farsickness | a strange new day

Entry tags:

bucky barnes | mcu

a strange new day | OTA

WHO: Annie and YOU
WHEN: June
WHAT: Annie, having lunch and attempting to be sociable.
WHERE: Gazin's marketplace
WARNINGS: TBA

People can get used to anything. They build routines. Every boat Annie's served on has had its rhythms , every arena she's studied has had its patterns. On a boat, routines save lives: in the arena, patterns can be fatal. It all just depends.

So far, Annie has been thinking of this place as a cross between arena and boat. More boat, now. She's not exactly expecting her fellow... Well. They aren't tributes. Or fellow citizens. The people around her. She's not expecting them to ambush her.

(She's still keeping the possibility in mind, of course. She's not an idiot.)

All of which goes a ways to explaining how Annie has felt comfortable enough, or brave enough, to do this: have lunch, in the marketplace, after a morning of talking to perfect strangers.

She'd done that before Finnick arrived. She's capable of it. Even she can admit that. But he's the more sociable one, the one with the smooth tongue and the charm. It's been easier to let him do the talking, particularly when selling the fish they've been catching every day. But today their little rented boat is in for repair, and Finnick had been offered a spot on another fisherman's boat for a few hours. The relief Annie had felt had been a sharp reminder that, if they are staying for the foreseeable future in this weird place, the pair need more than a small room.

So Annie has been talking to people about rent. And renting living quarters. Or a small house. Or at least two rooms. Something that's not a small room in an inn. And she'd taken notes on a wax tablet and she'd been productive and-

It's exhausting.

But she's still on something like a roll, so she grabbed a pastry from a stall in the market-place, took a seat at one of the public tables and started to eat. She's still watchful, still cautious, but she's making an effort to be somewhat normal.

And if anyone walks over with food of their own, Annie will offer a smile and a quiet, "You're welcome to sit, you know."

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Kassandra, also, has been speaking with people in the marketplace. She's beginning to be recognised by some of the merchants, now, the tall woman in the well-worn armour who asks for errands she can be paid for. Today, someone had some deliveries that needed doing, and Kassandra's been a courier before now and will certainly be one again. So she takes the packages and she listens to the directions, and runs the errands for the tailor around Gazin. It's frustrating that she's back to this sort of work, but it earns her some coin, and that's the important thing.

Once she's done, Kassandra slings her bow over her shoulder (she'd had it in hand just in case, as a matter of habit after spending so long subject to attack at any moment from cultists, mercenaries, enemy soldiers, or fanatics of one kind or another) and heads to the baker, where she buys a loaf of bread.

She's looking for somewhere to sit with her loaf when a woman she's noticed around the inn smiles to her and offers a seat. At first, Kassandra considers ignoring the offer, but after a moment, she thinks better of it. She knowss few people here, and should try to know more.

"Thank you," she says to the small woman, and she nods as she pulls out the chair and slips onto it. "You are staying at the inn, yes?"

Bucky had met Annie in the market the first time around and he's not surprised when she turns up again. He hopes she's found a way to make that glass she mentioned the last time but when she offers a place to sit, he's more than happy to take it. He'd be lying if he hadn't worried about her - he hadn't wanted to baby her but he'd definitely worried about Annie since he met her.

"Thanks for the offer," he says, smiling at her. "Glad to see you again, Annie. Have you been doing well since the last time we met?"

He hopes so.

Xingchen enjoys sitting in town and eating lunch, listening to the business of the world around him. He can envision what the town looks like by the sounds of people passing by, of decorations flapping in the breeze and the sounds of carts rolling across gravel. Life here has been peaceful and he appreciates that, even if the cultivator in him gets bored on occasion. But the last thing he wants is to worry those that care about him and so he has grown used to the quiet life.

He is just wandering towards an open area when he hears a voice close by. He turns towards it and gives a little bow. "Thank you. I appreciate that." He smiles at her and carefully walks over. He places his food down on the table, every movement made ease as if he could actually see where he was going. But Xingchen simply is sensitive to his surroundings and able to guide himself as if he did have working eyes.

He settles at the table, "It's such a lovely day."

Annie has seen him around. And the others, his normal companions. She hasn't said hello to any of them yet, but she's noticed. Well. She hasn't said hello to many people. This is her, trying to change that.

She smiles at him, because that's what she does and it seems rude not to just because he seems blind. And he's being... Polite. She'll call it polite for now. It could be nice, but it's too early.

So she smiles and she agrees. "Yeah, it is. Better than all that snow. Um, it doesn't... It doesn't snow where I'm from? This is much nicer."

Still nowhere near as warm as Annie is used to, but still. There is sun.

"I, uh, I'm Annie."

"No snow at all? How wonderful to live in such a mild climate." Having to endure winters where he is from can be difficult. He found it to be much easier here with the improvements that time and inventions have created.

"It is nice to meet you, Annie." He circles his arms once his hands are free of any food items and gives a little bow of his head. Such pleasantries are really necessary towards him since he wouldn't see them, but that doesn't mean he should not be polite in greeting her.

"I am Xiao Xingchen."

The smile she gives him in return is shy, but genuine. He'd been kind. It's not that people here have been cruel or judging, but when she'd just arrived and had been nervous and scared, Bucky had been kind. It's rare enough that she values it.

"I'm, um, yeah I'm doing okay. Uh, good? We're fishing now."

Not that Annie has explained Finnick to Bucky. But she knows that Finnick's met Bucky, and she forgets to explain that 'we'.

"How have you been?"

"Xiao Xingchen," Annie repeats, carefully. It's not much like any name she's heard from either District or Capitol, but she's musical enough that she can pick up at least the sounds of his name.

Then her smile turns a bit crooked and her soft voice amused. "Well, I wouldn't call it mild. We got lots of heat and humidity and a rainy season with thunderstorms most days."

And hurricanes. The hurricanes are... not fun.

"It's a different climate. I, I uh take it you get snow?"

Edited 2021-06-30 04:57 (UTC)

"We have seasons. We also can endure a rainy period. The snow happens a few months out of the year."

He endures whatever the world throws at them because he has to. Obviously the earth needs the different weather patterns to be able to survive. He slowly begins to eat, just small bites so that he can continue their conversation during his meal.

"What was the name of your home?"

This is still an honestly bizarre question. Someone from District Four asking wouldn't be an issue - which fishery are you from is a normal enough question. But no one outside District Four ever cared or really knew how her home was set up, and here?

Here, no one has heard of Panem at all.

"Um," she starts. "District Four. It's a, a district in Panem, which is the country?"

If she sounds slightly unsure, it's because she is. Not over where she's from, she knows that. But the terminology.

"And, you?"

Bucky knows about Finnick so he can put two and two together and place Finnick as the other half of the "we." He's glad Annie is doing something that's good for her and can be beneficial in the markets, too, because making gold is something they all have to do at some point.

"I've been good. It's been a lot of the same, of course, but sometimes a routine is a lot better than surprises. I've been working on forging knives - you need any to clean fish with? I could try and make you some, free of charge."

He listens to how she describes her home. It is odd but with as many different worlds as represented in this place it is normal to hear about strange places.

"I liked in a place called Yi City, a little village that didn't have much to speak about but people were friendly."

There is a fond smile on his face as he talks about his previous home. "But I was a traveler. I didn't really stay long in one place."

"A traveler," Annie repeats, quietly. The word feels strange in her mouth. It's a strange concept. People in District Four might travel to different fisheries for work, and the boats and ships themselves obviously move about. But it's not for fun. It's work, with permits and forms, or at least, taking your chances hitchhiking on trains and ferries.

This sounds different. She's heard 'traveler' enough at the inn to get that much.

"What's that like? Um, travelling from place to place?"

Her first thought is: ooh, knives!

Then she laughs at herself. But she does miss her throwing knives, too. Even if she only used them on targets. There'd been something soothing about it.

"We're always in need of knives when it comes to fishing. I can, uh, come around and explain the type? They can be a bit different from your normal kitchen knives.

And, um, we, or. We can do an exchange? Fish for knives."

It's not an equivalent swap, of course, but she wants to make the offer. He's being generous, more than generous, and she wants to show her appreciation.

"Sometimes it was tiring, but there is also something fulfilling about experiencing different places. Helping people all over and not limiting oneself to what is around them."

But there is something to be said about having a stable home as well. That had been the goal that Zichen and himself had set out to try and form. Not that they ever got the chance. At least...until now.

"We can do an exchange if you want. Hey, I'm a city guy - you could teach me how to fish and I'd call it even. I've been working on knives and I need the practice...trying to get the balance for a good throwing set. I brought a hunting knife with me but you can't throw something like that, it doesn't have the balance or the shape."

He hasn't made any scaling knives or filleting knives before but he knows what they look like. It wouldn't be a problem to start making those too now that he has a client for them.

"You and Finnick could come down to the Forge and tell me what you'd like?"

Annie has noticed this woman before. Of course she has: the woman moves like a Career. Or a Peacekeeper. Confident, sure-footed and balanced, with that watchfulness. Which is fine. It reminds Annie of home.

So, she smiles, a little, and nods.

"Yeah, I am." For the moment, anyway, but she doesn't offer that piece of information. Why let a trained fighter know you'll be by yourself?

"I've seen you, too. Um. Around the inn. But I didn't catch your name? Sorry, I'm Annie."

In Sparta, almost everybody moves with the sort of self-assurance that is less common in other parts of Greece, and also less common in this place. Kassandra may not feel at home in Sparta anymore, but when she'd been there she'd appreciated being around people who had been taught the same way she had, who'd learned to think about the world the same way her mother and Nikolaos had taught her, before the mountain.

But the combination of her background and the time she's spent investigating the cult means that she notices people, and she's noticed the way that this seemingly retiring woman watches people. It's a wariness she'd long ago learned to look for, because it often means that someone is either hiding something or in need of her assistance.

Not that she thinks this woman, Annie, needs her help: she's seen the tall, strong-looking man that Annie seems to spend a lot of time with.

"Annie. I am Kassandra. I have been staying at the inn as well, since I arrived."

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a strange new day | OTA

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