alphalogs | let's find some hidden talents

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let's find some hidden talents

WHO: Jack Harkness, any other and talent show participants and observers
WHAT: just singing songs and kissing ass, like you do
WHEN: daycycle 111
NOTES: A couple of his talent show songs have had the lyrics changed slightly. If you're interested, there are links and you can read the subtitles for what Jack actually says. You won't miss much if you don't. Just assume it's not blatantly treasonous.

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The day begins with a little bit of a surprise for room 1102. One of the women he was rooming with is gone. He knows almost nothing about her, has only shared this room with her for two days, but he's still questioned. As soon as it's clear to him that nothing he says will help her, he answers all questions he's asked, offering as much useless information as he can. He's still got all that paperwork rattling around in his mind, fresh and clear as day, so nothing he says about Wanda will contribute to any idea of treason, but he wants to seem incredibly helpful and supportive. It keeps him a little longer than expected, and he misses breakfast, but that's no great loss. He's grateful for the excuse to not eat, actually.

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Work is mostly uneventful. and he still doesn't know most of his fellow Threat Assessors, but hopefully he can make a start on changing that. If he accomplishes nothing else, he'll keep poking around to get a better feel for the layout and structure of this place.

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It's after dinner when things actually get entertaining. Jack spends the first portion of the talent show sitting in the audience. He applauds enthusiastically, open and friendly with those seated around him. As far as he knows, he's the only person not on board with the digital overlord situation, so he does his best to blend in. When there's a lull in the karaoke night style lineup, and he feels like the audience is in a good place to have their emotions tugged at, he goes on stage and takes his turn, singing Danny Boy for the tearjerker factor.

He sits through a couple more songs, cheering loudly for the people brave enough to get up there, before something seems to go wrong. The host hasn't been on stage in a few songs, and the timid thing that's replaced him is not cut out for this. He can see people with headsets having a very heated conversation near the edge of the stage. So he heads over to see what's gone awry. Stomach bug. Sounds rough. Jack sees an opportunity in the upheaval, though. These are people who like routines, and the tech on stage is not suited for a role in front of the camera. So he introduces himself, lays the charm on thick, and offers to help out. It's the least he can do, after all, isn't it? They're all here to help each other out. Five minutes later, he's powdered and wired and walking back onto the stage as the new host. He encourages the audience to give the latest contestant a huge round of applause before introducing himself and diving right in.

The singing contest eventually concludes, flowing easily into general talent. During down time, when there are no volunteers on deck to come take the stage, Jack fills the gaps. He sings, he tells jokes, at one point he's juggling drumsticks just because he can. If anyone in the audience looks like maybe they're considering getting up on stage, and Jack gets a good enough look at their face, he'll go to them and try to encourage them to get up there. If they can't be enticed up, he'll just sit with them and talk, find out a little bit about them. If they just need a little encouragement, he'll provide it, offering to sing backup or assist in whatever talent they wish to showcase. His main concern is giving a good show, because this seems like a pretty ideal way to show the computer that he's a good person to have in a crisis, however mild. Which all feeds into his secondary concern, which is to get himself in good enough with the audience to feel that he can risk slipping in a nonsense song meant to be an open invitation for The Doctor or anyone connected with him to come find Jack, after which he goes right back to the act. Now to see if there's anyone out there who has any idea what he's talking about.

[[OOC: You can interact with Jack at any point in the day, really, but the talent show seems like the most ideal time. Feel free to approach him while he's hanging out between his time on stage. If you want to be an audience member he sees looking like they're considering getting up there, go for it. You can also feel free to direct me to your own post with talent show stuff, and I can tag you if you want to go up after Jack takes over. You're also welcome to make your own top levels for your character's performance in this post, if you'd like to.]]

Show Timeline:
Danny Boy
chat with Katniss
Fireflies
The Rhythm of the Night (with Holtzmann)
Oh, What a Night
Firework
The Doctor and I
That's the Way It Is

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Tonight, like the rest of the day, is spent differently than what's become 'normal' for Katniss. To start, rather than find a place to hide for most of the evening, she finds herself wandering in the direction of tonight's citizen improvement event.

Even on the Happitime pills, the prospect of spending time in a huge crowd hadn't initially been all that appealing. The glitched memories, still dull from the drugs slipped in to her food, remind her of the last time she had been in a crowd. The panicked Capitol citizens trying to flea. The children in Snow's mansion. The golden parachutes exploding. Her sister dying. Rather than drowning her in sorrow, she feels only mild apprehension. Don't go too close. Only bad things happen.

It's echoes of Jack's rendition of "Danny Boy" that causes her to ignore that warning. His voice makes her think of her father's, the song reminiscent of all the songs and mountain airs her father had taught her growing up. These memories, also glitches, aren't nearly as painful and surface easily. She likes to sing. When she had been little, she'd sing whenever she had the chance. More good memories, albeit memories she'd happily get rid of if it meant destroying the more painful and recent ones.

She manages to make her way to the side of the stage. As soon as Jack approaches, she smiles and asks, "Where did you learn that song? The first one you sang?"

That's not the first question he's expecting to be asked as he steps off stage, but attention is attention. He has several options for climbing the ladder in this place kicking around in his mind. Can't do anything if he's only one step above the cattle. So basically all new information is helpful. The number of people willing to actually talk in this place is startlingly low. He'll take what he can get.

"I'm not sure I remember the first time I heard it. It was a very long time ago." He sticks out his hand, smiling brightly. "Cap-- nope." A little laugh as he shakes his head. "Sorry. Jack Harkness. Pleasure to meet you."

Climbing the ladder is the last thing that Katniss wants to do around here. Attracting any kind of attention in any kind of way is on the very bottom of her to-do list. Even with those memories numbed by the HappiTime pills, she knows how detrimental being noticed can be. It's not a mistake she'll make again - at least not knowingly. The pills urge her to be a good citizen and she listens without even knowing what she's doing.

She smiles in return and shakes his hand. Katniss doesn't stop to think that usually she's much more loath to meet new people. How much she really just prefers to be by herself. "I'm Katniss," she answers instead. "It sounded like something familiar. I liked it."

"Pleasure to meet you, Katniss." At the end of the shake, before he releases her hand, he brings her knuckles to his lips and plants a quick kiss on them. He has no cause to think anything is amiss, or he'd be more concerned about her. As it is, she just seems like a sweet young woman, and while she's not a particularly useful clearance level, he's still interested in her experience of the complex.

She is, at least, enough of herself that she doesn't say that it's a pleasure to meet him in return. They've only just met; who's she to say? Besides, all the HappiTime pills in the world won't make her better at socializing. Most likely nothing will. But she is trying a little more than Katniss normally would. So Katniss nods in response. It's better than nothing.

"Are you the only one singing tonight?"

"Did you get here late?" They'd only explained it the once at the beginning. If she hadn't been around for that, she probably doesn't know how the setup is supposed to work. Flaw in the system, there, but he doesn't say as much. Jack just chuckles and shakes his head. "It's open mic style. You could get up there, if you wanted to. Do you sing? Pretty girl like you, must have a beautiful voice. I'm sure everyone would love to hear it."

Katniss nods. Given how little she had paid attention to the day to day activities in the Complex her first few days here, it's not so surprising that she had been unaware of regular evening activities provided for the citizens. She had arrived here due to her own wanderings and the sound of the music drifting through the corridors.

"I'm not that pretty," Katniss says quickly, the closest thing to a scowl she's had all day forming on her face. She isn't pretty and she doesn't appreciate false flattery, no matter how happy the drugs make her. "But I do sing."

She isn't sure she'd call her voice beautiful either.

Holtz was just here to watch. She was. Really. There would be no singing and dancing beyond a little tapping of her feet in her seat.

But then it happened.

Those familiar bars began and it was her song. Okay, so, she had a lot of songs, and she'd danced to most of them, but they'd just moved into the Ghostbuster's first headquarters, they were unpacking, her little impromptu dance party had become a very fond memory, and hearing the same song again? So far from home? There was no way Holtz was staying in her seat for that.

So it didn't matter that someone else was singing, that nobody had asked or said or even implied that it was okay to go up there, Rhythm of the Night started and Holtz was on her feet, dancing over to the stage.

In deference to the fact that it was Jack's song, she did at least dance behind him as he sang, but she wasn't otherwise making any attempt to fade into the background.

Edited 2016-10-14 20:06 (UTC)

He wasn't expecting a backup dancer, and there was clear surprise on his face for about half a second. Another couple of seconds trying to decide how one might interpret the many layers of treason, given that she was wearing orange, and deciding that if he was being handed this opportunity, he probably wouldn't be getting another one. If he didn't get some attention here, he'd have to do this all the hard way.

So he caught her eye, held out a hand, and spun her further downstage, even with him, watching her feet and what he could see of her hips to try and mirror (or at least compliment) her steps as she danced. The fact that it was clearly just her having fun made it much easier, as it meant he really just had to try and match the style. He was pretty good with that, after so many years - improvising, rolling with the punches, whatever you wanted to call it. He was a master at thinking on his feet.

Holtzmann didn't stop even when she saw him look her way, she'd probably get off the stage if he told her to, but that didn't mean she was going to pause her dancing while she waited for him to make that decision. Her smile grew when he not only didn't kick her off but pulled her further downstage and joined in the dancing.

She winked at him, grinning, and kept dancing, occasionally throwing in slightly more complicated moves just to see if he'd keep up, but mostly just doing her own thing and letting him follow along, when she did pull the more complex twists and turns she was delighted to see he was keeping up with ease - she wasn't a professional by any stretch of the imagination of course, so she couldn't stump him too much, but she was still impressed at how easily he matched her.

Jack winked right back, probably would have laughed if he hadn't been singing. She was a delight. An absolute delight. He matched her move for move, and when it was possible, hooked an arm around her waist or snagged her hand and spun her around into increasingly complex moves once he realized how good on her feet she was. Not a professional, no, but steady and with great natural rhythm.

When the song finally ran down, he gestured to Holtzmann with a flourish and called for the audience to cheer for her. 'Come on, we can do better than that! What's your name?" he asked, putting the microphone in front of her.

By the time they were finished, Holtzmann was panting slightly, but grinning brightly, eyes glittering with delight. It wasn't quite up there with the highs of catching a ghost in front of thousands of screaming rock fans, but it was the closest she'd gotten since arriving here, so her enthusiasm was perhaps just the tiniest bit bigger than it should be.

She leaned in when he held the microphone out, flashing a bright grin across the assembled audience and throwing her hands up in a triumphant gesture.

"Dr Jillian Holtzmann! Woo! Thank you! Thank you!" she greeted the crowd as if they were a cheering mass, waving as she moved to step off the stage.

It's been a day and Gracie sneaks into the show a little late. There's already a man on stage that makes her smile. He's got a great voice; he's funny and he looks really familiar. That alone makes her creep closer, moving up row by row, popping into different seats until she is close enough to the stage to see him.

She'd say it couldn't be except that she was greeted by Tony Stark and she's rooming with Clint Barton and Katniss Everdeen. Almost anything in regards to the people here seems possible. When he sings that song about the Doctor, it's cemented for her. He's that Jack Harkness.

When he takes a break and hands over the mic to someone else, Gracie meets him coming off the stage. "Hey, you're really good up there."

It's as good a way as any to break the ice, right?

"Well thank you." Jack's sipping from a bottle of water, grin still firmly on his face. He's had more than enough time to settle comfortably into this role, and he's pretty sure he just got away with that. If he's out there, he'll find him. He hopes. If not, Jack is on his own. Not the first time, of course, but shit like this is always easier with that madman. "Will you be getting up there soon?"

Gracie hasn't talked pop culture to enough people here to know if they know who the Doctor is or not. Maybe there are people here that have heard of the Doctor in the not fictional sense. That would be amazing. Who didn't want someone like the Doctor to be real? She shakes her head, laughing a little at his question. "I'm not much of a singer outside my apartment." She's not bad, she's just not really good either. She's one of those average karaoke singers.

"I'm Gracie, by the way. I just got here a few days ago."

"Jack Harkness." He's introduced himself often enough tonight to be in a temporary habit of dropping the Captain at the beginning of his name. No telling how long it will last, though. He holds out his hand to shake hers. "I'm sure you must have a talent, Gracie. Something special you can show the world."

Jack may notice the impossible, giddy grin on Gracie's face as she shakes his hand. She is not going to tell him she knows him and she is not going to tell him he's a fictional character in her world. She giggles a little. "No. I mean...yes. Sort of. I'm Alpha Complex's version of your local weather girl. I tell everyone how much lead is in the water on the network."

"Oh, come on. Dancing? Card tricks? Bird calls? Everyone has something." Maybe not conventional talents, no, but Jack is pretty sure he can find a way to showcase almost any random skill. "You've got something, Gracie. What is it? Shadow puppets? Uncommon dexterity wih a hula hoop?"

She shakes her head. "I'm pretty ordinary. I am pretty good at jump roping. The whole double dutch thing and that sort of deal. It was a middle school thing." She's not opposed to showing off those skills on the stage. She's just not entirely sure it's going to be welcome. He's a much better entertainer than she is.

Felicity is not ready for this.

It must be a dream.

When Jack takes the stage, her previously happy expression turns immediately into confusion — maybe even some straight up shock, as her eyes narrow and she just stares at the man behind the microphone.

Then, Malcolm Merlyn starts singing Danny Boy.

There is no way in hell that Felicity is ready for this.

Her PDC is out already, and she’s texting Barry and Oliver through pure instinct. Malcolm Merlyn is here. Talent show. Right now.

Her head lifts however, when he’s back on stage again, and introducing himself as someone named “Jack.” Likely story. But Felicity watches. Like the way people watch car accidents when they drive past. You just can’t stop yourself.

Jack's been through a few songs, told some jokes, and been dancing partners for a couple of citizens wanting to showcase their skill. Now he's hit a lull, and no one seems eager to fill it, so he decides to go out into the audience and see who he can persuade to get up there. "Come on," he encourages everyone as he walks down aisles. "I know you've got something you can show us. Everyone has a talent worth sharing. Everyone has something to contribute."

There is an absolutely adorable blonde woman with pouty full lips staring at him, and a seat next to her conveniently open, so he grins and sinks easily into it. "How about you? What's your name?"

It was Malcolm Merlyn’s face, but more than that, even if she’s never heard him sing, it was so distinctly his voice, too. A voice she’d honestly recognize anywhere.

Yet, the longer Jack goes on for, the more off it feels.

The first time she saw Ronan, she thought he was Roy. Was it even possible that there was a second body double in this place — and one who just happened to be a happy, non-systematically-murderous version of Merlyn?

But when he starts coming down the aisles, looking for someone to share another talent, Felicity doesn’t realize until it’s too late that she should’ve stopped looking at him a second ago.

The closer Jack gets, the more uncomfortable she gets, and she’s already shaking her head no before he can even ask her to get up on stage.

“No no no that’s okay.”

She catches sight of Oliver in the corner of her eye, walking towards her with a purpose, and part of her panics a bit. Please, please, please let this be a doppleganger.

Malcolm Merlyn. There was no way that Oliver was leaving Felicity alone with Malcolm Merlyn. He should have known something would happen. He'd figured that leaving her alone at a talent show would be nothing special. After all, he wasn't keeping an eye on her 24/7 and, in fact, she spent a lot of the day alone, even if he kept in as much contact as he could.

But even if it wasn't, it felt like the first time he'd left her alone and it figured that the first time would lead to disaster. So the moment he saw the name, he was out the door and heading to her location in as fast a walk as he could manage without running outright. He would have run, but he didn't want to give Merlyn any idea that he was on his way.

Luckily, Merlyn wasn't anywhere near Felicity by the time Oliver got there. Oliver set up camp on the other end of the room so he could keep an eye both on Felicity and Merlyn. He seemed to be making the rounds and Oliver could remember in that brief time before Tommy's mother died when he and Tommy would sneak downstairs and watch his parents' parties. Malcolm Merlyn had truly been a different man then.

But now he was just pretending and he was pretending in Felicity's direction. He slipped through the crowd and made it there just as Felicity started protesting. He put his hand against the small of her back and leaned in closer. Maybe they weren't together, but there was no way he was letting someone like Merlyn know of their personal issues.

"Everything okay here?" he asked, eyes only for Merlyn. There was a fairly explicit warning in them.

Well, that sure was... a whole lot of aggression, and Jack was momentarily thrown. He almost backed into his cameraman, who was just a few steps behind him. "Just asking the lady for her name. Looking for talents. Everybody has one. How about you? Do you have any hidden talents?" He cleared his throat, keeping his smile bright, and opened the question up to the audience members sitting around them. "Anybody? Anybody got something special up their sleeve?" What he wouldn't give for an amateur magician right now. Hell, what he wouldn't give for someone who could burp the alphabet! Literally anyone to say something and get him out of this unexpectedly hostile turn of events.

Oliver's hand immediately makes her feel safer, and the tenor of his voice seems to be working. Malcolm was backing up, no longer next to her, no longer looking at her like ... like he was just trying to be flirty, of all things.

He knows who she is. Who they both are. He must.

And thankfully, for them all, someone else in the audience does jump up, waving his hand and shouting "Oh me! I have something show off!" a good dozen rows in front of them.

As soon as Jack's attention is turned away, Felicity turns her head to look at Oliver to speak in a voice just low enough not to be overheard: "That's him right? I didn't just lose my mind? It's Malcolm Merlyn."

Oliver considered the man as he answered Felicity. "Him or another one of those doubles like Roy's. I can't tell which, but I'm not going to trust that it's not him. He played being the good guy for too many years. It was still a little strange to realize that he'd been the man who'd trained with the League of Assassins for years before Oliver ever was stranded on Lian Yu. He'd always just been Tommy's father, remote and more than a little hard on Tommy, but just a father.

"But until we find out for sure that it's not, we treat him like he is. It's safer that way."

And Oliver would watch him closely for any signs that he was or wasn't who he claimed to be.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." He gave the man one last look and then led Felicity away.

Morgana has never been one to sit on her hands, in Camelot she would have argued and agitated and fought against the injustice of a life stolen for the sake of tyranny, but here in Alpha Complex there was nothing that could come of her following her heart as openly as she would like, the Computer would have no compunctions about her joining Root, neither looks nor bloodline nor sex could save her in the cold metal halls of this place. And death for a cause, while noble, in this case would do only harm.

So she had put on her good girl face, and done her job, she smiled easily, laughed, ate with the others and come evening, for the first time in a long time, she went to the evening's activities of her own volition finds herself a seat in the shadow but not so out of the way that she might look like she's avoiding anyone and she watches.

Sure, they aren't as good as Lady Helen, but then last time she had seen 'Lady Helen", she'd been replaced with a witch who wanted to kill them all because not unlike the Computer, Uther's desire to kill what he found undesirable overrode sense.

All in all, it was probably better that they weren't Lady Helen since here that would probably been evil robots screeching out some kind of machine song and going at them with sleeping gas and all the pointiest utensils.

When the first host goes off and doesn't seem to be coming back, she gets up to leave but she finds herself watching one of the men she doesn't know get up onto the stage, he'd been singing before, hadn't he? Morgana sat down again, impulsively smoothing out her jumpsuit like it was one of her fine dresses instead of rough spun bright orange linens and watched the newcomer more closely.

He had to be a special, she had never seen one of the others be so... enthusiastic about anything in a way that didn't reek of subtle mind control. The songs, the beat, the lights, the music, all of it was far too foreign to the noble woman in an orange jumpsuit but she stayed, eyes on him the entire time wondering how she had missed this one. Had he arrived when she was looking for Root? Maybe sometime after she had started freaking out about her dreams?

...because really, how could you miss him?!?

It was possible to miss Jack. Maybe. Kind of. He could be stealthy when the situation called for it. Here, though, stealth would do him no good if he had no status. True, he didn't have the full understanding of the place yet, but he knew enough to know that a Red couldn't get anything done. Even Orange and Yellow weren't going to be much help to him. Green, Blue, that was what he needed to aim for. He had a few ideas of ways to go about it. Military service, technological innovation, even politics.

Entertainment hadn't seemed like a very promising ladder to attempt to climb. It was all so subjective. This was more about getting in points for helpfulness, about stepping up in a crisis, however minor, and making things right again. If it got him on the average citizen's radar as someone they wanted to chat with, all the better.

She watches for a while, the acts, but mostly the new host and how he introduces them, the odd, overwhelming vibrancy about him that made him stand out among the rest.

Definitely a special. He had to be. At some point she got up from the table and slipped to the side of the room, she meant only to get a better vantage point --- lest, god forbid, anyone mistake why she was moving forward --- but she found herself instead walking over to him until she could lean on the wall beside him.

'You've got a bit of a knack for this, don't you?' Morgana asked just loud enough for him to hear but not be picked up by anyone, or anything else.

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let's find some hidden talents

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