur [OPEN]
WHAT | Adel is at her usual hang out, the park.
WHEN | Sometime after Arena 06.
WHERE | The park.
WARNINGS / NOTES | None.

Adel is on auto-pilot as she runs across the open grass (seemingly the only grass within the Capitol), thinking about the previous arena. She wonders how the young human fared at the feast. She had promised to await the girl's return, but that maniacal human had come and killed her so mercilessly. She sighs through her nose. How long can she really evade death each arena?

The enclosed spaces of the city are beginning to get to her. She's sleep deprived from nightmares, not just of the arena, but of being trapped and crowded, unable to breathe. Perhaps they would allow her to sleep in the park. Or, if she's particularly lucky, live there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pruna liked the park, she came here a lot, mostly to get out of the training center and away from the silly hair people who tried to make her wear shoes or change her clothes or comb her hair all the time.

The park was more fun, and she saw the alien she had spent her first few days of the arena with and waved.

"Hello! You did be coming back too."

Spotting the young human, Adel waves back, slowing to a halt before her. <Hello! Yes, we come back here after every arena. I don't believe we have exchanged names yet, have we? My name is Adel-Makim-Zalur.>

Pruna wrinkled her nose, because she had liked Adel because she hadn't asked her name.

"We did be having more important things to be doing." She said though she made an effort to learn the name. "Adel-Makim-Zalur that do be being a very long name. I do no be having one but everyone here do no be liking that so you can be calling me..."

So far she had Pruna which the capitol had given her, and Ash which Sandy had given her, since Adel had been nice and they had been allies she went for the latter. "Ash."

Adel laughs. <Yes, that's true...> The andalite smiles. <Our names are much longer than human names. You may call me Adel if you wish.> She looks a mix of confused and curious about Pruna's lack of a name, but she doesn't inquire. <I shall refer to you as Ash then.>

"Adel." It was easier to remember at least, she smiled. "Do you be liking it here then? Do the grass be tasting nice?"

It was a serious question, everything else tasted wonderful here to Pruna hoped that for Adel who could only eat grass that it was very tasty grass indeed.

<I do not... I wish to go home to my family.> The andalite says sullenly. She can't help but smile at Pruna's second question, though. <We do not have a sense of taste, I'm afraid. I hear it is amazing.>

Pruna wrinkled her nose, she wanted to go home too. But she mostly tried not to think about it as she couldn't.

"That do be being stupid, what do be being the point of no being able to taste anything."

She thought, that even though having swivel eyes would be useful she would rather have a sense of taste.

<Our diet consists solely of grasses.> She gently reminds Pruna with a smile. <I suppose it just wasn't considered necessary during our evolution. Some of us with the morphing technology do enjoy morphing humans so that we may enjoy the sense of taste. I have never done so myself... I do not have a human morph. Furthermore, it seems that my morphing abilities have been stripped from me upon coming here...>

"Well different grasses might be tasting differently." She said sulkily. And then wrinkled her nose. "What do morphing be being?"

<The morphing technology enables us to absorb the DNA of any living creature and become that creature.> Adel says proudly. <Of course, it does have a two hour time limit... but it's been an amazing step forward in andalite technology.>

Edited 2013-05-27 19:37 (UTC)

"What do DNA be being? Do it be an alien thing?" She wrinkled her nose, not sure what she thought about aliens becoming different creatures, even if it was just for two hours.

<No. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms.> Adel explains helpfully.

Pruna blinked at her in utter confusion, "Be using words that do be making sense." She finally said, irritated.

The andalite frowns slightly. <I'm sorry, I don't know how to explain it any simpler than that...> She'd thought that humans were at least intelligent enough to understand DNA. But then, this one was still a child.

She wrinkled her nose. "Well that do be being stupid." She put DNA firmly into the list of things she didn't need to know about. She had understood enough, at least to know that Adel could come a different creature. "So you can be being a cat or a dog but no a human?"

<I can become a human as well. Or... I would be able to if I still had my morphing abilities.> This would have been the perfect opportunity to try out a human morph. According to the other humans here, the food was amazing. It was very disappointing.

"I thought you did be saying you did no be having a human morph?" She wrinkled her nose, confused.

<The only morph that I had acquired before coming here was the simple djabala of our home world. If my morphing abilities were intact, I would be able to acquire more morphs, including a human morph.> The andalite explains patiently.

"Dj...djabala," Pruna wrinkled her nose, "Can you be morphing in the arena? Sandy do be having her powers sometimes in the arena but not all the time."

After the assault on the Training Center a couple months ago, Alex began to take his kick-up sessions to the park, as the roof was no longer an option. It was more nostalgic this way too, the green grass all around as he bounced the ball from foot to foot, trying to keep it aloft for as long as possible. It reminded him of the playing fields at Brookland and the afternoons he used to play football with his mates. It was starting to seem rather long ago, whenever Alex thought about how many Arenas he'd been in so far. How many more would there be for him, before the Capitol stopped bringing him back?

His train of thought distracted him from the ball he was supposed to be keeping in the air. He missed a kick and the football went rolling across the grass. Shaking his head at himself, Alex went jogging after it, spotting Adel and recognizing her from his District. Thanks to a childhood of watching various space series (and several encounters with an oversized turtle here), Alex had only been momentarily shocked the first time he saw his new Districtmate and was now rather accustomed to her appearance.

Not that he'd made any effort to converse with her. As he picked up the closest thing to a football he'd been able to find in the Capitol, he did so.

"Nice day, innit!"

A stalk-eye swivels towards him and she slows from the gentle canter she'd taken up. After a moment, she realizes why he looks so familiar. He's in her district. <It's quite a pleasant one.> She agrees.

Alex never really knew which set of eyes he was supposed to look at. The ones on her face or the ones on the ends of the... antenna? He wondered if it would be rude to ask if she had a name for those.

When he hears her voice, he jumps a little, because he realizes it's inside his head somehow. Which, when you don't seem to have a mouth of talk with, you have to communicate somehow. He tucked his football under one arm.

"Rather nice, yes. A little sun, a little breeze, and not a speck of rain. Days like this made me want to skip classes back home."

Adel looks momentarily confused. <Why would you-> Then she remembers. <Ah, yes. Humans carry out much of their activities within buildings, even during pleasant weather. It's not something an andalite could easily understand.> In fact, the thought of it seems outright absurd.

"They seem to think the nice weather would distract us." Which, was probably true. Her phrasing caught Alex's attention though. "Do you mean you've had contact with humans before you came here?" The habitual confinement of human youths for educational purposes was not something that would be all that evident in Panem.

<I've had minimal personal contact with humans on the andalite home world but we do learn about them as we are in alliance with them.> Her stalk eyes keep watch behind her as she speaks with Alex. <I'm told that Panem much resembles Earth.>

Alex realizes she was using 'andalite' in reference to herself and her species. Somehow it fit with the tail and the multiple eyes. He shrugged at the suggestion that Panem is similar to Earth.

"In some ways. I've noticed certain cultural artifacts that I recognize, which leads me to believe this world might actually be Earth. Or it could have simply been settled by humans."

For all he knew, this was actually Earth Twelve and the painting he saw was merely saved from the destruction of Earth Prime.

"I think we have to accept the probability of different dimension existing," Alex comments. "I mean... I've seen people use magic here, and that just doesn't exist where I'm from."

Because you know Blunt would have been all over that. Why have Smithers when you could have magic? Granted, some of Smithers inventions were about as close to magic as you came, but they were still technology.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only