A lot of what Benedict says doesn't make sense to Finnick; mercury fulminate and crystal mechanism mean nothing to him in the context of a gun, and he hadn't been out in the streets when the uprising in Four was crushed to know if the guns the Peacekeepers used had any sort of distinctive smell.

(There'd been new smells in the district, but they'd been smells of burning and destruction, smoke and fire from bombed-out buildings, and they'd been faded by the time anyone was allowed back out from their homes.)

Fortunately, Benedict does give enough else to work with that Finnick can start to understand the smell he's talking about. He's a sailor, so he knows the smell of lightning, and charcoal and steam are easy enough to bring to mind.

Finnick shakes his head. "No. It smells like salt and hot sand, sometimes raw fish and whatever's coming in on the wind."

He looks down at the little flower, frowning, and takes another deep breath to be sure of the smell. It's definitely salt and sand, not ozone and charcoal. The little thing looks bright and harmless, but Finnick has seen the recordings of the Second Quarter Quell, and there's something deeply unsettling about the idea of something that smells different to different people.

"They've made something that smells different to different people," he says, his voice wary.