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.
formersurgeon: (calm)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-08 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
She understood, far too well. Knew that anger, felt it keenly when Sherlock tried to sideline her after promising that he would never let Moriarty hurt her. That anger that he wasn't treating her like a partner that was just as capable of watching his back as he was of hers.

But she also understood what it was like to stick with someone even beyond all the lies.

"You're not a moron," she said quietly. "You just love him, too."
drpsychosomatic: (planning your murder in my mind. right n)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-08 06:21 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm still going to punch him," he assured her with a slightly wobbly smile, that being as close to admitting the truth to her statement as he was ever going to get, not disagreeing with Joan's assessment. Not love like that, of course, of course not. But for all the good it did him, he did love Sherlock.

"Right in his smug, self-satisfied face. Twice, probably."
formersurgeon: (oh really)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-08 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
Her lips twitched upwards in a small half smile.

"Can I watch?"
Edited 2014-01-08 06:32 (UTC)
drpsychosomatic: (facepalm)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-08 06:49 am (UTC)(link)
"You can hold him for me," he promised grimly- though the same wobbly smile from before was fighting to keep its place on his face.

"Thanks, Joan. I'm sorry. I just-- I don't have the first idea how, but we need to work out what he's planning and stop him. I think he's actually trying to get killed, and I'll be damned if either of us have to do this ridiculous deathmatch thing with that on our consciences."
formersurgeon: (elegant)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-08 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
"He's definitely trying to get himself killed," she agreed softly. "I think this place is dragging him down more quickly than anybody else. He takes it very hard when he can't protect us."

She pressed her lips in thought.

"So...after you've punched him a couple times, how are we going to save him?"
drpsychosomatic: (pensive)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-10 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
"Not a clue," he sighed. "Maybe we'll get lucky and the punching will sort it out. I don't know, Joan, I just know that we're going to have to do something, and soon. I've never seen him this bad."
formersurgeon: (ponder)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-10 04:34 am (UTC)(link)
She nodded, glancing away as she considered that.

"My Sherlock hates being bored. He once went out with a 103 degree fever because boredom was more dangerous to him than a fever. Sherlock is focused on keeping us safe, but realistically...we're just going to keep dying, and he's going to keep blaming himself and getting worse. He needs something else to focus on. He needs a case."
drpsychosomatic: (facepalm)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-12 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"He needs something that makes sense," John sighed. "Something he could work out, if he put his mind to it. Too much of what goes on here- the magic, powers, all of that... and he killed someone, Joan. That's really getting to him."
formersurgeon: (investigation)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-12 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
That caught her off guard somehow, and she looked away, nodding a little, to smooth out her calm again. Then she looked back at John.

"It changes a person. Do you think it helps that the person he killed is alive right now?"
drpsychosomatic: (buuuu)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-12 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
He shook his head. "It's not about the person being killed, it's about him- it's about Sherlock Holmes being a killer. Back home, there were some people he worked with, people on the force- they believed he was one snap away from going full on psychopath, just killing because he gets bored, and it's that. That's what's getting to him. He's worried they were right. Of course they weren't, but you try telling him that and see how far it gets you."
formersurgeon: (grief)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-12 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course. It made absolute sense. Joan had lost patients before the one which made her leave medicine, of course. The reason that one made her walk away was because she could not shake the feeling that the man's wife had been right when she declared in court that Joan had been careless and incompetent and had no business practicing medicine.

"He's surprisingly susceptible to what other people think of him, isn't he?"
drpsychosomatic: (hullo there)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-12 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"For someone who loves getting on my case about how much I care about what people think of him? Yes," John agreed, a little aggressively. He was still more than a little angry with Sherlock. "No, it's more- him. He's doubting himself. He'd tell you he doesn't care about what other people think, that the only thing that matters is the facts- but he sure as hell cares about how he thinks of himself. Because he's the bloody facts, isn't he. Whatever he thinks has to be right."
formersurgeon: (your what)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-12 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
She narrowed her eyes in thought. "Usually when I worked with a depressed client, I would do what I could to get them thinking about things other than themselves. How we'd do that...I don't know."
drpsychosomatic: (lonely)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-12 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's all tied up, with Sherlock," he sighed. "Him and the work. He likes to pretend there isn't anything more to him than solving cases, and I've never been able to get under that. I suppose I thought- I thought I had. But I haven't. It's all just ways of proving how clever he is, all the time. Everything. And I need a break from it, because it's doing my head in."
formersurgeon: (Default)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-12 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Would it help if I tried engaging him more? Give you a rest?"

He seemed like he could use a break from Sherlock, as much as he loved him.
drpsychosomatic: (woe is me)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-12 10:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't know. Maybe."

He sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I just... wasted a lot of- I believed him. I really believed him, the whole ridiculous unrequited love story. And he doesn't understand what a prick-- you don't do that. You just don't do that, especially not... not to me."
formersurgeon: (calm)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-13 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
She nodded silently. She understood John's anger. Sherlock used him, played him. But she could also see why Sherlock did what he did. And he could have kept up the ruse, but he didn't. The minute he could tell John without ruining everything, he did.

"It can be hard, realizing you've done something wrong when you've done it for somebody you love."

drpsychosomatic: (facepalm)

[personal profile] drpsychosomatic 2014-01-15 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's just it. He doesn't. He thinks I'm being ridiculous."

He shrugged. "I should be used to Sherlock not having a clue about people's feelings."
formersurgeon: (looking down)

[personal profile] formersurgeon 2014-01-15 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"He can learn. I just think he doesn't want to. It makes him vulnerable."

She glanced down at the watch. They had a minute. So she stepped forward and huged John tightly. It was something she wouldn't do usually, especially not with the cameras rolling, but it seemed like he could use it.