[unrecorded]

[datasoong]

It's the night before the Games, and Data is up on the Training Center roof again. He knows it's unlikely that Caro will come up here tonight, but he'd like to be here just in case. He doesn't have any advice, but he would like to wish her good luck if he gets the chance.

That and, well. As much as he hopes she'll do well, he can't really imagine her winning. But he tries not to think about that part.

Spot strolls about the gardens twitching her tail while Data leans against the railing, staring out unseeing at the city below.

Comments

[weyountrinket]

The night before the games and... Weyoun is fraying a little bit. He's kept rolling at a steady pace despite being stuck with 12, despite Sullivan and despite Zopf, despite his incredible inexperience or maybe because of it. Regardless he's reached a point where he has quite literally done all he can do, short of making sure the kitchen staff prepares breakfast to his standards. Everything is on his Tribute and her drunken Mentor. Which is... well, for all his confidence in Caro's cleverness and skill, it's the Games, anything can happen. And he is considerably less confident in Walter's ability to woo sponsors and there is precisely nothing he can do to affect that one way or another.

For a tiny control freak, this is a somewhat harrowing realization.

It's one that leads him to finally steal a thing from the bar and do as Sullivan has suggested many a time at this point - loosen his proverbial corset, have a drink. The apartment seems rather stuffy for it, however, and it wouldn't do to have his team see him in anything other than his typical incredibly put together self. So, it's to the roof he goes, bottle in hand, tie undone and jacket... somewhere. Probably folded very neatly.

When he makes it to the roof exit, he slips out quiet as a mouse because it is really rather late. It takes only a step or two before he realizes there is already someone in the garden.

At three in the morning.

Well.

He politely and quietly coughs. "Good... evening?" Or perhaps morning. He's not sure.

[datasoong]

Data's ears perk at the cough, but the voice is not who he was hoping to hear. Actually, he has no idea who this is, which is... unnerving.

"H-hello," he replies, forcing the word out before it can catch too badly.

He steps back from the railing and turns, both to look at the newcomer and look for Spot. Who is nowhere to be seen.

[weyountrinket]

That makes two of them, because the voice that responds to Weyoun is not one the man's heard before. Which isn't all that surprising, he supposes; he hasn't met most of the other mentors yet, after all.

It's a thing much smaller than a person that catches his eye though. A bit of movement from under a shrub turns out to be a... cat? It's a cat. That is most definitely a cat. What in the world.

"Kitty?" Weyoun leans over and stretches a hand out tentatively to the cat who... almost brushes against it then pads away. Then does it over again, with Weyoun kind of quietly following behind while the cat keeps changing its mind about being petted. Kitty, kitty, kitty. Let him pet you, please.

It's a couple seconds before he realizes that... oh, he can see the other man on the roof now. Well.

"Oh, I - um." He quickly straightens up, clearing his throat and adjusting wrinkles out of his dress shirt. No he wasn't just following the cat around like a fool. Not at all. "Lovely evening out."

Nailed it.

[datasoong]

Data blinks and watches the man try to pet Spot. Try being the keyword here, because Spot is being Spot and would probably lead this poor man all over the roof if he hadn't noticed Data and stopped.

"I s-su-suppose."

Data takes a step forward and beckons to Spot, who happily trots over. He scoops her up and takes another step or two towards the other man.

"Spot is s-s-sometimes difficult with strangers." A pause. Oh, he should introduce himself. "My apologies. I-I am Data."

[weyountrinket]

In all honesty Weyoun would have followed the damn cat all over the roof, too. He likes cats and he's had very few things he likes around lately. It's all... work, lack of sleep and living up to legacies. It's exhausting.

"Cats can be." He might know a bit about that. His extended family had about as many cats as spoiled, overachieving children, which is saying a lot. ...Which, he really hopes he interpreted the awkward shuffle with the cat towards him right, because he's going to scratch Spot under her chin a bit. He looks really rather hilariously pleased that he did get to pet the cat.

He needs a vacation already.

"As in Soong?" Weyoun raises his brows a bit as realization hits him. Victor from District 3. Of course it is, hadn't Caro and Walter ran into him up here before? "I'm Weyoun Trinket, the... er, the Capitol escort for District 12."

[datasoong]

Spot purrs and allows herself to be fawned over. Data is slightly uncomfortable at how close this puts him to the shorter man, but that would be true regardless of who the other person was. As a general rule, anyone Spot approves of is probably acceptable to Data. The look of triumph on his face as he pets Spot just reassures Data further.

"Y-yes." And then... well. He'd like to ask after Caro, but that would probably be a little too awkward. Even for him.

He hesitates another moment, but then plows ahead with, "S-Spot is particularly fond of ear scritches." There, that's safe.

[weyountrinket]

Weyoun is probably the least intimidating adult involved in the Games short of Data himself. That he doesn't seem to have much issue with invading personal space is probably only slightly negated by the fact it is mostly because of kitty.

Ear scritches? Ear scritches it is. "I think I made a friend." He means the cat and he sounds absolutely delighted. "It has been a very long time since I've come across one that is..." Find the polite words, Weyoun. "Human friendly, I suppose."

Pet cats are something he has not seen in the Districts much. Barn cats, yes, the kind that hiss and growl when you approach. But nothing quite so lovely as a proper domesticated cat. It's a shame his schedule doesn't really allow for one for himself.

[datasoong]

"Spot is s-somewhat particular about who s-she likes." She's purring and leaning into the ear scritches, so yes, it looks like Weyoun has made a friend. He may end up with two at this rate.

"R-really?" Data wonders just where Weyoun has been and what he's been doing that tame cats are so rare. Then again, otherwise unfriendly cats have been known to let Data pet them, so perhaps he isn't the best judge.

[weyountrinket]

"My sister had a cat like that when I was very little. She hated me. She'd sit on my pillow and refuse to let me near my own bed." He laughs a little then adds. "The cat, not the sister, I mean. Though perhaps sometimes the sister."

Weyoun nods. "I've been out in 11 for... well, for a bit of time. The cats out there tend toward feral or close enough to it." That's also because no one can really afford to keep them as pets there. They keep the pests away, at least. And nobody was going to invite the Capitol people into their homes to meet their beloved pets if they even had any, anyway.

[datasoong]

"Y-your sister sounds like my brother," Data responds without thinking, laughing a little. "E-excuse me, that w-w-was unkind." Calm down Data, Lore isn't here to overhear and pitch a fit.

"E-eleven?" There, that's safer. "I s-suppose they would have m-mostly had b-barn cats."

The slip up about his brother has undone most of the tentative calm he'd managed. Hold it together, Data.

[weyountrinket]

"My sympathies." Weyoun chuckles. He arches a brow at how quickly Data catches himself with that remark about his brother. Curious.

"Oh, yes. Kept around to eat the mice but not really tended to much otherwise." He had tried very hard to make friends with a few of them. In hindsight, he supposes it had been rather thoughtless of him to try and feed the cats like he had, but he had been very lonely. And the cats were very cute.

Even if Data's calm is slipping, Weyoun's earlier fumbling is mostly gone under that layer of proper Capitol behavior again. Well, at least the general togetherness of it even if most pretense had been basically abandoned in favor of beaming at the cat. "Are there many cats in 3?"

[datasoong]

Data clears his throat. Cats, he can talk about. "P-perhaps not many, but they are a-around. Spot found me after m-my Victory T-t-tour." Oh no, why did he bring that up? "S-she was a s-stray."

Data just keeps bringing up things he shouldn't tonight. He's starting to get twitchy. Spot purrs louder and he tries to focus on the feel of her fur under his fingers.

[weyountrinket]

"Good that she did." It might not take someone especially perceptive to notice... well, Data seems to be getting antsy. Edging towards upset, even, and it's mostly him doing that to himself. Oh, dear. He'll just keep on a direction that at least he hopes is less troubling. "What a sweet little thing she is."

He'll give Data and Spot some space, at least a bit no matter how much he'd rather just hang out with the cat. It's only polite given the man's increasing distress. He does have a different subject to bring up, though! Perhaps that will help things a little. A change of subject.

"So I understand you're... familiar with our Tribute this year, Caro. Familiarish." There's a curious sort of smile going on. Weyoun really is interested in seeing how full of shit Sullivan is so despite whatever worries about rudeness he has, he asks away.

"Your meeting was relayed to me by a very..." He pauses and inhales sharply. "Unreliable narrator, to say the least. I know Sullivan had to have been exaggerating but I was wondering what did actually happen?"

[datasoong]

Weyoun asking about Caro is both a welcome distraction and a little nerve wracking. Well, what isn't nerve wracking when you're Data Soong?

Weyoun's comment about Sullivan exaggerating actually gets a snort. "I w-was up here in the g-gardens when sh-she came up to the roof. Sp-Spot introduced herself. W-we spoke... sort of," he smiles wryly and lifts one shoulder in a half shrug. He knows how difficult actually talking to him is. "F-for perhaps five minutes."

He notices that Weyoun mentioned Caro as if she were District 12's only Tribute. Interesting. Perhaps he's missed something. Caro certainly wouldn't be the first Tribute to deliberately mislead people about her skill level before the Games.

[weyountrinket]

"Oh yes, that is very much the rendevouz Sullivan implied it to be." Weyoun in a way that manages to be both long-suffering and deadpan. Sullivan is never not... Sullivan. "My apologies for his behavoir. He is simply very... very."

He can't actually come up with a proper descriptor for the man, at least not one he'd use in polite conversation. After a moment or two he settles on something that is close enough to work. "He's very eccentric."

It hadn't even occured to Weyoun that he'd referred to Caro as if she was 12's only Tribute. It's close enough to the truth, however. Barring something completel unforseen happening in the Arena, she is their only real chance at a victory. That's not just a testament to her general cleverness and skill but Zopf's lack thereof. For all his uptight fussiness, Weyoun's pretty good at sizing people up. He found Zopf lacking.

[datasoong]

Data actually laughs a little at the idea of awkwardly stuttering at someone for a few minutes being a rendezvous. It's a choked, awkward laugh, but Data doesn't laugh much. That makes twice in one night, one conversation.

"I-I did run into her up here a s-second time, but it wasn't any more s-scandalous than the first." Data just shakes his head in amusement. Sullivan is definitely... Sullivan.

[weyountrinket]

"Oh, to hear Sullivan talk about it... But he's rather fond of interpreting things however he finds most amusing." Which usually amounts to 'what way can he best use against people'. He'd almost be admirable in his dedication to using everything against people he can if only he were not so... aggressively unpleasant about it. Not that Weyoun has any place to criticize it. Why, twisting situations and words around to make someone look bad is practically a sport in the Capitol.

Speaking of which, he's not exactly anticipating going back to the apartment and dealing with... things yet. Maybe one of the other Weyouns would have had an easier time with this sort of thing, he doesn't know; he'll probably stay up here until the kitchen staff starts up. Which is... quite a ways from now so since he's not hovering and petting the cat, he finds himself a comfortable place to sit.

"Would you mind terribly if I had a drink?" Not that he thinks Data would, but it's just polite. Also he's not Sullivan, even if he does have a flask of something tucked into his shirt pocket. "It's been a very long day."

Day. Two weeks. Same difference.

[datasoong]

"That s-sounds in character for him." It helps that Scotty gave him a 'don't mind Sullivan he just likes being an arse' speech at least twice. It also helps that Data is somewhat used to Scotty and Keenser's antics.

"N-not at all." Data thinks this is probably the point where he should excuse himself and go back downstairs, but he doesn't really want to. He had fully intended to stay up here all night on the off chance that Caro showed up, and well. The night isn't over yet.

He lets Spot back down, and she immediately trots over to Weyoun for more petting. Data hovers awkwardly for a moment, and then sits down a little ways away. Far enough to not be in Weyoun's space, close enough to still be... friendly, he supposes. He doesn't like looming over people any more than he likes it when people loom over him. So sitting it is.

[weyountrinket]

"You have no idea." Weyoun laughs quietly. "The more time I spend around him, the more... him he is." That doesn't make a whole lot of sense but he is very, very tired, and only looking forward to more exhaustion.

"Good." He settles into his place and finds that drink of his; he's not entirely sure what it is he grabbed, actually. For all he knows it's paint thinner but why not give it a try, right? He takes a goodish gulp of it.

...And immediately pulls a face. It might actually be paint thinner. SULLIVAN. Sighing, he pockets the flask again and instead focuses on petting Spot now that she's padded over for more attention.

In all honesty, Weyoun's rather glad for the company, especially company that doesn't want or expect him to be entirely on point and in control of the situation. Or looks at him as quite the giant annoyance Sullivan does; not that he blames him, the general dislike is fairly mutual.

So Weyoun will sit here for as long as it is actually possible from him to, hours and hours into the night likely with the quiet and slightly awkward presence of Mister Soong. It's not a bad way to spend a night, really. Mostly just staring off blankly at the city and not really bothering each other for the rest of the night.

...Or, as Sullivan was likely to put it once he finds out, 'fucking all night.' Sullivan.