Devil's Tower

Who: Kenji and Christian
Where: By the river, west of the Trading Post
When: Early morning
Why: His things were stolen and he's upset about Sumi

One of his worst fears had come true; Sumi had rejected him. To make matters worse, he woke up the next morning to find one of his bags was missing. Kenji carried two bags with him, but only one of them at all times- the one with his clothes and personal things. He would often hide the other bag that was full of food, water, and other survival supplies wherever he could find a good place to do so. This system had worked out for him just fine the last couple of years, but no longer. Although the things in the stolen bag hadn't held emotional significance they'd been items necessary to his survival. Luckily he'd been sleeping with his head on his personal pack or it likely would have been taken too. He kicked around his camp for an hour, searching the area just in case. He was no tracker as all of his exploits in such matters had been in urban settings. He found nothing as he stomped around in a cloud of Japanese curses.

His affair with Christian had left him angry and confused, while his attempt to regain Sumi had left him completely drained and feeling hopeless; and now this had to happen. He packed what was left of his things and headed down the river a ways. He had no idea what he was going to do but he desperately needed a change of scenery from the campsite where his bag had been taken. He stopped just west of the Trading Post and collapsed onto the grass. He laid back and spread his arms out, trying to take deep breaths and contemplate what his options were. He could seek out a tribe to join, or try and find some physical labor that would pay but he had nothing to start with but the clothes on his back and the few trivial sentimental things. He laid there, wallowing in his confusion and dreading the oncoming heat of the day.

Who: Christian & Calypso
What: A pleasant surprise
Where: Christian's new boat
When: Mid Monday Morning
Rating: Let's just go PG-13 to start


Well, he had found a tribe. He had also found a good trading spot. There were also a couple of new playthings that he had started to mould. Check, check, check. If Christian had a list, things would have been going very well at the moment. That was not evident, however, if his facial expression were any sort of tell though. In fact, he looked somewhere between sullen and pissed off. Leaning against the wall of his new cabin on water. He pulled out a hand rolled cigarette and closed his eyes. It sat between his lips for a good four or five minutes before he got up to go and find a light.

Thankfully his saddlebags had made it on board. So after only a bit of searching, he found one of the many packs of matches they had accumulated between the four horsemen on their journey. Sitting inside the cabin, he lit the cigarette that had been sitting between his lips for the past few minutes and took in his first lungful of intoxicating smoke. It was a vice, to be sure, but Christian had many so it had never occurred to him to quite this one.

Sitting down on the pull out couch, that he had pulled out the night before, he rubbed his temples with the base of his palms. He was frustrated and that was not something that he could claim often to be. In that moment Christian wished Conquest were human. If her were he would have lulled him onto the damn boat hours ago.

It had taken him the better portion of yesterday evening to find a boat that was big enough and looked strong enough to hold a horse. And if he did say so himself, he had found the perfect boat. It was an old two car ferry, with a little cabin off to one side and railings all around. Two slides of those railing could be let down in order to let cars on and off... or a horse in Christian's case. And the little cabin seemed not to have rusted out too badly and actually had two levels.

He had taken it as a sign and had used Conquest to pull it back into the River with an emotion that could not have been confused as anything but glee. The problem had come when he had tried loading the damn horse onto the ferry. His steed had said no and they had been at a stand still for hours. About an hour age, Christian had finally relented and had put Conquest on a long line to go graze. He was now trying to plot his success, but all he could focus on was his failure.

Who: Christian & Jed
What: An invitation accepted
Where: The Trading Post
When: Sunday Afternoon
Rating: PG for sure

Today was the second day he had come to sit at a bench at the trading post. It had already been a good day in trading. It was so surprising to him considering that he was use to having to take a little trade. People here just seemed to have the means, which was truly wonderful if you were Christian. He was already dreaming of all the things he could trade for. New clothes were on the top of his list, as his were questionable to say the least. During their time trekking across America, no one had thought it reasonable to get new clothes when they could barely afford to trade for enough food and grain to keep themselves alive at times. In this city though, he had already made up his mind that he would at least get one set of new clothes. Even if he did have to starve for a month to do so.

As the sun beamed down over head, he could feel it beginning to drain the life out of him. It was brutally hot and bothersome to say the least. Looking at all he has accumulated, he would have to radio the others and see if any of them were already in need of supplies. Today, though was done for him. Too hot. He needed to find some shade as well as a place to stay. This town was welcoming to a point, but it was obvious that as part of a tribe you were still much safer. Getting up he started packing his stuff back into the saddle bags that lay across the bench. When he saw a shadow fall across them, he turned to see who it was.

Who: Kenji and Christian
Where: Trading Post
When: Tuesday mid-afternoon
Why: Killing some time and cooling off
Rating: PG-13 to R for suggestive..ness. lol
Status: COMPLETE

It wasn't often that Kenji ventured farther into town than the Outskirts. Over the last couple of months he'd kept his distance. For one, he didn't want the tribes to get too suspicious of him wandering around their territories and secondly he didn't want to risk Sumi possibly seeing him. He kept telling himself that he'd go to her one day to beg her for forgiveness and tell her the truth. However, that day had yet to come and if it ever did come he wanted to have complete control over the circumstances.

The sky was a clear blue, and the sun was beating down rather unforgivingly all morning. He had hoped that it would cool down, but it only seemed like the weather was getting hotter every day. He still missed the weather in Osaka. Sure, it got warm there during the summer but he didn't remember it feeling as oppressive as the Wyoming summer. He took his time walking to the trading post from the Outskirts and before he went in looking for trade- he was awfully hungry after all-he sat down on a park bench next to the river to cool off. There wasn't much of a breeze but it seemed a lot cooler next to the water. He leaned his head back, closing his eyes to the warm sunshine and listening to the hum of the trading post behind him.

Who: Christian & Sparrow
What: Conquest comes to town... is anyone ready?
When: Wednesday Afternoon
Where: Heading south down the river into the city
Rating: Hopefully PG for at least one thread

This had been a long and arduous journey that had taken the better part of the last few years, and according to Grim's gut they had found her. To be truthful, Christian hoped that it was so. He was tired of travelling and tired of having to give up his hardly won prizes. After discovering Jennifer had not been in a town they would just leave and usually that meant that the little harem he had built up would drift into the winds, because he really wasn't responsible enough to taken a harem on their journey. Hell sometimes he questioned if he was responsible enough to make the journey himself. Luckily for Conquest, his big grey stallion the others took this into account and always made sure there was enough for his steed, but food for himself was always on the lean side. It didn't help that Christian wasn't exactly a born hunter either. Once he had caught a rabbit, but honestly it had more or less been dazed by a rock that Grim had thrown and merely wandered unconsciously into his trap.

Either way, this was suppose to be the groups end goal approaching. What would happen after that was anyone's guess, but Christian had plans of a lovely harem with lots of beautiful creatures surrounding him day in and day out.

Earlier in the day the four horsemen had split up as they always did to ride into town separately. Over the years they had found that it made other's less suspicious of their intentions if they didn't come as a group, especially because their intentions though having a good heart were never what anyone could call 'pure or true'. No their was no true virtue in their souls, but that didn't mean they were horrible people, just not ones that were going to win any sort of Nobel Peace Prize. At least that was what Christian thought, the truth laid somewhere further outside of his explanation than that.

Sitting atop his big grey stallion, he was ambling south-way down what he found was called the Belle Forche River. To be quite honest, as he was approaching the city at this point he was rather surprised that he had not yet been stopped, or questioned, or told to turn back. Eyes had been on him, but no one had come to say anything to him, so he had shrugged it off and continued. Don't be fooled to think he didn't feel the pressure surrounding him, he knew this was not a friendly truce, but he rather liked not being bullied from the start. After making his way fairly far into the city, he decided to dismount and let his horse have a drink and some grass. Some might have seen this as the responsible thing to do, you know actually in taking proper care of his horse. In truth he was more interested to see if any flies would come to his honey if he wasn't sitting atop his rather large stallion, then care for Conquest. Either way the horse would benefit though and it was not liked he ever pushed him to lather.