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 2013-12-25 09:08 am (UTC)(link)
"Stealing from other slavers?" She nodded, understanding that. "So did your job be stealing them?"
fire_punk: (upset)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-25 09:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Kind of..." He shrugged uncomfortably. "I didn't have a job but she made me help her."
knifewithnoname: (listening)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 10:53 am (UTC)(link)
She blinked confused at that, "But if she did be making you help her then it did be being your job, right?"
fire_punk: (upset)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-26 04:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not really. And it wasn't the only thing she made me do."
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"What else did you be doing?"
fire_punk: (pic#)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-26 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
He scowled and muttered something under his breath. He didn't like thinking about that and yet he couldn't forget it.
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-26 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"You should be saying all your words clearly." She told him wrinkling her nose.
fire_punk: (pic#4342708)

cw: mention of abuse

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-27 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
He crossed his arms, glaring at the floor. "I said we fucked."
knifewithnoname: (oh I see)

I feel like I need to apologise for her again

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-27 10:06 am (UTC)(link)
Pruna wrinkled her nose, not understanding. Fuck was a curse work but it made no sense in this context. "You did be cursing?"
fire_punk: (upset)

No need and Kevin is the same way

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-27 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"I... No." He wasn't sure what to say. If she didn't know yet, if she was still like he'd been before Yvette... "It's something adults do."
knifewithnoname: (oh I see)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-28 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
"Something adults do?" There wasn't much that Pruna knew that adults did that kids didn't. Some people here said that kids shouldn't be killing but Pruna had been killing since she was much younger, and she was a tribute so she didn't think Kevin would mean that.

"Like sex?" That was a thing adults did that kids didn't.
fire_punk: (upset)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-29 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
His face went pale as he nodded. "Yeah, that."
knifewithnoname: (thinking)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-29 12:00 pm (UTC)(link)
She wrinkled her nose, "Did you no be wanting to?" He didn't seem very happy about it, even though most people liked sex apparently.
fire_punk: (upset)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-29 03:30 pm (UTC)(link)
He shook his head firmly. "Not with her. She was supposed to do that with my dad,not me."
knifewithnoname: (thinking)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-29 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh." Pruna nodded, "Because they did be being married." She nodded, "People do be getting angry if the person they did be marrying to be having sex with someone else. Then they do be getting drunk and fighting."

Pruna's only education about relationships coming from serving in an inn that saw it's fair share of domestic disputes.
fire_punk: (pic#7199198)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-29 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
He nodded. Dad would have been so mad at them both if he knew. And Yvette didn't even make it good. "Yeah, and I was a kid."
knifewithnoname: (But I don't want that)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-29 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh." She wrinkled her nose, "Sandy did be saying that kids having sex do be being gross and adults do no be liking to be even talking about it with kids."
fire_punk: (pic#4342708)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-30 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, most adults. I told you she was bad."
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-30 10:00 am (UTC)(link)
"Well you did be killing her." She shrugged, "So you did be winning."
fire_punk: (Default)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-30 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, I did. So she can't anymore."
knifewithnoname: (oh I see)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-30 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Pruna nodded, she was glad that Kevin had killed her.
fire_punk: (pic#7199185)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-30 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"So what did you do before you came here?" He assumed it would be for fun except school.
knifewithnoname: (smiles)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-12-31 07:35 am (UTC)(link)
Pruna frowned and looked around, but no one here cared about light and darkness and she had been brought here to kill, she wouldn't get into trouble. They knew she was a killer.

"In the day time I did be working at an inn, and learning things with my sister, and at night we did be doing jobs for our guardians. I do be being older now so I could be doing contracts alone, I did be killing eight people all by myself." And plenty more with help, she sounds proud. She is. She enjoys her work.
fire_punk: (pic#4342708)

[personal profile] fire_punk 2013-12-31 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
"They made you kill people?" He didn't like that. It was like Yvette. Too much like her. He didn't think much of her guardians.
knifewithnoname: (pondering)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2014-01-01 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"It did be being my job." She told him wrinkling her nose at him. "I do be being good at it."

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