" ... With this broken mother, seems the evil does no good. 

But the evil doesn't eat - the young was not its food. 

The evil has its own young--Evil, could these be? 

A Modern Rom-com AU idea for Hayffie Week - Day 1 : Rom-com day yay!

A marriage ritual could be that the couple has to add something by hand onto the other person’s dress or suit to wear on their wedding day

This would probably also come with the superstition that if you’re not finished in time, then you’re either not ready to marry or the person isn’t right for you, which leads to bride/groom walkouts and engagement annulments, maybe even resulting in proverbs(?)

"Don’t say ‘I do’ before the last stitch is made, lest your married life start with a loose thread and unravel."

(imagine the scandals... gossipers must be well-fed in d8)

(a variation of Lizzie/Elizabeth; maybe Liza) + (unbleached silk, a shade of beige, apparently)

Liza Silk sounds cute (or Lisa Silk to keep the S pattern)

Kids, teens, even younger adults are seen as disposable, while older people are valued way more because they have the experience and knowledge needed to keep everything running on the ground

The “Hunger Games” are space missions (might be named something else in this AU and not the HG) and "tributes" are children picked to be sent into space to scout for habitable planets --

Or like in the 100, Panem could be a space station, and they send kids down to Earth every year to check if everything is still stable. The different arenas could just be different drop points on Earth. The main issue in Panem would still be overpopulation, but also not having enough breathable air for everyone.

Yeah, I think that works better than random space missions, either way could be explored I think?

Before that, they only get a short training period in survival skills, basics of research and observation so they can record planet conditions, assess information, plus things like learning (or building) how to use a communication device to send data back to Earth. The training isn’t too long, since the tributes already know some of the basics, and Earth can’t afford to waste time. maybe also learn how to land a spaceship, although that part would usually assigned to a single person picked from the group because it’s too complicated and high-risk for everyone to be trained for it

(As canon, each district of panem already focuses on a different area of expertise, and this guarantees a standard group of 24 people, each with a different role or skill set--like mining in District 12, crops in 11 and 9, tech for 3, utilize energy for 5, and so on...)

They’re then sent out to random planets across the galaxy. Their survival is uncertain, and most never return, but the mission is framed as necessary for humanity’s future expansion. It not only steadily reduces the young population each year (even if only by a small percentage), but also puts them to use in a way the Capitol presents as productive for survival and for 'the greater good'.

I'm sure there could even be a twist where most of the planets/misinformation that the Earth were already confirmed to be uninhabitable before the kids were sent out, meaning the whole thing was also a controlled way to quietly reduce the population under the guise of exploration, but that’s a story for another brainstorm

I don’t have time for a throughly detailed analysis thread, but since D12 is the focus of most of what I write, I’ve been thinking a lot about what would realistically be included in its school curriculum. Also, I’m literally currently working on a WIP where I mentioned an exam in passing and immediately fell down another rabbit hole about the background and every possible detail of this supposed exam. I'll probably make another post about all this, but more detailed, these are just some ramblings.

Working in the Justice Building

I think in District 12, people don’t just work in the mines or shops; they also fill roles in administration and infrastructure. Peacekeepers function as law enforcement, but regular office work would most likely still be handled by district residents.

Part of why I think this is because the merchant sector population is honestly too large for any other explanation to fully make sense to me. They can’t all have shops. Unfortunately, District 12 is not Busytown...

Someone has to manage coal imports and exports, logistics, transportation, records, scheduling, and all the bureaucratic work attached to keeping the district operational. While Peacekeepers might oversee things, they’re nowhere enough in numbers to handle every aspect of district management themselves. The Mayor is probably the final stop before anything gets approved by the Capitol and acts as an overseer for most district operations (funnily enough the latest mayor was an Undersee)

Most of that burden would still fall on the local population. Especially in a smaller district, where there's got to be probably only a couple hundred Peacekeepers stationed at most, the system would need district residents to keep functioning day to day

District 12’s population is around 8k in the books, 10k in the movies, so let’s say roughly 9k. If about 85–90% live in the Seam, that leaves only 10–15% so around 1,000 people in the merchant sector.

This is where the idea of civil service entrance examinations comes to mind (possibly because I’m studying for one myself right now… unfortunately) I can easily imagine a system where such exams exist for administrative positions, and the exam fee alone would already put them out of reach for many Seam residents. Even if Seam students manage to stay focused on their studies while working--which we already know is difficult--the constant responsibilities would leave very little time or energy to study (there's also knowing that there is no point in trying to get a good score, I'll get to that in a second)

They’re often built around memorizing information with overly complicated jargon, things you'd only forget most of right after the test but you still have to study and memorize all of it anyway. I imagine it would work similarly to a civil service exam for a large portion of positions, with additional specialized sections depending on the field so import/export, the coal industry, logistics, administration, school teachers, and maybe a more general version for routine office workers for the payroll office, tesserae office etc.

So these kinds of exams usually aren’t even about intelligence anyway. It wouldn’t really matter if you’re naturally smart; what matters is being book smart in a test-oriented way.

Even if someone succeeds academically, there’s always… *drumrolls* corruption!!!!

You might score incredibly well, but interviews could still favor nepotism over merit. That kind of system feels very plausible in Panem (and unfortunately, I’m very familiar with systems like that myself :') lived in it, living in it, will probably die in it)

You can get the highest grades possible, but at the end of the day, the people conducting interviews and evaluations are still going to prioritize their own connections and favors. So if a merchant retires, dies, or leaves an opening in the Justice Building, it would make sense for people to want to keep that position within the family. partly because that job means stable income for the household, and partly because of familiarity and trus, the very common tendency of people hiring those they already know, or someone putting in a good word for a candidate. Like “a friend of the family friend’s family member is taking the exam this year, so please keep an eye out for that examinee” which literally means "please hire them" and and so on..

That kind of thing is very common where I’m from, so it naturally shapes the way I imagine Panem functioning too.

So, as someone from the Seam, even if you manage to gather your hard-earned money throughout the year and set it aside for the exam participation fee, there’s still a high chance you’ll get eliminated in the interviews in favor of a merchant family’s relative or family friend.

At that point why even take the exam and lose a year’s worth of savings that could’ve gone toward food and living instead?

2. Higher Education

Katniss says in school they’re taught basic math and similar subjects, and most other classes seem to circle back to coal.

But I think it’s more realistic that there would be a stronger education--at least in STEM fields rather than social sciences or humanities. The districts are largely self-sustaining in terms of personnel of...everything except Peacekeepers.

We know some kind of specialized education exists in at least some districts during Katniss’ time.

Before fleeing to D13, while was in D10, Dalton worked on a beef ranch and worked with frozen cow embryos to maintain genetic diversity in the herd, which implies the existence of advanced technical training from the district itself (he mentions this in Mockingjay while explaining why D13 needs refugees after their population bottleneck)

You’d think an engineer could only really come out of D3 or D5, but here’s one in D10.

So who’s to say there aren’t plant biologists or agricultural scientists raised and stationed in D7, D9 or D11 for the same reason--maintaining crop health and genetic diversity? Or fisheries scientists in D4? Realistically it would probably cost less to educate and use local specialists than constantly import scientists from more privileged districts or even the Capitol. And again, Dalton's from D10.

I could also imagine districts like 2 and 6, with larger populations, or districts like 8 and 11, with stronger rebellious tendencies and track record, being much more Peacekeeper heavy and having more Capitol assigned personnel working in Justice Buildings. That would probably reallocate personnel away from smaller and 'lesser' districts like 12. At least that’s how I imagine the system working.

Overall, I feel like district education is probably broader and more specialized than what we directly see through Katniss’ perspective--especially in areas necessary to keep each district functioning independently.

I like all of them, that’s why I try to include them if I can, but I’m particularly fond of LD’s Chickadees the most ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀) I can’t wait to establish a friend group among these babies soon stay tuned

From other age groups, I think I like Elaine and Patience from the teenagers. Romy is also really fun to write--a ball of stress with her 'innocent and sweet' boy cat. There’s one more person I loved to write, but I don’t want to make it too obvious they’ll be a tribute by putting them here since they weren't much seen in the chapters till now (chp. 27) for me to gush about their personality etc (,,¬﹏¬,,)

Oh and Burdock’s parents, Robin and Joe Pye !!

Darn it… I like them all…

First of all, I remember immediately opening this to answer, but I must’ve clicked off and saved it while checking something, because it somehow got buried in my drafts… so I’m replying a bit(!) late...

(っ´ω`)ﾉ(╥ω╥) I'm sorry...

And now for the ask… I completely agree with that! I think living somewhere where food is scarce would lead to a hundred roundabout ways to make things edible or find edible things. Even within the fence, I’d imagine there are things average D12 citizens would know.

About Maysilee and poison:

I’ve actually thought about this before, just briefly, in my version of Haymitch’s Games that I wrote before sotr (It’s messy plot-wise, so I don’t like talking about it much lol… I only wrote it for the Haysilee dynamics I was really craving and didn’t think much beyond that hehe)

I do think she’d have some limited knowledge of poisons, but more in the sense of how to treat them--things she might have heard or seen Asterid and Mr. March treat people.

Here's a little excerpt from the fic:

“Almost two whole days…” she says, rubbing her eyes. “ We’re in Top Eight now, congrats.” Then she straightens, all serious again. “You need to piss.” He blinks at her, still unsure if it’s the poison playing tricks on him, because what is she saying, “What?” “You need to get up, and piss,” she says, already shifting like she’s ready to shove him upright herself. Haymitch squints, “Why?” “I made you drink water while you were out of it,” she says, “You had a fever, now you gotta flush the poison out, or something, I’m not sure. But it clearly worked.”

It’s not very clearly stated since I didn’t have her explicitly say it, but in my version Maysilee knows from Asterid (Clara in my fic because that's what the actress said that's what she imagined as Mrs. Everdeen's name, I don't remember when or where) about the idea of 'flushing out' poison.

For context; Haymitch didn’t actually consume poison here. And realistically, drinking water wouldn’t do much against engineered poisons in the arena anyway. But Maysilee maybe remembers a first-response lesson from Asterid: making someone who’s been poisoned drink water, with the idea that it might dilute the poison and slow absorption. Depends on the poison, really...

In the previous chapter of the fic, Haymitch was attacked by swarming squirrel mutts and got scratched, and I figured the mutts, moving through the arena, could have been exposed to some kind of toxin, which is how he gets affected. It’s not medically accurate--you can’t really 'flush out' poison the way I wrote if you’ve been exposed to through the skin--but it can help with symptoms like fever afterward.

So I completely agree that it would’ve helped Maysilee, at least with the basics of reducing symptoms or handling simple poison responses--charcoal tablets, that sort of thing--even if she’s blending some details together (poison + water + peeing = poison out of system in her head)

Thank you for the ask! I love thinking about these characters and talking about them--there's absolutely no overstepping. It’s literally why I post fics/hcs. As a fan who loves this world, I just want to share with other fans to discuss and lollygag together (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Ahh thank you!! I'm happy you liked it ✧ദ്ദി( ˶^ᗜ^˶ )

I love how the recent comments on the last twcsr chapter are mostly binge readers lmao -- I also got barely any work done while writing it, so that's one thing we share =w=

by far, with absolute certainty: Turtle Dove !!

the fact that it’s finished definitely plays the biggest role ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀) but actually I did go back a while ago and added a bit more dialogue and tweaked the ending

I was heavily inspired by this fanfilm and the imagery of a father-daughter hunting trip in winter; snow everywhere and the crunch underfoot and all that. Mr. Everdeen teaching Katniss things as they wander around...

I also love the version of Hanging Tree in it. to me it sounds better, more more folk/murder ballad than the official at least (Here's another Hanging Tree rendition if anyone would like to take a listen. We had this before the MJ movie came out and I still think it's the best tbh)

I found these on pinterest that really complement what I was going for; cold but cozy winter vibes. It just got me in the mood. Imagine the first one as little Katniss all bundled up waiting for her father to put on his boots....I started crying already...

Runner-ups would be:

1. Scarlet - right after binging SotR in a day, I wrote it half-blind through my swollen eyes ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ )