THG fic: "Spin Control" [22/24]

[trovia]

Title: Spin Control
Pairings: Finnick/Haymitch, Kat/Peeta
Characters: Finnick, Haymitch, Chaff, Peeta, Gale, Kat; plus appearances by Mags, Johanna, Caesar Flickerman, President Snow, Effie, Claudius Templesmith, Beetee, Prim, Thresh, Rue, District Twelve ensemble and various OC
Rating: adult
Warnings: forced prostitution & non-con; people dealing

Comments

[seta_suzume]

Aaaah! And then...!

Ugh, I felt for Chaff in this one... :/

Also, I imagined a little moment of my Phebe reacting to Eleanor getting killed like that (I think because you don't describe anything about your D5 victor/mentor here, I just fit my own OC into the empty spot). Ha ha, sorry, Phebe, it never works out.

(As my worried(/excited anticipation) feelings about how these Games will turn out went on, actually, I thought about one of the alternate outcomes for the 74th Games imagined by Hamlet in my 'Fractured' story- in that case, Hamlet posits a scenario where K/P eat the berries, but Snow/the powers that be choose to save just Peeta)

[trovia]

Somebody feeling for Chaff! I thought everybody had gotten distracted by badass Peeta, going by the other comments so far. :D

Man I really need to start catching up on your fic!

(fun fact, I was convinced that Foxface was from District Six, so I talked a lot about how Ralda Cavalera should have been her mentor, had she survived, but then turns out she's from Five and I had to delete all that. And that's how I never mentioned Foxface's mentor ;))

I really like that twist of Snow deciding to save just one!

Need to keep going on the next chapter and then I won't be in danger of spoiling the 74th Games anymore! :D

Thank you! As always, I love your comment.

[roguedemon]

Okay, this was awesome. I just wrote a whole comment which got lost because the system logged me off at the exact moment I posted it. Now I want to kill myself. I just have no more time today. I'll have to come back later on and try to recreate it. But anyway....Peeta's cave painting was genius. My favorite moment. And, yep, he actually killed Foxface. Also loved the way you reframed the gift of bread to show what it actually meant for Thresh. Well done

[trovia]

Oh, I must have forgotten to reply to this. Apologies. And guh, that sucks when the comment vanishes, there's nothing more annoying. Thanks for writing it again. :)

Peeta seems to have hit home for a lot of people with his criminal energy. ;) Heh, I've been getting so many comments on that.

Finnick and Haymitch have pulled through so far, but we'll see about the next chapter. They're too used to the Games cirucs - hah - though to fall apart when there's success looming on the horizon. It's a powerful motivator.

I remain forever intrigued by Cherry, whenever I write a new tantalizing line about her. ;) Finnick feels like she's so close to him but at the same time, he's acutely aware of how she belongs in the Capitol.

Again, thank you. :))

[roguedemon]

I only have a few minutes, but I thought I would get started on my comments for this chapter. You deserve ALL the comments after all your hard work

[trovia]

Um, if she's actually read and paid attention to the fic, it's pretty obvious that blowing off your mentor is pretty stupid.

Heh. There's two kinds of fans, I think. The ones who love a character for their flaws and the ones who are unable to see that they have any, therefor everything about them has to be awesome by definition. I'm just noticing this all over again as I'm watching House and finding myself madly in love with this character Chase. Chase is a wimp. He has no backbone. He sucks up to people with authority. It's terrible. Yet I find myself so very entertained. He's just so interesting. It's his complex psychology that's doing it for me, of course. It's the opposite of that kind of Everlark fans

[kawuli]

I read the first 21 chapters of this on my Kindle so I am going to have to go put specific comments in, but for now, you're an amazing writer and you do a great job getting me into FInnick's head in a really believable way.

When I saw you updated this it pretty much made my day! I love the tension you're building here--how there's all these cues that "this time's different" and we're right there with Finnick trying to figure out what Haymitch is planning and how it'll go.

I'm torn between wanting updates to know how this goes, and not wanting it to end!

[trovia]

Oh wow, thank you! What a wonderful comment to get. And hey, sure, leave me specific comments any day. I love specific comments. ♥

This time's different, in more ways than my readers seem to be expecting, going by the comments I've gotten on this one. ;)

Weellll, there might always be short stories set in this universe after SC is finished. :)

Again, thank you so much!

[roguedemon]

Mechanically, Finnick pictured how this imagery was just spreading through the Capitol right now, like a virus infection. In clubs and bars and private homes, everybody was staring at this. They - Haymitch - had built this story of Katniss so carefully, every detail tweaked and calculated, every nuance spun. That had been then. This was something new.

He could almost physically feel that story slipping out of their hands, out of their control, because the production wasn’t cutting away and Kat still sang and that meant everybody fell in love the exact way everybody had last fallen in love with Finnick.

This wasn’t about sex, though. Finnick didn’t think that people wanted to fuck Katniss right now, and that only made it worse. It made it dangerous, because what else was there to want on this scale?So I wanted to return to continue my comments. The above really jumped out at me when I read. I loved how Finnick framed the whole thing in his mind. He's been focused on trying to save a tribute while avoiding them ending up in his

[trovia]

The way Finnick processes it, his dawning horror that something is happening that really can't be spun in any way he knows, just builds the suspense brilliantly. I'm a bit amused by everybody's reactions to this scene, because I think I've always processed the canon equivalent differently from everybody else. I read it as shit hitting the fan, while everybody else seems to think it's this grand thing. Maybe it's because of my marketing background. And because I'm a control freak. ;) The moment when a product goes viral is awesome for the product usually, but still a little scary because all bets are off once it happens

[roguedemon]

Re: the marketing, I think you have just done an incredible job extrapolating from the ideas Collin presented in canon. I actually agree that all the marketing/propaganda elements made sense in the books. I think it is one of the areas that Collins put some vigorous thought into. But you've just taken it to the next level, and it's really peaking here. I loved all the detail at the beginning of the chapter about the PR blitz at the beginning of the games, all the details about the bets that can be placed, and the way all the mentors are trying to manipulate the media. I loved Finnick and Haymitch stumbling into their reporter of choice. :)

Finnick leaned against a wall and blinked into the sun, letting his beauty and this year’s media pull work for him. Mooching that cigarette off the Trophy’s editor in chief, he sighed and said it was hard, looking at Peeta and being reminded of his own love affairs. He assured her in a confidential voice that leaving the Capitol had, more than once, broken his heart. Then, he assured her that she

[trovia]

I've seen certain writers argue that Haymitch and Finnick wouldn't be good for each other, because Finnick would be too easily hurt by Haymitch's snark. :p They seem to have forgotten how Finnick deals with Johanna's snark by throwing her over his shoulder and dumping her in a lake

[roguedemon]

One thing I am proud to say that I called in this chapter was that Finnick would get Peeta the medicine and that would be a real game changer. I want to deal with Finnick's reaction to Peeta's wound and his desperation to get him that medication later -- he totally lost his objectivity there (pets him). I loved seeing a Peeta who had received intensive coaching in how to play the games. It all made total sense to me because the boy has skills. He managed to kill Brutus during the closing moments of the Quell, after all. He manipulated the audience even without coaching in canon. And I think he totally should be shipped with Foxface, who is an interesting character. She has real brains and Peeta outsmarts her, that was a frat moment. Well, in a totally twisted way, of course. ;) Nothing you had him do was a surprise to me, although it would be to many people. I never thought that Peeta was somehow incapable of killing when he had to, although I have read that opinion in fic and meta many times. Everything he did was totally in

[trovia]

Peeta/Foxface would just be very awesome. ;)

Peeta incapable of killing? Really? He supposedly killed the girl from Eight. He fought Cato, probably not with the intention of shaking his hand afterwards and calling it a day. He killed Brutus. I'd worry more about Kat's ability to kill. ;) Although shortly before the rule change, she seemed to have reached the point where she was ready to go for it.

[roguedemon]

I've read fic and meta that argues that Haymitch should have gone into the arena with Kat because Haymitch was more capable of killing. And yeah, I just don't see it. I actually kind of think that the quell would have been even worse for Haymitch after decades of watching tributes die, and of course the necessity of killing lifelong friends and acquaintances

[trovia]

I've read fic and meta that argues that Haymitch should have gone into the arena with Kat because Haymitch was more capable of killing.

It's kind of awesome how much you have to misunderstand the whole complexity and psychology and tragedy of the Hunger Games to even use the words, "more capable of killing". It's not like it's a special skill set or anything. I think they each of them have to be really traumatized and desperate to go there, Haymitch or Peeta or Kat.

. I loved Caramel helping Finnick out, I like that they can work together when the objective is taking care of Haymitch. :) I'd love to know what the conversation between Haymitch and Caramel was like, and how Caramel dealt with Chaff. And where is Beetee in all this?Clearly Beetee is keeping Chaff company since he's all Haymitch-less now. More on those four in the next chapter