HISTORY + INFORMATION

[axeyou]

..HISTORY..

Johanna Mason’s history begins before her victory in the 71st Hunger Games - but no one really knows what it is. She grew up in District 7, which is hinted to be one of the upper middle class districts in Panem. It claims 63,125 in tesserae (which are tokens worth a year’s supply of oil and grain in Panem), making it the sixth richest district in Panem. Simply put, life is a little easier in District 7.

That’s not to say that Johanna’s childhood would have necessarily been one of luxury. District 7 is known for its forestry, and Johanna has a very real connection to the pine forests of her home. She learned to use and throw axes at a very young age, and probably to climb trees. The Capitol’s Guide to the Districts describes the people of District 7 as “hard working and down to earth”. But whether or not Johanna’s family fit this mold of a citizen from District 7--if they were lumberjacks, carpenters, laborers, papermakers - if they were rich or if they were poor, happy or discontent - all of that information is totally unknown.

Johanna’s known and confirmed history begins in the 71st Hunger Games. She is chosen as one of the twenty-four tributes for the Games, and goes to the Capitol, shaking and scared - which is actually just an act. Johanna’s most obvious motivation in her Games was one of survival, and she was ruthless in achieving it. Even before the Games, she played up her fear and allowed herself to be undersold so she would be dismissed and discounted by the Tributes. She was not a target and would eventually be an easy kill. When the Games began, Johanna feigned weakness and fatigue, and laid low until there was a small pack of Careers left - and then Johanna made herself a very real player in the Game. The sniveling, cowardly girl revealed herself to be a ruthless killer with a wicked instinct for murder. She slaughtered the Careers and came out the total Victor of the 71st Hunger Games.

Her victory was all a matter of public record, recorded and broadcast for all of Panem to see. The excitement that greeted her transformation from weakling to murderess was probably overwhelming - after all, the citizens of the Capitol do love a good show. Johanna would have found herself touted as a hero and celebrated across all of Panem. Presumably, this treatment was at first a little exciting. Johanna doesn’t have many of Katniss’s hang-ups, and she might have even enjoyed the gluttony and riches that accompanied her victory tour and her time in the spotlight. After years of work, who wouldn’t enjoy being a little spoiled? Johanna was treated to all the excesses of Capitol life while in the city, and, once she was back in District 7, she was given a place in the Victor’s Village, in a home all of her own. She might have brought her family along with her, to live in the house that was provided for them. Johanna’s celebrity would have guaranteed her a very easy life.

But the Capitol’s attentions soon revealed their darker side. President Snow was not content to allow his Victors to just coast on their successes. He expected things from them. How soon he tried to claim that price of Johanna is not known, but she rejected it. She refused to prostitute herself for Snow’s gain to the patrons of the Capitol, and President Snow responded by killing everyone in her family. “There’s no one left that I love,” she tells Katniss in Catching Fire.

Johanna’s life took an obvious turn for the dark at this point. Just how fast her loved ones were eliminated is not known, but with little choice left to her, Johanna retreated into bitterness, too public to kill, to stubborn to stoop to what was asked of her, but expected still to tow the line and act as Mentor to the Tributes from her District.

By the time the 75th Hunger Games come rolling around, when the events of Catching Fire begin, Johanna has a great deal of attitude and anger to protect her--which is good, because shit gets shittier.

The Quarter Quell is announced before the reaping for the 75th Hunger Games is meant to begin. President Snow explains to the citizens of Panem that every twenty-fifth Game is marked as a Quarter Quell, a special version of the Hunger Games. In the first Quarter Quell, the Districts were made to vote on who to send to the Games. In the second Quarter Quell, the Districts were forced to send twice as many Tributes. For the third Quarter Quell, President Snow announces that the Tributes will be chosen from among the past Victors of each District. Watching the announcement in District 12, Katniss sees this as a direct attack against herself - but it is an attack on all the Tributes, regardless of who they are and what District they hail from. Presumably Johanna does not volunteer for the Quarter Quells, but as there have only been seven Victors in District 7, she ends up as the female Tribute, and is shipped back to the Capitol for the week of training that precedes the Games..

Johanna first meets Peeta and Katniss at the opening ceremonies of the Hunger Games. After the Tributes have their parade before the Capitol, Johanna gets in the elevator with Peeta and Katniss and totally strips off her costume, purposefully unnerving and irritating Katniss just to get a rise out of he.

Whatever Johanna actually thinks of Katniss at this time is not known, because she hides it all behind aggression and smirks and sass - but during her interview with Caesar Flickerman, she shows some little hints of rebellion. She asks, directly, if someone could do something about the Victors being forced to go back into the arena, since the Gamemakers who designed the Quarter Quells could never have anticipated such an attachment forming between the Victors and the Capitol. This is a direct play for sympathy from her fans, of which there are many, and it’s similar to the play that’s used by many of the other Tributes throughout the interviews. The words being to sow discontent between the citizens of the Capitol and its ruling body, to question President Snow: if his power is absolute, then why can’t he change the fate of the Victors and the structure of the Games to save the lives of the Capitol’s darlings? The Victors are like celebrities to them, and the thought of killing them off disturbs many of the citizens. At the conclusion of the interviews, Johanna joins hands with the other Tributes, in an act of solidarity and a bigger hint of the rebellion that is to come

At some point during the week of training, Johanna agrees to a secret alliance with Haymitch, the Mentor from District 12. Haymitch is working as part of a larger plan to bring down the Capitol, beginning with the destruction of the Games. Katniss, the darling of the 74th Hunger Games, is to be the figurehead, and it is essential that she is saved from the Quarter Quell. Johanna is set to play an essential part in the destruction of the 75th Games.

When the Quarter Quell begins, Johanna, like the other Tributes, finds herself in the arena. The arena for the Quarter Quell is built around a central island that sits in the center of a pool of water. Each Tribute begins on a rocky outcrop set apart from the island, like spokes on a wheel. Cornucopia and all of the supplies are on this island, and at the gong, chaos breaks out, like it always does. After all, not every Tribute is part of the alliance. Johanna goes for an axe but is deterred - and then she’s on her own, as the Careers snap up many of the good supplies, and all the Tributes scatter into the surrounding woods. At the end of that first day, nine Tributes are already dead, and Johanna sets out to complete her first part of her role at this time. She is to collect Wiress and Beetee, the Tributes from District 3, and bring them to Katniss. Beetee is injured at some point during their journey, stabbed in the back with a knife.

And then the full horror of the arena makes itself known. Strange events begin to occur, at apparently random times. While Katniss, Peeta, Mags, and Finnick face down killer monkeys, Johanna, Wiress, and Beetee have challenges of their own to overcome. In one sector of the arena, they find themselves drenched in a sudden rain - which then turns out to be blood. Their rag-tag group eventually makes it to the central pool, but a tsunami sweeps through, and the three barely manage to struggle out of the water for the shore, where Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick are all eating. Mags (Finnick’s Mentor and the closest thing that he has to family) has just died from the poison fog that infrequently plagues one of the sectors, and though Finnick is depressed, he gets to his feet and runs to Johanna, embracing her. Katniss doesn’t trust Johanna, but she allows her to come closer out of respect for Finnick and all that he has done for them.

Beyond irritated, Johanna catches everyone up on what’s happened to her (and Wiress and Beetee) since the bloodbath at the Cornucopia. As she talks, Wiress spins around on the sand chanting ‘tick tock, tick tock’. Johanna snaps and shouts at the older woman, pushing her to the ground - and when Katniss tries to intervene, Johanna pushes her down as well.

Despite Johanna’s hostility, the six of them remain together to form a tenuous team. During the first watch that night, Johanna and Katniss discuss the sacrifice that Mags made, and Katniss asks Johanna why she’s carting around Wiress and Beetee. Johanna bluntly explains about the alliance, and the duty that she was charged with: Haymitch thought it was important for Wiress and Beetee to be with Katniss, though they are armed only with copper wire - and their cleverness and usefulness are soon proved. As the night goes on, Wiress’ ravings begin to make sense to Katniss, who realizes that the arena is in the shape of a large clock, and each sector is subjected to a different horror on the hour. Johanna, Katniss, and company go to the Cornucopia to test this theory. Katniss begins to draw a map of the clock, with the help of the others - but realizes that Wiress has stopped singing, and turns around to find the Careers are on the island with them. Katniss shoots Gloss, and Johanna hits Cashmere with an axe to the chest - but they are too late; Wiress has been killed. The other two Careers from the gang sprint off, and as they give chase, the Cornucopia begins to spin. Everyone grabs hold to keep from being thrown into the water, and the Careers escape.

Once the island settles, Katniss retrieves the copper wire from Wiress’ body, though she doesn’t understand its purpose. Thanks to the spinning island, they have lost their sense of orientation, and all of the sectors of the clock are rearranged. They must wait for the tidal wave again so they can figure out which danger lies where. As they wait, Katniss hears her sister screaming and takes off for the jungle, abandoning the others. Finnick follows her, and Johanna, Beetee, and Peeta race to the beach to give chase as well - but they are prevented from following, as an invisible wall has sprung up between the beach and the jungle. Katniss and Finnick are forced to endure the hour in that wedge of the Arena, surrounded by jabberjays that mimic the screams of their loved ones.

After the night is up, unbeknownst to the others, Katniss takes Peeta aside and asks him to leave the alliance. She has noticed that everyone is protecting him, and believes that the rebellion brewing behind the scenes plans to use him as the symbol of the rebellion. Peeta agrees, but asks Katniss to wait until Beetee’s plan has been realized. Secretly, the members of the alliance are keeping Peeta alive in order to keep Katniss alive, since Haymitch figured that she would not fight if Peeta were to be killed. Both of them were kept ignorant of this portion of the plan until after the end of the Game.

Peeta’s instincts prove good, because the plan that Beetee frames is pretty brilliant (even if there’s another super secret plan yet to come). He explains that the copper wire that they have been carrying must be tied to the tree that is struck by lightning at 12:00, and then the wire will be run into the pool at the center of the arena, which will send an electric shock through the wire when the tree is struck. Johanna and Katniss are charged with running the wire through the jungle, because they’re the fastest members of the remaining alliance - but as they’re running through the underbrush, Johanna performs her next part of the super secret alliance plan and hits Katniss in the head with the metal coil, knocking her to the ground. She then begins stabbing at her arm, working to extricate her tracker. Katniss interprets this as a betrayal and tries to fight back, but Johanna pushes her back on the forest floor and instructs her to lay low. She then runs off into the jungle.

Moments later, Brutus and Enobaria, the Careers from District 2, run by. Enobaria stops to kill Katniss, who is weak and dizzy and bleeding, but Brutus instructs her to leave her for dead, and they run off in pursuit of Johanna instead. As they run, Katniss struggles toward consciousness and realizes the final stage of the plan. She wraps the copper wire around an arrow and shoots it toward the flaw in the nearby force field that separates the arena from the real world, just as lightning strikes the tree. The arena explodes, and the Games are finished. The members of the rebellion pull Katniss from the arena, but Johanna, Peeta, and Enobaria are all captured by the Capitol and hauled off for torture and questioning.