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Who| Timaeus Nadir and all his guests. If you are in the Capitol, you've been invited!
What| A spectacular Viewing Party and opportunity for tributes to get sponsorship
Where| The Victoria Ascendant, on the lake
When| After the most recent death roll!
Warnings/Notes| Probable skeeviness of the Nice Guy variety.

Welcome to the Victoria Ascendant, latest in the Ascendant line of luxury yachts as built by the Nadir company. Tonight, the Victoria Ascendant is the stage set for a spectacular party, also paid for by the company and specifically designed and organised by a team of event specialists overseen by your host for this evening, Timaeus Nadir- wealthy eligible bachelor, melodramatic heir apparent to the company chair, frequent sponsor of the Games. The Victoria Ascendant is fully equipped with every obscenely luxurious item imaginable, and practically drips opulence.

When first welcomed aboard you will be assured that your every need will be seen to, your every desire catered for. Staff are on hand to answer any questions you might have or guide you to various areas of the ship, provide you with food, drink, or suggestions of how best to take advantage of the Victoria Ascendant's many amenities- they are here as hosts, but also as salespeople for those of the guests with money to burn- this party is serving more than one purpose. Tributes who responded to their invite will also receive a delicate, hand-written note in a golden envelope as they board- the content of which will be posted as a reply to their response to this post.(I'll do this once your character turns up.)

Although the Victoria Ascendant has a magnificent dining room for formal, sit-down occasions, the food for the party will be circulating the various lounge areas and decks. There is also a buffet table, for those of you who prefer to help yourselves, and a fully stocked bar. Provided are a baffling variety of foods and beverages, seemingly unconnected- but each tribute will find that if at any point during their stay in the Capitol they have requested a particular food or drink item, it is available here. Or, at least, the closest approximation the catering staff could conjure up. Seating is provided in intimate groupings around tables for the most part, though there are large, sprawling couches against the walls. Central to the dining area is a magnificent aquarium filled with brightly coloured fish. Anyone looking closely enough will recognise them- varieties of piranha- but don't worry, they've been more than adequately fed and the glass is thick.

While there are various screens displaying the Games throughout the ship, Viewing is also taking place on an enormous screen, set up in a seperate lounge area with full floor-to-ceiling windows all along one side. Here, staff wait to take bets or help organise the giving of sponsor gifts. Large, comfortable couches line the room, and the central table overflows with a spectacular arrangement of edible flowers and fruit.

Later in the evening, you will be told that the firework display is about to begin, and invited to go up onto the main deck to watch. The fireworks themselves will be launched from smaller boats across the lake, and the display is set to be truly spectacular. It will be set to some music that Tributes may find familiar- various melodies pulled from the most recent Arena. The large swimming pool on the deck is open, but it is too early in the year to be comfortable to use. Instead, it is being used as an unusual centrepiece for the evening. Floating in the illuminated water is a gigantic iceberg, sculpted into a stylised model of the current arena and populated with frozen figures. Eagle-eyed Tributes may be able to spot themselves depicted in ice- more often than not, the moment of their deaths are the pose of choice, if a little tweaked for the sake of a more dramatic scene.

Enjoy!

Adachi · Ariadne · Asha · Atticus · Beck · Blaine · Calico · Callista · Chris · Diana · Don · Eddie · Eponine · Eva · Gaila · Glinda · Harley · Howard · Julie · Kurt · Marty · Maximus · Momoko · Neffa · Parker · Peeta · Phil · Pruna · R · Sigma · Some · Thane · Timaeus · Topher

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Eponine is experienced enough to recognise someone sizing up a crowd by now. She's watched her parents do it often enough; she knows all of the tricks, if she cared to employ them... but for now, Eponine is following advice, keeping her head down so she can have a chance to run later. Still, as she wanders back to Howard from the buffet table, with yet another plateful of cakes for the pair of them to eat, she stops, just by Parker.

"Don't, Madame." It's a hiss of a whisper, followed by a brief smile. And then Eponine stares because she has never seen so much pink on one person in her life. To her, Parker looks almost doll-like... Eponine's not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

Parker's head turns quickly towards the hiss.

She may know almost nothing about people, but only her team, the devil incarnate ~~Sterling~~, and one other type of person, who could potentially catch Parker.

"You a thief?" She whispers it, almost impossible to hear.

One other thing she has to ask, taking a second to tuck her pink hair out of her face, "You glowing?" The other woman's dress confounds her.

Eponine, in reply, shrugs. "In Paris, it was the only way to get food in your belly. Here... Well, I have been caught before, when I did not realise these people gave you things."

Her voice is a whisper too, just in case people are watching her. She grins at the comments about her dress. "Yes. I am 'District 3' but I do not know what this is really. It means Valeria makes my dresses heavy with these things though. It's this elestrisity thing... It is what District three makes."

She means electricity, of course. Eponine stares at Parker's hair. Some people here have such funnily coloured hair here naturally, and there is that monster...

"Madame, did your stylists do that to you?"

"Sometimes have to be a better liar, or a better thief to get anything." Parker nods in understanding.

"Electricity?" Parker isn't entirely sure what she means as a) she doesn't care about the Districts, and b) she has no idea that the other woman means a raid the Bastille era Paris. "I'm 9: Wheat. Most boring District."

Parker's lips purse. "Yeah. Wish it was only my hair. Rather nothing than this." She hates this dress. Just because she has the cliche porcelain look, doesn't mean they should dress her as a doll.

"Well, I was taught by the best - but here, there are cameras to see everything - that is the right word, yes? And there are the bogies - Peacekeepers they call them, who can find you no matter where you hide because of the thing in your arm. It means they can see you always."

Eponine means the tracker all Tributes are injected with.

"Sometimes I think though, that I miss it a little. I hate to thieve but... It is normal. It would make here feel normal too."

She eyes Parker again, looking at her dress now.
"You remind me of a doll I saw in a shop when I was little. She had brown hair though, but her dress was as yours is. I think it is lovely. I wish Valeria made such clothes, but no. She says, 'Eponine, stay still while we put lights in your hair.' Or, 'Eponine, we must show you off to get sponsors because you die too quickly.' I don't care though."

Looking at her arm, Parker's not sure how that gives up anything but a location, and she's never met a camera without a blind spot. There's something more important here.

"Hate it? These people have so much. Won't miss anything taken."

All the talk of dolls makes her miss her rabbit more.

Parker hates her own dress. It's far too restrictive. Looking at her own dress, and then the other woman's, "Wanna trade?"

"No, it isn't that. At home, I was so bad. I stole from any and all to stop Papa and keep us alive another day. But it is not something that I like. You know, people hate me for it? I do not want to go back to jail."

She looks in wonder at Parker when the woman suggests trading dresses. Eponine would love a dress like Parker's. But then she thinks of how tailored her own dress is - would it even fit Parker? Thanks to the reset function of the respawn system after each arena, Eponine's figure her turned back into the skinny, starving waif from Paris, rather than the slightly better fed girl in the Capitol.

"We can try, Madame, if it'll fit you?"

"Don't steal for others, unless they'd steal for you." Her crew once went to steal a Parker. Her own Stepfather had once held her rabbit hostage. He must've regretted it when his house blew up.

Examining the other girls' dress, Parker shrugs. She's rather good at guestimating spatial things. "Should. I'm a bit taller though, so this'll cover more on you."

"Is that how you work? Well, Madame, I do not think my Papa would steal for me any more. But he gives me a bed and a bit of food when we have it, so it is better than nothing"

She eyes Parker's dress again. She really does think it's beautiful... though Valeria will probably be cross with her... Eponine quickly decides that she doesn't care.

"Shall we swap then, Madame? Are you sure you do not mind?"

"If he was better, he'd steal for you." Parker's deadly serious about that. She knows any of her team would steal for her.

If Parker knew that this would piss off a stylist further, she would happily not only exchange the dress, but modify it to her own liking.

"Don't care if I change here," in the middle of the party. She has 0 modesty. "Do you?"

"Oh! I need a knife, or scissors, or a sharp bit of metal."

Eponine just shrugs at Parker's argument. She knows her Papa is no good, and she's been certain for a while now that he doesn't love her or even much care about her any more. Except as a useful gang member.

Her expression drops though, from gleeful to horrified.
"I can't get undressed here. Everyone can see. Please, Madame, can we not go to a room by ourselves? Why do you need such things? There is a knife with the food, I am sure, Madame."

None of Parker's foster families cared for her either. She's all but left them behind now: with a lot less stuff, of course.

"Who cares?" Wait, Sophie wouldn't approve of that response. The girl is being nice to her. "You do." Parker says that to affirm it to herself, rather than to the girl.

"Bathroom. Even these people need to pee."

She shifts awkwardly. It isn't polite to strip in front of people. It'd give the wrong impression and make her look like a whore from the docks of Paris. Although, after the arena before last, Eponine realises, it is that most people will have seen her body anyway.

"I am sorry to inconvenience you, Madame. I will get the knife for you and meet you in the bathroom."

And arm herself similarly. Just in case this woman is planning on stabbing her with the knife - Eponine's confidence in people is pretty shaken.

Who cares about polite when getting rid of this puff of a pink dress is a bigger priority?

"Be there shortly."

Parker isn't afraid of a girl with a knife.

Yeah, no.

Parker may be a bit longer getting to the bathroom than she intended to be.

Eponine dutifully goes to fetch a knife (or two) and makes her way to the bathroom. She leans up against a sink waiting for Parker.

Truth be told, she's a little scared. Last time she had gone willingly alone with another Tribute, he had snapped her neck. Then again, that was in the arena... and a girl dressed in pink would not kill her in the Capitol, would she? She'd be arrested.

And what will Valeria say? Eponine realises that her Stylist will be cross, but she decides that she is not bothered. The lure of a big puffy dress is too much for her to deny herself. Please let Parker hurry up soon.

It will be a while. Sorry. She had to have a run in with a sponsor, see the sandwich guy, and make a side trip to a men's bathroom.

Parker comes in laughing, as if she was just talking to someone. She wasn't, but if it looks like she is, others will leave her alone.

"Got it?"

She knows Eponine's there, even if she hasn't actually looked at the other woman, as of yet.

And Eponine... well, by this time, she's ended up sat uncomfortably on the floor by the sink. She had waited ages. And ages and ages. And still the woman did not show up.

She stands hastily as Parker comes in, smoothing down her dress. But Parker's paying her no attention, and Eponine doesn't know where to look. Does she have friends with her? She was stupid to have trusted an unknown tribute.
Eponine just shrinks back and watches Parker cautiously. She tightens her grip on the knife. Just in case.

Give it a second. There's a click, and Parker's managed to get the door to temporarily lock.

"Take 'em about 10 to get through that. Enough time to change."

Now she looks at Eponine, and grins. It's a Cheshire Cat grin if ever there was one.

Parker all but contorts herself to reach the zipper, but once she does, rather than unzip, she pulls out the following: a spoon, fork, and knife, all solid silver, and a doorknob of solid gold. She places her loot on the counter.

For one minute, Eponine feels positively alarmed as Parker grins, and she steps back just a little, so she's pressed as far back into the corner as she can go.

But then Parker pulls out dinner service for one, and a door knob. Eponine's eyes widen.

"Is that what you've been doing? You better be careful, Madame. I told you -"

She does not want to be caught with a thief.

"No one'll miss these." Meaning no one saw her take the silverware.

"And no one'll report the knob." Parker's grin gets even slighly more manic. "No one ever admit they're trapped in the bathroom." It's a universal, cross-cultural thing she's noticed. No matter where she is in the world, no one wants to admit to being stuck in a bathroom.

Back to contortions, now she's unzipping her dress.

"Come on, we trading or not?"

"Will they not?" Eponine's still getting used to the fact that there is such thing as a bathroom, rather than a bucket, let alone doorknobs on bathrooms - and it hadn't even crossed her mind that people would be embarrassed to be stuck inside one.

"Is it real gold?" She goes to pick it up - but hesitates. Montparnasse would never let her touch his spoils. But still, she can't help looking. If it's real gold, it is definitely something she should invest in. Especially because she and Howard are about to run away.

"I think I need one of these, Madame."

Eponine watches Parker struggle for a moment, before she reaches for the zip in her own dress. Beneath hers, Eponine wears a slip to prevent the wires and the like from chaffing her skin. She slides the dress off, and it folds, rather than flows to the floor, so stiff is the material. She steps out of it, and stands shivering in her underslip as she waits for Parker.

"There're more," Now the other woman's getting the hang of this.

"Stand guard, if you want?"

Parker's "slip" is more a see-through pink bathing suit, it fits her so tightly. Not that she cares much, being completely without modesty.

The pink dress is now being held out, for Eponine to take.

Eponine pulls the pink dress on quickly. It is a little bit big on her, but not noticeably so.

It's so beautiful, she's like a little kid in her first party dress. She flounces the full skirts and swishes about, giggling, for the first time in a long time, in sheer delight.

"I feel like... like a princess, Madame. Thank you." She's a little embarrassed, but she can't help it. She's never felt so lovely in her life.

"Stand guard? Whilst you take another... I do not mind; I wouldn't ask you to steal again."

Giggling is something clear Parker can understand. If the other woman is happy in the dress, let her be happy in the dress.

Unfortunately, she is going to pass comment. "You're too skinny. Need to eat." It's not an insult. It's bordering on a little concern. "Keep the dress. But you should walk in front of the stylists, make they GRRRRRR!" Now that makes her laugh.

"And you steal. I watch." Not unless money's involved.

"I am eating. All and all the time, I eat, Madame. But every time they bring me back to life, I am as I was in Paris, and I have to eat all over again. But that is okay; there is a lot of food here, and nobody minds what I take. It is not like Paris. Every time I feel hungry, I can have food in my belly in minutes. I like that."

She smiles briefly, self consciously hugging her slim waist. But then she's focusing on the door.

"Madame, wait here. I will not be long."

And she goes, leaving Parker to dress. Within minutes, she's back, clutching a golden door knob.

"Madame - we are rich. We can pay - pay for food in the arenas now."

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I am SO sorry - essays ate me!

Re: I am SO sorry - essays ate me!

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