Haymitch/Enobaria, "Brightly Burning", (PG-13, no spoilers)

[deathmallow]

Filling two Haymitch/Enobaria prompts at once...

Chars: Haymitch/Enobaria
Title: Brightly Burning
Rating: PG-13ish
Warnings: Vague refs to forced prostitution
Spoilers: Eh, none really, takes place during the 63nd Games

Comments

[marble_sharp]

So they're surprisingly shippable?!??

Enobaria's outlook (however forced) on the victor prostititution was very interesting. I've always wondered how Careers took that, training their entire lives to win and, once they do, being forced to such a low, degrading position. I think your take here relates to many of the winning Careers.

Enobaria's lack of kissing as well as virginity was an odd combination. Very telling of D2, I guess, though.

[deathmallow]

I think H/J probably still have a little more in common, even after Enobaria "wakes up" to the reality of the Capitol, but they're more shippable than I thought!

Well, I presented the One attitude: that their entire existence is for Capitol pleasure and they're forced to accept that. Four is pragmatically using the Capitol interest in their "exotic" and "romantic" culture to get their district distinct advantages over other districts with a similar manual labor industry, like Ten.

I think Enobaria is the very rare example of a Two sex slave because the Capitol typically is so used to Two victors they're not remarkable enough to garner much interest, plus antagonizing their most loyal allies is not wise. But Enobaria's win was considered spectacular enough that the interest was there.

Odd combination, but I think it reflects a district where romance and sexuality take a backseat to a militaristic lifestyle, and loss of virginity isn't romanticized at all (while kissing probably still is.)

[marble_sharp]

Oh, definitely. But we know so little of Enobaria, and I think the one time she's actually present in the narrative, Johanna tells her they'll kill her for being a traitor. Still, no reason this couldn't have happened between her and Haymitch, who didn't threaten her.

Here she mentions that she didn't want the teeth alteration. It's disturbing, but I do think it's likely she woke up from the surgeries and everything after being taken out of the arena and had them. No consent or anything, like what almost happened to Katniss.

That must make her kissing him a little more sweet and meaningful, then (or she was just really drunk, I don't know - I'm not good with these kinds of things).

[deathmallow]

Well, and in MJ that comes after Johanna's been tortured by the Capitol while, presumably, as a totally loyal victor, Enobaria's been let off the hook. I obviously played it differently in HID because "Two=Bad" was much too simplistic for me.

It's very likely she did wake up to it, or at the least, it was forced on her before her victor interview/Games recap with Caesar. I imagine that's happened to other victors (Haymitch getting shot up with growth drugs, Johanna getting her nose straightened, etc.), and that's why Haymitch argued about Katniss getting a boob job.

I also notice nobody seems to realize the sheer depth of meaning and risk in Haymitch openly arguing with the Gamemakers and daring to say "No" to them. If you think about how much he stuck his neck out for Katniss in doing that, it's incredible.

It makes the kissing more meaningful, and in my E/B chapters in HID, Brutus does note she never uses her teeth on him during sex, no matter how into it she may be, and that's a mark of her friendship and respect for him.

[marble_sharp]

Don't get me wrong, I understand why she threatened Enobaria. Hope I didn't come across as glancing over Johanna's imprisonment/torture compared to Enobaria's. But in terms of victors Enobaria could have been friends with, Haymitch is probably higher on the list than say, Johanna, who had a legit reason to not like her during/after the war.

And she dumps ice water on his head and basically takes him for granted all the time. :/
I wonder why they'd listen to him, though. He (/all mentors?) must have had more power than I assumed if he could control whether or not Katniss was surgically altered.

[deathmallow]

Oh, I understand too. I think with Jo and Baria, it's being two somewhat similar personalities (cast as the "fierce and scary bitch"), but while Johanna deeply hates the Capitol, Enobaria tries to keep her head down and be loyal, so that's their point of contention. Neither of them can tolerate the other's viewpoint there.

Katniss does at that and it still pisses me off.

I don't think he has "power" so much as a sense of how to pick the right strings to pull in an argument to make them agree with him. I have the feeling he managed to convince them that presenting her as that sweet, "innocent backwoods" young girl in love, and keeping her as the girl Peeta loves, was more important than giving her big tits.