i'm what you need | {larissa/hespie}

i'm what you need | {larissa/hespie} May 31, 2023 15:55:41 GMT -5

Post by umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars] on May 31, 2023 15:55:41 GMT -5

_LARISSA

_LEROUX

There was a time in Larissa's life when she'd learned to hate mirrors. She was always either too far away from what she was pretending to be or too close. That was the trick, in fact: at one point, she'd never given things like makeup and hair a second thought. There were years of her life where the only things she was worried about was being the fastest runner in the race and the highest grade in the spelling test and getting the most approval from the adults. Then there was the brief window in her pubescent era where all her friends' interests began to change, and she thought hers were supposed to change as well. When she realized some of them were slowing down on purpose just so the boys could win, she knew she'd always only ever be able to play the part at most. She'd never be okay with losing over something like that. If someone wanted her, they'd better be fast enough to catch her- she slowed for no one.

So, it hadn't taken long for Larissa to find her own identity. To be fair she'd also spent a larger amount of time pretending to be others than most. Rebellion being illegal in Panem was one thing. Rebellion being illegal in One was another. No one defied the Capitol back home. Biting the hand that feeds you was how you ended up where Two was then: struggling to maintain a career status, picking up trash and processing polluted water. Her parents wanted her and her siblings to be just as prepared to fight as the other side would inevitably be. If that meant being a career then she was willing to do it. But every for every shade of lipstick she wore for someone else, she grew more and more certain of who she wasn't. Through that refinement, she crafted the person standing in front of the mirror now: sharp-eyed and deadly and- oops, a bit of smeared gloss on her bottom lip. She wiped the excess away, upper half leaned over the sink for a better viewpoint.

One of the stall doors opened behind her and the girl from Seven walked out, taking Larissa's attention. Hesperos, from 7. They were the only two in the room, and Larissa's initial instinct was to leave without speaking. After all, she was a fellow tribute at the end of the day. Even if Larissa's reasons for wanting the win weren't that of a typical career's, the rules worked the same. Only one could live in the end. But truly, if Larissa wanted it to be herself, she had to make some sort of effort. Feeling was a necessary part of the experience- she didn't get the luxury of living through this physically and emotionally. If she did, she'd have been the first.

"How's this color look?" She asked, loosely gesturing to her lips and pursing them ever so slightly.

i'm what you need | {larissa/hespie} Jun 11, 2023 9:27:25 GMT -5

Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2023 9:27:25 GMT -5

Though it may not look it in this moment, Hespie has been adjusting rather quickly to the training center demand's.

It's only... now that she breaks down silently, leaning crooked into the stall's pink wall, face hidden deep into her hands. She had been doing so good, but in this moment there's a silent frustration burning her inside out. She's losing it, from how little there is to do to how much there is to do. From how fast it's all going, how nothing goes her way. How she didn't sign up for any of it, that she's just forced to go along with everything. And worst of all, how many other tributes there are.

You don't think about how many twenty-four actually is, but when they're all trapped in that training center it's so obvious how large it all is. Hespie would do better not thinking of it at all, but instead she lets it overwhelm her until she starts to feel the panic start to pang in her ears. In a weird way, the training center kind of feels like being in the closet at church - nobody's addressing it, but everyone in the room wants you dead. That feeling of being surrounded envelops Hespie until she takes her hands off her face, letting her eyes relax as they focus on the bathroom tiles. From there it's a few deep breaths before she decides she needs to get out this bathroom stall.

So deep in her own head, she hadn't even heard anyone else in the bathroom, but there she is: Larissa Le Roux.

It's a name that commands respect, and a twang of fear as well. Everyone knew what they were capable of, because even if they weren't bringing home the crown, they were still extremely competent at what they do. And that's the whole Games, from the physicality to the congeniality, and in both Larissa's lean muscles and refined beauty, Hespie knows nothing but to be intimidated of this type of girl.

For a second they both occupy the same space, Hespie washing her hands as she examines her own face in facsimile to the blonde. Sure enough, Reinhardt's skincare routine might as well be plastic surgery for Hespie's pores. Though she might be dead in a week, she doesn't look half bad. Sleep depravation be damned. She goes to leave without a word but the lion catches her tongue with a, "how's this color look?" and a purse of her lips. How she could not think of kissing her escapes her, though she still feels ashamed for the thought nonetheless.

"Looks..." she starts, looking from eyes to lips to eyes, "great." A good color, peachy, and of course it looks amazing on Larissa Le Roux - how could anything on her dare to look out place? She has an it factor that Hesperos can't imagine wanting, but envying regardless. There's an overawing effect that follows her. "You should try something darker," she adds on as she tries to convince both of them she knows what she's talking about.

"You're already pretty," is both an understatement and terrifying to admit, "so why not go something intimidating?"