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Hi! This is the author, Ann, and this is a skippable infodump. But, I wanted to include it because I thought that it would be helpful! All of this information is already present in the fic itself, but I know that some people would prefer to know a lot of things right off the bat.
This contains no spoilers for the fic, but I just wanted to set the stage for some things that you might see.
After reading, if you are more curious about these characters, I post a lot about them on my Tumblr account (@SpleenMuncher). I make a lot of digital art and Del is my favorite muse.
Included in this infodump is:
— General
— Personal lore on how I started this
— Certain dialectal choices
— District 4 worldbuilding
— Major families
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General:
AO3 deleted all of my indents and italics
The few times that I put thoughts into dialogue, I use 'these', rather than the "double quotation marks". I make it clear by saying "she thought" or something similar, I just thought that this would be helpful to know going in.
There is a character in this story named Willamae Lloyd, she has a very small part. It was not until a day after posting this that I remembered that Haymitch's mom's name was Willamae Abernathy. I decided that it would be more trouble than it's worth to go through and change it (and definitely make multiple mistakes), so don't worry, I know that I messed up a little.
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How APATR came to be!:
I've always been a big Hunger Games fan, but my interest in the series really hyped up in 8th grade. Around this time I was making a bunch of OCs, and I figured that making a Hunger Games OC would be fun.
It snowballed from there.
Elowyn Caddel started as a lumberjack from District 7, but then I remembered that District 7 cannot have a female victor because Johanna is the only one. I then turned her into a District 4 OC, and changed her name to Delphina because Elowyn didn't fit anymore. Delphina Caddel didn't have a very nice ring to it, so I changed her last name to Hollis, and gave Caddel to the deuteragonist of this story.
Fun fact, the female District 7 tribute in the 53rd Games is named Elowyn as an Easter egg for this! (And Mako's original name, Hayes, is also present in one of the tributes!)
This was my first ever fanfic, but a couple months after I posted it I realized that I had matured so much as a writer that I could improve upon it. If you're reading this, you are on the version that is updated.
I made a lot of changes, I added an epilogue, characterization, I removed a lot of the juvenile language and cussing, and I allowed for more downtime for the relationships of all of the characters to properly develop.
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General:
- I used a combination of book and movie lore. Mostly book, though, since it was easier and I like the books more, lol.
- This is semi-canon compliant, as there are some choices that I made that do not fully align with canon. There is nothing too bad, but still be aware.
- I began writing this before the release of SOTR, and updated whatever I could, but if there is an inconsistency, then that is why.
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District 4 Worldbuilding:
I made a mistake all the way back in December 2024 when I started writing this, because District 4 is not located where I thought it was. The reason that I chose to write for District 4 was because I thought it was in the modern day Carolina region, and that is where I'm from.
I did not realize my mistake until I was very far in :,). This heavily influenced the story in multiple ways, so I decided to not change it.
There are three main regions in District 4, the West End, the Markets, and the Marshes. The West End is the most wealthy of the three, and is the more business-oriented area.
The Markets are the middlemost financially of the three, being the commercial region of District 4 and home to the Reaping Square. It is both the largest geographically and population-wise, by far.
And finally, the poorest of the three is the Marshes, being home to the smallest portion of District 4 citizens—mainly small fishermen and shopkeepers. The Marshes are located in (you'd never guess) the more swampy and marshy area of District 4, and deters a lot of people due to that.
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Character Dialect:
The main character, Del Hollis, is from modern-day South Carolina. I decided to give her an accent inspired by a lot of the people around me and I used Kya Clark from WTCS as a written reference. I do not think that I overdid the phonetic translation of her accent too much, but it is still present.
This also goes for any characters in the Marshlands of District 4. Like Otto Hollis, Serena Romero, and a handful of other characters.
The people from the Markets have a have a very noticeable Southern accent as well, it's just not as strong as that of people from the Marshlands. Dorian Gillary is an example of a character with a Markets accent.
Although, people from the West End have what is essentially just an American accent. With, obviously, some dialectal similarities to the other two regions. Mako Caddel and his family have this accent.
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Major Families:
Hollis Family-
— Doris and Otto (Mother and father)
— Caulder, Delphina, and Cordelia (Older son, middle daughter, younger daughter)
Caddel Family-
— Irena (Paternal grandmother)
— Shelley and Marlin (Mother and father)
— Mako and Marley (Older son, younger son)
Romero Family-
— Tessa and Alon (Mother and father)
— Serena, Caspian, and Azalea (Older daughter, middle son, younger daughter)
Gillary Family-
— Marisol and Dorian (Mother and father)
— Ezra and Nico (Fraternal twin sons)