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Tweak says, "Brian Lane is Mexican"

Windchaser (_windchaser_) wrote in devils_tower,
@ 2009-06-14 22:45:00

Entry tags:

gemini, windchaser

Week fourteen- Tuesday
Who: Windchaser and whoever
When: Week fourteen- Tuesday
Where: The Farm
What: Resting and coping

Windchaser found herself outdoors, sitting under a tree, and dozing slightly. Even with the war over, people still needed her and now she wasn’t just the jobbing spare medic her work was never really done. There was so much damage still to deal with, and she knew there was more to heal than just the outward wounds. Her own trauma ran deep, but she kept it down, other people came first, as always, and the closest she had come to crying had been sending the letter yesterday, and in reading Wolf’s letter to her that had come earlier in the day. Thank you meant so much.

She was exhausted, for the past several weeks she had almost literally slept on her feet and when she had slept she’d been plagued by nightmares, old and new. Since she’d had time to sleep she tended to sleep in the stable with Cabello or to let herself drop outside.

Now, propped up against a tree she hoped that someone would need help, just to stop her sleeping, because she knew waking up screaming under a tree wouldn’t do much for her newfound healer rep.

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nature_girl
2009-06-15 04:00 pm UTC (link)

Gemini was watching Hazard leave through the window, happy and content with how fun the morning had been, even as she still worried about Libby and Saint. She supposed that she should settle into the afternoon... perhaps get some leather work done or give Callum a bath... but neither of those things seemed very appealing at the moment and after such a lovely day, she didn't really feel like staying in the house. She was sure her lug of a dog didn't either.

So, when she spotted a woman seated beneath a tree through the glass of her window, she let her curiousity get the best of her. She whistled for Callum, grabbed a bit of leather scrap and, tucking her knife into her waistband, locked the front door behind her. She wandered slowly towards the tree, making out the distinct features of Windchaser as she drew nearer. She had never really spoken to the woman, knew her face only from a distance, but she didn't need to know her to see that she was in desperate need of some company, if only to save her from herself. Smiling softly, Gemini meandered up to her, braiding her thick hair as she walked. She tied off the braid with a scrap of her leather and whistled for Callum to heel before crouching down a few feet from Windchaser, just far enough to leap out of the way of it turned out her guess was wrong. But she was good at reading people and her guess was that Windchaser needed an ear.

"Hi," She smiled, sure her scottish lilt and windchime-toned voice were not at all what the woman had expected to hear. "I'm not sure we've had the pleasure of being introduced. You're Windchaser, am I right?" She stuck out a hand, a friendly welcome, and tilted her head to the side as she watched for a change in Windchaser's weary expression.

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_windchaser_
2009-06-17 03:48 pm UTC (link)

Windchaser’s eyes flicked up and she took in a girl with a big dog. They’d not met as far as she remembered, but people blurred sometimes. Much as Windchaser hated to admit it, on some days she had barely been able to remember her own name, let alone anyone else’s. She squinted up into the light at the younger woman’s face, raising an eyebrow as the woman dropped into a crouch.

It was strange somehow that a stranger should take the time to stop to speak to the weary, jaded pile of a person that Windchaser felt she had become in the last few weeks.

Then the girl spoke, and Windchaser found herself wanting to smile with pure joy, and that want made it onto her face. It felt like her first smile in weeks. This girl, with her dark hair, confident stride and her musical voice. Windchaser liked unusual voices, responded to them, to this girl.

“Yes I am, and I don’t remember meeting you…But I’m a bit lost on faces right now.” Her Texan accent chimed against the other girls.

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nature_girl
2009-06-17 05:22 pm UTC (link)

Gemini smiled and let her crouch slide into her most comfortable indian style. Callum wedged himself against her back, perfectly content to be outside in the cool air. He dosed quickly as Gemini studied Windchaser's lovely features. She was much to pretty to be looking so sad and tired. And Gemini was far to joyous, now that she knew Libby and Saint were safe again, and back where they belonged, to have anyone have a frown on their face. So she was determined to get Windchaser into a happy mood.

She loved hearing that bit of texan in the woman's voice, loved hearing any accent really. It was proof of the melting pot that Sundance had become. When a Scott and a Texan could sit under a tree and just relax, you knew that things were getting back to the peaceful way they should be in the world. After the war, it was time for things to be peaceful for a while.

Gemini smiled as she introduced herself, "I'm Gemini. Libby Spencer's half sister. I'm the local leather-smith. And I'm not surprised that we've never really been intorduced. I lived in the city with Wolf and Libby before the war started. I'll probably go back now that it's at a stand still... I still haven't had the chance to set up my shop in town..." She sighed whistfully. It would be a cold day in hell before Libby, Wolf, or Saint let her venture north into the city, to the Shipwright's Arms where she hoped to start her business. She still believed it to be the best possible location... but with it being in such close proximity to the Mountain... Now the Jackal's territory, her family would never let her venture towards it... That thought made the little crease between her brows appear, but she willed it away. She was her to make Windchaser smile, not make herself frown.

"So, why are you so fatigued, lass? besides the obvious weight of the war, I mean. If you need a shoulder or an ear, I'd be happy to lend you one." She settled into Callum's bulk, perfectly comfortable enough to listen to a long story if need be.

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_windchaser_
2009-07-03 03:10 pm UTC (link)

Windchaser smiled, looking at this lively, beautiful girl and the animal with her. She hoped it was infectious, still so weighted as she was. “Nice to meet you Gemini, I’m Windchaser, the Wolves new medic….and this is?” She indicated the large dog. She envied this girl, her youth, her happiness, her plans. She had been like that once, so long ago, so long that just thinking about her own past made her feel old. “Living in exulted company…Must have been hard, during the war. It was hard for me and I only had Wren and…Wren to really worry about. I mean it was a lot of work being the medic, but I wasn’t that close to anyone, being the new girl and all, so it was really just work. It’s now it’s over that it’s stopped just being work and started being awful…Post Traumatic Stress Disorder maybe? Though I have no right to it.” Windchaser shrugged, and aware she was become maudlin, changed the subject.

“A leather smith huh?” Her tone was overly bright, pretending to be fine. “I always wanted to do something creative, but I never had the talent for it.” Windchaser spoke truthfully, she’d had no talent for anything other than caring for others and, apparently, making horses trust her. Both of those had been more than a little helpful since the Virus hit and changed the world, but having a proper creative outlet would have been really nice, maybe a way of relaxing, better than booze, which was how she was dealing with how she felt right now.

“There’s no real story. I just…can’t sleep so well, keep going over mistakes I’ve made in my head, in the war, in my life. Driving myself nuts wondering what more I could have done, with more time, more equipment, more training.” Windchaser admitted softly, talking to a stranger making it easier somehow.

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nature_girl
2009-07-03 04:30 pm UTC (link)

Gemini's lips formed a perfect "o" when she realized she'd forgtten to introduce her companion. "This loveable boyo is Callum." His horse-sized head perked up at his name and he got up for a moment to get a few pats to the head before settling back down again. Gemini pulled large piece of leather out of her small bag to work soft as she listened intently to Windchaser's woes. She understood perfectly how the work was so helpful during stressful times. But she also understood how it could combine with worry and make sleep hard to come by. She frowned at the thought of Post Traumatic Stress, thought that Windchaser, and anyone else who had played a part in the war, had every right to claim such a malady. Gemini would have claimed it, but now that Saint and Libby were back, she had no reason on earth to complain. "Exulted company is a strange choice of words... Wolf was perhaps the lowest to the ground during this war... torn between worry for Libby and doing what's right for his tribe... He was a mess, he was. And I myself had Libby and Saint to worry about so... no it wasn't terribly pleasant... but they've both come home to me now." She grinned when Windchaser paid her a complement but shrugged it off. "My talent isn't nearly as useful as a medic's. I worked my arse off doing what I could but I'm not nearly as useful as I'd like to be. mainly I did repairs around the farm, did what I could to make it easier for others to do their jobs." The blisters and cuts on her hands were healing up now, and she was greatful for that. It made it easier to get back to work. Gem reverted back to her frown at Windchasers mention of sleep deprivation and immediately reached into her bag for one of her thinnest knives and a bundle of soft lavender she kep for just these kinds of projects. She continued kneading at the suede in her hands until it felt like velvet then she cut it into a long rectangle. She plucked the softest grass she could find from aroud her, the scent of it tickling her nose, and then she mixed it with a good portion of the lavender and piled all of it onto one side of the leather. She cut holes into the edges, making sure that they all lined up, then pulled the leather thong from her hair. The thick curling mass of it immediately blew all around her face but the thong was just long enough to sew up the ends of the pillow. She fluffed it when she was finished threading it together, inhaling the lavender and fresh grass scent before tossing the quickly- made creation at Windchaser. "I do understand how hard things can get, and how it can be feeling useless... but you're talent, your ability to treat what ails someone, is truley to be appriciated. Think of how many more we would have lost if you hadn't been here. Everyone makes mistakes. But God didn't made us perfect." She smiled, sure she would be given grief for mentioning God. "I know that may seem silly, me saying that God mad us perfect by givning us mistakes... but those mistakes have made you who you are... who He's meant for you to be... and I like who he's meant for you to be. That pillow should help you sleep, by the way. My mother used to make those for the gift shops in my hometown and they sold like hotcakes." She smiled again at the memory of her mother.

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_windchaser_
2009-07-03 06:08 pm UTC (link)

“Hi Callum.” Windchaser smiled, still weary, but connecting with the animal, as she always had, animals could never cause so much pain as humans could, and did. Might still yet, now she’d decided to be a permanent fixture with the Wolves. The idea of actually staying with a Tribe was beginning to settle with her, and now it was starting to feel right.

“Well more exulted than mine.” Windchaser laughed softly. “Most of my time is spent with sick people or my horse.” She didn’t mention Ryder, as she was no longer sure where any relationship they had now stood.

“Wolf seemed to do well, considering everything. I used to be a Drifter, so I’ve seen a lot of different types of leaders. For everything that’s happened we’ve come out of this pretty well…And I can’t believe I just said we, I really must belong to a Tribe now.” Windchaser smiled slightly, the words ‘come home to me’ that left the other woman’s mouth seemed less incongruous than they would have done a while ago. “Home.” She echoed the word softly. “That’s why I decided to stay here, because it feels like home…I’ve lived and helped, through other wars, but it was different. It’s not that I didn’t care, it was that I didn’t have to deal with being around afterwards.”

She listened to Gemini as she spoke about her own contribution to the war, grimacing as she showed her work blistered hands. “Everyone that worked, helped, one person doing one load of jobs is better than one person doing three loads, and I know if someone hadn’t been running around forcing me to eat and drink I wouldn’t have done.”

Even as she spoke she watched Gemini work, fascinated as she seemed to work completely smoothly without even stopping talking or not even seeming a little distracted by Windchaser’s speech. She was used to doing things based on what was around her, but the speed, ease and spontaneity of it amazed her.

Windchaser caught it and smiled, genuinely and deeply touched by what Gemini had just done for her. “Thank you, so much, I need anything that’ll help me to sleep right now…OK, maybe not right now, it doesn’t do much for the grown up medic image falling asleep under a tree.”

As Gemini spoke of mistakes making you what you were Windchaser let out a shuddering sigh. “Perhaps you know me better than anyone else does Gemini, mistakes have directed my life since I was seventeen years old, perhaps God did it, to lead me here, perhaps it was fate or genuinely coincidence, I really don’t know…But if it was coincidence, then it’s amazing.” She sighed softly.

“I always wonder about people, how about you, who were you before the Virus? How’d you end up in Sundance? And why Gemini? As your Tribal name I mean?”

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nature_girl
2009-07-03 11:13 pm UTC (link)

Gemini settled back against Callum's bulk and laced her fingers across her stomach. The little 'v' in the middle of her forehead creased and she frowned a little. "Do I know you better? Huh... people keep telling me that... But I think it's the leather really. Whenever I have it in my hands, when I'm working on something for a stranger or a friend, and their telling me what's going on in their life, I seem to know what to say to help them feel better... It's sort of strange... makes me feel a bit wonky..." She shrugged and smiled up at Windchaser. "But I suppose if I help people, it's a good sort of wonky, isn't it?"

"How was I before the virus? I was simple really... grew up a rather odd little lass, sittin'afore the fireplace at my mother's knee and making boots and britches out of cow hide. I lived out in the hill country- in Texas- and I liked it there... riding horses and swinging from trees... sipping out of my mother's scotch in front of a bonfire under the stars... We were your average hippie family, we were... Everything was good..." The corners of her lips tilted up slightly- cynically. "A'course, when the virus hit, my Mother died and Dah followed quickly after. I didn't cry... kept my wits about me when I buried them and then gathered everything I could from the house... I found Dah's journal there and that's when the tears started. Dah never told me about the family he left so he could be with my mother... and I never thought it was strange that they didn't get married until I was four. But I followed the story of his two other daughters across the country until I finally found the only surviving family I have, here in Sundance." She smiled, thinking warmly of Libby and how glad overwhelming her return had been.

"As for my tribal name, I actually AM a Gemini so it sort of made sense. But I've been told numerous times that I can seem bi-polar... I have two rather distinct personalities depending on who I'm talking to and what sort of mood I'm in. The name just sort of fits the description. But It was my name long before I was ever a member of a tribe. I drifted for almost five years, trying to find Libby... I didn't find her 'til a little over a month ago... How about you? Windchaser is quite a mouthful but it suits you from what I can tell. Sort of reminds me of Pochohantus... someone spirited but held back by something or other... am I right? Or am I way off?" She grinned.

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_windchaser_
2009-07-09 08:43 pm UTC (link)

“Well, you have a friend in me, Gemini.” Windchaser said softly. “I know how tough it can be to be the listener but not to be listened to, but it is good wonky.” She smiled slightly at the younger woman. “I’ll try not to weigh you down.” If she was honest she had no idea where she’d start and if she did, how the hell she would find the right place to stop. She had already decided a certain name would never get into this conversation.

“Texas…Like me, only I was a city girl. It sounds like an idyllic life, a proper family life, so different from my own, but that is going too far into my past. I learned to ride a horse at a ranch I worked at when I was nineteen.” Windchaser’s voice became distant as she thought back. “The first time I got on a horse and it went into a trot, I screamed and clung so tightly to my friend…Now there’s nowhere I feel safer than on the back of my beautiful horse, with the wind running through my hair.” She smiled at the memory, a genuine and radiant smile that lit up her face. “A family, a real family now…” She trailed off, her mind flickering back to her own mouldering mess and the one family member, the traitor who had truly torn them apart, who might still be alive.

“It must have been amazing to find her…What was it…How did you feel?” Windchaser asked, the questions she had not meant to say aloud spilling from her lips. “My name...” Windchaser smiled. “Has nothing to do with Pocahontas. The story is the same as yours; it was given to me by the leader of the first tribe I chose not to remain with. I had delivered his son and he asked me to stay as their medic. I told him I was looking for someone I’d probably never find. He told me I was chasing the wind, I told him I would never stop, and Windchaser was born.”

She sighed and leaned back into the tree. “Only now I seem to be staying put, so perhaps it’s time to let Windchaser go, perhaps change the name, but never go back, after all which of us are who we were?”

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