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

[hit_girl_mindy]

Oh, so that was what he meant.

"Basically, yes. We stay alive as long as we're popular, of course. So just do that, maybe stay away from the crazy fuckers in the Arena, and obey whatever bullshit they tell us. Easy enough, just hard to stomach."

Like, pretty much always.

[samson]

Brock knew they were being watched, and even if this girl made it pretty clear that nobody cared what kind of seditious crap they bitched about, he still wanted to be cautious. Openly disagreeing with crazy bullshit laws was one thing, but openly feigning obedience seemed to cross some kind of line.

"What's your name, anyway?" he said, maybe to change the subject.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy had experienced first hand what the punishment was for not at least seeming innocent enough. The guy look tough enough to take whatever the bastards threw at him, but what kind of mentor would she be to tell him to do whatever he wanted? No, she'd toe the line, because they had their eyes on her. It didn't pay to be stupid anymore.

"Mindy Macready," she said, "mentor for District 9."

[samson]

"Mentor," he repeated a little skeptically, having not heard the term before. "You're not a Tribute?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Everyone starts as a tribute," Mindy said, "but you become a mentor when you actually win one of these things, which I did."

He looked like he might NOT have a problem winning one himself, although his appearance could just as likely hinder that too.

[samson]

Right. The girl in the bar had mentioned that; you win and you get a reprieve from all this bullshit. He found it a little hard to believe.

He also found it a little hard to believe that she could win something like this, because... frankly... there were a lot of people who looked like straight-up serial killers here. Then again, maybe some of them couldn't stomach killing a kid.

"No kidding. How long ago?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"A few months back," she said. "Arena 9, actually. It wasn't easy of course: you have to go through a lot, and unless you're cowering all over the place like a bitch, its not how you win, you know? But I'm not trying to make it sound like I did it easy either: by the end of it I had an arrow in the leg, singed hands, bleeding all over the place and I had to shoot a really cool guy in the back because an honorable gun fight in might state would have ended bad for me. You do what you have to."

It was a small bit of pride to know that she was the youngest too, and that there was only one person who had actually not taken her out because she was a kid.

"Keep in mind, they add people all the time. Probably be a lot harder for a kid to win with the psycho sons of bitches they have now."

[samson]

Brock was also starting to get uneasy with how mouthy Mindy was. Jesus christ. But he's not her dad, so he didn't say anything, just arched his eyebrow a bit.

"That's pretty, uh..." Hardcore? Kind of. Again, he felt a little weird conversing with a teenager like he would a colleague, so he just sort of trailed off and picked up on a different part of what she said.

"How long's it been for you? Like, how long have you been here... you seen a lot of changes?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

She didn't miss the eyebrow thing.

"Fucked up, I know. Like I said, different universes, different rules. This place just happens to take what shouldn't make sense and throw it in our faces. I don't...well, don't normally kill over this stupid kind of reality game show bullshit, but I wasn't about to play to their expectations over and over."

Mindy didn't believe in deaths for something like stupid. No, when it came time to go after the enemy? She wouldn't hold back then.

"Several months. They've tightened security enough so its a noose around our necks, in case you haven't guessed. Getting to the point that they will only want to remind us how we're nothing but useless celebrities to them. At least they tried to hide it before, make it seem like we should be grateful."

[samson]

He could respect that. Sort of. In a way? It was still weird that somebody that young would be able to do something like that. It made him a little wary and he was suddenly very glad that Mindy wasn't going to be going up against him. He wasn't sure if he could bring himself to take her out.

"Uh, yeah," he answered, glancing to the side again. He guessed that the Capitol's hold was starting to slip on them; there were too many warning signs. Slipping on the Tributes, slipping on the actual citizens. It worried him. He didn't really think that too many of the Tributes were prepared to play some part in a civil war.

For as young as she was, at least Mindy seemed like she knew what she was talking about. Finger on the pulse of what's going on in this fucked-up place, and all. She'd be useful in a more in depth discussion, a good asset, but he didn't think they could get away with anything beyond idle bitching.

"That's sort of worrying."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah it is," she said quietly. "A little while ago, they lost their head torturer. They didn't know who did it, so they went and grabbed people who weren't where they were supposed to be at the time to interrogate them. Now me, I'll admit, probably shouldn't have been looking for dead spots that these guys couldn't listen in on, but I was one of the few that was actually not doing a smart thing like being up to no good. Other people, they were just not having an alibi to where they should be. In any case, we all got the same kinda treatment: talking, beating, torture, and in the end, this."

She gestured to the branding on her face. It was a little darker now, less fresh, but still ugly and a reoccurring theme in her nightmares. "To let Panem know they were serious. Never did catch the person that did it either."

[samson]

Brock had heard the story before, but he liked to hear how different people told it. Everybody had their own theory, it seemed, a different thing they wanted to focus on. Mindy's the first one who really went into any great depth about the repercussions; everyone else seemed to blow it off as murder yadda yadda branding.

He had his own suspicions that it was an inside job, the assassination. It just made sense. But it wasn't something he felt comfortable discussing this openly.

"Fair enough warning for us newbies, I guess," he said thoughtfully, slowly, glancing at the brand but taking care not to stare at it.

[hit_girl_mindy]

It had never escaped Mindy's notice that she might have just happened to be doing wrong while the others might have only been a mild guess in that direction OR, in some people's cases, not have been implicated at all. Only an idiot would not have been specifically looking for the truth: that there had never been anything on their mind other than severely punishing tributes to save face until they found the killer.

"It's not the only method they have. I'm sure they've already talked to you about traitors being executed and Avoxes."

[samson]

"Uh. I mean, I figured they'll execute people; that's pretty standard for this kind of... place," he said, glancing to the side and choosing an exceedingly kind word for the Capitol. He could have gone with something more colorful, but she's a teenager. Restraint.

"Avoxes, though... that sounds familiar. Those weird little servant guys?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

Oh Brock, you'd learn" Mindy tended to use words that were way, WAY more colorful than they should be for a girl her age. She had no shame in it.

"They're what happens to you when you piss off the Capitol and they want you to think about what you've done. You notice the servants don't have much to say?"

[samson]

No... no... he'll be scandalized...

"I guess," he said, having... sort of noticed it? Kind of. "I don't really have a whole lot of experience with servants. In general."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Somehow that's doubtful.

"Those servants were Capitol dissenters. They have their brains made so they're, you know, compliant. They don't speak because, well, they removed their tongues. If you're especially, uh, shitty, about serving the Capitol? They'll do that to a tribute for a little while."

Something that even talking about it chilled her to the bone.

[samson]

He almost didn't want to ask, but... well...

"How exactly do you temporarily remove somebody's tongue?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"You think that's any weirder than them being able to bring us back to life, spic and span, with no side effects? Man, your world's gotta be hardcore."

She shook her head. "Don't know. Don't think I'd ever really want to find out either, to be honest."

[samson]

Brock just happened to have weird experiences with death and resurrection. One of the experiences he isn't actually at the liberty to speak about, even here, but the other... well... he just shrugged. "My old boss used to rent out part of his property to a necromancer. So..."

Things like that didn't really faze him.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"A necromancer. Well, guess what I said still stands, then. I think we might have had one here, so I'm told. For all I know she could still be here, but I wasn't in the Arena when she came. Oh, that reminds me: if you go into the Arena, expect shit like zombies and dinosaurs and shit like that. There's been almost no limit to the shit these people do for their entertainment."

[samson]

He was pretty used to zombies and dinosaurs, too. Still, better not to give away everything; Mindy was a Mentor and therefore he probably didn't have to worry about her, but that didn't mean nobody else wasn't listening.

"That's... good to know."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Other thing to note is, when you're in there? You'll want to appeal to the sponsors: they're the ones that will give you things when you're there, like lighters, food, sometimes weapons. It's something to keep in mind, but I have a feeling there'll be people who will want to favor you by looks alone. Never hurts to get yourself out there though."

Which made Mindy feel dirty even saying, but he WAS still going to be in the Arena. She had to at least give him an idea what was going to happen.

[samson]

Oh. That was... weird, coming from a teenage girl, and Brock's brow knit a little. "Right... I'll keep that in mind."

Still, it was helpful to get advice from somebody who ostensibly won the damn thing. Not that he especially cared about that; he'd like to end it for everybody, given the chance.

"So what is it you do when we're all in there, murdering each other?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

She wasn't quite a teenager yet, although she was perfectly happy with other people thinking that. If anything, the maturity of her situation sort of made her one anyway.

"That'll come later," she said, "usually, anyway. First thing you do is head for the Cornucopia, where they have all the weapons you can nab, if you're quick enough. If you linger though, you might get taken off, so be brief. After that, you gotta set up shot at a place where you can sleep, set up camp. The deaths start pretty much when the first week is gone because new people and regulars are setting up a base. Doesn't mean you won't get attacked, just means that you gotta be careful. After that week, you start to worry about your head more, and you'll have to rely on whatever you can scavenge and whatever your sponsors fly in for you. Won't just be people you worry about though: the terrain will eventually start to turn against you too."