The Crowning of Tony Stark

[etcircenses]

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.

Comments

[reassures]

She's glad he's actually looking at her now, but Nill wishes it hadn't taken realizing he unintentionally caused her harm for it to happen. It really hadn't hurt too much at the time, and it healed well enough without even so much as being an inconvenience. Instead of going to show him right away she takes a moment to write on her notepad again, and then indicates with her fingers where the bite had been on her skin, holding up the note for him to see in her other hand.

not hard at all.
I'm fine.

She doesn't try to lower her arm and lets him look over it as much as he wants to. There might still be some very faint yellowish splotches typical of bruises that have healed, but otherwise there won't be any sign at all. The small and reassuring smile directed at him isn't at all forced.

[crabmunicator]

He waits impatiently, a tight frown pressing his lips together, until she lifts the note and shows her arm properly. Not hard, she says, but he sees the fading marks where he must have bruised her. He touches his fingers ever so gently to her skin.

When he looks back up, though, he smile catches him entirely off guard. it's soft and small but genuine, and seems so full of trust despite the fact he bit her hard enough to leave marks after.

"Fuck," he says before he can catch himself. Then quietly again, "Fuck."

He's going to have a hell of a time pretending any kind of normalcy, he realizes, and he thinks back over things between them. Enough of it may have been accidental on her part, unthinking, but she's never given him reason to think she doesn't care about him. They didn't pass through what they did in the space arena for her to waste time lying.

"When that happened..." God, god, what is he doing? He looks down to her arm and the marks again, brushes his thumb just gentle over the yellowed spots, then takes his hand away. "... you papped me. Touched my face, I mean, when I was still in the dream and thought you were..."

Well, her, but different in the way dreams make them, mixing together thoughts and memories and subconscious whatever. He doesn't finish the thought, but his eyes look back up, and there's something plainly searching in them. He's got to be so obvious. He feels like it's flashing on his face, but fuck if he can just act like nothing happened, like it's normal, like he doesn't care when he does. And there's fear too, that nervous what-if-she-doesn't, but he has to search just the same.

[reassures]

Nill bruises so easily and has adapted to so many different levels of pain that it has skewed her opinion of what does and doesn't cause it. The tolerance for it has frankly gotten to impressive levels; had she not been used to pain she never would have gotten up again after they pulled that tail out of her side. The bite was nothing, and Nill felt mostly the same about what little pain there was when his teeth had instead closed around her neck.

Even now Nill isn't completely sure about just what kind of dream Karkat had when he bit her, only that it was bad, and entirely worth the bruise when he woke up and didn't seem to go back to the same images when he closed his eyes again later. She knows the implications of what she did at the time, and it makes her cheeks go a little red, but she doesn't try to draw her arm back to actually write until he lets go of it.

yes. it was bad.
you were talking and growling.
you were scared.

She had known full well that he told her not to do anything if it seemed like he was having a bad dream, should just let him be because he might hurt someone that tried to wake him, but at the time it had seemed more worth it to wake him, and even now she was still glad she had. Despite the very faint blush though the leftover worry from that night is still a little evident in her expression. There shouldn't really be anything he might mistake as not caring.

She kind of thinks he might be asking about what she meant by doing it, but if he is she's not sure how to respond. It's not like anything connected to how pale relationships work didn't apply to the situation. And maybe someone else would have just thought he was angry in that dream, that he was retaliating against something she didn't have the means to understand properly, but it's not how it had seemed to her.

[crabmunicator]

Though the details have faded with time and the simple nature of dreams to sift out, Karkat still remembers enough that he can tell her impression sounds right. He remembers lava, and fighting, and something black... But what exactly happened isn't so important as the general feel and what she did to stop it. He can see that worry on her face, but the pinkness too, and he's pretty sure the warmth on his cheeks isn't a product of all the glowing lights around.

But still, she hasn't really answered what he wanted to know. Humans don't really have moirallegiance, and while her response when he explained the quadrant in the past gives him hope, it's also no guarantee. He thinks of his ancestor and his strange relationship with Roland. He thinks of Gamzee and how their relationship ended. But Nill is neither of those people, and not a thing like either of them. He looks back down at her hands and the gentle, pulsing glow of her dress.

He could dance around it. He could let things go now and wait and see, feeling for her still, and hope from the sidelines that... That what? That she would figure out how to care for herself better? He thinks again of his past self, arguing over memo with himself about Terezi and Dave, and the disaster he made when he tried to schedule quadrants for them all, and how all his mixed signals just screwed him over in the end.

What good would it do with Nill? If she's not open to the idea, then wouldn't it be better to make it clear now? Whether her care is solely platonic, or whether she wants no one trying to mind her well being, it's not something that's going to come clear with more of the unintentional flirting that led into this mess.

He wets his lips then asks, "You remember when I told you about moirallegiance?"

[reassures]

He's actually going to ask her, isn't he? For just the briefest flash of a second Nill's eyes go a little wide, but she has enough awareness of self to quickly fiddle with her skirt and find the button to turn the phosphorescent lights of her dress off before they have much chance to broadcast the way her heart speeds up or to further display the pink on her cheeks that is quickly spreading and growing darker.

Perhaps she's being paranoid, but Nill lifts her gaze after a moment to scan the room, so see at least at a glance if anyone is paying much attention to them. If they over hear this is won't matter how much they actually talk about it because they will both be completely screwed, and she can't let that happen to Karkat because of her, she can't.

There's something obviously hesitant and worried in her expression even if the color remains in her cheeks, but not for a moment is that directed at Karkat. This place is not safe.

I remember.
how do they treat other people?

Maybe it's a dumb thing to ask, but it's obvious where he's going, and if he asked... it's not like she doesn't care and worry for him equally, because she's certain that she does, but how was she supposed to feel about other people?

[crabmunicator]

Karkat's worry probably doesn't sit the same way hers does, but he has at least kept his volume down. There's reporters about and fans and paparazzi, and he doesn't want to go spreading this everywhere, but he also can't quite wait. The last Crowning was followed straight up by another Arena, and while he's doubting they would pull the same trick twice, the chance still leaves another reason not to push it.

So here and now he does what he can to read of her actions, and he hopes and tries to tamp down his nerves. Why did she turn off the glow? And what does her expression mean now, increasingly red-cheeked but worried still? He can't read her mind; if he could, a lot of this would be solved.

Still, her question is a good one, and it feels relevant. His lips purse as he thinks. Romance novels always had grand descriptions of what moirails do for each other and how that's supposed to be, but laying out the difference wasn't so much the point, save in cases where a pitystruck troll debated how flushed or pale their red feelings waxed.

Nill's a human, essentially. She doesn't have the background of someone from troll culture.

"It's less... devoted. Different," he says, knowing he's starting vague but hoping to circle closer as he goes. "A friend can help and offer advice, and can worry or say you're being stupid, but doesn't step in like a moirail. A friend might help, but it's your moirail who's devoted to sorting your shit out."

He considers rougher moirallegiances, and the classic model of a more vicious troll held back by a calm-hearted partner, but this obviously isn't it. Her problems fit neither end, and while his reaction to his bad dream might skew to the tougher end, that's not really what's meant in that pair.

"A friend offers to listen if you're feeling like shit, but a moirail sees your problems and pulls you to a pile to talk them out. A friend calls you out, but a moirail steps in, shooshes you, and paps the sense back in. It's..." His lips purse again, and he finds his mind trailing to the grand romances once more.

"A friend, even a best friend, is someone important to you. You look out for them and hang together and support each other when shit happens, and do stupid things, and learn on your own after. But a moirail is supposed to be... your calm in a storm, ears when you can't listen, eyes when you can't see. They lay out sense when your mind's a mess and pick apart the tangle of your problems to lay them straight. A friend might see your flaws and tolerate or complain about them, but it's your moirail who pities you for having them and says, 'I can help you. I can fix it.'"

His hands have slipped into hand gestures as he's spoken, gentle and subdued compared to his usual, but they still now at the end. He looks up at her. Again he knows she can't have asked for no reason, and he feels as though they're getting closer to simply saying what they mean. But for now, with that answer told, he meets her eyes and waits to read what she'll have to say.

[reassures]

What he's saying without putting it in exact words - if she were to look at it on the negative side of things, anyway, which isn't exactly the case today - is that she's a wreck, he knows she's a wreck, but instead of trying to say she needs to get her shit together or find some way of getting over herself he wants to help. For some reason he thinks he can help, and it's been so long since Nill last wanted anyone to help her that just the idea makes her head spin a little.

It reminds her of a conversation she had with Linden after the last Arena; she had to do her best, they both did, they all did, and it wasn't going to do a single person any good if Nill kept punishing herself by ignoring her well being and the very fact that she was still alive. It's a very easy thing to forget when you aren't sure you deserve to be, or even if you want to be. How did she get this? How could she ever earn people that cared about her this much after everything that she has managed to do wrong?

But for once, she also thinks of things that might be good for her. She remembers waking up after she arrived here the first time, waking up after her first Arena, and her second, and each time feeling more desolate and miserable, waiting until she had it in her to so much as lift her head before she could leave the rooms the Tributes always woke up in. It always got worse, but when Karkat found her in the first Arena he probably saved her from an even worse death just by finding her and getting her to stand up again.

It was just the same repetitive cycle of loss and sorrow over and over again, and she was so tired of it. Was it wrong of her to want to find reasons to be happy she was alive? If she had something like what Karkat was suggesting when she was in the Arena then maybe she could bear to get out of bed when they revived her again.

She has to blink her eyes very quickly a few times to make sure they don't start to go misty before she averts her gaze, and even then it takes her a few seconds of staring at her notepad before she holds it up for him to read again. Her handwriting is tinier this time and a little more cramped; she doesn't want the people watching the camera feeds to get a good look at it.

can I still help Linden?

Trying to talk herself into knowingly accepting help for the foreseeable future is hard, and it goes against almost everything she has convinced herself of for nearly two years. If it also means not looking out for Linden, if she had to do even less than what little she was doing now, how could she ever say yes?

It wasn't even that her relationship with him was pale, because it wasn't, and she wasn't sure if it could even be called red when it came to her own hangups. She has no idea how she should act or what's right or wrong, safe or even more dangerous, but she knows that the idea of coming back one day to find him gone is more than just heartbreaking.

[crabmunicator]

Karkat gives her the moment she needs to think, even as his own heart beats hard for the feelings he has and the precipice they stand at. He's all but said what he means, but he doubts she's blind enough to miss the point of this talk. Why would she have asked that otherwise? Why would she have listened to the whole of his answer?

He sees too the way she blinks, and though that sense of pity for her twinges again he doesn't dare do anything about it. Instead he waits until she turns the notebook to him.

And it's a question he should have expected, really. He knows she and Linden are close, and it was Linden who told him what finally waxed his feelings pale. She knows issues of hers and has his own perspective, and has problems still his own. He never seemed to have problem with how Karkat took to helping her, or vice versa, but it's still a question vague enough that his heart wavers over the answer.

Instead of a straight yes or no, he asks with the sort of thick feeling of heart-lodged-in-throat, "What do you feel about each of us?"

[reassures]

Her concern shows through a little more easily with this newest question. Almost as soon as he's asked it her eyes dart away from him, but it's obviously much less about not looking at him and much more about making sure no one is paying attention to their conversation. No matter how equal the factions might be in troll romance Nill seriously doubts they were ever consider a platonic relationship to be just as important as a less than platonic one, and that automatically makes it much more dangerous for Linden than it does Karkat. He's also the one she suspects they could kill with the least backlash and still get across whatever their message at the time was. She steps a little closer to Karkat before she even goes to start writing again.

When she does it doesn't make it much easier. She's spent so much time trying to think of the dangers of her friendships and how to prevent them that she has (perhaps intentionally) not examined them like she should have. Not until the night Linden was in prison, and even after that it was so complicated. How much would Karkat even understand? And how much could she safely tell him right now?

I want you both to be safe and happy. I want you both to stay alive.
I feel safe when I'm with you.

During the space Arena Nill had never asked for any sort of help, and she had always made a point of making sure Karkat got rest. She could even help with it thanks to having her powers, and sure she might have tried to sleep, but it never really worked even if she tried to fake it. In the second one she probably did ask Karkat to keep an eye on things so she could close her eyes for a little, and that wasn't huge in itself, but the fact that she felt safe enough to sleep while he kept watch meant a lot. It wasn't that she didn't feel safe when Linden was there, but she had never needed to, and as such had never grown to feel it. Mostly when she was with him she felt more at peace, like something painful in her chest had loosened its grip on her lungs, but that wasn't exactly safety.

if I were better he would be red.
it's different.

There's something incredibly apprehensive about the way her shoulders shift and her wings fold in a little closer to her back. She hasn't told Karkat about why she's not "better," or what that even means, and she hopes he won't ask because this is the last place she wants to go into it but she's not sure if just that is enough.

[crabmunicator]

The waiting is terrible. He lets her step closer and he keeps his eyes outward as she thinks over what to write, his nerves to great to go jumping to conclusions as she puts the words on paper. He wants the whole sentiment before he can decide anything, and besides that, he does understand some of her worry. Linden, at least, is in more of a dangerous position. He has eyes on him after his episode with Jason, to be sure. And even in the nearer sense, they don't need the media swarming them as they figure out their feelings.

It doesn't mean he understands all of it, but the details can come later--if there is a later to follow what she says.

When the scratch of her pen stops, Karkat finally looks back and reads. The message such as it is is short, but the latter half is about what he needed to see. Luckily for her he doesn't ask about better; he's not here to navigate the troubles of her other romantic prospects.

"Yes, yes, he's fine. That's not a problem," he says, a sort of relief in his voice. But he's nervous still with the last question on his mind. "Does that mean...?"

Well, maybe better not to voice it. Instead he reaches for her hand, and if she'll give it to him, he traces with fingertip on palm a symbol that should make things clear: the four lines of a diamond, the symbol of moirallegiance. It's small and private, likely too hard to read from a distance, and moreover can't be heard.

[reassures]

Though the soft sigh she lets out when Karkat says it's okay is soft and quiet there's a great deal of relief attached to it. If it came down to choosing between people she cared so much about she wouldn't be able to do it, and Karkat asked it of her she knows full well it's not something that she would be able to give him. The boy she loved had been a very jealous and insecure person, and though Nill cared about him dearly she hadn't been able to give that to him either. Some of the tension leaks out of her shoulders before the sigh has already finished.

In all honesty Nill has no idea what she's doing, or if this is even a good idea. There's a huge possibility that this could make things worse for everyone connected to her, but god, she needs this. She needs to try. If she couldn't even do that then she would be better off balancing on pews and staying inside the church; better off living in the building that was left behind instead of burning it down like she eventually had.

When Karkat reaches for her hand she extends it slightly, letting him take it. The meaning of the symbol is one that she only distantly recalls, but the exact definition isn't really needed when the gesture speaks enough. A moment after he finishes Nill carefully curls her fingers around his hand, offering him a very slight nod.

She'll try.

[crabmunicator]

A curl of fingers and a nod: it's simple and small and not so much as a clear saying, but it's worth that heart-pounding moment of wait if he gets even that. It's a chance, a positive answer, a shot at having this at all. And for all his last moirallegiance ended badly, ended by a troll too invested in his faith to conciliate with a murder later to cap it off, he trusts Nill more than to do him wrong in that way. Nill is kind to a fault, and needs someone to remind her to be kind to herself, to care at all. She's a different person with different problems, but not caring about him isn't one of them.

The short version of his thoughts is expressed much more succinctly. A second or two after her answer, once the first shock processes, he lights up like a goddamn firework. Not literally, no - he lacks the biologically attuned lights she had - but on his face in the form of a broad grin he's hardly shown anyone. It should be enough.

[reassures]

For the most part Nill's paranoia of reporters and cameras have left her smiling far less than usual. It wasn't because she was unhappy, but circumstances left her not thinking about it much at all, far too distracted by the huge number of possibilities where something could go wrong.

It's so much more worth all of this ending poorly if it meant she got to see him smile like that, even just once. A smaller smile spreads across her own face, but there's no questioning the warmth and gentle fondness in her eyes. Maybe she could actually do this.