The Crowning Of Tom Cassidy

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone who's anyone. (Tributes, Staff, Capitolites, and anyone else in Capitol.)
What| The Crowning of Black Tom Cassidy.
Where| The New Cassidy Keep of the Capitol!
When| From noon to the late evening, Friday.
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| Blatent irish stereotyping. Remember to put any relevant warnings in headers!

The dress code for this crowning is certainly a strange one. Greenery, burlap sacks, and "Irish" themed outfits which many a confused Capitolites has take as to simply be the color green. Among them can be found the sorts of ridiculous bright costumes as could be found in a 1970's comic book-- not that the 1970's are even a real time period. Spandex, V-necks, and popped collars are going to be a common sight tonight.

Guests are brought out to the stunning blue-green bay. There's a new feature there, a great big replica of Cassidy Keep. And it's been built upon a rock. How it stays up is a mystery, but it's no doubt a stunning site as guests are brought in on boats to a grand staircase that leads to even bigger doors.

Guests enter into a beautiful castle and garden both. Trees grow through the stones, vines climb over the stair railings, flowers bloom on the walls, and in some place the castle gives way purely to nature with small ponds set in. Like an internal rainforest (though the temperature is comfortable and cool) there's greenery everywhere soaking up the light that shines through the high windows. Statues stand tall of Black Tom Cassidy, Molotov Cocktease, and Arya Stark, sometimes all of them together. Then are more of an imposing man named Unstoppable Thuggernaut, a young girl named Theresa, the same girl older with the plaque deeming her to be "Siren", and statues of the the three of them together, both as a family and posing to fight. And of course, one can't forget that grand paintings of infamous arena scenes featuring Black Tom. Paths are set around to help guide guests, the main path leading into the biggest room of the keep.

Sponsored by Below Timberline, a temporary dining area has been set up within the castle-- high above the ground! All along the treetops that shoot up to the ceiling are the vine and wood woven nests for guests to be seated in. Waiters, waitresses, and Avoxes make their way along thick branches and rope bridges. But despite appearances, there's no chance of falling! Forcefields have been put up around the whole area to prevent such a tragedy from occurring to guests, waiters, and waitresses.

There are Avox operated lifts to help guests up to the tree tops, and though this might be an eyesore for some, they've all been dressed pleasant green, some with little hats. All the better to match the theme and blend into it!

That's not all that's gained the Irish theme. The menu consists all of foods that would be found in this mysterious off-world residence. Corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, colcannon, black pudding, crubeens, shepherd's pie, champ, boxty, shelfish, Blaa, Goody, and Barmbrack despite it being out of season. There is even a cereal dish of what may very well be Lucky Charms. Drinks include "Irish" Whiskey, ales, porter, coffee and cream, and cider both alcoholic and not (for the kids). There is significantly more whiskey with Tom's face upon it than not and much of the drinks are served in large mug glasses.

Down below the dining area are two clear spaces for dancing, one for the professionals giving performance, and one for those seeking to try on their own. The show isn't just an entertaining watch, it's dancers bring more to the music as well, tapping out a beat. Mixed in to shake up the river dancing, Irish-styled folk songs play, generally regaling tales of Black Tom Cassidy and his exploits, but occasionally playing a song or two about other Tributes.

In between floors is a stand where cotton candy makers craft giant colorful flowers. On the far end of the room, set up high, sits Tom's throne. Torches crown the top of the wooden throne, vines woven over the arm rests, a strange metal meant to visually mirror that of vibranium, shines in elegant swirling detail over and around the whole chair. A soft black material is stretched over the back and seat of the throne, marked in red on the back with Tom's symbol. Tom's crown features flowers and shining rubies set in the wood.

Set up in another room is a shillelagh game of shooting water out of the staff at the targets and winning a prize. Prizes include real "authentic" Shillelaghs, and ones that light up and show fire at the end thanks to an internal projection mechanism. And it's perfectly harmless!

Another room winds and twists through a dark torch lit tunnel in a guided tour through a replica portion of Cassidy keep that's been filled with amazing info about Panem's new Victor! Pictures of his life, his youth, his loves, and his adventures. There are replica vibranium pieces, models featuring Tom's many outfits, a pretend prison for guests to have their picture taken inside of, and on-wall descriptions of his villainous escapades. Both those and the tour guide tend to loop back to how he's found redemption here in Panem, now a model citizen.

A third room has been cleared for allowing a giant game of cops and robbers, which Tom has exemplified in present and past respectively. Those brought in to play are dressed in villain's outfits for the "robbers" and all Peacekeeper white for the "cops".

One door leads out to a bridge, connecting the island to the chasm edge across from it. There's a section of rolling hills there where guests are encouraged to seek out four leaf clovers and have them exchanged for engraved gold and bronze rings, flower bouquets, a free meal courtesy of Below Timberline, or even Limited Edition Black Tom Cassidy memorabilia. The white bridge across is lit underneath like that of the ha'penny bridge in the exotic offworld Ireland, but unlike ha'penny, the bridge's lights form beautiful moving pictures of various arena scenes, particularly the finale.

Saddened these scenes are out of sight? Fear not! The wide bridge has a second function: bungee jumping! Overseen by an attendant, with the proper equipment fitting, you too can take a dive into a chasm. Like Black Tom did, only on purpose and absolutely injury-free! The bungee is perfectly secure and safe with more attendants waiting below to pick up those... at the end of their rope. Boats waiting along the far edges pick up the guests again to bring them back around to the Cassidy Keep party. And what a party it is.

But it's not all fun and games at this crowning. Come evening, the dance floor is cleared and a stage and podium are swiftly set up. All the guests are sat. Tributes are sat up front, Capitolites and other guests in the back. Peacekeepers line in rows on the back and sides of the stage. Those still on duty situate between the Tributes and guests. Dead-center, with the rows of Tributes on either side, are two Peacekeepers that some might recognize as being one of the more heavily afflicted Peacekeepers on the day of the Medieval Games-watching Party. Though the offworld "sickness" vanished shortly after the first arrest was made, these two still don't look so hot, one nursing what might be a headache, and the other just plain looking ill.

Comments

[ka_sera_sera]

Now that Roland knows that shining may mean more to Zed than simple physical light, the man's fascination with it is less bizarre and more interesting. Not that Roland looks too deep into the matter because there are few subjects less in his nature than armchair psychology and because, as one world or another used to say, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Nonetheless, Zed has mentioned the term again and Roland has noted it. He wonders if that tone to Zed's voice when he says it is admiration, or simple awe.

All those thoughts are dismissed for now when Zed continues. "Of course," he says, not quite surprised that Zed would ask, but not sounding like he'd expected it, either. "Could be quite a tale. But I know not every people makes such a habit of telling them as mine did." And so, some people don't enjoy telling them like he does. Roland does not understand this, but he knows it to be true. He shrugs. No pressure, either way.

[whydoyoushine]

He doesn't understand this whole shining stuff. Someday, he will. At least he thinks he will. Maybe if he takes it all for himself...

"What, you've got some special way of telling stories?" It's not really a familiar concept to Zed. You'd tell people stories as a means of transmitting information...there wasn't a whole lot of art to it.

[ka_sera_sera]

"Maybe not. But most here don't care for the telling so much as I'm used to." He heads toward the door, thinking on it as he makes his way toward the next room. "Guess it makes a kind of sense. People here have other ways to spend their day, and aren't too inclined to remember the past. But I remember long days stuck inside the castle, long nights around a fire with my fellows. Seemed no more natural way to pass the time. How's time passed where you're from, if not with storytelling? Or is your world more like this one?"

[whydoyoushine]

"You talked when you were stuck inside a castle all day?" Zed frowns. "I mostly just kept to myself...less of a pain that way." He glances over at Roland. "I did a lot of thinking, mostly."

[ka_sera_sera]

"Aye, there were times we had to. Mostly during certain storms. There were some who kept to themselves at those times, but not many; too much idle thought does no man any good." Roland's stroll takes him past a stand set up next to the staircase, a man using air and powder to weave something Roland assumes is some kind of sweet on a stick. He's distracted by it for a moment, because the machines of this place are still fascinating to him, but it's not long before he focuses back on Zed's face. "Wouldn't have pegged you for the type. Were the others around you so difficult?"

[whydoyoushine]

Zed actually laughs a little. "Difficult? Tiresome with their scheming, more like it. Not a whole lot of shining in that bunch...it got boring fast." He glances in the direction Roland's looking, considers going to try to grab some of that cotton candy, and decides against it. He's not in the mood at the moment.

[ka_sera_sera]

"They sound like diplomats. 'Course, I suppose you mean something a little different. If the other gunslingers hadn't been there, I guess things might've been different." He shakes his head, slowly. "Your kingdom sounds like a strange one. There really was no one else?"

[whydoyoushine]

"Most of the Shadows spent their time gathering darkness elsewhere." Zed shrugs. "I suppose you could call the ones who stayed behind diplomats. Your gunslingers didn't do a lot of political stuff, then?"

[ka_sera_sera]

"Of course we did," he says, because even after all those years as the only person who remembered anything from that time, certain things still feel like obvious facts of life to Roland. But of course they aren't, for one who didn't live there. He elaborates. "What the diplomats couldn't handle. What they didn't want to, usually. Particular kinds of disputes, diplomacy in other kingdoms. While there were any. Men like yours did their work too well; there was much less of that political stuff left for us by my time."

"Your men," he adds as he makes his way up the steps. He can already hear the noise from the next floor, music of some kind with its sound magnified by Panem's machines. "Are they all truly shadows, or demons of some kind?"

[whydoyoushine]

"Did you ever have to break up a Shadow Town? When the town was so covered in darkness that humans couldn't get in or out through normal means?" Which is probably a horrible thought to most normal people, but it's just a fact of life to Zed. Kind of fascinating to think of Shadows on other worlds, even if he wonders if they can hang around

"They're all Shadows, yeah." Zed shrugs. There's something about the way he says the word that makes it sound like more than just the normal use. "And I guess a human would think they're all monsters. I look more human than anyone." In this form, anyway.

[ka_sera_sera]

"I think I did ask once, whether you were human. You didn't quite answer." Roland studies Zed curiously for a moment, although he knows he'll not notice anything about the man he hasn't noticed before, then shakes his head. "And no. I think those who serve the dark in your world do it very differently from those in mine. I'd assumed something less literal. So when you gather darkness you're gathering some type of magic, or some physical force?"

[whydoyoushine]

Zed grins. "Well, you've seen what I am, haven't you?" And his expression hardens as he looks away. "The Emperor of the Shadow Line can't be anything other than a Shadow Monster himself." It's not like it's much of a secret anymore, what with all he did in the Arena. He shrugs. "There are a lot of ways to gather darkness. I had a guy working for me who'd make people wear wigs with chicks in little nests on the top." Which he is not saying as though it is inherently absurd. "They couldn't take the chicks out, or they'd die. Stuff like that."

[ka_sera_sera]

Zed may not think that's inherently absurd, but Roland clearly does. Roland is absolutely making A Face. "The effect may be different, but some in my world would do very well, I think, in yours. And once that darkness was gathered, you'd use it for things like blocking whole towns off from the rest of the world?" It might be clear that Roland does not quite understand what Zed and his ilk were trying to accomplish, or how. But for all Roland would absolutely be fighting it were that happening in his own world, there is no judgement in him here. He's curious.

"But no. I haven't seen you. When we spoke in the arena, you seemed human. Acted human. But I don't watch their recordings of arena battles as much as I should." He looks closely at Zed, a little more than curious now. Aware that, for all their talks have been friendly and harmless, Zed is what he is and the arena is what it is. Roland's look is focused and intent, his tone is a little heavy. "Should I see?"

What he's asking now, really, is just how careful he ought to be.

[whydoyoushine]

"That's what would happen, yeah." Zed shrugs. "The other humans would forget about Shadow Towns, and we'd use the darkness." He's not really fond of having to do that, but that's just how things are. "We've...backed off from that." And he unconsciously rubs at a spot on his chest where he'd been hit with a killing blow in the final battle to make the Shadow Line stop once and for all. He'd lost that battle with the Rainbow Line quite handily...

He grins at that question. "Probably couldn't hurt, if you're curious." Let Roland make his own choices there. He's got nothing to hide anymore; it's all out there now.

aaaand fade

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland's eyes flicker over that gesture, then up toward Zed's grin. He moves further into the room, further into the music and the celebration, and he watches that grin and wonders. Well, he'll see in time. For he does intend to listen to some of that arena footage now, though finding it when he can not see the whatever pictures are on the television screens never fails to be a pain in the ass. Even so, Roland thinks perhaps he ought to.

He doesn't say so, though. Only watches the man for those couple moments, watches him closely. Then he reaches the edges of the dancing crowd and turns his attention toward them instead, filing what he's learned about Zed away. That problem will have its time. Later.