charm of a dead slug

I write Everlark rom-coms AO3

[farfromhome87]

Read Don't Miss The Trees on A03

Peeta is a celebrated ornithologist trying to save the owls. Katniss is a logger dependent on the timber industry. What will happen when their worlds collide? Tensions will flare, love will bloom, and the whole thing will be a hoot.

[thesunpersists]

Goose Loose

Season 1 Episode 2 - The Commons

Haymitch gets an inconvenient gift from an old friend. Peeta and Primrose fight to keep a stray in The Commons.

Catch up with The Commons on AO3 and choose your side! Cat or Goose?

@mollywog & @thesunpersists

[farfromhome87]

Ultramarathoner Katniss Everdeen gets more than she bargained for when she has to make an emergency visit to the porcelain throne at the only business open at 5 am-- Mellark's Bakery. Old feelings surface, sparks fly, and everyone gets a lot of blisters.

Read more on AO3!

[whenthewallfell]

Had a couple people ask so this is a bit of a lore drop for the costumes from this pic

At this point in the story they've released three studio albums, the last of which catapulted them into the spotlight after huge commercial success. They've been stuck doing two-year album cycles due to the demands of Captiol Records, and are struggling massively with burnout and nonstop touring. In addition to this, just before their second album they were involved in a crash that resulted in Peeta becoming an amputee and developing an addiction to morphling. There are rumours that he and Katniss are sharing hotel rooms but both refuse to comment on it, which is a problem because he's also rumoured to be dating the model and high profile activist Madge Undersee, and then of course there is the fabled 'Mockingjay' who shows up in the lyrics of every album but has no confirmed identity.

The fourth album is called Sureau Mortel, which is French for 'nightlock' and references an old story of the star-crossed lovers choosing to doom themselves rather than be apart. The album's themes revolve around bad decisions and unhealthy relationships with the media and themselves.

Peeta takes the creative lead in all their sets and mvs, so everything is from his point of view.

Dr Morphling: Katniss is the ringleader, or Master of Ceremonies, as her voice controls the show (and she controls him). Her character takes the form of his addiction, someone who is both capable of soothing pain and making everything shiny and golden, but also creates an unhealthy dependency and devastating comedown every time she pulls away. Although the identity of the Mockingjay hasn't been confirmed, the way he describes the character to Portia makes it pretty obvious, so there's plenty of bird motifs throughout her design.

Mr Nightlock: The loyal dog and court jester, the feral mutt and the fool. Peeta acts the clown so Katniss won't have to be in the spotlight, and both loves and resents the career he's made for himself - one that involves carving out pieces of himself with every song, with only a thin sheen of metaphor to hide his vulnerability (show with the mesh shirt - a weak defence that's full of holes). Mr Nightlock is a poison, tainting everything he touches and rotting the band from the inside out.

Al B. Tross: A stabilizing force and chronic peace-maker, by the fourth album it feels like Finnick is the only thing keeping the band together. His character is the classic strongman because the media is obsessed with his body - any time he's mentioned it's not for his musicality but his sex appeal. Much like the birds killed for their meat despite being a symbol of good luck, Finnick is expected to offer himself on stage night after night, and some fans have gone so far as to cross physical boundaries despite his obvious discomfort. It's had a huge impact on his mental health, and the guilt is an albatross around Peeta's neck.

Dannie the Vox: Johanna is no stranger to voicing her critiques of Capitol Records, but her anger is an impotent thing when they're still stuck in a contract with them. As such, although she is the 'voice', she's dressed as a mime, unable to speak out against the corruption in the industry or else risk getting their band blacklisted and dooming it to obscurity. Instead she rebels through action - she has multiple side projects focused on supporting indie artists and local music stores to try and break the hold Capitol Records has on the industry.

Both Katniss and Johanna are also wearing full coverage white face paint, as they are constantly having to deal with being whitewashed by the media and their own fans.

[whenthewallfell]

Let's hear it for "The Capitol's Suitehearts!"

The mv for the latest single from Fall Out Victor's new album "Sureau Mortel" has just dropped, and while it may not appeal to everyone's tastes, it's an undeniably striking performance that's sure to leave a lasting impression. Hailed as a brilliant cutting critique of the media cycle, while in the same breath being scorned as a juvenile attempt at social commentary way above their means, the single's reception mirrors their fans' complicated relationship with the band's new direction.

On the video itself and the somewhat unsettling visuals, bassist and lyricist Peeta Mellark had this to say to PMTV News: "Yeah, we had Portia design the costumes, drawing a lot from Cinna's design in 'Lost on Foggy Shores'. It was really cool getting to work with her, she's kind of a local legend in our District. I really wanted us to lean into the whole idea of the media circus - at the end of the day we're all just performers, y'know? And the more you do it, the more you realise that it's not as highbrow as you pretended at the start. It's not the opera, it's not Shakespeare or whatever. You're carnival clowns getting peanuts chucked at you 'cause they didn't like the setlist."

[justafewberries]

Plutarch Heavensbee is a Consequentialist. He prioritizes the rebellion's success over individual well-being or personal moral purity to achieve the “greatest good” of overthrowing the Capitol.

Consequentialism is a branch of ethics that holds that “whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act or of something related to that act, such as the motive behind the act or a general rule requiring acts of the same kind.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

More specifically, Plutarch exemplifies Act Consequentialism, which holds that “an act is morally right if and only if that act maximizes the good, that is, if and only if the total amount of good for all minus the total amount of bad for all is greater than this net amount for any incompatible act available to the agent on that occasion.” (Moore, 1912). 

Essentially, consequentialism argues that so long as the outcome produces more “good” than existed before, the path taken to get there (however morally questionable) does not matter as much as the results. The ends justify the means.

Plutarch believes his actions, while manipulative or cruel in isolation, always serve a greater collective good: overthrowing the Capitol and ending the Hunger Games.

Time and time again, he acts only when the consequences would serve a larger purpose. For example, he does not reintroduce Katniss to the prep team until after she agrees to be the Mockingjay. Had he reunited them sooner, Katniss may have reconsidered her loyalty to Coin before the agreement was made. Regardless of whether he knew the conditions of the prep team or not, he knew they were in District 13, and only chose to reunite them with Katniss when it benefited the rebellion the most: right after she agreed to become the symbol. 

"We thought it might be comforting for you to have your regular team," Plutarch says behind me. "Cinna requested it." [...] "I honestly don't know." There's something in his voice that makes me believe him, and the pallor on Fulvia's face confirms it. Plutarch turns to the guard, who's just appeared in the doorway with Gale right behind him. "I was only told they were being confined. Why are they being punished? [...] "Do it on my authority," says Plutarch. "We came to collect these three anyway. They're needed for Special Defense. I'll take full responsibility."

He had not checked on the prep team before leading Katniss down to room 3908, despite knowing they were in d13. His concern was not for the prep team’s well-being, but for the utility they served. He focused on what the prep team would do for Katniss. He uses them as a tool.

He even questions if the prep team can start to serve the cause of the rebellion before they have even had a day to heal:

"Good. Splendid," says Plutarch. "How soon can they be put to work?"

To him, what matters is the end result, not the moral cost to get there.

Similarly to the prep team, Plutarch only authorizes the mission to save Peeta when it is clear the Mockingjay cannot perform without him:

"Plutarch's sending in a rescue team. He has people on the inside. He thinks we can get Peeta back alive," he says.

Perhaps the logistics and intel happened to fall into place at just the right moment, but the timing of the mission's authorization lends itself to how he operates. Once it became clear Katniss could no longer function without Peeta, Plutarch authorized the mission to save him. Saving Peeta only became important when it benefited the rebellion.

Which is why, in Peeta’s interview, he is focused more on Beetee’s breaking in rather than Peeta himself. Plutarch does not see Peeta as beneficial to the cause until it comes down to Katniss forcing his hand.

Plutarch's in spasms of delight and most everybody is cheering Beetee on, but Finnick remains still and speechless beside me. I meet Haymitch's eyes from across the room and see my own dread mirrored back. The recognition that with every cheer, Peeta slips even farther from our grasp.

He cheers when things go his way, such as Beete breaking in, and glosses over another pressing matter, Peeta’s visible deterioration. In that scene, the propos matter more than the person.

And even when Peeta returns, he is still willing to use his image to further the cause:

When I confront Plutarch, he assures me that it's all for the camera. They've got footage of Annie getting married and Johanna hitting targets, but all of Panem is wondering about Peeta. They need to see he's fighting for the rebels, not for Snow. And maybe if they could just get a couple of shots of the two of us, not kissing necessarily, just looking happy to be back together--

He uses people as means to achieve and end. He acts only when it would benefit the “greater good”, in this case, making sure the symbol of the rebellion, Katniss, can perform, and then making sure the people he saved are still being useful to the cause after the fact. To him, utility is more important than humanity.

Immanuel Kant, a deontologist, would say using someone merely as a means to an end is inherently unethical, but a consequentialist would view using the Peeta and prep team as a means to serve the rebellion as ethical, so long as it led to the “best” outcome. 

Further, his choices are in stark contrast to Rule Consequentialism, which promotes that “the moral rightness of an act depends on the consequences of a rule.” (Singer 1961) In other words, if a rule were universally adopted, it should promote the greatest good. Both branches value outcomes, but Rule Consequentialism also emphasizes consistency.

For Plutarch, there are no guiding rules. He does not save people because saving them is the right thing to do, rather, he saves them only when it benefits the cause. His ethics are situational. For example, he does not attempt to rescue Peeta out of loyalty, compassion, or the fact he can save a life. He intervenes only when Peeta’s survival becomes necessary to Katniss’s effectiveness as the Mockingjay.

If Plutarch adhered to Rule Consequentialism, he may have developed guidelines for when and how to act. He might recognize that consistently exploiting trauma, even for a cause, can generate long-term harm that outweighs short-term gains. But under his Act Consequentialism, everything comes down to how useful it is.

This logic governs nearly everything Plutarch does. Many of his actions would be considered deeply unethical out of context, but in the context of war and rebellion, they’re justified by the urgency of the cause. His “by any means necessary” approach aims to secure the “greatest good,” even if that means making sacrifices.

Consequentialism allows for swift decisions. In times of war, it allows the actor to disregard individual suffering so long as the outcome is favorable. For Plutarch, ethical restraint is a luxury he cannot afford. He believes the outcome of a successful rebellion will always outweigh the cost it takes to succeed.

Plutarch is a liar. He’s a sycophant. He’s a backstabber. He’s ruthless and willing to throw anyone into the fire if it means achieving the greatest good of ending the Games. 

A brief overview of his major acts includes:

Becoming a Gamemaker (and later the Head Gamemaker)

Pushing for Katniss to become the Mockingjay

Knowing Katniss’s Prep team was confined

Willing to let the hospital in Eight go down to save Katniss

Only sending a team to rescue Peeta when it would motivate Katniss

Exploiting Finnick's trauma in propos

Willing to throw Delly in with hijacked Peeta

Through all of these instances, he keeps one thing in mind:

"If we lose?" Plutarch looks out at the clouds, and an ironic smile twists his lips. "Then I would expect next year's Hunger Games to be quite unforgettable.”

They have to succeed. He recognizes that what they are doing will be the death of everyone involved if they fail. It is not an ideological threat, but an existential threat. Therefore, the outcome becomes everything. How they get there is less important. The methods may be manipulative and shady, but if it ends the Games, to him, it is justified.

Katniss remarks upon this as well:

What's interesting is that Plutarch seems to have no need to share in the credit. All he wants is for the Airtime Assault to work. I remember that Plutarch is a Head Gamemaker, not a member of the crew. Not a piece in the Games. Therefore, his worth is not defined by a single element, but by the overall success of the production. If we win the war, that's when Plutarch will take his bow. And expect his reward.

Plutarch can only win if the rebellion wins. His worth is defined “by the overall success of the production”. His identity, like his ethical reasoning, is built around the big picture. He is not interested in virtue for its own sake. He doesn’t seek moral purity, individual accolades, or recognition along the way. He seeks to win for the greater good.

Which is how he justifies asking for things like Finnick reciting his traumatic experiences to the entirety of Panem:

"It's painful to watch, actually," says Cressida. "He knew so many of them personally."  "That's what makes it so effective," says Plutarch. "Straight from the heart. You're all doing beautifully. Coin could not be more pleased."

And:

I've been sufficient, if not dazzling. Everyone loves the bread story. But it's my message to President Snow that gets the wheels spinning in Plutarch's brain. He hastily calls Finnick and Haymitch over and they have a brief but intense conversation that I can see Haymitch isn't happy with. Plutarch seems to win--Finnick's pale but nodding his head by the end of it.  As Finnick moves to take my seat before the camera, Haymitch tells him, "You don't have to do this." "Yes, I do. If it will help her." Finnick balls up his rope in his hand. "I'm ready."

In the scene above, Haymitch, who sees Finnick as a person, and not just a means to achieve an end, pushes back on the idea. Unlike Haymitch, Plutarch believes the result will outweigh the cost, thus making it morally permissible. He is willing to encourage Finnick to sacrifice his well-being for the cause. 

He does this to Katniss when she is mourning Peeta after he warns about the incoming bombing of d13:

"Katniss, obviously this is a bad moment for you, what with Peeta's setback, but you need to be aware that others will be watching you." "What?" I say. I can't believe he actually just downgraded Peeta's dire circumstances to a setback. "The other people in the bunker, they'll be taking their cue on how to react from you. If you're calm and brave, others will try to be as well. If you panic, it could spread like wildfire," explains Plutarch. I just stare at him. "Fire is catching, so to speak," he continues, as if I'm being slow on the uptake. "Why don't I just pretend I'm on camera, Plutarch?" I say. "Yes! Perfect. One is always much braver with an audience," he says.  "Look at the courage Peeta just displayed!"

He sees everything as an opportunity to be harnessed. What he is saying is true, as Katniss later finds out people are looking to her for how to act, but he still utilizes her as that symbol instead of allowing her a moment of private grief. He does not seek accommodations for her. He does not extend a shoulder to cry on. He thinks only about how she will influence those around her. He encourages her to suppress her grief and project bravery because it serves the rebellion.

He constantly uses people to achieve optics:

"You're going to be as useful to the war effort as possible," Plutarch says. "And it's been decided that you are of most value on television. Just look at the effect Katniss had running around in that Mockingjay suit. Turned the whole rebellion around. Do you notice how she's the only one not complaining? It's because she understands the power of that screen."

He does not ask if the squad wants to fight, he tells them they must perform on camera. They are tools for propaganda, not people with free will and choices. 

Further, we see his morality play out in how he commands the propos in District Eight, when the Capitol is arriving to bomb the hospital. He commands them all to retreat to safety, which would condemn the hospital to the bombings. He does not even consider telling them to try to take out the hovercrafts. He immediately concludes saving Katniss, the symbol of the rebellion, would be more beneficial than saving the lives of those in the hospital:

"The hospital." Instantly, Gale's up and shouting to the others. "They're targeting the hospital!"  "Not your problem," says Plutarch firmly. "Get to the bunker."  "But there's nothing there but the wounded!" I say.

Katniss is concerned about the immediate threat of innocent people dying. Plutarch is concerned with preserving the symbol of the rebellion. At this point, Katniss is still barely known to be alive and actively fighting. She traveled to District 8 to prove she's more than a rumor. Had she died fighting off Capitol hovercrafts, the rebellion may have lost its figurehead and its momentum.

As Katniss says:

"That's because Plutarch doesn't care who dies," I say. "Not as long as his Games are a success."

Plutarch does not seek to save the most lives while carrying out his plans. He seeks only to save the lives that would guarantee the rebellion’s success. Everyone else is expendable. To him, casualties are not failures. They are necessities.

He fantasizes about weapons of mass destruction: 

I spend the short ride back to 13 curled up in a seat, trying to ignore Plutarch going on about one of his favorite subjects--weapons mankind no longer has at its disposal.High-flying planes, military satellites, cell disintegrators, drones, biological weapons with expiration dates.Brought down by the destruction of the atmosphere or lack of resources or moral squeamishness. You can hear the regret of a Head Gamemaker who can only dream of such toys, who must make do with hovercraft and land-to-land missiles and plain old guns.

He does not seek to destroy the weapons, rather, he fawns over the power they gave the people who wielded them. He could achieve the ends faster with more powerful, destructive weapons. There would be a quick end to any conflict. It would not matter how much blood was spilled, so long as the end arrived. 

This all comes to fruition when the bomb is dropped:

"However, I must concede it was a masterful move on Coin's part. The idea that I was bombing our own helpless children instantly snapped whatever frail allegiance my people still felt to me. There was no real resistance after that. Did you know it aired live? You can see Plutarch's hand there. And in the parachutes. Well, it's that sort of thinking that you look for in a Head Gamemaker, isn't it?"

Plutarch knew what was happening. He knew a second bomb was coming. He kept the cameras on the pen. He knew children would die. And yet, he ensured the cameras were rolling. He made sure it aired live. He understood the horror would end the war and considered that outcome worth the cost. He gave no warning nor protest. He operated solely on cause and effect. 

Despite how his goal is to end the Games, he does not dismantle them. He brings the logic of them with him. Every act he does resembles how he operated as a Gamemaker: manipulating optics, exploiting trauma, orchestrating narratives, and engineering deaths for spectacle. This suggests that while he changes the regime, he does not change the tactics of power. In fact, his methods of information control and propaganda mirror the Capitol’s strategies.

He knew the bomb was going to be dropped. He chose to film and live stream it. He chose not to warn anyone. Everyone who dies was a means to an end. Every life lost, including Prim’s, was just a necessary sacrifice to achieve a goal. For Plutarch, it was the final, brutal play in a long game. His final bow. The war ended. The Capitol fell. The Hunger Games were abolished. And the children who died to get there? Collateral, just as he had allowed them to be for the decades he was involved with the Games. 

Everyone is a piece in Plutarch’s games. 

If you enjoyed this essay, please consider helping me pay for grad school.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Katniss saw Mrs. Mellark hit her 11 y/o son once and was like fuck this bitch forever. And that is why Katniss Everdeen is an icon.

[triassictriserratops]

she was in the middle of a child death game and she STILL had the time to think about Peeta's mom and call her a witch.

Iconic of her, actually. As long as Katniss lives, Mrs. Mellark will always catch strays.

[farfromhome87]

Prologue

Perhaps you're surprised by the topic of my first book. But the Games, Katniss, don't you want to write about the games? About your role in the rebellion that ended decades of totalitarian rule? About the downfall of Coriolanus Snow? Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it later. Because right now there's only one child-hating tyrant I'm interested in lambasting, and that is my late mother-in-law Mrs. Mellark. Her first name? Not important.

[farfromhome87]

Read on A03

My gut twists with horror as I realize I have somehow lost control of the mic and its fuzzy tip is now immersed in Peeta Mellark’s bowl of cake batter...

Boom operator, Katniss Everdeen, is mic over heels with the Great British Bake Off's favorite Star Baker, Peeta Mellark. But it's going to take a pretty big Showstopper for her to admit it...

[farfromhome87]

take care in your hiatus!! I will try and catch up on your fic and hopefully leave lots of comments for you to come back to. hope you are okay and that the time away helps 💜

Thank you, my friend! That is so kind of you. I will be in the wilderness channelling my inner Katniss Everdeen, and in time, all will be well.

[totallywoman]

why do we never talk about this

[farfromhome87]

To me there's something almost... upsetting about it? Like I know this is a beloved tradition in many cultures and nowadays it is more symbolic and doesn't always hold the same overtly patriarchal thinking as it did in the past, but still, the idea of a father being able to "give away" his daughter so that she can be possessed by another man negates her autonomy. It reduces her to an object. And so in this case, where Katniss (and Peeta too) are being forced into marriage by Snow, it comes off as almost sinister. Especially since it is Effie, Katniss' Capitol minder from day one, who suggests that Haymitch, the person the Capitol put in charge of her life in the arena, be the one to do it. It becomes yet another example of how the adults around Katniss (even the ones who are supposedly on "her side") control every aspect of her life. No wonder Haymitch plays it off as a joke. He sees how twisted it is, too.

[farfromhome87]

I'm going on hiatus for a few months as I adjust to some unexpected life changes and will be off-grid for much of it. But before I go, I had fun with Canva making banners for some of my completed fics. So I'll post them over the next few days. Here's the first one. Enjoy!

Peeta Mellark is definitely not her type. He has one date to prove Katniss Everdeen wrong. Is he up to the challenge? Only the intensity of her scowl will tell...

Read on AO3 here!

[justafewberries]

How much space would 8,000 people require to live, can the number of houses in d12 be estimated based on the population, along with the possible size of district 12?

to figure this out, we could use the population density map for the current Appalachia, but I don't think it would apply anymore. We know 8,000 people live in d12, and if we go off of the most official map we have of panem, d12 is approximately 400 miles at its longest point (bottom of North Carolina, top/middle of Ohio).

400 miles is a ton of land to house 8,000 people. We'd also have to factor in peacekeepers. In Ballad, they live on the base, but in CF, it appears at least some (Cray specifically) have their own houses. So let's add 100 people. I have no clue how many peacekeepers there are, but a 1:80 ratio seems sufficient (also, for the sake of rounded numbers).

The current American household has 2.54 people. Again, I don't think this applies. We don't know every family in d12, but the ones we do know tend to run large. Katniss has 3 people (used to be 4), The Undersees have 3 people, Gale has 5 (used to be 6), Louella had 9 (6 siblings, her, 2 parents), Peeta had 5 (assuming his oldest brother still lived with him).

So there is no standard family size we can go with. We do know that on reaping day, there are overflow alleys, so they cannot all fit in the square, yet Katniss does not mention anything about the crowds flowing into the Seam.

I estimated the borders of d12 on this map:

which returned that they would need about 1000 miles of fence to keep people in district 12, as this follows the inner, brighter border on the map. I just don't think this would be necessary for 8,000 people. 8,000 people is the population of a small town today. To illustrate how much space you would need for 8,000 people, the island of Tuvalu has a population of about 10,000 (2022). It has an area of 10 square miles. That's 0.01% of d12's square mileage.

It's likely everyone in d12 has been rounded up in less than a 10 mile radius. We know there is at least some buffer between the fence and the district boundary, because the lake is about 6-10 miles away, and the covey graveyard is beyond the lake. So I think the actual livable portion of d12 is probably only a few square miles at most. The fence would not be the bright border on the map, rather, an unmarked border.

For reference, Idaho is 82,751. Boise is 82 square miles with a population of 235,421. Granted d12 doesn't have apartment buildings, so let's do a small suburb instead.

Emmett city, Idaho has a population of 8,492. The square mileage? 2.8 miles. It has 3,119 housing units and 2,959.

So d12 is like, insanely large. But the livable portion is probably somewhere between 3-10 square miles.

Granted this map is from the movies. It's the closest thing we have to canon.

[farfromhome87]

people i want to get to know better

Tagged by my faves @burkygirl and @letthebrightstarlead so that means I have to play

last song: Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams-- don't judge, this is the best trail running song out there

favorite color: any shade of green

currently watching: Just finished "The Residence" on Netflix. Highly recommend if you like zany whodunnits and great female leads

last movie: Wicked? It made me so nostalgic

sweet, savoury, sour? Sour! I love every kind of pickle, especially spicy dills. Though current favorite is mango pickle

currently reading: Funny Story by Emily Henry. A fun summer Rom-Com that doesn't make you cringe at the writing and is very Everlark-coded

current obsession: Just moved back to the US after a long time abroad, so eating every random food I really missed, namely, the entire cheese section of Trade Joes

last Google: "whodunnit." The classic couldn't-remember-how-to-spell it google that writers know so well...

currently working on: planning a very, very long hike and writing a WIP that's an Everlarked version of the aforementioned book, which may or may not get finished before the aforementioned very, very long hike

Tagging @mage-chocolate @toastbaby @justafewberries @youderly

[mage-chocolate]

This passage is so good when it comes to acknowledging the perception of Katniss versus actually knowing her. And it’s perfectly placed in Mockingjay, the book in which Katniss is the most used and dehumanized as the Mockingjay.

Which makes the line about the baker versus the hunter particularly interesting, almost like a surface level view of the love triangle and how that correlates with a surface level view of Katniss.

Here’s the fiery Mockingjay, sole symbol of rebellion, who will she choose for survival, the hunter or the baker?

But Katniss is so much more than that. She’s not a super cold and practical thing that only wants to survive and rebel, she’s a brave, compassionate girl who wants to live in peace with the people she loves. A songbird who gets burnt up trying to solely be the Mockingjay.

Based on the backstory of the Mockingjay, where they’re hybrids that arose from the mutated jabberjays unexpectedly mating with the mockingbirds, paralleling Peeta being hijacked and coming back to Katniss, it’s not about who can pragmatically lure a mockingjay away with the best odds of survival. It’s about who can unite with a mockingbird against all hope and together they incite a rebellion against all odds.

[mage-chocolate]

And what if I said that the biggest failure of the movies is that they believe in the fake image here instead of the actual Katniss?

[justafewberries]

ooo the Trinkets were rich rich:

“We can’t send you things, of course, since we’re part of your team. But my great-aunt already said she’ll sponsor you. And not just to help my grade.”

disgraced and still have money to throw at the Games

[triassictriserratops]

Oh MOST DEF. probably the only reason they managed to push through the disgrace.

[justafewberries]

This would align with the Plinths, who didn’t have reputational status in the Capitol, and quite frankly, were disgraced solely for being district. their only lifeline was their wealth.

whereas with Snow, his lifeline was the opposite:

[triassictriserratops]

YES exactly.

sidenote, I theorize that the Trinket wealth was the reason for their disgrace in the first place. (As in the accumulation of the wealth is what disgraced them) no particular evidence to that fact - just a vibe I get

[farfromhome87]

No wait. This is interesting. Because Coriolanus famously hates the nouveau riche.

Not saying the Trinket's were District like the Plinths, but maybe they had investments that gave them privileges Snow thought they didn't "earn." Maybe as he was consolidating power they didn't support his big beautiful bill policies because they didn't align with their business interests so eventually they crashed out over social media fell out of favor with the administration.

[farfromhome87]

“You know Katniss, huh?” comes the voice of my classmate, Delly Cartwright.

Usually all bouncing curls and bubbly personality, today she gives off the energy of a deflated balloon. She pauses beside me in the victory square and cranes her neck up at the enormous, newly-erected screen. How fortunate that now nobody has to miss a second of high drama...

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are still in the cave.

“Yeah,” I say, but even as the word comes out of my mouth, I wonder if it's true. Whether Katniss would say it's true. “Kind of,” I amend. “Neither of us are big talkers.”

Delly nods somberly.

“And you and Peeta were close, yeah?” I ask, realizing too late that I used past tense.

“He's like the brother I never had,” she says wistfully. Her eyes are watery, but a corner of her lips quirk. “Total idiot. He used to do this thing where he’d swipe my school notebook. And I’d be searching for it everywhere before it’d turn up right where I’d left it, all full of silly sketches. Cartoons. And I couldn’t really be mad at him because he’d add little encouraging notes in there, too. Like if I was worried about my math test or if a bully had said something mean.”

The skin on my cheek pinches and I can tell I’m attempting a smile. It’s sweet. Peeta seems sweet. I lift my eyes back to the screen and wonder how long he has to live. His skin is tinged green, and despite Katniss’ best efforts, his injury doesn’t seem to be getting any better. 

Katniss is curled up against him, her head resting on his chest. The camera zooms in close and I can see his fingers tangle in the hairs at the nape of her neck. I wonder if Peeta feels it, too. The thing I used to feel. A stirring behind my ribcage. A kind of hollow ache. I wonder if it’s something you’ll always feel, even if you’re dying. Or if they are. And will you keep feeling it, even if you know it’s impossible? Even if you know it can’t be?

I told my mother about the feeling once. The bedroom was dark and silent and smelled like a body that couldn’t get out of bed. She had a cool washcloth on her forehead for her migraine.

My mother looked at me a long time before she spoke. “Your Aunt Maysilee dreamed of a different life,” she said slowly. “She didn’t like being put in a box...”

But she came home in one.

Mother didn’t say the words aloud. She didn’t need to.

Then she had reached into her jewelry box and withdrawn a golden pin that I had never seen before. There was a bird on it. A mockingjay. “Hold it close to your heart, darling. Guard it carefully,” she had whispered.

Delly’s voice shakes me from my reverie. “Katniss is so brave,” she sighs. “She could run away right now. She could win on her own, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” I agree. “She could.”

We stare up at the screen. Trying to understand. Failing.

“Did you know Peeta liked her?” I ask.

“Yeah,” says Delly. “But not because he told me. I could just tell by the way he looked at her.”

I nod. 

Yes, I’d seen him looking at her, too. Furtive glances across the athletic field. A longing stare from the back of our history classroom. Frown lines tugging at his cheeks when he’d take note of the sparse contents of her lunchbox. 

And sometimes she looked at him, too. Raised eyebrows when he’d help a kid pick up the books they'd dropped after somebody pushed them down. A curious gaze on his back retreating down the corridor. Flushed cheeks and darting eyes at his wrestling matches.

Some of the girls in our class used to play this game. They would fold up a paper into a geometric shape that was supposed to tell you your fortune. You had to name the boy you liked and then one of the girls would shuffle the shape around based on the number of letters in his name.

I always broke out into a cold sweat when they played that game. I could never think of anyone. Why couldn't I think of anyone? Sometimes I used Gale Hawthorne. Or Peeta's older brother, Rye. Those were safe choices. Lots of girls seemed to think they were handsome.

People liked to gossip about Katniss and Gale, but I never believed them. Maybe it was because I never saw her look at Gale like the way she looked at Peeta.

She looked at Gale the way she looked at me.

[justafewberries]

if the covey isn’t from Appalachia, why do they exclusively sing Appalachian tuned/bluegrass music? shouldn’t they sing not that? or at least a more even mix?

[knightofthebluearms]

i haven’t read ballad in a while, so i could be wrong here, but if i remember correctly the covey would have been very young when they were rounded up, right? not sure when the adults died, but even if it was after being rounded up, they still would be young. so it’s possible those are the only songs they’d learned yet or remembered.

[rosegardeninwinter]

and also, 1) it seems like many of the songs they sing are not Lucy Gray originals, so I’m assuming they picked up the local tunes (like “Down in the Valley”) for the local ears and 2) we do hear that they sing songs in what appears to be an ancient language, which I think could be anything from Gaelic to other world languages not present in Panem 3) the ones that are Lucy Gray originals go with the instruments they seem to have access to, which are by and large suited to Appalachian style music, and it makes sense that she’d be mimicking the existing musical tradition of the place, ballads and boot-stomping songs alike

[farfromhome87]

One of my favorite headcanons is that the Covey might have musical traditions similar to the Roma/Romani people. Though Romani music is very diverse (I'm mainly familiar with the Romanian/Moldovan flavor of it), it's similar to Appalachian folk music in that it's heavy on stringed instruments with lots of improvisation. And just for fun, in a modern twist, I like to imagine Lucy Gray Baird singing a song about Coriolanus descending into madness like this Roma Punk song by Gogol Bordello.