three can keep a secret (prompt: secret)
Jan. 14th, 2025 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matsushima posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandomocweeklyTitle: three can keep a secret
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Characters: OC - Paisely Webster; OC - Dimity Shoemaker; Canon - Cecelia ???; OC - Penelope "Penny" Fuller (Mentioned); OC - Mrs. Webster (Mentioned)
Rating: G - General audiences
Warnings: Implication of canon-typical violence
Word Count: 478
Prompt:fandomocweekly "Secret"
“I’ll go.”
We’re huddled up in Dimity’s townhouse in the Village, us three. The news has just been announced: tributes for the Quarter Quell will be drawn from the existing pool of victors. It’s only us. Somewhere across town, Woof and Weft are probably having the same conversation.
Of course I’ll go. Cecelia has three children and Dimity has the revolution. I have an on-again, off-again girlfriend and a soul-sucking job writing propaganda for the Capital. This is the only way. My mother will understand that it had to be me. She’ll have to leave the townhouse but Cecelia and Dimity will take care of her.
“No.” Cecelia and Dimity say it at the same time.
“You’re young,” says Dimity. “You have your whole life ahead of you.”
That’s when I know that they’ve been keeping secrets from me. Dimity and Cecelia, the two people who understand me best in the world. Better than Penny, better than my own mother. Because they’ve been there. Been in the Hunger Games. Survived. And now one of us will have to do it again.
“But -” I start to say, and Cecelia - lovely Cecelia, with her long blonde hair in a loose bun and her gentle smile - takes my hand.
“But I have phthisis,” says Cecelia.
“But can’t they -” I’m desperate, shaking. I didn’t cry when I said goodbye to my mother the first time I volunteered but I’m in tears now.
Cecelia’s so young. Older than me but younger than my mother. Her children are only babies, barely in kindergarten, too young to even take an after school factory shift. She can’t have phthisis. She can’t die in the Hunger Games. If my mother died when I was Calico’s age, it would have killed me, too.
“No. It’s too late. No one knows but Tanner and Dimity. The doctor says I have six months, so what if it’s only six weeks instead?” Cecelia is so calm. She’s dying and she’s comforting me. It’s not fair but I can’t stop crying.
Dimity pours me another cup of tea and slips a dash of whiskey into it. I’m too young to drink but it doesn’t matter, not when you’re a victor. When you’re a victor, the normal rules don’t apply to you any more. Like life and death.
“You have your whole life ahead of you. You have so much to look forward to.”
As she says this, Cecelia spins her hand in the air. It’s a factory sign we use that means turn, as in, turn over the weaving, but here it means something else: overturn, as in overturn the Capital. Even if we’re bugged, the Capital won’t understand. This is our secret language in District 8.
“You have to live for me,” says Cecelia. “You have to take care of Cally and Cedar and Coral so they’ll have a better future.”
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Characters: OC - Paisely Webster; OC - Dimity Shoemaker; Canon - Cecelia ???; OC - Penelope "Penny" Fuller (Mentioned); OC - Mrs. Webster (Mentioned)
Rating: G - General audiences
Warnings: Implication of canon-typical violence
Word Count: 478
Prompt:
fandomocweekly "Secret"“I’ll go.”
We’re huddled up in Dimity’s townhouse in the Village, us three. The news has just been announced: tributes for the Quarter Quell will be drawn from the existing pool of victors. It’s only us. Somewhere across town, Woof and Weft are probably having the same conversation.
Of course I’ll go. Cecelia has three children and Dimity has the revolution. I have an on-again, off-again girlfriend and a soul-sucking job writing propaganda for the Capital. This is the only way. My mother will understand that it had to be me. She’ll have to leave the townhouse but Cecelia and Dimity will take care of her.
“No.” Cecelia and Dimity say it at the same time.
“You’re young,” says Dimity. “You have your whole life ahead of you.”
That’s when I know that they’ve been keeping secrets from me. Dimity and Cecelia, the two people who understand me best in the world. Better than Penny, better than my own mother. Because they’ve been there. Been in the Hunger Games. Survived. And now one of us will have to do it again.
“But -” I start to say, and Cecelia - lovely Cecelia, with her long blonde hair in a loose bun and her gentle smile - takes my hand.
“But I have phthisis,” says Cecelia.
“But can’t they -” I’m desperate, shaking. I didn’t cry when I said goodbye to my mother the first time I volunteered but I’m in tears now.
Cecelia’s so young. Older than me but younger than my mother. Her children are only babies, barely in kindergarten, too young to even take an after school factory shift. She can’t have phthisis. She can’t die in the Hunger Games. If my mother died when I was Calico’s age, it would have killed me, too.
“No. It’s too late. No one knows but Tanner and Dimity. The doctor says I have six months, so what if it’s only six weeks instead?” Cecelia is so calm. She’s dying and she’s comforting me. It’s not fair but I can’t stop crying.
Dimity pours me another cup of tea and slips a dash of whiskey into it. I’m too young to drink but it doesn’t matter, not when you’re a victor. When you’re a victor, the normal rules don’t apply to you any more. Like life and death.
“You have your whole life ahead of you. You have so much to look forward to.”
As she says this, Cecelia spins her hand in the air. It’s a factory sign we use that means turn, as in, turn over the weaving, but here it means something else: overturn, as in overturn the Capital. Even if we’re bugged, the Capital won’t understand. This is our secret language in District 8.
“You have to live for me,” says Cecelia. “You have to take care of Cally and Cedar and Coral so they’ll have a better future.”
