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31_days2012-07-06 05:04 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2012-07-06 05:04 pm
[July 6] [The Hunger Games] Aside from the Spotlight
Title: Aside from the Spotlight
Day/Theme: July 6, 2012 "unless the cameras love me"
Series: The Hunger Games
Character/Pairing: Mags, OCs
Rating: PG
Author's comment: This one is set a while after Mags' games.
Jack Umber is twenty-eight now, bronze and glowing, but I don't know him well-enough yet to stop seeing the boy he was when he won his games (missing teeth, bloody nose, black eye, so very many cuts and bruises) superimposed over the man he's become. "Hi Mags," he greets me. Jack Umber knows my name. I shouldn't find this as strange as I do. Everyone in Panem knows my name. I am the victor of the 12th Hunger Games.
"Hello…Jack," I try it on for size. My tributes are up in their rooms, hopefully tucked away safely for the night. Well, they're physically safe at the moment, I know that- the Capitol would hardly consider letting any harm befall them before the games begin. But I have some idea of the thoughts that must be running through their heads about now and on top of feeling for them, I'm going to be expected to do something for them. At least Aulie's stuck around to help me. However, he's admitted outright that he doesn't know what, if anything, that he did or said helped me to win, so all I'm really hoping for from his corner is moral support, because the tributes and I are both going to need that.
Even if, by some miracle, District 4 pulls off a repeat win, I'm going to need it. If I had to pick, Salvador Chavez or Shaya Current, who would I choose? Even if one of them wins, one of them dies. It's not as if I would want to take back what I did last year, but I'm sure the Gamemakers and such here in the Capitol are all laughing now. "Oh, Mags, you like saving people so much, how about you spend the rest of your life being unable to do so?"
I've noticed that when we're in the same room, Jack looks at me a lot. I figure I'll ask about it. "So," I take a seat beside him, "Do you like me or something?"
"What?" he seems surprised, but promptly realizes what I mean, "Oh," he begins to laugh, "I guess I'm still as blunt as all that. No, I don't know you hardly well enough to have feelings for you, Mags," Jack resists cheerfully, "It's just that you're interesting. You sort of remind me of me."
"Of you?" I protest. We're both victors, sure, and the first from our districts, but there are ten other people gathered here now with that same distinction. I don't know what special quality could be seen as uniting Jack and I.
"You're kind of…" Jack struggles to make his new word come out as he intends it, "Normal."
He means it as a compliment and I don't care what anyone else says now, because Jack Umber is not half as Capitol-dyed as they say he is because "normal" would never be considered a compliment here.
"Oh," I answer, "Thank you."
"But just a little warning from one victor to another," he leans in very close and I can see then how tropical teal his eyes are, "It's best to let someone else be the center of attention, but don't let yourself come off around here as too normal. You can't be boring. For the sake of your tributes, at least, be someone that the camera loves."
I don't see where he's going with this. "…Why?"
"Consider it a heads-up between friends. I heard it straight from J. Sherbet off the morning program- there are going to be a few changes instituted in these games. I suppose that to some degree, some of them might have something to do with you."
"Like what?" I press Jack to hurry ahead to the point. The idea that the games might have been changed in some fashion because of me makes me nervous. I can't see any way that that might be good.
"Well, you know better than anyone how close things came at a couple of points. …And tributes who put on a good show start to become sorts of favorites… This has happened for a while now, actually, but I guess the game makers are finally caving to public pressure. They see it as another way to help support the cost of the games." Jack folded his hands and cut to the chase, "Rich people will have the opportunity to send items in to help tributes that they sponsor."
I'm not sure if this is wonderful or if it makes no difference at all. Just what I need as I'm scrambling to figure out how to be a good mentor, another strategic element to have to deal with.
"If they like you, Mags, they're more likely to sponsor your tributes," Jack says, like he's not sure I've understood the entirety of the point he's trying to make.
But I get it. "…People wanted to sponsor me?" I wonder.
"I would've," Jack says.
All right, he does like me then. I'm not sure whether I hope he means it or if I'd prefer he's an awful liar. He did have two tributes of his own in those games, after all.
"Great," I let it sink it. "Thanks."
Day/Theme: July 6, 2012 "unless the cameras love me"
Series: The Hunger Games
Character/Pairing: Mags, OCs
Rating: PG
Author's comment: This one is set a while after Mags' games.
Jack Umber is twenty-eight now, bronze and glowing, but I don't know him well-enough yet to stop seeing the boy he was when he won his games (missing teeth, bloody nose, black eye, so very many cuts and bruises) superimposed over the man he's become. "Hi Mags," he greets me. Jack Umber knows my name. I shouldn't find this as strange as I do. Everyone in Panem knows my name. I am the victor of the 12th Hunger Games.
"Hello…Jack," I try it on for size. My tributes are up in their rooms, hopefully tucked away safely for the night. Well, they're physically safe at the moment, I know that- the Capitol would hardly consider letting any harm befall them before the games begin. But I have some idea of the thoughts that must be running through their heads about now and on top of feeling for them, I'm going to be expected to do something for them. At least Aulie's stuck around to help me. However, he's admitted outright that he doesn't know what, if anything, that he did or said helped me to win, so all I'm really hoping for from his corner is moral support, because the tributes and I are both going to need that.
Even if, by some miracle, District 4 pulls off a repeat win, I'm going to need it. If I had to pick, Salvador Chavez or Shaya Current, who would I choose? Even if one of them wins, one of them dies. It's not as if I would want to take back what I did last year, but I'm sure the Gamemakers and such here in the Capitol are all laughing now. "Oh, Mags, you like saving people so much, how about you spend the rest of your life being unable to do so?"
I've noticed that when we're in the same room, Jack looks at me a lot. I figure I'll ask about it. "So," I take a seat beside him, "Do you like me or something?"
"What?" he seems surprised, but promptly realizes what I mean, "Oh," he begins to laugh, "I guess I'm still as blunt as all that. No, I don't know you hardly well enough to have feelings for you, Mags," Jack resists cheerfully, "It's just that you're interesting. You sort of remind me of me."
"Of you?" I protest. We're both victors, sure, and the first from our districts, but there are ten other people gathered here now with that same distinction. I don't know what special quality could be seen as uniting Jack and I.
"You're kind of…" Jack struggles to make his new word come out as he intends it, "Normal."
He means it as a compliment and I don't care what anyone else says now, because Jack Umber is not half as Capitol-dyed as they say he is because "normal" would never be considered a compliment here.
"Oh," I answer, "Thank you."
"But just a little warning from one victor to another," he leans in very close and I can see then how tropical teal his eyes are, "It's best to let someone else be the center of attention, but don't let yourself come off around here as too normal. You can't be boring. For the sake of your tributes, at least, be someone that the camera loves."
I don't see where he's going with this. "…Why?"
"Consider it a heads-up between friends. I heard it straight from J. Sherbet off the morning program- there are going to be a few changes instituted in these games. I suppose that to some degree, some of them might have something to do with you."
"Like what?" I press Jack to hurry ahead to the point. The idea that the games might have been changed in some fashion because of me makes me nervous. I can't see any way that that might be good.
"Well, you know better than anyone how close things came at a couple of points. …And tributes who put on a good show start to become sorts of favorites… This has happened for a while now, actually, but I guess the game makers are finally caving to public pressure. They see it as another way to help support the cost of the games." Jack folded his hands and cut to the chase, "Rich people will have the opportunity to send items in to help tributes that they sponsor."
I'm not sure if this is wonderful or if it makes no difference at all. Just what I need as I'm scrambling to figure out how to be a good mentor, another strategic element to have to deal with.
"If they like you, Mags, they're more likely to sponsor your tributes," Jack says, like he's not sure I've understood the entirety of the point he's trying to make.
But I get it. "…People wanted to sponsor me?" I wonder.
"I would've," Jack says.
All right, he does like me then. I'm not sure whether I hope he means it or if I'd prefer he's an awful liar. He did have two tributes of his own in those games, after all.
"Great," I let it sink it. "Thanks."