Devil's Tower

Who: Peri and Moe
When: Late Monday Night
Where: Moe's boat
What: Peri needs to get smashed
Rating: PG-13 (language)

The last week had been the longest week in Peri's life since the virus had taken her parents, her life away from her. She had meet Shepard just over a week ago, he had changed the way she lived her life, something Peri hadn't been ready for. Rather fortunately for her, she had broken his fingers in trying to kick him out and instead had let him stay. Unfortunately around the same time Shepard came into her life, her best friend Gypsy left it. Peri, the true pessimist by nature, didn't think she was coming back, nor did she think that she was alive. Someone would have told them by now if Gypsy was merely hurt, and if Gypsy had been trying to leave she would have taken Silver with her.

With so much changing in her personal life and having lost the person who truly knew who she was beneath the mask, she just felt alone. Completely and utterly isolated. Which was why before night feel she knew she couldn't say nothing any longer. Peri wasn't totally oblivious to the fact that she was not what others would typically consider a good person. She didn't care, but that was why she didn't tell many what was in her heart... they just didn't understand her. Gypsy had, and now she was hoping Moe would, or at least that she would just listen and not judge her. They had been friends since the tribe at been formed, just never as close as she and Gypsy has been.

Sitting up quietly in bed, she looked down at the man next to her. He wasn't Brent, like Gypsy had expected in the end it would be. No Brent and Allison belonged in the past, he couldn't let her just be who she was and she couldn't bare to remember life before the virus. Instead next to her was Shepard, a man that hadn't been mad at her for being... well a bitch, and who didn't seem to judge her on what he had heard... she knew by know he would have heard at least some of her downfalls. In truth she was happy to not be alone any longer, and more truthfully that it was Shepard sharing her bed with her. She wasn't quite ready to admit that yet though.

She had waited until he had fallen asleep, and checked that he was before slipping out from underneath the covers. The spring air still had a chill to it and so she slipped over to grab her jacket. It wasn't that she had and fear about telling him that she was going out and telling him where to stick it if he had a problem with that, no she just wasn't ready to tell him that she had lost her best friend at a time she really needed him. Sliding out the door, she walked to the bow of her boat and quickly jumped onto the next, making her way to Moe's. They had all been tied together at night for the last couple weeks and tonight was was happy that was the case.

Who: Jed and all River Runners
When: Week Twelve
Where: Land surrounding Jed's boat
Why: Jed organises a search party and tries to quell panic.

There was no way Jed could lie to himself anymore.  At first he figured she'd just wandered off on her own for a few hours and would return, and when hours turned into a full day he figured maybe she needed a big time out, Gypsy was mad at him afterall for practically banishing her best friend.  But by the time Tuesday rolled around the panic in his body sank in fully and his nerves were on edge.  She was missing and he was partly responsible.

Although he never let people know it there was nobody Jed respected more than Gypsy, and lying to her about him and Silver had ebbed at his concious with each day that passed, there were whispers in the camp that there should be relief felt on Jed's part now she was no longer breathing down his throat.  Relief wasn't an emotion he could feel when his whole sytem was abosrbed with panic and dispair.  Gypsy had been his saviour, he'd been hers, they'd been friends and lovers for a brief time.  Now she was gone and he didn't know where.  It was like the twilight zone when he'd barrelled into her boat, everything perfectly in tact as if she'd simply stepped out for some air, no signs of a struggle to signal someone had taken her, no note to say she was leaving.  She simply walked out and vanished into thin air.  This wasn't a trick anymore, this was fucking weird.

Silver hadn't spoken to him since, he'd heard her sniffling in her sisters room as she asked for a moment to think by herself, and he'd hid the angry tears that brimmed and clouded his eyes.  She'd never done something like this before, though he had to try hard to reassure everyone that this wasn't as big a crisis as it actually was.  This was made harder by the fact that few people actually respected Jed as a leader and without Gypsy there to scold them he was swimming in a sea filled with what seemed like dozens of doubting faces.  For the first time in his life Jed had no plan, no thoughts, nothing coherent, and no guidance.  He was completely alone and missed his friend, he missed every part of her and wasn't going to give up until she was looking at him in the face and laughing at him for even bothering the tribe in the first place.

Jed had sent word out to the tribe that there was a metting to be held at his at eleven, outside his boat.  He daren't hold it outside Gypsies.  He stood on the dock facing the floor feeling it swirl and sway beneath him, making him feel queasy.  There was so much to do and so little time to do it in, every second was a second she could be in more danger, there was no way they could afford to waste time anymore.  It was time for Jed to stand in and be the man Gypsy always told him he could be.  He'd always doubted her.

"As you know Gypsy is gone," he started off slowly but confidently, throwing his voice so it flew over everyone's heads, "We can't afford to stay put any longer, there'll be a search party dispatched and I need volunteers," he frowned, "We need to find her,"

Who: Moe and Roach
What: What do you think?
When: Evening-ish.
Where: Moe and Roach's room at the Winter Camp.
Rating: M for Mature (you've been warned)

Moe didn't mind being lazy. She was, by nature, a slothy sort of person. It wasn't a chore for her to sit by the window for a few hours and watch the world go by. Because of that, she was one of the few who wasn't clawing at the walls in boredom. She'd been outside a few times in the last week, helping a few of her tribemates with the clean up and repairs to the barn. That was a fairly depressing task. It wasn't until they gone in and started counting the damages that they realized just how screwed they actually were. Even if she traded her entire stock there was a chance that she wouldn't be able to get everything that they needed. And that just sucked.

She swayed slowly back and forth, one leg extended over the edge of the hammock to give her a little push. Hammocks were normally associated with slow summer afternoons, but Moe liked to hang out in hers in the winter as well. Pile enough old quilts into one, and it became a cozy nest. She liked her nest. At least she was warm. Wyoming winters didn't sit that well with her, not after spending most of her life in Tenessee. There was no call for the kind of cold it got in Sundance. All it did was make people even more sullen and cranky than they already were.

Well, most people. Moe was doing okay, aside from the chronic worry about whether or not she'd starve that winter. And then there was the whole Ryder fiasco. That was slightly stressing as well. So maybe she was only doing okay at that very moment because of the carved pipe held loosely between her fingers. She knew that she should be saving every bit of her stash that she could, but she had to relax or she was going to go nutty. Hell, she ought to be out there handing out samples to everyone she came across. The entire tribe was wound up way too tight. They all needed a break.

Blowing a stream of smoke out of the corner of her mouth, she nudged the floor again, sending her rocking back and forth and back and forth. The movement was comforting, and was almost enough to convince her to close her eyes and take a little nap. Yeah, a nap would be good. Settling deeper into the blankets, she inhaled again rather than letting her eyelids fall. Moe turned a bit so that she could look out the window, watching the sun finally start to set on another craptastic day.

Who: Jed [Open to any River runners]
What: Jed calls a tribe meeting
When: Saturday evening
Where: The living area of the winter shelter.

Jed had never been one for public speaking. He'd never been one to keep his opinions to himself but having to address the whole tribe about the new pressing issue and possible downfall of the tribe was making his heart beat rather erratic. It wasn't even the eratic excited heartbeat that he had whenever Silver was in the room, nope, it was due to pure fear of the uproar this news could cause...would cause.

He had discussed with Gypsy what needed to be done all of this morning and after she had retired to bed (Jed's idea surprisingly) he walked out and nervously asked everyone to gather all the tribe and meet in the living area. Various faces stared back at him, some with worry already on their faces, some with confusion and some with amusement...though he wasn't quite sure what the cause for the last one was, perhaps a joke he had not been in on. However now was no time for jokes. He stood in front of the old couches and cleared his throat, trying in vain to hush the loud chatters of 'his' tribe members.

"Guys," he spoke letting the lump in his throat fall from his lips and make him sound as if he was choking, "Guys!" he called louder this time, thankful that a hush seemed to fall over them the second time. "Okay I know you are all wondering why you're here," he took a breath....great way to start a speech, or course they were curious! "This morning Gypsy and I walked out to the barn attic where the supplies have been kept for the winter. As you know," he ran a shaky hand through his hair, "As you know the blizzard has been wiping out supplies of and places of refuge for tribes all around and last night it hit us-" he closed his eyes as murmurs broke out through the group, "I don't know how to say this so-" he scratched the back of his neck, "The grain we had left over from the harvest is gone, it's been frozen or blown away, we've got tinned food but it's not going to last us through the winter. We're in trouble but I need you to know that if we can pull together we can 'fix' this, we can make it through,"

The room was not quiet for much longer, people stood up, people panicked, some had so much worry on their face he was concerned the girls of the group were about to burst into tears. All this emotion filling the room was doing nothing for his own nerves. "We need people to branch out and talk to the surrounding tribes, see if we can't ask for their services," he called the words into the loud room feeling them settle in the air but not sink in over the existing noise.

"Guys!" he screeched achieving a lower level of noise than before. "We need to band together, I need volunteers to go to the Lions and try and arrange some sort of extra food supplies, I need people to approach the Twin Feathers and ask for their carpentry services. And I need to know if anybody has any other suggestions or wants to help," he held his breath waiting for people to shout at him, waiting for people to step up...waiting for help.

Who: Ryder and Moe
What: Ryder visits Moe to break things off and well….
When: Early afternoon
Where: Moe’s room at the RR winter camp
Rating: tba


Since Danni left his cabin Ryder had been going crazy. Things had finally come full circle with Danni and it seemed as if they were actually going somewhere. Was he happy about it? Of course he was. He cared a lot for Danni and appreciated the way that she’d finally started opening up to him. So why was Moe the only thing he could think about? He told himself that it was guilt that kept causing her image to slide onto the screen behind his eyes. If he was going to make things work with Danni then he would have to stop seeing Moe. Yet how could he do that and still be her customer?

Things were getting way too complicated for Ryder’s tastes and way too fast. He paced around the cabin for hours before getting as bundled up as he could and opening the front door to brave the weather. When Danni had left he’d managed to make a small path at the front door after clearing out the initial onslaught of snow that had built up there.

Although he’d spent a hand full of years in Montana before the virus and two years in Sundance he still hadn’t gotten used to the snow. Why couldn’t he have at least ended up somewhere warm when the world had ended? Oh well, at least he had ended up at all. If it hadn’t been for Hawk and the Feathers he would have died out there in the fields surrounding Devil’s Tower. There was a lot for him to be thankful for and most of the time he tried not to take it for granted.

The snow was so deep that even though he managed to get Rose out of her stall and ride her most of the way to Moe’s he eventually had to give up and walk in front of her to lead the way. To say the least Rose was not happy about being dragged out into the cold. When it snowed this hard there was always the danger of falling into deep snow drifts and he felt better leading her because of that. Even though Rose had a set of senses that far surpassed his own he wanted to take a fall himself instead of the both of them getting stuck.

There was a light breeze blowing and by the time he was half way to the winter camp it had started to snow again. The snow was light, but it still didn’t make things any easier. When he did manage to reach the camp he was frozen to the bone and soaking wet from wading through the snow. The Runner that met him at the door seemed more than shocked that he had managed to come all the way to the camp. They took his horse to the barn for him and let him inside. They mumbled something about him being a hardcore alcoholic to their friend as he walked down the hallway to Moe’s room. He locked lightly on the door and hugged himself to try and steady his shivers. Short and sweet was how he wanted this to be and he hoped that by doing so he would be able to get back to his place without freezing to death.

Who: Moe and Ryder.
What: Testing her wares/doing some trade.
When: Afternoon.
Where: The River Runner's winter camp.
Rating: PG-13 for some drug references.

When it came to the winter camp, Moe was full of mixed feelings. On the one hand, there were all sorts of comforts that one didn’t get in a floating home. On the other, the privacy factor went way down. That wasn’t a huge problem, in the larger scheme of things, but when you had a house full of bored people with dubious morals, things could get interesting. Already, she’d caught one kid red handed, snooping through her space for some extra goodies. If he’d been a little sneakier, he might actually have gotten away with it. Now, he’d never even think to try it again. Moe wasn’t the most imposing person around. Heck, she wasn’t really imposing at all. Then, the wrath of Moe was pretty fierce. Not a whole lot of people knew how to handle it. He hadn’t been able to meet her eye during the last few days. Which served him right. There wasn’t anything more traumatizing then being chased down the hall by a pissed woman wearing nothing but a towel and swinging around a garden hoe.

From the corner of her space (which wasn’t quite enclosed enough to really be called a bedroom), her sad little moonshine distiller let out a forlorn wheeze. Moving hadn’t been any fun for it, and the reassembly left something to be desired. It was still working, it just wasn’t happy about it. Luckily, she didn’t have to produce as much during the winter. Most of the hardcore trading was over and done with, as the Sundance tribes horded everything they could for the hard times ahead. If she did produce too much, the majority of it would go to her own tribe. Most of them had a sad lack of self control, and she didn’t really feel like babysitting a whole mess of drunk River Runners for the next few months. That just wasn’t really her idea of a fun time. Speaking of fun times…Moe threw one leg over the side of her hammock, causing it to sway alarmingly. Moonshine wasn’t the only thing she had a pretty little surplus of. Normally, she tried not to dip into her own wares too much, but everyone was allowed to be weak every now and again, right?

Swinging herself all the way out of her hammock, Moe padded over to the decrepit bookshelf that she had filled with all sorts of boxes and cans. She sorted her pot according to all sorts of things, most of them known only to her. It wouldn’t do for other people to know her system. She wasn’t sure when she’d developed such a keen sense of secrecy, yet now she couldn’t get rid of it. It wasn’t that she liked to hide stuff from other people. She just did. Like a spastic little squirrel, moving it’s nuts every time someone else came sniffing around. That analogy made her frown at herself. It wasn’t a very nice comparison, especially not to make about oneself. Maybe she really did need a boost. Popping the top off of an old coffee can, she couldn’t help but grin. Oh yeah. That’s exactly what she needed. A few minutes later, she was puffing on an old carved pipe that she’d traded for nearly six months past. Rolling papers weren’t exactly easy to come by these days.

Kicking back in the one raggedy chair that she’d managed to secure, Moe let out a stream of smoke. Man, she really wanted ice cream. Better yet, and ice cream sandwich. Oh! Or one of those big cookie things with the ice cream in the middle. Yeah, that would be perfect. And also impossible, but that didn’t bother her too much at the moment. Instead, she let herself fall into a happy little daydream, where she was lounging on a faraway beach, surrounded by ice cream sandwiches. Never mind that she'd never been to a real beach. That just made the daydream more satisfying, if not entirely realistic.

Who: Moe and [OPEN to people wanting to trade.]
Where: Moe's boat.
When: Late morning/early afternoon.
Why: Everybody's gotta do business sometime.

It was the sunlight slanting through the dirty blinds that finally woke her. Sometimes, it was easy to appreciate the simplicity of this new world they'd all been thrown into. There was no reason for her to rise with the sun. Stretching lazily, Moe, who had once been Molly Harper, kicked away the old patchwork quilt. It rolled off the side of her wide hammock and landed on the floor with a thump of heavy fabric. Groaning, her legs followed, her feet getting caught up in the folds of the quilt and sending her stumbling. Experience was all that saved her, and she managed to right herself before falling headlong into the nightstand.

Even outside the hammock, her entire world rocked and swayed. Luckily, motion sickness was not an issue for her. It had taken some getting used to, but she was an old pro now. It wasn't even that bad today; just a gentle sort of sway, with tiny wavelets lapping against the side of her home. Not many could appreciate living in a houseboat. For Moe, it had become one of her greatest loves. Pushing her suffocating mane of tangled hair away from her face, she pulled open the blinds, squinting against the burst of sunlight. Sure, she was standing bare-ass naked at the window. But it wouldn't be a new sight for anyone who could possibly see her. Clothing, and morals, were rather loose among this particualr tribe.

( Continued on the next page.... )

Who: Anyone who attends the cage fight (all are invited!)
Where: Mountain Lion Territory, largest warehouse on the Vance Copper Mine property.
When: Saturday from dusk till late into the night
Why: Because gambling and bloodshed is fun!
(((OOC: This post is simply a starter for those of you who want to attend the cage fight. Please post all cage fight related threads here. J)))

Northeast of Sundance lies the open pit Vance Copper Mine. Before the virus it was a busy area. The price of copper had skyrocketed in the last fifteen years and by the time the virus struck the mine was so profitable that it was in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. After the virus the mine had become a place of death and fear. The open pit was now nothing more than a yawning coffin, its stepped sides like rows of teeth grinning up at those that dared walk to close to its edge.

The mine warehouse was abuzz with life in a way that it hadn’t been for the past two years. In the center of the fluorescent lit building was an enormous chain-link cage. It’s a square cage of simple construction, complete with a roof to keep competitors from climbing out should things get too intense for them. The Mountain Lions have announced only two rules: There are no weapons allowed and the first person to be knocked out cold loses. The prospect of gambling, even if it is only for minor supplies, drew quite a crowd. There were a lot of drifters there and faces unknown to many of the tribes.

Since a few hours before dusk people have been arriving steadily by walking, the River Runners, or the Mountain Lions’ own horse caravan. When the sun finally sets there is quite a crowd and the warehouse has become noisy with anticipation. The rumor going around was that two drifters the Mountain Lions had personally trained were going to fight first, then things would work on a voluntary basis. Betting was encouraged by all those involved.

One of the Mountain Lions came over a loudspeaker they had managed to rig up and told everyone to be quiet. He explained the two rules, encouraged betting and welcomed everyone that had showed up. The two drifters were finally brought out from the tents that were set up just outside the warehouse. They were naked from the waste up and only one of them had a pair of cotton, fingerless gloves on their hands.

The two boys, who couldn’t have been older than 18 were then let into the cage and the gate locked behind them. At the Mountain Lion announcer’s whim he called on the fight to start and the whole warehouse seemed to erupt with sound as people placed their bets and called to the fighters who began to circle each other nervously.