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.




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Comments

[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?"

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"Hannah who? Don't answer that." Guess who has no interest in getting caught up with teen celebrities after ten years away from the states.

Bruce keeps his eyes on his carving, forced to squint from his lack of reading glasses. It would be nice if he could take those into the arena without them being destroyed. "It's easier to survive in civilization, but there was a long time where I stuck as much to the wilderness as possible. I picked up a lot of skills from other people who lived similarly. Eventually, it got too hard to survive alone."

He doesn't specify whether it was physically too trying to constantly hunt for food or too psychologically torturous to have absolutely no human contact. He had tried to completely cut himself off from society, but even for all his grumpiness and introversion, Bruce is human and has human needs. The isolation had been driving him insane.

[arrogantalloy]

Tony nods. At first not entirely sure how to reply to that, and just watches him carve.

"I'm starting to feel you are the physical embodiment of Discovery Channel. And I'm going to admit it, this excites me a little." He shakes his head with a grin. "You're one hell of a deep and interesting well, my good doctor."

He knows that there's something potentially dark behind the 'too hard to survive alone' but Tony doesn't want to approach it. Not only is almost everything happening being recorded in the arena, it's also something deep within Bruce that he feels like he shouldn't disturb unless Bruce wants to talk about it.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Tony Stark showing respect for the fact that some things are personal? The devil will be skating to work today.

"I live to please," he says with a hint of good-humored sarcasm. "I can show you how to do some of it. Then you can be the next Discovery Channel man."

He taps the bone in his hand with a smart rapping sound. "I learned this trick pretty early on. I came across a family who saved money by making most of their utensils from the bones of their dead animals. They showed me how to do it after I managed to clear up a nasty infection their son had."

[arrogantalloy]

"I already am. Except my domain is the 'how it works' programs."

He gives Bruce a grin, then shifts his focus to the bone and his explination. It makes him grin more, because as shy and suspicious the good doctor can be about things and people, not surprising after what he's had to live through, it seems he never shys away from helping people.

"That sounds. Well, sanitary. Wait, how did they make a fork?... Or a spoon?"

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"Don't talk to me about sanitation. I've seen way worse than bone tools."

Bruce is, at heart, a good person, regardless of what he tells himself. The easiest way to get him somewhere is to tell him someone needs help that no one else can give, and that's how Natasha nabbed him for SHIELD.

"It's pretty easy, if you know how to do it. Usually it's a combination of carving and attaching bones to each other. I can show you, if you want."

[arrogantalloy]

"Do I even want to ask what's worse than using dense calcium sticks as tools?"

As much as Tony doesn't want to, he does pull a face at how much the idea of carving bones and attaching them to each other makes his skin crawl, after all he's full of bones and can feel everyone of them itch at the thought of anyone carving into them.

"I guess it's something I could look into."

He really doesn't want to, but really he needs what ever edge the others can supply hi with.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"Use your imagination." He's sure Tony can think of less sanitary things than that.

Bruce gestures to the knife he's carving with the knife given to him by a sponsor. "Watch and I can show you." He starts his work again, and as he does, he speaks. "Generally it's advisable to make a handle out of wood and twine, but you can leave part of the bone unsharpened and use that as your handle in a pinch. Only in a pinch, though. If you try to stab anything with that kind of knife, your hand would slide over the blade and cut you. If you have a bone, you want to remove anything from it, like muscle or flesh. Then you try to wash it a little so you can get rid of little bone shards and any bacteria that might be especially infectious."

Unless Tony asked him to stop, he would go through the entire process slowly and carefully as he worked.