Glimmer | I'm just a broken doll (glimmerofone) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2019-07-24 13:08:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !narrative, [portal] panem, ~2019 july, ~25 points, ~~glimmer (glimmerofone) |
Who: Glimmer
What: Trip through the portal, harassing of President Snow
When: Afternoon
Warnings: Language, violence, references to the Games
Status: Narrative, complete
Word Count: 2,160
Notes: the speech she uses is Socrates‘ Apology according to Plato
Cut Text: "Not Ready to Make Nice" - Dixie Chicks
Glimmer was still seeing things. The air was oft shiny and glowed in strange places. Things jumped out at her from shadows. She hated this fact but there was little to do but focus on one foot before the other. Real or not real? She asked herself that question every step. She had heard that Peeta had done it after his torture with the venom. She was sure he suffered worse, but she found the mantra was enough to keep her moving. She just never asked it out loud. That would be embarrassing and she did not do such things. She had spent the morning gathering what she would need for this trip.
She wasn't doing it for Katniss. Though it would benefit her too, but she'd come to realize, during the games that it was all a version of hell that they were forced into. That the Capital didn't give a shit about them. Their districts didn't either - unless they won. And winning was hard. Next to impossible. Even despite being trained from the moment she could walk and showed an aptitude towards violence, they didn't care. They threw their lives away for a moment of glory. And those who won? Did not have a good life.
Glimmer couldn't remember her family - did she even have one anymore? Were there anyone from her home left? Did upon her death they get shunned? The thought irked her to no end because she couldn't get an answer. She leaned in front of the mirror in her room, carefully applying her makeup. Sharp lines, dark eyes, dark red lips, pale skin. Fingers paused before she selected a pot of glitter she'd located in a store called Sephora. It suited her tastes. She wanted to embody her name. A careful dusting of the gold glitter makes her skin glimmer and shine, she tilted her head in the light to make sure there was just enough shimmer. Then she took a pot of red glitter and raked her hands through her hair with it, spreading it out in her platinum blonde locks. Then she carefully, and artfully, braided her hair up. She wanted to come off strong and beautiful. With a hint of fire in her hair, provided by the red powder. She sprayed a layer of hairspray overtop to ensure nothing fell.
Only then did she stand up and head into her closet. She hadn't had time to fully go shopping yet, she was barely free to be on her own, but she'd found a nice dress that would fit in well enough with some ankle boots. One last quick look in the mirror before she looked out of her room's door. She had no desire to explain what she was doing, so she artfully avoided running into her guardian. She'd tucked a thin knife up her sleeve, securing it with a hair tie snapped over place. She'd get everything else she wanted when she stepped into the Capital. After all, she was resourceful.
A quick trip to the park led her to the portal, where she wasn't sure where Katniss was, but she was sure she was around, and she waved lazily, before stepping across the threshold into the city, into the Capital. The sights and sounds and smells hit her like a ton of bricks. It sent her already sketchy grip on reality into a tailspin and she ducked into the first alleyway she could find. She leaned on the wall, and took a long, deep breath. She found a focus and started back through the city, she moved easily, she'd never been here, but she didn't need to be. Everyone knew where the President was, especially now with the Quarter Quell.
Glimmer ducked into various shops after bumping into a couple of people and loosening their purses, as it were, and bought a few items she preferred. A new outfit that was more suited to the Capital and her name, she slipped a sparkling diamond off another woman's arm, and flirted her way into another shop. She emerged dressed, bedecked in sparkling gems and glitter. She fit in and no one gave her a second glance, which is exactly how she wanted it. She slipped through the city, flirting as necessary, smiling arrogantly, and with every step growing more sure of herself.
The diamonds around her wrist glittered in the sun as she flicked her hand towards someone. She found a Peacekeeper by an alley door of the presidential palace, he was young, and well trained, probably District 2 byt the looks of things. It would be hard to get past him but she thought she had a chance. Her voice dripped with honey as she asked him if he'd ever slept with a ghost before, a shining example of District one, glitz incarnate. He was startled by the question and she molded herself to him, lips by his ear, she shifted her body, one hand coming up to run through his hair. Then she raised the hand and while it was awkward it was a good hit to the back of his head. She'd been trained too, after all, and he went down like a sack of potatoes. She dragged him into the shadows, grabbed his cards and broke into the building.
She had no illusions it would be that easy elsewhere. The closer you got, the stronger and more experienced the guards would be. That was fine, she was fine, she didn't care. Long limbs carried her through the halls, ducking away from those who would catch her. She did not care to be caught so quickly though she knew it was only a matter of time. No one snuck in without notice. She wasn't dumb. That wouldn't make any sense, not in this city. She slipped behind a lone peacekeeper and dropped him to the floor, too, tucking him away in another shadow.
The closer she got the more worried she became - there was no way no one had seen her. Not a chance in the world. She adjusted the rings on her fingers she'd acquired and stepped into the hall. Fine, let them see her.
The first person to recognize her stared in shock. Everyone knew the faces of those who'd been in the Arena. It was hard not to remember the children they sent to die. The woman's color bled from her face, leaving the only color being a pink shaded tattoo scrawled around her face. Glimmer stepped up, "Do you know who I am?" she asked, a twisted smirk on her lips. It was rare she got to let that side out now. The woman back peddled from her, you're dead! she cried, and glimmer couldn't help but laugh.
She was, of course. "Did you think the souls of those killed in the arena rest easily?" she countered as she backed the woman into a wall, one hand coming up to caress her face delicately. Sweetly almost. Before she leaned forward. "Boo." she said in a harsh whisper. The woman screamed and ran. Leaving Glimmer to laugh as she started towards the President's rooms again. The rumor spread like wildfire among those in the building, some snuck peeks at her, others tried to stop her, only to be faced with why the woman was a Career and an Arena veteran in the first place. She made sure, as hard as it was, not to kill anyone.
Just temporarily knock them out or injure them.
The door to Snow's office opened before her.
"Well that was unexpected," she said under her breath, fists forming at her side as she stepped in. She was greeted by the smell of the rose the man wore. It had a scent unlike any rose she'd ever smelled and it turned her stomach. But Glimmer didn't flinch, she pressed forwards. "You've wrecked entire lives, to punish us for generations." she said coldly as the man stood to greet her. He was calculating, cold, even. She knew he was just waiting for her to misstep. But she didn't want to give him the time. He watched her, those eyes hard and focused. It worried her, of course, he was unnerving on the best of days.
"You break into here expecting what?" he asked, one brow slightly lifted, as if she was beyond ridiculous. Perhaps she was. It was hard to tell, really. "I am unsure of what you think you can accomplish. You cannot kill me. You cannot put a stop to what is coming. What is your purpose?" Glimmer lifted her head a little higher.
"To remind you not all who are dead stay dead. That we can haunt you until your last breath and we will. I believed in this, in the rewards of surviving, but it was for nothing. For a painful death, humiliating! We die for your pleasure. For this capital to thrive." she hissed softly as she drew closer, the smell overwhelming her nose, making it wrinkle in annoyance. She didn't know what to do now. She was here!
He only laughed at her - her attempts were pitful and foolish. She had nothing. He wasn't afraid of a ghost. Though it was unsettling, this wasn't one of their technological devices. This was Glimmer, and she was as lovely as she had been before death. She had been a good addition to the games, deadly and beautiful. Though he didn't like the red flecked through her hair, it smacked too much of trouble.
His laughing made her angry and she lashed out, backhanding him knowing full well it would be the end of whatever she'd tried to accomplish. The jewels on the rings bit into the skin and bled him even as he grabbed her arm and sent her tumbling. She rose to her feet, and backed away, she wasn't here to do anything drastic. She recalled something she'd read while trying to recover. "A great man once said, while being condemned to die - And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and in the hour of death men are gifted with prophetic power. And I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after my departure punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you. If you think that by killing men you can prevent some one from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honourable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure to the judges who have condemned me.” she paused, glad she remembered it all.
"I look forward to the day you die a painful death." she turned and ran, heels clicking over the hard floor, one peacekeeper grabbed her and she spun, sweeping her other hand over his face, the bracelet cutting him as she pulled free and took off. The sounds of footsteps chased her down the halls, and she ducked into a shadow to kick her heels off, before running again. It was hard, panic made her see more things that weren't there. But even as her vision swam and sparkled, she pressed on.
Shoulder checking a door, she tumbled onto the street, crashing into people and rolling to her feet. Her chest heaved as she took off at a dead sprint, just long enough to get far enough away. Zig zagging through the city, she finally felt she could slow down. While she didn't dare grab new shoes, she did try to blend in once more, her fist clenched tight at her side. She finally found her way through the portal again, triple checking no one saw her, and only once she was back in madison did she breathe again.
Fingers held up before her face as she laughed, a wicked, icy laugh. Snow's blood drying in the stones of her rings. Her smile was wicked, and almost cruel. Her face was bruised, as was her wrists and shoulder. She had various cuts and bruises but she didn't care. She'd decked Snow and lived to tell the tale. And that was all she ever needed.
Her bare toes curled into the dirt as she took in the air of Madison Valley. Maybe, just maybe, things weren't so bad here.
A casual wave to whoever was watching the portal before she headed off to go take a really, really, long, really hot shower. Everything hurt and she was seeing triples of things. Even the trees were sparkling and she knew that had just been a bit too much fun for one afternoon. But oh, she'd have dreams of decking him again for the rest of her life.
And that? That was worth it.