#district-3

[cotl-flower-crown]

Even if Nari isn’t a very good father figure, it seems he at the very least cares enough about the twins as to not willingly risk endangering them. Wonder what that’s all about?

Guess he's got some kind of sense of responsibility over them, who knows 9u9

Content Warning for Pages 6-12: violence, blood, gore

[apparently-artless]

Gokurakugai Volume 4 PV by JUMP SQ - Alma [CV: Ura Kazuki]

[finnicks-elbow]

the hunger games with a sprinkling of our universe's problems as if they needed any more

[kald-dal-art]

THG Sketchbook dump old drawings and requests so thanks to people who gave my drawing suggestions 🫶

[spoonmoment119]

anyone who doesn't ship grumbo CLEARLY has never watched grian's season 6. he's insane. he'd do anything for mumbo.

[biathelstan]

“oh, you want to talk to me?”

[turquo1s]

msp DAVEKAT

[yuesya]

“Is that her?”

Aoi pauses at the whispered question, glancing down towards the three younger girls who are helping her hang up laundry. The three younger girls who are no longer focused on hanging up laundry, rather –Naho, Sumi, and Kiyo are currently peering curiously towards the other end of the garden, where Shinobu-sama is standing with the newest guest to the Butterfly Estate.

Snow-white hair, and deep blue eyes. The coloration is unusual and eye-catching, and it only takes an instant for Aoi to realize that this is the girl from the rumors. It has to be her –the one who’d saved the Flame Pillar by killing Upper Moon Three, and the one whom Oyakata-sama had mobilized so many people to search for over the better part of the past month.

“It has to be, right? Didn’t Nagakura-san say that the girl who saved the Flame Pillar would be staying at the Butterfly Estate for a while?” Naho peeks over the edge of the freshly-washed bed sheet. “Look at the way that Shinobu-sama is talking to her! It seems like she’s someone important, doesn’t it?”

Naho’s observation is very astute. Even though the white-haired girl only looks to be around Aoi’s age, Shinobi-sama does not speak to her as if she were a junior demon slayer. Rather… there’s a certain level of respect, and… wariness…?

The suddenly girl turns around. Blue eyes look towards them, precise and unflinching, causing all three of the younger girls to let out startled squeaks of surprise simultaneously. Aoi squeaks a little bit, too, embarrassed at having been caught staring red-handed by their new guest.

Shinobu-sama glances towards them, smiles, then says something to the white-haired girl. Then, she leads the other girl over to them.

“I see that you’ve already noticed our new guest,” Shinobu-sama says. “This is Gojo Shiki –our newest recruit to the Demon Slayer Corps, recruited by Oyakata-sama himself after her timely assistance to Rengoku-san.”

The girls pull themselves together, and offer their greetings in a cheerful chorus together. Aoi, too, echoes a polite greeting, and introductions are exchanged.

“Hello.” Gojo-san bows slightly, courteously. The movement is refined and elegant, and Aoi finds herself staring a bit at the other girl. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Gojo-san will be staying with us in the Butterfly Estate for a while,” Shinobu-sama informs them. “She… hasn’t trained with a cultivator before, and there are certain gaps in her knowledge that Oyakata-sama would like me to fill in for her. We also need to send a missive to the Swordsmith Village; she’ll also need a nichirin blade.”

Aoi blinks.

… How in the world had Gojo-san killed a demon, then?! And Upper Moon Three, no less?

“Is there something special about a ‘nichirin blade?’” Gojo-san asks.

Aoi stares at the girl, then turns incredulously to Shinobu-sama.

“… Yes,” Shinobu-sama says. “They’re special blades forged with crimson iron sand and scarlet ore, from the Sunlight Mountain. Decapitating a demon with such a blade will kill them, instead of allowing them to regenerate from their injuries.”

Gojo-san’s expression does not change. But for some reason, Aoi gets the impression that the other girl isn’t very impressed.

Shinobu-sama seems to realize it too, because she lets out a small huff. “Although… from what I understand, the weapon that you used to kill Upper Moon Three wasn’t a nichirin weapon, was it?”

“No.” Gojo-san tilts her head slightly. Then, proceeds to reach inside the sleeve of the kimono she’s wearing, and pulls out a… knife? “I used this.”

… Isn’t that just a normal knife? The kind that’s used in regular households and the like?!

Aoi looks at the knife, then looks at Gojo-san, and swiftly comes to a decisive conclusion:

She’s utterly terrifying.

[sejanusarchive]

“Your own father used to say those people only drank water because it didn’t rain blood” vs two district boys who are assumed to be murder machines, yet prove that statement wrong multiple times: Reaper and Marcus.

PART ONE: REAPER

When Reaper is first introduced to us, we learn he’s rangy but muscular; we read about him wrapping his hands around Coriolanus’s throat on the truck headed to the zoo and about Dill, his District partner, saying he has killed a Peacekeeper before in District 11, without ever getting caught. 

Our first impression of him is that of a dangerous person, one who’s even clever in his lethality, and because of that we know he’s a presumed possible victor.

Lucy Gray mentions him more than once as one of the biggest threats, when talking about how she’s going to try as hard as she can to win the Games.

She also tells Coriolanus how Reaper apologized to the other tributes for having to kill them and told them he is going to make it up to them after, by taking revenge on the Capitol. Everyone takes this as him meaning it maliciously and with arrogance, ‘cause how else could he possibly mean it, right? Coriolanus thinks that he’s not only powerful, but good at mind games too. 

But the truth is that Reaper meant that genuinely, even with a certain innocence, and naivety to how it could have been misinterpreted. There was no malice or arrogance in his statement, but there was guilt and regret and grief, because of being forced into taking lives. He went into the arena fully prepared and resigned to kill the others to save himself, but not without obvious dissent.

When the Games start, he arms himself and heads to the stands. Coriolanus thinks he does so to begin his hunt, even if everyone else had fled in other directions and he had made no move to go after them.

Right after this we read about how Tanner, someone who’s also a presumed possible victor, is able to climb up to the first row of the stands and sit in the sun for a while, completely unbothered and unharmed. Reaper doesn’t try to fight him, even if it would have only been to his advantage, since he could have easily taken out his strongest opponent now that the Games had just begun and he wasn’t exhausted and starving.

His first interaction with another tribute in the arena is with a dying Dill, carrying her out of the tunnels, placing her in the sun and talking to her in the last moments of her life. 

His first act with another tribute, is comforting a dying child. 

This is when the “murder machine” image starts to crumble. Coriolanus’s classmates talk about how he doesn’t look so tough, doesn't look like the person who “promised to kill all the others”, which he never actually did.

But still, after all this, Coriolanus sees his distressed pacing around Dill, as him possibly being “eager to get back to the hunt”, a hunt he never even began, and not just him feeling pained and powerless at Dill’s condition. 

When Coriolanus is sent into the arena to get Sejanus out, Bobbin, Mizzen, Tanner and Coral are the tributes who go after them to try to kill them. No sign of Reaper at any point.

When Lucy Gray gets out of the tunnels with a rabid Jessup after her, he makes no move to kill them either. Coriolanus points out how he lets Lucy Gray go and only walks up to the bottles of water on the ground.

Again and again and again, he has a chance to easily take a life to save his own, or take a small revenge against the Capitol, but he doesn’t. 

His second interaction with a tribute is with Lamina. He walks up to her, they negotiate an exchange of something both of them desperately need and that forms a bond between the two of them.

Then Coral, Mizzen and Tanner appear and he leaves, he goes behind the barricade and he falls asleep.

When he comes back out, he’s shocked to see Lamina and Tanner dead on the ground. And this is when he starts to make true his promise of avenging the tributes after their death. 

He lifts Lamina up in his arms and places her next to Marcus’s and Bobbin’s corpses and then collects Tanner, Dill and Sol as well, and covers them all with the flag of Panem. And he keeps doing this with all the tributes for the rest of the Games, right until his death. 

This is the best form of revenge he could take. Not only because he disrespects the flag, causing great disdain among Capitol citizens, but most importantly because he humanizes the tributes and gives them dignity, two things the Capitol has tried in every way to take away from them. He gives them as proper a burial as he can manage in those circumstances, makes it so now they can finally rest, tucked in a corner and covered, their corpses no longer on display for a bunch of sick people’s amusement. He honors them. He could have left them all scattered out on the dusty arena ground, but he didn’t. He took care of them.

Even when it’s just him and Lucy Gray left and he’s one step away from winning, he shows no signs of wanting to attack her. Doesn’t matter that he could easily take her out, save himself and finally go home. No, even then his main concern is that the tributes can properly rest with their corpses concealed. 

Everyone expected him to kill the most people, but he died in that arena killing no one and without ever even attempting to. He died holding strong to his humanity and making sure the fallen tributes could hold strong to theirs as well even in death.

Contrary to what we and the Capitol are made to believe initially, Reaper turns out to be pretty innocuous. He’s not a naturally violent or aggressive person, not a natural born killer and he refuses to be as well. This was a life or death situation and yet he didn’t even harm anyone. He has killed before, he is capable of it, but if he didn’t even do it in this case, even when all it would have taken for him to save himself was killing a girl smaller and younger than him, then imagine how dire and desperate the situation must have been when he had to resort to it.

He defied the Capitol by not participating in the Games, by not letting them turn him into the murder machine they wanted and expected him to be, and by honoring the corpses of the children whose lives have been so cruelly and unjustly cut short.

(Before moving on to Marcus, I wanna clarify some things in case anyone who’s reading this has only seen the movie. Reaper snapping at Clemensia during the one-on-one mentor-tribute interviews never happens in the book, neither does him looking angrily into the camera in the arena and challenging the Capitol to punish him arrogantly. Like we’ve just seen, this perceived arrogance and aggression in Reaper is a very surface level misconception of the people around him, that’s easily debunkable, that who made the movie took and ran with wrongfully. 

And actually there’s a few heartbreaking scenes in the book that contrast heavily with the image the movie created of him, like him tying a piece of the flag around his shoulders like a cape and spinning around, watching it fly behind him, and then running in the sun with his arms spread wide; and him rocking gently back and forth on himself for comfort, after the snake attacks, which is not when he dies in the book. He’s not the threatening, angry guy who tests the Capitol that they made him in the movie, he’s just a severely traumatized kid. Nothing more than a kid.

The movie made tons of stupid changes like this, that completely miss and disregard the whole point of both characters and story. Trust me when I say 99% of the characters are portrayed very wrongfully in it. So please keep that in mind.)

PART TWO: MARCUS

Marcus, like Reaper, was initially seen as a probable winner in the Games, before being murdered. Coriolanous makes note of his size multiple times, describing him as “towering”, as having a “colossal frame”, as “dwarfing the other tributes” and comparing him to a grizzly bear. 

It’s exactly because of his size that people think of him as a sure winner, as capable of taking down everyone else, as threatening and deadly.

But then we hear Sejanus, the only person who actually got to know him at some point, talk about him, and the first and one thing he mentions about Marcus is his kindness. 

He tells Coriolanus how when they were still classmates in Two, he hurt his finger really badly and Marcus helped him by bringing him a cup of snow he scooped from the windowsill. He says he did it without being prompted by anyone, without consulting anyone, not even the teacher, and without even being friends with Sejanus. 

That’s actually the very first thing Sejanus tells us about him. They weren’t enemies, but they weren’t friends either. Marcus had no real reason to do it, especially considering how the Plinths were, and still are, deeply despised in Two, for having helped the Capitol win the war. He did it almost as a reflex, because that’s who he is as a person. 

And this pure, unconditional kindness, told by the one person who actually knew him, goes against the image of him everyone formed by just looking at him, against what everyone assumed because he’s district, he’s a tribute, and he’s tall and strong and broad, so he has to be dangerous and lethal, he will brutally kill everyone to save himself, he’s capable of it anyway.

As I already said, the Plinths are deeply despised in Two, Sejanus is a filthy traitor in his eyes, one who’s benefiting from a luxurious, safe life in the Capitol, thanks to blood money; blood of thousands of what were supposed to be his people, blood whose spillage made them lose the war and caused the realization of the Games, bringing Marcus to that very situation.

Sejanus doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he’s going to be able to fill his stomach everyday; whether he’ll be able to finish his studies or will have to drop out of school early to go work to help sustain his family; whether the dangerous working conditions will be the cause of his early demise or being sent to an arena to kill or be killed by a bunch of other children for amusement will be, and what will happen to his family once he’ll be gone. All of this thanks to his family’s betrayal.

No doubt he resents Sejanus and is angry at him, a part of him maybe even faults him a bit for everything, but he never takes it out on him. It would be easy to single him out, pick him and make him pay for this situation, since he can’t make the whole Capitol pay; take some sort of revenge on Strabo Plinth in the name of Two and Thirteen and all other Districts, by harming his son. 

Sweet Sejanus, who brings the tributes food when no one else thought about it, who keeps pleading with him to accept it, who tries to help them however he can, would probably let him do it. He would take the hit, metaphorical or not, because it’s clear he has guilt gnawing at him and would feel like he deserves it. And Marcus is definitely aware of it. 

But he never gets violent, physically nor verbally, never tries to attack him or spit insults or hate at him. Instead he just ignores him.

He had many chances to do harm, even to kill Capitol citizens and Peacekeepers as revenge, a small and trivial one, but still a revenge, and he had many chances to let his frustration and anger out on Sejanus and use him as a punching bag, but he never did, because despite what everyone assumed about him, that’s not the type of person he is.

PART THREE: SEJANUS 

Sejanus, whom I’ve already mentioned several times in this post, is another District boy with the ability to take lives, but who’s repulsed and disturbed by the mere idea of it. 

With Marcus and Reaper, it’s a matter of first impressions and then getting to actually know them and learn they’re not like they seemed. With Sejanus it’s the opposite. 

First thing we learn about him in the book is his background: born in District 2, his father made fortune during the war and was able to buy his family a life in the Capitol. 

But the first thing we learn about him as a person is that he’s shy and sensitive. 

Throughout the entirety of the book, over and over and over again, we see that he’s good, and kind, and gentle, and sweet and takes things so to heart. It’s constantly pointed out by the people around him. 

And it’s constantly shown to us by him as well, with the passion he puts into standing up against the dehumanization and mistreatment of District people; with how affected he is by these aspects and by the Games; with how he tries in every way he can to help the tributes; with how he made it his life mission to make things better for the Districts; with how he’s never mean or spiteful to people who bully and disrespect him.

Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is at its very center a discussion on human nature. He (alongside Dr. Gaul) is the main character who explicitly talks about it, and he believes in the inherent goodness of humans and constantly advocates in favor of it. All the injustice and atrocities he witnessed, never made him change his mind or his actions, never made it so compassion and love weren’t his driving forces.

His heart is big, and kind, and pure. And he wears it on his sleeve all the time. He’s referred to as “emotional” and “compassionate”, his eyes are soulful, his face is incredibly expressive, and there’s so many instances in which he’s described as speaking with a voice so full of sentiment, so many instances of his eyes filling with tears, of him wiping his face cause they spilled out. 

It’s well established how good and uncorrupted he is, how devoted to humanity he is, how much he values life.

And then in the third part of the book, we learn he’s an excellent marksman, a natural one even, who has been training in shooting every week since he was tiny.

He’s so good, that the sergeant in Twelve, as to not lose someone with Sejanus’s ability, refuses to give him the recommendation he needs in order to train to become a medic, even when Sejanus purposefully shoots much worse than he’s capable of, to hide his talent. 

The boy who values life more than anything in the world, has the ability to take one even with his eyes closed.

When he arrived in Twelve, wearing on his body the signs of the toll the Capitol, the Games and what happened to Marcus had taken on his mental health, with the prospect of building a new life for himself in which he could help the world become a better place, of training to be a medic and save lives, Coriolanus noted he had a much lighter air to himself, as if a heavy weight had been lifted off of him.

But when he is confronted with the reality that he is now a soldier and is expected to kill, Coriolanus says that his expression goes back to being as gloomy as it had been in the Capitol, the heavy weight now back on his shoulders. 

At dinner he doesn’t take a single bite of food, which is a behavior we’ve seen from him before, one he falls into when his mental health gets concerningly bad. And the reason is that he is terrified by the idea of having to kill someone, or someone dying because he can’t bring himself to shoot first. Because to him, every life is precious and none is disposable, and the possibility of being the cause of one being taken away, is an unbearable thought.

Reaper and Marcus had many chances and what could be considered reasons to kill, but they refused to. Sejanus, who is expected to kill because he’s a soldier and the best shooter, who would be punished, possibly even with execution, if he didn’t, refuses to. 

All three of them have the power to take lives with little effort but choose to cherish and honor them instead, choose kindness, choose humanity even over their own self preservation, proving both the Capitol and Crassus Snow’s statement about District people being bloodthirsty, wrong, by simply being their honest, uncorrupted selves until the end, by being truthful to who they are no matter what.

[puppyeared]

is this your card? ♦️♣️♥️♠️ it isnt but you dont wanna hurt his feelings

[papasmistakeria]

Sejanus: Last night I dreamed I was a bottle of ketchup and you're a mustard, which is weird cause usually you're mayonnaise in my dreams. Why do you suppose that is? Coriolanus: Please shut up

[cotl-flower-crown]

Just some animals fighting in a fight pit to the death for money, nothing sus going on here

Ok, maybe a little sus, but I swear they're just sparing-

Tegbir (the gator OC) belongs to @oneofthosenightbees, I love him so much <3

[charlunday]

I've been thinking about the class divide of the merchants vs the seam in district 12 and that's got me thinking about class division in other districts. Specifically I've been thinking about district 3, based on the real life circumstance of our technology parts being manufactured by scientists with high education and good wages vs them being assembled by people with terrible working conditions. I think that's something interesting to explore for district 3 in fics.

[14dayswithyou]

Idk if you read the Hunger Games, but how would the cast react to being reaped? Who would win?

✦゜ANSWERED: Read da books and seen the movies!! Also doing districts because I can hehe <3 Also also this is set in an AU where you have to be over 18 in order to be reaped!

Anyways!! Welcome to the 14th annual Hunger Games!! I support Johanna's rights and wrongs!!!!! <3

Ren: District 3, but realistically whatever District Angel is in. He somehow wouldn't be reaped, but would volunteer if Angel got picked (either taking their place in the Games or being their partner from the same district) Moth: District 3. Would volunteer at the last second if any of their siblings got picked, otherwise they'd probably break down and go silent if they got reaped instead. Violet: District 11. Wouldn't react in public, but would shed a tear behind the cameras for her plants that she's leaving behind. Would go into the games with a strong resolve, however. Elanor: District 8. Their initial reaction would be to freak out and refuse to go on stage, but would ultimately submit out of fear. She probably wouldn't last that long in the arena, tbh T_T Conan: District 5. No reaction outside of him hugging Alice goodbye and promising that he'll win and return to her safely. Jae: District 4. Visibly upset, but it's more-so because no one volunteered to take his place. Wouldn't be the same man as before if he survives the games. Leon: District 12. Gives everyone around him a reassuring smile and promises that everything is going to be okay. Might ask his friends to take care of his mother and Angel in his absence. Teo: District 1. A career who volunteered with an arrogant smirk — all because he's confident that he'll have everyone's eyes on him in the arena. Olivia: District 9 or 10, leaning towards 9. She's screaming and yelling and throwing hands at anyone who touches her. Cusses out the Capitol and spits on a camera as she gets dragged on the stage. Kiara: District 8. Initially frozen and shell-shocked, but it morphs into fear and desperation once she hears Elanor volunteer and take her place.

Who would win: Realistically, either Ren (technically Angel), Violet, Conan, or Teo would win. Ren because he has no morals, isn't afraid to kill someone, and would sacrifice himself if it meant letting Angel win; Violet because she's got the brains and smarts for it, Conan because his morals got thrown out the window the moment he was separated from his daughter, and Teo because he's trained for this very moment and is willing to kill others in order to survive.

Who actually won: Teo won T_T Here are some highlights for those interested:

[kald-dal-art]

Second compilation post of my latest victor art. These are a lot fun to draw and think out so appreciate all the feedback I have gotten for this series. We'll see if I end up making all 75 Victors or not ksdjhfa

Part 1 / Ko-Fi

[caesarflickermans]

Do you have any opinions on Mrs. Everdeen as a character, and the parallels/similarities between her and Katniss? She is seriously overhated and isn't given enough credit.

Common readings state Katniss is like her father, and Prim is like her mother. While this is true for appearance and profession, Katniss shares her mother’s emotional nature.

When we first meet Katniss, much of her idea of love and marriage is shaped by the grief of her own mother over having lost Katniss’ father. Mrs. Everdeen is described to be in a “blank and unreachable” state (THG, 1). Katniss is scared of the consequences of love, that being grief, that she prefers death over returning alone to 12 (THG, 25). During the nightlock moment, she recognises that she will never go home, as she will spend “the rest of [her] life in this arena trying to think [her] way out” (THG, 25). 

Katniss’ willingness to sacrifice herself for Peeta’s life is a continued theme throughout all three books. Her wish to keep Peeta alive in the 75th Hunger Games presupposes her own sacrifice (CF, 13), and it is because she needs Peeta to live (CF, 24). She hopes that if she were to die, Peeta could live (CF, 27). When Peeta returns hijacked, Katniss has “accept[ed] deep down that he’ll never come back to [her]. Or [she’ll] never go back to him. [She’ll] stay in 2 until it falls, go to the Capitol and kill Snow, and then die for [her] trouble” (MJ, 14).

Following the 74th arena, Katniss’ aspiration to mend the relationship with her mother can be understood as Katniss having recognised that her mother had not been “equipped to deal with [what happened to her]” (CF, 3). This recognition does not come out of nowhere; if we look at her willingness to sacrifice herself for the life of another, Katniss has gained an understanding for why her mother fell into the crushing depression following Mr. Everdeen’s death (CF, 3). For the first time within the series, the parallels between them are directly brought about, as Katniss, too, has experienced a similar grief at the thought of losing, and eventually assuming she had lost, Peeta.

It is pivotal to recognise that Mrs. Everdeen’s depression due to grief, the one that left her “blank and unreachable” (THG, 1), is mirrored in Katniss when she grieves Peeta. Katniss becomes unreachable herself, refuses to speak, drink, and eat (CF, 27). It is Peeta’s hijacking that has Katniss become lethargic, with nothing to say and incapable of crying (MJ, 13).

Her previous reason to survive, taking care of her family, has been overtaken in her grief, much like Mrs. Everdeen “sat by, blank and unreachable, while her children turned to skin and bones” (THG, 1), as Katniss only learns about her sister’s fate afterward (CF, 27).

While much can and has been said about Mrs. Everdeen’s depression directly impacts her two children, Katniss’ depression in her grief for Peeta expresses itself in a similar lethargy. It is only Peeta’s return that awakens Katniss from the negligence she has applied to her own life and body, no longer withering away (MJ, 27).

While we have had three books to learn the intricacies of Katniss and Peeta’s relationship as well as Peeta’s character to trace Katniss’ grief over Peeta, we know fairly little about Mrs. Everdeen before her grief, Mr. Everdeen’s character, and their relationship. Unfortunately, this leaves fans with fairly little on Mrs. Everdeen other than Katniss’ frustration and anger. As this abandonment defines her on the first few pages, and the understanding occurs much farther in and is less plainly stated, it is easy to be blinded to the parallels between mother and daughter.