Weaving
Who: Helena and Ryan What: A weaving experiment and chat Where: under the climber tree When: the afternoon Rating: G
Ryan had finally gotten up the initiative to go wash himself and his clothes, an event that had taken quite a long time between rounding up some of the soap plant pods, figuring out where he could go to bathe and wash out his clothes as best he could and then try to wait for them to dry somewhat. That hadn't been entirely successful, since he'd spent a while using his wet tank top to snap at the flying leeches when they tried to batten down on him like the world's smallest vampires. He was starting to feel a bit unwell, and he wasn't sure if he'd been bitten too many times by them or if he was just so grossed out that was turning his stomach. At least he was cleaner and felt relatively fresh, and he'd redressed in his still-damp pj pants and the tank top and socks to make his way back to camp. He emerged from the woods and glanced around, trying to determine if anyone else was near.
Helena was near. She was gathering up a pile of rushes that grew along the stream. She'd laid them out to try as well as some field grass as soon as the ground had sucked up all of the excess pools of water. They weren't perfectly dry yet but she supposed for the purpose of weaving, that might be better. "Hey there, Ryan," she flashed him a grin, noting the lack of mud. The stirpips were in fine form this morning and she'd only seen a couple of the flying leeches near the tree over the past hour, but a lot of the divebombing, fearless little birds. Once all of her piles were assembled, she picked up her climber leaf bowl of resin mixed with just a bit of water to make it workable and settled herself down in the shade. "Looks like you found the soap pods." She could smell that fresh, mouthwateringly familiar scent of cucumber already.
"Hey," Ryan said, following the sound of her voice. He liked Helena; she seemed to be one lady who had it all together. He made his way over to join her, lying down on his side and propping his head up with one hand. "Yeah, I'm glad I found 'em. I was getting pretty gross." His soft Southern drawl was mildly self-depreciating. "Especially after I got the bright idea to put mud on my arms to keep those leeches off. I really, really can't stand those things." He paused, aware that she was working on something but unsure what. "Whatcha doing?"
"Well, working on a very hopeful theory," she smiled at the young man as he relaxed on the gorund next to her piles of stuff. She knew he was possibly too far away to see her smile but she knew he'd be able to hear it in her voice. "Basically, I want to use these rushes to weave large pannels that will be sealed with climber resin and hung up in the trees to provide a bit more shelter than we have currently." She was already working dexterously as she spoke, nimbly weaving over and under. "I don't it wouldn't hold up to another major storm but I think it might help keep the rain off, break up the wind a bit. At the very least it might give us a bit more privacy, right?"
"That's an awesome idea," Ryan said, brightening a bit. "That storm was crazy. Normally I like storms okay, when I'm inside and can listen to 'em from there." He'd never forget the panic of waking up to the roar of wind and rain and feeling his hammock try to shake itself to pieces. Carefully he sat up, wincing a little. "Want some help?" Generally he could pick up the knack of working with his hands; he'd done pretty well with the cord Rowan had showed him how to make.
Helena nodded even though she wasn't sure he would get the gesture. "Yeah, that's be great. I figure the more of these panels we have, the better it will work. Maybe one panel won't be very strong but if we overlap them and secure them and coat the whole thing with resin...maybe it'll all get hard enough that it'll be like a tree house." She chuckled sheepishly. "I might be living in dreamland about that, but I need to do something to keep my busy when I'm not gathering food." Her belly was full to the point where she felt loggy. There had been crispy eleboar roasted in small chunks like weiners on sticks all day. They were all packing on the protien, trying to devour Payne's kill before it went bad. She had barely even touched the citruscress or any vegetation all day, other than the soap pods.
It was possible that an excess of eleboar was at least partially responsible for the uneasiness of Ryan's stomach, but it had tasted so good. He'd always been amused watching that TV show Survivor when the contestants got to have feasts after days of eating nothing but rice and plantlife, thinking of how sick they'd probably gotten. It wasn't nearly as entertaining when it was him. He sat up and scooted a little closer to her, close enough so she could show him how she was going about it. "I feel you on needing stuff to do," he said. "I just stretched bathtime and washing my clothes into about two hours."
Helena chuckled. "I did that early today with Rowan. We even washed our hammock." It had eaten up a few hours. Rowan had even gotten her singing after a while. It hadn't even bothered her to be bare out in the open, infront of someone else. Still, keeping herself distracted wasn't helping her keep her eyes off the path east. They had to be coming home soon, didn't they? "If this project works out well and keeps me busy for a few days, next I want to trek out to the grasslands in the east and gather some sweetgrind. We need to figure out a way to grind it into flour. I'm assuming it'll just be two rocks." She kept weaving as she talked, guiding his hands when he had picked up his own end to weave. This project didn't have to look beautiful, it just needed to be tight and then sealed well. "Adding fresh flatbread to our diet would be wonderful."
"Man, I need to wash my sleeping bag," Ryan sighed as he worked to follow Helena's lead. The movements were basic and simple, and he picked up on them almost immediately. "I'm just wonderin' how long it'd take it to dry. Don't really wanna sleep on bare wicker." He couldn't imagine how that'd be comfortable at all. He probably shouldn't whine, though. At least he hadn't been Laugher bait for a while, right? "Flatbread," he mused. "Thorne mentioned that the other day." Just before he'd snogged the hell out of him, but Ryan opted not to mention that. Definitely TMI. "Having some starch in our diet would be most excellent."
Helena smiled. "Yes. There's lots of ideas being bandied around lately." She thought about her conversation with Bazzer the day before, specifically about when Ryan was mentioned. Now was as good a time as any to bring up the topic of clay. "Hey Ryan, you were a sculpter in school, weren't you?" She was sure he was an art student but for all she knew he'd been a painter or he did macrame all day long. "I was wondering if you'd heard anyone mention the clay flats to the west?" If he had some answers for her, that would be busywork for a few days, for sure.
"How far is it?" Ryan asked, immediately seeing the possibilities. He'd love to go along on something like that, but he figured he'd be everyone's last choice. Everyone would feel like they needed to hold his hand or something-- which hell, if it was nighttime they probably would. "I could really get into trying to make some pots and dishes, although it'd be a lot different than it is with a potter's wheel and a kiln, for sure." He wrinkled his nose in an attempt to scratch it without removing his hands from the weaving. "We'd have to try to fire it over the fire, I guess."
"Do you think that would work?" Helena asked, curious and intent. She leaned forward into his space a little bit. "Some people have said that you need consistent heat in order to fire something properly. And then there's the matter of glazing it. It's not food safe unless it's glazed." Frowning, Helena looked back at the climber. "I've been wondering how well climber resin would work as a glaze." She sat back and frowned. "Arlo said they found the clay flats by about noon that day. He said it was a nightmare though. There was...a lot of evidence that people have been dragged back to those dens and eaten." She swallowed thickly. "Torn apart."
"I think we could sure as hell try," Ryan said about the prospect of making usable pottery. "Even if the result isn't perfect...." He shrugged. A bunch of people living in the woods weren't going to care if their finished products didn't exactly look like Pottery Barn's. "The resin should work for our purposes. That shit is seriously hard once it dries." He figured they could expose it to heat and it'd be just fine. His own fingers stilled when Helena told him what had happened at the clay flats. "Wonder if they have any more places like that? I bet they have." It was a sobering thought, particularly when he considered how they could all have ended up if they weren't sleeping in trees.
Helena shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know if I want to know." She gave a nervous little chuckle. Maybe tomorrow if the weather is better? Arlo and Payne didn't bring much back with them that day." She hesitated but had to push on. "So few of us have adaquate bedding or clothing. Maybe we'll get lucky and find one or two usable things as well as a big hunk of clay to experiment with." She could tell that he was up for the walk and he didn't need her questioning that. Ryan had done very well adapting to this strange place. There was no need to discount his ability in broad daylight. Plus, he wouldn't be going alone.
Ryan was definitely up for it-- sock feet or not-- though he was a little surprised that Helena didn't mind going on an expedition like that with him. He wouldn't have any problems as long as it was light when they left and light when they returned. "Sounds great," he said. "I'd love for us to be able to find some more things people need. Wonder if Olivia'd let me use her pack?" He frowned a little, hoping the girl wouldn't randomly offer him sex again if he asked her for it. That had been too freaking weird.
Helena's brows arched. "I don't know, maybe? A backpack would be a good way to haul a large hung of clay back in. I had kind of envisioned stowing it in one of the pillow cases. We could always wash one of those out easily enough later. But a backpack would be easier to carry." She slipped another reed into place and started a fresh row of weaving. "What sorts of things do you think we could make? Did you ever take a class on ancient artforms like pottery?" She wasn't sure if they offered those classes outside of anthropology but she could see how they related to the art student as well as the history one.
"Nothing specifically on pottery," Ryan told her, getting back to work himself. His stomach was settling down a little, and he felt better. Productive, too, which was nice. "I think we should go for the basics first. Somethin' to cook in besides that bucket, somethin' to hold water. Bowls." He was pleased that they had a plan and then projects to work on after they returned. It seemed much better than aimlessly wandering around twiddling their thumbs while they waited for the eastern expedition people to return.
Helena nodded. "All of them would likely be heavy to transport though. Unless the clay is sort of like terra cotta? Terra cotta isn't very heavy." Again, in her mind, she was seeing rawhide harnesses holding heavy clay jugs of water, roseberries and mirkweed tubers, slung across the backs of these mythical grazers as their small group forged off across this strange land in search of....what? More people? Some sort of civilization? There was no way to know. "Maybe even make clay bricks in order to build a more proper kiln? Or oven or some type?"
"Why would we transport 'em?" Ryan wanted to know. "You mean when we find a better camp?" It hadn't occurred to him that they might become nomadic, so he wasn't sure what Helena was getting at. "You know, that's a great idea. Tryin' to come up with an oven, maybe a better fire pit. Hopefully we'll have more actual food to cook." He smiled ruefully, not really a fan of their wildly varied diet up to this point.
Helena smiled and decided she could feel out Ryan's opinions on this in a one-on-one manner. "Well, I was going to wait for the eastern scout party to make it back before we talked about this but maybe you and I can discuss it now." She smiled, her tone a little bit conspiratory. "I was talking to Bazzer yesterday about our prospects. He's done a lot of reading, of course and he brought up this African tribe that wandered over hundreds of miles every year. Because they were nomadic they were never afflicted with droughts and famines. They never stripped all of the resources from one area. They had varied diets and were healthier for it. Something like that would really allow us to explore this land, you know? We'd be safer all together rather than split up like we are." Her face fell as she spoke the last words. She'd spent hours calling out for Annie, Lauren and Nancy. Never a sign of the women, not even one.
With such a small group, there was no way to not be aware that three of the girls had gone missing. It made things even tougher that several of their number were gone... Ryan wasn't even sure when they were supposed to be back. He thought staying together was a dandy idea, himself. His fingers stilled as he thought about it, wanting to be sure he'd considered as many of the options as he could think of. "It would help the food issue," he said. "Might be kinda hard on those of us who don't have shoes, but..." He paused, wrinkled his nose, nodded. "I like the idea of all of us stayin' together as much as possible. Safety in numbers makes the most sense."
Helena nodded. "I agree. Plus, if we don't have to keep doing these short dips out into the wild and back, we can explore deeper, you know? Who knows, maybe there is civilization to be had here, somewhere, right?" She knew he didn't have any more answers than anyone else. Helena was just feeling overly responsible these days. She was supposed to be their unofficial leader and yet...those three women had slipped away and never come back. That didn't make her very good at her job.
"That'd be awesome," Ryan said to her words about possible civilization. He wasn't sure he thought there could be an actual civilization here, but then he wouldn't have thought there could be a place where the foliage was mostly purple, either. "And I kinda don't like people leaving," he added. "For days and days." Wow, someone was sounding a little needy, he thought, annoyed with himself for actually saying that. He resumed his weaving, suddenly paying an incredible amount of attention to it.
Helena smiled across their weaving at him. "It must be Thorne," she suggested with a drop in her voice. They were at the tree after all. Anyone might overhear. She didn't think that Thorne or Ryan were being overly secretive about their interest, but she could be cautious. "Worried about him?" Maybe focusing on the younger man's worry would help ease a little of her own for a certain tall, fair and quiet. She slipped the reads into place with a quick dexterity as she watched Ryan's face.
Well, shit, here was a twist. If Thorne had had that conversation he'd needed to have with the Baz-man, Ryan didn't know it. He didn't want to get anything started around here, didn't want Helena to casually mention anything to Bazzer. "No," he said after a pause that was probably too long. "Not worried. I think everyone that went can handle themselves, ya know? They'll be fine, I think, really." He was using too many words as he tried to come up with what to say next. "Favor?" he asked, keeping his own voice low. "Don't mention anything about Thorne in connection to me, okay? Not tryin' to be all drama, but I got reasons." Maybe that'd be enough.
Helena's eyes widened slightly. She had missed anything and everything having to do with Bazzer and Thorne but that was ok. She could see the tension her suggestion left in Ryan's face and that certainly was enough for her, She reached across and gently squeezed Ryan's hand in reassurance. "I won't say a thing." She wouldn't. She'd just been hoping for a little bit of a girly dish, so that maybe she could justify having one of her own. She could understand that it wasn't the time or place.
Ryan smiled at her, any tension fading from his expression. "Swear I'll explain later, once everyone's back and everything's, like, settled. It's not cool to hint around and not tell everything." He felt better; he hadn't thought Helena was the sort to run around blabbing things to people anyway, but she could have said something in all innocence.
She smiled but she knew it wasn't really any of her business. She'd take her nose out of the dealings, just to be sure. "Regardless, I'm sure everyone is fine. We'll take out jaunt tomorrow and maybe they'll even be back before we will be." Once everyone was together again she planned to make mention of Bazzer's idea. It would take some planning. It wasn't safe for them to sleep out in the open. Were they going to use teepee's or something? If so, what kinds of teepees? Ones made out of their sleeping bags and blankets? That didn't seem likely. She supposed it would work, but still. Unlikely. And they would need a lot of leather and a lot of time to cure leather to make large ones out of hides. They'd need to cut poles out of the tall straight trees that grew in amongst the climbers. They'd need grazers to pull all of that. It was a lot to think about.
"Maybe," Ryan said. "I guess we'll see." He sighed and settled in to do some serious weaving, glad for Helena's company and glad there were plans in the making for them to better deal with what they'd been handed, here. Surely they could make a go of this, come up with some kind of system so they wouldn't lose anyone else. New society. It was scary, but what choice did they have but to forge ahead?