take ii | woods

Finnick's been unsettled. Since he saw Moana, since the kidnapping, since the video hinting what was to come showed up on his watch. All of it reminds him of Panem. Of the Games, of the way he'd been so convinced this place was some sort of punishment for his revolutionary plans. He's taken to going back to the hatch he, Hawke, and Jessica had found while he's on his rounds of his fish traps. He hasn't seen Moana again, or any of the others who had been staying there, but that doesn't stop him looking.

He's perched in a tree near the hatch when it happens; a cloud of floating blue lights drifts out of the woods towards him. He stares for a moment, then drops out of the tree and starts to run. But the cloud is bigger than he'd thought, or maybe there's more than one, because he sees more lights ahead of him, and as they grow closer, he can see that the lights look like floating jellyfish, from barely more than a speck to the size of an actual small jellyfish, and immediately, he knows he doesn't want to be near them, doesn't want to let them touch him.

He darts to one side, but the cloud changes direction too, and drifts into him.

"Ow!"

The sting could be worse, but as he runs, trying to get away from the things, he can see that his skin has started to glow. They're going after him, like mutts, some sort of new trick of the Gamemakers, and Finnick runs for the river and despite the cold, plunges in up to his knees and starts running upstream so he doesn't leave a trail. He can't run fast, because the riverbed has rocks and other obstacles, but he keeps at it for maybe five minutes before he returns to dry land.

The creatures are left behind now, but he can hear something else ahead of him, and he stops, raising his spear in a defensive posture, and stares into the trees.


[ Finnick is in a fighting mood, warning to expect delusional belligerence. ]

several days later | dojo

Finnick has gone through periods of visiting the dojo to train and preferring to practice at home. He and Annie had woven the practice mats, but he's been downplaying his training and abilities and has avoided trying to show other people his abilities. After the kidnapping and the fit of delusion that had led him to think he was back in the arena, though, Finnick's decided to return to the dojo. He warms up by running through the obstacle course, and to anyone watching, it's clear that Finnick has had practice using equipment like this. He has excellent balance, amazing upper body strength, and strong jumping and climbing skills. He runs through it several times, getting faster and faster as he goes, and leaving himself out of breath and sweating, even in the cold outside air.

After that, he moves inside and works at the training dummies or punching bags. He fights with his hands and his feet, in a style that looks something like kickboxing and something like an out and out dirty brawl. He'd been trained to attack, to fight and injure or kill in a place without any rules except stay alive. Afterwards, he stretches out on one of the sparring mats, and heads out to the shelves to over to look at the training weapons on offer. This afternoon, he hefts a sword, checking the balance, and looks over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps.

"Hey."

lake

It's been slow work repairing their boat. The spot on the lakeshore where Finnick and Annie had found the ruined fishing flotilla is nearly a day's walk away; they'd been unable to do any work on their boat over the deepest cold of winter. They needed to wait for the weather to warm enough for them to take their tent and sleeping bags out to the lake. They've had to repair some more damage that had been done by the weather over the winter, but they're finally ready to check the watertightness. If it's watertight, they'll be able to tow it around the lake to somewhere they can get to it more easily while they finish it.

They'll have a boat again. They'll be able to go out on the lake, and Finnick's already planning a freedive when it's warm enough.

"What do you think?" he asks Annie. "Ready to try it?"