Nuts and Volts

breadiscatchingfire:

I just wanna say, my birthday is basically two days away from the release of The Hunger Games movie. Josh went blonde and mom is going to get me midnight tickets. Best. Birthday. Present. Ever!!

Mwahahahahaha!

There has been talk of rioting again around the factory. Not by many people, of course, but it’s still unsettling. Still, I don’t think it will spread. Not so close to the Reapings…Luckily, Jay seems about into it as I am. Both of us know that rioting can’t do any good. But, I have to admit, I can understand the ill feelings against the Capitol. But there’s nothing the Districts can do…right?

When I told this to Jay, his simply replied “Not divided.”

It got me thinking on how well the Capitol HAS kept all the Districts separate. I know nothing about the others. It made me want to get my inter-district communication system up but I honestly have no idea how to make it work without it being traced by the Capitol. After working in programming and communications, I have seen them watch almost everyone exactly. Things seem pretty hopeless for it really.

Oh well…I shouldn’t be worried about that. It’s time to start bracing ourselves for the Reapings…

I have really been struggling with the robotic Mockingjay. I have the mechanics right, and everything is in place, but for some reason it just doesn’t move in a lifelike manner…my brother still loves it though, and I suppose that is all that matters. I recorded our Mockingjay’s happy song with one of my robotic birds, so now it can play that and a few other songs. The robot can talk the talk but it can’t walk the walk…

One thing that has made progress is the rate Jay and I can perform maintenance and programming on that beaten-down computer they assigned to us. One of us almost always has to be switching wires under the console as the other types away, but we have it down to a science now. The Peacekeepers leave us alone for the most part as well. I guess they figured since we’re both kids compared to everyone else there we’re basically harmless. Jay has really came out of his shell, and gotten me out of mine. We chat about things that seem so meaningless, but are somehow valuable. And we laugh. It feels good.

On the way home one night he asked me what I did in my spare time. I told him about my robot bird. He seemed pretty interested, so I went inside and got it when we reached my house. I told him It sounded like a Mockingjay, but it didn’t move like one. He gently took it from my hand, turning it delicately as he examined it, seeming to be a million miles away. Finally, he gave me a smile and said.

“I’ll have it working for you by tomorrow. Heck, I could even make it fly.”

“Really?!” I asked. I hadn’t imagined them flying, but now that I could I thought it would be amazing.

“Sure.” He said, “I’ll work on it tonight. I’ll have it for you by tomorrow.”

I didn’t believe his work would be so fast, but I agreed anyway. Our Mockingjay didn’t show up that night, but I didn’t mind. I was too excited about what tomorrow brought.

When I woke up the next day, a day off from the offices, I was greeted by a happy tune being sang over and over again. I looked to the window, expecting to see our Mockingjay, but instead found my robot, wings flapping with a small twirling device at its center to keep it afloat in the air. If it had feathers…it would have been a Mockingjay. I opened the window and looked down to see Jay beaming away at me. “Told you!” He called.

And he had. That boy certainly had a way with electronics…

The system has been down lately. At least, it has been on my end. Apparently there was something up in wireless functions and half of the servers went down. Luckily, the Peacekeepers didn’t get mad at the victims, but I felt bad for everyone in wireless programming…

I have been spending a lot of time with the Mockingjay at night. Not only have I been getting some really good data, but the bird seems to have taking a liking to all of us. My brother will sing to it, and I will take notes and whistle tunes and it will reply. Sometimes it teaches us new songs as well. The exchanges are great and my brother always loves it. Every night before it flies off it whistles me its happy tune and waits for me to reply with it. I’m not sure why it does that, but I am happy to oblige.

I have been working on my Mockingjay robot. I’ve gotten the basic skeleton down, but have not gotten around to making it move. I have also installed a recorder so that it can record and repeat anything it hears, like a Jabberjay. None of the Peacekeepers have asked about it yet, but since the Mockingjay’s voice is impossible to copy, I can pass off my robot as a Jabberjay and they won’t care.

The boy and I have spent more time together. Apparently he doesn’t live far from me, so we walk home together after work. Once when we reached my house, I turned to him and said “I realized…we’ve been spending so much time with each other and I don’t even know your name.”

He just laughed and said “Jay. My name is Jay Beta.”

“I’m Tella.” I replied, “Tella Wimit. Nice to meet you Jay.”

He nodded with a laugh. “I better get home. See you tomorrow Tella.”

We headed home and I worked on my robot. I want to make plenty of them. I could have a whole flock of Mockingjays. Who knows, they may come in handy…

I am finally out of that blasted bomb factory. The person who I was filling in for was released from the hospital and was almost immediately put right back on the belt. I am glad, because I can’t stand the things. I’m back in programming and maintenance and I couldn’t be happier. Yes, despite everything I am actually in a good mood. I’ll tell you why.

I saw him today. The boy that stood up for me.

He had been in the same boat as me. They had called us both in because of the same accident. Apparently the people we were standing in for had been some of the lucky ones.

We were both assigned to the same programming station, an older unit that worked just fine but definitely needed a tune up. They assigned both of us to the same one that way one of us could run maintenance when it broke down and the other could run programming duties. We were on pretty strict watch by a couple of Peacekeepers, but I think they got bored of our silence and walked off. Obviously security here hasn’t changed much. Maybe it’s just in the factories. So we were alone, and I was typing away at the screen and he was fiddling with something underneath.

I was trying to figure out a way to say it without sounding like an idiot. I have never been good with words. Typing things are so much easier than saying it. Finally, I just said the only thing I could think of. “Thank you…for the other day.”

There was a flash from underneath in the compartment he was working on and my screen suddenly got brighter, the loading faster, the picture clearer. It was like someone had turbo, charged it. He looked up at me from under the machine, a clump of wires all twisted in his hands and gave me a smile “You’re welcome.”

And that’s all we said for the rest of the day. We ate lunch together, but neither of us talked. I didn’t feel pressured to though. I think we were just enjoying each others company. I caught a glimpse of a bare spot on his back where his shirt had ridden up as he crouched down. It was scarred pretty badly, and looked as if it could start bleeding again at any ti