New kind of victory.

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone on the District Tours.
What| The Celebration dinners for all the Districts.
Where| Specified in thread.
When| The second night they are there.
Warnings/Notes| Find your district below. Leave any questions here. And please add any needed warning into your subject line when appropriate.

Comments

OTA

[orestes]

The discourse is what catches his eye, and Enjolras has half a mind to take out his communicator and record it all for posterity. It's heartening to think that spirited debate is possible anywhere at all in Panem, and even if he doesn't always agree with the points being made, he supports the sentiments. It's hard not to burst in, offering his own take. He has the dual benefit of being an outsider, able to offer an opinion on how the system appears to one who has not been born into it, and that of a close participant. As much as the natives of Panem have told him that he has no right to comment on the goings on in their country, he can't help but think that anyone forced to kill or die for a particular way of life has a right to have an opinion.

The food is another high point. It isn't quite the Spanish-tinged Basquelaise of his youth, and the horchata is interesting, if too sweet for his preferences. Still, he clutches a glass more as a prop than anything else as he meanders through the crowd, curiously listening to the conversations happening around him. He doesn't mind representing these people, not if they have the nerve to engage so openly in such talks. Even when the debates end badly, or in thinly-veiled threats, they are something and its better than what can typically be observed in the Capitol.

Re: OTA

[celebrityskinned]

Venus is less at home with the debate. She's a natural for parties of the more superficial nature (laugh, smile, pose for the photographer, ask about who made what dress and nothing more serious, tuck business cards in your bra, leave perfume on the wrist of a producer), but she feels deeply unqualified to comment on any of the conversation around her. Previously she might have been happy to let the debate fly over her head, but she's intellectually taller now - it scrapes her as it passes by.

Venus grew up poor, but she has tried so actively to distance herself from that background that looking upon District Five sets some unease off inside her. District Five is hardly the poorest District, nor the hardest-working, but Venus is able to pick out the evidence. The outfits worn by the citizens to this party are, in many cases, the only nice outfits these people own, lovingly repaired and worn and for some, not even close to the right size. Citizens eat far past their fill just to not feel as if they're passing up the opportunity to taste food this good.

She almost finds herself longing for the blissful ignorance of the Capitol, where the moral quandaries are more hidden. A young girl hugs Venus around the waist and tells her of a sibling at Reaping age before giving Venus a token for the Arena, and Venus nearly cries. She fastens the little pendant, made of twisted wire and beads, onto her necklace, even though it doesn't match the Stylist's slick patterns at all.

"This seems like your sort of party," she says as she moves behind Enjolras, fondling the pendant with one hand and tucking her other in her coat for warmth. "You ever seen a lake like this?"

[orestes]

"I have not, as a point of fact. Though much of this place reminds me of home." He turns to smile at her, quiet and thoughtful. His own experiences within the party haven't been so personal, the smaller children more inclined to gawk at him with morbid fascination in their eyes than to actually approach. He can understand, it can't be easy to talk to someone celebrated for murder. "Am I so obvious?"

There's a shout of something quick and dissenting behind them, followed by a burst of jovial laughter, the sound gets muted by the wind off of the lake. "I do not think anyone will mind if I appear amused tonight. Besides, I've been behaving myself otherwise. It has not been easy, and I would appreciate your support."

[celebrityskinned]

"I wouldn't say obvious. I'd just say I know you thrive on people using their words. Especially about politics." She pulls her hand from her pocket and links it with his, the one not holding the glass that she's noticed has hardly been drained tonight.

"Is that your way of asking for my company?" Her teasing is a bit strained, frayed at the edges by the way she holds her hands a bit awkwardly, by the way she looks over her shoulders at the people around her. "I could stand to stretch my legs. I hear there's supposed to be fireworks over the lake tonight."

[orestes]

"Knowledge is power, power corrupts, and corruption is a dangerous reality of any social state." His teasing is less strained, partially from the tangible realization of what they have been fighting for, and partially because her hand continues to fit perfectly in his and he's again content to defer proper examination of that thought to a later date. "Yes, that is my way of asking for your company, Venus."

He's looking at the people too, but it isn't the anxious, furtive glances she shoots over her shoulder. His observations are made in long, approving stares as he listens to the points being tossed back and forth between the interested parties. "We should watch them together. The fireworks."

[celebrityskinned]

"That's so not how the saying goes." A few people watch them for a moment as she leads him towards the shore, but they are far less invested in their potential romance (fauxmance? she wonders) than the Capitol citizens are. With actual concerns to occupy their minds, the people here have no need to latch so voraciously on the teat of rumor and scandal.

The sky is darker than Venus has ever seen it, the stars bright enough that even the distant, dim ones seem distinct. She kicks off her heeled shoes at the edge of the party, dropping her height down to Enjolras' nose, and squelches dry sand in her toes.

"When I'm from, there are so many more people in America that the sky's never this brilliant. There's too much light pollution."

[orestes]

"Parts of Paris are the same." Not any of the parts he frequented, but the more affluent sections of the city are kept well lit. There's a case to be made regarding the correlation of light and wealth, but it's less interesting right now than the roar of the crowd behind them, and the stars hanging overhead in the darkness.

"I would not have expected America to become so populous so quickly, however." The statement is actually an implicit question and carries a note of curiosity even if he isn't actually searching for a history lesson. In the grand scheme of things, however, the 19th and the 21st centuries are not so far apart, and America was still believed by most in his time to be largely rural and undeveloped.

When her height shifts, he tentatively pulls her closer through their linked hands. They're just inside each other's personal space, and it's just intimate enough to be more than platonic. This time, however, he doesn't have the alcohol to hide behind and neither does she.

[celebrityskinned]

"If you're looking for someone to explain how, I'm not sure I could tell you. We got a lot of immigrants, you know, America, land of the free, supposedly. My great-grandparents came over as slaves, though, so your mileage may vary."

When he requests her closeness, she acquiesces, only half conscious of how they're walking hip-to-hip now. If anyone were to ask, she's answer - and probably believe - that he's just trying to protect her from the cold lap of the night air.

She gives his hand a squeeze. "Are you going to be alright, when we get back to the Capitol?"

[orestes]

He doesn't offer comment on the darker parts of her history; He isn't sure he's qualified or that it would be welcome, anyway. Enjolras is self-aware enough to know that his own privileged existence is nothing, and that even the hardships he's facing now are nothing in comparison to those faced by countless individuals historically. Still, he makes note of it all the same.

"I will be fine." The answer accompanies a small frown, one of the first he's worn all evening. He doesn't like the idea that she thinks of him as fragile, somehow, even though that's how he's presented himself a few times now. Venus should have confidence in her mentor as a participant in the Games, and he shouldn't need her as an emotional crutch like he does. "Or rather, I have no choice in the matter, but I can convince myself well enough that I will be fine. I think that I shall miss them, however."

He would trade the people of the Capitol for those of District 5 any day. There's a sinister quality to the realization and Enjolras isn't quite sure of what it means. But instead of continuing that line of thought, he squeezes Venus' hand in return, hoping that the gesture will be more convincing than anything he can articulate at the moment.

[celebrityskinned]

"As long as you send me presents."

She doesn't believe him. For a man who can write eloquent screeds about justice and republicanism, for the guy who's convinced her to look outside herself despite how it makes her want to squirm, he can't convince her about his emotions for shit.

"I'm asking you as a friend, you know, not as your Mentee. I know you'll do right by me and the District."

There's a log on the beach that makes an attractive bench. She leads him towards it.

[orestes]

"I'll be fine." He repeats, this time more firmly. It's not confidence, but there is a not of finality to it. He doesn't want her worrying about him, not when she'll have far more pressing concerns far too quickly. "And I will do better now that I have actually see the District. It makes me wonder just why they kept it from us."

The glass disappears onto the sand as they sit down. Out here with her, away from the crowd, there's no reason to look like he's casually enjoying the evening. It would be naive to suspect that they aren't being watched at all, but even so there's less scrutiny, less reason to maintain an appearance.

"Do you prefer weapons or provisions?" It's hard to ask specifics like this, but he needs to know. He should really be taking a survey of everyone in their District, but his rapport is no where near as good with any of the others. Distantly, he also knows that it's because he cares more about seeing her looked after. That isn't fair, not in the slightest, but it's true. At least Azula would pick up the slack of the others. As many faults as he could find in his partner, lack of dedication isn't one of them. "I suppose much of this will depend upon the Arena. I wonder if the stylists have received their instructions yet."

[celebrityskinned]

She frowns slightly at his rebuff, but doesn't press the issue further. If he wants to sulk, she won't stop him.

"I think they're keeping us from them, honestly." In the sand, her ankle touches his, meeting his sock with her bare skin. "If we were here all the time, the people here might start getting the impression they're worth paying attention to, you know? Bringing us out here like it's part of an afterthought...well, that just means that they're entertainment for us for a few days, and that they should be grateful to get the scraps."

It's not that Venus is a natural at how to subdue a populace, but she's sat in many an agent's room, listening to discussion of which people to pay attention to on the red carpet, who to snub and who to make feel isolated by not singling them out at all. There's warfare to celebrity life, a subtext of sabotage and manipulation.

"Provisions is food and water, right? Send me that." She knows how to kill with her bare hands, as he's experienced before. "If I don't have my health, what have I got?"

She rubs small circles into the back of his hand with her thumb.

[orestes]

She's smart, even if she doesn't always realize it. Thoughtful, in an uncanny, unsettling sort of way. It's a way that he's only considered and never perfected. Perhaps if he had bothered to consider pragmatism over ideals like this before, the barricade would have been slightly less of a failure. For the second time in the week, he got the sense that he had been an unworthy chief. He wouldn't make the same mistakes again.

"Very well, provisions it is." Their ankles slide against each other again, and he blushes. It's easy to pass it off as the cold air.

"They also couldn't want us to see this." He casts a long look back at the party and its active debate. "It undermines the Capitol's position that everything in Panem runs smoothly, and that the people are truly happy with the status quo."

Re: OTA

[burnedbrighter]

Azula watched him from afar, constantly. She found it hard to take her eyes off her fellow victor and how some of the people who had watched her grow up praised him even more then her.

It was sickening.

All the same she hoped this trip would perhaps inspire him to be a little less obvious in his rebellion against the powers that be.

"How does it feel walking among the people you will be punishing if you don't learn a little more subtly?" She finally inquired slipping behind him casually like they were more comrades in arms rather then rivals.

[orestes]

"Would you like me to learn to act with more subtlety, or not at all?" He smiled brilliantly, the roar of conversation around them putting him in too good of a mood to let her ruin it. They didn't see eye to eye, and that was fine, less fine for the fact that she self-righteously held her opinions with almost as much conviction as he held his, but fine all the same. Democracy, if there was to be a democracy at all, would have to be built upon conflicting opinions. "Because the people for whom you are so concerned seem far less timid than you are, Mademoiselle Azula."

As if to prove his point, there was a sudden outburst from a table near them. Insults flew, but the shouting ended in nothing but gentle laughter. Enjolras' expression shifted into something less false and more thoughtful. "I like your people, I mean that. But the fact remains that until these conversations carry some political weight to them in the Capitol, you are all just as much of a slave as I am, and that is no way to live. So, subtly certainly, but to do nothing as you do?"

He shook his head at her sadly, as if unable to even articulate a thought like that.

[burnedbrighter]

She rolled her eyes listening to him press on.

"They argue because it allows them to vent their emotions. But you'll notice none of them are doing anything about it. They never do. It's just a way to de-stress at the end of a long day."

Her voice lowered so no one else would hear "There isn't a man among them who has half the guts required to throw away their lives for hopeless cause.

Then her voice rose once more to conversational.

"Unlike you they care about their families and their lives well enough to make some sacrifices. Call it whatever you choose you eloquent blowhard, but a million words won't move a mountain or stop the weather from changing. You can't talk the wind into blowing for our turbines and you can't inspire the river to keep flowing when there are rocks in it's path. It will either adapt and continue or it will stop and stagnate."

[orestes]

"The people of Paris used to vent their emotions. They would argue with each other about representation, inspired by the great democratic reformation in England, or the American independence experiment. About the King and about what should be done about the King." His voice was purposefully slow, tone steady, knowing, and not just from the eloquent blowhard dig, that it bothered her. "They vented, and their politicians argued, until one day the people were starving and they chose to fight rather than simply decry their unfeeling government.

"Then they stormed the King's palace and made attempts at the life of the Queen." A smile played on his lips at the mention of the build up to regicide, or, more accurately to his mind, tyrannicide. "And then their politicians had to act. The people left them no other option."

While the obtuse metaphor of turbines, winds, rivers and dams didn't escape him, it was also less vivid. If she wanted to argue politics with grand soliloquies --and despite what she might imagine, he encouraged it-- he would have to bring her up to his level. "The people of District 5 are not starving, the people of District 11 are, and yet they produce all of your food. When the people of District 5 are starving, they will do more than argue; They will rise up and strike down their oppressors. My faith in your people is greater than your own, I think."

[burnedbrighter]

Well he wasn't wrong about that. Azula's faith in her own people had been shattered long ago.

"You may have hope for my people but you've known them for only a day. I grew up here. I know these faces and their families. And something else I know?"

For all her pride she just couldn't help but let him bait her. It was hopeless and she knew it but she couldn't stop from engaging with him, wanting so badly to shatter a bottle and drive it into his heart.

"For all your speak of people rising up against injustice and doing what you believe to be the right thing, those very same people you speak of brought their own ruination doing the exact same things you speak of. The world ended a long, long time ago and this one you live in now became necessary to survive."

"If you are so eager to join your dead kinsmen then by all means do so but stop trying to drag the rest of us down unwillingly with you."

[orestes]

"I do not know that they are necessarily unwilling." His tone was pleasant, almost laughing, and the comment accompanied a brilliant smile. It was the first time in a very, very long time that Enjolras had seen any hope for the people of Panem and there was no way that he was letting Azula and her sick cynicism ruin it for him.

"Do you know the difference between a revolution and a rebellion? Revolutions are successful." In actuality, there was no difference between the words other than their connotations. Rebellions were generally more insurgent in nature and less lofty. Honestly, for all of his idealization of the great Revolution, Panem's would be less civil by necessity, less noble, whatever its result. "And experience breeds success. For every failed attempt, for every tentative effort, there is someone watching and someone noting how it can be improved."

[burnedbrighter]

She felt sick to her stomach listening to his hopeful cheery (And in her eyes condescending) lecture. Sure she herself was condescending but she felt she had earned the right. What had he earned? How had he earned it?

"Fail enough times and sometimes you simply break whatever you're trying to improve beyond repair." She countered. "Our society did not become strong because of luck or foolishness. To overturn the system now to satisfy the cries of a few who will always believe that they can have something better then they deserve will punish those who have earned their happiness already."

"Some of us actually had to work very hard to gain the pleasures we are allowed now." Implying once again that she did not believe he deserved his post as mentor.

[orestes]

The implication flew over his head blissfully. Even if it hadn't, however, he wouldn't have cared. To imply that he didn't deserve his position would have been the same as removing his capability in the situation and thus, his guilt over it. Patiently, thoughtfully, he considered her words, letting their arguments both explicit and implied wash over him as he decided which to respond to first.

"In the first case, any state which does not provide for all of its people cannot be said to be strong. Tyranny is not the same thing as strength, regardless of how you might conflate the terms." His voice held an almost teasing quality to it. Even if he, as a rule, did not like Azula, he could still enjoy debating her. It was rare to find an opponent so dedicated to their argument, however flawed it might be. "And in the second, no one has the right to determine the worth or another person -- what he or she deserves -- prior to their birth. If we are to rule by that system, let us create even more arbitrary distinctions between us. Let me suggest that those born in a colder climate are colder of heart and not worthy of my concern, or that those born near mountains are immoral and think too highly of themselves on account of the thinner air. They cannot help these things, and perhaps there is no truth to them whatsoever, perhaps I have simply invented these fictions I now propagate to you, but nevertheless, we should judge and condemn them for it. You do the same to your own people, you understand."

[burnedbrighter]

His blathering on was becoming white noise and it was becoming difficult for Azula to keep her focus. She had been such a good student once! How could he be less interesting stogy old professors?

"It is a necessary system put in place because of people like you who felt too entitled to consider the good of the world. Focusing all your attention on making your own opinion the law of the land instead of the real issues that nearly brought our society to extinction."

Even if she hated to admit he sounded logical, what he said simply couldn't work.

"Your opinion on what makes a society strong is invalid because you will never know true strength such as you are. Your opinions on the rights of individuals doubly wrong. In every society people are born to want, or to want for nothing. With or without a government it wouldn't matter. No matter where you are born into this world you can claw your way to the top with enough determination and hard work. District five is not a luxury district. It is not pampered and crooned over like Districts one or two. But I worked hard every day and prepared myself so that when opportunity rose and I had my chance at a better life I could take it. Anyone too weak and foolish to fail at that should blame no one but themselves."

[orestes]

"I am considering the good of the world. You are considering the good of but a few. Moreover, by your faulty logic of equating economic well-being to moral character and, by your estimation of my character, I should have been born in poverty to wanton parents out of wedlock. Would it trouble you to know that in my homeland I was considered part of the ruling class? Nevertheless, I do not believe in such a system because I can clearly see its injustice and inadequacy." There was no end to their argument in sight. All the same, Enjolras couldn't help but engage. They could play Glaucon and Socrates for the entirety of he evening, as far as he was concerned.

"You escaped through the Games. My very being has denied the children of this District their chance at repeating your experiment. Would you say that all of them were destined to live miserable lives with no chance at bettering themselves? Surely you cannot think that."

[burnedbrighter]

It didn't trouble her so much as confirm alot of her worst thoughts involving people who didn't have to work for their rewards. He was essentially a Capitol Citizen in his own land.

"They have every opportunity to better themselves through work and education. Life is full of opportunity for those willing to put forth the effort. Though your existence will make their lives more difficult if you don't at least make an effort to help our tributes succeed in the games."

[orestes]

"The fact that they require me, or the Tributes at large, to champion the justification for their existence is evidence of the difficulties of your argument." Precisely which part of her argument he was refuting in that moment, Enjolras left open to interpretation. The amiable nature of his tone hadn't changed, and likely wouldn't, but they were touching on layered issues of institutionalized inequality. It was possible, he realized, that Azula couldn't see a flaw with the system as it stood simply because she had never been trained to consider anything else. For someone like him, brought up with classical and Enlightenment thought and a dedicated student of the Revolution, questioning the established order of things was second nature. In fact, it was a manifestation of his patriotism, to demand purity and justice from any government to which might claim legitimacy over him or anyone else.

If she had ever possessed hope for a better world, it had probably been lost long ago, schooled away from her subtly if not forcibly. A haughty, conceited form of pity came to him perhaps too easily. "Have you ever thought how your life might have been different if you had been afforded not just the privileges of the Capitol, but the rights and liberties they enjoy as well? What I would like for everyone in your country --not just the Districts-- is precisely that. I do not want to deprive the Capitol of its riches, however badly acquired, but I would like to perpetuate human dignity. Something which, at present, your country is sorely lacking. How can that be considered entitlement? And how can that be something detrimental to your overall society and culture?"