we wine, we dine, and everything is fine [open!]

[capitolprivilege]

Who| Everyone still in the Capitol. If the Hunger Games is a significant part of your life, or if you wield any influence at all in the Capitol, you've received an invitation. Unless you're Victory Hannibal.
What| Week 1 viewing party! It's horror-movie/monster themed, so break out your best sexy witch/vampire/mummy costumes! Also, feel free to use it for sponsor schmoozing.
Where| A ballroom, and some adjacent rooms.
When| Just before the Arena begins, and into the night.
Warnings/Notes| Watch this space for warnings. Also, feel free to make closed threads amongst yourselves, but Stephen will likely at some point come up to greet you personally. If you think your Capitol character would be familiar with the Reagan family, make an OOC note, and I'll give you a quick rundown on their sordid past.


There is a fog machine.

The fog hovers around the guests' knees and ankles, doing nothing to impede visibility or movement, but it creates a ~mysterious~ atmosphere. The ballroom is modest, by Capitol standards, able to comfortably hold about a hundred people. There's plenty of space. The room is dimly lit from concealed sources that nonetheless throw the guests' shadows into frightening shapes on the wall. There are tables laden with food along one wall, and plenty of comfortable seating, for projected onto the far wall is a live feed from the Games.

Through the doors are smaller, more intimate rooms, with cushy couches and a smaller screen apiece for watching the Games a little more privately. One pair of double-doors leads out onto a balcony with a beautiful view of the city.

Everyone who received the invitation was informed of the theme, of course: no pressure, but if you want your outfit to match (and he's sure you do), make sure it's a little bit -- spooky.

Stephen himself, tastefully attired in a shimmery black suit, cape, and vampire teeth, is moving about the guests, giving friendly greetings to those he knows, making polite conversation with those he does not, ensuring that everybody (or at least, everybody possible) is having a good time. So what if his smile looks a little fixed, every once in a while? It's a party. What could possibly be wrong?

Comments

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Well yeah, you have to make it loo good too," Mindy said. "When you have a bunch of people you can manipulate at a whim, you strive to look the best doing it. Of course, the people you're doing it too don't get to have much of a say there."

As per expected.

"Which is why its more of a pain in the ass for us."

[president_evil]

"It's a reminder," Wesker said, his serpentine eyes like hot coals, burning in his pale face. "This is the norm. This is control."

He gestured, a small elegant movement of his hand toward the party around them.

"Nothing has changed. There is nothing to fear."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy got the message. Loud and clear. Amusement was what they were good for, and after that? You just towed the line.

"Oh, I don't know. You start to believe in the norm too much, it'll set up for a nasty shock when things are upended. In my line of work, you always learn to roll with the punches, stay paranoid."

[president_evil]

"Expect nothing," he smiled at her, a slow, curl of amusement.

It wasn't, perhaps, as catchy as the more familiar expression, but it was far more practical in Wesker's opinion.

Far more useful.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy gave him a nod, but the wheels in her head were turning, always in her head. This guy was hard to read, and as a result, she wondered what his angle was, and had to make sure she was careful about what she said. While she despised the lobster thing for his defection, it bothered her to know someone would so easily sell themselves out to be a part of the system the Capitol created. It made her understand exactly how easily someone could heighten their status if they just played the game.

"Or you could always just make something happen, I guess. From the look of some of these guests though, I think something already is."

[president_evil]

"You noticed as well, hm?"

It was hard to tell, from just a distant look, but Wesker's initial suspicions were all Flu-virus in nature. The fever flushed complexions, the complaints of fatigue both hallmark signs.

(Though experience told him all to well that symptoms could be deceiving.)

"I'd recommend keeping physical contact to a minimum; and washing your hands thoroughly, and often, regardless."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"I'd be stupid not to. Jessica over there is looking like she might keel over at any minute, and Azula looks less bitchy than usual, which s obviously a sign that she's sick. And I don't think they're the only ones either."

Which made her wonder what was going to happen next.

"I planned on keeping myself away. Still, strange coincidence."

[president_evil]

His head tipped slightly, a small, almost imperceptible reaction.

He hadn't known Azula was among the afflicted.

Wasn't that unfortunate?

"Perhaps the Capitol is about to experience for themselves one of those 'zombie apocalypses' they seem to enjoy so much," he said, a cool, humorless joke.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Making Azula afflicted actually was making her feel better by the minute. Funny how that worked.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Give people something to talk about, and then they could sell shirts saying 'I survived the zombie apocalypse in the capitol.' Seems like the kind of shit they'd do."

[president_evil]

A few T-virus infected would liven things up a bit, Wesker had to agree.

A few 121s, to show them what B.O.W. really stood for.

"At least until the screaming stops," he mused. The slitted eyes flicked back to her. "It's all fun and games, until they come for you."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Scary stuff," she said, and it was dawning on her why Harley didn't care for this guy so much. He had a wicked streak that even she couldn't explain away. It made things very hard to reconcile.

"Of course, it probably wouldn't go quite that way. They want US to bear the brunt, not their precious Capitol citizens, right?"

[president_evil]

"They could try," he replied, a cool, unconcerned drawl.

Being infected already, he had little to fear.

"But the thing about disease is that it doesn't recognize class boundaries. It treats us all the same, regardless of gender, creed, or color."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Sure they could try. They can do a lot of things. One of those things is reminding us who's in charge. While I think Penny is doing a good enough job, this would work on a bigger scale. We ARE getting newer people every day, after all."

[president_evil]

Wesker stared at her a long moment, trying to decide if she was deliberately inferring the Capitol might be behind the illness.

It was possible of course. T had been Umbrella's creation, after all, and they too had intended on selling it -- once the cure was ready.

"They would have been incredibly desperate."

They would have to be loosing control.

They would have to be scared.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Maybe," Mindy said. "Or maybe they just want us to be. Hell, even if it was a mistake, they have people to spin it the right way, don't they? Mention a rebellion that might have happened, and certain measures to take. Hell, these are the guys that pulled us out of our realities. What makes this so different?"

[president_evil]

"It's different because disease has nothing to fear, and as such the Capitol would hold no power over it," Wesker told her simply. "It does not sleep, not does not hunger, it does not stop; and a sneeze in the wrong direction and it's gone from being a weapon, to a mistake."

And no, he did not believe the Capitol smart enough, capable enough to control any of the great diseases that had wiped out so many worlds.

Not on their own.

They were, as they had already discussed, flash, rather than substance.

A blunt hammer, rather than a precise scalpel.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"I'll take your word for it." Honestly, that was way more comforting than imagining that they could actually do something like that. Bringing from one world to another was certainly a hefty activity, but controlling disease? That was scary.

"You sound like you have an intimate knowledge of that kind of stuff. I can only imagine what sort of place you're from."

[president_evil]

"Oh, yes." The already strange eyes - reptilian, a throw-back to the primordial beginnings - flashed, a bright shining red. Glowing from within. "You could say so."

Wesker had been chosen by the virus.

He was disease.

A plague doctor for a new age.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Ok. This guy was definitely enough to give someone the fucking creeps. He looked like a Terminator or something.

"I'm sorta curious. What ARE you?"

The most maddening thing, in her opinion, was not being able to place him. Anyone could be creepy, but it was something else to be odd.

[president_evil]

"Isn't it obvious?"

Wesker smiled - his sharp shark's grin - and leaned closer, the fevered heat of skin wafting toward her with the scent of leather and soft cologne. His voice dropping to a stage whisper.

"I'm a monster."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Who wasn't? That was really the question. It was something that Mindy might have actually replied, had she not been getting the impression that this guy literally was like a monster. Seriously, no one should be going out of their way to be this creepy and somehow still mean every word.

"That's not that specific. We're in the Capitol. All types of monsters here."

[president_evil]

"Depending on your sense of the word," Wesker allowed, smile only deepening. "I was being quite literal, I assure you."

He paused, a moment, his head turning slightly -- and there, beneath the pale flesh of his throat something moved. A sinuous, slithering, entirely unnatural.

"The infection burned through my world, billions dead in that first year," he turned back to her, "But when it came to me, it turned me into something... more."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"That's fortunate," Mindy said, fighting back the shudder that was coming for her. "And...I'm guessing this helped you win your run in the Arena?"

Besides making her have bad nightmares for the next few days.

[president_evil]

"I would have won either way," he said, that same low purr, smugly confident. Wholly believing of the things he said. "But it did speed the process, yes."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"That's some confidence." Mindy said this with an air of interest.It was like talking with Azula, when you got down to it: talking with traps. "The games are never that predictable. People, maybe."