monochrome

Exactly like you, she thought, but she didn’t say. She chuckled, despite herself. “My tone? What are you my grandmother now? Sorry if I’m not feeling too gracious right now. I’m all out of pleasantries today.”

“i actually liked you.” silver breathed out in disbelief, “when do you think you’ll be getting new pleasantries, then?”

Stone barely acknowledged the designs laid out in front of him. His looks were the last thing he cared about, even if his current beard and long hair reminded him of the Executioner every time he was forced to look in the mirror. “I’m fine.” Came out of him before he even realized what she was asking. “I’m fine.”

he answered before she even opened her mouth, and she pressed her lips together tightly. she waited - maybe he’d say something else, something that made him even more odd to her. when instead, he didn’t, “would you be opposed to cutting your hair?” she finally asked, focusing more on her work, just like she’d originally intended to do.

“Truthfully, you do. Near identical, I’d say.” Ernesto had loosened how strong his posture was and waved a strand of his hair away from his forehead in attempts to look even less threatening. “A stylist, you said? Five’s is always trying to get her hands on me for a fitting, but I much prefer to dress myself.”

nearly identical. it rang in her head like a song but she ignored it, instead focusing on the man whose presence she was in. she breathed out a laugh, “yeah we get a little...out of hand around the games. do you know what disneyland is? the games are like disneyland to stylists.” she explained cheerfully, “what do you do?”

“Oh- um… I’m Cress.” She smiled, juggling the papers in her arms to free up a hand to shake. She paused for a moment, placing the familiarity of the girl’s face. “I’m sorry, I thought we’d met before.”

silver smiled as she shook her hand, “cress, what a beautiful name. district?” she tilted her head, “maybe we have. i’ve been in the tower for only a few days.”

His eyebrows shot up when she asked if he was an Avox. Shaking his head slowly, he kept his eyes trained on her to see if she shimmered around the edges or fluctuated in any way to show that she was just a hallucination. He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything bad he didn’t think, and he hadn’t gone near anything that he could’ve inhaled by accident. The eyes and the hair, though, it had to be his mind playing tricks on him… “I…Ana?”

at the first sign of response silver’s face let up, “well that’s great!” she rejoiced in the fact, before breathing out a soft laugh, “you look like you’ve seen a ghost, you should probably go to the infirmary wing.” she spoke with genuine concern, her lips pressining in an oh when she finally realized what this had been really about. “you know everyone keeps saying we’re identical, but i don’t see it.” she told him, “i’m silver. not ana. wasn’t her name anastasia?”

Meera squirmed a little, the smile long gone from her face. “I don’t want to play anymore Ana. Let’s get snacks!” Bran bent down and with a lot of convincing managed to get her to run off to the other side of the room where her abandoned crayon set was still laying. “Why would I tell you that?” He hadn’t heard from Ana for many months, but he knew she was deeply involved in One Panem.

silver’s eyes flickered down to the little girl - almost opening her mouth to begin to explain but her father was quick to evacuate her from the room. she didn’t understand why he wouldn’t tell her that. “because,” she drawled on the word curiously, “i want to know?” she answered as if it were the most obvious answer in the world and the most plausible.

“I’ve been at this for awhile, I’ll figure something out.” He said, growing bored with the conversation.

“are you always such a crass person?” she pointed out as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “you should be nicer. leave the attitude to someone who could actually pull it off”

“My mom used to say it’s important to live only in the now, lest the past take over.”

“your mom is right.” silver assured her, “but it shouldn’t always be like that. the past is very colorful. it would be silly to ignore it. would you want to miss out on it?”

Markus backed up until his back hit the wall and his eyes widened, shaking his head as he tried to find a way away from her.

silver didn’t understand his reaction, and it frustrated her beyond measure. her brows dipped into frowns, “is an avox even supposed to behave this way?” silver had encountered many avoxes in her short life and so far none of them acted like she was the plague.

“A lot?” He chuckled even if there wasn’t any humor in it. He wasn’t in the slightest inclined to mention anything about Ana to this woman in front of him. When she mentioned being born in the districts the thought did pipe up that she might be a Martin, but no cousins looked that much a like. Would Ana really have a twin she didn’t know? “Try identical.”

“identical.” silver echoed uneasily, her impeccably manicured nails shifting over the portforlio’s edge, “she’s a lot rougher around the edges, than i am.” silver murmured, before apprehending that hopeful tone again, “do you know where she is?”

“Or Ana. Which is your actual name.” She didn’t drop her glare or the tone of her voice. She looked around her briefly, searching for a familiar face that would help back her up in this. “I’m not in the mood for games. Drop the act.”

“no, it’s not. it’s the name of the girl who looks a lot like me.” silver insisted, her voice a small whisper. she placed her palms together, rubbing them nervously, “i don’t know what you’re talking about, miss olive, and i really don’t appreciate that tone.”

He shook his head vigorously, the use of the word her making him realise this wasn’t Ana, no matter how much he wanted it to be her. No, he wouldn’t entertain the sick fantasies of this doppelgänger, the woman probably getting off on her resemblance to a dead girl. 

silver was growing frustrated with the way everyone seemed to be avoiding her like she was the plague - and instead, she just stepped up to markus, crossing her arms over her chest, “i need to talk to you. can you stop doing that?”

He shrugged not really caring about what kind of alcohol he drank. It had never really mattered to him, after all the only alcohol he used to drink was the single glass of champane every now and then: “Just- personal matters.”

“like?” silver urged on, propping her chin against her palm.

Examining her more closely, he was almost certain it was the same girl, but knew there was such a thing as doppelgängers. “Ernesto,” he stated quietly, extended his hand. “Apologies for thinking you someone else.” 

“ernesto.” silver found her balance, relaxing when he’d dropped his hostile front and reaching to shake his hand, “it’s okay. you’re not the first one to do it.” she assured him. “i guess i must really look like someone.”

She was tense standing there, still trying to work out what the hell was going on. “Have I stumbled onto an episode of the twilight zone?” she asked. She crossed her arms defensively. “You couldn’t choose a different name. Had to be fucking Silver?”

“well,” her voice became smaller, flinching again when olive seemed to be adamant to loiter curses in her every sentence, “people have been calling me silver since i was fifteen...you - you can call me valerissa, if you want, or val.”

Maybe it was Bran’s tightening hold on her shoulders, but Meera’s smile slowly slid off her face. She looked up at her dad for confirmation about what was happening. Bran’s thoughts were whirring ahead of him. He thought about hijacking and any reason the president would use to place Ana undercover and make her an enemy, but that still didn’t explain the differences. “Ana’s part of my family,” he told her. His voice was tenuous and sharp. Meera turned her body toward him, resting her head against his side.

silver nodded slowly - because she knew the words were meant to be of the heavy sort, so she needed to give them the reverence they required. “she might be part of mine as well.” silver explained, “she looks a lot like how i used to look like...i’m not a capitol-born citizen. i’m from the districts, i’ve always known that. my parents never told me but i knew. i stood out too much.” she lolled her head sideways, brushing a golden tendril out of her face, “do you know where she is? i’d really love to meet her.”