Cecil Maeve's POV:
The image of Lurex's face as Sors dragged her back towards the tunnel that led to the underground prep area wouldn't leave my mind. She wasn't defeated or scared she just looked more confident, like she'd just realised something.
"You're nuts" I'd told her as the two of us were paraded through the underground caverns of the capitol, she hadn't replied. Just continued to stare ahead as she marched through the brightly lit corridor that eventually split off into three directions.
Jason and Velvet said their farewells and turned right leaving the two of us with Sors who had just seen a fellow escort.
"Elvio!" he cries rushing towards his friend with the air of a girl whose meeting her boyfriend after at day at the mills.
"Sors!" the other man cries just as enthusiastically.
"Oh I have a right pair this year"
"You should see mine"
They begin to laugh, I really need a cigarette. As I pull one from my pocket Lurex looked up at me.
"Those things will kill you, you know" she says with a raised eyebrow.
"Lots of things are going to kill me much sooner" I reply as I look over to our mentor whose still laughing about something with Elvio "Hey Sors you got a light?"
Sors spins around as if he'd forgotten we'd existed "You two shouldn't be here" he snaps.
"Tell me about it" I say
"You can take us home now then" Lurex says seriously and I decide I like her.
Sors glares at the two of us "Prep rooms are that way he says pointing to a set of double doors straight in front of us "Don't get lost" he glares at Lurex as the two of us head into the prep rooms.
"Bastard never did give me a light" I say as I slip my Cig back into the box. I can wait a bit for one I suppose; I just hope someone will be able to get me some more before I get thrown into the arena.
As we step through the doors of the prep room scores of hands descend on us and I'm thrown stripped down to my boxers and placed on a metal table as a team of three people begin to prod and poke at me. I keep hearing them talk in hushed tones about something, as they keep glancing my way.
"What is it?" I snap "am I just that repulsive?"
"Your teeth" the male one says, at least I think he's male, despite his deep voice he also has such large eyelashes and bright pink lips.
"What about them?" I ask
"They're yellow" he sticks up his nose in disgust and the other two women with him giggle.
"and that hair" he continues as he steps back towards me comb in hand "I don't think I have nearly enough time to tame that wilderness"
One of the women scrub at my teeth while he and the other woman pulls and tugs at my hair. I reach for the comforting packet of cigarettes I always have at my side and remember that they were thrown with my pants onto the floor. I pull my mouth away from the woman scrubbing at them with a foul tasting mixture and look on the floor.
"My clothes" I say spitting foam out of my mouth as I talk.
"Burning probably" the man snarls, "don't want to spread any infections"
"But my cigarettes they're in the pants pocket"
"You should have only brought your token from home" he tells me
"They are my token" I reply "get them back for me"
"Yoney darling do you mind?" he asks the woman who was combing through my hair, she sighs irately but drops the comb anyway and stomps off.
"Now lie back down" the man orders "we have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it."
Maddie Peter's POV:
"Oh you poor darling" sighs one of my prep team for about the fifteenth time, she's just picked up my broken arm to begin to file at my nails. All three of the team that had been assigned to make me presentable for the big parade have several times each commented on my arm. Or lifted it, or prodded it, I've never felt so much like a freak show as I do today.
All three of my prep team are female, skinny and tall, they have matching jet black hair with red streaks and gold eyes.
"We're burning coal" one of them told me earlier on with an excitable grin "Perfect for District Twelve don't you think"
"I suppose" I reply "I don't really burn much of the stuff myself"
"Well of course, they send most of it to the metal forges under the city don't they" one of them laughs knowingly while another punches her playfully.
"Hush you" she laughs "don't scare the girl"
I blink confused at the whole conversation and watch them silently as they continue to work on straightening my hair and painting my nails. After a wile of watching them whiter on about how bad my arm is, but how much that it probably won't matter, I build up the courage to ask a question.
"They fix victors don't they?" I ask "After the games, they fix the damage caused" I've seen victors dragged from the arena barely breathing and days later they are laughing on stage with the games host.
"Well of course they do darling, we can't have a disabled victor that wouldn't do" she gasps "I'm sorry darling."
"Well I wouldn't even have a chance at victory as I'm already disabled, but if you could fix me then..."
They start to laugh as one pats my broken arm gently "Oh darling" she sighs "Imagine the expense"
"and on something you can't guarantee results on" another finishes her sentence.
"Results?" I ask
"Even if we fix your arm, there's still a very small chance you'll win dear" the first one adds, she smiles at me sweetly "We'll just get you all pretty looking for the parade and go from there okay?"
"Okay" I sigh, I'm going to be dead in about a week's time and they know it. I look up into a bright light above my bed and try to blink the tears away as they well up in my eyes.
Olivia Visious' POV:
"Agusta Westland, designer to the stars, at your service" the lady with the gold hair exclaims as she steps into my prep room with a flourish of her arms and a little bow. Fighting the urge to laugh at her I sit up on my metal bed and look her straight in her lime green eyes.
"A pleasure to meet you miss, what stars have you styled?" I ask her. I once heard that the best way to get a capitolite to like you is to flatter them so as predicted she begins to whiter on about names of people I've never heard of as she takes some measurements of me. I nod knowingly and try to remember a few so I can name drop them again later during the interviews.
"Oh and you're mentor of course" she adds as an afterthought "wonderful girl Amethyst, just wonderful"
"I really like her" I say "I've known her for years as a fellow trainee, we're really close" This is a bit of a lie, she was in the class above me during training and although ever since I'd been picked as the volunteer I've been training with her, I've felt a distance between us.
She's scared of course, she doesn't think I'll survive so she's keeping her distance. I would confront her about it but Nero would side with her of course, she is his star and I'm just this year's tribute till I can prove myself.
I'd love to take Amethysts place as Nero's darling once I win I think, I just hope that Agusta here is up to the challenge of making me shine brighter than my jewel named mentor.
"Now luckily the measurements Blaze sent me are correct still" she says as she puts away the tape measure "I once had a girl who'd lost several inches in the weeks before the reaping, she was stick thin that one, the dress almost fell off her."
"Felicia" I remind her "that was her name, she was a brilliant archer I remember watching her train at the centre. I don't recall how she died."
"Of course" Agusta smiles "Now your dress." She opens a wardrobe door and pulls out a long green dress; it shines in the light and a brilliant golden pattern of clockwork that seemed to move on the fabric. Or was it actually moving, I blink and shake my head before focussing on it again.
"Tiny little clockwork pieces" she says "a design of my own, I embedded them into the Olive fabric once I found out your name, I like to have a little piece of the tribute in each of my designs" My mind quickly pictures a dress made from severed hands, bleeding from their stumps. Now that would be a statement I think.
"It's perfect" I tell her with a wide smile, I actually think it's too plain, I'm scared the little details won't get seen in the distance from the stands where the capitols people will watch.
"Do I have a hat or something to go with it?"I ask "I've seen some beautiful ones worn by tributes before, something really big and showy"
"Oh no, no, no dear" Agusta chuckles "I'm going for dainty this year, minimal and beautiful."
"But I want to be large and showy; I want to be noticed by the crowds" I reply, letting a bit of anger slip through my calm facade "I need to get sponsors don't I"
"Then be noticed" she replies "All I can do is make you look good, to show them all what a fighter you are, you must act like one!"
"Act!" I exclaim
"Of course, it's all a big show, from the moment you volunteered on that stage, surely your mentors have taught you this, they know the show better than most those two."
"There's nothing fake about my mentors" I snap back "they're fighters, warriors."
"A nineteen year old child killer and a man who's outlived his own children" she laughs "There's nothing real about them anymore, they're show pieces for us in the capitol to watch and enjoy and to win you'll have to become that too. Tell me what's the most interesting fact about yourself."
"I came top in my knife throwing class"
"Beeep!" she cries at me "Try again, what makes you interesting"
I think for a moment, of my home, of my family and my friends and Noah, I could tell her I love him. No I'm not cut out for a romantic storyline. I think of Sadie and the jokes we used to play together, the jokes we will continue to play together if I win and I smile.
"Go on" Agusta prompts
"I'm a jokester" I say "I like to prank people, sometimes I go a little too far" I smile at a memory.
"Perfect" Agusta claps her hands once "Now put on your dress and as I do your makeup put that piece of yourself into your actions, exaggerate it. Become Olivia the jokester so the capitol will not forget your name."
Porscha Lance's POV:
"Oh wow!" gasps the man my prep team had been calling LeMount as he steps into the small dressing room and looks at me for the first time "My team haven't lied to me. What beauty I have before me. How amazing." He reaches out his arms as he steps towards me, a wide grin on his face.
I instinctively move myself away from him as I've always done with men leering after me back home; he's no different from those lecherous peacekeepers I decide. He isn't to be trusted.
He steps towards me "take off that sheet of paper" he cries "for tonight I will make you shine"
"I'll leave it on for now thanks" I reply coldly and he looks at me, smirking slightly he pulls open a wardrobe and removes a slither of fabric. It's barely darker than my skin and seems to come in two parts attached by thin strips of whatever thin material is making up the rest of it. He grins at me as he holds it up as if I'm supposed to know what he's thinking.
"Just try it on" he almost seems to purr "It feels like you're not wearing anything at all, it's so light and breathable."
I look it up and down and realise I have little choice in the matter, I can barely go out there wearing this backless paper dress and who knows where they took my old clothes. "Leave" I say to LeMount.
"huh" he looks insulted at my comment, he shows this with a dramatic little shake of his head.
"Go outside and I'll try it on, I don't want you to see me naked"
"But my dear this is the capitol no need to be shy here" he cries
"Well I'm not from here" I snap back "and in six we tend not to strip in front of strange men"
LeMount chuckles as he lays my outfit next to me "You are a strange little thing" he says "I'll just be outside", I watch as he leaves the room and closes the door behind him. Take a deep breath and look at the outfit he's left me. Lifting it up and pulling it off its hanger I can see it is really lightweight as he said it was, I hold it up to the light and am pleased to see it isn't transparent. I decide to at least give it a go so I slip it on over the thin white panties I've been given to wear, it stretches so it fits quite well and as I reach my waist I pull off the paper dress and throw it on the floor. It takes a bit more wriggling but I finally pull on the top half and look at myself in the full length mirror in the room.
It certainly shows off my figure, but there is so little to it I wonder if it shows too much, as I'm twisting around looking in the mirror to try and see what my back looks like there is a knock on the door.
"We all dressed now?" calls LeMount as he steps into the room without waiting for an answer, seeing me he grins and claps his hands "don't you look amazing." I instinctively cover my middle as he steps into the room again, "Let me get a good look at you" he says as he pulls my arms away and spins me around, he nods as he does so "Amazing" he says again.
"I don't really see what it has to do with transport" I say "I kind of look like a tree"
"You are streamlined" he cries "You are not complete yet"
He pulls out some tyre pieces and attaches a couple to my hair and hangs a couple of them from my waist, "I still don't get it" I say.
"You're speed itself" he tells me.
I feel like a car crash I think, thinking of the wrecked cars I've seen being dumped in one of our scrap yards. Used and abused by the capitol and then thrown away, just like I will be once my joke of an outfit is seen by the crowds.
"Amazing" my stylist says again "Just amazing"
Nina Ricci's POV:
What am I doing, why am I doing it?
I must be stupid.
I drop the lipstick bomb by the president's stand and kick it into a grid as join the crowd heading for the main viewing stands.
I don't really expect this to work do I?
Do I even really want it to work?
Either way will I survive the day?
