#Vipsania Sickle

[mockingjaysnakes]

NEW STILLS!

[sejanusfan]

x

[wardrobeoftime]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes + Costumes

Female Academy Students' outfits.

// requested by @nasyanastya

[scandalouslamb]

District 7's Tributes and Mentors during the Reaping for the 10th Hunger Games

—The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

[maidstew]

i was very bored and saw a post that reminded me u-quiz existed

[moreespressoformydepresso]

I was thinking about my AU’s where the tributes get their medical care after all the fixing and for a while now I’ve had it in my head that most of them don’t know what good medical care actually looks like so I decided to type it out!

So it’s pretty clear the Capitol oppresses the districts and treats them like shit at every opportunity, even if it’s against their own benefits. Treating them better and helping them advance would probably lead to more productivity, better products and far lower chance of a second rebellion but it’s apparently more fun to be an evil scumbag so into the toilet we go. This probably means they don’t let the Districts have any medical care, even if keeping your workers happy is a better decision. Meanwhile, the Capitol has all this fancy medical equipment like defibrillators and oxygen masks and anesthesia and stuff. Now imagine a bunch of terrified, injured kids who do not trust anyone but each other suddenly having all these unfamiliar machines shoved in their face while people in white lab coats prepare to inject them with a needle containing heavens know what kind of weird fluid.

That’s… not gonna go over well

Predictably, the kids all freak out and while their reactions are dimmed due to the several peacekeepers with guns surrounding them, quite a few like Reaper and Coral are still putting up a fight, several others are currently having a panic attack because “Oh no they’re gonna kill us anyway” and everyone is far too tense to be given the anesthetics necessary.

So what’s the solution? Having the mentors sit with their tributes and explain what’s going on because these kids will not believe anybody else. It’s the best option right now, and it would be especially interesting if this is emergency care and thus happening in a public space somewhere so people can see that. They can see the effects of their behavior in real time as literal 12-year-olds know not to take a Capitol citizen’s word for anything.

What makes doing this so interesting to me is the possibility to explore the different levels of effectiveness in this strategy and everyone’s way of handling it. Tributes like Lucy Gray, Jessup, Lamina, and Dill would calm down and listen to what their mentors are saying, possibly asking curious questions about how all of this works in more depth. Teslee and Circ would already know the technical stuff and ask about the more hands-on kinds of treatment, because they know this is gonna happen whether they like it or not so they try to distract themselves from it with curiosity.

Meanwhile, tributes like Bobbin, Reaper, Treech and Brandy are not calmed down in the slightest. Reaper stares Clemensia down with clear distrust and only ends up unhappily letting this happen because of Dill, Bobbin is slowly starting to get angrier and angrier with every snippy comment he throws Juno’s way about all the reasons he dislikes her. Brandy looks one wrong move away from a murder (though in fairness Arachne is only just starting to crack the code on how the tributes are just kids so she wasn’t the best person to be doing this anyway) and Treech is relaxing his muscles but he isn’t calming down at all. It becomes pretty clear with the several nervous glances he’s just scared Vipsania will punish him somehow for not complying, which she could given the peacekeepers around. She has to reassure him she won’t and be far more vulnerable and honest about her inner conflict since meeting him in order to make him (very reluctantly) give her the benefit of the doubt.

Marcus may clearly dislike Sejanus, but he does trust him enough to let the medical stuff happen and Sejanus goes around to help the mentors who are struggling with calming their tributes down. You can pry these two slowly reconciling from my cold dead hands and my ghost will just come to steal it back.

I think it would show the Capitol these kids are all different people, and moreover it would show them that they’re just reacting to the way they’re being treated. They’re fully capable of trusting Capitol citizens, but as Bobbin so helpfully makes them understand: some of them don’t have any reason to. Why trust someone with your life when you couldn’t even trust them to bring you food? When it’s so obvious they just needed you for their own gain or you’ve lost so much to the Capitol already that it just isn’t worth the risk?

Idk I thought it might be fun to explore

[boabelboo]

the ballad of songbirds and snakes in the tua universe — basic info for season 1.

this is a little au i thought up with the help of the lovely @softie-rain and @diiwata !!

before i get into the character descriptions, the characters don't necessarily have the same relationships and personalities as they do in tua canon, just ones reminiscent of them (minus the allison/luther incest, which doesn't exist at all in this au because WEIRDD. no incest welcome here. yuck.)

okayy onto the info now!

the siblings —

panlo as number one / spaceboy -> his power being super-strength makes sense to me considering that i headcanon panlo to do the heavy lifting in his industry. i also believe him to be a good, albeit difficult leader. he's dedicated to being "number one" because its all he's ever known. staying up on the moon alone for four years broke him in ways unimaginable – he truly craves company. unfortunately, his unwavering loyalty to his mother (gaul) can make him do the wrong thing for the "greater good", and blinds him to the blatant abuse that both he and his siblings face. however, at his core, panlo is a good person. his loyalty to gaul falters and he finally realises that he is his own person beyond the academy. he's fiercely protective of his siblings and finally starts doing actual good – outside of the realms of gaul's controlling regime.

brandy as number two / the kraken -> district ten's industry involving knives was the reason brandy was my pick for the trajectory manipulation power – also the fact that she kills arachne with that very weapon. brandy has always been rebellious, killing her mentor is such a diego move. she does not stand for the abuse she faces and she's quick to call out gaul on their mistreatment. however, she has a soft spot for who she regards as their "real mother" – a robot built by gaul to tend to the children's emotional needs and care, dr. kay. brandy is a soul yearning for affection and real friendship with her siblings hidden under a cold vigilante exterior. immensely distrusting and skeptical at first but a great, caring person once she comes out of her shell.

treech as number three / the rumour -> treech is well-regarded in the fandom as a theatre kid performer, which is exactly why i chose him to have this power. he can persuade anyone just by using the phrase "i heard a rumour" but at what cost? what of his life is real anymore, who would he be without it? he's got everything he had ever wanted, a family of his own, his dream career; the whole world is mouldable in the palm of his hand. deep down, he knows it's wrong. he thought he had escaped the childhood fantasy of the umbrella academy, now he is back to square one. like allison, he's constantly trying to be a better sibling, to right the wrongs of gaul, but it isn't his job. he just needs some rest.

coral as number four / the seancé -> i chose coral to have the power of seeing the dead because of her relationship with mizzen. imagine this, mizzen dying at the age of sixteen, never to be seen again by any of his family except for her. the ghosts take a toll, and she falls into drugs and alcohol to hold them at bay – just the right kind of numbness to keep the pain of everything (mizzen's death especially) at arms length. she's uncaring of people's opinion toward her and unafraid to speak up about something if she believes it's wrong. her childhood fucked her up big time, that trauma combined with being tortured (by ghosts and commission agents) and losing her one true love (mags flanagan) in the vietnam war is enough for her to start trying to turn her life around. no more drugs, she wants answers from gaul on why the children were treated this way.

bobbin as number five / the boy -> bobbin is tiny & capable in the tbosas book – literal embodiment of number five. jokes aside - i chose bobbin to be the five of the story because he seems to be ready to do anything to get home – this is very reminiscent of five murdering a boardroom full of people to get his family safely back to 2019. they are both determined, always scheming and intelligent. bobbin knows what it's like to lose people – he's lost his whole family once over, he's never letting that happen again, come hell or high water, his family are making it out alive. also the idea of bobbin being able to blink (spacial jump) is cool as fuck.

mizzen as number six / the horror -> mizzen died young, we all know that. he died after losing his innocence, being forced to kill and being branded as a monster for it. this is reminiscent of ben's story, being forced to use the horror as a weapon and being the same as it in gaul's mind. they are both kind young boys who wanted to be something more than their situation. mizzen feels trapped whilst being a ghost – constantly trying to regulate coral's bad decisions, standing powerless, helpless on the sidelines. nowhere to go, no way to change (direct quote from ben that i thought fitted him.) he just wants to be seen, to be loved. to be able to experience, rather than endure. also the tentacle thing made me think of district four.

sheaf as number seven / the white violin -> sheaf, like viktor, is always underestimated. both small and "powerless", their whole lives they've been told constantly of how disappointing they are. how weak, how ordinary. sheaf is tired and angry and lost. she knows how everyone views her, and she's sick of it. she's sick of seeing everyone belong apart from her. a spare part. she falls for any kind of attention at all, even from somebody she doesn't truly like. androcles anderson manipulates her to unlock the powers that she has always had and she loses control. everything leading up to that point made her snap. she slits treech's throat by mistake, kills androcles and ends the entire world as we know it. good for her /j. in all seriousness, sheaf learning to accept her powers with her family is a big thing for her and feeling love, real love, helps her understand that neither her or her siblings were ever the problem, gaul was.

other characters —

dr. gaul as reggie / mr(s) monocle -> this one is pretty self-explanatory, she's the main antagonist in tbosas and has an obvious dislike for children. she has an interest in science and is able to invent new species using her knowledge in biology – much like reggie creating pogo.

dr. kay as grace / mom -> i like to think, like reggie knew the human grace, gaul once knew the human dr. kay and became fascinated by her. kay, like grace, is a scientist who develops too much of an attachment to her experiments – grace with pogo, kay with the jabberjays. i believe, once the human kay dies, gaul would remake her into a robot, seeing her motherly care towards her experiments as the same as motherly care towards real children.

harlow the monkey as pogo -> gaul would 100% be able to create a talking, humanlike monkey. the amazing @felixravinstills suggested that the monkey should be called harlow (as in the harlow's cloth vs wire experiment.)

pup as hazel -> he's definitely soft under a hard exterior. after all of those years of killing with vip, he yearns for normalcy. he also really likes donuts.

vipsania as cha-cha -> i love evil women!!! they're both competitive, vindictive and fight dirty. good for them!

io as agnes -> uhhh this was originally meant to be apollo, but i have other plans for both him and diana (wait till i post my lil s2 info thing!) but yeah i think io fits. she's silly + smart! she works in a donut shop! she birdwatches! she's in love with a man who's a time-travelling assasin! the usual!

sol as patch -> they just have those vibes of striving to help people no matter what. they're still in love with that one person who got them but didn't follow the rules.

juno as patrick -> uhh this was originally meant to be coriolanus but i have a different character that he fits. juno gives salty ex vibes. honestly makes sense. also i couldn't think of anyone to fill this role lol.

androcles as leonard -> serial killer vibes. some kind of connection to sheaf. all that.

mags as dave -> uhhhhh i want an excuse to write tragic coralmags sorryyyyy!!!

fabricia whatnot as the handler -> fashion icons who are terrible, horrible people. five & the handler's relationship is somewhat reminiscent of tigris & fabricia's.

—

chapter one of this fic is coming out soon!! the characters featured in season two/three and who they correspond to will be revealed once s1 is finished (it'll probably be a chapter an episode!)

this fic IS canon divergent, so expect some changes from tua canon. that's all, thank you for reading!

[zippiedippievippie]

“Seven, boy, Vipsania Sickle. Girl: Pup Harrington.”

[catindabag]

Dr. Gaul and Dean Casca “Liar! I am not drunk!” Highbottom every time they see Festus Creed doing or saying something stupid again.

Vipsania “I love gym class!” Sickle every time she sees one of her classmates accidentally talk back and angering auntie Professor Sickle.

The real reason why Urban “I am calm!” Canville got banned from the school kitchen.

Real footage of when Coryo “I can’t afford a therapist!” Snow and friends (Festus, Apollo, Diana, and Hilarius) sang ✨Gem of Panem✨ on live TV to celebrate President Ravinstill’s birthday. And yes, they did it for the money.🤑

How Sejanus, Coryo, Festus, and Felix distracted Dr. Gaul’s Gamemakers (again) in order to delay the Hunger Games (again). They swore that this is part of ✨Operation Felix✨.

How the Mentors’ class fund got murdered by Iphigenia “Weewoo!” Moss. #ourmoney

Mizzen’s current life everyday, any day, all day, pizza day. #Mizzen4Gremlin #D4localhero

Reaper “I am normal!” Ash before every ✨Lucky Flickerman Exclusive Interview✨.

Coryo “Seji is my boyfriend!” Snow every time he needs to pay his family’s rent and taxes.

Dean Casca Highbottom every time he sees Coriolanus Crassus and Sejanus Strabo doing some romantic sh*t (again) in front of him.

If you’re confused AF, just [read this for context] Lol. Enjoy.😘

[liviacardew]

festus and vip being best friends <3

[xtabithanala]

More TBOSAS mentor headcanons <3

• none of the mentor's parents liked Livia's parents (everyone thought they were extremely arrogant and rude) but most parents liked Livia and felt sorry for her loveless home

• Io Jaspar helped all of her classmates with their maths homework

• Festus always was unusually tall for his age so whenever Persephone was with him, her bullies (Urban and Gaius) wouldn't dare to tease her

• the only time Apollo ever lost his temper was when Urban mocked Diana. That time Apollo threw a book at Urban and told him to never insult his twin sister again

• Arachne would trade fresh grapes with Vipsania, Io and Lysistrata to convince them doing her homework

• Vipsania once fell asleep in class because she was learning for an exam all night

• although some of the mentors weren't entirely fond on Arachne, they all agreed she hosted the best parties

• in my AU, the mentors who survive the second rebellion (Livia, Vipsania, Arachne, Diana, Persephone, Festus, Lysistrata, Clemensia and Pup) ask Commander Paylor to build a memorial for all their deceased classmates (minus Coriolanus)

[darlingsnow0]

More bows yippee

[diiwata]

i am literally going to be thinking about former emo-girl Clemensia Dovecote for the rest of my life. since you said you want to be bothered with questions i have to ask if you have any other fun (or not fun) headcanons about the mentors?

omg you're so welcome?? no b/c that was off the top of my head 😭

here are some other hcs i cooked up (some made by my moots) that I've practically considered canon!!! i added them into my wattpad fics (but i WILL transfer over to my boba shop au on ao3 that I'm planning atm)

clemmie's notes MUST be written in red pen!!! it's her color!!

felix uses a bunch of big words without understanding the meaning of them (it was a little strange that he called the lamb "scandalous"-- we took that and RAN)

dennis fling is into photography!!! idk it just felt right while writing one of my wp fics--

vipsania plays the harp (she just seems like a musical prodigy that specializes in "old timey" instruments)

pup's into nicknames and pet names. he's got something for everyone, which is why he doesn't mind "pup" no matter how silly it sounds!! (plus, calling lamina "my girl"?? he's ADORABLE)

i somehow associate io with the color purple, so that's her favorite color now.

festus was described as being burlier, so if the academy had some sort of sports extracurriculars, he'd take up wrestling!!

hilarius is a mama's boy. SHE picked those reaping shorts out. HE can't say no to her.

that's all I can think of off the top of my head 🤭 thanks for letting me ramble... this was so fun <3

[scandalouslamb]

Felix Ravinstill's Death + Hole Theory

—The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

Gifmaker's Notes:

Fonts: Breathing. Avenir Light. (font pairing recs from this post)

I decided to go through the hole theory tag again and was hit with a vision. I think metatextually the fact that Felix is barely a canon character kind of makes this about more than just his death for me. (He is a hole in the narrative. Honestly, a lot of the mentor characters are like that.)

Anyway, I am making the most of Felix's limited screentime by taking advantage of shots of other people to make a Felix centric set.

[maidstew]

mentors as folklore lyrics to celebrate the anniversary of its release

cardigan - palmyra monty

When you are young, they assume you know nothing

the last great american dynasty - arachne crane

There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything

exile - persephone price

You were my town, now I'm in exile, seein' you out

my tears ricochet - sejanus plinth

You wear the same jewels that I gave you / As you bury me

mirrorball - dennis fling

I'm still on that tightrope / I'm still trying everything to get you laughing at me / And I'm still a believer, but I don't know why / I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try

seven - iphigenia moss

And I've been meaning to tell you / I think your house is haunted / Your dad is always mad and that must be why

august - vipsania sickle

But I can see us lost in the memory / August slipped away into a moment in time / 'Cause it was never mine

this is me trying - clemensia dovecote

They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential / And my words shoot to kill when I'm mad / I have a lot of regrets about that / I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere / Fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here

illicit affairs - felix ravinstill

And you wanna scream / Don't call me "kid," don't call me "baby" / Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me / You showed me colors you know I can't see with anyone else

invisible string - hilarius heavensbee

And isn't it just so pretty to think / All along there was some / Invisible string / Tying you to me?

mad woman - livia cardew

And there's nothing like a mad woman / What a shame she went mad / No one likes a mad woman / You made her like that

epiphany - diana ring

Only twenty minutes to sleep / But you dream of some epiphany / Just one single glimpse of relief / To make some sense of what you've seen

betty - festus creed

But if I just showed up at your party / Would you have me? Would you want me? / Would you tell me to go fuck myself / Or lead me to the garden?

peace - apollo ring

All these people think love's for show / But I would die for you in secret

hoax - pup harrington

Stood on the cliffside screaming, "Give me a reason"

[moreespressoformydepresso]

TBOSAS where the thing that fixes the pain and suffering is the Capitol’s cruelty. Because I love positive irony like that.

Somehow, the zoo enclosure where the kids are kept is destroyed. Since it’s so unbearably hot in the books say something caught on fire and the tributes were taken out of the enclosure because there won’t be any games if all of them are dead. This conveniently sidesteps Brandy’s death because it happens either just before or right after she stabbed Arachne. If she did kill her bitch of a mentor the fire was so beautifully times that all evidence of her little crime was destroyed and nobody knows it was her. How convenient. One could almost say it’s divine intervention. Now, the kids need to be kept somewhere, and the zoo was sooooo annoying for the mentors, so the tributes are put in cages around the city. Near the academy so those poor oppressed rich kids who aren’t about to die don’t have to suffer even more for traveling 10 minutes to see the vile district scum. This… backfires horribly for the Capitol. See, the tributes are separated. For the sake of this story they’re all in separate cages on their own.

How does this lead to a fix-it? Well, it’s now much harder to not interact with the tributes. You don’t have to go to the zoo to see them, and you won’t have to pay money either. The tributes can’t hide in the enclosure, so everyone can see the discomfort plain on their faces as they try to cling to some kind of privacy. The cages have one side agains some kind of structure, so seeing these kids ducked agains the one solid part of their cage is very hard hitting because it’s impossible to ignore what they’re going through now. Even the biggest tributes look small, all alone and helpless.

And then the mentors get involved, and things really kick into high gear. All the tributes like Sejanus, and at first people thought it’s because he’s district. Now they can see it’s because he’s actually nice to them. The nicer mentors are trying their best to help their tributes, and the less amazing ones receive a bit of a cold shoulder. Several fights between different pairs of mentors and tributes happen, and all of them color in the kids’ perspective of everything in a way that’s undeniable. I feel like a big part of why the Capitol citizens had so little empathy is because they refused to see things from the tributes’ perspective due to not seeing them as people. But when massive crowds witness these arguments, it’s hard not to. When all you see is a figure deep in the enclosure and a face on a screen it’s easy to chalk their anger up to some irrational grudge or just vile beasts being their vile beastly selves without thinking about it too much. It’s a lot harder to do that when you have Facet screaming at Livia for treating him like a disposable object and shirking all her duties as a mentor, such as providing his basic needs, while pretending she’s done jack shit for him. When the citizens hear the raw emotion in his voice, it’s very difficult to not feel even the slightest bit of empathy.

And when they watched Lamina cry on a screen, it was easy to laugh at her for being so weak. But when this young girl is sobbing right in front of you, and you can see the pain on her face? Suddenly it’s a whole lot less funny. Even more so when she calls Pup over and ignores the food he offers her in favor of asking about her district partner. The crowd can’t ignore what they’re putting these kids through when they watch a clearly starving girl only accept food when she’s reassured a boy that has to die for her to live is being fed. When Lucy Gray sings for food it feels like the beggars in the city until she asks her mentor to bring more than half of what she got to Jessup and whichever tributes have gotten the least that day. And when all the tributes keep asking about each other with clear and obvious worry, even for the tributes from other districts who they’ve only known for days, suddenly the people find themselves stuck with the unescapable notion that these are kids who are being forced to perform like circus animals, who are about to be forced to kill each other, yet still find it in themselves to show empathy. It’s especially inescapable when the tough, strong tributes who everyone expects to be vicious are the ones doing this. Reaper and Coral for Dill and Mizzen, of course, but even more impactfully Marcus for Sabyn. Two of the stronger tributes showing concern for one another, despite neither having that underdog or innocent air the younger tributes have.

At one point, Treech is performing for a crowd and some of the mentors pass by, including Vipsania. As soon as they approach he stops what he’s doing and retreats to the one solid side of his cage. Vipsania calls for him, and he utterly ignores her existence. All he dignifies her with is a hateful glare. Then Pup comes into his line of sight, and he shoots up immediately to ask whether Lamina’s okay. It’s only when Vipsania gets huffy about this that Treech actually acknowledged and responds to her. Not nicely though. Rather, he goes “now why ever would I not want to talk to you? It’s not like you starved me so I’d perform or anything. Gosh, it’s such a mystery!” Before turning back around intending to sit down. Vipsania tries to defend herself and it goes about as well as you may expect. By which I mean, a one-sided screaming match ensues. More like Treech giving into the urge to start ranting and raving about all the shit he’s been through while finally telling Vipsania how he feels about her treating him like a toy to use and discard once he’s no longer of use to her. When she says she just wants to help him now, he reminds her that her “help” so far has come down to actively making his life harder for her own benefit. “You’ve done enough, Sickle. Go back to your prissy princess palace and leave me alone.” Very similar to Facet when he finally gave Cardew a piece of his mind, actually.

And slowly people start giving the tributes food, even when they’re not performing. Slowly they start to change their minds about the games, and once the interviews happen they finally realize all these kids have families and friends waiting for them in the districts. And only one of them gets to go home. But… they’ve seen how sweet these kids are to those that don’t treat them like shit. And honestly, nobody really wants to see them die anymore. And they realize if they don’t act now it’ll be too late. So they act. And long story short the games are finally stopped for good.