thecapitol | District Tours: Train Ride

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District Tours: Train Ride

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.]

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Harley sighed dreamily allowing herself to get nostalgic as she scooped a fruity looking beverage from the built in cupholder.

"Oh a little of this and a little of that. I've dabbled in everything from burglary to kidnapping, blackmail to arson to assault and battery. I've even solved a few crimes and saved the world once or twice." She giggled as if the very idea was too bizarre despite having lived it.

"I'd break out of jail, go on some fun filled law breaking romps with my friends or my Puddin." Her voice had a special lilt in it when she said "Puddin"

"Eventually a hero would catch us and lock us up again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Such a charmed life."

Barbara could see more and more readily both points Eva had made about Harley. Promising, when survival and creative thinking were part of a winning combination in finding a Victor, unreliable when it came to the very nature of everything she'd just described. Contrasts were a part of people inherently. Barbara tended to believe that, but she also considered it something of a danger depending on what contrasts there were between words and actions leading toward dangerous places.

It was the second time anyone had mentioned a hero. "A hero? What kind are we talking about? Can't be guys riding up on white horses," she joked, letting the rest flow by and absorb as more information to consider and parse for usefulness in her spare time. If she'd have any.

"Nah, I'm more of a stolen car sort of girl." She laughed once more.

"Just depends on what's going on, I've rescued kidnap victims, beaten up criminals who just happened to be buggin' me. And there was this one time I had the powers of a god and fought against some other gods restoring a rightful queen to her position of power and playing some small part in this big confusing saving the universe story." She babbled.

"In my first arena I even did one of those like, heroic sacrifices where I fought and was killed by that big meathead Wesker." She pouted at the memory. "Saved Babs though. That was pretty good."

"Babs?" It was an unfamiliar name, and in the deluge of information, Barbara could only wear an amused smile and shake her head. She took what Harley said with several grains of salt, but she knew better than to expect anyone could be incapable of doing what Harley had said.

Though the god powers part was difficult to swallow. She mostly chose to ignore that mention.

"Sounds like an exciting life before the Capitol."

"Yeah you know, Babs! Red hair, Barbara is her regular name but like...Babs is more fun." She chuckled. "You're new, you'll catch up."

Another laugh and sigh, "Yeah it was pretty wild. Living here almost seems tame since I can't really get away with any crime yet."

Key word being "yet"

More than a key word, it was a suppressed eyebrow quirk and a nod of her head. "Haven't met her," she admitted, "Though that's why the name seemed familiar. She's been through a few Arenas by now, hasn't she?"

Barbara seemed to recall that name in more than one Games.

"Oh, don't worry. Anything you do in the Games is ten shades of illegal if it'd been done anywhere else, and most the exciting stuff? Find the right Citizens, and it's still legal. Takes all the fun right out of things!"

She joked about it, but she also knew that the truly dangerous and illegal things these days did not pay off in Harley living to tell the tale.

Yep, about as many as I have." She held up her fingers indicating three and then paused thoughtfully "Four if you count Candy Land but I died there and she didn't."

She laughed at Barbara's reasoning "I guess you've gotta point. Are things as tightly clamped and locked down back in your district? Because I gotta say I'm not one for a late night curfew or being told there are places I can't go." She stuck her tongue out to indicate just how she felt about that.

Barbara snorted, her smile notably lopsided. "You'll know soon enough," she pointed out. "Doesn't hurt to let you know that yes, there is, and yes, there are places you can't go, but there's always going to be someplace like that. If you wander off not knowing what you're doing... well, nobody likes an accident."

She shivered for effect, shaking her head and snorting in amusement. "Factories are hard places. Hey, listen to me though, sounding so down and dark! Gotta make your own calls once you see where we're going.."

"Well it's kinda hard not to be down and dark round these parts." She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated expression. "Other then the lack of freedom this place is great. Which makes it kind of like prison but on a much larger scale." a wicked snicker at the parallels her head was now drawing between the Capitol and a prison.

"Not a very flattering circle to embroider! Besides, I'd say it's more an expensive aver--avi-- one of those airy places they keep all the fancy birds."

Aviary. Barbara suppresses amusement at herself and the perpetuation of such an airheaded act, but it wasn't safe to be otherwise outside of her own head.

"A night club!" Harley offered unhelpfully and making a joke that would only really appeal to people who knew about Gotham's famous "Iceberg Lounge."

"So what kinda birds does that make us?" She wondered "I've never been much of a bird person. Gotham already has a villain with that theme." She added once again mostly for her own amusement.

Barbara hummed under her breath, making a show of thinking over the possibilities. "I don't know," she admitted, hand coming down to rest on her hip while the other tapped on her chin. "Something exotic, like a peacock, feels more like you. The male though, none of that hen business! All flare and surprising ability to fly when it wants."

She grinned, imagining Harley decked out like one of the more fanciful peacock's she'd seen at a citizen's estate. Harley was certainly colorful and showy enough. It might work.

"Me? Ah, I don't know. Maybe a sparrow, or a robin." Birds that came through her home district often enough to be ubiquitous.

Harley positively purred at the idea that she would be some big puffed up fancy peacock boy. But when Barbara suggested Robin she laughed out loud.

"Well I'll give ya this. You'd look WAY better in that outfit then the Robin's I knew back home...well except for that first one. He grew up to be pretty mmmmm~" She made a rather lecherous face and then paused looking dismayed "Wow I just made myself feel old." Shaking her fist at the sky "Damn you never ending march of time!"

Of course how much of that actually made sense to Barbara is anyone's guess.

"Robin's a popular name, I take it?" She tried to dismiss the rest of Harley's response, making a mental note to be on the lookout for any more of the convoluted network of acquaintances Harley had in her own world showing up here. If they had a tendency toward the same sorts of dramatics, or the kinds of heroics Harley stated she sometimes fell into on accident, they'd be...

She considered that thought. They'd probably have been like people who'd been pulled in for earlier games in the Endless Quell.

"Guess the next step is to make yourself feel young again!"

"Sort of." Harley wagged her finger to indicate correction.

"See there's this guy, Batman? He fights crime, is scary and kind of crazy in a dark brooding way." She babbled "My friend says that there are multiple batmen. Lots of different men over the years and some women. And they always have this sidekick named Robin. Usually a boy sidekick. I can think of maybe four different Robin's I've seen over the years...but it's not like I could be sure. They usually don't come out till night."

She perked up at the suggestion. "I'm open to ideas!"

"There's always Cat's Cradle," she suggested, realizing that most of what she engaged the children in back home wouldn't apply with Harley. Barbara had no gauge for the children of the Capitol, due to a lack of need.

"Or I Spy, or Twenty Questions. Most the games I know involve imagination, so I'm not sure if that'll help with the feeling younger thing... Of course, names like Batman and Robin would fit in well with children's games, before they're all helping out in the fields."

A sad truth, one that slipped out with very little tone moderation.

"Ya know I've been asking Catwoman to teach me Cat's Cradle forever and she keeps blowin' me off?" Harley perked up. "Teach me mentor! Teach meeee!" Harley begged melodramatically leaning into Barbara and fluttering her eyelashes.

Barbara laughed, pushing (gentle and firm) against Harley. "Yeah, yeah, I reckon if I made the offer, I can follow through! Stay here, I'll go wrestle up a length of string. You got that? Right here."

She pointed to the ground, winking at Harley before making to move away.

Harley looked to the finger and then promptly sat down on the ground with an expression of excitement like a puppy. If she had a tail surely she would wag it.

She could almost hear Ivy in her head teasing her about her middle name being door mat.

Barbara returned after five or so minutes, rustling up a spare shoe string that she was in the process of tying into a loop when she returned to see Harley sitting on the floor. She blinked in surprise, shaking her head and letting out a snort of a laugh.

"Well now, I didn't mean that so literally!" None the less, Barbara scanned the area, bending down to nab a seat cushion and pull it to the ground, plopping down next to Harley. "You've seen people play string games before?"

For all she'd said as much earlier, Barbara preferred to re-verify now.

"Well sure in school and stuff." She nodded with delight in her eyes "I just never really tried it before." She smirked knowingly.

"It may surprise you to hear this, but I was incredibly studious!"

"The whole time?" Barbara does look impressed. She had no idea what the school system from Harley's home was like - now would be as good a time as any to ask. She looped the string around her hands, starting off the game.

"How long are you in school where you're from? Up to twelve? Fourteen? Eighteen, like in D12 and the Capitol?"

"More or less." She shrugged "I mean we all had our phases. I just really kicked it into gear when I was in high school going into college." She gave a wink and then focused her eyes on the string so she could learn.

"We go about eighteen years, some kinds drop out during the last four if they have to or think they can get away with it. Those with enough money or who work hard enough go on to another school for more specialized education in things like medicine, engineering or in my case, psychology."

"Psychology?" She admitted it was interesting. More so for the fact that Harley herself was not walking the steady line of sanity now -- not to say she never had. Curious that she was involved in the study of the human mind and psyche and now she was as she was, or was as she used to be, in her home city.

"What changed for you?" She instructed Harley to grab two of the threads and then move her fingers out and under Barbara's pattern. "To go from studying psychology to committing crimes and all that you've nattered on about before?"

She got a far away look on her face even as her fingers complied with Barbara's commands. "Love. I met a man who really got me. Even better then I got myself. Everyone else looked at the Joker and saw him as this horrible monster. But when I looked into those beady unfocused eyes I saw the man he really was. The homicidal bloodthirsty genius who could make me laugh till my sides split!"

She was swaying on the spot like just the thought of him alone was enough to make her weak in the knees.

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