thecapitol | The Crowning of Mindy McReady

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The Crowning of Mindy McReady

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sandy stuck her tongue out in response and blew a fat wet raspberry.

"Oh like yours are any cooler. Unless you got surgery to give you like...sharks teeth. I hear they do that sometimes."

There had been at least one girl to come into an arena like that.

Edited 2014-03-30 14:02 (UTC)

"They are! Take a look!"

Yeah, they weren't. They were only slightly sharper than Sandy's, so Mindy had nothing to brag about.

"It doesn't surprise me after that Snow White story. It is fucked up though: shark's teeth are fucking terrifying."

Sandy took another gulp and felt it land in her guts like a rock.

"Ugh...thank god I have Cinna and Portia looking out for me. They'd never let that sort of freaky stuff happen to me without me askin' for it. And Effie too. She might even slap someone."

A smirk at the idea of Effie being violent.

Mindy laughed. "The day I have people giving that much of a fuck about me will be pretty damn amazing. I think they're just obsessed with getting me to look pretty for once."

Not that she always said no, but it really was never that necessary.

"That powder puff would? Really? Man. You're more popular than I thought. Then again, when they look at you they probably still see a kid."

Sandy pouted at the last remark and shook her empty glass at a passing waiter while she focused her gaze on Sandy.

"And what's so bad about being a kid? You should still be a kid. It's not my fault!" She wasn't that mad but she wasn't going to back down either.

"I wasn't saying it was bad. I was just saying it because it's true. They see you as a kid. That means they care what happens to you, how you look, all that. When they look at me, I'm kind of a kid, but not, get it? I'm sorta this in-between. I don't think they really know HOW to group me."

Sandy seemed to consider that for a minute.

"But you still have people who care about you." She pointed out wanting to be sure. "So it doesn't matter what group you're in. You still have a group."

The first arena where Sandy had been alone for most of it had been so miserable. she wanted to never feel so alone again.

"Does it matter to you? If you're a kid or a grown up?"

"Yeah, I do." She chuckled. "That gets annoying when the reason is I'm a kid. When its people I just got to know because of reasons, I tend to respond a little better."

She sighed. "It depends on the situation, I guess. I hate when people think because I'm a kid I can't feel their stupid precious grown up feelings, that I can't understand them. But I guess it also sucks being looked at like some alien because I don't act enough like a brat or whatever."

Sandy burst out laughing. "Precious grown up feelings!" She giggled delighted "I've never heard it called that."

"You are totally an alien. Aliens are way cooler."

This totally beat their last encounter, with the yelling and the cursing. Maybe there was actually something good about alcohol after all.

"To aliens then," she said, raising her glass. "Because if I'm one, you have to be one too!"

Alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of lifes little problems.

They clinked glasses even as Sandy slurred her protest "Nah, I'm not cool enough to be an alien. I'm just a kid. A mutant kid but a kid."

"Fine. To the alien and the mutant kid then. Maybe they'll be friends again someday?"

Well now the drink is making her flush. Damn.

"Aw shut up." Sandy punched Mindy's arm in a drunken swat that barely made contact despite the feeling put into it.

"It's not like you can do that bullshit to me a second time. So I guess it's fine."

Which was sort of a yes?

Mindy made a "wa-waah" noise when Sandy barely hit her, grinning.

"No, now I have a bunch of new bullshit to deal with. For what its worth though, I am sorry. I don't like killing people that I care about, obviously."

And the less said about that, the better.

"So you actually to WIN the goddamn bike you rode in the race?!"

"Huh? Oh...right! Yeah." She nodded "Yeah me and that blond lady, Elsa. We both got bikes and we have to do commercials for them." She shrugged her narrow shoulders.

"I don't know how that's gonna work. I'm a lousy actress." Maybe they would shoot around it. She couldn't remember many car commercials that required the models to talk, but she also didn't think of herself as model material.

"I know Elsa, she's in my district. Don't ever see how she died in the vids though, its pretty heartbreaking stuff. But yeah, that is some bullshit. I might do it for a motorcycle though. The one I had was pretty sweet, and I got the bonus of beating someone I don't like."

Mindy chuckled. "I don't think you have to be that good of an actress. Hell, they put athletes in movies, you wont be so bad."

Sandy smirked.

"What? Someone you don't like? I'm shocked." She had to bite back an even worse remark and was dismayed to find that apparently drinking made her kind of bitchy. At least she held enough self control to keep from blabbing out every little thing...for now.

"Oh shut up. When have you heard me complain about anyone, like, that I intensely like? By the way, loving the bitchiness. It's fun!"

Sandy's smile faded and she looked a little guilty "Yeah you probably wouldn't like it if I was saying what I was REALLY thinking." She confessed.

"But I'm trying to make this work." She added hastily.

"I know you hate me." Mindy said this plainly. "So, you know. That won't go away. But I don't mind having to earn your trust again. It was fucked up."

"That's just it." Sandy grumbled feeling her good mood fading in the face of cruel reality. "I don't hate you. I just think what you did was stupid, cold as hell and completely fucked up my ability to trust anyone but Pruna in the arena. Hell I barely feel OK talking to the other tributes now! I didn't think it was gonna be a big deal but it is. I feel...almost alone again. And I hate it."

She'd come a long way in the games without going to the place Mindy had driven her to.

"You made me wanna hurt you bad. Like a bad guy. Like the kind my Dad used to be. And he never wanted me to be that."

Mindy was silent a moment. That was something she had to come to term with, what Sandy's true feelings were. She had pushed her to say it too. Whether she meant to or not was not important: it was the truth.

"Drink more," Mindy said, offering the girl another cup. "Look. You can talk to other tributes. There are people, as you know, who don't take the Arena as seriously as I did, or if they do, they still wouldn't do what I did. I'm sorry you feel that way, because I never meant to make you doubt everything. The only consolation I can give you is this: if I was going to betray you, I'd rather be upfront about it, not wait until you didn't know what I had planned and slit your throats or anything. It's small, but you guys deserved a window to take me down and hurt me for what I was doing."

She took another drink herself. "But if what I did puts you a little more on your guard, like Pruna, I'm not sorry for that. I didn't like seeing what had already happened to you when I saw you guys. For the first time, I was actually concerned."

Sandy took the drink and sipped it, numb to the taste now. It was just more fluid on her stinging tongue.

When it was over she held up a finger in the air and twirled it remarking dryly "Yay, I'm more paranoid and might live one day longer then all the other times I've died."

Really she couldn't see the point of it.

"I get it, you were worried. You didn't want me to go away forever. But there had to be a better way to do it." The thought was appreciated, but the method was not.

"Then fuck it, we'll end it here. If you're still pissed off about it that much, just hit me. I'll even let you. Come on."

She put her drink down and started to move the chairs around them.

A groan of frustration bubbled up from her chest and suddenly she was positive she needed more grown up drinks to burn her stomach into submission.

"What good would that do? You can't just let me hit you till I feel better. It's not gonna change that I think you made a dumb choice that hurt both of us."

Referring here to herself and Mindy rather then herself and Pruna. Honestly of the three of them Pruna handled the entire thing the best.

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