#plus coriolanus being jealous and mad in general

[julietasgf]

the posts about the plinth family being so immigrant-coded and the districts speaking English as a second language had me thinking about sejarcus reunion. Like imagine sejanus trying so hard to connect with Marcus by speaking d2's native language, but sejanus is rusty because he left when he was 8 and didn't have much practice speaking the language in the capitol. I imagine strabo would try to ban the language in the home after moving to the capitol to force the family to assimilate. and so sejanus can really only speak the language with Ma when strabo isn't around to yell at him for it. And when sejanus speaks to Marcus in d2's language, he's trying to be like, look even though I moved to the capitol, I'm still district at heart! I'll never be capitol and I hate what the capitol is doing! But since it's been so long since he's spoken the language, he's shaky and it comes off more as him forgetting his culture, his roots, his language, and assimilating into the society of the oppressor. just something about sejanus basically being a 1.5 generation immigrant who will never fit into the new country/place nor the old country/district </3 and how people from the native country sometimes look down on the second gen or 1.5 gen for not being fluent in the native language of the country and see them as "not really *insert ethnicity*" because they can't hold a convo about the political and economic state of the world in the native lang. ok I don't think Marcus would be snobby about rusty language skills, but its like a further sign that sejanus isn't really district anymore no matter how hard he tries to present himself as such </3

anonnnnn I love this concept!!

the idea of sejanus going to the zoo that first day, and trying to speak to marcus (even tho coriolanus is giving sejanus side eye stare bc sejanus is basically shouting in whatever the hell he's speaking), but the flow of his speech is not the same, and he ends up switching some verbs, and it sounds a tad bit broken. and now marcus refused to even LOOK at him and sejanus feels horrible because he thinks of how ridiculous it probably was.

a boy from the academy, wearing that red uniform, surrounded by capitol people at the capitol, trying to speak to a district boy in broken district language. it sounds almost like mockery. it sounds like a capitol boy trying to pass as district.

(I don't think marcus would be snobby, but he would definitely be pissed off 😭)

then he comes back home, and begs his ma to help him practice, because he needs to speak with marcus, but he knows he doesn't sound as natural as when he was a child. and his ma helps him practice, and he actually gets less rusty, but it still isn't the same, he still sounds more like a capitol boy trying to pass as district than an actual district kid (the irony that in the capitol, he has a district accent, but speaking the districts' language, he has a capitol accent). and marcus still. doesn't. talk. to him. he refuses to do it, and all sejanus can think is that his language skills got so bad to the point maybe marcus can't even understand him anymore.

(marcus actually can understand him, it's just that there are other reasons)

also, this weighs a lot on the whole thing regarding not being able to fit in one place or another. other mentors would probably be annoyed or jealous that sejanus can actually communicate with his tribute properly. why are they all struggling while sejanus is there speaking effortlessly? but at the same time, for someone from the districts who grew up speaking that language, it's clearly not 100%, it's slow-ish and it doesn't sound completely natural.

he'll never be enough district, but will never be seen as capitol either.