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31_days2014-01-29 08:45 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2014-01-29 08:45 pm
[Jan. 29] [THG] a Time to Rise
Title: a Time to Rise
Day/Theme: Jan. 29, 2014 "the future belongs to someone else"
Series: Hunger Games trilogy
Character/Pairing: Mags, OC District 4 victors
Rating: PG-13
"Will the time come soon?" Odysseus asked. He was long and thin and, lolling about in this manner, he stretched all the way from one end of Mags' couch and out past the other. "Forty years, Ms. Mags," he poked Mags' chair with his toe, "Coming up on forty years of this."
There was no need for him to say it. When the Games still went on after the Twenty-Fifth Games and all its terrors, they all knew. It would take something drastic to bring the Games to a halt. No one seemed to revel in them as much as President Snow and the sycophants surrounding him. "I don't know," Mags sighed, "I don't know."
Tyde stood up and stretched his arms. Something in his shoulder made an unpleasant sound and he squinted over at it, a little bit concerned, but if there were a problem, it clearly wasn't anything substantial. "I feel like getting back outside in the air. Let's take a walk, huh?"
"Yeah, I'd love to!" Shad agreed, hopping up quickly to follow his friend.
"Me too, Auntie," Jules tripped over himself to get up, urging Mags to follow. But she didn't see the need to announce her actions- it would only seem fishier that way to anyone who might be listening in. Odysseus was often too careless with his saying anything he felt like wherever anyone might hear and Jules, alternately, was too blatant in announcing his neutralities and how he was doing nothing worth worrying about at all.
They walked down to the wooden stairs and wove their way to the beach. Faline saw them going and waved at her son and District Four's other four victors from her back window. Jules and Mags waved back. "Your mom practically spies on you as much as the government," Odysseus laughed, "The only time she'll let you out of her sight is when you're with Mags or me and you know Ms. Mags'll tell her absolutely everything!"
"And you won't?" Tyde shot back at the younger victor, "Ms. Surfjan can twist you around her finger just as well as any of the rest of us!"
When they teased each other like this, it was like they were an ordinary family, Mags thought. Like they were her brothers or cousins or nephews or sons. Like they had been brought together by the sort of blood one respected for the right reasons, not that made an entire nation remember her blood mingling in the water with that of her opponents, the flesh of Tyde's palms seared by hot rocks as he heaved them to kill, Shad's eyes seeming to wobble with tears lit by one tiny light in the dark, Odysseus standing up from his horrible injuries and telling everyone of some prophesied doom, Jules shivering, a tiny thing, hair and clothes soaked through with rain and blood.
There was rebel talk now, but they hesitated on the precipice of rebel action. There had been tiny ripples of revolution in Three and Eight and they had all seen the repercussions. Mags had perceived the punishment as extending out beyond the out-spoken districts this time, the same as before. If Luna Vetiver fought back, Vetivers were reaped; if Kayta Hiro dared to speak, his sons died in the Games, but other victors also suffered the backlash. Snow treated them differently than the president before him had. Every year he seemed to find new ways to organize and monetize their suffering.
On the sand, Odysseus and Jules ran ahead, racing toward the surf, shoving each other and laughing. The three older victors hung back. "If we could do it now, I would," Tyde said. He had three children and two of them were right within the ages eligible for reaping. "And I- I know if you could've, you would've done it long ago," he assured Mags, "You've done all you could anyway for all of us."
"It's early enough for them still," Shad added, "For Odysseus. For Jules. I mean, not the same as the ones who've never gone, but I think, with time, they would get to be okay. More okay, that is, than they are now."
"It's too late for us, you mean," Mags laughed a little, "Now, now, don't be sorry. I understand what you mean, Shad. If we can have our lives, that's good enough. If we can have each other, that's good enough."
"It's not right now though, is it?" Tyde sighed, "There has to be something else. Something more. Something better. To you, you know, get it started properly. Get us all on the same page. And Snow's strong."
"I will hold out until that day," Shad promised, "However long it takes until it comes. Until my last breath." He knew Tyde and Mags felt roughly the same way.
"The future belongs to someone else…" Mags said, "I want it to be a good one…"
Day/Theme: Jan. 29, 2014 "the future belongs to someone else"
Series: Hunger Games trilogy
Character/Pairing: Mags, OC District 4 victors
Rating: PG-13
"Will the time come soon?" Odysseus asked. He was long and thin and, lolling about in this manner, he stretched all the way from one end of Mags' couch and out past the other. "Forty years, Ms. Mags," he poked Mags' chair with his toe, "Coming up on forty years of this."
There was no need for him to say it. When the Games still went on after the Twenty-Fifth Games and all its terrors, they all knew. It would take something drastic to bring the Games to a halt. No one seemed to revel in them as much as President Snow and the sycophants surrounding him. "I don't know," Mags sighed, "I don't know."
Tyde stood up and stretched his arms. Something in his shoulder made an unpleasant sound and he squinted over at it, a little bit concerned, but if there were a problem, it clearly wasn't anything substantial. "I feel like getting back outside in the air. Let's take a walk, huh?"
"Yeah, I'd love to!" Shad agreed, hopping up quickly to follow his friend.
"Me too, Auntie," Jules tripped over himself to get up, urging Mags to follow. But she didn't see the need to announce her actions- it would only seem fishier that way to anyone who might be listening in. Odysseus was often too careless with his saying anything he felt like wherever anyone might hear and Jules, alternately, was too blatant in announcing his neutralities and how he was doing nothing worth worrying about at all.
They walked down to the wooden stairs and wove their way to the beach. Faline saw them going and waved at her son and District Four's other four victors from her back window. Jules and Mags waved back. "Your mom practically spies on you as much as the government," Odysseus laughed, "The only time she'll let you out of her sight is when you're with Mags or me and you know Ms. Mags'll tell her absolutely everything!"
"And you won't?" Tyde shot back at the younger victor, "Ms. Surfjan can twist you around her finger just as well as any of the rest of us!"
When they teased each other like this, it was like they were an ordinary family, Mags thought. Like they were her brothers or cousins or nephews or sons. Like they had been brought together by the sort of blood one respected for the right reasons, not that made an entire nation remember her blood mingling in the water with that of her opponents, the flesh of Tyde's palms seared by hot rocks as he heaved them to kill, Shad's eyes seeming to wobble with tears lit by one tiny light in the dark, Odysseus standing up from his horrible injuries and telling everyone of some prophesied doom, Jules shivering, a tiny thing, hair and clothes soaked through with rain and blood.
There was rebel talk now, but they hesitated on the precipice of rebel action. There had been tiny ripples of revolution in Three and Eight and they had all seen the repercussions. Mags had perceived the punishment as extending out beyond the out-spoken districts this time, the same as before. If Luna Vetiver fought back, Vetivers were reaped; if Kayta Hiro dared to speak, his sons died in the Games, but other victors also suffered the backlash. Snow treated them differently than the president before him had. Every year he seemed to find new ways to organize and monetize their suffering.
On the sand, Odysseus and Jules ran ahead, racing toward the surf, shoving each other and laughing. The three older victors hung back. "If we could do it now, I would," Tyde said. He had three children and two of them were right within the ages eligible for reaping. "And I- I know if you could've, you would've done it long ago," he assured Mags, "You've done all you could anyway for all of us."
"It's early enough for them still," Shad added, "For Odysseus. For Jules. I mean, not the same as the ones who've never gone, but I think, with time, they would get to be okay. More okay, that is, than they are now."
"It's too late for us, you mean," Mags laughed a little, "Now, now, don't be sorry. I understand what you mean, Shad. If we can have our lives, that's good enough. If we can have each other, that's good enough."
"It's not right now though, is it?" Tyde sighed, "There has to be something else. Something more. Something better. To you, you know, get it started properly. Get us all on the same page. And Snow's strong."
"I will hold out until that day," Shad promised, "However long it takes until it comes. Until my last breath." He knew Tyde and Mags felt roughly the same way.
"The future belongs to someone else…" Mags said, "I want it to be a good one…"