thecapitol | The Crowning Of The Signless

The Crowning Of The Signless

Who| Everyone.
What| The Crowning of The Signless.
Where| An alcove in a nearby mountain.
When| From dusk to dawn, on Thursday.
Warnings/Notes| This event is mandatory for all Tributes to attend. Even if you do not tag in, your character will attend this party. Peacekeepers will be on high alert. There will be no chance to runaway.

Tributes are encouraged to sleep all during the day, before the crowning. The reason for this is revealed when they are roused at sundown and brought to the closest mountain to the city, where they are greeted by an alcove within the moutainside that has been carved into a temple to what may be an illicit faith. The stone alcove is dim-lit by candles arranged along walls and by what appears to be altars set before iron cancer signs, some plain, some inlet with intricate carvings. Bright red drapery hangs about the room, tapestries with the cancer sign and cirles of blending color spectrum. There are also some waist high leggings hung upon one wall. In the center of the room, shackles hang, glowing bright from some sort of internal heat and light. A hole in the ceiling is set on each side of it, to allow the smoke to escape from the great bonfire that roars beneath it. If one takes a seat upon any of large stones and logs aranged around it, they can see both the stars twinkling down and the way the smoke looks as though it is coming off the shackles.

The only windows otherwise are made from stained glass depicting images from the Signless's life, such as his rescue by "Alternia's First Mother" (so described on the metal plate below), "The Recording of His Teachings" depicting The Disciple writing the Signless's words into a book, "A New Follower" showing the Psiioniic joining the Signless, a boat deemed "The First Ship", and "The Execution" which features the death of the Signless before thousands of followers, a fifth troll- resembling Terezi- bearing the shackles as a necklace and another with great brown wings, a single window of Karkat and Kankri Vantas, as well as a sinister depiction of six indistinct shadowy figures of cerulean, blue, indigo, violet, tyrian, and maroon. Cave-style paintings cover the stone walls, styles ranging from simple scribbled etching to circles featuring twelve colors in circle, with bright red at the center, and yet more elaborate shadowy depictions of those in the stained glass, esepcially the Signless himself, both prior and following his execution.

But not all is dedicated to the Signless and his old posse of biblical age trolls. A shrine has been set up for redeemed and then so quickly lost victor, Matthew 'Punchy' O'Conner. Punchy has been painted upon a cave wall like he fits right into the theme. Upon his shrine lay all varieties of bling; Bling-jewelery, a bling goblet, bling boxing gloves, a hoodie, a nun habit, and a stone with a memorial rap engraved atop-- with bling, of course, all shimmering by the spotlights placed before the shrine. Refillable 40 oz bottles are lain out so that sorrowful guests, wishing to pay their respect to the boy so cruelly slain by rebels when he had turned from them, can pour one out in his honor.

Marius is also honored there with a tea light and small framed photograph set upon an empty table with an empty chair, along with souvenir versions of his and Cosette's wedding rings that guests can take home. Beneath all these rings is a photoshopped picture of javert with a single tear running down his manly face.

The only seating besides the stones and logs and Marius's single chair, are those that are sat at a table at the end of the room. Each is draped in a different color, six on each side for each district and each blood hue-- presumably of the Victor's choosing. Between these chairs sits yet one more with a tall back like a flogging jut that got the redesigned at the base to make a throne that some trolls might recognize as belonging to the Empress. The arms of the chair feature open shackles. The throne is decorated in chains of gold and jewels of all colors. The victor is given a crown of gilded flowers and thorns on chain.

Food can be found upon the altars or the victor's table, in surplus. Alternian delicacies are served, featuring insects, flavored or plain, and food made from insects. Guests may find a giant beetle being served upon a spit roast. Even the meats appear to be topped with bugs. The cakes, marshmallows (which can be roasted with stick by the fire!), and orange creamsicles may be the only things truly bug-free. Drink options are water, wine, and soda.

Stylists are encouraged to dress their tributes primarily in black, with a single bit of color put into the design matched according to district (with exception to trolls), or any manner of draping fabrics, cloaks, and costumery reminiscent of religious iconagraphy that one might expect of ancient aliens. Waist high pants and leggings are also in high regard, as well as fake horn, fangs, contacts, and anything to make guests look more trollish. The only rule is for the main colors to match to the blood assignment.

The music playing is the sort one might expect from a church, featuring mournful vocals, soft bells and melodies, and of course, organ music. But for one or two jarring differences. Where this music is coming from remains a mystery but since the space is open and clear, guests have plenty of room for dancing.

Those who don't wish to dance can talk and regale tales around the bonfire, or may instead seek out the book of "scripture" at one of the altars that features nothing more than various parables- with names that Tributes might recognize! Each Tribute has one parable contained within, telling a tale in flourished manner of a part of their life, featuring a pro-capitol moral at the end.

Elsewhere, are models of the flogging just, where guests can put their hands through the oversized cuffs and pretend to writhe in agony, an Alternian bioware helm where guests too can pretend to have their lifeforce and power used a battery for the sake of the Alternian empire, a dress-up station where guests can customize their appearance to match trolls sold into gruelling slavery to seadwellwers, and an area designed to look like a cave with extensive "Alternian" (gibberish) writings of the Signless's words, where guests too can pretend they've lost everyone they love and are carrying on their legacy by writing upon the walls and leaving their own messages of love and mourning. Not to mention, a life-sized drone with realistic piercing claws, for all your picture posing needs.

A sandpit lies just around a corner for children to make castles, dig trenches, and act out games of pretending they've trekked thousands of miles through zombie infested desert just to speak to a couple of people! Guests can also meet a "mutantblood lusus" a four-eyed crab creature with lizardlike structure-- only sized no bigger than the average dog and perhaps about as intelligent. Guests are warned not to put their hand too close, lest the claw pincers manage to pinch them.

Late into the crowning, everyone is brought out to the dark mountainside, well monitored by peacekeepers, and divided into teams. Everyone is given belts with velcro flags attached, colored according to the "blood" they were matched with by district. Those in the eighth, ninth, twelfth, third, tenth, and eleventh districts are deemed the "lowbloods. Those in the first, fourth, second, fifth, sixth, and seventh districts, are deemed the "highbloods". Each team is given a velcro board to attach the flags to. The first team to lose all their flags loses, winners getting tiny necklace copies of the shackles. The last one standing with a flag wins a larger necklace copy and the option to get it redesigned into a symbol of their choosing.

If you failed not to be "culled", fear not! All tributes receive a participation sticker at the end. This sticker features a number. It is not indicative of districts or of age, as will be announced shortly, but of the new scoring. These will be announced for everyone to hear- and pick out targets from.

The crowning officially ends with the coming dawn. And so begins, to everyone's surprise, preparation for the arena. Tributes will be going right from the crowning off to the Tribute launch tubes. Happy Hunger Games!

[Note: This is ICly on Thursday! Just before the arena on Friday!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Linden's stylists have given him a look with a little more edge tonight. Instead of looking like someone dressed for his own funeral, his clothing and makeup are significantly more dramatic and intimidating than the shabby suits he usually wears, and though it suits his gaunt frame and bristly demeanor, it's easy to tell that the look isn't going to last the night. Whatever they'd done with his hair is already ruffled back to its typical wild and ratty appearance, parts of his makeup are smeared, and he's peeled off one of his gloves, surreptitiously depositing it in a potted plant. At present, he seems to be looking for a place to discard his other one.

The glassy sheen over his eyes says, clearly and discouragingly that he's losing his fight with abstaining from Morphling. As he frequently does at larger parties like this, he seems lost and overwhelmed, and the effect is only exacerbated by the fact that he's strayed from his District's tributes and escorts. Some would call this "mingling", but Linden is a drifter, looking through people rather than at them directly, glancing at them long enough to figure out if they're someone he really wants to talk to. Usually, the answer is a hollow "no," and he's moved on with little fanfare or acknowledgment. Several glasses of wine in, and he's more than comfortable being a little bit abrupt in brushing even very persistent individuals off.

He almost doesn't recognize Nill, because her stylists have gone in such a different direction from her usual more innocent and girlish ensembles. The wings, in combination with a stained-glass backdrop that suits them stunningly well, tip him off to the girl's identity. He doesn't want to interrupt her, but stands nearby, with a handful of unroasted marshmallows in one hand and half a glass of wine in the other. He also looks up at the stained glass; the imagery and mood are unfamiliar to him, and for a brief moment, he envies the comfort Nill seems to draw from them.

"This speaks to you?" he asks, at the risk of disturbing her reverie. "It looks that way. That being said... regrettably, I don't hear much."

Religion in Panem, after all, begins and ends with the Capitol, and there isn't much in between.

It's about the least comfortable thing she's been forced to wear, frankly. If Nill had a choice in the matter she would never wear so little, but Oceana has at least made sure that the vine-like strips of cloth cover anything that might be considered inappropriate. Though of course, the Capitol does seem to have much different standards with it comes to appropriate than Nill has encountered so far. At least i's nice to see that Linden's stylists have decided not to make it look like he's attending his own funeral services.

Even when Linden speaks up, Nill doesn't look particularly disturbed. She lifts her head towards him and smiles, small and warm, before shaking her head. She draws her fingers away from the glass so that she can write and give him more than a yes-no response to the question.

it reminds me of a friend.
they were very good to me.

She recognizes the slightly glassy look in his eyes. It's not as bad as the night she took him back to her room, of course, but it's also painfully obvious that he isn't sober at all right now. She'd have to try make sure he didn't do too much more indulging this evening.

Edited 2015-01-25 01:06 (UTC)

That smile might be the first thing he's seen all night that actually connects with him on a level that makes him want to come back to earth. Even if it's a hard place to survive, it's one that has this particular Tribute, and in that way, it can't be all bad. He returns the smile with one that's a tad twitchy, but wholly genuine.

"Which fried? Someone in Panem, or before...?"

Part of him wonders if she's referring to her addict friend, the one that she had admitted to loving, but part of him hopes not. He had thought that perhaps he reminded her of that particular acquaintance, but he has nothing at all in common with the gentle and beautiful image that has so enraptures her. More in common, probably, with the more unpleasant and tortured imagery present at this crowning ceremony.

The smile doesn't necessarily ease her concerns, but it's so nice to see. Smiling is something that Linden does so scarcely, and sometimes even when he does the attempt looks more painful than anything else. This time there's much less discomfort; perhaps it's because of the morphling, but if that's the case it makes it much harder to resent it, even if only for a few seconds.

before Panem.
she liked that color a lot.

Not to mention, that person was one of the only friends Nill had floating in the myriad worlds that was actually still alive. One of the very, very few people that she'd actually been able to say goodbye to. If Nill ever left Panem, the place that she'd left her friend in might actually be a place she could go back to.

She doesn't actually intend to leave as things are right now, but it's nice knowing that there's at least one place she can go back to if she did. Typically she doesn't have that option.

Morphling was designed as a medicine, and even though it's wasted him to a pale shadow of his former self and dulled and dampened things that were razor sharp once, it does help Linden. For this reason alone, it's difficult to completely villify it. Even those who are immensely critical of his substance abuse have to admit that he's calmer, and all-around easier to deal with when he's under the influence.

Nill has a similar calming effect on him, though, with or without the needle. So it's difficult to tell which is responsible for his disposition, tonight. Considering he wasn't nearly as polite to others before drifting up next to her, it's probably Nill.

"What's special about that color?" he asks, tilting his head, trying to see it for himself before she can answer him. Even if he fails, the effort, at least, surely counts.

it held a lot of meaning for her.
I don't know how to explain why.

Her expression shifts slightly, something more awkward this time. This particular friend, like many others, is one of the ones that Nill will never give name or physical description to - this one perhaps more so than the others. The girl in question was a troll, of this particular blood color, and though the woman in the glass isn't her the resemblance is pretty striking. She doesn't dare hint that she's a troll. There are too many here as it is, and she doesn't want them trying to bring Kanaya here.

It's only a lie in the loosest sense. She knows how to explain, it's just not safe to. If he knew she doubts he would hold it against her.

I used to live in a church.
it reminds me of that too.

Linden squints, trying harder to see if anything resonates, but for years, colors have done little for him. They fade together in a lifeless palette; it's not that he's color-blind, but more like he's feeling-blind; if he had to describe it, he would try to that way, and come up frustratingly short. He closes his eyes for a second, resting them, welcoming the soothing darkness of his eyelids.

"I've learned a little about churches. I still don't really understand the purpose very well, not... because I'm stupid, but because there's just not... anything like it in Panem, before all of you came. What was it like?"

Conversely, Nill has never really heard of a world where religion didn't exist in some way. Exsilium may have counted, but Exsilium was also a largely destroyed island - there were ruins of churches, and it wouldn't have been a surprise if Exiles were faithful without a place to express that faith. The surprise shows on her face, and after considering she gestures at the stained glass and starts writing.

churches are usually very old buildings.
the one in my world had windows like this. many do.

She pauses in her writing here to tap her pen to her chin thoughtfully. There are so many things to say about churches, but in the face of someone who barely knows what they are she's not sure what she should say. Without a better concept of them she's not even sure he'd understand what she was telling him.

churches are places where you worship god.
people also sing to him.
usually the person in charge talks about god, or reads from the bible.

She holds it up for him to read, and then a thought occurs to her. She waits for him to read most of what she's written before pulling her notepad back to quickly write another line and hold it up again.

do you know what god is?

Truly, every world has some kind of religion. In Panem, it's worship and fear of the power of State, and Linden grew up in the shadow of it. He's an innocent heathen as much as a jaded slave.

He reads what she's written, and then looks at the window again, as if looking for something new that the words might have helped to clarify. Nothing pops out, and he looks vaguely crestfallen.

"Based on what others have told me... Initiate, mostly... I think that the closest thing I can compare to such a concept is President Snow. People sing to him, and talk about him, and he can make our lives better or worse on a whim. Does that not make him godlike?"

he does seem a little like god.

It's for the best, no doubt, that she doesn't say that god is just as cruel as humans are.

Initiate's faith is very different from where I lived.
I never heard of something like it until he told me about it.
Karkat says it's a cult, but it's very important to the Initiate.

That, and faced with the utter devotion she could feel coming off of Kurloz in the Arena, Nill is fairly certain that he would do just about anything if his gods asked it of him.

Almost certainly for the best that she doesn't say so. The people of Panem have enough in their everyday lives that depress them desperately, challenge them to find reasons to continue on in a cycle of birth, Reaping, and death.

"Initiate loves his philosophy very much, and clearly believes in it. I don't know what to believe," Linden confesses. "But that's really always been the case... the truth that others see, like the beauty your friend saw in this color, just... seems so subjective and unreal to me."

do you find beauty in anything?

She doesn't really mean anything by asking him that. It's a bit on the personal side, sure, but mostly she's curious (concerned). When she was at her lowest she found beauty in nothing - now, after she managed to survive some of that, mostly she wonders if Linden has ever been out of that state, or if that's just what was left after he walked out of his Arena. There's no way to know without asking. If he doesn't want to talk about it he could change the subject, or she could, and she would never bring it up again.

He stares long and hard at the stained glass at the question, and then glances her way, for a very brief moment.

"Some things, recently," he says softly. "That much, I will admit, is a gift, and I am grateful for it."

He raises his sleeve and rubs at his makeup again, smudging it further.

He doesn't specify whatever it is that he's seen beauty in as of late, but it's enough for a small, warm smile to spread across Nill's face. It looks a little out of place given the attire they've stuck her in - warmth hardly matches with the vines and sharpness of the makeup - but there isn't a single thing about it that's not genuine.

that's really good to hear.
do you want help taking your makeup off?
I don't think your stylists would mind.

Edited 2015-01-27 22:46 (UTC)

If it isn't completely obvious what he means, drunk and high and scarcely hanging onto presence in the moment by a thread, perhaps that's something like a small shred of dignity spared for District 6's resident trainwreck.

He fixes his glazed eyes on her words, and he lowers his sleeve, where some of the white powder has smudged against the dark material. The cheekbone he was rubbing at, mindless of the pressure he was exerting, looks a little red and angry.

"Yeah, it's... uncomfortable. Thank you."

The handful of marshmallows goes into his pocket, and he withdraws a handkerchief, starting to sit on the floor, dipping the corner of it in his white wine. Clearly, if Nill's pragmatic suggestion was to go elsewhere to remove the makeup, she'll need to repeat it and be a bit clearer about it this time.

She had intended to go elsewhere - maybe closer to a source of something they could clean his face off with that wasn't wine, for instance - but they aren't in the middle of the room at least. The glass is at a wall not terribly close to some of the other attractions, and it's high up enough in the wall that Linden probably won't actually block it by sitting there.

She doesn't move to sit with him, but she does crouch down so they're relatively on the same level, already writing a message which she holds up for him after a moment.

I think water might be a better idea.
will you be ok if I go get some?

It's very obvious that he's not all there, and while he's no doubt not actually as bad as he could be, she's also not entirely sure how bad he can be at this stage. Her only mode of comparison was the night before the last Arena, and that was practically an overdose (or so she assumes, at least). That concern is mostly at war with the possibility of getting wine in his eyes.

He peers up as she crouches down, holding a handkerchief with one corner dripping with white wine. It'd probably be incredibly drying on the skin, if he tried to use it to rub off his makeup, and it would doubtless sting the portion of his face he's already rubbed red. He blinks, readjusting his gaze when he sees the new message.

"I guess..."

He seems uncertain, a Victor sitting there in partial makeup and incomplete attire, a wine glass sitting on the floor in front of him. It's not a dignified way to leave him, but to be fair, dignity and Linden don't frequently cross paths publicly. It waits for intimate, quite moments to appear, because that's the only time it's even a little bit safe to reveal intelligence and insight.

Even then, it's dangerous.

Nill seems just as uncertain, and his reply isn't terribly reassuring. Her expression falls a little, and she lifts her head to scan the crowd.

She knows people have bid on him. It seems he's got some kind of reputation going for him, and Nill isn't totally sure that there aren't Capitolites in attendance to the crownings. There's no way for her to know all the tributes and be entirely certain of that. Some creep showing up is about the last thing in the world she wants.

However, as she scans the crowd, she sees a good solution to this problem. Nill is on her feet in a second or two, quickly writing wait here before she scurries off, writing even as she walks away.

There's someone not too far away that she knows, and they seem to have water. It should be within sight of Linden. They read her note, and after a second or two of saying something they give her their glass. On the way back she grabs a napkin from an Avox - the cloth sort - with a grateful smile. The whole thing takes maybe thirty seconds before she's back and moving to stand on her knees in front of linden again, holding up the glass and napkin.

That worked out better than she was expecting. Anyone sketchy looking that wandered too close to Linden while she was a few feet away got watched like a hawk.

Linden does have a reputation, just as unnerving and upsetting as many other parts of his life since winning the 63rd Hunger Games. It's the type of reputation that draws a certain type of opportunistic Capitolite, and one would think that it would inspire him to be a little more careful with the vices he imbibed. Unfortunately, that isn't quite how addictions and coping mechanisms work; at the end of the day, Linden would rather risk waking up confused and ashamed the next morning than endure a night sober.

A chill runs through him. The truths that occur to him in this state cut through him the most intensely, ripping him to shreds and exposing all of his flaws. He's weak for doing this to himself, a vicious voice whispers. He's selfish, he's the kind to blithely hurt any who dare to give a damn about the person he's been slowly killing for a decade. When Nill returns, she'll find him staring again at the stained glass, with voided-out eyes that still fail to see what makes it beautiful.

He reaches for the napkin, dipping it in the water... and instead of wiping the makeup off his own face, he starts on Nill's.

"Cover you up..." he mumbles, "they shouldn't, really... poor decision-making."

It's not how addiction works at all, and it certainly isn't how coping works, at least as far as what Nill knows of it goes. She's never once known anyone that chose sobriety when their lives were an especially unpleasant kind of hell. That rule rang true even in her own world; where people weren't owned by typical drugs they were surely slaves to their own minor vices. Nicotine, adrenaline, blood lust - it all depended on the person, really, but Nill had yet to know someone without a vice. (Save, perhaps, for Kankri.) But that certainly wasn't close to anything that came out of her own world, and Nill could never really fault anyone for their vices, no matter how sad they might make her. After all, at this point she had a fair number of her own.

Unfortunately Nill doesn't know what his gaze on the glass means, but she takes up the space she'd originally been kneeling in, setting what she managed to find in front of her.

It occurs to her, then, that maybe he's less present than she'd thought he was.

She doesn't have much time to think on it. Linden reaches for what she's brought before she has the time to do so herself, and a moment later he's working on taking off her makeup, not is. Her cheeks go a little pink, but he might not notice that.

She writes on her notepad without actually moving her head, and holds it up for him to see. The writing is larger than normal for the sake of ease, and not as neat since she can't see it, but it's at least concise.

what?

She has no idea what he means by that.

Maybe it was true for every world inhabited by humans, or any creature human-like enough within a certain set of parameters. Linden would agree with the sentiment that every creature that feels pain will, inevitably, do their very best to escape that pain, from the fox that chews its own foot off to escape a trap, to the addict enduring the sting of a needle for the peace that follows.

As he rubs off some of her makeup, he is, in fact, able to notice the slight pinkness in her cheeks, and it makes him smile, a twitchy half-grin that goes poorly with the somber and edgy look his stylists have elected for his ensemble.

"I mean your stylists didn't know what they were doing tonight. You're really pretty; most of their work is finished before they even start."

The rarity with which Linden actually smiles, and the fact that the one on his face now is definitely wider than usual, makes Nill's eyes go a little wide. But then again, that could be the compliment as well, because they certainly don't get any smaller.

It might be because he's actually touching her face and saying she's pretty, or maybe the earlier comment about beauty has started to actually sink in. He says she's pretty and her cheeks almost go red with how quickly a full blush creeps onto her face. She still doesn't move her head, but her gaze darts around, and it doesn't return to him until she's written another message and held it up.

are you ok?

She's really starting to think she underestimated his level of sobriety.

He dabs at her foundation, and is noticeably gentler than when he was working at his own, to the point where he's having more trouble taking it off. On the plus side, he's not in any danger of rubbing off poor Nill's skin.

His eyes stray when she has a message for him, and he tilts his head, hand slipping slightly against her cheek.

"No..." he laughs lightly. "But that's normal. And I think I actually want to remember this crowning, which isn't normal, but... it is OK."

She doesn't understand the shift - she'd assumed he wasn't aware of how hard he was rubbing his own skin, but if that was the case his gentleness wouldn't make sense. He'd be doing the same to her, but he's not. The extent to how intentional his care is is obvious.

He wants to remember this and Nill is pretty sure he never really wants to remember nights like this. It was part of why he was so far gone at most of them; the sooner he started the quicker he forgot, or so it always seemed.

That... wasn't because of her, was it? It couldn't be. Why would that make any difference?

After a moment to consider his words Nill writes another message, and she lifts one hand to gently touch her fingertips to his cheek, holding the notepad in the other hand.

can I do anything?

He feels a little bad interfering with her communication to the extent that he is; it must be difficult to write with a strung-out addict dabbing with varying degrees of effectiveness around one's eyes and nose.

He stares at the latest message like he doesn't quite understand it, and really, he might not. It's a vague offer, too vague for his state of mind, and he's having trouble coming up with specifics.

"I don't know... probably not. Most of the things I want aren't like that."

It's a strange answer, one he's not quite sure makes a lot of sense in the given context. He thought about asking for another glass of wine, but that would push him well into blackout territory, and from there on he'd be a on vacation from himself while his lowered inhibitions wreaked havoc on the people who cared enough to remain close. If he was lucky; if he was unlucky, anything could happen, and he'd be the one dealing with the fallout the next day.

"Just... oh." He's thought of something. "Close your eyes, this stuff really burns when you rub it too close if you're not careful."

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