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31_days2014-12-05 10:44 am
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2014-12-05 10:44 am
[Dec. 5] [THG] Sabotage
Title: Sabotage
Day/Theme: Dec. 5, 2014 "the mechanized hum of another world"
Series: Hunger Games trilogy
Character/Pairing: District 5 OCs
Rating: PG
Author's comment: Inspired by a scene in the Mockingjay Part 1 film, actually. Includes discussion of District 5's victors as depicted in some of my other stories, as well as Foxface, within this continuity named Sofi Sharp.
Ohm Sharp knew that the foreman of Plant Five was one of the…planners. Even in his mind, Ohm couldn't bring himself to think the word- what Engineer Rosso was. What planning of Engineer Rosso's was important to him wasn't the regular stuff he did to run the plant. It took him a while until he worked himself up and around to speaking with Engineer Rosso because they hadn't been previously acquainted and Ohm wasn't sure how one was meant to casually bring up a desire to enter into organized…rebellious…activity.
It was fortunate that Engineer Rosso was one of the planners instead of him. As Ohm hemmed and hawed nervously, Engineer Rosso understood what he meant perfectly and invited him to meet at a particular location the following evening.
Ohm was afraid of arriving early and having to wait around. He was afraid of arriving late and not being let in. He made his way near to the appropriate area and timed his approach to the door so that it would align precisely with the time he had been given. A man he recognized from around town let him in, smiling a little. "Hello Mr. Sharp."
"You're Fahren Apia," Ohm recalled, "You make shoes. …But that's not why I remember you. You went with Phebe for a while."
Fahren chuckled, though he looked somewhat pained, and reached for a box of cigarettes half-crushed in the pocket of his jeans. "Several 'a whiles' actually. …And you, Ohm Sharp, are in charge of the ventilation system in Plant Seven. But I know you because you are the father of last year's female tribute- the most promising tribute we'd fielded since Phebe."
"Her name-" Ohm began to insist.
"Was Sofi, I know," Fahren lit the cigarette. "She was smart. She'd worked for McGrath, right? I suppose she might've ended up by herself a while too long. She went funny like you. …When your wife died. Yeah," Fahren was quick to explain himself, "Yeah, I remember that too. You walked around town at night looking lost."
"I lost all four of my children." Ohm felt cold. "I lost my wife. I was like a sleepwalker then. …I'm awake now."
"C'mon," Fahren ushered him down a long, dim hall, "Let's sit."
They sat and Fahren smoked and one or two at a time, other people joined them, several from the passageway they had entered by and others from room further back where they must have already been talking. Kim Sam Kang from the Botanical Sciences Laboratory shows up on behalf of himself and, apparently, several friends (namely Bill Cohort and Pea Steelvine). Engineer Rosso was one of the ones in the back room and a woman, Saya Starp, with him. Saya, Ohm learned, worked at Plant Twelve- the hydroelectric dam. Three other female employees at the dam filed out the meeting, but they seemed nervous or shy and didn't introduce themselves (Saya's comments would eventually reveal them as Ada Castline, Rachna Smith, and Korry Crescent).
Somehow their victors became the first real topic of conversation.
"They thought they were alone, you know," Fahren murmured, tapping the ash off his cigarette into the ash tray, "Well, Phebe did at least. She's the only one I suppose I can speak too much for."
"They weren't alone though," Kim insisted, establishing his credentials as another of the people here on a first-name basis with one of the victors, "Bill and Pea and I always went out to see Ham."
"You guys were just making illegal alcohol in the extra parts of his big weird house," Saya shook her head.
Ohm thought about his lovely, clever daughter, dancing around the mines that even cleverer boy from District Three had reactivated. What would Sofi have done in this situation? …for the sake of his heart, perhaps that was too dangerous a game to play, but… "The set-up for that- the stills- they weren't confiscated?" he queried.
"Not as far as I know," Kim shrugged. "You know how it is, they let victors get away with all kinds of stuff as long as it doesn't give back to the community. Sure, we were getting drunk off it too, but being sloshed on the job got Pea fired, so I can't imagine any Capitol big shots were all that concerned about it."
"People on television were always laughing at Hamlet," Saya recalled in a soft, less judgmental voice than before. "But they probably liked it that he was that way. It always seemed to me that they liked to see the victors fail." The blond woman from the dam nodded in definite agreement with this.
Fahren put his head in his hands. "Poor Phebe. I should have tried harder. I didn't understand what she was going through, which makes sense, but I shouldn't have just left it like that either. …And now she's dead. They're both dead."
"Not Shy and Valse," Saya countered, "At least, probably not. I mean, if they were, you'd think they would want us to know."
"They try to act all cool and standoffish, but you know they had a big enough stake in this as well," Kim noted.
Aze Rosso shook his head, disagreeing slightly. "With Shy it is really hard to say. She played every last bit of that victor game as carefully as it could be played. But certainly you know she wasn't on the side of our enemies no matter what anyone says about that. She may not have told our other victors what to do, but she knew what they were up to. And Valse I can vouch for personally." He reached into his coat and pulled out a heavy ring of keys. He removed a single gold-colored key from the ring and set it on the table. "If we can just get around the Peacekeepers guarding the gates to Victors' Village, there's a nice store of stuff he hung onto for me and some he bought himself. Valse is a good guy." He stared down at the victor's spare key on the table.
"If we ever see him again, it's going to be as part of the next round of executions, isn't it?" Saya voiced the sentiment on Aze's mind.
This was probably true, but it wasn't going to help any for anyone present to voice it.
Ohm, who had little personal experience with the victors (Phebe had been a decent mentor to his daughter, he assumed; she had treated him in a manner he found kind and respectful when she brought her body home - power in the sky, Sofi had known them better- she had gone into the Village with her boss to do some electrical work for them…), had stayed quiet throughout this discussion of where they stood. He did not know very much about Hamlet Seff, but he did know something of the nature of homemade distilling equipment. "If," he interrupted the grim proceedings, "If all the equipment is still in Hamlet's basement…And we can get inside… We can blow it sky-high. That would provide some pretty great cover for our storming our real target."
The hydroelectric dam.
"So say maybe," Aze mused, cheering as he was filled with energy by the additional idea, "Maybe some kids have heard that if they get into Ham's old place they can get drunk on his stash and no one will notice? And they just happen to accidentally light the place up on their way out…?"
"Sounds like just the job for my nephew and his friends," Kim grinned. "The kind of thing Ham and the guys and I would've been exactly up for in the old days."
"Ham wouldn't have gone to get drunk," Saya offered up another counterargument, "He was a good kid!"
"Well, he wouldn't have gotten drunk," Kim altered his judgment slightly, "But if we had gone, he would have come. He would've watched over all of us. He was good at being a look-out."
Another of the women from the plant, with skin slightly mauve in the off light of the place, spoke at last- solemn and unwilling to disregard the true deadliness of their upcoming mission- "Every one of us who storms the dam that night has to do so prepared to die, all right? Most of us will probably die. Maybe everyone. …All of you know that?"
Ohm raised his hand like a timid child in the back of a schoolroom. "Do you mean me? …Because I'm new or coming in at so late a date?"
"Rachna's speaking generally," Saya tried to smooth things over in case of hurt feelings (something they could not afford while speaking treason- what if Ohm left and turned them over to the authorities?).
"I'm not angry," Ohm made sure to specify after Saya's intervention, "I was just wondering. Ms. Engineer, you and I don't know each other, and I don't know if you're like Mr. Apia and recognize me, but I don't have anyone left worth dying for. Lot of days I don't know what I have worth living for. In the past twelve years I lost my wife and all four children- even with just the last one left, poor Sofi, I was just going through the motions a lot more often than a father should. Their lives or their deaths didn't move anyone in the Capitol. I can only hope that somehow, if I join this effort, mine can. …If nothing else, I'll receive the only opportunity available to me to possibly see them again."
"You're all right, Ohm," Fahren reached over and clapped a hand to his upper arm, "You're all right."
Ohm gazed down at the last embers fading away on Fahren's discarded cigarette in the ashtray. Burning out. Burning down to ash. Would they- would their efforts- float away in the end like dust on the breeze? …Nothing to do but what poor, sweet Sofi had done. Nothing to do but to die trying. "I couldn't be brave all on my own," Ohm said.
Day/Theme: Dec. 5, 2014 "the mechanized hum of another world"
Series: Hunger Games trilogy
Character/Pairing: District 5 OCs
Rating: PG
Author's comment: Inspired by a scene in the Mockingjay Part 1 film, actually. Includes discussion of District 5's victors as depicted in some of my other stories, as well as Foxface, within this continuity named Sofi Sharp.
Ohm Sharp knew that the foreman of Plant Five was one of the…planners. Even in his mind, Ohm couldn't bring himself to think the word- what Engineer Rosso was. What planning of Engineer Rosso's was important to him wasn't the regular stuff he did to run the plant. It took him a while until he worked himself up and around to speaking with Engineer Rosso because they hadn't been previously acquainted and Ohm wasn't sure how one was meant to casually bring up a desire to enter into organized…rebellious…activity.
It was fortunate that Engineer Rosso was one of the planners instead of him. As Ohm hemmed and hawed nervously, Engineer Rosso understood what he meant perfectly and invited him to meet at a particular location the following evening.
Ohm was afraid of arriving early and having to wait around. He was afraid of arriving late and not being let in. He made his way near to the appropriate area and timed his approach to the door so that it would align precisely with the time he had been given. A man he recognized from around town let him in, smiling a little. "Hello Mr. Sharp."
"You're Fahren Apia," Ohm recalled, "You make shoes. …But that's not why I remember you. You went with Phebe for a while."
Fahren chuckled, though he looked somewhat pained, and reached for a box of cigarettes half-crushed in the pocket of his jeans. "Several 'a whiles' actually. …And you, Ohm Sharp, are in charge of the ventilation system in Plant Seven. But I know you because you are the father of last year's female tribute- the most promising tribute we'd fielded since Phebe."
"Her name-" Ohm began to insist.
"Was Sofi, I know," Fahren lit the cigarette. "She was smart. She'd worked for McGrath, right? I suppose she might've ended up by herself a while too long. She went funny like you. …When your wife died. Yeah," Fahren was quick to explain himself, "Yeah, I remember that too. You walked around town at night looking lost."
"I lost all four of my children." Ohm felt cold. "I lost my wife. I was like a sleepwalker then. …I'm awake now."
"C'mon," Fahren ushered him down a long, dim hall, "Let's sit."
They sat and Fahren smoked and one or two at a time, other people joined them, several from the passageway they had entered by and others from room further back where they must have already been talking. Kim Sam Kang from the Botanical Sciences Laboratory shows up on behalf of himself and, apparently, several friends (namely Bill Cohort and Pea Steelvine). Engineer Rosso was one of the ones in the back room and a woman, Saya Starp, with him. Saya, Ohm learned, worked at Plant Twelve- the hydroelectric dam. Three other female employees at the dam filed out the meeting, but they seemed nervous or shy and didn't introduce themselves (Saya's comments would eventually reveal them as Ada Castline, Rachna Smith, and Korry Crescent).
Somehow their victors became the first real topic of conversation.
"They thought they were alone, you know," Fahren murmured, tapping the ash off his cigarette into the ash tray, "Well, Phebe did at least. She's the only one I suppose I can speak too much for."
"They weren't alone though," Kim insisted, establishing his credentials as another of the people here on a first-name basis with one of the victors, "Bill and Pea and I always went out to see Ham."
"You guys were just making illegal alcohol in the extra parts of his big weird house," Saya shook her head.
Ohm thought about his lovely, clever daughter, dancing around the mines that even cleverer boy from District Three had reactivated. What would Sofi have done in this situation? …for the sake of his heart, perhaps that was too dangerous a game to play, but… "The set-up for that- the stills- they weren't confiscated?" he queried.
"Not as far as I know," Kim shrugged. "You know how it is, they let victors get away with all kinds of stuff as long as it doesn't give back to the community. Sure, we were getting drunk off it too, but being sloshed on the job got Pea fired, so I can't imagine any Capitol big shots were all that concerned about it."
"People on television were always laughing at Hamlet," Saya recalled in a soft, less judgmental voice than before. "But they probably liked it that he was that way. It always seemed to me that they liked to see the victors fail." The blond woman from the dam nodded in definite agreement with this.
Fahren put his head in his hands. "Poor Phebe. I should have tried harder. I didn't understand what she was going through, which makes sense, but I shouldn't have just left it like that either. …And now she's dead. They're both dead."
"Not Shy and Valse," Saya countered, "At least, probably not. I mean, if they were, you'd think they would want us to know."
"They try to act all cool and standoffish, but you know they had a big enough stake in this as well," Kim noted.
Aze Rosso shook his head, disagreeing slightly. "With Shy it is really hard to say. She played every last bit of that victor game as carefully as it could be played. But certainly you know she wasn't on the side of our enemies no matter what anyone says about that. She may not have told our other victors what to do, but she knew what they were up to. And Valse I can vouch for personally." He reached into his coat and pulled out a heavy ring of keys. He removed a single gold-colored key from the ring and set it on the table. "If we can just get around the Peacekeepers guarding the gates to Victors' Village, there's a nice store of stuff he hung onto for me and some he bought himself. Valse is a good guy." He stared down at the victor's spare key on the table.
"If we ever see him again, it's going to be as part of the next round of executions, isn't it?" Saya voiced the sentiment on Aze's mind.
This was probably true, but it wasn't going to help any for anyone present to voice it.
Ohm, who had little personal experience with the victors (Phebe had been a decent mentor to his daughter, he assumed; she had treated him in a manner he found kind and respectful when she brought her body home - power in the sky, Sofi had known them better- she had gone into the Village with her boss to do some electrical work for them…), had stayed quiet throughout this discussion of where they stood. He did not know very much about Hamlet Seff, but he did know something of the nature of homemade distilling equipment. "If," he interrupted the grim proceedings, "If all the equipment is still in Hamlet's basement…And we can get inside… We can blow it sky-high. That would provide some pretty great cover for our storming our real target."
The hydroelectric dam.
"So say maybe," Aze mused, cheering as he was filled with energy by the additional idea, "Maybe some kids have heard that if they get into Ham's old place they can get drunk on his stash and no one will notice? And they just happen to accidentally light the place up on their way out…?"
"Sounds like just the job for my nephew and his friends," Kim grinned. "The kind of thing Ham and the guys and I would've been exactly up for in the old days."
"Ham wouldn't have gone to get drunk," Saya offered up another counterargument, "He was a good kid!"
"Well, he wouldn't have gotten drunk," Kim altered his judgment slightly, "But if we had gone, he would have come. He would've watched over all of us. He was good at being a look-out."
Another of the women from the plant, with skin slightly mauve in the off light of the place, spoke at last- solemn and unwilling to disregard the true deadliness of their upcoming mission- "Every one of us who storms the dam that night has to do so prepared to die, all right? Most of us will probably die. Maybe everyone. …All of you know that?"
Ohm raised his hand like a timid child in the back of a schoolroom. "Do you mean me? …Because I'm new or coming in at so late a date?"
"Rachna's speaking generally," Saya tried to smooth things over in case of hurt feelings (something they could not afford while speaking treason- what if Ohm left and turned them over to the authorities?).
"I'm not angry," Ohm made sure to specify after Saya's intervention, "I was just wondering. Ms. Engineer, you and I don't know each other, and I don't know if you're like Mr. Apia and recognize me, but I don't have anyone left worth dying for. Lot of days I don't know what I have worth living for. In the past twelve years I lost my wife and all four children- even with just the last one left, poor Sofi, I was just going through the motions a lot more often than a father should. Their lives or their deaths didn't move anyone in the Capitol. I can only hope that somehow, if I join this effort, mine can. …If nothing else, I'll receive the only opportunity available to me to possibly see them again."
"You're all right, Ohm," Fahren reached over and clapped a hand to his upper arm, "You're all right."
Ohm gazed down at the last embers fading away on Fahren's discarded cigarette in the ashtray. Burning out. Burning down to ash. Would they- would their efforts- float away in the end like dust on the breeze? …Nothing to do but what poor, sweet Sofi had done. Nothing to do but to die trying. "I couldn't be brave all on my own," Ohm said.