thecapitol | The Crowning of Enjolras

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.

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"Is it truly that horrific?" But he's starting to get some deep feelings of dread over this whole situation. Being trapped in such a place, and with memories intact of a world where he belongs... it's bad enough. This place is far more restrictive than the last one.

Those thoughts earn a pretty good gulp of his drink the moment he takes it in hand.

"People tell me it is. Me?" She tilts her head to one side drowsily. "Personally, my life before was sort of like this, so I don't see what the fuss is, but apparently this place sucks."

"Your world was like this one? Did you face similar battles?" If so that's strongly of interest to Kain. He's been wondering, how many worlds like this and the last one he visited are out there. It seems that this is perhaps a very common occurrence. Perhaps it means he'll never get home, just keep being sent to new worlds to fight in, endlessly. So be it, if this really is his trial.

"Sure did." She almost goes on to say she's a televised superheroine, but she suspects that that might be as useful as just speaking gibberish at Kain. "And I was real good at it, too."

Complete and total gibberish indeed. He has a great deal to learn about this world, he's finding. "And have you been through many cycles of these Games here?" Cycles of war, he wants to say. It's so similar to the last situation, technology upgrade aside.

"Two. Going on three. I did best my first time, but they say third time's the charm, right?"

"And from what you're saying... I assume our memories remain intact between cycles?" It perhaps seems a strange question to ask, but he wants to know... everything sounded on the surface to be like the gods' war, but now it seems there are considerable differences he's uncovering.

He can't know at all how many times he fell in battles in the cycles of the war. Perhaps every time. Perhaps never. But here, he would remember it all, and he's not certain that's any better.

"Yeah. You keep every gory detail." She scratches at her braids. She didn't suppose this hairstyle would be so tight in the dream, but after two hours it's starting to irritate her. "Which means you have to plan for the long game, instead of just winning one. Build alliances, don't betray people every ten seconds. You know."

Kain almost looks... vaguely startled, for a moment there, and he silently curses this Capitol for forcing him into this unarmored formal attire that doesn't even have a helmet for hiding his eyes. But it's only a brief little moment, and he contains any emotion in the long-practiced way he always does. There's a familiar guilt returning to weigh on him, though... How often has he trust a lance into his comrades' backs?

"That's far easier said than done."

Which will be more difficult, trusting others out there, or trusting himself? Yeah, he'd prefer not to have to figure out the answer.

"What, not betraying people?" She raises an eyebrow and then puts a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. "I won't tell anyone, but you probably shouldn't advertise that."

That really is an awkward detail to share about himself, especially with someone who he very well could be facing out there. Ugh, this whole thing has him all out of sorts. No armor, no weapon readily accessible, not even the ability to jump.

Kain thinks and finally comes up with a further answer, "I mean making allies. Building such trust isn't so easy to accomplish for some." Which is actually true enough as well. It took many cycles, or so he can assume, to get to really trust his Cosmos allies. Even without memories, it had simply felt like they'd known one another for a long time.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to make allies," not friends, "when you're desperate for someone to watch your back so you can get twenty minutes of shut-eye."

She nods in agreement with herself, picking at a bacon-wrapped shrimp her double's serving her. Her double's now wearing a dinosaur mascot costume. God, she'd love to see Freud go with this.

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.

"I been reading a book about how your opponents aren't really your enemies in wars, either. Just little people fighting for the man." She doesn't even remember the name of the book. It's something Enjolras recommended to her. She pops a strawberry into her mouth and sucks on it.

"Anyway, it's less battle than survival, honestly."

"But when someone is attempting to destroy life on your world, or to disrupt the very balance of existence... surely they deserve the title of 'enemy'." It's almost always some sort of supreme evil from his experience. Although... he has to pause a moment and think about Chaos' warriors: they were mostly mad, just as consumed by hatred as their leader. And yet, there'd been Golbez, not fully the hateful enemy he'd appeared. Even himself with his side switching back home. They were unwillingly on the wrong side at times. No one had asked to be dragged into the conflict, Chaos' warriors included. "Although... I suppose the same can't always be said of the ones forced to simply carry out orders."

It's a lot to consider. Though the nature of the arena also interests him. "So it sounds as if the challenge is adapting to the environment as much as the threat of other warriors..."

"Depends on if they're just following orders or not. I mean, I'm not sure I believe it, but that's just what my book said." She finishes chewing the flesh off the strawberry and spits the stem out. The stem changes to a small green junebug and buzzes away. She follows it with her eyes, not quite keeping up and wondering if she should have more champagne.

"But yeah, that's pretty much it. Last time there was nothing edible at all. Everyone was starving. Plus they had dinosaurs and stuff after us."

Kain certainly is feeling the need for something, grabbing another glass of wine. Would it even matter how much they drank in this dream-environment? He sips at it.

"Then there are often monsters to contend with as well? I see they spare no challenge..." That's definitely something he feels he can excel at. So far, he knows he's going to be a miserable failure when it comes to the Capitol's more social aspects, but in combat against such creatures... he feels he has a chance there too.

"Ooh, yeah, monsters and like..." She breathes deep out her nose, getting sleepy with the drunkenness. "Traps. Vines that'll eat you alive. Poison. Killer bees. They're way serious about this."

She sighs and rests her head on the back of the chair.

"They can't count on us to kill each other enough, so they ensure the environment can do so? Such efficiency." He takes another swig, and well... he isn't normally much of a heavy drinker, but he's going to grab another, because this calls for it. "How many of us are there normally out there?"

"My first one, there were ninety-six. I think we're at about fifty these days." She scratches her chin as she thinks. "I think they had too much trouble keeping track of nearly a hundred of us."

"Right... they would need to ensure we didn't pose a problem, with too many numbers." He wonders what might happen if somehow they got more involved than they could handle. It could be something in their favor if it ever came to it... but they seem to have too much control. He gulps down the rest of his glass, already half-contemplating another.

"That and I assume they need to be able to pay us close attention since some of their purpose is to entertain." He says that last word with the most disdain imaginable.

She nods. The world doesn't move quite right with her line of vision. "Cameras everywhere. And don't diss entertainment. It's my profession."

"I've nothing against it normally. Certainly nothing against watching it in... a very different form from this." But usually it involves bards or dancers. Perhaps he'd participate in something like a joust or sparring match, but they wouldn't have anything where anyone actually dies. That's serious combat, on another level entirely. "But it's not something I care to be involved in myself. Do these cameras truly project our images everywhere as they say?"

It's a lot to take in, the way their 'technology' works, but it's apparently on the level that the Lunarians would have been on.

"They do. And be careful, you don't always see the cameras. You have to be really crafty to find someplace unmonitored."

She tugs at one of her braids, coming loose. "I need to powder my nose, so to speak. I'll see you around?"

Could they be monitoring them now? No, that's ridiculous, how could they get inside a dream? The thought that perhaps they could, anyway, is really unsettling to Kain. But that's been the overall tone of this world so far to him: he doesn't have problems with the combat aspects as such, it's the rest of what goes with it that he's struggling with.

"I'll keep that in mind... very well, I'm sure you will." Kain at least has found this informative. It makes a certain sense that other tributes would be the most... human... people he's going to find around here. "And thank you."

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The Crowning of Enjolras

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