Trigger Warning: Addiction
6. The Clown - Shaking Hands
Michele "Mitch" Fabricconi, District 8, 76th Hunger Games, Placement to be Determined
Fuck, Mitch could really use a smoke right now. His hands shook as he lifted another box of t-shirts onto the pile.
Today had been surreal. One moment, he'd been eating lunch with his parents, the next, his father's assistant had barged into the room saying that there'd been a major rebel attack in District 3. At first, neither Mitch nor his parents had been particularly impressed. Rebellion? In District 3? Groundbreaking.
But then he'd said that the rebels had targeted the Justice Building while Fawkes Chau was having his victory banquet with District 3's victors. Now Fawkes had been hospitalised and Ramona Hirose had been announced dead. That had shocked everyone into action.
Fawkes Chau was the Capitol's darling. If he'd got so much as a paper cut during the attack, heads were sure to roll.
Which was why Mitch and his parents and their most trusted employees had rushed to dump all the Mockingjay t-shirts they still had in storage in an abandoned warehouse. Then they would torch the place and blame it on the rebels.
Mitch couldn't help but feel sad about all the money that was going to go up in smoke. His parents' company had been manufacturing Mockingjay t-shirts since the Seventy-Fourth Games. They were initially meant to be sold to Capitol citizens as part of the new fashion trend, but as political tensions had flared up, their buyers in the Capitol had stopped accepting them.
District 8 was one of the two districts in Panem with the most rebel activity. The rebellion was a major disruption to all business in Eight. Mitch's parents had poured so much money, so many resources, into a product they were sure would be a fashion trend. In this fragile economy, they couldn't afford to not sell those t-shirts.
So they'd started selling their t-shirts on District 8's black market, and they were a major hit. The rebels of Eight loved buying Mockingjay t-shirts and wearing them to riots, or waving them from their barricades. As long as the conflict raged on in Eight, people would keep buying them. And how the conflict in Eight raged on! There were executions in the town square every day, and those were just the rebels who weren't shot on sight. Since the Quell, the peacekeepers had tried to convince the crowd that the rebellion would end soon. The rebels in Ten have surrendered. They'd declare. The rebels in Six have surrendered. By now, it was just Three and Eight holding out and they were showing no signs of stopping. They were just going to keep pouring their coins into the Fabricconi family's pockets.
Until now. Until the rebels in Three had attacked Fawkes Chau.
Mitch and his parents knew they would be executed if the peacekeepers ever found out they were selling t-shirts to the rebels. Thankfully, as they'd previously been supportive of the Capitol and they lived in a well-off neighbourhood, their house had not been searched yet. They'd thought it'd be a safe place to store the t-shirts. But now there'd been a major terrorist incident that had put the Capitol's precious Quell victor in the hospital, there was no guaranteeing their house would be safe for much longer. This seemed like the kind of incident that'd lead to a major crackdown. The worst one in decades. Every house would be searched. Every individual would be questioned. It was simply no longer safe to keep those t-shirts.
Mitch felt a great wave of guilt as he placed the last box onto the pile. He'd been the one to suggest to his parents that they start manufacturing Mockingjay t-shirts, so when the Capitol buyers inevitably started requesting them, they'd already have a batch ready to ship out. He was the reason why they had such a ridiculous surplus. In retrospect, they really should've played it safe and made the switch from Katniss Everdeen Mockingjay t-shirts to Fawkes Chau Jabberjay jackets before it was too late.
The Fabricconis had taken a swing and a miss. Now they had to watch as a year and a half's hard work was doused in gasoline and set alight.
On the drive home, Mitch put a cigarette in his mouth. Unfortunately, his parents had forced him to leave his lighter at home because they didn't feel safe letting him have a smoke when they were working with gasoline. Mitch thought his parents seemed absolutely defeated.
The Fabricconis had backed the wrong horse. They'd taken a big risk and it hadn't paid off. And, in this economy, it would surely spell their doom. But Mitch couldn't forget the thrill of all the success they'd had with their Mockingjay t-shirts. Maybe the next risk would pay off. Maybe Mitch could find a way to secure his parents' success forever.
"Michele," his mother said, checking the rear view mirror. "Do you think maybe you should cut down on the smoking? You've been doing it a lot lately. Your father and I are starting to worry that you might get addicted. Besides, these next few months, we need to be careful with what we spend."
Mitch frowned. If his parents thought they might not even be able to afford cigarettes, he was going to need to do something drastic.
What if I won the Hunger Games? Mitch wondered. That way I'd be able to buy all the cigarettes I want.
Then he had a better thought. These days, there seemed to be a new rebel figurehead every Hunger Games. They changed like fashion trends. First Katniss and then Régine and inevitably someone new in the 76th Games.
What if it was Mitch?
Mitch was surprised to receive a sponsor gift.
Mitch did not get along with his mentor. When Mitch had volunteered, he'd been so excited to be mentored by the Lumas Taffeta, who was infamous for being the most openly rebellious tribute to ever win the games. That man had been ahead of his time. If he'd won the games these days as opposed to nine years ago, his face definitely would've been on a t-shirt. He was a true rebel icon. Mitch had been so eager for Lumas to give him some advice on how to follow in his footsteps.
Instead, Lumas had laughed in his face.
"Renounce the rebellion and quit smoking, kid," he'd said. "They're both bad for you."
Perhaps Mitch should've expected this when Lumas had made an impromptu speech at Ramona Hirose's funeral, declaring the 'stupid fucking idiot rebellion' over and telling all the rebels to go home. Maybe fatherhood had made him go soft. Mitch had lit a cigarette right then and there and deliberately blown smoke in his mentor's face as an act of defiance.
Then Lumas had lunged at him, torn the pack of cigarettes from his hand and thrown them out the train window. The bastard.
For the entire pregames, Mitch had made no move to make amends with Lumas. Because Lumas should be the one trying to make amends, he'd physically hurt Mitch and thrown his property out of the window of a moving train. Mitch had only realised when he was a few hours into the games and he desperately needed a smoke that Lumas probably wouldn't be sending him any cigarettes. Or any sponsor gifts at all for that matter.
But perhaps he'd had a change of heart.
Mitch tore the packet open, hoping for cigarettes. He hadn't had a smoke since he'd begged a stage-hand for a cigarette during the interviews, and he was feeling jumpy. But there was nothing inside the package but a folded piece of paper. Mitch's hands shook as he lifted it out of the package and unfolded it.
Fuck, Mitch could really use a smoke right now.
Here's the first of our POV tributes from A Traitor's Tale. Mitch was a character it took me a little while to figure out. Since my whole plan for this AU was to explore the reform side of 'Reform Vs Revolution', it made sense to write a tribute who embodied the dark side of the rebellion, but it still felt kinda icky for me to vilify a character who was fighting against the many injustices in Panem. I've figured out that the key to writing a rebel villain is to make them 'compromised' in some way. Maybe their goal was to liberate Panem at one point but over time they've lost sight of who the real enemy is. For example, the rebels I mention attacking Fawkes this chapter fell for Snow's attempts to divide the districts (I go into greater detail about the Victory Tour Attack and Snow's role in it in Star Crossed). So I just had to figure out how Mitch was 'compromised', and that was when I realised, he didn't actually care about the cause he was fighting for. He just wanted to sell t-shirts with his face on them. And then I laughed evilly.
I guess this makes Mitch the spiritual successor to Mako in both the 'District 8 Male' sense and the 'Joins a good cause for totally selfish reasons and proceeds to miss the point and make everything worse.' sense. It's so neat that their chapters ended up back-to-back.
Our next act will be the Escapologist.