Kevin's Crowning

[etcircenses]

Who | Everyone.
What | Kevin's Crowning
Where | An outdoor plaza, sectioned off and well guarded.
When | Starting at noon and continuing on until sunset.
Warnings/Notes | This event is mandatory for all Tributes and Victors to attend. Even if you do not tag in, your character will attend this party.

Playful signs began to pop-up all over the Tribute center in the days leading up to the crowning, advertising the mandatory nature of the event itself while also promising an afternoon of delightful festivities. All attendees were loaded onto buses and driven to the location of the picnic, with colorful t-shirts distributed upon their arrival (D1- Navy, D2- Red, D3- Grey, D4- Light blue, D5- Orange, D6- Yellow, D7- Forest green, D8- Royal blue, D9- Purple, D10- Black, D11- Lime green, D12- Hot pink, and White for any Capitol officials in attendance.) Likewise, all the attendees were given name tag stickers and then dispersed out into the plaza. All except guest of honor, Kevin, who was escorted onto the grounds dressed entirely in white and was given a large and ornate golden crown to wear.

Balloons of every color decorated the entire area . Along with picnic tables and benches, a large main stage was erected in the middle of the plaza with a microphone and a DJ, who played the same six songs on repeat. At it's center, Kevin was given a throne to sit on, so that he could preside over the picnic and enjoy his freshly prepared hamburger and french fries.

There were several small tents that ringed the edge of the stage area. Inside a few of them, you might face painters available, but the only design they would do was paint your face to look like Kevin. Anyone who had their face painted was also given an adorable construction paper crown to wear.

In other tents, a few carnival games had been set up for entertainment. There was a shooting range game where the faces of the targets changed to look like you whenever you stepped up to play, as well as skeeball and a rope ladder climb game. All the prizes were stuffed plush dolls reminiscent of famed former victors. All with Kevin's smile.

A bouncy castle that looked a shocking bit like the city hall building found in the last arena was free for anyone to play on. (Complete with fog machine!) And almost directly across the way from the castle, a caged-in area set up to be a ball-pit was also open for all to enjoy. Upon further inspection of the pit filled with thousands of plastic balls, one could clearly see how they had each been painted to look like giant, vacant black eyes.

The only two food options available to attendees were cupcakes and hotdogs. The cupcakes came with sprinkles. The hotdogs also came with sprinkles. The only beverage option was orange juice. And everyone must have a glass of orange juice, otherwise no one can ever leave.

At 2pm, Peacekeepers erected a volleyball net and the Tributes were instructed to play. Anyone who touched the net would get a slight electrical shock. Clearly it was a best to avoid the net.

As the volleyball game came to a close, several officials took the stage with a special announcement. Public polls would be open to all Capitol citizens the following morning to begin casting their votes. Who will be the next tributes to go into the next arena?! Over the next few days, the public will pick their favorites to enter a special bonus arena! Stay tuned for details!

Once the festivities were over and the Tributes were loaded back onto the buses, they would come to notice something new in the lobby of the Tribute Center. On the ceiling above them was a massive crystal chandelier, seven feet across. And it was no ordinary chandelier. It was customized beautifully, in the shape of Kevin's jagged and ever-present smile.

Beneath it, a spread of fine wine and cheeses. A man in a cream yellow suit with cream yellow hair sat at a grand piano in the corner, playing calm and pleasant melodies that might seem almost familiar to some and yet unrecognizable to anyone. Escorts seem to be in no hurry to get tributes back to their towers, and the wine continues to flow late into the night for anyone who lingers around to drink it.

Until next time, tributes. Until next time.

Comments

[dividedgirlofmine]

Once Susannah finds the shooting game at the carnival tent, she'll be playing there until asked to leave--after which she'll be attempting to find people to take the pile of stuffed dolls she's won. She certainly doesn't want to keep them.

She'll linger downstairs after they're returned to the Tribute Center for a little while, just to sample the wine and cheese on offer, but once she feels the wine start to go to her head, she'll head immediately upward to bed. Nothing good ever happens when she's drunk in Panem.

[smarterthanthem]

A shooting game almost immediately has this little girls attention too. It's probably not anything like a real gun and these are modelled more after rifles then the handguns she uses, but it's still something familiar, and might actually be fun if she can try to shut that annoying music out of her head.

In her bright yellow shirt she's not hard to miss when she comes up to the booth and it's not until she's picked up the rifle she notices her company -- it's the lady she dropped the brick on in the arena. Does she know Clem did it?

Clementine watches the lady shoot, she's really good at it.

[dividedgirlofmine]

She probably doesn't, if the way she's smiling at Clem is any clue. "You're Clementine, right? I've seen you around the tower--I probably ought to have talked to you before this. I'm Susannah, Susannah Dean."

The barker hands her a doll dressed like a roman soldier. She holds it out to Clem. "Want it?"

[smarterthanthem]

"Uh, yeah. That's me." she nods, taking it as permission to come closer. "You're really good."

After a moments hesitation Clementine nods and takes the doll, "Thank you."

[dividedgirlofmine]

"You're welcome, honey," Susannah says. "Partly it's natural ability," she adds after a moment. "But it's also that I had a good teacher. Do you know Roland Deschain? He's a tribute here now too. He taught me how to shoot over a year ago."

[smarterthanthem]

"Yeah, I know Roland. I helped him learn to read, and in the arena. He's my friend." Then that processes and she realises she dropped a brick on the head of one of Roland's friends. Her fingers tighten a little on the doll. "... you're from the same place?"

[dividedgirlofmine]

"Sort of," Susannah says. "I was from New York City before that, but I ended up in Roland's world and we traveled together: him and me and my husband and our friend Jake, who was about your age, I think. He's a good friend to have, for the most part, except for when he's leadin' everyone into trouble." Which was about all the time and that was why most of his friends were dead... but if she'd been through an arena, Clementine had already died once.

[iflipmyhair]

Susannah wasn't the only one being sent away from the shooting games. There was a girl who was carrying a pile of creepy Victor dolls in her arms. Much like Susannah, she planned on giving hers away - save one. That one was going to be ceremoniously beheaded upon getting back to the suites, the head thrown away, and the body given to Madoka. Because technically its a free cat toy, after all. A dozen free cat toys.

But most of them? Being given away. To people. That were not her. And she did it with the vaguest ghost of a smile. Because most importantly?

She got to use a gun. And that was enough for her.

"Hello."

[dividedgirlofmine]

Susannah looks at Homura's armful of toys and back at her own and then smiles. "Hello yourself. Shootin', ropes, or skee ball?"

(She means which game did Homura play.)

[iflipmyhair]

"Shooting," Homura replied; if her hands had been free, she'd have flipped her hair. "Yourself?"

[dividedgirlofmine]

"Shooting too," Susannah replies. "For a place that doesn't like to let us play with guns, the Capitol sure likes to pick up people who know their way around a firearm."

[iflipmyhair]

"Perhaps the Capitol believes that we are so dependent on them that we would be at a disadvantage without them."

Homura shrugged.

"Who knows, though."

[dividedgirlofmine]

Maybe they just don't want those firearms turned on them, Susannah thinks. "I just think it's a pity, that's all," she says instead.

Shooting Game

[hit_girl_mindy]

After the volleyball game Mindy found something that was definitely more her speed: shooting. It looked like shooting was rather popular for the women tonight too: upon seeing her, the presided sighed, and was pleased when, even after scoring several perfect shots, Mindy asked for nothing.

She spied Susannah and waved. "Hey. Quite a haul."

Re: Shooting Game

[dividedgirlofmine]

Susannah shifts her prizes so that she can wave back. "I've still got it," she says with a smile. "It's really too bad they don't let us have guns more often."

She holds out a doll shaped like Mindy herself. "Want one?"

Re: Shooting Game

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy scoffed. "You're telling ME. If I get off my game because of these people I'm going to be properly pissed off."

She looked at the doll. Come on, did she really think she was that young? Then again, that actually DID look like her, which was weird. Were they still doing that? She'd gotten Ellie the Wyatt doll, but that made sense. He was Wyatt Earp.

"Sure, why not? I never kept a Barbie, but I can't really say no a friend of mine."

Re: Shooting Game

[dividedgirlofmine]

Susannah gives her an odd, private smile as she hands it over. "You'll be fine, I think. I've found that shootin' a gun's a bit like riding a bicycle. Once you teach your muscles how they should feel, how they should go, they remember well enough. As for the rest... aiming and shooting are properly done with your mind. At least that's what Roland taught me."

Re: Shooting Game

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy nodded. "I keep hearing about a Roland guy, never met him myself. Clem, I think she's mentioned him once or twice, and so have you. So what's his deal?"

She filed it in her head for later, but what Susannah said was exactly how she shot too. It would take a moment, but then everything just clicked, and the shots would make their mark, just like she expected them too.

Re: Shooting Game

[dividedgirlofmine]

"Roland..." How best to explain Roland. "You know King Arthur and his knights? Well, a long time ago, before the world moved on, Roland was a sort of knight in the country he came from--except this was long past the time when knights fought with swords and shields. Where he came from, they fought with guns. Gunslingers, they were called. Roland was the last of his kind for years and years, until he taught me and my husband and a friend of ours the way of the gun."

[plushaeusrumpified]

Bro finds her at the shooting gallery, and when he sees her there's a slight smack of awkwardness before he realizes that there's really no reason to feel awkward- just like this damn shooting game, the arena was a game and he'd played it to win. If anyone faults him for that, then that's their own problem.

So he wonders if he can smooth the situation over. Can't hurt to try, right? He sidles up next to her and watches her for a few seconds. "Impressive," he says after a moment, figuring he'll break the ice with a compliment.

[dividedgirlofmine]

Susannah shoots him a dubious look.

It would be one thing if he'd only killed her. It was kill or be killed after all. But he'd implied she and Donatello had been sleeping together--and kept doing it even after Don had told him they weren't.

[plushaeusrumpified]

Ah, yes. That was a thing. To be honest though, he'd only done it to get Don to attack him, it's not like it was super personal or anything. He returns the look with a fairly casual look of his own. "Are you really gonna be pissy over me for playing the game?"

[dividedgirlofmine]

Her eyes back on the shooting gallery, she takes the target in front of her down with a perfect headshot. "I just don't appreciate the filthy-minded aspersions you cast." A second target follows. "It has nothing to do with the game."

[plushaeusrumpified]

"Wh-" It takes a moment before he realizes just what she's talking about. "Ohhh." He draws it out, as if it's taken him forever to finally realize it and he's having a eureka moment. "Do you really think I was serious about that shit, though? I mean, what the turtle gets up to is none of my business." He shrugs. "I was just trying to piss him off so he'd do something stupid. That is part of the game."

[dividedgirlofmine]

"Well, I'd appreciate it if you involve someone else next time," Susannah says, taking a moment to give him a sour look before taking another target down. "We told you then, I was already seeing someone else. I'm not that kind of woman."

Yes, Bro. She's annoyed because you implied she cheated on her man, not because you killed her.