Book accurate (ish) Everlark ⊹ ࣪ ˖

Commissions open

nothing brings me more peace than knowing that katniss everdeen spends the rest of her life eating warm cheese buns and being held every night by a man who loves her more than life itself. she deserves everything

WIP Thursday

I was tagged by @firehelpmeforget so here’s a little look at the next chapter of my amnesia fic which will hopefully be posted this Sunday!

Clearing Up More Misconceptions Over the Nature of Peeta’s Hijacking.

A little over a month ago, I made a post listing each instance of Peeta regaining his real personality and pull towards goodness. In essence, how he came back to himself - contrary to popular, mindlessly regurgitated online talking points - both literally and symbolically. Now, I want to address the actual mechanics of the hijacking that many readers continue to misconstrue and use to lead them to the belief that the “Old Peeta” is dead.

The Capitol never actually took away Peeta’s memories. They inserted competing ones, and the tracker jacker venom temporarily pushed those to the forefront of his mind because of the fear they induced. So, Peeta essentially had two, originally lopsided recollections of the same events, not a total replacement of his memories. He would not even have been able to formulate his “real or not real” questions if the only thing he had was new, fabricated memories. And are people forgetting that he already got to a place where he didn’t need to ask “real or not real” before the war ended sometimes? Just two examples off the top of my head, when he tossed Katniss the can of lamb stew (her absolute favorite Capitol meal) or when he reminded Gale that Katniss’s family “mean more to her than her own life.” If that memory and central truth about Katniss can return - part of the meat of what Snow wanted to flush out of Peeta’s conscience - any memory could come back. And did come back. With time, as described by him in both the book and the film, he gradually learned how to sort them out based on the quality, and the real memories were unburied thanks to continued reinforcement through both extensive rehabilitation and his own accord. He can literally paint his real memories again at the end, damnit!

This is why I always seethe when I see comments like “Peeta learned to love Katniss again, but will never remember how much he loved her the first time.” Because A). He does remember, and B). He loves her more than ever at the end. Because he fought for it. I don’t know what the obsession is with trying to make the ending of already sad books sadder, but when it actively refutes the text and distorts an entire character arc - leaching out one of the only positive and satisfying elements of the ending - I am going to call it out every time.

When Katniss Started Seeing Glimpses of Dad!Peeta.

I really believe that Katniss watching Peeta comfort the female morphling until her dying breath was when she started having the epiphany that Peeta would make the best father. He never once was depicted interacting with actual, small children and would never even talk about kids until the epilogue of Mockingjay, yet she saw him speak so softly and know the exact right words to say to a woman so mentally childlike due to her circumstances. Katniss detected an innate, parental-in-nature instinct in him in that moment (one she had ample amounts of herself, but we won’t go there right now, lol).

That moment also surely brought back all the instances from in the cave or on the train when he’d talk her down from her nightmares and hold her close, only now she had an outside perspective of him doing so with a fully clear conscience. I just know she saw flashes of Burdock like she had in the first games, the archetype of who a father should be, and fully internalized Peeta’s potential to match that once thought impossible standard. And it is for this reason why I believe Katniss made a point of noting each time Peeta knew the right words or fitting attitude to put her and others at ease, cheer them up, or embolden them again in Mockingjay. The boy with all that fatherhood potential she cherished so much was slowly returning, and we know without a doubt that he surpassed every expectation out of the water when those toast babies finally came about.

the kids of district 12 💛

(my art! watermark is insta ^^)

If only to keep the night terrors away for a moment longer.

some everlark :P listening to the CF soundtrack is so not good for my heart, my poor duckies💚🧡

BOOOOO AI ART BOOOO 🍅🍅🍅🍅

got hit w this thought like a lightning bolt and had to share even tho im absolutely overthinking this (but i wanna make a cool everlark post too!)

lots of super smart people have talked abt the symbolism of Katniss and Peeta’s favorite colors, and lots of super smart people (many the same as the first group!) have also talked abt why Gale is clearly romantically incompatible with Katniss

but let’s combine these two for a sec, shall we?

Peeta asks Katniss for her favorite color when they leave for the Tour in CF and even the question makes her smile, which (combined with what we’re led to believe is an immediate answer) implies to me that she’s thought abt this before on her own, even if it’s a “frivolous” kind of thing to think about

Gale doesn’t get a favorite color

maybe this is just because Katniss doesn’t talk about these kinds of things with him, but it’s still clearly the kind of thing that she doesn’t instantly dismiss (in the way she kind of does singing/music for most of the series) so it’s not because they Both don’t care

i’m veering into headcanon territory here more than analysis (i’m not a super smart people, i fear) but i think this omission (she doesn’t even have/share a relevant memory about it like she does other things) is a result of her knowing instinctively that he wouldn’t respond well to that kind of “useless” thinking. maybe when they first started hunting together, but they didn’t trust each other enough to have any kind of personal conversations yet back then

Gale is so focused on survival (and later warfare) that he doesn’t allow himself to be fully human most of the time (let alone a child), so it’s basically inconceivable for him to spare mental capacity on things he’d consider childish or pointless like having a favorite color

so i guess the point i’m attempting to make is that Katniss is torn between this utilitarian kind of “survival-at-any-cost (to herself)” mindset with Gale [hunting, no singing, scowling unless she’s in the woods] and a “life can be beautiful and hopeful” one with Peeta [dreams of babies, talking about art, laughing almost wherever they are]. and Peeta tries to understand both aspects of her and still encourages her to consider beauty whereas Gale is probably incapable of seeing the value in such things. one holds Katniss back in a cycle of hopelessness and self-sacrifice and the other shows her possibilities for more

and that’s why we say #neverthorne

katniss everdeen, age 16, probably

My fanfics

You're Gonna Be The One That Saves Me (4/?)

No ore Daddy's Little Girl (1/2)

I Was Made For Loving You (2/?)