Who: Aaron and Bazzer Where: The tannery What: Surveying the damage from the storm and cleaning up When: Mid-morning
Aaron jogged over the rise, his boots sinking in the damp sand. The tannery was easy to smell a ways before one actually saw it and even today after so much wind and rain, the maisma was in fine form. "Ugh," he said under his breath but he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out. "Bazzer!" He wasn't sure if the librarian would be here or if he'd even hear him. The wind was still brutal and Aaron was afraid for all of the collected hides out here. They were so precious to them, he hadn't even had to be asked to come out and check on Baz and his chosen work.
It was cold and wet, but despite that, Bazzer wasn't wearing anything. He had learned it was just better not to wear clothes while working on the hides because then his clothes would stink of the crap too. That was gross. And he did not want to stink in bed with Kenneth any more than he had to. "Hey!" he waved his arm at Aaron, gesturing him closer. "What can I do for you?" he asked, partially behind a pile of skins that he was working on. It was cold. Once these skins were done, he was using them to make clothes somehow.
Aaron certainly hadn't been expecting nudity but if Bazzer were to explain the reson for it, he'd totally get behind it. As it were, he barked out a short laugh. "Man, are you nuts? It has to be nearly freezing out here!" He jogged closer to see what Baz was working on. "I came out to see if there'd been any damage with the storm. See if maybe you needed any help moving anything off to be dried out or whatever." He had to admit, he might be a fairly decent hunter with a hunting rifle or a bow back home. This real, live life-or-death stuff was still baffling and surprising him every day.
Grunting, Bazzer hefted a couple of water logged skins back into the pile and tried to get them smoothed out, "I'm not nuts!" Bazzer replied more sharply than he had intended, "I don't like my clothes to stink," he pointed to his clothes hanging on a nearby tree branch, "The ones that are almost done are fine," he said, indicating some that were to one side, "it's these that I'm not sure about. Don't know if the tanning agents washed off or not...and I don't have much more right now," they were low on some of the things he needed. He had amonia through the urine, but there was more to it than that. "Would be nice if someone could wave a magic wand and we'd have buildings here," he grumbled, but it was good natured. He couldn't control the weather or their lack of buildings just yet.
"Don't think it's gonna be that easy," Aaron said, a little cautiously because of the sharpness of Bazzer's tone. "We we could certainly try to build a tannery building. That is a good idea, actually." His gaze fell on the mangled, nasty looking hides. It didn't have the look of his leather shoes or car upholstery in the least but it looked like life and salvation to him regardless.
Now that the topic had moved on from Bazzer's mental state, his relaxed slightly, voice becoming more even, "Yeah. Gotta have shelter first. I think everyone agrees on that, least that's what I'm hearing. Priest wants a church," he snorted and rolled his eyes, "I'd like a lot of things. We need to work on shelter and storage for food and stuff. The tannery, not some church," he had gone to the funeral the day before, but he still didn't care for religion, any religion at all. "Those repell water already, but they're not quite done I don't think. I want to try to make them a little softer."
Aaron nodded. "What does that?" he asked, referring to softening. "Oiling or scraping? Or both?" What the hell did he know? His dad had always taken it upon himself to bury everything left over once they'd taken the meat. Neither of them were trophy men. They didn't hunt for that reason. "Thought I heard Ken say around the fire the other day that we needed to amass more skins." He eyed the pile that Bazzer had. "I can see he'd right. We haven't got a whole lot."
"Yeah," Bazzer nodded, "It takes...about a month I think to cure these things. I think. And it's a mix of oil and scraping. Moving them didn't help though. And the weather. This is all trial and error you understand, I have no idea about the longevity of these things or anything," at the mention of Kenneth Bazzer nodded and blushed slightly, "I know the Native American people, the plains Indians, used to use every part of the buffalo for something...I just don't know what exactly. I'm hoping we can get to that point with the animals we kill. Food, skins...everything has a purpose if we can find it."
Aaron nodded, understanding perfectly. "Well, as I see it, even if they rot after a year or two, it's a huge favor to have a roof over our heads and walls that the rain and wind can't blow through, you know?" He was sure Bazzer had experienced the storm as badly as the rest of them but he didn't remember seeing the guy at the camp. "Most of the thatching blew away on the wind. We'll be patching up the lean-tos we've got for a few days instead of building new ones. Hardly seems like an effective use of our time to be bundling grain every day to repair the roofs, does it?" His eyes fell to the pile of skins. "The plains Indians used tee pees. Apparently they were very easy to set up. The women did it while the men were off hunting." One of the little snippets he actually remembered from history class.
After his breakdown the night before with Kenneth, they had both ended up in the sleeping bag and it practically sealed shut to keep out the rain and cold. It had not been very pleasant really, though that wasn't anyones fault. The rock outcropping and leanto hadn't provided much cover either, though it had tried valiantly. The winds were too strong for it, "Absolutely. Even if we make little tents instead of tee pees, it'll help," he wasn't sure they had enough skins for a tee pee yet. And they would need to sew them together which he didn't think was possible either. Yet. They would find a way, "Not at all. If we can get enough skins to make clothing that would help, it's not getting warmer. And maybe try to leave fur on some of these skins so we can have blankets. We just need a lot more of everything really," and that was hard. They had limited resources with what they could get and make, what equipment they had. "And until we get it, we just keep trying."
Aaron nodded. "I hear that laughers have pretty dense, thick furs. They're probably pretty warm, eh?" He mused on that for a moment. "I'm doing to set up a target on the beach today and try my hand at teaching people how to use a composite bow. Arlo's made a few. We could make a few more and fletch some arrows. The question will be if the chipped stone tips are able to make it through a laugher hide." He mused as he pinched one soggy edge of a hide he suspected belonged to the animal in question. "There's also the options of trapping gold weasels and afluffs for softer fursto be used in clothing and bedding, right? I imagine that eleboar hide is too tough for much other than shelters. The grazer hair is too thin and short to do much for aesthetics but it's a huge skin to use for shelters. We could cover a small teepee with six of those hides I'm thinking."
Bazzer only had a couple laugher hides, but it was easily one of the more annoying ones he had to work with. The skin was incredibly thick and most likely warm, with or without the fur, "Probably," he agreed, "but they're so thick I think it'll take longer to cure them. Grazer's much thinner actually, it'll be good since it's so long, we can use it for a lot of things. Don't you go trying to poke holes in these things though! I have enough problems without you making holes too!" he admonished, shivering slightly as a breeze came through. He didn't know what he would do if it got much colder, he couldn't keep working in the all-together if it was so cold.
Aaron snorted, even as he gently fingered the thickness of the laugher hide that Bazzer indicated. "Arrows make less of a hole than rifle shells do, Bazzer. And I don't think I could get a laugher to stand still for me to neatly slit it's throat like the grazers do for Kenneth." He let go of the hide and wiped his hand on his jeans. "I think it'll be worth it, to try to cure the furs of laughers. People really need the warmth. I'll try to figure out a way to trap gold weasels and afluffs as well. Maybe we can patchwork those furs into coats and boots." He mused on that for a moment. "Yeah, I think I'll try to get a hunting team together. Go fur hunting. Is there anything else I should bring back other than the hides?" He seemed to recall there were other body parts useful in the tanning process.
"Brains. Need braaaaains," he made the appropriate choppy zombie motions and voice with a grin, "And if we're going to make clothes, we need needles and thread. Or ligature. Something heavy duty, and I think we can carve needles? And cat gut is used for violin strings and horse hair for something or other...so maybe we can find something in grazers or laughers or something to use there too," Bazzer paused as he got worked up into the topic, "Wait...can you sew? I can't." That bore thinking about too. If someone knew how to make clothing.
Aaron was nodding along, having no trouble following Bazzer's whirlwind compilation of needs. "Maybe intestines in general, then?" He wasn't exactly relishing the idea of going after brains and guts but hey, if it would make life easier here, Aaron would learn to tolerate the job. He'd slugged through some awful messes in his environmental studied or protests. At least this would all be natural, not man made and preventable. "As for sewing, well," he shrugged. "I can probably get two pieces to stay together with practice. I'm sure we'll all pick up how to do our own basic repairs. The eleboar quills have some nice flex to them. If we can splinter one apart, maybe we can make sewing needles or sutures." He mused on that for a moment. "I'll experiment with that later," he nodded with some reassurance to the other man. The other man who was definitely completely naked. Aaron shifted his weight from foot to foot, suddenly finding that his ability to ignore that fact was coming to an end.
It was strange, in Kansas City Bazzer had always worn pants and shirts with sleeves to keep his tattoo covered. Being in Wonderland was somehow freeing, not to worry about what people thought. He would never have dared to hit on men either and he had hit on and kissed two! That was something he never would have done there. He didn't think about it much though, in his mind, not wearing clothes when working with the skins just made sense, whether someone else was there or not, "I'm sure most of us can probably try to get two pieces of leather together to form something, no promises that it's fashionable or not."
"After this morning, I really don't think anyone cares too much about that." His discomfort in Bazzer's company was only mounting the longer this went on and Aaron hated to be rude but he felt that perhaps it was time to hustle on. "So I'll let you know if I have any luck with the bows and arrows. I'll bring by any furs I get." Ordinarily he'd have shook Bazzer's hand but looking at the foulness of the man's work had Aaron backing away and offering a casual salute instead. "See you at supper time," he said. Hopefully fully dressed.
"Later," Bazzer waved cheerly, oblivious to Aaron's discomfort and not at all put out with not shaking his hand. The stuff he used for tanning was foul and that was why he worked naked, even if it wouldn't work well with the impending cold.