Location from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Gleaming parasite city nestled in the Rocky Mountains — a place of obscene wealth, surgical body modification, and weaponized entertainment where citizens vomit at parties to eat more while children die on screens for their amusement.
The Capitol doesn't just consume — it performs consumption as art. Its citizens spend fortunes on cosmetic surgery to look like jeweled insects, dye their skin in metallic hues, and follow the Hunger Games the way the old world followed sports. They genuinely do not understand that the tributes are real children who really die. The cognitive disconnect is total and institutional. Beneath the glitter, the Capitol runs on absolute surveillance, Peacekeeper brutality, and President Snow's network of poison and blackmail. The Avoxes — political prisoners with their tongues cut out — serve drinks at parties. Nobody asks why they don't speak.
Towering crystal and steel skyscrapers catch mountain sunlight. Streets paved in colored stone, lined with fountains that run wine during festivals. Citizens in rainbow wigs, gem-encrusted skin, surgically altered faces. Hovercrafts glide between rooftops. Everything gleams. Everything is wrong.
Also known as: the Capitol, Capitol City