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: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-17 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
She smiled back but shook her head, "No, if I do be wanting a crown I do be needing to be earning it." By winning. She had to work harder she hadn't done well at all in the last arena.
orestes: (16;)

[personal profile] orestes 2013-12-17 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Easily, he reached up into sandy curls to remove the ring of laurels tangled in his hair. The crown itself wasn't in the Greek style, but rather it was of that worn by the heroes of the First Republic. The realization brought renewed bitterness to his eyes as he traced the patterns of the waxy leaves with his fingertips. "Do you truly believe I deserve any of this?"
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-17 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"You did be winning." She nodded, "And winners do be getting crowns, and a party."

She looked around her and gave him a slightly sad smile. "You do no be getting much else, so you should be enjoying it."
orestes: (12;)

[personal profile] orestes 2013-12-17 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
That, at least, was true. He nodded gravely, smile matching hers. "For all I know, I will next see you again in the Arena."

Safety, after all, was no longer guaranteed. He could likely petition, of course, to be kept away from the tumult, but at what cost to his dignity?
knifewithnoname: (hmm)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-18 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
She nodded, and sighed. "They do no be having honour. A deal do be being a deal."

It seemed a very simple thing to her.
orestes: (11;)

[personal profile] orestes 2013-12-20 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Not in the slightest." He had to agree with the sentiment and its delivery. Of course it was either naive or foolish to expect the people who would force you into a death match to have honor in any capacity. "Do not let me put you in a bad way, Princess. Enjoy the celebration and put such things out of your head for now. We will fix them, I promise, but we will have to fix them on another day."
knifewithnoname: (listening)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-20 10:28 am (UTC)(link)
Pruna nodded, "We will be. You did be promising." She sighed, "But I can no be enjoying the celebration because I can no be finding Sandy."

She was beginning to get quite worried.
orestes: (05;)

[personal profile] orestes 2013-12-22 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
"That is... A friend of yours, I assume?" This wasn't good. Enjolras could deal with children who resembled Parisian gamin, but gamin were tough, made of sturdier stuff perhaps than even he and his friends. If Pruna were to expect comfort from him, well, he didn't really know how that would end.

"She must be around here somewhere. Would you like me to go looking for her with you?" If this other girl were a Tribute, should would have to be in attendance. And if for some reason she was not, perhaps they could find another distraction along the way.
knifewithnoname: (princess pruna)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-22 08:50 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes, she do be being my girlfriend and my ally." It was a good job Pruna did not want comfort then, and indeed would not know what to do with it if it were given.

"No." She shook her head, "You do be being the victor and you do be having to be being here and looking like you do be wanting to be being here." Something that, in her opinion, he was failing at. "But she do be being a bit taller than me, with light hair and she might be all leaky eyed because she do be being scared a lot." She sighed at that, she better not be. Pruna was slowly teaching her. "So if you do be seeing her you do be telling me."
orestes: (10;)

[personal profile] orestes 2013-12-25 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"Of course," he nodded, reassuringly. A girl around Pruna's age would be uncommon enough at such an event so as to be noticeable. And, while he was anxious to take any excuse to leave his perch at the main table, she was entirely correct. Sometimes, Enjolras feared, this child could be far too practical. "I shall let you know as soon as I have spotted her, and I shall let her know that you are looking for her."
knifewithnoname: (smiles)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
"I do be thanking you." She waved at him, "Be remembering to be smiling, Effie do be saying that do be being important."

With that very useful advice she skipped off into the crowd to continue looking for Sandy.