The Crowning of Enjolras

[etcircenses]

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.

Comments

[celebrityskinned]

"What, the all-you-can-eat buffet? The swank rooms with the big plushy bed? The adoring fans? Oh, yeah, it's real hard being us." Venus rolls her eyes and downs her champagne before standing up. She pulls the long train of her dress aside.

It's clear from her tone that she's just disparaging Kain. She's frustrated at the entire thing. She would have been quite happy to accept this life if her fellow Tributes didn't so adamantly insist on its tribulations.

[dragoon_pride]

He narrows his eyes at the tone. He's never understood the appeal in fame- sure, it certainly happens to an extent when you're well known in Baron. But the way they do things in this "Capitol" is baffling to him, from an initial look. As for comfortable settings, well, he doesn't care either way. Give him a cave in a mountain and he'll manage. The fighting is probably the only part of the whole situation that appeals to him.

"What if those aren't things that I care about?"

Kain finally gives in, grabbing a glass of wine, at least. He needs something to take the edge off of all of this.

[celebrityskinned]

"Then you're pretty damn lucky if putting food on your table and a roof over your head is a source of, oh, what's the word. Apathy." Venus curls her lip and waits for her double to come over with some h'ors d'euvres. If his response to her tone bothers her, she certainly doesn't show it on her face. She pops a shrimp into her mouth and swallows it whole.

[rising_drive]

"I'm more than capable of hunting food and finding my own place to stay." But of course, he's still not used to thinking in terms of being as trapped as they'd made this place sound. The loss of that freedom won't be so easy to bear. Kain sips some more, then tries some sort of spicy cheese. It's truly astonishing how real it all tastes for something that doesn't exist. "Are we truly so controlled here, that we've really no means to make our own living?"

[celebrityskinned]

"Well, I don't know what time period you're from, but that's not a control thing so much as a reality thing. What are you going to do, hunt the alligators in the sewer and eat pigeons while you sleep in a dumpster?"

It strikes Venus that Kain might be from an earlier time period than she is, and for a moment that just makes her angrier. But it's not Kain's fault she's mad at Enjolras.

"Do you know what electricity is?"

[dragoon_pride]

"Do you mean something like lightning-based magic?" Ok, that would undoubtedly be a "no" on the electricity question...

Kain takes a couple more bites to eat, but then folds his arms as he considers the situation a little more closely. "Is there not some wilderness out there I could turn to?" They'd mentioned something about outdoor arenas, but he presumes there have to be places outside of that, where he might go and set up camp. But if that option was so easily taken, wouldn't people already be doing that? And not stuck participating in these Games.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus pauses for a solid five seconds. "No. That's not what I mean."

She feels a wave of pity, more than anything. She hasn't harped on it, but she's noticed how off-kilter Enjolras has been with the modern age. Perhaps she's been taking some things for granted.

"Good luck trying to make it outside the city walls. My bet is they'd rope you up and bring you here again before you got half a mile."

[dragoon_pride]

"Then explain this 'electricity'. What use is it to us, if it's not magical?" Kain looks displeased at this entire revelation. He'd assumed there had to be something keeping them in these cycles of battle, though. Best to understand it now. "And what gives them the power to hold us here? Better weapons? Strength in numbers?"

[celebrityskinned]

"Mostly better weapons. I mean, some of us are living weapons, but they manage to take that away from us, so odds are they're manipulating us inside our own bodies." Venus raises an eyebrow. "Why, going to stage a rebellion on on your lonesome?"

[dragoon_pride]

It seems he'll have a great deal yet to learn about this world and its ways. It's completely unlike anything else he's experienced, including the gods' war. "I'm hardly that foolish. I just want to know the full extent of what we're dealing with." Aside from the things he'd been quickly informed of when first arriving. He's sure there's more to it- there always is.

[celebrityskinned]

"Well, prepare to have your mind blown." Her double ego comes by with drinks for the both of them. "You might want some of this before you do."

[dragoon_pride]

"Is it truly that horrific?" But he's starting to get some deep feelings of dread over this whole situation. Being trapped in such a place, and with memories intact of a world where he belongs... it's bad enough. This place is far more restrictive than the last one.

Those thoughts earn a pretty good gulp of his drink the moment he takes it in hand.

[celebrityskinned]

"People tell me it is. Me?" She tilts her head to one side drowsily. "Personally, my life before was sort of like this, so I don't see what the fuss is, but apparently this place sucks."

[dragoon_pride]

"Your world was like this one? Did you face similar battles?" If so that's strongly of interest to Kain. He's been wondering, how many worlds like this and the last one he visited are out there. It seems that this is perhaps a very common occurrence. Perhaps it means he'll never get home, just keep being sent to new worlds to fight in, endlessly. So be it, if this really is his trial.

[celebrityskinned]

"Sure did." She almost goes on to say she's a televised superheroine, but she suspects that that might be as useful as just speaking gibberish at Kain. "And I was real good at it, too."

[dragoon_pride]

Complete and total gibberish indeed. He has a great deal to learn about this world, he's finding. "And have you been through many cycles of these Games here?" Cycles of war, he wants to say. It's so similar to the last situation, technology upgrade aside.

[celebrityskinned]

"Two. Going on three. I did best my first time, but they say third time's the charm, right?"

[dragoon_pride]

"And from what you're saying... I assume our memories remain intact between cycles?" It perhaps seems a strange question to ask, but he wants to know... everything sounded on the surface to be like the gods' war, but now it seems there are considerable differences he's uncovering.

He can't know at all how many times he fell in battles in the cycles of the war. Perhaps every time. Perhaps never. But here, he would remember it all, and he's not certain that's any better.

[celebrityskinned]

"Yeah. You keep every gory detail." She scratches at her braids. She didn't suppose this hairstyle would be so tight in the dream, but after two hours it's starting to irritate her. "Which means you have to plan for the long game, instead of just winning one. Build alliances, don't betray people every ten seconds. You know."

[dragoon_pride]

Kain almost looks... vaguely startled, for a moment there, and he silently curses this Capitol for forcing him into this unarmored formal attire that doesn't even have a helmet for hiding his eyes. But it's only a brief little moment, and he contains any emotion in the long-practiced way he always does. There's a familiar guilt returning to weigh on him, though... How often has he trust a lance into his comrades' backs?

"That's far easier said than done."

Which will be more difficult, trusting others out there, or trusting himself? Yeah, he'd prefer not to have to figure out the answer.

[celebrityskinned]

"What, not betraying people?" She raises an eyebrow and then puts a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. "I won't tell anyone, but you probably shouldn't advertise that."

[dragoon_pride]

That really is an awkward detail to share about himself, especially with someone who he very well could be facing out there. Ugh, this whole thing has him all out of sorts. No armor, no weapon readily accessible, not even the ability to jump.

Kain thinks and finally comes up with a further answer, "I mean making allies. Building such trust isn't so easy to accomplish for some." Which is actually true enough as well. It took many cycles, or so he can assume, to get to really trust his Cosmos allies. Even without memories, it had simply felt like they'd known one another for a long time.

[celebrityskinned]

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to make allies," not friends, "when you're desperate for someone to watch your back so you can get twenty minutes of shut-eye."

She nods in agreement with herself, picking at a bacon-wrapped shrimp her double's serving her. Her double's now wearing a dinosaur mascot costume. God, she'd love to see Freud go with this.

[dragoon_pride]

Kain raises an eyebrow at the costume, eyeing her double closely as she approaches. It really is going to take him a while to get used to this world and its ways, he realizes.

"I suppose. In the midst of battle, you gain an appreciation for reliable comrades, and I could see it would be no different here..." Even if when it comes to it, he works alone so often. Despite that, the ones he's fought beside are people he'd trust more than himself. "Although it's unlike any other war, when your opponents are truly... not your enemies." He sees that distinction at the moment, just having a basic understanding of the way the games work. But what might it really be like when he's out there? He's not one to hold back when it's a fight to the death, after all. He just hopes he doesn't lose sight of who the real enemy is.

[celebrityskinned]

"I been reading a book about how your opponents aren't really your enemies in wars, either. Just little people fighting for the man." She doesn't even remember the name of the book. It's something Enjolras recommended to her. She pops a strawberry into her mouth and sucks on it.

"Anyway, it's less battle than survival, honestly."