I was tagged way more than 48 hours ago by the wonderful purple-cube with the prompt "defiant" for the character or pairing of my choice. When I think "defiant," I see Johanna Mason, full stop. When I was looking for the quote from the movie that kind of replaced "Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!" I came across this awesome video tribute to Johanna by ShiningStar4Y2, so I thought I'd share it here along with my drabble (unbetaed, written just a couple of minutes ago). Enjoy! If the challenge is still happening, and if they have the time and inclination to play, I tag chistudios, ro-nordmann, and ilarina to create something THG for the prompt "I was disappearing in plain sight."
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She’d watched as they screamed, cried, beat themselves bloody as they tried to escape, then and now. Well, maybe not then, but that never stopped her brain from filling in the blanks. Instead of smoke, it was a mass of birds’ wings, black and red and yellow and white, just the same. Instead of her family, it was her friends, one of them, anyway, and the other someone she’d pledged her life to protect, if it came to that.
She watched her friend now, his blank stare, as though something inside him had died, and a restless, unholy anger filled her, seeped between the cracks inside – and there were a lot of cracks, fissures and chasms that started out small the moment she first put an axe through a boy’s head, large enough and deep enough now to swallow her whole, if she let them – and began to burn. No, not anger. Rage.
Rage burned hot inside Johanna until she couldn’t sit still any longer. As the boy tried to calm his girl on fire – Ha! Johanna laughed inside – she stalked away from them, closer to the trees, away from Snow’s mutts and the destruction they left behind. Axe in hand, she swung it at whatever it might hit, picturing Snow’s fuzzy face with every branch and leaf that connected with the sharp blade. But when Peeta mentioned Katniss’ sister, she stopped and turned back toward the group on the sandy ground.
Interrupting their comforting little circle jerk, spurred on by the hope she saw in Finnick’s eyes now, she spat out, “Of course Peeta’s right.” She marched toward them again. “The whole country adores Katniss’ little sister. If they really killed her like this, they’d probably have an uprising on their hands. Don’t want that, do they?” Looking up at the fake sky as though searching for the Gamemakers or, better yet, their sadistic little puppet master, she shouted her defiance. “Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn’t want anything like that!” She saw again the smoldering remains of her parents’ house, her little brother’s rope swing untouched where it hung from the big oak out back, smelled the stench of charred flesh beneath the wood smoke and sawdust of home. “Hey, how’s that sound, Snow? What if we set your backyard on fire?” She felt their eyes on her, felt their dismay and their outrage and their sudden fear for her safety, but she didn't – couldn't – care. "You can't. Put. Everybody. In here!"
Spreading out her arms, lifting her axe high, she dared Snow and his puppets to give her their best shot. After seeing what he'd just put Finnick through, she didn't trust Heavensbee to not. It was almost disappointing when nothing happened. Shaking her head, she lowered her arms. "I'm going for water."
