#whatever district yeah i could TOTALLY see her playing innocent and demure until she gets into the arena

[mariatesstruther]

TLOU AU where Joel has to mentor Ellie, having survived his own and having watched his daughter die, name drawn out at just 12 after he pissed off the people in charge.

(Mentor Joel who died because he went feral in games, everyone knows it. Mentor Tess who survived by being charismatic and downplaying her abilities at first.)

oh bestie!!!! yes!! check my “hg au” tag! i have a whole world for you!! ive been playing around with these ideas so much that im definitely hoping i can work on it as a full fic for 2024.

i was thinking about mentor joel a lot today, actually, and the logistics of him having a daughter who has been killed by the time ellie gets reaped. thinking along the lines of him being like haymitch (which i think is perfect considering haymitch also apparently had a younger brother??? and a gf??? slay), he would’ve been reaped and won the second quarter quell just before he turned 18

so then where would sarah come in????? i was thinking about this today. i really doubt joel would’ve willingly had any children after winning. it’s an extremely dangerous and careless thing to do knowing that, as a victor, you and your family essentially become capital property.

but what is sarah was conceived BEFORE joel was reaped??? what if joel and his girlfriend, young and stupid with love and without reliable contraception, got pregnant before he won?? what if joel went into the games never wanting the capitol to find out about sarah at all?????

maybe the plan had been for her to be raised by her mother and taken care of by joel in secret once he won. it wasn’t uncommon for people in twelve to take care of other children in the community, and the capital wouldn’t care enough to notice joel giving away his winnings. but maybe —like most plan against the capital—it was futile: sarah’s home-birth, which in twelve were always risky for mother and child alike, had been deadly for lucy. maybe joel had been forced to publicly claim sarah has his own before she was sent to an orphanage

and maybe when the capital finds out, they’re forced to play along with it: they celebrate sarah miller as “the capital’s darling, the child of the games,” a pure and innocent reminder of the joy that came from an orderly world such as theirs. then, as revenge, they either kill her intentionally in a later games or “unintentionally” in some crossfire between rebels and peacekeepers