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: (Wtf? (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-01-05 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
"If I'm lucky, maybe I'll break the mold," she said. "Not that I want to be some kind of celebrity. I had enough of people fawning over me the last few days. I felt like a fucking cat being asked to play with a ball of yarn because its cute or something."
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-01-05 09:52 am (UTC)(link)
Pruna just shrugged, "That do be being what it do be being like." She had mostly gotten used to it, and for the most part was good at behaving herself until she lost her temper.

"But you can be killing people in the arena, you do no be needing to be being cute there."
hit_girl_mindy: (Face. Nothing but.)

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-01-05 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Mindy knew how to calm down and keep her temper-well enough, anyway. That didn't mean she could still keep it, seeing what else power that was being flexed over her by the Capitol.

"Oh, I don't plan to be," Mindy said. "If I have no choice but to give them a show, might as well show them what I can do."
knifewithnoname: (smiles)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-01-05 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Pruna nodded, scanning the crowd again for Sandy. "I do be being sure you will be managing to be impressing them." She would be watching, she still hadn't decided whether Mindy would be a useful ally or an exciting target.
hit_girl_mindy: (Short lived smile (Mindy))

[personal profile] hit_girl_mindy 2014-01-06 06:39 am (UTC)(link)
"If you find Sandy, let me know," Mindy said. "She can be a downer but I like her anyway. I can see why you both date. See if you can't, I dunno, make her a little less moody."

However the hell that would happen. They were both still pretty young.
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-01-06 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
"I will be being." She nodded, looking around again and nodded. She didn't think Sandy was too moody, just sometimes leaky eyed, but that would change as she got stronger.