The Victor is...

[gamemakers]

Who| EVERYONE. IC participation is mandatory (OOC is not, you may handwave)
What| Momoko's victory crowning
Where| The ball room
When| The Wednesday before the next arena.
Warnings/Notes| None atm.

The party was styled for Momoko.

The tables were covered in lace, delicate dishes and silverware, flowers that fell from vases covered in Victorian paintings. It was the most extravagant tea party to ever be thrown, with tiny, thin china cups and a too many tiny little finger foods being passed around to count. The ballroom has been styled in extravagant Baroque, as the Capitol was fairly liberal with their adaption of historical time periods.

The costumes were just as liberally chosen, from tall, powdered wigs holding birdcages with live birds, clearly hailing in the style of Marie Antoinette to regency gowns gathered under daringly (and occasionally outright) exposed busts to tight corsets and the skeletons of skirts exposed and decorated. A quarter played live music at one end of the room, before a wide dance floor.

At the head of the room there was a long table with a throne for Momoko, as elaborate as anything else in the room. And along the long table, group close to those who they seemed to enjoy, was a place for many of the Tributes, with a small place card that said "Special guest of The Capitol." This table was fed first, received drinks first, and was clearly favored.

Any Tributes not seated at the long table with their peers were dispersed among the the smaller table spread about the room, left to rub elbows with the guests invited from the Capitol, and the reporters covering the event. Security was, if anything, tighter than the last crowning.

These people have seats a the big kids table. You guys are free to decide who sits by who (And if three people sit by one person, don't worry too much about it) but they are, when possible set by their friends:

Atticus Bell
Draco Malfoy
Chibi-Usa
Dr. Grey
Adel
Tony Stark
Howard Bassem
Javert Neeshka
Vanessa Carlysle
Lindsey McDonald
R
Albert Wesker
K
Alpha
Diana
Katurian
Aunamee
Maximus
Blaine Anderson
Alex Rider
Glinda
Gaila
Parker
John Watson
Lottie LaBouff

Comments

[shambler]

That was a really good question. (It was also the reason why they had a hard time finding a place for him to sit - Wesker drew the short straw today).

R tried to get a pin on the guy. Other Tribute, since they were at the big kids table, great posture. There was something else he couldn't pin, either. R didn't notice the way the man was gripping the chair - he did notice the way he leaned away and normally it'd make sense, the whole rotting thing. The perfume, he realized. This man was talking about the perfume. R deflated with a wheeze. Joking. That was a joke.

He wandered around the joke for a bit, trying to understand it, not sure if it was obscure or the punch-line was something he used to know and forgot. The zombie was taking another offended sniff of the perfume wafting off himself when suddenly ding-ding, he means flammable hit him. Oh!

"Will...do...thanks," R gasped, trying to cover up his delayed reaction. "Sorry. That...bad?"

[president_evil]

Wesker's lips parted on small, shallow breaths. He could even taste it, a bitter chemical coating on his tongue.

"Not if one enjoys breathing," he replied dryly. He reached up and swept his glasses off with one hand, pinched the bridge of his nose with the other, fingers working small circles against the skin. "What did they do, bath you in it?"

[shambler]

R shrugged. "Pretty....much."

Actually, that was closest to the truth than he wanted to admit. R peered down at the placards for where they were supposed to sit - he dimly remembered his Escort reading the one there and, almost too fast to see, swapping it for his - but no matter how much he starred, he couldn't read the one in front of this man. The joys of being illiterate.

"I'm...Rrr," R tried to change the subject. He cast about for something, anything, that could make the conversation interesting. "...Nice eyes?"

He grunted it out in slight surprise because he glanced over and his neighbor had a pair of red eyes, almost the same red of freshly splashed blood. He'd never seen anyone with eyes like that before.

[president_evil]

Wesker snorted - but not in response. Merely trying to clear his nose, he squeezed his nostrils and sniffed, and will himself to ignore the headache already forming behind his eyes.

He had hoped to meet the infected, after all, and here the Capitol had gone done all the work of finding it for him.

"A gift from the virus," he said simply, slipping his glasses back on and finally turning to look squarely at the creature sitting at his side. He couldn't smell T on him, in him,... but he could hardly smell anything at the moment. "No less than the ones she gave you."

[shambler]

Once he noticed the eyes, R couldn't look away from them - he couldn't tell if he liked them or found them creepy or maybe it was a mix of all of the above. Eyes like that made it feel like the guy was staring at him, past his face, right into his tissue and useless blood vessels. See him for who he really was. He couldn't do that, could he?

Suddenly R had the irrational urge to hide his rotting organs, kick them under the table like dirty laundry he didn't want someone to see. It was one of the few times R felt he was uncomfortable being stared in the face like that. He relaxed once the sunglasses went back on.

"Vi...rus?" R asked. "She?"

[president_evil]

"The T-Virus," Wesker nodded, fingers finally relaxing on the arm rests, one index finger now stroking the wood idly, thoughtfully.

"Created by the Umbrella Corporation, it was a major medical breakthrough. But, before it was perfected, there was an unfortunate incident and it escaped. Amongst the majority of the population, well." One hand lifted, gesturing lightly to R. "Some, however - a select few - did not die. We became more."

His head tipped. "That said, I must say, I have never encountered an infected such as you."

Of all the things Umbrella had accomplished, of all the breakthroughs they'd had considering the biohazard, speech remained beyond their reach. As did this impressive level of control.

Fascinating.

[shambler]

Huh, so it was a virus-theory that was it. There were all kinds of theories flying around between M and him over the years - a few times R thought M was trying to grunt out a bet, although he never could be sure - but this was the first time anyone actually went and said "this is why, the end. Period". Under normal circumstances, he would've owed the other zombie money. (R had been going for the outbreak monkeys himself).

Somehow knowing why didn't change anything. In fact, it was almost depressing, having another piece of the puzzle slide into place and realizing it didn't matter.

R gave his neighbor the same questioning, dead stare he gave everything else. Keep the glasses on, he tried to will the other guy. Like, seriously.

"Words?" R wanted to sigh. Yeah, the talking thing did put him apart from the other Dead, most of the time. That had to be what he meant. And did he hear right or were his ears starting to decompose? "We...? You're...infect-ed too?"

Was he another Dead? Normally R could tell from a look and a smell, but the perfume wasn't helping and anyway, regular Dead people didn't have creepy eyes like that.

[president_evil]

"Yes," Wesker nodded again. "While I've seen the undead trained to perform a range of tasks, higher cognitive function - self-awareness - remained elusive."

Then he smiled, all handsome teeth. "And yes, I am infected. But instead of killing me, the virus bonded with me on a cellular level. Rather than becoming like you, I evolved."

Granted, there were some less than desirable side-effects, but that was neither here nor there. He'd learned to control them, how to use them to his advantage, that was all that really mattered.

[shambler]

R didn't take offense at the "becoming like you" thrown in there. Given the choice, he wouldn't want to be a rotting corpse stumbling around either. Couldn't blame this guy for putting it that way.

"Hard? Mem...ories?" So this guy wasn't Dead. Okay, sure. R could wrap his brain around that one. But if he survived, then... "Maybe you could...cure?"

His moan sounded almost hopeful. If Red Eyes had been given this crazy gift, so rare that R hadn't known it existed and he'd seen a lot of infected, then maybe he could use it to help the others. He leaned forward, colorless eyes fixed on his neighbor and thinking maybe tonight wasn't a total bust.

[president_evil]

Wesker's mouth pursued, a bitterness biting at him at the mention of the cure. When he'd emerged, whole and alive, after his infection, hope had been high that the cure would finally be theirs. That they would no longer need Project Alice, but for all the tests, for all the study, they had gotten no closer.

Something remained beyond their grasp, beyond their understanding. Some secret key hidden away in the woman's blood.

"Before my arrival here, we were getting close," he murmured finally, thinking of Alice kneeling before him in the Oval Office, standing at his side, willing, if not trusting. So close. "Here, I cannot say."

[shambler]

"Oh," R moaned and this time he really meant it to come out as a moan. He tried not to look too crushed. Everyone had been dead so long, what was a little bit more? They weren't going anywhere.

"If...you win? Could...cure us?"

R flopped a hand at the other Tribute. Julie was probably safe and sound in the city by now, hidden behind the walls, and he had no way - or much of a will - to head back to the airport. Maybe he could find a way to help fix things here, starting with this infected, impossible man. R latched onto that idea.

[president_evil]

An eyebrow lifted above the dark glass. "If I were to be sent home, you mean?"

He leaned against the back of his chair and looked out over the ballroom thoughtfully. He hadn't given much thought to what might have become of his world after his departure, seeing no reason to waste his energy on that which he had no hope of changing, but, for a moment, he allowed himself a brief flight of fancy.

Would Alice have managed to save the world? Defeated the Red Queen, found a way to stop the undead?

Perhaps, he allowed. She was, after all, maddeningly resourceful. But then, she also had a knack for getting those closest to her killed. And only he had been privy to the location of her closest allies.

More likely, they were dead. And if Alice had escaped, her time was coming. The Red Queen would not stand for her anymore than she had for Wesker himself.

"Possibly," he mused, his head turning to slowly look once more at R. "But considering that we are currently sitting at the side of a victor, who has decidedly not been sent home, I would say the chances of my returning are slim."

For now, at least. Eventually, if all went to plan, he would find out just exactly what these people had done and how to reverse it. And he would see them pay.

[shambler]

R peered at his neighbor, straining to read his face. Aside from a thinning of his mouth into a line, he couldn't read all that much. Either he had an incredible poker face or R was really rusty at this.

That "possibly" made R want to try smiling again. Possibly was better than nothing. Possibly was still hope. Maybe he'd died but somewhere in his corpse, he still had hope, a tiny kernel that started to blossom after meeting Julie. Hearing Red say that one word made it start to come to life all over again.

"Not...imposs...ible," R barely hesitated as he pointed that out. He was totally willing to latch onto that hope. Even if that cure was years, decades, centuries down the line, who cared? A cure was a cure. "Capitol. They have...resources. Could...use?"

R leaned forward again at Red Eyes, like he was drawn to him and in a way, he guessed he was. The first living infected. And now he was offering the slightest ray of hope. Of course he'd hang onto Red's every word and gobble it up.

[president_evil]

That was true, Wesker acknowledged silently, fingers curled around the arms of his chair.

They had found a way to dampen his abilities. To keep him weak as it suited them. And he still had no idea how?

"Perhaps if I had access to it." His voice dropped, aware of the mixed company. "So far they haven't seemed keen to share."