Devil's Tower

Who: Otter & Shadow
What: Fetching a medic
Where: Where she's holed up
When: After this

Otter had left the drifters in an unused house. It wasn't really great in the coldest months because there was a draft you couldn't manage to keep out of the place due to damage to the windows. Still, it was likely much better than wherever they'd been holed up and it was definitely better than where he'd found them. Once he'd left them Otter had jogged over to Shadow's. Jace didn't look like he was at his best but Bishop looked about ready to drop at any moment. He'd remained calm whilst with them but he wasn't stupid enough to not realize efficiency was imperative.

Luckily, Shadow wasn't too far off so it'd be easy enough for Otter to get to her. The problem came with convincing someone to help a drifter. Otter was just this side of stupid when it came to trusting people. He gave them the benefit of the doubt and was generally of the opinion that everyone deserved a chance to prove they were worth that trust. Many others did not share his view. It was dangerous to trust people but how would they ever have anything but ridiculous fighting and squabbling if they didn't learn to trust and be worthy of that trust? Well, hopefully Shadow would see the importance of helping someone over whether or not they should be trusted. It's not like he'd leave her alone with the drifters and it wasn't like he'd leave the drifters unwatched after either. Otter had a protective streak a mile wide, after all. From their state they likely weren't going anywhere unless they crawled there anyway.

Who: Otter & Nova
What: Snowball fight, of course
Where: Outside up at the farm
When: About 1pm, Wednesday
Rating: PG
Status: Closed; Incomplete

Nova had not been as chipper as she was known for being ever since Sunday. Otter still didn't know what all had gone on, but whatever it was that went down between her and her brother it couldn't have been pretty. She'd been down and a little mopey for the past few days. Even Muskrat couldn't cheer her up. He tried with a vengeance, but ultimately even the dog had admitted defeat and whimpered at Otter as if he hadn't been trying to cheer her up as well. Otter had finally veered on the side of mostly leaving her to her thoughts and keeping her company silently when he didn't have things that required his attention.

Wednesday, however, brought excitement. At least, the kids were all overjoyed. Snow. It had been going on for hours now and the powder on the ground was settling thickly without any sign of melting away any time soon. Thus far he'd been keeping the kids inside but it was letting up enough and they were impatient enough that he finally caved. A fair bit up ecstatic screaming could be heard in the house as they ran about finding as much clothing as they could to layer on top of what they were already wearing. A couple lucky ones had stolen old snow gear of Otter and his brother's out from under the noses of the others.

Figuring this could be something adequate to distract her, Otter quietly snuck up on Nova. She was knitting, all curled up by herself. He came from behind her and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. "Hey you," he whispered. "I have a mission for you. Very, very important mission. Involves lots of running. And your nose going numb. And lots of laughing. And testing out how your aim is. You think you might be interested?" Otter nudged her cheek with his nose. "C'mon, ya know ya wanna." He was wiggling where he stood, bouncing on the balls of his feet, fully prepared to go outside and end up soaked through from the snow. "I promise to warm you up after," there was a teasing note in his voice.

Who: Jace, Bishop, and Otter
Where: Entering the Wolves' territory
When: Monday, late morning, just after this.
What: After a violent encounter with some Mountain Lions the desperate drifters go looking for help.

They fled. There was no thought of going back for supplies or stopping to rest despite their injuries. They ran, and walked and stumbled, on. Jace had some idea of where he was headed, taking them north and avoiding the main road. His main concern was putting as much distance as possible between them and their last known whereabouts, but leaving town wasn't an option. In the state they were in, with no supplies or even warm clothes, they wouldn't last half a day. So against his drifter instincts, which were telling him to get out of Dodge, he'd led them towards town and one of the tribes' territories. The Wolves. He just hoped he'd picked the right tribe and that they would find help rather than running straight into the very trouble they were trying to avoid.

His sense of time and distance was a bit skewed at the moment and it was hard to say whether they'd been moving for mintues, or hours, or merely seconds. Jace still felt like he couldn't breath right and his vision was starting to blur, but his sense of survival pushed him on. That and the knowledge that if he stopped, Bishop would stop too. He'd told her to go ahead before, but she hadn't and he didn't believe that would change. Damn stubborn woman. The fact that they were in this together was simultaneously reassuring and disturbing.

He slowed down slightly, finally breaking the silence. "You okay babe?" he asked, partly to make sure she wasn't in shock or something and partly to make sure he wasn't either. "You look like you could use a bandaid."

Who: Wolf, Otter and Nova
Where: Farmhouse
When: Early Friday morning
Why: Wolf goes looking for Nova who didn't come home last night and finds something he's not too pleased about.


Wolf could more or less count the hours of sleep he’d gotten this week on both hands and still have fingers left over. The mental list that he kept of problems and concerns had been re-ordered last night when he finally gave up on waiting for Nova and went to bed. She had left him a note that she was going to the farm but it said nothing about staying the night there or anywhere other than their house.

The only thing that kept him from going out and looking for her was the difficult realization that she was indeed 18, old enough to have started taking care of herself. But was 18 old enough to take care of oneself in this new world? Wolf didn’t think so but he was trying to give Nova at least an ounce of her space for once.

An hour before the sunrise Wolf had drug himself out of bed, he couldn’t sleep anyway. He’d woken up every hour on the hour thinking about one thing or another. If his thoughts weren’t on Nova they were on the electricity and if they weren’t on electricity they were on something else like the oncoming winter and the usual problems that it brought with it. He dressed warm and left the house quietly so as not to disturb anyone else. He retrieved his horse form the make-shift stable-house they’d constructed across the road from the apartments and he set out.

Even with the electricity there were few street lamps that managed to stay on, but without the electricity the whole place was plunged in a horrible darkness. It was a heavy reminder of the darkness of the grave that the Ans virus had dug for the world they used to know. Luckily the setting moon was shining and the sun’s oncoming rays had already cast a purple light through the darkness.

He would check the farm first since that was where she said she was going. In the mean time he had to devise an excuse. He didn’t want to embarrass Nova by showing up for the sole reason of checking up on her. Eh, he’d worry about what to say when it came to that. He’d always been better at improv than planned speeches, especially when it came to Nova, the person who was best at seeing straight through him.

When he reached the farm there were a few people meandering around, employed in their various farm-related tasks. Wolf waved to the couple that recognized him. It wasn’t often that he was on the farm. During the peak growing season he was there more helping with the manual labor and such but in these cold months there was little work to be had. He slid off his horse in front of the farm house and walked in through the unlocked door.

There were two little kids eating their make-shift breakfast of apples and honey cakes. Wolf smiled at them and asked them if they’d seen Otter. One of them giggled and pointed to the ceiling. Obviously Otter was still upstairs. Wolf winked at the kid and made his way up the stairs quietly so as not to wake any of the other occupants of the farm house. He reached Otter’s door and knocked. He figured that Otter was awake but now as he usually was.

A faint sound came back through the door which he assumed was a ‘come-in’. Wolf turned the knob and stepped into the threshold of the door. Otter was just pulling a shirt over his head, as Wolf smiled to say hello. Yet something caught his eye that pulled the smile right off his face. The unmistakable auburn hair of his sister was visible just above the blanket line on Otter’s bed.

Wolf’s lips parted as if to speak but nothing came out and instead he just stepped backwards as if his actions were all on rewind. “Otter. Out here. Now!” He was trying to control the mix of anger and astonishment that had risen in his gut but his last word had slipped out as a shout.

Who: Otter and Nova.
What: Nova gets a wild hair, and tromps out to the farm.
When: Late afternoon.
Where: The Farm.
Rating: TBD.

The last few days had pretty much been hell. Though the house she shared with Wolf had been warm enough thanks to plenty of firewood, there were plenty of other creature comforts that had gone out the window when the power had shut down. It was easy to forget that the world had nearly ended when the lights were still on. Now that they were gone, for who knew how long, the situation had become pretty dire. Doubts were on everyone's mind. What would happen if they couldn't get power again? What would they do? Only a few days of primitive living had sunk even Nova's perpetual good mood. The fact that other member's of the tribe were also grumbly and bleak didn't help. It was nearly impossible to be happy when everyone around you was awash in doom. There was only one thing to do, she decided, unless she wanted to sink into a bout of uncharacteristic depression. She had to go see Otter.

She'd wrapped up in what seemed like every piece of warm clothing that she owned. In the summer, the walk wouldn't have been too terrible, but the week had gotten steadily colder. Most people weren't too uncomfortable yet. Those people, however, possed enough body fat to retain at least a little warmth. Tribal life was more cushy than, say, the life of a drifter, but food was still lean, and Nova had never been one to retain calories. That left her pretty frail, and really susceptible to the weather. Leaving a quick note to let Wolf know where she'd gone, she slipped out the door and headed out of the city. Once she'd gotten out of the cover of the buildings, the wind got even worse. Nova focused on trying to stay warm, singing to keep her mind busy. Anyone peeking out of their window would probably have thought she was crazy, bopping along like it was a bright spring day, happily singing to herself. Or they would have though that she was just being herself. Either way.

Nova lost track of how long it took to get to the farm. At first glance, everything was pretty quiet. Maybe she'd miscalculated, and the people who lived her were in town? If that was the case, she knew no one would mind if she slipped in and warmed up before heading back. Techincaly, everyone here qualified as Wolves, which made it pretty much a second home for her. Weaving her way around various fences, she trudged across the wide porch, knocking on the door a few times before she opened it up. Taking a step inside, she unwound the scarf that had been protecting the bottom part of her face from the cold. It was kind of hard to talk when stuff like that was in the way. She soaked up some of the warm air before calling out. "Otter? You home?"

Who: Wolf and any member of the Wolves that attends the meeting.
Where: The gym of the Belle Fourche High School in the southwest of the Wolves’ territory.
When: Tuesday, dusk into dark after the last of the aftershocks.
Why: Tribe meeting and welfare check.
(((OOC: This post is simply a starter for those of you who want to attend the Wolves meeting. Please post all meeting related threads here. Even if your character does not speak you can still make an appearance in the comments. Feel free to respond directly to Wolf and/or join in other people‘s comments. I‘ll leave Wolf‘s part of this post open-ended till the end of the week change and then wrap it up if no one responds to him.)))

The earthquake had done minimal damage to the buildings on the Wolves turf though they’d all certainly felt it. Scouts and runners were immediately dispatched to sweep the center city searching for damage and injured people. A runner was also sent to check up on the farm, the Twin Feathers, the River Runners and even the Mountain Lions. Truth be told the Mountain Lions would more than likely have been neglected had the power not flickered and then gone out shortly after the worst part of the quake. As soon as all of the runners had returned Wolf called a meeting to the Belle Fourche High School gym.

The sun was setting and the remaining streamers from last week’s dance blew balefully in the breeze that pierced the warmth of the gym every time someone entered. Hot water was being boiled on a fire outside of the gym to offer warm drinks to anyone who showed up. Wolf sat in the center of the highest bleacher and waited for people to trickle into the gym. By the time there were enough people there that he felt he could speak the sun had set. The gym was lit by torches and candles from their limited supply.

He stood up on the bleacher and raised his hand to get people’s attention. “All of the runners have returned and I’m sure most of you have heard bits and pieces of what they’ve learned.” He surveyed the faces of his tribe, all lit by the flickering orange of the torches. It was probably not the best idea to have fire inside the gym like they did but they didn’t have another choice. It was too cold to huddle outside and there was no other building on their property that had been cleaned up enough so as to fit everyone inside.

“The Mountain Lions are being tight-lipped as to the true cause of the power outage and the extent of damage on their property is as of yet unknown to us. As far as I know there were no injuries in any of the tribes. However, a tree house collapsed in the Twin Feather’s camp and we’ll be sending a party there tomorrow to help clean things up and replace whatever we can that was broken.”

Wolf paused and rubbed his hands together for warmth. The cold was already creeping in through the dilapidating walls and broken windows. “We’ve combed our territory and none of our people were hurt, and amazingly enough there were no damages. Hopefully the power will be fully restored soon. In the mean time feel free to take more than your ration of firewood for tonight. Be sure to stay as warm as possible and conserve your energy. If you don’t have a fireplace in your home I’m sure one of our tribe members who do would be more than willing to share their space with you until the power is restored. Everyone seems to be accounted for in our tribe so now I’ll open up the floor. Do any of you have concerns or questions? Now is the time to say anything you want.”

WHO: Watts and Otter
WHERE: Somewhere along line between ML and Wolf Territory
WHEN: Saturday afternoon
WHY: Watts needs a smile.

It was drizzling outside, but there was a veritable stormcloud over the very red head of a particular Mountain Lion today. Okay, Watts understood that not everybody could be their own boss, and she was used to taking orders. It was a necessity, and she got that. But she was damned if she spent her days working her ass off, just so she could be condescended to by some spoiled little rich shit who'd probably never worked a day in his life.

Watts prided herself on her logic, and understood that that wasn't exactly a fair judgment. The ML leaders may have had an unfair advantage to begin with, but they had the brains to stay ahead in the game, and had done pretty well for themselves before she came along. And yes, she knew that she'd spent ten minutes being lectured to because it was dangerous to be wandering around outside their tribe's territory. It was the principle of the thing that had her doing just that - yes, again - on this cheery fall afternoon. She could have waited for one of the guys to accompany her on her foray for parts, but hell, she was a tough girl. Unlike her contemporaries, Watts had learned her combat skills from a drill sergeant rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

She carried a knife in her belt and a military-issue Beretta 9mm with two bullets left in her back pocket as she wandered down a long-deserted road close to the highway along the border of Lion-Wolf territory. Her hair was weighed down and slightly less vivid as it collected water from the intermittent showers, but a jean jacket kept her warm enough. Over her shoulder was slung a bag filled with scavenged parts and tools acquired that morning - nothing particularly great that would buy her out of trouble when she got back to base, but the point was to get away.

Who: Otter & Nova
Where: Main house of the Sundance Kid Apartments
When: Late afternoon/Early evening
Why: Well Darla might actually kill him if he's around her too much and Nova is the light of his life (practically literally) so Otter needs happy!friend time.

All day Otter had slunk about the farm, avoiding Darla and the daggers her eyes shot him for his acts of terrorism on her the previous day. Really, she had to learn to love the tiger suit! The kids around the farm loved the tiger suit and this, so far as Otter was concerned, was more than enough reason why Darla, too, should love it. The girl had no love to spare for him or his attempts to pull her out of the tar pit she seemed all too at home in, though.

As if Otter did not already completely adore Nova, in that platonic and not being maimed by her older brother and his friend kind of way, today it was manifold. This was, of course, thanks to Darla and her threats to his person. Not to mention the threats to his beloved tiger suit. That always made him pout. And then find even better hiding places for the suit. People were so damn depressing half the time. No one smiled and then there were people like Darla who practically held it against him for trying to get them to laugh even if just at him being an idiot. Nova was, truthfully, like his one bright and shining star. He wondered sometimes if she hadn't shown up with Wolf if he might not have snapped and wanted to shove people down the well. Being around so many people with doom clouds hanging over their heads was depressing.

Last night he'd gathered up various random bits of cloth he'd found about the house and that he'd traded people for previously. He figured if Nova couldn't do something with it all then it'd just be kindling, really. There were also buttons and ribbons. In true Otter fashion it was all shoved into a bag without any care for order. While he walked from Watershed Hollow to the city he kept an eye out for strangers, but mostly he busied himself with carving into an apple for Nova. He failed at flowers so he was carving a layered heart into one side of the fruit. Hearts he could at least manage and it wasn't hard to remove the heart-shaped wedges so that there were alternating outlines of white and red when it was looked at. He'd tried a star but had failed miserably at it and ended up just eating that attempt.

Otter didn't come into the city much, his life was on the farm. He realized he didn't actually know where to look for Nova so he defaulted to the obvious, her house. He figured if she wasn't there Wolf might be and if no one was he could just sit on the steps until someone showed up. The plus side was no one who lived in the white house attached to the Sundance Kid Apartments was likely to maim him. This was an important perk for the day so far as he was concerned. The apple carving had even turned out pretty well, even if the heart was a bit lopsided. By time Otter knocked on the door he had a smile on his face, an expression that had been absent when he left the farm.

Who: Otter & Darla
When: Late afternoon/early evening
Where: Watershed Hollow - main house
Why: Because Otter excels at pestering and Darla needs to smile more

It was unusually warm out for November and had been for a while now. Otter wouldn't have complained about it because the longer it was warmer the longer they had to grow and harvest food that they could stock up for the winter. Warm weather or not, though, it was a slowing down period on the farm. Once the frost came it would kill pretty much everything left. Then the snow would come with the cold and he'd have nothing at all to do until Spring warmed the earth. The Wolves were going to do fine through the winter, Otter thought. They've have enough food for everyone and while it might not have been as comfortable as he'd have liked it'd be comfortable enough. He was still strategizing how to increase food production on the farm so that when winter came he could be sure everyone would be adequately fed, maybe even comfortably fed. It was a work in progress, really, and Otter just hoped it wouldn't take him too many winters more to find something that worked how he wanted it to. At least it actually gave him something to do in the winters other than pester Darla and anyone else who stayed on at the farm instead of going into the city to help out there during the cold months.

( Pester, though, was something he was truly aces at. )

Who: Anyone who wants to attend the dance
Where: The gym of the Belle Fourche High School in the southwest of the Wolves’ territory
When: Friday at sundown and into the night
Why: Another attempt at raising morale and possibly improving tribal relations

The overcast sky and light rain did little to dampen the hearts of the Wolf girls that had organized the dance. They had worked hard the last week or so to transform the gym into something civilized, something recognizable in a world that was still all too foreign. They hadn’t been able to remove the graffiti from the walls but at least the majority of it wasn’t too terribly obscene or otherwise offensive.

Despite their amazing work on the room itself there was one thing they were most proud of. They had been unable to find any sort of PA system that was in working order and no one had known how to fix it. However, they were able to find an enormous stereo in the basement of the school. Given the gym’s average size the stereo would surely be loud enough to reach every corner of the place. They scrounged up every CD they could find so they ended up with a little bit of everything. At this point people usually weren’t very picky about the music they heard because they were lucky to hear it at all.

Unfortunately there was no food for their guests due to tight rationing in preparation for the winter months, but there was a good deal of iced tea flavored with honey and some moonshine they’d managed to trade various things to the River Runners for.

As the sun went down they lowered the lights, turned on the stereo and opened the doors. There was no telling what would happen at such an event where all tribes had been invited.