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]

Hey, these were the facts buddy. You could jest about it lightly if you wanted, but between seeing friends get killed and not brought back AND seeing them after the torture (or being ONE of the ones tortured) it started to be something less funny and more real.

"Sounds like my home then," Mindy said, shaking her head. "I swear to God, with all the stupid shit on it, its a hare's breath away from becoming as vapid as something like this though. I can think of a few people who would have totally been into the idea."

[a_minute_younger]

Gary would like to think that he can run away from these things forever. It's a common fantasy he has. They'll catch up, eventually.

...But not anytime soon, if he can help it. "Shit, really? What does your place have?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

He'd have a hard time, that was for sure.

"It has organized crime and the mafia where they're allowed," Mindy answered swiftly. "Unless you had a death wish, you'd be a fucking idiot to cross them. Sound familiar?"

[a_minute_younger]

"Yeah!" For a movie, maybe. Gary's never heard of that level of organized crime back home, but the idea that Mindy's run across them already has his interest. That is, if she's not pulling his leg. "Always gotta be someone that crosses them, though. If it's not someone like us, who would?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Another crime syndicate, probably," Mindy said. "Police aren't really going to get involved in that shit unless they REALLY have a reason to do it. You can always bribe the right people to make sure that you're not fucked with. That's usually where a vigilante, like me, comes in. You have to be, and you have to, obviously, do the shit they do in that arena. Honestly though, I think I prefer it back home."

[a_minute_younger]

Still sounding like a movie--right until Mindy mentions that she's a vigilante. Gary's eyes light up with enthusiasm. Suddenly her having all of this battle experience makes a lot more sense, although he still finds the mental image odd, given her age. He can think of another explanation for that.

"Damn, I would, too, if I was a cape!" Granted, Gary does consider himself something of a vigilante back home...if only because of his abilities. Claiming the title sounds a lot more impressive when he's not trying to compete with someone as aggressively assertive as Mindy is. "What can you do? You know--powers?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

The age thing was going to come up, but she figured that he would have come up anyway after she told him that she was a mentor. If he wasn't going to bring it up, either he thought she was lying or it didn't interest him.

She got her answer a moment later though.

"If you wear a keep, for the most part you don't have to follow police procedure unless you're a real boy scout though," Mindy reminded him. "Oh, you can probably NOT follow police protocol for the more fucked up villains, but you don't go out and murder them, right?"

That separated someone like Spiderman from, say, someone like the Punisher.

"I don't have powers," she said. "They don't exist in my world except in comic books. I have the training a normal kid doesn't have: I know how to take a bullet, I can think fast and stab quick, and I can fire a gun faster than you can come up with a smart comment about me being crazy to imagine it. Where I'm from, that's more than enough reason to work in secret. That's why you KEEP the secret identity. Obviously, it does me no good here."

[a_minute_younger]

There's that phrase again--'in my world.' What's that supposed to mean, anyways? People keep treating different cities or whatever like whole universes, and Gary is starting to find this quite confusing. It's almost like that Lonestar guy was actually right or something. But completely different universes...that can't be true, can it? It's just too fantastic.

"Ah--one of those cranks in spandex, then." Gary aims a conspiratorial wink and nudge in Mindy's direction, but he doesn't lord that comment over her for too long. "That is weird, isn't it? Everyone's so open about powers and shit. Why is that?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

If he was in denial about it, he was going to be in for a pretty rude shot down the line: she wondered if he had even had a chance to size up the kind of people he was going to have to deal with in the Arena. If he still treated this like a joke? He was going to be in for a pretty bad shock.

"If it helps you to fight, nothing to bitch about if that's your thing. You have to inspire fear and respect, makes your reputation." Not that she could afford to have that, of course, but so long as they knew she was someone to be feared.

"Because they don't mean anything here, not anymore, you know? Why would you keep a secret identity? Hell, HOW would you even do it, with everyone living on top of each other?"

[a_minute_younger]

Gary shrugs. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point there. Not a lot of chances for private me time. At least, if you don't mind everyone watching." He gives a quick, suggestive raise of his brows, but doesn't linger. This is actually kind of an interesting idea to consider! "I guess you could try and keep it secret from the rest of the Tributes? For a little bit, you know--until the next episode comes out. They do that sometimes on reality TV."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Gross," Mindy said, smirking. She didn't want to guess what this guy would be doing, but then, the idea of never having that kind of privacy as a teen must have been pretty crappy in general anyway.

"I think you have to worry more about that stuff when the Arena stuff. Capitol shenanigans aren't going to be televised unless they're big, but they'll probably find out by gossip. People here are pretty nosy."

[a_minute_younger]

Gary grins a boyish grin. Let it never be said that his mental age is anything over twelve, because whoever says that is giving him more credit than he deserves. "Yeah--with those magazines and shit, right?" He shrugs. "If they're like the gossip mags back home, anything can end up there. I guess that's part of being famous."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"The Capitol are notorious for finding anything out that they shouldn't know about. Part of being famous means that there's a big fucking target drawn on our heads. Anything juicy that is true, or isn't, they're gonna make big. That's just something we have to get used to."

[a_minute_younger]

"Yeah," he sighs wistfully, staring off at the opposite wall over the rim of his drink. This is probably not at all the tone Mindy was fishing for. "Journalists glued to your every move, fangirls screaming from a single wink at the camera..."

[hit_girl_mindy]

This kid. Really.

"Oh, is that what you're about? Fame? If you want that, do something they'll remember you for. Trust me, you'll see exactly how much you really like it. It might just be me though: fame's never been my cup of tea. I'm used to working at night for a reason."

[a_minute_younger]

"I'm planning on it!" Gary gives a confident thumb-up with his free hand. Oblivious, as per usual. "I'll go bring the spotlight somewhere else then. Talk to you later, Mindy!"

Attention span running short, he starts to wander away towards an as-of-yet unidentified new source of interest. What a funny little girl, he thinks with a bemused smile. So serious! Always the best ones to prod and see what happens, in his experience.

[hit_girl_mindy]

She'd be less serious when she wasn't coming out of a majorly fucked up Arena.

And he would be MORE, she thought, watching him leave and waving him off, unless he had a nasty streak she didn't figure him having.