thecapitol | (no subject)

(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

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One was never quite as alone as one might hope in the Capitol; Ariadne had learned that early on. Eponine jumping didn't surprise her at all, and went uncommented on in favour of her simply studying the sculpture further. "I think they're going for the most dramatic moment of your Arena career. I'd pick this one, too."

"You've been watching?" Eponine glances at the woman curiously. "And you remember me?"

Why? Eponine has not done much so far? First to die. Refused to fight. Whined through the arena before last. Completely forgetable, as far as Eponine is concerned. She fidgets though.

"Didn't mean to do it. That M'sieur Draco - he did magic on me to make me. He is not a nice boy, M'sieur Draco. He did not like me... Or Howard."

"I keep an eye on things." She had to watch; she had no choice in the matter. And it was hard to forget the girl who had been cursed, if that was the right word, to attack her own friend. It was sort of tragic, in fact. Ariadne wasn't sure what to make of it.

The Arenas before that, however, Eponine had gone unnoticed.

"I could tell," Ariadne pointed out, looking almost amused. "The Capitol must be enjoying it."

"Well, it was not funny, Madame. I didn't think he'd want to see me again. I think this place is... It is stupid. Making us fight to live. No. For nothing."

Well no matter. Eponine has decided that she's not playing any more. She's running, as soon as Eva gives word.

""The people here... It reminds me of home. I just... I wish they'd just let me stay here and eat food and wear dresses. Every time I am killed, I am hungry. They wake me when my hair is matted and my face is dirty. Sometimes, France is easier, I think."

She couldn't deny that it felt like they were fighting for nothing. There was little gained out of winning, little gained out of dying; supposedly, there were benefits for the Districts they represented, but Ariadne had seen no proof of that. There was no real benefit to being there at all, save for the Capitol citizens who got off on murder and mayhem in their daily lives.

"France is easier, you're right." Considerably easier. Sometimes she imagined a world where she had said no to Cobb instead, where she hadn't boarded the flight to LA that ended with her waking up here. She'd have lost the entire experience, but she couldn't help but think of it anyway. Being at home, simply finishing out her degree.

"There, at least, when you die, you stay dead. The rich might laugh at us scrapping over a crust they have thrown down. They might laugh at my clothes. But there is no pretense. They do not make me feel like a princess and turn me into a murderer."

She shrugs. What can she say? What can she do? Absolutely nothing. Eponine sighs, and once more looks at ice Howard's anguished expression.

"You know Paris, Madame?"

"That's where I'm from," Ariadne replied, switching effortlessly to French, perhaps to put Eponine more at ease. It had been made obvious enough through her interviews, but those hadn't aired for a while; not since she had been in the Arena. Now, there were far more Tributes to focus on, more interesting people than an architectural student from Paris.

"The Capitol is an interesting sort of place. Completely different from anything any of us know, so far as I can tell. I don't think there's anyone here who can say with any certainty that they know what's going to happen next."

"From Paris, Madame?" Eponine smiles properly suddenly. It's so lovely to be able to speak her own language, to a person familiar with her city.

"I do not mind that. I like it here, Madame. I like the food. And the clothes. Sometimes. It is better than Paris - except for the arena."

Familiar with her city about a century and a half later; Paris had changed considerably since then, but the gist was the same. Not to mention Ariadne had taken enough years of history that it was easy for her to pick up on what Eponine was talking about and adapt the knowledge to figure out the gist of when she was from.

"Have you thought about petitioning to get out? Not a lot of the Tributes know about that option," she pointed out.

"Madame Eva said to do that too... But I do not think it'll work. i cannot do anything. So why would they let me stay?"

She shrugs. "I can carry messages - but even here there is so much of the electriciry that my district makes that they do not need me to run for them. I would have liked that job though. I am good at finding my way."

"Maybe there's another way you can put navigational skills to work. Making maps, acting as a guide to the Capitol. With the number of Tributes coming in nowadays, it would be better to keep them all in a group and tour them around," she mused, mentally adding At least from the Capitol's perspective.

"Would they let me do that? Would people even listen?"

She can't see it, personally. People don't often tend to listen to Eponine.

"I don't see why they wouldn't. It's not like it could hurt to try," Ariadne replied, glancing aside, around the party. "You just need to word it properly, something that swings their sympathies to you, and plays up your skills."

It'd take her a long time, though. She finds reading and writing difficult - but she isn't going to tell Ariadne that.

"I still do not think they will let me. They have already told me off for having Howard's room whilst he has mine. I do not mind... but I do not think they will give me my way. Why should they listen to me?"

She had no good reason for why the Capitol should listen to her. They hadn't listened to much since anyone had arrived.

Ariadne made a mental note to watch Eponine in the next Arenas, perhaps sending her little gifts in hopes of helping her win next time around. She hadn't seen the blond one who had effectively led to her demise around, and she had a feeling that he would have made himself obvious were he here. Not all of them stuck around, it seemed.

She shrugged eventually. "Have you been training much since you got out?"

"Training, Madame?"

Eponine hasn't trained, ever. She's been busier trying to feed herself up; always when she comes back out of the arena, she is as skinny as she was back in Paris, and her stomach is just as empty.

"No, Madame. I have been eating. Almost never am I sick any more." Because the rich food always made her sick in the beginning. "I don't want to kill. I do not want to play."

"You might do better. You don't have to kill, but you could keep from getting killed, if you trained a little," she mused simply, glancing Eponine over slowly. "You've really been eating the entire time?"

It was almost ridiculous, the idea. Then again, by the look of the girl, she wasn't well-off; she would make the most of being able to eat as much as she liked every time she hit the Capitol.

"It is all I ever do, Madame. Eat and eat and eat. Always, I am hungry. Always Valeria exclaims about my arms and my waist; to be fat is to be rich. That is what I would like. In the arena, it is as it was at home; you can go days without food, days and days until everything starts to waver and you chew a rag so you do not forget how to swallow. And every time when I come here, I am back to being skinny and hungry, so hungry. I had had nothing for days before -"

She broke off, embarrassed. "It is just talk, Madame. Do not listen to me."

She frowned a little bit, wondering why exactly that was. Surely the Arena couldn't take off all the weight Eponine would put on during her time in the Capitol; surely there wouldn't have been quite so much backtracking. It was strange, just like Don's previous comments about strange memories. She was glad she didn't have anything like that; she never noticed much that couldn't be remedied with a bit more training.

"I don't see any reason not to listen to you. Maybe I'm not your Mentor, but I don't see any reason why that means I should just ignore you."

Eponine shrugged awkwardly. She didn't know what to say to that. As much as she thought she wanted to be seen, she was also very much used to being ignored. And she was so used to it that she kinda felt comfortable being ignored now.

"It is no bother, Madame. I... I do not mind."

Ariadne tipped her head to one side faintly at that, lips parted slightly as she tried to comprehend the psychology behind that. "Are you sure?" She prompted after a moment, unsure of quite what else to say.

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