Internet Cafe

[etcircenses]

On Thursday, the Daily Grind internet cafe will open for business for the first time since the start of the Arena. The twelve computers inside are all turned on and connect directly to the network. Any Tribute who ventures into the cafe will find that they can read recent network posts as well as Panem Nightly's most recent newscast. More excitingly, they can comment to the posts, however all responses must be made using text only. The cafe is only open on Thursday and will close promptly at 9pm. The computers will electrocute those who attempt to tamper with them, so please, don't try anything stupid.

The cafe itself is about thirty degrees warmer than the rest of the mall and will become unbearably hot after about fifteen minutes, so keep your core temperature in mind. No refreshments are permitted inside the cafe, despite the fact that it is a cafe.

Comments

[onthelii2p]

A.

When the internet café finally, finally opens up, there is zero way whatsoever that Sollux can keep himself from it. He's a nerd from his core out to every tip and point, toes, fingers, and horns alike, and computers have always been his jam. It's after splitting off from his matesprit, Feferi, that he heads in, a bucket with ice skates hanging from one hand and a crowbar (temporarily traded from Feferi for the revolver he won) in the other.

He is on edge, watching for other tributes, but he makes no move of aggression. He sits himself down in a spot where he'll have good view of the entrance and sets to checking out what he can do.

As he discovers, the place barely even merits the title of internet cafe. Since when does the internet mean text comments on on a few measly posts on the network? He doesn't even listen to the whole... news program? Talk show? Whatever you call the most prominent post, and instead scrolls down to pick at the comments.

B.

The thing is, there's only so long at a computer Sollux can stand before he has to fiddle with it, and a little html for his obnoxious mustard yellow in his comments isn't enough. He's a coder, a programmer, a hacker, and here's a stupidly simple machine right here ready and waiting. He has to do something, and it eats at him like an addiction he can't beat. Besides, the temperature has been palpably rising beyond its already uncomfortable heat, and he recognizes a limited time frame when he feels it.

The problem is, as soon as he tries to access any part of the system at all, he gets a shock so hard he jolts, toppling himself and his chair alike backwards onto the floor with a noisy clatter. He's alive still, and the sharp gasping will attest to that, but between the shock and the impact he definitely fucking hurts.

[carnagecarnival]

He had no intention of going into the internet cafe. His lessons with Kurloz are hard enough, if he can avoid such communications done elsewise he is happy to make on avoiding them. Not talking is safe. Not writing is security. Making to not have no sort of voice what so ever was not getting crushed down under heel, metaphoric or literal being.

But he hear a noise and it makes him jump. When he turns on around to see what and who, of course, it's Captor. He'd... he'd almost gone forgotten the motherfucker was here. One conversation and then he was breaking terezi out of prison, running through woods with her, being caught and-- he skips that part of bright pain and madness. He's here now, an avox. And Sollux is here lain upon the floor like some unfunny new carpeting.

His feet move of their own volition, pushing into the hot room-- really fucking hot-- and he's moving on to Sollux. He can't actually do anything unless he's asked to but still, he wants, for some reason, to see and be sure a motherfucker ain't being dead. Oh please don't be dead.

Sollux is gasping. Suppose that means he ain't dead.

[onthelii2p]

It would do him better if it weren't so fucking hot in here. He can stand it, he can stand pain, but such heat makes it harder to breathe. His hands hurt. Are they burned? He can't tell, but it's lucky either way that he jolted back as quick as he did. He may well have died if he'd been touching it longer.

But amongst the hiss and fight to catch his breath he hears movement. Someone steps into view, and his gaze flicks over, catches on horns and grey skin and a hairstyle he hasn't seen before. The lack of stitches mean it's not the Makara who helped him before, and he doesn't look like Gamzee, but he doesn't look much like how he saw the Initiate either.

"How many Makarath are there?" he hisses out through his teeth. He reaches limp-limbed for the crowbar and the bucket of skates, gets a loose-but-good-enough grip on them. No attack. "I thuppothe," and his voice is labored, "you're going to shove help on me too?"

[carnagecarnival]

Four. Four Makaras of his kind specifically. Probably more that aren't related to such things as those of the Game are and were, but just got sharing sign and the latter part of a hatchname. Here, three, if one counted Gamzee in district five, which he is not because he is not allowed to be thinking about such things as that. Finally, leaving two.

He supposes it's not so unreasonable to be mistaken for another one, but it still brings some surprise. His eyes follow the reach for the crowbar, his shredded and scabbed ears twitching, but Sollux ain't seeming yet to do anything. Back to Sollux his eyes dart and he wishes a little that the motherfucker hadn't gone all to sounding like he didn't want no help. That would make it harder to actually help, unable to disobey such things.

He fights with himself for a long moment, and then slowly reaches out a hand (the other, still holding a book close). There's a tremble, with the effort of putting his avoxing to the side, but it's the best he can offer, and also the only way of telling that he can only help if a motherfucker lets him to.

[onthelii2p]

Another mute one? Is this a trend? Is Gamzee going to lose his voice too sometime? (That might actually be a good thing. His way of speech is pretty annoying.) Still, this mystery Makara's gesture is easy to read, enough that Sollux sighs out his nose. Kurloz all but forced aid on him; ignorant of the Initiate's fate, he expects the same attitude here.

"Okay, okay, I'm moving." He kicks at his chair a bit, not the strongest effort, but it helps push it away. "Help me up." Another wheeze. "Thorry I'm tho thweaty."

The sooner he gets out of here, the better, really.

[carnagecarnival]

Help him up is a solid command. Good. He reaches down and makes all about doing that, putting the book down temporary to start pulling Sollux upright, at least to sitting, then trying to bring him to stand. He holds steady in case of wobble or sway.

Any sweatiness is completely ignored, though taken note of. He can do something about that, probably, once he helps escort Sollux out (if with some more shake and tremble). A motherfucker could feel blood boil in this place.

He stands as like to help Sollux walk on his own, but it'd be surprising if a motherfucker ain't being a little jellylegged. So he tries to walk for him, get him on out to set him outside the cafe, preferably against a wall.

[onthelii2p]

Sollux spots the book in the process of being helped, but like the scabbed up ears, he doesn't ask right now. He just makes sure he has his own things in hand. The effort to walk him out once he's upright is helpful, too. It's not that his legs are injured or anything, but a strong electric shock and sitting in this heat for long enough would make almost anyone weak. He only interrupts to ask that they go a little further, to get better space from the cafe's entrance and avoid the heat radiating out, but he takes gratefully to leaning on the wall then.

"Fuck, it wath like a convection bokth in there." He looks over toward the cafe, eyes narrowing as he says, "I barely even opened that thing up when it shocked me. Like how dare the computer nerd try to do anything interethting."

His gaze turns back. "Ith your book thtill in there?"

[carnagecarnival]

The Initiate doesn't know what a convention box is and he doesn't imagine he ever will. Computers; what the fuck even were they? Something what Sollux has got interest in and somehow, that doesn't really surprise. Nor does it surprise the Capitol prepared the things to shock a brother for the touching of them.

When Sollux's gaze turns, so does his. He turns back to Sollux to give a vague sort of nod to stay. Motherfucker shouldn't be going nowheres being far. The book is important and it's not as if he can protect him like this. So he rises up, wordless, and turns back where he came.

If there's no sort of protest, he can probably get back before no stranger snatches his book of futures all up, the pages being warm when he touches them after sitting in the heat of the room. Then it's just a short stop to a clothing store to grab a t-shirt, another store for a small bin, and then a few minutes standing by a fountain-- from which he is sure to drink first. The t-shirt goes in the water bin, all such is being picked up, and he carries it back with the book under his arm. The other troll is sure enough back into view and he makes sure to set it down careful-like by Sollux once he's there. He sets the book down once more and settles to work, making sure to show clear, that this is all for a wet-cloth and to be used for the most obvious of things such things be used for. He doesn't know how to treat shock or really anything, but he can't imagine it would hurt, especially not after the heat.

He looks up in await of either permission or for Sollux to take the shirt cloth in his stead.

[onthelii2p]

An oven. He meant an oven.

The nod the Initiate gives him is too vague to mean much in his view, but he stays nonetheless, largely because he needs to cool down and gather himself some before he even tries to go find Feferi again. When after leaving the cafe he doesn't come right back, Sollux figures it's just as well. He didn't ask more, and though he's gotten better about taking help, he doesn't want to take too much. Not in the arena.

By the time he comes back, Sollux has slid down to sit on the floor, back still against the wall. It's nice and cool against him and his sweat-sticky shirt, and it's easier like this to just set his weapons down beside him. He doesn't move when he sees the other troll save to look up at him.

"You came back?" he asks even as the Initiate sets his own things down. The surprise doesn't stop him from taking the wet shirt, though, and he sets to carefully wiping down his face.

"You Makarath are weird," he says with a side glance, "but thankth."

He rewets the shirt a couple times, taking to his neck, his arms, squeezing it out over his head for the sake of where his hair has made his scalp hotter. He'd go dunk himself in the fountain itself if he were closer.

"Tho what'th with the book?"

A

[shenunigans]

Dave isn't surprised to see Sollux. Not one bit. He'd followed the siren song of internet into this sweaty shit shop and he'd almost wanted to leave simply for the temperature. He lingered long enough to watch the program in it's entirety, fist pumping upon discovering his little stunt had been paying off.

He emerges from the depths of the cafe, rubbing his forehead with the back of his arm before he sees his face flash across the screen of the troll's computer. He wastes no time sliding over, using his freshly acquired saber (with Alex Murphey engraved on it) to point at himself as the piano music plays.

"Look, nerd. I'm on TV!" He smirks to himself. "Fuck yeah, I'm famous."

[onthelii2p]

Sollux hadn't quite noticed Dave when he came in. He looked less for individuals, more for heads to count, and more in his own vicinity. And though he's been trying to pay attention to who's around him, it's not that hard to get absorbed in the simple presence of computer. A whole working computer, right in front of him!

One that's playing a bunch of stupid shit, really. He hasn't been watching studiously, instead tapping through the little progress bar for anything that looks important. And - is that Dave? What's he--

"Holy shit." There's a sword over his shoulder, and before he can even process the voice he's kicking his chair away from the desk, off to the side. Which, as it happens, finally lets him see this mysterious saber wielder.

It's a good thing. He would have gone trying to throw his chair otherwise, which probably wouldn't work all that great.

He slumps in his chair, breathing a little harder for the sheer adrenaline of the moment. "Could you not thcare the shit out of me, IP?" He knows his name is Dave, but the Insufferable Prick moniker is apt. "Pointing thwordth around in the death arena after not bothering to thay you're there ith not thomething I need to be dealing with right now, thankth."

[shenunigans]

By this point, you would have thought Dave could realise that sneaking up on people is generally a bad idea. Particularly in an Arena. Does that stop him? No. Though he momentarily feels a little guilty for it, he's just relieved to see the nerd in one piece. He had managed to wander off with Loki for quite a bit of time, after all.

"IP? -Oh." He shrugs, kicking out a chair of his own to sit his ass down on. "Alright, I'll file that information away for next time. I got caught in the overwhelming air of my celebrity, I guess." He sits back that little bit more in his chair, with the ever present casual air. "How's shit?"

[onthelii2p]

Sollux rolls his eyes, though it's hard to tell. He scoots his chair back over toward the desk.

"I'm thweating like Equiuth and I finally have actheth to a working computer. Fifty-fifty." As he speaks, he stops the video and scrolls down to check the comments. Some chick in too much makeup? Whatever. "I thee you're thtill alive."

[shenunigans]

"Equius? Which one is that?" He has a feeling he might know, considering he shared a conversation with someone possessing sweaty equine interests. Eugh.

"Computers without youtube or webcomics or anything worth looking at. I mean, other than me, but I'm sitting right here anyway." He glances at the screen and casts his eyes away, knowing distinctly that Bro has been tailing that since he got here.

"Of course I'm alive. Why wouldn't I be alive? Oh ye of little fucking faith."

[onthelii2p]

"Thweaty blue hoofbeatht fetishitht. Can't mithh him if you've ever interacted."

He pokes around some more, clicking at the comment option. Text? Text only? He's more comfortable with it than video or voice, but the purposeful limitation is almost offensive. He pokes around a little more, testing, typing as the conversation continues.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe becauthe thith ith a fucking death game?" He flicks him a quick glance. "That'th not me athking how you've thurvived, by the way, tho don't tell me. I don't really care what you've been up to."

[shenunigans]

Dave nods in understanding at the summary, he very much remembers that guy harassing him at critical moments. Rubbing his sweaty, awkward poetry all over the conversation.

"My life is a death game, Sollux. I was raised on survivalist bullshit, but I'm flattered that you've been worried about me. Warms the cockles of my heart." He moves to pull his feet up onto the desk in front of him, getting very comfortable despite the heat. "You're a legendary conversationalist, you know that? I had all these stories lined up and now I'm too self-conscious to say them."

[onthelii2p]

His life? Sollux mushes out a pssht. His weird man bro lusus might have taught him proper strifing techniques, but that counts for nothing in his book. (His book is big and full of code, an old revenge chain, and how he'd die for any friend if it came down to it.)

His eyes narrow a bit at the screen as he types out another response. Who is this painted up weirdo? She doesn't get to act like she doesn't want to talk when she's the one who made the big hello comment on that stupid news post.

This time he doesn't look at Dave as he says, "You realithe I'm not keeping you here, right? I'm kind of trying to make the motht of thith before my think pan meltth out patht my thponge clotth from the heat. I'm actually thanctioned to uthe thith thing and I have a computer-illiterate huthkleech to thchoolfeed on trolling."

A

[frozenfractalsallaround]

There's a lot going on for Elsa this arena, mentally, but when the internet cafe is open, curiosity gets the better of her. She's never used a computer, but the idea of communicating with people outside of the arena is appealing, though she has no idea who she might even talk to. She's putting all of her emotional baggage at the door as best she can, when she steps into the place.

Immediately, she's wondering if this is a good idea. It's so much warmer than the rest of the mall and Elsa's not really the best with heat- it's not been something she's had to worry about until Panem, and it makes her extremely uncomfortable. But she's gonna ignore it for as long as possible, as she moves to explore, on the lookout for anyone who might be dangerous.

It doesn't take her long before she spots someone sitting on a chair, and she realizes it's one of the trolls. Elsa isn't very close to many of them, and after her death last arena at the hands of Initiate, she can't help but be a little... on edge. But she knows that, like humans, not all trolls are the same and so she tries to push that away.

He hasn't seemed to notice her just yet, so she'll clear her throat and speak up. "Just to let you know, I don't mean you any harm," she says, hoping a peace offering will suffice. "I'm just here exploring, so... I won't hurt you, if you don't hurt me." As if she would hurt anyone, but he doesn't need to know that.

[onthelii2p]

At some point Dave has left, leaving Sollux to continue his internet arguments like a mature and reasonable person. He's yelling at drag queens. He has yet to understand what a drag queen actually is, but when both of them are stylists, it's so very easy to take out his unhappiness on the both of them. He hates being here, hates the idea of being a source of entertainment for the Capitol, and hates how impotent he feels. Trolling won't fix anything, but it's terribly investing as distractions go.

When someone clears their throat behind him, the surprise is enough that he jolts. "What--?"

He whips his head around, opaque red and blue eyes wide and searching, focus obvious only by the situation at hand. He has a hand gripped tight on his chair arm, but before the other can make a grab for a weapon she's speaking up. No harm. Just exploring. A mutual peace offering.

His shoulders ease, but only partway. He's seen other people around, but this is the first he's been addressed by someone he doesn't know in the arena.

His second hand joins the first on the arm of the chair, away from Feferi's crowbar or his bucket of skates. He asks in a measured tone, "Who are you?"

[frozenfractalsallaround]

Elsa, too, eases when it becomes clear that he isn't going to attack her. For a moment, she'd thought he would go for a weapon and she's incredibly grateful when he doesn't, and it shows. She'll even take a step closer, her hands held up still in a gesture of surrender.

"My name is Elsa," she says, gently lowering her hands when she feels like she can get away with it. "If you don't mind, I'll ask you the same question. I don't think I've seen you around?" She tends to stay in her room a lot, unless she's out with people and she doesn't use the network much either, so as it is she's missed seeing him around before the start of the arena.

[onthelii2p]

"Eltha," he repeats back. It's weirdly short to him, but then human names don't follow much rhyme or reason. She looks human, at least. Pale like Dave.

"I'm Thollukth." He gives her a bit of a look. She should realize the lisp, right? He's getting tired of clearing it up to others, and he's only had to a few times just yet. "Thith ith... what do you call it. My firtht time through. And I wathn't here long before it thtarted."

He's used the network more, but apart from this much of his presence was confined to his room. Any trips out tended to be short and to the point, even on his own district's floor. It wouldn't be that hard to miss him.

[frozenfractalsallaround]

It's only a mark of how respectful of people Elsa tries to be that she doesn't giggle when she realizes how much of a lisp he has. She's never met anyone who has quite a lisp like him, so it's new territory. Still, just the way Weselton never saw her giggle at his toupee incident, Elsa won't giggle at his lisp.

"Well, it's nice to meet you... Sollux." She does falter for a moment, if only to make sure she's saying the name right. Other than that, she won't call attention to it. "Though, I am sorry it's under these circumstances." She gives him a small, sad smile, before moving closer yet. "Do you mind if I sit here?" she gestures to the seat next to him.

[onthelii2p]

Sollux's posture and expression ease just for that. Good job, Elsa. You said his name right and didn't mock him. Two points for you.

Still, her niceness is offputting, and he stiffens back up upon her approach. "Uh." His mouth pulls into a frown. "I thought you thaid you were ekthploring. Why do you want to thit right here? If you want a computer there'th plenty and if you jutht want to thit do it outthide; it'th too hot in here to jutht thit around for no reathon."

If he looks like he's been slowly roasting, it's because he has. Thankfully not literally.

[frozenfractalsallaround]

Elsa hasn't ever met anyone who actually finds niceness offputting, so it would be weird to know that he finds it so. She can't help it, to be honest. Being nice is just in her nature and it stops people from thinking she might be about to stab them in the face at any moment. Unless they're paranoid and think it's an act, but it's really not. Elsa can't imagine actually stabbing anyone in the face, unless they do something really bad, like stab her sister. They could probably stab her and she wouldn't even stab them back but mostly because presumably she would be bleeding out.

She raises her eyebrows slightly in response to his. She'd thought her intent is fairly obvious; she just wants to talk, is all. She's clearly stumbled onto the antisocial troll, and she doesn't particularly know how to handle that. Now she just feels a little awkward for asking. "Oh... well, um." Elsa nervous laughs. "I suppose I just wanted to talk, if that was okay. You look kind of lonely."

And uncomfortable, she notes, but she won't mention that. If he wants to sit in here and roast, she certainly won't stop him. She kind of gets the vibe that if she were to mention it, he might not take it kindly. Sometimes you just get the feeling that if you try and gently help someone, they'll bite off your head and this is one of those times.

[onthelii2p]

Sollux's nose wrinkles. "I'm not lonely. Jutht becauthe I'm thitting by mythelf doethn't mean I'm looking for thomeone to come drag me out of it. Bethideth, I've been trolling people on the network already, tho there'th any company I need."

Ignore that he's none too fond of the pair he's been chatting to. Capitol people, ugh.

"You realithe thith ith the arena we're in, right? Jutht becauthe I don't want to attack you doethn't mean I want to be friendth."