gamemakers: (Default)
The Gamemakers ([personal profile] gamemakers) wrote in [community profile] thecapitol2013-09-02 11:22 am

The Crowning of Maximus Decimus Meridius

Who| Everyone
What| Maximus' crowning
Where| Victory Hall
When| Today
Warnings| Violence.


Prior to the Crowning, the Stylists and Escorts were given information: the color scheme for the Crowning is brown and gold, the theme is fire, and for Tributes, Games Staff and Victors in the Capitol alike, attendance is mandatory. No exceptions.

The Victory Hall has been completely refitted to the theme. Great brownstone pillars reach up from the floor, now made of polished marble. Rose petals and dying embers flutter from the ceiling like confetti, and long panels of fabrics embroidered with Maximus' kills pour down the walls. Rather than tables, Tributes are given wooden chairs to sit around fire pits in groups of four, where pigs and sheep are roasting whole, tended by attentive Avoxes. The smell of charring flesh and rosemary wafts through the hall.

In the center of the hall is a pit, fifteen feet deep, ringed with brick and filled with sand. Torches line the inside wall, casting light in every direction. A circular screen up above lets those not close to the edge view the contents of the pit in real-time video.

Maximus' private table has a theme of anachronisms; Tributes from 'less-developed' timelines and worlds are seated around a long table, facing the gladiatorial ring where, at the moment, a full-grown, well-fed Bengal tiger paces. Compared to the muttations of the Arena, it may seem positively demure, up until it bares its fangs and reveals that it's been modified to have saber teeth gilded in gold. Occasionally an Avox will dangle something into the pit and jerk it away if the tiger looks bored and lays down.

Occasionally, with fanfare of music pumped in to announce it, a challenger enters the tiger ring - a hologram of one of the Tributes who were cuffed and marked by the Capitol. The hologram must be affixed with smell, too, as the tiger takes note and attacks like a kitten following a laser pointer, making dramatic roars as it does. The holograms put up valiant fights, and their deaths are brutal, illusory blood flying and the sounds of death rattles and bones cracking coming from speakers embedded in every table.

"A speech," Maximus' Escort says to Maximus. "The General must give a speech."

Tributes who attended Wesker's Crowning ceremony should notice a remarkable increase in security. Visibly armed Peacekeepers lurk behind the panels of fabric, and bulbous, obvious cameras dot the ceiling. Even the Avoxes seem shiftier than usual, and are equipped with discrete tape recorders pinned to their rough-hewn tunics.
knifewithnoname: (thoughtful)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-09-11 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Pruna glared at her, "I do be knowing it did be being stupid, Sandy and Effie did already be telling me."
earthborn: (know yourself)

[personal profile] earthborn 2013-09-11 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, and look at her glare! Shepard snorted and took a glance around— no, coast is clear. She stole the chair next to her and turned it backwards. Much more comfortable that way.

"Alright, you little brat, I've seen you gut a grown man without this much fuss. What makes this so bad?"
knifewithnoname: (heartbreak)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-09-11 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
"It do just be stupid." She glared harder, "There did be threatening us, and we have been being good for ages." Mostly, "And it did be making Sandy sad. And they do be killing us lots, so why should I no be killing their stupid tiger."

Fists curled inward, "They do no be deserving a tiger."

earthborn: (like the well-timed swoop of a falcon)

[personal profile] earthborn 2013-09-12 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
"That's your big complaint, that it's not fair?" She said it like the four-letter word it was, dripping with derision, "Nothing's fair, kid. Not ever."

She looked back at the tiger, pacing the ring, hungry as a trapped Krogan, if only a tenth so dangerous.

"You're right about one thing. They sure as hell don't deserve a tiger. D'you think that means the tiger deserves them?"
knifewithnoname: (oh I see)

[personal profile] knifewithnoname 2013-09-12 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
"I did no be saying that." She glared harder, legs falling from where they had been held against her chest, looking like she was ready to lash out all over again. "I do be knowing that, fair do be being a stupid word that light idiots do be using to be crying about the world."

And she was not a light idiot. She shrugged, "It do be working for them, it do no be deserving nothing."