The Crowning of Mindy McReady

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone who's anyone.
What| The Crowning.
Where| A warehouse on the edge of town.
When| Starting from early evening till late into the night.
Warnings/Notes| Be sure to check the linked thread for plot purposes, even if you don't tag into it.

The party is brightly colored.

The theme, subtly, is super heroes. Boldly paints city scapes are splattered across the walls, and hallways are made to look like dingy, potentially crime ridden alleys. From the upper walkways of the warehouse, party goers can get hooked into harnesses and swing out over the dance floor. Above them, tributes and VIPS can find themselves on a clear plastic dance floor levitated above everything, looking like they're hanging in air.

Masks are passed out in plenty, and capes are easy to find, while brightly colored drinks themed around super powers are plentiful. None of them actually work, but many of the Capitol people are happy to pretend, mocking super strength or invisibility with each new beverage.

Under the dance floor a catacomb of tunnels and rooms full of obstacles is splashed with black light receptive colors. Party goers are given vests and laser guns, marked green for villains and red for heros, and set loose to hunt each other in the laser tags playground. The screens in the dance floor keep a running tally of which side is winning, displaying the players on the screens around the room, along with clips from the arenas.

About half way through the night, everyone is gathered to the main stage for a special announcement.

Comments

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy looked over. God was mocking the fuck out of her today wasn't he? Bad enough she had to read the names on that bullshit they pulled last minute, now Hawkeye was here? Balls. She chuckled at his appearance though: looking like a kind of GI Joe wino or something. Mindy herself had at least taken a glass of a stiffer drink: it was awful, but for Christ's sake, being sober for this was actually painful. Every moment, every look on these people's faces was a reminder of the fucking rats in a cage they all were.

"For me? It was Punisher. I mean, he didn't give a shit, just rained down the pain, made people remember there was a price to pay for your crimes. He went all Charles Bronson and people knew not to mess with him. Hell, back home? They know that with me too."

She looked disdainfully at her cape. "This should feel awesome, to be wearing my true colors. But its...its a fucking joke, you know? They made it a novelty. A theme."

[swill]

"Uh-huh," he said, because who the hell was Punisher? Hawkeye did his best to pay attention, to try and conjure a mental image of a character that wouldn't be created for years yet. He hadn't ever been big on comic books himself, but to ignore them was impossible- they were on bookstands and even in the PX. Radar would sometimes get excited over a new, old issue. Hawkeye blew out a breath at the thought- he was as close to seeing Radar again as he was to ever seeing the Punisher in person.

The Mindy made the connection- Punisher and herself and Hawkeye wasn't sure if he understood so he just pointed instead. At the cape. At Mindy. Not really slack-jawed but it took him a moment. Little girls didn't exactly do that in his world. Big strong men didn't, either.

"They make everything a joke," he offered. "A bad one. Nobody's here taken a storytelling course in their life. But now you're out of the running, that means you can do something else with yourself now. With your colors. I don't think we had a choice with the... party, but it's. Now you are going to have a choice with what to do with yourself."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"That choice was already made," Mindy said. There was a lot said in the one statement, but probably the biggest was the look Mindy gave him. It was a set look that seemed to hint there was amusement in how he missed something. This was why she had won, why it mattered so much. The choice had been made. Poor Azula thought she harbored a grudge against HER, when in reality she reserved her grudges for the real offenders.

"Then again, could say the same thing about you, right?"

[swill]

"By you, I hope," he interjects. But no, Hawkeye knows exactly what Mindy meant- it wasn't only part of the territory with being an adult, it was just kind of like common sense around these parts. He catches her look and turns it back to her and wonders about the years when all there was was children being slaughtered and never returned. And he blanks. For a good second, Hawkeye thinks maybe he can't think about anything- not any idea, not any one word, not any one image, not any sensation. He didn't think he was anything special- he just couldn't get it, God damn it all.

"Do you know what I'm going to do?" He asks, rising from where he sat in a fit, asking loudly like he had a deed to proclaim as king- not angry, excited. Christ, he wasn't sober enough, but he wasn't out of his mind yet and so Hawkeye sat his butt back down in a blink. "I don't care what people tell me to do. Do you think I'd have joined the Army if I liked to follow orders? Do you know what I'm going to do?" He asked again, quieter and more direct to Mindy alone, to the girl in the cape that thought she was a hero but needed rescuing along with them all. "I going to get an Aid Station. Will you help me? If you say 'yes' I'll name the first one after you- I'll even ask for it to be painted purple. --well, maybe not. But I'll scratch it in the driftwood- M.M."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah," Mindy said. "In the end, despite everything, this is what I wanted. A start of it, anyway. At the very least, one less thing I got distracting me. Well, at least me being in it anyway. Now I'm just going to be worried about you and the rest of my friends in that thing, getting killed and meeting some messy ends. Usually this would be my sague to tell you to fucking fight, but its going to fall on deaf ears. So I'm just going to have to be content worrying about you every single time."

When it came down to it though, its not like she thought he would change that part of himself. He wasn't a killer, he was Hawkeye, joker and worrier, and even now, in all this craziness and his drinking, he was still funny. It was how she wanted him.

She chuckled. "I was never known for actually helping people, so what the hell. If you can get an Aid station I would totally help you out with that."

[swill]

He could pat her back and say a Well Done or a Congratulations or, better yet because the thought of it did cross his mind, say You've Earned It. By all accounts, she did. Mindy fought. She died. She fought again. Now she was a victor with this silly little party in her honor, more in the honor of the minds that decided a child should be victor of the Hunger Games again. Hawkeye just hummed along as he processed her words. He sported a look of smugness when she admitted just how well she knew him. Gee, he was nearly proud. "And here's the part where I say you shouldn't worry about me because I'm doing enough worrying about me to cover both our hides, but it's going to fall on deaf ears. That and I think it's good to be worried about. If people worried about each other a little more we would never be in this mess." But they had had this conversation already- care, don't, attach, detach, survive however you can.

It made Hawkeye lean back in his chair, the fact that he had died in the time spanning then and now. The fact that he would be dying soon again-- well, hell, it was nice to be worried about. And he eyed Mindy and worried about her master plan. A start of it, she had said. Messy start, messy end. Hawkeye smirks. "That's step One done with. There's only a million left to go." And he meant both his project and hers. And maybe they could intertwine. "Do you even know what an Aid Station is? Smallish, shoddy- hospital. I want it in the Arenas. Or. I want people to have the idea of getting an Aid Station in the Arenas. We're not going to get an Aid Station. I'll jump if we do, but we won't. But if we rile up the- the audience, you know. A medicine bag's all I'm really asking for." He should be talking to Bashir about this, or Watson, not Mindy. So Hawkeye wraps it up. "You're a victor now. You're a young victor."

It sounded a lot like 'hello, would you let me use you' in his head. "That's nostalgia with a bridge to the new reality of the Games. You might be able to talk to someone who I can't reach, someone who wouldn't care what I say because I don't fight back. I don't know who that person is, but if you can convince them I won't be the only one thanking you. I'm not the only doctor here." He just hadn't spoken to the others yet.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"You know, it almost sounds like you want to use me for something." She was teasing, of course. She could see exactly what Hawkeye had in mind and, when it came down to it? She agreed. After all, people got injured all the time, and she honestly wouldn't have made it with her win if she hadn't had his help. Mindy didn't forget things like that. The problem, of course, really came down to convincing people it was better to be charitable than bloodthirsty. Mindy, on a given day, could be either.

Mostly it depended on the situation.

"It won't be easy. They like their meat freshly killed, to turn a phrase. You know how they are. To convince them to grant a reprieve will be tough. I'll have to get all the reasons, in THEIR favor, why we should do it. Think you can offer me some?"