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: (13)

[personal profile] orestes 2013-12-16 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Morality and survival had very little to do with one another when all was said and done. The Arena had made that abundantly clear to him, at least, even if Pruna was still confused on the issue. Better for her, really. A child like her had no business knowing any of that. He recalled their conversation easily. After all, the circumstances had been remarkably similar. Another crowning, another occasion on which he'd been struggling to keep his composure amid the flurry surrounding them.

"I shall say it again, if it should convince you." It was easier to smile at her than it had been at anyone else, even if the expression is still tentative and apprehensive. "Would you like my crown, Princess Pruna?"
saisamour: (YOU BELONG TO ME)

Marius Pontmercy | ota!

[personal profile] saisamour 2013-12-16 03:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Marius, despite his commonplace bewilderment, has been carrying himself with impressive composure, while those who have been equally kept in the dark as he lead him to his bedroom and instruct him to lie down and relax. That is, until the prick of the needle against his skin unearth memories of poison running through his veins and an excruciating pain that blinds him and makes him see white. In a moment of panic his eyes snap open, and it takes the several Avoxes to hold him down as he screams and thrashes and fights them with all his might.

He's panting is heavy when he wakes up again—although, from what he could manage to understand from M. Flickerman's announcement, perhaps "waking up" might not be the befitting phrase. It takes several moments for his muddled mind to process the scenery; the first that comes to clarity is the figure of Enjolras on his throne of books, followed by himself, with his midnight-black coat and trousers and lily-white cravat, and then to Cosette beside him, always a beautiful and calming presence.

As the visions around him continue to de-muddle he eventually discovers that the setting seems a much grander version of the parties at his granfather's house, and he has to curl his hands into fists to stop them from quivering. This is everything he had run away from, everything his grandfather so valued and that his father never had. He despises it. The Paris he loves is not that of the wealth and opulence and lavishness, but of gardens and moonlight and butterflies.

So he gasps in surprise when a trio of iridescent butterflies suddenly do emerge out of thin air.

Butterflies that seem equally perplexed as he, since, after fluttering around him in one complete circle, they seem particularly intent to then fly straight at the face of any person remotely close to him.
alldeduction: (i want you to his me as hard as you can)

[personal profile] alldeduction 2013-12-16 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Sherlock frowned deeper and raised a hand to them, feeling them out with his fingers before making a face. Joan was right. Quickly, he mussed them up, back into something he preferred, but as soon as he pulled his hand away the dream put them right back the way they had been.

"Better?" He asked, oblivious.
the_marshal: (wyattHatless)

[personal profile] the_marshal 2013-12-16 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
He brought his glass up to his nose, sniffing lightly - a little darker, maybe, a little sweeter than any he'd known, but familiar enough - and held out Max's to him.

"What'll we drink to?"
alldeduction: (you've rather shown your hand)

[personal profile] alldeduction 2013-12-16 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Sherlock froze, taking a hard step back. He'd seen Wesker's power. Images of him on the ice. But he had been in control, then, and this--

Those eyes weren't the eyes of a man who could think.

He took another step back but he tripped - a dead body lay behind him, the face mangled but as he glanced down at it he knew with the certainty of dreams that it was one of his only friends and his heart wrenched.

"Wesker--" He tried as he backed away, "This is a dream. Nothing more. If you're still in there--"

If it was really Wesker at all, and not just a figment of his imagination, conjuring up the impossible magics of the arena that he hated with everything in his being--
justoutrunyou: (irun)

Re: SHARED NIGHTMARE

[personal profile] justoutrunyou 2013-12-16 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
It was raining inside...why was it raining inside?

Sandy looked around at her surroundings as the cold cool water spattered down starting to weigh down her simple dress.

"Pruna?" She called into the emptiness.

"Mindy?" Again her voice echoed on nothingness.

"Anyone?!" She screamed at the top of her lungs till her throat hurt.

Her response was a rumble...then a crash as the ceiling exploded and a mass of black fell through the floor. The impact rippled the ground knocking Sandy off her feet and the entire room shattered, leaving the girl tumbling head over heels through the rain.

Pavement rushed up to meet her. She hit the ground hard enough to feel her bones rattle and cursed as she scrambled to her feet.

Tall buildings loomed around her in various states of decay. The buildings had started out as stone but now were some monstrous biological thing made of black slime and what looked to be jungle plants.

Eyes and teeth and slithering tentacles stretched out from walls and dark flashes of movement behind broken windows and doors that had been torn off their hinges warned of something still living in the corpses of these long dead homes.

It was New York...but it wasn't her new york.

The ominous dark sky cracked with lightning and she could see a familiar web of red that seemed like a cage, stretching through the clouds.

Before she could get her barrings any further, a snarl and a hiss made her spin about in place and confront the creature that had smashed through the room landing her here.

What had begun as a mass of black goo was twisting itself in a horrific fashion, stretching out to grasp at her, trying to curl a tentacle around her leg. She yelped and stumbled backward.

This just made the thing mad.

It heaved itself off the ground on thick powerful legs. Slime began to solidify into muscles making the legs as thick around as trees.

Where only a mass of shiny blackness had existed before a mouth tore it's way free and roared at her in an earsplitting show of it's intentions that left her head ringing and her blood cold.

With a scream that pierced the pitter patter of rain Sandy did what she did best. She turned and ran.
formersurgeon: (elegant)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2013-12-16 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Joan blinked as the hair went back to the way it was. She briefly considered telling him that he looked fine, but this particular data point about the experience seemed important.

"It didn't take. It's right back the way it started."

She wondered what other parts of this dream wouldn't respond to attempts at change.
hit_girl_mindy: (sultry for some reason)

Mindy Macready

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Ok, seriously, why?

Decked out in an ensemble that would have made her dad fall over in laughter, Mindy could barely walk in this thing. Yes, she got bum rushed and it took quite a few people to subdue her when she was finally injected, and then THIS happened. Of all the shit that could have happened to her, appearing like some kind of cosplaying weirdo was really pushing it for her, and clearly Mindy did not look like she was enjoying any of this.

She was off to find someone she knew, so she at least wouldn't be pissed off alone.
Edited 2013-12-16 17:27 (UTC)
president_evil: (weskerKnife)

Sob, all my mutation icons are inactive. ;_;

[personal profile] president_evil 2013-12-16 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
The pale lips curled, the movement beneath the thin flesh of Wesker's throat intensifying.

There was only one way to guarantee control, to bring the balance back into line-- and he could smell it, rushing along inside Sherlock. The ancient tide, crashing in the man's chest.

His mouth opened, and with a wet tearing, the mandible unfurled from between his lips - like a grisly, dripping flower. The virus given form.
president_evil: (weskerSauve)

[personal profile] president_evil 2013-12-16 04:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Something else Maximus was unlikely to see in any of his dreams, was the man that appeared as if out of the very ether. An empty space a moment before, suddenly filled, a black stain against the painted sunset.

"Maximus," Wesker purred, all pleasantries, as always. "I'd heard you'd made it back--" the blond head tipped, "--or most of you, at any rate."
onlyimmune: (worrying)

[personal profile] onlyimmune 2013-12-16 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Of course I'm fucking terrified by this," Ellie said, ducking her head under the table to see him better.

"But if they're in our heads I don't really see how running around under non-existent tables is going to help. Do you?"
onlyimmune: (dreaming)

[personal profile] onlyimmune 2013-12-16 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
She didn't immediately turn to the voice (as it obviously wasn't her name), but when she saw the girl approach a smile split over her lips.

She still couldn't quite get over how many children were here.

"Oh! Hi! Sorry, not Sandy. My name's Ellie. What's yours?"
gluteus: (no fear)

[personal profile] gluteus 2013-12-16 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
If there was anyone who was hypothetically on his side that could make Maximus bristle nearly as instantly, he had no idea who it would be. The fact that he knew they shared the same goals was the only reason he found any way to be civil, on any level, but that didn't mean it wasn't a complete and utter struggle.

Maximus smiled, the sharp, hard smile that he reserved for times like this, and met Wesker's eye.

"We take our scars with us," Maximus said pointedly. "They are part of what makes us human."
president_evil: (weskerSmirk2)

[personal profile] president_evil 2013-12-16 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Wesker could give him points for being quick on the draw - he appreciated an armed opponent - but none for his accuracy.

"I'll take your word for it," Wesker replied without missing a beat, cool amusement worming into his tone. Painfully smug. "After all, you are the expert."

And humanity was a condition Wesker would be happy to be rid of again, when the Capitol burned.
hit_girl_mindy: (Stop breathing my air (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
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<a href="a href="http://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/rubies/56264-Marie-Antoinette-large.jpg">"That would be the word of the day, even if more people don't say it."</a>

Mindy stares glumly at him. "If I wasn't underage I'd join you in that."
hit_girl_mindy: (Pained (Mindy))

Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
In the far recesses of her mind was a path not taken. She joked about it, laughed about it but it was there, dangling like some kind of treat on a string, the thing that would never come to pass, where she just stared longingly at something that granted her some rest. It had to happen one day.

So now she could see what happened when Hit Girl stopped. She couldn't do it anymore: they broke it from her, hammered her and crushed every bit of her spirit. She couldn't even get out of bed. She could feel the despair building up, as she now saw before her the other choice. She could just stop being the girl that went out and saved people, who could laugh through crushing a person's bones, killing them for the greater good, doing away with bad that was always there.

Now she sat, in her cell, as they piled the bodies. Dave, her Kickass. Dad, only because she knew the costume, decaying and rotting away, flung aside like some discarded piece of trash. Then came her new friend: Guy, his throat slit from end to end, his hands mashed beyond recognition. Sandy, strangled to death, her eyes open wide with pain. Ellie, bound tight and bit in mouth, apparently left to choke and die with no movement. The Doc, stabbed viciously through the heart. Even Katniss, the girl she heard about, the one she could admire, was here, in the middle of all of these bodies, impaled by several bones and arrows, her mouth open in a scream.

"You wanted this." The voice came from the shadows, sometimes sounding like that scum D'Amico, sometimes sounding like Timaeus. "It was a gift, to take the thing that makes you go on and on mindlessly. You did not want to kill for them. You didn't want to be a machine. Well, here you are. No catlike reflexes, no killer instinct. Normal. But that has a price to, and not just all this."

The scene changed and now she was out in an Arena, except it looked like a scarred landscape, like what Earth looked like without the Matrix. There was laughter everywhere and she could see the smiles on their faces, the relishing of hearing her break. She didn't have any choice. She had to run.

"Oh run, RUN, little warrior no more!" It was Azula's voice, and her fist clenched. "Swallow that bitterness! You thought you could have your cake and eat it? You'll be running in the Arena, again and again and again until forever, and be hunted like a dog to die and come back! Keep running!"
Edited 2013-12-16 18:05 (UTC)
gardienne: (worried)

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Eponine couldn't. She couldn't release herself from the guilt. And it wasn't the guilt exactly that made her unwilling. It was more her conviction that she was bad - she was bad; there was no debating that. But if there was a single ounce of goodness left in her, it was that she hadn't stooped to murder. At least, she didn't think Alex had counted as murder. She just wanted to be a little bit ladylike. Unfortunately, the Capitol didn't seem to care about what she wanted.

So she pushed and shoved Draco towards the bars which somehow miraculously became more widely spaced, wide enough for Draco's head to go through and Guy's arms to reach in. Draco's taunts grew louder and more vicious as he was manhandled towards the bars - but as she reached them with him, his shape morphed and changed: the figure shrank, and his skin darkened, his hair curled, unti it was Howard who stood in front of the bars. Howard who was going to be strangled.

And Eponine stopped pushing immediately.

"You can't kill him."
gardienne: (scared)

Re: Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
From the shadows, Eponine watched this girl's nightmare unfold. She didn't know Mindy, but she could sympathise with being locked in a cell. So she sat silently whilst the girl's imagination played itself out, noting the people - the man who had saved her from Howard or Draco or whatever it was, and Katniss, the girl on fire. The angel of mercy who had shot her through the eye this last arena. But as the voices changed, Eponine spoke up.

"Don't listen to it. Do you hear me, Mademoiselle? Don't you listen to those voices. Nobody's dead. The arenas will finish. Mademoiselle? I am told it's a dream. Just a dream. Come!"
hit_girl_mindy: (Wtf? (Mindy))

Re: Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy stopped. There was a voice, a voice somewhere that was calling out to her in spite of all of this craziness, something that at least made her remember that she wasn't as big a fuck up as she thought. But that word, mademoiselle, that was a French word. She was in that place that they took them, they were wearing all of these French clothing...what the hell was going on?

"Your suffering starts now!" Rang Azula's voice, and she saw him again: dad, dead, decaying, in front of her, one last indignity for thinking there was a chance, a way out. A strangled whimper escaped her throat and she turned to run somewhere, anywhere.
polyturtle: (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)

[personal profile] polyturtle 2013-12-16 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
And then, there was more than one of him. No, not him. But dozens upon dozens upon dozens of creatures, some as tall as him, others far more monstrous, simply stampeding right towards Sheperd. By by extension, him.

"SHEPERD! What the--"

First he was run over by the one that came behind him. Then another shoved him to the side, causing him to roll out. A third slammed on his tail, causing him to roar out as he continued rolling, his backside feeling like it was about to rip in two.

"STOP IT!! AUGH--"

Way to call out to the pot, kettle.
gardienne: (screaming)

Re: Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 07:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Eponine heard the voice: she dimly connected it to the Capitol, but she had no idea who it was, and who that man was, either. But the smell - oh, the smell from the decomposing body was awful, and Eponine felt sick to her stomach looking at it.

And when the poor little girl started to run, well, Eponine, still in her own stinking rags from Paris, still wearing chains, pelted after her as fast as she could. Despite obvious malnutrition, Eponine was still a swift runner, and she pounded after Mindy, tripping over the chains that still dangled between her ankles.

"Please. Please. Ma petite fille! Si vous plait! Stop. We're dreaming. Please. Please stop. Stop and talk to me - OH! I cannot keep running! Please stop!"
hit_girl_mindy: (sultry for some reason)

Re: Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)
This actually slowed her down. The French was still, as far as she knew, part of this whole stupid setting, but the girl stuck out: she was actually running after her, and asking her to stop. In fact, now that Mindy thought about it, this girl looked a little familiar too, didn't she?

And why was she in rags.

Mindy stopped, turning to the girl. "Weren't we in a dream in the first place? I just figured it was some new kind of torture device...which is pretty fucked up, now that I think about it. Didn't I see you in a ballgown a little while ago?"
gardienne: (shy smile)

Re: Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh thank goodness. Eponine slowed as soon as Mindy started to stop. Her ankles were sore now, from the chains chaffing against her skin, but she wasn't bothered about any of it. Instead, she tried to make sense of what Guy had said so she could tell Mindy.

"Monsieur... he said he was named Guy? He said it was a dream, and now it is a nightmare. I do not know - I think he is right, though I do not know how it is so, for how else could Monsieur Malfoy turn into Howard? Perhaps it is because we have been bad, but... I do not know. I am sorry. I do not explain well."

But she began to laugh at the last of Mindy's questions. "Ah, my gown. You know, I have dreamed of that dress for perhaps ten years. Ten whole years, and I am allowed it for five minutes until they remind me of my real place in rags and shackles. It does not matter so much, Mademoiselle."
hit_girl_mindy: (half look (Mindy))

Re: Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy was finally starting to regain herself, taking a deep breath. When the girl mentioned Guy, she definitely slackened a little, shaking her head. So this was one giant mindfuck. How lovely. They really knew how to hammer home that this place owned you, didn't they?

"Should have known. Wouldn't put it past them to take my powers away, but it seemed so dumb, and then I just saw people dead, so..."

Fuck, she was stupid. Why would dad and Dave even BE here? Granted, it was the Capitol, it was obvious they could now play with her mind. What a stupid thing to do though. What was even the point?

"Malfoy? Like, Draco, from the-nevermind. I know who Howard is, at least. He has good cafe conversations. Yeah, why are you all shackled anyway?"
gardienne: (cheeky smile)

Re: Mindy's Nightmare. Warning: This is a little graphic.

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Eponine started to masster her breathing a little bit as well, and she moved a little closer into Mindy, sure now that the girl wouldn't hit out at her."

"I think they like to get into your head here, Mademoiselle. To make you see things that are not true and to make you scream... But you are okay. Truly, I promise you. You are okay. But you have powers? Tell me, what powers do you have? Are you a magic girl?"

She was quiet for a minute, and she sat down, drawing her legs to her in a tuck position.

"You have heard of Monsieur Malfoy?" She looked at Mindy in surprise. "But I do not recognise you. You have not been here long, and he has not been here for a long time. But perhaps - you say you talk to Howard? Did he tell you?"

She snorted hard. "He is a NASTY boy, that Howard. I would stay away from him, Mademoiselle. He is not nice..."

That was a lie. But it still hurt her to think about Howard, to acknowledge that he had helped her and tried to save her and wanted to love her in a just-friends sort of way. She HAD to cast him as the bad guy to stop it hurting.

She looked down at her shackles, and shrugged again. "It is a nightmare, no? Before, I dreamed I was in Paris again, when they locked me in La Prison de Madelonnettes. This is how we wore things - they put these on when they arrest you, and they are not taken off until you are let go or you are to be executed. Usually, it is just this one."

She tapped the shackle on her left wrist: unlike the other three, this one bore the Capitol sign. Eponine laughed.

"Perhaps they think I have been bad here."