001 not seeing the forest because TREES

[shiny_and_chrome]

Who| Nux, his angst, and you!
What| What a lovely...arrival.
Where| The Village
When| Mid Week 2
Warnings/Notes| Updated if needed.



The Forest

"Trees!" See! He knows what they are now. Those. Those are trees. A lot of them.

Yeah. That's a lot of trees. Not that he's afraid of trees, or anything. It's just, you know, way more trees than people around here, and he's not used to that. He's used to odds that include, like...zero trees.

And a lot more people. "Where is everybody? Anybody?" Seriously, he can't be alone out here. He'll circle the edges of the forest, but unless he hears something in there that sounds like a person, yeah, he's not going in there!

Castle

It wasn't the Citadel but he kind of got the feeling Immortan Joe would approve of the place. It had that kind of homey vibe for the War Boy--stone and dark and not exactly, you know, cheerful. The only spooky part was the emptiness--he'd never been alone, like...really alone before and it was starting to get to him, gnawing on the back of his brain.

Nux will wander the castle's various rooms, until he finds the dungeon. Because right now all he's got as a weapon is some rope and a...he thinks it's a pot? Yeah. He's got to do better than that.

But knocking over that pile of metal? Probably not a great start.

Comments

Castle

[thinksfast]

He'd actually walked down here instead of run. It was awful and it took a whole 10 minutes. He'd never spent that long doing anything before except sleeping. It was awful.

However, any thought to that subject fled when his attention was snapped away by the toppled pile of metal. He moved to see who did it and looked between the guy and the metal, his crossed arms and cocked hip clearly displaying his judgement. He gave a low whistle.

"Now that's clumsy. Good job onattractingattention in a deatharena!"

Castle

[shiny_and_chrome]

Nux was flailing at the clattering steel, as if he could just get it to shush, because it was really loud, echoing in the stone chamber like that, the loudest, the only sound he's heard since he got here.

Until he heard the voice, behind him, and he whirled, having snatched the first thing his hand could grab from the still-shifting pile, brandishing it in front of him.

Get back, stranger! Nux has...a ladle.

A-and he's not afraid to use it?

[thinksfast]

He raises an eyebrow.

"Riiight. What're you gonna do with that, huh? Throw it at me? Silverware's not that scary. What is your damage, anyway? Cat got your tongue or something?"

[shiny_and_chrome]

He hadn't quite thought that far, all right?

And maybe someday someone will look at him when he's doing something right. Some day.

"You! Are you who I have to kill?" Because he'll do it! He will not screw this up.

[thinksfast]

"Oh-ho! So you can speak. That'slessannoying."

Although, now that he paid attention to what was said, he was kind of put off. Being threatened brought everything back up to annoying again.

"Um, well, oneofthemyeah. But there's a ton of idiots out there too. Besides, you couldn't catch me ifyoutried, o you're better off just not."

Pietro cocked his head to the side, considering the guy in front of him. There was something about him...

"Hey, slowandsteady, you got a name?"

Forest :)

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut had been asleep.

Falling asleep at the edge of the forest seemed like an idiotic thing to do given how dangerous the forest had proven so far...but Ruffnut theorized that if she placed herself close to the dangerous place, that no one in their right mind would be looking for a sleeping girl there...right?

Well either way she had been asleep and covered in dirt save for her head which hurt too much to rub dirt on it. So when she heard Nux calling out she sat up sharply popping out of the ground like a corpse, and looking somewhat the part with the top of her head and parts of her face ravaged by week old burns. Her singed blond braids hung rattily off the sides of her exposed scalp while her wild eyes looked around for danger before settling on Nux.

Still recovering from less then a few hours of passing out she greeted him in a befitting manner.

"What?"

Forest

[shiny_and_chrome]

"Ahh!" He...hadn't really expected an answer to that? It was one of those, what-you-call-em, rhetorical questions. You know, the kind you half ask yourself, maybe just a little bit to hear the sound of your own voice? Yeah, one of those things.

"I. You're a girl!" Nux: command of the obvious securely in place.

Re: Forest

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut's wide unfocused eyes blinked slowly as she processed that statement.

Yes...he was correct. She was in fact a girl.

"Uh...yeah. Have been all my life." She agreed shifting against the tree she'd been sleeping under so she could stand up. More dirt and dead grass fell off her revealing a scrawny form clad in a green dress, striped leggings and of all things...a pair of glittering wings that were mangled and crumpled on her back. Apparently she had been sleeping on the things. They weren't real wings, but they were awfully pretty even covered in dirt.

"I mean, sometimes I pretend to be my brother because it's fun to trick people back home, but no one would fall for that around here...he's not around."

Babbling to herself as she tried to remember if she'd met this tribute or not. There were so many and she cared about so few of them. This guy had a...unique look about him though. She was sure she'd remember that.

Forest

[shiny_and_chrome]

Score one for Nux. No, make that two: he's successfully identified trees, and now girls. He is absolutely on a roll.

....until he sees those...whatever things on her back. Everything he knows is on the ground, even the Pole Cats roll on vehicles, so what those things are for, he has no idea. So that's confusing, and then she's talking all confusing and...

"Where's back home? You from the Bullet Farm?" They were a little weird over there.

Wait. Is he supposed to be trying to kill her? Right. He's on this. As soon as he can figure out exactly how.

Re: Forest

[ruffntumblenut]

"Bullet what? No." She shook her head to deny him and reached back idly to smooth out her wings. They were rubbing against her back in an irritating fashion but she hadn't figured out how to take them off without ripping the outfit. And there wasn't much to this outfit so she didn't dare damage it beyond repair until she had replacement clothes. She may not care for her appearance but she didn't want to be humiliated on camera.

"I'm from the Island of Berk. It's in another world. My home." She tried to explain lacking the intelligence or creativity to properly pass along this valuable information easily.

"It's like...you used to be in a different place right? Then you woke up here? We all went through that."

Forest

[cartas]

Lilah watches him circle around the edge of the forest from a distance, head cocked to one side as she wonders just who he's calling out to.

"You know, since we've all been sent in here to kill each other, that might not be the best plan. You never know who might come out. Or how many of them."

Forest

[shiny_and_chrome]

That's probably a reasonable thought, for someone not from the Citadel, someone not raised in Immortan Joe's own personal religion. He almost seems to perk up at the voice, because this...this he knows.

"I can handle myself!" And if he can't...death is nothing he's afraid of.

[cartas]

"Oh, I'm sure you can!" She holds her hands up in a way that's meant to be non-threatening, not wanting to deal with upsetting him. "But against how many? What if one hundred men jumped out of the trees and ambushed you?" Not that that's even a remote possibility. But Lilah had learned that recklessness was a bad idea.

[shiny_and_chrome]

"Then I die fighting and the gates of Valhalla swing wide for me!" Excuse the glow in his eyes, but he'd be all right with that. More than all right. That would be the best of all possible endings--to die fighting, memorable and witnessed.

[cartas]

"You do understand the aim of this is to win, right? Can't see much chance of that happening if you're so eager to go to your death."

Castle

[foundafamily]

Firo's kept to the castle since making his way there this week. A city boy through and through, he's not entirely comfortable with the more open expanses of the area.

He's cautiously feeling his way through the lower halls of the castle, knife in hand, when he hears the rattling. Against any better judgement he has, he steps deeper into the dungeon until he finds another Tribute.

He has his hands up and open, the knife in clear view but not as a threat. It's a gesture that he's had ample opportunities to practice in his line of work and it should be plain enough that he means it as a sort of peace offering--I won't come at you if you won't come at me.

"You're what they're talkin' about when they tell stories about 'things that go bump in the night,' eh?"

Castle

[shiny_and_chrome]

Nux is fine with open expanses, just, you know, with other people. And fewer tree things.

He's not quite subtle enough to pick up on cues like that, but he's still jumpy enough from the, uh, still clattering pile of metal behind him.

"Is this yours? Because I can fix it, I swear."

[foundafamily]

Firo would have expected a battle yell and an attack before an attempt at placating him. He blinks, then pauses to think a moment. "Nah, it's okay, you can pay me back later."

Maybe he's a jerk for leading the guy on, but, hey, he could use any favors or goodwill he can get.

"What's your name, huh? You hidin' out here?"

[shiny_and_chrome]

"Sure. I mean, I'll make it right." Somehow.

Yeah, he probably should have attacked, but it was, in his defense, a lot of noise.

"Hiding out? No! I'm just, you know, looking around. For stuff." And knocking it over, apparently. He needs to work on step two, okay?

[foundafamily]

He smiles, partly out of gratitude and partly to hide the fact that he's flabbergasted that that worked. "Thanks."

He tilts his head. "What kinda stuff? I didn't hear about any buried treasure here."

He's sure any treasure would come with a trap, though, so he wasn't exactly keeping his ears open.

castle

[drinkupmehearties]

The Castle was too much a temptation to resist in the end. He knew other Tributes would make their way to it in the hopes of shelter, and with the rain and the muck and the stench of death and decay plaguing the air outside, Jack wasn't exempt from that. It was only until the quiet beepbeepbeep of Sponsor gifts raining out of the sky, signaling the promise of supplies and equipping him with two knives, that he'd decided it was worth the risk.

He'd stripped that ridiculous hat the Capitol had so graciously given him from his head on his first week, and was now using it as a impromptu satchel, tying it to his belt and stuffing everything he'd gotten inside. One of the knives, however, stayed out and in his hands as the pirate wound his way deeper and down through the cold Castle hallways.

The sound of crashing metal stops him short, and his back is instantly pressed against the cool stone wall. He's straining to listen for any other sign of life, but after a brief moment decides to call out: "Oi, I'm armed! Who's there?"

castle

[shiny_and_chrome]

Nux is still trying to figure this whole place out. Nothing like being in the Wastes one minute, and being told he had to go kill people in a stinky tree place the next.

He longs for simpler times, okay?

"I-I'm armed, too!" Whoever you are. And now he's in a crouch, sidling toward that blind corner.

[drinkupmehearties]

When an unfamiliar voice answers, Jack lips press apart into a grimace. He should've just left, shouldn't have wondered if whoever had caused the noise was a friend. And now whoever it was knew he was there. Damn it all.

His tongue darts against his lower lip, knife clasped tighter in his hands. He could turn this around. Make it into an opportunity that worked in his favor. With the Sponsor gifts having been distributed to Tributes, this person could have good supplies to take for his own.

"Aye, then. Listen. I've no qualms with you, mate, so there's no need for violence, savvy? No need to cause each other harm." He's inching around the corner as well, listening for movement, but his gaze is fixed at normal height -- not down low, where Nux happens to be crouching.

And if Nux doesn't move, Jack will end up turning the corner and shuffling straight into him, tripping over him.

[shiny_and_chrome]

...the new guy talks funny, so it's going to take Nux a minute to sort of untangle all those words. "Name's Nux. Not Savee." Or whatever.

"Thought violence was the whole point?" Seriously. Not that he's doubting the other guy as much as...why is this place so confusing?

i'm so sorry this took so long!

[drinkupmehearties]

Jack nearly misses Nux as he turns around the corner, strangling a surprised noise down in the back of his throat. The tension in his body eases somewhat, however, as the man continues to talk to him and not outright attack. He lifts the blade in his hand either way, torchlight flashing orange light against the blade, just to make sure Nux understood that he hadn't been bluffing earlier.

His other hand is lifted in a placating gesture, though. "Savvy. Means 'understood' -- " He waves his free hand dismissively. "-- but Nux, then." A hesitant pause, before the pirate indicates himself in return, "Captain Jack Sparrow."

His question elicits a slight perk to the corner of Jack's mouth. He doesn't sound like he's challenging Jack so much as confused, and with the fact that the man hadn't sprung to violence immediately the pirate gathers that Nux might be new to this. Good. That might allow more wiggle room.

"It's part o' it, but it's not wholly required, as it were." He scans Nux, then the area around him quickly, looking for what the man has on him, then settles his gaze back onto him. "In fact, the two of us, you and I, we could work together. Better our chances in the grand scheme of things. There ain't any rule that says we can't, and those blokes at the Capitol like it more than senseless violence." Which was a lie, in some part. Brutal, pointless violence was always always appreciated in the Capitol, but the audience sometimes liked a show of allies working together against others. Particularly if the truce went sour sometime later.