thecapitol | Panem? More like Painem

Entry tags:

Panem? More like Painem

Who| Elsa & Rose then Elsa & Anna
What| Rose and Elsa meet at the start of the mini arena/Elsa and Anna have bonding time after the arena
Where| Outside of the lounge/Anna's room
When| Backdated to the start of the mini arena/Right after the mini arena
Warnings/Notes| Mentions of dead parents and general angst warnings

[Closed to Rose Lalonde-o]

From the second she found out Anna was picked and she wasn't, Elsa knew it would be a painful experience, but she couldn't imagine just how upsetting it would actually be. Elsa can feel her chest instantly tighten up when the footage begins and she sees the ship. At once, she's transported back to the day her parents left on their trip, and she found out that their ship never made it to it's intended destination.

And now Anna is on a ship. The panic and sickness set in before Elsa can even try and get a hold over it. Shepard's techniques are useful and have helped her immensely, but when it's so sudden and so strong, Elsa can't even begin to get a handle on it. Breathing doesn't come easily, she's on the verge of hyperventilating and she can feel tears prickling in her eyes. She doesn't want to have this breakdown in front of people, though. The last thing she needs is people to see her like this.

When she moves to head out of the lounge, her movements resemble someone either tipsy or half asleep. Her legs are a conflicting combination of jelly and lead as she stumbles her way out of the lounge. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't have the greatest depth perception right now, or the best attention span. Through the tears threatening to spill over, Elsa bumps right into someone, and nearly goes crashing to the floor as a result.

[Closed to Anna]

Elsa is at Anna's door immediately following the mini arena, entering it as soon as she's sure Anna is there and can be seen. The mini arena had been particularly devastating to Elsa, even as a witness, because of how close to home it hit, she can only imagine how it must have felt to actually be there. Anna was there for Elsa through the Hans thing, she's going to be there for Anna through this, even if she herself is still shaken up emotionally from it.

She's wrapping Anna in a tight hug the second she enters the room. Supportive Sister mode is engaged and she isn't wasting any time doing her best to help Anna. Elsa is having a hard time keeping her emotions reigned in for Anna, the whole conceal/don't feel thing failing her as she pulls Anna close to her and clings like she's going to lose her at any moment. But still, she's trying to be calm for her, as best she can.

"Oh, Anna..." she whispers, her voice a little shaky. "Are you alright?" It's deja vu, just like after Anna's first arena. This time, though? She knows Anna isn't really, but she can't stop herself from asking anyway. If Elsa herself isn't alright, then she can't imagine how Anna must feel. "When I saw the ship, I... I..."

She can't get the words out, but she thought of their parents. Felt so much fear. Anna can probably figure out all of the things that Elsa can't bring herself to say.

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Anna looks visibly relieved as Elsa seems to get ahold of herself, and gives her sister a comforting smile. "That's okay," she murmurs, watching Elsa turn to study herself in the mirror. She's puzzled at first, until Elsa starts to speak, and Anna's startled by her sister's appraisal of herself, stifling a laugh behind her hand.

"I know what you mean," she admits. They all have those days, of course. She comes up behind Elsa and rests her chin on her shoulder, a smile blooming at the idea. "Elsa," she enthuses, "That sounds like an amazing idea."

Elsa is glad that the idea seems appealing to Anna. The truth is, she had almost been afraid that she was coming off as too vain- but she remembers their childhood, how they used to love playing dress up sometimes, and when she would do Anna's hair. You know, before the incident. She doesn't think Anna's changed too much that she wouldn't enjoy it again.

"Then let's do it!" she says, reaching around to give Anna's hair a small ruffle. It's a show she's putting on, but there's a part of her hoping that doing this will genuinely improve her own mood, too. "I have makeup in my room, if you don't mind a trip over there."

Anna giggles, letting her eyes close for a moment as her sister messes with her hair. "Fine by me! Let's go!" But first she has to collect a few things; she rushes over to the little vanity table across from her door and snatches up a couple of sparkly hairclips she's collected in the past two months, slipping them into her pocket, before crossing back to the door and to Elsa.

"Alright, I'm ready! Let's go, let's go!" It's obvious that she's completely jazzed by the thought of a girl's day in with Elsa; sisterly bonding time like this isn't something she's used to, so the prospect of just doing normal sister stuff has her raring to go.

Elsa watches with a little curiosity as Anna goes over to grab the hairclips and things. She can't help but laugh a little, but she links arms with Anna with a nod. "Okay, okay!" she says, a little playfully exasperated. It's slowly getting easier to play around, even if it feels a little forced.

She leads the way to her room quietly, not overly talkative. She's trying to get her head in the game so that she can make this a fun time for Anna, and it's a little difficult when she keeps thinking back to the ship, and their parents.

The difference, she realizes, is that Anna came back. They didn't. She needs to not take her time with Anna for granted. That realization is enough to make it easier on her, and she grips Anna's arm a little tighter, swaying to bump into her. "I love you," she says quietly, giving Anna a smile.

Elsa's quietude is just enough that Anna's a bit unnerved as they go back to her room on the 9th floor--but when Elsa's grip tightens and she smiles at her, saying those three words that Anna has always craved to hear, the redhead's whole face lights up, and she grins, bumping her hip right back into Elsa's.

"I love you too, Els." She turns back to face front, letting out a quiet, happy sigh. "I feel so lucky, you know? That we at least have each other."

Elsa finds it a little easier to feel happy when she sees just how happy it makes Anna to hear it. "I know what you mean," she says with a small nod. "That's... probably the greatest thing about this place. It gives us the chance to be together, without... Well, anyway."

Without hurting you, is what she had almost said.

It's around then that they make it to Elsa's room, and she opens the door and leads the way inside. "Well, here we are. Now... I have this book, I got it in one of the shops. It's got all of these fancy hairstyles that I've been wanting to try." A plain old braid just gets old after a while.

She moves over to the looks shelf she has and pulls it out, then steps over and extends it to Anna. "How about you pick something out, and I'll try it on you?"

Anna only nods, understanding exactly what Elsa means. Some things are better off left unsaid, after all. And then they're in Elsa's room, and Anna goes right to the bed, flopping down with the book her sister hands her.

"Ooh, wow," she enthuses, flipping through the pages. The hairstyles are all as ornate as one might expect from the Capitol, though there's one weird "district-chic" section that Anna skips over with a weird lurch in her stomach. It doesn't seem right, somehow. But finally, she settles on one.

"What about this one?" Anna asks, holding out the book for Elsa to see. "It's so pretty!"

Elsa waits patiently as Anna flips through the book, moving onto the bed so that she can peer over her shoulder at the pages. She's rather glad when Anna glosses over the district-chic pages- it's a little tactless, she feels, but she won't say anything. It's obviously a mutually agreed thing.

"Oh, Anna, that's gorgeous!" she says. "I think we might need a lot of pins for this one- but luckily, I have plenty." She gives Anna a nudge and a smile. She takes the book from her and scrutinizes it for a long moment. Thankfully all of those years doing her own hair to avoid anyone having to come in and do it for her have made her pretty good at it, so she's confident that she can pull it off.

Elsa moves over and grabs everything she'll need- a brush, pins, rubber bands and a spray bottle, bringing them over to the bed. She positions herself behind Anna and starts undoing her sister's braids, before she starts combing out any tangles gently. "You're going to look very pretty." She giggles as she remembers something from back home. "Not that you don't look pretty already, I just mean- prettier, I mean-"

She's intentionally copying Anna's stuttering from that night at her coronation party, while trying not to break into a bigger fit of giggles.

Anna settles in with her legs crossed, humming as Elsa starts to undo her braids and comb out the tangles. It feels good to have someone familiar touching her hair for a change; Elsa will notice as she goes through Anna's mass of coppery waves that her stylist has decided to dye in a white streak where her old one once was. In fact, it's such a familiar sight to Anna that she's sort of forgotten about it.

Either way, Anna looks up incredulously as Elsa starts to mock her, jaw dropping as she realizes what she's saying, before she dissolves into giggles.

"You know what I meant!" She laughs, reaching behind her to bat at Elsa playfully. "I'm not so good with words, alright?"

When Elsa laughs, she feels herself getting more genuinely happy. She bats back at Anna, swatting her with the flat end of the brush. "You're using them just fine right now," she points out teasingly. "But no, I know what you meant. I wouldn't be your older sister if I didn't give you a hard time, would I? I would hate to turn into stuffy old royalty."

"You?" Anna giggles between her fingers. "Never. I don't think accidentally freezing everything lends itself to being stuffy." She says this with the utmost affection, on a hope and a prayer that Elsa knows she's joking.

"How's it going back there? Are we almost done?" After all, she wouldn't be Elsa's little sister if she didn't whine and complain just a little bit.

For a split second, Elsa's face falls at that little jab- in her heart, she knows it's just a joke, but it's still a tender spot. Still, she forces out a laugh and just focuses on doing the braid.

When Anna whines, she just rolls her eyes lightly. "I've barely begun, I might have magic powers but they don't translate over to doing hair in the blink of an eye," she says with a shake of her head. "Half of your hair is braised and half is a fluffy mess- if you would like to go out looking like this, be my guest."

For Anna's part, she doesn't notice Elsa's face falling, but she can hear that there's a note of force in her laugh. So she reaches behind her, fumbling blindly for a second before her hand finds Elsa's knee, and she gives her a reassuring squeeze. She shouldn't have said anything, she knows; she just wishes that Elsa knew that she loves her for all of her--flaws and mistakes included. It's what makes Elsa, Elsa.

Still, she lets out an exaggerated huff. "Fiiiiine. I guess I can wait." She commits herself to sitting nice and still so that Elsa can carry on braiding. "I'm sure it's going to look so good when it's finished."

It's the squeeze that lets Elsa know that Anna is sorry and that she didn't really mean it, all without having to actually say as much. It's probably good that the two of them can express themselves like that, it makes it easy to brush aside awkward situations without having a conversation about it. It's a moment before Elsa feels cheerful again, but she's capable of moving on not long after it happens, smiling softly as she pats Anna's hand.

"I would hope so," she says, her hands working to twist Anna's hair into the elaborate little 'do that she picked out, pinning it here and tucking it there. "You have a lot of faith in my hair styling abilities," she muses. "It's been a long time since I did your hair, hasn't it? How do you know I'm all that good?"

"Oh, please," Anna replies cheerily. "How could you not be good? Your hair always looks perfect, even back home, when I'm sure you did it all by yourself all those years." She tugs at one of the loose sections of her own hair. "Meanwhile mine looks like something out of Grimm's Fairy Tales if I so much as go out in a light breeze."

Her secret's out. That's why she puts her hair in braids. If she didn't, she'd look like a Monster High doll.

Well, she can't argue with Anna's point. It's true that she's had plenty of time to learn how to do her hair and she's also pretty good with putting ideas into action- just look at the ice castle she built. An extremely technical and advanced construction, all brought to life with the image in her head. It translates fairly well to putting hairstyles into practice, all things considered.

"You know," she says thoughtfully, "The Capitol has... a lot of things you can put in your hair," she says. "I was a little overwhelmed when I went into a shop and saw how much they offered. I'm fairly certain that there are things you could use to prevent that, if you ever wanted to wear your hair down? I'm sure it would look lovely." And because she's on that subject, "Did you know there are ways to change your hair, too? I mean, obviously- I see the streak is back." Which... annoys her, honestly. "But it's so... interesting. Imagine how different we would look with other colors. I can't even begin to imagine you as anything but ginger."

Anna at least has the grace to flush a bit, glad her back is turned so Elsa can't see. "Really? Maybe I should try something like that, then!" She's tried letting her hair loose, she really has. Even her stylist was hard-pressed to tame it--though most of that was due to Anna's inability to sit still in one spot for too long.

She reaches up to toy with the lock of silver hair as Elsa mentions it. When they'd first put it back in, it'd sort of made her sad--it only reminded her of all the awful things that'd happened not so long ago, of how Elsa had accidentally frozen her head, and her heart. But now, well, she's sort of used to it. And in a weird way, it feels familiar in a way that nothing else here really does.

Anna snorts. "Can you imagine if they made me a blonde? And you a ginger?"

Elsa isn't aware that she's embarrassed Anna, but if she did she might feel bad. If her sister's wild hair is a soft spot, then she has no idea. "Maybe if you and I feel like it after we're done, we could go shopping for hair things." While she's feeling better already, she isn't sure if she's particularly ready to go out in public, either. She'll just have to see.

"Oh, that would be so strange!" she says, her eyes widening a little. "Not that ginger hair isn't lovely, but... Well, can you really see yourself as blonde, either?"

No one tell her that her hair turned completely white back home. No one. "If we're not careful, we might give them ideas..."

It's not long after that Elsa gives her a small pat, to signal that she's done. "It's not perfect," she says. "But I think you look lovely."

"Haha..." Anna laughs nervously. "No way! That'd be sooo weird." This is awkward. She's really not going to be the one to tell Elsa that, in the process of freezing to death, she realized that particular dream far too vividly. "You're right. They already do the weirdest things with my hair as it is." Though some of the hairstyles her stylists have tried have admittedly been sort of interesting.

When Elsa tells her that her hair is finished, Anna jumps up eagerly, crossing to Elsa's mirror and picking up a hand mirror. She turns, using the hand mirror to study the back of her hair with interest. "Wow," she breathes. "I look sort of...pretty."

She isn't picking up too much on the awkwardness. If anything, she just figures Anna thinks being blonde would be a weird idea, which ought to offend her but really it just doesn't bother her at all.

Elsa is about to ask Anna what other sort of things they've done with her hair, but she doesn't get the chance to before Anna is voicing her opinion on the hair and she has to raise her eyebrows at the comment. "Well, of course you do?" she asks, giving Anna a look. "You're always pretty, it doesn't take a fancy hairstyle to make you so."

Anna touches her cheek. After all this time, it's still so strange to be complimented by her sister. She has to force herself not to stutter. "I, um, thank you," she spits out after a moment, still studying the intricate braids at the back of her head. "But I think it helps," she adds, after a beat. And then she sets the mirror down and grins over at Elsa.

"Alright, missy, it's your turn! Pick out a hairstyle for yourself!" She bounces a few times on the bed to punctuate her point.

Elsa is obviously going to have to make her believe that she's pretty, but baby steps. It won't come off as genuine or sincere if she hams it up, so she's going to just gently remind Anna whenever is appropriate.

But until then, she picks a hairstyle that hopefully Anna can follow.

Some time later, Elsa's started feeling ready to go out, maybe it's the fact Anna did a good job on her hair and the two of them are rocking some gorgeous makeup now, but she's ready. She's ready and holding out a light blue dress, similar in cut and color to her old ice dress, up to Anna outside of her closet. "Our conversation from earlier got me to thinking, what if... you know, we wore each other's colors out today? You in blue, and me in... red? You can pick mine, I have plenty to choose from."

Edited 2014-09-25 02:43 (UTC)

Anna's delighted by the style Elsa chooses; it's so soft and regal-looking, and more importantly Anna can get the hang of it. She takes her time combing out Elsa's long, smooth hair, delighting in that fact that they're doing something so intimate when there was a time not so long ago when Elsa wouldn't look at her, let alone touch her (or let herself be touched). So it takes a bit longer for Elsa's hair to be done, but when it is Anna claps her hands excitedly.

"Oh, Els, it's perfect on you!"

By the time they finish their makeup, Anna is feeling a bit antsy to get out of the Tribute Center, and as she admires her makeup in the mirror she eyes Elsa in the reflection with awe.

"Wow. That would be great, I've always admired your blue color." She wrinkles up her nose. "Red on you, though? No, no, let's try green. Green will look so nice with your hair and your eyes!"

She plunges into Elsa's closet with vigor and emerges sometime later with a flowy green dress, which she's pretty sure Elsa will look amazing in. "How about this?"

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Panem? More like Painem

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that icon though

winks

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