ψ i've learned how earn my keep | CLOSED

[fishermansweater]

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?"

Comments

[fishermansweater]

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."

[treadswater]

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.

[fishermansweater]

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.

[treadswater]

"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.

[fishermansweater]

"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.

[treadswater]

"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?"