ACT I, CHAPTER SIX ❛winged god of travel and thieves ❜ content: general angst.
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Sleep evades Madaket until the early hours of the morning. A heavy pressure aches in her temples when she awakes to the sound of knocking at her door. Her sight is blurry for a moment as she tries to remember where she is, why everything about the room around her is unfamiliar. Then Luxa Partridge's cheery voice reaches through the metal door, and everything clicks back into place.
"Breakfast is ready. We'll be in the Capitol shortly!" Luxa says. Suddenly, Madaket is back on the train.
Her consciousness feels numb. It's as if somebody has wrapped her brain in cheesecloth, making her nerve endings soft and her senses untrained. She forces herself to stand to her feet, tossing off her blankets from her form. There's a crook in her neck that tingles when she tilts her head to the side. She stiffens her back, popping her spine, before selecting an outfit for the day. She subconsciously grabs for the most practical articles: a pair of calf-length green pants, a sports bra, and a black shirt. She keeps her hair as it is the day prior, messily-braided and loose. While she brushes her teeth, she examines her own facial expression. Nervousness crinkles the skin around her eyes, furrows her brows, and makes her lips slope downward. She tries to smile, and a dribble of minty froth falls out of her lips and into the sink basin. She spits out the toothpaste and exits the room.
The dining table is already spread with an array of breakfast items when she enters the dining car. Everybody hounds away at hotcakes, bacon, hashbrowns, and toasted bread slathered with marmalade. Madaket's stomach growls as she sits down at the head of the table, already scooping eggs and hashbrowns onto her plate. An Avox fills her glass with some red juice that tastes sweet enough to make her lips purse. The room is mostly filled with silence, save for the occasional scraping of a fork on ceramic plate. Madaket finishes hurriedly.
"Oh," Luxa gushes from one side of the table, blotting her painted lips with a napkin, "I am so excited for the Tribute Parade tonight. The Capitol is positively gushing about predictions."
Madaket stifles the urge to choke on her drink of juice. The Tribute Parade will be one of the more terrifying things that she'll have to go through. She knows from watching past Hunger Games that the Capitol takes the tributes into a Remake Center and renders them completely hairless, sculpting their body with airbrush tools and perfecting their makeup. Then, they're put into costumes to represent their districts and paraded around like show ponies until the Capitol people grow bored of them.
Being from District 6, the district that provides transportation to Panem, the costumes are never that impressive. Last year, the tributes were dressed like flight attendants, and they were at the bottom of the sponsor list by the end of the week. Madaket hates crowds, and she hates being looked at. This would be a disaster of a day.
