#id say this is a 6 on the birdie emo angst scale personally

[65ths]

THE QUARTER QUELL ANNOUNCEMENT.

finnick is at mags’ house, he always is for announcements like these. mags is sandwiched on the coach between bayard and one of his granddaughters— rydel, a rightfully worried seventeen year old. but hayward and estey are no calmer at 21 and 20, sitting around the table with their mother and father. even selene has showed, despite what happened after the loss of her and wade’s daughter, poisie. she hasn’t been in the village for at least a year by the time of the announcement, but she stands like no time has passed at all beside wade, who is bracing for what this means for the next class of academy graduates. his parents opted to watch at him, alone. he had no protests. finnick… finnick can’t sit, he won’t sit, and his nervous pace and constant little stretches and cracks do little to ease the room.

the district’s been in riots and revolts since the lover victors from twelve passed through. the village has received some attacks, but none at the victors themselves, more so their gates. the curfew has been strict, but rather ineffective. there’s no calming the rage of nearly 100,000 people all born knowing the force of the sea.

the only thing to calm finnick, and avoid what’s certainly going to be a choir of snapping voices at him, is the gentle hand from annie, urging him to finally join her. he does, and he squeezes her hand during the wait.

lochlan and delphine are an obvious missing pair, but at least the group knows lochlan’s contained in his own walls alongside the rest of the ridley bunch. delphine is entirely unaccounted for, approaching need for a search party should she not surface soon. the small community knows her to be like this at times, off with nyles, or making herself entirely hidden in a smaller further away fishery, but the unrest has changed their disregard into worry.

despite the lack of words said in the waiting period, the room is anything but quiet. something buzzes, everybody rocks and shifts in their seats, couch creaking, wade sighing and clicking his tongue. sometimes there's a whisper between mags and bayard, finnick stares hard, the snoop he is, but he can't make it out above the sound in his own hears: his heartbeat. whatever comes it'll just be the needle that brings down the haystack.

there’s newer secrets that have touched his skin, something far more treasonous than drawing blood from a peacekeeper’s nose or lips. whatever’s coming, whatever the card reads, the secret will change shape and burrow itself further, into his bloodstream. rebellion has always been in finnick’s blood— sleeping, lying in wait. his mother was a rebel, his father too. he didn’t get it when he sold the boat, he didn’t get it when he won the games, but watching katniss everdeen on screen… he thinks he understands it now. he wonders if she knows.

smiling, giggling, kissing. the capitol symbol takes over the screen, and finnick leans forward. annie’s hand is still in his. sitting, listening, sitting, listening. his hand hurts. he’s sitting.

he wonders why won’t they make the announcement, what the delay is as he watches president snow be moved away from the podium. his hand hurts. why won’t they read the card? “annie that hurts,” his head drops to his lap, where she’s squeezing his hand until it turns whiter than sand. following the hand and then the arm up, he sees annie’s already in the midst of breaking down. for the life of him he doesn’t understand why— the card hasn’t even been read. head turning, he tries to look to mags, to anyone really but they’re all more or less losing their holds on sanity in slow motion.

“what’s going on?” he hears nothing in response, he hears nothing at all— he sees that selene is sobbing but it doesn’t reach his ears. it dawns on finnick then, the mystery rather short lived. the card’s been read. he’s missed it. he hits head once. there’s no sound. he hits it again, and again and again until someone pries his hands away from him and the first thing to reach his ears is a gentle shushing sound.