thecapitol | People In Glass Houses...

People In Glass Houses...

Who | Timaeus Nadir and guests
What | Timaeus is hosting a picnic get-together/catch-up.
Where | The picnic will be taking place in the Tropical Habitat Dome.
When| We'll be using a bit of wibbly time so that people who want to attend can.
Warnings/Notes| None as of yet.

(This is an opportunity for me to make some new CR as well as catch up with ongoing relationships, but I also want to encourage tagging around between characters! Feel free to do whatever you like in the setting with whoever you like! Also I will be backtagging this so don't feel you've missed the boat if you haven't tagged in immediately <3)

Timaeus certainly knew how to organise a gathering- even if it wasn't an outrageously opulent celebration to be held on one of his own yachts. This one was to be held under the expansive dome of the Tropical Habitat- the entire location rented out for the day to Timaeus and his guests, a loosely private affair- formal invitations as such hadn't been extended, but those welcome knew they were. Naturally, all tributes and victors were included in this group.

The Dome was a beautiful piece of architecture in itself, though antiquated when compared with the technology used for the Arenas. Rather than invisible forcefields, the climate of the interior was separated from the outside by elaborately curving steel and glass. Inside, tropical plants of all types thrived- there was a still, green pond and, deeper inside, a cascading waterfall. Butterflies in hundreds of colours, sizes and shapes flitted about, tropical birds swooped between the trees, brightly coloured fish darted in the water.
Blankets and cushions had been scattered in the main clearing with hampers of food, but there was plenty of space for the guests to break away from the gathering if they so desired- the dome was full of winding paths through the greenery- some even climbing around the trunks of the largest trees and leading to viewing platforms above. In a temporary gazebo in the clearing, a string quartet played music that wasn't quite the classical pieces Tributes were familiar with.

Timaeus himself seemed in a brighter mood than he had been for months, more than happy to make conversation with anyone who approached him- though he was certainly keeping an eye open for particular individuals. Some that he'd met, some that he'd lost and had returned to him, and others still that he had yet to meet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Guy walked by and then did a double take. But Timaeus was way over there and -

This wasn't the same man. But it was the same man. But he was younger. But he was the same -

Oh-kay.

"Uh. Hiii," Guy said slowly.

A cave man was waving politely at the Starfleet doctor. Or at least a man that looked like what the Capitol's idea of a caveman should look like. Knee-high furry boots, some kind of calf-skin leg wraps all tied up with leather cord, a loincloth, a furry cloak, the works. His body was stained with tiger-like stripes and his hair, partly tied up in a ridiculous little ponytail on the top of his head, had a bone hair ornament in it.

As in, not a hair ornament made of bone, it was just a little animal bone. He was rockin' the Pebbles Flinestone look there.

"Are you aware of the fact that there's two of you? That seems like an important thing for someone to be awaaare oooof."

The last two words were dragged out into a slightly horrified drawl.

Edited 2013-12-10 06:57 (UTC)

If Julian hadn't already known this wasn't some bizarre holosuite program gone terribly wrong, he'd certainly think so by the time he was confronted with an age-worn doppleganger and then a man who appeared to have walked straight out of an old cartoon.

"We've been introduced. And odd similarities in our appearance aside, we are hardly the same person."

One of them actually was happy to be here, for one--and it wasn't the one standing in front of Guy at the moment.

"My name is Julian Bashir. I've had the luck to just arrive here a couple of weeks ago." A very long couple of weeks.

"Hi, I'm Guy. Guy Crood."

He looked over at Timaeus, eyes darting, then back at Bashir.

"So he's...not a relative. You're a Tribute? Like me?"

He hadn't really watched the Games after he'd died. Too morbid.

"God no." Granted, the resemblance was uncanny--moreso than he shared with his father, certainly, but he'd always taken after his mother anyway, even before he was genetically altered.

"I suppose so." He still was nowhere near comfortable with the idea, and he didn't want to be--it was repulsive. "But I'm a doctor, I'm afraid I'm not much of one for it."

Okay, this was getting ridiculous.

"Why did they bring in so many doctors? Do you know how many doctors are here? I met three. In the Arena. I didn't even know what a doctor was before I was brought here, but then I met three in the course of a few weeks. Bringing people whose jobs involve healing the sick and injured seems just slightly counterproductive."

He held up his fingers a hair's breadth apart.

"Not that I think what you do is a bad thing but they shouldn't be doing that. Taking people who heal and - and who fix things. And putting you in a place like that."

Now that he knew what doctors were and that such a wonderful concept even existed, he wished they were all back home, healing things and fixing people. He liked the idea of them existing and doing all that fixing.

Guy plopped on a couch.

"See, I'm a nomad. A hunter. This is - well, it's still horrible - but I'm at least used to surviving. And killing, when I have to."

Edited 2013-12-10 07:31 (UTC)

And Julian was a soldier, when he had to be, but that was under completely different circumstances. Even then, his place wasn't on the front lines. "Heh. Now that is a very good question--perhaps someone out there wants to see what will get us to break our oaths." 'If we are frightened enough, or desperate enough, how would we react?' That question had been rhetorical, thanks.

Julian fell heavily beside Guy, feeling better to be out of line of sight.

"Is that why they've dressed you up like that? You had to have been freezing on the walk over." Nomads and hunters were generally equated with a wilder lifestyle--it would explain the clumsy caracature of a savage they were trying to push upon him.

"Yeah, they're...they've been pretty creepy, with the whole 'savage' thing." Guy admitted openly. "Like really just -" He broke off, trying to figure out a way to put their creepiness into words.

"I saw a thing on the - the picture thing. On the walls?"

The TV.

"And apparently," he said, his expression incredulous. "They're calling me 'Gorgeous Guy,' and people are getting tattoos like mine - which, by the way are actually something I gave myself as a coming of age after barely surviving a hunt and are important to me. They mean something and the only other people that wear them are my family. They adopted me, so it was my way of showing them I was adopting them back. They're the family stripes."

He gestured vaguely with a hand. "And people are going around getting them permanently marked on their bodies because it's not enough that they stole me from my family or made me fight to the death. It's not enough my daughter might grow up without her dad - if she's even okay, because she was sleeping on my chest before I was -"

He broke that thought off before his brain could meander down that dark little road.

"No, they have to take even the - the ideas. The symbols, that are important to me."

He rambled on, "And women keep trying to feel my biceps for some reason. Yeah." He nodded. "Whenever I go out. So the clothes - they're creepy. They're just - they're really creepy. They don't want me to have actual clothes. Back home, I wear boots and pants made of calfskin? No shirt but it's warmer there. It's more clothes than this, at any rate. This is -"

He gestured down at the loincloth.

"This is underwear. I'm walking around in my underwear. And that's not even getting into the ones that keep acting like I'm dirty or keep telling me I'm lucky to be here because my world is just so terrible."

Edited 2013-12-10 08:01 (UTC)

"The television," Julian murmured, not that the specific word had much meaning. It hardly mattered what Guy called it, it didn't change the context of his story. The technology was all but archaic in Julian's timeframe anyway. He glanced over, evaluating his companion's image as compared to his words, finding them not to match. Sure, there were some concepts he was bound not to understand--if Julian attempted to explain warp flight, for instance. But that was due entirely to a difference in perspective and a lack of knowledge of concepts Julian took for granted.

Basically, they were selling him terribly short, and it was a pity.

"I suppose I'm lucky in that regard. All they could possibly play up about me would be the space man angle, and that's relatively boring. What with actual aliens running about." Certainly no one had yet tried convincing him that he was lucky to be here, or else Julian would have laughed in their face.

As for the part about his daughter--Julian felt another jolt of disgust, but even as new as he was to this he couldn't say he was surprised--well, he was at a loss. Pretty words were only so much comfort when separated from people you cared about.

"Your daughter...what's her name?" Inane, perhaps, but he genuinely wanted to know--the Capitol so far had seemed to take the tack of dehumanizing Guy, and he was a man with a child--a family, just like any of them. Knowing her name acknowledged the both of them as equal, in his opinion.

Guy had about a million questions from just a few sentences alone. (Aliens? Space?) But then Julian asked about his daughter and everything else was tossed to the side to be meandered back to later in the conversation. The question did exactly what Julian intended it to do - it made Guy feel like a person.

"Her name is Bug. She's about five moons old now. And she's as cute as a baby jackrobat - never a day without a smile. Just like her mom."

His expression went wistful for just a moment but then it went right back to beaming beams of pure sardonic energy. He was setting his sarcasm phasers to maximum.

"So, yes. Yes, it's terrible there. On my world. What with playing with my daughter every day and its lack of forced death matches and majestic wilderness. Terrible place. All that exploration of the magnificent wonders of creation -it can get really dangerous." He gestured to his eyes. "Eyestrain. We're constantly at risk of severe eyestrain injuries from looking at it all. Serious stuff. I don't how we manage to live like that, traveling under an open sky, enjoying the beauty of the world, spending our nights sleeping under the stars."

He went on, "In fact, just a few days before I was brought here, I was making love to my beautiful, kind, loving mate in a breathtaking glade in the light of the moon, and all that I could think about was just how much I couldn't stand being there. Ugh, all that nature and people I love and freedom." He nearly spat the next word out. "Terrible. I know I am much better here among such civilized people. Life here is just so civil with the treating me like I'm naive child that doesn't belong to myself and the death matches - which, by the way, apparently used to be staged between children. True fact." Guy's expression went darker. "And they apparently didn't revive them..."

He shook his head, then continued along on his little ramble, which had evolved into a rant somewhere along the way, "That was sarcasm, by the way. Since popular opinion seems to be that I'm not supposed to be intelligent enough to be capable of any sort of nuanced speech, I just wanted to make that clear. Oh, and also this is sarcasm, too."

Now that he had a sympathetic ear apparently he planned on talking it off.

"Oh, one of my very good friends is a Cardassian--they very rarely ever say anything straight when a roundabout answer will suffice. Needless to say, I'm quite used to navigating conversations filled with sarcasm, innuendos, and outright lies." Julian smiles fondly--oh, how he was missing Garak right now. Along with everyone else, Dax could be just as infuriating when she wished to be.

"Still, I've been given the impression that you should be careful with who can hear you say such things. Even if you are being sarcastic." He gave brief thought to the idea of teaching everyone rudimentary Klingon or Romulan--surely no one would be able to understand them then, and they could engage on their tirades in peace. At least, it was something he'd probably indulge in at some point or other.

He wasn't saying that they should roll over and accept things as they were--Julian hoped fervently Guy wasn't getting that impression from him. It was against Starfleet regulation, to be sure--when taken prisoner, officers were expected to resist as much as possible, until escape or rescue was secured. But the caveat there was staying alive and in one piece long enough to do so.

"I know. I've spent some time reading up on the history of this place...believe me, I know." His heart ached for the hundreds of children sacrificed--and for what, entertainment? Cowing the populace with fear? Either way, it was completely senseless and backward, and Humanity was supposed to be better than this. The history books put a pretty spin on it, made the sacrifices out to be necessary and unavoidable and right, but Julian couldn't believe that. After all, how often had humanity in his own reality risen from the ashes of terrible conflict before they'd shaken all that off and rose to the stars? Surely too many times to count. This place could have done that too.

"I know," said Guy. "I know we have to be careful. I just - need to let it out somewhere. At least right now. And then I'll get right to rolling over and making it clear that I'm someone that doesn't want trouble."

The smallest darting of his eyes made it clear he planned for that to just be an act.

"It's just hard coming from somewhere...brighter. A place with a future people can look forward to. You know?" Guy said, utterly clueless to the fact that Julian could probably say the same. "And then to be told I should be grateful because this place is so much better..."

"I understand. Just...don't let your mouth run off with you too much." Advice Julian hasn't always followed himself. In fact, he almost never did. "Think all you like, but don't speak, right?"

Julian understood that--it was his intent as well.

"Oh yes. Believe me, all I see here is...missed potential." All this flash and glamour given over to a ritualized sacrifice, and yet out there the stars were waiting.

Though on first impressions he wouldn't wish this version of Humanity on the other species in the Alpha Quadrant.

"Are you from somewhere...not as terrible as this?" Guy asked. "You said something about being a space man. I don't even know what that means. I know what space is. Space is the area that things are in. Like space around you is personal space. But I don't know how someone can be a space man."

His mind was possibly about to get blown.

Edited 2013-12-11 01:07 (UTC)

Not as terrible as this...well, to put it lightly. There were problems, to be sure, but oh...he'd take any of them over this.

"Oh yes. I suppose in a way, our situations are rather similar. Though instead of exploring Earth, humanity in my time has moved on to explore the skies. Space can also refer to the area beyond Earth's atmosphere, the air we breathe--where the stars are. Other worlds."

It was a bit of an expansive concept to cover in one conversation.

Guy stared at him for enough time that the silence was awkward, his face slowly lighting up brighter and brighter until there was a massive smile on it.

His response to the idea of that?

A delighted and not-actually-that-skeptical, "Nuh uh!"

Edited 2013-12-11 01:24 (UTC)

Oh wonderful, he didn't have to deal with the brain shattering disbelief. Julian smiles. It was nice, seeing such genuine wonder.

"My posting is on a space station near Bajor--which is quite a significant distance from Earth."

"I don't know what a Bajor is but it sounds far. It sounds really far."

For a moment he just made the same wide open smile, mouth hanging open, and then he actually sank down onto a cushion and rolled around on it a little, going, "Aaaaaah! And I'm never going to see it! Too far. I don't think my dad can throw us that high. Still, aaaaaah!"

Just that it was possible. Just that someday, people would be able to fly just like he and Eep talked about when they wondered about the future.

He abruptly sat up. "Are the stars other suns? I want to see if I'm right, am I right? You have to know what they are by now if you're traveling near them. Are the stars suns?"

"It's another planet--remarkably similar to Earth, its people look quite a bit like Humans. It takes us nearly a week to get there, traveling faster than light."

The enthusiasm Guy is showing is infectious, making Julian actually happy like he hasn't been since he woke up and was unceremoniously dumped into the Arena.

"Yes, they are--well, it may be more accurate to say that our Sun is a star, but yes."

Guy pumped his fist into the air. "Called it! And traveling faster than - light doesn't even travel. It's just there."

But if it could travel, if it seemed like it was just there maybe that meant it was really, really fast.

He learned forward, waving his hands with an intensity that almost almost created turbulence for the nearby butterflies fluttering around. "Second question: Okay, so if the sun is a star and stars are all suns, are the stars the suns from yesterday? That was my theory - which has been tested somewhat but my findings are still inconclusive. But that's what I figured made the most sense: that each day when the sun goes down it goes off into the sky with the other suns and it becomes a star."

His mind was going to be blown by the whole 'the earth is round' thing.

"It travels so quickly that it seems to--in reality, it takes about eight minutes for light from the surface of the Sun to reach Earth, and much longer for light from other stars to do so. The light of the closest star besides our Sun, Proxima Centauri, takes four years to reach Earth--so really, as you see the stars, you're seeing them as they were, not as they currently are."

Once Julian gets started on a science bent, it's very hard to get him to stop. Especially with someone so enthusiastic. If you'd started him on medicine, you'd never hear the end of it.

"No, the Earth rotates on its axis--wait..." He picks up a roundish stone from the path in front of them, holding it between his fingers. "Like this. See how the lights are illuminating one side, but not the other? That's the cycle of night and day. The Earth rotates on its axis, like so..." And he reaches up with his other hand and twists the stone between his fingers, illuminating the other half. "Which produces the cycle of night and day. During the night, we're facing away from the Sun, and so the night is dark."

Guy's eyes just kept getting wider, until Julian explained the sun part.

Then he looked confused.

"But the sun - the sun moves. You can follow it every day. And how could the Earth be round? Then only people on the top would be able to stay on." He gestured to the top of the stone. "Anyone else would start to slide off. Unless..."

His brows furrowed as he started to work through it.

"Does the grabbity keep people on it? Grabbity's the - the invisible grabby hands that make things fall down after they go up." His eyes went wide. "Is that how it all works? It's round and then the grabbity holds things to it - Oh! Oh! I wondered what grabbity is even for. That's what it's for, isn't it? It all works together so the earth is round but nothing falls off and then it's instead of new suns, it's the same sun every -"

He paused as a few different parts of his life came into greater clarity. It wasn't the worst revelation to have, but it was still enough to shake him. It still stripped meaning away from a few things he'd found meaningful.

"- day."

"It appears to move--the Sun even rotates in a similar way as Earth, but really it's the Earth turning that makes the sun appear to move through the sky."

Julian nods, as Guy begins to understand it. "Gravity, yes. Fantastic, you're getting all this very quickly."

But as soon as his face fell, Julian wondered what exactly he'd said. Or realized. "Are you alright?"

...sometimes he forgot that not everyone could adapt to new knowledge as quickly as he could. Especially when that knowledge shatters almost your entire view of how the world works.

"I am so stupid."

Now he curled in on himself, drawing his legs up and covering his face with his hands.

"Not that any of the people here are right about thinking I can't understand anything, but I am stupid. Normal stupid. The kind of stupid any person is sometimes."

His hands creeped up and his arms started to cover his whole head.

"Tell me," he said, voice now slightly muffled. "Is there something that could make lava shoot up and big, big parts of the ground break up that isn't the end of the world?"

"You're hardly stupid." Julian is actually rather impressed, as these things go. Guy is comprehending things easily, coming to conclusions for himself.

He doesn't reach out--some people find that comforting, but Guy had mentioned how he found it strange that everyone in the Capitol had wanted to touch him, and so he would certainly respect that, even if he personally tended towards the tactile himself.

"Ah, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions...you see, the surface of the Earth are actually massive plates of stone, floating over a core of magma--molten rock, which is known as lava when it comes to the surface. These plates grind against each other, are pushed up or down by other plates--that force is what makes mountains. It also can cause the earth to shake violently, and cause volcanic eruptions--with the lava and ash that go with them."

Now Guy flopped over sideways, mortified.

"Oh noooo. My life is a lie."

He did understand these things fairly easily and that was why he understood how much he didn't understand before. You know what they say, a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

That didn't mean he was going to be dignified about it.

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sorry for the edits. brains fuzzy from work and I keep missing mistakes until after lol

s'all good man c:

Re: s'all good man c:

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