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[71st_victor]

It had taken her a long time to find it, but once she has it in her possession, they'll have to pry it from her cold dead hands to get her to give up the small, but functional axe she'd found on the grounds in a shed. It's probably the remnant of some old gardener, but in her hands, it could be the difference between life and death.

She wishes there were tall trees around, the kind of soaring redwoods that adorned Seven. She'd learned to wield the sharp edge of her blade on thick trees standing hundreds of times the size of her. Meek, weak, and a little mousy, Johanna had learned that everything can fall if you apply enough pressure and cut them down at the right angle. Everyone falls and everyone bleeds.

Johanna hefts up the axe and makes her way outside, careful not to appear too overtly threatening. There are strangers roaming here and she needs to maintain the facade in case she has to play them. The axe has to be hidden where she can find it and she needs to seem like the little girl who frightfully entered the Hunger Games. She makes her way to the English Gardens, settling cross-legged on the ground as she starts to dig a hole in the ground. It's nowhere near six feet deep, but it makes her think of the grave she'd basically dug for herself by joining the rebellion.

Once she gets three feet down, she gets the axe in there, covering it up quickly and dragging over several blue bell flowers to mark the spot in a circle. She wipes the sweat from her face, smearing her cheeks with dirt like a hasty camouflage.

She's going to keep protecting herself, no matter the cost.

Johanna catches movement in the corner of her eye and she softens her posture and her expression, careful not to look too aggressive. She draws her hand over the soil and keeps the shadow in her peripheral vision, always wary. "Did you come to look at the flowers?" she asks quietly, head down, eyes averted.

Meek, weak, and murderous if given the chance.

Comments

[burn_with_us]

"I came to get outside," Katniss says, watching Johanna carefully. None of the victors is ever who they seem and Katniss always has to remind herself that these are experienced killers, just like her. But, also like her, Johanna and Finnick don't seem particularly interested in offing her so she has a wary sort of friendship. She isn't sure what Johanna is up to but she decides not to let it bother her until it becomes an actual issue.

"I can't stand being away from the woods this long. Even in the arena there's...nature. The hotel just drives me crazy."

[71st_victor]

"Oh, it's you," Johanna says dismissively, letting her mask fall away. The tension filters back into her spine and her fingers curls into the dirt as she cranes her gaze back at Katniss, watching her critically like she can figure out the girl on fire if she looks hard enough. "If you want nature, there's a whole expanse of snow through one of the doors. Might even put you on ice for a while, let you sizzle," she says. "Haven't ventured back into the arena, then?"

[burn_with_us]

"Uh, no. Not yet." Katniss thinks she will eventually, considering that seems to be the key to getting back to 12 but right now, she needs to rest up and regain her strength. She's been eating well in the hotel and that's exactly what she needs.

"I bet you'd like the snow too. I looked in there. There's trees so big you can't even see around them. I wouldn't even begin to know how to climb them."

[71st_victor]

"Maybe that's because you don't bother to put any imagination into it," Johanna replies as sweetly as she possibly can, as though she's actually being kind when really she enjoys whatever rise she can get out of Katniss. "Your tracker? I knocked it clean out of you, didn't I?" She has to make sure, especially if Finnick has a plan. "You aren't carrying it around on you?"

[burn_with_us]

"It's gone," Katniss confirms, rubbing at the spot. There's a disgusting scar there several inches long and it's raised up and red in a way that tells her that it's never going to heal; she's seen enough injuries at her mother's side to know that.

"Not that it matters, I'm sure they're monitoring us here with cameras if nothing else."

[wearethehunters]

"Hell no," Chuck says dismissively. He's been out for a run, determined to stay fighting fit in case some bloody door finally falls open to let him through and back to the Kaiju War. Even in a world without Kaiju, the only thing he knows how to do is fight them or train to fight them or think about new strategies to fight them.

He has to be ready.

"You?"

Something about her makes Chuck want to get the measure of this girl. She's wilting and sweet–but so is Mako, until the occasion says otherwise.

[71st_victor]

Johanna glances up at the man, assessing him as if they were in the arena and he's one of the stumbling blocks between her and walking out of there alive. She keeps her head bowed low, touching the petals of the delicate flowers as if they don't guard her weapon. "Sometimes, I like to come out and be reminded of what grows around us. I've always loved nature."

[wearethehunters]

That glance, too, reminds him of Mako but Chuck just shrugs. He doesn't see beauty in blue anymore. He sees poison blood, bio-luminescence, and death. They'd been organic creatures too, part of nature in a way.

"Can't imagine why. Just an ecosystem of things that are like as not to kill you."

[71st_victor]

Johanna doesn't laugh, but she presses her lips together to stop the high-pitched sound of delight from coming out at the remark. She's not allowed to be brutal around him. She needs him to think that she's not a threat. "You sound like you come from a place that has an ecosystem trying to kill you," she remarks, swivelling and crossing her legs as she looks up at him.

[wearethehunters]

She's another one then. Chuck doesn't expect it anymore. He and Raleigh are the only ones here who have any idea about the Kaiju, about everything they've both given up for the sake of an ungrateful world.

"Breach in the Pacific Ocean. Shitload of aliens out to kill humanity for ten years now."

[three_two_one]

"Not really," Felicity answered, tapping away on the Franken-laptop she carried around the Nexus. "I'm not a flower person, or even a nature person. I mean, they're pretty to look at but pictures don't harbor things that sting you, so I try to stick to those. Don't let me disturb your gardening, though."

She said the last in deference to the dirt smear on the other woman's cheek.

[71st_victor]

Johanna thinks of all the bodies the Capitol has buried and where they put them. Is there a plot for the fallen children of the Hunger Games? She can't imagine they'd ever sully their bright city with their corpses. "There are ways to learn what stings and what hisses," Johanna says. "If you spend enough time around them, you can learn to navigate every nasty thing there is."

[three_two_one]

Felicity blinked at the woman for a second. Because that wasn't dark, and a little creepy. "Maybe I should just leave you to your flowers? Didn't mean to intrude on the goth musings. My boss has his moments like that and I'm pretty sure my ramble is the last thing he wants to hear."

[71st_victor]

Johanna doesn't really like rubbing elbows with people, but she knows that she has to play the game and say the right things and get information if she wants to be careful not to end up dead. "Your boss?" she asks. "Maybe he likes to hear it and just doesn't want to admit it?"

[three_two_one]

That made Felicity laugh. "Actually, I'm pretty sure all he wants me to do when I start rambling is stop given how often he interrupts me when I do it. Anyway, not important. I was leaving you to the broody gardening thing if you wanted to be alone."

[65th_victor]

It isn't a surprise when Johanna speaks when he's still feet away, but then, Finnick isn't trying to sneak up on her. She is absolutely the last person in the world he would expect to be able to sneak up on, and also the last person he would want to anyway.

He drops down heavily next to her without saying anything, because he feels exhausted from everything that's happened, bone weary in a way that he refrains from showing anybody usually. No mask in place, no charm, no flirtation. But she's seen all the worst parts of him already, so he figures there's nothing left to hide. Really, she's the only person he wants to see anyway, the only person who will understand what's happening, even if she might not give a damn.

"Jo," he says, his exhaustion bleeding through into his voice. "Annie's here."

[71st_victor]

She drops the act as soon as she realizes who it is, but also because what he has to say makes her little game completely insignificant and pointless. "Well, fuck," she says, brutal and sharp. "That throws a wrench into things, doesn't it?" She can't help but wonder if maybe it's a good thing for Finnick. After all, he has her at his side now and he can protect her. It's more than worrying about what's happening to her at home.

Only because Finnick is her friend does she take a moment to be tactful. "So, is she...all there?"

[65th_victor]

Finnick looks up at Johanna at the question. He supposes it's not terribly surprising, and he knows that, for Johanna, it's downright polite. He presses his hands against his face for a moment, closes his eyes. He knows that she's not going to like the news any better than he did.

"She's from further along than any of us," Finnick answers after a moment. "Near the end of the water. Ten months after the Quell."

Those months -- for him, for Johanna, for Katniss -- they're all life-changing. For the longest time, Finnick had taken for granted that the hardest part of his life had come and gone when he was 14. Now, he knows better. He was never meant to live an easy life, and he knew the revolution wasn't going to simple, but hearing everything that will go wrong in one go makes it a difficult thing to swallow. Too many of his loved ones are hurt in the process.

[71st_victor]

She takes in a sharp breath when Finnick says that. She doesn't like her future being determined for her and it really feels like this steady sludge of being drowned by other people deciding what her life ought to look like. She hates it. She could spit, she hates it so much. "And?" she prompts. "What's the point of knowing the future if it doesn't give us an advantage?"

[65th_victor]

An advantage. He doesn't know if there's any advantage to be had, really. For all intensive purposes, they accomplish everything they set out to do. They overthrow the government. Win the war. It's just not without a cost. One that, logistically, they had all known they were going to have to pay.

He feels so off kilter, so unlike himself, that it's startling. He's having trouble reacting properly.

"We win the war," Finnick answers. "You and Annie are tortured by the Capitol. I die." He doesn't bother with building up to the topic or easing into it. Between Johanna and him, there aren't any bandages. They've both seen too much to bother shying away from the horrors. Winning the war is the optimum outcome; the torture and his death are the worst results.

And in that regard, a very selfish regard, he feels like the only possible advantage for Annie being brought here from so far into their future is a personal one. So they can spend more time together. There's nothing that will make the war easier or less violent, but there is a chance that he and Annie can spend one more night together.

[digyourman]

"To weed them, actually," Larry replied from where he'd stopped a few feet away, hands covered in dirt-smudged work gloves, his head tilted with mild curiosity. There was something entirely too familiar about the hunch of this girl's shoulders, of the wary flick of sharp eyes completely in contrast with the softness of her voice.

He really ought to have walked off right then, but Larry had never been terribly smart about these things.

"You're a little big to be making mud pies," he pointed out, squinting against the afternoon sun.

[71st_victor]

"I'm a messy gardener." Which is really just her way of saying she doesn't mind making the mess. Johanna sits back, lifting her shirt to wipe at the stains on her cheek and exposing a strip of skin at her stomach in the process. When she's fairly certain she's got most of it off, she takes in the man as if he's a potential threat.

Everyone is, no matter how charming or kind or seemingly insignificant. They're all threats. "I can help," she offers. "I mean, if you wanted help." Maybe she can learn something about this place in the process.

[digyourman]

Dropping his wooden box of supplies with a rattle, Larry looked out over the flower beds and then back to the girl. Closed off, he thought, but trying desperately to seem the contrary.

"Well," he answered at length as he knelt beside her and began rummaging through the box. "I get paid to do this. I don't mind the help, but you're going to have to let me buy you lunch or a drink or something in payment." He glanced up at her, utterly guileless, and then held out a second pair of gloves. "Otherwise it wouldn't exactly be fair."

[71st_victor]

"How about a drink?" Johanna suggests, reaching out for one of the tools so she can start to angle them in a direction away from where the axe is buried. "And maybe you can tell me where you're from? I don't think I've actually held a conversation longer than two sentences with anyone who's from here."

In a chilling way, Johanna thinks they're a little like the Avox servants in the Capitol and it's just one more reason to suspect this place of being another move in the Capitol's chess game.

[digyourman]

"I am from Boulder, Colorado," Larry replied, an answer that had finally established itself at the top of a mental hierarchy that included too damned many places. "That is on Earth, if you're unfamiliar. In the United States of America. Or, what used to be the United States of America," he conceded with a cant of his head as he reached for a weed and gave it a firm pull.

"I'm Larry," he added a moment later, casting her a sidelong glance.