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

[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?”

[tookthewheel]

Bucky doesn't exactly believe him on that, running didn't work forever, the same as hiding. He wouldn't say it was completely impossible to win with that strategy, as the past couple of arena's had proven that it wasn't always the more aggressive tributes who came out on top. They'd had to do some fighting though, in the end.

"You should learn when you're out of here." After you die goes unsaid there.

He considers and then nods. "It's what I'm good at." It was what he was good for, maybe all he was good for in some ways.

[atethecanary]

“But I have a lot of other important things to do when I get back. Like sleep.” No, he obviously doesn’t have anything important to do. And he knows he should learn, but he’s so used to pretty much doing nothing that the idea of it is still unwelcome. It’s one thing to learn a few things here and there in the arena and another to start actively training. Julian still has the small hope that he might be sent back home, and to start training feels a bit like giving up on that.

Still, after two arenas he knows it’s something he has to consider. “If I have time, maybe. I could squeeze it in, I guess.”

“Even better than you are at catching fish?” The catching fish is still the better of the skills, as far as Julian’s concerned. Mostly because he gets something out of it. “Was it hard for you to learn? Do you think I could learn quickly… if I decided I wanted to?”

[tookthewheel]

At that Bucky finds himself restraining a roll of his eyes. He might not sleep much for many reasons but he does understand the important and appeal of sleep, however he finds it far less important than learning a lesson that could keep you alive. The thing is, he's not sure if this kid is just joking or not.

"Do what you want." Bucky certainly isn't going to hold a knife to Julian's throat to make him learn.

He starts to turn away, back to the river now that some of his catch has been appropriated. There's a pause at the question and Bucky regards the spear in his hands for a moment, "Yes." he says to the first question. The second he can't accurately provide an answer for, so he ignores it, moving onto the third. "You'll need to practice every day."

[atethecanary]

“I plan on it,” Julian says, shrugging. He just wishes doing what he wanted was as simple as it used to be.

“Every day." There's a bit of horror in his face at that. "So, in other words, not quickly.” The only time he’d bothered to practice something that frequently was when he’d had to figure out his powers. That was the only time he’d really wanted to be better at something. But that was a long time ago, and wasn’t an experience Julian particularly enjoyed. It should make sense that if he wants to get better at fighting he’d have to do the same, have to work just as hard, but Julian was sort of hoping it would be easier.

Even if Bucky continues to turn away, Julian will still ask, “Aren’t there any… shortcuts, useful tricks, or something like that?”

[tookthewheel]

"Not if you want to be good at it." Bucky confirms. There was no instant gratification, no cheat code, even if you were naturally gifted at combat you had to practice, over and over.

That's what they did to him, that's how he learned. First in the army, then in HYDRA's hands. Do it again and again until it was perfect, no room for mistakes, no tolerance for anything less than perfection.

"That or keep hiding." he starts to turn back to the river to continue fishing. He's going to need more now Julian has taken his existing catch.