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31_days2012-12-05 08:00 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2012-12-05 08:00 pm
[Dec. 5] [The Hunger Games] Visibility: Unlimited
Title: Visibility: Unlimited
Day/Theme: Dec. 5, 2012 "still I must obey, still I must invite"
Series: The Hunger Games
Character/Pairing: Finnick & Mags
Rating: PG
Finnick Odair was newly sixteen-years-old. He could see clearly now, he thought. He could see everything.
And Mags could too, he thought. She had always been able to. That was why there were so many times she was looking away. She wasn't distracted or going senile. If she looked she would have to face the truth. If, in all these years as a victor, she had taken the time to seriously consider about all the horrible truths around her, she would have probably gone crazy. So, she was even smarter, Finnick figured, than he had thought she was before.
She had told him before he could ask her anything he liked. Even though they were equals now as two victors, Mags was still his mentor. She was always going to be someone he respected. There was a reason the others treated her the way they did.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"…Would that have made it better?" she tore her eyes away from the blur of the districts speeding past the window to look at his somber young face.
"You're right," he sighed, "It wouldn't have." And, while she had never told him straight out what was coming, in her own more subtle way, Mags had warned him. She had told him to think about what it was the Capitol loved about him- and not just his being willing to kill, because all the victors shared that- what it was that had made so many of them rush to sponsor him two years ago, to fawn over him, to invite him to every event they could think of, and clamor for his attention.
It occurred to him that even though Mags was pretty old and the Capitol didn't have much interest in old people, she was still ultimately at their beck and call.
He'd seen her take the phone calls sometimes, the ones that made her lined, happy face fall into a sad, tight frown.
She lived by herself, although with so many victors, friendly neighbors were never far away. When he was a little boy there had been a man who lived with her who must have been her husband, though it was hard to know for sure because no one in all of 4 called them "mister" and "missus," just 'Lito and Mags. Finnick couldn't remember how he'd died.
He wondered now, having done what he had done to protect the people he loved, what the Capitol had asked of Mags. She wasn't one of the ones like Haymitch. It was obvious that she had to have done something for them. Whatever it was, she probably did it decently well. There were still a lot of people she loved.
"…What did they want from you?" he asked. She had said to ask anything. He knew there was something.
"Have you ever seen my Games, Finnick?"
"Um, highlight reel clips, maybe." If he had seen a significant portion of Mags' Games, he was pretty sure he would remember it. Even though she would have been a lot younger and probably looked very different, he thought the fact that it was Mags would have made it significant. Back in training, Tyde used to show clips from the Games he had cut together into his own reference tapes, but none of them had included Mags (and even the clips of his own Games that he had included for some reason he usually sped quickly through, but if Shad took over classes for him he let everyone watch the parts of Tyde just to be contrary - and now Finnick was realizing that when they made it home to 4 because he could see everything in people he would be able to understand the hurt in Tyde and Shad and the other older victors and maybe he didn't even want to).
"…I was a brunette? With my hair up in two buns?" she prompted him.
…It was a modestly horrifying realization. "Who was the girl with the long black hair?"
"She was my friend," Mags gave him a sad smile, "She was from District 6."
So maybe not everything about a person was close enough to the surface for him to see. It was like looking out over the water from a high up point- even on the clearest day you didn't see what was under the water for half as far as what was on the surface. "Tyde plays a clip of you and that girl making jokes about crackers all the time."
"Well, that sums it up well."
"You were funny," he concluded.
"They didn't always ask the same things of us in the old, old days. The president who proceeded Snow was different."
"…So, did you do what they wanted you to?"
"For the most part," she said, then thought about it for a while. "…If it's within your control, never fall in love with someone from a different district, Finnick. They make it hard enough for you without your own."
"You didn't do it well enough," he saw. "You lost someone you loved."
"We both did," she said.
"…You know that you have me now, Mags," he promised.
"Yes, and the same goes for you."
Day/Theme: Dec. 5, 2012 "still I must obey, still I must invite"
Series: The Hunger Games
Character/Pairing: Finnick & Mags
Rating: PG
Finnick Odair was newly sixteen-years-old. He could see clearly now, he thought. He could see everything.
And Mags could too, he thought. She had always been able to. That was why there were so many times she was looking away. She wasn't distracted or going senile. If she looked she would have to face the truth. If, in all these years as a victor, she had taken the time to seriously consider about all the horrible truths around her, she would have probably gone crazy. So, she was even smarter, Finnick figured, than he had thought she was before.
She had told him before he could ask her anything he liked. Even though they were equals now as two victors, Mags was still his mentor. She was always going to be someone he respected. There was a reason the others treated her the way they did.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"…Would that have made it better?" she tore her eyes away from the blur of the districts speeding past the window to look at his somber young face.
"You're right," he sighed, "It wouldn't have." And, while she had never told him straight out what was coming, in her own more subtle way, Mags had warned him. She had told him to think about what it was the Capitol loved about him- and not just his being willing to kill, because all the victors shared that- what it was that had made so many of them rush to sponsor him two years ago, to fawn over him, to invite him to every event they could think of, and clamor for his attention.
It occurred to him that even though Mags was pretty old and the Capitol didn't have much interest in old people, she was still ultimately at their beck and call.
He'd seen her take the phone calls sometimes, the ones that made her lined, happy face fall into a sad, tight frown.
She lived by herself, although with so many victors, friendly neighbors were never far away. When he was a little boy there had been a man who lived with her who must have been her husband, though it was hard to know for sure because no one in all of 4 called them "mister" and "missus," just 'Lito and Mags. Finnick couldn't remember how he'd died.
He wondered now, having done what he had done to protect the people he loved, what the Capitol had asked of Mags. She wasn't one of the ones like Haymitch. It was obvious that she had to have done something for them. Whatever it was, she probably did it decently well. There were still a lot of people she loved.
"…What did they want from you?" he asked. She had said to ask anything. He knew there was something.
"Have you ever seen my Games, Finnick?"
"Um, highlight reel clips, maybe." If he had seen a significant portion of Mags' Games, he was pretty sure he would remember it. Even though she would have been a lot younger and probably looked very different, he thought the fact that it was Mags would have made it significant. Back in training, Tyde used to show clips from the Games he had cut together into his own reference tapes, but none of them had included Mags (and even the clips of his own Games that he had included for some reason he usually sped quickly through, but if Shad took over classes for him he let everyone watch the parts of Tyde just to be contrary - and now Finnick was realizing that when they made it home to 4 because he could see everything in people he would be able to understand the hurt in Tyde and Shad and the other older victors and maybe he didn't even want to).
"…I was a brunette? With my hair up in two buns?" she prompted him.
…It was a modestly horrifying realization. "Who was the girl with the long black hair?"
"She was my friend," Mags gave him a sad smile, "She was from District 6."
So maybe not everything about a person was close enough to the surface for him to see. It was like looking out over the water from a high up point- even on the clearest day you didn't see what was under the water for half as far as what was on the surface. "Tyde plays a clip of you and that girl making jokes about crackers all the time."
"Well, that sums it up well."
"You were funny," he concluded.
"They didn't always ask the same things of us in the old, old days. The president who proceeded Snow was different."
"…So, did you do what they wanted you to?"
"For the most part," she said, then thought about it for a while. "…If it's within your control, never fall in love with someone from a different district, Finnick. They make it hard enough for you without your own."
"You didn't do it well enough," he saw. "You lost someone you loved."
"We both did," she said.
"…You know that you have me now, Mags," he promised.
"Yes, and the same goes for you."