(no subject)

[65th_victor]

Finnick kept expecting for the bottom to drop out. It was hard to believe that this wasn't a charade. He'd seen plenty of devious plans hatched and carried out in the Capitol, and there were certainly many that had this sort of longevity and creativity. But this lacked a certain level of cruelty that he had always been able to taste before. If it had been an arena, the need for blood would have won out long ago. No, this was something else. Maybe it was safety. Finnick wasn't ready to believe that yet.

Still, he had decided to lower his guard a little. It helped marginally that both Johanna and Katniss were here; if something was going to happen to him, it was going to happen to all three of them, and if there were any other Victors he wanted at his side, it was the two of them.

As it was, there was little else he could do. If the Capitol was playing a trick, they were holding out the cards. So, Finnick decided to enjoy the hotel. It was nice enough. Certainly on par with some of the nicer ones in the Capitol, although perhaps lacking the gaudier decorations.

He liked being out in the gardens, because he rarely saw anything resembled nature in the Capitol. But, without a doubt, his favorite area was the pool. There still was something unnatural about swimming indoors, but it was calming all the same to do lap after lap and just hear the quiet of the building surrounding him.

That's where he was at the moment, stripped to just his skin except for Annie's necklace, which was still tied securely about his neck. He treaded water for a moment before launching himself forward, heading back toward the shallow end of the pool again.

Comments

[three_two_one]

Felicity was about halfway through her mapping program. She'd pretty well finished the public areas of the hotel itself and was just starting the bigger areas in her attempt to get some sort of lock on the weirdness she'd been calling home for a month now. With an ancient laptop, now completely rewired with more recent tech under the hood, she walked the perimeter of the pool area, getting the room's layout as well as size, muttering to herself as she did so and completely unaware that she wasn't alone.

[65th_victor]

Finnick surfaced near the edge of the pool just in time to watch a woman walk past. He almost instantly zeroed in on the strange that she was carrying. It looked a bit like some of the odd technology that flooded the upper levels of the Capitol -- strange stuff that they had never let near the districts. And maybe that was why he felt a bit wary when he saw it even though she didn't look Capitol -- at all.

"You better watch your footing," he said from where he bobbed at the edge of the pool as she neared where he had left his clothing and a towel. He said it with his usual charm, a wide smile tacked on; it was a lie to what he was really feeling at the moment -- which was wary.

He didn't really think that she was a threat, so to say, but the thing in her hands certainly was a reminder that he needed to keep on guard and that he didn't understand the place he was, and that was dangerous. Nothing agitated him more than not knowing what he was getting into.

[three_two_one]

"What?" Felicity started a bit when she heard someone speaking - not uncommon when tech was occupying her mind. She played back what he'd said and nodded. "Right. Water and tech don't mix unless you're looking for a really bad perm. Which I'm not."

That was when she raised her head to see who was speaking and nearly dropped the laptop. "Wow. Okay. Another chest to get used to."

[65th_victor]

Finnick couldn't help but smile when it took her a few seconds to catch up with everything he'd said. There was something refreshingly genuine about it, he supposed. And not exactly what he'd expect from someone who had access to the higher levels of technology. It must be different here, he surmised. More accessible, perhaps.

He openly laughed when she made the comment about his chest. He looked reflexively down at it, as if he had never seen it before. This, at least, he was more accustomed to.

"Anything I can do help you get used to it?" Finnick asked flirtatiously.

[three_two_one]

"No," Felicity replied, not rising to the flirt. "I'm mostly immune thanks to my boss using one of my offices as his personal gym and I've seen better. I mean, not that yours isn't impressive or anything. It is. Very. And I'm sure you work hard at keeping it like that, too."

She blew out a breath. "I should just not speak."

[kuno_ichi]

The Nexus pool was a pleasant novelty for April. Back home, her options were generally limited to the sewers down in the lair or the equally-unappetizing, ostensibly urine-filled water at the YMCA. For someone who spent the better part of her days concerned with giant, anthropomorphic turtles, she really didn't take the time to swim nearly enough.

Fluffy towel hung over one freckled arm, tugging absently at the band of her yellow bikini, she padded barefoot into the chlorine-scented room and then froze, blue eyes gone wide. For an uncomfortably long moment she stared, and then jerked her gaze forcibly away to a suddenly-fascinating crack in the tile.

Should she abort? Should she randomly mention the wide array of swim trunks available in the hotel shop? Should she politely offer her towel?

"Um," she settled on, and winced.

[65th_victor]

Finnick surfaced near one edge of the pillow only to find himself a few feet away from a girl he didn't recognize, who looked a bit, well, uncomfortable he supposed. He hadn't been certain if there were going to be many people passing through the pool. He had thought not since there weren't any people down here when he came -- but clearly she stood as proof to the contrary.

"Can I help you?" he asked with a flirtatious grin when she seemed to be at a loss for words.

He suspected that it had something to do with his relative state of nudity, but he wasn't ever shy when it came to his body.

[kuno_ichi]

April's gaze instinctively flicked over, bounced back to the wall, and then shot back to the smiling face again, eyes wide and staring.

Oh god. Anywhere else, and she might have convinced herself that he could be anyone. In the pool, though? After what had happened to Isaac, there was only one conclusion for April to come to.

She'd just seen Finnick Odair's butt.

"Ah… nope. No, totally cool here," she hastily replied once she'd pulled her jaw up off the floor. "Just thinking about having a swim." She motioned with one hand in a vaguely wave-like motion. "Except I just remembered how I forgot to do something, so I should probably go. Do that."

[65th_victor]

"It's fine," Finnick said with a laugh when she seemed to grow increasingly more flustered. "I can leave."

He pushed himself away from the wall and began to swim back toward where he'd left his clothes in a messy pile on top of a towel.

"Turn around if you want to," he warned with a wry grin. He figured it was better that he give her fair warning this time. That done, he pulled himself deftly out of the pool and reached for the towel waiting for him.

[kuno_ichi]

"No, you really don't have to," April insisted, although she was quick to spin around before she got another eyeful. "You were enjoying yourself, and I don't want-"

She clamped her mouth shut, her stomach sloshing with guilt. It was like that afternoon when Isaac had told her about being in the arena only worse, as if reading those books and seeing the movies had made her a voyeur. Complicit.

"I'm not even a very good swimmer," she finally finished. "I can just go bowl or something."

[prettysure]

Funnily enough, of all the surprises Gwen had come to expect from this hotel, random naked guy in the public pool hadn't been one of them.

"Whoa! Oh- Okay, that's just-" she blurted from her place at the pool's edge, swathed in a towel and one hand held up as a censor bar, obscuring the lovely tanned bottom she'd already gotten a good look at. "Hey… yeah. That water's clear there, in case you didn't know. Didn't really plan on viewing anybody's junk today."

[65th_victor]

Finnick paused in the middle of the pool when he heard a female voice from near the edge. He hadn't known if he should have expected company, but it was amusing to listen to her prattle on; he had obviously caught her off-guard. He couldn't help but reflexively grin when he finally sorted out what she was trying to say.

He wasn't really used to people being uncomfortable when he was naked -- and maybe it was childish, but he had to admit that he had found it ridiculously amusing. There was something quaint about it. Novel. (And he knew his perspective was maybe just a tiny bit skewed because he'd been practically paraded around naked since the age of 14, but there you were.)

"Sounded like a boring day then," Finnick returned easily.

[prettysure]

The censor bar hand slid down so that Gwen could carefully regard the guy's face over the top. "Yeah, well…" she conceded with a half-roll of her eyes and an oblique gesture with her free hand. "I find boring is seriously underrated. I'm pretty okay with boring, actually."

While not strictly true, it hardly mattered when boring was apparently not on this guy's agenda. He looked positively delighted.

"You do this a lot, then? Flashing people? Is this some sort of guerrilla tactic for nudists?" she asked, eyebrows arching beneath her pale fringe. Send the hot guy with the perfect tuchus in, that'll convert them! Actually, now that she considered it, there were worse plans.

[65th_victor]

Finnick smiled charmingly at her when she moved her hand down far enough that they actually made eye contact. If he was being completely honest -- which he never was -- he would have preferred something boring himself, but boring never really seemed to be in the cards for him.

"When I feel like it," Finnick said with a lazy rise and fall of his shoulders, or rather, when it was expected of him. He'd simply given up arguing with it. Besides, when it came to swimming, he did prefer to simply be emerged in the water, to feel it against his bare skin. There was something strange about the need to put an extra barrier between them and the sea.

"Well, I don't usually get too many complaints," Finnick admitted, still smiling.

[prettysure]

"I could have been a little kid," Gwen said, as this seemed a steadier tack than acknowledging she could understand the lack of complaints. "I could have been a nun."

After she'd said this, it occurred to her that this guy, with his wide, self-satisfied smile, would probably be pretty okay with being responsible for the corruption of a woman of God.

"Can I get you something to put on? A robe? Towel? Sparkly thong?"

[71st_victor]

Johanna's been staying away from doors. It's not that she's scared of them, but she's building herself up a good stash of weapons and intelligence for when she does go back. There's no reason to let the Capitol hold all the cards and if that means soaking up this strange luxury for a little while longer, then she's more than happy to do it.

She's not surprised to find Finnick in the pool, given that she tends to stay near the woods out of the sense of familiarity it gives her. Raising her brow when she sees his lack of clothing (something she's never really shied from or blushed at), she takes a chaise for herself at the end of the length, stretching out as though a queen surveying her kingdom and waiting for Finnick to surface.

"Pity. If you were being watched right now, we'd probably be swimming in gifts," she says.

[65th_victor]

It takes only a glimpse of the figure on the chaise as he's swimming to figure out who it is. Johanna. He's a little surprised to see her down here, but the truth is that he still feels a bit better whenever he sees her here. Maybe because she's the only person he knows -- well, as well as one can know Johanna Mason, he figures. But it might be because that she works similarly to him; she perceives this place as a threat in the same that he does.

Finnick lazily finishes the lap and heads toward the edge of the pool near her. He pushes his arms against he side, legs still moving back and forth, keeping him bobbing in the water. He can't help but grin when she comments. (It's his Capitol grin, the one that doesn't really mean anything.)

"Water is so much more enjoyable to swim in, though," Finnick answers immediately.

[71st_victor]

"Don't smile at me like that, it makes me feel dirty," she says coolly, without much reaction or indignation. She's got her own affects that she plays, but she likes to think she doesn't need to use them on him. Unfortunately, they're fairly useless in the Games, too, seeing as once she let the facade fade away, everyone saw the truth of her. That said, she does feel a bit of an edge of jealousy that he can give himself over so much.

She doesn't ask if he wants company. He's getting it, regardless of want and whim. She shifts forward, the motion shifting her body language from languid and relaxed to tense and calculated as she rests her forearms over her knees. "So, Charming, found any interesting secrets yet?"

[65th_victor]

There are precious few people who call him out on anything he does; the Capitol never realizes when he's pretending. They take him at face value, love him for it. And at home, they all want to readily ignore what he is when he's at the Capitol. Johanna is one of the rare few people who sees the transition periods, and who calls him on his bullshit.

Most people would probably take offense to Johanna calling them out like that, the litany of insults. But Finnick accepts it for its novelty. Appreciates it, even.

"Most of the woman here are intimidated by nudity," Finnick responds, a teasing edge to his voice. It's a strange difference from the world of the Capitol. And not a real secret at all. But in the time he's been here, he hasn't been able to sort out anything helpful about where they are. It doesn't sound like she has either; although, he wouldn't put it above to her figure something crucial out and just not tell him.

[71st_victor]

She actually almost laughs at that, a high-pitched derisive little thing. Nudity is a weapon that can be used against people unused to the shock of it and she's always been pleased to wield it in her favor. "I doubt they've ever seen a naked body so well put together as yours. Not a compliment," she assures him sharply. "It's fact that you put the effort into it. We all do, don't we? Appearances," she says icily. "are the difference between life and death."

[burn_with_us]

Katniss still doesn't trust the hotel but since the only door that opens for her is one that goes back into the Arena, she spends most of her days wondering if she should stick with the devil she knows or the potential safety of this place. It changes from day to day, which she wants and today she is contemplating the door again. She needs to find Peeta. She needs to make sure he's alive to take care of her sister and her mother and even Gale.

Restless feet bring her to explore the other rooms in the hotel and she isn't terribly surprised to find Finnick in the pool. He's from District 4 and he practically grew up with fins surgically attached to his feet.

"You know, the sponsors must really not exist. You would be covered in gifts by now if they did...nothing but silver parachutes as far as the eye could see."

Katniss has never received gifts just to receive them - Haymitch always sends a message with his.

[65th_victor]

Finnick can just see the blurry outline of the Girl on Fire before he breaks through the surface of the water and is left staring up at Katniss. He still doesn't know exactly what to make of her; more of his knowledge of her is still based on what he's seen on television and whatever secondhand information has been passed down to him, rather than the minutes he spent with during training and their arrival here. He's glad she's here, if only because she's safe, but he still can't help but trust Joahnna a bit more. He and Jo have history, at the very least.

He smiles reflexively, an instinct he doesn't bother fighting; it's the smile that would make Johanna claim she feels dirty.

"How do you think I won my Games, darling?" he asks -- a lie, but one that most people would find amusing; he's sure that she won't. Sure, he had a hell of a lot of sponsors, but all the sponsors in the world wouldn't have taught him how to fight with a trident, how to find water. That was Mags, a lifetime ago, teaching him how to survive.

"Water's fine if you want to come on in," he invites with a tilt of his head, suspecting that there's no way he's going to get Katniss to strip down and take a swim with him.

[burn_with_us]

The idea of being naked around Finnick is not an appealing one. Katniss doesn't think she's prudish, exactly, but Finnick is a lot more forward than anyone she's ever met from District 12 and Katniss has no desire to get wrapped up in the pageantry. It reminds her of the Capitol in all the bad ways.

She can, however, tug off her boots and dip her feet in the water. Since Finnick's been swimming in it, she trusts that it's safe enough and she does, enjoying how it feels cool around her feet and ankles.

"No thanks. Some of us like being naked but I don't."

[65th_victor]

Finnick swims a little closer when Katniss actually sits and decides to join him. He continues to tread water, not trying to crowd her too much, because he does want the chance to talk to her properly, to try and get a better handle on her. He figures they're making some progress, because she had been flustered when he was wearing his net, but she doesn't even seem to be blushing now.

He makes no comment on her lack of nudity, although some bitter and well-hidden part of brain can't help but think how ready the Capitol had been to eat her up after her Games. It had been something of a wonder that Snow hadn't just started selling her and Peeta as a two-for-one special.

"What do you think of the hotel so far then?" Finnick asks. "Been through any of these magic doors yet?"

[burn_with_us]

"Only the one that goes back to the arena. I did try another that went somewhere that...there were children everywhere and everything was candy-colored, just like the Capitol. I didn't trust it as far as I could throw it. Impossible to scout it. There was too much right out in the open."

Katniss had quickly returned to the hotel after that. What she wants is to find a way back to 12 so she can warn the few people she cares about that something is brewing. This hotel can't be just what it seems on the surface.