Ryan Armsford (blindsides) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-02-02 22:26:00 |
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Current mood: | chipper |
Entry tags: | ryan, thorne, z - 1st tribe - day 06 |
Who: Ryan and Thorne
Where: not far from the climber tree
When: first light
What: nets and water
Rating: PG-13 (mild language, innuendo)
Ryan had awakened earlier than he would have liked with the urgent need to make a bathroom visit. Well, a tree visit, he guessed. It was like being on a camping trip that never ended with the constant trips into the cover of the woods to pee on the base of a tree somewhere. He'd reluctantly climbed down from his sleeping bag hammock-- reluctantly and carefully, needless to say-- and taken his memorized path to the nearest cover. Once he'd done that, he'd made his way back to the foot of the climber tree, glad that it was light and at least he could see a little bit. He knew that most of the people at their camp would be heading out to explore the various directions and see what could be found, and he'd be stuck here with the pregnant chick and the lady who'd kind of taken charge.
He wasn't going to complain about it, but he didn't like it, just because he hated feeling useless. Ryan stood quietly, trying to smooth his rumpled hair with his fingers and decide if he wanted to get back into his hammock or stay up.
After an evening of sleeping in the tree branches with Clay, Thorne was a little stiff, but not too bad. He'd woken up as he usually did precisely six hours after going to sleep. It was an odd trick that both he and his twin shared and neither ever seemed to need more sleep than that. He stretched and climbed down the tree. Sure enough, the laugher they'd caught was gone. Ah well. Next time he'd get one.
Thorne stopped long enough to gather several vines then went in search of Ryan. He'd kind of noticed the other man wasn't exactly thrilled with being left behind and decided that maybe Ryan would be able to help him out. With the vines and a bit of sharp rock in hand, he went in search of the man. Thorne found him standing in the forest, smoothing his hair and made a bit more noise so he wouldn't startle him. "Good morning! How're you?"
Ryan's eyes turned to Thorne as he approached; he wasn't quite close enough for Ryan to see him clearly, and he wasn't sure who the guy was. He'd been introduced to several people in passing, and he had no idea if this was one of them. "Kind of sleepy, but okay," he answered with a smile. "This is way earlier than I like to get up." Nothing but the truth, there. He muffled a yawn with the back of his hand and added, "You'll have to excuse me, 'cause I'm not sure if we've met yet. I have this... little eye problem." Understatement of the decade. "I'm Ryan."
"Nope," Thorne chirped cheerfully, grinning. "We haven't. I kinda know who you are because Helena mentioned you. I'm Thorne. The resident doctor." Ryan looked tired and Thorne wasn't really surprised. Most of them were having problems sleeping through the laughers, but it wasn't like they could sleep during the day since they needed to be gathering food and such then. "What happened to your vision," Thorne asked carefully. He didn't see any signs of trauma, so he wondered if maybe Ryan was like Bazzer, just terribly short sighted and had arrived without glasses.
"Hey, Thorne, nice to meetcha," Ryan said amiably. It didn't really surprise him that Thorne immediately asked about his vision, considering that he was a doctor, and he didn't mind answering the question. He'd had twenty years to get used to his disability, after all. "Retinoblastoma," he said with a nod. "Bilateral. I was four, had all the treatments... surgery, chemo, radiation." His blithe tone of voice skated right over how terrifying all that had been for a young child. "I can see about--" He lifted one hand and extended it in Thorne's direction, stopping it about six inches from the other man. "--this far, then after that I lose all detail. Everything's real dim, people are dark shapes. Like that." He clicked his tongue stud against his teeth contemplatively, a habit he could never quite lose and one he wasn't even aware of at times.
Thorne actually then stepped up so he was just past Ryan's hand and smiled again, "Then is that better? Or too close?" He heard the click of metal against enamel and was very familiar with that sound. A girl he'd dated had a tongue ring and immediately he was resisting the urge to ask if he could see. The things she'd been able to do with that during oral...wow. But...totally irrelevant, he reminded himself sharply.
He cleared his throat self-consciously and hoped his interest wasn't showing too clearly. "That's actually good then because I wanted to ask you a favor. I mean since you're here today, I was wondering if maybe you'd be willing to weave some of the vines into nets that we can use to catch fish."
"No, that's much better," Ryan said, smiling in return, blue eyes focused in on Thorne since he'd moved into range. "Thanks. It's nice to be able to see who you're talkin' to." In some cases, nicer than others, he thought approvingly. Whenever another man was willing to stand close enough to him for him to see them clearly, he always tried to figure out if it was because they were friendly and ingenuous or similarly oriented. It was just a little game he played with himself, and he couldn't tell for sure in Thorne's case. Not that it mattered at the moment here in the freakiest game of Survivor ever.
"Sure," he said to Thorne's query. "Yeah, I could do that. Need somethin' to do while I'm sitting around, right?" He flexed his fingers dramatically, then added, "I'm an artist... I'm used to working with my hands. By touch, you know." Okay, that sounded wrong, didn't it? But it was true, so so what?
It sounded so wrong, but Thorne didn't really care, he just laughed softly and gave Ryan an arch smile. "Keep saying things like that and I'm going to think you're hitting on me," he teased gently. Right..not the best time for flirting, but really? He couldn't help it. Thorne was sort of irrepressible that way. "I already cut some vines and found a pretty decently sharp rock that should work. Guess if you're an artist, I can let you figure out how to make them."
Hel-lo, dimples. Ryan was never one to back down from an opportunity himself, and he wasn't able to resist saying, "Usually I have to know someone longer than five minutes before I hit on them." He lifted one finger, as if to make a point, then added, "Usually. Might make an exception in your case." Then he chuckled and shook his head, getting himself back on track. "I think I can manage some nets," he said. "It'll give me something to focus on besides what everyone else is finding while they wander around this place." He paused, then asked, "I guess you have to take off pretty soon, huh?"
Thorne blushed lightly and immediately decided he liked Ryan. He had to admire anyone that could keep their sense of humor. "Yeah, probably should to see if we can find a better place. Maybe one without so many laughers would be excellent. Or a better food source...more water." He grinned, "and yeah, staying busy helps a lot. When we get back, I'm thinking I might try and figure out a way to make sandals...or floors for actual tree houses, if we decided to stay here at any rate. If you're a creative type, I'm totally coming to you for help with all the million and one ideas in my head."
"One with no laughers would be fine by me," Ryan said. "I can sleep through just about anything-- sirens, thunderstorms, my roommates playin' naked Twister at 2 a.m." He grinned. "Before you ask, that actually happened once. But those things? Really give me the creeps." Thorne wanted to improve their circumstances, he was straightforward but not blustery... those things alone would have made Ryan like him. "Yeah, hit me up, I'd love to help however I can." He shifted his weight, giving his messy hair one last smoothing down attempt before giving up completely. "Hey, before you head out, would you mind pointing me in the direction of the stream?" He'd love a bath but didn't want to take one this early; for now he'd be contented with washing his face. Maybe that would wake him up some.
"Nope, wouldn't mind at all." Thorne started to hold out his arm then paused. He was still trying to get past the mental image of Ryan playing naked Twister, which was a really, really nice image actually. "How would you prefer to be led? Hold my arm? I hold yours? Follow my steps?" Really there were a number of ways and Thorne didn't want to make any assumptions.
Technically, Ryan wouldn't have to hold on to him since it was daylight, but hell. A lot of times people didn't offer, and it would make it easier, definitely. "Maybe I could hold on to your wrist with one hand and find landmarks with the other?" he suggested. "If you wouldn't mind. Like, if I count the number of trees between here and there, then I can find my way the next time." It was the way he got around anywhere, and he found no reason to do things differently here. The grass might be purple and everything else equally as unfamiliar, but techniques for people with low vision never really changed.
Thorne nodded and held out his hand, waiting as Ryan took his arm then gripped his wrist. "Perfect...got you touching me and everything," he teased easily. Something about Ryan just put him immediately at ease. "You know..how about we do rock lined paths? Would that help? I mean the ground around here can get pretty rough sometimes."
"That was your evil plan all along, right?" Ryan shot right back with a cheeky grin. "Nets, schmets. No need to front about it." He was so totally kidding, but it was fun, and he chuckled as the fingers of his other hand extended to trail over the trees they passed. He had no intentions of getting lost out in Bumfuck Egypt because he'd been too busy chatting up the doctor to pay attention to the path they were taking. Again, the tongue stud clicked against his teeth as he thought about Thorne's question. "Well, if we're gonna stay here, it could. Might help everyone out. Sometimes people get nervous with too much foresty stuff around."
"I suppose some might..I kinda grew up running around in the woods and stuff, so I kinda forget about that." He grinned as Ryan teased him though, but it made him miss Rowan for a minute. His twin would likely already have Ryan shoved against a tree and be exploring his tongue ring a bit more intimately. "I guess I should wait and see what the outcome of today is before I start planning infrastructure huh?"
"That might be a good idea," Ryan said. "I'm kinda hoping we find a better place to camp. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome sleepin' in a tree hammock, but I keep worrying I'm gonna have a nightmare and fall out of bed and like, twenty feet to the ground." His tone was light, but he'd definitely considered it. It was a little bit eerie to be so high up when it was dark and he couldn't see anything, too. He'd counted seventeen trees with the brush of his fingers and he could hear the lapping of water just ahead, so he slowed down. "Seventeen," he said, mostly to remind himself.
"I think we can fix that problem with floors and platforms," Thorne stated, glancing over at Ryan and feeling another soft rush of arousal. He was definitely going to have to talk to Bazzer about being poly before there was anything going on with Ryan. And oh did he hope there would be something going on with Ryan. Preferably something that involved the tongue ring he kept hearing. "And, here we are. Think you can find your way back, or want me to wait?"
"No, I know you need to get going," Ryan said. He knew that the scouting parties were supposed to head out at dawn or soon thereafter, and he didn't want to be responsible for Thorne being late, even though he did like talking to him. "Thanks," he said, turning his head to smile at Thorne since he was still close enough to see him well. After a brief pause, he let go of his wrist. "I appreciate it. I'm just gonna wash my face and try to wake up before I get started with my ambitious day of net making." He wasn't knocking it. Having something to occupy his hands while he waited to find out what everyone had discovered would be awesome.
"Hey..if those nets feed us, they'll be important." He grinned and feeling pretty brazen, leaned in and kissed Ryan on the cheek. "Thanks for the help. Maybe tonight we can figure out a way to do some floors and walls out of this stuff." Thorne backed up a few steps, he really needed to go get Bazzer and go. "Take care."
Well, good morning and wasn't that a nice development? "You're the one going adventuring-- so you be careful, alright?" Ryan told him. "Seeya." With one last grin he'd turned and started making his way to the water, the smile widening once he had his back turned. Yeah, probably the last thing he should be thinking about was hooking up with someone, and at this point it was more of a in-the-back-of-his-mind thing, but hell. Who knew what was going to happen here? He knelt at the edge of the water, splashing his face and humming under his breath, turning his thoughts to making nets and (hopefully) finding some berries to eat for breakfast.