ask game: 📿🕊️🦇 for nessa, rosemary and jason (or just one or more ocs if you choose!)
📿: what superstition or ritual do they cling to? - nessa
what's interesting about this question is that nessa has a very complicated relationship with her faith, especially in relation to her father and sister. I suspect this is why you asked this question.
the brownstones are las cordilleras (if you don't know what that means, check out my D2 religion post here) and live in a village near the base of a mountain on the D2 side of the border that also largely consists of las cordilleras. while the capitol hasn't started actively persecution yet, paganism has been on the rise, due to the influence in schools and a belief that conformity could lead to the capitol going "easier" on two as far as the games are concerned—though as I stated in my post, paganism has always been somewhat present in two, considering we have canon characters born before the first rebellion with roman names.
needless to say, nessa has grown up in a more hectic, rapidly changing cultural environment. her father antony, meanwhile, has clung to his faith after various subsequent struggles: the death of his wife, the war, the struggle of raising two children alone during the war/in its aftermath, and after helen's health took a turn for the worse. helen, too, has become more devout as her health declined. at the start of her story, as nessa is struggling to come to terms with helen's imminent death (in tandem with the factors I mentioned previously), she starts to question her beliefs. being reaped does not help with this. even though nessa deliberately chose to take helen's place, the fact that the reaping (and the games) exists at all is, to her, only further proof that the mountains have failed at protecting the people. as for what happens after the games... well, you'll just have to wait and see.
but to answer the question itself, nessa continues to make the sign of the mountains when she's nervous or scared. think of it like a catholic crossing themself: las cordilleras steeple their hands to form a mountain, then another one right next to it, then bring their hands together horizontally to form the valley. las cimas make a single peak with their hands and then bring their hands together underneath. I... hope that makes sense. describing action is hard for me.
🕊️ when did they feel the safest? - rosemary
on autumn nights, the marshes like to eat around the fire, mosquitos be damned. she felt safest huddled around a campfire between chaff and their older sister thyme when they were all under reaping age.
🦇 : what is a fear they never talk about? - jason
okay I have two jasons... bartley and fitzroya. I'll talk about both.
for fitzroya, I don’t know if he has a fear he doesn’t talk about. obviously he’s not going to tell his seven-year-old sisters that being their guardian scares the shit out of him, and that he perpetually fears he’s doing a bad job at it, but he’ll confide such fears in a friend. his openness with his emotions is something gale admires about him deeply, and is even envious of. sorry if that’s a cop-out answer.
REFERENCED SUICIDE TW!!!!
bartley is a lot more closed off and reserved, especially after his games. winning so early on makes it challenging to be open with others. in the beginning, it’s because people don’t see what goes on in the arena and have a different philosophy about the games—some seeing compliance with the games (playing by the rules) as bending to the capitol’s will. as the games evolve, they become better understood and people become more sympathetic towards the victors, but people still don’t know what it’s like to be in that situation unless they’re in it themselves. additionally, as the games evolve, the rawness of the “archaic” games (1-9, with 10 considered as an intermediary year between the archaic era and the “classic” era) fades. it’s harder for the archaic victors to find solace in their younger counterparts. it’s partially why their mental health becomes especially poor, and why many of them ultimately end up committing suicide.
ironically enough, it is isolation itself that bartley feared the most, and had been long before he stepped into the arena. growing up during the war, community was important. a lot of that community was, of course, lost during the war. losing more people scared jason. after the games, he had a hard time connecting with people. relaying exactly what he'd been through was difficult. his brother hercules was a peacekeeper who had been deployed elsewhere, and calling/writing to him helped, but were slow (and monitored) forms of communication. it was jason's boyfriend aeneas and aeneas' aunt penelope who made up the bulk of his support system. aeneas' cousin/penelope's son alexander was actually the first victor. alexander never made it back home after the games, so aeneas and penelope were determined to help jason as best they could. even so, it was hard. meeting other victors helped a little, especially the ones from his era, but he only saw them once a year and could only communicate with them through calls or mail (which, again, were monitored and slow forms of communication).
this feeling of isolation from his community (both at home and within the community of victors) is a major factor contributing to his eventual suicide. future history makes it seem like it was one specific event that lead to a lot of the early victor suicides, but that isn't true for any of them. jason is no exception.