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.

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Cuthbert stopped short of getting more food when he saw this man. He had a good mind for faces and this was one he didn't recognize. He wouldn't be here if he wasn't associated with the Arena somehow, but it still felt strange and Cuthbert wasn't going to let it stand.

"Hile, stranger. What brings you to a fine dream like this?"

He was smiling, but it was a polite smile, not his usual broad, genuine smile.

As Cuthbert approached, Sigma had already found himself a glass of white wine and was enjoying it by his lonesome. He smiled politely as the other approached, a man he had never been introduced to but one he recognized vaguely, but was somewhat perplexed by the question. What an odd thing to say to another Tribute, even if he thought him to be new...

"Forced here like the rest of us," he said into his drink, taking a quick sip before continuing. "Hello," he replied as an afterthought, "I don't believe we've met..."

Not one to mix up confusion with rudeness, Cuthbert immediately gave a bow and introduced himself.

"Cuthbert Allgood, last son of Gilead. Forgive me for not starting with that."

He was still uncertain about this particular man, he could have been a tribute just brought in, but he had the air of someone who had been around long enough to know the ropes. This was a puzzle.

"How long have you been forced here? And not just to this dream."

Sigma smiled mysteriously. It seemed someone had already caught on that there was something off about one of the dream's interlopers. Hey, what was wrong with throwing a few Tributes for a loop?

"A pleasure to meet you, Cuthbert. Can I call you Cuthbert?" He knew there were some that did not appreciate being put on a first-name-basis, and even without his true face, Sigma elected to be polite. "Oh, a year, now," he replies honestly. "What about you?"

"A year? Say true? Then how come I've never seen you before." He's dropped all pretense of being cordial now, something was off and he had to know what it was.

"And before you accuse me of having a poor memory, I can name every man I've met so far in the Capitol, and many of those I haven't. My fellow gunslingers may not have kept be around for my wit, but they saw the usefulness in my sharp mind."

He was staring Sigma down now, which wasn't as intimidating on the face of a sixteen year old as it could be.

"Well, congratulations. You're an intelligent one," Sigma replied with his brows raised, genuinely impressed. He didn't feel like dropping his disguise just yet, however; he was curious to know just how similar to his older self he was. Part of him wondered if anyone in the Capitol had ever caught on that Kyle was his son from looks alone, and this was an easy test should the man know as many current Tributes as he claimed.

"Allow me to get you thinking, then. We are in a dream that can be manipulated to a degree, and I will concede to changing my face. I will allow you a few questions and I will answer honestly, and should you guess my identity correctly, I will happily return to my usual self." Besides his motive, he thought of it as a game to pass the time, something to drink to.

"I would like to know if you are as sharp as you claim."

This was just the sort of thing Cuthbert couldn't say no to. He looks Sigma up and down thoroughly. It was harder than it would normally be considering their party clothes. Under other circumstances this would be over quickly.

"Asking your district would be too much of a hint, so I will start smaller. Was your face the only thing about you that changed? I would feel terribly cheated if you were a woman and I was guessing far too far from the mark."

Pleased the other would play along, Sigma shifted his weight to a position more comfortable to stand in for a long period of time and watched Cuthbert curiously.

He laughed as politely as he could manage at the other Tribute's question, though his response was perhaps a bit teasing. "I understand that. I assure you, I am one hundred percent male. In fact, my face is the only change, for the most part. At least, any changes between this body and my own would be impossible to observe." Metal bones. Arms that were identical to the ones he wore now, youth and all, no matter how old he grew. As astute an observer he was, Cuthbert would be unable to tell the difference.

"Anything else you'd like to know?"

"I'd like to know who you are, but that is mine to guess and not yours to tell. Not yet at least."

He squinted his eyes at Sigma and tried again, still sticking to easy questions so it wouldn't be a dead give away.

"Have you changed the color of your hair or your eyes?" Not that it would be the only way to throw him off, but it could, more easily than he would like to admit.

Both good questions. The fact that this bright young man had not guessed immediately relaxed Sigma significantly. No, it was not immediately obvious that Kyle was his son...

Pleased, he thought of how to answer the questions that would not be a dead give away. "Have I changed the colour of my hair... Hm. What about if I told you this was how my hair was supposed to look?" It was an indirect yes.

"As for your next question, that would be to assume I had normal eyes to begin with. Perhaps those are not the straightforward honest answers I promised, but to say anything more would be to present you my identity on a silver platter." He smiled and took a drink of his wine, wondering if the boy was ready to guess or desired another question.

"That is terribly unfair, we're all subject to the whims of our stylists."

But the wheels were turning in his head now. He had to assume this man was and always had been human, because that was his best chance at actually guessing. And the comment about the eyes was probably more of a hint than he could have asked for. At least this early in the game.

"Sai, I may know who you are, for I've seen the face of a man whose eyes may be abnormal normally, but I must ask one last thing to be sure."

He squinted his eyes at the man he was trying to ferret out. He might be on the utterly wrong track.

"Have you changed your age significantly?"

Sigma is ready to apologize for such an unfair hint, but then cracks a grin as Cuthbert finally falls on the right track. See? He pulled it off, regardless.

"Yes. That is correct." He waits for his answer.

Cuthbert looks so smug when he hears that. He knows who this is now and he can hardly wait to reveal it.

"Well then, Sai, I would say you are a man called Sigma. And I never would have guessed without your hints, which is a terrible shame and testament to my skills slipping."

He shakes his head at his own slow detective skills, but it's mostly in jest.

"I must say, well played, Sai. You are very well disguised."

At first, the young man taps his chin idly, and then turns to find where he had placed his drink as if he is ready to walk away from Cuthbert. Once he finds it, however, the transformation is apparent: his messy jet black hair has transformed to a longer silver-grey, youth has melted away for considerable age, healthy olive skin tone has become ashily pale.

"Do not get me wrong," he begins with a smile in his voice, taking a sip of his wine, "I did not conceal my true appearance to deceive. It was something of an accident." His skin and his hair is not all that has changed, his eye has indeed been replaced with an electronic replacement that vaguely resembles a gear.

"After all, you are only as old as you feel, isn't that right?" He gives Cuthbert a husky laugh. "In any event, I believe a congratulations are in order." He lifts his glass respectfully to the other Tribute with a nod. "My name is certainly Sigma. It is a pleasure to meet you, Cuthbert."

It's strange to watch someone change their face like that. But Bert is just too pleased to be right to care about anything else that's going on.

"The pleasure is all mine. After all, you've given me a game, a riddle and a show. 'Tis rare a man can get all three from a single conversation. But you do not disappoint, sai."

He bows his head, grinning ear to ear and just so happy about everything that's happening.

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The Crowning of Enjolras

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