" I wore a purple dress--not my mother’s finery this time, but something cheap that I didn’t mind ruining--and I had painted my face to disguise it, with a thick diagonal stripe that covered all of one eye and most of the other. I had bound my hair back tightly, painting it blue to keep it in place. Without the currentshadows, I wouldn’t look like the Cyra Noavek that the city of Voa knew.
Akos was dressed in black and green, but since he wasn’t recognizable, he hadn’t bothered with any disguise.
When he saw me, he stared. For a long time.
I knew how I looked. My face was not a relief to the eyes, the way the faces of uncomplicated people were; it was a challenge, like the blinding color of the currentstream. How I looked wasn’t important, particularly as my appearance was always obscured by the shifting veins of the current. But it was strange to see him notice at all.
“Put your eyes back in your head, Kereseth,” I said. “You’re embarrassing yourself. "
― Veronica Roth , Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark, #1)