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

[doc_holi]

Get out?

Ha.

Hahahaha.

Holiday blankly stared at the colorful man and then looked up to everything he had wired up. Seemed like he was reading up on his new home. Not that she could blame him, of course. Only...

"You do realize that they edit everything, don't you?"

[googledox]

"A totalitarian regime engaging in censorship and propaganda? Absurd. Next you'll be telling me grass is verdantly colored on many planets and commenting on the aqueous nature of water."

Grass was green, water was wet, the Space Pope was Durlan, etc. etc. etc.

This time wasn't even Brainy purposefully being extra putoffish for the sake of keeping others at a distance while he figured things out. Doc Holiday was the lucky one to receive his usual, very genuine sarcasm.

Without looking up, he waved vaguely at the nearby window.

"Can you check out the window for me to see if the sun is rising in the east and setting in the west? I'm not sure my observational skills are up to par for the task and yours clearly are."

[doc_holi]

Woooow. "That gets old very quickly, I hope you realize."

She very much considered an about face straight out of that car, but her curiosity didn't want to allow it right now.

"If you know how deeply they edit the material, then why are you going through all of the trouble to filter through their lies? The few truths they do give aren't worth it... or is this how you cope with new environments?"

He wanted to be annoying, then she could, too. No one said she had to coddle everyone... If the green guy started babbling and crying or something, she'd feel pretty awful, but Holiday had a feeling that wasn't going to be a thing.

[googledox]

"Old like your presence in my vicinity has already gotten? I don't see you rectifying that."

It was almost too easy, slipping into his old patterns. The guilt was the only thing that was different than it had once been.

"As for what use the material is, what isn't present can be just as telling as what is." It just also happened to be how he coped with new environments. "Not that you'd be able to see what I can see."

He still hadn't looked up at her yet but he'd gotten a vague flash of human-ness out of the corner of his eye.

[doc_holi]

It was public space... but she wasn't going to say that because he really didn't seem to care.

Holiday rolled her eyes. It wasn't like personal powers were active even on the trains, so he was speaking of his intelligence and that... always had a habit of boiling her blood. It reminded her of those stupid galas White would make her go to. Bunch of squawking idiots.

"The only things that aren't present is how we arrive in this world and how we live through every arena. Nerve stimulation and hypnosis has been ruled out by several tributes, including myself, and we believe that we are clones implanted with false memories.

"Otherwise, the Capitol is very blunt to the observing and experienced eye. They punish greatly anyone who speaks against them and welcomes challenge so that they may exercise their limited strength to fool the masses that they have the power of God. And, no, the famous Rebellion has done nothing more than say big words and make no actions."

She folded her arms across her chest, hoping to be more annoying than informative for a change. "Unless you want to watch years worth of people smiling through glitter who were more than likely killed five minutes after their filming, perhaps you should find an actual verified source."

[googledox]

"Your clone hypothesis is extremely unlikely."

He couldn't say why, which was 'if they're capable of cloning or genetically engineering people as biologically intelligent as me, we wouldn't be on a train right now, we'd be teleporting.'

If they were capable of cloning an organic computer more intelligent than the combined processing power of the entirety of planet earth, they wouldn't be throwing it into gladiatorial death matches.

That meant they were captured somehow from their places of origin, perhaps with their captors not even entirely aware of the magnitude of some of the discoveries they'd made with their abductions.

(Which meant he was using himself being absolutely amazing as evidence against that theory, yes, he was that arrogant. Grass was green, water was wet, the space pope was Durlan...)

[doc_holi]

Cloning was easier than molecular breakdown and reconstruction, aka. teleporting... She really wants to tell him off.

"That's what I said at first." Out of fear, of course. He didn't seem to realize how low these people were willing to place themselves. However, the hypothesis could very well be wrong, but she wasn't going to listen to that from this guy.

"Perhaps you should get used to not being the special child anymore. Stay with that attitude and you'll die before you even step off of the pedestal." She is very much considering leaving now, probably to his satisfaction. Once he knew more about the Capitol and decided to actually look her in the eye, then maybe they could have a proper argument.

[googledox]

If she told him off about that, he would have explained that it wasn't that he thought they'd been teleported. What he figured was that if they could clone someone with his brain, they could clone organic computers as powerful as his brain. If they'd done so, they would have already used such computers to develop technologies like teleportation. Also sentient AIs, stargates, FTL travel, perpetual energy, time travel...

A society lacking in all the things a construct like his mind was capable of creating demonstrated a lack of a resource that level of cloning would've realistically provided them.

Or just that they were the most imbecilic society every to walk any earth ever, wasting vast amounts of resources cloning useful biological technology and then effectively throwing it away. Aside from the deplorable moral aspect, what a waste.

But since neither of them was saying any of it out loud that was neither here nor there. (At least until they had a chance to have a proper argument about it someday.)

"I never said I was special, did I." Even though he was. "I just said that you were probably completely wrong."

He finally looked up at her.

His expression was still blank but there was a spark to his eyes, something intangible yet burning solidly there. Behind those eyes were bits of information sleeting across neurons at impossible speeds, faster even than most inorganic computers. Multiple tracks of consciousness processed information, categorized it, and decided what needed to be kept, what needed to be thrown away, and what needed to be filed away for possible use later.

There were some who saw their brains as a mind palace of sorts but this was a mind country, with its own complicated infrastructure and endless activity as ideas and bits of information went about their lives until they were drafted into magnificent purpose.

For a moment, she might have caught a glimpse of that but then his eyebrows raised slightly and the way his IQ suddenly dropped a few points was possibly outwardly visible.

Of course she was attractive. Of course. As he mentally rewound through the conversation, to the fact that she'd talked about nerve stimulation and cloning, he started kicking himself even more. Of course she was also intelligent. A fellow scientist, possibly?

What a wonderful first impression he must have made, one that might never get better if he had to hide his true self from this place.

"Not that there's anything wrong with...occasionally being completely wrong."

He added, because he couldn't help it, "And I mean completely wrong."

[doc_holi]

"Even to me, your ego seems a little obvious. And that's saying something, right?"

Holiday was never good at picking up on flirting or when someone found her attractive unless they were blatantly obvious about it. So, while she didn't notice the reason for his turn, it was nothing new that other supposed-intelligent men looked down on her for being a woman of science, while simultaneously praising her beauty. She didn't like those types either, not that she knew his track of thought. All that she caught was the slight change in tune when he finally had the grace to look at her.

"This theory may be wrong, but not completely. You obviously haven't seen how truly advanced these people are. The only reason we're even on a train right now is because the districts are poor and the Capitol thinks transportation is something in style."

[googledox]

For someone so intelligent, Brainy was only slightly less shallow than many young men his age. Not a single one of his friends would have argued to the contrary, except for maybe Gates who thought all humanoids looked pretty ugly and therefore thought all the people Brainy had been attracted to were hideous. Other than Gates though, he'd been teased endlessly by his friends about his shallow tendency to crush on tall, Amazonian blondes.

Doc wasn't blonde but the way she was carrying herself, refusing to back down, had him taking an interest now. It was rare that people got up in his face and told him he was wrong. He certainly didn't think it meant he was, but he still admired the tenacity of anyone that threw themselves at that veritable brick wall he called a personality. He knew he was a difficult person to deal with under the best of circumstances and as he was acting rude right now on purpose, these were not the best of circumstances.

"While they may not have the resources in abundance to create stargates, if they were truly advanced they'd have faster-than-light travel - or minimally, interplanetary communication - and they'd forgo the potential conflict caused by keeping whole regions impoverished by using their technology to ensure no one was left in want. The fact that there are inequities is only proof they're brandishing what technology they have in an illusion of power - power that they need to ensure to that many provide for the few since they don't have sufficient production to provide that kind of luxury to the whole. They're certainly advanced but you have to remember, when you're dealing with interdimensional travel, there's scale involved. What's advanced to you may not be to someone else."

He quickly amended, "That's not to say their level of advancement is something that should not be paid the proper respect but you're misjudging their capacities and the consequences of the technologies you're suggesting. It would be different if they were just cloning humans but if they can manage the genetic variation that would create a separate species like myself that means they'd be able to genetically engineer organic computers far more advanced than any they could construct mechanically, which would allow them to to create sentient AIs, allow them to unravel the physical forces responsible for perpetual energy sources, and so on and so forth. Each potential technology has a set of societal consequences and there are certain logistics involved in its use and certain other technologies that must be employed in support of it. Either they don't have cloning quite that advanced or they're ignoring every other practical application of it in industry, agriculture, and warfare. Which do you think is more likely? Do you really think they have the capacity to genetically engineer sentient humanoid species if they can't even manage to use that genetic engineering to augment their agricultural supplies to feed all their citizens?"

[doc_holi]

He would have a point if he were anywhere close to right. Of course, he wasn't. "You really don't get it, do you? If you had the general idea right, then maybe all of that babbling would make sense, but you're very wrong about several things."

That's right. She said wrong. Feel that burn. Do you feel it, yet?

"They don't make advancements in technology to help people. It's only to crush their opposition. The people in power are fooling themselves with how much power they have because of the way they use it and they like it that way. Like bullies in a pre-school playground and, before you say it, they do not have any more maturity than that. The average Capitol citizen is a walking sack of ignorance who knows quantum mechanics but not etiquette. Those in power are only there because of the blood they continue to spill both with us and with their citizens in the districts. They have more than enough resources to exalt everyone in their country, but in doing so will lower their power among the people to do whatever or kill whoever they want whenever they want.

"As far as your far more intelligent species is concerned, they also have the ability to splice DNA and create new creatures. I recommend previous arena footage for a good look at those things, which is where my theory on false memories comes back into play. There's no way of telling you are who you say and think you are, because the Capitol more than likely wanted you to be that way. I don't like that theory, but it's the best one I have unless you have substantial evidence to actually prove my paranoia otherwise."

[googledox]

Brainy rolled his eyes and the rest was a full blown rant, rapid-fire, almost desperate, as if there had been times in the past he'd gotten used to explaining things in a frantic way, hoping someone else would see reason. In a way it sounded like he'd learned to talk about these sorts of things as a very intelligent child trying to explain to the police why he should be taken seriously over some dire matter.

"I've seen the creatures in the vidlinks and I've seen better gene splicing in 7th term biology on my home planet. Even just the average 31st century citizen would be able to point out how crude it is. Don't you find that disparity the least bit unusual? Suddenly they make a jump from crude creatures they can barely control to fully functioning sentient beings? And you're still ignoring the societal ramifications that kind of complex genetic engineering would cause. It could easily be militarized and used for the power plays you're speaking of. If someone can custom design and program a full sentient being, they can also design a biological agent that kills only their political enemies - or any specific individuals they please They'd be able to mass clone and program perfectly obedient soldiers - or more animalistic enforcers - for the purposes of control of the citizenry rather than relying on recruited members who would always pose a risk of military coup. There are too many possible applications for it - many of which can be used for the purposes of political control like you're suggesting. You can't tell me, if the average Capitol citizen is educated in quantum mechanics, that no one has thought of these applications yet if the technology already exists. Like you said, I'm not special, am I, so how would I somehow be the first?"

He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, still carrying on, voice rapid.

"In fact, I'm wearing technology far beyond any I've seen evidence of thus far, created by an intelligence far greater than my own, a technology that would be in wide use because of its nature if this society is as belligerent as you've described, if they were the ones responsible for it." He still had no explanation for the Anomaly and while he knew how to repair his personality inhibitors, he doubted he'd ever truly learn how to build his own - and this was after years of attempted reverse engineering. He'd checked them when he'd had a moment alone, too, a habitual gesture he did any time they might have been tampered with - and they'd been as complex as ever. "I won't disagree that we've found ourselves in the middle of a highly advanced society - one with facets I find fascinating and highly agreeable. If I survive the arenas, I may settle here permanently."

A lie, just in case the Capitol was listening in.

"And I'm sure they've manufactured sights for you to see to inform your opinions, but under what conditions did you see it and how staged were they? Where's your empirical data? What have you tested? What other explanations have been completely exhausted first? And if what you've seen is empirical proof how can I also be wearing empirical proof to the contrary on my face?"

His voice was no longer dry and sarcastic. His tone was no longer rude. Instead he sounded like an alien, like someone from very far away, who had seen many strange things, both horrible and wonderful.

"There are unimaginable horrors and unexplainable forces of resplendent beauty in this very large multiverse of ours. That's something I will always trust in, even during the times I'm not sure I can trust myself - it's something we can all trust because whether we were pulled from alternate worlds like I believe - or created whole cloth like you believe, there is a richness to the reality we live in if either of those things are possible and there are countless other possibilities besides." He held up a finger. "Facts before theories."

Either way, she'd made some excellent observations even if he disagreed with her final conclusion.

[doc_holi]

Well, she could admit that he did have good reasoning. She didn't interrupt as he spoke on and stayed quiet for a moment after he finished.

"... Of course it's unusual how these people behave, but just making something of a cure-all against their opposition wouldn't be as enjoyable or ego boosting as knocking others down.

"I suppose I won't disagree with your facts, especially since the only reason I've come to this conclusion is because I and several others have ruled out other theories we've come across. To be honest, it doesn't really matter if we're cloned or not because there's nothing we can really do about it, aside from staying awake at night and worrying, but it's useful to wonder how much power there is over us."

She doesn't care for his comment on staying in the Capitol, of course. Holiday was outspoken, though, and the Capitol knew her views and where she stood with the whole thing, for the most part. It wasn't a good way to go about things and she knew it, but someone needed to. If she couldn't be a warrior, might as well be a martyr.

"You're observations are accurate, but you still have a lot to learn about this place." And his attitude. "I wouldn't go around underestimating people."

[googledox]

He let most of it go without comment - because it was true of course. People could be irrational, they might be mad enough to let perfectly viable technologies go on right under their noses without being practical about them. She was also right about it not really mattering.

He'd always had trouble about acknowledging when other people were right so silence was usually what he gave instead.

That last part he didn't let go without comment, merely firing a smug expression in her direction.

"Do you mean I shouldn't underestimate the Capitol or do you mean I shouldn't underestimate you?"

[doc_holi]

"Both," she immediately told him, lying a hand on her hip in emphasis. She was talking more about the other tributes, though the Capitol wasn't a bad idea to watch, too. As for Holiday, she could be dangerous if she wanted, but she wasn't exactly the deadly type. Not yet. She just hadn't been pushed far enough.

If he made her angry enough, though...

Still, it should have said something for her character that, even after annoying her like that, she was still telling him to watch his back with such an attitude in this place.

"Just be careful who you mouth off to next time," Holiday snapped, turning away with the intention to leave.

[googledox]

It did say something about her character and he took note of these things because of his own.

These people, the ones that cared, were ones to be protected and potential allies and just...people. People were valuable, far more valuable than his overly harsh words implied.

"Duly noted."

In fact, being extremely careful about how he coached his words and what persona he presented was about to become his primary tactic to hide his heroism.