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.
mediumdrip: (Default)

Re: Kevin

[personal profile] mediumdrip 2013-12-29 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey," Blaine said when he saw his mentor, smiling a bit. "This is... a little much isn't it?"
fire_punk: (pic#4342733)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-30 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Hey." Kevin smiled as he saw his friend. "Isn't it always?"
mediumdrip: (isn't this the time?)

[personal profile] mediumdrip 2013-12-30 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
Blaine nodded. "Are we really going all having this same dream? Or is it just a hallucination on my part?"
fire_punk: (pic#4342734)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-30 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
"A hallu-what?" Sorry, Blaine, he wasn't familiar with drugs and such.
mediumdrip: (most interesting kid)

[personal profile] mediumdrip 2013-12-31 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
"Hallucination," Blaine explained. "It's like a vivid dream that you think is real."
fire_punk: (pic#4342733)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-31 07:29 am (UTC)(link)
"This might be that, then," he said, shaking his head. "It feels pretty real."
mediumdrip: (oh holy fuck eyebrows)

[personal profile] mediumdrip 2014-01-05 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, I'm just not sure where it is. Dreams take place in your head. If this is in all of our heads... That just sounds like an opening for something dangerous."
fire_punk: (pic#4342734)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2014-01-06 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
"What do you mean? It's just dreaming."
mediumdrip: (could i be the "new kid" you mentioned?)

[personal profile] mediumdrip 2014-01-10 06:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Right... but 'just dreaming' would mean just me, right? Unless you've had shared dream before?"
fire_punk: (pic#4342734)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2014-01-10 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"No..." He frowned. This was so weird. "So we're your head? Or mine or..."
mediumdrip: (Default)

[personal profile] mediumdrip 2014-01-18 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"All of ours? I'm not sure..." he admitted after a moment.
fire_punk: (pic#4342734)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2014-01-18 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"This is so weird." He shrugged. "At least the food tastes." It didn't usually in his dreams.
mediumdrip: (bad memories)

[personal profile] mediumdrip 2014-01-21 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah. I'm not sure I like this at all, it's too surreal."
fire_punk: (pic#7199185)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2014-01-21 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
"I liked some of the others better. They were real."