A Lake in Maine, Tuesday Daytime

[tyler_gone]

Contrary to Tyler's fears, Steve Rogers' idea of a vacation did not turn out to involve helping old ladies across the street or cooking in a soup kitchen. Instead, they had taken their flying(!) Porsche(!!) to a very nice Bed and Breakfast near the Maine coast -- the kind of place with pillows you wanted to just curl up and live on and fresh local strawberries on the waffles at breakfast.

But they were not enjoying it right now. No, instead, someone had the brilliant idea to go fishing. In theory Tyler was all for the hunt-to-survive primitive stuff, but, after three hours of absolutely nothing happening, he was starting to decide mankind had given up on huter-gatherer lifestyle because it was boring.

"Y'know, I bet we can buy trout for, like, $6 a pound at the Safeway in town."

[OOC: For those guys. NFB due to distance.]

Comments

[shiroi_tiger]

"That would be cheating, Tyler."

Nathan didn't see why everyone else here seemed to be having problems. If their attempts at catching fish with fishing poles didn't work out, he could just teach them how to carve sticks into spears and stab their meals right out of the water.

... What?

[tyler_gone]

"I just don't get the point of this," Tyler said sulkily as he dug through the tackle box for a new lure. "We prove we're smart enough to notice fish will try to swallow plastic if you flash it at them? Hell, there are people that dumb."

Also, he wasn't very good at it, which was coloring his view.

[not-ironmaiden.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't be opposed to buying dinner," Tony chimed in, fiddling with his Blackberry on steroids.

He was going to get reception, damn it.

[shiroi_tiger]

"True," Nathan mused, "though people tend to get upset if you feed them jagged metal objects and then fry them up for dinner, I've noticed."

He wasn't going to just up and point out that he'd sooner sit still for a few hours than drag his sorry self through the supermarket, getting strange looks from other shoppers, no. His dry attitude served him well enough.

[shiroi_tiger]

"Of course you wouldn't," Nathan noted, raising an eyebrow at the... thingie in Tony's hands. "Have you even bothered to cast a line yet today?"

[tyler_gone]

"Also true," Tyler said. He put a little green rubbery thing onto his line, tying the knot sloppily. "So, uh, do you know how to filet a fish?"

Tyler's awareness stopped at "you cut off the scales and the guts."

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan was going to try not to look too amused as he nodded, idly reeling in his line a little.

"Yes, Tyler. I can handle everything from catching it and breaking its neck right on up to gutting it and cooking it for dinner."

Modern times, he was coming to believe, had clearly neutered the male populace.

[tyler_gone]

He still looked pretty amused, which Tyler was willing to forgive with a laugh. "Hey, I haven't been fishing since my dad took me when I was little. And that was less fishing, more watching him try not to lose his temper when his rod broke."

Modern times had castrated the male populace.

[shiroi_tiger]

"If the rod breaks, you spear the fish with it, instead," Nathan replied, grinning ever so slightly. He made a point to leave his tone rather vague as to whether or not he was joking, just then.

It was more amusing that way.

"Hell, it's probably faster that way."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler looked skeptical. "You know how to spear a fish."

They swam pretty fast.

"I think you have to prove this, Nathan. Unless you're too gimpy."

[shiroi_tiger]

"If you call me gimpy again, I'll spear your foot," Nathan returned, raising an eyebrow. "You know, you don't spend as much time just hanging around different tribes without picking up a trick or two, here and there."

Mostly, he'd picked up those 'tricks,' and then let them get rusty as hell in the years to follow, out of a rampaging sense of guilt. But he'd still picked them up, damn it.

[tyler_gone]

"You can fish with a spear because tribes taught you too."

Tyler was fascinated, now. "Don't break your rod -- I'll get a stick because I want to see this."

[shiroi_tiger]

"I can speak Blackfoot, as well," Nathan added tentatively, as though this somehow proved his ability to fish with sticks.

No, Nathan. Fishing with sticks will prove your ability to fish with sticks.

On the upside, he trusted that Tyler knew better than to request a step-by-step guide on scalping.

[tyler_gone]

Tyler would survive without knowing how to scalp, thank you.

"Congratulations," he said, and went to find a stick that seemed to have the right heft, then presented it to Nathan with all due ceremony. "Is this what you need?"

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan eyed the stick for a moment, bouncing it up in his hands a few times before nodding slightly.

"It'll do," he mused. "Have you got anything to sharpen it with?"

Damn it if he wasn't going to give this a shot, now.

[tyler_gone]

"Pocket knife," Tyler said, recovering it from his pocket and tossing it lightly for Nathan to catch. "It's not serious artillery or anything, but I think it can cut a stick."

[shiroi_tiger]

"If it can't cut a stick," Nathan replied, catching it and then flipping it open, "we're all going to starve."

And then, casually, as he whittled, "Fishing with a hook and string was actually the women's way of doing it, in my day."

[tyler_gone]

"So men, what, grabbed them with their bare hands?" Tyler teased. "Threw fire at them?"

He wasn't going to touch the comment about not starving. They had the inn's staff if nothing else.

[shiroi_tiger]

"Speared them," Nathan corrected, raising an eyebrow and smirking. "Although now I'd actually like to see how in the world throwing fire at a fish would actually work."

The stick wasn't quite right for what he needed it to do. He'd only be able to give it one point, instead of a trident-like tip. But that wasn't going to stop him from trying, damn it. Even if he was half convinced that there weren't actually fish in this lake in the first place. He certainly hadn't seen any.

[tyler_gone]

"See, you get a small enough pond, right," Tyler said easily. "And then you throw fire at the pond until it boils. Bam. Fish soup."

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan whittled another strip of wood from the stick, giving his head a shake and chuckling softly.

"With pond scum seasonings," he noted. "It sounds like something of an acquired taste, really."

[tyler_gone]

"... you get used to it."

Tyler hadn't thought that one through all that well.

[shiroi_tiger]

"And frogs and snails as well. Not to mention whatever insects might be swimming around in there. Leeches..." Nathan was absolutely doing this on purpose now, yes. "That's one hell of a gumbo."

He blew some splinters off of the end of his makeshift spear, and then shut the knife and tossed it back toward Tyler.

[screwyoumarvel]

Steve's phone rang ("Steve, look, I know you're not a Skrull, and you know you're not a Skrull, but...Tony wants to know if the him at the airport is a Skrull, too,") for the sixth time ("STEVE ROGERS WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?") since five o'clock that morning ("Sam, it is the first day of my vacation and the sun isn't up yet. There had better be an actual apocalypse going on. In Maine.").

He hadn't seen the photographers at the airport.

He took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. Carol. He briefly considered throwing his phone in the lake, then shrugged, rejected the call, and cast his line. Very badly. Shut up, he was from Manhattan.

[tyler_gone]

Tyler fumbled a little as he caught the knife. "Acquired taste," he said. "Leeches. You can't beat that for good eatin'."