The Crowning Of Clara Murphy

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone.
What| The Crowning of Clara Murphy
Where| A refurbished former-medical building within Capitol. 
When| Starting from late afternoon, going into the evening and late night.
Warnings/Notes| Don't forget, peacekeepers are on high alert and will notice any rebellious activity or odd behaviour. 

The theme of the ceremony is corruption and dystopia, with a distinct nod to futuristic aspects and, of course, robots. The room is stark, clean, and foreboding, all done in metallics, crisp whites, and the occasional bit of robotics set up as art. It speaks as an unholy cross between a medical office, a military base, and an extremely well kept prison.

The ceremony is both a chance for Capitolites to have fun and be grateful for the grand and glorious Panem which in no way exemplifies any attributes of dystopia, while also working as a not so subtle reminder to the troublemakers out there of what can happen when things get out of line. Which they surely won't, with all the peacekeepers around.

Tributes are dressed in all manner of thing incorporating chains, rope, caution tape, muzzles, bars and cages, prison stripes, and uniform orange-- all things reminiscent of imprisonment and restriction. Some tributes may be made to look scuffed up, like cartoon-ish depictions of hardened thugs. There are a few references to robotics, and that of evil and corrupt military men and police officers, but all tributes will be marked by some manner of cuff or chain that clearly denotes them as “criminals”.

They’ll also be given a “prison number” that is actually indicative of their district association and an arbitrary letter next to it, for example, someone from district six will have 06 and the first letter of their name. It will be temporarily tattooed somewhere visible on their skin. It can be washed off but it will take more scrubbing than would be done in a single day, let alone a crowning.

The only exceptions to these rules, are those who have been brought to the winner’s table; all those who can be deemed as cyborgs, scientists, and of course, the victor herself. Her throne sits at the head of the table, a robotic contraption that appears almost as though it might encase her. For a crown, Clara has been given one that seems to bear resemblance to a white picket fence, which, when made into a crown, looks far sharper than the idyllic home setting it’s meant to represent.

Avoxes are all dressed as members of the corrupt Detroit military police. The uniforms are naturally given a more sinister edge. None of them are comfortable. All of them are serving “Detriotto” staple foods.

Around the crowning, flat hologram projections of hockey games can be seen. They show the games of a team called “The Rouge Wings” and alternate that with the less spectacular showings of what appears to be a young boy’s hockey team. Commercials fill the times between promoting the work of Capitol’s peacekeepers, showing appreciation for them on an individual level, encouraging obedience in citizens with pleasant clips of peacekeepers speaking to children, and suggesting recruitment in the truly good and noble of Panem. Capitolites may nod along to these as they giggle at the sight of decorative signs, that are most certainly from Clara’s lesser world, about obeying, consuming, and so on, to a less than favourable government. A few posters feature Clara Murphy’s face in four colour palettes, all humorous jabs at dystopia proclaiming; “MOTHER MURPHY IS WATCHING YOU”.

But hockey games are not the only things that can be seen on the projection screens; if tributes take the time to look, they may see their own face projected above in profile and facing forward views like that of mug shots. Though, how the capitol has managed to get these pictures may be entirely a mystery. Besides these mugshots, criminal records are displayed, listing crimes from “lied to their parents” to petty theft to murder. Whether these records are true or not may be up for much debate.

In the mean time, there are plenty of things for party go-ers to do, such as take part in the David For A Day egg and spoon race, in which tributes will all have a chance to dress up (with wigs and matching clothing of all sizes!) as the mysterious David, compete against others, and should they win, be dubbed David For A Day, winning themselves a banner they can wear and a spot at the victor table.

There is also an obstacle course available dubbed the "Clarence Boddicker Memorial Prison Funhouse" designed to look, you guessed it, like a prison. Fun for all ages and demeanours!

For those looking for retreat, there’s a small section cut away from it all, designed to be a pleasant backyard patio setting opened to a starry night sky and small surrounding garden, in stark contrast to the rest of the place. There’s a small area for dancing in, that can really only accommodate one couple at a time, but is nevertheless perfect for a romantic scene. Only two songs play over speakers here, one perfectly fitting, the other a little more jarring. It’s also here that party go-ers can get their picture taken with a life sized ED-209. Many more much smaller ED-209’s can be seen around and within the crowning party. As well as the occasional roomba, which fans of the last arena will surely get a chuckle out of.

As the crowning nears it’s end, those at the victor’s table will be given paintball guns filled up with red paint. They will be ordered to bring the criminals to justice! The criminals being all the other tributes. Those hit with paint will be made to wait within the Memorial Prison Funhouse until all the criminals are apprehended and forced to do their time! No one will be allowed to go back to the tribute tower until all the criminals are caught.

Comments

Korra

[unjoined]

A
Once she'd decided that it was mostly harmless, some sort of publicity affair, Korra let herself relax. This isn't a death match, just a weird party with weird guests gathered to celebrate the last death match. Cool.

Not that she could fight her way out of danger were there any. Her outfit would have gotten in the way. She looks like a runaway wearing a sack as well as torn, braided ropes dangling around her wrists and ankles. Smudges on her skin completed the look but didn't obscure the code 10K tattooed on her forehead. All in all, not flattering.

Compared to her other options, the mess isn't so bad. She'd be pitching a fit if she'd been dolled up. The only bad thing about it is its length. Korra very rarely wore dresses and even less often wore anything above her knees.

She waddles wherever she goes tonight, obsessively tugging the skirt down with all the fun of grumbling and tripping included. Eventually, if she sees a curtain or a tablecloth, she'll set to finding a way of removing it and using it for something better.

Like saving her poor, chilly thighs.

B
Later, she'd managed to find something to tie it around her waist and is in better spirits. She still looks a mess but at least she's not feeling the breeze. Korra wonders to her mugshot and mutters the crimes to herself.

"...destruction of property, death threats, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, harboring fugitives..." She doesn't seem too upset about it. Offended, sure. "Pretty sure I was pardoned for half of these."

The return of the dentist.

[ruffntumblenut]

"Nice legs!"

Ruffnut called from near the buffet and laughed at Korra looking decidedly uncomfortable. The lanky Viking was clad in a red sweater with domino mask and her prisoner number hanging on the front. A green painters cap was perched jauntily on her head as she piled a plate up high with food.

"How much did you hate getting waxed?" Ruffnut had used every single curse word she knew when her stylists had ripped out all her body hair for the first crowning she'd attended. This time she took it a little better...but just a little.

[unjoined]

She whips her head around as fast as lightning at the call, ready to carry out justice. "Oh." Only to slump and make her (slow, very slow) way over to Ruffnut.

Korra might be dramatic about it but her face should say it all for her. Ruffnut, help her. "I wanted to ask to see a doctor afterwards," she says. Yes she's moping. "...it still kind of stings."

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut laughed a hearty deep laugh and held out her plate loaded heavily with slices of pizza each one loaded with meat.

"It gets easier the second time. But be ready because they really...really hate body hair. It's like...so unnatural. I haven't been this smooth since I was a baby." She complained pulling up her pant leg to show slender but muscular legs that were shiny smooth.

[unjoined]

"Whoa. No kidding." Oh wow. They're both too shiny. It's just not right. Wait-- "There's going to be a second time?"

She choked. A little bit of a touch up? Sure! She could manage that. But doing all of that again- this is cruel and unusual.

Korra points down at one of her own legs, shaking it. "I'm not gonna have hair on this for forever! There's no way they'll need a second time." A pause. Her expression turns fearful. "Oh man I hope there won't be a second time."

Re: Korra

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Man, like having the muscles weren't enough," Mindy commented in her own strange outfit. "Now you have to show you have all the calf muscles too! The dress...could be better though."

Re: Korra

[unjoined]

"I'm in a sack," she offered, trying to rub off a smudge on her arm. She fidgets with the skirt some more. "If there's anything I could show off in this, it'd be a miracle. But to be honest- the length isn't really, uh, my style."

After a look up, "Oh, hey. That looks pretty good."

Re: Korra

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah, I gotta wonder who's that pissed off at you, to give you this kind of dress. I can't even see how comfortably you'd move in that shit. Bulky as hell."

She laughed. "You think so? I feel like my stylist wanted to try an experiment on me. Lucky for her, I look pretty enough to pull it off, but only just."

[unjoined]

She laughed. "You're right. But it's kind of cool. Way better than some alternatives.". That might be a nudge at the poor people dressed as trees and such. "Not sure how all of these translate over to the same theme, though."

She rolled her eyes at that and pat the bulky, almost poofy fabric. "I haven't been here long so if I did, I've really outdone myself. I must have really deserved it."

B

[69problems]

"I don't think they care so much about your actual record as what will make the list the longest," says the Signless from her right. He's been trying to ignore the mugshots and crime listings most of the night but he'll certainly take an excuse to strike up a conversation.

"I, ah... like your dress." It says a lot about the state of fashion in Panem that he is honestly assuming her additions were part of the original piece. And he's not even joking! Entirely. It's not horrendously overdone and that's something that puts it worlds above outfits like, say, his.

[unjoined]

"Figures," she sniffs at that. "I wouldn't put it past them. But it is pretty irritating. How are they even finding a lot of these?"

Korra turned a the compliment, ready to gratefully wave it off. When she sees him, she pauses. Something about him is giving her deja vu. Just tiny familiarities. Eventually she smiles instead. "Thanks. Maybe I'll be a trend setter, who knows," she grins.

Her eyes, after assessing his outfit, land on the metal at his wrists. She winces, sympathizing. "...are they heavy?"

[69problems]

"You might. Fake horns and gray paint were a booming fashion when trolls like me first arrived, and I'd think those would be harder to sell than what you're wearing."

He follows her eyes, shifts his left wrist so that the chain dangling from the cuff clinks dully.

"A little. After wearing the right one for so long I think I may just be used to it."

[unjoined]

"...well, yikes. Can't say they're not dedicated," she grumbles, not actually impressed at all. "Really annoying? Definitely. Hopefully we won't be their current art projects for long, I guess."

He said the same word that Sollux had said. Is it rude to assume all gray people with horns are the same kind of gray people with horns? Looks like she'll have to see.

But first thing's first. Korra eventually looks up again only to bow her head in greeting. "I'm Korra, by the way. District 10."

b

[reassures]

It's mostly by chance that Nill overhears Korra. She's been making a point of trying to avoid looking at the actual records, but when Korra speaks up Nill, off to the side from her, looks thoroughly impressed. She whips out a tiny notepad she found, and a pencil about two inches long, for easier transport while in her crowning outfit. The chain links still attached to the shackles at her wrists clatter as she writes and walks over to hold the notepad up for Korra to see.

you were pardoned?

[unjoined]

Korra turns to the girl and immediately sees that she might have gotten off easy. Her outfit looked uncomfortable, meanly so, and she can only manage to just send a dirty look to the nearest Capitolite. There's also the wings, which look seriously real, but first things first.

She blinks before shrugging with a sheepish smile. "Yeah. The circumstances were kind special for a lot of those. I was usually trying to catch bad guys or doing something the authorities couldn't or wouldn't do." A pause. That still doesn't really justify them all that much, she realizes. Yikes.

Korra glances at the restraints with a frown. "You doing okay? That looks uncomfortable."

[reassures]

The most uncomfortable are probably the ones keeping her wings pinned to her back. The tips are probably visible over her shoulders though, a couple of feathers sticking out do to the odd angle they're in.

Whether or not that really justified what Korra did isn't too much of an issue for Nill. Or at least, it doesn't seem to be, if her expression is anything to go off of. She nods, understanding, before starting another note.

I've never known anyone that was pardoned. I didn't know it was real. You would not believe the number of friends she's had that have done illegal stuff, Korra, you really wouldn't.

In response to the question of her outfit, she smiles a little more awkwardly, turning one arm around so that Korra can see the lock on one of her shackles. She's stuck whether they're comfortable or not.

A

[silberfuchs]

He's been trying not to watch her too much, feeling dirty with how young she is and how short the skirt they've wrestled her into, but once Albert notices Korra snatching a tablecloth to cover her legs, he relaxes a bit. Well, as much as anyone can relax with Peacekeepers breathing down their necks.

Sick of trying to make petty smalltalk at the victor's table and wondering why the tributes keep getting younger and younger, Albert makes his way over to commiserate with the poor girl over their respective stylists' terrible choices.

"Frankly, I think the tablecloth only helps the look."

[unjoined]

Mostly her own outfit bothered her because it's out of her comfort zone. Is it embarrassing? Yes, absolutely. Humiliating, more so. The Capitol has strange fashion ideas but an even worse sense of humor. Korra doesn't appreciate it at all.

At least now she has a little bit of control in the matter. Even if she looks almost more ridiculous, it's almost immediately better to her. She turns to the voice with a proud grin.

Oh. Oh the poor guy.

"Thanks. It's the latest trend," she says, adjusting it one last time and smiling sympathetically. "And still in stock, if you want to jump on the wagon."

[silberfuchs]

"I might take you up on that. We can both be trend setters." He takes a surreptitious look around, then snags a cloth of his own, draping the red and white checkered fabric over himself like a toga. It looks ridiculous, but at least more modest.

"I'm Albert Heinrich, District 3." He offers his hand to her. "You're new, aren't you? I haven't seen you before."

More kids. Whoever decides who to reap is first on Albert's list for people needing to be brought to justice.

B

[iflipmyhair]

"Whether or not you were pardoned isn't the point." Suddenly, a voice came from behind her. "Merely that you did it."

And thus, Homura walked over, standing besides Korra.

"Welcome to Panem."

[unjoined]

A jolt and she turned to the voice. A young girl. And a surprisingly noiseless one.

Korra turned to her and frowned in thought. "They're not exactly ones who should be drawing the moral lines around here." It might be a bad idea to bad-talk the Capitolites at a party like this but it didn't feel right taking this kind theme quietly. She shook her head. "I haven't seen any lists of their crimes."

After a pause she offered, "I'm Korra."

[iflipmyhair]

Homura had that effect on people.

"You won't." At this, her eyes looked over at the Peacekeepers who walked around. "Still, think of it as being in good company. None of us are 'innocent'. Its something you'll come to understand the longer you're here, among many other things."

Looking back at Korra, she flipped her hair with one hand, while simultaneously offering the other. No one knew much about Korra.

"Homura."

She aimed to change that.

[earthborn]

"Hey, you and me both," Maybe it would be smarter not to hand Korra a glass of alcohol, but Shepard ascribes to the philosophy of 'wisdom is for cowards' so here she is, drinking with one hand and offering with the other, "Then again, I saw someone else getting ragged on for being a crybaby, so I'm pretty sure the relative maturity level you can expect is pretty pathetic."

Shepard's not doing too shabby herself, in an outfit noticeably less inspired by prisons than some capitol ideal of the glamorous suburbanite. Red brings out her hair, and the slightly terrifying red glow in her eyes, and the depth of her scars. She's never claimed to be pretty, after all.

"Here. You look like you could use this."

[unjoined]

"Whoa, harsh. And here I was taking them seriously," she says after turning to find Shepard's outfit looking pretty nice, actually, if not a little frightening. The offer does does seem to cheer her up and so she takes it. "Thanks."

The drinks are different from back home but she's never cared one way or the other. In her own world, Korra is considered an adult and the drinking age is vague and trivial, so Shepard is in luck! Her reputation as a responsible adult isn't sullied today.

"You look like you're doing alright. Not enough sacks to go around, I guess."

[earthborn]

"You didn't notice the theme? Prison Couture, or something. Except for the cool kids," She waved her glass expansively, to indicate the science-and-cyborgs theme of the less avant-garde among the tributes, "That would be me."

It's a shame, really; Shepard lives to sully her reputation as a responsible adult. That she still has a reputation as one is pretty remarkable all by itself.

"Which is ironic, considering that most of these people have probably never seen the inside of a prison, but hey. Welcome to the Capitol."