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!]]

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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.

[tookthewheel]

There's a slight creak, then the weight of something falling on Bucky's head and he starts, for a moment losing all that lethal grace, before looking up sharply, turning the direction of his spear from water to the tree branches above.

He can't see anyone but there's a giggle that sounds suspiciously familiar above him. Bucky takes a chance on lowering the point of the spear, frowning as he touches the top of his head with his left hand but can't feel exactly what it is, there's not enough feeling in the metal limb. A circlet of some kind is all he can tell.

"Aang?" he peers up at the tree, trying to spot the boy.

[actually112]

Aang stuffs a gloved hand into his mouth to (unsuccessfully) stifle more bubbly giggles. Bucky looks, dare he say it, cute with the flower crown and that puzzled expression on his face. Good. That means Aang's plan is working.

Aang's plan is, of course, very vague and mostly just consisting of 'go mess with Bucky', but it's working nonetheless. His black jacket and clothes can hide him for a while in the pine needles, but his giggles might end up giving his position away.

[tookthewheel]

"I know you're up there." he tells the tree branches. There's no point in him hiding any longer so Bucky doesn't understand why he does.

He pulls the circlet off his head to take a proper look at it and... flowers? Bucky blinks at it, puzzlement writ across his face. He'd seen the flower meadow when he'd set out to explore the arena in the second week, gone to the edge and then decided there was nothing worthwhile in going further into it. Knowing the Gamemakers the flowers would be poisonous, except perhaps not if Aang has made this from them.

Bucky sets the spear down, goes into a crouch and then jumps high enough to catch the lowest branch of the tree and haul himself up.

[actually112]

As soon as Bucky's standing on a branch, Aang holds his own circlet to his head before swinging upside down on his own branch, which puts them face-to-upside-down-face.

"Hi, Bucky."

Aang's face is partially hidden by a scarf, but his eyes are scrunched in an unmistakable smile. "You know, I have a lot of flowers. I'll just keep putting crowns on your head if you take them off."

[tookthewheel]

"Hi." he says, looking Aang up and down, pleased to note he's obviously been sent sponsor gifts and is keeping warm with them.

Settling himself on the branch he looks at the (slighlty bruised) flower crown in his hand and then the one that Aang is holding. They just look like normal flowers. "Why? What's the point of them?"

[actually112]

"The point is that they're fun."

Aang bends to perch on his branch again, grabbing his basket before jumping down to the branch Bucky is sitting on, his movements light and careless as always, as if falling off the branches wouldn't possibly kill him. He sits down next to Bucky with a basket full of fruit, flowers, and a pair of musical reeds.

"And they look nice. And they make people feel better about things." Aang takes off his gloves, putting them in his lap so he can more effectively pull out flowers and start linking them together. "I can braid some in your hair, if you like. I'd braid them in my own, but I don't have any." Even in the arena, he shaves with a little knife a sponsor gave him. It's not as effective as his razor in the Capitol, but he can make do.

[tookthewheel]

"I don't see how they're fun."

Taking a hint from Aang, Bucky also sits down, balancing easily on the thick tree branch. He holds the flower crown between both of his hands, turning it this way and that. It's pleasant to look at, he guesses, and there's tickle in the back of his mind like he should remember something associated with flower crowns. He picks at the memory but soon gives it up as just a feeling, a hint that he can't yet bring up.

"Do they make you feel better?" he's not sure he wants flowers braided into his hair, it wouldn't be very helpful when it came to going unnoticed. "You could always grow hair, you know."

[actually112]

"I grew it out once, but I didn't like the feeling of it and it made it a lot harder to feel the air around me. That's why airbenders usually shave at least most of their heads."

He kicks his legs gently over the side of the branch. He finishes another flower crown quickly, which he plops on Bucky's head. "But I still like playing with hair, and flower crowns make me feel better. Do you want me to show you how to make one?"

[tookthewheel]

"It makes you harder to grab too." Bucky says, practically, his elbow nudging lightly at Aang's shoulder before going to settle back in his lap. It's nice sitting up here in the tree, amongst the leaves. He can see the river stretching away into the distance and, if he turns his head, the mouth of the cave where his friends are.

This time he lets the flower crown stay sitting in his hair, a small weight that he's content to bear. "Yeah, okay."

[actually112]

"Yeah, that too. So it's better to keep it nice and shaved." Aang grins at the nudge--he's always happy when Bucky initiates physical contact, no matter how brief--before offering Bucky his basket full of flowers. "Go ahead and pick some that you think look pretty. Don't worry: I only picked flowers I recognized." There were lots of gorgeous flower he didn't recognize, but he decided that he didn't trust the Capitol to not hide something nasty in them.

He looks at the ring of flowers on Bucky's head, visibly cheering at the sight. "Flowers suit you. I should make crowns more often." It makes the man look... softened. Just a little.

[tookthewheel]

Pretty. Bucky looks down at the flowers, then after a moment pulls out a selection of them in various shades of blue and violet. Blue is a colour that, while he wouldn't address it as pretty, holds a certain attraction for him. One of the shades make him think of the coat from the exhibit.

"Think one of my sisters told me that once." he says indulgently, then realises, oh, that's what the tickle in his head from earlier was. His sisters and flowers. He tries not to think much about his family. "How do I start?"

[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.

[tookthewheel]

The fact Bucky hears the approach so easily alerts him to the fact the person approaching is probably not a threat, or they're just that bad at stealth. By the time Julian arrives at the river bank he has turned and watched his approach for a good twenty feet.

He knows this one by association, Sam brought him to the cave, which means he is not someone who will attack or someone whom Bucky should attack. That's what he thinks at any rate, he'll find out the truth soon enough.

Watching the young man brazenly reach down to grab the fish is irksome but at the same time he isn't wrong. Bucky is fishing to provide for everyone in the cave, even if he doesn't entirely approve of anyone bringing in unnecessary bodies to feed and share resources with. It's not his place, he thinks, to argue against what decisions the other make, it seems to be their way to help everyone they can.

So far it wasn't proving too detrimental to their chances.

"Yes." he answers, leaving his fishing spot with spear in hand to approach.

[atethecanary]

As Bucky approaches, Julian glances at the spear with a slightly wary expression. Even if Julian’s mostly certain he’s safe, he can’t help the nervousness that bubbles up at having someone walk towards him with a sharp, pointy thing. Julian definitely prefers spears to be occupied with catching fish that he can eat.

Despite the small amount of wariness he may feel, it doesn’t stop him from asking, completely serious, “Are you going to cook them for everyone too?”

He says everyone but there’s an undertone of me to it, and Julian doesn’t even see anything wrong with trying to rope basically a stranger into cooking fish for him. What is a simple task for most, is a difficult one for Julian, and he’s so used to having things done for him that even in the Arena it’s still second nature for Julian to try and avoid doing things for himself.

[tookthewheel]

He's safe, so long as he doesn't do anything stupid like try and attack Bucky, he's safe.

At least Bucky is holding the spear with the pointed end away from the younger man at the moment. He's visibly surprised by the question though, wondering under what assumption Julian is operating. Sam might have brought him to the cave and in which case Bucky might be obliged to let him have some of the supplies he gathered but there is no reason for him to go beyond that.

"No, I'm not." he answers flatly, unimpressed with the question. Bucky can see through to what is really being asked here. He could suggest some others to cook the fish but given that he doesn't know this guy he's not exactly compelled to put his allies in the position to do extra work either.

"Who are you?"

[atethecanary]

For now, it’s slightly comforting that the pointed end isn’t facing him, but Julian feels like he has to keep a watch on it, just in case, so he continues to sneak glances at the spear as he moves from crouching to standing, arms still full of fish.

“But burnt fish don’t taste good. Or undercooked fish,” Julians grumbles. And those are really the only two ways food comes out when Julian tries to cook. He frowns at Bucky as if it’s his fault, like he’s the one forcing Julian to suffer through the woes of poorly cooked fish. In the end though, Julian will take what he can get. Bad tasting food is better than no food at all, but that won’t stop Julian from pouting about it first.

“I’m Julian.” He doesn’t see the need for any more clarification than that, despite how it’s probably warranted. “Who are you?”

[tookthewheel]

"Then eat them raw, it won't kill you." Bucky suggests, looking continually unperturbed by Julian's attempts to get him to do the job for him. Besides, Bucky's not exactly a practiced chef either. He's been learning something of the art from Banner but he's far from an expert. The fish would probably come out just as crispy as any attempt by Julian if Bucky did try.

"James Buchanan Barnes. You're Sam's friend."

[atethecanary]

“Ew. No. I’m pretty sure these fish will.” He’s eaten raw fish before, but they’d still always been somehow prepared, so Julian considers it vastly different. He looks down at the fish he’s holding with a disgusted expression as he asks, “Have you eaten them raw?”

“I… not exactly. He’s saved me a couple times.” And has been attempting to show him how to survive, but Julian doesn’t know if that necessarily means he’s Sam’s friend. Julian’s never really had very many people to call friends before, so he’s not sure quite what friendship entails.

“But you’re his friend, right?”

[tookthewheel]

"Not these one's." he answers truthfully, shrugging. He knows on principle that fish can be eaten raw without causing lasting harm though, and should he ever be in the situation where it was raw fish or nothing he wouldn't hesitate. Bucky remembers what it is to starve.

"Yes." Bucky says after a moment, "We're friends." It feels good to be able to say it out loud to another person, like it made it all the more real.

"You don't fight?"

[atethecanary]

“See! It could so kill you.” He wags one of the fish at Bucky. “It’s better to be safe. Who knows what raw Arena fish could do.” Really, he knows they’re most likely not going to kill anyone, even if he knows some food in previous Arenas did. But the idea of eating them raw still grosses him out, so he’s using it as his excuse.

Now that he knows Bucky is Sam’s friend it’s enough for Julian to be even more certain he’s in no danger. He visibly relaxes, cradling the fish in one arm so he can try and wrap his blanket more securely around himself.

“No. I don’t want to fight. It’s annoying.” He says, but while there’s some truth to that, it’s more like he doesn’t know how to fight. The lifestyle he had lived left him with zero fighting or self defense experience, even with his shifter abilities. “Isn’t it easier to avoid it, anyway? Save energy and all that.” Except that isn’t always an option. Which, as much as he would like to deny it, is slowly becoming more evident to Julian the more he needs to be saved.

[tookthewheel]

"If the Capitol meant them to poison us then the poison would probably survive being cooked." Bucky points out, but decides it's not a point worth fighting over. He'd only half meant it in the first place, the rest passing as the closest Bucky got to making a joke.

Annoying, that's not the word that Bucky would use. "Sometimes. Eventually you won't have a choice." he knows that better than anyone, in situations like this any choice was just an illusion to fool yourself into believing for your own comfort. "The longer this goes on the worse it will get and the other in here will get more desperate."

[atethecanary]

Oh, well, that sort of ruins Julian’s excuse. Julian frowns, looking between the fish and Bucky as he tries to come up with something else, but eventually he just sighs in defeat. “Fine, but if you’re making me choose between raw and burnt fish, then I’m sticking with burnt. I suppose it will be slightly more tolerable.”

“I’m really fast! I can outrun them. They’ll never be able to catch me.” That’s what Julian tells himself to feel better, but he knows it’s not really true, even if he actually was that fast. As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, a part of Julian knows Bucky’s right. “But let’s say it is the only choice I have, it… uh… might not go so well for me.” Which is code for ‘I suck at fighting’, but Julian doesn’t want to say that outright.

“I guess it works out better for you? The whole… fighting thing?”