late-to-the-hunger-games - Tumblr blog

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Canon Divergence/In Panem AU

Pairing: Everlark

Peeta and Katniss were never reaped.

When the rebellion starts and The Capitol bombs D12. Peeta is one of the few Merchants who gets to D13 along with Delly and one of his brothers.

How will Everlark get together if they never have spoken before?

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EVERLARK MOMENTS #1: THE ROOFTOP PICNIC

Location description: I follow him to a flight of stairs that lead to the roof. There’s a small dome-shaped room with a door to the outside. As we step into the cool, windy evening air, I catch my breath at the view. The Capitol twinkles like a vast field of fireflies. <…> On the other side of the dome, they’ve built a garden with flower beds and potted trees. From the branches hang hundreds of wind chimes, which account for the tinkling I heard. Here in the garden, on this windy night, it’s enough to drown out two people who are trying not to be heard. / THG, ch.6

The moment: The roof. We order a bunch of food, grab some blankets, and head up to the roof for a picnic. A daylong picnic in the flower garden that tinkles with wind chimes. We eat. We lie in the sun. I snap off hanging vines and use my newfound knowledge from training to practice knots and weave nets. Peeta sketches me. We make up a game with the force field that surrounds the roof—one of us throws an apple into it and the other person has to catch it. No one bothers us. By late afternoon, I lie with my head on Peeta's lap, making a crown of flowers while he fiddles with my hair, claiming he's practicing his knots. After a while, his hands go still. “What?” I ask. “I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever,” he says. Usually this sort of comment, the kind that hints of his undying love for me, makes me feel guilty and awful. But I feel so warm and relaxed and beyond worrying about a future I'll never have, I just let the word slip out. “Okay.” I can hear the smile in his voice. “Then you'll allow it?” “I'll allow it,” I say. His fingers go back to my hair and I doze off, but he rouses me to see the sunset. It's a spectacular yellow and orange blaze behind the skyline of the Capitol. “I didn't think you'd want to miss it,” he says. “Thanks,” I say. Because I can count on my fingers the number of sunsets I have left, and I don't want to miss any of them. / CF, ch.17

* * * * * *

I could spend my life in this sweet surrender I could stay lost in this moment forever Where every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure*

I just want to hold you close Feel your heart so close to mine And just stay here in this moment For all the rest of time*

*Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing is official anthem of the rooftop scene, come on. It’s just PERFECT. I consider this song as a soundtrack for this moment. Right?!

P.S. Once again, what do you know about dream job? This illustration is a commission!! I mean, a person (wonderful, amazing person!) payed me for drawing this! For drawing one of the most beautiful moments from my favorite book! Dear @thehellcaster thank you again. I wanted to draw this moment for ages but considering level of detail I just couldn’t afford to spend so much time on one illustration (it would take me like a month to complete I think, since I don’t really have time for personal projects now). So it is a real luck to have an opportunity to draw this moment properly as a part of my work. Thank you! And hope you like the results ☺️.

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Peeta:

The Hunger Games (2012) dir. Gary Ross

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10 years of The Hunger Games (2012 - 2022)

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fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us!

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The Hunger Games: Finnick + Annie + moments

My love, you have my heart for all eternity. And if I die in that arena, my last thought will be of your lips.

requested by @itcouldbendoritcouldbreak

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Three Sugar Cubes in A Death Match

Rereading pages 304 - 305 of Catching Fire (Ch 21) I was struck, again, by the beauty displayed amongst our sugar cubes (cause let's be real, Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick are complete sweethearts, it's part of what makes them a good team, binds them together like a band of bleeding hearts).

"When I've finally survived the worst...I'm functional enough to help Finnick."

Katniss's first thought once she's functional is to take care of Finnick. Not assess the surroundings or danger level or figure out the next course of action. It's simply to heal him even though she's still spasming. Watching Everlark work as a team to care for Finnick is peak feels. I can just see it in my head how they care for toastbabies when they are sick or just feeling down (drabbles or headcanons are encouraged on this specific topic!). Teamwork, or community, is a strong theme of THG and this is why I headcanon so many ways that Katniss + Peeta participate in post war recovery of 12, specifically with children. @mendontprotectyou shared a great snippet of headcanons on that a few nights ago, nearly identical to my own. Tell us your own!

The line that always moves me the most, nearly to tears is this:

"Finnick slowly begins to revive. His eyes open, focus on us, and register awareness that he's being helped. I rest his head on my lap and we let him soak about ten minutes..."

They've endured so much in less than 24 hours, especially Katniss, and here she is with Finnick's head in her lap, someone she barely knows, that she was put off by in their initial meeting, she has no reason to trust him and yet she affords him the small comfort and dignity of not having to put his head on the ground. It's a blink and you miss it gesture but when you see it, really see it, you see Katniss. This is the kind of person she is. I wonder if any district citizen saw this moment and felt inspired by it, you know, in Mockingjay when they are listing the times that they were moved by Katniss. It's got me wondering how much of an anomaly this action is among allies, all we really know from Katniss is that Careers usually turn on each other at the first opportunity. I doubt they treat each other with tenderness.

Here's another hit in the feels

"We help him sit up and let him grip our hands as he purges his eyes and nose and mouth."

I mean, come on, they did not have to do that. But they did. They held his hands through the worst of it for absolutely no other reason than they are good people and that's what you do for others. And that's what Finnick does for Katniss as best he can in Mockingjay and for Peeta after his rescue.

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present for @hufflepuffkhaleesi​ ✨✨ missing the hunger games together since 2010

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This hug was really important to me.  Katniss knows she cannot trust Coin.  She feels betrayed by Haymitch.  For her own safety, she can’t trust Peeta.  Often times she is confused around Gale and his views on the war.  At this point in the story, Katniss has started turning herself off to the people around her because she’s been manipulated and confused too many times.  But when she sees Finnick, she doesn’t hesitate to give him a hug, and he doesn’t either, because even during all the fighting around them they trust each other like true allies would, and I love that.

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peeta mellark is one of my all-time favorite male characters because he's not the little golden boy that most of the fandom perceived him as back in the day. he's cunning, he's manipulative, he's downright ruthless, and while he's kind and his intentions are (mostly) noble, peeta could easily be one of the most dangerous people alive, and he doesn't even have to have his own memories turned against him by tracker jacker venom to accomplish this.

by cutting simple scenes like him pouring out all of haymitch's liquor and deciding everyone's going to train like careers for the quarter quell, the film adaptations really watered peeta down a lot, and that's unfortunate.

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eat, sleep, game, repeat.

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THG: no nightmares by Minuiko

Revisiting the best “Catching Fire” fanart for the movie countdown :)

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True Nature by ~yun-ing

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Katniss helping Peeta after an episode

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Some Fics I’m reading...

I just wanted to give some love to two fics that recently updated that I’m enjoying very much. The first is roses are red, roses are white by Forever_in_your_Heart. The author just posted chapter 13 of this epic fic which is already more than 260,000 words long. It’s the story of the War of the Roses. Madge is the main character, but portions of the story are told through the eyes of many other THG characters. (Spoiler: chapter 13 is full of Everlark.) The writing is gorgeous and the story riveting.

The second fic I’d like to recommend is Wilderness Log by alliswell.The author credited me with giving her the idea for it during a fandom re-watch of Catching Fire. It answers the question: What would have happened if Katniss and Peeta ran off before the Quarter Quell? This fic is mostly complete; we are only waiting for the epilogue. It’s sweet and very funny.

Thanks to these two writers and to all fanfic writers who share their talent with us.

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Finnick might have voted YES for another Hunger Games

I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but during my recent reread of THG trilogy it struck me that Finnick might actually have voted ‘yes’ to another Hunger Games had he lived in order to protect Annie (and possibly also himself, although I don’t think he cares much about his own physical safety) from Coin.

Annie says that Finnick would vote no if he were there. I do not doubt for even a second the truth of that statement if the vote were solely about his personal convictions. I am in no way saying Finnick personally wanted another Hunger Games. But I still think there is a possibility he might have voted with Coin. 

This is going to get long. Apologies. 

First of all, there is evidence early on in Mockingjay that Finnick has Coin’s number. You can see this when he and Katniss watch the Distirct 8 hospital bombing propo. Finnick’s political awareness and strategic intelligence are on full display. The most striking part of the scene is how quickly his mind works. 

What happens is this: an interview with Peeta comes on right after the rebel propo about the Distict 8 hospital bombing. Finnick and Katniss watch it. Peeta is in very bad shape. He implores Katniss to stop making propos, asks if she can trust the rebels, insists she is being manipulated into being a cause of death and destruction.

Finnick presses the button on the remote that kills the power. In a minute, people will be here to do damage control on Peeta’s condition and the words that came out of his mouth. I will need to repudiate them. But the truth is, I don’t trust the rebels or Plutarch or Coin. I’m not confident that they tell me the truth. I won’t be able to conceal this. Footsteps are approaching. 

Finnick grips me hard by the arms. “We didn’t see it.”

“What?” I ask. 

“We didn’t see Peeta. Only the propo on Eight. Then we turned the set off because the images upset you. Got it?” He asks. I nod. “Finish your dinner.” 

And Finnick’s plan works. (“I pull myself together enough so that when Plutarch and Fulvia enter, I have a mouthful of bread and cabbage. Finnick is talking about how well Gale came across on camera. We congratulate them on the promo. Make it clear it was so powerful, we tuned out right afterward. They look relieved. They believe us.”)

This demonstrates that Finnick has Coin’s number while also demonstrating that he understands Katniss well enough to know she is not capable of playing the game she needs to in order to survive right now. He is in such bad shape mentally at this point that he “basically lives at the hospital” and yet he is sharp enough, astute enough, and quick enough to realise in a matter of seconds that: 

a) people will be checking on them any minute, 

b) Katniss will have to publicly respond to Peeta’s comments as well as assure Coin and Plutarch that she completely trusts them and the rebels if word gets out they saw Peeta, 

c) Katniss does NOT trust the rebels or D13 or Plutarch, and especially not Coin, 

d) Katniss is, in that moment, incapable of acting well enough to convince Coin and Plutarch that she does trust them, and 

e) the consequences of that would be bad, bad, bad. 

Therefore, it is highly likely that Finnick would be aware of the fact he and his loved ones are unsafe when it comes to Coin, and this knowledge would have been a factor in how he voted during the Games vote at the end of Mockingjay. 

In fact, he probably realised this a lot sooner than the Games vote. Finnick probably understood immediately that he was now expendable - and potentially a threat - the moment he laid eyes on Peeta, the newest member of the Star Squad. 

Katniss is a lot less politically astute than Finnick, so Boggs has to spell it out for her. 

“But you’ll throw support to someone. Would it be President Coin? Or someone else?” [Boggs says]

“I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it,” I say. 

“If your immediate answer isn’t Coin, then you’re a threat. You’re the face of the rebellion. You may have more influence than any other single person,” says Boggs. “Outwardly, the most you’ve ever done is tolerated her.”

“So she’ll kill me to shut me up.” The minute I say the words, I know they’re true.

“She doesn’t need you as a rallying point now. As she said, your primary objective, to unite the districts, has succeeded,” Boggs reminds me. “These current propos could be done without you. There’s only one last thing you could do to add fire to the rebellion.”

“Die,” I say quietly. 

“Yes. Give us a martyr to fight for,” says Boggs.

Boggs tells Katniss explicitly that Coin wants Katniss dead because whomever Katniss supports as the new leader of Panem is who the new leader will be.  Katniss has this amount of influence because she is “the face of the rebellion.” Aka she is extremely famous at this point - dare I say, as the Mockingjay, a living legend.

Who else is a living legend in Panem? Finnick. 

I think Finnick would have realised Coin might now consider him a potential threat the minute he understood that Coin saw Katniss as a threat, which I think he would have pieced together the moment Peeta joined Star Squad. While Katniss undoubtedly has the most sway over who will be Panem’s new leader, it is highly likely Finnick held some influence, too. He is one of the most famous people in all of Panem and is now famously a rebel due to the several propos he made. Being the Capitol Darling for 10 years probably limits how much political sway he has over the general public, and his mental breakdown in D13 probably lost him some credibility with the rebels. However, he probably gained quite a bit of credibility points and general influence after his powerful confessional propo that revealed Snow’s forced prostitution of the desirable victors, Snow’s deadly rise to power, and other salacious details about the other most powerful people in the Capitol. His primary use was his ability to turn the Capitol against Snow. Now that he’s accomplished that, he is expendable to Coin - just like Katniss. It just took longer for Katniss to become expendable than it did for Finnick. 

So Finnick would have  known he could not afford to give Coin the impression he did not support her fully and without hesitation. He had Coin’s number from pretty early on and has a sharp political mind. This leads us to the vote. 

If you look at the Victors who voted ‘no’, you realise the none of them have much influence over public opinion. Peeta (a ‘traitor’ due to his capitol tv spots during MJ, then an ‘evil Capitol mutt’ when returned hijacked) doesn’t have much influence. His credibility is shot. Annie, who has a very public reputation as the mad victor, also votes no. So does Beetee. Beetee has more credibility than Annie or Peeta with the public, but he is older, in a wheelchair, and not one of the most famous victors so he likely doesn’t hold much sway. He also cites political concerns for his vote, not moral objections, a move reminiscent of a wise advisor to a king. He also demonstrated his loyalty with the bombing of the Capitol that killed Prim.

So basically, the victors who vote against Coin are the ones who don’t pose a threat to Coin. Johanna and Enobaria vote yes out of a desire for revenge. The victors with more credibility and sway (Katniss, Haymitch) vote yes knowing that they can’t be seen to not support Coin (Kat) and knowing what Katniss is planning (Haymitch). 

I think Finnick would have known immediately what Katniss was planning, but I don’t think that would have any influence on his vote. 

Bottom line/TL;DR: I think he would have voted ‘yes’ to protect Annie. Because he would have known Coin might see him as a threat and his experience has taught him that presidents use his loved ones to punish him or keep him in line. He has seen the similarities between Coin and Snow from the beginning and has been given no reason to assume Coin will behave differently.