The Parts We Play is an AU The Hunger Games fanfic that diverges from canon a few months before the start of the first novel. In this version of events, Katniss got drunk and had a one-night stand with Gale a few months before the Seventy-Fourth Games, with the result that she became pregnant. This makes Prim decide to take tesserae behind her sister's back, which messes up the papers inside the bowl during the Reaping. As a result, Katniss's name is drawn in the Reaping, and Prim volunteers in her place to protect the baby, creating a new kind of love story for Panem to root for.
The fics in this series are as follows;
- Watcher
: Completed, Side Story. Peeta learns that everything he's dreamed of is gone. - Spectator: Completed, Main fic. Katniss is pregnant at the start of the Hunger Games so Prim volunteers to take her place. Peeta vows to make sure Prim comes home, but there's got to be something more that Katniss can do than just sit around and watch her sister die. The Capitol agrees with her, unfortunately.
- Tribute: Completed, Side story. Every tribute has a story.
- Seeing Red: Completed, Side Story. Foxface is approached with a proposition.
- Forgotten: Completed, Side Story taking place after some of the events in Chapter 17. Gale's always known who he was and his place in the world. But when his best friend is taken hostage by the Capitol, he's got to find a new way with the help of an unlikely ally.
- Godfather: Completed, Side Story. Gale meets his daughter for the first time.
- Participant: In Progress, Main Fic. There's a quarter quell coming. But that's not the only thing in the air.
- Family: Forthcoming. During the quell, some families take center stage.
- Sacrifice: Forthcoming, Main Fic. Sometimes you have to take a stand for what you care about no matter the price.
- The Victor's Daughter: Forthcoming. She needs to tell her story.
The series as a whole can also be found on Archive of Our Own here.
The Parts We Play series contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: With Katniss's pregnancy hindering her physical capabilities, Prim was already working on becoming more physically capable even before she volunteered in Katniss's place.
- An Arm and a Leg: Clint, the District Ten Tribute, has a crippled foot from a riding accident prior to the Reaping.
- Ascended Extra:
- From the perspective of the other Victors, Katniss essentially becomes this, as she is the first non-Victor to be invited into the main observation room in the last day of the Seventy-Fourth Games so that she can watch Prim and Peeta's fight for survival as it unfolds.
- In-narrative, since Katniss watches the 74th Hunger Game on TV, we learn a lot more things about the other Tributes' doings during the game — at least the ones who survive the bloodbath like the Careers, Foxface (called Rani), Axel (the District Three boy), and Clint (the District Ten boy).
- In-narrative, where Snow's granddaughter was just referenced in the original novels, here she makes a direct appearance and Snow 'hires' Prim to be a companion to her.
- Badass Pacifist: Calling Prim 'badass' might be an exaggeration, but even with Peeta and Thresh as protectors, she was never dead weight, using her medical experience and hunting lessons from Katniss to contribute to their alliance.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Rani chooses to kill herself with Nightlock rather than go off on her own and get killed by one of the other Tributes, having concluded that there's no point in her fighting to win when she's fallen for Peeta and knows that he doesn't feel the same way while doubting the Capitol will let two Tributes survive.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Calling him the 'Big Bad' might be an overstatement from any perspective, but the District Three Tribute, Axel, deliberately rigged events in his favour so that he would be selected for the Games to implement his own plans for victory, only for his plans to soon fall apart.
- Big Brother Mentor: Peeta basically takes on this role for Prim and Rue in the Games in particular when they initially form their alliance, and Thresh fills this role to a degree for Rue later on.
- The Big Guy: Thresh naturally fills this role in Peeta's alliance, with Peeta already acting as The Leader.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Certainly applies in Participant when Peeta and Katniss meet Clove's father during their Victory Tour; expecting him to hate Peeta for killing Clove, he actually expresses pride that his daughter represented her district well enough to make it to the final fight, and recognises that Peeta earned his victory.
- Body Horror: Katniss remembers a history lesson about how in an early Hunger Games (she thinks it was the Third), the Tributes refused to fight until the Capitol started dropping the severed body-parts of their families into the field until they went along with the Games (and the Capitol naturally talks about how "generous" they were in the face of such "treason" that they didn't actually kill any of the Tributes' families).
- Bookends: The Seventy-Fourth Games open with Peeta slamming Clove into the Cornucopia, and ends basically the same way, the only difference being that he kills her the second time rather than just giving her a concussion.
- Break Them by Talking: Basically how Peeta defeats Clove; when she's ranting about how she had to kill Cato because she loved him, Peeta proclaims that killing someone isn't real love, which drives Clove to lose her focus and get in close enough for Peeta to disarm her and then kill her with a wrestling move.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: While initially resenting Effie's role in the Games, Katniss soon comes to realise that Effie does a lot more than just show up in odd outfits and read out names from a bowl when she sees just how much Effie does 'behind the scenes' of the games, musing that Effie probably has to take on more responsibility than most Capitol guides considering how Haymitch tends to just get drunk as his Tributes die so early.
- Character Development: In Participant, Katniss notes that Gale has gained a greater understanding of the political situation in Panem rather than just treating the Peacekeepers as the enemy.
- Childhood Friends: When Effie was a child, her parents hired Cecelia — a Victor from District Eight who won the Sixty-First Hunger Games — as her companion, essentially a non-sexual version of Finnick's contact with other Capitol residents. Despite the circumstances, Effie muses that it worked well for both, as Effie always knew why Cecelia was there and Cecelia knew that Effie wouldn't make a pass at her or anything like that, giving them both a certain sense of 'stability'.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- One possible interpretation of Effie assuming that Prim volunteered because she and Katniss are rivals, rather than recognising that Prim volunteered to protect Katniss's baby.
- Katniss still only realises that Peeta likes her when he's being interviewed, even after he vowed to make sure Prim gets home and his only request in return was a kiss from Katniss.
- May also apply to the Capitol doctors who examine Katniss, as they assume that she's so thin because she's starving herself to look good rather than because she legitimately can't get much food.
- Cool Old Lady: Mags (via Annie as translator) offers to show Katniss and Prim how to make better nets after the Games after seeing Prim's work in the arena, while complimenting the quality of their current nets considering that District Twelve doesn't offer many opportunities to practise fishing.
- Cutting the Knot: Basically applies in the final stages of the Games; sending Peeta and Prim weapons would be potentially expensive, but Haymitch finds a loophole by sending Prim a pair of brooms and Peeta a pair of spearheads, which they can put together to create spears.
- A Day in the Limelight: Tribute is a collection of short one-shots that give a few information about each Tribute by narrating the moment they're chosen.
- Death by Adaptation: Claudius Templesmith is killed at the conclusion of the Seventy-Fourth Games for taking too long to make a clear proclamation about whether or not the rule of two tributes surviving was valid after Peeta killed Clove and Prim was badly injured.
- Died on Their Birthday: The 74th Games began on the birthday of the District Three Tribute, Radi, and she gets killed in the opening bloodbath.
- Double Speak: When talking with Mr. Mellark about how Capitol bread is basically tasteless, Katniss recognises that his speech can also apply to the Capitol residents themselves, as they and the Careers all have a sameness about them, while outer districts tend to produce more distinctive Victors like Johanna Mason.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Not explicitly confirmed, but strongly suggested to be the case for a past Victor; officially, Doria Fitzgerald from Six fell out of the Tributes' Tower during a morphling high in the Fifty-First Games, but Haymitch observes that popular opinion is that she did it on purpose after winning the Third Games and failing to bring any of her tributes back for the next forty-eight years.
- Rani, the District Five Tribute known as "Foxface" in canon, dies from suicide after Peeta and Thresh decide to dissolve their alliance against the Careers. As Rani is on her own where every other remaining Tribute has a partner, and has fallen for Peeta while knowing he's in love with Katniss, she deliberately eats nightlock berries rather than keep trying to win a Game she can now see will never end well for her no matter how it unfolds.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: One Tribute dies when he tries to catch a fish and falls into the river.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In his own way, Snow is shown to care for his granddaughter, who appears genuinely ignorant of the conditions in the outer districts.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Granted, from his own perception, Cato isn't the 'villain' of the piece, but it's still noteworthy that Clove never had any doubts when one of the other students at the academy locked herself in a closet with Cato to create the impression they were lovers.
- Snow retains his apparent willingness to keep his word so far; while he has no problem making Katniss aware that he knows Peeta isn't the father of her child, he expresses approval of Katniss's arrangement to let the Capitol vote on her daughter's name with the understanding that she will only accept the vote if Peeta and Prim make it back.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Even the relatively indifferent Capitol representatives at the Reaping sincerely hope the pregnant Katniss won't get Reaped this year.
- Katniss recalls how one past Tribute who started eating his victims was killed by mutts, and speculates that the Capitol arranged for that as a cannibal as a Victor wouldn't be a good image.
- When Katniss learns that the dead bodies of the Tributes are tended to by the Stylists, she is told that the duty was originally assigned to the Victors, but when legacy Tributes became a factor, even the Capitol realised that making parents tend to the dead bodies of their own children was asking too much of them.
- Eye Scream: Thanks to Uranium — the District Five tribute known in the series as "Foxface" — Marvel is lured into a trap and suffers serious burns that cost him one of his eyes.
- False Reassurance: Snow and Peeta in particular use this when talking in public, with their words equally easy to interpret as a compliment or a threat depending on what perspective the listener takes.
- Foil:
- In District One, Marvel joined the Academy of his own choice with the dream of being a "hero", while Glimmer is revealed to be a legacy tribute who was pressured into joining by her father as she had a better chance than her brothers.
- Cato and Clove are set up as a new style of "star-crossed lovers" in contrast to Katniss and Peeta, with the tributes from Two ruthless killers who fight only for each other where Peeta and Katniss's actions are often based around saving others.
- Peeta and Gale are this to each other as always, with Gale almost 'demanding' a relationship with Katniss due to her pregnancy where Peeta never seeks anything but Katniss's happiness, even if it costs him his own life.
- To better oppose the Careers' Alliance, Peeta and Prim form their own team with Thresh, Rue and Rani, focused more on protecting each other than eliminating their enemies and with a clear promise that they won't attack each other unless one of them attacks first.
- For the Evulz: Marvel spends a lot of time basically 'playing' with the male Taylor from District Eight, cornering him against the Cornucopia and pricking him with a spear for a few moments before finally delivering the killing blow.
- Friend to All Living Things: While Prim has learned some hunting techniques, her primary appeal in the Games is her ability to win people over, to the point that Cinna's designs for her interview dress focus on a nature theme, wearing a yellow-and-white sundress with daisies in her hair, with Peeta and Caesar each acknowledging that Prim is easy to get attached to in their own interview.
- Give Away the Bride: When the Games conclude, as part of Snow's 'ultimatum' to ensure that Peeta toes the line after his last-minute defiance, he "requests the privilege" of giving Katniss away at her and Peeta's imminent wedding.
- Good Counterpart: Peeta and Prim's alliance with other Tributes is clearly this to the traditional Alliance between the Career Tributes, to the extent that they break up on their own accord to avoid killing each other where the Careers would traditionally have no problem betraying each other after a certain point.
- Good Stepmother: While the Capitol as a whole believe that Peeta is the father of Katniss's child, Katniss, Peeta and others know the truth, but Peeta has never shown that he has any trouble treating Willow as his daughter.
- Handicapped Badass: Despite the 'handicap' of his injured foot, Clint nearly kills Rani and Prim.
- Hero of Another Story: Suggested, as Katniss speculates that she would root for tributes like Clint to be the winners this year if it wasn't for Prim being part of the Games.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Peeta enters the Games fully prepared to die so that Prim will come home, and both District Four tributes volunteer as the original choices were a twelve-year-old boy and a girl with a crippled arm, Four operating on an agreement to look after their weaker members.
- Hidden Depths: While he refers to most of the other Tributes as "meat" and often talks about his plans to kill them, Cato muses at one point that he'd like to have a garden once he and Clove return to District Two as he likes the idea of peacefully tending to it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: A lesser example; when Peeta is attacked by Coral, the District Four female tribute, in the Cornucopia, he kills Coral by driving her own knife into her gut and then throwing her to the ground so that the knife is driven further into her body, although Katniss's comparison to a move from a wrestling match suggests Peeta may not have registered the knife and factored it into his actions.
- Hopeless Suitor: Rani is established as one, as she falls for Peeta but recognises that his feelings for Katniss are too intense for him to ever feel the same.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance:
- The majority of the Capitol believe that Peeta is the father of Katniss's child rather than Gale.
- While watching the Games, Katniss is surprised to hear Cato and Clove say that they have two days' worth of food when the same food could last Katniss a week, but reflects that in their position she would also be able to forage for additional supplies, which the Careers don't know how to do so.
- I'm a Humanitarian: A Tribute in the Sixty-Ninth Games started eating his victims before he was killed by mutts, and since then, the Capitol swiftly remove the bodies of the dead Tributes to prevent a repeat of that event.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: When Katniss is Reaped for the Games, the idea of this prompts Prim to volunteer in her place to protect the baby.
- Innocently Insensitive: A good description of most Capitol residents' thoughts on Katniss being so thin when she comes to the Capitol (they assume she's just trying to look good rather than genuinely short of food), but particularly applies to Snow's granddaughter Lyta, who appears to have no idea how bad things are in the outer districts.
- Irony: Applies to Grata, the District Six tribute, who muses that she's so bad at everything than even a girl who isn't right in the head gets picked for gym class over her, and yet she gets picked for the one thing nobody wants to be chosen for.
- It's All My Fault: In Participant, Peeta blames himself when he learns that the group home in Five where Rani lived has been burnt down; officially it's just a terrorist act, but all concerned parties recognise that this is Snow's way of demonstrating what will happen if Peeta steps out of line.
- Kick the Dog: The two potential sponsors for Prim that Katniss genuinely liked are accused of treason and killed by the end of the Games, while their twelve-year-old daughter is made an Avox and forced to become Snow's servant.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Peeta and Thresh act as this for Prim and Rue respectively, Thresh making it clear that he doesn't want to hurt Rue (leaving it open to the viewers' interpretation what he'd do if it comes down to just the two of them) and Peeta vowing that he'll make sure Prim gets home.
- Lack of Empathy: After Glimmer dies, a scummy reporter asks her mentor father Striker what he felt about his daughter being vaporized into Ludicrous Gibs on live television, a question considered "even callous by Capitol standards". This ends up being Striker's Rage Breaking Point in the exit interview, with him punching the reporter in question and later being Killed Offscreen, most likely for lashing out in his grief.
- The Lancer: Rani serves as the scout for Peeta's alliance, but she ultimately dies from suicide as she has no hope of getting the outcome she'd hope for.
- The Leader: Peeta serves as the leader of his alliance, in contrast to the Careers who never trust each other enough to have that kind of command structure.
- Like Brother and Sister: In contrast to Peeta and Katniss being presented as the "Star-Crossed Lovers of District Twelve" in canon, in this version of events, Peeta sets himself up as Prim's older brother, aided by the fact that they even look slightly alike, and a similar dynamic is expressed between Thresh and Rue.
- Living Emotional Crutch: In Participant, Willow seems to fulfill this role for Prim, as seeing her niece helps Prim remember that she had a good reason for volunteering for the Games, to say nothing of Katniss's assurances that she would have likely lost the baby if Prim had died in the arena.
- Loophole Abuse: Defied; the primary rule of Peeta and Prim's alliance with other Tributes are that they focus on trying to kill the Careers and not kill each other, but Peeta added another rule that they're allowed to kill one of the group if that person tried to kill them first.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Invoked; Axel's repositioned mines literally disintegrate Glimmer when she steps on one by accident after he sets them off.
- Manipulative Editing: After Rani kills herself, Katniss notes that the Capitol have edited the subsequent broadcast to present Rani as a lovesick girl who killed herself because she can't be with Peeta while removing her more anti-Capitol statements. The broadcast version of her death even goes so far as to give the impression that Peeta gave Rani the nightlock during their talk rather than her receiving it earlier as a sponsorship gift, although Katniss finds the editing so obvious that she can see that Rani's mouth doesn't match the words she's allegedly speaking.
- Mercy Kill: After Thresh breaks Cato's back, Cato asks Clove to kill him because he doesn't believe the Capitol can treat his injury and he doesn't want to be a burden to her.
- Named by the Adaptation: All of the Tributes of the 74th Hunger Games are given names if they were nameless in the series, e.g. "Foxface" is named Rani and the District Three boy is named Axel. If their names aren't stated in Participant, then it's revealed in Tribute, a side-story that focuses on the thoughts of the Tributes at the Reaping as well as a snippet of each of their backstories.
- Neck Snap: Cato kills Axel with one.
- Never My Fault: In the final confrontation, Clove basically blames Peeta for nothing more than not dying like he was "supposed" to, although in this case, the only person who could arguably be at 'fault' from Clove's perspective is the girl who was meant to volunteer for Two this year and chose to let Clove get Reaped.
- No Social Skills: Lyta, Snow's granddaughter, is a nice girl who just has no real idea how to get people to like her, as her grandfather's reputation is obviously intimidating.
- Not So Similar: Madge assures Katniss that her sympathy for Peeta and Rue might be awkward as Katniss recognises that they have to die for Prim to come home, but it also represents what makes her better than the Capitol as she recognises that the other Tributes are people and not pieces in a game for her amusement.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Johanna stops using her usual nicknames and addresses people by their true names is a clear sign that she recognises that she crossed a line.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Katniss comes to recognise that Haymitch plays up his drunkenness so that people will underestimate him, with the result that they assume some of his 'plans' are just drunken ideas that played out through sheer chance.
- Older Than They Look: It is explicitly stated that Caesar Flickerman has been interviewing Tributes since the last Quarter Quell, which makes him older than Katniss's mother.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Katniss becomes pregnant when she has sex with Gale for the first time while both of them are drunk.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. It is apparently a recurring joke that there is always at least one tribute with the name 'Taylor' in the Games, but on this occasion, both District Eight Tributes have that name.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: In Participant, Katniss's daughter is officially named 'Pulchuria' as a result of the Capitol vote, but everyone in her life calls her "Willow".
- Only Sane Man: Glimmer is this to the Careers, being the main person holding the alliance together and acting as peacemaker in the midst of everyone else squabbling with each other; the author describes her to have "added some much needed common sense to the Career Pack".
- Open Secret: To a point; nobody was particularly bothered about hiding the parentage of Katniss's baby before the Games, so quite a few people were aware that Gale was the father, but after the revelation about Peeta's feelings most of the Capitol assume that Peeta is the father; Snow makes it clear that he knows that's not the case after a DNA test, but he accepts that Peeta knows this and is willing to die for Katniss anyway.
- Pragmatic Hero: Applies to Peeta, Thresh and Rani's decision to dissolve their alliance; with only two Careers left in the Games at that point aside from the five of them, they decided it would be best to break up now and take their own chances rather than stay together and risk reaching a point where they would be expected to kill each other.
- Pragmatic Villain: When speculating why Snow doesn't make his position hereditary, Haymitch muses that the answer may be that Snow's legitimate eldest son (Snow has various illegitimate offspring but only two legal children, his son Demetrius and daughter Titania) is too incompetent to take over and drawing up the paperwork to make someone else his heir would be too blatant a power grab.
- Rape by Proxy: In Participant, Snow basically does this when he orders Katniss and Peeta to provide a "playmate" for their daughter.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- In an interesting way, Seneca Crane is this, starting with the minor detail that, unlike many Capitol residents being overly keen on touching Katniss's stomach without caring about her opinion, Crane actually asks Katniss's permission to do so. When having dinner with the families of the remaining Tributes, Crane asks for their thoughts on the Games and seems to genuinely listen to their suggestions for changes that might be made to future Games, such as adding secret stashes or a second Cornucopia so that lower-ranking Tributes could find resources themselves rather than relying solely on the original Cornucopia and gifts from sponsors (although he notes that such changes can't be used for the upcoming Quarter Quell as it takes too long to design a field to make changes this soon).
- In as much as any of the past Victors have any authority, Finnick in particular is presented as this, having no problem assisting Haymitch in keeping an eye on Peeta during the Games when Haymitch is occupied, even though Peeta killed the female Tribute from Four in the opening bloodbath.
- Sanity Slippage: Haymitch reflects that Clove seems to have lost it in the last stage of the Games after she's forced to Mercy Kill Cato, but Johanna observes that she doubts Clove ever "had it", musing that Two's Tributes are always a bit "cuckoo".
- The Scapegoat:
- After the Games end, Rani is basically made the scapegoat for Peeta's near-suicide attempt, with the Capitol playing up the idea that her speech before her death is the reason Peeta was so certain the Capitol would only allow one Victor.
- From outside the arena, the Capitol basically 'blames' Claudius Templesmith for the delay in announcing a winner after Clove's death, Snow stating that he never gave any order for the rule change to be invalidated.
- Shipping Torpedo: While Gale still loves Katniss, his controlling behaviour after she becomes pregnant puts Katniss further off the idea of a relationship, with his jealousy after Peeta's televised confession of love serving as the final nail in the coffin.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Basically applies to the District Four female tribute, as she talks a big game in her interview about her plans for victory but gets killed by Peeta during the opening bloodbath.
- The Smart Guy: Prim basically takes this role in Peeta's alliance due to her being the team's medic.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike in canon, Seneca Crane survives.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Katniss and Peeta, as always, but also applies to Cato and Clove, who go into the Games together against their will as someone else was 'meant' to volunteer that year rather than Clove being chosen and forced to go in to compete against her boyfriend.
- Tested on Humans: During an interview with the Gamemakers, Seneca Crane states that mechanisms in Hunger Games arenas like falling trees, fire jets, and muttations are tested on criminals released inside them. Katniss is obviously horrified by this.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: While Katniss anticipated that the Capitol wouldn't let Tacoma live after her stunt in her interview, she considers it excessively cruel that they sent twelve wolf-like Mutts after her during the Games.
- Token Good Teammate: Calling the Capitol a 'team' might be an exaggeration, but while meeting potential sponsors for Prim, Katniss is genuinely touched when she meets with Undersecretary Antonius and his wife Scibonia, who were supporters of Prim in the Games on her own merits, offer to send Katniss their daughter's old things for the baby even if Prim doesn't survive, and even suggest they might sponsor Prim if she decides to go to medical school so that she can study in the Capitol; Effie observes that they might even 'hire' Prim to be a companion for their daughter in the future, thus sparing Prim from becoming a sexual plaything for other Capitol residents. Naturally, they're accused of treason and killed before the Games end.
- Took a Level in Badass: Where Peeta went into the Games in canon certain he'd lose and hence never applied himself to the Tributes' training, here he focuses on his physical abilities in his self-appointed role as Prim's protector, allowing him to kill the female Tribute from District Four in the opening bloodbath and give Clove a potentially serious concussion.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: As the Games begin, Peeta and Prim are soon revealed to have formed an alliance with Rue and Rani during training. The girls agree to focus on collecting supplies from the Cornucopia while Peeta grabs weapons so that the four can rendezvous later.
- What If?: Katniss's pregnancy changes everything from the original course of events.
- Why Can't I Hate You?: To a degree, this applies to Cato and Clove; Katniss never forgets that they're Careers and Prim's opponents, but it's hard for her not to feel moved by their genuine feelings for each other.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing:
- The Capitol attempted this after Peeta kills Clove, as Prim's recent injuries left them with a scenario where they just had to wait until Prim died of her injuries and then they could be left with a single Victor while arguing that they couldn't have saved Prim anyway.
- Also applies to Prim, as she is never shown explicitly killing anyone during the Games even if she contributes to her Alliance through other means; the Capitol later bend the truth to claim that Prim killed Clint when he could have easily died of a different injury inflicted by Rani a few moments later, as they disliked the idea of a Victor who never killed anyone.
- Would Hurt a Child: The various Tributes are all put in a position where they're expected to do this, but their ability to actually do it varies, with Thresh vowing that he won't kill Rue in particular and Piper (the female Tribute from District Ten) trying to psyche herself up for the act by referring to Prim as a lamb.
