Training academy anon from earlier, I have another long one: I know we both main d4 but I am actually a lil obsessed with d1 as a concept because "luxury" is such a wide spanning term and I hc that very few people in d1 actually live a luxurious life; most people work in factories that create plastic, cosmetics, distill liquor, or they farm animals with desirable hides(gator, mink, etc.) or refine raw goods from other districts (caviar and pearls from 4, coffee from 11, truffles from 7, wagyu from 10 etc.) A lot of artisan careers are very hard to get as the capitol has a limit on how much art they appreciate from the districts (typically d1 painters just design mass produced wall art as the capitol has a hard time accepting district ppl as being advanced enough to create 'real' art) and these positions typically go to the upper class in d1 as those born to factory workers typically become factory workers themselves. HOWEVER, the Capitol does have a small demand for dancers from d1. Not for the most prestigious ballet theaters (remember district cannot be viewed as something too high brow) but various upper mid-tier theaters/venues/restaurants that can afford a contract will employ them as background dancers. Once again, these positions tend to go to the wealthiest d1 citizens (and academy students but we'll get to that later) who can afford to train since childhood until their 19th birthday (gotta be done with reaping) and audition to the capitol agency in charge of their contracts to leave the district. These contracts typically only last until they are 30 where they then return to 1 and even while in the capitol the dancers have very strict rules to keep them as separated from society as possible (they live in their own housing complex with curfew and cannot have any interpersonal relationships with capitol citizens outside of work) The d1 training academy disguises itself as a scouting agency to find talent and train young dancers. Many kids who graduate without volunteering end up auditioning for a capitol contract. Sad extra: a lot of the capitol positions are also courtesan/escort jobs so the academy takes an active role grooming the students to be prepared for becoming dancers or victors :(
WELCOME BACK ANON this is absolutely fascinating and I love the world building here…d1 is really interesting to me because of what it could entail and I love this idea of it being used as almost a refinement factory for raw materials from the other districts. and it meshes well with what we know and what I’ve thought about for 1 as well where one of its “exports” is just sex trafficking. there’s obviously a demand for it and there’s not a lot of victors. but these ideas around the dancers in particular really have me inspired and are so well done, it’s definitely got my wheels turning mentally just thinking about how trapped those people would be and how rife it would be for exploitation, but also how it would be an effective way to give people from 1 hope and a way to “advance”, as it were, by going to the Capitol and earning a little better status and money.
