#district 30

[thedemonastrophel]

You know how in Grian's most recent episode (hermitcraft s10 e12), he briefly visits Mumbo's item frame shop before working on the permit office? And then the item frames weren't stocked?

I would now like to remind you of Grian's affinity for building endless white rooms in minecraft using maps and item frames :]

[little-de-vil]

As recompense for me taking forever to respond to @tumblingghosts, I offer you My Ficlet. This is my first time posting about my Silly OC Thoughts, I'm terrified so please be nice!

This takes place during the 73rd Hunger Games, the main characters in this fic are Cassia (Slip Name) "Harlow" (Home Name) Sophro, an 18 year old tribute reaped from District 2 and middle child to Vance (SN) "Hawk"(HN) Sophro, the Victor of the 44th Hunger Games and a historic one as the first of the Cutters, and Dardanius "Dani" Bollard, another 18 year old tribute from 2, but a Volunteer. He's originally from the south, but his family moved up north after a tragedy. He's what's called a Cutter by Blood, someone who still holds onto the Cutter traditions but works (or in this case, his father) as a Keeper. He's trained as a Career, whereas Cassia has been trained by various Victors, those from 2 and not. @thegreatmelodrama let me know if I did your baby Dani justice! She's also a Snow but that's a topic for another day!

Sand continues to trickle into the cave as the storm destroys the supplies at the nearby Cornucopia. What a rarity, for the whole lot of Career tributes to be cornered and beginning to starve. Starving softly, unlike the chronic harshness other district children are so used to. Like the pair from 3, who are tangled together in wires and sparks bleeding out from a corner most camera.

“Why can’t we just destroy each other?” Dardanius asks Harlow softly. 

The question throws her off and she’s been so focused on perfecting the nose of the stone version of her district partner that it takes a moment for his question to register. She is, however, certain that he’s broken his nose more than once.

Who is the “we”? The pair from 1? The lone boy tribute from 4? Certainly not the ones from 3, who no one can really tell why they’re still alive, let alone with the Pack.

Or does he mean himself and Harlow? Are they the “we”?

He must mean them. Because if the years of watching District 2 pairs reach victory has taught her anything, it’s that those from 2 are loyal to their community. Of masonry or military. And that it’s the worst part of watching The Games in District 2, how much the animosity grows amongst the crowd at even the slightest difference in trade or birthplace is put to question the chance of triumph as one tribute falls. 

But is the answer so simple? A mere difference in industry? In home? The Cutters: hewer and layer masons, quarry-folk, stone and crystal miners, blacksmiths. The Keepers: soldiers—the common grunt and almost unheard of 2 born general—, cadets in schools, Peacekeepers stationed throughout the country never to return for 20 years, the hundreds working in The Peak. The southern desert folk and their blunt nature, intrenched in tradition that mirrors what it was before. The northern mountain people and their river sweet ways, creating new rituals after living so close to their invaded neighbors. 

No, nothing as simple as that. Their mutual destruction is not an echo of past rivalries, but of present vows.

A small piece of granite crumbles under the light tap of her brother’s chisel, and she looks back to see that Dardanius’ stoney eyes match his own. “Because we both made promises that work against each other. You promised my brother that you’d protect me. And I promised my father that I wouldn’t become him. Those two don’t work well together.”

He nods, but his brow tightens in concentration, mind locked deep in thought. His voice is soft and filled with sadness or maybe remorse, unlike its usual deep, assured cadence, “So what will we do if it’s just us?”

She blinks, having not considered this point until this very moment. But something deep inside her quickly finds the answer, “I give you permission to kill me.” She says sternly, mirroring his typical tone.

That comment can’t be playing well with the audience. What sponsor would back a tribute so unwilling to see their own victory? Hasn’t the Capitol been so generous to give these poor tributes the opportunity to better their life? And her especially, who has grown up in the greatest Capitol family of them all her whole life? What joy comes from watching someone fight who will never want the crown?

But this must also be playing horrifically among the Cutters back home. Self-sacrifice isn’t a Keeper trait, but Cutters aren’t known to back down from a fight when it comes to dishonoring their people. By allowing even this possibility to happen, she’s just repeating the cycle of those loyal to the Capitol can claim victory, and those traitors are always bound to fall at their hands. 

But her father must be proud of her for lasting this long, for sticking with her partner, for still Saying her Stones? Was he proud of himself when he was in her position 29 years ago, or did that pride diminish once his partner crumbled in his arms and the trumpets of victory rang? She wonders if he will still be proud of his eldest daughter when she returns cold and lifeless, sprinkled with hard tact bread given to her by a joint sponsor of the Master Mason and Head Peacekeeper of 2, spread generously at the end by her partner. Or will he be filled with disdain and fury for defying his one wish to not become like him, like her cousin of the 66th, like her neighbors of the Village who practically raised her. Only time will tell, she supposes, to whose promise will be kept. Or if District 2 will have two tributes sprinkled with bread.

[rabbitcruiser]

Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre ($4.19/km2) on March 30, 1867, by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.

[m00ngbin]

Actually I give up. If I fail I fail

Surely this won't feel like the ego equivalent of getting beat up with an aluminum baseball bat

[throughpatchesofviolet]

Chicken ...

[flintandpyrite]

As if I needed reminding that I am an animal who needs enrichment (exercise and satisfying rewarding work), the difference in my state of mind between last month (drive to work, be completely useless for 12 hours, drive home, want to die) and this month (walk to bus, knit a very satisfying sweater pattern on the bus, go to work where I try to solve complicated problems for people with very serious disease, walk back to the bus, bus home knitting, feel tired and happy and drop of to sleep no problem) is astounding.

[the-kestrels-feather]

The existence of Pluribus and Barb Azure in Songbirds and Snakes raises a question: is Gay Marriage legalized in Panem?

[vintage-russia]

Woman in Russian costume of the Smolensk province of Yelninskiy district (1933)

[seniouesbabes]

Lily Maymac 🌸💋🍒🌸 JAPAN OR NEW YORK?

[evenstarfalls]

need to kill the people who keep voting against a new elementary school

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 1, day 18

It looks like I made no progress but I promise I did! I refined Cuff's skrunkliness! Kind of! I think! I'm trying anyway lol

[gingerthee]

spent this entire weekend pretty much doing nothing because i'm trying to manifest a cold day tuesday so i'll have a four day weekend and i can do my homework on the second set of two days (this is a Bad Idea and i know it!!)

[fieriframes]

[I mean, all the cool little areas, the neighborhoods, the districts. Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel to check out a joint that started in the '30s as an Italian restaurant in a garage.]

[fruitgoat]

And I just want to mention, For The Record, that I was very clearly floundering in middle school and high school.

*random Janet gif until i can find my passive-aggressive totally fine you haven't noticed Janet gif*

Thanks, I guess, for letting me take all those days off from school when the Pressure and the Anxiety made the Migraines and the Ulcer Too Much To Handle. But.... For The Record, I really shouldn't have been put in charge of a whole fucking family (even accidentally) when I was TWELVE YEARS OLD. (No asked me to take charge, sure, okay, but was anyone else going to step up and put an actual fucking meal on the actual fucking dinner table every night? With vegetables? Before Sibling had to leave at 6:45pm? *a symphony of crickets* No one else? Just me? Okay. *rolls up sleeves*) I was prescribed heartburn medication for what no one wanted to admit was a developing stress ulcer when I was TWELVE YEARS OLD. My PEDIATRICIAN prescribed me heartburn meds powerful enough that I wasn't allowed to have them on my person, I had to go the school office to take them. He ignored the chronic headaches/migraines because that was just Anxiety (he called it "stress") and said I should just Get Over It.

All I remember in those years is being told to try harder, do better. My siblings had done this already; it was easy.

No, you motherfuckers! It wasn't ever Easy for me. Not once. You All either didn't listen or you didn't understand why it was important every single time I mentioned a symptom or asked for help. In your defense, I also didn't really figure it out for twenty years either. But still.

[eudico-my-beloved]

Apperantly my school somehow managed to fuck up free period even worse than last year by making it so that you can only stay in one(1) place and if you want to move or go to the bathroom you have to get a pass and everything like. Was forcing kids to check in at random intervals and marking them absent if they were unable to check in not enough

[erigold13261]

NSR canon lore ask! Why do you think citizens of Vinyl City seem to be not too interested in the revolution or politics in general? We don’t get people who are scared of B2J or NSR except Mia, and although we do have the city all messed up due to hooligans in the last act, there doesn’t seem to be anything else going on. Maybe we aren’t getting the whole picture… hmmmmmmm

Pretty sure we do get graffitti and NPCs talking about the revolution around beating Sayu or Yinu, not just right at the end, but I may be wrong on that!

We definitely have media coverage because of Tataiana's speeches, Zam's radio, and the Newscaster. So people ARE obviously interested in the revolution itself. Enough that there are people calling into a new radio show that doesn't have a big following just to get to talk to B2J.

But to answer your question a bit more. It is because we only see a part of the city.

Vinyl City is HUGE. It has to be. It is the music capital of the WORLD and hosts 5 MEGASTARS that provide a lot of power (like NSR is a power company, they have to be at least providing to other cities/towns nearby, not just the main city itself). So you have to keep that in mind when looking at the surrounding of the game.

We only get to see small parts of the city. Little pockets that are HIGHLY pro-edm as they take place right outside the megastars' venues/galleries/homes. So of course it will either be harder to vandalize those areas (or for them to STAY vandalized as they would quickly get cleaned) or people are too scared to show support for rock in those areas.

If you just look at Dream Fever, and I think Metro Division, you can see that there is a LOT of space under the floor/stairs. Vinyl City is not just a flat city, but it has layers above and below it. It has it's own flying cars and multiple highways (for regular and flying cars). It has houses and businesses on all different height levels. So really are just seeing a FRACTION of the city itself.

Because of this, and the fact that we are in very pro-edm areas, of course people are not talking about the revolution much. They trust Tatiana and NSR. There's no reason to give attention to something that will be over quickly. Or at least that is what many people thought.

Of course once it looks like NSR is going to fall that rock-supporters are going to come out en masse and start messing up the place with a lot more freedom. They have nothing to fear anymore. People who are pro-edm aren't going to SAY they are pro-edm a lot of the time. Not when the face of the Rock Revolution are beating the shit out of kid's pianos and war veterans.

I'm not surprised a lot of people aren't talking about the revolution. You are playing as Mayday and Zuke. The people CAUSING the revolution. Unless you support the Rock Revolution you aren't really going to be calling those two out, especially when they always have their weapons on them.

Though I do guess we should have more Mias in the game then, more fearful people. But that might be because these people are starting to see the flaws of NSR. They can still like EDM but not like NSR. So they support B2J as they fight but not enough to jump ship from EDM to Rock, which is what most would feel they would have to do to support B2J.

It's a very tricky situation given the NPCs we have. They almost all seem to love NSR/EDM, but also don't talk about the politics much. This could also be the fact that society in Vinyl City just doesn't talk about politics in public. There are many countries/societies that try to keep those things out of the common public. You talk with your friends about that stuff, not two randos who happily chat with you for for like 20 minutes (and even if you did know B2J, again, why would you tell the face of the Rock Revolution that you don't support them?).

Because we do get NPCs that do support B2J, like Yiruk and Gigi, and others who oppose them openly like Mia (and kinda Zed and Kayane?). But the one that does fully tell them to basically fuck off is absolutely afraid of B2J. Mia is part of NSR, and B2J have no problem going after NSR people. At least that is probably what is being said internally to keep direct employees in line.

Even the people who do support B2J don't seem to be super actively supporting them. They aren't sending in advice or giving them an actual helping hand, not like Kliff is (but we know he has ulterior motives). So they are just as inactive as the anti-rockers who do nothing to actually stop B2J.

Um, I am losing my train of thought and can't remember what else I was going to say about the support vs. the opposition of NPCs.

Anyway, I do think we aren't getting the whole picture. But that is BECAUSE we are playing as B2J, we don't see the whole city, politics are probably not discussed with strangers, and most of the areas we do visit are very pro-edm leading many anti-edm/pro-rock people to stay away from those areas.

I'm sure if we could play the game from an NPCs perspective, or get more interactions from them when not being May or Zuke, we could get more information out of them and see what they truly think of the Revolution. But that is just not something that can happen right now.

Like Tatiana even states that people/B2J are trying to pressure her to step down. She says how B2J have influenced the votes/people. So obviously there are things going on behind the scenes/outside the scope of the game play.

But it is all implied because having the game tell us AND show us this is just bad game design. You want to usually do one or the other, not both. It allows for more nuance and cleaner message to get across without a bunch of fluff/filler (not that filler is bad, especially in a story based game, but too much of it can hinder game play/storytelling).

So just from a game design point of view, not showing every single person who adamantly supports or opposes the revolution is a good thing. I do think we could have gotten a few more of them, but having Mia and Kliff as the extremes of both ends is good enough. It's better than repeatedly beating the message over the audiences' heads I guess.

Basically, just believe the game when they say there are supporters/opposers to the revolution. You can't always go into super precise details, so taking the word of the game is usually good enough. (Not using this as an excuse for stories that have massive plot holes or bad story writing, but not being able to show every tiny detail when a lot of it is implied or even explicitly SAID is fine to just take the word of the game on this matter).