District eleven's Aerin Sevani's POV
"Ok, now, lift up your arms." The green skinned male of my prep team instructed me. I lifted my arms up a bit so that he could do whatever him and the rest of my prep team wanted to do to me. "Lift them higher." He instructed me again. I lifted them up to my shoulders this time. "Higher." He sighed like I didn't understand him. How high did he want it? You know what, I'll just go all out and see how much is too much. I lifted my arms up until my hands were high above my head. "Perfect." He said. If this was the case, why didn't he just say raise your hands above your head? Ah well. Nothing I could do about it.
"So what do you plan to do with me?" I asked as my prep team was examining me from head to toe.
"We're checking to see if there are anymore imperfections before we hand you to your stylist." A silver haired women that looked around my older brother's age. She was by far, the youngest of the group, everyone else looked around thirty, which was the oldest the people in the capital tried to look it seemed, I hadn't seen anyone look older then that in the Capital.
"Well, I do want to look my best for the Capital." I told them with a smile.
"Of course you do." She said before her and the other nodded with satisfaction. "You know, I think now's the time you meet your stylist Melissa."
"What's she like?" I asked lowering my arms to my sides. I wanted to know what she was like, I didn't think she was going to be bad, but, who knows, maybe she'd be a crazy person. But I doubt it. But this was someone who only graduated from district twelve, so who knows what she's thinking.
"Oh she wonderful." The green skinned male told me smiling. "A little strange, but, she's wonderful."
"Strange?" I asked "strange how?" My prep team just smiled reassuring smiles to me and just said
"You'll see." I then looked at myself in the mirror and thought of how good of a job they did on me. I almost didn't recognize myself. My skin looked cleaner then it ever did in my life as far as I could remember, my hair was styled neatly, they even covered up the scar above my left eye.
"Well," I said turning towards my prep team "thanks for cleaning me up."
"Our pleasure." The women with thick red tattoos all over her body answered cheerfully. "Well, we better get Melissa here so you two can finally meet." As they left, I thought of how grateful I felt because they left me in my boxer shorts. I heard from my mentor, Rune Shaith, that his prep team left him naked for what felt like hours on end. I made a joke to him about that, but he didn't find it as funny as my district partner Angel, or our escort, Veronica, did. Guess he had bad memories of it. My prep team was nice, but what was this stylist of theirs like? They said she was strange, strange how?
"Hello there!" I heard a female's voice shout. I turned around to see a young women with turquoise hair and green, vine like tattoos on her face. I looked lower to see that she was holding a bottle of wine in her right hand. Oh, this is what they mean by strange. Not as bad as I thought. "You must be Aerin!" She shouted happily walking up to me.
"Yes," I told her with a smile "yes I am."
"Hello Aerin, I'm Melissa, your stylist for the games, how are you this fine day?"
"Great," I told her "everyone's been really nice to me here." Which was true. Veronica had been nice to Angel and I during the reaping and the train ride. When we got to the capital everyone cheered for us and wanted to meet us. And then there was the prep team, who weren't as scary as I first thought they'd be.
"Great to hear." Melissa said taking a swig of her wine before talking to me again. "Ok, so my partner and I have an idea for you and your tribute partner Angel, want to guess what it is?"
"Yeah, sure." I smiled. I wonder what they had in mind for us. Ok, we're from district eleven, so it has to be something farm related or something along those lines. "We're farmers." I guessed
"Not even close." Melissa told me. What!? Ok.
"We're farming tools." I guessed again. If we weren't farmers, we'd be the tools we use in the fields.
"Closer, but still far." Oh, this was going to be good.
"Some sort of plant?" I guessed. We farmed plants, so, this had to be it.
"In a way." Melissa said before taking another drink of wine. "Ok, Aerin, me and my partner decided to cover you and your partner in vines." Oh I see, farming, plants, vines, it could work.
"Sounds like fun." I told her. I wondered what I'd look like covered in vines.
"Ok," Melissa said "take off those shorts." That took my by surprise, and I couldn't help but shout
"What!?"
"We're covering your whole body in vines so we need you to take off those shorts of yours." Was it really necessary? I wondered. "If your worried about it don't be," Melissa said in a way that indicated that she might be trying to calm me down "Angel's going to be doing the same thing, and don't worry, just be calm." I don't know, this might be a little too strange for me. But, they were helping me get noticed by the Capital and hopefully that would get me sponsors. So I'll continue to do what Rune told me to do, don't fight and do what they say.
District four's Shoney Germoal's POV
Well, this wasn't the best thing they could have came up with, but it wasn't the worst either. When me and my district partner, Eva came from our stylists, I saw that we were both dressed up as navy soldiers. Both of us had white button up shirts, white dress pants with black dress shoes and a black belt with a golden buckle on it. And last but not least, those white hats with the district four crest above the brim. We were also given one rifle each. We were a complete set of navel soldiers. I smiled at the rifle in my hands. I looked almost real. I looked at Evaline and saw that she was smiling happily at the uniform she wore. She was checking it out by holding the fabric and looking at it from all angles. Was she really so happy to be dressed up as a sailor? It was her opinion I guess.
"Hey there fellow careers." A young girl's voice called out to my left. I looked over to see the twelve year old girl from district two. Howl Draconix standing merely four feet away from where I stood. She looked even smaller in person then she did on T.V. I wasn't that big for my age, but her in the arena, she could easily be trampled to death during the bloodbath if she wasn't careful. She was dressed up in a shiny, silver dress with it split down her left leg. And attached to that, she had wings on her back. It suited her, she almost looked like a fairy. And beside her was her district partner, Lucifer Despar. He wasn't that much taller then me, but he looked stronger. I looked at his face and noticed that all his facial features looked small as well. His lips, eyes, and even his nose were all kind of small. He wore a simple knight outfit, if it could be called that. It was mostly a sword and shield with steel chest armor.
"Hay, non-volunteer career, get over here!" A strong like voice shouted. I looked over the district two tributes and saw the district one tributes. Behind Lucifer was Griffin. Taller then the rest of us with short black hair and bigger muscles then Lucifer. He wore a jewel encrusted suit, just like the one he wore during the reapings, except this time, his pants were also covered in jewels. And beside him was Lynsa. She was also small and thin, but not as small or thin as Howl. Her chariot outfit made her look like a powerful female warrior. She had golden armor and everything. Different from Griffin. I looked over to curly red haired Eva who was walking kind of shyly towards us. It wasn't too obvious, I just saw little signs in her movements.
"So, here we all are." Lucifer said looking at each of us careers when we were all standing together.
"Yes," Eva said both happily and unhappy "here we all are, nice to meet you all." I saw the tributes from one and two look at her and start to examine her. They looked up and down at her, what were they looking at her for?
"You seem ok," Lucifer said smiling "for someone that was reaped."
"I may have been reaped," Eva told him with a little anger in her voice "but I'm just as good as the rest of you, so watch it." Lucifer then put up his hands in mock apology and made an "Ohhh, I'm so scared" expression on his face.
"Nice gun you got there." The little girl from two commented looking at the rifle I was holding "can I hold it for a moment?" I shrugged and handed it to her. She examined the rifle for a moment before pointing it towards Eva. What the-!? Then I heard the gun click empty. "Darn, its empty." She laughed before tossing it back to me. I caught it in mid air.
"Not funny." Evaline seemingly snarled at her.
"Good one." Lucifer laughed. Laugh as he would, I saw something in that little girl's eyes, I couldn't put a word on it. Aggression? No, that was too violent of a word. It was smaller, but similar. Maybe superiority over my district partner? I hated people like that.
"All tributes to your horses!" A voice called out.
"Well, we better get back to our places." Lucifer said walking away with Howl. "See ya later reaped career girl."
"Ignore them Evaline." I heard Lynsa say before she also left with Griffin. Was I going to be all right with people like this around me?
District eight's December Juliet "Ember" Varen's POV
It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. I thought I'd never see him again, and yet, there was was. I wanted to call out to him, to let him know that I was right here in front of him. But it couldn't be him, it just couldn't, how could it be him? I was imagining things. Things like this didn't happen.
"Ready to go?" My stylist, Maria Velnore, asked me. I tore my eyes away from him before looking at Maria and telling her that I was ready. I got help from Maria getting loaded onto the horse drawn chariot and stood beside my district partner, Dav Anders. He didn't help me up the chariot, in fact, he didn't even look at me as I got on. Maria was the one to help me up the whole way. Why did this guy have to act so superior? Its not like he was better then the rest of us. I just got into position when I noticed the first chariot moving.
"Ok," Lola, one of the members of my prep team announced "off goes district one." I looked at the chariots in front of me and noticed that they had drivers, just the horses. How did they manage to go the route from here to the president's mansion? Did they do it so many times that they remembered it? Were they trained to do it? I looked forward and examined the other tributes costumes. District one's always made a show, they were usually the Capital's favorite. This year, the boy was covered head to toe in jewels while the girl looked like a powerful warrior. Then came district two, the little fairy girl and the the knight. Then went out district three, circuit boards. The giant in the chariot didn't look too happy, in fact, nobody on that chariot looked happy. And with five peacekeepers on the chariot along with the two tributes, there wasn't much room for them, the giant, or the little girl on it. District four came after them. They were sailors with rifles. District five then came out as light bulbs. The male tribute also didn't look too happy. He waved, but only just. He looked angry, just like the district three male. Six came out, and they were dressed up as trains. Then came seven, they were dressed up as lumberjacks. Then came me and Dav. I was dressed up with a knee length dark blue dress with glowing white strips and dark blue shoes. Dav had a dark blue dress shirt with glowing white strips with green pants and dark blue shoes. What I had that he didn't have was ribbons that wove down my curly dark hair. I waved to the capital citizens, like they told me to do, as they cheered at us. But why did we have to do this? Why did we have to dress up in costumes for them? It didn't make any sense. I took a look behind me and saw that district nine was dressed up as wheat grains. District ten was dressed up as differently, the little boy was a satyr while the older girl was a peacock. I got the peacock, but why the satyr? Then came district eleven. Their bodies were entangled with vines, and only vines. And last but not least came district twelve. The tributes were dressed up as coal miners. But even with all those people out there, I just couldn't help but look again. I looked back and saw him again. He'd be almost fifty now, but he it seemed he hadn't aged in the years he was gone. I thought I'd never see him again. But I didn't want to see him, not like this, not as a tribute for the games. Why did fate have to be so mean to me? The man turned around and looked at me, just as he did when he was escorting the giant from district three past me. And just as I knew it was him, he knew it was me. I felt like crying now, why did it have to be this way? Did my ancestors want to punish him more? Or did they want to punish me for something? Or both?
"Why did it have to be this way?" I whispered to not only myself, but to him, even though he couldn't hear me. "Why did I have to meet you like this, dad?"
A/N: All right, pictures are up. You know, it took me longer to get those pictures then it did for me to write this. Surprisingly, this chapter just came to me. Oh yes, and the pictures aren't perfect, but I tried to get them as close as possible to what your tributes should look like. So, which picture's your favorite?
Ok, up next, training room, my favorite part besides the games. Ok, I'm going to try and make the training room chapters a little longer then the train rides and such. But I do know that the chapters will be longer once the games start (hopefully).
To window16: I feel as if I didn't get Shoney's personality that well, but, it was kind of hard for me to do in that situation, I'll try and do better next time.