thearena | three Legionnaires sneaking through the town / the Capitol went and broke one's crown

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three Legionnaires sneaking through the town / the Capitol went and broke one's crown

WHO| Open to Lyle Norg, Rokk Krinn, and/or Brainiac 5 and YOU!
WHAT| The Legionnaires puttering around the arena
WHEN| Week 1 Catchall for all three Legionnaires (May add more weeks if not much changes for Weeks 2 and 3.)
WHERE| Pick a scenario!
WARNINGS| cw: With Brainy: mental illness/a character essentially being forced off their meds

A) The Newsstand

The Legion holed up in an old news shop, largely because there was no front window that was easily breakable, just a door and broken sign saying "Plastino's Paper Shop."

They'd blocked the back door. The front was broken on its hinges but they'd moved some of the shelves to create a hurdle there so that they could easily attack someone that came in. The staircase that led upstairs had been left open in case they needed to make an escape to the roof since there were ways they could make their way down. Around them were shelves with all manner of things. One had snacks and candy that was mostly moldy but had a few edible things that could be picked out of it. There was refrigerator, long since broken, that had glass bottles of beverages inside that had probably long since gone bad. And there were shelves and shelves of rotten newspapers, moldy science fiction novels, pulp magazines, and comic books with titles like "Startling Stories," "Captain Future: Wizard of Science!" or "Tales of the Amazing."

When one of them wasn't out scouting, Rokk and Lyle planned things in hushed voices, keeping watch on the door. As a way of essentially focusing his mind on something that wouldn't cause it to overclock, Brainy had occupied himself with reading the tattered, moldy remains of a pulp magazine called "Stories of the Downright Unusual," that had a sinister green alien on the cover with a big head and futuristic ray gun. It advertised a story titled "The Green Menace: They Came From Planet Onzar!" and insisted it would shock and astound the reader.

"Astounding? Not astounding. Terribly insensitive," he was muttering to himself, frowning at it. "Space racists. Humans have no imagination. None. Bouncing graviton particle beams off the main deflector dish - nonsense. Nonsense. Utter nonsense."

He was still having difficulty keeping it together after having his personality inhibitors removed and that was partly why the atmosphere in the little shop was a bit...defensive, as his two friends were feeling particularly protective.

Because of the broken front door, there were some that might figure the place to be unoccupied who might poke their heads in but with how run-down many of the buildings were, the three Legionnaires knew that there weren't many places to hole up that were much better. So they were simply prepared to either chat with anyone that showed up to try to turn them away nonviolently, or, if any intruders felt like trying to attack, to turn them away forcibly.

B) A House Near the Orchards

They'd opted for snares in the trees. People might go to them seeking fruit and snares were simple and non-fatal - elegant in a way. The idea was to trap a few people, bicker about how to be evil without killing them and breaking the bet, annoying them for a while, and letting them go free, unhappy at their own lack of creativity.

It was risky but they needed at least some theatrics supporting their story, so while it increased the risk of retribution in the short-term, it might lead to their chances of being revived each time being greater in the long term.

Everyone loved a good villain and short of a ridiculously slow dipping mechanism, what else could they do?

So they waited for potential victims, pressed down low on the roof of the nearby house.

[ooc: Any characters that get snagged will be released, though they might get spooked during the ordeal, unsure of if they're going to be killed or not.]

c) Scouting

Brainy was in no condition to be moving around much - he was muttering to himself enough that people would be able to hear him in the fog, so despite the fact they didn't really want to be separated, Lyle and Rokk took turns going out alone to scout for more supplies and to get the lay of the land in the arena while the other stayed to mind him.

Luckily, they had a handy pick axe they each got to take with them when it was their turn. Not so luckily, it seemed that other Tributes weren't the only threat out there in the fog...

[ooc: Indicate which scenario you'd like and which combination of characters you want to thread with. In the first scenario (A), it can be all three characters or any combination of two of them. (Rokk or Lyle can be out scouting if you want Brainy with just one of them, or if you want just Rokk and Lyle, Brainy can be asleep.) In the second scenario (B) it's automatically all three of them. In the third scenario (C) you can get Rokk or Lyle by themselves, just pick one and note where your character finds them.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He didn't find it funny. From the expression on his face it was clear that he thought it was very serious business.

"Seven millimeters. It's most likely only six." He frowned. "Either it should be denser or your brain should be kept safely in a containment unit with life support and inertron shielding."

He added, "Also, several layers of forcefields that can withstand antimatter explosions."

Edited 2014-06-01 02:51 (UTC)

Lyle chewed the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.

"It would be very hard to do my Legion business inside of all that," he said. "But thanks. I appreciate that the safety of my grayish matter means that much to you."

"Precious contents. Your brain is the wholeness of you."

He was starting to look troubled now, thoughts blending into other thoughts, affection and fondness dredging up fear.

"Also, you're not allowed to require blood to survive any longer. Far too easy to lose. In fact, just become invulnerable. It's far too inconvenient that you're not."

Lyle was usually pretty good at reading the emotions of other sentients -- yet another skill he'd picked up from his time working for EarthGov -- and even if he hadn't, Brainy was literally in his lap. He tightened his grip again, briefly, and started rubbing Brainy's back in what he hoped was a soothing motion.

"Invulnerability would be mightily convenient, yes," he agreed. "But I don't think that's going to happen any time in the near future. Too few space whales in Panem."

"Don't joke. Six millimeters. Six millimeters."

The powerlessness wore you down. He and Lyle had already died once and they - and now Rokk - were likely going to die again.

His mind was wandering, and now it was meandering to darker places, the countless possibilities where the worst happened. Just like that, his good mood was gone.

Brainy threaded his hands through his hair and tugged on it.

Sprock!

"Brainy, shhh."

Keeping a hold on Brainy with one hand, Lyle raised the other to cup one of the hands Brainy had buried in his hair.

"I'm sorry I laughed, Brainy. But you can't worry about my skull density right now, all right? We can't do anything about it right now. We need to focus on what we can do. Brainy, look at me, please?"

He hated feeling like this, mostly helpless to protect his friends. He hated feeling to this degree.

But the gentleness in Lyle's voice had him looking him in the eyes, his own eyes glassy.

Edited 2014-06-01 03:40 (UTC)

Good, that was better. Lyle stroked Brainy's hair soothingly, but found himself at a loss for words. What could he say? He couldn't say that it would all be all right -- they were trapped in a deathmatch run by people so barbaric that they not only filmed and watched deathmatches, but they ripped Brainy's inhibitors out to make things more amusing for them. They could easily not be resurrected when they died here. The Capitol could have more of their friends (but not all, Lyle was confident that a they'd miss at least one Legionnaire and come to regret it). But none of that would help Brainy now.

"We need to focus on the things we can do, not worry about the things we can't," he repeated slowly. "There's no shame in not being able to do something, but you can't wallow in it."

"My thoughts keep running too fast or going completely stagn -"

He froze, staring into Lyle's eyes.

As Lyle sat there, holding him in his lap, stroking his hair, staring him in the eyes, face inches away from Brainy's, his pupils dilated. Lyle's pupils dilated.

All previous thoughts were forgotten and for a short while, the rivers inside Brainy's head ran still. He made them run still so that he could focus.

"Oxytocin release. Your pupils are dilated. There's nothing else that would suddenly provoke such a physiological response besides my presence." He looked confused, his jaw dropping open slightly, and his voice was soft and wondering as he said, "How did I not see it before?"

Edited 2014-06-01 04:25 (UTC)

...Sprock. That was not what he had been trying to do. That was one of the things he'd been trying to avoid having Brainy have. Sprock. Sprocking nass!

"Um," he said, and failed to find any other words. The light wasn't that great in here, sure, but his eyes had obviously dilated when Brainy was looking at them, so that wasn't going to cover it.

Oh grife, he's going to have to actually tell Brainy that he was into him and get rejected on camera, this was awful.

He was still staring at his face as if it was his first time seeing it. He pressed his fingers to the skin of Lyle's cheek.

He felt overjoyed and terrified all at once.

It couldn't be what it looked like, could it? But Lyle's own obvious panic suggested it was - and physiology didn't lie.

"You're so human. Yet fractal. Complex. Intricate patterns endlessly repeating. Not isotropic - you only appear isotropic on a larger scale."

Brainy wasn't trying to get away. He was actually moving closer. Which didn't sync properly with what he'd said the morning after they'd gone out with the Science Alliance, so--

--So he should probably pay attention to the words coming out of Brainy's mouth instead of trying to work it out through body-language.

"I..."

Right, the words coming out of Brainy's mouth were a jumble because the sprocking Capitol had ripped his inhibitors out. Great.

Lyle took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, immediately cracking the right one open again so he could watch Brainy's face.

"I wasn't going to say anything. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

Amid all the chaos, sentiment was always the thing that stayed the same. Not emotion - that vacillated all over - but the longstanding ties, the deeper feelings that he still felt even at his most unstable.

What he felt right now ran deep. It ran all the way back to Lyle being one of the first to reach out to him, puttering around his lab invisible until Brainy noticed he was there.

"I lied to you."

A tear rolled down his cheek.

"Brainy..."

Lyle raised his hand to brush the tear of of Brainy's cheek, hesitated briefly -- what if Brainy didn't want to be touched, what if he didn't want his face touched right now where they'd ripped out his inhibitors, what if, what if -- then turned his hand to brush the tear away with the back of his hand instead. That wouldn't be too much, would it?

"You don't have to," he answered softly. He wasn't entirely certain what Brainy didn't have to do -- he didn't have to lie to him, sure; he didn't have to feel bad about it either; he didn't have to talk about it if he didn't want to...

"You never lied to me about anything important." Lyle's eyes went wide. "Urgent. Urgent!"

Edited 2014-06-03 07:20 (UTC)

More tears plopped down his face. Brainy took the hand Lyle had used to wipe at his tears, turned it around, and pressed Lyle's palm against his cheek.

Then he moved in close - close enough to kiss - and made sure that Lyle was looking him in the eyes.

The green rings of his irises thinned as his pupils dilated. Then he drew Lyle's hand down to his own neck, pressing Lyle's fingers against his pulse point, so that he could feel it under his fingertips, a rapid staccato that only got faster the longer he looked Lyle in the eyes.

"I lied to you."

Edited 2014-06-03 08:15 (UTC)

...Oh.

Ohhhh.

"Oh," Lyle said, barely louder than a breath as the thing Brainy wasn't saying out loud clicked into place and abruptly altered Lyle's reality.

(Not in a "this nass timeline is being erased" way, just a new perspective.)

Because this wasn't just Brainy finding him attractive; they'd already hammered that out. This was Brainy saying that he was not only interested in a romantic relationship with Lyle, but that actually wanted to pursue one. Lyle was in such trouble, and it was glorious.

...Assuming something didn't burst through the wall to take their heads off. That was an entirely reasonable possibility.

Lyle swallowed, and finally found actual words. "All things considered, I wasn't as honest as I could have been either, so I'll forgive you if you forgive me."

Brainy flailed against Lyle's shoulder, the sadness suddenly swinging around to anger. It wasn't a punch so much as a slight shove of physically-expressed frustration.

Brainy's voice was high and thin and as fragile as spun sugar.

"Why did you act so disinterested? 'You'll forgive me if I don't kiss you now.'" Another flail. "'I've had worse'?"

Eidetic memory aside, he parroted back Lyle's words as if they've impressed themselves so painfully into his memory that he would have remembered them even if he didn't remember everything.

Lyle swayed with the shove, then immediately swayed back, making sure that Brainy didn't fall off his lap while he flailed.

"What--" he gestured helplessly with the hand that wasn't steadying Brainy. "Oh fuck, is that how it sounded? I meant "now" as in "this moment right after you said your mouth tasted like Xanthian furniture varnish". Kissing later, when you'd brushed your teeth, or rinsed out your mouth! And "I've had worse", I meant it as a flirtatious understatement."

He was such a sprocking moron. Of course Brainy wouldn't hear it like that. How often did people even flirt in the same room as Brainy?! How the sprock is he this terrible at flirting with one of his best friends?!

Edited 2014-06-05 07:49 (UTC)

Now Brainy headbutted Lyle's shoulder and simply stayed there.

"How was I supposed to know that?" he asked petulantly. "You've never shown romantic interest before."

Little did he know...

Now that he had to protest.

"Oh no, don't you even start," he said. "Two weeks after that whole mess with the Boom Tubes, I went into your lab and invited you to come to that science conference in Metropolis with me. I wore something that wasn't my uniform, I flirted with you like crazy the entire fucking time and I thought you were flirting back, and then instead of the dinner I told you ahead of time I'd planned afterwards, you dragged me out with the researchers from the conference so you could pick their brains."

He pouted down at the blond head on his shoulder. "You introduced me as your 'colleague', Brainy. When we got back, Imra brought me ice cream so I wouldn't have to leave my room. Imra."

Now Brainy shot up again, sitting up to look at him, his back poker straight.

"But you asked me to dinner. You asked 'would you like to go out to dinner with me after the conference?' I assumed you just wanted my company as a friend while partaking in your evening meal, not - not -"

He stopped suddenly, realization dawning on his face.

"Was that why I found you in my room on the ship the one time divested of all your clothing other than your undershorts?"

Edited 2014-06-05 08:26 (UTC)

Lyle groaned. Grife, the Capitol was undoubtedly eating this up with a spoon, and that was possibly the most mortifying experience in the Lyle Norg Fails to Court Brainiac 5 series.

"Were you so convinced I wasn't interested that you actually bought "I felt like watching a science documentary in my underwear and didn't want to deal with everyone else"?" he asked. "I thought you were just letting me save face."

"We were still gathering equipment for the ship. I had the only other viewscreen besides the one in the common room and the one on the bridge. It just - it seemed highly improbable you were trying to seduce me and far more likely you were appropriating my space for relaxation time."

A pause.

"Then again that was after the mission where we were depowered and locked in that storage container together and there was quite a bit of banter, although I don't know how you were so sure I was romantically int - oh."

Oh, he got it now. Thinking back, remembering exactly what was said, he understood. Just like he and Lyle could both look back on the morning after they'd made out with entirely different recollections of the tone of the events that occurred, the same had to have happened then.

"That thing I said about assisting me in my experiment with thermal synthesis of tarnium alloy - that perhaps could have been misinterpreted as a double entendre rather than me actually soliciting your assistance with an actual experiment in the lab."

Edited 2014-06-09 07:25 (UTC)

"I was about to ask if I could kiss you when the others showed up," Lyle said. "This is fucking ridiculous. How are we both this stupid?" Why hadn't they just sprocking talked about this before they were trapped in some creepy voyeuristic hellhole of a universe?!

Brainy thumped his head against Lyle's shoulder now, even though there was a taut little smile on his face.

"The fact they you tend to never explain anything that you're feeling so that I can actually understand it and that I can't read tone and body language in many social situations," he said wryly, "and also tend to repress every emotion I possibly can may perhaps have something to do with it."

They were a mess. They really were and he wondered if that was a bad thing or if it meant that maybe now that they had this out of the way, it meant they could be a mess together. Wasn't that what most of the couples (and triad) on the team were like? Wasn't that what the entire team was, in a way? One gloriously coherent mess?

The smile faded slightly.

"It just didn't occur to me that anyone would ever feel that way."

Anyone. Ever.

The truth slipped out of his mouth only because he was having trouble holding back. He felt like a container that had been filled so much that some unnameable something was spilling over the edges, and the sides of that container were rapidly losing structural integrity.

Edited 2014-06-09 07:48 (UTC)

three Legionnaires sneaking through the town / the Capitol went and broke one's crown

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cw: language

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wrap it after this one?

It's a wrap!