thecapitol | (no subject)

Who| Daniel Jackson, Eva, R but OPEN to any others
What| Daniel's headed for an "I told you so" from Eva and finding out R is a "smart" zombie, which makes their interactions in the Arena have some added fridge horror.
Where| The park
When| Shortly meeting Ele (Sometime after his death in the Arena but before the victor's crowning.)
Warnings/Notes| No idea yet, will change if anything comes up

He had barely begun to put a dent in the place, but it already felt much too small. Like he was that rat pacing back and forth within its cage, nosing about at each end hoping each time something had changed. Uneasily, Daniel hurried through the crowd, eyes on the ground as he thought.

For the moment, there wasn't any way out as far as he could see, short of chance or the Gamemaker's wishes or finding a way out through the Districts. Not unless he stumbled on a Stargate and threw his chances to fate. Or found a ship. That was about as unlikely as a Goa'uld turning over a new leaf. Screwed just about covered it.

Daniel kept his eyes away from the buildings, the stalls. He couldn't bring himself to watch the rest of the Games. Which was almost a moot point when the Capitol was fond of keeping it on as many screens as possible. Now citizens could catch almost every minute as they went about their business. Wasn't that considerate?

Even then, he couldn't avoid it completely. There was a flash at the corner of his vision as he entered a park, and Daniel turned to look for a moment. There on the screen was what looked to be a tally, and a face flashed by as one of the deceased. Daniel recognied the blond hair even with a crowd in the way:" Draco Malfoy, the kid that had petitioned to become a citizen. Daniel felt a chill go down to his stomach. He hadn't seen Draco come out of the Arena. He hadn't even known he'd gone in, but apparently the petition was something of a pointless formality.

There had to be somewhere outside of the tower that had some peace and quiet, as Game free as possible.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Daniel could think of no universe where being knocked into a lake and eaten "alive" fell into 'okay'. Even if it was an accident. And Daniel suddenly looked away, guiltily, it hadn't exactly been an accident back then. Granted, he hadn't wanted to kill him, but he hadn't tripped and knocked him in.

"Yeah, right, slow down all you need to," Daniel muttered. A zombie needing to slow down. A zombie needing a wingman. He'd, as of now, officially heard everything. "I might have helped you if things had gone down better."

Daniel started to hold out his hand, then faltered. Sure, the Tribute seemed like a decent guy, but he had that muzzle on for a reason. After a moment, he awkwardly dropped it. "I didn't get your name."

Really? R was downright relieved to hear that. Next time - if there was a next time - he'd take Daniel's advice to heart. Do it better without shooting off his other foot.

"I'm...Rrr," R wheezed out, the zombie's gray hand starting to flop up too. He stared at where Daniel's hand used to be, realizing after that fact that maybe he didn't want to shake. Considering R had a dead man's grip and a past history of biting first, he guessed that was fair enough of the human to be cautious here. "Just...R. Your...name?"

Maybe now wasn't the time to tell him he'd been calling him Sneezy the whole time. R usually wasn't prone to nicknames but the guy made that big of an impression on him, right from the first sneeze. Having a real name might help this...whatever that was between them. Conversations and communication issues, he guessed.

Belatedly, like a tortoise realizing finally that the race had started, R's hand lifted long after the fact. Daniel's was already back in his pocket, and there really wasn't any way to rescue this from getting more awkward than it already was.

It was more the part where R had tried to eat him that had Daniel hesitating than the dead part. Daniel had poked and prodded enough dead things over his line of work that it didn't faze him. It was the part where it wasn't quite dead yet and that part where he had a taste for humans that might have something to do with it.

"Just R? Really?" Daniel repeated. Did zombies name themselves? For all he knew, maybe they preferred to treat their "living" previous self as another phase, over and done with, with as little reminders as possible. Hell, did they even see humans as another species at this point? Now that he wasn't in danger of being eaten, he had to admit, he was curious to see what kind of society might develop from er, sentient zombies. "It's Daniel. Daniel Jackson."

"Really..." As far as he knew. At least it was easy to remember? Sometimes R wished he could get the rest of it out of that murky nothing, though, because it almost felt sometimes that if he just had more to his name - a key vowel, even whatever its ending was - he'd be that much closer to knowing who he was before. "All...that's...left. Rr," he repeated, as if almost challenging Daniel to say that didn't count.

"Dan...iel," R mostly got it out in one shot, looking at that last name and deciding not to get too ambitious here. Better stick with the basics. "Nice to...meet you. G...glad for...chances."

He kept wanting to shake hands, for some reason. R got the impression he'd never been that good at it, but that didn't stop him from wanting to practice anyway. Might as well since he suddenly had a lot of time and nothing like a life to get in the way these days. He tried to focus on Daniel's face, the glint of his glasses - anything to keep him from fading - and he thought the man looked like he had questions now that they weren't busy with gory misunderstandings.

Zombies, Daniel was finding, where a bizarre, competing dual natures besides the obvious living-dead thing. Waiting for R to get what he wanted to get out was about the same as watching paint dry, but at the same time, you could say he was to the point when it came to his name. Although it sounded like part of it was because that was all he remembered.

Talk about depressing.

This might be the only time he found a talkative zombie and had a second chance with one. He should take notes. Daniel instinctively began to search his pockets for a pencil, a scrap of paper, anything.

"Same here. Nice to meet you too," Daniel answered. Despite his first impressions of R, none of them good, it was becoming easier to look at him as a person and not something trying to kill him. Even if his name was partially buried, he still remembered old manners. "Would you mind if I asked you some questions? I've never met a zombie. Or what would you prefer to call yourself?"

R shrugged. Go ahead and ask. For someone who'd never met a zombie before, Daniel was a natural at almost caving one's head in. Maybe he'd been born talented. R was still working out if he should say that as a compliment (too awkward?) when the human was already jumping in his questions.

"Dead. Or...Fleshies," R thought about it. He better explain, his hand bonelessly flopping at himself and his full set of skin and muscles. "Others...Boney. Not..."

He paused, searching for the words he wanted, feeling Daniel's eyes on him the whole time. Even if he hadn't tried taking a chunk out of the guy, R would've felt nervous under that stare - there was the sharp edge of intelligence there studying him, R feeling even like more of a big, lumbering idiot of a corpse. Was he being graded? Why did it feel like he was being graded on a paper? Did he even remember what it felt like to write papers? R guessed this had to be a pretty close second, feeling so on the spot that he fumbled for a bit before he recovered.

"...Not nice...neighbors." R said. That'd have to do. It wasn't the most eloquent thing he'd ever said, but it got the job done.

Edited 2013-07-03 18:27 (UTC)