Nearly every inch of us on the line

[actually112]

Who| Aang and YOU
What| Aang is running around setting stuff up for survival.
Where| The marshlands, the pine forest, and the caves.
When| Early Week 0.
Warnings/Notes| Maybe violence, depending on who tags. Otherwise, I'll update.

A

There is a small child sitting on the pine-covered forest floor, his legs crossed, his hands outstretched, and his eyes closed. His hands face palms-up, and between each finger is a different kind of berry—specifically, the strange berries artificially created by the Capitol at some point, instead of naturally-occurring ones.

Any time there’s a whisper of humans—whether if it’s a change in the way the wind blows, or a vibration in the ground from footsteps—he disappears up the nearest tree like a squirrel. Otherwise, he sits and he waits.

Eventually, after a long time of stillness, deer who were previously keeping their distance begin to laze around near him. He doesn’t move. He keeps his eyes closed and his hands out, motionless.

And then a fawn wobbles closer before snuffling his hands. It sits on the ground, then puts its mouth over his fingers, wetly grabbing some berries and leaving others behind.

Aang opens his eyes and looks at his hands to see which berries the deer didn’t eat.

“Thanks.” Now he knows which ones the animals consider safe to eat. He smiles at the fawn and gently pets its nose without the other deer even twitching their ears in alarm.

B

The marsh isn’t as nice as the forest, but he needs the reeds and mud.

The first thing he does is cover himself in the mud. It wards off predators and insects, which is helpful with all the blood-sucking things buzzing in the air. He has no doubt that there are predators as well as deer in the woods, and he would prefer to avoid them.

He gives the geese a wide berth. Some of them were eyeing him funny when he got a little close, so he tries to stay far away. He cuts away the reeds he needs and starts weaving things at the edge of the pond, humming softly to himself to cut through the silence.

So a little humming boy can be found by the pond and bog, avoiding geese, cutting reeds, and weaving baskets.

C

When he finds the caves, he knows he’s found prime real estate. He picks a little one far from the river, which happens to be difficult enough to get to that he doesn’t think many people will just wander in. All he needs is a little shelter; hopefully, the adults will be too busy fighting each other over the bigger caves to bother him about his own.

He rigs a trap outside of the mouth of the cave, though. It’s just a crude tripwire made of reeds intended to drop a lot of rocks (though not enough to actually hurt someone) onto whoever trips it. Hopefully, the noise would be enough to alert him to a possible attack before it happens.

Comments

A

[ruffntumblenut]

The only warning that comes for them is the sharp snap of a twig underfoot before the worlds most noisy and unsubtle viking comes bursting out of the brush with a rock in her hand.

Screaming like a crazy person she's rushing the deer and hurls her rock trying to brain it before either of them have time to respond. Fresh meat if she's lucky! She's never hunted deer before so she's completely unaware of how agile they are and how ultimately useless this will be. Still Aang might want to watch out lest he get clobbered by the flying rock.

a

[tevintage]

Whatever Dorian was expecting to see in this strange facsimile of Ferelden, a nearly bald child petting a dear was not it. He watched from the trees for a while, waiting to see exactly what was happening, gripping the branch that he had found and started using as a staff.

When the petting started, however...

Carefully, warily, he stepped forward into view.

C

[takingback]

Two nights from the start of the arena, Aang will find himself alerted by the unmistakable sound of falling rocks - accompanied by loud cursing. In the rapidly falling darkness, Thorin did not catch the tripwire until his boot had already hit it; but luckily, his reflexes, honed by years and years of hard travel and constant state of alertness, throw him to the ground in a rolling dive... which, he finds, was deeply unnecessary as the amount of rocks would hardly have been enough to hurt anyone.

He dusts himself, grabs the wooden branch he's been using as both weapon and shield, and stalks forward, calling out loudly:

"Whoever inhabits this cave, show yourself!" Though wary, he doesn't think the person who set the tripwire aims to harm, and frankly, he doesn't desire a needless fight, either.

B, let me know if it's ok

[biiowiired]

Psii needed more containers to carry things in, but he didn't fancy taking time to skin and tan more hides than he had to for warmth. Skinning made him a sitting duck, and the smell attracted predators. Luckily, Psii was smart enough to wrap his mind around basket weaving techniques passably enough, and he had deft fingers to begin with.

He didn't see the human boy some ways down the shore, hidden in the reeds. Nevertheless he was careful, knowing all sorts of animals came to the pond for water, and it took him a while to creep slowly away from the forest. He was cutting himself some reeds with a crudely sharpened stick when he saw the geese.

Dinner.

He'd hoped to finish crafting a better weapon by the time he decided to kill something, but this was too good a chance to pass up. He wasn't a good hunter like Disciple, but he knew that opportunity should not be wasted. The reeds would still be there when he got back. He switched his grip on his stick and trekked slowly closer. Their heads jerked up, eyeing him with murder in their beady bird eyes.

"Aw, don't look at me like that, you dumb feathery fuckth," Psii muttered under his breath, "I jutht want to thtab you and roatht you on a fire, no big deal...."

Unfortunately, there was a human hidden on the path between Psii and delicious (and possibly dangerous) avian protein.