rise like lions after slumber,
in unvanquishable number
shake your chains to earth like dew
WE ARE MANY ... THEY ARE FEW.
— The Masque of Anarchy
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NEEDLEPOINT ,
42ND ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES
original characters | standalone
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S U M M A R Y
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DISTRICT EIGHT had never really had the space for heroes.
Not when the streets were already so cluttered with people just trying to stay alive. At the heart of District Eight was not heroism, or individuality, or even the desperate need for personal validation. Instead, herds of men, women and children ploughed towards their factories every day, working mindlessly until their fingers bled, and still their bellies ached. No, District Eight did not have the capacity for people to stand out. At its heart was desperation; resentment; a close-knit community fuelled by exhausted slaves tired of coming last place.
It is no surprise at all, then, that Panem's eighth district became known for their unruly and rebellious spirit.
PAISLEY FAWN was nothing to District Eight. Nothing, except another mouth to feed, or another name lost to a slip of paper. A needle in a haystack. Nobody cared that she was starving. Nobody noticed the things that she did. She went to school, worked tireless shifts to pick up extra pennies, and still, she returned home to broken spirits and empty plates. Even in her own family, the middle child of three, she was nothing but overlooked — exceptionally ordinary. Nothing but frayed edges and loose ends.
And so, nobody bat an eye when Paisley's name was drawn for the 42nd Hunger Games. Nobody shed a tear when she stepped up onto the stage, and nobody cheered when she appeared on their television screens. Not one penny, did they bet, for the girl with the woven spirit. She would be fighting a losing battle, after all. Untrained, unresourceful, and unprepared - nobody ever expected anything from the tributes of District Eight.
Indeed, nobody even stirred when DOWLAS STEED — the infamous loner who never spoke a word - put his own name forward and sulked onto the stage, becoming the district's first ever volunteer. The troubled misfit had just saved a twelve-year-old from an untimely death, but it hadn't made any difference at all, because District Eight had no place for heroes.
And of course, none of that mattered, because Paisley had always been skilful at navigating her own path - a tool that she would soon find uncharacteristically useful to have under her belt.
-ˋˏ STARRING ˎˊ-
Sadie Stanley as
PAISLEY FAWN
"you've got a heart as loud as lions
so why let your voice be tamed?"
Nick Robinson as
DOWLAS STEED
"don't get so close, it's dark inside
it's where my demons hide"
Keith Powers as
GUSSET BUCKLE
"they made me a shadow, and
blackened my bones, but I will rise"
Virginia Gardner as
MERYL SPINDLER
"i'll give you strength to carry on, in the
darkness of the night, i will be your light"
Hugh Dancy as
WOOF RAWLING
"devil's on your shoulder, strangers in my head,
as if you don't remember, as if you can forget"
Natasha Liu Bordizzo as
EMMELINE LUMLEY
"don't you think i know exactly where i stand,
this world is forcing me to hold your hand"
Kaitlyn Dever as
PARKER FAWN
"for all of the light that i've stomped out
for all of the innocent things that i doubt"
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N O T E S
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hello hello! welcome to needlepoint! I've wanted to write this book for a while because the idea has been sitting in the back of my head, but I've been putting it off because I have so many books already. however, I finally caved, because I have zero self control, so here it is!
I've always wanted to write an original games centres solely around original characters because as much as I love all of my canon-related stuff, it's very fun to get to mess around with something entirely new and flexible. it was for similar reasons that I've chosen to write about district eight - they're such a major part of the rebellion in mockingjay but I feel like we see so little of them pre-rebellion. they're a super interesting district to me because their tributes always do so poorly and they're very similar to district twelve in the way they're underestimated, so I think their rebellious spark probably existed long before katniss.
I'm still thinking through the world-building for both district eight and panem/the games as a whole (since this is set so long before katniss), so the first chapter may be a little while, but I'm really enjoying getting to work with the little canon info and adding in a lot of stuff of my own. I've been using the geographical location of eight, as well as taking inspiration from victorian era industrialised cities and northern england (my motherland) to imagine my own version of it - it's all very fun. from the little info we do get about district eight in canon, we know that it's very urbanised, with mostly tenement homes and hardly any greenery, so I've been working with that and expanding from there!
a shout out to my bestie as well for helping me come up with this title and several elements of the plot - our discussions are half the reason I get anything written most of the time as we always bounce so well off of each other's ideas!
this book is also probably going to be a standalone, just because I cannot facilitate another series or long ass book rn, as we've established I have too many already. but, maybe something extra could be done with it if *god forbid* it did one day get finished.
this book is very much inspired by both 'iron' by starryeyedturtle and 'fragments' by Iydiamartin, especially in terms of layout - I loved their idea of laying out all twenty-four tributes individually and their books are exceptionally written in terms of plot and world-building. i would 100% recommend checking out both if you haven't already!
anyway, I love you all!
much love, dani x
D I S C L A I M E R
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I do not claim ownership to The Hunger Games franchises or the characters, plot lines or world created in the original books/movies, only the OC's and alternative plot lines created by myself.
WARNING: this book contains dark themes, including death and violence throughout. However, it isn't all miserable - I promise!
D E D I C A T I O N S
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VeeNyxx ceilingfanenvy -GRIMMIEPLACE hazzawckd
S E T T I N G S
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recommended
baskerville, smallest font
when all the heroes fall
the world plays its wicked games
and i am left defenceless, cause
THE SKY'S GONNA SAY MY NAME
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STATUS,
started: 01/2023
completed: tbd
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© suggletsandmalfoys