I'm Down Shouting Names at the Flickering Screen [Open]

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

WHO| Howard and anyone!
WHAT| Howard decides to get serious about the Games.
WHERE| Tribute Lounge
WHEN| Post-Arena
WARNINGS| Swearing.

There's been enough hiding. There's been enough moping. Howard knows that this feeling of motivation is fleeting, and that just means he has to cling to his productivity for as long as he can before it slips back into despair. Before he thinks about how he's going to die again. Before he wonders where Eponine is. Before he thinks about how she left him like his parents did. Before he cries.

So instead of feeling that, he's going to feel something else. He's going to feel entertained. And possibly, he'll learn something along the way; it's about time he forces himself to study. About time he moves past the squeamish feelings of seeing people he knows bleed and scream on the screen and actually starts taking notes on who to ally with and who to stab in the back, or, potentially, in the front.

He sits in a Tribute lounge with snacks, feet propped up on a glass coffee table, starving body covered in comfy clothes his stylists won't let him wear outside, a fluffy blue bathrobe and canvas cargo pants. His hand periodically moves from its path between bowl of snacks and his mouth to grab a cup of melted butter.

He doesn't care how tacky or unhealthy is it. He covers that bowl of popcorn in butter and plops down on the couch, munching away at it as he watches Wesker and Maximus attack each other.

Comments

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Is it sick that Howard almost wants to give the girl a high-five? Here she is, the kid who killed Draco Malfoy, that stuck-up son of a bitch who hurt Eponine so badly. But Howard finds he can't really build up any strong emotion about Eponine anymore, at least not now, and so he only cracks a half-hearted smirk at Pruna.

"Hey, Moody. I know what ice cream is. I dare you to eat a whole scoop at once." He takes a handful of popcorn and swallows it mechanically.

[knifewithnoname]

She grinned, this was good news. "I bet I could be being!" She told him looking to see what he was watching.

Oh it was the man who had given her spear fighting tips, she liked him, and the man who won. "Do you be wanting to be fighting him?" She pointed at Maximus, Wesker had won so no longer was a threat. But she could understand why Howard would want to study Maximus, he was really strong.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard looks at Maximus and actually laughs. It's a dim, ugly sound.

"Yeah, me fight him. You do realize he could use me as a toothpick, right? And probably after eating you for breakfast?"

He takes a handful of popcorn and crams it in his mouth.

[knifewithnoname]

"Most people could be using you as a toothpick." She told him, which summed up her opinion of his fighting skills.

She shrugged, he did seem very strong, if she were to go against him she'd have to be very sneaky, and fast. "Maybe if we did be finding a way to be poisoning him first."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Hey, I've gained nine pounds since I got back." Howard frowns and chomps on another handful of popcorn. He knows he's tiny and underfed as well as he knows that no matter what, he still won't get back up to a healthy weight before he get put back in the Arena with people like Maximus.

And like Pruna.

"I don't got plans to kill anyone. Just to avoid them. Let the muttations and the psychos deal with them all."

[knifewithnoname]

She just grinned at him and reached out to steal some of his popcorn. She had no idea what it was but the food here hadn't failed her yet.

"But what if they do be finding you? You should be having plans or you will be dying again."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard yanks the bowl of popcorn away and jumps up off the couch. "Don't touch my food, Moody!"

[knifewithnoname]

She poised herself to jump at him, like she would the kids at home if they had tried such a trick. Really the only reason the leaders tolerated her and her sister at all was that they were the best thieves in the pack, even if they weren't part of he pack at all.

But she heard a noise and saw one of the stupid hair people standing up, she remembered the (daily) lecture from her escort about how she was under no circumstances to attack anyone outside of the arena.

So she resorted to kicking him in the shin and sticking her tongue out. "I do no even be wanting your food."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Ow!" He does a little lurching hopping pain dance out of her way and hugs the bowl close to him. "Liar. If you didn't want it you wouldn't have taken it."

He takes a seat on the armrest of the couch, feet pointed towards her.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yeah well it do probably be fucking horrible anyways." She stuck her tongue out again and threw herself into a chair.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard pauses and raises an eyebrow.

Then he starts laughing.

"You know how to swear?"

[knifewithnoname]

"To be swearing? You do be meaning like an oath?"

Why was he laughing at her. If Karkat had taught her a stupid word that got her laughed at she was going to kill him.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"No, I mean like offensive words. It's cool, I just didn't know you had it in you. I swear all the time."

[knifewithnoname]

Oh like cursing. She nodded, of course she knew how to curse. She knew some really good ones that Kant had taught her but most of them were a bit unwieldy in Gauigen dialect.

"Does fucking be being a curse then?" She grinned, Karkat hadn't told her that, but he was forgiven. She liked him even more.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Yeah, 'fucking' is a curse. You want to learn more?"

Howard looks positively delighted at the idea of teaching Moody Blues to drop some four-letter bombs on TV.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes! You do be teaching me!" Her voice was as bratty as usual but there was a lot of excitement under the commanding tones.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard claps his hands together in glee.

"Well, I'm a big fan of 'asshole', but 'douchebag' and 'fuckhead' have a nice ring to them."

[knifewithnoname]

She grinned as well and memorised the words. "Asshole, douchebag, fuckhead. Do they be things you do be calling people?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"People you don't like, yeah. It'll usually get a response out of them. You can also swear when you're surprised, too, like 'holy shit!' or 'what the fuck?'."

[knifewithnoname]

"Holy shit, what the fuck." She nodded memorising those as well. "Fuck do be a word that do be in a lot of curses then."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard grins, pleased by his little student.

"Well, most swear phrases are made up by sticking individual curse words together. When you learn them all, you can start combining them, like Legos. Then you get some good ones, like cocksucking motherfucking cumdumpster and goddamn smacktarded son of a whore. But you want to save the really long chains for certain occasions, because usually when you really want to get a reaction, you need to just like, bam." He gestures with his hands. "Precision fuck-strike."

[knifewithnoname]

"Legos?" She wrinkled her nose but waved away the question as not important. She was getting used to not understanding things.

She was used to long curse strings, the one's in her own world could go on for ages. But she liked these ones, she grinned even if she didn't understand the words, they sounded good. "So if I do be really hating someone and be wanting them to be really knowing it I would be calling them a goddamn smacktarded son of a whore but if I do just be wanting to be making someone angry or cursing them in battle I would be calling them a fuckhead."

She is the best student.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Yeah, like, building blocks. Whatever. You know what I mean."

Howard listens to Pruna recite it back and nods. "Exactly. Exactly like that. And curses mean more if it's something the person's already insecure about, like how good they are at sex."

[knifewithnoname]

"People can be being bad at sex?" Pruna knows nothing about sex past it's a thing adults do and like and it seems very stupid and causes lots of drunken bar fights.

But if it was something she could insult people about, then she was interested.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Well, yeah. Not that I'd know from experience," seriously, Howard has no experience, "but it's a pretty sore spot for people."