The Stars
Title: Questioning
Characters: Pyro, Cuan, Penka
Word Count: 1,346
Warnings: Censorship
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games and the inspiration for these characters comes from another series entirely.
Notes: Quite self-explanatory.
016: Questioning
Pyro had always wondered as a child, never receiving a satisfactory answer from either his parents or the schoolteachers, whether or not those things called "stars" really existed. Unlike them, he was unwilling to forever live in ignorance and simply believe that they were real when in fact they might very well not be.
Most of the adults in his life, before the death of his family, were amused by his persistent questions. They found him cute and adorable for asking about such abstract concepts, but then reprimanded him for his curiosity and told him to go and play with the other kids.
Pyro could never accept that as the only answer. For years he never understood why everyone ignored his words, why it was such taboo to ask intelligent questions and expect another to answer him. The matter frustrated him and sometimes he'd throw tantrums during class when the teacher told him that he didn't "need to know that for the test".
It was only much later that he realized the importance - and sheer stupidity - of silence and ignorance.
Possessing an intelligent mind was a dangerous thing with the Capitol looming over them, controlling every aspect of their lives from birth to death. They preferred citizens who never questioned the way things were, citizens who were too dumb to realize that they indeed have some amount of collateral over the Capitol. Asking too many questions made you stand out - and the Capitol was very good at eliminating its enemies.
Even in light of the truth, Pyro was still not satisfied. So, he began to think. He thought to himself during the night, green eyes wide and unblinking as he picked apart every aspect of his life he had never thought to question before.
Why did they allow the Capitol to steal away their children and make them fight to the death? After fifty odd years they still allowed this to continue - when would they reach their breaking point?
Why did they bother attending school when all they would do was work in the factories when they grew up? Why bother learning basic math, science, history, language arts at all?
Some were easier to figure out the answers to than others. All it took was a bit of thought, but then there were the questions that he could never find the answers to on his own.
Did the stars really exist? There was no way for him to know or discover the truth. He could speculate all he wanted, but he would have never reached a solid answer if not for Cuan.
The insufferable man had endured each and every question he threw at him over the years. If he didn't have a satisfactory answer or was somewhat unsure, he could at least theorize with Pyro and together they would come up with a reasonable resolution. For once in his life Pyro had met someone who could challenge him intellectually, someone who understood his thirst for knowledge simply for the sake of knowledge.
There was only one question he had never been able to answer.
It was probably the most important one, too.
"How can you kill people who haven't done a thing to you? How can you murder them in cold blood?"
Cuan had never been able to give him a straight answer. At first, after a few moments of consideration he'd replied: "It is because they have nothing to do with me that I can kill them. They are merely strangers; I care not for what happens to them."
But when Pyro pressed him for more, when he asked why they as a group killed when they could just as easily steal and bribe, Cuan had fallen silent. He told Pyro that he did not particularly enjoy killing like Faiz did, but that he had no issue using it as an end to a means.
However, Cuan never gave Pyro a consistent answer when it came to that question. He asked the man the same thing every few months and the answer changed each time. It was a rare moment of indecision Pyro observed in the man who normally seemed so composed and perfectly calm.
Why had Cuan formed this group? If he did not care for "outsiders", what drove him to collect these particular people together in the first place? Pyro could never understand it.
Apparently, neither could Cuan.
There were few things that man was unsure about. Even though he stated himself that he could not be sure what people claimed about the stars was real, when he explained the facts to Pyro it had been so easy to believe him. Cuan just had that kind of voice - suave and persuasive. He could probably sweet talk his way into anything.
He probably didn't even need his hands or a weapon to kill someone. His words were his weapons, lethal and more reliable than a blade. The man reminded Pyro of a malevolent creature out of a myth or legend. With sweet honeyed words he could drive another into insanity.
Despite Cuan's many faults, Pyro never doubted for a moment that the man was anything but refined and educated. He had no idea how he managed to be vastly knowledgable about so many subjects when Pyro could never find the answers he wanted no matter how much he asked.
It seemed to be a secret Cuan was unwilling to let him in on. Instead, he would simply smile and go on to tell Pyro whatever it was he wished to know. Sometimes he would direct the boy to the sizable collection of old texts he kept in one of their many bases. The spines were cracked and some of the pages yellowed, ripped, or missing, but they were as valuable as gold.
They were old tomes from times long since come and gone in the history of the world. Some weren't even written in the same language as the one they currently spoke, but Cuan could even read some of those.
Pyro loved those books. He would pour over them when he had free time, discussing their contents with Cuan and Penka. They contained knowledge he thought would have been long lost to the Capitol's censorship, but somehow they remained. The treasures that were books only left him thirsting for more knowledge.
When he asked Cuan why he had chosen Pyro of all people, the man thought for a long moment.
"It was that look on your face that day," he said. "If you had been in a pitiful state, I might have never given it a second thought. But it was that intriguing, questioning look on your face that decided your fate."
In some ways, Pyro and Cuan really were not much different from each other.
Some of those are questions I have had. In most of the "famous" novels about authoritative/dystopian states, the government either a) tries to repress speech and free thought to prevent rebellion (1984) or b) create a state ruled by pleasure or create a utopia (Brave New World or The Giver). However, completely subjugating an entire country's worth of people is bound to someday cause the "peasants" to rebel, and rebel quite badly, especially if they are suffering.
Other things I've wondered: Why attend school? It makes it seem quite modern, but strange that they would have public education at all.