the-what-but-not-the-when

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You got your Underland Chronicles in my Hunger Games

Okay at this point I really need to write this down before I start forgetting the details because I'm super obsessed with it.

Underland Chronicles Hunger Games AU edition! Taking the characters of Underland Chronicles and putting them in the Hunger Games setting, because it works perfectly.

Gregor I think would be from one of the outer districts, probably Six since it's the district I most associate with large cities. He'd miraculously win at age 12 and I think his mentor would be Ripred. I feel like Vikus is also very much a mentor figure to Gregor though, and I think he could maybe be... the Capital Escort? As a demotion of some kind? Like he used to be more important but now he's escorting the District 6 tributes (Solovet can be Vikus' ex-wife lmao, maybe a game maker) But since he's Vikus he definitely gets his heart broken every year over their tributes dying. Since the only other Six mentors we see are drug addicts, mentoring falls pretty much entirely on him and Ripred. Ripred would have a similar backstory to Haymitch, since Haymitch is basically just a less stable Ripred to begin with. Gregor's dad I think would have been taken into custody by the Capital 3 years prior for "spreading discontent" (ie actually teaching an unvarnished history of the Capital in his classes since he's a teacher) and hasn't been seen by his family since he was grabbed. I think Gregor would talk about missing his dad in interviews as a big way to get the audiences on his side and so the Capital releases him after Gregor wins to boost ratings (I can see this also being a motivating factor Ripred uses to get Gregor to really try to win the games and not give up completely; Ripred is pretty savvy, and knows if they play their cards right getting Gregor's dad back might not be too farfetched)

Along with Gregor, Twitchtip would be his district partner as a scrawny 15 year old (I want them to have some kind of prior connection, like Twitchtip was his math tutor or something) I think her in story name would be something very Beatrix Potter, like Tabitha Twitch. She'd make protecting Gregor her main goal and the two are really tight. She makes a similar bargain with Ripred that Peeta makes with Haymitch, and Ripred figures it'll maybe get one of them out of the arena at least. Though it's still a longshot with Gregor being one of the 12 year olds. Twitchtip would get Gregor through the first half of the games before getting killed protecting him (we can pull a similar card that canon pulls with Twitchtip, and maybe Gregor thinks she was killed (like he didn't get a chance to notice that her canon never fired or that her picture never showed up in the sky at night) but she was actually being kept alive by some of the Careers and being tortured)

Gregor would meet Ares during the initial training and interviewing for the games, as the district 2 male volunteer and Ares would be what really carries him through to the end. Gregor would remind Ares of Henry and Luxa, who would be in the early stages of training at the District 2 Training Centre, and Ares would have spent a lot of time bonding with them. The Careers group would splinter earlier than usual, and somehow Ares finds himself without a district partner and in an alliance with Gregor of all people, being a smart kid who kinda loses his mind when he fights. Ares keeps telling himself that Gregor isn't going to make it out of the arena, that it would be best to just put him down before things get worse but he just can't bring himself to do it. I think little kids in general would be his biggest weakness that Centre in District 2 tries to work out of him, but the seed of it just refused to die completely. The Bane would be a real loose cannon from District 1; I can totally picture the Bane's name being something like Pearl in district 1 or 4. It takes both Ares and Gregor working together to take him out in the final battle and of course Ares dies in the process as well. The arena would obviously be a cave system. 

Luxa wouldn't enter the games until she's 16, and I think she and Henry would end up in them together like Cato and Clove end up in the same arena, where the Capital thinks it'll be juicer drama to have cousins going in together. Aurora can have won the year before or the year after Ares died and would mentor Luxa. Like normally they wouldn't allow a victor fresh out of the games to mentor, but when Aurora sees it's unexpectedly Luxa she demands to be her mentor. Henry would maybe have Callista (from Lorata's d2 writings in general, because I love her) as a mentor and would go full District 2 villain mode, turning on Luxa because he doesn't want to die in the arena like Ares did. Unfortunately this sets him up as the perfect narrative foil for Luxa, who the audience gets really attached to and the final battle ends up being between the two of them. This leaves Luxa really traumatized coming out of her games and completely disillusioned with the Hunger Games system. 

Luxa and Gregor would bond over their friendship with Ares, since Ares talked about Luxa in Gregor's games and he wants to meet her when she wins. It starts off pretty rocky, but of course they end up being really close. They both end up joining the rebellion when it kicks off in full force when they're 17 (Gregor obviously does, but Luxa gets REALLY jaded about the Capital after they send her in with Henry and it doesn't take much convincing to get her on board). Luxa I think would be one of the only 2 victors to make it out alongside Enobaria (maybe Aurora would make it out too?) and she'd help her with the remaining Centre kids. Gregor will have a rough time of it and end up with a pretty bad opinion of the Rebellion as well as the Capital; he'd end up back in his home district helping rebuild alongside Ripred. 

He and Luxa would stay penpals for years, and I like to imagine they eventually get together when they're older. They probably had some very confusing make out sessions as traumatized teens and once the war is over both mutually agree that "we'll figure this out later". I'm not sure if they'd stay long distance or one of them would eventually move to the other's district.

Also if Ripred and Haymitch are in the same room they would immediately fight each other to the death. 

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The Underland Chronicles were so real for spending five books talking about choosing to live and how a big part of that is visualizing how things can be, how imagining a life is the first step to living it, hope is the foundation for change, etc, etc. And then the series ends without tying up all of its subplots and with massive questions on the reader's part of what happens next.

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Hello Tumblr I come bearing fanart for a series with a tiny fan base. Gregor fans pls rise

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Howard and Dulcet are definitely one of those pairings for me that like probably only stood next to eachother once (and didn’t even in canon lmao)

but they’re both so kind and care so much about other people and are so good w kids that I could see them being a good pair platonically or romantically (also I imagine howard uses a cane on days when the post-plague fatigue gets bad :o) )

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Shitposting cause I can:

We know a few things about the Underland Caves. Regalia and the charted Underland are housed under New York and across to Virginia. But Luxa also mentions "Uncharted Lands" that they have no information about.

Scientists have found a large amount of underground tunnels and caves that traverse the east coast all through the Appalachian Mountains. (pictured above)

Ripred has gone to the Overland many times (even so bold as to go into libraries and eat/read books). New York has had police CCTV since the 70's, as well as having the moniker "The City that Never Sleeps" since 1912. Ripred is not that old, so the chances of him going to NYC without being spotted are probably pretty low.

There have been reports of large furry creatures that can walk upright in Appalachia since the 1800s.

-

I hypothesize that there's a grainy photograph of Ripred being sold at some cryptid museum claiming he's bigfoot.

I also think the Mothman/Raven Mocker may have just been bats with skin diseases.

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ahahahahaaaa suffer

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tw: discussion of infertility/child loss

Doing some timeline stuff and trying to figure out everyone’s ages made me realize how odd it is that Henry/Nerissa are so much older than Luxa.

Which lead me to think about courting/marriage/childbearing customs in Regalian culture, especially in regards to the royal family. Which made me realize that Luxa’s parents probably were married and trying for heirs before the kings younger brother (Henry’s father) would be starting his family.

So why are Luxa’s cousins years older than her? It also doesn’t make sense that her parents would have only had one heir. It’s very common to make a few spares (even in peace times). They didn’t die until AFTER Gregor’s father fell. Luxa would have been somewhere between 9-10 years old. The fact that she doesn’t have siblings is very telling.

Luxa’s parents struggled with fertility issues for at least 5 years before her birth and for about 10 after. That’s why Luxa’s name doesn’t match her family’s tradition of naming children after Shakespearean references. She IS their Lux, their light.

I am not okay.

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The Light On My Horizon-

Central Park was beautiful this time of day. It was always beautiful, honestly. But there was just something about sunrise that made it extra so. Gregor knew, logically, that he shouldn't do it. Go there. But it was peaceful this early in the morning. Serene. The world was just barely waking, the birds had just started to sing, and a calm, peaceful feeling seemed to wrap around him as he walked from his apartment to the Park, choosing the same bench every time. It had the perfect angle to watch the sunrise. He didn't know why he did it, exactly. It had started a few weeks after he had left the Underland for the last time. The nightmares had been awful, pulling him from sleep violently. He barely slept. It had been the third week, the nineteenth day to be exact, when he had gotten up and looked out the window for the first time. Instead of going to the kitchen like he had before, sitting at the table with a glass of water he never drank, staring at nothing until the rest of the household awoke. He had looked out the window and spotted the sunrise, bathing Central Park in an array of oranges and reds and yellows. Fiery colors streaking across the sky. He had stood there, transfixed, for two hours. And just watched the sun rise. He had done the same thing the next day. Just sat there, cross legged, on his sorry excuse for a bed, and watched the sunrise. On the twenty seventh day he had left the apartment and walked across the street to the bench. He had done it ever since. It was routine. Maybe because it connected him to nature, maybe because it seemed like the sort of thing Ripred would do, maybe because it was the sort of thing he had always taken for granted and knew Ares and Luxa and Aurora would have been awed by. Whatever the reason, Gregor had done it every morning, without fail. There had been a time where Gregor had been jealous of Ripreds ability to fall asleep and wake up on command. Now he did it himself. He knew he wasn't alone. But they never acknowledged each other. It was okay. Good, even. Gregor knew he wouldn't be able to go through a goodbye twice. The sunrise symbolized something. What, he wasn't sure. He just knew it meant something to him. That it was important. That it was the light at the end of the tunnel. His only hope. The Light On His Horizon. 

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That whole, I bet you can't break a fandom with only a few words except we are a fandom of like twenty people and a shoelace but wtv hope you all see this-

"Don't go Ares, okay? Don't."

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hello! wow its been quite a while since ive posted here.

please have two short fics, both about scars

tw: scars, panic attacks, relationship breakdown, but generally good vibes https://archiveofourown.org/works/55541464 tw: scars, torture, trauma (mentioned) + small amount of graphic gore, generally bad vibes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EUUlJNdtkuvpZHxxZ-6lx8QO6lEpLOmtZzEUVsz4TSM/edit

uh, apologies in advance?

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And you say ‘as long as I’m here, no one can hurt you’

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GUYS

I just learned my boyfriend went to dashcon. Like saw the ball pit and everything. I know I'm a fandom blog that isn't even really active but what do i do with this information.

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"Beware, Underlanders, time hangs by a thread..."

hello hello! this september 1st marks the 20 year anniversary of gregor the overlander, the first book in the underland chronicles series by suzanne collins! i wanted to do something special to celebrate and i thought a little (re)read event would be a lot of fun!

all of the details are in the images above (image descriptions provided), but here are the dates once more:

Aug. 7th-11th --- Gregor the Overlander

Aug. 12th-16th --- Prophecy of Bane

Aug 17th-21st --- Curse of the Warmbloods

Aug 22nd-26th --- Marks of Secret

Aug 27th-Sept. 1st --- Code of Claw

and remember to use the tag #TUC20 during the event to meet and interact with other fans + #TUC spoilers for any new readers we may have during this time. i'll be going through and reblogging posts, so feel free to tag me (@prophecyofgray) as well!

one more thing: i think it'd be a lot of fun if we did something extra special on the anniversary itself, but im not sure what. feel free to share ideas in the tags <3

that's it for now! boost this if u can + spread the underland chronicles agenda to your friends >:)

fly you high!

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thinking about ares and prim. thinking about suzanne collins' doomed by the narrative characters. characters who are set to die in the first book (ares' attempted banishment, prim's reaping) and it being avoided through the main character (gregor bonding to ares, katniss volunteering for prim) and how in the end, the third segment of each grand finale, they die anyway. ares is torn apart by what was, in the prophecy, supposed to kill gregor. prim is blown up by the rebellion katniss was fighting for. they die and it's brutal. it's pointless. and that's the point. thinking about "you'll have to let [ares] go yourself," the plastic toy bat, and "she's dead, you stupid cat," the primrose pressed in the pages of the book. thinking about characters who are fated to die.

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idea for a gregor the overander/tuc sequel series:

after the events of book 5, gregor’s family and the underland go their separate ways. The underland never reaches out to them, and gregor’s family tries their best to just forget the whole thing. A couple years after their return, they even move to a whole new city (the whole farm plan didn’t work out; too expensive).

boots grows up feeling like her entire family is hiding some big, dark secret. they never talk about anything that happened before they moved, taking special care to avoid boots’s baby years.

her mom wears long sleeves and jeans, even in the summertime. once, boots accidentally walked in on her dressing and found that she was covered in faded, circular scars.

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