thecapitol | ( open ) off to the races

Who| OPEN.
What| The First Annual Panem Motorcycle Races and Festival kick off.
Where| The Capitol.
When| Friday - Sunday.
Warnings/Notes| For more information, check out the original post, or see the results and winnings post.

Starting Friday, the Capitol has pushed out onto the chill streets with hopes for entertainment and the thrill of races most of them have no personal stakes in. The races are spread out over the first few days, with whispers of a surprise happening on Sunday. Everyone's theorizing what it could be. It's the nature of crowds to indulge in curiosity on a massive, gossipy level, and the Citizens of the Capitol are no exception.

Aside from the races, people stopped by the ice skating rink sponsored by one of the museums from the last Arena, with a Mindy themed focus. There are ride-alongs: Capitolites make a donation to the Gamemaker's Foundation (or something, idk) in order to get a chance to ride along on a short loop track with a racer. They can make this donation and then dictate anyone be the tag-along, from themselves, to their children, to another Tribute/Mentor. Why? Because Shippers.

Set indoors, there's Bumpercycle Jousting. Minimal injury, maximum ridiculous.

And back on the street, there's festival foods, with businesses opening doors and inviting chilled citizens in to enjoy special foods and drink and merchandise suited to the season and post-Games festivities.

Each night finishes with a round of fireworks in the sky.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ian raised an eyebrow when he saw he was up against Ian. As he drove towards him in a straight line, he considered losing on purpose. But Ian wasn't a child and it was unlikely that he could even push Ian off the car with a weapon that sagged in the middle.

So he considered his tactics and decided to try feinting a little high, aiming for Ian's head, but would actually hit him lower. He didn't want to poke him in the eye, after all.

Ian would be pissed if Ian lost on purpose, he was enjoying the novelty of being able to compete properly in something that wasn't going to result in loss of peoples lives. It was fun, and fun was something he had only been able to find at the bottom of a glass or a vial of morphling lately. He was sober and smiling, and he couldn't remember the last time that had happened.

He ducked, both to streamline himself and try and avoid the pool noodle. It glanced off his back and he turned the bike to go again.

The miss just made Ian more determined to win. When he turned he adjusted the pool noodle under his arm. His expression, as he headed towards Ian was one of determination. He kept his weapon aiming straight at Ian and moved it when he moved.

This time Ian brought up his own pool noodle, and aimed it at Ian's side as they drove closer to each other, trying to angle his body so that Ian would miss him.

In an attempt to hit Ian and avoid his pool noodle, Ian leaned away, so much so that even though Ian's pool noodle only touched him, he still nearly fell off.

Ian laughed and span the bike round again. He began the third charge, aiming straight for Ian this time, a competitive grin on his face.

Ian grinned too, determined not to fall off this time and not to miss. He held it at an angle this time, since trying to poke it at Ian wasn't working. When he got close he swung, aiming for Ian's pool noodle, to knock it away.

It worked Ian's arm swung backwards though he managed to keep his grip on the noodle itself, it knocked him off balance but he clung on and righted himself as he turned the bike around. "Almost."

"I'll get you next time," Ian promised, as he swung round for another go.

He decided to try the same again - or look like he was anyway. In reality his intention was to swing the pool noodle higher, up towards the sky, hoping to force Ian to let go of his.

Ian raced towards him again, trying to lean away to avoid the hit, he didn't expect it to go higher though and his noodle was forced upwards, he kept his grip on it, and instantly regretted not letting go as he tumbled backwards off the motorcycle.

Ian gave a brief cheer as he stopped his bike, but then turned back round to check on Ian. "Are you all right?"

Ian blinked and groaned but sat up with a lopsided grin. "Yeah I'm cool. Good shot."

"Thanks." Ian smiled back. "That was fun. I'd love to try it for real on a horse."

"I don't think I would." Ian grinned, "It's hard enough when you know it's a bike and it can't think for itself." Trying to control a horse sounded hard.

"You just find a horse that likes jousting too." Ian grinned. "My grandmother had a farm; I've ridden a lot of horses." So he was less worried about controlling them.

"Oh, horses actually like it?" Ian shrugged with another grin, "What would I know? Pretty sure I've only seen an actual horse twice in my life."

"Some of them must do, to have done it." Ian could see some more people lining up, so started moving off the field. "You come from the city?" he guessed.

Ian shrugged, they were horses, though maybe it was like race horses. They liked running he would suppose.

"Yeah, Chicago, in America if you have either of those in your world."

"We do," he said, nodding. "Chicago's not known for its horses, particularly." Not that London was either, mind you, but he hadn't always lived there.

Ian shrugged, "Yeah, not really a horse place. You can ride then?"

He nodded. "Not much opportunity to here, but I like riding. Horses are quite clever, really."

"Pity you can't do it more. I guess motorbikes are a poor alternative." As cool as they were.

"But the motorbikes were fun." More so the ones without bumpers, except for the tendency to fall off. "I'd never ridden one before I practised for the race today."

"Neither had I. Jesse taught me." Ian grinned, he was pretty pleased that they had come second, he had been worried he was going to fall off and make a fool of himself.

"We did all right for first timers." Despite a near miss that meant he'd come fourth, he hadn't fallen off either. "I wouldn't mind the opportunity to ride one again."

(no subject)

wantwhatiwant - 2014-05-02 07:42 (UTC) - Expand

splendid_roman - 2014-05-04 12:32 (UTC) - Expand