thecapitol | (no subject)

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 whips her head around quickly to see who is addressing her. When she sees the other woman, she smiles a little and shrugs.

"I tried to kill my... Well, the boy I tried to murder has asked to court me. And they show over and over Draco using his magic and me trying to kill Howard whilst that man kills me. It is not nice to remember. But..."

She shrugs again. "I'm 'Ponine."

"Ponine is a lovely name. Mine is Diana." She glanced over at the sculpture, spotting Eponine's figure, and frowned. "That must have been terrible. I'm sorry that they keep reminding you of it. But you and the boy are courting?"

"Diana... Madame, it is lovely. It is not a name that I have heard before."

She goes back to looking at the statue, studying Howard's expression.

"He asked me to court him when he died.Nobody has ever asked that if me before." She chuckles. "I hardly know what it means. I just wish - they could show that instead of deaths... But that is not here, is it? So there is no point in wishing. Is there a statue of you too, Madame?"

"Is it really? Well, thank you. I was named after a very brave woman, I've always thought it was a good enough name."

Diana looked it over briefly. "I don't see myself, but I've only been in one Arena and I just came out, so perhaps they didn't have time. And I think he must care for you very much." She placed a hand on Eponine's shoulder. "Wishing for good things to be celebrated is never pointless."

"That was a strange arena, no? I liked the castle. Did you see it?"

She smiles at the other woman.

"I think he must be going mad, or is mistaken. Or perhaps nobody else will have him; he cries a lot. But it is a nice feeling all the same."

It gives her butterflies and twists her stomach and makes her smile a real, genuine smile, to know that, for some unfathomable reason, he loves her.

"It was indeed. There's a place like it in my homeworld, is there one in yours? Much more lively, of course, not so broken down. The castle was always a favorite, I ended up spending most of my time there."

Diana returns the smile, pleased at the genuine happiness this girl is exuding, which she gets the sense is not a common occurence. "I think there are poets who compare love to madness, but I'd rather believe it just comes unexpected at times. Somehow I doubt he would ask for your companionship if he was merely interested in being with someone. It's not something to be undertaken lightly."

"No... Not a castle like that. The Bastille looks like a castle, but it houses only criminals."

Eponine shuddered a little. Jail was a sore memory for her, despite not being an inmate at the Bastille. The women's prison was just as bad.

"That was not broken down; the walls are strong and it is difficult to escape from."

To Diana's comments Bout love, she shrugged. Again, at home, she had not known love. Montparnasse had used her, but it wasn't love. She'd seen the casual relationships between the drunks and the prostitutes for a long time.

"I do not know. It is easier when you have someone, isn't it? Someone to say, 'you are mine' to. Perhaps that is why... I do not know."

Diana returned her hand to Eponine's shoulder at the shudder. It was not, she suspected, a simple shudder of distaste for prison in general. "You have experience?" she asked carefully, not sure if this was something Eponine would want to expand on.

"Easier in some ways, much more difficult in others," she said, then put on a self-deprecating expression. "I shouldn't be lecturing on this, I'm sorry. I don't exactly have the best romantic history myself."

"Before... maybe a month before they brought me here, I was in jail for two months. The Inspector Javert, he caught me, and clapped me in irons and dragged me through the streets to the jail, and he had me locked up in a room full of other women. Murdresses, thieves, prostitutes. We were all shut up alike, with fetters on our feet and manacles about our wrists. We fought for food and beds. If I had not said I was fifteen, I'd be locked up there for a long, long time. Or I'd be dead."

Her tone is completely unemotional. It's all said matter of factly, but perhaps the haunted look in her eyes tells truly how much the experience affected the young girl.

"You have trouble with love, Madame? What is wrong? Unless... you don't have to tell me."

"I'm sorry that happened to you," said Diana, softly. And now here she was, still in a prison, though in certain ways a much more luxurious one. "No one deserves that kind of treatment, criminal or no."

Her expression was mildly pained, almost embarrassed. "It's no secret, I simply have difficulty finding someone to connect with, it seems. And my last attempt...it didn't end well. I'm afraid I hurt him, badly. I put my duty ahead of--well, whatever could have been."

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Sorry love; I got ate up by my essays

no worries!