All this nature and I forgot my toggle.

[arrogantalloy]

WHO| The MCU Cast and anyone who passes by!
WHAT| The Avengers make it through their first week!
WHEN| From the middle of the first week to the start of the second week.
WHERE| The caves near the river.
WARNINGS| Talk of death, animal slaughter. Clint.

Tony knew three things. 

This wasn't his week. He wasn't dead yet. And it was a really relaxing feeling to be once again surrounded by Avengers in an arena.

While it took them all a few days of crossing each other's path and in at least one instance of one of the team actively trying to Kill Tony, they all for the most part found themselves together making a little camp in a small but defensible cave for them all to sleep in while still able to defend it. To be honest, Tony hated the idea of the cave for very understandable reasons, but made do by trying to sleep as close to the entrance as possible.

The camp had started with Tony and Steve, after Steve had found Tony cowering hiding in a crevice which he used to escape Thor who had only had Tony's extinction in his mind. After that the others came close enough to happen upon it on their own, or by coming across each other during scavenging.

During the week, most of them seemed to get something from Bianca Del Rio and others, none of it remotely unwanted. Tony was especially glad for the fire starter kit, and made a mental note to make sure he gives her those sill booklet things of free foot massages from him. Because right now, that kit was the only thing making him feel of any use, because everything else so far is really escaping him.




[[There's some prompts down below but feel free to make up your own!]]

Comments

By the fire

[arrogantalloy]

[A warm spot to toast your fish and talk about what's on your mind.]

[arrogantalloy]

Tony has been spending most of his time by the fire armed with nothing more than a stick the length of a baseball bat and a folding knife, which he's using to remove the leaves and sprouting branches off his stick to make it look more like a weapon and less like an improvises broom. He's focused on it for the most part, but he's still jumpy after his encounter with Thor so sudden loud noises near by have him tense and looking up every time.

"I could really use a coffee about now."

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"And I could really use a few sticks of dynamite to throw at the edge of the arena, but we can't all get what we want."

Bruce is next to Tony, using his own knife to carve a bone from a deer they had caught earlier. The hide of the animal is being stretched and dried by two beams of wood towards the back of the cave, the sinew and tendon and organs are being dried, and the meat is being smoked in a makeshift smoker made of stone--it won't be well done, but it will be smoked enough to be preserved--so he's using his time to turn the bones into useful things. Things like needles.

He eyes the stick Tony is trying to sharpen, waffling between offering help and just letting the man be.

"Do you want any tips for that?"

[arrogantalloy]

Tony raises a sly eyebrow at Bruce for saying that. Either he's embracing this whole outdoorsy experience and being gruffer for it, or he's getting to really not love the arenas. Sarcastically he refuses to believe it's the latter, if only to amuse himself.

"Coffee keeps my hands steadier than dynamite. Experience has proved that much."

When he actually takes in what Bruce is doing he forgets about his stupid stick and gets curious at Bruce's hands as he watches them work and by association not hearing at all what Bruce asks.

"So. What. You're doing a whole Hannah Montana thing, where you're mild mannered Banner in the city, but actually Bear Grylls in the wilderness?"

[tookthewheel]

"This could work better."

Bucky comes into the cave shaking off water from the rain with a visible expression of distaste (rather like a disgruntled oversized cat). He's relearning how much he dislikes the cold at a rapid pace in this arena. A few month without being shoved into a freezer when he wasn't needed had been a luxury.

Before he begins peeling off his outer layers to let them dry near the fire, he pauses to offer out on of his big hunting knives to Tony. The blade is bigger and sturdier than the one on the folding knife and since once side of it is serrated it might do better for sawing through some of the thicker branches on Tony's stick.

[shenunigans]

"Don't talk to me about coffee." Dave moans, shuffling himself a little closer to Tony in the most awkward manner possible. He's wearing about three parkas and he has a blanket wrapped around him as well. Say what you will about how annoying he can be, the sponsors certainly seem to like him with all the gifts he's being given.

"I need something grande, espresso and full of sugar stat. One to dip my toes in and one to drink." He commiserates, then he looks tiredly at the sky as if hoping a sponsor will express post a fresh cup of coffee somehow. "Fuck winter." He says, because saying fuck snow seems like a bad idea.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce is a busy bee. He copes with stress by working and helping people, so he did a lot of trapping and now there's a lot of animal parts lying around. He's tried to keep them mostly in his own corner in the back--hides being stretched between beams of wood, organs being dried and treated into usable water skins, sinew and tendon for thread and rope, and neat little rows of bones--but the meat's all going either over the fire or in the little makeshift stone smoker he had improvised from rocks and shale to be preserved.

He keeps an eye on the cooking meat. He's cooking it for everyone and they hardly have very good tools at hand, but he can try to make it well and tasty nonetheless. While he watches it cook, he carves one of the bones he got from trapping. He's making a suture, since the standard first aid kits don't have the materials to stitch up wounds. Knowing the arenas, someone will need stitches soon.

Besides working, he mostly stays quiet. He's not one to initiate conversation, intent as he is on working. He wouldn't object to someone else initiating it, though.

open to anyone!

[sizeofyourbaggage]

It hasn't slipped Sam's mind that this is a death arena. That sooner or later, their numbers are all going to be up, just like they were last time, that he's not sure he's any more equipped to handle the aftermath than he had before.

But it still feels different than the space arena. Sam's much more equipped to handle this kind of thing, surviving in the wilderness and looking out for himself and his allies. Hell, that's one of the things he was trained for, and the fact that a lot of the other Avengers have survival training as well means that they're reasonably well set up. And it reminds him, a little bit, of back when he was serving.

At the moment, he's sitting by the fire, roasting some of the goose he'd bagged earlier. They all come and go, but there's enough of them there that he feels a sense of camaraderie - although maybe that also has to do with the bottle of Barton's vodka that's out. Still, he leans forward a little bit.

"So. Truth or dare, or never have I ever?" By which Sam means 'which one are we doing first,' because obviously they're going to have to do both, and he's pretty sure he can get at least a few people to go along.


((separate threads for 'truth or dare' and 'never have I ever' will be below, for anyone who wants to play one - or both!))

Never Have I Ever

[sizeofyourbaggage]

Since Sam had been the one to suggest it, he figures it's only fair that he goes first.

"Never have I ever gotten carded at a bar."

Truth or Dare

[sizeofyourbaggage]

When it comes to truth or dare, though, Sam shrugs.

"It's truth or dare, it's a free for all. Pick on whoever the hell you want. Hell, you can make me go first if no one else'll step up."

((go nuts, no thread order or anything))

Open!!

[plushaeusrumpified]

[He isn't quite sure how he ended up here, but he damn sure is. It had started out trying to find Dave, both out of nosiness and out of the strong parental, protective instinct he's got going that makes him want Dave to not do that thing where he dies like he does all the time. He hasn't seen him much lately and he doesn't want Dave to think he's given up on doing the protecting thing.

But right now he's a bit too focused on the fire, because it's fucking cold. He's too southern for this freezing cold bullshit. Though he tries to play it cool and act like he totally belongs here, he's waiting on someone to call him out on intruding on things. For now, though, he's going to just enjoy the warmth.]

Jesus fucking tittysprinkles this feels good. [He's huddled a bit too close to the fire, making it obvious he's far more bothered by the cold than he'd like to admit.]

[shenunigans]

[Finding the Avengers had been a godsend for Dave. Not just because their fire is so impressive, but because it is a guaranteed safe place to get some shut eye for at least a little while. Dave clocks a few hours of well earned sleep before fear rouses him from doing so any longer.

He shuffles out of the cave, snug in three of the multiple parkas he's been sent by adoring fans who hate to see him suffering in the murder Arena, wiping at his eyes with his palms under his shades before he pulls them down and blinks at Bro.] Th'fuck are you doing here? [There's your call out, Bro. Made by the not yet Avenger.]

[arrogantalloy]

[Tony isn't oblivious to the fact Dave's brother is presently attempting to merge with the fire. He can understand the feeling a little so he doesn't really press that issue. However he does know that there has been at least a trend of people being invited to stay by the others.

And as yet Tony has no idea why Bro's here other than Dave's about somewhere near by buried in every parka he can get his hands on.

It wouldn't bother him so much if it wasn't for the fact that Dave barely brings the his brother up around Tony.]

Getting comfy there, S'more?

open!

[atethecanary]

Between his lack of ability to get any food, or start fires, or really to do much of anything, trying to survive on his own hadn’t proved to be very successful for Julian, so it was a good thing Sam brought him here when he did, even if Julian insisted to himself, all the while still following Sam, that he could have definitely managed on his own if he had to. Totally.

Since arriving at the camp, he hasn’t been hungry, which is a plus, but it’s getting colder and colder and Julian really isn’t equipped for this, despite the blanket that Sam gave him. Muttering about horrible living conditions with no central heating, Julian leans in as close to the fire as he can possibly get. Except, he sort of forgets about his scarf, one of the only sponsor gifts he had gotten and already ripped by geese, still dangling around his neck, and when he leans forward the ends of it are close enough to catch on fire.

It takes Julian a little while to figure out what’s happening, but when he does he flails around uselessly for a few moments, cursing, and then hurriedly rips the scarf from his neck, stomping it into the ground before the flames finally go out. He stares at his poor ripped, burnt scarf sadly, briefly mourning its loss, before seeming to realize, oh wait, there are people around who could have just witnessed that.

In his desperate attempt to pretend like nothing happened, he moves to sit ever so nonchalantly on his now completely ruined scarf, trying to hide it from view. Yes, nothing to see here, not at all.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

There's a man who sticks mostly on the outside of the group. He's had a knife in his lap since people outside of their group started coming in (just because someone trusts them doesn't mean Bruce does), and he's been sewing up a hole in someone's shirt with animal sinew and a bone needle when some idiot sets his scarf on fire.

He considers telling the man what's happened, but he figures it out on his own before Bruce comes to a decision. Bruce looks down at his work with an audible huff of amusement and the slightest smirk at the corner of his lips when he sees that the man has put out the fire and decided to hide the scarf by sitting on it.

"You're going to need something to keep your neck warm out there."

In the cave

[arrogantalloy]

[There's peoples coats, blankets and sleeping bags from sponsors in here, somewhere to get out of the wind or to sleep, if you can sleep in a cave.]

open, but I'd prefer to keep this to one thread -- anyone can reply though and posting order is up2u

[elfstone]

[Thorongil had had a similar idea: with the weather getting colder, more permanent shelter would need to be found. He's managed to find a cave of his own, but when he lies down to sleep, he is troubled by the sound of footsteps, because he's a motherfucking Northern Ranger and he can get the lay of the land by listening to the ground, okay, don't ask how the science works.

He gathers himself up, stows his supplies, and cautiously makes his way downriver in the direction of the disturbance. If there are other Tributes this close to where he's made camp, he needs to know whether they are unfriendly or not. He stoops down a good distance away from the cave entrance to see what can be made of the tracks; it's enough to give him a good guess at the number of people coming and going, and that they are neither hobbits nor Elves, but everyone is wearing the same goddamn shoes and there's only so much he can Sherlock Holmes out of this.

If he sneaks up, he reasons, he might be considered an enemy and attacked on sight. If he approaches boldly, clearly alone, they might think he is one of their number long enough for him to negotiate.

That is how Thorongil comes to be striding up to the cave entrance, bold as brass, a handmade bow slung over his shoulder. He has no weapon in his hands, but he does have a square of mammoth skin. He stops at the threshhold and throws the skin into the cave. It looks like there's something wrapped in it.]

Hello!

[His hands are open at his sides, clearly empty.]

This is how one greets one's neighbors, is it not?

[It's not exactly a casserole -- it's raw meat -- but it will do.]

[arrogantalloy]

[As Tony has been keeping himself closer to the entrance of the cave, he's the first to see the shaggy man arrive. While he does tense and look incredibly suspicious of him and his hello. So much so that he doesn't exactly reply to hello.

As the hide is thrown in, his first reaction is to move back as if it could explode. To be fair, he's had things land near him that have explode on him before. He eyes it for a moment before looking back at the stranger. He knows that this is a peace offering, the man is anything bust stupid. debatable. However, this is still Tony, and despite how the others are reacting to this, Tony's the first one to react.]

Uh, I really don't like being handed things as a general rule. So having things thrown at me? Kind of more than just a peeve.

[All the while he hasn't moved since getting up and away from the package.]

actually open

[elfstone]

Because this is a twelve-year-old's fanfic, Aragorn has decided to go camping with the Avengers for a day or two. He's got his own supplies in a corner of the cave, and those supplies include five or six lengths of springy wood and......and what looks like some dried animal guts. Now, he figures, is as good a time as any to work on these. You might catch him carving, stringing, or testing the bows, or if you've got a fainter stomach, you might just catch him fletching arrows with goosefeathers, using a long hunting knife a sponsor was interested enough to send. If he feels you looking at him, he'll glance up and raise an eyebrow, but won't stop working.

Also: if you've paid any attention to Capitol gossip, this is Thorongil, dangerous thief, highwayman, murderer, and all-around rogue. You might be less than happy to have him in your camp, even if he did bring you raw meat. Bringing someone raw meat is clearly the way to make them think you're not an axe murderer, right? Right.

Dave Strider open

[shenunigans]

Despite any hearsay or factual information based around the fact that Dave is incredibly annoying, he's lucky enough to have sponsors who like him. He's letting most of his supplies be shared, but his parkas are his. He's wearing three now, and he looks like a fat penguin with a blanket cape as he pads around. He's befriended and begrudgingly allowed himself to become adopted by various members of the team, though his application to join officially has been pending for months now. He's not bitter though, really.

In his boredom due to the peacefulness of the camp, he has acquired charcoal from the fire for his... artistic pursuits. His current masterpiece is a breathtaking rendition of Tony Stark. He's muttering to himself as he works on the finer details, the beginnings of various other Avengers surround him, but it seems like he's lost interest in finishing them for the moment.

He steps back, hands on his hips as he admires his handiwork. "In a thousand years, people will be heralding this as the second coming of the sistine chapel." He nods to himself, glancing down at his dirty hands and wiping them down his front.

[tasermaiden]

There are some things that Darcy totally expects to see in a cave in a death match. Big, angry cats and/or bears (or catbears, even), a bunch of skeletons, murder most foul, so on and so forth. She doesn't expect to see a kid doing his best impression of Ralphie's brother drawing on the walls.

Congrats Dave, you have actually left Darcy slightly gobsmacked. Revel in this. Rejoice. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

So she sits a little bit away from him and watches. Because...well, she doesn't have an iPod to listen to and this is the closest thing she's found to entertainment. "Congrats, Banksy Jr. Except mirror Spock isn't a red shirt."

Scavenging

[arrogantalloy]

[There's a river close enough to fish in, as well as the forest on the other side. So get your stick and pocket knife there's tasty meats and bits or tree to bring back.]

open

[tookthewheel]

Bucky chooses a part of the river where a tree trunk has washed up against the bank and become stuck, offering a bridge out into the deeper water. Fish were likely to use it as a shelter against the current, heightening his chances of making a good catch providing he is patient enough (and no one has more patience than a sniper).

He sets his feet on the trunk about eight feet out from the bank, relaxes his shoulders and holds the spear he made easily in his hand, his eyes fixed on the river below. His ears meanwhile are focused on his wider surroundings, just in case someone decides to try and take the opportunity to sneak up on someone they think is distracted by the task at hand.

The spear is one of the first things he made when the arena began, a clumsy effort at first which was then refined after the small glut of sponsor gifts he received. It makes him feel better about his decision not to run for the Cornucopia this time.

Whenever he catches a fish he flicks it confidently off the end of the spear and onto the river bank before settling to wait for the fish to gather once again.

[actually112]

Dun dun.

Duuuuuuun dun.

Dun dun dun dun dun...

That'd be the music going through Aang's head if he knew it in the first place. As it stands, he's just very quietly going from tree branch to tree branch (his basket full of food and flowers) when he spots Bucky. He gets even quieter, sneaking on the branches until he's above Bucky.

Then, with a quick motion, he dangles down from his branch and drops a flower crown, aiming to get it on Bucky's head before disappearing back on his branch with a giggle.

[atethecanary]

It’s generally warmer and safer to be at the camp in the cave Sam brought him to, and so Julian usually stays there, at least when Sam’s not taking him to gather eggs or make snares or do other things that confuse Julian, curled up in a ball with his blanket around him. But there’s only so long he can stay like that without getting restless, and it leads him to venturing around the nearby areas.

Blanket still clutched around himself, he makes his way to the river now, footsteps heavy and approach all around noisy. Julian’s never learned the art of being stealthy, not while a human anyway. When he spots Bucky he freezes for a moment, considers bolting in the opposite direction, but on closer inspection he recognizes him as someone who’s been around the camp too, and that equates to “probably won’t hurt me” in Julian’s mind.

Julian’s still not sure if he should get any closer, though, and he stays back a little as he debates, but when he catches sight of the fish on the bank that’s all it takes for him to walk over until he’s crouching right down where the fish are being thrown, looking down at them eagerly.

“These are going to be for everyone, right? That means I get some?” He asks, but he’s already letting go of the blanket, draping it around himself in favor of gathering the fish into his arms, looking a bit like a kid that just found a bunch of candy.