#Someone should everlark this!

[periwinckles]

Fic idea but too lazy to write it

Katniss is a Victor, and Snow tries to keep her in line

she does something to piss him off

he sends her a threat, something like a letter saying “he’ll kill the man she loves”, meaning Gale

Katniss bolts out the door, kidnaps Peeta ( not a Victor, just a happy little baker, that makes bread deliveries to victors village) and hides him by the lake, because Snow has the wrong man (Gale) and she’s scared he might get the right one (Peeta).

(yes, I was totally rewatching The Arrow, and the iconic scene where Oliver tells Felicity “He has the wrong woman”. To this day that was THE BEST romantic plot twist ever.)

[effieotto]

the biggest factor for the misconception of Gale’s intentions behind his acts comes from the narrative coming from Katniss’s mind and until you guys understand it, we’ll never get better as a community.

My favorite argument —though daft— is how Gale was responsible for Katniss’s confusion with her feelings because he kept pushing her to make a decision, and the pressure made her feel forced to choose him over Peeta and that was the reason why she took so long to assume she loved him…but what you all forget is that, though we knew exactly what was going on inside of her mind, Gale had nothing. He couldn’t know about how conflicted her feelings for him was or how she felt during their kisses. Through his eyes, that was the girl he loved who, while saying she didn’t want their relationship to change, still spared no effort to kiss him in random times and feed his expectations of one day running away with him. Katniss never said she loved him, but she never said she didn’t either. And when she kept him in the dark, Gale didn’t try to force her to choose him, he just wanted her to put a end to his torment and chose any of them. Stop gambling with his heart

He was hopeful toward the probability of her choosing him because he loved her, and he was angry because she was forced —cause she was forced— to engage in a quite-fake relationship with a guy she’d just met, as a result of the Capitol ripping her away from their family and throwing her into a Arena to fucking fight her way out. And as if it wasn’t bad enough, now he had to pretend he was the cousin of the woman he wanted to be his wife and had to watch her act as she was madly in love with a guy that, for all she said, she didn’t want to be with.

He couldn’t know about the bread. He couldn’t know how real Katniss’s feelings were when she kissed Peeta in the cave. He couldn’t know how genuinely she cared about him. The only person who could say anything about it was Katniss, and she was too busy denying —even to herself— any feelings for him, while still randomly giving Gale some expectation

Katniss confusion and desperation wasn’t on him, because for most of the time he didn’t know about President Snow’s threads or the pressure she was under for being forced to convince Panem that she was madly in love with Peeta, because she —understandably so— haven’t told him. From his perspective, she was either secret in love with him and forced to pretend she wasn’t or she was playing really hard with his feelings and he had all the right to ask her to cut the crap and be honest with them

The narrative always control the way we see things, and is important to know how to differentiate the facts we know because we’re reading her mind, to the things that were shared between characters

[peetapie]

Just had a man mansplane the hunger games to me (he was wrong about everything) after I told him I read all **5** of the books multiple times (he said he read the trilogy once when it came out and hadn’t read the prequels) I hate men.

[mollywog]

Thanksgivinglark concept

Modern AU - College/Post College

Katniss and Peeta stole glances all through school but never spoke before graduating and moving away from their small town. It isn’t until Katniss comes home for Thanksgiving dinner at her mother’s new beau’s that she sees him again.

It’s a second chance Everlark story… except it’s the wrong Everlark: Mrs. Everdeen and Mr. Mellark

[darling-gemini]

The sun as a metaphor for something that burns. The kind of sun that leaves your skin red and burning, swelling with pain. The sun not only as a source of light but also Heat. The sun hurts when you leave yourself vunerable. You got too close, for too long, and it hurts. It hurts SO much. Oh God, why won't it stop?

[lilislegacy]

me: fictional romances are so fake and people should not think of them as realistic portrayals of relationships

me whenever someone brings up percabeth, everlark, hinny, MerDer, or polin: fictional relationships are beautiful and poetic and we should all aspire to have that

[mellarked-katnisseverdeen]

I think people miss out on so much of Everlark with the modern way we see romance, ngl.

The softness, the gentleness, the peace they have around one another IS the passion. That is the excitement! And it remains even with the feelings change and morph as all feelings and emotions do. There should be something so thoroughly thrilling finding someone who even when they don't make you happy (because no human being on earth is gonna make you happy all the time), their happyness makes brings you joy. And what that builds is the bond between you is such an adventure.

That is why Katniss is never board or lacking in excitement with Peeta around. He brings out her creative side, her fun and soft side- ya know. The side of her that exsists when she isn't having to fight for her life or work to bring in the next meal day to day. The side of her she WANTS the freedom to explore.

It beats out this hyper emotional, volatile all consuming passion based on nothing other than feelings and emotions ANYDAY. At least in my eyes.

[sanjarka]

Sleepover Saturday ask: Any head canons about Katniss and Peeta during gbt you'd like to share?

well sometimes i get a random urge to write some gbt everlark dialogue in my notes. it will probably never get out of said place but the general idea is they take it slow but also not. it's more like at first they just orbit around each other, then they're friends, then they're absolute best friends learning all sort of new things about one other. being intimate in a way they've never been before. with a lot of deep introspective conversations.

i imagine a good amount of arguments. something along the line of katniss feeling like shit about the way she treated peeta in mj to him saying something similar to i'm not perfect either katniss. when i felt rejected i basically ignored you for six months. but then katniss gets upset because why can't you just admit that i hurt you, be mad at me, for once in your life be angry at something. be angry with me. i deserve worse (because i do see peeta as honestly someone who would avoid any confrontation if possible). but then really peeta gets even more mad because it's you kat. it's you really that feels unjust in being mad at me. and obviously she had no issue with saying that she hates him in mj. but before? not really.

like idk i felt like she should've been pissed longer at certain things. that's why her hurt at the train really stands out for me. her saying i want to tell him how much i already miss him but that wouldn't be fair of me. because she has every right to tell him i've saved your life. and i'm sorry but you should be grateful. but she doesn't? no no instead she's heartbroken. instead she recognizes that he's being unfair yet doesn't want to be unfair herself. and she doesn't even expect an apology from him and is surprised by it, and when he yells and throws that lamp she is again worried for him. it's a headcanon sure, but i think there is something in katniss that takes responsibility in other people's pain after her mother's depression. cause if she were a better daughter, or easier to love her mother surely wouldn't have been sick. right?

and then of course i could live a hundred lifetimes and never deserve you comes out. and now it's so complicated. and they're both upset. and sad. and then they're talking about prim. and then they're talking about gale and that pain and that guilt that followed katniss. still sometimes does. how even with him she never just allowed herself to be annoyed. it always came back to how she didn't see the situation correctly or how she owes him something or how she's not fair.

then katniss's mother calls and says she would want to visit (it's about a year and a half at this point of gbt) and katniss is having very complicated feelings about it and she is so hurt and then peeta's trying to understand her but he's also being slightly pushy about the whole thing because your mom is trying, isn't she? give her a chance but then why do we never talk about your family peeta? why do i always have to guess and never know? because i want to know you so i want to know them. and was that really the only time she hit you? and of all things he doesn't want to talk about this the number one on his list.

but the point is eventually they talk. and will talk. will continue to change and think and reflect and learn each other. and maybe she will always need to push peeta to accept his anger and maybe katniss will write him letters because it's more comfortable than speaking. especially in the beginning. it's an ongoing thing in both of them. accepting, not just one another (cause that will be easier, much easier) but themselves as full and flawed beings. but they like each other, and find a way to like themselves too. they grow back together!

they also have fun, and swim at the lake, and paint his bakery, and learn how to play guitar and ride a bike. and katniss sings and peeta paints. and he starts kissing her occasionally, after a particularly bad nightmare, and she likes it but doesn't know how to say it. now this is the part they're careful with. a bit too much. peeta never wants her to be forced into anything ever again and katniss doesn't want him to feel like he has to love her again just because he did before (but he never really stopped did he?)

but then one night, while they're touching up a portrait in their memory book. the one they did a long time ago but something isn't quite right they noticed. well really peeta's fixing just the right shade of burdock's eyes and katniss is starring at him and his eyelashes and he can feel it, just like he did before, and he turns and there's no one to interrupt them and then katniss is touching him, and his face, and his eyelashes and sorry you gotta a little bit of paint there but he knows he doesn't and then he's kissing her or she's kissing him and they're kissing very very much and katniss panicks and runs. because it's so much like the beach and those kisses she didn't dare let herself think about, but actually who is she kidding she's been thinking about them more and more but remember the last time. the last them you felt giddy and excited over this boy's kisses. remember the shattering and the pain. and she's running but he's fast too because this matters and she can't just leave. and just as she's getting ready to go out of the front door he's right behind her and the doors close and maybe there are tears in his eyes. and maybe katniss is crying now to. and she really feels it now. all the love and need and how it really isn't that different than all those times before but now she knows. now she's aware of herself in a way she hasn't been in years. and they do not want to mess this up. they really don't. they can't.

and he's saying please. don't run. i want to talk and she turns around and he's right there in front of her, everything she wants, everything she ever wanted. bigger than life, always so powerful and she doesn't want to talk. all they've been doing is talking. and she said that out loud of course and the she kisses him and just like on that beach he tries to stop her, to have them plan this whole thing out but it doesn't work like that does it. and he's lost too now. in that need. and the hunger. and it happens. the so after and the whispering and the you love me real or not. and real. very very much real. since the red dress, and the two braids and the valley song and the bread and the kiss on the bruise real. he says it after her actually. the i love yous. in the morning. and there are all these talks to have and things to figure out but it will be okay. they have each other!

[thesweetnessofspring]

Everlark modern au, inspired by Gilmore Girls. Rated a M for nudity and references to sex.

The blare of the alarm hits my ears and I flinch awake, eyes scrunching closed in protest. Peeta's naked, broad chest is warm and firm underneath my cheek and I feel him shift underneath me to turn off the alarm.

"Sorry," he says, voice low and gravelly. "Forgot to turn it off."

"'S'okay," I say. "Have to get up."

His arm tightens around my waist, fingers on the flesh of my hip, where they'd been last night as we made love for the first time. I wasn't usually one for putting out after a first date, but that's not what this was. That's not what we were. Might have taken us a decade to realize it, but after a little awkwardness and driving nearly an hour out of town so no one would see us, Peeta brought out the program from our middle school talent show with my name printed on it. He described how he fell for me right then hearing me sing the Valley Song and that he was "all in" on us. It didn't seem necessary to hold back my craving for him. We hardly made it through the front door of his apartment fully clothed.

"Stay," he whispers.

"Work," I say. "I'm opening."

I hadn't expected our dinner date would lead into such rigorous, late night sex and I'd agreed to open up the outdoor shop this morning. Hikers and campers are annoyingly early birds, so we open at seven and I had to be there a half hour earlier to get everything set up. I sigh, wishing I could stay in bed with Peeta all day instead. I'm not going to have the energy for anything else. I don't move for several minutes, working up the boost to leave this cocoon of blankets and limbs.

"Coffee," I say, forming a plan to get myself to work. Usually I drink tea, but on mornings like this one I need the extra caffeine boost.

"Downstairs," Peeta mumbles.

Of course. Why have coffee in your apartment when you own a bakery downstairs with all of the bells and whistles? I peel my eyes open and Peeta's head is turned to the side, chest rising and falling with the breath of someone still in sleep. I think of all the work he put in last night getting me to come over and over, and decide to let him rest. He'd more than earned it.

I give him a kiss on the corner of his mouth and then stand up, feeling a delicious soreness between my legs from last night. I can't find my underwear and I'm still too groggy to remember where Peeta had flung it before diving mouth-first into me. I won't wear my jeans without any underwear, so instead I find Peeta's blue button-up at the entrance of the door. He's so much bigger than me, it'll do until I can get coffee to perk me awake and hunt for the rest of my clothes.

I shrug the shirt on, threading my arms through the sleeves and buttoning it up as I sneak down the stairs toward the bakery. I get to the bottom, turn to enter the shop, and find myself staring at a dozen townies sipping coffee and waiting in line for their pastries. Delly peers from around the counter, eyes widened in surprise. The clink of cups and chatter die down as all faces turn in my direction.

Everyone stares at me, with my bare legs and mussed hair and braless boobs in a man's shirt, coming down from the apartment everyone knows Peeta lives.

Embarrassment rising up from my stomach to my face, I back away and then retreat up the stairs. I fling open Peeta's door and shut it firmly behind me, the frosted glass in the window rattling. I round the corner to Peeta's bed, where he's sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Katniss?" he asks.

"There are people down there!" I exclaim, my face still flaming and heart sprinting.

"Yeah," Peeta says. "Early morning crowd. Did you go down there?"

"Well you don't have any coffee up here," I say defensively, folding my arms across my chest.

"You should have woken me. I'd have gone down and gotten coffee for you."

"I didn't know there would be people! I know the bakery could open without you."

"I asked Delly to open for me," Peeta says. His eyes roam my clearly just-got-laid look. "You do come over here often. Maybe they won't think anything of it."

"When I come here I always wear pants!" I gesture forcefully toward my lower half.

"Okay, so, people are going to know about us," Peeta says. "Is that such a bad thing?"

I fold my arms and practically pout as I say, "I don't want people gossiping about us. Teasing us."

Peeta stands and I'm flustered all over as he tilts my chin up to look at him. "Do you want me to walk down there in your clothes to get the heat off of you?"

I laugh, imagining the ridiculous scene. He raises an eyebrow, and the thing is, if I asked him, he would. I already know he'd do anything for me, because he has time and time again. He moves his hold to my hips, scrunching up the shirt slightly and lighting a fire in my belly.

"Your boobs are bigger than mine," I say. "You'd stretch out my sweater."

I put my hands on his chest, over his heart and the impressive muscle he's built up there. Part of me still can't believe he wants me, and the other part is worried that he'll change his mind soon, once he has to go from a friend to dating me. I don't have the best track record with relationships. Now, if this thing we have ends, people will know. They'll pick up on the fact that yet again, I haven't made a relationship work. Usually, the fact that I could always break up with a guy I was seeing comforted me. Thinking of Peeta using the same retreat I usually did, though, makes me ache. I don't want this relationship with him to go the same way as my others. I don't want to run.

"I've seen what size you wear," Peeta grins. "I'll definitely be stealing one of your hoodies after we spend the night at your place. I'll walk in and serve coffee with Valley High Girls Cross Country Team displayed on the front and back."

I bite my lip and run my hands up and down his chest. "If people ask...can we say we started dating at your brother's wedding?"

That gave us the cover of an additional two months. Sure, Peeta had spent most of that in Maine helping his brother and his new wife after they got injured on their honeymoon, but hadn't we been talking on the phone constantly, too? Being discovered sleeping over at your friend's...boyfriend's place is better than a rumor of a one-night stand.

"Well, I always intended that to be a date," Peeta says. "You're the one who didn't pick up on the fact I was trying to woo you."

"How was I to know you didn't mean to ask me as a friend?" I say defensively.

He wraps his arms around me, drawing me into his still-naked body. I weaken at the feel of him. The muscles under the palms of my hands and the the memory of last night distract me from my previous embarrassment.

"Maybe from the way we were dancing," he says. I think of that dance at the wedding, slow and dreamlike, accompanied by romantic lyrics and Peeta's blue eyes and my feelings for him all pecking through the shell of my protected heart. While the feelings must have been building for years now, I made the complicated revelation my love for Peeta had an additional flavor to the platonic.

I'd been so certain that I had the first feelings of romance between us I hadn't known it was meant to be a real date, and I almost tell him so when Peeta bends down to kiss me. As I accept his kiss, I don't have any more room for my upset feelings because everywhere Peeta touches feels so impossibly good.

[waywardangel-wilds]

Most unhinged HC about post-MJ everlark?

Hmmm I don’t know. I feel like my hcs are pretty tame. Let me write down my most silly ones:

No.1: they gossip together. They GAB. They love to talk shit at home.

No.2: Katniss has a jealous fit over something or someone and Peeta which Peeta reacts to with confusion and then laughs about it for years. “Hey Katniss, remember when—” “SHUT UP.”

No.3: Peeta’s on a mission to have sex everywhere he’s ever wanted to in his fantasies. All furniture. In the woods. In the bakery. They would do the school too but the chances of getting arrested and traumatizing someone are too high. Oh and in Peeta’s new-to-him truck too.

No. 4: Peeta cannot be normal about sports. As the volunteer coach he’s gotten complaints but no one is brave enough to tell him to stop being so annoying outright. Imagine Katniss watching in the background with sunglasses and a smirk during a sunny day.

No. 5: Peeta and Katniss enjoyed doing the whole “polishing my gun” routine (but without an actual gun lol) for their daughter’s first boyfriend.

No. 6: Katniss cannot be normal about Peeta on the days after they sleep together for the first time. She wants to do it all the time. When they go out in public it’s kind of obvious by her face alone what she’s thinking about. It makes construction crews laugh and elderly ladies raise their eyebrows. Haymitch laughed so hard he choked and slapped his knee. Called her a starving dog and Peeta the unfortunate piece of meat in her path. Peeta does not care, he’s getting lots of liquids in, he can do this.

No. 7: if Finnick had survived he’d be the most no-boundaries friend ever. He’d just show up unannounced all the time. Picture him in flip flops and a Hawaiian shirt ready to use Peeta and Katniss’s nonexistent grill. The friendship would be immaculate. He’d be the glue who’d form the victors friend group: Jo, Peeta, Katniss, Annie and Finnick. He’d force them all to get on his boat all the time. He’d introduce Peeta to rum just to watch his face get all pink. He’d see Katniss like this little-sister best friend type but he’d still make dirty jokes at her cause she’ll never be able to handle those. Him and Jo are the best duo. Bro should have lived.

No. 8: Katniss, at 38, can still miss the point when someone tells her a dirty joke which her friends LOVE. she’s frequently like “what are you talking about?” And everyone just laughs. Also, Katniss is so used to Peeta just getting her that when her friends complain about their husbands not listening, or not understanding her honest reaction is: “just break up???” And everyone is like “girl, it’s not that serious. You just have the perfect husband.”

No. 9: Katniss cried one time when her daughter said she didn’t want to play with her anymore because who wants to play with their mom when they could just go outside and play with their friends. Peeta found her sobbing over a tray of cookies and tried not to laugh because it really isn’t that serious. It’s totally okay for ten year olds to want to be outside, but Katniss was still like “she doesn’t like me 😭”

No. 10: Where Peeta was a hopeless romantic who only ever wanted to be with one girl Peeta’s son goes through girls like water. It’s what Peeta yells about in the car when it’s just him and the boy. “Why?! Be respectful! I didn’t raise you like this!” I’m a believer in that the toastbabies are nothing like their parents. They’re their own unique ppl with the ability of driving both their parents up the wall. I looove thinking about them being teenagers and rebelling. Their kids grew up in a mansion, they’re gonna have a fun rebellion haha.

[adora-reads]

The Hunger Games re-read pt.2!!!

This is the part 2 of my The Hunger Games re-read, here is the first part, where are some of my comments of the first book in the series.

Today January 20th, marks the day where I finished Catching Fire, and here is my impressions and opinions of my third time reading it!

I remember the first time I read it being a bit disappointed about the beginning of the book, bc of the timeskip and too much Gale;

Now I can apreciate it, even thought I still think there's too much Gale in it;

I really like the confrontation in between Snow and Katniss in the beginning of the book, I think it really gives the reader a certain notion of how powerful and cruel he can be;

I also like how we have a short period of calm, where we can see how Katniss new life is;

And in her new routine is part of the reason why I find Gale annoying in the first part of the book, he's just too busy being jealous of the whole star crossed lovers thing that he fails in being there for Katniss, wich is something that she needed;

Also, I it makes me sad seeing Katniss struggle in finding what to do with herself after years of just surviving and focusing only in keeping her family alive;

We didn't get much of Madge, but I really wish we got to see her and Katniss going into the woods together;

But one of the things that I like about Collins is how she does not show everything;

I like the victory tour everlark! Very cute, but I just have to say that Peeta is a much better person than me, bc if the person I've been in love since I was four told me it wasn't real and then let me out of a very important conversation they had with the DICTATOR of our country the next time they would be hearing about me would be in the news;

Talking about Peeta I can't help but wonder why his family didn't move in with him;

One thing that I think about a lot is how Snow decided to make district 12 suffer, how he wants to hurt Katniss and make her afraid by making life in 12 even more miserable;

But all this cruelty only made Katniss more of a rebel;

and also, it's so interesting to see how Katniss has this distant notion that she is a symbol to the revolution,but fully believes that she would be better as a matir, how she believes that someone like Peeta should be the lider, the faze of a revolution;

in my opinion this is due to her underestimating the effect she has on people, and also her feelings about Peeta, given that she believes that he's much better than anyone, really;

On a funnier note, is kind of funny to see Katiniss even more in love with Peeta(the eyelashes scene for me is something else), she's is so in love and so deep in denial at the same time oh my God can't;

her reaction when he dies for a few minutes?!

her dreams after making out with him at the beach?!

and kind of unserious but I laugh everytime I think of Finnick waking up to two teenagers making out after he just had the worst two days of his life;

And even if i already know what's coming, Peeta droping the baby bomb is always iconic, I love everytime Peeta decides to put his gaslight habilites to use;

Also, I love Mags with all my heart, I really wish we got to see her more of her, unfortunately, i don't think we will see much of her in Sunrise of a Reaping :(;

I love Finnick, he's so funny, every time he had to remind Katniss she was pregnant I left out a little laugh;

unpopular opinion, but I kind of hate how a good amount of the fandom views him and treats him;

I adore Jo, and really like how me and good portion of the fandom decided that she is a lesbian;

I can't help but feel bad about Haymitch's friends who died in the arena, about all the tributes who died in the arena;

It might be an indicator that I'm dumb, but I never really understood much of what Beete says;

The final chapter breaks my heart, Katniss can never comeback to her home, bc the Capitol destroyed it, and they have one of the most important people in her life, and there's nothing she can do;

And before I forget, I think it's really interesting to see how Effie changes in this book;

she goes from being excited, making sure with everytingh goes right and staying in their schedules to being unable to say something positive;

[unnamednarrator]

13 or 33 for the kisses prompt (pick your favorite)

33. hushed conversation in-between kisses

oh hey @dandelionsunset1210 ! thanks for sending this in !

this is a canon divergent scene from the victory tour, in which everlark have already confessed their feelings to each. loosely based on these lyrics from last kiss by taylor swift:

i still remember the look on your face / lit through the darkness at 1:58 / the words that you whispered for just us to know

We’re hardly ever allowed to go to bed before three o’clock most nights. The more I crave that time — my time with Peeta, when I don’t have to share him or our interactions with anyone — the longer the hours preceding it seem to become. And the longer the Victory Tour goes on for, the more it becomes my refuge from everything.

I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but I can discern the respective ways we kiss when it’s for the benefit of an audience, rather than for ourselves. Something about my muscle memory guiding it in front of others. But when it’s just me and Peeta — in a closet, on a balcony, hidden by a curtain — it’s like I’m fully awake, no matter how tired I actually am. I don’t know what to explain it to Peeta, don’t know if I should bring it up, just in case it’s not the same for him and I embarrass myself.

But then he brings it up himself one night. I think we’re in District 7, because the smell of pine is the only thing that breaks through the haze. I’m leaning against the door leading to a balcony and his hands are pressed against it, right next to my ears. He’s leaning towards me to rest his forehead against mine. Our breaths are racing, chests brushing against one another’s as we inhale and exhale in unison.

‘It’s different, like this,’ he says softly. ‘It’s better.’

I hm in agreement. ‘It’s just us.’

He smiles, and I know he understands my double meaning. It’s only us, alone, with no one to impress, only each other to indulge. But it’s also, simply, us. Who know each other best, with whom we can be exactly ourselves.

And because being just me, being just us, just being in love with this boy is something that comes to me as naturally as breathing, I let myself kiss him for a few minutes more, until someone comes to catch us out.

send me a number from this prompt list & i’ll write an everlark scene for it 🫶

[mswyrr]

I love the comparisons and contrasts between Everlark and Snowbaird (edit: I wrote a meta here discussing some of what I see there and Rachel has drawn the comparison too) because there is no "safe" purely "wholesome" love. It doesn't exist.

I genuinely hate that fandom thinks there's such a thing as a pure ship. Or that we can or should take art and cut it into neat little pieces, use stories to "teach girls" (where girls are presumed to be the most ignorant and worthless of creatures, incapable of the full experience of what it means to be human, but also the only ones responsible for anything bad that happens, creatures so responsible that all tragedies that befall them are their own fault, their deepest shame) how to make love safe. It's a lie. Loving is about people, and people are never pure. Everything good we give each other is hard won with courage in the face of fear.

It is inherently dangerous because humans are. And if you're lucky, you give yourself to someone who meets that trust and courage with their own. And if you're not lucky, it hurts. And there's no way to control it. There's no way to be smart enough or pure enough or notice the right "red flags" (irl abusers are good at hiding and perfectly lovely people can become ill or addicted or just *change* on you). You can be lucky for a time and someone can still change.

Because you cannot control someone else, just love them.

And--here is the great part--it was that very lack of control that drove Coriolanus to throw love away! He was so afraid of what an inherently terrifying thing it is, how it is giving yourself away without guarantees, that he brought that fear down on them. He became the traitor he was so terrified that Lucy Gray might be. He destroyed something infinitely precious because he couldn't live with what a sublime wonder and terror it is to give yourself away with open hands. Love is never pure. It is so much better than that. It is...

I write all kinds of ships and like all kinds of love stories and see no contradiction because even the happiest ones are that too. I am endlessly frustrated by the way Gothic romance and tragic romance and other romances that explore the terror and darker side of that are pathologized because it makes the more joyful, happy endings dishonest. Love is risk, touching the sublime, allowing yourself to be remade.

Every joy we find in life--every single one, not just in romance, but anywhere--is like making love in the lap of death. In the midst of life we are in death; in the midst of death we are in life. The only thing worse than the fear of giving yourself away (in all the ways we can seek intimacy, not only romance) is the truest death, the death of never opening yourself up to begin with, never letting yourself be changed and moved and remade by another. And if we need an object lesson in that, here we've got Coriolanus Snow!

He's not an object lesson in "bad boyfriends." Lucy Gray made good choices from her pov! (I'm writing a separate meta on this). Nothing that happened was her fault! She is not an object lesson, she's a brave, loving girl who experienced a tragedy. She was betrayed. She's a character of the kind of folk ballads Collins was drawing on, which are actually more honest about people and more compassionate toward women who experience tragedy and loss than a rigidly US-centric, individualist, inherently victim blaming, just world fallacy view of control and "teaching girls good lessons." You can drain all the pleasure and joy out of life in the effort to control things and keep someone from being able to hurt you and still not really be safe, just be dead inside - like Coriolanus did.

The only way to truly possess someone is to destroy them and then you don't actually possess them at all! They're gone. The person you wanted to keep you've driven away. And the only way to truly be safe and in control is to kill your own heart. So what are you even protecting?

There is no shame in being Lucy Gray. The shame is in letting fear and the need for control own us like Coriolanus.

As someone who feels torn often in fandom because I ship both love stories that get categorized as "wholesome" and "problematic," the fact that Collins wrote both one of my favorite ships ever that gets categorized (and, I think, often massively simplified) into "wholesome" AND another "problematic" one that IMO is a gorgeous object lesson in why the whole idea of this binary is bullshit--and why love stories can and should explore the terror of being alive and living as well as the joy and genres like Gothic and tragedy are a beautiful part of the tapestry of narratives exploring love and living as a human in fiction--and we should very much NOT be Coriolanus?

I love her. I want to kiss her hand.

[oolhan]

Everlark: The Classics #1

okay. so. I won't assume someone will remember my blog last year where I promised I will list down the everlark fics classics (in my opinion) for those whose new to the fandom and those who came back from the renaissance last year. Sooo, instead of having them compiled in a neat list, I will post them individually with a corresponding moodboard and small review (probably once a week? let's see)

With that said, I present you the one and only: Waterlily by HGRomance!

Published: 2013

Chapters: 18 | Complete

Waterlily is a modern AU where Peeta is an exchanged student spending a year in Panem Island, where he stays at Katniss' village and his host family. I won't spoil it for those who never encountered this masterpiece but the whole build up of their relationship is an interesting dynamic that sets it apart from other fanfics I read.

The setting alone makes it unique from the rest. Islands, rural seam community, beaches, then boom a sudden white boy coming in the picture. The way this fic entangles and straightens the everlark HEA is such a fun read especially the added character of Katniss' here. (I'm dying to spoil it lol). The writing is poetic, as always, if you're a fan of HGR's works. The pacing, especially that one scene that breaks and makes it all (something about a cave) was a tear-jerker.

It's safe to assume this is one of the classic fic every thg fan should read when they wanna start getting into the rabbit hole of fanfiction, hence why I chose it as a welcoming fic for this series. If you happen to love this one too and wanna chat then please do! If you haven't read it, what are you waiting for?

[mollywog]

Everlark Executioner AU inspired by this post

Read on Ao3

Had the messenger arrived a day earlier, he would have been greeted by a yellow flag above our door, and had to turn back, summons undelivered.

The odds, however, are not in my favor.

My sister, having been ill the week prior, had quarantined us both at home. She hadn’t been fearfully sick, just unwilling to put her patients at risk. The flag hadn’t prohibited me from hunting alone but it had kept the townspeople and duties away for a spell.

I should have known my temporary reprieve would need repaid in spades.

So as my luck would have it, there's no obstacle to the trembling messenger boy delivering the summons. It seems my services are needed for a midnight hanging.

I am an executioner by chance, not choice. Well that’s not exactly true.

Though the Capital acts as judge and jury, the districts must supply the hangman. And because no one willingly seeks the position, about once a generation, they hold a ceremony to select a new one. They call it a reaping: someone’s idea of a joke. Haymitch Abernathy’s name had been drawn twenty odd years ago after the previous executioner had disappeared into the wild, never to be seen again. Haymitch should have been it for another decade or so, but he’d given everyone a scare two years back when he fell off his horse and into a coma for a week. He came to no worse for the wear but the district officials decided he needed an apprentice lest they discover him face down in a ditch with no one to measure their next noose. My name had not been called, but my sister’s had.

I ‘volunteered’ to take her place, but there was really never a choice in it. She never would’ve survived the social isolation let alone the job requirements.

After that my sister and I moved to the far edge of the District near the woods. It’s better not to know the condemned or subject the town to my presence. Most people know the proper direction of their anger, most don’t blame the executioner, but they still avert their gaze and hold their children tighter to their chest as I pass.

My sister, Primrose, on the other hand, is universally admired; a born healer in a place where there are few and the need is great. If I keep myself scarce, they still seek her out for treatments.

Prim is somber as she hands my satchel up to me. She’s used to hearing news from town ahead of time but with our week sequestered, we know nothing of who I may face. But Midnight hangings are reserved for the most deprived criminals,so I’ll take solace that the wearer of my necklace will be worthy of it.

The hanging tree mars the district skyline. It looms ominously over the landscape, growing as I approach the center of town.

The fog thins as I arrive at the tree, a noose is already in place as invitation to the crowd. The messenger this morning claimed the hangman was indisposed, but Haymitch has at least prepared that much before absconding into his bottle; He will have taken into account the wearer’s height and weight when selecting the rope's gauge and length: I inspect his work. Likely a man: Average height, but well fed. I release a breath: no chance it will be a child today.

In the Justice building I check in with the clerk and settle in a seat. Dropping my head back, I close my eyes, pretending to nap, lest someone try to speak to me. I hear fragments of the gossip: three murdered.. a fire… caught red-handed. At least this time my nightmares will revolve around the condemned’s actions and not my own.

Time crawls by. The growing clamor outside is my cue that the time is nearing and I shrug on the executioner's robe, rubbing my sweaty palms down the fabric at the thighs. The hood isn’t necessary, Haymitch gave it up years ago, everyone knows who we are, but I flip the material over my head anyways. If only it could shield me from my conscience.

I had always assumed Haymitch drank because he didn’t care. Now I know it’s the opposite; he drinks because he can’t help caring. I refuse to fall victim to the bottle, it doesn’t solve the guilt, I suppose nothing will, but there are other ways to live with myself.

I take the dose of elixer Prim packed with enough time for the herbs to take effect, making me feel hollow enough to perform the job, but as I exit the Justice building, I'm immediately on edge despite the tonic

Something’s not right.

Through the numbness I can feel the stilted weight of the crowd. The low simmering of discontent is unexpected. With the allegations, I’d expected eagerness if not indifference.

I take my place on the platform. The mayor nods in my direction distractedly.

Head Peacekeeper, Thread, emerges from the prison, two uniformed men in tow, dragging the limping convict. His head is bent, obstructing my view of his face, but I take in the broad shoulders and yellow hair. Another surprise. The man I am to execute is from the merchant side of town, where most have the means to survive without breaking the laws or bribe the Peacekeepers into turning a blind eye.

The man is placed beside me and I discreetly peer around my hood for a better look. The name registers right before it is spoken. My stomach drops.

Peeta Mellark

Oh, no. Not him. No, the odds are not in my favor today.

Why him? I think. Then I try to convince myself it doesn’t matter. Peeta Mellark and I are not friends. Not even neighbors. We don’t speak. Our only real interaction happened years ago. He’s probably forgotten it. But I haven’t and I know I never will.

At eleven and in my lowest moment a boy had risked a beating to give me two loaves of hardy bread. The loaves and the hope it provided saved my life. I haven’t yet found the courage to thank him, and now I never will I think as I stare at the boy with the bread’s limp form.

I’ve broken into a sweat despite the chilled breeze. The Mayor reads the charges, but I hear nothing except a buzzing in my ears.

I’m fighting through a violet haze to make sense of my dilemma. I cannot kill this man, but refusal to do so will earn me a spot swinging beside him. Damn Haymitch! This should have been his problem, and I could have wiped my hands clean if Peeta Mellark. But no, that’s not right either. My debt and his death would haunt me for the rest of my miserable life. Besides, something in my gut tells me I am meant to be here, that there’s still yet something I can do.

A single word floats to the top of my memory.

“Nightlock,” I murmur, no more than a whisper, but it’s enough for the mayor to pause his reading. In the years of my apprenticeship it was only mentioned once. Haymitch had been drunk. Much drunker than usual when he’d discussed a small list of extenuating circumstances and loopholes. When I’d pressed him for more, he’d told me to ‘forget it’ before shattering a bottle and demanding I leave. I had left, but not before hearing him break down in sobs. I’d seen him in all forms of drunk, but never so much as to weep. So, of course, the word was immediately, irrevocably branded into my brain.

“Excuse me?” The Mayor interrupts my muddled memories.

“Nightlock,” I state more firmly.

At the sound of my voice Peeta lifts his head and sways on his feet. The motion reveals what his hair has concealed; a lump, angry and purple over his eye. He’s likely concussed.

There is a mixed reaction among the crowd at my outcry: mostly confusion, but some of the older spectators understand the implications of what I have said and begin whispering among the crowd. The Mayor mops his brow, his pained expression cautiously hopeful, “Do you wish to enact the nightlock clause Ms Everdeen?”

“I do” my voice sounds foreign to me; More fierce and decisive than my foggy mind.

“And Mr Mellark do you accept?” I grasp his arm urging him to stand straighter, supporting him under my shoulders. “Trust me,” I whisper. He has no reason to believe me, but I suppose it doesn’t matter; his only other option is the dangling rope.

His mouth twitches in something of a grin. It can only be a reflex though, I’m surprised he’s lucid enough to slur out, “I do,” and when he does, I’m uncertain whether it’s in response to the mayor or in answer to my plea.

Either way he’s said the words; The ones that will save him from the gallows and bind him to a new fate

“Then I now pronounce you man and wife,” The Mayor’s voice booms over the crowd. “Congratulations Mr Mellark, you’ve been granted a pardon.”

The Hanging Tree Series

[starrrbakerrr]

Just reread the books as an adult and I must say as an adult it’s actually really hard to be nice about Gale. As a kid I was trying to be balanced and nice about the love triangle but as a grown adult woman I’m like “I don’t agree with your politics and also if any guy treated any of my friends the way you treat Katniss, I would stage an intervention”. And also Katniss never smiles around him 😞

I'm also doing a reread right now because I finally got hard copies of the books! It's going very slowly though lol

I really don't remember my exact feelings about Gale when I first read the books (I was in 6th-7th grade), but I don't think I ever liked him. I also remember hating how the movies emphasized the love triangle when reading the books it was obviously always Peeta.

I reread the books last March and as an adult I picked up so much about him. I think when I was young I was mostly anti-Gale because I loved Peeta/Everlark so much, but rereading as an adult I'm really able to specify what I dislike about Gale. He's just so... annoying.

On his politics, I'm actually a teeny bit sympathetic towards Gale because I don't think all the responsibility for Prim's death should be wholly on him. The severing of Katniss/Gale's relationship is so much deeper than him killing her sister. It's a plot point and dialogue that's been misinterpreted because of the movies. I think the way they presented it cheapens the story and it cheapens why Katniss ultimately chose Peeta.

Regardless, I can't help but dislike Gale. It is how he approaches his relationship with Katniss for me, and as you said how he treats Katniss. Whenever he speaks I'm annoyed. What bugs me is the entitlement he feels he has to Katniss. And some things he says give me the ick.

Knowing there’s people legitimately ship Everthorne is wild to me like 😭

Thanks for the ask!

(below is a tangent on the anti-Gale rhetoric. It’s a defense of one moment I think his hate is a bit too unreasonable so read with caution i guess)

I saw someone say on Twitter that Gale should be vilified for saying that killing people isn't much different than killing animals, and I think that person missed the point of that part in the book. And as some who likes literary analysis outside of my personal feelings for characters and ships, I kinda love that Suzanne wrote this. The dialogue:

“Katniss, it’s just hunting. You’re the best hunter I know,” says Gale. “It’s not just hunting. They’re armed. They think,” I say. “So do you. And you’ve had more practice. Real practice,” he says. “You know how to kill.” “Not people,” I say. “How different can it be, really?” says Gale grimly. The awful thing is that if I can forget they’re people, it will be no different at all.

In the movie, the line sounds brutal and violent and I think part of it could be delivery. In the book, to me, Gale doesn’t say that with confidence or with the belief that humans are dispensable, but “grimly.” And in the movie we don’t get Katniss’s inner thought that even though what Gale said was callous it’s valid because this is the world they're living in - a world that is violent and where Capitol citizens don’t see children as anything other then prey. These characters are extremely desensitized to violence and death. In Catching Fire, Peeta and Katniss curl up on the couch with a mug of warm milk to watch Haymitch's games like it’s a movie.

I think there are a lot of moments to dislike or have distaste for Gale, because I have many. But some of his hate goes overboard and people mostly on twitter and tiktok bc they see the movies as canon solely put the blame on an 18 y/o with immense trauma instead of the adult leaders who have never experienced life like him - Coin is from D13, Plutarch and Snow are from the Capitol.

And to call Gale worse than Snow and to excuse a lot of Snow’s actions, even making shit up about Snow like he cared and gave genuine condolences to Katniss about Prim, or say he didn’t murder Lucy Gray as a defense against Billy Taupe like the murder attempt isn’t just as bad, is seriously gross. I’m kinda glad tbosas and hunger games hype has died down on Twitter because the takes were increasingly getting worse and more illogical.