Thorne Baker (communeraised) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-01-29 12:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | bazzer, thorne, z - 1st tribe - day 05 |
Thorne and Bazzer meet and talk
Who: Thorne and Bazzer
What: Food production and talks
Where: upstream from the camp
When:: Mid Morning Day 5
Rating:: PG-13 for discussions of porn
Thorne had wandered off a bit once Helena had shown him the tree. He was half terrified and half thrilled at the thought of exploring an entirely new landscape. What kind of properties would the trees and plants have here? It must have been like a dream come true for Rowan. Which reminded him, he should introduce himself to her soon since it looked like he was the only medical person here. Probably fortunate since most purely western doctors would be hopeless without their labs and tests and synthesized chemical medications. Granted, he was a bit at a loss without his herbs, but at least he knew other ways of helping people. If only he'd had some acupuncture needles in his pocket when he'd fallen asleep, that would have been far more useful. Ah well, acupressure would have to do for now.
He located the stream and walked a ways upstream just trying to absorb everything he possibly could and just let his mind settle before he attempted to meet all the others.
Bazzer had decided to try his hand at fishing today, or at least to try to catch one of the unfish. It couldn't be THAT hard. He had a stick he had found with a reasonably pointy edge to it too so hopefully that would work for a spear. Even if he didn't get an unfish, maybe he could get something else. For food would be good, but who knew what else they might be good for? To do this successfully, he had discarded his now filthy socks and left them, his pants and shirt on the mossy banks and was clad only in his underwear. Maybe if nothing else the river could serve as a bath of sorts, even if he didn't have any soap. He'd been at this for a while though and so far, no luck. He was very wet though, which was sort of good for the bath idea, less so for catching the unfish.
Thorne heard some splashing and curiously moved further upstream assuming that it was an animal or something else large and large meant either predator or food source. He almost laughed when he turned a bend and saw Bazzer standing in the water in his underwear holding what Thorne could only assume was a spear. Schooling his face to a more neutral expression, Thorne cleared his throat lightly in hopes of getting the man's attention without scaring the piss out of him. "Uh...hi. I'm Thorne. Helena told me there were others."
Despite the older man's intentions, Bazzer jumped a mile. Whirling around he stood there looking rather goofy in his glasses and underwear, "Bazzer," he replied distantly, looking the man up and down, "You're new? This morning?" he asked. Obviously this morning, everyone showed up in the morning. He had already found Annie, but he hadn't realized that there were others this morning too. Now he sort of felt bad by not going farther into the field.
Somewhat distracted by the wings that were tattooed on almost the entirety of the back Bazzer's body, he didn't answer right away. That was...hot. Not that he should really be thinking about the other man being hot when they were barely in a position to survive, but hey...he was. Finally, Thorne nodded, "Yeah, what? Half hour ago maybe?" He glanced at his watch, but he hadn't looked when he'd woken up, so he was still guessing. Thorne walked closer and extended a hand in greeting. "Nice to meet you Bazzer." He didn't think anything of the name being odd, why would he when he came from a family where almost all the kids were named after trees?
"Are there fish?" It was the only reason Thorne could think of that Bazzer would be standing in the stream with a spear.
Then completely changing subjects, he gestured toward Bazzer's back, "Didn't that hurt?" Thorne himself had a tat of his zodiac sign on the back of his right calf and that had stung a bit when he'd gotten it and it was small.
"What?" Bazzer asked, looking over his shoulder as if he was just not seeing the tattoo and realizing it was there. "Oh, yes, a little," he hadn't done it all at once, obviously. "Not too much," it had taken him and the tattoo artist a month to design it and to fit it to his body and then some three months of work after that to complete it. His parents still didn't know he had it either. He wasn't sure his sister did, but he didn't suppose that mattered now. Very few people knew he had it actually and until now, no one other than himself had seen the entire thing, though even this Thorne hadn't see his bare butt. The tattoo was continuous, though it was not viewable from his front except in a few places.
There weren't fish exactly...but how did he explain it? "Unfish actually. They're not really fish...but they live in the water. I thought I'd try to catch one. Or more..." he finished lamely. So far though, he hadn't managed one.
Thorne toed off his Birks and pulled his socks off before bending to roll up his pants, intending to help if he could. After all, food for their upstart village was definitely a priority. "It's really gorgeous. The tat I mean. What's the significance?" It didn't occur to him that this might be a question too personal to ask, mostly because Thorne had some very unusual notions of what made something too personal. Not only because of the incredible bond he had with his family and their resulting openness, but because of his time as a doctor. Once you'd asked someone enough times what color their shit was, asking about tats seemed harmless.
He waded in knee deep and looked into the water, hoping to spot on of the unfish for himself. "Can you point one out to me? And, are they dangerous?"
Pointing at one of the long and thing things that were swimming in the water with the tentacles trailing on the underside, "Those things," he said, trying to spear it. It dodged him easily just like all the other times. Obviously what he was doing was not working...but he did not know what else to do. "They're...fish...like. Not really fish." He bit his lip as he considered how to answer the question about his tattoo. There was a reason few knew about it...well, no one knew about it. Because he didn't want to tell everyone, but at the same time, it was a massive piece of work and if people saw it, they would ask. "It's...sort of complicated," he began awkwardly, not looking at Thorne at all. "It's for my sister...she...died," killed herself actually, "And to remember a difficult time in my life. 1004 feathers for 1004 days gone." Not gone-dead, but gone-committed.
There was no conscious thought as Thorne stepped up to Bazzer and rested a hand on his shoulder gently. It was just Thorne's reaction to hearing the pain in Bazzer's voice. For the moment, the thought of fish or unfish or food was secondary. It went against Thorne's nature to ignore something like that. "Oh..I'm sorry. I can't imagine losing any of my sibs. I can understand why you'd want the wings. They're a very fitting memorial." The rest of what Bazzer had said confused him though and as he scanned the water for any more of the dark bodies of the unfish, he asked softly, "Where did the days go?"
Making a face, Bazzer nodded, his hair falling in his face. There were no razors here to shave and he had some patchy stubble beginning, but he never had a lot of facial hair, "Thanks," he replied softly. It had been more than 10 years since her death...it was easier to deal with now, it was hard though to separate her death from his committal a few months later. "I don't know..." well, he did, but not each specific day, "I was committed. I don't remember a lot of it," what he remembered wasn't pleasant though. The meds they had made him take hadn't helped him, they had made everything worse. The problem had been that he wasn't crazy so instead of balancing his brain chemistry it made it off balance and worse. "Don't tell. Anyone...I'm not crazy...I don't think. I mean, I didn't think I was until now...now I wonder," given where they were and what was happening it was hard not to think he was crazy. "They later decided I wasn't crazy and let me go home...I haven't been crazy in over 10 years."
Thorne shook his head, "I won't. Promise. I'm a doctor, so we'll just consider it privileged information." It made sense that if Bazzer wasn't crazy and they'd had him committed and likely medicated..well. That would just have been bad all around. "I can understand why looking around here might give you some pause, but if it helps? I'm so grounded in reality it's kind of scary and I'm pretty sure that as unlikely as it seems? This is all real."
Which meant a lot of things, mostly that food should be a priority. "You know, we might have better luck with a net." He started looking around for some vines or something that was pliant enough to wave. "Or tools...rocks? Sharp rocks would be good and I saw a lot of vines hanging off that tree Helena has everyone living in. Seems like there's a lot of them. Bet we could use them to build a net. And this stream is rock bottomed, so if we sort of damn it up a little, well, we could get a nice actual bathing pool then a narrow entrance to put the net across where the water flows out." Thorne was talking out loud, but mostly to himself before he looked up at Bazzer again, "What do you think?"
"I think...you know a lot more about this than me," Bazzer grinned ruefully, "I'm a librarian. Read a lot, not a lot of doing though. Which is different," he was glad what he said was secret. He needed to remember to keep his shirt on more. And pants. So then others wouldn't ask about his tattoo, "I think...that might work. We need soap for baths," he kept getting caught up in the particularities and the little things and missing the bigger picture. He that sometimes. "What kind of doctor?" Please not a psychologist or psychiatrist, he prayed.
"I grew up on a farm slash commune," Thorne admitted with a small grin. "We had a pond and my twin and I spent many summers as kids trying to fish it dry and building forts and stuff in the woods." If only he had an idea of what was edible here, Thorne would likely be quite content to stay for a while and explore. Sadly, he didn't and not knowing was a little discouraging. Back home he knew a dozen edible wild plants and how to set snares and such, not that he set many snares. Being a sort of modified vegetarian he'd left that to some of his other sibs, but he knew how.
"I'm a naturopath. You know..mostly Eastern style medicine, acupuncture, herbs, traditional Chinese medicine. That sort of thing." He winked at Bazzer, "Don't worry, not one of those uptight Western style guys."
"Ever hear of Dr. Meredith or Sebastian Vedder?" he asked curiously. Part of him hoped not, part of him hoped so. On the one hand, anonymity was a good thing, on the other, he rather liked the idea of destroying their reputation. He was that vindictive and petty when it came to his parents, but not usually anyone else. He still had a lot of anger regarding them, but he would come every year for Christmas and survive as best he could without causing a scene.
Thorne thought for a moment as he waded out and stripped off his pants and shirt before rejoining Bazzer in his boxers. If they were going to start with a dam, better to go ahead and get it going. It wasn't like Thorne had anything else to do. "I think I've heard of them. They work with kids right?" He paused for a moment and looked at Bazzer, "I think I had a text by them in one of my classes on psych." Thorne found a place where the stream narrowed, they were far enough away from the camp that people could bathe privately..except they were upstream of the camp. Hm. They should likely build a bathing area downstream, but if they did that, they could flood the camp unless they went quite a ways downstream. "Do you think we should have the bathing area upstream from the camp so that we don't flood it? Or downstream so people can drink out of it at the camp?"
"Um..." Bazzer thought for a moment about the pros and cons of both. "I think downstream...but not too far. Because Rowan needs to be able to drink and bathe easily. And since we're living in the trees right now, flooding isn't a problem," at least not right now. They could change and modify things later as needed. "I'm Bazzer Vedder," he said, then amended, "Well, Sebastian T. Vedder. My father is Sebastian R. Vedder, so I'm not a junior. They're shitty psychologists. Fucked up pretty badly," given one kid committed suicide, one was committed and one was a porn star? Yeah, he'd consider them pretty shitty, but they had always been closed mouthed about their family and personal lives, keeping them separate from their work. "I was probably in college about the time you read that..." Thorne didn't look much older than Bazzer, "How old are you?"
Wow...that didn't really speak well to them actually understanding kids or adolescents as well if they had one suicide and one misdiagnosis of that proportion. "Makes me realize that perhaps my child psych isn't as good as it should be," he admitted easily enough. "I'm twenty nine. I know...I look younger than I am." He grinned and winked, "Chalk it up to eating organically and taking care of myself."
Picking up a largish rock, Thorne walked a few steps and set it down. "Then instead of damming it up here, let's just make an under water funnel, kinda like a cattle chute and then we can put a net down at the end of it and maybe have some unfish by dinner." Thorne wondered if he should eat unfish, they did have leg type appendages, but as far as he knew they weren't land creatures. Ah well, protein was needed in a situation like this and he'd forgotten to pack any beans or tofu.
He was 29?! "I'm 29," Bazzer replied. "So you were definitely reading that shit when I was in college," a hard, bitter tone crept into his voice. "It's probably not as bad as you think either," he allowed. It wasn't like he had worshiped his parents or anything.
"Okay, tell me what to do," Bazzer agreed, abandoning his spear by tossing it onto the bank with his clothes. He picked up a rock too and hefted it. He was wiry, but strong from lifting books and things. He had no idea how to make this chute, but he was willing to try. Anything to get the unfish. Even if they didn't eat it, they could take it apart and see what could be made from it and if it were useful or toxic or what.
"Um, well, we're just making a funnel, so a gentle slope with the rocks from this point to the banks on either side and then we can put the net across the narrow end and it will kind of funnel the fish into the net. Just make it high enough that they can't just swim over the top of it." Thorne grinned, "At least that's the plan. Might not work, but it's better than sitting her picking our noses." He picked up another rock and set it in place, glancing over at Bazzer. Okay, the man..was pretty. Very. Sadly, Thorne wasn't getting much of a gay or bi vibe off him and it really wouldn't pay to make enemies of one eighth of the population.
"How long have you been here then," Thorne asked as he set about moving the rocks under the water into position. Couldn't hurt to have a bit of a conversation and it would help pass the time a bit.
It wasn't that Bazzer wasn't interested per se, it was that he didn't really know how to flirt with people and his few attempts had been disastrous. He just didn't know how. He did like men though he had sort of resigned himself to not being with anyone. He wasn't any good at it. "Um? A day?" it probably shouldn't have been a question, but it seemed like a lot longer. When he had arrived there had only been three, now there were at least six. Possibly more. "I arrived yesterday. Seems like longer. Where are you from originally?" he asked, setting some more stones down and hoping they stayed. Shouldn't they make some sort of cement or something? But there was water, so many not?
"I'm from New Hampshire. I have seven siblings and twelve parents...I know. Weird and doesn't fit with the usual American notion of a nuclear family. It was a hippie commune, you know all open "marriages"," Thorne made the little air quotes, "Not that everyone was sleeping with everyone else, but most of them shared with each other. Apparently someone told my parents the bit about how it took a village to raise a child and they sort of internalized it a lot." He grinned again and shrugged one shoulder in kind of a 'what can you do' gesture. "We're all horribly close, but the only full blooded sib I have is my twin." That was Thorne's one concern. Rowan wasn't here and even though he'd miss the rest of his family after a time, being away from his twin for a period of time was something he couldn't even begin to contemplate. He'd gone maybe two days at most without talking to Rowan in his entire life.
That was...different. Very different actually, and sort of bizarre. But if it worked, who cared? Obviously Thorne was much more well adjusted than he was. Then again, most people were. "I'm from Chicago originally, but I live in Kansas City now. Work as an archivist, preserving old documents for posterity. I don't do kids books and things like that. One sister younger than me," since Thorne already knew who his parents were and his older sister had died. "My parents analyzed everything we did. Over analyzed. Kinda nuts. I guess they did something right though, since they're still married, though they suck goat balls as parents. Sorry," he ducked his head and picked up another stone, "Not much of a fan."
Thorne nodded as Bazzer talked, filing the information away for later use if needed. "I'd guess they don't have a great track record," Thorne agreed. "I hope your younger sister escaped unscathed." He moved another rock then another, "What kind of documents do you work on? I mean, I'd gather older ones. But like books? Or legal documents? How do you like Kansas City? Is it much of a change?" Yes, Thorne was asking too many questions, he knew it was a failing of his. "Uh...sorry. Didn't mean to shoot so many at once."
Laughing at all the questions, Bazzer paused in his rock toting to reply. Pushing his glasses up into his hair, he rubbed between his eyes and then tried to wipe the lenses on his underwear. It didn't work so well. "Anything old. Could be a book or individual papers or a photograph...anything. A lot of times we copy it onto microfilm so it's not lost and then try to preserve the document. I don't restore things very often, that's a different specialization, but sometimes I do minor restorative work if needed. If it's a lot I send it to others, but basic book binding and things I can do. I like KC, it's not like people think, all flat and boring. There's hills and it's actually really fun," not that he went out much. But still, he knew it could be. "It's not that different from Chicago. Some, not quite the same types of diversity as Chicago, but they're similar."
Bazzer paused and considered how to answer Thorne's question about his sister. Finally he asked, "Do you watch porn?"
It was a very odd segue, but Thorne answered without even blushing. "I have, I mean it's not my entertainment of choice, mostly because I find gay porn to be boring and lacking in kissing and het porn to be too full of fake looking plasticy women. I guess it's just a matter of taste, but I don't tend to find sex for the sake of sex to be particularly intriguing." He paused and wiped a hand over his face. It was quite humid here, as the morning fog had shown. That was going to take some getting used to. "Do you?"
"No," he answered, shaking his head, "I thought if you watched a lot of it, you might see my sister. She's...in them," so obviously she did not escape their parents unscathed. "Nothing like your little sister being in porn to make you never watch it," he acknowledged wryly, not missing that Thorne had mentioned gay porn too. Bazzer had considered watching that, for obvious reasons his sister wouldn't be there, but he had never gotten the guts up to go to an adult shop. "Are you gay?" he asked, "You mentioned gay porn..."
Oh...yeah. Thorne could see right away why Bazzer wouldn't watch porn. "I...totally wouldn't watch if I thought I'd see one of my sisters." He shuddered once and picked up another rock. "Nope. Not gay. I'd classify myself as omnisexual except then people seem to think I'd fuck goats or some other stupid ass thing." Thorne laughed softly, "I like people. I find them attractive irregardless of sex or gender, but based more on how they make me feel when I'm around them." He picked up a rock and set it into place, things seemed to be moving along at a pretty good clip. "What about you?"
"I...yes," Bazzer blushed scarlet. He had a few disastrous relationships with women that hadn't gone anywhere, including bed and never one with a man, "That is...yes. I like people," men really. And this one right now in particular since he was so nice. Bazzer liked nice people in general. And he was attractive. And most of all, he knew Bazzer's secrets and hadn't laughed or made comments. It was...he stepped towards Thorne as if he wasn't quite sure this was a good idea, and kissed him. It wasn't a good kiss, missing his mouth almost entirely and at a bad angle. But he tried.
Thorne hadn't really expected that, at least not until that split second when Bazzer leaned in and he felt the soft press of lips. When Bazzer pulled back, Thorne smiled warmly. Stepping forward, he hugged him gently and kissed Bazzer on the cheek. "Thank you." Thorne still wasn't sure what had prompted the kiss, the stress of the situation or the intimacy of the moment, but he wasn't exactly objecting. He pulled back a little and looked at Bazzer before kissing him back softly. Bazzer's hesitation and apparent awkwardness were rather attractive. Thorne grinned again, his dimple deepening. He wasn't entirely sure what to do now...they were stranded on what appeared to be another planet...wet and muddy and in their underwear. In fact....this could be a set up for some porn flick.
That this was a great set up to a porn movie passed right over Bazzer's head. "I've never kissed a man," he confessed softly. He'd barely ever kissed a woman, just a few times, but he didn't mention that. "It's not...much different," except for the height. Bazzer didn't need to bend down to kiss Thorne. That was kind of nice. "I thought it would be." It would be in a few days he realized, as beards set in. They had no razors. Well, whatever.
"I've never found it to be different other than men tend to be a little firmer in the chest area." Given that Bazzer had never really kissed a man, Thorne took it upon himself to make sure it was a slightly more memorable experience. He cupped Bazzer's face in his hands and kissed him again, a little longer and slower, this time flicking his tongue lightly against Bazzer's lips.
As Thorne's tongue slid against him, Bazzer opened his mouth for it, just a little. That he hadn't been outright rejected sort of shocked him, but his brain hadn't quite reached that level of thought yet. Inside it felt like there were lumberjacks dancing a jig. Much more intense than fluttering butterflies, but not altogether painful either. Reaching up, he slid a hand behind Thorne's head and the other arm around his waist. It was a little different, how their bodies fit together, Thorne was much firmer all around compared to a woman, since he didn't have a defined waist and hips like a girl. That was okay though. More than okay.
Thorne ended the kiss slowly then lightly bumped his forehead against Bazzer's and smiled. "There...much better proper first kiss with a man," he teased gently. His hands ran softly down Bazzer's back, over the wings inked into his skin until they were resting along the top of his black briefs. "I'd hate for you to think back years from now with disappointment." Thorne wasn't entirely sure he should encourage more because he was fairly sure that Bazzer didn't really share his more relaxed attitudes about sex and getting involved with people. He could be wrong of course.
It wasn't that Bazzer was uptight regarding sex...it was just that he felt it shouldn't be some random encounter with a person he would never see again. Casual sex was easy to come by and not at all what he wanted. Not that any of his relationships had ever gone long enough to go there. He tried not to tense under Thorne's hands, but couldn't entirely help it. He knew that if anything happened, he'd see Thorne again. Their community here was too small not to, but if they ever went home, what then? "No...no disappointment," he responded, reaching up and pulling his glasses off, holding them lightly by one arm. Thorne became a pinkish blurry blob. He kissed Thorne again, this time finding his lips without a problem. That they were mere inches from him helped.
It wasn't that the kissing wasn't nice, it was definitely nice and Bazzer, as Thorne had noted before he was quite attractive. He ended the kiss again and brought one hand up to push a bit of Bazzer's hair back. "Not that this isn't really good...and it is very good," Thorne paused, "I think we should finish getting something about food set up." He kissed Bazzer quickly, "And maybe we can pick this up again tonight?" He wasn't sure if that would be possible with the close quarters, but he did grow up with seven brothers and sisters, Thorne could be quite inventive when he wanted time alone with someone.
With a rueful smile, Bazzer nodded, sliding his glasses back on his face, "Good point," he muttered, "Um. Yes. Tonight. Later. After...this," he quickly picked up a stone and hoped Thorne didn't notice him blushing from the tips of his ears to his toes. He hadn't really wanted that to end. He was enjoying it a lot and the water was nice too. Cold. That was a good thing.