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

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

"Venus?" She leaned over and raised an eyebrow, "Like the tribute? I met a human with that name."

She hasn't been that interested in the near space of Earth. It certainly doesn't include Alternia and that's where her interest stopped. She'd never made it off planet nor had the desire to.

"What's so hard to believe about it? Do they use some strange ship that doesn't run on psionics?"

[asklepian]

"Ah, the second planet in Earth's solar system is named Venus, after a Roman goddess. It's also been a given name at times."

Julian blinks at the mention of ships powered by psionics, Vulcans, Romulans, and Betazoids displayed psychic abilities, but nothing that could be used to power a ship.

"No, that wasn't it--they used a solar sail, which is a perfectly viable method of propulsion, especially for the distance between Earth and Venus. It was the fact that they were able to survive in Earth's environment without assistance--Venus has an incredibly dense atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide and sulfur, the winds are fantastically strong, and it's hot, over 400 degrees Celsius. For perspective, Earth temperatures at maximum are about 60 degrees."

Once he gets on a roll, it's hard for him to stop. But he does, eventually.

"It's just incredibly hard to believe. Anyway...psionics? I know of a few species with abilities in that vein, but certainly nothing able to power a starship."

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

"Ah--I suppose that is rather unbelievable. Perhaps they stayed underground during the heat of the day? That is how we survived on Alternia. The sun burned after a little time."

She hasn't a clue what a solar sail is but she accepts that he finds it plausible. After all, he seems to know more about the subject than she does.

"Psionics can move things--so they move the ships. Well, our highest caste uses them to move the ships. Like batteries." The disgust is visible in her voice, "Forcing them to move the ships. The lowerbloods are often taken as slaves and raised to become a 'helmsman'."

[asklepian]

"Mm, it wouldn't help much--Venus has very little discernible difference in temperature between night and day. It's because the temperature is due to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere--it's an insulating gas, it doesn't allow heat to escape."

Julian listens to her explanation of exactly what she meant, by psionics powering a ship--and it horrified him, yes, but he'd been getting quite a lot of that lately. But he still couldn't help but show it on his face. She didn't seem too thrilled by it either.

"What--that's horrible!"

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

She shakes her head, not to disagree but to shake off the memory of seeing helmsman. They'd never spoke of it, but she suspected there was a reason they never used proper transport and helmsman were probably it.

"Of course it's horrible! I don't condone it, I wanted to stop it, but we--my group of rebels--we were captured. I was the only one who escaped. In the end there was little I could do by myself. So I know it's bad, but we've tried as a part of society..."

She takes a deep breath and spreads her hands, "Highbloods live longer. They keep power more easily as a result."

[asklepian]

Julian shakes his head right back, trying to think of how to phrase what he was thinking.

"No, no, I wasn't saying that you did--you very obviously do not--I just...simply don't know what to say, other than that."

Julian knows--there are differences in culture, between Humans and other species. He has to know, one of his best friends is just as grey as the woman sitting across from him, though Garak was scaled and lacked horns, and his culture was just as foreign to Julian as what Disciple was saying.

"It's...I just find it hard to understand, that your scientists, the ones that developed your spaceships, couldn't think of a way to power them without strapping living people in to use as an engine..." Perhaps no one had thought of it in his reality because psionics simply did not work that way--most of the species with psychic ability were some form of telepathic, and couldn't move things at all.

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

"When I say they were treated as slave and raised to be helmsman, it was a society wide issue. Lowbloods, red to yellows, were treated as slaves and expendable. They lived short lives, the highbloods couldn't be bothered to care. Why expend energy making new technology when they could use this expendable resource." She only pauses for a moment, trying to get everything out before he can ask something she's about to explain. She's gotten this habit of rambling from Signless and she hardly notices it right then.

"The lower bloods are more plentiful. Like a pyramid. The higher your blood, the less there are. So it's easy for them to use people for their skills and discard them. To make them power your ships and move them through the universe with their amazing powers. And then get a new one when they died."

[asklepian]

He's grateful for it, actually, he can process the information as quickly as she can give it, and instead of trying to force words out of his mouth, he can just listen. Listen, learn, and be horrified.

"That...God, just because their lives are shorter, it doesn't mean they're any less." Humanity had gone down that road, and others similar in the past. They'd been dark, terrible times.

He scruffs a hand through his hair, making it stand all up on end. "It would be the right thing to do, to create technology that can improve the lives of everyone. Not to be used to oppress or to...well." Do things like the Capitol. But he'd already gotten the message--they were listening. It seemed like they especially could now, with everyone so close in.

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

"Sadly our rebellion failed. We tried peaceful ways, just sort of trying to change by example or by sharing philosophy but it didn't work. The younger of the trolls, Nepeta, Karkat, Terezi, they all come from a later time in our world. It's still the same."

She shakes her head hard, lips pressed into a thin flat line as she remembers, "It would have been the right thing. To use these things to help and guide and protect, but they were secure in their power and abusing the rest was almost fun to them. It was part of their life, a way they were brought up, as was everyone before them. I can understand why they might never see another way. It's revolutionary to think that everyone can be important, that their blood does not make them less, when your entire planet is brought up to believe that their self worth is tied directly to how high they rank."

[asklepian]

It sounded familiar enough. Cardassians, Romulans, the Dominion, all operated in a similar manner. All had their own dissidents. People who tried to change things, faced enormous odds to do so, and either failed or had no chance to begin with.

"Sometimes...revolution has no chance unless it begins at the top."

He looked sick to admit it though.

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

Her sigh betrays similiar thoughts. Things she'd pondered over for most of her time here, since she found out everything ultimately failed. She thought of the Capitol for a moment, and wondered if anyone there thought of revolution, but dismissed it. It was the last thing she needed to think about.

"True. In the end, you simply try, because to do otherwise is to accept defeat and to seem like you support the way things are. Maybe you die or you're enslaved or exiled. But at least you tried. Maybe something small can catch the right attention--" She cuts herself off, it's a dangerous conversation they're having.

"Sorry, I get caught up." She smiles, forcing her mouth into the expression, "My days of rebellion are behind me."