A/N: ohmygosh, could it be? I'm actually alive? :O thanks for reading and reviewing, all of you! 3

Cal POV

In the morning, we're all in the food carriage, eating breakfast. I'm in a pair of cream leggings and a burgundy tunic. I probably won't get to keep them for long. My district token hangs round my neck on top of my tunic. After completely pigging out yesterday, I've started to control what I've been eating. I don't want to get sick from all of this rich food, just before the games, do i? Of course, it's too much to hope for, a silent meal. It's not like I want to mentally prepare myself for the most likely horrific events to come within the next few hours.

"we'll be arriving in the Capitol in ten minutes, guys and girls!" chirps Cherry "pack your bags!" we all stare at her blankly, then continue eating. It's not long before I see hordes of grotesquely mutated people, waving at the train.

I think we've arrived. I can see some people with weird hair, and some that look half animal, and a… I stop writing on Iggy's hand. What is that? And a zebra poppy rainbow unicorn polka-dot cross thing. With a koala bear sitting on its head.

"is that a fashion, or just surgery gone wrong?" I laugh, sounding quite odd because of my lack of vocal chords, then start towards the train door, ready to suck up to some rich freaks in the hopes that they stop me dying. Just as I'm about to step out, a hand grabs my shoulder. Reflexively, I snap round and thwack the culprit on the back of the head, hard.

"ow." Says Felix, seemingly annoyed, but unable to keep the grin off his face. I smile nervously.

Sorry, reflexes. He laughs at me, and tells me not to fight the stylists. Not likely, I think, but don't actually say anything.

We step off the train and take a short walk to the remake centre, which is a tall, colourful building, identical to all the other tall, identical building that makes up the capitol. I smile and wave at the citizens, and make Iggy do it too. If we're allies, we need to present a united front. It doesn't happen a lot, and hopefully we'll stand out from the crowd. Not too much, though, not too much.

The second we step into the remake centre, I'm whisked to one side, and Iggy's led off the other. I'm half taken, half dragged into a plain white room, containing three very un-plain… humans, I suppose. One has shaggy hair down to their waist, and round bear ears coming from the top. She introduces herself as Ferre. Another has skin the colour of the sky and, strangely, the texture of velvet. She's called Caelum. The third is obviously in charge, and the most showy. His skin is golden and encrusted with all different gems. His lips are studded with rubies, and his nails covered in diamonds. I think the three of them are freaks, but hey, takes one to know one.

"I'm Niteo, I'm your head stylist. I'm going to need you to remove those clothes." Says Glitter-Guy. Yeah, no thanks. I glare at him. Then, I remember Felix's oh-so-inspiring words, and reluctantly remove my clothes. All three of them gasp, and I remember. Oh, yeah. The wings. Ferre takes a little step forward, and strokes one tentatively. I slowly unfurl them, and wrap them around myself to cover up. They all gasp again, at their sheer size. I'm not surprised, to be honest. I'm going to sound hugely full of myself, here, but my wings are gorgeous. Dark caramel in colour, they are siply beautiful. I grin, and fold them back in against my spine. Niteo seems to come to himself slightly, and suddenly says

"I think we'll keep this to ourselves. Give Papilio a bit of a surprise when he comes!" the other two laugh, and Caelum and Ferre both pick up little pots of gunk and begin to slather it all over my legs.

What's that for? I write on a piece of paper I find on the table. They grin evilly, and when I find out, god, I wish I didn't know.

time skip, baby!

Three hours later, Niteo stands in front of me smugly.

"I think she's done. Rub her down, ladies!" he calls to Ferre and Caelum. They come forward with bottles of some kind of thick lotion, which they start smoothing over my sore (but completely hairless) body. It stings at first, but then soothes my skin. They let me put my thin, white robe back on as Niteo walks over to an intercom thing on the wall, and talks into it for a while. Ferre smiles at me as she says

"you can sit down. Papilio will be a few minutes yet." I smile back at her as she leads me to another room containing a plush red sofa. Out of all the stylists, Ferre is my favourite. Despite the bear ears, she seems the most human. Possibly because her face is not blue, or sparkly. She leaves the room, and I'm left on my own.

Due to my monkey-like attention span, within minutes I'm bored. I stand up and study the room. In front of me is a coffee table, with nothing on it, an behind that is a leather armchair. Lining the walls are pictures of the most famous district nine costumes. There aren't many. I walk over and study them closely. Then a terrifying thought comes to me. What if I'm naked and covered in feathers or something? Oh god, that can't happen. I look around for something to write on, and see an I hate Mondays poster on the wall. Seriously? I am not going to be able to take this Papilio guy seriously, now. I rip it down, and find a pen that's fallen between the sofa cushions. I scrawl on it for a few seconds, then fold up the poster and tuck it into the pocket of my robe.

Suddenly, the door opens, and in comes a young guy, I'd say about twenty-five, with blonde hair and blue eyes. His entire body is tattooed with multi-coloured butterflies. Cute. He wears a simple white shirt and black trousers.

"Hey, Calamity, I'm Papilio, your-" he stops here, because I've put up a hand to stop him. I yank the poster from my pocket, and hand it over to him. He looks slightly annoyed that I've pulled down his poster, but reads the words on it anyway. His face breaks into a grin, and he starts laughing hysterically. He drops the paper, and it spirals down to land on the coffee table. I re-read the words.

I want some clothes, 'kay? Papilio finally manages to choke out a sentence.

"don't worry, you're not going to be naked." I smile with relief. "now, I hear you're very odd in some way? Niteo seemed quite excited, but he wouldn't tell me what was so special." I stare at him blankly for a few seconds, then have a sudden epiphany. Oh, the wings. I turn away from him, and slide my robe down a little, just enough to reveal my wings for a second time. He gasps, comes forward to touch them. At the last second he catches himself.

"may i?" I nod my approval, and he strokes them, not unlike Ferre. Then he flees the room and returns moments later with a pad and some pencils. He talks as he sketches furiously.

"your wings are gorgeous. I think we could build them into your costume, like have a gown of feathers with your wings coming out the back. We could build some mechanical ones for your district partner, and pretend your's are mechanical too. I gather you want to keep them a secret for the games, in case you need a quick escape?" he stops suddenly, and looks at me for conformation. I nod, slightly, kind of surprised at his sort of mental reaction to my wings, and he grins and returns to his sketching. He finishes his design, and shows it to me proudly. As I haven't the slightest idea about fashion, but don't want to offend him, I nod knowledgably and give him a thumbs up. Apparently this was the right thing to do because he grins ecstatically. he jumps up and runs to the intercom on the wall. He babbles into it for a minute, before a confused look replaces the excited one on his face. he turns away from the intercom and looks me in the eye.

"I'll just be a minute." He flees the room. Fantastic. I get the mental stylist. I pick his sketchbook back up, and flick through the designs slowly. It doesn't take long before he returns with a suitbag.

"we'll have to make a few minor alterations, but other than that, we're good to go!" he grins at me as he pulls out a long, flowing, empire-line gown covered in material feathers. Papilio must have been planning this for months before the actual event. I smile back at his expectant face, and he practically glows with happiness. Then he glances at his watch.

"ohmygosh, look at the time! You must be starving!" I nod in reply, and he calls in an Avox bearing a tray of food. She's a tiny brunette girl, and she glances at me curiously as she lays down the tray. I grin at her in thanks, and she almost smiles back, almost. Papilio sees me smiling at her.

"she's an Avox. She can't speak." Well, duh. I grab the poster again.

I know the feeling. He looks at me in pity, and the little Avox girl frowns in empathy as she leaves the room. I watch her through the glass door for a few seconds, then turn to the tray of food. I'm glad to see it's covered in bread, grain and meat. Great, I'd better start carb loading and eating lots of protein. I tuck in as Papilio starts taking in the dress. Mmm, bread.

O0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0 another time skip, whoo! 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

I pull the dress on over my head, and Ferre and Papilio come forward to adjust my makeup. An Avox comes in and leads us to the stables where they keep all the chariot horses. I'm glad I'm not wearing a tree costume, like some people from district 8. I spot Iggy in a simple grey suit, stroking a horse. I walk up behind him and tap his hand, and he whirls round and nearly hits me. I duck, though, and tap his hand again. He flushes bright red.

"sorry, I thought you were one of the careers, come to pick a fight or something." I laugh slightly.

It's okay, you're not the only paranoid one. Lets just hope your hyper-senses come in handy once we're out there trying not to get killed to death. He laughs loudly, attracting curious stares from other tributes. I almost think let them stare, but then I remember my strategy- be average, forgettable, and hope everybody ignores you. A Capitol attendant walks through and tells us to get on our chariots. We'll be going out ninth. I run through my instructions from Papilio, unfold my wings about three meters after the stable doors. Make them look mechanically. Yay. The district one chariot, containing Cyclops and Scarface, leaves first. They glare forward. 'cause that's how you get sponsors. The Aryan Twins go second, and soon follows the geeky pair, and the District Four careers. I wait through the others, until district eight's tiny little girl nudges the snivelling boy in annoyance as they start to leave. I like this girl. Suddenly, our chariot jerks forward and we leave the safety of the stables.

My feathery dress flutters around my knees as we progress slowly forward. Papilio said to stay motionless until we take out our wings. He did say to unfurl them slowly "like a flower growing", but I decide that's not really my style. Apparently, me and Iggy are on the same wavelength, and we both snap out our wings at the same time. The crowd goes nuts. They start throwing roses and confetti. I smile around at them, blowing kisses and waving. I catch a rose from the air, and stick it to Iggy's lapel, as I look at his wings. They're huge and pale, pale grey. My wing brushes against his and I swear its warm. Must be the mechanism, giving off heat. He smiles down at me, and I register how tall he is. He plucks another rose from the air and skewers it in my floating hair. We turn back away from each other, and carry on waving to the crowd.

Finally, we pull into the square outside the training centre, and are met by Papilio, and Iggy's stylist, a silvery woman with scales and gills like a salmon, called Piscis. The Training Centre is a huge building, walled floor to ceiling in glass panels that gleam smoothly in the sunset. I crack my knuckles and turn to Papilio, pulling a sheet of paper out of a hidden pocket in my dress.

When can we leave? I'm knackered. He grins at me. I glance over to where Piscis and Iggy are. From what I hear, they're having a similar conversation.

"we just have to wait for President Snow to give his speech, then you can go do whatever you like" I sigh in annoyance at the prospect of a speech and, forgetting momentarily that my wings are supposed to be mechanic, I give them a little shake out to ease the stiffness. Papilio shoots me a look and I pull an apologetic face. luckily, no-one saw, I don't think.

President Snow walks out and begins addressing the cameras. I tune out- I never had the longest attention span. His speech is thankfully short, and, from the bits I could be bothered to listen to, running along the same lines as usual. Snow disappears with a wave and a smattering of applause, and the collected tributes slowly disperse into the Training Centre. I stroll over to Iggy, tucking my wings against my back in what's supposed to be a mechanical movement. I tap his hand and lead him into the Training Centre, through a lobby type thing and into the lift. We step in and press the button just as a boy and a girl come running for the lift.

"hold the door!" calls the boy, who I would say is about fifteen or sixteen, while the girl appears to be only about twelve. I remember that they're from five, recognising the determined, angry look on the girls face. I smile at them amiably as I hit the "hold lift" button. They walk in, out of breath from running, just before the door closes. The boy smiles gratefully and I nod, hoping he'll just leave us alone. What I did by holding the lift just made him about twelve times harder to kill, or even watch die. I don't need him making it harder still. He evidently doesn't agree.

"Hey, I'm Cole" he introduces himself with the happy, bumbling manner of the eternally cheerful. "and this is Amy" he gestures to the girl, who stares at the floor angrily.

"I'm Iggy, and this is Calamity." Says Iggy. he scuffs the floor with his shoe and twiddles his thumbs. I remember suddenly we haven't pressed the button and mentally facepalm. I jab at the nine button, the nudge Cole and point to the five, asking for confirmation. He looks at me weirdly, like "why didn't you just ask?" but doesn't push the subject.

"yeah, we're five. I'm just trying to guess if the fact you've noticed us is a good thing or a bad thing!" I smile blandly and look away. Gods sakes, how long does this freaking lift take?

"hey, you two are the ones from nine, right?" Cole presses on. In a kind of "you will make small talk, damnit!" way. I smile and nod again.

"oh, yeah. You were both in the accidents, right?" little Amy pipes up. I nod at her as the lift reaches the fifth floor. They bundle out, Amy striding off and Cole turning round to get a last look

"nice to meet you!" he calls as the doors of the lift swish shut. Iggy turns to me.

"well, that wasn't one of the most awkward experiences of my life…"