The Capitol - 'if color and waste were a society of people'

I HC that the Capitol (Salt Lake City) is where the most famous people from what was left of the US post WW2 settled to both explain their extra-lavish bullshit, their trans-atlantic accents, and to explain why it was already on such 'solid ground' during Panem's reformation as compared to some Districts.

District One - 'so close, yet so far'

This is where luxury goods are made, not had. This District on the surface is incredibly loyal to the Capitol but there's a deep underbelly of self-loathing, jealousy, and betrayal brewing underneath their apparently eagerness to be the perfect lap dogs. After all, a golden cage is still a cage.

District Two - 'if One is the lapdog, we're the guard dogs'

On the surface, Two is the place where any and all stone, gems, and metals are mined and processed. Beneath that facade, they supply the bulk of Panem's brute force in the form of both elite training schools for Peacekeepers to police the Districts and the impressive Champions (Careers) who win the Games often enough to fill their Victors' Village and then some. Incredibly loyal to the Capitol, they are the last District to be persuaded into open Rebellion.

District Three - 'the brains behind it all'

In every sense of the word, District Three is hard-wired for thinking. Adept with both physical and media computing, they pioneer and perfect every aspect of Panem's technologies, not that the Capitol will give them all the credit. On top of this, Three is the backbone behind the Second Rebellion, coordinating and executing the still revered plan to break the third Quarter Quell arena to save the Victors thrown back into their harrowing Games.

District Four - 'the sea offers a sense of freedom Panem can't'

Where most Districts are one large settlement with a few camps spread across its wilds to pursue their industry, Four lies in a special space of occupying most of the west coast of Panem. Because of this, many sub-cultures and traditions form. What they all have in common is a love for the water and a yearning to be as free as the waves let them feel. Some notable traditions are sea-shell wind-chimes (not as auditory as they seem but peaceful nonetheless), piercings to make events and accomplishments in a life well-lived, and a refusal to let the Capitol take their weakest children to slaughter, leading to their own formation of Career training camps.

District Five - 'power, at what cost?'

Largely underground because a cover of smog in the populated settlements and an expanse of solar panels everywhere else, Five has a rich artistic culture and love of life despite the Capitol's best efforts to subdue them. As of the First Rebellion, they took over as the source of Panem's nuclear power (though it was marketed by the Capitol as the first time experimenting w/ the power source, not the second, as it wanted to largely erase Thirteen from memory).

District Six - 'of course they poison us, we know too much'

The Capitol will never admit to it but there is a sense of unease when the notion of housing all mechanics for every sort of vehicle, including machines of war, in one District. To alleviate this, an outbreak of morphling addiction has gone untreated for almost thirty years, crippling the best minds in Six if the physical toll doesn't accomplush it first. Despite its best efforts, though, the Capitol could not Quell Six' innate creativity, or maybe it was the drugs making it far harder to ignore.

District Seven - 'small but mighty'

Though it takes over the most of Panem by land size, Seven is one of the smaller Districts by population. Because of this, they are carted around the wilds of the District, much like Four, to do their industry: lumber. With a rich mixed culture of Irish and native influences (credit to 'but the light never touched her' for that idea), Seven is an impressively small-knit community despite being so vastly separated for most of the year.

District Eight - 'the fabric of a revolution'

The first District to revolt openly against the tyrannical Capitol, Eight will forever be known as the backbone of the Revolution. In daily life, this is a people of family values above all else. Because of an excess of 'reject' fabrics and a dense population once heralding from long-forgotten middle-eastern countries like Turkey, Persia, Azerbaijan, and the like, Eight has perfected a means of making rugs from scraps. With its hyper-urban environment, their tributes tend to be at a disadvantage in the Games arena but, back home, there is a large population able to produce and distribute clay pottery from deposits long left forgotten beyond the legal borders of Eight. And, finally, as a safety precaution, most workers in their textile factories are avid braiders as it's one of the only ways to prevent scalping when using those large machinery.

District Nine - 'we're okay being forgotten, maybe it's safest'

Nine is known for one thing and one thing only: grain. What its population lacks in formal education, however, they make up for in culture, fun-loving, and an appreciation for life. Pre-Panem, this area was settled largely (but not entirely) by refugee Italian families from large cities like Chicago, New York, Philly, and wherever else the govt at the time deemed a target for nuclear strikes. Because of this, despite an overwhelming loss of Italian culture, there is one thing they can still appreciate: pasta. Though Nine often only receives refuse and Tesserae grain, they still make incredible dishes and have even perfected the reuse of grain stalks in weaving. Lastly, they are also the last District with a still-thriving Covey population so musical is similarly vital in their daily life despite most of the populous being unable to read sheet music, let alone most written word.

District Ten - 'the animals are treated better than us'

Sat in the southernmost regions of Panem (formerly Texas and what is left of Mexico), Ten holds onto the most of the cultures before Panem existed with a rich vaquero tradition despite the art form largely being lost to history. With it, too, is an ingrained sense of exploration and a yearning for freedom, the closest of which can only be attained on horseback. The sect of District Ten that tends exclusively to the cattle is largely nomadic for most of the year, in the saddle for the vast majority of their days moving the herd some twenty miles per day to ensure adequate land management.

District Eleven - 'the fruits of our labor aren't ours to keep'

Despite being one of arguable the most powerful Districts in Panem due simply to its industry being so immediately necessary, Eleven is treated with very little respect and care by the Capitol. Overworked, exploited, and left with maybe scraps, it's no wonder Eleven was the catalyst for outright rebellion the second time around. Despite this ill-contempt for the Capitol, Eleven is a largely peaceful and familial place for its residence, boasting strong communities that take care of one another, a colorful life of love, and a surprisingly good diet of flavorful foods despite what seems to be the Capitol's constant attempts to take even that away from them.

District Twelve - 'the canaries in the coal mine'

The poorest and smallest District in Panem, Twelve is known for its quiet resilience above all else. Its industry, coal, is almost insultingly reinforced not as a source of power (as indicated by Five's supplying of renewable energy like solar, wind, nuclear, and hydro-electric) but, as with many things, purely for the glee of the Capitol to send to One to be transformed into diamonds. A strong Appalachian culture still remains in the arena despite the Capitol's insistence that singing is largely punishable in gatherings and only allowed to be commodified by visiting Capitol industry leaders for parties.

District Thirteen - 'we found safety underground'

MORE OF CASHMERE IN THE RECLAIMED AU YAY

And more accurately her being done with everything and giving the people in 13 a hard time because she already hates their bloody guts and hey the cameras of the capitol aren't there anymore so she can get away with insulting the heck out of a certain someone ( *cough* Plutarch * cough* )

Though she's more or less at least dry and abrasive with just about everyone at least until her brother is rescued and even then she is still pissed it took them this bloody long to rescue him from getting tortured

( if I remember correctly in Canon apparently peeta and the others were captured for 6 weeks? I don't know if that's true or not but if so then massive YIKES that's a long time for Johanna getting electrocuted WTH! But in this au like how @majorsoapfan suggested in the very first post cashmere managed to convince katniss to become the Mockingjay earlier and both their demands of the other victors getting rescued are much more increased as well as cashmere revealing that she has her fare share of dirty capitol secrets but she won't spill them out unless her dear brother is rescued as well as the other victors so the rescue mission happen approximately in the beginning of the third week after the 75th games and is much more thought out Wich in itself make a ton of difference because peeta 's hijacking wouldn't be complete )

Though even if Cash is helping katniss with the role of the Mockingjay she still has some reservations when the idea of putting her in the war field enters which lead to conflict between her and specifically Haymitch

Yeah Cash more or less ruffles a ton of feathers with Haymitch and beetee especially as she knows about what actually went down during the 50th games, it's one of the secrets she knows on how the gamemakers can manipulate the games to their favor and how they can program the mutts to get a specific tribute as well as how it's often insured that no family member of a victor survive the games ( cashmere was the exception due to a mess up ) so yeah good thing I'm still bringing Effie into 13 as well as making wiress survive because things are about to get..... rough to put it nicely

Also yes cashmere gets her hair braided too , also katniss give her some of her clothes when they go to the victors village in 12 as well as a few accessories cinna got katniss to try to give cashmere a little Cheer up or remind her of her life in district 1 after she learns that cashmere genuinely does love fashion and some of the things she wore in the capitol she customized herself

One last thing this is mostly a new idea but I'm considering that Madge and merrille survive and are too brought to 13 , mainly because I'm curious on how Madge would be there and because I'm expanding katniss support system but also it'd be interesting for Haymitch because I realized that my headcanon for cashmere 's true personality outside of the capitol portrayel she's rather similar to maysilee in personality so with all of this combined snow shouldn't be feeling like he is the one haunted because Haymitch is in close proximity to dozens of reminders of maysilee

Hello, dear! I'm going to write this with as much neutrality as possible because the lore I have created is long and extensive and I don't want that clouding this response.

I want to stick to as close to the canon as possible and my interpretation of the canon without having what I created leech through [especially since it tends to get jumbled in my head].

Get ready for another long one, Backpacks!

(This is a long one, sorry not sorry)

To start off with, it's the trafficking of Victors that is kept secret from both the Capitol and the Districts. Prostitution in the Capitol is very much public, normalized, and encouraged. There's a sect of Capitol-born prostitutes who doubt as stars on other screens who command high prices, can reject potential clients, schedule their own calls, etc. There's also a decent portion of District-imported prostitutes who, undisclosed to the Capitolite patronage, are being trafficked against their will, on top of a dark underbelly of Avox victims even deeper than that. The Victors being a part of this is very much private but hidden in plain sight. All of these tiers, save for the Avoxes, are largely called 'Artisans' in the Capitol, giving it a sense of prestige and artistry that I'm sure most Victors and trafficked District citizens don't agree with.

With that, every Victor past like the 15th has technically been trafficked in the sense of Snow arranging 'dates' they unknowingly go on, them being drugged at parties and taken advantage of, or them feeling like they're in control when seeking out Sponsors and giving sexual favors for said Sponsorships. This is more a dive into the system of repeated and scheduled trafficking that the Victors cannot deny or decline bc their and their families' lives are held against them.

The System I Imagine

Perfect for hiding trafficked Victors in plain sight is a pair of joint buildings, the Artisans' Manse and the Artisans' Palace. The Manse is described by Cashmere as a stable for Snow's finest whores. Barring the most elite of Capitol-born Artisans who likely "work from home," anyone who's anyone in the Ring will be housed there. On the top floor, entirely separate from anyone else, are the Victors. Not allowed to travel between floors or even take the main/public entrances and exits, these 10+ apartments are essentially their own building on top of the publicly-known one.

The Palace is the brothel, for lack of a better word. Each floor is dedicated to a different level of kink, with the top floor being for groups/parties and the bottom floor being a Victors-barred lounge for patrons to mingle between calls. There's even a medical suite on that first floor...just in case. Like with the Manse, the Palace has separate entrances and exits for the Victors specifically to keep the presence a secret. Every private room has a back entrance connected to a much less lavish secret corridor for their entry and every call is meticulously scheduled to be sure Victors hardly see one another to and from, and certainly not 'Populus Artisans' (as Snow calls any non-Victors regardless of status). It's never established in my canon, yet at least, but I imagine the few elites who can afford Victors are even forced to use fake/code names for their chosen Victors so they can gossip in the lounge but never actually disclose the Victors' real identity. This shit is top fucking secret, basically.

'Housecalls' (with Victors) are reserved only for Snow's most elite (and richest) of political buddies. Meaning there are only some 20-ish clients picking from some 10-15 available Victors; these people are called 'patrons' within the system. (This is not including, obviously, other 'tiers' of prostitutes who are available to anyone with the money to afford them). Patrons are almost always members of his various cabinets, heads of District affairs/industries/policing, pivotal in the Gamemakers spaces, etc. Even the richest of the rich can't get in unless he sees some benefit to keeping them sated.

There are two types of 'housecalls.' Housecalls in the Artisan's Palace are always reserved for kinks/violence, are limited to exactly 2 hours or less, are heavily supervised by a security team monitoring from AV feed, and are kept 'private' save for coded gossip in the lounge proper. 'Private' housecalls, as they're sometimes called, are held either in a patron's private home or at least start as public dates. The rules for these are very strict but in different ways. There can be overnight or few-hour variations but there are certain things that cannot happen. Public displays of violence, for example, are entirely barred (to be fair, since there is no 100% reliable monitoring on private calls, violence isn't allowed even in private). So is any implication that the Victor was bought. In public, these are dates used to 'prove' that the Victor is essentially gold-digging where the sex is implied publicly but expected privately. These, too, often serve as a sort of marketing for Snow to gauge interest in a certain Victor when his elite buddies seek him out hoping to replicate a date with [insert Victor] or buy a private 'turn' to compete with their friends. So long as they're discrete and pay handsomely, he has no quarrels with which patrons buy which artisans, how often, etc. He is, however, very picky about the level of violence exercised.

The only except to the 'no violence on private calls' is with his own children. These calls are always held in secluded rooms of his own mansion but it's implied that if a Victor has a call with either Antonina, Flaminia, or Naevius Snow, violence is expected and will hardly be monitored, though the results aren't usually as bad as expected.

Housecalls can be arranged in two ways with two sub-categories for one of them. Housecalls in the Palace are always scheduled ahead of time w/ Victors either being 'imported' fro their home District for a weekend of a few of them or pulled away from Mentoring duties if they were already in the Capitol. There is no 'surprise' element, ever, in these sort of calls. Private Housecalls, however, are often scheduled in advance but in the case of party settings, there is a secret second-and-a-half option where the patron presents a golden card/ticket to certify their purchase and they have essentially two hours of the Victor's time guaranteed. These are only every done at the President's Mansion with a private wing of monitored bedrooms serving as a replacement for the Palace. No matter what, Snow is always aware of the calls; the man doesn't play around when it comes to, as he sees it, patrons stealing from his Treasury by making under-the-table dealings with Victors. To the point that he's outright punished Artisans like Cashmere who, at first, really couldn't be bothered to decline any offer of sex (she was in a very rough spot and had very destructive tendencies on top of just dissociating so hard).

Victors see no 'profits' from the sale of their bodies. They are not paid or reimbursed in any meaningful way by the Capitol/Snow himself (tho he does raise their Victor's Pension slightly on years that they elect not to Mentor in order to be 'on call' through the Games season.) That being said, Victors who are trafficked receive gaudy, pricey, and completely unwanted gifts from their patrons, resulting in a skewed economy between them. The solution? Since pawning off jewels, even dismembered, isn't exactly useful to District economies, Victors like Pleur Diives can, through her husband's jewelry company, buy back these gifts so Victors have actual cash to use back home (their Victor's Pension isn't real money so much as a credit to be used on any and every expense within their home, namely food and decor), for Sponsorships, to give to other Victors for Sponsorships, etc. And, as we know, some Victors don't take any gifts from their patrons and, instead, will only accept gifts of secrets, underground dealings, direct Sponsorships, etc. After her husband's death and her (forced) inheritance of his business, there is a marked increase in the selling price of these Artisan gifts as she's literally trying to bankrupt the company, the only way she can get back to District One, just a fun fact.

All of these housecalls can either be for one Victor or shared between a few, though the price raises dramatically in the latter case. Patrons, as well can 'pool together' to throw sex parties/orgies or have semi-private shows (think Victors-only strip club for the night or live sex scenes) but, again, the price is a lot. This is where we see elements of Victors not only being forced to have sex with Capitolites but also with one another, as well as a lot of not-consented-to exposure to kinks they otherwise would never partake in.

Other Believable Systems

The Victors Have to Seek Out their Patrons - this one surprised me with how much I liked it. Basically, Snow gives each Victor a list of patrons (almost always past Sponsors or his political allies) that they have the Games season to 'thank' (sexually) with the implied stipulation that they can't ever tell the patron about the system. This just adds an extra layer of fucked-up to the system that I really liked. But in one fic w/ this system, there was a confusing 'second list' that I just felt was a bit contrived just to get two characters to sleep together but that's not my gripe with the system itself, technically, and more an issue with the writing of that fic (I had a few issues with it and I had a few things I loved about it; balanced, as all things should be).

Systems I Personally Don't 'See'

The Victors Auction Themselves Off - I feel like this is one that just makes it seem too public and, weirdly, easier to avoid? I saw this system in conjunction w/ a very public buying and selling system, a Capitol culture that publicly (at least within the Capitol) promoted the sexual exploitation of Victors, etc so it was more the straw that broke the camel's back. I just don't see there being public, either online or in person, auctions where Victors can elect to toss their name into a pool to drum up so much interest that it earns Snow millions at a time. I get that the rarity drums up the price and Snow undoubtedly would love that part but, at the same time, the public-ness of it is just...not something I can imagine. (That being said, this was in an AU fic wherein you could directly make the comparison that the system being this way is exactly what caused the AU elements of the fic, if that makes sense).

Snow assigns a 'pimp' to each Victor - maybe it's just because I also didn't love the fic this was attached to but the idea that Snow essentially 'gives' a (or a few) Victor(s) to a Capitolite head-honcho of his choosing to both rape personally and sell for profits that Snow sees, just doesn't make sense to me. Not only does it limit some of the secretive nature of the trafficking by having apparently a web of pimps selling Victors to a web of buyers of, seemingly, any ilk but it just wasn't written well enough in the fic(s) I read for me to like it. That being said, there is an unofficial element of this to Pleur Diives' story wherein her husband buys her and sells her but that is both considered one of its kind and is something he is heavily punished for so...idk.

There are no housecalls, just a lot of traps for Victors - I don't know if I've ever actually seen this one written up in a fic but it essentially states that anyone in the Capitol can get with a Victor if they can get with a Victor. So less than a money-based 'trading' system where they earn the rights to Snow, they buy Victors directly, but indirectly. Pretending to woo Victors, using their status as a Sponsor to 'trap' Victors into a system of Games-season 'dates,' or being so fundamental to their District's industry that the Victor can't possibly deny them. Things like this make sense but, at the same time, contradict what Finnick says which more than implies Snow played a role in selling Victors.

Tributes are included in the trafficking directly - I'm sorry but I really hated this one. The idea that Snow is going to let random and potential patrons/Sponsors 'sleep with' (rape) tributes while in the Tribute Center before each Games so they can taste the product before consuming just makes no sense. Not from a Mentor's pov who probably wouldn't want sleep-deprived Victors. Not from a District standing wherein it's implied tributes (at least in Career Districts) know and are trained for this. And not in the sense that giving the Sponsors a taste takes away any incentive to Sponsor them once they've had their share. I just do not like it.

Victors can 'trade' schedules - this one isn't so much a real system as an element that I find wildly unbelievable. If a Capitolite pervert paid thousands, if not tens of thousands, to buy a particular Victor, I see no world in which they'd be at all okay, let alone happy, to receive a different one. At all. It just does not compute. You're telling me we're supposed to believe that these entitled adult toddlers w/ no concept of consent or respect for human life will just deal with not getting their way when their way was a very specific either rape or pseudo rape fantasy with a Victor? Nahhh

So is this the weirdest post I've made? Maybe. Then again, I made a post about the Districts as Horses so idk.

(bc I refuse to believe only 7 Victors survived the rebellion)

Alterations including:

finally be able to grow facial and body hair again

breast reductions

Enobaria getting her teeth 'normaled'

trafficked Victors getting un-sterilized (bc I headcanon it was semi-permanent to begin with)

@district8workitearnit

A District Eight Fact:

Kids start working as young as 4 but, ironically, they get paid the most (only for a few years unless they can stay especially small) bc a lot of the machinery needs especially small hands, arms, etc to fine-tune them. Adults work well into their eighties, tho. After all, there's always something for them to do. Most older folks transition from the factories to more private (but not better working conditions, mind you) sweat shops adding all of the intricate patterns to fabrics by hand. Things like needlepoint, threading on beads, etc, almost exclusively by hand. It's only when someone can't even do that, let alone be the poor sap boxing the swaths of fabric up, that they're officially allowed to retire. Or, really, fired for not meeting quotas fast enough.

Auxillary fact/HC: Cecilia didn't start working until around 9 bc she ended up responsible for her younger siblings after her mom bled out on the factory floor and her dad essentially worked himself to death in less than a month.

Cecilia's non-Career training that helped her win her Games:

Ever since she was little(r) she had a surprising amount of authority/responsibility at the factory. If it wasn't so terrifying and hardened her so much, she probably would find it funny that she often had grown men and women essentially begging her with help getting their quotas, coming to her for medical help, etc bc of the poor conditions and even poorer management. She's been managing people since she was little is what I'm getting at. In the arena, this translated into being her 'pack leader' for her all-girls alliance, finding the perfect place to put everyone's strengths and how to hide weaknesses by highlighting other things. Girly was on top of it.