etcircenses: (Default)
Panem Events ([personal profile] etcircenses) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2013-12-15 06:36 am

The Crowning of Enjolras

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.
orestes: (12;)

[personal profile] orestes 2013-12-26 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
"I am?" It's an unexpected turn to their conversation. Frankly, he's more accustomed to them disagreeing than agreeing at this point. There's a certain syncopation to their particular rhythm and every time he thinks he understands the way in which they are out of step, she changes things up on him. Strangely, he's less frustrated by that than by his own inability to respond intelligently to it.

"I am curious to know just what conclusion you have arrived at, of course, but first you must tell me-- Does Initiate truly paint cats, and if so, why have we not stopped him?" He's half-joking, of course, but the trolls are very odd and sometimes between their grey skin and demonic horns, they do frighten him on a very basic level. Staring down the grapeshot of the National Guard was nothing compared to watching one of those creatures eat breakfast.
formersurgeon: (i deserve)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2013-12-26 03:28 am (UTC)(link)
"Thirty. Minutes."

She wasn't absolutely certain. She couldn't be absolutely certain. But she wouldn't waste time on that argument.
celebrityskinned: (Basic - Oh You)

[personal profile] celebrityskinned 2013-12-26 03:56 am (UTC)(link)
Venus brushes off her shoulder with her hand, as if casting the dark thoughts away. "It's been almost ten year, so I'm not sitting around complaining about it. Besides, I don't got much to complain about. I don't even have to book tickets when I want to head to the Bahamas."

She's trying too hard to avoid the subject, and she knows it. "But thanks anyway, okay?"
celebrityskinned: (Basic - I'unno)

[personal profile] celebrityskinned 2013-12-26 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
She shrugs, conceding the argument without bothering to actually acknowledge all the ways she doesn't buy it.

"I don't know. I bet he probably does paint cats. I just haven't been able to catch him in the act for a dramatic reveal," Venus says, hopping on the excuse to run far and fast away from their awkward not-romance. She can lick her wounds in private. She isn't really the type to hold a grudge for long, even if Enjolras tempts her so.

She reaches back over and gives his hand a squeeze, as if to say yes, she's hurt that something she thought existed was different than what she anticipated - but that she'll still be here through his difficult transition from participant to advisor.
celebrityskinned: (Anger - Ew)

[personal profile] celebrityskinned 2013-12-26 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
"Then you're pretty damn lucky if putting food on your table and a roof over your head is a source of, oh, what's the word. Apathy." Venus curls her lip and waits for her double to come over with some h'ors d'euvres. If his response to her tone bothers her, she certainly doesn't show it on her face. She pops a shrimp into her mouth and swallows it whole.
acroodawakening: (148)

[personal profile] acroodawakening 2013-12-26 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
"You never play at all?" Guy asked, with a gentle tilt of his head, raising his eyebrows. "Never ever?"

What kind of world did this girl come from where all she did was fight and train to fight? Guy didn't understand it, not when he still played sometimes even as an adult.

"It's a lot of fun. It doesn't make it any harder to fight and hunt, either. Sometimes it even helps. My mate and I, we'll hide and chase each other, and that makes it so we're better at chasing animals."
rising_drive: (i walk the path of trials)

[personal profile] rising_drive 2013-12-26 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm more than capable of hunting food and finding my own place to stay." But of course, he's still not used to thinking in terms of being as trapped as they'd made this place sound. The loss of that freedom won't be so easy to bear. Kain sips some more, then tries some sort of spicy cheese. It's truly astonishing how real it all tastes for something that doesn't exist. "Are we truly so controlled here, that we've really no means to make our own living?"
pythianjudgment: ([g] crazy in profile)

[personal profile] pythianjudgment 2013-12-26 07:13 am (UTC)(link)
He huffs, but Terezi just smiles. She knows how close she is. "It's a good thing that I'm always acutely aware of my mental state. It would be difficult to cause any lasting damage without my notice." Not that she intends to ignore his warnings, she's said as much. But she'll pay careful attention to herself when around him.

His compliment catches her a little off-guard. She shrugs a little, then smiles wider. Her hands find the ones that he dropped to his sides, taking them both and squeezing them tight.

"Thanks. You smell good, too." She laughs a little, despite herself. She stands up on her tip-toes to get a closer smell of his face and hair. "I bet your stylists were excited to not have to tame your mane this time."
Edited 2013-12-26 07:14 (UTC)
gunshiptotheface: (To my left)

Garrus | OTA

[personal profile] gunshiptotheface 2013-12-26 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
Garrus felt entirely ridiculous. As an added insult to injury of having been dragged and virtually clubbed into submission by the peacekeepers the outfit and added rhinestones glued along the edges of his crest in blues and coppers was too much. He felt like a cheap Omega prostitute with all of the glitter and make-up. Especially when he caught sight enough to see they had modified his clan markings, for that someone was going to pay dearly.

He scanned the crowd for familiar faces but upon seeing none he settled for grabbing a glass of the strongest dextro drink he could find and downing it alarmingly quickly.

showbizpanache: (pic#4943047)

[personal profile] showbizpanache 2013-12-26 08:37 am (UTC)(link)
[A startled laugh.] Yes, I suppose-- The outfits are really nice, aren't they? Too bad nothing seems to have improved around here.

[He lowers his voice.] Is there anything I missed? Like--anything big? [Like the execution?]
gardienne: (accusing)

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-26 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
"She said she loved me. She said - She looked after me. She plaited my hair and washed my feet and my face. Do you know how long it has been since anyone did that? Years! Not since I was a little girl in Montfermiel."

She looked back at the figure, slowly morphing from Eva to herself. And then back to Guy.

"Are you really so kind all the time? That is a good thing to be - and even to a strange woman in prison? That is a good thing to be - you know, I know of no-one who does that."

As guy kept banging, perhaps he'd notice the bars slowly weakening under his fists, little puffs of dust escaping from the top, cartoon style. Perhaps it isn't murder, but kindness that will save Eponine from herself.
gardienne: (accusing)

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-26 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
"So I am worse than a rat?" She clutches at the bars, pressing her face right up to them so that she can spit, as hard as she can, at Hawkseye.

"THAT is what I think of you, and your rats and telling me to calm down. Would you calm down - "

But she catches herself, because over her yelling, and the poisonous hisses of Draco and the sift of paper as she pushes the notices and licences impatiently aside, she hears Hawkseye.

"They're doing this? The Capitol do this to me - us?"

And with that realisation, slowly slowly, the bars begin to melt away.
acroodawakening: (046)

[personal profile] acroodawakening 2013-12-26 09:51 am (UTC)(link)
Guy noticed the bars weakening. Maybe this dream was like...more like a story than reality. Maybe a lesson had to be learned, maybe the monsters being fought here weren't physical ones. Guy knew how stories worked, how they could be layered in all different meaning.

Maybe to get a good ending to this one, the story had to hit on the right ideas. Maybe that was the way to get a good ending to the story, to the dream, for her.

"Yes," he said quietly, his face open and gentle. "My world is dangerous, with things - there are things like the monster from earlier. My family died when I was very young and I was alone for a long time just trying to survive and that means I - I like people. Some of them can be cruel and some can be dangerous but a lot of them are good. So I try to be as kind as I can be. The only time I stop is if they're hurting me somehow and I need to get away. But even then I still wish I could just be kind rather than fighting or running away. Everyone has something - a little something beautiful in them. A little...a little light inside them, even if there's darkness there too."

His gaze grew a little distant. He held out his hand as if holding something small and precious, as if a butterfly was alighting on his finger.

"I feel like kindness helps protect that, helps it grow."

That distant gaze went sharp again as he looked back to her.

"It sounds like people have hurt you," he said gently. "And it sounds like you're angry and sad because of it, which makes all the sense in the world. But it also sounds like you just want someone to love you. And maybe - maybe like you wish that it was safe enough to love them back. I think - I think that if the way you react to being hurt is still wanting love, that might be part of the little light inside you. Just like - just like the fact I can still be kind even though I spent so much time in the dark, in a world that was unkind, and I still want to be kind - that's the light inside me."
Edited 2013-12-26 10:00 (UTC)
acroodawakening: (102)

[personal profile] acroodawakening 2013-12-26 10:05 am (UTC)(link)
"What?!" Guy shouted. "I can't hear you! My ears are still ringing!"

His hearing was pretty sensitive. Not like Eep's, which was almost animal-like but about as good as non-caveperson human hearing got. That explosion had been loud and even thought this was a dream, the dream was making his body react like it would in reality.

He looked out at the shadows moving around the edges of where they were and his face fell.

Without knowing it was what Howard had said, he shouted, "I'm sorry I led them here! I was just trying to get away!"
knifewithnoname: (listening)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 10:53 am (UTC)(link)
She blinked confused at that, "But if she did be making you help her then it did be being your job, right?"
knifewithnoname: (interested)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 11:07 am (UTC)(link)
"So maybe they do be stealing from the tongueless slaves." She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "No, I did just be thinking how much of the hair in here do no be being real."

She was close to their heads, it would be so easy to reach out and yank at their hair to check.
knifewithnoname: (excited smiles)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 11:10 am (UTC)(link)
"She do be being the best. She do be being sometimes scared but she do be being stronger than she do be knowing." Pruna grinned, "In the last arena she did be killing a big sharp toothed monster all by herself."

Pruna is the proudest girlfriend.
knifewithnoname: (smiles)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
"I do be thanking you." She waved at him, "Be remembering to be smiling, Effie do be saying that do be being important."

With that very useful advice she skipped off into the crowd to continue looking for Sandy.
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 11:14 am (UTC)(link)
"No. Never ever." She frowned, she had never thought about playing as helping with training.

"Well it do be being easier just to be training, I do no be knowing how to be playing."
paidinbeer: (what's that?)

Re: Orc

[personal profile] paidinbeer 2013-12-26 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh..." Orc's frown pulled deeper.

"So we need to get rid of the boss, and then the people need to take over?" He was hardly ware of how blasphemous the things he was saying were. He could get in trouble just discussing it.

Still could it really be so easy? Just getting rid of the boss?

Then again, that's more or less how it worked back home.
burnedbrighter: (strung out and mellow)

[personal profile] burnedbrighter 2013-12-26 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Azula chuckled in that self assured way she had.

"You already have child, you already have. And watching you struggle will bring me more satisfaction then hearing you scream till your vocal cords tear."

And she'd been enjoying these struggles from the comfort of the Captiol as Mindy was starving and bleeding in whatever fresh hell the Capitol could muse up.
burnedbrighter: (tea is an art)

[personal profile] burnedbrighter 2013-12-26 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh it's not as difficult as all that." She ignored his obvious discomfort. It was wonderful.

"From now on, you are not only responsible for your life, but the lives of everyone else in your district. And every time they die in the arena, it's your fault. No pressure really."
revvinguptheharley: (my heart!)

[personal profile] revvinguptheharley 2013-12-26 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Harley snickered.

"What you've never had a boyfriend spank you before? Or gone hungry for a few extra hours because you know that you're going out to eat somewhere amazing?" She reasoned. It was amusing how closely together she tied sex and food but then again it made sense in a way.
revvinguptheharley: (So here's the deal)

[personal profile] revvinguptheharley 2013-12-26 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[She tapped a finger to her chin thoughtfully]

Well I kinda lost track of ya for awhile so I dunno how much you missed. As you can see I got rid of my fancy bracelet.

[She holds up her wrist where after the execution she had gotten a cuff of shame]

Some monsters escaped into the capitol and all of us who volunteered got our cuffs taken off. So we all pretty much volunteered.
hit_girl_mindy: (I'm me (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-26 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy chuckled. Good. About time she dropped the whole "concerned mentor" bullshit. It was getting on her nerves.

"What, did you go and read the handbook on how to sound intimidating and scary? You need work. Stay as overconfident as you want though. I'll be counting on that."