thecapitol | Kevin's Crowning

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Kevin's Crowning

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.

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It may seem as if Albert spends most of the crowning glued to Jet's side - and who can blame him considering how the blond had been brutally and literally ripped to shreds by Panem's newest victor - but there are a few times throughout the mandatory proceedings where he can be caught alone. First, he spends a surprisingly long while at the refreshments table meticulously plucking sprinkles off of a hot dog until the dog and bun are pristinely bare.

Later, on a lark, he finds himself at the shooting game to pass the time and keep in practice since it's the first opportunity he's had to do so here. The pile of odd little toys keeps growing but Albert doesn't seem to care if they happen to vanish into someone else's pockets.

Last there are the announcements and Albert keeps to the back of the lobby, frown cutting his face in half nearly as deep as Kevin's own smile. The last thing he wants is another arena, especially not now with his and Jet's nuptials finally coming together. Albert had proposed months ago and they hadn't had the time just yet, but now when they had finally started discussing logistics the Capitol throws one more wedge in their plans...

Damnit.

"Goddammit."

Of course there was another mini-arena, the first one had been so successful that it was inevitable they'd have another. Of course they couldn't just wait a few more weeks, could they?

He moved so his shoulder was brushing Albert's and kept his voice low so only his fiance could hear him.

"Maybe we won't get picked. As far as I'm aware, our 'fanbase' is small."

"I'm not even sure what our 'fanbase' is. I've tried not to be aware of it," he grouses in Jet's general direction, arms still crossed over his chest and frowning mightily at the stage despite the announcement being over. "Only that might not matter at all. Fans or not, they just want bodies in the arena to watch and bet on."

With a huff, Albert turns his face to look at Jet properly. "It's possible we could potentially try to gain more support now and get a sympathy vote, though. If we're public with this perhaps we won't get voted in if enough people want to see the wedding instead."

Which... sounds like a terrible second option, frankly. He wouldn't have even suggested it if it wasn't for how Jet had died in this last arena. He can't let that happen again.

"I think I'd almost prefer the arena." But he didn't prefer the idea of Albert being in another arena and the capitol having another opportunity to make sure he didn't come back. After what happened to District 3, Jet was even more nervous about his partner not being brought back. Like Venus.

"We could try it. Worst that could happen is that we get drafted in and have the capitol overrun the wedding. Which might happen anyway."

A part of him was half tempted to just run off right now and find the closest thing to a justice of the peace and get married now, but he really didn't want this damn place dictating how he got married to Albert if he could help it.

"I'll ask one of my mentors about it, see if it'll be feasible to play it that way." Though the thought nearly makes him cringe. To be so public with it feels wrong. He'd almost rather do it right now to get it over and done and just be married but he knows he'd be dissatisfied with that later.

Though frankly, he's not sure he won't be dissatisfied no matter what, given the circumstances. His frown grows even deeper, if that were possible.

Jet lets out a long breath but then turns to face his frowning partner, his hand rising to lightly hold Albert's upper arm.

"We'll figure it out. Either way, I'm still gonna marry the hell out of you; whether there's five or five hundred people there when I do it, that's all I care about."

"Don't just announce it," but despite his terse response, Jet's declaration puts warmth back in Albert's mien. He shakes Jet's hand down to his own and curls his fingers into his fiance's, feeling the pressure of his ring and finding reassurance in it.

"But... yes. That's what matters."

Jet's fingers curl tightly around Albert's in return while his partner's bought of shyness brings look of amusement and an accompanying smile to his face.

"Come on, as soon as this stupid thing's over, let's do something. Doesn't matter what, we just need to find something to wipe that frown off your face."

Jet's smile turns cheeky and grows. "After all, with how old you're getting, frowns like that're just gonna give you wrinkles. You don't want people thinking you're more of a cradle robber than you already are, do you?"

"You're over eighty, I'm hardly a cradle robber," he scoffs, still frowning, but this time it's with a twinkle in his eyes. "If anything, you're robbing the grave. You pursued me remember?"

"Yeah,but I still look younger." Jet's smirk only widened. "You're lucky I even look this old." Just imagining the 'gossip' that would ensue if he still looked like his teenaged self was more amusing than disturbing and probably only because it wasn't going to happen. Also the fact he knew it would have bothered Albert if their love life was that talked about.

Jet's smirk turned into a smile as he caught that twinkle in Albert's eye and tried to make at least the frown disappear if not put a small smile in it's place. Despite all of the off color stuff from the day, he'd been smiling a lot more easily, a lot more brightly, especially with Albert nearby. There was plenty to be upset and frustrated over, but it could wait as long as Jet could still brighten up his surly German every now and then.

"Then you'll be a trophy husband." He notices the shift from grin to smile and his own expression mirrors that change. True, the prospect of entering into yet another arena without a chance to actually get married is frustrating to say the least, but even if he's chomping at the bit, Jet's not going anywhere (not by choice, anyway).

They'll make it through this just like everything else and then be able to finally make things truly permanent.

Those toys are vanishing. A certain French Teenager has sat herself beneath the shooting booth, waiting for people to leave the prizes lying about. She's collected a few now: Eva and Jessica and Finnick and Wyatt and Max. She plays a game beneath the table: Eva and Wyatt are the mummy and daddy dolls and the rest, their children. She's quite lost in her little fantasy world, putting on voices and moving the dolls about, for all the world as if she were six rather than sixteen.

"No, no, NO! You naughty little girl!" Eponine does Eva. "Jessica, you are bad, bad, bad to keep asking when you can go home. You have no home! You are trapped with us forever! Hahahahaha!" She made the Eva doll cackle loudly, quite forgetting where she was, and that people might hear. She reached a hand up, groping for another doll. Enjolras. Eponine rolled her eyes, and put on a deep voice when she saw who she had.

"The point of this is blah blah blah and I say this because ypu are so stupid to not even know the words to use and Zzzzzzzz"

Eponine made a snoring noise, as if to be asleep, even as she reached for another doll. She felt for a second - no doll. She moved her hand, and felt aomething warm beneath it - another hand? Oh! She withdrew her hand quickly and peeped out from her hiding place. Was the hand's owner laughing at her?

Not laughing at her... not out loud at any rate, but hearing her play like a little girl is somewhat endearing and her impression of Enjolras is immediately recognizable causing Albert to snort quietly. When her hand brushes his, he takes it as an invitation to crouch down and look at her, leaving the gun on the counter so the attendant doesn't have a fit and call peacekeepers or something.

"He's never that rude, but otherwise spot on. Especially the blah blah blah part." He feels a little bad making Enjolras the butt of a joke, especially since Venus never returned from the arena and the blond must be having a rough time of it. He makes a mental note to check on him later, but Eponine playing is much better than the hopeless pile of girl on the couch of D3 and so he feeds it instead of scolding her. "Having fun?"

"I were only playing, Sir." Eponine replies shyly. She twists her mouth, pursing her lips, but chewing on the inside of her bottom one. "But he does say so to me all the same. Not in so many words, but it is what he means. I don't even care. Maybe I am stupid."

She shrugs. "I had a dolly as a little girl, but she were a poor thing. Capucine, she were called. But I wanted this grand dolly I saw in a window - I know it's silly. Don't laugh at me - oh God, I remember that doll. She had brown hair like me, but curly, and such eyelashes - real and not painted. And she were dressed in pink. How I wanted her. My Pa said perhaps Papa Noel - and he would. But that old man bought her for Cosette. I were gonna call her Anastasie. But I never got a doll. My Pa burned mine for firewood."

She cuddles the Eva doll close as she speaks. The dolls are ugly, but they'll do. She likes pretending to be a child, with no worries beyond dolls and make believe.

"Not stupid. You're clever and resourceful, you just have had the benefit of formal education." He leans against the edge of the booth and lowers himself to sitting to save his knees. Too long crouching and he starts to feel his age a bit.

"I'm sure we could find you a doll if you wanted one." Some frilly Capitol thing, but if it would make Eponine smile, then why not? They could all use a little cheer and after the last arena and all the kills he's facilitated, Albert has quite a bit to spend and little to spend it on. "Would you like that?"

"It's childish to want a doll when you're a woman, isn't it?" Eponine blushed, clearly quite mortified. She couldn't bring herself to even think about what Albert called her. She wasn't clever. She was a stupid, bad girl and that's all there is to it. But she would like a doll.

"You shoot awful well, Sir." As was evidenced by the amount of dolls strewn about Eponine's legs.

"No. Well, perhaps, but I don't think wanting to fulfill a dream is childish." He shrugs, trying not to smile at her blushing.

"I've been trained as a soldier for a long time, though frankly I prefer shooting targets to people."

"You're a soldier?" How has she never realised that Albert's a soldier. "And you do not report the bad things I do, or lock me in my room when I am bad?" That seems at odd for what she knows of soldiers. "Why do you not fight these people? I know you don't support it!"

"I did not choose to be a soldier, not initially, plus it's not a soldier's duty to punish you for minor things or speaking your mind. It's to follow orders and fight for a cause. And I'm one person, Eponine. I can't manage a rebellion on my own, especially when they have all the arms."

Like the attendant manning the booth, who while Albert is talking reaches over and takes the toy gun from between his fingers. Not that having what amounts to a bebe gun would be useful in the slightest, not against Peacekeeper weapons.

"Well, Sir -" Eponine beckons him closer. She puts her mouth right on his ear and hisses as quietly as she can, "When you rebel, you tell me, for I want to go against these men too."

She kisses him quick, on the cheek, in an effort to make it look as if that is all she has been doing.

"You know, in Paris, the soldiers and the police work as one. They all chase people like me to make us behave."

He smiles gently as she pulls away, making it seem as if the kiss is all he's responding to, but there's something fierce in that expression too, down in the depths. Eponine is about as subtle as a brick to the face but when the time for subtlety has passed, he won't turn down an ally.

"Well, I can't condone stealing, of course, but when a government uses soldiers for its police, it means they treat their citizens as enemies. I don't condone that either."

"But of course we were the enemy, Sir. Paris is like here. That king sat on his fat arse in his fancy throne, he is scared of all of us - if we were to rise up, Sir, proper, perhaps we could win. But no - everybody is too scared or they don't care enough or they have given up the belief anything can change. Me, this is true. In Paris, here, do I think anything will ever change? No. No, not truly, but I can dream it in my heart. I think on it in my head - a lovely man's arms about me. But that would happen only if things change, and no."

Has she talked herself into trouble again? Eponine's beyond caring what happens to herself now. But it''d be a shame to get Albert into more trouble, especially when he's been so nice to her. She thinks she's phrased it all right, as a recount of Paris, rather than of here.

"I think there were talk, but me, I were more concerned with staying alive. When there's no food, Sir, and no place to stay and all, you do not think to plot a rebellion. You think where your next meal is and you do what it takes to fill your belly. Even, I eat mud, and weren't I ill from it? It stops people though, it does."

Or else, she's just given the Capitol a massive clue of how to control a rebellion amongst them. Well done, Eps.

"We'll see what happens." He has to be noncommittal with so many of the Capitol watching. For all he knows the person manning the shooting game booth is a spy for the government. That may be paranoia talking, but with how deep the mire they're trudging through is, he can't afford not to be cautious.

"For now we have a party to focus on, and maybe a real doll to get you." He glances over the pile of victors with their crazed smiles. "One that looks less... homicidal."

"I would like that, Sir. Please." She stands up, and holds out her hand for him to take. She would really, really like a doll.

"Oh -" But she bends down to pick up the Eva doll. "I would like her anyway. I can pretend she is my beautiful mama."

The hand he takes gently and offers a quiet smile when she takes the doll, though from his memory of the novel Eponine's mother was no peach. Still, he's not in the habit of insulting someone's parents so he graciously nods to her instead and pulls her hand gently into the crook of his arm, a escort to a lady at a party.

They can't leave, so they'll have to shop for her doll later, but he makes a mental note to ask around where he can take her. She deserves a little happiness after the misery of their District's fate and the Games as a whole.

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Kevin's Crowning

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