Chapter Text
Honor: Orville
The mentor’s control room is a hive of activity, buzzing with representatives from every district here to oversee the distribution of sponsor gifts - Orville, being one of just two escorts tapped to assist with this duty, most often when Alara has televised obligations or is sleeping off a particularly hateful bender. Blessedly it’s the former this time, though given the circumstances this year I expect at least a few of the latter. Nearly all the others ignore his presence, content to talk among their fellow victors - Or they’d rather not fraternize with the Capitol help, there’s at least a few of those in the mix. A couple spare him a cursory wave, but he’s found that the only real conversation to be had in here is during the times when his fellow escort Effie Trinket swoops in to cover for her drunken charge. The bloodbath, he found, was usually one of those times - today being no exception.
Unfortunately, the last thing Orville wants to be doing right now is making conversation. Between Alara’s current headline-stealing scandal, and the pit in his gut that forms whenever he thinks about that poor boy and how he may never get to have another bite of chocolate torte… I suppose anyone reasonable would be rattled, given the circumstances. “Oh, don’t look so blue! Sorry, sad blue - your fashionable blues are lovely as always of course. But at least both of your tributes escaped, which is more than I can say for my boy this year…” They both grimace at the reminder, having just watched him fall to a particularly brutal hammer strike from District Two’s boy in his attempt to rush the Cornucopia with the bulk of the outer district alliance - the ones still standing seem to have run off the careers for now, which is rather impressive even if they were somewhat of a divided front. Maybe there’s still hope for a real upset in the odds this year?
“I’m not sad, I’m just…” Nervous? Frustrated? Bitter, perhaps? He looks the woman over, contemplating - I suppose anyone else would understand this better, would they? “Do you know how much we’ve pulled in sponsor funding so far? Just, throw out a guess - I’m curious what your impressions are.”
“Orville, you know it’s not polite to brag-”
He sighs, interrupts her - “I assure you, that is not my intent. Please, indulge me, would you?”
“Hmmm…” Effie cocks her head to the side, a hand held up to keep her elaborate two-foot hairpiece from toppling over. “You wouldn’t be asking if it weren’t either a very small or very large number, and given how Alara has been dominating the current news cycle…” she trails off, and his impatience gets the better of him-
“I could, right now, purchase the most expensive item on this list and still have enough for another half of one left over.” The way her jaw drops tells him her own numbers aren’t nearly as high, even with more tributes in her official alliance to draw funding from. “Now my problem lies in the fact that Alara has, under threat of firing, instructed me not to spend a cent of it unless it goes to ‘her girl’.” Even saying it to mock the woman leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
Effie seems more excited than disgusted -“What are you waiting for, then? Send it to her! You realize what a tide turner that could be in this environment, don’t you?”
Orville shifts uncomfortably, steels himself - “That’s exactly why I want to send it to the boy.”
Her smile sinks to a concerned frown - “I’ve been around long enough to recall what happened to the last escort in your position when she got argumentative, you know.” She rests a hand on his shoulder - “You’re sure you want to risk that? I don’t think she’s worked since.”
“Lumina? She’s fine - friends with my mother, actually. I mean, she doesn’t make nearly the money she used to, and half the country thinks she’s been made an avox, and she’s been blacklisted from working in television forever, and… well…” The look he gets is incredulous - I know how it seems, but - “-look. I wouldn’t be thinking of doing it if I didn’t think it would be what’s best for all of their chances of survival. The boys have put a lot more distance between themselves and the others, it would be safer for them to signal the girls than the other way around. And these?” He points to the swirling image of the night-vision goggles on the monitor in front of him, price ticking up by the second - “Are the only way I can think to help them find a safe spot to do that from.”
“Well.” Effie sighs, “It’s been nice working with you these past six years.”
I was trying not to be quite so fatalistic - “I still have some hope I can convince her to keep me around…” But it is Alara we’re talking about, so… “If I’m wrong about this, I hope my replacement makes for good company.”
She makes some quip in retort, but Orville has already locked his attention on the control panel in front of him. Now where did you run off to - Coulomb’s tracker shows him with the other boy, making their way northwest according to his map - Though I doubt you poor things have any idea where you’re headed, do you? He taps on the screen a few times to call up the nearby cameras - You both still seem to be alone, thankfully. Sweating, shaking, entirely unsure if this is the last time he’ll ever work in this room again - he calls up the purchase menu and sends the goggles - along with two-thirds of our funding. Snow’s grace, I hope you two make good use of these or I might not live to see the outcome.
With bated breath and gaze glued to the feed, he waits. One of the heat-sensitive cameras picks up the delivery drone first, then the night vision - the boys stop moving - do they hear it? Coulomb breaks into a sudden run, right in the direction of the drone, then jumps to grab it out of the air and crashes to the ground. There was no need to tackle the thing! They’re fully automated! Though at least it’s delivered - silver linings, Orville! The boy seems to be saying something but he doesn’t catch a word of it until he scrambles his way into his headset.
Coulomb holds up the night vision goggles so his ally can see - “-this is? It kind of looks like binoculars or something.”
The other boy - District Seven, eight point total… gods above I’ve lost my mind! I can’t remember the boy’s name! - gasps when he gets a good look. “If these are what I think they are - I’ve seen the Peacekeepers wearing them on night patrols! Here, hand them to me-” Just make sure you get those back, my young friend, or it’s my head on a platter. The boy slips on the goggles, then - “Well, now I’m just blind. Can you look for a switch or something, it’s hard to feel around in the dark like this-”
Coulomb feels around the back of the goggles until - “Hang on, I think this might be something-” - and the other boy leaps forward with a yelp that seems to echo eight times over.
“Sorry-” his voice drops so low that the microphones barely pick it up - “-But this is… you have to put these on. I think your mentor just saved our skins.” He slips off the goggles and hands them to Coulomb.
“No, she’s on TV tonight, I heard her talking about it. I think that means it must be Mr. Orville! He’s the only other one I know that works with her. Maybe?” Slipping them on, he lets out a small gasp of his own - “Bashir! I think I can see the whole arena with these! I mean, it’s a weird color, but- thanks, whoever sent this!” Coulomb turns straight for a nearby camera and waves - “Let me look around for a minute, I bet we can find high ground no problem!”
The other boy keeps chattering on - a stark difference from the quiet character Coulomb had described in his training day stories. “Do you have any idea how expensive these had to be? How do we have sponsors like this!? I don’t understand how we’re getting this kind of attention, is it just because the Careers suck this year? V and Sarah got 10’s in training, but that can’t be enough! There were so many of them this year…”
“Um… Yeah… It’s probably both of those things! Definitely just those things.” Coulomb stammers nervously and Orville’s stomach lurches - I don’t think either of you should have to bear the details of why, just enjoy that there’s money to be had.
“That’s… a really weird way to put that.” Don’t think too much about it, that’s for the best.
“Hang on, I see something over there.” He points off into the distance - a quick glance at the map tells Orville exactly what Coulomb sees - That seems… you two aren’t going to climb that thing, are you? “I think that’s a broadcast tower, we have one right near where I live. The radios all the line crews use run off of it, I think.” Gods above, it’s enormous! “Yeah, I think it’s one of the small ones like that, for sure. It doesn’t look like it’s more than a few hundred feet. But I can’t tell much else from here even with the glasses.” Before the other boy can even respond, Coulomb takes off in the direction of the tower.
“Hey, wait a minute, I still can’t see-”
“Oh, hang on-” he grabs the boy’s hand and pulls him along beside.
They walk for about a minute before either breaks the silence. Orville flags down a nearby waiter for a glass of wine to steady himself around the time the boy pipes up -“So, I don’t want you to panic again when I ask this.” His stomach flips again - Coulomb had nearly fainted upon seeing the vast darkness outside of the Cornucopia warehouse, and it’s not a scene he’s keen to watch again.
“I think I’m okay now.”
The other boy - Bashir! That’s his name! Oh thank Snow, I thought I had lost my touch - asks - “How exactly are you planning to get in touch with them? I thought our whole plan was to use the sun to send signals.” Oh dear. Was it? That’s… not ideal.
“Um. It’s going to be a little scary, but I have one thought.” Coulomb stops in his tracks and points upward - “See that light up there? I think I can mess with it.”
“That sounds safe.” Bashir snarks.
“Not really.” It seems to go right over his tribute’s head. “But I don’t know what else to do… Any ideas?” There’s quiet between them, then the other boy shakes his head. “Okay… climbing it is. I think they have ladders, usually?” Coulomb sounds doubtful. Curious, Orville checks a feed near the tower and has to down the whole glass of wine in his hand to calm himself - You weren’t wrong about the ladders, but that thing looks like it’s going to fall in a stiff breeze! Why would you go near it?! - “Do you think the sponsor people can hear us?” With that, his attention is back to his tribute - I certainly can, if not your actual sponsors, but I do wish you’d consider a safer plan…
“I assume they can hear everything in here.” The boys start walking again as they talk.
“Hey sponsors!” Another echo, Orville flinches - You don’t have to yell! I can hear you just fine, your opponents don’t need to. “Can you send us some rope when we get there?”
It only takes them about ten minutes to get to the base of the tower once they’ve cleared the central labyrinth. In the meantime, Effie congratulates him on his other tribute’s first kill - then quickly backtracks when it becomes apparent that her ally has pulled her away before she can finish the job. “That lucky boy! Oh! I think that’s Nine - or is that Eleven - either way, she’s sneaking out to help him there! Doubly lucky - or good planning. I am glad we joined up with them this year, no offense to your team of course, but-” He tunes her out again - There’s one last thing to put on the expense account before we gossip - and watches with a smile as Coulomb’s face lights up at the sight of the second sponsor drone.