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thecapitol2013-12-15 06:36 am
etcircenses) wrote in thecapitol2013-12-15 06:36 am
Entry tags:
- aunamee,
- cassandra marko,
- commander shepard,
- event: crowning,
- harley quinn,
- joan watson,
- matthew "punchy" o'connor,
- sigma klim,
- terezi pyrope,
- the grand highblood,
- the signless,
- wesker,
- wyatt earp,
- ✘ azula,
- ✘ cinderella,
- ✘ diana ladris,
- ✘ eliot spencer,
- ✘ ellie,
- ✘ enjolras,
- ✘ guy crood,
- ✘ hawkeye pierce,
- ✘ howard bassem,
- ✘ ian chesterton,
- ✘ ian gallagher,
- ✘ john a. zoidberg,
- ✘ john watson,
- ✘ kevin prentiss,
- ✘ marius pontmercy,
- ✘ maximus,
- ✘ mindy macready,
- ✘ neffa a reyeth,
- ✘ orc,
- ✘ peeta mellark,
- ✘ perry kelvin,
- ✘ pruna,
- ✘ r,
- ✘ rat,
- ✘ sherlock holmes (bbc),
- ✘ shion,
- ✘ venus dee milo,
- ✘ zelos wilder
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.
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.
no subject
"Uh - yeah. Sorry. Money, I meant. We have people who-- you know what? Never mind. A joke really isn't that great when you have to go into an explanation of economics to make it work."
She tilts her head. "So what's it like where you're from?"
no subject
"Oh, it's, ah, different." Yeah, that part was obvious. "Very, very different. Like some of the people here seem used to the things like the buildings and cars even if it's different where they're from but nothing here is anything like anything back home. There aren't any buildings. There are just plants and animals and trees and mountains. The only thing that's the same is everything is trying to kill you but it's only people sometimes and animals are easier to kill back than people are."
no subject
"Weird. So like... does that mean you're from the beginning of time, or are you from like... the end of time? Or are you an alien too?"
no subject
He shrugged.
"I don't even know if I'm from the same places as anyone here or if it's really a matter of time. It might just be that my world's newer. That we're at our beginnings and it matches the beginnings other places had."
no subject
"Who the fuck even knows," She offered. "Does it really matter? We're all stuck here now. I don't think this place is like anything anyone's ever been to, and we're all going to have to get used to it. You'll catch up."
no subject
He pressed a few fingers against his chest and then made a gesture like something was flying away, fluttering his fingers.
"Even if my body is stuck here, my spirit - it's going to live back home. That's where it's going to live instead."
He nodded decisively to himself, looking off into the distance a bit, as if there really was a part of himself that could detach and fly off somewhere impossibly far and he was looking at where it had fluttered off to.
no subject
"That's... Well, that's pretty great, to have a place like that," Ellie admitted. She sure didn't. She reached out, pressing fingertips to his chest where he'd had his before.
"But it's not really what I meant. This? This will always be yours. No matter what." She withdrew her hand. "But that can only survive if the rest of you does, right? Endure and survive. That's what it comes down to."
She tried to offer him a reassuring smile. "You don't gotta give them anything at all, I just wouldn't want to see you hit by a car or something."
no subject
What a good kid.
"Oh, you mean adjusting like not getting run over by the thingies and all the...weird stuff. Yes, I'm working on that. I really don't, ah, want to get hit by one of those again. Because...that kind of happened already. You really just don't expect them to be rolling around out there," he said awkwardly.
Luckily he'd just gotten bruised and scraped up a little because they'd almost stopped in time.
Still, something she said stuck with him, and he asked gently, concerned, "You don't have a place like that?"
no subject
At his question though, she glanced away and shrugged.
"Nah. Plenty of decent views, but uh... My world is kind of-- well. In the middle of an apocalypse. 'End of the world', you know." She pauses, and then adds in a small voice: "For humans anyway," before she forces herself to perk up again, pushing it all behind her.
Because it was. She had abandoned it, whether she wanted to or not.
"But, you know, it's alright. The world isn't just humans. I saw some giraffes, once, and they'd never be there if we were still around as much as we were, so life'll go on."
no subject
Now he knew better, that they were just escaping a catastrophe, but at the time it had been pretty terrifying and even knowing it wasn't the end, that they hadn't jumped to a new world, didn't make it any less terrifying. It had still been a disaster.
But being the way he was, someone wandering alone, meant he really hadn't had much to lose and in the end, he'd gained a family instead. He knew that might not be the same everywhere.
"Sorry," he said gently, sincerely, and then shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe, as bad as it is here, it might lead to good things if this...if something ever changes, if we ever get to go home. Maybe that would let you go somewhere else."
He added, "We did that - me and my family - we got away from...it was like the world was collapsing around us. Earthquakes, lava, the ground opening up. We found a new world - well, not really a world, but...close enough. If it's even possible we're all in this place, maybe that means you'll be able to find a new one, too, if -"
If someone saved them. If they saved themselves. If the status quo changed in their favor. But he knew they shouldn't talk too much about that.
"I hope it does."
no subject
Not that he was lying to her, of course.
But hopefulness for the future just wasn't something that was bred easily in an apocalypse.
She forced a rueful smile to her lips.
"Yeah, well. We'll see I guess. Things can't get worse, right?" Yes, they could. They always could.
no subject
Right after it started to rain, after you slipped down a ravine, after you twisted your ankle at the bottom, there was always a chance that time, right then, was when a predator would decide to show up.
Life wasn't easy. That was why he'd said he'd hope for her rather than talking about thing getting better as objective fact.
"Even if they do, none of us will be facing it alone."
That at least was the truth, even if 'everything will be okay' wasn't.
"I mean look at me. Terrified they're in my head, freaking out and hiding under a table, and here you are trying to be nice and get my mind off it."
no subject
"... Yeah. People aren't so bad here, really." It wasn't the same back home, but little was. "But I dunno, for someone terrified you seem pretty okay to me," She teased lowly. "Not that it looks like I'm doing a great job of getting your mind off it."
no subject
It helped calm down the part of his brain that had him always on edge to meet people who could potentially be threats making it clear they weren't threats.
Still, that undercurrent of panic was always there, waiting to launch him into running or fighting.
Right now, his self-control had won out and he was able to act relaxed. In fact, he flopped over to lay down on the floor, knees still bent, occasionally reaching into the bowl of melon as he looked up to talk at her.
"But it's still always there - and it's why I'm alive. Where I come from, a strong fear reflex will get you places - ones that aren't inside something's stomach. It's just a horrible thing to have when you have too much downtime."
Being pulled into a horrific situation like all this then having time where he was shoved into something and told to mingle and enjoy the snacks was bewildering.
no subject
She offered him a sympathetic smile.
"Fear keeps people alive." Or they die afraid. But that wasn't exactly helpful to say. "I get scared too. It doesn't really matter how scared you are, it matters what you do with it, right?"
She reached out, gently patting his shoulders.
"And you seem to be doing okay."
no subject
"You're a nice kid. I'm sorry you're stuck in a place that has you scared - and that it sounds like 0you came from one. If you ever need help with anything..."
no subject
"Don't you worry about me. But I'll let you know if I need help. You do the same with me, yeah?"
wanna wrap it here?
People being kind to each other, watching out for each other, that was just the way it was supposed to be.
So it was a happy nose wrinkle that came with a smile.
"Sure thing."