District Tours: Train Ride

[etcircenses]

Prior to their departure, the Tributes have to suffer a photoshoot, a few interviewers asking them a thousand questions about how excited they are, and more than a few members of their style teams asking the Tributes to bring back mementos. "Don't worry about quality, dears, we can get that all here - we want you to bring us souvenirs for the novelty of it!"

The day of the trip, Tributes are roused bright and early, well before sunrise, and driven in Peacekeeper vans to the train station. It's all rather dour, and not like the start of a vacation at all; if one didn't know what was going on, and if the Escorts and head Stylists weren't chattering excitedly, they might think they were being hauled off to a war zone.

The trains, on the other hand, are plush, fancy things, and there is one per District. There's a single blockaded car for cargo, another for maintenance, driving and Peacekeeping staff, and then several others which are open to the Tributes. A dinner car serves three meals and has small snacks available throughout the day. Another car is an entertainment center with a selection of Capitol-approved films, and a the last one is the Tributes' temporary room. It has a bunk bed for each with sheets that was a truly intense threadcount, and a single massage chair in the back. The Stylists, Mentors and Escorts sleep in the same car, although separated by a partition.

Unfortunately, all the Tributes have to share the sleeping quarters, and it's first-come, first-served.

For the most part, the trip is so smooth that the surface of a glass full of water would not be disturbed. The trips to the closer Districts are a little under a day, but the furthest Districts - 3, 4, 7, 8, 11 and 12 - take nearly 48 hours.

[OOC: For Tributes accepted during the District tours, you can assume they arrived before the departure so they can participate in the District festivities. During the train ride there is still network access. There will only be this post and the party post from the mods for this event, so players are encouraged to make their own of their characters exploring their surroundings and enjoying the Districts.]

Comments

OTA

[dragoon_pride]

The pre-departure interview had been aggravating, and Kain certainly hadn't been the most cooperative with his answers. He'd scowled or made blank expressions in the photographs, giving off an overall cold impression. It was also a nuisance to realize that he'd be sharing quarters with the others, not really something he was looking forward to for the couple of days it would take them to get there. So he wasn't in the greatest of moods upon starting out.

Despite that, he really was looking forward to a change of scenery, already. He didn't really feel he fit in within the Capitol, and although it was helpful to have access to a training facility, the rest of his time there was spent wishing he could head somewhere more isolated, and more his speed in terms of daily things like the overabundant (to him) technology.

Kain paced around a bit at first as the train departed, never feeling very comfortable in confined trains. At least he didn't have to attempt to fight in this one... they never were the best spaces for his fighting style. Eventually, after getting out some of his restlessness, he took a sear by a window and stared out intently at the passing scenery. What he wouldn't give to be out there.

[casaerotica13]

There were sure a lot of new people on his train lately. When he arrived, it was just him and a bunch of women. Now it was turning into a regular sausage fest, but he wasn't really complaining that much. After all, those ladies looked about ready to smother him in his sleep before doing anything fun.

So, Gabriel was getting around and meeting some of the new people, bringing a plate of chocolates and fruits along with him while repeating the words of every person who got after him about it.

He popped another grape into his mouth when he entered the new car to find another new guy watching the outside world fly on by. "Gonna take someone with you when you bust out of that window? If you do, I volunteer."

[dragoon_pride]

Kain glances toward the man as he joins him- it really is difficult avoiding people in close quarters like this. Not that he's been purposefully avoiding anyone, he just... isn't great at socializing in general. So perhaps it's better for someone else to initiate the conversation.

His eyes dart to the window again. Oddly enough, his instinct is to jump, to leap right out of it and simply see wherever he lands. It's a tactic which serves him well in battle, anyway... or did, outside of this world. "It's been crossing my mind repeatedly. Survival out there would surely hold fewer challenges."

[casaerotica13]

"You would think." Gabriel wasn't so sure. The Capitol's reach wasn't just in the town and, with their technology, nothing seemed completely hidden.

"If you want my opinion, I think it would be more interesting and even less boring than this place. But most people don't want my opinion."

[dragoon_pride]

"Apparently we agree on that." Kain hasn't been here long, but he's pretty sure he's seen enough of the Capitol and its ways. It's worse than anything he's ever encountered from the monarchy of Baron. At least there, he had a more proper place, he wasn't forced to be part of these endless social events. "I don't know how anyone can stand to live in the Capitol... or within the bounds of their laws. I wonder how many have managed to escape..."

[casaerotica13]

"Precious few, I'm sure," he answered, falling back into a well-placed couch while he munched on his plate. "These guys seem to have their little country covered."

[dragoon_pride]

That brought up a thought he'd not really considered before. Ever since arrival, Kain has been so set in the ways of this 'Panem' and its Districts that he hadn't thought there could be a world beyond this. Could there be? "That makes me wonder if there are other nations out there beyond this one..."

[casaerotica13]

"Probably. Hard to tell being stuck in this place all the time." It wasn't like they were given a whole lot of information or that he had any grace to spare on gathering said information... Ugh, he missed his powers.

[dragoon_pride]

"They appear to have considerable power over information as well as everything else... Have you been here for very long, yourself?" Kain is curious to learn more of the people who've been here. How long this has been going on, is there any chance they might find a way out of it all. He has to know the full extent of what they're dealing with.

[casaerotica13]

"Not really. Probably a month, but I haven't seen an arena, yet."

Gabriel looked up some of the history of this place, none of it really hitting him as a big shock. There were a few details he was missing, but he was well aware that he was missing them. "You new?"

[dragoon_pride]

"Yes... The last arena had already ended by the time I arrived. I was in time for their crowning 'event.'" He realizes he's been bad at keeping track of time. The last place he'd been, it hadn't been an issue, and before that... well, on the mountain he'd been trying to ignore the passage of time. It made him less frustrated with his lack of accomplishments up there.

"I'm no stranger to fighting, though... I only wish it weren't for this particular cause."

[casaerotica13]

"We got a lot in common, buddy," Gabe answered, taking a drink. He pretty much fit that bill, but he didn't really care too too much about the killing thing. There was never really a good cause, but at least the souls would be okay. That's all that mattered.

[dragoon_pride]

"Are you a warrior in your world, as well?" He's heard they take civilians, too, though, a thought which really doesn't sit well with him. At least having fighters up against one another makes a certain sense. Even if it is for a fight they never asked to be in, in a world that's nothing to do with any of them.

Re: OTA

[undercoverprincess]

The interview had been what she expected, and Cindy was getting to be an old pro at this whole thing. She'd made false promises, smiled and winked to the camera, and once she got onto the train she had checked out the sleeping arrangements.

Were they kidding on this one? Did they really expect them all to share? It was clearly obvious that they weren't prepared to bring a group of tributes onto a train heading to the districts. It had felt a little spur of the moment, and the excitement of the escorts and stylists didn't help that.

So now she was going to take some time to watch the scenery. Wishing she'd brought a book or something, she took a seat near the window. Instead of the scenery, though, she watched this guy.

"You're pretty new, aren't you?" She asked him, legs folded under her, with her head on her hand. "I'm not sure if we've been formally introduced yet."

[dragoon_pride]

Kain nods as she approaches and settles in. He'd figured he couldn't spend the whole trip in solitude... besides, anything he can learn of this world is important, and that means talking to anyone who isn't one of those outlandish Capitol people.

"I am. I just arrived at the time of the crowning..." And he'd not really gone out of his way to meet people afterward. Getting the vague idea of this world, getting around and so on had been more important. And looking futilely for ways out. "I'm Kain Highwind."

[undercoverprincess]

Being anti-social worked for awhile, Cindy knew that much. She wasn't like that at all, but there were plenty of people who were able to work that to their advantage. They had a few of them in Eleven, come to think of it. But like hell was she going to go away to her own little corner.

"Oh. I'm sorry about that." Cindy laughed, giving him a grin. "Not one of their better ones. I could have done without sharing some dream space with everyone else." There was something wrong with having other people in her head. Or vice-versa.

The whole thing had been terrible. "A pleasure, Kain. I'm Cindy. I don't think I'm too late to welcome you to this crazy, wonderful world of ours." A sarcastic stress put onto 'wonderful'. Because... no.

[dragoon_pride]

At least Kain appreciates the sarcasm. He's also glad he's not the only one who took such great offense to the notion of that shared dream. Altering his mind in any way is not anything he cares to go through. Ever. Never again. He'll fight for them, whatever they want, as long as he has his own mind at the end of the day.

"It's a better welcome than they can apparently give. I cannot stop wondering what they truly intend to gain out of sending us on this little journey?" Not that he minds all that much, in some way... "Even if it is a change of scenery."

[undercoverprincess]

At the mention of why they were on this train, Cindy frowned, pulling her legs a little more under her. It reminded her a little about meeting Howard the first time. The seating arrangement deal that had to go through. She wished he was in eleven. Him, Ian, or Harley, they would have been great to have along.

"This is a whole different ball game they have going now." Cindy replied, looking at Kain. "I have some ideas of why they're sending us out now, but none of them are good. And some of them shouldn't even be spoken out loud. It's like the Red Scare all over again, taken to an extreme."

[dragoon_pride]

"The Red Scare? Then has your world been through something like all of this?" It's nothing familiar to him, but he's not too surprised by that. Almost everyone was from some other world in the gods' conflict, with their own backgrounds and problems. Though oddly enough, it seemed that many of the others had faced incredibly powerful threats to their worlds... the enemies that Chaos had brought in.

How many others have gone through similar in this case, he wonders. He has no doubts, either, that the Capitol has sinister motives for doing all of this.

[undercoverprincess]

Cindy laughed. It wasn't strange to her, the people from different worlds all converging here. It was like fleeing from the Homelands. Eventually they ended up in the same place, but everyone was different. Still, explaining things could get tricky. She wasn't supposed to be alive during the Red Scare.

This guy had no idea, and maybe the Capitol didn't, either. "Nothing like this. I mean... the Red Scare didn't have anything like this, the whole killing thing and forcing districts to sacrifice their kids for entertainment. Not in this</> way, anyway. That whole thing was just about people always listening." Maybe he didn't know, and Cindy tapped her nails against the glass. "What, the government in your world didn't keep a list of people who might be spies?"

[dragoon_pride]

More like the rulers were the spies, at least for a while. Kain thinks back to that, still astonished that they hadn't realized the extent of how much the king had changed... had been literally not himself. "Something no less sinister. The king of my home country had been... replaced, without our knowledge."

He folds his arms and continues. "And elsewhere... I've also been taken to another world, and forced to fight in an unending series of battles. The war between Chaos and Cosmos. It had its similarities." Although that too also lacked this whole entertainment angle. That's the part about all of this that he hates the most, really.

[undercoverprincess]

"What?" Cindy was monetarily taken off guard. The king was replaced, and no one knew that it happened? How did that... did he have a twin? Or did no one see him during that time? Really, back in her Homeland, their king was fairly public. There was no way that he could be replaced unless it was through magic.

Maybe it was through magic. "I've never heard of someone replacing a king and no one being the wiser. Hasn't ever happened in my world." The Mundy world. Never happened there, not yet. "The war between Chaos and Cosmos? So this is... more normal for you then for some."

[dragoon_pride]

Kain looks a bit surprised that she's so taken aback by the king's replacement. He hadn't figured it would seem so outlandish... but then again, he supposes to an outsider it must sound that way. The very notion.

"He was heavily cloaked under an illusion of some sort. It was strong enough magic that not even his best warriors knew the difference. Although some among us began to notice his strange behavior eventually." The attacks on the innocent, the obsession with the crystals... Kain is rather appalled that even he hadn't seen it as strange, at first. "Anyway, when I first arrived here, I kept assuming this place was similar to their war... and in some ways, it is. Overall, though, there's much that differs greatly."

[undercoverprincess]

Well shit. It was magic. Definitely not surprised then, and Cindy frowned, holding back making a face at that. She hated magic. Sure, it had it's usefulness, there was no doubt about that. But it could turn from back to good with a snap of your fingers. Just thinking about it made her annoyed.

"So how did you... stop him?" She waved a hand around, though she was interested. She couldn't hide that, and he could probably tell. Just like a fairytale, right? Maybe this was just another tale that she'd never heard of.

Shaking her head, trying to ignore that for a moment. "Sort of, sure, though I'm pretty sure some people were just not great people already." Cindy shrugged. "So, what's different? Not counting politics, I guess."

[dragoon_pride]

It hadn't been that long ago, in the grand scheme of things. Still, this is one of the easier parts of the whole thing to tell about, even if it involves one of those fiends, who'd likewise been forced to serve under Golbez.

"He was defeated in battle. Since he was the elemental fiend of water, his weaknesses would have been obvious to exploit. But he was only the minion of another, stronger force. Our world has been through considerable difficulty recently." Though they'd triumphed, hadn't they? In some ways, Kain still didn't feel like it was truly over. Perhaps that was part of why he'd had to leave. He couldn't join in their celebrations. "I was surprised when I found myself in that other world's war, soon after. It seems there's never any true rest... Anyway, the difference in that world was that we were directly fighting the true enemy. That, and we had our memories removed of each cycle."

It meant he had no idea how many times he or his comrades may have fallen. The only one he remembers is the last cycle. He has to wonder if it would really make it any better, if they forgot each arena here. As for the true enemy... most of Chaos' warriors had belonged there, he was certain, but then there were people like Giolbez... it was complicated.