The Crowning of Enjolras

[etcircenses]

WHO| All Tributes and Victor, plus a few Capitol guests
WHAT| The Crowning of Enjolras
WHERE| The Tribute Center
WHEN| A few weeks after the end of the Arena
WARNINGS| Forced medical experimentation, needles.

The atmosphere surrounding the Crowning is both tense and secretive. The style teams flutter around listlessly, having received no information from which to draft their designs. Newspapers take bets on when it will be announced where the Crowning is being held, descending into grousing when no press release is given. Peacekeepers pour in and out of the Tribute Center, accompanied by scientists who occasionally pull Tributes aside and look at the veins in their elbows. Even the Avoxes seem jumpier than usual.

Aside from the Tribute Center's new giant marble statute of a nude Enjolras, posed like the famed David, one could almost forget the party is supposed to be celebratory.

When the day arrives, the Escorts and their assistants don't lead the Tributes to their style teams to be gussied instead. Instead, they hush the Tributes and bring them to their bedrooms, where a Peacekeeper, a white-coated citizen and several Avoxes await them. The Escorts instruct the Tributes to lay down in their bed and close their eyes, and a needle is inserted into their arms that the Escorts insist will 'take them to the party'. It's soon followed by a series of sensors taped to the forehead.

Just relax, the Escorts say, and they do their very best to make sure their Tributes feel minimal anxiety. If the Tributes resist too much, more Peacekeepers are called in, and the Tributes are forced into submission.

The first effect is a sort of paralysis - not the terrifying inability to move, but a signal to the brain that says why move? Moving is so much effort. It's quickly followed by drowsiness, and then a chill that radiates from the needle into the body, and finally, unconsciousness.

And that is when the party begins. The Tributes, now dressed in luxurious 1830's French clothing of a quality beyond even what their Stylists could manage, wake up in the front row of a large stone theater setting reminiscent of, simultaneously, Greek and French architecture. The floor of the theater is filled with buffets of every imaginable sort of food. Rose petals fall from the sky, which displays a sunset worthy of award-winning photography.

For his part, Enjolras sits in a throne made of books on the ring of the amphitheater, flanked by Marius, Cosette, Eponine, and bizarrely enough Venus Dee Milo and Ellie, seated on lush pillows and carpets made of dinosaur skin (with the heads comically attached and eyes lolling).

"Welcome, welcome, our Tributes and Mentors, to the first ever somnofestival, sponsored by Hypnogogia!" Caesar Flickerman, noted talkshow host and Games presenter, appears in a fabulous sequined toga in the center of the amphitheater. He doesn't need a microphone; the acoustics here are flawless. "And congratulations to our Victor! Let us hear it for Enjolras!"

He awaits applause.

"As you may have noticed, you're inside a shared dream, due to the just fantastic technology from the Capitol and certain, ah, biological contributions from our dear favorite Aunamee." He holds a hand out and gestures to Aunamee, anticipating wild applause. "We thought that for our most philosophical Victor yet, we should celebrate in a way that's a little bit…cerebral."

Caesar laughs and gestures at all the food, then puts a cheeky finger to his lips. "By all means, enjoy yourselves. Even the most indulgent desserts here won't show up on your hips tomorrow. The party only last three hours, so you might as well get started!"

He vanishes into thin air, leaving the Tributes to celebrate. Occasionally, the Tributes will hear voices in their heads - chatter from the Peacekeeper and scientist and Escort still in their room, in the waking world. Otherwise, this is a party like any other, if somewhat surreal in nature.

-/-

The party begins the same way for all the Tributes. For an unlucky few, however, it soon diverges as they come under an unfortunate glitch in the system.

They'll look around and find only a handful of their fellow Tributes around them. The sky, rather than being a magnificent splay of color, is now blank white, and yet the lighting in the theater seems dim. A sense of panic, detached from any conscious thoughts, surges forth in them like the tide.

For them, this isn't a shared dream. This is a shared nightmare.

Comments

[acroodawakening]

Guy was learning slowly but surely to not freak out in the face of strangeness in this place. Between the people that were clearly not human and the strange clothes and physical augmentation of Capitol citizens, if he freaked out every time he saw something or someone weird, he'd never stop freaking.

Seeing a giant monster lobster with a tentacle face pretty much instantly destroyed his resolve to keep it cool.

Which was why, when he turned and suddenly saw him, he screamed a loud, high-pitched terrified scream.

[crabulous]

Zoidberg too had to gasp in horror, for it wasn't everyday that one came across so strange looking an individual. Was he human? Was he a mutant? Or perhaps was he some sort of crossbred monstrosity, bent on world domination -- a potential disciple of Zoidberg's very good friend, Bender!

Either way, this person was quite terrifying, what with the hollering and all. So the good doctor returned the gesture, not wanting to be behind the trend, and let out an equally high-pitched and annoying squawk.

[acroodawakening]

Naturally, when the lobster-thing started screaming back, that only terrified Guy more and made him scream louder. Like foghorn loud. The decibels achieved here probably broke a record.

"AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGH!"

[crabulous]

"AAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!"

Zoidberg clutched at his nonexistent ears, dropping to the floor in fear. So frightened was he that he shrank into the smallest possible ball, whimpering loudly in hopes of disappearing from the cave-person's sight.

[acroodawakening]

Clearly the lobster-thing was only shrinking on itself so it could pounce.

That just made Guy back up a few steps and get throw a chair in Zoidberg's direction, though not hard enough to actually hit him.

Yep, still screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!"

[crabulous]

Somehow, it never occured to Zoidberg that he would be attacked further if he retreated. He had but one course of action left: his trusty ink defense. Unbeknownst to him, however, his ink bladders had been removed upon arrival into Panem. So when he let forth his usually terrifying ink blast, nothing happened, which of course made him panicked and all the more frightened!

"Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!"

[acroodawakening]

When it - he - it talked, Guy finally stopped screaming, just standing there staring for a moment, his jaw still hanging open.

"You - you talk?"

[crabulous]

"Of course I can talk!" Zoidberg huffed indignantly, then gaped at the other individual. "I should be shocked that you can articulate as well!"

[acroodawakening]

Guy looked confused and possibly slightly irritated.

"Why?"

[crabulous]

"Well," he began, puffing up his chest in a masculine display. "For starters, I am a naturalized Earthican and you are a natural Earthican."

[acroodawakening]

Guy tilted his head.

"I...don't know what most of those words mean."

[crabulous]

This confused Zoidberg in equal measure. His brow furrowed (or it would have, had he had one.) "Why, an Earthican is one from Earth!" He paused, considering this statement. "This is Earth, unless I am mistaken...?"

[acroodawakening]

Guy shrugged.

"I'unno."

He didn't know what they called this crappy planet.

"I'm not from here. I don't know what they call it. I've heard the name 'Panem' thrown around, though. We just call ours 'the world' because before I got brought here, it was the only one we knew about so we didn't have a name for it. Although me and my family call it Tomorrow but that's because of a thing that happened to us."

[crabulous]

"You family sounds extremely intelligent!" Zoidberg nodded eagerly, then scratched his chin with a claw. "I too am an immigrant, you see. It is very unusual for me, as I had previously immigrated many years ago!"

[acroodawakening]

"Again, I, ah, don't know what that is. Is that the same thing as being a nomad? You know, a wanderer?"

This guy. This guy was just confusing the dickens out of him. He didn't understand half of what he said, and then there was the whole talking lobster thing and also -

"Did you just scratch your chin? When you have a shell? How can you even feel that if your claw has a shell and your face has a shell?"

[crabulous]

These questions cause him to claw at his chin once again, expression even more perplexed than it had been before. "I don't know. I do an awful lot of things that don't make any sense at all."

[acroodawakening]

"Yes," said Guy. "Yes, I have noticed this."

Seriously, what.

"I know I just met you, but I'm going to hazard a guess and say this might even be your defining trait."

[crabulous]

Believe it or not, a smile lit up the lobster's disgusting face. Yes, he seemed utterly delighted by the remark.

"What a compliment!" Zoidberg enthused proudly. "Thank you, my friend!"

[acroodawakening]

"I wasn't really meaning it as one, more as an observation, but okay! If you want to take it as one, that's great! Let's go with that."

Clearly, the creature not only looked different, he thought entirely different, too, using some kind of logic that was not logic of this earth...

[crabulous]

"You're a rather friendly sort," Zoidberg declared, deciding that he liked this strange fellow very much. "It is natural now that we are best friends! Huzzahs all around, everyone! Huzzah!"

[acroodawakening]

Guy wasn't sure what to make of that. At all.

But he was a smart fellow and those claws actually looked kind of sharp.

"You know what? I think we are friends."

In that the lobster guy was terrifying but seemed a mostly harmless, good natured sort even if he seemed slightly insane. No point in any hostility, right?

"And do you know what friends do?"

[crabulous]

He scratched his chin with his claw, obviously deep in thought. "They certainly don't eat each other... did I get it right? Is that the answer?"

[acroodawakening]

"Exactly. They also don't kill each other in battles to the death."

Guy leaned in, threw his arm around Zoidberg's shoulders, and tried to ignore the smell.

"Look, I'm pretty good at killing things, those claws make me think you're pretty good at killing things - but I'd really rather just be friends. And I'm good to my friends in the arena. I'm used to surviving so I can help you find food and extra water. I like to share, you know?"

And true to his word, he actually would.

"So can we be friends? This has been a very interesting few minutes that I've been talking to you and I'd like to keep the magic going but that would be hard to do if we eventually tried to murder each other, so let's just not."

[crabulous]

Zoidberg perked up visibly, nodding eagerly to everything that Guy had to say.

"I've always wanted a friend of my very own!" He exclaimed, tentacles dangling into a cheerful smile. "You can do the killing bits, and I'll do the healing bits, as I am a fully trained and highly capable medical professional!"

An exaggeration? Perhaps, a small one. But the important thing was, he was meeting new people!

[acroodawakening]

"Well, now you've got one and I will absolutely do that."

He was absolutely going to someone like Hawkeye or Bashir but Zoidberg didn't need to know that.

"You just leave as much of the killing to me as possible, okay? No need for you to get your claws messy and that way you won't risk injuring one in case you need to do some kind of risky, ah, doctoring."