Chapter 3 – The Capitol

The night on the train was relatively calm after that, I barely managed to sleep due to dreams about the other tributes and what things could happen during the games, always waking up just before I was brutally killed. Salix had started by running from his cabin whenever he heard my screams, but after about three times he just stayed in my room with me, letting me sleep with my head on his chest and his arms around me in a brotherly hold I needed at that moment. I managed to relax for the majority of the night after that, and was only stirred by Ceres shaking the both of us, ushering us for breakfast.

Breakfast went by unusually happily, considering the mood of the previous day and the nightmares I had experienced the night before. Chaff wasn't drunk yet (Seeder had thrown every bit of alcohol into one of the toilets on board, determined to keep him sober), Ceres was becoming strangely politely mannered, and Seeder was being friendly as she ever was. She was like another mother, she truly was. How she had come out of her games, and still managed to keep so friendly, I didn't understand. Many victors turned to unfavourable habits, for example Haymitch and Chaff with their drinking, or turned into jerks, for example Enobaria (though as she was D2, she could easily have simply been that way beforehand), and in some cases totally lost their minds, for example Wiress. But Seeder seemed okay, she seemed to have made it out rather unscathed, mentally. I liked her. It was good to have someone nice to mentor us; even Chaff was a rather nice seeming guy.

But as we found ourselves passing through the old mountains to get to the train station, our nerves rose back up again. Standing and heading to the window, deciding the play the card of getting in their good books from the start, I had to kneel on a chair to look out properly, opting to stand on it to make it even easier. Salix seemed to catch on, walking over and standing next to me, still managing to beat me in height. I pouted, smacking him lightly over the head just as we came into view of the Capitol people. The bright colours nearly blinded me.

"Salix, you giant idiot! Man why do I have to be so tiny!" I pouted, hands on hips. Salix laughed lightly, waving out at the people watching us – who had all began smiling and laughing seeing my childish display with my brother, some waving back at us – and started to ruffle my curls.

"Good one you two. As much good exposure as you can get," Seeder said, voice sounding as if she were smiling, though I didn't look back, focusing on the strange people outside the train window.

We soon pulled into the private area where we were offloaded from the train, and shoved into a blacked out car to be taken off to the 'remake centre' where we would have to meet our stylists for tonight. I was dreading it, if I was completely honest. We never got anything as bad as District Twelve, we had perfect stylists compared to them – with their coal mining suits, coal dust themes, specifically the ones where they had been put through it naked but with black body paint – but we didn't have very good ones in the scheme of things. Farmers were a running theme with us, that and the food itself. One year they put them in a giant suit that was basically just an apple… they shared the costume, filling half each. Safe to say, that year we were more of a laughing stock than District Twelve.

So, I was dreading this.

After being ushered into the building, I gave a quick goodbye and good luck to Salix before being whisked away into a room by three people. Once in the room, they instructed me to strip down naked and then lie down on a table they had set up. It was all happening so fast, I didn't really comprehend what I was being told, and only really realised how bare I was when I heard them start commenting.

"It's so hard to work with twelve year olds, they've got so little puberty in them that they have no shape at all, even if they have skin on their bones," One said. My eyes flickered to her, seeing a very typical capitol woman. Her skin was dyed a deep grey, with darker grey make up on her lips and eyes, and strange patterned tattoos all over her face, neck and arms. Her hair was an ice blue, falling to her jaw, with strange white horns showing out of it just above her temples. The weirdest, and creepiest, thing was the fact her eyes had been dyed pitch black.

"Tell me about it. But at least it means the hair they have isn't too bad. I better get to work on that, you two help me, you're not needed for other stuff quite yet," Another female voice said, this time the girl being a lot lighter. Her skin looked almost a natural shade, spare the white tattoos coating her cheeks and running down her arms and torso, which was unnaturally skinny for someone who likely ate so much. Her chest was unnaturally large, and strands of pink hair were practically the only modesty she had covering them due to the fact her shirt was nearly letting them fly loose. The rest of her hair was held up in gravity defying sections that flew into the air in strange curls, her eyes pure white, and make up pink.

"Fine fine, I'll get her lotion bath ready," My final prep member said, tone sounding as if their eyes were being rolled. The voice had made me suspect a third female, but looking at them it appeared it was actually a man. His hair was an even darker black than mine, and his eyes and eerie red, with sharp brown lines radiating from the corners of them, and all along his forearms, his clothes loose on his top half, but much too tight on his lower half. He had a strangely friendly look to him, despite the creepy eyes. Why have I got a team of creepy eyes from one extreme to the next?

"Now dear, just relax little munchkin and let us do our work," The first woman said in a very patronizing voice, before being hit over the head with a high heeled shoe by the pink woman.

"Now now Bolbe! She's a human, not a doll. 'Munchkin'? Have you been watching old films illegally again?" She said, rolling her white eyes, and then smiling at me, "Sorry about her name. Your name was… Olive, right?"

I couldn't help but giggle lightly, "Olea. But close, Olive is some form of my name."

"Oops, sorry. I'm Suada, little miss rude here is Bolbe, and the other one is Miksa," She said with a large lipped smile, pulling a trolley of various things over to the bed, "Some of this may hurt, but it's all part of the process. You won't need to have too much done, so don't worry."

"Alright…" I wasn't confident that the fact that I had less to do, or that even if it were true that it would hurt any less, but I went along with it anyway. That was what Seeder and Chaff had both told us – just go with it.

Wax and strips of weird paper were soon being plastered all over my body and removed with blinding pain, tearing every follicle of hair out of my frail body, every hair spare the ones on my head and face – and even there they plucked at my eyebrows to make them some different shape. My body felt sore and burning after this, and did so until I was dunked in a bath, where the lotions and concoctions soothed my raw skin really fast. They washed my hair with more lotions than the train had offered, and soon I felt it back in a frizzy form of curls I hadn't felt in my hair for a while.

After the bath, I was wrapped in a robe and I felt a thin layer of makeup put over my skin, before the team looked me over, and then started to leave. Suada waited a moment behind, looking to me, leaving with the words: "Ace will be along soon. Do everything he says, he's a great stylist and I'm sure he'll make you look even better than we have!" She beamed and then waved, walking out of the room.

I waited in silence for a while, waiting for this 'Ace' to come in, awaiting what strange costume I would be put in. I hummed to myself, singing old songs from my District, practicing my little four note tune that I was now glad little Rue and other girls and boys had picked up from me; it was an important part of life. I sure hoped one of them had the right voice.

My thoughts were broken when a rough, yet somehow soothing, male voice broke the silence, "Olea?"

"Ah! Uh! Yes, yes that's me!" I blabbed, caught by surprise, standing up. The man had skin that I could have sworn was the exact shade as my own, and golden eyes that were similar to all my family's. His hair, however, was blonde in colour, a trait that was a stark contrast and looked odd with his skin tone. He had black stubble, which made it look even stranger. He had three black lines on each of his cheeks, from the bottom of them by his jaw upwards, and was dressed in mostly yellow and black. His fashion was rather normal by Capitol standards, so maybe we had a bit of hope.

"Take the robe off; let me check that I've done what I have right. I was given your approximate measurements before you arrived, so some tweaking may have to be done," He said in a very pronounced Capitol accent, though it had a tweak of something District sounding.

I clutched my robe tighter to me, not really wanting to be exposed again. I'd rather wear this for the rest of my life than take it off again, the more that happened to me, the more real this all felt. And I didn't want it to be real. And even if it had to be real, I did not want to be exposing my stupid puberty avoiding body to some person I had just met. However… I had no choice.

Sighing softly, I slipped the robe off and my body was left bare once more. The man stepped over to me, circling around me and taking measurements every now and again, some being a little too close to intimate skin for comfort. He said things like 'Don't worry, I'm not going to bite', and muttered various measurements to himself, before stepping back with a smile, gesturing for me to put the robe back on. I gladly slipped it back onto my body, holding it tightly onto myself.

"Luckily my measurements all fit well enough, and we have plenty of time to get you ready, so for now we can have a spot of lunch if you'd like," Ace said, smiling softly with his slightly artificial lips.

I was about to say no, but a loud rumbling in my stomach that I had been able to ignore before rang out, craving more of the Capitol's food. Ace laughed, pressing a button to call for an Avox to bring us some food, which one soon did, laying out a generous lunch platter on a table in the room.

I only wished I could send some back to my family, but a selfish part of me couldn't help but just be glad I was finally enjoying some good food. I shyly sat down on one of the plush chairs, and started eating as neatly as I could, Ace eating as well. He asked me questions, asking about Salix, my family back home, asking about the things I was singing before he came in, as well as other things. I answered most of them, between servings of food, but kept a lot of detail to myself, still wary of anyone Capitol native. He seemed nice enough, though.

"Alright, you finish up here; I just need to go pick your outfit up from the other room," Ace said, wiping his mouth and putting down the napkin he used to do so, before standing up and silently leaving the room. I watched as he left, then continued to eat for a minute or two as I waited, until I decided that if I ate one more bite I'd be sick whilst on the Chariot.

Where had he gotten to? He'd been gone for over ten minutes now; it shouldn't take this long to grab a c-…

As if he were a mind reader (which in the Capitol would not surprise me), Ace burst back into the room with a clothing bag, holding what must be my costume. He had a grin on his face, ushering me to stand up and remove my robe. A little more comfortable with him now, I did so a little less reluctantly than before, though god it was still embarrassing.

"Now, I tried not to focus on the work you do, but the environment you do it in with this. Farmers is so overused, so this should be a breath of fresh air, and show off your cuteness," I blushed more than I obviously already was, looking down. He laughed, and then blindfolded me, making me squeak, "Don't worry, I'm not going to molest you or anything," Mind reader for sure, "It's to keep what you look like a surprise."

"Alright…" I wasn't so sure about this.

I let him work on me as he slipped the apparently strapless dress onto my body after, the material soft and slightly crispy feeling at the same time. It hugged my body in a way I felt it might make me appear to have a figure, and fell to just above my knees, with some parts brushing down to my knees. I felt a wet substance on my arms, being swirled around in strange patterns, and then as the blindfold was removed but I was forced to keep my eyes closed, the same happening from the corners of my eyes outwards. More makeup was applied to my face, and my hair was left in its frizzy state, with something threaded through it. With a high pitched 'There!', Ace uncovered the room's mirrors, and let me look in them.

"…It's perfect Ace… you… pictured life in the orchards perfectly…" I found myself smiling as I spoke, running a hand over one of the material leaves my dress was made up of, coloured in colours of orange, red, gold and brown, an autumn pattern that reminded me dearly of the orchard leaves that I clambered around in daily. There were gold lines drawn in swirls all over my arms, and around my golden eyes, my lips had been turned golden, and there was a red accent above my eyes, my eyelashes enhanced. In my hair was a vine, with small fruits on it, and the same was occurring around my legs, representing the food from the district in a subtler way. I was barefooted, but that mimicked our lifestyle also. Shoes were actually a rather rare thing.

"You're a little autumn fairy, dear child," Ace smiled, standing behind me, "The only thing missing is wings, but I feel that would take away from the overall effect," I nodded vaguely in agreement with what he was saying, running my hand over each of the leaves with a smile, looking at the nearly unrecognisable girl in the mirror. I had never seen myself so clean, so cared for, so… pretty or cute.

"Thank you, Ace…" I said, smiling softly at him. I liked him. He had some annoying Capitol qualities, but he had some sympathy behind him, and was trying to help as much as he could. Some stylists just didn't care at all.

"It's not a problem. Now then, it's about time to get you down to the Chariots, and to see your brother," He held out a hand, and I slipped my small hand into his, smiling more. Yep, exactly the same skin tone.

As I caught sight of my brother soon after, I tried not to laugh a little. We'd had our themes matched, and he was dressed in a skirt thing made of leaves that were the same colour as mine. He had vines around his arms and legs and hair, with golden patterns on his chest and face. He had his token on, and I grabbed at my neck for mine, panicking when I didn't feel it, before relaxing as Ace fixed the string around my neck, whispering a silent thanks to him.

"You look adorable little sis," Salix said, chuckling and looking down at me. I pouted, poking his chest, making him laugh more.

"You two keep that dynamic up in the chariots. Act normal, wave at the crowd but banter around like you normally would, okay? You two need to play your sibling love for all it's worth, it's your best shot," Seeder told us as she walked up to us, "You ready to come down to the chariots then?"

"As ready as we can be I think… Which is 'only if we have to'," Salix said, making Seeder roll her eyes.

"Considering everything, you two are some of the most cheerful tributes we've had…" She said in her motherly voice, arms folded, "I guess having someone you're not afraid to trust is a good thing, no matter the inevitable outcome." I wasn't sure if she meant to say the last part out loud, so didn't make a comment as Salix took a hold of my tiny hand in his, and kissing my forehead reluctantly told Ceres to lead the way.

Seeder followed us down, but Chaff left as we reached the lift that would take us down to where the Chariots start from. I was nervous, that was for sure, shown by how I could feel myself start to shake. I somehow relaxed more when Ceres left to go and join Chaff, apparently to try and get an initial look at how many sponsors we might get.

I saw the other stylist for the first time, noting how her skin was also a similar colour to ours (was this some method by the Capitol to try and make us feel more 'comfortable' or something?), her hair was black and fell to her knees in curls, running with bright pink-purple streaks. Her eyes were a natural brown, her lips and tattoos that covered her upper body all the same colour as her hair streaks. Her clothing was skimpier than even Suada's, but her body wasn't as fake.

From where we ended up standing, I couldn't see many of the tributes, though that could be to do with my height. I was rather grateful to be honest; I knew that whilst our outfits may get us more attention than usual, and perhaps a few sponsors' attentions, the other more favoured districts would have much better outfits. Plus, they were scary as hell up front, so I didn't want to see their overly muscled bodies more than I have to.

The people I could see were District 10 and District 12, and even then it was hard. The two in front of us were going to be laughed at, I was nearly certain. District 10, Livestock. They normally got things like cowboys, farmhands, things that didn't attract much attention, but didn't attract the wrong attention either. This year, however, they appeared to have gotten the unlucky end of the stick – their clothes were brown and looked like rough leather, tight body suits, then with horns sticking from their head – trying to mimic some form of animal from there, I guessed. They definitely had it tough, not made easier by the fact one of them was the other twelve year old.

Poor kid.

Behind us was even worse. Salix half playfully, half seriously covered my eyes when we both realised that District 12 were both stark naked spare a black, powdery substance, which must have been to represent coal dust. That had to be the worst thing they had ever had– had that stylist from the last time returned? – nothing could be more embarrassing than that. I didn't even need to know about the 52 years previous to know that.

"Oh my god…" Ace said, covering his mouth to stifle a laugh, "I think that stylist has doomed District 12 even more than normal… at least we tried to make you two look decent!" He said, throwing his arms up in over exaggerated horror. I stifled my own laugh at his reaction.

"Alright, time to get you guys into the Chariot, District one is about to move off," Seeder said. Salix nodded, lifting me up by my waist (making me let out a pitiful squeak in the process) and placing me in the chariot. He then stepped up, and took hold of my hand, squeezing it gently. I realised instantly that I would be hidden from at least one side of the procession corridor of people due to his height and bulk, which wouldn't really help our case. I looked up at him, and he nodded, seeming to know what I meant. I was then a little scared of how he'd fix the issue.

I saw the first Chariot pull out, District 1's burly tributes once again on full display. I watched them as they passed around everyone watching, not giving much acknowledgment to the crowd spare a confident, flirty smile from Narrow Face, and flexing muscles from Muscle Pants. Shimmer was in a rich purple gown that fell to her ankles, parting at the front, right up to her navel, and she was wearing little underneath spare a small pair of shorts made of golden feathers, and lined with jewels of various colours. It was lined and frilled with gold, and it hung so lowly on her chest that her cleavage was fully on show, and I heard Salix mutter something along the lines of 'they look like they're about to pop out'. Gold was in nothing but a waist tied piece of rich purple material with golden lining, which gave only just enough modesty to hide certain things. Both had small headdresses of golden feathers and jewels.

District 2 weren't far behind them, One Eye and Grizzly Face rolling out, looking completely contrasting to each other personality wise. Grizzly was waving and flexing his muscles, whilst One Eye just stood there, arms behind her back and just giving a steely glare to the people around her with her one working, uncovered eye. Both were dressed in what appeared to be some form of armour, a chest piece with what I think were lions on the chest and shoulders, leather skirts, and other such things.

District 3 weren't spared much modesty either, but they were more fortunate than District Twelve. Their hair was slicked back, the girl's in a ponytail, with some sort of product so that it shone and was probably rock hard. Their skin was painted silver, with green and blue lines that looked like something high-tech all over the painted areas. Their outfits were skin tight silver suits with the same patterns, and their boots were heavy metal from what I could see. I guessed they were meant to be some sort of robot.

District 4 was getting wolf whistles, the girl having her long ginger curls falling down her back, but with nothing over her chest, leaving her rather large breasts to fall into the open air, with just slight patterns of scales around and under them, which lead down her sides into a tail of some sort that was made out of blue and pink pearls, which flicked up behind her. She looked like a mermaid, something I had seen in old children's books we found in bins of peacekeeper families. The boy was dressed similarly, and both had pearls and other sea related treasures threaded into their hair.

District 5 I couldn't quite distinguish over flashing lights, which suddenly cut out at one point, not working to their advantage at all. But District 6 stood out.

"This year is a really bad year for some people…" I muttered, and Salix nodded a little in agreement. District 6 were both dressed in something that looked like the material tyres are made of, wrapped in it, with tyres around their head. It wasn't the worst outfit today, but it was laugh worthy to the Capitol people, which didn't put the Albino girl and her district partner in good favour.

District 7 were, of course, trees once again. As they had been for as long as I can remember, and probably longer. District 8 were dressed only in a long multicoloured scarf each, which wrapped around their bodies to cover any indecent areas. District 9 appeared to be made as Scarecrows, something we used a lot back in District 11 as well, to keep animals and birds away from crops. District 10 passed in front of us in their animal suits, and it was only then I was truly aware we were now in the public eye.

"Smile, wave, act cutesy," Salix said quickly, beginning to wave both arms at the crowd, which showed off his muscle and his 'love' for the Capitol people at the same time. I took a moment to let it all sink in, and then began to wave with an overly happy smile on my face, making childish and playful gestures that got some attention. However, I think the thing that got us the most attention was when Salix suddenly lifted me up and put me on his shoulder, making me squeal lightly from shock, not expecting it. The antics pleased the audience, however, and we got more cheers as we passed through, hearing the people behind us gradually turn to laughs at the unfortunate District Twelve.

Salix had to let me down as we reached the point where we stopped in front of the President, who would speak soon. Coriolanus Snow, the currently ruling dictator of Panem, a man with altered lips, paper skin, white hair, and white roses in his lapel. He scared me, and I clutched my brother's side to show as such. He wrapped the arm around me, kissing my hair, which made me relax a little, zoning out of his speech until we were taken out of sight of the Capitol Public, taken somewhere where everyone filed out of their Chariots, and were greeted by mentors and escorts.

"I think you got decent attention there. Nothing huge, but definitely a lot more than normal," Seeder said, smiling softly at us both, though she was clearly trying to look serious. I smiled lightly, looking around the other tributes.

The Careers had already bundled themselves up together, and Muscle Pants was flirting very obviously with Fish Face, which judging by her responses and by the fact they left together, I have a feeling that the boy was a worthy person to her. Her district partner didn't look too happy, but he only appeared to grunt and shrug, continuing to talk to the other careers. I get the feeling that that boy is going to be womanising a lot within the games, mainly with the careers. Shimmer gave him a dirty look, but she also smirked, so whilst I guessed she wouldn't be reeled in by his tricks, I realised she would likely try to use the fact he wanted women's attention to her advantage when the Career alliance broke.

Something that surprised me was that District Six's girl was looking at me, but looked away with a red face when she saw I'd seen her. 'Shy, I guess', I thought to myself, shrugging a little. But why was she even looking at me? I remembered that she was one of the other young tributes, was she interested in alliances already? I guess helping out the other young kids wouldn't be too bad… give them a chance. But would Salix accept that?

~X~X~X~

Are my chapters too long? I'm used to putting a lot in chapters, and I guess it sort of shows… but it's so I can get in detail, plus I'm not used to POV writing as I've said. I'm now working to a plan with this; the whole of the games is planned out day by day, death by death, injury by injury. I may change and add things, but it's a plan that I want to stick to at least the basics on, and I did go through a phase of drawing pictures of too on my DA – they're all still there, my DA name is the same as my FF name. I explained a lot on there and the pictures show off a lot of future events though.

R&R!