༻ CHAPTER 23 ༺
" you'll drown oceans."
DURING MORNING LIGHT, atlantis had filed into the lounge, first before anyone. she hadn't slept at all last night, only being able to rest her eyes. her lack of sleep had weakened her considerably, the only thing that could give her some energy would be a good breakfast. today she couldn't keep picking at scraps.
following last night's events, the girl had made it her mission to ignore finnick. any interaction from him went unnoticed, any looks or the simplest of touches were dismissed completely. atlantis was angry. for the first time in years, a situation like this has frustrated her. usually, she'd support him, but during these times she snapped. the pressure of the games and seeing someone's foreign hands upon his skin made her bitter to no end.
when breakfast had come, almost everyone could see how unnerving everything was. atlantis wouldn't even spare a glance finnick's way, her eyes focused on the meal before her as she forced herself to swallow whatever was there. subtle bags had appeared under her eyes, signs of fatigue being more than clear. nobody spoke, only the quiet clatter of cutlery against plates. the tension could be cut with a knife.
since nobody wanted to talk, it made sense for merlin to dismiss himself early. evelynn had volunteered to take him down. at the same time, atlantis wanted to take the opportunity too and put herself forward, which meant finnick was left to his own, feeling his heart sink in the slightest at the coldness he was presented with by his best friend. he was wondering how they were going to talk this one out.
in light of everyone's recent behavior, mags had taken notice. she'd overlooked finnick for so many years that she could tell his discomfort when she could see it. clearly, something had happened the previous day and neither of them were happy. that meant she had some mending to do - seeing two of the closest people to each other fight was something hard to look at. besides, there was enough hardship as there was.
when atlantis disappeared out of the room, the woman's frail hand clasped around finnick's, catching his attention as he was staring after the girl as the door shut. he was distressed about the whole situation.
mags leaned in close, so the blonde could hear her quiet and shaking voice to make her easier to understand, "you must mend this."
he knew exactly what his mentor wanted from him. finnick also wanted to do that himself, but he wasn't sure how. atlantis wouldn't speak to him at all unless he revealed the real motive behind his disappearances. not only was he feeling guilty but he was ashamed. the girl was always right, he was miserable and tried his best not to show any signs of it.
"i'll try, mags." he guaranteed, a gloomy expression dancing in his eyes. finnick felt so out of place without his good friend and he wished he could confide in her.
a moment later, mags gripped both of finnick's shoulders, shaking him slightly. he knew what she meant with that - mags believed that such a bond couldn't be broken over one silly misunderstanding. their friendship could be restored by a simple heart-to-heart conversation. both parties knew that.
meanwhile, atlantis couldn't help but feel guilty as she entered the training centre for the second time that week. finnick's guilt-stricken face flashed in her mind momentarily as her eyes landed on the knot tying station. the handsome boy was always able to think of a clever trap with a bit of rope. he was good at what he did.
when her gaze moved along, the brunette could see merlin speaking to a few people from the other districts. today she decided that she'd mind her own business and focus on honing skills that she needed inside of the arena in hopes of forgetting finnick and their argument.
despite the painful memory that the knot tying gave her, atlantis brought herself over to that area first. the prying eyes of the other career districts were on her back - they were impressed with her performance the other day and would try to see what else she could do that would be of use.
after a few minutes of making complicated knots, a presence had joined her. atlantis recognised the girl from district 11, who's name she caught as yumiko tioan during the opening ceremonies they watched while having dinner.
yumiko was a kind face, almost gentle, even. black hair, soft brown eyes. if and when it came to the arena, the brunette had noted to herself that she couldn't see the district 11 tribute killing anyone.
she'd been struggling to tie off a knot whilst making a complicated net. atlantis thought that she could be of some help.
"need a hand?" she offered, showing her own net.
yumiko smiled at her softly, "if you would, please."
atlantis nodded, taking her knot into her own hands, beginning to instruct her on how to correctly loop the rope through a hole, the task complicating as the direction of which the rope was going twisted one way and another. the other tribute watched carefully, taking note of how carefully her hands worked.
another thing that atlantis had noticed was that yumiko hadn't gone to any of the battle stations yet, preferring to stick to the ones that focused more on knowledge than physical strain. it was clear she had no intention of killing anybody. much like atlantis who didn't think of herself as being a capable killer. she couldn't help but wonder what this girl was going to do when she ended up inside of the arena.
"wow, could you... show me that from the beginning?" she requested, somewhat timidly.
was she intimidated by her? atlantis had never thought of herself as someone who incited fear into other people. perhaps the extrovert qualities that she had developed from finnick were showing. again, she thought about her mentor, pained.
the girl agreed, "alright. ask questions if you'd like."
a while had been spent on the knot-tying station with occasional chatter before yumiko and atlantis bid their goodbyes to each other. in the end, yumiko managed to get the knot right. perhaps this would be someone that the brunette would consider to be her ally in the arena when they were to be thrown in.
someone, she could turn her back on, and probably trust, unlike her own district partner who appeared to be hot and cold with her. unless, it was all an act - yumiko's innocence. there were many possibilities that she had to consider.
the next station that atlantis had invited herself along to was the climbing station. of course, she was no good at climbing, but a good swimmer. learning an essential skill to climb trees in case of needing shelter or general escape was vital for survival. for her, there was no escaping that one.
training at the climbing station was similar to the balancing station, except it was a rope course. you could pull yourself up, and slip through it to keep yourself hanging above the others. this was one way to ambush someone or keep yourself concealed in case of danger. another part of the course was to have the strength to hang and hold onto the ropes. inside of the arena, these would be replaced with branches in a real situation.
over all, by the time she was finished, atlantis discovered she wasn't the best of climbers, but she was enough and that was okay for someone who spent most of their days at the ocean spearing fish.
the only thing she had time for last was the weapon station where you could practice your strikes on the dummies available. usually, weapons like that were too heavy for atlantis to handle, finding it easier to move around with a more balanced weapon - such as the double sided spear she'd picked the other day.
any weapons from the capitol had a fine finish to them. she was especially impressed with the spear she'd picked. it had a sharp double edge to it, ensuring that if you were to stab through something the rigid ends would slice through someone's organs or muscles, rendering their life to come to a quick end. a very good way to end someone.
through her fascination, atlantis hadn't noticed how much she zoned out, her hand already gripped around the hilt of an axe, bringing it down on one of the dummies. the object had almost split in half at the force she'd used on it, even surprising herself. these things were sharper than she would have thought.
an alarm ringing throughout their training center meant that their time was up. carefully, atlantis placed the axe back on its rightful spot and headed for the exit, purposefully making herself to be one of the last people to come out.
one thing that had made her puzzled was merlin waiting on her to join him. a friendly gesture, once again.
can he decide on how he feels about me or not? atlantis thought to herself in annoyance as she approached her district partner.
"so how was everything today?" he piped up, trying to spark a conversation between them.
maybe today was the day that she was feeling talkative, "good. the girl from district 11 seems alright."
"yumiko. is that what she's called?" merlin questioned, flapping his shirt to rid himself of the hot feeling. he'd been doing some heavy training. trying to improve his physique, it looked like.
atlantis bobbed her head up and down, "yeah. what about your guys?"
"the tributes from 1, 2, and i think 9 are strong. the girl, at least." he answered, ruffling his hair as the sweat had made it itchy and uncomfortable. atlantis knew the first thing he'd do was go shower, as would she. the feeling of sweat clinging to your skin was something she deeply despised, after many years in the water.
"what's she called?" the brunette implored, watching as the doors opened to reveal evelynn standing there waiting to escort them back to their penthouse.
merlin hummed in thought, "ethna... ethane... no ethne. ethne dagon. she was doing quite good in sparring against 1."
"well, for our sake let's hope she doesn't get far." atlantis murmured, turning to evelynn.
"hello, you two. how was it?" she asked, with the same cheerful tone she always held.
"good, for both us." merlin replied for atlantis, following after her as she led them over to the elevator. all the other tributes were already gone. the pair always made it an effort to go last.
their next goal would be to watch their odds being presented. during the time they trained, it was presented to the viewers in the capitol and the sponsors who would be deciding who to send their goods to. the lower your odds are to 1, the better they think you are.
atlantis hoped for a good score. it'd help her with getting some rich capitol citizens to send her something if she was in trouble. after all, they'd keep their favourite competitor alive as much as they could if they gave a good performance.
upon entering the lounge, finnick and mags were already sitting on the couch with the tv turned on. they were anticipating the odds, too. the stylists weren't present today as they were going to be preparing some of the outfits that she and merlin were going to be wearing later on. so it was just the mentors with evelynn.
the brunette plopped herself on one of the love seats next to the couch, her heart racing as the programme which presented the games came on.
as usual, caesar flickerman introduced himself and gave a brief before showcasing their odds. these results would affect the consistency of gifts that were going to be sent into the arena. the next being the individual scoring from the game makers that would be taking place in a few days.
while atlantis seemed worried, merlin wasn't at all. he was confident that he was going to be getting a good score with the performance he put out in the previous 2 days. in all honesty, she hadn't been paying too much attention to him to know if he lived up to that expectation.
finnick had pushed himself off the couch to lean against the wall, attempting to hide his bouncing leg which showed how nervous he really was. the 17-year-old was still doing everything in his power to help her. good odds would help him, too.
as the numbers appeared on the screen everyone gave a sigh of relief. both atlantis and merlin had odds at 10-1. for finnick this seemed like competition between the two district partners, but he'd just have to see what the sponsors thought.
"well done." the blonde congratulated, clapping his hands together once, "want to go get dinner?"
even if the question was more directed at atlantis, merlin answered, "i'm going to watch to see what everyone else gets, you can all go eat."
"alright." he nodded, looking to atlantis expectantly, but she had already sat herself down without a word.
inside of her mind, the girl wanted some reassurance that her allies were not going to kill her easily, but that would mean staying on the couch with merlin who she still wasn't sure if she was comfortable with. despite arguing with finnick, she preferred his company more.
so, dinner began.
༻ NOTES!
this chapter didn't include much
dialogue, but i hope the narrative
of atlantis' thoughts make up for
that kind of thing. let's see if she
and finnick can make up soon.
don't forget to comment & vote!