WIP :: One :: Renée Perdris

named

renée artemis perdris
agedeighteen
locateddistrict one
presentedfemale
orientatedbisexual
biography

“My, my, haven’t we been wicked?” my voice rings around the room, bouncing off the marble arches of the doorways and the embossed, cream-coloured plaster of the ceiling. Once, that ceiling was covered in a row of slashed mirrors. The first time I came here, I looked up and saw a different girl reflected to the one I would have seen today. My name was Katherine that morning, my long, brown hair pinned up in the sophisticated bun of a District One businesswoman, and my petite form dressed in a smart, clean suit. Before that, I was Riya, running through the District in rags (and all the while looking for the house I bought under the name that followed) hazel eyes bright as I played amongst the other urchins, pale cheeks flushed as I raced them, fought them, charmed them. My mother always told me that charm was a lady's most powerful weapon. A few words and a smile in the right place, to the right people, and you can do whatever you want in this world. I used to watch her, at the dinner parties we hosted when I was a child, laughing and providing witty responses as if it was an art, rather than a social skill. With Theresa Young, everything was always an art. As an opera singer, it was her occupation and her livelihood to entertain and to please. Watching her at those dinner parties and events, how she glided through the room like ink, like a rich perfume that you just don't forget, I knew that's what I wanted, for myself.