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.
splendid_roman: (Hand on chin)

Re: Orc

[personal profile] splendid_roman 2013-12-16 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Careful," Ian said, coming up beside Orc. "You don't know what that stuff'll do to you."
splendid_roman: (Hand on chin)

Re: Gabriel

[personal profile] splendid_roman 2013-12-16 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Ian had been staring at the food, wondering whether it was likely to jump up and bite him. He looked up as someone wondered over, but didn't bother pasting on a smile. "I wouldn't count on it being edible," Ian warned him.
splendid_roman: (Hand on chin)

[personal profile] splendid_roman 2013-12-16 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Ian was not happy. He sighed and looked down at clothing he never thought he'd wear again. Especially the breeches. "This looks familiar." If he didn't know better he'd say these were the exact clothes he'd worn during the French Revolution. But they were brand new and didn't smell as bad.

He sighed. "I might survive three hours."
swill: poppyapples.dw (ʜᴇ sᴀʏs ʜᴇ's ʙᴜsʏ)

[personal profile] swill 2013-12-16 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Where the armored vehicles went, their treads left ashes and corpses and the occasional boy who was burning and screaming his throat bloody asking for his mother, but those screams died with the body in seconds. Hawkeye had to wonder how this might be coming from his head and then his gut churns at the thought of it somehow being by the people from the Capitol which he didn't know. But it didn't matter where the scenes came from because they were happening and real and there wasn't any stopping them, the Sherman tanks crushing roads paved with skeletons and the fires erupting from shells and mortars. He'd go deaf, he thinks, then he realized he must be in some sudden state of shock if he had stayed rooted to the place where he stood, only moving his hands slippery with the blood of the boys he never saved to tighten the chin strap on his helmet.

They smelled rank. He felt rocks hit his face, dust kicked up from where the festivities' floor had been before where a land mine had gone off. An ox pushes past him- mange and scat deforming it. He yelps, he jumps back- he sees Guy--

Guy? No, no, it wasn't just his dream, then, because he never found people from this world in them, not even the nightmares. And Guy was standing at the cave's entrance- that's what Hawkeye saw though there wasn't a cave built around the young man. And a cave meant he'd suffocate and be crushed, and Hawkeye knew what it was like to be crushed, pulverized by tons hitting bones, and suddenly he's finding it hard to breathe. "You! Hey!" He runs to grab his arm, shake it, tug frantically- trying to get him away from the invisible cave and into the mine field, because chance of survival was greater there, of course. Because past the mine field was the hospital unit and survival. "Don't just stand there! Come on!" A machine gun goes off somewhere, and Hawkeye wants to mistake it for sniper fire. He shakes Guy again with cold and red hands- was he real? Really in his mind? Gee, what a party. "I know where to go." He hopes, because he's too panicked to think. "-Do you know me?"
hit_girl_mindy: (Dead On Arrival)

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

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Now that she was regaining her composure, Mindy was starting to feel a little enraged, and she had to do her best to quell that emotion. There was no training room here now so she could stab the shit out of something because WHAT THE FUCK. What was even the point of messing with your head at the crowning? Didn't they think dying in the Games was traumatic enough?

"I'm not-" She started to say, and then there was Azula again, dragging the body of Pruna.

"For you," she said sweetly, her sneer disappearing when Mindy was already on her feet and atop Azula, landing a hard uppercut. There wasn't even a hesitation: as Azula reeled, Mindy was on her back, grabbing her neck and turning hard enough the crack that followed was unmistakable. When Azula fell motionless to the ground, Mindy walked back to Eponine, sighing.

Phew. That did the trick.

"I'm pretty skilled, but not a magic girl," she finished. "That doesn't exist where I'm from. Malfoy is...well, he's someone mentioned in my world, we'll leave it at that."

Oh, so it was obvious Eponine and Howard had a history, her cue to stay the hell out of it. Hell, Howard seemed a little standoffish so she wondered how that had even happened. Him being nasty, of course, seemed ridiculous. Jaded maybe, but that was her, so that was no big deal.

She took the shackles in her hand a moment. "You know," she said, "that girl I just killed? She's a way better fighter than that. I've seen her in the training room. If I was able to kill her that easily and this is some shitty ream, maybe the same goes for your shackles."
wantwhatiwant: clasticon (smiling)

[personal profile] wantwhatiwant 2013-12-16 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Ian had also wandered over to the snacks, not sure how food or drink worked in a dream world. He grinned at the guy who had come over, "I wonder if it tastes the same for everyone?" Since it was dream food... Did it even look the same?

Such thoughts were enough to give him a headache.
gardienne: (who is that?)

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

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Eponine looked on in shock as Mindy killed Azula. This tiny little girl - killing - and so casually. As if she did it every day. As if she was completely desensitised to any sort of violence at all. And the sigh - Eponine just stared at Mindy.

"You... you killed her. Just like that. You... How old are you, Mademoiselle? Where did you learn to do such a thing?"

Could this child be a street urchin? Part of a gang, and taught how to murder and kill? She was quicker even than Montparnasse, and less messy as well.

She looked down at Mindy's hands in her chains, and then back to the girl.

"You think you can break them? Do it - do it if you please!"
doc_holi: (keep moving on)

[personal profile] doc_holi 2013-12-16 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
... Wow. This guy was... She didn't even know...

"... No, it's not...

"Are you new here or a citizen of Panem?" He was oddly cool with the whole arena thing. Or he was just really into her and crazy."
hit_girl_mindy: (Civil clothing (Mindy))

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

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"If she had your leg nearly ripped off in the Arena and left you to slowly die, you would kill her ass too," Mindy replied. Look, she was frustrated and angry, and as far as she was concerned, showing all that emotion bothered her more than killing a fake Azula. "Uh, I think thirteen by now, not really sure if there's some kind of fast forward aging thing here. But I learned those skills from a former cop. We were masked vigilantes."

As for less messy...there weren't any weapons around, she really had no choice there.

Mindy looked at the shackles a moment. What would so the job quick and easy? She imagine her belt of tools were with her and here they were. She grinned, then went for a small screwdriver and a sharp metal rod with a handle at the end, had Eponine hold out her hands. Within five minutes, the shackles were off.
knifewithnoname: (interested)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-16 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Pruna had followed the trail of clothes to the buffet table. She had no idea why Sandy would have any reason to take her clothes off, but had followed them in the off chance that it was her.

She peaked under the table to see who the hand belonged to and blinked at the man there.

"No one will be shouting at you for eating. You do no be needing to be hiding."
doc_holi: (warm smile)

[personal profile] doc_holi 2013-12-16 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Holiday hugged her back just as well. Seeking out Harley was the right move.

"We haven't had a Victor like him in a while," she agreed, pulling slightly away from the hug. "It would really be nice to see a friend win one of these days, though."
casaerotica13: (cmon now)

[personal profile] casaerotica13 2013-12-16 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Gabe stopped and looked over to the guy. "Ain't it all in my head, anyway? I could eat you, if I wanted to."

And he meant that in the nicest way possible, honestly.

"Then again, I guess you don't need a dream world for that, but you get my drift."
casaerotica13: (aha)

[personal profile] casaerotica13 2013-12-16 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm? That was a good question and Gabriel shrugged.

"They called it dream sharing, didn't they? So if you make a chocolate waterfall big enough to drown in, we could all enjoy it, right?"

Experimentation may be in order.

Then it could feel a little like home again.
marcato: (roaming where he cares to go)

[personal profile] marcato 2013-12-16 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
He fought. Oh, of course, he fought. In the very beginning it had been easy feigning loyalty, but as the arenas stretched on, Aunamee's mind crumbled, and as his mind crumbled, so did his control. As he was led to his bed, he felt like a cow being led to slaughter -- and he feared he was, knew he was, and so when the darkness finally descended, his legs were sore from kicking and his wrists were bruised from the restraints.

Normally he would recover quickly. He excelled at it. In one moment he could crush a chair with his bare hands, and in the next, he could smile as brightly as a movie star. He was prepared to smile, he was prepared to get it over with, but then --

biological contributions from our dear favourite Aunamee

When the sky darkened, so did his eyes. He crumpled his hand into a fist.
gardienne: (smile)

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

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"That has happened to me as well, Mademoiselle." Eponine replied quietly. "I had the zombie eat me alive. It was perhaps lucky for me that Monsieur Maximus wanted to murder me anyway for what I had said to him that he chopped my head off instead."

She watched Mindy work, mulling over what the girl had told her. She grasped that she somehow fought the bad people - but 'masked vigilante' more or less translated as a commoner with a shirt over his mouth chasing after the Patron Minette... which was a feat that never occurred.

"Are you with the police then?" This girl looked far too young to be involved... surely she was too young? Even thirteen - would the Guard take on teenagers?

But she stopped questioning when the shackles popped off: instead, she rubbed her wrists and her ankles in delight.
"Now that is always a good feeling! It is one I never get tired of, not ever! Thank you, Mademoiselle!"
akingalways: (fewfueowhfeuwfiino)

[personal profile] akingalways 2013-12-16 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"No, but your chances are far better than ours." Jack looked away, gritting his teeth. "You and your loved ones and friends. That's why I did what I did. Because unlike you, I had no guarantee at all they would even bring me back. None of the Victors did. So we needed to give them a reason to bring us back. Us, and our loved ones and friends."

At this, he disconsolately swept his hand over the scenery.

"I doubt you'll find half of the Mentors they sent at this Crowning as a result."
Edited 2013-12-16 23:06 (UTC)
hit_girl_mindy: (The world is mine (Mindy))

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

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy winced. "Eat you alive? Jesus. But what the hell, a guy chops off your head for something you said? What did you even say?"

Sounded like a troublemaker. Cool.

She snickered. "The police? No, my trainer was a cop, or used to be. Turns out they were working for criminals, so they had my dad frame and put in jail. Dad got out and decided not to work for a force that could be easily corrupted like that. So we were vigilantes. Cops wish they can do what we dish out to criminals."

Mindy nodded. "Ok, good, I can still crack a lock open. Thank fucking God, I thought I would forget. Hey, didn't get your name."
doc_holi: (tired)

[personal profile] doc_holi 2013-12-16 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Their loved ones. That bit did get her. Of course, she didn't put it above the Capitol to do such a thing, but... still.

Her anger didn't fade. Understanding was not the same as forgiveness, whatever the circumstances.

However, she did relax and lean back in her seat again. "I'm sorry, Jack." And she was, marginally. The longer this went on, the more and more she did not want to fight about it.
gardienne: (cheeky smile)

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

[personal profile] gardienne 2013-12-16 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"I told him that his king - he had a different word, but I cannot think on it - that the king is stupid. That all kings are stupid. For all they do is eat and dance and have a jolly time of it, and never mind the women such as I, and children starving in the streets. ButMonsieur Maximus. He is of the aristocracy, so of course he dislikes me."

She didn 't mean to be a trouble maker. But she found it difficult to back down from her convictions. And she is still quite convinced about the traditional class lines.

It did worry her a little that Mindy was to be with the good over the criminals. Having seen how quickly she dispensed with Azula, Eponine was a little worried that it cpuld be her as well at some point.

"Well, you do not seem to have forgotten, and you may take my cuff off when we wake up if you wish to practise. My name is 'Ponine. Eponine Jondrette."
hit_girl_mindy: (Disgust (Mindy))

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

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2013-12-16 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy sighed. "If he's from a different world? Of course he'd be pissed. I mean, I kind of agree with you anyway, but there are people who don't want to hear anything like that. Saying it s pretty much inviting a fight. Politics are a pretty ugly topic in general."

She could respect as much that the girl stuck by her convictions. It wasn't always the smartest thing, but what the hell. Hopefully she would get over her killing Azula.

"You think you'll still have it when you wake up?"
wronglychosen: ≫ game (where's the love?)

[personal profile] wronglychosen 2013-12-17 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that was an insult of any. He'd only had a brief glance around the Capitol before he ended up in this weird dream party thing, but these people looked like massive freaks. And he'd seen some pretty gaudy stuff in his world.

"Ouch, do I really seem like one of those weirdos to you?" Zelos winced, putting one hand over his heart. "New here."
wronglychosen: ≫ game (heh)

[personal profile] wronglychosen 2013-12-17 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
Zelos let an amused smile spread across his face, not even bothering to hide it. Maybe Enjolras would take it as a mocking smile or just another careless display, but he had to admit that he was a little intrigued. This guy, who had apparently won a battle to the death and the connotations attached to that alone, was preaching about freedom and honour?

It was hilarious.

Zelos made a mental note of the man, as someone of interest. He sounded like someone who might actually do something. If he didn't get himself killed by spouting what had to amount to treason, that was. This time when he spoke, the grin on his face was so vapid it bordered on mocking. "So serious. Lighten up, man. You're living in the lap of luxury here. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be a rich prisoner than a poor one."
swill: poppyapples.dw (ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ғɪʀᴇs ʙᴜʀɴɪɴɢ)

[personal profile] swill 2013-12-17 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
"The hell with your dress!" He shouts back, and it's more a snarl than he had meant. He hated that his temper had flared, that his voice had gone gruff. He stopped pounding, though, and he wasn't sure if it had been her question or the words he heard that had him cold. It must have been her question because his stomach flips- because he knew the answer but didn't know the names of them all. He just helped collect the tags, sometimes, and count them as inventory. And all he could do was look her over, head to toe, and he hated himself for that too. Natural reaction, he thinks, and he hadn't done it with the intention to-- and he just didn't think a girl should be called those words, not from a shadow he--

and suddenly he bristles again and the hurt he can feel coming off the girl in waves doesn't do anything to mitigate it.

"Don't-" And he tries to grab her, this time, by the shoulder or arm or anything he could grasp. Slander- so what? Grow up, he wants to shout. "Don't kill him!" Because he's the one who'll have to clean up the mess.
acroodawakening: (004)

[personal profile] acroodawakening 2013-12-17 04:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Agh." That was a noise of frustration Guy made. He recognized Howard and dream aside, he was a lot more uncomfortable strangling a dream him rather than a stranger. "The nightmare's cheating."

He huffed out a few panicked breaths.

"Okay. Okay. So we can't get you out that way." He waved a hand at her. "C'mere. Just - just c'mere for a minute. Don't listen to anything he has to say. Just...give him a shove and pretend he's not there for a minute."
earthborn: (Default)

[personal profile] earthborn 2013-12-17 04:37 am (UTC)(link)
The Brutes made a pinball machine out of the battlefield, and she was the reflected target. It was chaos and pain, roaring and churned-up dust, the repeated staccato bursts of submachine-gun fire and the burning smell of biotics.

Of biotics! Instinct returned and Shepard came up under the nearest abomination, reached for the mnemonic, and felt gravity respond. It sent her careening down a frictionless corridor, the world doppler-shifting behind her, a living bullet. The light-show was fantastic, a staggering blue explosion that was dwarfed by the trailing nova-blast. If the biotic charge had caught the nightmare unawares, then the follow-through reprisal had obliterated.

She did not stop, only swung around and fired the sleek, Asari-made shotgun directly into the gut of the second. The fight was a blur, but a familiar blur. This was the deathmatch she belonged in, not for glory or power or publicity or money, but for survival. Not against artificial odds, but real ones, stacked impossibly high.

This was real. This was right. She launched herself into the gravity-corridor again, staggering yet another creature in an explosion of blue power, and Shepard grinned.