ψ haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds? | OTA

[fishermansweater]

WHO: Finnick Odair
WHERE: The woods, by the fields, and the Inn
WHEN: June 6
OPEN TO: EVERYONE
WARNINGS: None so far but always the chance of Panem-related asshattery

---

THE WOODS

OTA

He thinks they're dandelions. At least, they look like dandelions. But for all his training, edible-plants was never Finnick's strongest point. Fishing, hunting, improvising nets and ropes out of whatever he could find around him, those were the skills that got him through the arena of the 65th Hunger Games. So when he finds that a spot in the woods near one of his fishing traps has, in the space of a few days, erupted into a carpet of fluffy white balls that burst seeds into the air as he walks through them, Finnick's immediate response is uncertainty.

He crouches down by one of the plants and peers at its leaves. Dandelions, he knows, are safe to eat. He's seen tributes eat them in the arena. But he isn't sure if these are actually dandelions or just some other plant that acts like them, and he can't remember as he studies the leaves whether or not that's what dandelion leaves look like. if they were dandelions, shouldn't there have been flowers? Or at least, flowers for longer than the time it's been since Finnick last walked through this spot?

Maybe someone in the village will know. Maybe Katniss will know, since somehow she seems to know a lot more about how to survive in the wild than any tribute from her District he's ever seen. (There's a story there, somewhere, but it's a story that nobody would expect anyone else to share, at least not someone who's spent as long under the Capitol's surveillance as Finnick.)

So Finnick gathers a collection of leaves from the plants, and tries his best to collect one of the fluffy heads without it bursting into the air, and puts them in one of the woven baskets he and Annie use for transporting fish.

THE FIELDS

OTA

Finnick plans to stop by the fields on his way home, with the vague thought that there might be someone there who's able to help him work out what the plant he's found is. But as he cuts across from the woods towards the fields, Finnick's suddenly overcome by the smell of salt on the breeze, the tangy smell of the sea that means home.

He stops, uncertain, and raises his trident, his body suddenly tense, the alertness that's always running under the surface suddenly springing to the surface. It's impossible that he's smelling the ocean here; surely it can only be some sort of trap.

He waits, only sign of movement the rapid rate at his his gaze goes from one spot to another, scanning trees, shrubs, anything that could act as cover. It's only slowly that he realizes there's no real apparent danger, and heads towards the smell.

THE INN

OTA

The smell of the sea had turned out to be coming from another unexpected spring blossoming, this time an expanse of purple flowers on the boundary of the fields. He doesn't remember seeing wildflowers there before now, and now there are so many of them that they look like a field of their own. Since he already has a sample of uncertain flora in his pack, he'd picked some of these flowers, too, and he heads for the Inn with his samples in his backpack.

He stalks into the main room of the Inn, because it's one of the places it's common to see a lot of the villagers gathered. He has one of the purple flowers in his hand, and he holds it out, his head tilted to one side, as he leans on the never-stocked bar.

"Is it me, or are there more plants around than there should be?"


[ We're playing with Fluffpods and Forget Me Nots! Check them out on the Flora list for more information about them. ]

Comments

[burn_with_us]

"They want us to fall. They can make examples of us and show that even if you win, even if you beat them at their own game, there are other games."

Katniss sighs a little, scuffs the toe of her boot in the dirt. She's angry but being angry here, so far removed from where she can do anything? It only leads to frustration.

"It's like Haymitch says. You're always playing even if you aren't in the arena."

[fishermansweater]

"Not us. We're too popular to make public examples of."

But there are other examples to be made. Examples to the other victors, and examples to themselves. But the games that Finnick's been forced to play have always been ones with private losses: his parents, killed after the first and last time he'd lost control and let his instincts take over his sense with one of his patrons, and the rest of his family, killed in retribution for breaking the rules when he'd mentored Annie. But that's known only to him and Annie, and those of the victors who could put it together.

In public, they were just tragic fishing accidents, common enough in Four to be believable. He doesn't expect Katniss to know it, to know the depths of the games that he's entangled in, the fact that the person he is in the Capitol is nothing more than another game, and another, and another, so many that sometimes it's easy to forget where the games end.

Annie reminds him, when she can. When she's there, not home in Four while he's stuck in the Capitol's nets.

"We play the games that are just for us, the ones nobody knows the rules to until it's too late."

He says it quietly, almost to the flowers he's picked, and he can feel his neck burning.

[burn_with_us]

"We hardly ever win them," Katniss says softly. She doesn't know the extent of Finnick's private pain, only the bit he'd revealed to her in 13, but it's enough to know why he puts on a facade. It's enough to know why he acts one way in public and another in private.

"I'm always going to be on your team, Finnick, and I'm going to keep playing until we win."

[fishermansweater]

He'd sworn to be Katniss Everdeen's ally in the arena if it killed him, because she was more important than he was. Not that Finnick is without value: he's popular, even beloved, across much of Panem, and he knows things that even the revolution's planners seemed not to know, because his patrons think talking to him is harmless. But he's trapped, and he's tainted in a way Katniss isn't. He can persuade and inspire people, but he can't show the sort of open, honest defiance Katniss had. He can't make people ask themselves what if? in the way she does. He's loyal to her, but he's loyal to her because of what she stands for.

It's startling to hear an honest expression of personal loyalty from Katniss, who he hadn't known before she came here the first time. For a moment, he looks at her with the facade fallen, open honesty and confusion showing in his eyes.

"A lot happened between us in Panem before you got here." It's not a question; he's known for a long time that Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, and Johanna when she'd been here, all knew things he and Annie didn't. But it's never before been so obvious to him that somehow, he'd earned the trust of Katniss, someone he'd been observing for the past year, someone he'd seen didn't trust easily. "Most victors wouldn't trust me enough to say that."

[burn_with_us]

"When you've seen someone screaming and paralyzed in fear, it doesn't really make sense to keep the walls up," Katniss says quietly. She and Finnick have that bond and know that about one another. He's known about her fear, the overwhelming sense of anxiety that drifts over her from time to time. She knows about his too - he carries all the weight and fear of what's happening to Annie when he's not with her to shield her.

There's no sense in pretending you don't know a person when you're stripped down that way. She knows Finnick and trusts him with her secrets same as he'd trusted her with some of his own.

"We've been through a lot together, Finnick. I trust you. I have to trust you."