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

[acroodawakening]

"Oh, don't you talk to me about culturally insensitive," he said, giving him an incredulous look, yet still looking more amused than annoyed. "These are the same people that ask me if I dragged my mate by the hair when I met her. And there's this."

He held the club aloft and wobbled it in his hands.

"If they like us so much, why do they like watching us in pain?" he asked, but now he wasn't annoyed like earler. Now his voice was soft and questioning. "I don't like watching people in pain."

[capitolprivilege]

Once again, Stephen felt the cold, sinking feeling of sobriety. There was no need to put it in those terms, he thought, but didn't say. Instead, Stephen took a deep breath, to stall for time, and when his thoughts were in order, he finally replied, "It isn't about the pain, Guy. It's about accomplishment. You do things in that arena that we all know we never could, and we admire that."

[acroodawakening]

"Desperation makes a lot of people do things that seem impossible. Just like the kids in the districts did some tough and brutal things back when they were fighting in the games. Some of your children, from the Capitol, if they'd been pushed into a corner they would've done the same things."

He slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

"That's what you're too sheltered to understand. Instinct. If some of you were backed against the wall, you'd have instincts to survive or run or protect come to the surface, too. And even if it's not about the pain, we still feel it. Have you ever been stabbed?"

[capitolprivilege]

Well that's just, like, your opinion, man

"Well, no," admitted Stephen. "Guy, I understand that what happens in the Arena isn't pleasant -- but it isn't supposed to be. If the Hunger Games were easy, they wouldn't serve their purpose." The Hunger Games had a very important societal purpose, one that Stephen was born and raised to believe was necessary.

[acroodawakening]

"If my people had the power to magically bring you to our world and some great, I don't know, volcano spirit existed and needed blood sacrifices to have the volcano not go off and kill everyone, and we made you, random Capitol citizens, fight to the death and brought you back every time without letting you go home, while making it so you felt the pain of every club to the head and every spear to the heart, you'd think we were monsters. Don't even pretend you wouldn't. And if I told you that it was supposed to be painful, it was for a purpose, and that what was made it all okay, you'd think I was insane. You'd think that pain is pain. You'd think a knife to the throat still feels like knife to the throat, whatever the purpose. And all you'd want is to go home."

He stared him down.

"If your society is sick enough to need people killing each other to keep it alive when so many of ours, by the way, don't and seem to function just fine, that's fine. I can't change that. You go ahead and believe that's the only way it can be - and I will smile when I need to smile if it keeps me alive."

His expression was filled to the brim with disgust.

"But don't pretend we don't feel pain or that it doesn't take over everything when you people have never had to feel it in your lives. You can't say it's not about our pain when that is what our whole world is thanks to you people. It can't not be about our pain if that's all that you make us feel while we're in there. Either it's about watching us in pain or it isn't. And next time you want want to lecture me about it not being about pain, stab yourself in the throat first and see if there's anything else you can think about other than pain while it's happening. Then you'll be allowed to say it's just 'unpleasant' instead of 'agonizing.'"

[capitolprivilege]

Wow, Guy sure was angry about this. Stephen legitimately had not been expecting that, and he felt quite guilty -- not for being complicit in Guy's situation, though, but for upsetting him so much. Most of the words washed over Stephen, honestly; he had had a few drinks and wasn't in a place where Guy's anger and eloquence would hit home, not tonight. His eyebrows drew together with contrition, and when he spoke, it was quiet.

"I'm sorry," Stephen said, and he truly did look it. "I didn't mean to upset you." And here the illusion of comprehension would break; Guy would realize that Stephen simply wasn't understanding. "But you did ask, and I answered you as best I could." Stephen hadn't been lying, and he hadn't said what he had said out of malice or deliberate cruelty. "We can talk about something else, if you'd prefer that."

[acroodawakening]

Guy just sat there for a moment, blinking and staring at him.

Finally, he said, "Leave me alone. I don't feel like talking to you anymore tonight."

He would later, perhaps, but not right now.