redshiftlogs | ψ i've learned how earn my keep

Who: Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta
What: "Shopping" adventure!
When: Early September
Where: Double 017 and Whole Foods
Warnings: None yet

Finnick hasn't ventured out beyond the confines of the city yet. He's aware that it's dangerous outside, and though he's not quite sure exactly why, he's heard the word radiation. He doesn't know much about this place, but he'd been to Nuclear History class enough times in between his hospital stays in District Thirteen to have a basic awareness of what radiation can do. He hadn't had any particular reason to leave; there's food, water, fish, and basic supplies in the city, which is more than he'd had in the arena. But when he hears talk of a supermarket outside, Finnick starts to reassess. He's not actually entirely sure what he'd find at a supermarket; they don't exist in the districts, and he's only ever heard of them in the Capitol, but the chance to go raid for more than the basic supplies here in the city is enticing to a former Career. Steal, stash, and stockpile, that was the strategy they were taught to operate as a pack in the arena, and though that hadn't actually really been Finnick's strategy on either occasion he'd been in the arena, the instinct's still there.

He has one steadfast ally in this place: he likes Cho, and he likes her enthusiasm, but the only person here he knows he can trust to have his back in any circumstance is Annie. So after he thinks he's gathered enough information from reading and listening to messages on his communication device and listening around the city, he comes back to their quarters to find his wife sitting curled up on her bed.

"Hey, you have a moment?"

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"Maybe we'll find some packs out there?"

It'd be useful.

The air changes as they walk up and up the city, floor by floor getting worse. It'll be fine, Annie's sure, but it's something to keep in mind. Coughing is distracting. Then they are outside. The store isn't far, a hop, skip, and a jump as her uncle would say. It looks... strange. Out of place. A toy plonked down on a rocky beach without any child's footprints around it.

It reminds her a little of the Capitol's buildings, and that makes her uneasy. Not that she looks at the building for long. She's also scanning the area around them, trying to find markers and the general layout. That the area is reminding her of her arena is... Well, it's not helping.

Still, there doesn't seem to be any obvious threat, either on the land or in the sky, so the pair move forwards. Finnick in front, Annie behind and a step to the side, working as a team to keep the other safe as they enter the building.

It's close enough to feel not quite like they're venturing into the unknown. They both have experience with the unknown, as survivors of the always-secretive arenas, but the arenas always had something like rules, things you knew you could or couldn't expect.

They still don't know what the rules are here. So they move carefully towards the building, and when they get to the entrance, Finnick gestures to Annie to watch his back.

She'd do it anyway, but there's an advantage sometimes to making intentions clear.

The doors open themselves, automatically, and it feels like it could be a trap, so Finnick scans the area before he slips in through one side of the door, leaving the middle open as the most likely place for any potential trap.

It's quiet inside. Quiet, and huge. So huge that it takes a moment to think about, to consider the thought of a store this size. That's what they've heard this is, but it's still beyond even the stores he'd seen in the Capitol.

He shakes his head.

"Imagine what people back in Four would think of this."

"Fuck the Capitol," Annie says promptly. Quietly, but promptly. It's true. That's what a lot of the reaction would be, at least from the people who weren't staring in shock. Because that's what she'd be doing. The only reasons she isn't now is that she's actually seen the Capitol, and because the place is trashed. Full of empty shelves. She tries to picture people from District Four reacting to this, and even with the empty shelves, they'd be thrown.

She's not sure how to react. It's so.... It's too much, is what it is.

"I... Where do you wanna start?"

That's what they should do. Start small, pick a section and cover that. Better than staggering around.

He gives a soft, bitter laugh, because she's right and he's still not used to being able to say things like that out in public, and it still has something of the thrill of danger about it. But she's right; anyone who's been to the Capitol knows that they have so much they can waste it while people in the districts starve. It's been a talking point in the rebellion.

It's hard to imagine the amount of food in the same place that there once was here, if all those shelves were full.

He gestures to one the right, where the shelves stretch away towards a wall.

"Let's go there, then work back. Be methodical."

It gives them a chance to scope out a little more of the place before they start hunting for anything useful to take.

"Wonder what happened," he says, softly, reaching out to push at a box that's fallen off one of the shelves with his trident. "It's a mess."

As much as saying such things scares her, it feels good. A good fear. It's not so much as the Capitol has done their worst and she's survived, for there are still people who are alive that she cares about. Finnick is one. Her surviving family are others. But the Capitol has beaten her and tortured her, and she's sick of biting her tongue. So. Fuck them.

"It looks looted." Annie knows what that looks like, thanks to the chaos of her district's strike and subsequent crackdown by the Capitol. Not to mention what the stores can look like during hurricane season. But this is... more. More thorough, more sad.

"...Is that blood?"

Her gaze had skipped on ahead from where Finnick's poking around, and there are brown smears on the cracked floor at the end of the aisle.

There probably are enough people here to loot a place like this, but this looks like it was done quickly, by people grabbing whatever they could when they didn't have time to look through things properly, and that doesn't fit with the circumstance here. It's the sort of rushed looting that you'd see when people are worried about the Peacekeepers coming back or the store owner coming to see what the noise is.

That this store is this big and this empty and this looted is making the skin between his shoulders itch in that way that it does when something is wrong and his overactive victor's senses want to spin around and see what's behind him.

But Annie notices something in front of them, and he knows that Annie has his back. He looks up where she's looking and straightens up from investigating a shelf that looks like someone swept up whatever they could without bothering to pick up what they dropped.

"I think so."

The thought twists in his stomach, but he goes forward, towards the stains and the damaged floor, until he can call back to her.

"It's not fresh."

But he doesn't have any way of telling just how old it is, how long ago it was that whatever damaged the floor and made someone or something bleed happened.

"No." It's an agreement, which sometimes you need to do in these situations. Verbal acknowledgement of the other person, a clear answer to ensure no confusion. The sign of physical violence shouldn't be shocking, and it isn't, not really. But it makes her stomach twist.

"No footprints in it. Or paw prints. But, um, bullet holes in the floor? Or something else?"

The Capitol's crackdown in District Four had been educational.

She follows Finnick, but walking sideways so she can check in front of them and behind at the same time, as well as presenting a smaller target. She's also trying to listen. Listen even more.

"Yeah."

Something happened here, but it was ... sometime previous. He's been in enough meetings with the rebellion, seen enough when Four revolted, to know some of the effects war and uprising can create. He goes forward and crouches next to the bloodstain, which is smeared as though something had been dragged away. He considers it for a while, then goes over to the damaged part of the floor

"Bullets. There's still one stuck in the floor."

It's a relief to have his gun with him, even if it looks like whatever happened was long enough ago that the gun won't be necessary. Annie's moving in a way to make hersaelf as small a target as possible, so she's obviously feeling the same crawling sense of unease.

"Do you see anything?" he asks.

"Wait."

It's a soft breath of a word. Not alarmed, not panicky. Just a request from an ally to give her a moment to study the area further. She looks beyond Finnick to the end of the aisle, shifting this way and that to widen her field of vision. She looks up and down the shelves, back where they came, eyes moving section by section in a trained thoroughness.

And she listens. There's some creaking from the building's structure, but she can't hear breathing that isn't her or Finnick. She can't hear footsteps, or the sound of anything dragging. She can't hear the beeping of a potential trap.

"No," Annie says at last. "Nothing's that a threat. Should we, uh, keep going?"

ψ i've learned how earn my keep | CLOSED

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