So when they said prison planet... [Open]

[hi_there_aliens]

Who| Daniel Jackson and you! [Open]
What| Daniel arrives at the Capitol, after thinking he and SG-1 were going to be sent off for "justice" after inadvertently aiding a criminal. This isn't what he expected. He begins to poke around.
Where| Close to the Tribute Training Center, wandering around outside.
When| Evening - he's arrived sometime after curfew is over.
Warnings/Notes| I'd like to avoid Daniel getting spoiled on the part where death isn't permanent in the Arena please.

It still hadn't quite set in. The horror that is, Daniel thought. He wandered out from the building that had been marked as a Training Center in a daze. The shock was probably stage one. Or was it denial? Both? He was definitely going for both right now.  Daniel was sure the sheer horror of it would eventually strike - it had to-  and hit him hard when it did, but he was still working on the part where the Taldor had made this their judgement for SG-1. Tributes, Districts, Hunger Games, gladiatorial combat. That's what you got for trespassing, carrying arms to defend yourself, and accidentally aiding a criminal. He hated to see what they did if you jaywalked. Maybe that was average prison material.

To think, all Daniel had been worried about this morning was whether Sha're would be on the other side of the gate this time, followed by getting Jack to see that the current planet might just have more to offer than trees and moss.

"And here I was expecting Botany Bay," he muttered under his breath. A woman strolled past Daniel. Her heels even gave that little click on the ground that seemed pretty universal; very classy, very smart it said. It was also the only familiarity about her. She was dressed to what he suspected was supposed to be to the nines in this place. It made his eyes want to tear up; orange, purple and green had no business mixing like that, topped off with a mix of feathers and fur.  Daniel looked around. No one else seemed to find it glaring; she looked as much at home as the other people wandering the pathways. She gave him a mildly interested look, but passed on. Certainly no criminal herself.

It was this that set off the chill that started to spread through his stomach.  This woman and people like her were going to  tune in and watch them die one by one. Only one could survive. He had no idea where the rest of SG-1 were; for all he knew, he'd ended up here alone.  Daniel licked at his lips nervously.  "I think I'd rather have the prison planet..."

Comments

[lassoftruthiness]

It wasn't difficult, picking out the Tributes stolen from their worlds out of the general Citizen population. This man stood out more than was usual for Diana's fellow captives, and she suspected he was new, perhaps even moreso than herself.

Either way, he looked a little like he was about to be ill and Diana moved forward with concern. "Are you alright?"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel had been on a one way trip to going green in the gills, and for once, it wasn't his allergies or gate travel spitting them out that was responsible. He'd killed before, but in self defense. He'd only shot at Jaffa because they'd shot at him, and he'd missed a good chunk of the time. He wasn't Jack or Teal'c or Sam. They'd been around combat and the military as a career; their lives, in fact.

It was one thing to think "kill or be killed". Another to turn your emotions and morals off and do it. He wasn't a light switch.

"Yes." Daniel said. The woman nearby was looking at him with concern. Daniel wondered just how shell-shocked he looked. Probably like he was going to puke or something. Luckily he only looked that ill; he wasn't about to actually do it. He sighed. "No. Not really. I'm really, really hoping that I'm going to wake up and find this isn't real."

[lassoftruthiness]

Right. Definitely new then. She smiled gently. "I know the feeling. Have you just arrived?" She gave him a careful once-over. He appeared steadier, but sometimes caution was called for. "And would you like to sit down?"

[hi_there_aliens]

He must have fresh meat stamped across his forehead. He hoped it didn't say easy right underneath.

"Just got here. Thanks, but I'll be fine. And I wanted to get out of that place." Maybe he should have started in on training immediately, but part of him resisted. The sooner he went along with this mess, the sooner he accepted it. He held out a hand. "Dr. Daniel Jackson."

[vissernone]

It seems that after the incident in lockdown - where Eva, unfortunately, lost her cool and managed to come off as a borderline psychotic to an uncomfortably large number of tributes - Eva's energy is entirely spent. She's taken the last few days easy, mostly keeping to herself, reading and sitting in the backs of theaters and watching her Tributes train from afar. The explosive anger seems to have pulled some of the tension out of her, taking away some of the twitching, the lip-biting, the sleeplessness.

To actually believe that's the case would be a grave mistake. Eva's anger and her energy are not gone. They are locked up by her focus as she keeps an ear to the ground, waiting for news about the recent rebellion attack, pretending to care nothing for any of it while quietly parsing the information that comes to her. She knows she's not going to find her son, she really does, but nurturing that little sprig of hope deep down gives her fidgeting and her wrath somewhere constructive to go. Turned inwards, her demons sort among the mess of conflicting input.

And so here she is today, having come to the Training Center from some early hour in the morning and now stepping outside for some fresh air. She's dressed almost blandly for the Capitol, monochromatic. Only an arranged splash of green sequins across her eye socket and cheekbone like ivy growing up a foundation for her face, soft silk robes with a tassled belt tied at the waist and an open, deep back that displays some of the scars she got decades ago, some from the Arena and some from piecing her back together afterwards. Her jewelry and hair clip are all leaves and budding flowers.

She's staring out at the buildings of the Capitol as if she can see beyond them. The muscles around her eyes are tense as she searches and turns the images over in her mind. She leans her back against the wall, lips pursed, dragging her fingertips across the mirrored face of the building as if spitefully mucking it up.

She looks over when she hears someone talking - but not to her, to himself. Daniel's rounded the corner to the quieter side of the Training Center building.

"New in town, stranger?"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel paused. He almost walked right past the woman touching one of the building sides. The archaeologist studied her over his glasses frames for a moment. She was older than he was, and not nearly as tall. The woman had a mass of dark, thick hair that for a moment reminded him painfully of Sha're. Sha're hadn't had those lines in her face yet. The difficult life on Abydos would add those lines sooner than later, and he would have been happily getting those same lines with her, worn away by the desert. It almost seemed silly now; Sha're, even as a host, would outlive him now. He could only hope Jack would escape from wherever he'd been taken by the Taldor and rescue her.

Compared to the other locals he'd seen so far, she was almost looked drab in comparison; just a dash of green sequins to act as an accent, and a silk robe. It was a lot easier on his eyes than everyone else he'd seen so far.

"That obvious, huh?" He jammed his hands into his pockets; the anxious energy had to go somewhere. "You're not one of those sentenced by the Taldor, are you?"

He hoped not. It would make her one of the ones he was going to kill or be killed by, if the Capitol had their way.

[vissernone]

"Sentenced by the what?" She arches an eyebrow and retracts her hand, sliding it into one of the pockets of her robe. Her tone is amused, more on the second half of the sentence than the first, as if to say 'Tributes and their silly little notions', but her eyes glitter with genuine curiosity. Any touch of the unknown could be a lead in her search for information, in her grab for power. She hoards information like a dragon in its cave.

She hasn't seen this tribute before. Tall man, handsome in that gawky way she would have found attractive a long time ago, back when attraction was something to enjoy and not a weapon. She doesn't think he has a pretty enough face to play up the looks angle for the Sponsors, but he has big enough eyes, framed by those glasses, so depending on how his Stylists handle him they might go for the wounded puppy underdog style, she thinks. Or maybe he's packing a glorious six-pack under that shirt, although a glance at his arms casts that notion into doubt.

She's seen a lot of not particularly handsome, not particularly strong people die in the arenas. Then again, she's seen the particularly handsome and strong ones die in droves too.

"No, no, I already won my Games four, I mean, two decades back." She reaches up and makes an exaggerated show of primping her hair, like some vain little young thing that she clearly isn't anymore. She follows it with a smile, so he knows she's fully aware of the joke she makes of herself. Living as a joke here is easier than reality.

Sorry Eva, One day he'll shut up.

[hi_there_aliens]

"The Taldor. Justice," Daniel offered, not entirely helpfully. "Glowing beam of light, disembodied voices, very ah, stringent sense of justice?"

There might be some sort of disconnect between the two sides of the Stargate. Or the Capitol had their own story to tell the people who came here.

The archaeologist tried to ignore the way she studied him. He'd been stared at, poked and prodded before on other planets. Pinched a few times on PX-536 and just about everywhere; the bug aliens there had been morbidly fascinated by his "fleshiness". Most of it was curiosity, either of him or what he wore, which was alien and new. The last planet had aliens that hadn't known what to make of the tactical vest or really, clothes in general. That had been something to see; Jack and Sam had decided to try to look everywhere but at the very naked aliens (but professionally - they were looking for threats, of course), and Teal'c...well, Teal'c had looked as impassive as always. When Daniel had removed his boonie to scratch at his head, they'd nearly jumped a mile in the air in fright, and half of them had scattered. Once he had managed to get them calm enough to talk, he'd found out that they thought he'd removed a portion of his head.

This woman was looking at him as if he were a fixer-upper. One she wasn't sure could be rescued. Daniel tried to keep the growing frown to himself. Then he was glad he did when she spoke again; so this was one of the older Tributes, someone who had killed plenty to survive.

"Um....congrats, I guess." He looked intensely uncomfortable for a moment, especially when she started primping her hair as if she'd just won the Nobel Prize or something. What else could you say? Congratulations you didn't die, congratulations for killing everyone else, letting God sort them out?

Even if she was joking, he thought it in bad taste. Daniel faltered, then gamely went on. The more he understood about the place, got other people's views, the better his chances. "Is that how it works? People accused of crimes get sent here for these Hunger Games? Or are they," and despite the subject, Daniel found himself starting to warm to a theory, "literally tributes like in Ōllamaliztl or to serve as a proxy for warfare. Or maybe to help settle a territorial dispute."

[orestes]

Wandering the capitol had become Enjolras' primary pass time in the days following his arrival. It didn't cost anything, and the chance to familiarize himself with the environment that sanctioned and condoned such a system was just too fascinating to pass up. He found himself watching their interactions with a rapt, if morbid, curiosity.

While Daniel focused on the gaudy woman (who, if he were paying closer attention, would've reminded Enjolras very much of a snotty bourgeois on her way to an afternoon show), Enjolras was focused a pair of men, probably around his age. They seemed like students to him and he questioned quietly to himself again how anyone who sought knowledge and enlightenment could just accept things as they were here. Disgusted, he turned from them. So deep was he in his thoughts that he barely noticed as he brushed passed the other tribute, stepping slightly too far into the other man's allotment of personal space to be politely ignored.

"Pardon." Enjolras' voice was low and still belied a lack of attention to his surroundings, his accent particularly noticeable due to his distraction. "I didn't notice you there."

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel only just caught himself from walking into the other guy. He stepped out of the way. That accent though, that was interesting. Markedly different from that strange, almost affected one that locals used. "Sorry. I should have been watching where I was going."

Well, watching where he was going as well. The too was heavily implied; Daniel had been pretty sure he'd had plenty of clear space before, but then again, his eyes had been so sucked in by that outfit that he hadn't been paying attention. But the other man had also started to swerve into his own space, so it wasn't all Daniel's fault this time. The archaeologist caught sight of what he must've been staring at; two men, dressed nearly as flamboyantly as the woman.

You couldn't do anything but stare at them. Which meant this guy was likely...

"You're a Tribute, I take it?"

[orestes]

Pulling his eyes away from the ridiculously dressed pair, Enjolras paused, examining Daniel on his own for the first time. He couldn't find anything which immediately merited a petty cursory judgment. Nothing about this man reeked of the excess of the capitol, or the culture it perpetuated. Thus, he nodded, warily but politely. "I am to be one, regrettably."

Other Tributes he could deal with, for the most part. And if they were all truly from other worlds, there was probably something to be learned from each of them. "I take it you'll be one as well. I'm sorry."

[hi_there_aliens]

Even if he hadn't said so, it became pretty clear he wasn't from here with the disgusted look the other man studied the people walking by. Daniel managed a small smile, without a trace of humor. "Tough luck; you and me both."

The easiest thing to do would be to avoid getting to know any of the tributes. The less he knew about them, the easier it would be to treat them as targets. Daniel found he couldn't do it. He held out his hand. "I'm Daniel Jackson. Nice to meet you."

[splendid_roman]

After lockdown Ian was more desperate to get out of the Training Center building, so he'd been walking around the city. However, it was a big place and he hadn't quite been paying attention to where he was going and now he wasn't sure where he was. "Excuse me," he said to the nearest person, "can you tell me the way to the Training Center?"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel pointed back the way he'd come, then realized that he'd turned so many corners and wandered so much that he wasn't entirely sure. Navigating tombs was easy. This place shouldn't be so hard, but granted, he'd been thinking so much on the Hunger Games, the rest of SG-1 that he'd lost track. Maybe if I get so lost myself, they'll lose track of me; hard to throw someone into a game if you can't find them, Daniel thought, then had to admit that was not only stupid, it wouldn't work. If it was that easy, someone else would've done it by now.

"Somewhere back that way. Sorry, wish I could help you more." Although thinking it over more, maybe he didn't. The only person who'd want to get back to training was another Tribute, which meant he was both eager to work on skills to survive (couldn't fault him there) and/or eager to work on skills to better kill his fellow tributes.

[splendid_roman]

Ian had a tendency to believe everyone was honest, at least when they weren't trying to kill him, so he took the other man's words at face value. "Thanks, I'll try that way and see if I recognise anywhere," he said smiling. "Have you just arrived here?"

[hi_there_aliens]

"I'm sure the guards will be more than happy to show you," wouldn't do to lose a Tribute, now would it? "Yeah. I guess I must have 'fresh meat' written across my forehead or something."

[danno_williams]

Danny watched the new guy from his spot against the wall. He might not be up to Sherlock's deductive powers but he can tell when someone's a fish out of water.

The guy wandered by and Danny quipped, "Is this where I say 'Welcome to hell, here's your accordion?"

"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XmDxMlc7Agg/Tm-UypBOWiI/AAAAAAAAAxU/ZXaaytkuWJE/s1600/farsideaccordion.jpg"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel blinked owlishly at him. "Sorry, what?"

An accordion? Maybe he'd missed out on the recent pop culture in the year he'd been on Abydos. "I think this is where you say 'you've been thrown to the lions, here's a whip at least.' Or something like that."

[originalgaangster]

"I've been to prison. It's nicer than this." Sokka eases up next to Daniel, surveying the crowd and the garishly dressed citizens with obvious unease and distaste.

"At least there they didn't ooh and ahh over you before sending you out to fight to the death for them."

[hi_there_aliens]

The teenager seemed to come out of nowhere, and for a moment, he thought he was one of them. It was the hair. Compared to the rest of the crowd, he was almost dressed modestly.

"Prison would be nicer than this," not that Daniel had had a long and personal experience with jail. Chulak hadn't quite counted. "I can't believe people actually tune in and watch this."

[originalgaangster]

"It's sick. It's not like pro-Earthbending or something like that where no one actually gets hurt. They want people--kids to kill each other for giggles." He pauses, eyes Daniel a moment.

"What's that mean, tune in?"

[hi_there_aliens]

"Tell me about it. This isn't some show where the cast and crew get to walk off at the end of the day."

"Earth-bending?" he echoed after a moment. "Oh, tune in. It means to watch a show; maybe it had to do with the old televisions and how they worked, or radios.

Hello fellow nerd

[polyturtle]

"...At least there's no Khan?"

Who was that saying that? Oh, it was just--a giant talking turtle. Hello. And apparently someone who the natives knew, judging by the way they gasped and pointed and tittered excitedly (Is that him? Ooh man, it really is!)

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel paused, taking the strange alien up and down. Well, maybe a giant turtle...like alien was going to have to come up eventually. At least he seemed friendly. Daniel eyed those muscles with some trepidation, hoping he wasn't a Tribute. He could probably give Teal'c a run for his money, right after he snapped Daniel in half. The reaction of the people around him was kind of weird.

It took him a second to get the reference. He was a geek - or so Jack and the marines back on at the SGC liked to say so - but that didn't meant he followed all the traditionally geeky things. He didn't play Dungeons and Dragons when he went home and he didn't make a viewing of Star Wars a monthly event. (That might be Teal'c) Star Trek, he corrected.

No, sit him down with bones, pottery fragments and stone tablets and Daniel was happy as a clam. "I'll consider myself slightly consoled." Daniel held out his hand. "Dr. Daniel Jackson."

[polyturtle]

Well, when you parse his origin right...eh. In any case. He certainly didn't get the 11 for standing around, though. Not that he's going to say anything about that.

"Hamato, Donatello." That offered hand was going to be shook. "I know its not exactly much of a comfort."