thecapitol | The Crowning of Mindy McReady

Entry tags:

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

"Yeah, exactly. I mean, who needs to add more headaches to the ones I have already?"

God knew she had enough to think about. Hormones could take a backseat as long as she could ignore it.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Ooh, fruity looking. That was safer, right?

"Well I mean...all those emotions ontop of your considerable skills at rending flesh from bone? The other tributes should count themselves lucky you got out of the arena before puberty really kicked into high gear!"

As if her own teenage years had been anything of particular interest. Harleen had been so buried in books growing up she wouldn't have noticed puberty if she hadn't already been reading so many teenager romance stories.

Mindy snickered. "That'll be the day. Despite my mouth, there's still my age and lack of tits. For all you know, I might be dead before I even get that far! Granted, even so I'd have to find someone around my age range, which is pretty fucking scare."

"But not anymore!" Harley declared cheerfully "No more death for you unless you do somethin' stupid and hero like in the Capitol." She teased.

"And who knows, there's kids in the Capitol you know. Maybe you'll even find one that isn't superficial." She cackled at the prospect "You'd be better off dipping into the pool of tributes in your age range I guess."

Mindy shrugged. "Can't see why I would go and do anything like that. I hear if you're up to some shit in the Capitol, you get punished good and proper. No thanks."

At that, she snickered. "Right, like who? The kids in my range are mostly girls, and even the guys closer to that are fucking awful...except for Guy., of course."

"Ooo la la. Going after a married man are we?" She teased. "Ya know I met his wife for a hot second...or some hapless victim dressed like his wife. Maybe it was a fangirl. Either way she was all cave man style with the wild hair and I gotta admit? Her legs were fine." Harley giggled.

"Nice and thick and strong." She added stretching out one of her own legs for example.

"Aw come on. The guy went and out me out of my misery in the first Arena. I have nothing but respect and love for him. This shit, being here, and how HE is, that's rough. Even the French people are going to be better able to adjust to all this than him."

She just look confused, then nonplussed. "You did that just to show off your leg, didn't you?"

"Maybe a little. It's one of my best features." she teased and then laughed delighted. "But you're my kinda crazy. Nothing more romantic then a mercy killing man outta time. I could write a whole sappy novel on the topic and make a billion bucks if the Capitol Citizens weren't so used to that sorta smut."

"Yeah, that's a shame. I mean, at the time, it was still pretty amazing: people usually have this thing about killing kids, and even Hawkeye seemed to look at Guy different, like he was horrified he could. In the end though, I appreciated it. It showed me that Guy is a good person, but fucking sensible about it too."

"Well that's because you don't think of yourself as a kid. I bet you'd feel pretty gross about mercy killing say...a five year old or something." Harley countered.

"That's pretty much you in a nutshell though. You'd like to be idealistic but you're too sensible for it. Probably because of living hard and suffering."

"What I'm saying is that it shouldn't matter that I was a kid or not...my leg was fucking ripped off and I was dying of blood loss. Guy knew that and decided what was more important was MY pain, not his fucking conscience. He wasn't killing me because he liked to murder, he was doing it to not let me suffer."

That, to her, earned instant trust.

"I want to believe people can be logical and not full of shit, Harley. Not sure if you'd call that being idealistic."

"Yes. Yes I would." She laughed.

"Logic is for people who want to control life. But life can't be controlled. You can only influence so much and then the rest of it is life sweeping you off your feet. And sure you can fight it. Might even change things a little. But at the end you're gonna be exhausted and you'll still end up wherever life is taking ya."

"And hoping that people will be more logical then emotional? WAY more idealistic. Not having the guts to put someone of out their misery doesn't mean their full of crap. It just means they aren't as strong as you or cave boy, or me or Susie."

Because Susie had done the same thing for her in the last arena. A quick smothering beat the hell out of a slow brain melting.

She pretty much agreed with her on logic and control. No point in restating what they both knew.

"I guess it is, but I never said not doing it meant they were full of crap. I figure anyone who would rather let someone die of their wounds instead of killing them is an idealistic too: just not in the way I would think is right. I'd take Guy or you or...Susannah any day."

Harley grinned and gave Mindy a pat on the head which turned into a noogie.

"Yeah well you're not too bad yourself for a bitty baby badass who probably had her first kill before her first pubic hair."

Oh if only Harley knew how many kills Mindy ACTUALLY had under her belt.

"Ok, ignoring that shit about pubes, I have more than a few maiming and plenty of kills under my belt. What people don't seem to get is that I'm being forced to kill, so I just kill. If I wanted to, if I CHOSE to, it'd be a different story."

They would really be able to see what she could do then.

"And who are calling bitty baby you bitch?"

Oh god. Unwanted alliteration.

Harley just laughed delightedly at the alliteration.

"So it's all about choice. Makes sense, we are both Americans after all and freedom is big deal. Freedom from oppression, freedom from laws, or freedom from sanity." She giggled.

Mindy snorted. "I guess that's a way of looking at it. I was talking about choice in general, as in, 'shouldn't have to kill these people that I know' kind of thing. It makes it so you never really should get close to anyone or else you run the risk of killing them because you have no choice."

"Says who?" Harley challenged. "I'm still close to some of the people that I've killed or gotten killed. It all about being reasonable and open minded."

A pause and then she added "Also not being a bitch helps."

"Are you calling me a bitch?"

She was generally curious, actually.

She snickered "Your words not mine. But even if I did you know you wouldn't argue with me."

She popped a cookie into her mouth from a passing snack trey.

"But you've never been particularly bitchy to me. A smug little brat sure, but that's to be expected. You're a teenager, you think you know everything even if you say that you don't. It's like...genetic."

"Maybe this place needs more bitches. They couldn't hurt."

She grinned. "Hey, I'll have you know I suffered long and hard for my fucked up world view. That's more than most stupid ass teenagers can say. At least my attitude pretty much stays the same."

"Depends on the type of bitch." Harley teased "It's such a functional word."

"Yeah I suppose you're consistently bratty if nothing else." She stuck out her tongue playfully.

"I can think of a few people who embody it right now," Mindy said dryly.

"The real question though," Harley continued with a giggle "Is how many of these people were bitches before the Capitol and how many were made that way?"

Both the strong and weak forms were on display in this room to be sure.

"I think people pretty much carry they way they were from their world to here. The Capitol just makes it so we can give less of a fuck, being surrounded by people we don't know. Then again, some people born here were probably made that way over time."

Azula came to mind.

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