all_inclusive | (no subject)

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

"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?"