Dearest readers:
I created a twitter account for my fanfiction pictures so you guys can see what people I used to reference the looks for characters I created! I have Rain's family up along with her up, but I still need to post the other important side characters! love you guys!
Here's my user name: micheart221
-Miche
Chapter 4: Transformation
My eyes slammed open the next morning with the memories of my past dream, and I tensed up thinking for a split second that I was still on the ground with Grey stabbing me. I relaxed instantly, feeling safe and warm, noticing someone's arm was around me. Attempting to roll over was a failure because the owner of the arm just tightened his grip.
"Morning, Beautiful…" a voice whispered. The sunlight from my small window was shining right in my eyes. Whoever it was around me, it was nice. They kissed the back of my neck and instantly reminded me of who it was.
"Finnick!" I Flipped over and away from his grasp. Because of my sudden withdrawal, I almost fell off the bed.
"Whoa, steady!" his hand once again found my waist to make sure I didn't plummet, but I pushed it off of me.
"Don't touch me!" Him flipping on his back. When did he come in last night and how did he know to? My head still buzzed from moving around too much, and I had to steady myself before getting up.
"How the hell did you get in here?"
"You left the door open last night and I heard you yelling."
"I do notyell in my sleep."
"Says the one who was sleeping." He smirked. I hated it. "Why do you hate me so much?"
"What?" How would he know this? Him and his smart ass smile, just staring me down with his oceanic eyes... Just kind of... no! it was awful!
"Every time I have tried to help you or even look at you, you look away or push me out." I returned his question with silence, obviously showing him I don't want to talk right now. He watched me. "Rain?" His attempt failed as I simply looked away and tried getting up. However, in his persistence, he pulled me back down and placed himself above me, pinning me to the bed. I wouldnt give in to his flamboyant sensuous ways, not now, not ever. "Answer me, please?"
"I don't like you." I sighed. he was confused as ever. "What, your little trick of flirting and act of dominance didn't work out? I'm sorry. Pick and easier target next time." This time I was smiling and he was frowning. That expression was exchanged with another, one of cleverness. Finnick inched his face closer to mine to the point where I could feel his breath on my face. I kept my breathing calm as he whispered in my ear.
"I can feel your pulse. It disagrees." My eyes widened as I noticed his hand slightly holding my wrist.
"I told you not to touch me-" I sneered, not phasing his grin.
"It's time for breakfast, my little Rainbow!" Deary Flitter's voice shook me from my thoughts. She barged open the door separating Finnick and I from the rest of the world, and clicked her heels into the room. "We'll be talking about strategies today and then reach the capitol around five for dinner and then-Oh! Finnick!"
"Great timing, Deary." He exclaimed looking up at her. "Can you give us a minute?" As I went to protest, Deary cut me off.
"No, no, no, no! We have a verybusyday today! So when we reach the capitol, we'll go to the remake center where they will wash you up and give you a signature look." Deary continued explaining what would happen within the next few days. I spaced out for some of it after rising from the bed, now cold, but she would be talking about it for the next three hours. "… And then the games will commence!" she sighed excited for this year's game.
"Rain?" Grey's voice rang from the hall. He peered in and saw Finnick wrapped up in my blankets, me trying to enter my own bathroom with Deary in the way.
"Good morning! Please get him out of my bed." I gestured to Finnick who played the victim card smiling at his own words.
"She's the one who wanted to sleep with me!" Everyone in the room turned to me, shock on every face.
"O my gosh! All we did was sleep!"
"You better hope thats all you did." Grey said to me while looking at Finnick. Finnick only laughed before getting up and leaving.
"Ooooo. I'm soscared." he winked at me before waltzing into his own room for a shower.
The moment we finally entered the capitol, I knew something was about to happen. Seeing all the extravagant outfits and painted skins and tattooed faces put a pit feeling in my stomach. These are the people who want us to die.
Before going anywhere else, we went up to our rooms to kill some time as the rest of the tributes arrived. I still couldn't believe we had our own floor just for us. The elevator doors opened and I almost fainted.
First of all, the place was huge having to be at least a fifty or more feet tall. There were several French styled windows that were on either side of the television display in the middle of the wall, and reached from the floor to the ceiling. The other walls seemed to be hand painted in intricate patterns all the way up in varieties of blues, resulting in an ocean looking design all together. To my left and right were terraced fountains that held crystal clear water with circular stones on every other tier. The tile on the floor was of only blues and replicated the feeling of a pool area until you got to the living room. Each tile had a swirled pattern that was the lighter hue of the tile next to it and was made of an almost sparkly stone. Where the walls met the floor on the south and north sides, a good three feet of water stood there in place of tile. 'Just for decoration' I thought. Giant, classical, golden tridents adorned the walls, with mini golden plaques under them that stated a past victors name from this district. There were giant lights over head, as well as in the fountains, that made everything look new and clean.
We followed Deary to the dining area and found a long hallway that intersected the fountain area from the living room and reached from the dining area to our bedrooms. We followed it to where we would eat, leading up a few stairs and into a white walled room that had dark blue drapes with the symbol of our district on it and gold trimming. The tile was a sandy colored and actually resembled the way it looked. A long white marble table sat centered in the room with eight chairs surrounding it. The room overlooked the entire fountain area and living room, but still was far enough in the side of the wall that the ceiling was a mere nine feet tall. There were also decorative paintings and flower vases, but I didn't pay much attention to them.
Our rooms were next. The hall had four on each side of it, each the same as the next. The first two belonged to Deary and Abby. Deary, Leo, and Pierah (Grey's head stylist) all lived in this complex daily and just have the place cleaned special every year for the incoming tributes. Their rooms had their names in gold lettering on the dark wood whilst ours had name tags that were disposable. Like us.
Finally I got to my room on the left and entered gasping.
The floor again was tiled and matched the living room slightly but on a smaller scale. My room overlooked a beautiful part of the city. The walls were a whitish colour that faded to a sand colour near the floor, and had golden paneling. My bed was covered in a seashell bedspread with matching pillows of those colors. I had two white bed side tables with a sparkling, shell encrusted lamp on each. It was incredible.
A door on the left lead me to the bathroom that kept up with the ocean theme and had a shower with so many buttons, I couldn't count them all. Blue and white fluffy towels hung ready for use, and a fancy robe was also laid across the marble counter top.
"Wow…"
"I know right?" Deary said in her cheeriest voice after giving me the tour of my room. I learned that Finnick's was after mine and unfortunately for him sat across the hall from Abby's room.
Finally after the tour was over and we were all comfortable in our rooms, Deary called us to dinner: Roast ham, potatoes, cooked veggies, choices of fruit, other looking foods we had never seen before, and drinks which the avox served us.
"So, as for your personalities and signature trait, we need to get to know you both." Finnick said across from me, grabbing the raspberry marmalade strangely for his ham. I ate about the same portion of food as grey had, only he had more than one serving after, washing it down with a blue, sweet, and foreign juice. "What are your strengths?"
"Our what?"
"What are you good at? Weapons, people, book smarts, things like that." Abby clarified.
"I wouldn't say I have anything special-"
"She can hit an octopus with a spear from twenty feet away." grey said quickly before taking a bite of food. his eyes were wide as he joked to me like he shouldn't have said that. "Oops..."
"Well that's nice, but I don't see how…"
"Underwater. And she can kill a shark from fifty feet away by just barely spotting its top fin." He wants to play it that way, huh?
"Well… Grey can shoot a bow and arrow and always brings in two deer every week, with ten rabbits, twelve squirrels, and he's also just as good as me with a spear." Everyone dropped what they were doing to listen to our little quarrel.
"Rain is good with knives. She's one of the best in our district-"
"Grey can hit a bulls-eye from 100 feet away-"
"Rain can hold her breath for seven minutes while swimming, sing like a robin, and can then draw just about anything you put in front of her-"
"Grey can lift a 150 pound shark by the back fin, and can play the piano with his eyes closed-"
"Rain sleeps with a blanket-"
"Grey likes the color pink-!"
"I never said I liked it, I only said it wasn't my least favorite bad!" he said through his teeth. Deary interrupted in a timely fashion.
"That's more than we need to know to put your identities together. The Musical Artist, and The Strong Man with a Stronger Heart!" Deary said putting everything together with glitter and fluff in her words.
"That's great and all, but one thing: How is that going to help us in the arena?" I said still frustrated with the things Grey had announced.
"You get sponsored by acting like you care about everyone in the capitol. You fake it." Finnick said watching Abigail slip more 'juice' in her coffee.
"How do we do that?"
"You lie about who you are entirely." I looked at him, he had a blank expression a tiresome one before seeing me and putting on his smile. "You lie, cheat, steal, fight, and kill anyone you can to survive in that arena. If doing so in the right way, people in the capitol will like you. If they like you-"
"They want you to win. So they bet on you, and they get you sponsor gifts while you're in the arena." He looked at me. "Am I right?"
"Your not wrong, but you still need to make sure you attract the right people. One wrong move and its goodbye to matches you might've needed or a knife or rope." He was challenging my knowledge, and it annoyed me to no end.
"So what types of people should we attract?" Crossing my arms was my signal to the Avox that I was finished, I forgot to thank her as she took my plate, my pride against Finnick too overbearing.
"Those who only know greed, for the money; people who you can have relate to you, tragedy etcetera; men who find you appealing to the eye; and those who lie and cheat to win for themselves." He smiled, taking a sip of orange juice. "Or you could be lovers and attract to all the broken hearts in the capitol, those who dream of nothing but romance and fantasies."
"Wouldn't that be just peachy?" Deary interrupted. "If, right before the games begin, You have a brief romance with another tribute or capitol person? Aha!We'd have the capitals fans on a string!Pass the butter."
"Say that again." Finnick smirked looking at Abigail.
"Pass the butter?"
"Before that. So Dearest Abby can hear…" she glared at him with fiery eyes.
"We'd have the capital on a string?"
"Ahem…" Abby excused herself, wiping her face and walking out.
"I think we got the point across."
"So men like you then?" I made him almost choke, Grey stifled a laugh in his hash browns, Abigail barking a laugh, and Deary gasping.
"Finnickis a good man, sweetie-" She attempted to resolve the conflict to no avail.
"Does a good man trick everyone around him into thinking he is a god? Does a good man lie and cheat to win? Can he even relate to me-?" Once I was started on something I never backed down. I probably deserved that bruise on my nose.
"Watch it, Troute." Finnick said, his smile beginning to falter. Finally I was breaking him down.
"Shouldn't you know, Finnick? Exactly, what's it like to know greedwhen luring women into your bed, making them feel as though they are special when they are exactlythe opposite to you?"
"I believe I said you were done." A frustrated grin tightly held his lips back from saying anymore.
"You are nothing but a pathetic whoreto everyonearound you-!"
"ENOUGH!" The crashing made me hiccup my words as he pushed everything he had in front of him on the floor. In one fluid motion, he stood hovering in a fighting stance, hands clenched yet open, and feet ready to jump. He shouted breathing heavy and tinted pink. He noticed his mistake. Everyone was silenced, and I couldn't find any other way to insult him, I had said it all. "NEVERcall me that again!" His eyes held the same look as they did when I was reaped, this time it was shown through his face. Anger, hurt, pain.
And in this moment I finally saw the real Finnick Odair. The truly broken Finnick Odair.
He glanced at what he had done before storming out to left his plate, half filled with food. Deary didn't make things better. "Never in all my years..." I stood to leave, needing time alone right now. Regret filled my stomach and made me want to vomit.
They brought us to what they called a remake center where they would "cleanse" us of all imperfections before letting our stylists see us.
The plastic people covered my body with sticky goop before putting a cloth over it. All people in four knew about waxing, since if you wanted to swim or be a fisherman, you had to have a limited amount of hair on your body.
"We need to repair your damaged hair. What on earth have you done to it? It's like you've showered with salt for soap…"
"Well I fish- AHHH!" They didn't say when they would be ripping the cloth of my skin, along with layers of skin. "WHAT THE HECK?!" I screamed.
"Please sit back down miss Troute. We are almost done." They lied. I sat there for a few more hours as they yanked my hair out all over my body, except for eyebrows and head hair, which they plucked at and oiled so much that I thought I'd surely slip of the table onto the floor like a fish.
They then brought the steaming hot water that almost put me to sleep from the feeling, and the choice of shampoos.
"Beach grass or Coconut?" the man said wafting the scented soap toward me.
"Do you have a lily smell?" he looked surprised and quickly disappeared only to return with a pinkish orange substance that filled me with the memories of home the second the smell hit me. I smiled as he used the requested scent happily.
"You know, we haven't used this smell since it came out to the public." Soon enough, I was hosed down with the same smelling wash before they jet dried my body. Only after that did they let my stylist team see me.
A man about my height walked in with long blond hair that volumized out a few inches, but was still away from his face, like a lions. He had highlights, and orange stripes of colour as well. His face was a yellow like gold, and his ears pointed. In the entire package, he looked like a lion. With yellow contact lenses, he looked up at me, approachable.
"Hello. How are you this evening?" he said in an accent not from the capitol. The sound wasn't familiar to me.
"Um… I'm okay I guess-"
"This is good! I can definitely work with this one." He smiled lifting my arms to watch me spin before him. "Chi Chi! Write this one's look down! Brainstorm or something…"
"If I may ask, what is your name?"
"Why I am Leo." Let the torture begin. My stylist spent more than an hour just looking at me and taking notes on my "body type" as he called it. I could see why his name was Leo considering he really did look like a lion. He would also occasionally growls or made a cat-like noise when agreeing.
"One moment, and you can put your gown back on." He finished writing with his assistants, and then instructed me what to do. "Rain, darling, it's so nice to meet you." He said greeting me with a kiss on the cheek. Being nude in front of someone who just kissed you isn't the most comforting feeling in the world. "Oh, honey don't worry, I'm not interested in you."
"I still don't like anyone staring at me when I'm naked, thank you." Luckley Leo handed me my paper gown just as things got even more awkward.
"So, lets talk fabrics."
"I'm not from district eight so all I know is that theres a soft kind, normal kind and itchy kind, which is the one I hate."
"I meant fabrics that represent your district. How about ocean colours?" he asked his assistant, MonteCello.
"Well if we really want to make a statement, why not just cover them in fish?"
"Okay we don't want a repeat of five years ago, that year they didn't get one sponsor… hmm.. Ooh! I've got it! Ementra? Sketch book!" Leo then began whispering and chatting to his assistant while she scrambled in her bag for a pencil.
In no time they had three outfits picked out and tomorrow they would be trying them on me to see how they look. I was just hoping we weren't going out in nothing but oceans painted on our skin.
Sorry if it isn't completely edited guys, I had to post this one in a bit of a rush! If I have time, I'll come back and fix it up a bit more. See you next time!