thecapitol | The Crowning of Tony Stark

Entry tags:

The Crowning of Tony Stark

Who| Everyone.
What| The Crowning of Tony Stark.
Where| The New Capitol Stark Expo!
When| Friday, late afternoon into the evening.
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, so no funny business.
WARNINGS| Alcoholism / References to Alcoholism.

The Capitol might be known for its extravagance, but Stark Expos have never skimped on a show. Combining the two together could only be a recipe for the most wild indulgences. The center theater takes styling after a arc reactor, with glass ceiling and glowing blue lights set right within the metal and putting a glow to the sky. Lightshows go off on the main stage, the stark logo overhead and a massive screen displaying the Panem flag and Tony Stark's image just behind the dancing Ironettes. A circle plattform going off from the stage, clearly reserved for the guest of honor, features a design Panem's bird in red, gold, and glowing blue.

A globe is featured in the outside gardens, showing off a map of Panem, and the park is filled with artistic statues of destroyed Iron Man amror. But there's no quiet here, not with the fireworks going off all night and the consistent playing of music that is not but sounds an awful lot like that of Daft Punk, Eifel 65, ACDC, and one other song that breaks them up.

Various shows can be found about the gardens, including display models of some of Tony Stark's old weapons and Iron Man suits. Further along guests may find the Avengers display, featuring large portraits of the Avengers and their allies, large red x's going over greyed out portraits of those deemed dead, including Phill Coulson, Natasha Romanoff, and Thor. Along with these portraits can be found the Stark family tree, featuring the Victor Tony Stark and all his relations including apparent son Dave Strider, and Arya Stark, Ancestor of the Stark family, not to mention the great Howard Stark who's accomplishments (and tragic lack of care for Anthony) are lovingly illustrated. One such accomplishment being a "flying car" just a short walk over.

There's plenty for guests to do besides just ogle the brilliant sights however! A bar has been set up with a whole variety of drinking games available from Sink The Battleship and Drink Roulette to an extravagent variation of the classic game, Beer Pong, and an ongoing run of the Games with rules of drinking for each emotional scene, funny incident, or death. Those under the age of eighteen will be served fizzing juice or soda instead and can participate in junior versions of the very same games. All the cups are made from the finest glass with Tony Stark images over them. Avoxes are on scene to clean every spill and break of glass that might come.

A cave has been crafted of artificial and real material, designed to look like the Cave in which Tony Stark became a real hero, but with a twist; it's been made into a fun-for-all maze! Guests can attempt to navigate their way to the labyrinth and reach the core, avoiding those nasty pop-out rebels along the way. Those who make it to the fire-lit center may receive a limited edition "Tony Stark Heart" miniature arc reactor in a beautiful glass case.

An indoor sky diving station is also available, large enough that many guests may enter at once and still find it spacious. Here, guests can don Iron Man themed sky-diving suits and experience the sensation of flight, just as Tony Stark once did. Of course, the party doesn't start until the Victor comes in; he'll be appearing by Capitol-controlled suit to make his entrance at center stage. It is here that his Throne shall be raised up through the stage and his crown gifted to him. Following the official Crowning Ceremony will also come a speech from the Capitol's very own, Cyrus Reagan.

Tributes are dressed in formal wear with robotic accents. Such as a full mask or metal armor. Capitolites can be seen with Tony stark styled hair, bearing tattoos in his image, and even with surgically implanted lights, in honor of the new Victor. Available for purchase are handcrafted Tony Stark dolls, Iron Man action figures, and models of beloved robot-pet "Dum-E" in both small and life-sized. The Iron Man light gloves come completely free for all guests.

The Crowning ends off with a bang, as in the center of the sky, a massive "wormhole" opens up showing a vast darkness full of sinister creatures just on the other side, sure to inspire some screams from fans. Guests near to the Iron Man suit displays are asked by peacekeepers to step back-- far back-- but may be the first to witness the incredible scene of all those suits launching into the sky and exploding around and "in" the wormhole. The wormhole shifts to a message stating the show to have been brought to you by the Hunger Game's skilled Sky-Display Designers before going into advertising for the rest of the night as the party dies down.

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He angrily knocked back another gulp. "What a bastard--who'd leave kids out to dry?" The Bite of '87... He wanted to ask, he really did. But Firo tended to be more sensitive to the feelings of people he liked, so he just frowned and gave his condolences. "Sorry about your friend."

Would it be better to let the subject change? Firo imagined so, so he continued on their other line of conversation. "Damn. Cars were just gettin' to be a really big thing..." Autoworkers were some of the few people getting paid well in Firo's time, even if they weren't doing as well as they had been several years ago.

"Everybody went down with the banks, I think. People go west, but they're not doin' too great over there either."

"...I mean, I can't really complain. But it's bad for a lotta people."

"Thanks for your condolences," Phillip did his best to keep a serene expression rather than break his current appearance, "I guess I don't usually think about all the pain that man caused because of his greed." And Gray'

The change in topics was appreciated in spades, though the subject itself wasn't too happy to begin with. "The Banks huh? What'd they do, screw with the stocks like in the Great Depression?" Oh boy. "Car factories began to move, and nothing came in their place." And down went one hell of a gulp on his part.

He blinked. "Great Depression? That's what everybody's been callin' it. Somethin' happened with stocks or whatever back in '29 and..." He shrugged and wiggled one hand in a gesture intending to mimic an explosion.

"...everything just fell apart. It sounds like what went on with you guys was pretty different. Or maybe not. I don't really know anything about economics."

"It's, uh...part of the history books where I come from. Things went so bad, but I guess you lived it in all its' so-called glory," Gray sidestepped the issue, "My economic situation was like a slow chemical burn, just gradual," he would know about that, fixing the bots and getting rid of the dead guards' bodies, "Your economic breakdown? That was like, uh, a cluster bomb going off in a room. Just destruction."

With that, Phil looked on, "Either way, people learned from our messes and went on...for a few generations. It's all a cycle, kinda like what we see." He was referring to the Capitol, as he knew, somehow, such luxury wouldn't sustain itself on just intimidation and death. "That or we got burned for it, sorry for rambling."

He laughed at the thought of associating the Depression with glory. "If that's how you wanna put it."

Holding up his hand, he tried to dismiss the apology. "Nah, it's okay. If I was smart enough to understand half a' what you just said, I'd say I learned somethin'." He was pretty sure Phil knew what he was talking about, so that was good enough for him.

"...You think people're never gonna learn, huh?" Though it was horribly blown out of proportion, the parties here almost were like the craziness of the '20s.

"You're plenty smart if you're able to pick up the diplomatic approach, Firo," Phil corrected with the same ease as he would inflict his wit onto others. Maybe this gangster would do better with sponsors as soon as he had refined his speaking style. Firo had a handsome enough face that they could use him for promotions.

"Heh, you'd be surprised at how often this happens in history," Gray added, "Or at least what I remember from history."

Slightly flustered--Firo wasn't used to the suggestion his brain was good for anything--he ducked his head and looked away. "Yeah, well, let's see if I can actually make it work first."

Or if, when push came to shove, he could choke back his anger enough to even try it. Weeks of prison and Panem had made swallowing indignities easier, but Firo didn't know if he was learning or just gearing up for a big explosion.

"Seriously?" He raised an eyebrow and thought it over, "People were sayin' we had trouble like this after the war ended too... But I was a kid back then and I thought that was how it always was."

An impoverished tenement kid, to be specific. That had undeniably painted his view somewhat.

"I'm certain you will, have a little faith in yourself," Firo and Phil had a few things in common, and one of them had been to face humiliation with their heads on high. The Arena had not broken them, and for all intents and purposes, Gray assumed they would stay the course. Firo had, for lack of a better word, a strength in his personality that gave the former guard hope and motivation. Nothing like watching children die and be powerless to stop it in his world, then have the roles reverse to shake some foundations but not all of them.

"It got better, people could afford, uh, more and have fun. Then people got cocky and overdid the whole luxury thing," Gray explained with a sigh, "Everyone just wanted a piece of the American Dream, lot of good that did. Can't complain, it enabled Freddy Fazbear's…for better or for worse."

He then pointed with his drink towards the more elaborate costumes, "We're just seeing the logical conclusion, you know?"

Faith was something Firo had in spades, just not when it came to himself. He just nodded along and busied himself with his drink as he listened.

He glanced up at Gray with an amused smile. "...You think there's somethin' logical about all this, pal?" He'd hate to make this guy insult their gracious hosts, so his tone made it clear that it was a rhetorical question.

After another sip, he asked an actual question. "They still blab about the 'American Dream' in your time?"

"What other way is there to think about all this?" Phil said as calmly as possible, considering they were both in the lion's den of the Capitol. "Certainly not over-the-top, right?" Heaven forbid!

Firo's disbelief would be validated as soon as Phil was done with his glass, "Yup, only now it's luxury cars, a swanky second home on the Alps and having $300 suits with $5000 watches." If those numbers sound boggling, it's because they are even by the 1980s' standards. Truly something to behold.

Right. Subtlety. Firo bobbed his head up and down quickly. "Yeah, yeah, exactly."

After processing those numbers, Firo just stared at him for a moment. "...You gotta be kiddin' me. $5000's more than a lotta people make in a year!"

Firo's situation was, of course, different from the typical family, but the amount still made his eyes want to pop out of his head. "Hell, you sell a suit like that and it'll keep you in the tenements for a year."

Did he sound a bit bitter about that? You bet he did.

The bitterness was not lost on Phillip as he kept his watch over the people and maybe even staring down anyone who tries to chime in with their own tales of luxury.

"Five thousand dollars was a good chunk of my salary and my boss would around with a damn Rolex watch, gold so tacky," he added, "While the company suffered for his incompetence. I hope he got what was coming."

Oh he did.

Firo shook his head in disgust. "Seriously? You've gotta pay your subordinates better before you go showin' off like that."

"Yeah. I hope somebody whacked the bastard." But, then again, his employees probably didn't have the money for a hitman if he paid them so little. A shame.

Firo frowned and looked up at Phil with heartfelt sympathy. "If we were from the same place, I woulda' seen if my friend would give you a discount on that." Claire was an all right guy, if not for all the murder--surely he'd understand.

As much as Phil hated the CEO, he shook his head, "Nah, no wasting resources on getting the man killed. The restaurant failing is revenge enough, especially when Mike finds my body, or whoever poor bastard the Capitol put in my place. Karma pays it forward big time."

He did give Firo a thankful nod, "Though…I kinda wish I had that sort of mettle to do away with the problems on my own." Particularly before things got that bad that he would need a hit man.

He laughed at that. "Yeah? I hope the blow up is huge, then, for your sake."

Firo nodded slowly, misreading the complaint somewhat. "Not everybody's cut out to kill somebody." Sometimes he wondered if he would rather be that way--he could do it, but he couldn't wrestle himself away completely from thoughts about guilt and rightness.

He blinked, suddenly thinking of something. "...Unless you mean, like, dealin' with it another way."

Moment of truth, as if turned out and Phil trusted Firo to listen. His eyes closed to focus on the drink at hand, "What do you think?"

Revenge was very unbecoming of the Phone Guy but there was a gross error that needed to be corrected at all costs. But he could never bring himself to do it, to lure the serial killer back. "I made a huge mistake, and I didn't have the courage to correct it. My boss convinced me to cover up things and let it slip. It never did. "

"Maybe the other one..."

Firo realized that this was something where he should definitely keep his ears open. Not for any hunger for information, but because it was only right to listen to someone who sounded like what they were saying was important to them.

He couldn't judge someone for obeying their boss's orders, so his frown as the story went on was only from concentrating.

The way Phil told the story, Firo imagined there were only so many ways it could go. He hazarded a guess, "...So then things got worse? Too bad for you to fix 'em?"

Phillip nodded, and looked away from the frown, "Too bad for anyone to fix it, Firo. By the time the authorities came in, there were bodies piling up." That was not sarcasm and it showed by the way his demeanor became mourning for a split second. "It's not something I'm proud of."

The former guard stood straighter, "But here we are, we're talking and now, I can, uh, make up for my mistakes." Cautious optimism peeked through his statement, he really believed something different could happen here in Panem.

Firo's line of work was one that ran on bodies. Even if they didn't turn to violence for everything, their power and profits came a lot from being able to persuade and steal by promising the power of death. But people dying from negligence was a different thing, at least in his mind.

So while he didn't show any disgust at Phil's words, he didn't dismiss the problem either. He shook his head slowly. "...Damn."

"How exactly are you gonna do that?"

He remembered their talk about helping the kids through the Arena and wondered if that might be it.

"My original plan was to die in at least 11 Arenas to make up for the eleven dead kids," that's the kill count last Gray checked, and one down for Jeremy Fitzgerald. "But...after helping Sandy survive, I knew I could do better than that. That I could help kids out in the Arena and make up for my mistakes. M-Much more productive."

It was a testament to Phillip's resolution and optimism when he could look at the Arena and still find not just the happiest moments in his life but a new mission, "A-And if there's a chance Clementine wins, that means the District gets extra food and supplies! So it's pretty much that."

Getting yourself killed over and over... That was a pretty new solution, though Firo's raised eyebrow may have hinted that he wasn't sure what it would fix. Perhaps revenge, in a way, though Firo didn't even know what that meant when it didn't seem like Phil was the main wrongdoer.

"...Uh-huh. Yeah, I think the other plan's a lot better." He allowed a small smile. Though he could never condone certain things, covering up a murder wasn't the same as causing it. And Phil really seemed to be making up for things.

He nodded, seeing the logic in that plan. "'Cause that'd help the kids there, right?" He sometimes tried to remind himself of the children that would be in their place if they weren't here. It was a small comfort, but at least something.

Phillip nodded then allowed the edge of his mouth to curl in a smile like Firo's. This Arena was the push he needed to be proactive in his atonement and the fact that there were decent people around like the gangster and his Mentor.

"Yep. I mean, I got a second chance, I got to do so much. I-I can do this, I-I can survive the Arenas as long as one of them pulls further than I do." He tilted his head to his friend, "I'd hate to ask this but do you have a goal for the next one?"

If Gray could help spin Firo as a good Tribute as well, and with his boisterous energy, he knew the young-looking man would be Sponsor bait.

"Do I?" He smiled a little, wondering--hoping, admittedly--that Phil meant to ask for his help in this mission. "Honestly, I was just thinkin' I'd steal your idea and help people out where I can."

That was where a good chunk of his supplies had gone last time; it was only natural to him to share stuff like that when others appeared to need it.

He continued, thoughtful. "Sandy's a good kid and Clementine seemed all right too. I didn't meet too many, but I know there's gotta be other kids in there. After they're all okay, I can think of a couple other people I'd like to help out."

Jack was one, Arwen too, and maybe Phil himself. They were all good people and he didn't want to have to see them suffer any more than necessary.

"Well," Phillip thought for a moment and nodded, "We made a deal, remember? Back at the training center? If I help you with first aid, will you help me find survivors? It'll win the crowd's favor," he hoped Firo had enough experience with his manner of speaking to read between the lines, that this could get them more supplies and help even more people. "And maybe we can get one of those kids out of there and on the victor's chair."

That was his plan and whether or nor he had help, Gray was sticking by it. Though he'd be very thankful for the sentiment.

Screw the crowd's favor, Firo wanted to say, helping the kids out was what really mattered. But they had to play along, of course.

He smiled at the memory of their agreement. "You bet I do. Sounds like more than a fair plan to me, so, yeah, I'm with you. Anything you need, you can count on me."

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