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.
knifewithnoname: (thinking)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-01-27 12:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"He did be be teaching me, I did be trying to be learning it myself but the book did be being stupid. So he did be teaching me about babies, and how we did be being born and how everyone do be having parents, even me."

She wasn't sure why Peeta looked shocked.
shinyisfalse: (so here's how I feel)

[personal profile] shinyisfalse 2014-02-06 05:22 am (UTC)(link)
When she explained it that way, it made a lot more sense, and there was relief in hearing that. His father had waited a long time before teaching him about that sort of thing, and by the time he did, his brothers had already covered it all.

"Well, when you put it that way, maybe we should all be thanking him for that." Peeta offered. Still weird, but then, on the scale of odd, this ranked pretty low.
knifewithnoname: (yeah well)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-02-06 02:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well I did be thanking him." She told him pointing a finger, "I did be thanking him politely." Effie would have been proud of her.
shinyisfalse: (Default)

[personal profile] shinyisfalse 2014-02-10 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
Peeta laughed, putting his hands up. "It never crossed my mind that you wouldn't thank him politely." He grinned at her. "Think I could bribe you into taking some time and showing me the food here? It might be easier to find Sandy if we start walking around some more."
knifewithnoname: (smiles)

Begin to wrap?

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-02-10 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
She grinned at that and then nodded, "You do no be needing to be bribing me, I will be doing it for free." He was right, it would be easier if they were walking around.

shinyisfalse: (hi nice to meet you hi)

Sounds good!

[personal profile] shinyisfalse 2014-02-15 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
"But bribing just sounds better then if I asked you to walk around with me for free." Peeta laughed. "Let's go. I'm hungry, you might need to stop me from eating a table."

He put out his hand in a waving gesture, to let her take the lead.
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-02-15 12:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"You will be being sick if you do be eating a table silly. And you will be breaking your teeth." She led the way, keeping her eyes sharp, looking for Sandy.

"What food do you be liking?"
shinyisfalse: (Default)

[personal profile] shinyisfalse 2014-02-18 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
"That would be something to see though, wouldn't it? I'd be sick as a dog. A dog without any fangs. I'd be a fang-less hound." Peeta was just rambling a little and taking it all in.

"Hm? I like regular food... I mean, some of the meat stuff here. The soups. There's a lot here we don't get back home, so it's... I like the cakes and cookies, though. They do amazing things with them. What about you?"
knifewithnoname: (smiles)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-02-18 01:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"A dog who did no be having fangs would be being useless." Pruna agreed and then grinned, food was a subject she could talk about for ever. "I do be liking sweet food, they do be having honey cakes, me and Guy did be nabbing some earlier. The meat do be being nice but it do be making me feel all full, fish do be being better. We did be eating a lot of fish in Gauig but they do no seem to be making sweet fish here."

There was nothing in existance that could not be made better with the addition of honey.