hey, catnip.

Galeniss Everthorne

[-galeniss]

ficrec

In the Land of Gods and Monsters by Amethyzt

If Katniss is honest with herself, she has spent a lot of time in the last six months or so thinking about what it would be like to kiss Gale. She can’t remember exactly what moment changed everything for her. Katniss never wanted a boyfriend, and marriage was off the table for her—that was what she’d told herself for years. What she told her mother too, on occasion, when she asked.

And perhaps she’s being selfish, but with their bleak reality in the district, was it really wrong to hold on to the small glimpses of light?

Or, the one where Prim is never reaped, Katniss and Gale let love in, and the rebellion finds them anyway.

[hearthorne]

The woods are lovely, dark and deep 

[sangrefae]

to think that we could stay the same, but we're two slow dancers, last ones out

[hawtnip]

last ones out by ellenka

When he stretches his hand, she doesn't hesitate to take it. Perhaps she should, after everything that happened. She can almost feel blood and ashes between their fingers, but she still takes it, suddenly deathly afraid of losing him, too.

(fic to go with this lovely fanart by @sangrefae)

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

~ in the woods ~

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

~ Gale ~ Commission info

[hawtnip]

livin' in a powder keg by ellenka

...and givin' off sparks.

(Very alternative District 2 reunion. Everthorne.)

Chapter 4 is up.

[renisanz]

[lightborrower]

[hearthorne]

but you burned them down

[hawtnip]

Astilbe by ellenka

Astilbe: a plant native to the woods around their home, thriving in shadowy places where others don’t bloom, bidding its time in the green gloom before the conflagration of color comes. A flower of patience, of reaching to the elusive light.

(In which Katniss visits a grave.)

[deepgrotto]

The Hunger Games Tarot - Major Arcana

8. Strength: Gale Hawthorne

Stability, courage, compassion, conflict, struggle

[hawtnip]

Seam Life by ellenka

By the time the sun fully rises above the treetops, they make their way to the lake, cast their fishing lines, and settle on a blanket to wait. They’ve been hard at work since the first light, setting snares and gathering along the way, and now they share a meagre breakfast and a cluster of honeysuckle flowers for sweetness. Hands brushing in the companionable silence, something unsaid between their fingertips. After, Gale lays back on the blanket, one hand behind his head, the other stretched out. Inviting, Katniss thinks as she looks over to him, inching closer.

A year ago, even a mere month, she would have poked him hard in the unprotected ribs, perhaps used her advantage to start a tickle fight, but now… after years of sharp glances and sharp elbows, something in her softens, a prickly bud unfurling to bloom.

[renisanz]

I drew this over a year ago, inked it months ago. Now with all this Catching Fire on my dash, I figured I should finally “finish” it.

[x] pencil version

[leulahart]

seam kids

[rogue205]

Everthorne moodboard/aesthetic - made with my fancasts

[eastdillon]

“It’s cold as a November night at home. One where I’ve slipped out into the woods, lantern in hand, to join Gale at some prearranged place where we’ll sit bundled together, sipping herb tea from metal flasks wrapped in quilting, hoping game will pass our way as the morning comes on. Oh Gale, I think, If only you had my back now…

Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games (via exit73b)

[districtfourmermaid]

Can I say something about this MJ quote?

“Gale didn’t say, 'Katniss will pick whoever it will break her heart to give up,' or even 'whoever she can’t live without.' Those would have implied I was motivated by a kind of passion. But my best friend predicts I will choose the person 'I can’t survive without.' […] At the moment, the choice would be simple. I can survive just fine without either of them."

Because while I love her conclusion at the end, there's some shit happening in there. First, I think it's a little presumptuous of her to put that interpretation on Gale's word choice. Why is "survive" necessarily so much colder than "live?" I don't really think Gale was intending such a distinction in his vocabulary choice nor implying she is passionless. After all, he is her best friend and the one to reassure her that Peeta's hijacked view of her as a muttated monster is inaccurate. He knows her passion and how she cares about people. So why does she ascribe such callousness to this phrasing?

Doyalist answer: this is one instance of Suzanne beginning to push Katniss and Gale apart even when it doesn't make sense in the narrative or for their characters.

Watsonian answer: I think Katniss is projecting. She feels guilty for dragging Squad 451 into this fool's errand to kill Snow without any great plan or authorization/support from the higher-ups, guilty for getting people killed, so she's already in a bad place emotionally and primed for reading insults where they don't exist. She's been dealing with these complicated feelings about fake-ish romance in a spotlight and her feelings about Gale putting people at risk for a year and a half at this point. She's tired. Maybe it's easier to push him/them away. She's mad at herself for not being able to reciprocate to the level she thinks she's supposed to for either of them. She's projecting her feelings about herself, her fear that she is too cold and emotionless, onto his word there.

Because I think her conclusion is genuine and a reality she has had to come to terms with in the past year: she may lose them both, may have to survive without either of them. She knows she can physically survive, but considering the possibility that she could emotionally survive, however true it may be, makes her feel wrong and self-conscious for not living up to expectations. So she externalizes it and tells herself it's Gale's word making her feel that way rather than her internal senses.