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]

"And what if Kennedy and myself discuss you?"

1/2

[herotypical]

[herotypical]

"You haven't," she sounded so certain; after all, Archie certainly couldn't be so great an actor and there was no way that he knew about the two of them.

[all7seas]

"I haven't," he confirmed. "But I think he knows nonetheless. Now how could that be, Buffy? Hmm?"

[herotypical]

"Because he and I had words. And he knows some things but not the thing."

He knew, for example, the extent of the wreckage that had been Buffy during the week Jack had been dead.

[all7seas]

"'The' thing? And what were the some things that you shared?"

[herotypical]

"He doesn't know that you know that I..." Some hand gestures, here. "I think he thinks he's keeping a secret for me."

Buffy, this would be so much more helpful with full sentences.

[all7seas]

"Doesn't know that I know that you what, exactly?"

This was the best conversation they could possibly be having in the middle of a jungle in the middle of a war with Jack wounded.

[herotypical]

Somehow, these drafts created some sort of odd perfect storm of revelation and honesty. The last one had included a similar dialogue, at least.

Buffy inspected the tip of her scythe in the dark. Too dark to see, but she pretended anyway. "Doesn't know that you know that I've...that I'm -- that there's some sort of mutualness involved."

[all7seas]

"AH. Erm. Of course. That---was what I had thought. Wondered."

And suddenly the pirate's heart wanted to thud directly out of that damaged chest. He'd never thought she'd thought it was any kind of mutual before.

[herotypical]

"Last time, Jack." She walked a little faster. Just a little bit ahead of him. "When you were -- gone."

Buffy hoped these words were signal enough for what had to have happened. She had so genuinely broken down on that bridge. She hadn't needed to say anything. Archie had seen the mutual feelings in the break down.

[all7seas]

The pirate hurried to catch up with her. To take her hand. He hadn't thought she was referring to that dark time.

"We won't speak of it."

[herotypical]

She held onto his hand. Tightly. And murmured her agreement on the matter of not speaking and slowed her step just enough to show sympathy for the pirate's tired, wounded state.

"As far as Archie's concerned, it's a thing I'm very much not acting on." Notably, this brought Jack into another odd confidence. Dawn, who certainly knew of things, was keeping those things from Archie in turn.

[all7seas]

Sparrow shoved a broad-leaved fern out of the way to reveal his fallen log, now devoid of orchids and showing signs of battle all around but missing the corpses of the shift hunters.

He was glad they weren't there, gruesome things.

"Seems that most people believe that now. Annie? It won't be forever."

All the time...

[herotypical]

She, too, was glad to have the bodies gone. Although they were both still splattered with the rest of the evidence.

"I know. We just gotta wait it out." Buffy kicked aside some churned dirt and sod. "It's a good cause and all."

[all7seas]

Mournfully he glanced in the direction of the camp. He should go there, get his wounds checked out. "A very good cause. I wouldn't see any of them hurt because of what lies between myself and Grell."

[herotypical]

A slight, slight smile. "I know," she answered. And that knowledge -- her understanding of it and her gradual lesson over the past year about the good man buried under the vice and the theatrics -- was the first to fuel the growing mutuality of her feelings for the pirate. Belief in him.

"Right. Bed-rest. You've earned it, today."

[all7seas]

"And you, alone out here? And me, alone in my bed?"

[herotypical]

"...Neither of us has to be alone, Jack."

But she wouldn't be sleeping; it would have to be some semblance of a watch.

[all7seas]

So Sparrow knelt down beside his pack and fished out his sleeping gear. A simple rope hammock; a mosquito net. "I won't leave you now. Might not even see you the rest of this war, eh? And then home...."

[herotypical]

Silence. His point was valid and not new to her mind. Tonight could be it for a while. So Buffy stuck her scythe tight into the wood of the fallen tree and approached Jack from behind, looping her arms around his waist and hugging tight. She rested her cheek against one of the pirate's wings.

[all7seas]

One hand crept down to cover hers. "Together, tonight. Or for a few hours...I'll take what I can get, Axe-swinger."

[herotypical]

"And give nothing back, right?"

[all7seas]

"I didn't say that, did I."

[herotypical]

"No. No, you didn't."

She exhaled, leaning into him. Buffy hooked her hands low on his stomach -- avoiding his bandaged, torn skin.