[rp] naked, shirtless, and katniss

[uncompliant]

When Logan falls through the door of the ship this time, he is wet and naked (though his hair is cut unlike in those gifs). It's been a few months since the last time he was here, and he doesn't appreciate being thrown back in mid-bath that he didn't even want to take in the first place.

...it's a long story. Come say hi to the naked, incredibly muscular man on the deck who is beyond tense. He is truly completely and totally naked. Unf.

James Wilder has been here for days at least. The Hunter's mark has taken over, has taken so much from him over time. He got it ten years ago. The mansion is quiet and empty, but his siblings are there and that's all he can ask for. Maybe the ship finally took pity on him, standing around on its deck, searching for something to hunt or kill only to turn up empty handed every time, because he is now in a gym in the ship. He's been here for hours.

Training with various weapons, crossbows, swords, and the like. He's shirtless and sweaty but focused. Need self defense/hunting classes? Come get trained by a really buff dude... who has a hard time being social or 'normal' or having fun so apologies for that, but he is single and... shirtless. That's a thing that can be appreciated given his... abs.

Finally, there's Katniss Everdeen who went to Chicago and then was sent back into a very au version of her own world where both Peeta and Gale are women and it is totally a thing in that world that gender doesn't matter in romance and that two girls can be chosen for the Hunger Games as well as two boys or a boy and a girl, which is what apparently happened to the Katniss that was there before her. She is currently, standing on the deck of a ship with a bow and arrow pointed outward and a confused expression on her face. She has yet to finish it yet (and has been setting the whole arena on fire due to her Rift change, this is a highly AUed version of her world on every single level really).

Nothing is okay.

Comments

[firegirl]

He looks like Gale but sounds like Peeta.

"Not your fault," Katniss says after a moment, trying to right that odd feeling in her chest like-- She doesn't know, but her grip on her bow is loosening at least. He doesn't seem like he means to do her harm whoever he is even if he shares someone else's face. "That... sounds like Chicago except for the letting you go back at all. Do you have to go back?"

Because she doesn't want to (but wants to at the same time), but if it it's this... place's decision, she probably won't get a choice.

[woundable]

No, it's not his fault - but it still sucks.

The fact she seems nonplussed about Chicago gives him reassurance. She's either heard about rifts or experienced them herself in the same Chicago that he did. It gives him an advantage, at least in making sure that she believes him and doesn't find that he is making things up. He shakes his head. "I don't know," he says quietly. He wishes the answer was more helpful. "It doesn't really give us a choice, but I don't know if it sends you right back to where you were once the door opens. It's only until it decides to open that you go through it."

And come right back in.

[firegirl]

Katniss presses her lips together. In Chicago, it was said there was no way back, and no one really knew where people went when they disappeared, but it was assumed to other universes. Now that the world ended, she knows it is to other universes. Sometimes universes that are like home but not home itself, and she doesn't know what happens in this universe she came from, but she's tired of playing the Gamemakers' games. She was setting the whole damn arena on fire with her powers. They didn't expect it. They're trying to take her out, to kill her before she can beat the game. Even if she survives their attempts, there's no way she can go back to her own district. They'd kill her for what she can do.

She bites down on her lip, locks her jaw, swallows it back, hearing the waves of the water and staring at... everything. "I've never been on a ship before."

[woundable]

"Me either," Rafe agrees with a tiny smile sent in her direction.

"I haven't been on a plane, either. Or done much traveling, period. Not that this is a usual circumstance, but there are parts of it that can be pretty cool; as long as you don't let your guard down." Just in case there's something out there. Rafe hasn't been here that long to be able to discern either way, and the trouble has has found himself in has been fairly innocuous, but still. Red door. Endless fuel. Nothing but water surrounding them.

He's gonna be keeping his guard up.

[firegirl]

"I never let my guard down," Katniss answers immediately. She doesn't really know how to let her guard down though she thinks there were moments in Chicago where she did exactly that, but it took effort and concentration. It took... a lot of things to make that choice to let her guard down. She can't let it down in a place like this that took her against her will.

She's a survivor at the base of herself. She survives, and she fights like instinct for her.

[woundable]

The immediate answer makes Rafe grow quiet.

It makes him wonder, the kind of world she comes from where you can't afford to do that. Chicago has its dangers, but Rafe would never say he feels as though his guard needs to be kept up at all times. "Then you're already one step ahead," he tells her quietly. The ship seems harmless, but Rafe doesn't trust it for a moment. It's not easy to forget how they were brought here in the first place.

It's best to keep their guards up, he just needs to remember that.

[firegirl]

Katniss releases another breath that doesn't exactly seem to calm her, but she isn't pointing an arrow at anyone anymore so that's a step up.

"That's the way I like to be. Have to be," she says, setting the weapon aside. This is not Chicago. This is not home. This is not wherever she was before. It's some place new, and she'll figure it out. She'll survive. "Have you been here long?"

[woundable]

"I understand," Rafe says. It isn't a condescending or patronizing comment. He doesn't pretend to know what she has been through that has made her that way. He only understands that for whatever reason, she has to be, and he can respect that. Especially in a new situation such as this one.

"Not very long. Maybe a couple of weeks at best. It's not the first time I've been here, either."

... Yes, Katniss. It likes to send you back and then bring you here again.

[firegirl]

Katniss looks at him for a long moment before she sees that understanding is real and genuine. She nods, relaxing her muscles further as she lets out a breath, scanning the ship.

"So this isn't like with the rifts," she says, because there was no way back in that case. She doesn't know what she'll do if she goes back where she came from, if it sends her back. She doesn't know that she wants to go back this time even if Prim is left there. Katniss has a habit of putting her in more danger despite volunteering to save her to begin with (and she doesn't even know the half of what's to come there).

[woundable]

"If it is, it's not like any rift I've ever encountered," Rafe admits.

There've been rabbit holes that take people to all kinds of worlds - and there's no telling what kind of world this is. "But ... the fact there's a red door that brings us back and forth whenever it wants? Makes me think it's kind of not. Maybe it's its own rift. One we've never seen before."

It's not that far out of touch with reality, is it? After everything he's seen, he wouldn't cross off that possibility just yet.