dr. mallory practice // capitol

all that I've got, pieces and pages
talking a lot, sorry I'm faded
think I've forgot, you love me
you love me
you love me

Human is an insult, is it not? 

They think ae's crazy for it, each time Decadence asks the question and hears the reverb of it off those concrete white walls, ae sees the misunderstanding on their face. How far is too far in the name of advancement? There are questions behind each answer, and ae is fixated, a need to know more and more, to do more and more. Ae stands in the meeting room, the solid sunken floor making it feel like a cellar. The entire corporation infrastructure is concrete, because it doesn't crack, doesn't break. 

Isn't that what we strive for? 

NERVAlink is about the bridge of humanity and technology, the link between unlocking what Capitolites are truly capable of. Productivity at any time of the day -- that is the dream. It's a product of creation between aeself and powerful ups; Gamemakers, Producers, Creators and Innovators. Society is built by man, perfection is built by society. Decadence LeCandor has been around for it all, ae has seen the goliaths of the arena technology, the advancements made for the sake of entertainment. 

Muttations created on a whim, entire islands- entire arena's created by algorithms solely to create television. What's the purpose? It's almost sacrilege to say that, to shift the focus back to humanity -- how easy it is to break us. The Hunger Games are a test to Decadence, survival of the fittest in every scenario, there's something to learn about all the ways people can die. What outcome can prevent it, how can that outcome be more available. 

It's lab rats on cocaine, simply put. 

You take the Vault of the Eightieth for example, the daunting task of resurrections, the Capitol learns they can do it. It's for the show, for the twist, this technology exists right under aes fingertips and all ae has to do is ask for it -- what can we learn from it? Ae was there when it happened, Mallory Practice in skin tight red leather pleats and a tube top, beret the size of aes ego and a clipboard in hand. 

A single Vault, twenty three kids killed and reanimated. Gamemakers in training, they write scenarios that could be used in future games, in what they can test tributes on. 

Mal, though, Mal writes the questions.  

It's the psychological testing at first, the Games had never seen a post-death twist until the Eighteeth. They cut their food supply, pit zombies against one another without the cameras even playing -- it's not for the cameras. Not for the entertainment of masses, but for the Gamemaker at play, for Vepar Azreal. These conditions aren't created out of scarcity, that much Mallory is aware of. 

Perhaps they're created from greed. Narcissism, Mal would watch with their clipboard as the tributes were prodded around the vault, death still fresh in their skin. They smelled of it, reeked, as if there was a scent to being broken. Created by the bored hands of people with too much; it's not sympathy that Mal recorded these thoughts, but of curiosity. Continue the Hunger Games, kill them as you shall, but what were they really learning from it? 

That kids are killable? 

That the Capitol is wasteful. 

This is where NERVAlink came from, the need to create again. A burning pit, a desire for a goal other than fashion and feeling an emotion -- Decadence had that, Mallory was that. Ae would drip jewels head to toe as fluidly as blood, dragging pearls and rubies across the smooth pavement without blinking at the sounds of the cracking, waste for beauty was enough. 

But when the music turns on, you can't stop it. Ae gave up on the pursuit of the games -- it wasn't the designing that they were after, no matter how much they convinced themselves. All they wanted was another way up, ae wanted knowledge- ae wants nothing more than knowledge. Ae compiled records and notes, learning every inch of the Games technology as ae could but there wasn't enough to sustain, they upscale the mechanics but it's all the same purpose. 

It's all entertainment, bodies breaking and being put back together, you watch these victors in the interviews and there's no sign of death on them. No broken bones, no missing pieces, on the outside they're practically porcelain again. 

The mind? 

Devastated. 

And Decadence was greedy for it. 

Ae met Elysium Carter this way through the founding of Nervassurgence, which later became NERVAlink. It originates from prosthetics, testing the neural reaction to stimulates, basing off the technology used to resuscitate the Eightieth Tributes. The entire quell hinged off this production, this idea of kill and revive and kill again, Azreal and Kinkade proved that you could - that never was the question. 

The question was what does that mean for Humanity? 

What comes next? 

And what came next, was Elysium Carter. 

Nervassurgence had reached its limit come the prosthetic brain tissue prototype, namely from its surgical procedures. Replacement Brain got knocked off the product list, pulled from the shelf and thrown into the trash, and Dr. Carter was the one to revive the project itself. Out with the self retaining brain growth and in with the NERVAlink Chip, a one in done procedure. 

The pair finalized it together, with Carter herself completing the first implant of the NERVAlink, embedding it into the temple of Decadence Lecandor.

"It feels like a complete rework," Decadence would say on record, "it enables more control of yourself, being able to suppress senses in a pinch or watching F.E.N. in my own head at night. Almost like a television, in my own head!" It would play on advertisements, right in aes own brain, interrupting videos and reality television. 

Ae never questioned her decision, and will never. 

"I don't know who I would be without it!"