The Field

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: early afternoon
Where: The beach near camp
Rating: PG 13

Even after talking with Bazzer, Adnan had spent most of the day away from camp. He'd decided that work could wait another day, even after losing one. And if any of the other guys felt like cutting some wood, he'd marked out the lengths he needed anyway. He just needed some space, so he walked, hung out with Tripper until the dog had presumably headed back to his mistress, took a swim, watched the grazers ... just spent time in contemplation. He was well-aware that he might've impregnated this -- wonderful so far -- woman he hardly knew the day before. It was something that weighed heavy on his mind. Despite the very careful flings he'd had on the road, for a roof or a ride, Adnan took the possibility of fatherhood seriously. Starting a family was something he'd always wanted to do, he just didn't know if this had been the best way to do it. Unintentional, passionate, heat of the moment, with someone he wasn't one-hundred-percent sure on.

So he needed to talk to her. That was a given. It was just how. When he felt like he had what he wanted to say in mind, he walked back to camp to look for her. It was better to get it out of the way, get things laid out in the open, where they could discuss them. Adnan followed the path back to camp, still only clad in jeans and his boots.

Coop wasn't in camp but she wasn't far. She'd woken that morning to find Adnan was gone (but his jacket was tucked under her head as a pillow) and that wasn't strange. However, she'd quickly learned that the lumberjacks hadn't gone off to find trees at all that day. None of this phased Coop, as much as she was eager to see her new lover again. She was thinking much more clearly today and wanted to clear the air. Not that she thought it needed much clearing. In Coop's world, well, she'd already made her decision about Adnan before the pollen, hadn't she? She'd even told him - though not in so many words - that she couldn't spend the night with him without having sex of some sort with him. In blew the pollen and too away the possibility, replaced it with a definitely, and now she was...content. Well, sore, but still rather zen about their decision.

( Tell Me True )

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: Late morning
Where: Well away from camp, east along the beach
What: The find each other
Rating: Most definitely NC-17

( Magentism )

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: after dark
Where: down by the water
Rating: PG for makeouts and dirty thoughts

As predicted, the day had been hot and still and sticky. Adnan was fairly certain he sweated off about ten pounds as he and the men worked on hauling felled trees back to the island. They'd quit a little earlier than previous days, so as not to completely exhaust themselves, and he'd taken on the task of cleaning himself up. He might not have bothered, but for one thing. He had a date tonight. Which was just strange to think about, but undeniable. After washing thoroughly with the soap pods, and again wishing desperately that he had another pair of jeans, he went about setting up.

Adnan dug a small pit in the sand and built a fire in it -- something he was actually pretty good at -- then went to fetch some food to cook over it, including some of the flat bread the girls had made that morning. What he would've given for his mother's advice. But one worked with what they had. There was no way to avoid being hot, and he considered just going shirtless, but decided against it. He chewed on a couple of the mint-brush pods for his teeth, splashed some more water on his face, and then went in search of Coop.

( Or something like that. )

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: Early Evening
Where: 'Round the bend of the island at an ideal spot for washing and possible privacy.
What: Bathing and general clean-up
Rating: PG for a little nakedness and impure thoughts

Splashing out of the water, Coop picked her footing cautiously. The shore here was sandy but liberally peppered with clams and she'd already cut one toe on one of their serated shells. She had no intention of performing any accidental amputations, and definitely not where no one would hear her bellowed curses.

Not only were there thick reeds in this somewhat dune protected inlet, but there was a thicket of those strange bushes. She'd noticed when she hung her dress off of them to dry, along with the little scrap of a pair of black panties she'd arrived in, that the bushes were budding. Strange time of year to be blooming when everything else seemed to be reaching it's harvest time. Still, nothing in this place was normal or to be expected.

She'd carried the hulls of her soap pods with her, thinking to use them in a composting project she was beginning. She'd woven herself a basket from the long branches of the bushes and planned to fill it with as many food and leaf scraps as she could. Her hope was that after a season, she might have something better to garden with than the rough sand that seemed to make up the majority of the island. Egg shells, milk melon rinds, used soap pods and mint sticks she figured could all be put in. Animal bones as well, if she set the compost a ways away from camp. Composted vegetation plus a healthy shoveling of grazer poop just might do the trick. She knew Rowan had put aside plenty of seeds and planned to sit down with the woman one day soon and discuss a gardening plan of action.

( Cause I'm Coming In )

Who: Bazzer and Coop
When: Day 30, morning
Where: near the campfire
What: early morning philosophizing

( No, I don't think this place could possibly be hell. )

Who: Marcus and Coop
What: Marcus arrives
Where: (Not sure)
When: Early Morning
Rating: TBD

( Bury it deep )

Who: Coop and Jasper (and Tripper)
When: Mid-Morning
Where: Jasper's lean-to
What: The dogs attack the camp


Coop had been taking Tripper a little ways away from camp to find an acceptable place for him to relieve himself when she heard them. Rather, Tripper heard them and tensed up immediately. From the quivering uncertainty, Coop half expected to see laughers rushing the far shore but no, not at all. The shapes were far more familiar, sleek bodies and bunching muscle spurring on their speedy way. Half a dozen or more furred, barking bodies snapped at each other's heels as they cavorted down the beach toward the camp. "Oh...oh shit, Tripper." She nudged his shoulder to break him out of his anxious freeze. "C'mon buddy!" She gathered up her long skirt and knotted it up between her legs and around her thighs. The result was a set of ridiculous looking puffy bloomers but she didn't much care at the moment. It allowed her to run across the sand without getting caught up in her long dress. "Hey!" she called as she reached the camp. "Everyone, there's dogs on the island!" And what's more, they weren't too far behind her.

Jasper had been sitting on a nice rock that had another nice rock that she could rest her leg on. It wasn't far from the lean-to, and Jasper was just relieved to get the hell out of there that even a few steps away was a Really Big Deal. With capital letters. The kids had brought her some of the randomest things she could possibly imagine. There was a tab from a bread bag, some blades of very broad grass, a mussel shell, all sorts of stuff. While she had no idea what to do with the tab or shell, she'd been teaching Ash and Corbin how to use the grass to make quacking sounds. Ashwin enjoyed the attempts at making the soundmaker, but Corbin was too little to do it or something, and was having a grand time just listening to the sounds alone.

She looked up when Coop, she thought it was Coop but she wasn't really sure of the woman's name, came running and calling, and Jasper suddenly thought how nice it would be if there was, say, a horn or or a bell or something that everyone would be able to hear. But at the words 'dogs', Ashwin looked very deeply concerned. Taking that as a hint, Jasper did her odd scuttling-crawling thing that wouldn't damage her leg even more, herding the kids into the lean-to where there was at least a very small measure of protection, taking a wickedly sharp couple of sticks with her. She'd learned a good lesson about the uses of sticks when they saved her life before. Jasper knew better than to not have them now.

( Where Did They Come From? )

Who: Adnan and Coop
Where: The beach near camp
What: Soothing sore feet
When: After dark
Rating: G

Coop had settled herself in the wet sand down by the water, hiked the skirt of her long dress up to her thighs where it frothed around her in hills of crimson cotton. She sighed with pleasure as her travel-weary and scuffed up feet sunk into the cool lake water. She felt reasonably sure nothing would lunge out of the water and bite her feet off, despite the strange gargling laugher that range over the rippling surface from the other side. She believed the others when they said those monsters couldn't swim. She'd been fortunate to never have seen one thus far. If she had, she might be more willing to share Tripper's mindset on the matter. The dog hung back, watching her from the circle of light cast by the fire pit. Every now and then he'd take a couple of steps toward her, remember his fear and circle back to where he started. For her part, Coop was reveling in the alone time. Near camp there just always seemed to be so much action. After such a long day she was glad for a little bit of peace.

Adnan had been rather grateful when the sun went down. He'd stripped his shirt at some point after talking to the council, while helping to secure a couple more lean-tos for people, then had gone to wash off as best he could in the lake a ways away from camp. The soap pods were ... curious. Odd that the land would have conveniences like that. It was the first real bath he'd had since arriving, and he felt ten times better afterward. He'd eaten dinner and found himself with the bizarre feeling of free time. He wasn't tired enough to sleep, it was dark, and there wasn't really any work to do. He'd checked his guitar after the storm to make sure it wasn't damaged, but he hadn't really played the thing since he'd gotten to this strange world. Picking up the case, he started to wander off somewhere a bit more private. He spotted Tripper, standing by the fire, his attention fully focused elsewhere. Following the dog's gaze, Adnan started to walk in that direction, able to make out the shape of ghostly shoulders down near the water.

The squelch of boots on damp sand was a rare enough sound around this place that Coop peered over her shoulder when the footsteps got close. Shadowy as he was, she could still make out the shape of her fellow cart-sleeper back lit by the fire. "Evening Adnan," she said, hoping he wouldn't ask her to get up just yet. Her blisters had blisters and what wasn't bubbled or burst was scratched and splintered. Basically, he feet were an ugly mess this evening. She never wanted to pull them back out of the cool surf for the rest of her life. "Is my cowardly dog still up there?" She hoped he wasn't bothering anyone. He was so spooked it was countering his natural curiosity and friendliness. Hopefully it was temporary. Hopefully he'd realize that the monsters on the prairie would never come across to get them.

( Play Me Something I Can Sing To )

Who: Nefertiti and Coop ( plus Tripper )
When: Afternoon
Where: The camp, then the rocks in the center of the island
What: Tripper makes a discovery!

( Maybe we should call it a fostrich? )

Who: Analiese and Coop
When: Early in the morning
Where: In the camp
What: Discussing all of the fascinating things about pesks.
Rating: G, I expect.

Mornings were never Coop's favourite thing. Not by a long shot. She was slow to wake and it usually took a healthy quantity of coffee to get her feeling anything like human. Being cold and sleeping on the wet ground hadn't improved matters and when Tripper had finally forced her out from underneath the cart that they had shared with Adnan, she'd blearily stumbled after him into the nearby bushes. He was so used to being on a leash in public, the poor guy hadn't been able to sneak away to tend his own business without his usual look out.

Somehow, Coop had managed to not get them lost and had returned to the center of the camp where she procured a big handful of dried grazer strips. They were salty but savory and tasted heavily of smoke. It took some coaxing but she managed to get the finicky dog to eat the jerky, all the while Tripper looked at her with one guilty eye. He knew darn well he wasn't supposed to eat people food but sadly his hunter instincts were atrophied by a lifetime of domestication.

( getting acquainted )

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: late afternoon
Where: the path between camp and the spring
What: Getting to know one another better
Rating: G!

Adnan had helped with the cleanup efforts once the storm had given them some mercy, re-setting lean-tos and picking up scattered supplies from everywhere. He supposed they were lucky they hadn't had an all-out stampede of grazers. The entire time, his eyes wandered, looking for the vision in the red dress. Coop. He'd catch sight of her every now and then, but was determined not to hover right away. Not to mention the fact that it was sort of ridiculous that he was looking for her anyway, he'd only pulled her away from the hail a handful of hours ago, and there was work to do.

It only worked for so long. Once things started to wind down and people felt that they'd put the camp back together enough, he was left with not much to do. The fire was being stubborn about lighting, and he had the feeling it was going to be a cold night. He told himself that he should sit for a while, play some guitar, but he didn't do either. Instead he started walking around the area around camp, looking for that red dress. He was attempting to think of a reason for doing so, to give if she asked, but wasn't coming up with much more than the truth. He wanted to check on her.

Coop was in a strange place, and not just physically. There was no doubting this place was not like anywhere she'd ever been. Not after she'd seen the pesks, and the grazers and the tiny little monkeys that lived in the rocks. She'd spent a good portion of the early afternoon sitting and staring at a spot in the rocks where such a little thing had disappeared. The bowl of water she'd been sent to fetch pretty much forgotten in her lap. She might have numbly sat there all day if it hadn't been for the singing.

( I Usually Set Up Over There )

Who: Aaron, Adnan, Coop and Delilah
Where: Camp
When: Just after dawn
What: Fleeing for their lives
Rating: G

Aaron was not sleeping. Of course not. The carts were not exactly water tight and there were no walls protecting himself and his squirming, hissing sleeping bag from getting soaked by the occassional gust of wind. Even the sound of the rain pelting the bed of the cart was loud enough to keep him blinking with gritty eyes. Hood up, jacket zipped, he was still cold and wet. The water was starting to run over the ground, seeking a way back to the body of water it had likely sprung from. Lightening flashed and thunder rolled but after a while he was sure that dawn that broken. It was just hard to tell under the shroud of the storm. The rain seemed to abate for a while and it was hard to miss the fact that Ken had escorted a new arrival into camp. She was clad in a bright red dress that seemed pristine and out of place here. He was sure the dress was probably billowy on a good day but today it was soaked and she was holding the strapless thing up with hands across her chest. The most amazing thing was that a soaked and scruffy looking brown dog seemed to be huffing and snuffling through the camp as well. He poked his head into every lean-to and it made Aaron inch a little closer to his sleeping bag. Rumor had it that cats and dogs didn't mix well.

The first place Delilah had run was the trees. She'd been sleeping, minding her own damn business under Quinn's old blanket -- something nobody had begrudged her, which she was grateful for -- and all of the sudden she was soaked and sputtering. She'd gotten up and dashed for cover somewhere, getting down to belly-crawl into the brush. It had worked for a little while, keeping her from getting pelted for the most part, though there was no way to stay dry. And it was cold. She was going to be sick again by morning if she didn't find some way to conserve body heat. But then the hail had started, and the brush wasn't doing much good at keeping that off of her. She sat up, arms over her head, and looked desperately around. There was someone under one of the carts, and she made a mad dash for it, scrambling underneath in the mud, just to have something solid over her head.

Coop was just stunned. When the very nice colonel lead her in to camp, she'd somehow expected military barracks. Tents, chairs, crates. Exactly what you usually see in the movies. She'd expected shiny faced, buttoned up young men barking commands and responses to one another or perhaps a bunch of lazy veterans oiling their guns in tipped-back folding chairs. Nothing like that presented itself. At it's absolute roughest, it was a survivalist camp. A go-into-the-bush-and-carve-out-an-existence type of place.

( Rush For Cover )

Who: Coop and Tripper and Open
When: Home and Here, bedtime and wake up time.
What: An arrival
Where: New Mexico and Grazer Island

Daylight was just starting to break on the dusty horizon as Coop steered Betty off of the interstate and in to an awfully nice looking state of the art truck stop not too far out of the city limits of Roswell. It boasted showers, rooms, a pool hall and a diner, she noticed as she cruised on through at a leisurely and cautious pace. There were people about and her heavy load in the trailer wouldn't allow for any quick stops.

On the passenger seat, Tripper stuffed his head out of the half-lowered window, drooling a little bit down the glass as his tongue lolled. Ever the showman, he barked a couple of greetings to some burly men hanging about out in front of the pool hall. No less than one of them raised their meaty hands and hollared a greeting right back. She thought she heard her name, Coop, on the wind from their direction. It happened more and more. The longer she took these long hauls the more she made what she called 'road friends'. Sure, she got ribbed for being a girl and pint-sized to boot but there were plenty of Ol' Gals to back her up if anyone got too mouthy on the subject. People rarely did though, she took most things in stride and Coop genuinely liked people. She tried to get along with all of her fellow road warriors.

Steering in to a well-lit parking spot near the gas bar, she noted that she was sitting heavier than most the other trailers here tonight. For a moment she had a qualm. Maybe she should move on, radio to find a secure yard where her load might be safer. Her eyes were burning, though, and she knew her needs well enough to know she needed to park it for a few hours at least. She was only about fifteen minutes shy of her eight hours on and lible to get fined if she pushed on. Nope, this would have to do but she knew she was sleeping with her load for the day and not in once of those spacious rooms.

( Here I Am - On The Road Again )