#Peeta Mellark the man you are❤️

[burgerpiee]

“Dudes with girl best friends are red flags” Peeta Mellark has a girl best friend and he’s the ideal man

[taytrashmouth]

Prompts and requests!!!

Okay so requests are open so keep sending them in!!! Here are some prompts, and characters I write for, let me know what you want to see next.

you can send in original ideas too!

Send requests with the prompt and the character you want to see it with.

Prompts:

1. “You’re being all cute and sweet and it’s making me want to kiss you.”

2. “You said you liked _____, like a month ago so I bought it for you.”

3. “Can I braid your hair!?” “Absolutely not.” “Pleeeeeassse” ends up braiding their hair.

4. “Who did this to you?”

5. “You don’t deserve someone like that.”

6. “Are you jealous?”

7. Reunited after a war

8. Taking care of each other when they’re sick

9. “Please don’t cry.”

10. “Did you just lick me?”

11. “Say the words and I’m yours.”

12. “Do you ever miss us?”

13. “Just….please, h-hold my hand for a bit. I’m scared.”

14. Slow dancing by a fire.

15. “If even half that blood is yours, you need to sit down.”

16. Trying to study but they keep distracting you

17. Cuddling on the couch for the first time, every touch is electric, it’s awkward it’s new, etc.

18. Person B discovering person A has been abused in the past.

19. Person B is insecure about their scars, person A makes them feel better about this.

20. Sunshine x black cat

21. “I trust you.”

22. “You’re staring!”

23. “I like seeing you happy.”

24. They kiss “I’ve been waiting to do that for ____ years.”

25. “Are you nervous?”

26. “Are you cold?” “No.” Gives them their jacket anyway.

27. “You are everything to me! Don’t you see that!?”

28. “You told me you were okay! You promised!”

29. “Where did you get those bruises?”

30. “You should’ve been here! With me!”

31. “I love you!”

32. “Wait!…..stay.”

33. “I want to stop loving you but I can’t! I close my eyes and all I dream about is you!”

34. “As you wish.”

35. “Goodbye.” They whisper with tears in their eyes and a cracking voice.

36. “Are you up?”

38. Watches their lover die

39. “You’re more than a one night stand….you know that.”

40. “Why can’t you just love me back?!”

41. “Letting you go was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.”

42. “Can’t you see that I’m trying?”

43. “How long?”

44. “Look me in the eye and tell me you never loved me…say it!”

45. “You still have sleepy stuff in your eyes.”

46. “Okay sleeping beauty it’s bedtime, I’ve got you.”

47. “You smell nice.”

48. Tickling each other

49. “If I could hold you in public I don’t think I’d ever let go.”

50. “God here- just hold my hand.”

51. Person A “Well you could-“

Person B “if you suggest I sit in your lap I’ll hit you.”

Franchises I write for:

Stranger things

Game of thrones

Friends

The summer I turned pretty

Harry Potter

IT

The last of us

Marvel

I am not okay with this

Outer banks

Kingsman

Heartstopper

That 70s show

The hunger games

Buffy the vampire slayer

(I will write for any character from the above franchises)

Characters I love to write:

(To give you some ideas)

Steve Harrington

Eddie Munson

Max mayfield

Robin Buckley

Robb stark

Jon snow

Chandler Bing

Jeremiah fisher

Harry Potter

Hermione granger

The Weasley twins

Richie Tozier

Beverly marsh

Joel miller

Ellie Williams

Thor

Captain America

Peter Parker/ Spider-Man

Peter quill

Stanley barber

JJ Maybank

Eggsy

Nick Nelson

Eric foreman

Micheal kelso

Steven Hyde

Peeta Mellark

Spike

Angel

Feel free to send in requests without prompts too!

I am open to writing for ships within those franchises too!!

Can’t wait to write!!!!! Send in those requests!!!!

Love to anyone who reads my work❤️

[little-lynx]

SOME WIPS

Oh, that’s fun. I was tagged by @katnissmellarkkk and @jhsgf82 and I must say GIRLS I’m shocked of your lists of wips lol. You are so productive! I wish you endless inspiration! ❤️

Ah, the rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DnD campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!!

Ok, first of all, I don’t have many wips because I’m that kind of person who should start and finish something soon or it will be abandoned forever lol. So I try to finish every illustration or delete it if I can’t finish it immediately. Unfinished illustrations make me nervous. But I still have some! I will list only ones that I actually have started drawing and have at least a rough sketch of it.

Work/BMC/Patreon:

1. Draco+ferret

2. Mafia porn lol lol lol

3. Biker!Peeta

Personal stuff:

1. First kiss / everlark

2. Three blondes (Donner twins and the apothecary daughter) / I did this sketch around the time I posted sqq generation line up (sometime in 2020) and I’m not sure I will ever finish it

3. Victory Tour, District 7 red dress comic / hot hot hot 🥵

4. Dark!Peeta portrait / not sure I will finish it

5. No unicorns ff / super old sketch that I don’t like but can’t delete also lol

6. Haymitch selfie/ for INSTAPANEM

7. Nervous / there was a challenge among thg fan artists and I fail to meet the deadline

8. Mr.&Mrs. Mellark kitchen fun / early days

9. A Man for All Seasons / ff

10. Rye bakery

11. Rye & Peeta wrestling

12. The Act poster

13. Everlark kiss animation / probably will never finish because animation is hard!

14. Everlark outfits, district 5, Annie’s wedding dress

Lol. I said I don’t have many wips and here we are. But honestly almost all of these illustrations are on suuuuper rough stage and will probably never be finished. Except for The Act and Everlark Outfits. Ugh.

I won’t tag anyone because I’m sure everyone already did it but if not please join! That’s actually fun and even helps to organise things haha ❤️

[vino---delectable]

Get to Know Me!

This is just a fun little thing I’ve been wanting to do since the dawn of time but could never find a post to reblog that satisfied what I wanted. So I made this, feel free to reblog and use it yourself!

❤️ how tall are you? 5'5?

🧡 what is your sexuality? ------- there's your answer

💛 what is your favorite feature on yourself? Eyes?

💚 where are you from? Earth. Of that I'm certain

🩵 do you have any pets? A dog, and chickens

💙 do you have any siblings? 3 sissies

💜 describe yourself in five words or less! Quiet, loving, energetic, fantasizer, peaceful

🩷 dream job? Writer

🖤 favorite hobbies outside of your blog? Writing, reading, drawing, watching tv, walking

🎂 when is your birthday? Do you want the black market to find me?

🌙 your zodiac (Sun, Moon, Rising) I know it, I just don't want to share (kidnapper thing)

💉do you have tattoos and/or piercings? Ear piercing

🚗 can you drive? A bicycle

✈️ favorite place you’ve traveled. Its a place in Michigan called zender's I think

🎤 have you been to a concert? I want to... But no

🎵 favorite artists. The Beatles, one direction, Queen, Taylor Swift, the killers, bob Dylan, the Monkees, green day, Fleetwood Mac, led zeppelin. Niall horan.

🎧 last song you listened too... In my head by Jason Derulo.

📺 last show you watched.. One called northern exposure

📝 last thing you wrote. A song I started to write

🔐 something no one would guess about you. I secretly have a dirty mind

🧟‍♀️ scariest thing that’s happened to you. I went to get my dog out of a truck in the dark and I seen all these eyes staring at me.

🔥 craziest thing that’s ever happened to you. I've never actually told anyone about this, except my sister... But when the Crosby part of Crosby still and nash, (can't think of his name right now, lol) died, before I found out about his death I had A dream where me and my mom were cruising down the road , across A beautiful field of sunflowers, and the song playing on the radio was Southern cross... And I tell you what, when his death was announced I was like: "hang on a sec"!! biggest coincidence ever..

🍓 favorite food? Chocolate

🍅 least favorite food. Lima beans

🍊 favorite season? Hard to say, but I guess autumn

🍋 favorite genre to read / watch / write. Its a toss between comedy drama, period drama or dystopian

🍐 if you could make one character real, who would it be. Hard question, but probably Vincent Nigel Murray

🫐 some place you’d love to visit? London baby

🍇 a word your friends would use to describe you. Goofy

🍒 what is your earliest memory. Eating my first bologna sandwich

🍌 what is one talent you wish you had. Writing, lol

💌 why did you start this blog? There was great Beatles content

✏️ when did you start writing fanfic. I barely do, but when I was 14

🖇️ what are your favorite asks to answer.. I've never had any of these, not popular enough, lol

📚 how do you come up with the fics you write. Music, darling, music

📌 what is the fic you’re know for... None

🔍 what character do you enjoy writing for the most... Sherlock holmes

🖊️ what character do you not enjoy writing for. And Vincent Nigel Murray

💔 is there a fic you wish you didn’t write.. Yes

❤️‍🔥 what character do you simp for most often.. Again, Vincent Nigel Murray

🧚‍♀️ favorite characters of all time. This will take a minute... Vincent Nigel Murray, Zack Addy, Phantom of the opera, finnick odair, Peeta mellark, temperance Brennan, katniss everdeen, haymitch Abernathy, Johanna mason, lance sweets, Sherlock Holmes, john watson, Louisa Clark, will trainor, Peter Parker, doctor strange, ant man, Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennett, Henry Tilney, Emma Woodhouse, Mr. Knightley, joey tribbiani, Chandler bing, Phoebe buffay.

🪐 favorite shows / series of all time. Bones, monk, psych, Downton Abbey, the mentalist, Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes 1984, f.r.i.e.n.d.s, Golden girls, Emma 2009, north & south, the x files, twin peaks.. Book/movie series: hunger games!

🌝 a show you would recommend to anyone. all of the ones mentioned above

🌚 a show you’d tell people to stay away from. Idk yet

🌹 favorite kinks to write for. Idk

🥀 kinks you would never write for. Idk

🌊 a kink you would like to write but you think you’d be judged. Again, idk

❄️ full fics, imagines or head canons, can't tell you

☂️ your favorite fanfic from another writer, I have one but it's on another website

A couple of in depth questions!

🍄 what is something that’s happened in your life that you wish you could go back and change? My mean grandfather living with me

⭐️ what is one of your biggest accomplishments? Why is it so important to you? Being a nice person, speaks for itself.

🪻what is the toughest thing you had to go through, but can say you’ve successfully overcome? Death of my step grandfather

🌺 what is the best gift someone has ever given you and why is it so important. My mom gave me life?

🍀 what is your comfort show/series and why is it your comfort show? How has it helped you? The Monkees helped when my one grandfather died.

[endlessnightlock]

25 Dialogue Prompts: 6, 16, 25 ❤️

16. “I didn’t think you would notice, much less care.”

This is a prequel to another fic I wrote. If there is interest I'll reblog.

Katniss stood, lemonade in hand, amongst the crowd of unattached ladies assembled for a story from Lord Odair. She wasn't paying their host much attention-he was telling them something or other about their neighbor's gamekeeper and the time he mistakenly let their geese loose inside Trident Hall. The other young ladies offered Lord Odair sympathy for the mess it had caused, but Katniss bit back a laugh. Lord Odair was a notorious prankster and not above stretching the truth when it served him. Katniss would have to hear, Sir. Abernathy's side of the tale before passing judgment over which landowner was in the wrong.

Discretely Katniss patted the back of her coiffeur, hoping the intricate braids her borrowed maid, Delly, plaited around her head would stay in place for the evening. Her faithful Madge hadn't been able to journey with them to Trident Hall this time due to a family event. Katniss missed not just her skill in dressing and hairstyling but also her friendship. She trusted Madge with anything.

Katniss glanced around the ballroom. The room was crowded with friends and neighbors from the county of Panem and neighboring counties. The Everdeens traveled a long way to be here and planned an extended stay for their trouble.

"Ms. Everdeen?"

Drat. Apparently, tonight wasn't just an occasion for friends and neighbors but enemies as well. Enemies may be an exaggeration, if she were honest. A better term would likely be a massive annoyance in the form of Lord Peeta Mellark.

She couldn't stand the man after he'd made a joking offer of marriage to her last season. Everyone knew she was an old maid, that her younger sister Primrose was the Everdeen sister eligible men had eyes for. Katniss couldn't forgive Lord Mellark for shaming her in such a way. The only thing that would have made the whole situation worse was if he'd asked for her hand publicly.

Pasting a smile on her face, Katniss greeted the irritatingly handsome man waiting at her side. Lord Mellark bowed, bright blue eyes nearly twinkling in the candlelit ballroom, decided mirth turning his lips up in the corner. How he loved to tease her-it ate at her the way nothing else did. Not that she would let him know.

"How do you do sir," she asked politely, "are you enjoying the ball so far?"

"Very much. Yourself?"

"Yes, the company has been excellent. Until this moment, of course."

Lord Mellark smirked. "I could say the same, but I am a gentleman and would not sully your delicate sensibilities in such a way."

Katniss rolled her eyes in disdain. "I assure you that I am no delicate creature. Sully away, my Lordship."

"Not a bad offer, Ms. Everdeen. I'll keep that in mind, for later perhaps. You are looking quite beautiful in that green gown. It's too bad you are so mule-headed because you are the loveliest creature here. You are always so to me."

Katniss gaped at him, the audacity of his words besting her for once.

"Green, it is your favorite color," Lord Mellark went on, focussing directly on her, something like fire in his eyes, "and you wear it as often as possible."

"I didn't think you would notice-"

"I have."

"Much less care."

Katniss was surprised to see the constant defensiveness Peeta wore like a cloak melting away. "Katniss-if I may be so brash-I remember everything about you. Every smile you gave me before deciding I was some sort of cad, every conversation we've had where passion or humor lit your eyes and made me want to kiss you senseless. Please," Lord Mellark glanced around to make certain no one was paying them mind, "give me a chance to explain what happened last year."

"Stop," Katniss whispered, stomach plummeting to the floor. She couldn't go down this road of heartache with him again.

"I can't!" Lord Mellark exclaimed, louder than he should have. He backed away from her, his expression pleading. "After the ball, meet me in the third-floor study. Please consider it."

[hoodedchishiya]

Hey mun~

I’m so curious.. do you roleplay in any other fandoms?

Why hello there 😏

And yes I certainly do. Here is a little list of the ones I can think of from the top of my head. There’s more but these are the main characters I muse and the fandoms:

Steve Harrington (Stranger Things)

Max Mayfield (Stranger Things)

Lucas Sinclair (Stranger Things)

Mike Wheeler (Stranger Things)

Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games)

Finnick Odair (The Hunger Games)

Joel Miller (The Last of Us)

Ellie Williams (The Last of Us)

Owen Moore (The Last of Us)

Harry Potter (You guessed it.. Harry Potter)

Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter)

Peter Parker — Spider-Man (Marvel)

Arisu Ryohei (Alice in Borderland)

Kang Sae-byeok (Squid Games)

Lee Su-hyeok (All of Us Are Dead)

Lee Cheong-san (All of Us Are Dead)

~Mun ❤️

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

I’ve always wondered why Peeta is so in love and dedicated to Katniss. She’s clearly a very simple yet confusing person, but he remains loyal despite everything. Ngl when I was a teen i thought he was a bit of a simp. 🤣 Now that I’ve read the books a second time I think I understand. Is it because she’s the feminine figure that he never had in his home? Katniss is the complete opposite of Mrs. Mellark. She’s selfless, caring, loving with her sister and protective. Unlike his mother, who hits him, humiliates him and clearly can’t stand him. Is he projecting what he’s always wanted onto her? I can say the same about Katniss. She idolized her father and talks about him in this caring and pure way, and she sees Peeta as this good man who is selfless and who represents hope. The good that can be found in her life, that was once gone and came back. Is it mommy and daddy issues? Or do I still don’t get it? 🤪

I think it’s entirely possibly that you still don’t quite get it, lol, but it’s your interpretation so own it, I guess. I don’t mean that to be mean or condescending, although I realize it probably sounds that way. You said “when I was in my teens” which gives me a vague idea of your age, although it doesn’t tell me much about your experience level. So for the record, my personal interpretation of the texts, which you are under no obligation to agree with obviously, is that of an almost forty year old person who is married and has two kids... one of whom is eleven right now, the same age as Katniss when her dad died. That’s me now. The first time I read the books, I was 30. Also married with two kids, but they were much younger. Less sassy. (Actually no they were still pretty darn sassy 💁🏻‍♀️😂❤️)

That being said... it is normal for kids who are in a loving and warm family like the one Katniss has to yes, idolize their parents up until a certain age, when it is also normal for those kids to start questioning everything their parents do, and also start to see their parents for the fallible human beings they are. Lemme tell you, it’s a serious challenge to keep up with, lol. But Katniss never reaches that point with her father. When he died, he was forever frozen in her memory as this wonderful, warm, caring person. She never got the chance to really analyze his personality for flaws, nor to critique his behavior as a parent. Instead, she focuses all of that adolescent questioning, fear, critique, and distrust on her mother. Oh buddy and does Mrs Everdeen really pay the price for it in Katniss’ eyes, but that’s another discussion entirely.

We do get to see one of Mr. Everdeen’s flaws in her memories, although in true Katniss fashion... it is not presented as such. So here’s my take: He teaches his children, while living in a surveillance state that has no compunction executing dissenters, a song that is OUTLAWED. Katniss says she’s six or seven when he does this, which means Prim is only three. I’ll just go ahead and throw this out there. My oldest child, at three years old, climbed to the top of a jungle gym on a playground, dropped his favorite toy car, stared at it for two seconds and then said, clear as a bell for about a dozen  other kids and their parents to hear... “FUCK!”

Zero concept of language appropriateness, only an understanding of the usage as he had overheard either me or my spouse using it. I mean... he got it right, but it’s sort of frowned upon for a three year old to be cursing like that. Also for said three year olds parent to be cruising like that in front of their kids... anyhow.

One of my friends around the same time, told a story about her five year old daughter dancing in a public place and accurately singing the lyrics to Katy Perry’s “Peacock” on one occasion and on another “I Like Big Butts.” Basically, if it’s in their heads because they’ve heard it, they’re going to sing it/say it at that age. They have no idea of the broader implications or the meaning behind the words yet.

Back to the Hunger Games world... Katniss tells us that as she was learning this song, her mother found out and freaked out, yelled at Mr. Everdeen over it even, badly enough that Katniss RUNS AWAY AND HIDES. Now some may think this is an extreme reaction on Mrs. Everdeen’s part, but as a mom... I GET IT. Holy cow, if I lived in this world and walked in on my husband teaching our kids at those ages a song like The Hanging Tree, which I knew was illegal, I’d probably flip the fuck out too. Because at that age, the kids are too young to fully understand why they have to censor themselves. Dad just taught us a song, what do you mean I can’t sing it? But Katniss, even at sixteen says she guesses her mother thought it was too morbid for a seven year old to be making necklaces of rope and singing this song. Lol hon, no. Your mom was worried someone in your family was going to jail or worse over a song.

Later, we find out that Mr. Everdeen also sings it in the town square, outside the bakery. But the point is, by teaching them that song when they’re too young to censor themselves, he has put his daughters in danger, purposefully or not. So yeah, I’d be yelling at him too. #Mama Bear Mode Activated

Mr. Everdeen is reckless. That or he’s arrogant enough to think his trading with peacekeepers will keep him and his family safe. That’s a heck of a gamble to be taking with your seven and three year old daughters, though. This isn’t to knock or bash Mr. Everdeen, it’s merely meant to point out that Collins actually brilliantly managed to show us one of his imperfections while still maintaining the authenticity of Katniss keeping him in near idol status after his death.

Okay, so a bit of a tangent, but I had a point here somewhere, and it’s this: our families, the people who raise us, are our first and usually most lasting influence on how we learn what love is, how to give it, and how to receive it. And the thing is... there is nothing wrong with seeing something in the way your parents loved you or something that you admire in their personality, and wanting that quality in your life partner. If it’s a quality that you admire in people in general, then how does loving someone with that same quality mean you have “daddy issues”? What are we supposed to do? Go find the polar opposite of our parents in a partner? Lol that makes no sense at all.

Parental love is vastly different from the sort of love a marriage and partnership is founded on because parental love only requires one side. It is only necessary that I, as a parent, love and provide for the needs of my child. A child should not ever be expected to fill the emotional, mental, or physical needs of a parent. Ever. Therefore, if Katniss was expecting Peeta to fill the role of unconditional love in her life that her father left vacant without any kind of return on her part, then you might have a case for “daddy issues.” Maybe there is a case for it before Mockingjay, but by the end of MJ, she is actively considering Peeta’s needs and working to fill those.

Love isn’t just a noun. It’s not just a thing composed of compatibility and personality traits. It’s also a verb. To build a relationship or a partnership, you have to DO. You can’t just admire someone for their kindness or their fierceness and call it love. You have to communicate and do things to build your relationship. So while a parent has to Love (Verb) their child, but a child doesn’t have to Love (Verb) their parent, partners have to share the verb.

Katniss isn’t looking for a replacement father in Peeta. She’s not asking him to teach her to hunt or help her find her identity. Protect her? Sure, but that’s not unheard of in romantic relationships. It’s actually a pretty common aspect of romantic love. Just because it overlaps with parental love, doesn’t make it a “daddy issue.”

She’s drawn to how he makes her feel calm, safe, steady, in a massively uncertain and violent world. He makes her laugh and feel joy in places where she otherwise would not, and while these are qualities that her father may have had as well, that does not make her love for Peeta stem from “Daddy Issues.” There’s a big difference between love that supports you, and love that defines who you are as a person. The whole “No one else’s arms have made me feel this safe” line is an indication of what she values in a partner, just like her line in Catching Fire about Finnick being “too easy to lose,” and giving that as a reason she’s not attracted to him the way most people are. But Katniss and Peeta are their own people who stand on their own just fine without each other.

But also they’re amazing together, who am I kidding, lol.

With Peeta, we get the reverse. Instead of providing an example of the sort of life and love Peeta wants, his mother teaches him what he DOESN’T want. His mother is cruel and abusive. She is the negative voice in his head.

His mother was yelling, “Feed it to the pigs, you stupid creature. Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread.” -- The Hunger Games, chapter 2

Did his mother really say that about me? Did she rate me over her son? I see the pain in Peeta’s eyes and know he isn’t lying. -- The Hunger Games, ch7

“And don’t try. Obviously, I’m too dim to get it,” he says. -- The Hunger Games, chapter 22

“This has to stop. Right now. This -- this -- game you play, where you tell each other secrets but keep them from me like I’m too inconsequential or stupid or weak to handle them.” -- Catching Fire, ch5

“No one really needs me,” he says, and there’s no self-pity in his voice. -- Catching Fire, ch 24

Okay, so I pulled these quotes specifically because they point out the insecurities Peeta has as a direct result of his mother’s verbal abuse. Inconsequential. Stupid. Weak. This is how Peeta sees himself at his darkest points, perhaps not all the time, but we are (hopefully) not always wallowing in our insecurities. It’s what Snow is able to tap into with the hijacking and what makes it possible for them to turn his memories of Katniss into such an effective weapon.

The funny thing is, that while Katniss judges Peeta pretty harshly in the first book and even gets close to thinking some of these exact things about him because he’s not like her, not like Gale, not like someone from the Seam, and therefore she doesn’t fully understand him... eventually, as she gets to know him well and starts to think about how his life has been, she actually forms the opposite opinion of him.

Slight tangent here. It’s gonna sound like I’m talking about Katniss’ love for Peeta, but it’s really both about her love for him and what he needs from a partner.

Katniss talks a lot about his physical strength throughout all of the books, yes, but by the end of Mockingjay, she’s also fully aware of his mental strength. She leans on that physical and mental strength all through the cave scene in the first book, and the night on the cornucopia, again all through Catching Fire from the “What’s your favorite color” conversation to the very last page. She misses being able to lean on him in Mockingjay. Peeta is not weak in her eyes, and he needs a partner who is going to recognize and appreciate his strength.

She talks about how smartly he plays the Games, how he is adept at playing the crowds, forming and enacting strategies that turn the Capitol on its ear, figuring out how Snow and the system work and how to subvert those things without outright violence. Peeta is not stupid in her eyes, and he needs a partner who is going to recognize and appreciate his brand of intelligence.

“I do. I need you.” “Only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies.” I could put about a dozen more, but I won’t. The point is, Peeta is not inconsequential in Katniss’ eyes, and he needs a partner who makes him feel needed, loved, wanted, essential.

Alright, now there’s one more piece to this puzzle, what is it about Katniss’ personality that Peeta loves? For my exceptionally random seeming support I present to you:

“Peeta, if I asked you to run away from the district with me, would you?”

Peeta takes my arm, bringing me to a stop. He doesn’t need to check my face to see if I’m serious. “Depends on why you’re asking.”

“President Snow wasn’t convinced by me. There’s an uprising in District Eight. We have to get out,” I say.

“By ‘we’ do you mean just you and me? No. Who else would be going?” he asks.

“My family. Yours, if they want to come. Haymitch, maybe,” I say.

“What about Gale?” he says. 

“I don’t know. He might have other plans,” I say.

Peeta shakes his head and gives me a rueful smile. “I bet he does. Sure, Katniss, I’ll go.” 

I feel a slight twinge of hope. “You will?”

“Yeah. But I don’t think for a minute you will,” he says.

I jerk my arm away. “Then you don’t know me. Be ready. It could be any time.” I take off walking and he follows a pace or two behind. 

“Katniss,” Peeta says. I don’t slow down. If he thinks it’s a bad idea, I don’t want to know, because it’s the only one I have. “Katniss, hold up.” I kick a dirty, frozen chunk of snow off the path and let him catch up. The coal dust makes everything look especially ugly. “I really will go, if you want me to. I just think we better talk it through with Haymitch. Make sure we won’t be making things worse for everyone.”

-- Catching Fire, ch 7

There’s a lot to unpack here, but the thing that always brings me back to this quote is Peeta’s certainty that Katniss isn’t actually going to run. Why? What makes him so certain she isn’t going to run?

1) Gale. Peeta’s really not an idiot, and he also knows that Katniss is not ever going to leave someone she loves behind to be tortured, hurt, or executed by the Capitol. In fact, she proves it in the next five pages when she interrupts Thread whipping Gale. Which btw is also part of why the hijacking is so effective. If you think Peeta wasn’t already sitting in his cell (before they started the torture) thinking that Katniss and Haymitch once again kept him in the dark and left him behind then well... I can’t help you much lol.

2) That last sentence. He knows by now that the last thing Katniss wants to do is make things worse for the people they would leave behind. He has witnessed her guilt and grief over not being able to save Rue. Over how they “made things worse” in eleven by showing compassion to the other districts. They both threw themselves into the lover’s act to quell rebellion to keep their own loved ones safe, and to some degree to keep the people in the districts safe too. Peeta has seen first hand what it’s all doing to her and how determined she is to forge ahead anyways. He had to swallow his pride and his hopes for a real love and a real marriage to ask her for a fake engagement to appease Snow and keep their loved ones safe.

In other words... he knows the lengths she’ll go to protect what matters to her. Peeta loves the fact that while Katniss is a survivor, she pretty much becomes a total wreck at the thought that her actions have hurt someone innocent. He loves her compassion and her empathy and her ability to nurture.

However, that does not mean he has “mommy issues.” He is not looking for a replacement mother in Katniss. He doesn’t want her to mother him. While he does want someone to love him, care for him, appreciate him, and for god’s sake put him first for once in his life, that doesn’t make it a “mommy issue.” In fact, Peeta gets annoyed with Katniss every time she does something that borders on her “mothering” him. She comes off as patronizing several times in the first arena, treating him like he can’t be helpful or useful because he doesn’t have the same skill set as her. He literally snarks at her whenever she tries to baby him or patronize him. Or look back at that quote from Catching Fire when he tells her and Haymith “This has to stop.” He’s basically demanding that they stop treating him like a child, recognize his contributions to their survival, and start acting like he’s a part of their team. He does not want a mommy in Katniss, he wants a partner. Someone who sees him as valuable the way he sees her. Equal. Big difference.

“She has no idea the effect she has.”

Alright this one. Katniss inspires people, and it’s established by other characters that she does so because of who she is and the things that she does without really thinking about it. She can’t be scripted, but my god when she speaks from her heart she is powerful beyond reason. People are willing to follow her to their deaths because she makes them believe. And can I just say... I think this is one of the things Peeta loves the most about her. He can lie and manipulate and convince people by guiding them into thinking about things a little differently than they did before, but Katniss is Honesty and Truth in a way that people are drawn to. I think he actually loves that she can’t quite pull off a deception the way he can. He’s had to lie and hide to survive in his mother’s house, but Katniss doesn’t need to.

And finally, I personally don’t think katniss is all that simple of a character. She’s constantly analyzing her own motivations and as she does, we get to see that it’s complicated. Life is complicated. Her motivations are never quite clear cut and are often multilayered. She’s very reactionary in many situations, but she’s also capable of stopping and reflecting deeply on things. I think that makes her more accessible to a reader, not “simple.” As for a confusing person... aren’t we all?

The thing is, relationships are confusing and messy because people are confusing and messy. We’re not always 100% consistent or predictable. Emotions muddle things all the damn time, and emotions can be caused or influenced by so many factors, just like our motivations. Rarely do we even make huge decisions based on one factor, because those huge decisions kind of affect every aspect of our lives. Therefore, it makes sense that our motivations and choices are complicated. That’s the dilemma Katniss faces throughout the books. Even when she’s trying to do the right thing, she still hurts someone, and it devastates her, even when it is beyond her control. If she truly just wanted to protect her sister, then there’s a bunch of things she should have never done. But before the first book even ends, she doesn’t just want to protect her sister anymore. There’s more to her than that. Which oh by the way, is something else I think Peeta loves about her.

One last thing before I wrap this up and hopefully convinced you, Anon ;)

By the end of the series, both Katniss and Peeta have had to come face to face and deal with how the person they love is flawed and the effects of those flaws. They don’t idolize one another by the time “Real” comes around, so I’m not sure how you qualify their love for each other as mommy or daddy issues when they’ve both grown up so much, grown into their identities, through horrific trauma, and grown back together.

Anyhow, that’s my take. Take or leave it, Anon, but more importantly... stay safe and healthy! 

❤️kdnfb

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Well, I haven’t seen it posted so I’m going to assume I one has asked for it... writer’s commentary on Outside Chance (any of the stories or the whole universe). I am sending good vibes that the muses will behave for you because I know you’re working on it. Much love ❤️

Iiieeeee. You went for the big one. You just had to go there, huh? ;)

Okay, so here’s the thing. Inspiration comes from the craziest of places and the stories that I wind up loving the most are the ones that do not leave me alone, even if I’m trying my best to not write. The entire Outside Chance series is one of those stories. It all started when @savvylark dropped a simple, innocuous question into my inbox in the days before the 2018 Olympics. “If Peeta were competing in the Winter Olympics, what sport would it be?” I answered publicly and that set off a total storm of ideas (just look at the notes on that post... I think that was the most notes I’ve ever gotten on a non-writing piece and man did my inbox here on tumblr explode over the next few days. A couple dozen drabbles and a few multichapter WIPS came out of that frenzy and it was glorious!

Since I had just finished writing Wrapped in Red, I wasn’t looking to start a new fanfic project. I actually wanted to finish several of my long languishing WIPs. I was determined to stay out of the writing mosh pit this time. I read. I reblogged. I was a pain in everyone’s ass for a few weeks as I channeled my inner Haymitch. @deinde-prandium…I’m still waiting on that Hurry Hard outtake. *muah!* @burkygirl and @xerxia31 just because you’re sweet innocent little Canadians doesn’t mean I’m not anticipating some hockey!Peeta out of the two of you at some point…

And then it happened. @honeylime08 and her cursed remark of “A gold medal to anyone who puts all three Mellark brothers in the Olympics. Or just gives me freestyle skiing Rye.” I asked what the oldest would compete in and she came back with “Nordic combined. Just like his grandfather in 1964…” and that was the real moment of my undoing. I should never have asked. I hate you. Honeylime. Why do you do this to me? *Muah* ;) 

Inspiration struck and cue me cursing in my car whilst waiting to pick up my kids from school as I typed frantically on my phone and the Beastie Boys screamed at me over the speakers and I got some really weird looks from a chick in that fugly Infinity SUV thing that literally every mom around here seems to drive.

Anyways! It started small. “Just a 10k oneshot” I told myself. The plan was for biathlon!Katniss to be in a slump because PRESSURE! The US has never won an Olympic medal in winter biathlon, so I was already asking a lot of her character. I planned on having her retreat to a remote resort in the mountains of Wyoming to try and regain her edge. There she would meet this annoying guy on a snowboard who looked vaguely familiar (because of course she knows the older two), but he also had a way of getting her training back on track. You can see how this quickly grew out of hand, right?

I hadn’t quite figured out all the kinks when the next bit of inspiration hit as I was digging through history of Nordic combined and learned about Tormud Knutsen. Voila…Eirik. This led to the thought that if I built Peeta’s family into an Olympic legacy, then I wanted one of his parents to be an Olympic caliber athlete. Mr. Mellark always struck me even in canon as being very…apathetic. Sure he was a nice guy but did he ever show an ounce of passion? I don’t know, it never seemed to me that he did. Which meant it’d have to be Peeta’s mother. The rest came to me after talking to my dad one day and hearing about yet more family drama that my aunt had been causing.

In case you haven’t been reading the author’s notes, my aunt was slated to swim on the Olympic team back in the seventies. She was injured in the lead up and wound up as an alternate instead and didn’t go. Then she basically just…lost her spark. So new bits of information that have recently come to light about my aunt…she actually swam on the boys’ team in high school because none of the girls at the time even came close. Driven, skilled, and then it was all gone. She went through a bit of a wild phase and wound up pregnant and married (my grandparents were crazy strict, judgemental and conservative which is actually hilarious because whoa buddy did the two of them have some skeletons in the closet!) Anyways! My aunt never returned to competitive swimming and instead chose to help coach her two sons when they showed some athletic promise and drove them so hard that by the time they hit high school, they quit. They hated their sports. Ta-da! Agnes.

I was still hanging on to idea of Katniss not knowing Peeta and only vaguely knowing the two older boys until I sat down to write the first chapter and typed the words that end it. “Welcome home.” Sat back and said “Holy shit!” It’s serious when the post it notes and calendar become involved. I scrapped my plans and instead started outlining what one reader would term my “bread crumb trail.” Why write a story about living up to a family legacy versus being the first to do something if the family isn’t one of the main themes, I asked myself as it went from “just a 10k oneshot” to “okay maybe fifteen chapters.” when my pivotal scenes came to me.

I’ve mentioned it in a few of the other commentaries, there’s usually a few scenes I can always see like they’re happening in front of me that sort of drive the story forward. In this case, there were about six to start with for Katniss and Peeta’s end of the series.

The first one is their day on the mountain when they race each other and just have fun, culminating with “Last chance, Mellark.” “I really hope it’s not.”

“Get. Back. Here.” ;)

Wiress getting injured and the fallout from that.

The scene in chapter 24 when Katniss talks Peeta back into the race.

The last two haven’t happened yet so you’re just gonna have to waaaaa-aaaait!!!! ;)

I started posting when I had about three chapters written and then just kept churning as fast as I could. I knew a few things before I even started posting. How Peeta was going to lose his leg, what was going to cause the Everlark fallout, the fact that both Everdeen parents would die in this story but that I wanted that to come as a shock. Katniss convincing Peeta to compete in the Paralympics and rediscover that missing piece of his life. Agnes basically hijacking both K&P with her words and playing on their fears. Initially I was going to have Katniss and Prim bounce around the foster care system for awhile but then it occurred to me Eirik would not have let that happen. Enter Haymitch’s much earlier involvement in their lives. It was another shift that added a few chapters.

The story grew as I wrote, the chapters kept getting longer because I underestimated how much page space I needed to accomplish certain things. It grew in depth or out of control, I don’t know which! All I know is that the characters took on a life of their own. I had one thing written for OC 23 and hated it, handed it over to a beta for help and had to swallow the dreaded… “It doesn’t make sense” critique. But you know what, she was right. I blasted some music and sat down with it, determined to wrangle it into shape and I know it sounds crazy, but Peeta basically glared at me from the pages and said “Really? Give me some credit here.” Trust me, you all don't’ wanna read how pathetic I made him seem in the first draft of that chapter. I know a lot of people still don’t like the turns it made, but in all honesty these poor kids have had their entire world and what they believed about what happened after the accident flipped upside down in a matter of a few months. It’s taking me far longer to write this piece than the time frame actually covered in OC, but the timeline for them is actually pretty fast.

I left my sanity back somewhere around chapter 16. Which would be when my lovely beta, hand holder, and captain of “I know you said you wouldn’t….but you should…” Buttercupbadass. This mess is all her fault and I’m sticking to that excuse. Originally, I had planned a small bit of Prim flirting with Ryen to get on Katniss’ nerves and kind of drive Katniss to realize that she doesn’t know as much about her sister as she thought she did. Again, it all had to do with that idea of finding and rebuilding a bent but not broken family dynamic. Aaaaand of course, BBA leaves me a comment on this tiny, minuscule, blink and you’ll miss it scene in chapter 17 while she was editing it, when Prim and Katniss are leaving Skadi and Gramps is talking to Prim. And I quote BBA “Fuck it. I want her to marry him.” Him being Ryen. I laughed and shrugged it off, working hard on chapter 18 when they’re in New Zealand and Ryen of course, makes an appearance. I didn’t mean to do it, but MY HAND SLIPPED!!! The next thing I knew, I was writing him asking about Prim. (Insert colorful swear words)

I admitted to BBA that she may have a point about this pairing and that led to all kinds of very vulgar discussions. And suddenly I was thinking in depth about who Primrose would be, grown into a woman in a modern era, having to live her life with a mostly absent older sister and parent figure (Haymitch). Rosie quickly took shape in my head, aided by BBA and her fantastic dialogue (”I’d only let her shoot one of your nuts.”) until I started hearing Rosie’s voice in my head unaided. “I’m bored. B-O-R-E-D. Maybe if I tape his mouth shut…” At first, the plan was just for a few smutty side chapters. The um…nude Skype thing may have been partially inspired by real life events. Deployments, my friends. Let’s just say there is a lovely lady I am acquaintances with mainly because we’ve seen each other’s spouse’s naked asses – she saw my husband by accident because crowded dorm rooms and her husband’s response was to make sure I saw his naked ass – anyways! A lot of scenes with Rosie and Ryen came from buttercupbadass’s devious brain, but a few of them came from me. You can see how this one quickly grew out of hand too, but the thing about it was that it got tangled up with Katniss and Peeta’s story as well, almost organically.

I hadn’t planned on writing Savannah and Graham’s story. I didn’t plan on writing any of this, lol. But as I typed out Peeta telling the stolen pie story and Graham’s angry reaction, I started hearing another voice in my head. One that was soothing but could turn to fire in a flash “I’m not soft!” and *smashes head on desk* Damnit! Once again, I started with what was supposed to be one little tiny outtake “Oh this is how Graham and Savannah met.” I always had a vague idea of how their courtship went, mainly as a curiosity of what sort of person would fall in love with Graham the way I’ve written him. In many ways, Savannah is also an hommage to one of the ladies who inspired the whole series to begin with. Savannah is her but isn’t her, if that makes sense? But as I wrote their first blind date, an entire romance started to take form in my head, and it was ridiculous how easily it fit into the world and the family I had already created. To the point that I didn’t even have to manipulate timing to entwine the stories of the three couples. I’d already done so much planning, I worried that venturing down the Savannah and Graham path would lead to things not making sense anymore, and there were a few details that I wound up going back and changing in OC, but they’re so small I doubt many of you will even notice on a reread. The major events, though…The new couple fit into it like the long lost puzzle piece.

So this time, I didn’t even try to resist. Instead, I chose to view it as an opportunity to show another side of what drove the family apart and then kept them apart, with the added bonus of laying groundwork for what I have planned for the story ending and the epilogue.

And while I’ve got the rest of it plotted out to the point that I know how the Games are going to proceed for the entire family, and also where they’re going to be four, eight, twelve years after the curtain officially closes (As in toast babies already have names and personalities), I’ve gotten myself stuck up against a pressure point. This sucker is a freaking epic. Outside Chance is outlined for 30 chapters. So is Outside Expectations. I have no fucking clue how many chapters Rosie and Ryen will get with Outside the Lines – at least three maybe four more – but they tend to spring surprises on me more than the other two couples do so that may change. At the same time, because it is an epic, I feel the need to deliver something spectacular. It’ll get done eventually, I just don’t know when.

Here’s the break down:

Outside Chance –Started: 02-27-2018Word Count: 182, 841Last Updated: 08-20-2018Chapters Posted: 25/30

Outside the Lines – Started: 05-18-2018Word Count: 63, 204Last Updated: 11-09-2018Chapters Posted: 9/??

Outside Expectations –Started: 08-08-2018Word Count: 93, 624Last Updated: 01-21-2019Chapters Posted: 17/30

In the meantime, know that it’s there in my head and in the outline, I just have to sit and put words on pages without confusing which lady’s voice is supposed to be speaking! Also, Haymitch…stay in your corner and keep quiet!!!