harvest time

[gamemakers]

Who| Everyone in the Capitol
What| Harvest Festival
Where| A private venue near the base of one of the mountains.
When| A warm evening this week. Feel free to be time wobbly if your character eats it this week and you want to have them tag in.
Warnings/Notes| None atm. Please put a note in your thread header if anything comes up.



The whole side of the building looked like it had been taken out, and the bright gold aspens coaxed to spread down into the ball room, their yellow leaves shimmering at the slightest movement. In reality the ones within the building were fake, illusions that shuddered whether there was a wind near by or not. They reached tall, hiding the ceiling in their shimmering gold, leaves fluttering to the ground, covering it in a soft, gold carpet.

Everyone was dressed in beautiful fall inspired concoction of gold, burgundy, orange. No one was allowed in without a mask to hide their faces, gold being the trending style. A live string band played away, the music filling the whole room. Food was piled everywhere, fall favorites like pumpkin, apples, and corn, but all with a distinct Capitol twist- apple sushi rolls with thick pieces of tuna and sweet corn puree shots.

All this food poured out of a huge cornucopia in the middle, stretching up over a story tall, formed of metal, just like those in the arena. Party favors spilled out too, gilded aspen leaves and delicate glass blown pumpkins.

Whoever was throwing this party wasn't cutting corners.

Comments

[savedbyasong]

Shion had the sensation of being stared at and took a moment to work out where it was coming from. He blinked at the two masked figures who were approaching him silently. One of them he didn't know at all, though there was something... like he should know them... whilst the other seemed familiar, like he had met him before. But the mask hid his identity.

He forced himself not to step back, and then forced himself to smile. Acting was a lot harder then he had ever imagined. His eyes flickered from one to the other, noting how they moved, their silence, her hand at his back.

"Hello." Black-purple eyes flickered behind his mask, betraying his nervousness.

[pillowmania]

The main difference between today and that day at the museum -- the real difference -- is that today, Katurian isn't sober. If he were sober, he would have ignored Shion until Penny was distracted, and then he would have snuck towards the boy and whispered words of encouragement in his ear. He would've told him that it's all right, everything is all right. He would've talked about art. Taught him about art. He would've taken him in as a child, he would've taken him in like Michal, and at the end of the day, lying in bed, he would've felt something good about himself.

But he isn't not sober, and so the future means nothing. Shion is a prop. A character. Katurian is a god.

"Hello," he echoes back, sing-song, rocking on his heels. The dose he took today isn't so strong. His mind isn't filled with rhymes, but it is detached. Distant. "Don't be afraid. We don't mean to hurt you."

[fearisinthemind]

Penny suckles at that nervousness. It fulfills her. It's a tell for all the power she wields, the invisible aura, the fact that she can make people scream.

'Well, he doesn't', she could append to Katurian's statement, but why bother?

She circles around Shion, one finger tapping the neck of her wine glass.

[savedbyasong]

"Oh..." Shion recognised the voice at least, placed it finally. "Katurian... right?"

His eyes flickered towards the woman, blinking nervously at her amendment. He felt like prey and he tried not to spin around to follow her circling. All instincts screamed to not have her at his back.

"Can... can I help you?"

[pillowmania]

"I wanted to welcome you back to the world of the living," he said, although his voice was too gleeful to be a condolence and too detached to be a real welcome.

He reached out to take Shion's hand. The gesture was automatic. Easy.

"I'm so glad you remembered my name." Something wavered under his words, but his smile was fixed and his eyes remained bright. "So very glad."

[fearisinthemind]

"Does he know mine?" Penny slinks around behind Shion, weaving like fog to choke off any escapes. "I find so few people actually know anything about their surroundings."

[savedbyasong]

"Oh..." He smiled, trying to not look as terrified. It didn't sound like a welcome and Shion's hand trembled in Katurian's. He followed the woman with his eyes, as far as he could as she weaved around him.

He tried to place the voice, the posture. The way she moved. All without seeing her face but he realised he did know her, his initial feeling was right.

"You killed Ariadne." Killed, on television, an example to them all. Not disappeared in the night, all evidence of her existence erased. That was the difference between No. 6 and Panem.