FAILURE TO COMPLY ┃ f. odair

2.16 the death of him

Calypso could not sleep. She hadn't had a good night's rest in weeks following the annual horrors of the games. This night was supposed to be different, wrapped up in the warmth of Finnick's embrace. Even being in the Capitol, they'd mostly been kept separate from the mentoring and prostituting. The one time they were able to get together, she simply couldn't shut of her mind.

With Finnick's snores rumbling in her ear, Calypso watched the TV across the room. Even with the volume turned all the way down, she could practically hear the cries and screams of tributes as they showed highlights of the 74th Hunger Games. She'd mentored a girl called Foxface, living up to her name with her cunning nature. For a short sweet moment, she'd had a real hope of Five gaining another victor, only for the girl to be taken out by innocent looking berries. Berries that, in someone else's hands, became an object of defiance.

Calypso Silva didn't not like Katniss Everdeen. In fact, she saw a lot of herself in her. While their backgrounds were wholly different, they shared a defiant attitude that made them real thorns in the side for the Capitol. Katniss had taken it to the extreme, somehow getting both her and her alleged love out of the arena, yet Calypso knew what it would entail in the future. The Girl on Fire's flames would surely be dowsed by Snow.

Unable to continue watching the game highlights, Calypso turned of the screen and left the comfort of the bed, causing Finnick to grunt at the sudden absence. He gripped at the sheets, pulling them towards his body as if he needed something to hug in order to rest comfortably. It was cute sometimes, but not on the nights that he would grip her far too hard in the midst of his nightmares. He was always profusely apologetic for it in the mornings.

The apartment was always quiet, even during the day. Cinna was a busy man nowadays, and considering all the goings on during the game season, he'd just about gotten away with letting the couple use his apartment while he prepared to go on a Victory Tour with his latest and greatest muse. Even in the late hour, the man was still packing up some of the especially made outfits for Katniss. His own supplies were reduced to a single small suitcase, while hers took up five or six boxes.

"Are you sure you have enough?" she asked him sarcastically, making her presence known in the dim light. Calypso's eyes passed over some of the laid out drawings atop the boxes, giving glimpses at what was inside. "They're all really pretty. Not sure the higher ups would appreciate this one though."

Picking up a thin folder with a fairly new and unfinished design - mostly just scribbled notes and a single crude sketch - she compared it to the other clothes he'd prepared. This one was far too different, far too much militant, almost like armour. The modelling figure held a bow in her hands, and had dark braided hair: Katniss, not as a dolled-up Capitol puppet, but as a battle-hardened warrior. It took Calypso a moment to clock on to what he was planning, but when she did, her mouth hung open.

"That one's not finished yet," Cinna remarked quietly. He made no move to take it away from her, and even raised an eyebrow curiously. "Do you like it?"

"It's..." she started, trying to find the right words. One glance at him, and a thousand words were exchanged between them. "It's something. Though I'd probably have some notes."

"By all means," he chuckled, motioning to the paper. "See what you can add, fellow artist. It's a bad time now, but when I'm back, I'll explain my vision fully. We'll see what we can come up with together."

Their words were so cryptic, and yet the message was received loud and clear. Something was brewing, Cinna was a part of it, and he wanted Calypso in on it too. With a sure not, she all but confirmed she was ready and willing. She a took a seat on his sofa and picked up a pencil.

"I won't do too much in your absence," she told him. "But I'll think on it, see what I can come up with. I hope your Girl on Fire will be please to see it."

"Heh..." he hummed amusedly, shaking his head. That told her Katniss was not yet aware, and he clearly doubted her want for such a thing. At the end of the day, she was just a girl trying to survive. But that's exactly what Calypso was too. "We'll see."

She watched him leave the room, carrying a stack of three boxes with him out the open door. Calypso watched her friend go, wandering how he'd managed to get himself involved in such an outrageous plan so fast. Cinna was a man with great hopes and ambitions, and yet none of them were self-serving. He inspired her, in a way, to be better and bigger than herself. Her suffering was not where suffering itself ended. But this... perhaps this was a chance to beat the problem entirely. At the very least, deal a real retaliating blow to the Capitol for all they'd done.

Looking back down at the design sketch, she opted to start a new, smaller one and not touch what Cinna was already working on. Instead, she focused on the finer details that would refine such an outfit for war. It came to her as easy as breathing, as easy as numbing herself did nowadays. But she did not feel numb now.

Now, Calypso Silva was hungry once more, and she had the taste of bloody revolution on her tongue. 

-

a/n: i can't wait for her to go absolutely feral again but in a (semi) healthy and productive way this time. hope you enjoyed part 2 of calypso's story. very excited to move onto catching fire now