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

[undercoverprincess]

"I meant more like a Hydra kind of thing, where it just regrows an arm or a leg... never mind, point is, you can cut off the dealers, but the supplier will always bring in more dealers." She leaned back with a smirk, folding her arms over her chest.

"This ties in, because when the spy gets to this village, she sneaks her way into the castle to find the one in charge. Turns out the one in charge? Was the fairy godmother, from way back when." Cindy had to make a face. "Like I said before, the godmother, she grants wishes, but most of all? She gives everyone their happy ending, but it's her idea of what a happy ending should be. So she's ruling over this land, and she wants everyone under her rule to be happy. So you've got people walking around with these huge, forced grins on their face." She grins, using her fingers to make it more grotesque and wide.

"And if you stop smiling? You'll be shot in the middle of the street."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Like the Stanford wives," Howard says, nodding and keeping his eyes on Cinderella's face. "She didn't want a happy ending, not really, she just wanted people to look happy."

He leans back too, parking his feet in a little "v" shape on the couch, knees up and arms folded. He cracks his neck to the side.

"So what's the point of the story?"

[undercoverprincess]

"Yup, just like them." Those kind of things gave Cindy the creeps. Hell, anything where people walked around with stupid, happy grins creeped her out. You couldn't get her too close to a clown these days, which is one of the reasons why she never went to the circus.

Beyond everything else. She raised her arms above her head, stretching them out. "The point of the story is, do you think those people who have to act robotic with their always happy faces want to walk around like that, with no thoughts or feelings on the matter? Or do they want to be able to choose what they feel and think, and get to show those feelings on their faces?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I'm not totally against not having thoughts or feelings. It'd be way easier, at least, in a place like this." He shrugs, as if this is just some minor observation and not a rather morbid belief. "I'd like feelings a lot more if you were in control of them, instead of other people dictating them."

He wrinkles his nose and rolls his eyes back slightly, as if not sure that that's the word he's looking for, then shrugs again.

[undercoverprincess]

Cindy raised an eyebrow. "So you're not in control of your feelings back home, or is it just here that you get to pretend everything is A-OK?" Because what was this world if not another big fairy tale? One of the bad ones, sure, where the kids get eaten and the monster gets away with it, and all of the kids who listened to the story now never disobey their parents. But still a story book kind of world.

"It probably would be easier in this place not to have them, I'll give you that." It seemed to work out well for everyone who lived in the Capitol.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I'm not in control of it everywhere. If I were totally in control of my feelings, I'd be fucking badass." He shrugs and zips one of his pockets, now fat and lumpy with stowed popcorn, closed. "But this place isn't so bad."

From the state of him, it's probably not hard to guess that he didn't come from the lap of luxury.

"At least we get brought back. That's way more than most places afford you, right? Even your magic fairytale world."

[undercoverprincess]

"Plenty of chances to be fucking badass here. They love badasses in this place, just kill a few people and you're a rockstar." She was about to make some kind of remark about just getting him a bag to put all that popcorn in, but for once, maybe twice in her life, she held her tongue. Like this kid really needed more remarks from her. Cindy didn't know what his life was back home, but it couldn't be good.

"Hey, in my magic fairy tale world, everyone comes back from the dead or a coma with a kiss from a Prince Charming," She rolled her eyes. "Who's a dick, by the way. Total douchebag, never trust princes."

50 comments!

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I don't really like the killing, you know?" Having collected his popcorn, he now sprawls his arm over the back of the couch. One foot twitches in time with a song only he can hear. "I mean, like. I'm not going to pretend I'm the nicest person in the world, but just because I'm a dick doesn't mean I get off on it."

How strange, to be just talking about it like this.

"Dude, his name's Prince Charming. If he was anything but a douchebag I'd be shocked. Just from hearing about him, I bet he's the kind of person who insures his hair."

I've never reached 50 comments before in any thread *-*

[undercoverprincess]

"I get it," Cindy shook her head, giving a stretch of her legs before putting them back in the folded position. "I do. I don't get my blood pumping by killing a bunch of people who's only fault is that they were put into the same place as me, and forced to kill people, too." It was a little bit of a relief, to talk about this. Back home, she was Cindy, the shoe store owner, who was a bimbo and took trips around the world, spending her money nilly-willy.

No one besides Beast and Bigby knew her real job, and she never got to talk about it. It was actually kind of nice, despite how dark the conversation was. "I don't really get why people love to watch it, here, especially when they don't seem like they get off on it. They just... watch it." That was weird.

Cindy had to laugh, though. One of her favorite past times? Hating on her ex. "Oh, definitely, he has to. What would happen if he started to go bald? He'd need some kind of compensation for what he might say was 'a loss to all lady-kind'."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"It's all just a story to them. It's not real. When we come out here it's like...they think we're actors. Or action figures. I mean, in the grand scheme of things it's not that bad to be a toy, because at least you're not a punching bag or garbage or prey, but."

Howard shrugs. He knows not everyone shares the same somewhat nonchalant views of the Games that he does. He glances at her legs, figures there's nothing he's terribly interested in looking at there, and traces the spaces between buttons on the remote control absentmindedly.

Howard laughs so hard he pats his popcorn pocket until there's a crumple sound inside. "Wow, he sounds like a total douchebag. Total.

[undercoverprincess]

She wouldn't mind being an action figure. Or, having an action figure of her, was more accurate. She was sick of all the Barbies, though. She could do without any more of those.

"You know, actors put up with a lot of shit to do their stuff. I mean, a lot of shit. Directors are apparently willing to do whatever they can to get a 'real' reaction from them. There was one who threw birds at his actress, just to terrify her, because she needed to be terrified on screen." No, she had a point to this. "...So, basically, we don't get paid enough for the kind of acting we're doing for them."

Cindy did agree with what he'd said. Some of it, anyway. She wasn't a punching bag, or prey, back home, but at one point she'd been garbage. And she never wanted to go back to that life again. So if she felt that way, he must feel ten times that. Cindy wasn't sure yet if she was looking forward to be one of their actors.

She grinned. "Nothing redeeming about him, not even one thing. Okay, maybe one thing, but everything else, not so much."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"What kind of birds get that reaction out of someone? Were they Angry Birds?" Howard raises his eyebrows and pigeontoes his feet on the couch, making a visual joke only he finds funny.

"And we get paid plenty. I mean, check it out, we got an all-expenses-paid stay in the Tribute Center, which is basically a super swanky hotel, all you can eat food, and our own servants who can't even talk back when you ask them to do something stupid like massage your toes."

Not that Howard would get an Avox to do that. He doesn't like people touching him, much less people he doesn't know.

One hand tugs at the drawstring of his hoodie, evening it out with the other and then pulling it too far, winding it around his fingers absentmindedly.

"Please tell me that one thing is not a tee-em-eye one thing and is just that he's loaded with mad bank."

[undercoverprincess]

Cindy grinned. "Pretty sure it wasn't Angry Birds, but come on. If you had some guy throwing live birds at your face, scratching and pecking at you, and you weren't allowed to get out of the way? I'd be terrified by the end of the filming of that movie."

Good point, Howard. The tower really wasn't that bad. They could have kept them all in an actual tower, maybe chained up or something, before being sent out to kill each other. Oh, and he was right. The food was really good.

"I keep trying to think of outlandish things to ask the kitchens to make, but so far they've outdone me every time. And they always make it better then what you can get back home. Just ask them for chicken nuggets, they've become gourmet in this place." No, really. McDonalds' would be out of business in the blink of an eye with those nuggets. Looking down at her nails for a moment, she looked up slyly.

"It's tee-em-eye, but that's only because he's dead broke. Prince Charming has no money."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Me? I'd be trying to catch dinner. Come on, where's the interpretorial spirit?" He means entrepreneurial. Probably.

"I need to start getting creative," he muses. He taps his lower lip with his thumb as he thinks, running the tip of his tongue over his teeth. His gaze unlocks, looks at something far away and imaginary. "I keep asking for, you know. High calorie. Protein bars and stuff. You know that they can make protein bars here taste like just about anything? I had one that tasted exactly like fresh pineapple the other day, not that, like, I really remember fresh pineapple to compare it to, but you know."

His hollow cheeks flush. He looks like he has a thousand thoughts about this food subject but feels ashamed to tell them. He quickly drops his gaze down to his hands, his thumbs fiddling and fighting a one-person thumb war.

[undercoverprincess]

"Same place as all of my fairy tale wishes." More or less, anyway. Really, those things cost a lot. She owed way too much to that bitch of a witch.

Cindy raised an eyebrow at the... she didn't know what to call that. Not a blush, really, but he just seemed to suddenly shut down. And here they'd been having a pretty good conversation, and she assumed food would be a good subject to talk about with him. He got whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, here, and it was obvious he'd never had that before.

"...What about strawberry? I wasn't really a fan of the strawberry and banana mixes that they usually had for like... everything, really, but I loved red berry mixes. Strawberries, raspberries, and pomegranates. So long as something's filling, it's pretty good by me. I might not look it, but I'd give anything for those home style meals, which are not cooked by me. I don't do a lot of cooking, anymore. What about you?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I don't really focus on taste much, anymore." He shrugs, drawing his eyes along a pattern in the carpet. He's not quite sure how to explain it, that he thinks about sustenance every minute of the day, that his running internal monologue is a morass of fear, hunger, a mixture of the two, and only occasional intrusions by more sophisticated fare.

Most people could have a regular conversation about what they liked to eat. Howard can't. All it does is emphasize the gulf between him and people who haven't lived like him. It makes him feel like he's watching them from under ice while he drowns in cold water.

"Didn't really have much of a chance to learn good cooking." Creative cooking, sure - making food out of flour mixed with water, or cooking a lizard - but nothing he'd ever share with anyone but Eponine.

[undercoverprincess]

"It's your lucky day, kid! You're in a place where all they care about is taste. And you're stuck in it. Definitely fun, right?" Cindy shrugged, leaning her head back and staring up at the ceiling. Tracing her own patterns above, while he drew his below.

"You'd think someone who did all the cooking for her family would be a pretty good cook, right? That'd be some kind of assumption? It's hard to do good cooking on scraps." God, she had hated her stepmother and stepsisters with a passion. Sleeping in the ashes of the fire. Cooking scrumptious, huge meals for them every day, only to be fed the scraps that even a dog might not eat.

Being a princess felt like that, on a different level. Instead of begging for scraps of food, you were begging for honestly. For someone not to constantly be around you, because no, really, she could do it on her own, she didn't need to be coddled.

Cindy shrugged, raising her arms over her head and yawning. "Think you're going to watch more of the past stuff? You really should get a note book and make notes or something. Might be helpful."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Yeah. I guess." He blinks a bit, then looks at Cinderella - or, more accurately, specific body parts. Her lips, her hair, her fingernails. The parts that wither and crinkle first when malnourished. "You grew up on scraps?"

He doesn't really believe it. He bets her version of scraps is better than his. Then again, he has a tendency to believe that the world can't get any worse than the one he came from - an immature body for hope, but one nonetheless. Things can't be worse than they were.

"I don't like to learn by writing. Reminds me of school."

[undercoverprincess]

"Not all secrets get revealed," Cindy smiled, wagging her finger. "It would just spoil all the fun in learning about someone, wouldn't it? No one wants to know the end of the story first."

All those fairy tales were never Disney version. They were never any one version, actually. But none of them were good.

"Good point. School isn't a great thing to think about. Maybe they have some kind of recorder thing? Speak into it your notes, see what they could be, all that good stuff. Could be fun."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I do. I always read the last page first. You know, when I actually read, instead of just Spark Notesing it." He rubs his fingertips across his lower lip, eyebrows working as if he's trying to massage a knot in his own brow. "You know, that's a pretty good idea. And I got a better one."

He claps his hands together and leans sort of forward, still staying well away from any personal bubble of hers (mostly to protect his own). "You ever figure we could do like, commentary? Make a name for ourselves so maybe we can petition our way out?"

[undercoverprincess]

"That's not fun! What's the point of reading a book if you don't get to be surprised by the ending?" That was no way to live, really. Who wanted to know the end, and spend their whole life with the knowledge of how it happened? Some surprises needed to stay that way.

She leaned forward like him, but still far enough away that no one's bubble was being breached. "Commentary for the games? Like... whatever that guy's name is, Templesmith or something? Where we get to sit behind the desks and comment about what's going on?" That... sounded kind of fun, actually.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"What's the point of reading books at all when the internet exists? God, you sound like my mom." While his teasing is lighthearted, there's a certain venom to when he says that last word, as if he's been taken by surprise by how ugly it is said aloud.

"Well, yeah, kind of. But not like big budget like whatsisface. Like...do you know podcasts? We could make this seriously indie or something, like, made by Tributes for Tributes or something." His face morphs from mulling something over to excited by the prospect, dimples appearing at the side of his smile.

[undercoverprincess]

Cindy raised an eyebrow. Mommy issues? Not really that surprising. This kid grew up on the streets, right? So his mom had to be... not the best mom in the world. Cindy could think up all kinds of scenarios, but she knew she would never be told which was the right one.

"Do not ever compare me to a mom, just saying the word gives me the creeps." Not mothering material. She didn't have any good ones to look up to, but just. No. "Also, I listen to audio books, mostly, so fast forwarding to the end sucks."

That actually sounds like a good idea. A really good idea. "I love podcasts." Cindy grinned. "I listen to them all the time. And people pay attention to them, especially if the comments are snarky enough."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Really? I thought all girls kind of had that mommy phase. Didn't you ever play with dolls as a kid?" He looks genuinely curious. He's really not had much interaction with the fairer sex, outside of your occasional schoolyard run-in.

He grins and folds his hands over his stomach. "I can do snarky, I can do way snarky. And I'm guessing you can too, so, you know. We could have a good thing going."

[undercoverprincess]

"Oh my god, really? No, I do not have a mommy phase. I have a protective phase where I'll rip someone's throat out to keep them safe, but no mommy there. And no, I never played with dolls as a kid. We didn't really do dolls back home, for me, anyway." She paused. "I played with mice."

Well, she did! They were cute and fuzzy and really the only thing she had for companions. They didn't talk or anything, but there were always nice to be around.

"I think we do. The two of us combined might be over-snarkified, but those are really the best ones, right? I'm really liking this idea right now, I mean. Just think of the possibilities!"