you're in the jungle, baby / you gonna die

[lucetimods]

Who: All draftees
What: Fighting the Third Party... and perhaps the wildlife.
When: June 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. (Characters will be pulled out at 11:59 of the 6th.)
Where: An as-yet unmapped by the Malnosso tropical rainforest.
Summary: Here are your details. Try to stay alive, won't you?
Rating: Anywhere from PG to R.

No cut for you. Most of you will know how this works by now; if you don't, follow the lead of the others, or perhaps look to the last draft's fighting post for ideas. Don't forget to use your handy dandy character tags. Go forth and conquer thine enemies!

Comments

[all7seas]

"Aye. Kills pain, this--Raine gave it to me." He swallowed it quickly; it had no flavor at all. Perhaps a faint taste of magic, if anything.

[herotypical]

Raine. Raine who definitely could heal a man with a torn chest and whose powers weren't so self-based at all. But a split-second on that thought and Buffy was the first to kick herself over it. The scales, as Faith had once pointed out to her, are in her favour. She shouldn't feel inadequate when it comes to helping. Except...except here, everyone made that incredibly frustrating comment about how she was more blunt instrument and lacked finesse.

Still, she wasn't interested in learning the ways of the Filial spirits. Buffy ignored her own arm and, once she was within reach of Jack, tugged at his shirt. Whatever this sharp-smelling stuff was, it wasn't as though it could hurt. Right? Or...perhaps it would sting. She has no sweet clue.

"Why Nala? I mean...you strike me as a lot of things, Jack. But not the spell-casting kind of thing."

[all7seas]

There were a lot of reasons, primarily centering on his fears for Jilly and Archie and McCoy. If the need ever arose, he would have to do something to help. And fighting or talking his way out of it were becoming slimmer as options, if they existed at all. Healing magic, though, was a kind of defensive magic, and he'd always been better at defense than at offense.

"I'm not a spell-casting sort of thing at all, but it would come in handy now, wouldn't it?"

Jack tore his shirt open the rest of the way before taking another swig of the elixir.

[herotypical]

When Dawn had made shirt-tearing quips in the past about her whatever-this-was with Jack Sparrow, she had probably not been describing anything like this. Buffy pressed a decent dab of the stuff along his wounds. It probably absolutely did sting.

"Not handy at all, considering how those things can sniff it out." Magic was another one of those things that had costs.

[all7seas]

"Aye. They. Can. Ah."

[herotypical]

She looked up. "You okay?" Buffy tried to proceed more carefully. Her injured arm crossed in between them and it was probably too dark to see that despite the blood, the cuts themselves had reduced down to unpleasant-yet-closed lines across her skin.

[all7seas]

"Yes. I am. Are you?" He reached out to take her arm. The initial sting was not a nice one, but it soon faded to numbness. The tears felt deep, but there was no way he'd be able to know until McCoy took a look at them.

[herotypical]

"They're vicious, but they're a bit like fighting a werewolf. Except...except for the part where I don't actually kill werewolves." She left her arm with him and allowed him to see -- or perhaps more accurately feel -- for himself that she was healing up. "On the field, they take the cap off us. I'm regenning at my usual rate, which is twice as fast as in the village."

[all7seas]

He knew better than to offer her the elixir. She wouldn't want it and possibly would sneer at the gesture. Pride in that healing; and could he blame her? He was too busy blessing it.

In answer he caressed her arm and released it. His shirt needed to be torn into binding strips. Raine and McCoy had both warned him of the dangers of infection in the jungle.

[herotypical]

It was the sort of precaution that should have sprung to her mind; bandages. However, Buffy wasn't often the first to realize that other people did get infected. And ill. And that these things needed preventative measures. But once she realized what Jack was doing, she fell back and allowed him the space to do it in. After all, there could be more coming.

Her shift incompatibility, the monsters. Things kept interrupting. Perhaps that was simply karma for wanting an uninterrupted evening with Jack during the draft in the first place.

[all7seas]

Not the spell-casting sort, but definitely the bargaining-with-spirits-and-deities sort, Jack Sparrow bound his wounds with strips of linen. He worked quickly; the numbing sensation provided by the balm and the elixir did a lot to help. Finally the pirate stood up and put his pack on over his shoulders. There was a little water left in it, a little food---maybe enough for both of them to have a meal tonight.

"Our choice lies before us, I suppose: remain in these ruins or back through the jungle."

He was uneasy about both options.

[herotypical]

"Let's stay put." This decision was made quickly on the basis of Jack's injuries. Had she been alone, she would have been out and taking more of them down. But she wasn't alone. Not even a little bit alone. And she felt no small measure of protectiveness.

Her own pack had a few more things in it -- nothing fancy. Some trail mix and some of Derek's jerky. They would make do.

[all7seas]

"Very well."

Ruins and such made Jack highly uneasy at the best of times, even though they also piqued his curiosity. Who knew what treasure could lie inside? So began the war between his sense of self-preservation and his absolute obsession with treasure.

"Anything in there, you think?"

[herotypical]

"You mean, besides the inevitable booby traps, spiders, skeletons, and potential for some kind of lung infection?" Buffy swept the mouth of the tunnel one last time with her eyes. She could only imagine how Jack must have been feeling -- already tired before the fight and the run and the more fight.

She turned back to him, shouldering her scythe. "Maybe a mummy. Let's hope it's a no on the mummy. I don't like mummies."

[all7seas]

"Might be just the place to find golden things, Annie." He drew himself up, unmindful of the numbed injuries now. "And sparkling ones."

[herotypical]

"You should be resting, not treasure hunting." But she ventured a little further into the dark. Luckily, she had the tools for this. She drew a heavy Maglite from her satchel and twisted it on.

[all7seas]

"I should be, shouldn't I?" He switched his own light on, focusing it on the tunnel. "Sometimes I find myself tempted, Annie."

[herotypical]

"What, to rest?"

She glanced sharply across at him -- her beam of light swinging to somewhere about his knees and casting just enough additional glow to see his face. They would have to find somewhere secure. Perhaps a little alcove. Then she could put him down to rest and heal up a bit. First watch.

[all7seas]

There was a low chuckle at that. "No--by treasure."

There was a small alcove not far ahead, containing an old torch. Jack reached up to try to light it, but his tinder box was soaked through.

[herotypical]

"Try this," she murmured and tossed him a small silver zippo. Upon learning that they might be here for the evenings, she had fetched it from the bottom of a drawer. It had been salvaged from Spike's apartment -- not his original lighter, no. One found here. But it would do when older styles of fire-starting were not so practical.

Buffy scuffed her shoes against the ground. What a miserable, musty place. But still not as bad as a sewer. "And I'm not really surprised -- see above re: you being tempted."

[all7seas]

Within seconds Sparrow had the torch blazing.

"You shouldn't be. I've not seen real treasure...real actual treasure...in quite a long time. Not since the Isla de Muerta, and I never got to keep any of my spoils from there because of our dear friend Norrington."

[herotypical]

Buffy hadn't seen an approximate version of treasure since 'liberating' all that gold from a Swiss bank, but she didn't voice this. Instead, she looked from her heavy-duty Maglite to Jack's torch and found herself slightly envious. He looked the part.

Her surface jealousy leaked into her tone: "What'd he do? Confiscate it all? Melt it down to make buckles? He seems like the melt it down to make buckles kinda guy."

[all7seas]

"Why Annie? Are we jealous of a bit of piracy? A bit of treasure-hunting? We ARE, aren't we?"

Well he probably could have sounded more obnoxious, but not much more.

[herotypical]

"What? No. Of course not. I've done lots of treasure hunting just -- different treasure. And nobler goals. I've pilfered many a dusty old jewel-covered ring out of a crypt, y'know. Right off the dead guy's fingers."

Because often these sorts of relics were needed. Either to cast a spell or to stop someone else from casting a spell. "I'm a treasure-hunting pro."

She wasn't. And yes, she was jealous. Jack's joie de aventure was infectious, by-times.

[all7seas]

"Then I'll need you." And, pulling the torch from its bracket, he struck off into the interior of the ruins.