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31_days2014-12-12 07:01 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2014-12-12 07:01 pm
[Dec. 12] [THG] Associates
Title: Associates
Day/Theme: Dec. 12, 2014 "they don't love you like I love you"
Series: Hunger Games trilogy
Character/Pairing: OCs (Jack + various OCs), Mags
Rating: PG-13
Author's comment: Err, had to cut this short because of a sudden job. (wanted to include a section with Sophie Varen!)
The role of escort to the tributes had been slightly reconsidered once there was an actual victor to be dealt with. In District One, at least, things could not be left as they were. Nix Powell was not going to work. Jack was absolutely terrified of him and Nix did not handle this matter delicately, seeming, rather, to relish the power he possessed over the young man at the center of the nation's attention.
The president opted to follow more or less the path of least resistance in correcting the situation. He demoted Nix down to the end of the line in District Twelve and plucked Paprika Ray out of another spot in the lineup to head the work of handling Jack Umber.
It was in her company that Jack finally returned to his home district after his extended post-victory stay in the Capitol.
She was the only one there to see with her own eyes, when, finally removed from the public eye, inside his empty new home, the energy that powered Jack's positive facade ran dry. He made it as far as the couch before he stopped smiling and laid down. Paprika tried to ignore this, to shrug it off as normal momentary tiredness, and kept on puttering about the house, exclaiming aloud about this and that for his benefit.
At no point in her litany of excitement did Jack get up.
"Are you sick?" she asked him.
"No," he mumbled into the fabric of the furniture.
Paprika had been authorized to stay with him for the length of one week without even checking in (beneath his smiling exterior so much could remain unknown- there was a bit of concern from those responsible as to what he might do…). After that she was to assess his state of mind and request extra time in the district if necessary.
Over the course of the week she cooked for Jack and made his bed and recorded a message on his answering machine after he showed no interest in following her instructions on how to do so himself. He didn't leave the room if she turned the television on, but he didn't seem to take in any project she put on.
He would eat though. He washed his face and brushed his teeth (she wasn't sure he combed his hair).
One week wouldn't do it, so Paprika stayed, but on the tenth day, Jack started to talk. He examined the various boxes of food she had put in his cupboards. He tested the climate control settings of the house. He looked at the catalogues she had brought and picked out things he liked.
At the end of two weeks, Paprika returned to the Capitol. She remained the official escort to District One for three more years. She never saw the Jack who had laid on the couch for hours again. He was quieter sometimes than others, but he managed to smile and talk and laugh enough to always fit the exaggeration he had settled upon for himself.
Even after she left the Games service and went into the management of a fancy niche grocery store, Paprika kept an eye on Jack and his public doings out of all the victors. She remembered the two weeks that she had lived with him.
---
"Will you take me out on a date?" the president's daughter asked over an informal dinner in one of the smaller rooms of the presidential manor.
Jack froze up, a nervous smile on his face. "Is she-" he looked to the man whose opinion of the whole matter was really more vital than his or Star's, "Am I allowed?"
"Certainly," the president smiled back all too nicely, "Though I expect you to be on your best behavior."
It was not terrible spending time with Star as long as he could manage not to think about the president while he did. The first few times they did something together (just the two of them with her security hanging about silently in the background), Jack was tense with concern as to how closely the president was monitoring them and what it was he wanted and would allow within this relationship (he worried most if there were something Star would want that her father didn't want for her- there was nothing that could be but trouble for him).
Gradually he relaxed. There hadn't seemed to be any problems (there had been no complaints on either end). He grew used to Star and her particular expectations and idiosyncrasies. She seemed to have grown up as a perplexingly sheltered person. She didn't seem to know almost anything about the war and the days before at all. He did appreciate that she wasn't interested in District One at all. She didn't seem to think of him as the sort of rustic that many did- just a funny celebrity off the TV.
She liked showing him off in front of her friends, so the places they went were rather mundane, as far as the interests of the wealthiest young girls were concerned. He ate a lot of ice cream and Star would tell him he ate too much.
They carried on like this on and off over the years, never really breaking up or getting back together- things just trailed off for a while if Star found someone else she felt like dating and then picked back up if she were lonely and bored. In between one of the breaks she got into the club scene and liked for him to take her dancing. They stayed out at all hours and would sometimes wind up, drunk, back at his apartment, but Jack always kept enough of his wits about him so as not to do something stupid. Star was all right for who she was, but it was going to take an executive order for him to have sex with the president's daughter.
---
Mags slept peacefully for all that she'd been anxious while she was awake. Jack watched her thoughtfully, her presence a comforting addition to the thoughts he entertained.
Day/Theme: Dec. 12, 2014 "they don't love you like I love you"
Series: Hunger Games trilogy
Character/Pairing: OCs (Jack + various OCs), Mags
Rating: PG-13
Author's comment: Err, had to cut this short because of a sudden job. (wanted to include a section with Sophie Varen!)
The role of escort to the tributes had been slightly reconsidered once there was an actual victor to be dealt with. In District One, at least, things could not be left as they were. Nix Powell was not going to work. Jack was absolutely terrified of him and Nix did not handle this matter delicately, seeming, rather, to relish the power he possessed over the young man at the center of the nation's attention.
The president opted to follow more or less the path of least resistance in correcting the situation. He demoted Nix down to the end of the line in District Twelve and plucked Paprika Ray out of another spot in the lineup to head the work of handling Jack Umber.
It was in her company that Jack finally returned to his home district after his extended post-victory stay in the Capitol.
She was the only one there to see with her own eyes, when, finally removed from the public eye, inside his empty new home, the energy that powered Jack's positive facade ran dry. He made it as far as the couch before he stopped smiling and laid down. Paprika tried to ignore this, to shrug it off as normal momentary tiredness, and kept on puttering about the house, exclaiming aloud about this and that for his benefit.
At no point in her litany of excitement did Jack get up.
"Are you sick?" she asked him.
"No," he mumbled into the fabric of the furniture.
Paprika had been authorized to stay with him for the length of one week without even checking in (beneath his smiling exterior so much could remain unknown- there was a bit of concern from those responsible as to what he might do…). After that she was to assess his state of mind and request extra time in the district if necessary.
Over the course of the week she cooked for Jack and made his bed and recorded a message on his answering machine after he showed no interest in following her instructions on how to do so himself. He didn't leave the room if she turned the television on, but he didn't seem to take in any project she put on.
He would eat though. He washed his face and brushed his teeth (she wasn't sure he combed his hair).
One week wouldn't do it, so Paprika stayed, but on the tenth day, Jack started to talk. He examined the various boxes of food she had put in his cupboards. He tested the climate control settings of the house. He looked at the catalogues she had brought and picked out things he liked.
At the end of two weeks, Paprika returned to the Capitol. She remained the official escort to District One for three more years. She never saw the Jack who had laid on the couch for hours again. He was quieter sometimes than others, but he managed to smile and talk and laugh enough to always fit the exaggeration he had settled upon for himself.
Even after she left the Games service and went into the management of a fancy niche grocery store, Paprika kept an eye on Jack and his public doings out of all the victors. She remembered the two weeks that she had lived with him.
"Will you take me out on a date?" the president's daughter asked over an informal dinner in one of the smaller rooms of the presidential manor.
Jack froze up, a nervous smile on his face. "Is she-" he looked to the man whose opinion of the whole matter was really more vital than his or Star's, "Am I allowed?"
"Certainly," the president smiled back all too nicely, "Though I expect you to be on your best behavior."
It was not terrible spending time with Star as long as he could manage not to think about the president while he did. The first few times they did something together (just the two of them with her security hanging about silently in the background), Jack was tense with concern as to how closely the president was monitoring them and what it was he wanted and would allow within this relationship (he worried most if there were something Star would want that her father didn't want for her- there was nothing that could be but trouble for him).
Gradually he relaxed. There hadn't seemed to be any problems (there had been no complaints on either end). He grew used to Star and her particular expectations and idiosyncrasies. She seemed to have grown up as a perplexingly sheltered person. She didn't seem to know almost anything about the war and the days before at all. He did appreciate that she wasn't interested in District One at all. She didn't seem to think of him as the sort of rustic that many did- just a funny celebrity off the TV.
She liked showing him off in front of her friends, so the places they went were rather mundane, as far as the interests of the wealthiest young girls were concerned. He ate a lot of ice cream and Star would tell him he ate too much.
They carried on like this on and off over the years, never really breaking up or getting back together- things just trailed off for a while if Star found someone else she felt like dating and then picked back up if she were lonely and bored. In between one of the breaks she got into the club scene and liked for him to take her dancing. They stayed out at all hours and would sometimes wind up, drunk, back at his apartment, but Jack always kept enough of his wits about him so as not to do something stupid. Star was all right for who she was, but it was going to take an executive order for him to have sex with the president's daughter.
Mags slept peacefully for all that she'd been anxious while she was awake. Jack watched her thoughtfully, her presence a comforting addition to the thoughts he entertained.