ninth snare

[fanstheflame]

[well. Katniss, Haymitch, AND Finnick all gone in one day. Haymitch and Finnick are no skin off his back, but Katniss, well. as complicated as things had become with her, she was still his best friend. and they'd started mending that, as of late. it had been slow, hard going - but they'd been managing. especially with Prim's arrival ...

and now it was like she'd been thrown right back into the Games. off with Haymitch, leaving him to look after Prim and make sure no harm came to her. it almost felt ... normal. Gale wasn't sure if that made him feel that much better, or ten times worse. he can't even go check his traps to take his mind off of it ... because that'll just bring Katniss even more to the front of his mind.

he needs something that's as far from Panem as he can get, as strange and foreign as possible. so he finds himself back where this all started, for him, where he arrived: in the Seasons Room.

he's got a cold drink - iced tea with a big slice of lemon - wedged into the sand next to him, as he starts building a mound that he's hoping he can figure out how to turn into a sand castle]

[Prim & Rue]

Hey, I'm up in the Seasons Room if you want to come say hi.

[/Prim & Rue]


... Does the tide even come in, here, or does the water stay in the same place all day? [tick, tock ... no. he's not even going to think about that.]

Comments

[ino]

[doing that ninja thing she does where she is just ... there, behind him, without any sound or indication. what, she had to check on him after peeta's post!!]

It's a fake ocean, so I guess it doesn't need a tide.

[fanstheflame]

[SOMEDAY he will get used to this.

today is not that day and he sort of ... knocks his iced tea over]

Yeah, see, that was kind of what I figured. You're never going to get tired of doing this, are you. [it's not a question.]

[ino]

[... that gets a small smirk, but she'll step over the spilled tea and sit down next to him. with a bento box! because food makes everyone feel better :)]

I admit, it is kind of funny.

[fanstheflame]

Uh huh. [side-eyes her for a second, flatly, before glancing down at the bento box]

And now you're fattening me up so I can't run away when I do hear you coming.

[ino]

[an innocent little pout as she opens it up to a couple glorious layers of delicious bite sized things] You would run away from me?

[fanstheflame]

[he smiles, and hesitates a moment, half-leaning toward her]

Not really.

[he's still in that awkward boy phase - sure, it's okay to kiss her, she's his girlfriend and all now - but at the same time, IS it okay? hngh.]

[ino]

[oh, come on, gale. BE A MAN AND DO IT ANYWAYS. she'll lean in and meet him halfway for a quick kiss, though, to let him know it's fine! ... and then pull away to shove a piece of vegetable tempura she's grabbed with some chopsticks at his mouth instead]

Well, then, you won't mind if I have to roll you around instead.

Gale

[fly_little_bird]

[her voice is quiet, distant]

The seasons room?

Rue

[fanstheflame]

Yeah, it's a room that turns into a whole beach. It's where I first showed up, when I got here.

Gale

[fly_little_bird]

A beach inside a room? Where is it?

Rue

[fanstheflame]

[insert directions here because I can't get to the floor map right now]. You should be able to take the elevator up, it's just a few doors down the hall.

Gale

[fly_little_bird]

Okay. I'll meet you there.

[And off she goes towards the mysterious seasons room]

/room filter to end!

[fanstheflame]

[when she gets there, he's sitting on one of the dunes, trying unsuccessfully to make sand castles happen. mostly because no one ever told him that the sand should be slightly damp to actually stay in the shape you want it. so there's a somewhat nondescript mound, and he's ... poking at it a little, frowning. he knows there's a piece missing to this puzzle, but he's damned if he knows what]

dictated

[optimystic]

...Is this a thinly veiled philosophical question, or a literal question?

[fanstheflame]

... Literal question. But if you're really bored, I guess we could make it philosophical?

[optimystic]

Nah, that's okay.

As for the real tide, I'm not sure. I haven't actually sat around and watched it before.

[fanstheflame]

How long does it usually take to change? I ... might be here for a while. I could let you know.

[optimystic]

A day, right? Oh wait, the tide has to do with the moon... Maybe longer? I'll go check it out in the library.

[....] Soooo why are you just hanging out at the beach? [Maya you do not know this person, stop being a nosy nancy]

[fanstheflame]

I needed a place to go and think... Back home, I used to go to the woods, but ... that was my best friend's place, here, too, and she's just gone.

[dictated]

[not_like_the_rest]

That's something Finnick would notice.

[It's not a thing to make him feel better, but more something the remind him that he's not the only one that lost someone close to him. That he's not alone in that. She's not being rude, just a reminder that if he wants to talk, she doesn't hate him anymore.]

[fanstheflame]

... Yeah, it is. I thought that, too.

[which is his way of saying he's sorry he's gone, and that he agrees, it sucks.

THEY ARE THE BEST AT HEAVY CONVERSATION]

[not_like_the_rest]

[THE BEST EVER!]

I think I'll go watch just to see. [In which she's saying you could come if you wanted to.]

[fanstheflame]

Well, if you've got nothing better to do than stare at the water.... [come on down, basically]

going to action?

[not_like_the_rest]

[just gives a chuckle before closing the book and heading there.]

[fanstheflame]

[he's still trying to get the sandcastle thing to work when she gets there... someone should tell him you can't use dry sand...]