sixthiterationlogs | ψ come away little lass come away to the water

WHO: E V E R Y O N E
WHERE: The waterfall
WHEN: During the hot weather in late May
OPEN TO: Anyone
WARNINGS: PROBABLY NAKED. cw your warnings in individual threads.
STATUS: Open. THIS IS A MINGLE, have at it, tag around, you know what to do. If you want Finnick, let me know in the comment subject!

He wouldn't actually say it was really hot yet, but it's definitely getting to the sort of temperatures that make Finnick miss swimming. There's no substitute for the sand of a beach underfoot, the reassuring roar of the surf, the taste of salt in the air, but there is at least water here, tumbling down from the waterfall and flowing through the canyon until it disappears into the rocks to the south. And he knows from constantly checking his fish traps that the water is deliciously cool.

He's tested out a few spots along the river for swimming, and it's good to be in the water again, after being kept out of it for so long by the harshness of the winter. Not swimming doesn't feel right to him, and it never has. He's never spent this long somewhere with a winter this cold, and he can't remember ever going this long without swimming. So Finnick's been testing the water out since before it was probably what most people would consider to be warm enough to swim. It had helped that he and Annie had some gifts to hunt for in the river, but those have long been found, and now it's just for relaxation.

The calmest, most relaxing place he's found so far for swimming in the river is the pool at the foot of the waterfall, where the water plunges into the canyon crisp and cool from the heights of the cliffs. It's deep around the falls, and it's big enough to swim, and Finnick spends most of the hottest parts of the day there.

So whenever he hears someone talking about the heat while he's dropping food off in the village, he suggests they try the waterfall pool. Word's likely to get around, so he won't be entirely surprised to find other people stopping by the falls.

When they do, they're likely to find him swimming around the deep part near the falls, stripped down to his underwear and, from the grin on his face, having the time of his life. It's clear just from looking at him that he's good at this, moving through the water with a confidence and grace more like to a sea-creature than a man. He's in such a good mood that he even calls out to greet many of the people who approach.

Of course, he's not the guardian of the waterfall: everyone's welcome to stop by whether he's there or not. Once or twice, there's even a moose to be seen standing at the edge of the pool taking a long, relaxing drink.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Their first meeting hadn't gone well and since then Wanda had actively avoided Peeta. She didn't need his fear or his hate, she was tired of it. It felt almost impossible to avoid seeing him now. Almost everyone was at the water fall and Wanda didn't want to sacrifice the relief of the water due to her own worrying tendencies.

She had been drifting for some time, letting the water curl up against her. She dipped her head beneath the water, pushing her hair back so that it was slick against her neck. It was then that she saw Peeta, more accurately, she saw his cast.

Her lips formed a thin line. She hadn't realized that he'd been hurt.

Wanda was very slow to make her way over to him, pausing a yard or so away, just in case. "You okay?" She asked in a light voice, her accent allowing for her concern to seep into those two simple words. She had brought food and water knowing that some might need it. Given the heat and the fact that peeta had to sit outside the water he should probably drink water and keep himself hydrated.

The way he'd reacted when he first arrived at the village - others from Panem understood the worry and fear, knew why he'd done what he'd done, but the other residents hadn't completely gotten it. Still didn't, in fact. But it had been proved to Peeta that he'd assumed a lot and reacted without provocation to people just trying to help, and he felt bad about that. It wasn't like he wanted to hurt anyone, or make them fear him, especially when he had nothing to gain from it. He could do it - and had - but it was working at cross-purposes at best here. Whatever the Observers had in mind, the people actually living here weren't their puppets and weren't behaving like they were. Fixing up the bakery and working in the inn at least helped alleviate that guilt a little.

Most of them, he'd managed to apologize to, but there were a couple he'd missed. Or were avoiding him. Wanda was one of those, and when she'd actively started avoiding him, he hadn't pressed it, since he'd been the one acting so poorly and not her. He didn't know anything about what it was like where she came from, but what he'd done had hurt her. He wouldn't push himself on her unless she asked.

Which she was now, in a way. Peeta gave her a quick smile, a normal one, friendly and even a little "bright," shrugging a little. "I can't swim." It wasn't exactly the question she'd asked, but he thought she was asking why he wasn't down in the water. The leg was an obvious thing, after all.

Wanda's eyebrows rose in an curious ark. That wasn't the reaction that she'd been expecting and it caught her by surprise. Whatever she had been prepared to say next died in her throat.

He had a pleasant smile, the sort of boyish grin that made you want to smile back at him. It helped her relax and almost smile back at him. She hadn't forgotten how he had reacted but Wanda was a believer of leaving the past where it was. It was one of the few ways that she was able to move forward.

"Because of this?" She asked, her accent rolling pleasantly through her tone. Wanda pointed to the cast thinking that it was the weight that kept him from getting into the water.

His arrival had... circumstances attributed to it, ones that he'd started getting into with a few people, cautiously, the habit ingrained to not speak against the Capitol no matter how much he disagreed with them very deeply. Stella knew some, he'd dropped a few comments that he wasn't sure Jacob had heard, but overall he - and most of the Panem citizens - were still keeping it quiet. This was an arena, after all, even if it was different from the ones they'd been in before. Things were still happening to incapacitate and even kill them. The place was obviously controlled by something for all the sudden changes and unusual weather phenomena there were.

And that meant they needed allies. Peeta wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to patch things up with a girl he'd frightened before, not when she might be able to help. He'd do it anyway, since he didn't like fighting people or scaring them, but there was no possible way he'd let a chance like this slip past.

"Not just this." The brace he has on is made of wood, chunky and annoying, but it was working. It immobilized the lower leg, where the break was, leaving him some measure of movement in the knee, although that was restricted as well. Crutches that were obviously made from spare wooden parts and rags made out of towels were laid behind him. "I never learned. We don't have anywhere to swim at home." The words were matter-of-fact; in District 12, knowing how to swim was very unusual. Katniss and Gale were the only two he was sure knew how.

Wanda watched him curiously. He wasn't at all like the boy she'd met in the woods. It made her a little nervous but a little grateful as well. She tugged her dark hair over her shoulder, twisting the silk strands to release the water at her side. She'd learned to swim though she can't do it particularly well. Just well enough to not drown.

"Do you want to learn?" There were plenty of people who would be willing to teach him. Wanda would offer but she'd just tell him to get into the water and try not to drown. That probably wasn't a helpful way to learn. Then again, she could probably give him some instruction if he wanted to learn how to swim.

She turned to look at the water, watching as it turned and swirled against the shore. "You should learn." She spoke a little softer. "It's nice."

Peeta gave a small laugh at the suggestion, looking up to the waterfall with a smile. It did look nice... refreshing, really. It's getting hotter, and although he's got a pretty good tolerance for the heat, being able to cool off would be a nice change. Still, there's the bathtub in the house for when he needs to do that.

"It's useful, definitely." Or at least it had been in the arena, or would have been if he could do it. That had presented some problems, and Mags had had to rescue him. "Katniss started trying to teach me once, before we got here. I only got one lesson though, and that wasn't a long one." And then, in what seemed to be an abrupt change in topic- "Do you want a cookie?"

Wanda watched him with a curious stare. She didn't know what to make of Peeta but she let her opinion remain variable for the time being. There would be time and her accounts of him were so different that she wasn't sure what to think.

She was a good listener and she noticed the change in topic. "Sure." Cookies sounded good though she had to wonder where he got them. She wasn't going to ask about Katniss but she wasn't going to completely let the topic of conversation go either.

"I can teach you to swim." Sort of. It'd be interesting.

ψ come away little lass come away to the water | SWIMMING MINGLE OTA

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