Danger in the Forest

[steepled]

Who| Vivi, Rick, and Daryl
What| The three make their first settlement in the woods annnnd a bad thing happens!
Where| The woods
When| Week 1, after the cornucopia run.
Warnings/Notes| Eyy! Appropriate music!



Vivi had considered going for the cornucopia, but watching other tributes scramble and struggle for the goods made him think otherwise. No matter how much he feels the need to survive, he can't chance it with having to hurt somebody else over supplies. The guilt gets to him even more as he continues to run and hear the screams behind him. He fell on his face once but was soon scooped up by Daryl who thankfully spotted him before anybody else could.

They had met up with Rick soon after and he was grateful to see that the two men weren't among those that have fallen so far. The relief is short lived for Vivi though when came a wordless understanding that their friend Beth didn't make it. Vivi never had been able to meet her despite being from the same district, but he could already tell that she meant a lot to Rick and Daryl. It must have been too late to save her if Daryl was able to rescue him in time. Would she have lived otherwise? He didn't want to over think it and can only hope to be able to meet her after this arena is over.

Even if Daryl and Rick hadn't been able to grab anything from the cornucopia, the trio have been able to set up a small camp of sorts. Vivi felt his magic back and was going to simply light the fireplace with a spell like he has many times before, but Rick and Daryl were quick and efficient in getting the fire started. The mage didn't want to bother them, given what just happened so he just followed along and did what he was told.

With their makeshift camp settled, Vivi shrugs off the wings that were put on him earlier and folds them neatly to set aside. He takes a seat on one of the unused logs, looking down at his gloved palms. His magic is back, but there's something off and fishy about it...and he can't help but wonder if the harmless flame over his head has something to do with it.

Comments

[weaintashes]

Neither Daryl nor Rick could have reached Beth in time to even help her. It had been physically impossible, separated as they were. And though her untimely death at the Cornucopia had been wholly unavoidable, inevitable, that knowledge couldn't prevent the resounding shock and anguish that shadowed Daryl's every step since, his self-perceived failure weighing heavy on him and threatening to pull him under if he stopped for even a moment. And so he hadn't. With Vivi kept safe in his arms, and trusting that Rick would follow, he had run until his lungs were burning, and simply kept running. As though he could escape the atrocities inflicted on them by the Gamemakers, by the Capitol. As though it made any difference at all.

It wasn't until the unmistakable sounds of Rick's quiet, oxygen starved gasps for air — identical to Daryl's own — that he finally managed to calm whatever fleeting madness that had seized him. But the mad dash from the Cornucopia hadn't been without practical purpose as well; it put them well ahead of other Tributes, most of whom had seemed to trickle out toward the castle and abandoned village.

In unspoken apology, he left Vivi with Rick and doubled back to scout the village on his own, then returned to lead them back in order to scavenge what supplies they could. Mercifully, they even found more sensible spare clothing, though Daryl opted to keep his hooded monk attire and pocketed the bells Rick ripped from his impractical jester costume. Just in case. With that, the trio slipped back into the deeper woods and eventually arranged a serviceable camp for themselves, in an area Daryl and Rick agreed would be defensible enough without leaving them blind to the approach of possible threats. It would do for now.

Not even scouting the immediate area a half dozen times could fully expel Daryl's lingering restlessness, but at length he returned to their camp with an additional armful of gathered wood, ensuring the fire would last the night. There was no telling how cold it might get, and for Vivi's sake the fire would be an acceptable risk — and potential weapon, should they need it.

"No tellin' what's out there, but I set some snares," Daryl quietly informed them as he settled heavily in front of the fire, to the side of Vivi, giving the little mage and Rick both a long look before allowing his posture to sag by degrees, head bowed forward. "Might be wolves. There were tracks. Ain't too worried, we'll prob'ly see their eyes glowin' in the dark even if we don't hear 'em first."

Speaking of glowing things.

"What's with the flame?" he wondered without looking up, referring to the one that had been hovering above Vivi from the start. He'd noticed a few other Tributes with similar ones, and was still puzzling out the meaning.

[rictator]

Not even a day in, and they'd already lost one of their own. The rational part of him understood that it had beyond his control, that it was the nature of the game. Divided and unarmed, there was nothing any of them could have done for Beth - But guilt was a relentless beast, undeterred by reality or fact. Regardless of reason, Beth's life was another anchor on his conscience and his heart, made worse by its effect on those she'd left behind.

He should have done better.

Rick didn't need to know the details to see that she and Daryl had grown closer in the wake of the prison, their friendship evolving in the time following. Christ, he'd already been forced to witness the aftermath of her death in their first arena and the toll it had taken on the other man; even had they known then of its fleeting nature, he knew too well it didn't soften the blow. The memories of her dying wouldn't vanish with the physical wounds, and didn't heal half as quickly.

It was part of why he'd allowed him his space, reading between the lines of his expression, his body language. Stopping now wasn't going to help either of them, and he nodded his understanding as Daryl had turned in the direction of the village. He was easily the most suited for the job; he had the stealth, and with the echoes of cannon fire in the distance, it was likely that he'd need it. Splitting up would always pose a risk, but it wasn't half as dangerous as the three of them wandering into potentially hostile territory, without weapons or high ground.

... And selfishly, he couldn't argue against the end result. Daryl hadn't been gone five minutes before Rick had started to tear at the decorative bells on his costume, muting the obnoxious colour scheme with a liberal coating of mud. The clingy fabric hugged his body in all the wrong ways, the tacky gold and purple painting him like a goddamned target - Which, given the reputation of his appointed district, was likely the point. He felt a bit like a dog rolling in the dirt, but when compared to alternative, he'd take the extra grime.

From there, it was business as usual. He hadn't been keen on the idea of the fire, but he agreed that it was a chance they needed to take; Vivi's presence changed things, stretched the limits of acceptable risk. With Daryl taking up his usual post pacing the fringes, Rick was left to tend the fire, looking for ways to keep his mind focused on tasks, burying any of the more painful thoughts to be dealt with when he was ready to. If he ever was. Moving forward, keeping ahead of the loss and the grief had always been their best option - Linger long enough for it to catch up, and they'd be joining Beth far too soon.

The sound of Daryl's voice was enough to pull him back to the present, tearing his gaze away from the fire.

"There's gotta be something. Watchin' people starve to death isn't exactly 'entertaining'," he replied bitterly, bending the branch he'd been holding until it splintered under the strain. That's what this was about, right? If they'd wanted to watch them wither away, they wouldn't have gone to the lengths that they did.

But Daryl did raise another valid question. His attention flickered over to the flame above Vivi's head, his brow furrowed. He'd noticed it earlier, but there'd been other, more pressing concerns. While neither he nor Daryl had one, the sea of differences between them and the mage was vast enough that it didn't narrow down the cause. For all they knew, it could have been a normal occurrence in his world, and the arena had just brought it out somehow.

[steepled]

Vivi's mind is too preoccupied by a dozen thoughts to properly respond. From what he understands, he was thrown into the arena while it was happening - too late to understand the dangers of the surrounding area before it was too late.

Now, here at the start, the questions of just how long he would last plagues him. Emily seems aware that this cycle of violence is wrong and offers comfort where Jason would never. It's clear to Vivi that the escort doesn't care about who wins or dies provided that the winner will be someone from D7. And Vivi doesn't know if he'd be the one. And he can't even imagine the thought of seeing Daryl and Rick die and the probability of never seeing them again. The topic surrounding Beth's death is too much of an elephant in the room for the mage to even offer condolences too. At the same time, it's also too soon to say that she'll probably be back at the Capitol. It forms a guilt he can't quite describe, so he continues to say nothing, drawing his knees to his chest while glancing up to see the flame still over his head.

"I'm not sure," he answers with a shake of his head at Daryl's question. "I've never seen it before. But...I can use my magic now." He can actually help this time, but his uncertainty outweighed his confidence. "I think it has something to do with the flame..."

It could spell trouble for them and he knows that it makes him stand out and could also potentially draw attention towards them. The last thing he wants is to put his friends in danger. He folds his hands together as if keeping the apart could instantly send a thunder spell. It's not as though he can't keep his magic under control - he's learned a lot since he first set off on his own, but Rick and Daryl come from a world where magic of Vivi's kind doesn't exist. If something goes wrong in an environment like this...they might not trust him.

[weaintashes]

Daryl gradually shifted backward until he felt the solid press of a tree at his back, the trunk impossibly wide and gnarled with ancient-looking knots, though he knew better than to trust the illusion of age. It had probably been artificially manufactured in under a week. Regardless of the state of its natural legitimacy, having his back covered was as much of a balm as he was likely to get at the moment, helped soothe some of his frayed nerves. Eyes still downcast, he brought his knees up toward his chest and rested his elbows against them, while both hands were curled into fists.

"Could be their idea'a entertainment this time," he muttered wearily, no real conviction behind the words. No point in trying to guess what gruesome obstacle course the Gamemakers had arranged for them this round; that was something to worry about once they had a little more to go on. But the medieval pastiche and enormous wolf tracks put him in mind of hellish fairy tales.

The remark about Vivi's magic being returned to him was what finally caused Daryl to stir again, and he briefly lifted his gaze to the flame hovering over the mage's head. Vivi's logic was sound, and he was inclined to agree with him.

"So if people with powers got marks like that, we avoid any flames we see," he said pragmatically, and took some measure of comfort in simply speaking the plan aloud, even unnecessary as it was. His companions had undoubtedly already reached the same conclusion. "And best be careful usin' your own powers. Might draw unwanted attention."

His eyes fell to Rick out of sheer habit, seeking the confirmation that he realised he didn't really need and Rick wasn't obligated to provide. With Beth... absent — he refused to think gone — for possibly the next month or longer, it changed things. There was now Vivi to consider, but the burden of leadership and substantial weight of the associated culpability needn't rest on one set of shoulders alone. Nor should it. These thoughts were plain on Daryl's face, in the way his eyes softened as he regarded Rick, and his hands were no longer in fists but instead lightly grasped his knees. Whatever might come, they could make it through together, the three of them. He and Rick could keep Vivi safe, could keep each other safe. That was all that mattered in the end.

Leaves from overhead slowly drifted to the ground, and the sounds of the woods steadily grew distinct to his ears the more he focused on them. Nothing was amiss as far as he could tell. Foraging for dinner was the next order of business, but it could wait a little while. There was something arguably more important to see to first.

"...Ever been campin' before? Tell me about it." The question may have seemed meant for Vivi alone, but he included Rick with a look. In his case, before didn't just mean before Panem, but before. When the dead weren't yet ambling around trying to devour the living.

[rictator]

They had reached the same conclusion about the flames - but if the Gamemakers intended to tip the scales, there was little point in warning them. They'd figure out who had powers quickly enough through the regular course of the arena. Vivi's magic would prove an asset if that were the case, but there was something about the entire situation that wasn't sitting right with him. Magic and superpowers were flashy, but what about the rest of them? Rick didn't expect a fair fight, but he also didn't believe that the Capitol intended to use them as cannon fodder either. There had to be a catch to it - and were he a gambling man, he'd have bet that the flame factored into it, somehow.

"Yeah," he said after brief consideration, toying with the snapped branch. "We play it safe. We don't know what the others are capable of either."

Now that he stopped to think about it, Rick wasn't entirely sure as to what Vivi could do either. Magic wasn't real where they came from, and while he wasn't doubting his abilities, he still had trouble wrapping his head around the concept. He was restricted by the limitations of his imagination, and given the circumstances, he wasn't about to ask for a demonstration. It just wasn't worth the risk.

The question didn't register immediately, and it was only belatedly that Rick realized that it had been aimed at the both of them. Following the previous arena, he'd been making an effort to draw out the more of the details of Daryl's life before, though it had been a slow, careful process. Yet somehow, times like this still managed to take him off guard - He never really expected him to ask those same questions back.

He tilted his head, thoughtful. Without a roof over their heads, their lives now looked pretty damned close to camping... There were times when a tent would have been a luxury. But Daryl already knew about all that - and that wasn't what he was asking.

"When I was a kid, my father and me... We used to go every summer."

It had been a tradition that he'd always meant to bring into his own son's life. The intention was there, and he'd always planned to go before something else came up. A dinner with the neighbours, or a wedding. The trips they'd had seemed like enough back then, when they still thought there'd a 'next summer' or that they'd make it up there 'later'.

"I always wanted to take Carl, but it just seemed like... Like there was never enough time. We went a few times, just for the weekend. Shane-" He chuckled at the thought, though it was short-lived, and rough with disuse. "Pretty sure he ended up teachin' me more about fishing than he showed Carl."

Looking back on it now, they could have been someone else's memories. When Carl was still allowed to act his age. When Shane had looked at him as a friend, and not an obstacle. That wasn't his life anymore, and he'd long since missed his chance to make time for those things.

[steepled]

"...y-yeah," Vivi agrees too with a nod, looking back down at his hands. To think now that him having his magic back would add to their burden. This is probably what the Gamemakers want. It's not just to take their powers away but to make people like him to think twice about using them at all. In any case, the mage feels like he can't be of any use this time around, as much as he wants to help.

Rick is the first to answer the question and Vivi listens like he always does. The man doesn't talk much and probably keeps more thoughts to himself than actually voicing them (it takes one to know one, after all), so it's nice to hear Rick talk about himself. The mage always figured maybe they were just private like most can be or maybe have a lot of bad memories they'd rather not think about. They all have those. As much as Vivi knows that these two men are good and have been kind to him, he has to admit, there's little he knows about them.

So he listens to Rick with interest, showing it by slightly leaning forward. "Who's Shane?" He asks with a tilt of his head. The flame over him pretty much tips with him almost humorously, if one were to forget what it means for a second.

[weaintashes]

That name crossing Rick's lips so casually caused an old pang of hatred to flare to life in Daryl's gut, like smouldering embers being agitated. It was a little surprising, after all this time, and yet not. The hatred had grown in direct proportion to his regard for Rick, and sometimes it just wasn't easy reconciling who Rick used to be with who he was now, forgiving him for his past willful blindness that had nearly cost him his life.

Even back when it was happening, it had infuriated Daryl. His instincts about Shane the first time he'd laid eyes on the man had been absolutely accurate, untainted by familiarity or bias. He'd known Shane as the snake in the grass that he'd eventually proved himself to be, and had also known no one would have heeded one word he had to say on the matter. Likely would've just exiled him from the group for speaking against the man. Only Dale had been willing to listen, probably because Daryl's opinion had suited his own agenda at the time, but it was already too late then.

And truthfully, maybe he was jealous, just a little. That no one had ever — or would ever — have that level of blind faith in him or his integrity, would never give him the benefit of the doubt time after time after time like Shane was given. But that was an even older resentment that had existed since before the world ended. One borne of being treated like backwoods ignorant trash his entire life, of being dismissed because of his upbringing and appearance. Strangers never looked at him and saw a good person, one worthy of any respect, and instead allowed their own prejudices to colour their perception. The apocalypse certainly hadn't changed that.

Letting out a breath, he wrapped his arms around his knees and lowered his head until his chin rested against them as well. He remained silent and watched Rick with a remote expression, curious about his answer.

[rictator]

The words were already out there, too late for him to take them back.

Vivi wouldn't have known who he was - Even in their own world, there weren't many left who would. The few who did... The Shane they knew wasn't the one Rick wanted to remember. They hadn't had the opportunity to see the man he'd once called his partner, or the friend he'd grown up with. Someone who, at one point, he would have trusted with the lives of his wife and son.

There was still some part of him that wanted desperately to be able to draw the line between that Shane and the one he'd killed, to say that he had been someone else. A stranger, twisted by their circumstances. But if he were to honestly believe that, what did that make Rick? Change was a necessity now, intrinsic to their survival. If it hadn't been Shane in that field, then who was Rick now? The weapon may have been forced into his hand, but it had ultimately been his choice to use it.

In the end, Shane chose his own course. There was no question that putting him down had been the right thing to do - He'd become a danger to all of them, to his family. While there may have been things that Shane had understood then, things that Rick had yet to learn, that wasn't enough to absolve him.

"He was... someone I knew before," he said finally, the words sounding stilted even to his own ears.

The man who'd tried to murder him was just as much Shane Walsh as the one he'd shared long afternoons with, splitting his fries in the squad car. The best he could do for him now was to remember all of him; somehow, that in itself struck Rick as a fitting punishment for his own crimes.

He chewed at the corner of his lip, finally tearing his gaze away from the fire to throw a glance back over his shoulder; he'd never been much good at disguising his own discomfort.

"What I mean to say is, guess I was never much of a camper."

The transition was about as smooth as sandpaper, but hopefully Vivi would know to take the hint.

[steepled]

Vivi shifts his feet, wanting to ball up for possibly digging up bad memories. "Oh...I'm sorry." The sudden tense atmosphere (as if things aren't tense for them already) is more than an indication for the mage that bad things must have happened. He's curious about what happened to this Shane, but judging by Rick's reaction, it must not have ended well. He never said it out loud, but Rick and Daryl both seem to have come from a world where they suffered heavy losses. Beth definitely wasn't the first.

He waits in silence before looking over to Daryl. The question was directed at them both, so Vivi takes this opportunity.

"Um...my friends and I set up camp all the time." It's not exactly a family vacation like it seems to be for others. "We...um...traveled a lot. Monsters are kind of everywhere too, but the moogles always knew the safest places to camp."

tree attack! let me know if this doesn't work

[weaintashes]

"Thing about the world endin'," Daryl starts, eyes still on Rick and expression guarded as ever, "you find out who people really are. One way or 'nother."

People change, who they used to be gets burned away, time and again, like Carol had said — except he isn't sure he believes that, even now. Because he hadn't changed, not exactly. When given the opportunity, the incentive, he had become more fully himself. The potential had always existed in him to be who he is now, but circumstances had worked against him for most of his life, nearly snuffing it out. Still, that potential had already been there.

He's pretty sure it holds true for everyone else as well. Even people like Joe and his group. Terminus. The 'Governor'.

But he can forgive that way of thinking; he understands he had a fundamentally different upbringing than Carol — than Rick, and all the rest of their group — one where 'change' was too much like a convenient excuse for the reprehensible things people did. As though it absolved them of responsibility. He can still remember his uncle Jess's pained look as he'd muttered about how alcoholism had changed Daryl's old man. How his mama burning herself up had changed him. Sure hadn't made the beatings hurt any less.

His bitter thoughts are diluted by Vivi's response, and he returns the mage's look. "Remember you sayin' something before about travelling." And it's partly why he'd thought camping might be a happier topic to think on. In his and Rick's cases, maybe the past is too full of hazards to ever be safely discussed.

"Did you get t'see much of your world? What was—" He cuts himself off and immediately tenses, casting an alarmed look at the undulating, rumbling ground as he shifts back into a crouch. A second later he's scrambling away from the immense tree he'd been leaning on, but it's too late — dead, brittle leaves rain down as the branches suddenly come to life, creaking dreadfully, reaching directly for the trio. One catches Daryl by the ankle and wraps around it, its grip as solid and unyielding as steel, effectively pinning him. While reaching toward the campfire, he's roughly yanked backwards across the ground with a startled grunt, then the ground falls away as he's lifted as though he weighs nothing, more branches coming to coil around him despite his struggling.