Shark (lastyearsboy) wrote in colosseum, @ 2013-11-22 17:23:00 |
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In all his life, Schuyler had never seen a place so grey as District 12. Nor had he ever felt this cold, not even when he climbed out of the water during the chilliest District 4 winter. This was the kind of cold that chewed right through you, that cut you to the bone and left you feeling like you'd never feel warm ever again. Schuyler had not been prepared for it, and the color - what little color he had these days - faded out of his face right away, leaving him as bone-white as the snow that covered the ground. "People actually live here?" he asked no one in particular, and one of the stylists that crowded around like buzzards gave a giggle in response. By the time he got to the stage to give his little speech, his teeth were chattering and he couldn't feel his toes. His hands shook so much that he dropped the cards that all the words he should say were written on, and he looked every bit as lost as he felt, standing there in front of the microphone with nothing to say. "It's so cold out here," he said, and the dirty, coal-covered people of District 12 seemed to give a collective chuckle. "How do you guys stay warm?" he asked, rhetorically, and it seemed to ingratiate him to them. Made him real. Not an automaton, the way his carefully-written speech would have. As soon as he was ushered off the stage, he was given a thick fur coat and a big mug of something sweet and steaming. He tried not to think about the people in their thin jackets and shoes full of holes that'd been in the audience. Anyway, he had to hurry - no time to think any longer about 12, when he was on his way already to 11. |