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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You might get that chance." They were on the same wavelength on that one. This place could bring in anyone it wanted to, so why wouldn't it bring in vampires? Or pseudo-vampires?

It brought in zombies. "All things considered, being mercy killed isn't that bad. I got eaten by raptors after being shoved into them." He shrugged, then gave a nod. "I'm going to try better next time, too. I did find some kind of healing water fountain, but food? Food would be great."

Speaking of food... "Hey, do you think that we're going to be hungry when we wake up from this? We're not really eating food, just dream food, right?"

"Let's hope not. Fiction has already taken enough liberties around here. When you start seeing characters you know from a comic book walking around, you know that you're in for a prey fucked up ride."

She shook her head. "Nah. The leg being ripped off had been bad enough, but dying slowly from that would have been awful. Guy did it with dignity too. I'll give him that. Never seen anyone do it with the stomach and everything. It was admirable."

That was a good question. "I'm thinking its real food. We ARE heir tributes, after all."

"You're right about that. I'm already meeting people I never thought I would ever meet. Then again, I didn't think that I'd be meeting anyone in a place like this." It still didn't quote reach to him that he was actually here. Not this dream, but then, this whole place sometimes felt like a dream.

"That is. Let's hope that you won't ever have to do that again. Once is enough. Maybe you'll win the next one, who knows." Perry said it without too much emotion. She could win next time. Anyone could, really. He wasn't sure if he wanted to win.

"Real food in a fake place... I better feel full when I wake up. What's the point of eating something that can do a cool thing, but doesn't fill you up? I saw the little jelly soldiers start marching around. Anything is possible."

"Who would even know they were able to do something like this?" Mindy wondered aloud. "I mean, they're tapping into a part of the mind that scientists in my world can't even do. Granted, I live in the US, and we're getting pretty bad with all the spending, but still. With all they can do, you wonder why they'd use it making more entries for this game thing."

She gave him a smile. "I expect worse, but I expect it to be done in front of my face this time. That's what I hated about the last shit: I didn't have a say, I just made the wrong mistake at the wrong time, and I was done. Been training to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

Mindy was already flexing her fists. Apparently some things weighed heavily on her mind.

"Hey, you never know? Maybe you'll be good and filled when you wake up, right?"

"This stuff is out of my league. The best we can do, in the way of personal tech, is having some Ipods around. And tapping into a part of the mind?" Perry shook his head. "Back home, all we're doing is fighting to survive. Fuck finding a cure, let's just group together and watch the rest of humanity dwindle down. And then that's it. You get to be corpse food." A pretty depressing outlook at life, he knew. But it was reality. Sad reality. And it's why he'd gotten out of it.

Until now. He tried to match her smile, and succeeded a quarter of it. "Let's make a promise of some kind, then. We don't have to be near each other or anything, but this time around, when we die? We die on our terms." Seems like a good promise to make.

"I don't know about tapping into minds, but we definitely have the ipod part down. Your world sounds pretty fucked though. A lot like the kind of world a friend of mine is from. Mine isn't that bare bones, but it is a pretty 'dog-eat-dog' kind of place. The law enforcement try, but they can't be everywhere and they can be paid off like any good corrupt system ingrained with crime."

At least the capitol was pretty overt in how bad they were.

"Oh, I have every intention of that. My last death was bullshit. This time around, I'm gonna at least last longer. But yeah, I can make the pact. How good are you?"

"The only law enforcement we have are soldiers. Inside and outside the stadium. We have what we need, and nothing more or less. It's strict there." He had unconsciously gone into soldier talk mode, but then relaxed it at the end. "It's a hell of a lot different here."

This place, the Capitol? This was heaven, as thought of by someone high on shrooms. Not too bad, really. And even made easier by the fact that Perry didn't care what happened to him, here.

"My whole life has been based on survival. I'm going to survive as long as I have to, and then, if no one kills me, I'll kill myself. I'm not winning one of these things."

"That goes without saying. Who needs actual soldiers when they dangle your freedom in their hands? It's stuff like this that shows us that they can fuck with us anytime they feel like. This is just a reminder. In some ways, its kinda worse, don't you think?"

She gave him a look at the last part. "Why the hell not?"

"Yeah. You know how they say that not knowing is the bigger problem? What makes it all harder for you to come to terms with? That feeling of unknowing?" He shook his head. "That's bullshit. The knowing, and not being able to do anything about it. That's the worse thing."

He gave her a look right back. "If I'm going to be alive in this place, then I'm taking the option that gives me what I want. Living a life here of a bourgeois Capitol pig isn't anything I want a part of."

"Yeah, it is. It was what I live with, what most people keep forgetting when they see someone like me. There's this unwritten rule that I'm supposed to be whatever shitty ideal of a kid is like, when in reality living like that means I'm stupid to the problems around me. I'm more than happy to know what the hell is up."

Ah. That was what he meant.

"So you're thinking the same thing as me. I hear that. Some people would say to take advantage of what we have. I will: I'm going to that training room and work out this body of mine, so when the time comes I don't have to kill mindlessly."

"Not gonna lie, you would fit in well back home at the Stadium. Not that you should want to live in fear of zombies and only get out to the rest of the world during salvage missions, but training starts younger then you are." Just as an idea. She didn't seem like she had a problem killing live people, so why not dead ones? Most of them were scared about the training, but you had to wise up to real life pretty quickly.

"First plan I've heard so far that's actually good." Perry laughs softly; still not used to it, but trying. "I'm going to do the same. Training room, food, and real medical supplies. If they're going to give it to us for free, sort of, then I'll take it."

"Sounds like you and a friend of mine come from a similar world." Not the same, of course, but similar. "Then again, not gonna hod my breath that there won't be any zombies. This is the Arena, and they brought raptors the last time. Whose to say that they won't bring out the undead?"

Mindy would, of course, come into contact with the undead later.

"Only worry is getting dependent on stuff. Wouldn't put it past them to make some of this shit addictive."

"Yeah? I hate thinking that there's more then one zombie world out there." Perry frowned. "Zombies I can take. Raptors not so much. But I know someone who will fit right in, if it was a zombie arena." That corpse. The corpse he had dismembered.

The one who ate him, back home. "I see where you're coming from. Stick to training and things that you know you'll need, and then gorge on the rest?"

"So would I, being from a place where there are no zombies at all. But from what I saw of this place, you have some zombies anyway, don't you?"

She made a face. "Nah. I'd eat sparingly. I mean, who exactly can you trust in a place like this."

"Yeah. There's one here, that I know of. He's from back where I came from." Let's leave it at that, for now. It's bound to come out sooner or later, he knows that. But that doesn't mean he wants to talk about it.

"Actually, you can trust the Capitol a lot when it comes to some things here." Perry points out, looking around at where they are. "They want us to fight to the death in an arena, right? They're not going to poison us before that, then."

"From what I hear, he doesn't sound like the kind of zombie you go galloping off to kill," she said. "Which is weird to me, since we were picked for the Arena and all. Maybe because he's like that, they chose him. Give a different flavor to the Arena."

Mindy gave him a knowing look. "I don't know. Didn't they actually poison people in one Arena just to make things more interesting? Who's to say they won't do it again, only differently?"

"Maybe. He's a killer though. All zombies are killers." Said flatly, because it's true. Maybe they're not a down and out murderer, if they even know the term anymore. But they're killers. How else can they eat your brain?

Perry shrugged a little again. "Yeah, but that was the arena. Though we fought the monster thing, and if you got hurt you were still sent into the arena." He paused, realizing that yes, he still had a glass in his hand, so he might as well drain that thing.

"But it's not fun for people to watch, if their favorite tribute people are getting hurt outside of the arena, right? Double standard."

"He's a zombie and we're human. Technically, we're all killers. I mean think about it: a zombie shambles and is single mined in eating. Humans get, you know, fucking vendettas and emotions, get off on torturing people they don't like. Compared to that, zombies are like animals: part of the environment, doing what they are supposed to do."

She grimaced. "No, its not. My own fault for finding people I like in this damn place though. Yet another failing of humans, I guess: loneliness sucks after awhile."

"That's right. Just human sized animals." She has a good point, she does. But maybe it's just the human emotions and vendettas, but Perry doesn't want to see it like that. Yes, it is those, and she is right. But he doesn't want her to be right. So he's stubborn about it.

"That I'll agree with. I thought that it'd be easy to not care anymore, but this place really fucks around with everything, doesn't it."

Actually Mindy was trying to get across they were kinda WORSE than animals: animals were at least a part of nature. Then again she knew for sure she could straddle the line based on her very terminology, so better to keep her mouth shut.

"Yeah, you bet. I've already made a few friends here, something I didn't even do back home. How am I supposed to deal with that when an actual Arena happens again?"

"If you see them, run in the opposite direction?" That ghost of a smile was back. There was almost smiles all over this place, and Perry would have to catch himself from laughing outright. He knew it wouldn't sound any better then he'd tried before.

"No clue. At least it's not anyone you know from home? I think that might be harder."

"Nobody from home would be worth the effort of me holding back." Fuck, Joel needed to stay on his toes, and other than him only Marcus would get a bye. Everyone else she knew back home? They'd be luck if she left them intact.

"I don't know if I could do that though. I mean, we're all here to eventually win, right?"

What kind of home do you come from, Perry wanted to ask. Someone from something like that? Had to have a story to go with it.

"Right. You just have to kill as many people who could be victors, until you are one. Seems... like a simple plan, if you only look at it like that."

An empty one, mostly.

"Nothing about that is simple. It's not even just about winning. It's about showing the Capitol you are worth sponsoring, being cared about. If you can't win, you at least have to be interesting, or you're toast."

"You've got it figured out better then anyone else I've met here so far. And you've been here about as long as I have." Perry said honestly. He was still trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now that he was here, in terms of actually doing things that alive people do.

Surviving was not a new concept, but for him, it was.

The Crowning of Enjolras

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