So hi to everyone who clicked on this story and a big thank you to you all! For all of you who read Eradication this is my AU Stell/Finnick story! For those of you who haven't read Eradication, you don't have to but this is using the same OC as that story! In this AU there are still the Districts, but no Games. This first chapter will be a narrator point of few, all the rest will be longer and in Stell's POV. Enjoy!
Title: Prejudice Seas
Summary: "I'm sorry? What made you think I'd have a conversation with you?" her voice was sharp as she cocked her head to the side at him, a crooked grin appearing as her friends chuckled behind her. Finnick pursed his lips together, "Must be your alluring demeanor." Finnick/OC AU.
Disclaimer: I do now own the Hunger Games, only Stell.
Prologue
After the war, the government of Panem had separated the land into Twelve Districts. Each one providing the country as a whole, and it's Capital, with a different resource. Luxury goods, masonry, technology, seafood, electric power, transportation, lumber, textiles, grain, livestock, agriculture, and mining products.
Each District unique in and of itself. A different geography, a different culture, a different world.
Ever since the war, the citizens of each District are prohibited from leaving the District in which they were born. The only ones who ever leave are government officials, and the peacekeepers, who all hail from District Two.
Of the twelve, this story focuses in only one. District Four. Supplier of all that comes from the sea, they ship out seafood to the rest of the Districts. The District sits on the coast of what was once known as the Pacific Ocean, and stretches up the west coastline of what was once the United States of America.
The people of Four all speak with the same, slightly rough, accent.
Their children learn the art of their industry at an early age, staying in school only until the age of eighteen. The citizens' jobs vary from deckhands, fishermen, long liners, canners, trawlers, to ship captains.
All citizens are skilled when using tools that are specialized for their work. Nets, tridents, spears. They even swim like the fish themselves.
Their diet, as expected, consists mostly of seafood. Fish prepared in numerous ways, mixed into salads and stews, or cooked and broiled as the entrée itself. Ocean foliage, such as kelp, is even cooked into their bread.
The availability of food is not as open as it appears to the outside Districts though. Strict regulations keep citizens from keeping all of a haul they catch. Government waters, so the government gets fifty percent of a haul. Violators of the law are punished accordingly; District Four's peacekeepers prefer the whipping post as the main form of punishment.
Though, the major aspect of District Four's culture is the segregation and discrimination of the two working classes. The townspeople, those who run the shops, the ship captains, the factory managers, the fishery owners, and the aquaculture dock supervisors. These are the people who have the power in Four. They have the high paying jobs, their families eating more diverse diets than others, their children going to school longer. Their homes are multi-story buildings that are never in need of repair, every family member having their own bedroom. The outside of their home built with strong vinyl siding to withstand storms.
The lower class, to those above them, is referred to as the Taig. Reversely, the Taig refer to upper class as the Pogue. It is expected throughout the District that the Taig respect the Pogue, giving them the right of way.
Those in the Pogue have mundane jobs, working as fishermen, deckhands, long liners, canners, and trawlers. Their homes are situated in the poorer parts of the District; their small homes built close together.
Usually made of cedar wood or plaster, they tend to be one or two stories high, the children sharing a bedroom. Their homes don't include a dining room, the family eating at the table in the kitchen itself. Most homes leave their windows open constantly, their shutters only closed during storms.
The people who live here are a close knit group. They are also some of the happiest, singing and dancing to the songs of their District. Music is commonly heard among the teenagers who live there. Drums, guitars, tambourines, and all sorts of instruments are made from driftwood and shells. Everyone trusts each other, they live an open lifestyle on the outside, though parents raise their children as they see fit. The use of physical punishment is a method that most have chosen to make.
The children in Four quickly learn the unwritten laws of segregation between the groups. Those of the lower class walk closer to the edge of the docks than those above them. They do not pick an argument. They do not reprimand a person above them. They give up their place in line if it's asked of them without question.
If one goes against an unwritten law, a peacekeeper will make up a violation in order to follow through with a punishment.
At school, the separation between the two is obvious. The lunch room is separated distinctly, their teacher's pair up the kids accordingly for projects. The children who's clothes may be too big for their frames, or a faded beige, that color being cheapest to afford, are picked on constantly by the children who's clothes fit them, who wear the light and airy shades of blue and green that most of the District wears.
It's a system that works; it's a segregation that few stand to protest against.