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tenminutesadayTitle: The Girl in Gold
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Characters: OC - Penelope Fuller; OC - Mrs. Fuller; OC - Paisley Webster; Canon - Cesar Flickerman
Warnings: Implication of canon-typical violence
Word Count: 333
Prompt:tenminutesaday Challenge 434: "Write a scene where one person is watching another person and making comments about what they're seeing. The target person cannot hear the comments being made." & fandomocweekly "Unspoken"
Summary: Penelope watches Paisley's pre-Games interview with Cesar Flickerman
Notes: I stayed home sick today and spent my day rotting in bed and reading Hunger Games fanfic TV Tropes pages…
Notes 2: I took the idea of Clear (the wealthy(ier) section of the city, like how 12 has a merchant neighborhood) from Quell, a 2014 fanfic about the 25th Hunger Games
Notes: I'm not a visual person so I did some searching and I picture Paisley's gown looking something like this but a more garish gold-gold color
“She looks like a stranger.” I speak this into the silence of our apartment.
On screen, Paisley is walking across the stage to join Cesar Flickerman for her interview. She’s dressed in a ball gown made of miles of brocade and embroidered with thousands of golden beads. The fabric alone must cost more than anyone I’ve ever met makes in an entire year.
My mother sent the twins to bed early before we sat down to watch the tribute interviews. This might be the last time I ever see Paisley alive and she looks like someone I’ve never seen.
Ma sits beside me, her arm wrapped around me. I know she’s thinking that it could have been me up there in a golden ball gown. She doesn’t say anything but I rest my head on her shoulder.
“What have they done to her hair?” murmurs Ma.
Most of us in 8 keep our hair short. Long hair is too risky in the mills. It’s a luxury reserved for the handful of merchants and Capitol dealers who live in the Clear… and our Victors, whose lives are subsidized by Capitol largesse. But Paisley’s familiar ash blonde pixie cut has been replaced with flowing golden locks the same color as her dress.
“It looks terrible,” I say. Because it does. It’s dazzling. Maybe it would be beautiful on a Capitol heiress but not on Paisley.
“They took away Paisley and replaced her with an entirely different person.”
What I don’t say is that maybe it will be easier this way.
“They’ll remember her, though,” says Ma. “The girl in gold.”
Paisley is smiling at Caesar and he’s acting like he believes that she feels beautiful, this girl in gold, but I see the way she keeps fidgeting with a stray lock of hair, twisting it between her fingers. I catch a glimpse of her token, a red embroidered bracelet we made for each other at New Year’s: a promise to survive our last Reaping year.
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Characters: OC - Penelope Fuller; OC - Mrs. Fuller; OC - Paisley Webster; Canon - Cesar Flickerman
Warnings: Implication of canon-typical violence
Word Count: 333
Prompt:
tenminutesaday Challenge 434: "Write a scene where one person is watching another person and making comments about what they're seeing. The target person cannot hear the comments being made." & fandomocweekly "Unspoken"Summary: Penelope watches Paisley's pre-Games interview with Cesar Flickerman
Notes: I stayed home sick today and spent my day rotting in bed and reading Hunger Games fanfic TV Tropes pages…
Notes 2: I took the idea of Clear (the wealthy(ier) section of the city, like how 12 has a merchant neighborhood) from Quell, a 2014 fanfic about the 25th Hunger Games
Notes: I'm not a visual person so I did some searching and I picture Paisley's gown looking something like this but a more garish gold-gold color
“She looks like a stranger.” I speak this into the silence of our apartment.
On screen, Paisley is walking across the stage to join Cesar Flickerman for her interview. She’s dressed in a ball gown made of miles of brocade and embroidered with thousands of golden beads. The fabric alone must cost more than anyone I’ve ever met makes in an entire year.
My mother sent the twins to bed early before we sat down to watch the tribute interviews. This might be the last time I ever see Paisley alive and she looks like someone I’ve never seen.
Ma sits beside me, her arm wrapped around me. I know she’s thinking that it could have been me up there in a golden ball gown. She doesn’t say anything but I rest my head on her shoulder.
“What have they done to her hair?” murmurs Ma.
Most of us in 8 keep our hair short. Long hair is too risky in the mills. It’s a luxury reserved for the handful of merchants and Capitol dealers who live in the Clear… and our Victors, whose lives are subsidized by Capitol largesse. But Paisley’s familiar ash blonde pixie cut has been replaced with flowing golden locks the same color as her dress.
“It looks terrible,” I say. Because it does. It’s dazzling. Maybe it would be beautiful on a Capitol heiress but not on Paisley.
“They took away Paisley and replaced her with an entirely different person.”
What I don’t say is that maybe it will be easier this way.
“They’ll remember her, though,” says Ma. “The girl in gold.”
Paisley is smiling at Caesar and he’s acting like he believes that she feels beautiful, this girl in gold, but I see the way she keeps fidgeting with a stray lock of hair, twisting it between her fingers. I catch a glimpse of her token, a red embroidered bracelet we made for each other at New Year’s: a promise to survive our last Reaping year.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-23 02:23 pm (UTC)And this is great! I barely know The Hunger Games beyond
the basic idea, but I really like your descriptions. Especially the part about Paisley and having long hair