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.
hit_girl_mindy: (LEATHER (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-01-08 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
Mindy gave the girl an appraising look. "Appreciate your concern, but you don't need to worry. Just because the situation is fucked doesn't mean I'm going to play the emo card. I was never much for wallowing. It's like you think my age means I haven't seen death and despair already."

And that was as forthright as Mindy felt like allowing herself to be. Azula was a mentor, but she was just as well an informant and another part of this system. She was an extension of it.
drpsychosomatic: (stern)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-08 06:02 am (UTC)(link)
"I know, and right now, I don't-- I just don't care. I don't. I am sick and tired of him calling me his friend when it suits him, when he thinks I want to hear it, and treating me like... like a glorified sidekick, lying to me..."

He cut himself off, feeling painfully guilty for throwing his hurt at Joan.

"He's a prick," he mumbled instead. "And I'd do anything for him, even now, because he's an idiot and I'm a complete and utter bloody moron. Masochist. Both. I'm going to kill him."
nunpunching: (Some mofo just brained me.)

[personal profile] nunpunching 2014-01-08 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
"Shit." Punchy scratches at the back of his head, then the bag of his neck where this wool waistcoat collar is giving him a rash, he's certain of it. "That's heavy. Ain't much to go on, though, unless we got the tech to wage counteroffensive in the meat, which we don't."
formersurgeon: (calm)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-08 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
She understood, far too well. Knew that anger, felt it keenly when Sherlock tried to sideline her after promising that he would never let Moriarty hurt her. That anger that he wasn't treating her like a partner that was just as capable of watching his back as he was of hers.

But she also understood what it was like to stick with someone even beyond all the lies.

"You're not a moron," she said quietly. "You just love him, too."
drpsychosomatic: (lip chewin')

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-08 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, maybe someone else here heard something more useful, but that's all I've got," he said awkwardly. "Sherlock said if they were robots that they could be reprogrammed, and that you were a good bet for that, but to be entirely honest I was surprised he knew what a robot was in the first place. Not exactly useful information for crime solving."
drpsychosomatic: (planning your murder in my mind. right n)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-08 06:21 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm still going to punch him," he assured her with a slightly wobbly smile, that being as close to admitting the truth to her statement as he was ever going to get, not disagreeing with Joan's assessment. Not love like that, of course, of course not. But for all the good it did him, he did love Sherlock.

"Right in his smug, self-satisfied face. Twice, probably."
formersurgeon: (oh really)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-08 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
Her lips twitched upwards in a small half smile.

"Can I watch?"
Edited 2014-01-08 06:32 (UTC)
nunpunching: (We cool we cool.)

[personal profile] nunpunching 2014-01-08 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, I'm aces at the code. I was the one who busted town that shitshow network before this newbie be stomping my turf." Punchy runs his hands over his jaw, thinking. "I'll keep it peeled, but I can't front up getting my stash. They got me tapped."

It's not that he won't risk being Avoxed again, it's that he won't do it for nothing anymore.

"Tell Holmesboy the code he got has a repetitive pattern mutagen factored in-" Punchy stops. He knows that's too esoteric even by his standards. "He's probably got two, maybe three but I ain't laying cash on it, times he can drop the trap with that code before they sniff out how to block all its variables. He gotta make it count. I'll be bustin' my ass on figuring out where their nanotech is. Three, you said?"
drpsychosomatic: (facepalm)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-08 06:49 am (UTC)(link)
"You can hold him for me," he promised grimly- though the same wobbly smile from before was fighting to keep its place on his face.

"Thanks, Joan. I'm sorry. I just-- I don't have the first idea how, but we need to work out what he's planning and stop him. I think he's actually trying to get killed, and I'll be damned if either of us have to do this ridiculous deathmatch thing with that on our consciences."
saveswithsong: (Eve - on stage)

Re: Never apologize, I was busy too!

[personal profile] saveswithsong 2014-01-08 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
He took another sip of his wine and looked a bit disconcerted. "It's not terrifically ladylike..." he started, his eyelashes fluttering as he lowered his gaze for a moment before looking back up again. "What keeps people from just hiding until they're one of the last few remaining?"
formersurgeon: (elegant)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-08 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
"He's definitely trying to get himself killed," she agreed softly. "I think this place is dragging him down more quickly than anybody else. He takes it very hard when he can't protect us."

She pressed her lips in thought.

"So...after you've punched him a couple times, how are we going to save him?"
wantwhatiwant: winchesterway (yeah whatever)

[personal profile] wantwhatiwant 2014-01-08 08:53 am (UTC)(link)
Ian nodded, "Yeah, I'm not there a lot." So he didn't know that many people. Half of him figured that he should ammend that, and half of him wondered what would be the point.
dragoon_pride: (confident in aerial combat)

[personal profile] dragoon_pride 2014-01-08 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
A very valid question. "I'd consider everything to be possible right now." He doesn't really... trust any of this. The thought keeps coming back to him that this isn't real, so what might be happening to their sleeping bodies in the waking world? Kain dreads to consider it.

"Kain Highwind. Have you been involved in their battles for very long?"
dragoon_pride: (left the past behind)

[personal profile] dragoon_pride 2014-01-08 09:48 am (UTC)(link)
Kain raises an eyebrow at the costume, eyeing her double closely as she approaches. It really is going to take him a while to get used to this world and its ways, he realizes.

"I suppose. In the midst of battle, you gain an appreciation for reliable comrades, and I could see it would be no different here..." Even if when it comes to it, he works alone so often. Despite that, the ones he's fought beside are people he'd trust more than himself. "Although it's unlike any other war, when your opponents are truly... not your enemies." He sees that distinction at the moment, just having a basic understanding of the way the games work. But what might it really be like when he's out there? He's not one to hold back when it's a fight to the death, after all. He just hopes he doesn't lose sight of who the real enemy is.
wantwhatiwant: winchesterway (yeah whatever)

[personal profile] wantwhatiwant 2014-01-08 11:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Sounds like it." He raised an eyebrow, not really sure how that was supposed to be fun. A good distraction maybe. Surely people wouldn't actually fall for it.


"Aren't people in college meant to be intelligent?"
knifewithnoname: (smiles)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-01-08 12:07 pm (UTC)(link)
"Under them..." Why would Sandy be under a table? But still it was somewhere she hadn't checked, and so she should do. "I do be thanking you, I will be looking under the tables."
paidinbeer: (Default)

Re: Orc

[personal profile] paidinbeer 2014-01-08 12:13 pm (UTC)(link)
"Were you poor?" Orc wondered. He'd often heard the teachers in his school mutter that they weren't getting paid enough to deal with brats all day. But he hadn't actually considered the idea that you could have a job and still not make enough money to afford a car.
burnedbrighter: [info]inksmears (And I thought my jokes were bad.)

[personal profile] burnedbrighter 2014-01-08 12:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Despite having some kind of shell, he was soft. She could already imagine him being speared in the next arena.

"While I appreciate your offer, you're not licensed to work in the Capitol." She pointed out "And I already have a doctor. As stressful as my work my be it's nothing I can't handle."
saisamour: (EVERY SINGLE DAY)

aaah sorry this tag totally got lost in my inbox!

[personal profile] saisamour 2014-01-08 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh!" Marius's lips twitch upward into a shy but distinctly pleased smile, his eyes drifting to the floor as he shifts his feet. "It is good news, to hear that you find it beautiful."

But then his eyes grow slightly large, and his head jerks back up. "But, pray forgive me, I have failed to ask what year you hail from." Because it's dawned on him before that it is an important question; people rarely came from the Paris of his time anymore.
splendid_roman: (Thinking)

Re: Orc

[personal profile] splendid_roman 2014-01-08 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Ian shook his head. "No, not really." There were people a lot poorer than he was. "I just wasn't rich. The car I had was old and a bit decrepit. It got me from home to school and back, but that wasn't much more to it than that."
splendid_roman: (Smiling)

[personal profile] splendid_roman 2014-01-08 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Ian chuckled - he couldn't imagine that he had many fans left these days. It didn't tend to stop the press, but very little did, as far as he could tell. "I'm sure they'd get just as excited about the new people, in time." A statement which probably wasn't going to win him any more fans, should they be watching, but that was other people's problems.

"Although I probably shouldn't give them a reason to get rid of us," he mused. "I can't imagine this place goes in for retirement much."
deafscythe: (that's ten for the soul)

totally okay. also oh no time for overthinking headcanon worldbuilding dates and things

[personal profile] deafscythe 2014-01-08 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Not as beautiful as other places, but it's always better to be polite.

"Ah, it is the year eight hundred and three."
69problems: 8-xenon-8 (xtra | I hope there is  a way)

[personal profile] 69problems 2014-01-08 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"To be fair, I'm still technically in my room," he points out. "But... I didn't think I'd ever come out of my respiteblock again either. It's good to see you."

He hasn't really checked in on Cuthbert as much as he knows he should have, especially with Cuthbert's relationship with Karkat still staunchly refusing to decide what it wants to be. It would have been terrible if Cuthbert had been one of the people that didn't come back from the last arena -- and he has it on good authority that there were a lot of those.

"How have you been holding up?"

And there it is. Don't talk about your own problems, just ask after everyone else's, it's far more exhausting but it's safer.
crabulous: (my best friend bender)

[personal profile] crabulous 2014-01-08 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Zoidberg didn't seemed bothered by any of that, probably because it either hadn't registered fully or because he honestly didn't understand what was happening. Either way, he remained obtuse.

"Not having a license never stopped me before~!" But he seemed content to let the matter drop, for now. "So, what's the big occasion again? Is Calculon giving a free performance?"
burnedbrighter: (chinhold ponder)

[personal profile] burnedbrighter 2014-01-08 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
It seemed like for how alike they were they just weren't on the same wavelength yet. "Oh I wasn't worried about that." True, Azula wasn't worried about Mindy in the slightest.

"I know you're no innocent. You're more mature then many of the adults around here. But I've yet to see you show any sign of enjoying yourself. And at any age that's important."