tate katz. d8 - fin?

*THE ARTIST

A progidy trapped in poverty, the stack of withered, browned, water-scorned papers sit underneath your 28-year-old bedframe. Locked inside a plastic container, you had always had a vision, but never was given the chance to enact on them. It's a time capsule of the boy who dreamed - who saw, but could never reach the stars. It just wasn't meant to be, as heartbreaking the concept was to you.  Greens, blues, purples. Your dreams too bold for the streets you drew in.

Nobody wants to shine in rooms that rust. And you didn't. You kept your sketchpad, dreamt of greed, and placed your dreams under your head to sleep at night. Because that's the closest those dreams could ever get.

There's a small group of you that formed. Hated the world for what it gave you, as if the world was to blame. But who else can they be angry at? The countless amount of tribute graves we've got? It was hard to agree with basing District 8's merit on capital punishment. But what else was there to provide, besides the clothes on their backs?

*the initial header image comes from troy untalan's (the fc) instagram page
*the last four designs are AI-generated, i do not claim the work. these are to act as models of his desired artwork.

the realist

You've never been good at formal public speaking. You like to gather a group and lead to victory, rather than stand and preach. But the brown wooden podium sits in the front of a small conference room of a local college, and you stood behind it, cameras flashed and you grimaced. You're real, and sometimes the public doesn't like reality.

"Mr. Katz, why does District 8 need you?"

"Respectfully, because we suck." A few murmers, additional flashes came your way at the statement. Brutal. But it's needed. "The Capitol tells us that. Because our children are killed by their vices, yet, we're the ones that suck." The mumbles grow, but you can feel an electricity that rivals the waterfall of concern they originally express. Something has clicked, it seems. Like flint to steel. Needle to thread. "We've done enough for them in the Games. We need to create our own stardom - with me, I want us to do that. I want to create District 8 into the possibility they always have had." There's thousands of ideas that boil underneath. Fashion shows only for 8.

"You won't get nowhere here, little dude." Dad's unrelenting disappointment of your wn life reigned. As if the rags and coal-lit furnaces, greasy hands and dirty plates were a result of being born.