By the way, if anyone wants to join the Corso Creatures Discord Server, don't be afraid to DM for a link!
We're very chill group. Our conversations do often take odd turns, and we're pretty tbosas focused (also lots of Capitol/10th hg mentor thoughts), but we welcome og thg trilogy fans!
In honor of Valentine's Day, a small contingent of the Corso Creatures discord server put together another little exchange! Rather than focus on romantic pairings, however, we decided to focus on platonic pairings! (See Here)
Inspired by @persephoneprice vintage issues of Corso Chatter, a gossip magazine that once chronicled the lives of the bright young things of the Capitol.
A handful of us decided to participate in a Gift Exchange in the Corso Creatures Discord server back in October! Now, that all the fics are in feel free to check them out! All author's are anonymized to give us time to guess who wrote which fic if you would like to guess!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
...
Anyway, I'm (this is abyssal/@felixravinstills btw) glad that I decided to organize this, and I'm glad that you all were patient with the wait and that we all decided to do this! Excited to read what everyone's written!
A handful of us decided to participate in a Gift Exchange in the Corso Creatures Discord server back in October! Now, that all the fics are in feel free to check them out! All author's are anonymized to give us time to guess who wrote which fic if you would like to guess!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
...
Anyway, I'm (this is abyssal/@felixravinstills btw) glad that I decided to organize this, and I'm glad that you all were patient with the wait and that we all decided to do this! Excited to read what everyone's written!
Calpurnia is the eldest daughter of Gloriam and Protesilaus Snow. The âblack sheepâ of the family, Calpurnia has a strained relationship with her mother since deciding the pursue a career as an artist and art restorer, and breaking off her betrothal contract with a Phipps nephew following her pregnancy. Calpurnia and her partner raised Calpurniaâs daughter Tigris until the start of the war.
Expanding Panem's Geriatric Ward - because Hector needs some friends that aren't Max.
Thank you the Corso Creatures for humouring my rambles and helping pick out their surnames! :)
Left to right- Scylla Murders and Phaethon Wilde
fancasts: Kali Ledger and Xavier Serrano
Fun facts:
Dr. Scylla Murders
Met Hector during their time in Med School. Instant friends after 1 lab session together. After that, they were lab partners whenever the occasion rose.
Used to travel often to the Districts with Hector to treat people. Part of her feels guilty for not going on that fateful trip with him, as she'd been sick and had stayed in the Capitol to recover. Forever wonders if she could have changed his fate had she went as well.
Never spoke of him again except the occasional remark that Endymion resembled Hector.
With Hector's death, she stopped going to the Districts and eventually became a medical examiner in the Capitol. The position came with a generous pay, especially when one included the gifts sent her way to ensure her reports showed nothing but the truth.
Cleopatra and her used to have weekly teas, and she has met both Endymion and Clemensia. Having passed in the years following the Dark Days, the last members of the Murders family in the Capitol is her twin, Charybdis, and her younger half-sister, Antonia.
Prided herself on her excellent cooking skills.
Psst...Between you and me, try to keep the bodies away from Dr. Murders. Organs seem to go missing in her vicinity.
~~~~~
Phaethon Wilde
A fairly quiet, unassuming guy at first glance. (Bland as Protesilaus, if you ask Max. Or just another pleb, if you ask Gloriam.)
But get to know him a little better and you'll realize how easily he lights up a room!
Dabbled in modifying vehicles during his time in university to help pay tuition.
Met Hector during a first year English course. Hit it off when they started talking about their interests. They used to race on weekends.
Although Phaethon majored in English, he would go on to become a mechanic and own an auto shop of his own.
Nicknames his favourite vehicles. Notable mentions are his bike that he built from scratch (Bronte) and Hector's bike that Phaethon also built (Pyrois).
because I would love to know any and all behind the scenes thoughts
of course! happy to yap about the rats <3
(i have an embarrassing about of lore about these rats)
i already mentioned a few things in these replies:
gaul's beef w/ felix & where the rat obsession started
clemmie is tired of felix's rat shenanigans
reference to livia worshipping taylor swift
max making sure the rat parade was not broadcast
expanding on those:
felix's rat obsession started shortly after his parents' deaths as a coping mechanism that no one addressed until it was too late & felix was irrevocably attached
it was still war time so there were a lot of rats around on the streets and felix had somehow managed to capture one (aesop) to keep as a pet turned support animal
max (president) was pretty concerned about the whole thing, but between the grief of losing family members and the ongoing war, he basically went 'kids will be kids ig' and let felix be
felix originally calling aesop 'mr rat' and would read him some stories (aesop's fables) to help him go to sleep bc that's what his parents would do to help him sleep when he was younger
aesop was named as such because he went 'storybooks' -> 'rat that helps me sleep' -> 'perfect name :D'
max (president) did have gaul 'check' aesop (without felix's knowledge) once it was brought to his attention that felix was letting aesop sleep in his bed bc he did not want felix to be killed off by a potentially diseased rat
(is aesop the same rat that felix originally caught? maybe. maybe not. gaul certainly isn't saying whether she modified aesop or gave a mutt replacement. maybe the rat she melted on their field trip as nine-year-olds was the original aesop. again, gaul certainly isn't going to say anything one way or the other)
anyway, that's how all of felix's rats live past 3-4 years đ
felix stopped collecting rats when the war ended (eight-years-old) because max (president) was able to convince him that it would be too much of a hassle to have more rats once transitioned from homeschooling to a school with others. max was not, however, able to convince felix to get rid of any of the rats (his original intent).
when felix was younger, i like to think he had one of those little red wagons to bring all his rats along everywhere. by the time he reaches the academy, he just carries them in his pockets and/or lets them follow him on their own.
asclepius is his medic rat (named after the god of medicine) and the first rat that clemensia was introduced to. she was severely weirded out, but came around after an asclepius alerted a teacher when she was having an allergic reaction (strawberry allergy headcanon from medea)
yes, felix did make clemmie thank asclepius for quote "saving her life", which she did do. her thoughts on felix's rats after that event were basically 'well, i guess this is a thing.....this is fine....' which felix took to mean that she was an ally against rat haters (livia)
max (rat) was the last (36th) felix had adopted. it was just a few months before the end, and he quickly became felix's support rat. max (president) was not present enough in felix's life to realize felix had named after him under nearly a year later.
max (president) knew about albanus (rat) but was fine with it because he thought felix was just honoring a dead family member. max (president) side eyes felix's interactions wtih max the rat all the time. marius and gnaeus are just grateful that no rats are named after them.
side note: originally, this fic was just supposed to be felix's perspective, but as i was writing, felix's pov sounded too 'rational' bc of how much he was coping, so dill's pov was added in for contrast (and get an outside view of the rat-related insanity)
the rat parade happens at heavensbee hall. the people in attendance were the mentors and tributes (and, of course, felix's rats). max (president) did not attend. gaul was not invited. livia was also not invited, but she showed up because she was insulted that facet was given a personalized invite.
felix wanted it to be bigger, but that was the compromise that max (president) was able to negotiate felix into agreeing to. there were cameras that felix insisted on being there with the intent to broadcast the event, but none were actually recording.
max (president) made sure that none of them were on and told felix after the fact that they had 'malfunctioned' so the rat parade 'unfortunately' was not shared. felix is very disappointed by this and has to be comforted by max (rat) when he can't host a second rat parade to make up for it.
no one ever believes reaper and dill when they go back home and tell others about the rats. eventually, they just fudge the story to stop people from pressing them for the "real" story (aka "the mentors were convinced by the tributes' humanity from interacting with them and realizing how bad things were in the districts & dill's mentor was able to use nepotism to stop the games" - basically the same concept minus the rats)
i didn't have any solid ideas after that, but i like to think that felix visits dill in d11 sometime in the future and she has to awkwardly explain to her family that 'this is felix ravinstill, yes, that ravinstill family, yes, these rats are normal and please don't say anything against it to his face, please'.
When her beloved left for the war, Gloriam had but one thing to tell him, "aut cum scuto aut in scuto," either with the shield or on it, for she would not suffer a dishonourable husband to her name.
In return, Protestilaus smiled as if she had bestowed upon him the greatest gift of all.
~~~~
[photos below that didn't make the cut but deserve to be seen anyway]
top photos: possible Gloriam Snow's wedding dresses
bottom photos: (left) Gloriam in her modelling era, (right) besides being the model for the Capitol's statues, her image could be found everywhere.
Who is Maximinius Ravinstill? if you end up asking his two best friends, you may get the impression that they are talking about two completely different people. do make sure he doesnât spend too much time with that strange girl though, he may end up getting a few bad ideas.
Considered one of the greatest beauties of her generation, rumours have it that she modelled for the personification of Panem herself. A socialite and a member of the âBright Young Thingsâ of Panem (the name given to the first generation of the Capitolâs elite families to grow up in a united Panem) Gloriam was a consummate promoter of Capitol values, and a member of the Capitol's âFriends of the Family League.â
The secret police division of the peacekeepers operating out of the Capitol. Genetically modified, its agents develop a heightened sense of smell, which they use to track down fugitives, and are widely known for their ability to âsmellâ fear. They are unfailingly loyal to the Capitol and are represented in propaganda as its guard dogs.
Their headquarters, based in the Citadel, is colloquially referred to as âthe doghouseâ and amongst the Academy students, it is Festus Creed, long-time dog enthusiast, who come to rise within its administrative ranks.
I think when I started reading tbosas I knew very little and it and I was like. Itâs a book for children how bad could it be. And then Sejanus and Lucy Gray die (?) in the space of fifty pages. and Lucy Gray is so young. Sheâs so young. And I keep thinking about her dying alone and afraid in that forest. I donât think Iâll ever get over it. Also the fact that u have thoughts on the Grandmaâam is so funny to me. I think she constantly berates Tigris for not being married and for wearing wacky clothes. When she sees someone in a mini skirt for the first time she almost has an aneurysm.
I unfortunately had those death(s?) spoiled for me, but I remember learning about the characters and being like "wait no, maybe i read wrong or misunderstood. their lives are already so bad! and they're making the most of it!".
My real "oh shit moment" while reading was I remember when the tributes got dropped into the zoo I was like "oh? so we're doing this, huh? no glitz or glamor. we're going all on the horror stripped bare and then seeing it covered up with glamor? kinda like roses to hide the scent of blood"
Thanks for the ask! The rest of this post will now be taken over by the....
Grandma'am Thoughts No One Asked For (under the cut)
Grandma'am, What Is Going On in Your Head?
In my mind, the Capitol works primarily on absolute primogeniture and not male primogeniture. I also think that men would take their wives' surname if their wife was from a more influential family, so it's entirely possible to me that Grandma'am is a Snow by birth and her husband is not.
In this case, it's kind of strange that she puts all the pressure on Coriolanus and not Tigris given that Tigris is older . (it's possible that Crassus is older than Tigris' parent so inheritance/responsibility would follow Crassus' line, but you'd think being a Snow woman herself, she'd have as high of expectations for Tigris as Coriolanus and make them clear on the page)
A part of me thinks enforcing a kind of patriarchal view might be a really traditional Capitol view, and reinforcing it is a way to deal with the Snow's loss of fortune. If they can't have wealth or influence, at least they have tradition as an old family that would mean something... (Grandma'am Snow pulling up the ladder behind herself at the expense of her own granddaugher...). I mean her singing Gem of Panem seems to be her clinging to the Capitol to cope too.
Alternatively, if Grandma'am is not a Snow by birth, it seems that she's completely adopted the Snow identity. Her roses are seen as the Snow's roses and she never talks about other family. She's gone all in on Snow. This too can be interesting to explore. It indicates a complete belief in the Capitol's hierarchy of influential families. She married into one of the best families and that makes her one of the best.
Grandma'am potentially not being a Snow by birth and "rattling on about the Snowsâ legendary grandeur." (Ch. 1) is wild behavior. What's going on in her head?
Alternatively, there is a third option, and that is she's from a distant Snow branch family marrying into the main line... This would be in line with old nobility... It also raises some uncomfortable questions that I will not be going into, lest I make other people uncomfortable. People are free to ask, I just will save that for a more warned post.
...
In a throwaway line in a Max fic, I named her Gloriam, and that's where the first section got developed in my head and forgotten... curse the tier list for giving me thoughts....
bel please save us with the REAL d9 lore they just donât get it đ
okay this may take a while to answer bc of the sheer amount of hcs and the fact i have school so im rlly sorry for that đ
D9 HC MASTERPOST!!!
industry
district nine is one of the three agricultural districts of panem, specialising in the farming of grain. it has three main branches of it's industry - farming, transport and processing.
most people in district nine work farming, which consists of long days manually harvesting in fields with little to no rest. there are multiple professions under this branch, such as harvester and tractor driver. people working in this area are from ages fourteen up.
transport is seen as a prestigious job in district nine, as travel is very limited within the district. travel jobs consist of carrying grain manually to mills, or transporting it via vehicle.
and lastly, processing is the more inside-based job. people in the processing industry work in large mills and factories processing the grain ready for consumption from the masses. a small section of processors are bakers, turning the grain into district or capitol loaves to be shipped around panem.
other common merchant professions in district nine are: alcohol brewer, bar owner and other various fresh-food stores for the richer people from nine.
nobody under the age of fourteen is allowed to work, though there are ways they can get past this rule. private farms (meaning the money made from farming doesn't go to the district, and are therefore illegal) usually rely on younger children (10-13) from the families/relatives of the owners to do smaller jobs.
locale
the population of district nine is considerably small compared to its size. this means inhabitants usually live in dilute areas nearest their workplaces. houses are usually either brick or wooden and are hut-shaped and small. the wood is very inconvenient considering the amount of fires district nine gets, but it's the cheapest material the district can afford.
the sheer size of the district is due to its surplus of fields, many of which house unstable land to farm on, so there are vast uninhabited spaces of plain that spread far across the district. those areas are particularly susceptible to tornadoes and wildfires, so people tend to stay away during the summer.
the reaping takes place in the town square, located in modern-day saskatchewan, which is dotted with merchant shops and speakeasies that expand out of the town square nearer the workplaces. the town square is quite large, and can definitely hold the population. in preparation for the reaping, citizens who live farther away from the town square will be boarded onto coaches the night before, and will arrive in time for the reaping.
geography
district nine is located in the modern day midwest and even reaches up to places in canada like manitoba. it consists of large plains and fields and is encircled by an uninhabitable forest that is rumored to be home to various capitol muttations.
working is most prosperous in the summer and spring, though morale is considerably lower because of the scorching weather. heatstroke and heat exhaustion are something very common among workers in district nine. proper doctors are almost something unheard of, so home remedies are usually used to treat these illnesses.
in the winter/autumn, some could say the district looks pretty. it never snows and the weather is rarely gray, but the district endures extreme cold temperatures, still having to work through the frost.
culture
district nine is the third poorest district of panem, which takes an extreme toll on its citizens. working conditions are poor and the physical labor is vigorous, which causes every-day exhaustion.
after working hours end, workers clock in to local bars and speakeasies, where they can watch theatre, music, dance and gymnastic performances. it's free entry, and the alcohol (if its available at the certain bar) is cheap with free refills.
this musical/performance culture allows citizens of district nine to feel free after hours of work. they tend to wear more colorful clothing (most district nine inhabitants make their own clothing, mainly using crochet or knitting) to celebrate the end of the working day and the beginning of a night.
district nine was one of the first districts to revolt during the first rebellion, outright refusing to work and cutting all trade shipments to the capitol, in an attempt to starve the capitol into submission.
ahh that's all i have 4 now, the research and actually typing this up alone took me ages, hope u like it!!
honestly just a little list of the stuff crafted up for your convenience and mine to refer back to while I write the Time-Travelling Clemmie AU (+ any possible future ones)
occasionally we get a mention of the Ravinstills due to Hector.
Dovecote family rambles , pt.2 of rambles, pt.3 + pt.3.5 (lore behind hector's parents)
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