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

[herotypical]

"...And the last thing we need is some cursed amulet summoning forth a whole slew of musical shenanigans."

But she reached back out to the box. What, she now realized, if it was cursed? Relicish treasures so often were.

[all7seas]

"Buffy." The pirate snatched the box away from her and opened it himself.

Inside was one lone scrap of paper. Sparrow lifted it out and peered at it in the flickering torchlight.

"Well that's odd..."

[herotypical]

"Huh? What? What's odd?"

And now she was doing the nosy-over-the-shoulder thing.

[all7seas]

"It just says, 'Run.'"

And that was when the floor of the corridor started shaking, as though something massive was rolling toward them.

[herotypical]

"Well, that's the very picture of ominous." And then the rumbling. "Oh, wait. Things just got that much more picturesque."

Buffy grabbed roughly onto Jack's arm and promptly obeyed the monosyllabic command from who-knows-who, scribbled down who-knows-how-long-ago.

[all7seas]

Jack only looked back once.

"BUFFY! BIG ROCK! BIG ROCK CHASING US! JUST...LIKE...IN...SOUTH AMERICA. NINETEEN-THIRTY-SIX!"

[herotypical]

Meanwhile, after such a -- err -- helpful description, Buffy didn't look back at all. "Come on, Captain Indiana. Show me what you're made of." She broke into a run that was faster than the running from earlier. It was easier to push the tempo when you weren't keeping a close eye on someone else's steps for the sake of mimicking them. She clipped along the corridor and cursed its relative straight, narrow slope. A corner. A winding dip. Anything to offer them refuge -- but nothing appeared.

She probably could have run faster. She probably could have run a lot faster. But there was a wounded Sparrow to keep an eye on.

[all7seas]

"NO! STOP! NOT RIGHT! BUFFY! FLOOR!" Not far ahead of them, the floor was busy opening up a deadly gap. Who knew what lurked in the darkness of the increasingly-yawning pit ahead of them? Snakes? Rats? Punji stakes?

"IT'S LIKE THE WELL OF SOULS! EGYPT!"

Sparrow did not slow down. Even injured, he could run quickly, and he had a feeling they would both have to jump.

[herotypical]

The flashlight's beam jumped dramatically from hewn rock-face to ruin-wall to gaping chasm of nothingness. They would both have to jump. Jump or fall. Jump or fall or be squashed. Jump certainly seemed like the lesser of three potential trips to the emergency room.

"...I can make it -- can you make it?" Her shout reverberated around the corridor.

[all7seas]

"I AM GOING TO FIND OUT. NOW MOVE!" The thundering rock was getting closer and closer, and the floor was opening wider and wider, but Sparrow wasn't budging an inch until she jumped for it.

[herotypical]

Buffy jumped.

She had jumped plenty before -- from rooftops to the ground, from the tops of fences to the tops of other things. Once, from a rooftop onto a speeding bus while the world was falling away beneath her. Once, to her death. But usually these jumps were solo and she didn't have another person to look out for as she executed them. So, at the last moment, she hesitated just enough to allow her to keep her attention divided between the lip of the gap and Jack Sparrow.

Her torso crashed hard against the opposite edge; she hadn't gained quite the air that she should have and instead of rolling gracefully to safety, Buffy now had to scramble to haul herself up. It wasn't a difficult task -- just a long one.

Once back to her feet, she checked for the pirate.

[all7seas]

Sparrow jumped.

He had jumped many times before: off cliff-faces, out of dungeons, over the sides of ships, diving beneath waves to save Elizabeth. His feet left the ground a fraction of a second after hers did, and as he landed he had to struggle to keep his balance on the moving floor--especially since his Death Penalty had robbed him of his equilibrium.

"Buffy!" He gestured toward the exit. Come on!

[herotypical]

She needn't be told twice and once assured that Jack was in fine still-running form, she recovered her speed. There was the boom and crash of the mad, giant boulder momentuming its way over the gap that had given them such pause.

The last few yards would be key.

[all7seas]

Now the sprinting was starting to hurt; Jack clutched his burning chest and willed himself to keep pace with her. He flung his torch back at the boulder and stretched himself to every limit and beyond. The pirate had no intention of being crushed by the boulder. Once to the entrance, he darted to one side, yanking Buffy along with him. Close.

[herotypical]

Yanked along, she thudded heavily into him. Buffy could feel the boulder whip free of the tunnel behind her -- thundering into the trees ahead. She winced on his behalf, aware that she had just pressed herself hard against his injuries. The Slayer mumbled an apology and tried to catch her breath.

Her flashlight was gone. Her satchel was gone. Lost to the rush and the confusion.

"All in one piece?"

[all7seas]

"Aye. Your puzzle's all together, slayer." Jack drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He'd run for his life plenty of times, but never quite like that. "And you?" Because I thought I'd lost you to the pit that one time, I did.

[herotypical]

"All five feet and two inches present and accounted for," she breathed the words. "And a half." The half-inch was important. It was also non-existent.

"...So much for treasure."

[all7seas]

All he could do, after everything, was kiss her.

[herotypical]

There was the distinct sensation of finally; perhaps this moment could stave off interruption for a little while, if they were lucky. Buffy handled him gently by the shoulders -- sensitive to his wounds -- but gave up no firmness in the returned kiss.

[all7seas]

"Just like Indy and his bonny lass, eh? In the end. Aaaaand also in the part where he fed her grapes, one grape at a time, whilst he reclined on fluffy cushions."

[herotypical]

"Well, then. Isn't it just a shame that you're grapeless?"

Buffy implied an offer only because she knew said offer was unfulfillable. After all, they were well and truly lacking in most foodstuffs, not just grapes.

[all7seas]

"Don't taunt a man with what he doesn't have, love. It's not manners." He ducked in to kiss her temple, moving close to her ear. "When we get home, I'll find some."

[herotypical]

Home. But home meant back to the act and the act had nothing to do with grapes. Or cushions. Or even her taunting him over grapes and cushions. Buffy's face moved towards him with the kiss, eyes closing.

"Jack," she whispered even though they were alone. "You -- you're, y'know, and the tired. And..." Cohesion took a nose-dive on this one.

[all7seas]

"Right. I understand."

He delivered one last kiss, just in front of her ear. "I suppose we should go back. And...hammock."

Jack was well aware that she meant the act, and that the act had nothing to do with grapes, but he wanted her to know that he could make things alright in the end. That this was what he hoped for.

[herotypical]

"Hammock," she agreed. Something salvageable, at least. But once this thought had occurred a few more followed hard. They had worked well together, tonight. And they had worked well together in the last draft. This was a rare quality in a human comrade. Sure -- she still spent a few too many spare seconds playing protector and she knew he did, too. Seconds they probably could not always afford. But there was something functional, there. Something in how she hadn't even resented his gun-play come the fight itself. It had helped. Teamwork.

It was the kind of thing she would have to think harder upon. At a later time. Not now. "And you can get some shut-eye and I can maybe manage to go twenty minutes without unintentionally inviting down some sort of disaster."