sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] Worried/Sick 2: Snake Expedition & Recovery!

hook line and sinker

Finnick does not like snakes. He'd been bitten by one in the arena when he was hiding out from the other tributes, and the time between the bite and the arrival of medication from Mags had seemed to last much longer than it really had thanks to the distorting effect of the pain.

He probably, actually, should have stayed away from this. But a lot of the villagers are out sick, and the people who can help with this mad snake hunt probably should. So Finnick helps to make snake catching hooks, and he's brought some with him when he shows up for the expedition. He's no expert on snake catching, but that's what he'd been told they needed, so he and Annie had gotten to work.

He'll be handing them out when they get close to the snake island, with a wry, "this should help."

off in your bubble

The concept of encouraging the snake towards a bag and then catching it up so it can't get back out is simple enough in theory, but when he actually sees the snakes, it's definitely not simple. He eyes them as they eye him, and he makes his way in a slow, wide circle, trying to get close enough to sweep it up with the long-handled hook he's holding.

The snake, however, has other ideas. At the moment Finnick starts to lunge towards it, it gives an angry hissing sound and shoots forward towards him.

Finnick lets out a yell, a sudden surge in adrenaline jolting into his body and making his heart pound in his ears. He darts sideways in a panic, trying to get himself away from it, but the snake's movement stops a couple of feet from him, suddenly. The snake rears up and strikes, its fangs landing on empty air, even though it had clearly wanted to bite Finnick. Somehow, it seems to be moving backwards, and despite the thrumming of fear in his body, Finnick stares at it.

"What's it doing?"

[ Finnick is red scrubs so in his moment of panic he's activated an invisible 2 foot round shield around himself! ]

Edited 2018-11-25 07:19 (UTC)

Alex has two poles with him, and instead of the shepherd's crook-like tool that Finnick also has, he uses one made to accommodate a braided cotton lasso that he's able to get around the snake from behind. With the animal focused on striking Finnick, it doesn't notice that Alex is even there until he's stuffing it into a pillowcase and quickly twisting the fabric shut to trap the snake inside. "Shhh, shh, calm down there buddy," he says to the snake, before he addresses Finnick at all.

"I don't think it was the snake doing that," he says, and approaches him, and reaches out as if to pat him on the arm- only to find it stopped against the forcefield.

"Yep. It's you. Congratulations on activating your superpowers."

If Alex wants to be the one that catches the snake, that's fine with Finnick, even aside from the fact that it's not clear he'd be able to approach the reptile if he tried. Alex appears to be some sort of snake expert, and Finnick's seen himself that he has a way with animals. Alex is quick and efficient in catching the creature, and even seems to manage to calm it a little. That, in Finnick's experience, is fairly impressive.

Admittedly, his main experience with snakes is the genetically engineered aggressive type used in the arenas, but if anything, that makes him more appreciative of Alex's skill.

He's not expecting what Alex does next. The hand that reaches towards Finnick stops in mid-air, about the same distance from him as the snake had been when its attack had failed. He frowns, darting a look from Alex's hand to his face.

"I'm not doing anything." His voice sounds less than entirely certain, though, because Alex seems to think he is.

"I don't really understand these things either- other than that it's tied in to the color-coded scrubs we get when she show up," he explains- or at least attempts to explain.

He doesn't like talking about things when he doesn't know all the answers- he's feeling less and less like a safari guide and more like just another person lost in the wilderness of the multiverse.

"I think once the adrenaline's out of your system, it should pass."

"Shukran," Altaïr answered, taking the hook with a grateful nod. "It is good to see the inhabitants here coming together to aid one another. How is it that you made the hooks, shabh? These will be very useful, not only for this."

His sincerity was complete. That people were willing to put in their due, to aid where they could - it was heartening. He'd seen similar in Masyaf, had worked to organise similar in times of sickness or times of famine. That it could be done here meant much.

Finnick didn't know all the words the other man said, their cadences unfamiliar to ears that had only ever known English, and only ever in the tones of Panem, ranging from the mumbling dialect of the fisherfolk to the fluting shrill of the Capitol. But the tone filled in what the language barrier blocked, and the honesty of the words shone through.

"I'm a fisherman," he explained. "I've had practice working on spears and tridents here, this wasn't much different except for making the hook." It was even true, for all that 'fisherman' skimmed over a lot of who he was.

"For that, we soaked wood and bent it into a curved shape. Easy enough to do if you have patience."

He slowly nodded his understanding. "I see. My home was bordered on two sides by water that was difficult to reach, at the foot of cliffs, or too fast-moving to trust. We kept ourselves to wells except for those few who would brave the waters to fish. I... was not of that number."

He had mistrusted water for as long as he could remember. He didn't know the cause, but he knew that being near it was enough to set his nerves on edge and swimming was far, far out of the question.

"The practice of soaking wood this way - I assume it makes it go soft until it dries into the shape you wish? Does it regain its original hardness?" This, he thought, could be useful in many, many ways. The uses for a good hook were many. The uses for spears even moreso. But if they were to have plows, they would need the harnesses and more. That would require good woodwork.

Benedict has no prior experience with snakes, since they don't exist in Spire Albion, but he's not an idiot. They don't look exactly warm and friendly, and he certainly wouldn't feel as comfortable letting one curl up on his chest the way Miss Hoppity likes to, and that compounded by Odair's obvious discomfort with the idea of trapping them, makes him almost equally nervous.

Still. Together, they can make this work.

Holding the bag, he's watching as Odair starts towards the snake, which means he's paying close attention when the snake lunges back and yet somehow is halted. This, oddly enough, is something Benedict is quite familiar with.

Taking the opportunity presented by the snake's distraction, he creeps up as silently as he can and drops the bag over the snake as it gets steadily pushed backwards as Odair approaches, leaning down to scoop the entire thing up while both parties are distracted.

"A similar thing happened with my Kate some time ago," he replies mildly, twisting the bag so he can knot the top of it as the snake writhes within. "It will fade, in time."

In hindsight, Finnick will probably realize that hunting snakes was not a great idea given his history, but it needed to be done, and he didn't expect to find himself so uneasy about going near the things. Earthquakes make Annie panic after her arena, so why not a stupid snake and Finnick?

He's glad that the snake's aggression is enough of a distraction to let Benedict get the bag over its head and the snake caught before it has time to work out what's happening and go for the one of the pair that it can actually get to.

"Not sure whether to be relieved by that or not," Finnick says, his eyes going back to focus on something like the spot where the snake had been. "Not exactly what I was planning, but at least we caught it." Even if it had been more you than we.

The snake jerks within the bag, sending the thing swinging from Benedict's fists, but luckily, despite it almost assuredly trying to bite through its restraints, no fangs get close enough to his fingers for him to be worried. Perhaps not having any experience with the creatures will work out well for him, in the long run, as he doesn't know just how afraid of them he should be.

He shrugs, setting one hand on his hip, the other holding the bag aloft.

"At least it is not permanent," he offers. "And, as far as we could discern, it did not cause any lasting effects."

"It's a good distraction," Finnick offers.

With the number of mutts in this place, one of which has actually killed people (not just people, Peeta, the kid who hadn't deserved any of this who'd still died), snakes that people have been known to survive probably shouldn't be this much of a concern to Finnick. He hadn't realized they would be. He gives the bag full of snake a wary look and slowly straightens from the defensive pose he'd struck.

"What happened with Kelly?" he asks. "I wasn't trying to do anything, the snake just surprised me."

The creatures he's seen here have been both fascinating and terrifying, but after having fought off a swarm of silkweavers, nearly being killed by their venom in the process, Benedict finds himself somewhat jaded towards animals of all kinds. Would he be more comfortable with his sword and gauntlet? Of course. But after over two years of being stuck on the Surface with neither of his primary weapons, he's grown used to their absence, and has accepted the fact that he may never see them, or his home, again.

This place, his little house with Kate, is his home now.

"At the time, she was attempting to break up an altercation I was having with Mr Barnes."

He was getting the ever-living shit kicked out of him, is what he means. Bucky had broken his nose already, was mere minutes away from crushing his throat and suffocating him to death, and Kate had come barging in, frying pan held aloft, ready to get in between them. Her bubble had saved her from an ignoble death, and had distracted everyone for long enough for them to give up on their fight. It had been an eventful morning.

"I do believe her anger was the cause for the barrier, and once she had sufficiently calmed herself, it vanished."

If anything, Finnick's reaction to his experiences with animals before he found himself here have made him more cautious, more suspicious. That's probably unsurprising since those experiences have included animals that were genetically engineered to use as weapons during the Dark Days and against the tributes in the arena. There had been plenty of animals that weren't mutts, too, but anything unusual in his experience was automatically suspect.

At least a snake was, mostly, just a snake.

Still, something in him found it a little relieving that he could protect himself, even if he didn't know just how he'd done it.

"She didn't mean to do it? It just happened?"

That does sound like what Benedict is suggesting. He can imagine it happening like that: Kelly being furious at the fight and interposing herself, and a barrier pushing them away like his had pushed at the snake.

"She was just as surprised as we were," he replies, seemingly unconcerned with the swinging bag in his fist and the bubble around Finnick alike. Having experience with it, he has written it off as not needing too much thinking about.

For a moment, it looks as though he's debating putting the bagged snake down on the ground, but in the end decides against it. Who knows whether or not it'd manage to wriggle out of the bag, and then they'd be forced to go find another one, and that might take hours of searching.

"It also vanished without conscious direction; one moment I could not touch her, the next, I could."

"Be good to know how I did it."

It could be useful here. Not for the snakes, not really, because in his experience they're not much of a problem if you stay out of their usual habitat. But there are dangerous animals and mutts here, and any protective edge he can get is a good advantage.

"I guess now the snake's in the bag, mine should go away too."

He takes a cautious step forward, not sure if the barrier will move with him or if he'll be stopped by it too. A few more steps and he's about as far away as the snake was, and he doesn't hit anything.

"I'm not doing anything consciously either."

"You might wish to speak with her about it, perhaps you can practice together."

There are undoubtedly others in the habble with the same newfound ability; they could get together if they so wished to try and learn about their skills together. Perhaps he should mention such a thought to his Kate, so she could rustle up a meeting time and place for this discussion, if someone has not already done so.

Careful to keep the bagged snake held away from his body, and therefore away from Odair as well, Benedict extends his free hand towards the other man, letting him step closer and closer until Benedict would either press his palm against his bubble or break through to touch his hand to Odair's shoulder.

Snakes are, perhaps, not entirely Phryne's favorite thing. But they're better than spiders at least, and besides. She's never been the sort of person to not throw herself at adventure, should the opportunity provide itself. And while she's not entirely certain that this is going to actually help the people who have fallen ill, it's certainly better than sitting and watching people continue to fall ill with no way to anything other than ease their symptoms and hope that will be enough.

Still, while she knows how to catch snakes in theory, actually managing it in practice is another matter entirely. Not that she doesn't try, but she only sort of manages it, and the sudden sound of someone yelling is enough to completely distract her from the intended goal of the expedition in the first place.

"It looks like something's stopping it?"

What that something is, Phryne can't say. But it's the only logical explanation she can think of for what she's seeing, for all that she wouldn't have believed it herself if she hadn't just seen it.

He doesn't intend to disrupt the others; the cry had been in genuine surprise and -- though he's not going to admit as such -- fear at the prospect of being bitten again. He's watching the snake, and the snake takes another angry lunge towards him, making him wonder again exactly why he'd thought this would be a good idea.

"Any idea what?" he asks Phryne. She doesn't look entirely at ease with what's in front of her either, though whether that's because of the snake or what the snake is doing isn't so easy to work out.

"It's almost like there's some sort of forcefield." He doesn't know enough about them to know exactly how they work, or how one would suddenly appear between him and a snake, and it's not doing what the forcefields in the arena do, more like what the ones around the Training Center, gently pushing the snake away like the forcefields are supposed to catch desperate tributes and keep them on the roof.

The idea of a force field, in precisely the way Finnick is currently using it, is not entirely something that Phryne is familiar with. But she thinks she has a general sense of what he's getting at all the same. (The fact that snake very clearly can't reach its target helps.) It doesn't do much to explain why or how the force field should happen to be there, but that's a matter for later, she figures.

"I'm afraid I don't have any idea on what. But it looks like whatever it is starts about... here."

She reaches a hand out at that, until it bumps up against the outer edge of the bubble.

"And whatever it is it's remarkably solid."

[MINGLE] Worried/Sick 2: Snake Expedition & Recovery!

Finnick Odair | Expedition OTA | red scrubs | scrubs powers

Bubble

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hook line and sinker

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Bubble

cw: suicide mention

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