I'm not interested in being easy on the eyes. I want them to flinch, think twice before they reach out their callous hands to bruise. I want to be a constant reminder to men that not everything is theirs for the taking.
Cassia woke up late the next morning to Rena pounding on the door for a solid five minutes straight. The woman then shouted something from the other side of the door in an agitated sweet voice before leaving. Cassia had skipped dinner the night before and remained in her room. She decided to peel off her mother's dress, neatly folding it on the dresser along with her shoes.
The shower was odd and extremely complicated. There was an unlimited amount of hot water and soaps and shampoos and oils that all smelled flowery and vanilla. She dried herself off with a towel and in the drawers, found a pair of dark pants and a loose shirt made of a soft material. Her hair dripped down her back but she didn't care as she walked down the hallway to hear a discussion being taken place over the sounds of silverware scraping against dishes.
Everyone looked over at her as she pulled out a chair and sat down across from Lark. Rena was there with a silver smile and ruby red eyelids. "I'm glad you could join us, dear," she chirped, her voice filled with a small relief.
Cassia said nothing to her as she felt her stomach aching to be filled. She didn't know where to start, so she started with what she knew looked familiar. She took a few pieces of fruit and chewed on that for a few minutes. A servant came over to her when her plate was empty and replaced it with a plate filled with steaming meat and scrambled eggs. While she ate, the conversation had picked up again.
"If you want to die, then sure, go right for the Cornucopia," Gia shrugged while sipping a dark liquid that steamed into the air. It smelled familiar, but she stuck with the water that was given to her.
"But that's where everything would be to survive. If I just run away without any weapons, how am I supposed to defend myself?" Lark retorted with a mouthful of food.
Cassia couldn't help that Finnick had been eerily quiet ever since she had arrived. His vibrant eyes that resembled a cat's flickered up to hers and she felt a shudder go down her spine. The interaction was odd, but she wanted to know what he was thinking. Because so far, he was proving to not be the most vocal of mentors. And perhaps he knew that, because he then asked her, "what do you think, Cassia? The Cornucopia or the wilderness?"
She stared at him, thinking over his words. "If you're lucky enough to be near something, I say grab it. But if you're smart enough, you'll stick around just long enough to know why it's called the Bloodbath."
Finnick nodded in approval and ate another piece of cubed fruit from his plate.
Gia's lips twitched. "We'll be arriving in the Capitol soon. You will be meeting your stylists and prep teams. They will be the ones getting you ready for the Opening Ceremony tonight."
Cassia had forgotten about that. She loathed the fact that she would be dressed up in a fish costume and paraded throughout the Capitol.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, Finnick and Gia going back and forth a bit over seeing their old friends again. As Cassia was downing her second mug of hot chocolate, Lark gasped.
"There it is!" He rushed from his seat and to the window, pressing his hands against the glass.
Cassia turned to look over her shoulder. Outside the window, large concrete buildings were seen in the distance, so tall that they touched the clouds. And then they were pulling into the train station and hooting and cheering could be heard from outside. Standing up, Cassia saw the strangest looking figures waving and smiling at her as if she were a hero of some sort. They were dressed in bright clothes and the makeup on their faces hid how they truly looked underneath. She wondered if they were born with gemstones embedded into their skin.
Lark waved back but Cassia only stared at them. They were only happy to see them murder people in a few days time. The only reason they smiled and cheered was because they were the prized pigs being fed and pampered until they got hungry and swung the axe down over their necks. Disgusted, she turned around, but was caught off guard as she found Finnick's gaze.
His eyes said everything that words couldn't.
Slowly, he smirked and said, "smile, darling." And so she did.
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The Remake Center was uncomfortable, to say the least.
Cassia met her prep team, who were to prepare her like a chef preparing a dinner. There was nothing glamorous about yanking leg hair or being scrubbed down three times to get the dirt out of her pores. She was lathered and slathered with lightly scented oils and creams that made her skin glow with hydration. She felt like a raw piece of meat.
By the time she met with her stylist, she was exhausted just from sitting there and trying to hold out the pain of getting her eyebrows waxed. The only people who cared about vanity were the people of the Capitol. No one else was caring about how they looked when they were starving, plus eventually, her leg hair would grow back—unless she was dead, which was a possibility.
Her stylist was named Opal. She wore a deep red sweater and tight black pants. She wore no makeup, but she didn't need it. Her skin was flawless and her features accentuated what people thought makeup could do. Cassia wasn't sure if they were altered to look that way or if the woman was just that pretty. Her dark black hair with streaks of grey in it showed her age. She smiled at Cassia.
"You're my first tribute. I, and your prep team, are new just like you. Your District is fishing," Cassia nodded, "and I want to show off the beauty that makes it so important."
Cassia stared at her. "So I'm going to be a fish."
"No." Opal's brown eyes twinkled with excitement. "I'm going to make you the sea."
Cassia found herself sitting in a chair while Opal did her makeup. She spent a long time on her skin; running a brush over it and blending it out and putting all sorts of products on it. She wasn't allowed to see until the end.
When her makeup was finished, Opal moved onto her hair. Her long dark hair was trimmed and tousled back in a low bun. Once her hair was perfected, she had to get dressed.
Her prep team had already seen her naked so she didn't care when Opal saw her body either. She was helped into the dress that oddly fit her nicely, put on a pair of heels that curled around her ankles in white tubular material, and turned to look at herself in the mirror.
There was no dramatic eyeshadow on her face, just the smooth contours of her face heightened and highlighted to a radiance of the sun. Her lashes were long and soft, but not noticeably any different than usual, and her lips were glossed with a clear light shimmer. Her dark hair loosely framed her face but for the most part was drawn back in the bun. The main event was her dress, however. Curling around the top of her body in a freeform vest were white sheen tentacles that showed a lot of skin but modestly enough so she wasn't too uneasy. The winding arms twisted over the base of her neck and disappeared to the back. Her arms were covered in a puffy shiny blue material that cinched at her wrists. The same material was used for the rest of her dress, molding together with the white tentacles until it hit her waist and flared out in what looked like water. A golden shine flickered beneath the glazed waves and from there her legs were just barely seen. She looked more beautiful than she had ever been in her entire life, she looked powerful, high and strong.
She looked like a goddess of the sea.
A/N: sorry for the delayed update! school just started so i've been really busy with things i hope you guys understand! also, thank you so much for your support on this story i can't believe you guys aren't sick of me yet hahaha.
if you've started school yet, how is it going for you? do you like your classes?
and for anyone who isn't in school or anyone in general, what do you want to see happen in this story? even tho i might not always comply with your wishes lol.
here's my inspiration for cassia's dress:
thank you for reading! if you're bored and have nothing else to do, go check out my other stories! i swear i don't just always write about finnick hahaha. xx