thearena | (no subject)

Who| Anyone who replied here

What| A spread of supplies, ripe for the taking.

Where| Fantasyland

When| Mid-morning

Warnings/Notes| The winning rolls are under the cut

In the remains of a little pavilion, with broken teacups scattered around the remains of a fence at the edge, a tea party is set up.

At one end of the table sits a white placemat with a white satin bag, neatly tied up with pretty white ribbons. And the other end is the same display, in black. Along each side there are 5 a piece, one for each district, in their colors.

The table is also covered with teapots, contained for tea and sugar... however all of them have covers. Covers that are moving, being pushed up from within by a tiny creature with bright eyes and sharp teeth. As soon as the first tribute touches one of the bags the pots burst open and dozens of small, mice muttation pour out, with mouths full of sharp teeth and paws with razor sharp claws on them.

Anyone who makes it away with one of the pretty satin bags will find it contains a large thermostat of tea, 4 petit fours, a small locket containing a small amount of shimmer medicine-about enough for one wound, and a sturdy hat pin, with a very sharp point at one end. Although both the tea and cakes are very sugary, they are also very filling-they will last a few days if rationed well.

The Winners:

Shatterstar
Punchy
Daniel
Eliot
Pruna
Topher
Beck
Sandy
Asha
Kurt
Glinda
Giaus

Unfortunately Rictor and Morrigan will not be making it out of this little tea party..

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The voice startles him, but seeing the owner causes Topher to trip and fall to the ground.

"A-Alpha? It's not possible. You're not possible." It's a stupid thing to say because nearly anything is possible and if this is all real of course Alpha would somehow be involved.

"I am rather impossible aren't I?" Alpha said, squatting down next to Topher. He casted a glance towards the table, but the mutts and whatever else the Gamemakers had cooked up for this little display would give him at least a few minutes grace before he needed to run and make sure he got a bag of his own.

"But then, we both specialize in the impossible, don't we?" He glanced at the bag on Topher's back. "For one, I would have said it was impossible for you to have managed to grab one of those back at that bloodbath."

Topher moved to his knees as fast as he could. Alpha was not the sort of person you wanted at your back. Or front. Or anywhere near you really and god why was he here?

"I guess you were too interested in the blood to think about running." Which is exactly what had happened. "Look, you don't-we don't need to do anything, right?" He'd like to say they could forget each other, but that was an impossibility because Alpha was the one thing in all the universe that truly scared Topher. That impossible man was a big neon sign of Topher's failure to do his job right and of the Dollhouse's failure to protect it's people.

Topher knows Alpha in a more intimate fashion than anyone else ever could or would want to. The mind was the most beautiful part of someone. Unless that person was Alpha. (Well, no, Topher did have some fascination, but it was overshadowed by fear)

With a deep swallow Topher slowly reached for the knife he kept in his boot. His heart was pounding and he could feel himself beginning to sweat. "Go away."

"I do like the pretty patterns it makes when it spatters everywhere," Alpha admitted, shrugging. He watched Topher with sharp eyes, particularly that slow progress towards the weapon he was stupidly revealing to be hidden in his boot. "Now, that's just unnecessarily hostile," he said casually, and darted out a hand to grab Topher's wrist, not to hurt, just to immobilize. "I was just hoping we could catch up. It's been so long since we really had time to chat, you know?"

His heart leapt up into his throat when Alpha's hand grabbed onto his wrist. "Ch-chat? We, um, not much to talk about you know. Just running." Hiding. Finding a way to wipe Alpha back to infancy. Where was Boyd when he really needed his man-friend?

"It's not going to be a long chat," Alpha agreed, glancing back at the feast. He let his grip tighten just enough to be painful. "Just thought we could touch base. We have so many of the same interests."

Topher tried to pull his arm back. He wanted to fight against the larger man, but he also wanted to leave this encounter alive. "Believe me, I doubt our interests are all that similar."

"Oh? I was so looking forward to having someone around who really understood psychology," said Alpha, holding onto Topher's wrist meaningfully for another moment before letting go. "Have you lost interest in the subject? Because that would be disappointing."

"Hoping to get the crazy out? 'Cause I gotta tell you I'm pretty good on that front." It was a moment of bravado that Topher immediately kicked himself over. He was just begging Alpha to kill him, wasn't he?

The moment Alpha let go of his wrist Topher scrambled up. "I'm going to wipe you back to diapers." Oh, he really hoped he kept that in his head.

"Is that so," Alpha said, a hint of a growl in his voice. "Would you like to borrow my chair? I was planning on letting you have a nice, close look at it anyway." Not that he has a chair built, but Topher doesn't need to know that just yet.

He looked at the table once more, torn between the tempting target of Topher and the enticing spread, and decided this needed to be cut short soon, if he wasn't going to kill him just yet. But Topher is his only connection to Echo, right now, and he can't resist asking. "How is my lovely girl, before we part ways? Not taking the loss of her boytoy too hard, is she?"

"You don't have a chair." Even if he did, Topher sure as hell didn't want any sort of personal look at the thing while Alpha was free to do something horrible, like stick Topher in it. He started to walk backward away from Alpha and more into the chaos, but Alpha's words made him pause.

Okay, so the guy was crazy, but he wasn't dumb. Well, not all of him anyway; why was he talking about Paul. "I'm sure they're living it up as Handler and Active. Why do you care anyway?"

"Right, because that wouldn't be my first goal," Alpha said sarcastically, then frowned. "What? I left Ballard a braindead lump. I know her standards have fallen without me around, but there are limits."

"Yeah I saw your sad little chair back home. Again I'm going to mention the fact that it was sad." He crossed his arms a bit more confident now that he could have one up on Alpha. "Uh, no. I'm not saying he's smarter than a fifth grader, but a lump he is not. Your little smash brothers game with Echo's original was all sorts of fail."

Alpha's eyebrows raised. Where was this newfound courage coming from? And what should Alpha do to crush it? They were on a time limit, so he put that aside. "That was over a year ago, and considering Echo's activities over the summer it was anything but a failure. I made her, and unmade her precious Ballard."

He edged closer to the chaos as he kept talking. Courage in numbers and the ability to hide really well. "You need to invest in a calendar, Mr. Mulitiples, that was only a few days ago."

Alpha stared at Topher. "Well this is interesting," he murmured. There was an instant when he considered that his own memories had been altered somehow, but that was simply impossible and he threw that theory out. This needed more thought.

"I would love to continue this discussion because it is fascinating, but there's fashionably late and there's just being rude. I'll just have to track you down later to continue this little chat." And with a pointed grin he turned and ran for the table.