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Johanna Mason (district7victor) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-08-20 19:47:00

Who: Johanna Mason and Katniss Everdeen
When: Mid August; Before Shattered Sight Plot
Where: Coffee Shop
What: Johanna runs into the elusive Katniss
Rating/Warnings: Mostly Family friendly
Status: Complete

Johanna had dreamt about Katniss Everdeen a lot. She'd dreamt about watching her and Peeta win the 74th Hunger Games and had dreamt about watching the whole wedding planning sham and then of course she'd dreamt about the crock of shit that was the 75th Hunger Games and joining forces with Katniss, Peeta and a few others. So Johanna was pretty familiar with Katniss, but that was only in the dreams.

She knew that she was a real person and was in Orange County, but unlike with Peeta, Annie, Gale and Haymitch, she'd never met the other girl in person until now.

Johanna had just left the gym and had decided to stop into a nearby juice place for a smoothie and low and behold, who should be in line in front of her, but Katniss.

"I was beginning to think you were just a myth." She said, not even making sure that she had her fellow Victor's attention.

Katniss was on her lunch break from Stark, waiting in line to get smoothie to take back to her desk when she heard a voice that stopped her cold. She stood frozen on the spot and slowly closed her eyes in a wince. There was no way to avoid it, no way to ignore her and run away like she’d tried with Peeta. Her latest Dreams had been re-runs of the 2nd Games and had left her exhausted and strung out. Apart from going out to work and Haymitch dragging her to a bookstore being renamed, she’d all but sequestered herself in her room for the past month.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned around and responded warily; “Hello Johanna. How are you?”

“Alright. You?” Johanna smiled as Katniss turned, which was probably something that Katniss wasn’t used to seeing on her considering Johanna didn’t exactly have much to smile about in the dreams; not that she had much to smile about it real life either. Aside from her friends of course, but that was what made Johanna different from her dream counterpart. She had friends who she wasn’t forced to try and kill. “So I finally meet the elusive, Katniss Everdeen.” Of course she’d known that Katniss was around; Peeta had mentioned her and so had Haymitch, but she’d never replied to any of Johanna’s posts on Valarnet about the dreams so she didn’t know if she’d ever actually meet her or not.

“Yeah,” Katniss held her arms out a little, wincing a little as she expected Johanna to lambast her for keeping a low profile like Peeta had. “Sorry to disappoint,” she bit her lip and sighed. An image of Johanna as she knew her from the Dreams formed in her head, dressed for the arena, axe slung over her shoulder and blood covering her cynical expression. Katniss shook her head to try and rid herself of the image, but it was persistent. I can do this she thought to herself and took a shaky breath. “Well...this is...awkward,” she tried to make it a little joke, hoping it didn’t fall flat.

Johanna nodded, crossing her arms over her chest as they moved up in line a little bit, “Just a tiny bit. I’m gonna assume that you’ve dreamt of me, yeah?” Katniss clearly knew who she was since she’d used her name when greeting her just a moment ago, “Just checking cause it’s been awhile since I joined Valarnet and I’ve met everyone else; Peeta, Annie, Gale, Haymitch….but you’ve never responded.” After she’d met Peeta in person and started dreaming about watching the 74th games, she’d assumed she’d meet Katniss at some point soon after, but that had been months ago.

Katniss nodded slowly in response. “Yeah, well I don’t go on it often. I prefer to be outside and there’s so many people on there talking about Dreams that it just...it gets too much sometimes,” she told her. “Oh, and before you say it, no, I’m not like the Katniss from the Dreams. She had far more purpose than I do,” she remarked darkly, pre-empting any jibe that might be coming her way.

Truth be told, she was struggling lately. When she slept all she heard were those Jabberjays screaming out in Prim’s voice, Gale’s voice, everyone’s voice who she cared about. All she saw was Prim dying, Gale being whipped, Cinna beaten, Peeta’s face filled with hate and fear as he tried to kill her. She needed to find something to do with her time, something to keep her from dwelling on the Dreams as she had been doing up until now, she just didn’t know what.

“And I’m not exactly like the Johanna from the dreams, but that doesn’t mean you have to ignore us. We’ve all got shit going on and stuff we’d rather not think about from the dreams, but we help each other when we need it.” Johanna didn’t mean to be so harsh, but recently little bits of her dream self’s personality had been bleeding over at various times, “We’re all there for each other. For moral support. No one expects you to be the Mockingjay in real life and oppose the government. We just want you in the group.”

Katniss looked at Johanna, slightly stunned by what the other girl had said. She was used to going it alone, trying to cope by herself. She always imagined that the devastation she’d wrought throughout everybody’s Dreams would have been a huge divisive wedge between her and the others. It was primarily why she had distanced herself. Didn’t want to see the hate on their faces when they looked at her. To hear Johanna say that they wanted her in the group was not what she’d expected at all. “Sorry,” was the only thing she could think of to say in reply.

“Well you should be. I mean, we all went through the same shit in the Arena.” Up until the Quarter Quell they’d all done it at separate times except for Katniss and Peeta, but for the most part they all had the same experience. “We all know how much of an asshat Snow was. Dealing with this shit together is a lot better than doing it alone.” With her family gone Johanna didn’t know what she would have done had she not met Peeta, Annie and Gale. Sometimes she still felt like she was going to go crazy cause of the dreams, but all she had to do was send a text to one of the others and she felt better.

“I know, I know,” Katniss nodded, closing her eyes in a wince. “I didn’t think you’d want me around. I fucked things up for everyone and the Dreams seem so real to me that I could only imagine it would be the same for you. I didn’t want to see you all hate me here too,” she explained. “Besides, the more people from the Dreams I met, the closer I come to meeting Snow and I can’t…” her voice cracked, pressing her lips together in a tight line as she got herself under control. “I don’t know what I’ll do if he comes here,” she said rapidly, avoiding looking at Johanna as much as possible. The girl behind the counter asked for her order, she gave it and handed over the cash before stepping to the side and waiting.

“Those are dreams. This is real life. Yeah, they might be really real feeling fucked up dreams, but whatever happened in them isn’t gonna make us hate you.” So far Johanna was only up to being knocked out in the Arena, but Peeta had mentioned that things got worse from there and she could only imagine what Katniss had done to fuck things up more than they already were, “And trust me, if Snow ever shows his face, there is a long line of people who want to kill him. Slowly and painfully before he can try anything.” The girl behind the counter seemed shocked by what Johanna had said as they reached the counter, but she simply gave the girl her own order and paid for it, “We’re all in this together.”

Katniss gave a little smile at that. Johanna’s determined attitude seemed to have followed her from the Dreams, whereas Katniss felt nothing but the fear and anxiety from hers. Maybe Johanna could help her find a bit more joy in her life, a way to find peace of some kind. Her smile faltered and she looked away, leaning against the counter. “I smell roses. Everyday. It freaks me out and I don’t want to leave the house in case I see him on the street. Haymitch almost has to push me out of the front door,” she admitted. She wasn’t proud of it, but it wasn’t something she could control.

“Ugh. Snow and his stupid roses.” Johanna glanced up as her order was called along with Katniss’ and she took both cups, holding Katniss’ out to her as she took a sip of her own, “Trust me, if he shows up, he won’t be around for long.” Despite the fact that he couldn’t do anything to them here, Snow showing up was one of Johanna’s fears, “Haymitch has the right idea. You can’t just sit around worrying. The dreams suck ass, but we have to get on with our lives.”

“I know, and I’m trying, but I…” Katniss shrugged, heading over to a table and sitting down. “It’s stupid, but I feel kind of...directionless. In the Dreams I had a purpose, as awful as it was, but here I don’t know where I’m supposed to fit in, y’know?” she paused and looked up at Johanna. “What do you do? Are you in college? Work?”

Johanna wasn’t going to be able to stay long, but she had enough time to at least talk to Katniss for a few more minutes so she took the seat across from her, “I’m an interior designer. I work for a woman called Regina Mills.” She could totally understand Katniss feeling directionless because that was how she’d felt after her family had died. “What do you do?”

“An interior designer? Wow, never would have guessed that,” Katniss gave a little laugh. It surprised her, but it seemed to fit. “How did you get that gig then?” she asked, relaxing a little in Johanna’s presence. “Me? I’m just working as admin staff at Stark,” she shrugged. It was ok, but it wasn’t where she wanted to stay, she just wished she knew what she wanted to do with her life.

Johanna nodded and took a sip of her drink, “Yup. I redecorated my room once when I was younger and I enjoyed it so much that I start redecorating it every so often then my mom let me help redecorate another room in the house and by the time I went to college I knew I wanted to be an interior decorator.” It was pretty simple, but Johanna knew that not everyone had it so easy, “Do they have any sort of college program there?” A lot of big companies would pay for college if you went to school for something in that field.

Katniss huffed a laugh at that, imaging the regular changes that Johanna’s room must have gone through as she grew up. “That’s pretty cool. So you knew where you wanted to go and what you wanted to do since you were a kid,” she smiled wistfully at the thought, imagining how nice that must feel. To Johanna’s question, Katniss could only shrug. “I don’t know to be honest. I don’t think I’m really cut out for academic life,” she shook her head, playing with the straw of her drink. “I’ve got an idea of something I’d like to do but it’s...it’s nothing, silly really,” she tried to laugh it off.

“We always think our ideas are silly.” Johanna said, wondering what it was that Katniss wanted to do, “If you tell me, I promise not to laugh.” In the dreams she might have, but she wouldn’t. “You never know, maybe one of us can help you or have an idea how to make it happen.” It was entirely possible. There were enough of them and they all knew other people so who was to say that couldn’t help Katniss?

Katniss sighed and nodded, biting her lip as she resolved to tell Johanna. “Ok, well I was thinking about a business where we could teach survival skills, outdoor activities like archery," she held her hands up as if it were obvious. "Camping, rock climbing, swimming, and anything else I can think of. Kind of like a summer school but available all year round so people can come and learn anytime they want. Open to anyone, any skill, anytime," she chanced a cautious look up at Johanna. "What do you think?"

“That’s actually a really good idea.” Johanna thought that that would be the perfect thing for Katniss to do. She’d survived the Arena both times; sometime by sheer dumb luck, but often times by the things she’d learnt with Gale back in District 12. “Might be a good reason to take some business courses then. But I think it’s a really good idea.”

Katniss gave a little smile in response, immensely relieved that Johanna seemed to approve of the idea. It was odd considering they’d only just met but the Dreams made it seem like they’d known each other for a long time. “Thanks, business courses...I hadn’t even thought about that,” she considered Johanna’s advice, eyes looking off into the distance before returning to Johanna. “Would it be something you might be interested in being involved with?” she asked hopefully.

Johanna was actually a little surprised that Katniss had just asked her that, but if she were being completely honest, it was something she’d be interested in. Since she’d started going to the gym and now the range to practice axe throwing, she was getting a little antsy and wanted to do something a little more physical like in the dreams and this would probably be a good way to do that, “Yeah. I think it would.” She smirked a little, nodding just as her phone vibrated, “Hey, I’ve gotta get going, but drop me a line on the network.”

“Great!” Katniss nodded, feeling happy to have Johanna’s support. Maybe she could really do this.