“We have a lot, so it¿s safe to say most colors,” Urchin admitted, walking across the room to check on a pencil case repurposed for saving glitter baggies. “Though I suggest that we stick to white and black. Maybe gold, too. You know, to respect the character’s aesthetic. What do you think?”
After recovering the pencil case, he moved back to Star and smiled at her. “To be honest, you must be a great actress, because I can’t even picture you as an evil stepsister at all! I’m excited to see that happen!”
“Yeah, probably.” He was right. They have to stay on brand with what was the usual color palette of the evil stepsisters. So, that meant sticking to white, black, gold, and possibly silver. “I just got excited. I love glitter! Glitter makes everything cooler.” At least she thinks so.
“I hope I am. I was actually surprised with the role I got too, to be honest. I didn’t really think I’d get anything big but I wasn’t expecting ugly stepsister. I hope I do well though!”
Star had been having a hard time. She knew the whole hunger games scenario had only been a dream but it felt so real. She had been pulled as a tribute, pummeled by rocks and pine cones, bit by poisoned beetles and died. Her life in that dream had been so tragic and her father had been so unlike his actual self. It was scary to think about.
So to take her mind off it she had volunteered to help rebuild the community. She couldn’t do much because she wasn’t too skilled at anything really, but she could paint. She arrived and it seemed she wasn’t the first so she walked up to the closest person. She walked towards the unfamiliar woman and tapped her shoulder to gain their attention and asked: “So, do you know who I should ask about helping or maybe where I should start?”
“Yeah, that about fits,” he admitted with a nod, performing quick strokes with his pencil on the page. It didn’t take long for him to produce something. It was about the same shape of the shoe, though not exactly. Still, it was good enough to give them the idea.
The design features a line of feathers lining up around the foot-hole (labeled as such on the sketch) as well as lace lining up the middle of it, with a pair more feathers to finish the job.
“What do you think? Too flashy? Too unflashy? We also have glitter we can add.”
Star watched as Urchin drew out a shape that resembled a shoe. He’s definitely better with drawing clean lines than she is. It took some trial and error for her. It was a good canvas though. Usually, when Star has an idea she just jumps in without thinking or planning first.
loved adding a bit of sparkle to her wardrobe and a bit of extra flair to her outfit of the day. She usually didn’t have to do anything by hand because she could just use her wand. Before she had her wand she would just have to deal with her boring, big dresses.
“Glitter?” Star said a large smile forming on her face. “I love glitter. What colours do you have?”
Just close your eyes, the sun is going down
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound
When Naomi and Brad ran rather than killing her when they had the chance Star was surprised. She thought she might still have a chance, that she would be able to turn this around and actually win. She thought she might actually get to go home. She thought she would be able to do a lot of things.
When continuing on in the bear territory she tried to stay on guard. She hoped that someone, her family or anyone really, would send her supplies. Something to ease the pain in her shoulder, but nothing ever came. She began to think that her family had forgotten about her or that they had already lost hope in her and were using their credits on someone stronger. Someone who was fiercer and had a better chance of winning. Maybe that boy from her district who seemed so much more fit for this
She continued on though. She would make it and her family would be proud. Except before she knew it she was surrounded by a possi of beetles. She tried to run but they were faster. Their small wings made sure they kept up with her. She was able to keep ahead of them for a while but it wasn’t long before she felt pain. Sharp and unexpected, but the pain only made her run faster.
She ran and ran not paying attention to her surroundings until she was somewhere new and the beetles were gone. The glen was much more aesthetically pleasing than bear territory, but it’s also much more open. She continued on though, perhaps there would be something that could heal her or something she could eat. She had made sure to eat as much as possible while in the capital like her father had told her but her stomach was beginning to growl. She moved as fast as she could but she was beginning to feel hot and her skin felt like it was on fire. She moved until she came upon a tree and decided that the coast looked clear enough to rest for a moment. She scratched at the welts on her body unsure of what to do. She knew how to care for herself and had torn a portion of her shirt to make a sling for her broken shoulder but she knew nothing about foreign bug bites.
Star sat there for a while almost drifting into sleep. She then heard a voice she didn’t think she would hear ever again. “Star. My beautiful, shining Star.” Her mother. Star didn’t understand, her mother was back home in district one. How could she possibly here? Perhaps she had actually fallen asleep? “Mom? What are you doing here? It isn’t safe.” She said going to stand but she was too weak. Tired, hungry, and ill. Star wasn’t in the best shape.
Her mother, no, it couldn’t be her mom. She had to be going crazy, there was no way her mom was here. A family wasn’t allowed to join you unless people from the same family were reaped and her mom hates the games. Star hates them now too, she wished she had listened to her mom. She almost wished she had allowed her cousin who offered to go in her place to do so, but it’s too late for that now. “I could say the same thing to you, my star. I wish I had never allowed your father to train you.” She had heard her mother argue with her father about that before. At night when she was supposed to be in bed and her parents didn’t think she could hear, they would argue. Her father would go on about how it was better for her to be prepared and her mother would yell about how he was just using her to fulfil the dream he never got to accomplish. Maybe her mother had been right. She had never seen her father look happier than the day her name had been called. All the other family and parents were devastated but her father cheered.
When Star was young she always thought that her mom disapproved of her being in the games because her mother always seemed unsatisfied with her, but her opinion of her mom was changing. Her mother had seen her grandmother after she had come back from fighting and winning the games. Perhaps she knew more than she gave her mom credit for.
The woman, no, the figment of her imagination that looked a lot like her mother sat beside her on the ground against the tree and it felt so real. It felt like her mom was really there and Star decided to give in. “Mom, I wish I had never been picked.” She began to cry. “I’m hungry and cold and hot all at the same time. I just want to go home.” She whimpered tears streaming down her face. “It’s going to be alright, you’ll be safe.” And when the figure kissed her forehead it felt so real and she cried harder. As she cried she didn’t notice the tree she was leaning against began to bloom berries. They were dark blue and plump, almost like blueberries but maybe a bit bigger. As they bloomed some began to fall from the tree landing around and on top of her.
She looked up and rubbed at her eyes as they fell and Star grabbed a handful of the berries and tried to remember how to tell what is poisonous and what’s not. They were dark blue, not green, yellow, or white. No spines or spurs and they didn’t look like any of the poisonous berries she had seen in books. She turned to her mom and her mom smiled. It had been so long since she had seen her mom smile and all she said was “eat.”
She ate the berries and nothing happened for a bit. She figured she got lucky or unlucky depending on how you saw it but then she felt really sleepy. More tired than she ever did and she couldn’t fight to keep her eyes open. “Mommy, I’m so tired.” She said and then she heard her mother’s voice. “Then sleep, I’ll keep you safe.” She laid under the berry tree and fell asleep and it was no surprise when she didn’t wake back up.
NAME: Star
AGE: 16
DISTRICT: One
MAGICK?: Sorcery
OCCUPATION: Previously, in training
OPINION ON THE GAMES: When she was young, she was all for the games. Her father always had enjoyed them and had hoped to compete but never did and following in her father’s footsteps she hoped to compete too. Though she is much more nervous (scared) than she thought she would be.
BIOGRAPHY: Star comes from a line of fierce competitors. In the past, many members of her family had competed in the games. Aunts, uncles, cousins, even her maternal grandmother had competed and was a past victor. Growing up Star had always admired the hunger games and the past victors from her district. She had gotten this appreciation from her father who as a young boy always wanted to compete in the hunger games, but was never reaped. Her mother, on the other hand, has always thought the games barbaric. Never wanted anything to do with them and was only grateful because they were lucky enough to live better than other districts.
Since Star was young she has been training, mainly by her father, who has taught her everything she knows. She has been preparing for the chance to be reaped basically her whole life but when she had actually heard her name be called a sudden wave of fear and foreboding had filled her. She thought her whole life she would look forward to this moment, would be joining her family in celebration, but now all she felt was dread.
STRENGTHS: Stealth, Sword fighting
WEAKNESSES: Bow and Arrow, Distracted
SPECIALITY: Star has always been a small girl and she learned early on that hiding was easier for her, simpler. It was one of the few skill she had learned from her mother, the older woman has always been great at disappearing in plain sight. She hated to be annoyed and prefered company less than her father. She had hoped while stepping into the room where the judges were she could use that skill in this test.
Upon entering the room she noticed several weapons laid out at had already chosen hers the moment she laid her eyes on it. An average broadsword. She imagined that many of the other tributes had already shown off their long-distance combat skills, but that wasn't exactly her strong suit. She could use a bow and arrow but her aim was often off. She grabbed the hilt of the sword and got a feel for it before approaching one of the dummies. They began to move much like opponents would, though they couldn't fight back.
The first came at her fast from the left and Star quickly dodged out of the way before kicking the dummy down and decapitating it. The judges still hadn't noticed it seemed, at least it seemed they hadn't. Another one moved to her right, she immediately swung the sword slicing the dummy in half. She didn't have time to check back to the judges as she heard the motors of a dummy coming up behind her and she turned running towards it before flipping over its head and landing behind it before sending her sword plunging through the defenceless dummy. She then turned back to the judges who she hoped had seen and bowed saying "Thank you." Before heading out of the room. She hadn't been able to use her stealth but she didn't feel horrible about her performance.
TRIBUTE INTERVIEW
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF: I’m just your normal girl from district one who has dreamed about this moment her whole life. I’m very proud to walk the same footsteps as many of my family before me have and hope to make them proud as well!
WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO BEING REAPED? Well, I was super shocked but so excited. This is a chance of a lifetime! You should have seen the look on my father’s face!
WHAT ADVANTAGES DO YOU HAVE? I guess you can say I have a bit of experience with close ranged weapons. The sharper the better! But I assure you I have much more to offer than just sword fighting.
WHY DO YOU WANT TO WIN? For my family. All of this is very important to them and to me and I want to come home to them.
WHAT ARE YOU BRINGING INTO THE ARENA? Besides a positive attitude! My grandmother's ring, she wore it when she won, I never take it off. I’m hoping it brings me some luck.
Peach wanted to groan about being grounded, but she knew she couldn’t say the real reason because Miss Bianca was worried about her and that stupid flower thing.
Peach isn’t who she says she is.
“Oh, juuuust, hanging around, you know? It’s been soooo hot, I’ve just been staying inside when I’m not here.” Which was totally a lie, because Peach grew up in Australia which was basically a desert, it was super hot like most of the time like an actual high temperature.
Star nodded her head in understanding. It had been warm recently. Back in Mewni it never really got super hot, the highest it usually got was about 27°c by Earth measurements and even that wasn’t very often. In Mewni they didn’t really have to worry about the heat, usually the cold.
“Yeah, I’m not used to warm weather. I’ve been having to force myself to go into the backyard for my puppy.” And then Star realized she hadn’t told Peach about Toffee, had she? “His name is Toffee, but I could go on about him forever. Did you get the part you wanted?” She couldn’t remember who Star was playing.
Urchin led his friend down the hall and into the next room. It wasn’t much, but there were mannequins and work tables, as well as materials scattered on some of them. Someone else was working inside, using one of the tables in the far corner.
“It’s our little workshop-place-thing,” he explained, not so wonderfully. “They let us use this place to do the costume stuff and all that. It’s pretty cool, to be honest!”
Moving further into the room, Urchin left the shoe box on one of the tables, and immediately spotted his sketchbook. With shiny eyes, he went and brought it over, opening it up to an empty page.
“Okay! So I was thinking adding some of those black feather prop left-overs we have from another costume,” he said. “I think it’d fit the personality of the character. Don’t you?”
Star followed along and smiled upon entering the room. It wasn’t the fanciest but the bolts of fabric and mannequins reminded her of the royal tailor back home. When she was little she always hated being fitted for dresses, still did as she got older, but she loved to watch the tailor work on her mother’s dresses.
“Yeah, coool!” She said dragging out the o looking around the room. She kind of wanted to inspect and touch everything but that would be rude wouldn’t it.
“Yeah, that sounds good. From what I say on the internet they always have a lot of feathers and lace. Always very excessive.” She said thinking about what she had seen. “Maybe we can add some lace as well!”
Duchess shopped in Swynlake for only a few things. Her groceries, which were hand picked from the farmer’s market and select produce stalls, her fabrics, which were delicately chosen from a specific selections, and finally, she shopped for the latest trends. It was the last one that was the most important. Keeping an eye on current trends allowed her to stay relevant. With the knowledge of what was fresh and exciting, she could create new and revolutionary.
It was for that purpose she walked around the shoppe, looking through various racks of clothing. Those delicate fingers tracing over cheap fabric and even cheaper prints. It was not the stores of Paris or Milan or even New York City. None of that was here. But she saw no reason that she couldn’t bring that to Swynlake.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice and she turned with a raised eyebrow at the intrusion. The question was thought over carefully, Duchess eyeing the dress to form an actual opinion on it. “It compliments your skin tone wonderfully. But that print… It is abysmal.” She paused for a moment, as she perused the rack that she had been looking at before hand. “Here. Try this one.”
Star had never been to any of those places but she really wished to travel all around Earth one day. Star didn’t know the difference in the quality of clothes in a normal store and the clothes in the stores of those places. Obviously, she could kind of tell the difference between the quality of the dress she is currently wearing and the ones from back home but she thought that it was because her wardrobe back home is just super fancy because she’s a princess.
She took the dress the woman offered her and looked at it. She accepted the advice since she knew next to nothing about Earth fashion. All of the Earth clothes she owned were chosen by what she thought was cutest but since she had arrived her it seemed a lot of people dressed more for the other people around them which is confusing.
“Okay! But if you don’t mind me asking, what wrong with the print on this dress?” She thought floral was a ‘trend’ here on Earth. Perhaps she was wrong?
Peach was on lockdown, which was very annoying. The only time, really, she got out of the apartment is when she snuck out and play practice. Which was nice, because she got to see most of her friends, but it sucked because there were adults around all over the place and she could barely get up to any mischief. Especially since she had such a big part.
She was on her way to costuming for a final fitting when she heard her name being called. It took a second, because even after almost a year of being Peach Clearwater, sometimes, she forgot that was her name.
But, she turned and smiled at the princess who was trying to flag her down.
“Hey, Star, what’s up?”
With the recent events in town Star had two sets of eyes constantly on her. She wasn’t really allowed to go outside and neither was Toffee which sucked because he is a puppy and needs fresh air and she is a teenage girl who needs sunlight that isn’t coming through a window. Also, she liked having her own space and adventuring and other stuff. She can’t do any of those things if she can’t go out and she can’t go out because the forest is being weird.
She didn’t understand the big deal. The forest back home was probably worse, but no one back home really knew she explored the Forest of Certain Death. And, yes, that’s its real name.
“Nothing. Just here for rehearsal. What have you been up to?” Star smiled as she came to stand with Peach.
“Uh… Yeah! The more the merrier, right?” Urchin responded with a smile. He also was really happy that he seemed to have a friend in Star already. She was sort of really cool and seemed to go with the flow like he did.
The boy took to putting the other shoe boxes away, after separating the one they’d chosen.
“We could do that right now if you want,” he suggested, standing back up and looking around, realizing he didn’t bring his sketchbook along and it was probably still in the other room. “Uh, let’s go over here,” he later said, gesturing to the door.
Star smiled back. She had always had such trouble making friends back in Mewni. She had no clue why though. She's nice and she thought that she’s pretty fun but people seemed to avoid her. She hadn’t meant to set things on fire that one time. She had only had a couple friends back home in the Kingdom of Mewni, all her real friends were considered monsters and were allowed in town.
“Sure! Just lead the way and I’ll follow.” She laughed excited to do something helpful for the play. “So, where are we headed?”
Urchin looked at the shoes, tilting his head. “Uh - I can probably modify them! We’re likely going to decorate them, anyway. If not, I can decorate yours. It would be a ncie experiment, don’t you think? We could add feathers and things like that!”
He got down on his knees to look at the shoes, and then shrugged. “If you want, I mean. I think it’d be fun, personally, so I don’t mind.”
Star nodded her head excitedly about the idea of modifying the shoes. She loved anything art and crafts related. She loved decorating and scrapbooking, anything that she could use bright colors and glitter on, and she imagined cuteifying shoes wasn’t much different.
“That sounds fun! Can I help? I’m really good at arts and crafts!” She smiled in excitement.
Star had gotten the part of one of the evil stepsisters in the play, Lucinda to be exact, and she couldn’t be more excited. She didn’t really think she was gonna get a part in the play at all, she isn’t very experienced in acting, but she figured that is why she got a small part. Obviously, the part is bigger than the other’s but it still relatively small, but that is okay with her.
She is also excited because her new buddy, Peach, happens to be in the play too. So when she saw her walking around backstage she saw it as a perfect opportunity to speak with her. They hadn’t spoken since prom and Star felt pretty bad about that. They had texted and stuff, but she hadn’t spoken to her in person since. “Peach! Hey, Peach!” She called out excitedly trying to get the other girl’s attention.
Shopping. Star has always loved to shop. Back home she loved to sneak from the castle into the marketplace to buy all sorts of things. She would spend her allowance on clothes, shoes, sweets, anything really. And being on Earth was no exception to this tradition.
The difference now was instead of sneaking from a castle she snuck from a cute two-story home. Instead of worrying about being caught by the guards she worried about being caught by her guardians. And instead of an open market, she walked into an airconditioned building. But honestly, all these things made going to the store easier. And after saving a portion of her allowance for the past two months she felt she had enough to get a whole outfit. She found a super cute spaghetti strapped dress with floral print and she had to try it on. And she thought she looked cute in it but a second opinion never hurt. She walked out of the dressing room and saw a blonde lady and decided to ask her opinion. “Excuse me, Miss. I was wondering what you think of this dress?” She smiled.
are you a hair up or hair down kinda person? horror movie or a rom-com? do you like coffee or tea? are you moon or sun? park or coffee shop? romantic love or platonic love?
