Sebastian "Bazzer" Vedder (winged_bazzer) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-07-15 14:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | bazzer, nefertiti, z - 1st tribe - day 28 |
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
Who: Bazzer & Nefertiti
When: Day 28, late-morning
Where: Bazzer's tannery
What: dogs invade the tannery! Violence ensues!
Bazzer was glad when Kenneth had given Angelica the gun he had been keeping in the tannery, but he could have certainly used it right now. He wasn't sure where the dog-like things had come from, but they had somehow managed to get at his skins while he had been gone for a few minutes and now he needed to get rid of them and wasn't sure how exactly. He'd never had a dog or anything for a pet and wasn't sure how these would respond anyways. There was a big difference between a housepet and a wild animal, at least Bazzer thought so.
"Anyone around?" he called, looking for help. Someone had to have an idea of what to do. Or at least, help him! Where was Kenneth?! Probably working on something somewhere else. He wasn't Baz's babysitter, which was a damn good thing, but that gun would be very useful right about now. Or those bows and arrows he'd seen. He didn't know how to use those though. Picking up a rock, he tossed it at the animals, though far enough away that it didn't hit them. They didn't even spare the rock a glance. Great.
Peaceful tactics hadn't been successful with peaceful tactics. All the dogs wanted to do was tear shit up. Nefertiti had managed to grab a thick branch from a pile of wood for the lean-tos and was now hiding behind a rock with it clutched to her chest. Any animal that tried to come near got a swift smack in the head and if they decided to fight back? She would fight for her life to the death. When she heard the cry for help, she desperately called back, " Yeah! " and then stood up, looking around for the source. She started to run towards the man surrounded by dogs and torn up hides. Man, if only she had fallen asleep with the hunting rifle she had kept next to her bed. Or even the knife under her pillow. Paranoia in a crime-filled city like Detroit was not out of place.
Oh good! He hadn't realized that anyone was in hearing range. "Hi," he replied as she ran towards him, one of the newer arrivals that he hadn't formally met, but now was not really the time for that, "Any luck with that?" he asked, nodding towards her stick. Big sticks were good. He had a nice little pile of decently sized rocks, "We need to get them away from the skins if we're going to use them," and if they weren't he was going to be pissed. He had spent way too much time working on the damn things for them to be destroyed now. "Any ideas? Angelica has the gun I had...not that I am sure I could actually hit one...."
Keeping one eye on the dogs, Nefertiti thought for a moment and looked around the tannery. Hmmmm. Skins came from animals. They didn't just peel off just as you please so there had to be some kind of waste around here they could use. She glanced up at the sun and hoped it was warm enough for whatever it was not to be solid from cold. " Where do you keep all the gook you pull off the skins? We could throw it on them or something, maybe scare them away with it. I don't really wanna hurt them, it's breaking the oath I took as a vet tech, even if they are trying to ruin things. "
"Don't have much," he'd left the majority of the gross gooky stuff back in the forest where he had begun the tanning, "but there's some over here," he led her in a wide arc until they were behind a rock. The flatter side he used to stretch and pound the skins was was throwing the rest behind it. One day he was going to dig a pit and bury it, but he hadn't yet. "It's pretty foul. They can have it, if they want it," mostly it was viscera mixed with fur. "You're a vet tech?" he asked, impressed, he'd heard she knew something about animals, but not what exactly, "Think you can sort of...I don't know, hypnotize them or something?"
Forgetting their situation momentarily, Nefertiti threw back her head and let out boisterous laughter, briefly startling the scavenging dogs around them. She slapped Bazzer on the shoulder and shook her head, " 'Fraid not. Would make life much easier, wouldn't it? " She took a few moments to fortify herself against vomiting. If she could help her grandpa clean roadkill for a cheap dinner, then this was certainly nothing. Wrinkling her nose and holding her breath, Nefertiti plunged her hand into the nasty goop and started to cover her the branch she had been carrying with it. " Fuck if I know what I'm doing, but it might work. It could either get their attention, make em run from the smell, or do absolutely nothing. But it's something. "
Grinning, Bazzer shrugged, there was no harm in asking. Even the most outrageous ideas sometimes held merit, though he hadn't offered that one seriously. As the goop landed the dogs scattered, but they headed straight at Bazzer and Nefertiti and Bazzer threw some of the stones he had collected, hitting one in the head and another in the side. It didn't seem to be doing enough damage though, he needed to throw harder. And faster. Hurt them enough to get them to Go Away.
Any dog that came within reach got smacked in the head with a branch, at least that was Nefertiti's plan. She put her back up against the rock and grabbed Bazzer's arm and pulled him towards her so he would do the same. While some of the dogs ran off, a few just seemed to be getting angrier. She sent up a prayer that the animals would realize that this was not going to be some easy assault and that they would leave and find better pickings. Who KNEW what kind of diseases these dogs had, what kind of bacteria they might have lurking in their claws and their mouths. Wait. Was that one foaming at the mouth... or was that just slobber?
Bazzer wasn't too sure that cornering themselves with the rock was the best idea, even if it meant it was harder for the dogs to sneak up behind them. He didn't have an unending supply of rocks either. As one crept too close he threw it, hitting the animal on the snout and causing him to whimper and turn away. Bazzer didn't like the whimpering, these were too much like Earth animals, maybe they were Earth animals, he didn't know. He'd never had a pet before, a dog or anything else, but he had always liked them. "I'm almost out of rocks," he informed Nefertiti, that could be a bad thing when it happened if the dogs were still here.
"You gotta plan? I'm all out of my ideas!" She warded off another dog and sighed, ignoring the hurt cries of the animals as best to her ability. Only one or two of the braver ones remained, and even they were starting to look unsure. "Looks like we almost got them all away. You got enough rocks left?" Nefertiti peered at the dwindling collection he had, hoping to God that his aim was good enough for each of the rocks left to strike. Otherwise, they might be fucked. Thankfully the dogs weren't too aggressive, domestication wasn't that far behind in their history after all. Maybe they could tame them back. Would be good for guarding the camp against attacks like this one.
"Um..." Bazzer wasn't the man with the plan, he was the man with the ideas to spark others to have plans. Shit. Throwing a rock as a dog advanced on them he kicked at it, hoping it wouldn't take a bite out of him in the process. "That a good plan?" he asked, growling at the animals. Maybe he just needed to show them that he was dominate, that he was in charge? Or something? Wasn't there some sort of pack hierarchy? Throwing a rock, he made another dog yelp, though he wasn't hitting any of them in the face. His aim wasn't that good, especially with dirty glasses. "Otherwise, I'm fresh out of ideas."
"That's a plan! Man, how could I forget about dominance? Damn first thing we learn in school." Nefertiti raised her arms and started to scream and yell at the dogs (and with lungs made for belting the blues, she was amazingly loud). They seemed to get the idea and started to back away and she continued to advance towards them. She gestured for Bazzer to do the same, even if he was the one who thought of it in the first place. Nefertiti started stomped her feet and clap her hands, anything to make more noise.
Looking at Nefertiti as if she were nuts, Bazzer shrugged and copied her, whoopign loudly, waving his arms and jumping around as if he were a monkey. This was a far cry from the library quiet he was used to working with at home. Well, this wasn't KC, this was Wonderland. And they needed to survive and it required different rules than the library. After a minute the other dogs turned from them and ran, tails down. Once they were a reasonable distance away Bazzer stopped and watched as they continued to retreat, "Well. That was um....interesting," he gasped, trying to catch his breath. "Thanks."
Nefertiti clapped him on the back and gave him a triumphant smile, " Victory is our's, my man! Nice work. " The adrenaline that had previously been pumping her veins quickly waned and she artlessly collapsed to the ground and rested against the rock, sighing once more in relief. Things could of ended much more horribly than that. She looked over her body for any wounds and only came upon minor scratches and bruises. Nothing that would kill her, certainly. Calmed down a bit, she looked to Bazzer and asked, " So, who are you, brave warrior of the tannery? My name is Nefertiti, and it was a right pleasure to work with you. "
Flopping on to the grass after Nefertiti, Bazzer laughed, it was slightly manic and more than a little stressed, but it was laughter, "Queen Nefertiti, eh?" he gasped, entirely too amused by her name. The situation they had just encountered hadn't helped either, "I'm Bazzer. Sometimes referred to as 'that guy that does bizarre and smelly things to skins so we can maybe use them later,'" he gestured vaguely in the direction of the tannery. It definitely smelled ripe. "And thank you for implementing my ideas. You said you were a vet tech on Earth? I'm a librarian. Lots of ideas, not always a lot of practical know-how."
" Yeah, Queen Nefertiti. Parents are products of the 60's-70's, my dad was a Black Panther, believe it or not. My sister is named Ebony, to give you an idea. " Nefertiti laughed after that to hide any signs of crying that the mention of her family might bring about. Once she settled down to a smile she looked at him and continued to speak, " Bazzer? That's a right unique name, just like mine. I aint much for books, but ideas are always good. As for me, you could consider me a vet tech from 9-5 and a horse trainer and breeder the rest of the 24 hours. " She gave him a unabashed full head-to-toe look over. All she wanted to do was make sure there weren't any obvious, pressing wounds that would require immediate attention. Unfortunately it could be taken a very different way.
"Eh," he shrugged awkwardly from where he lay, oblivious to her looking him over and since he was still clad in his clothing, there was no tattoo to be seen for the moment, "It's short for Sebastian. I guess the normal nicknames are Seb or Bastian or whatever, but somewhere Baz and then Bazzer came about. I like it," and since his father was also named Sebastian it helped differentiate them. "Nefertiti and Ebony. That's kind of cool really. Beats Sebastian and Carly for uniqueness. That's my sister's name," he didn't mention his older sister, Vanessa. It just got too complicated then. "Why didn't your parents choose another Egyptian queen? There's always Cleopatra."
Nefertiti grinned and triumphantly announced, " Because I'm the only queen! But really, I don't know. I have another sister named Afri, short for Africa, and a brother named Delmar. I'm a middle child. Or was... I guess. Probably won't be seeing them anytime soon, if ever. " she shifted uncomfortably against the rock readjusting by pulling her knees up to her chest " What was your family like? There just being two kids sounds outrageous! I couldn't imagine a household peaceful and without hand-me-downs. " Nefertiti gestured to the pipe bone-collar clinging tight to her neck, " This was my grandmother's, and her grandfather's. Supposedly it goes aaalll the way back to my Apache ancestors. By wearing a bone choker, the spirits of the animal they come from can provide protection from all kinds of sicknesses. Even wearing one can help you speak from the heart because they are made from the bones of singing birds. The two strands represent completeness. " Nefertiti had always enjoyed sitting at the feet of her grandmother and hearing the tales of her ancestors. It was what began her deep-rooted respect for animals.
Ah, so her parents didn't have some sort of strange naming system. That was probably a good thing, "I had an older sister named Vanessa," he admitted after a long moment, "she died though, years ago. My parents...know what's best for everyone but their own family. They're child psychologists, distinguished, published, all that stuff, going to conventions, charging an exorbitant amount of money and whatever. They were pretty lousy parents. Never home when I was a kid and when I was a teenager after 'Nessa died, they sent me away," that was one way to phrase being locked into a juvenile mental hospital, "Came home my senior year of high school and they about drove me insane," he laughed mirthlessly, "They still haven't forgiven me for going to college and grad school on the opposite side of the country from where they were and then settling well away from them. I'm the delicate one, you see. Fragile," he snorted and drew his legs up like hers, "So...I don't have anything like your necklace. I'm glad to be rid of them," there was pain in his eyes as he spoke, but his voice was even.
As to not stomp all over a sensitive topic Nefertiti didn't respond for a few moments, letting everything he told her sink in. Parents like that must of been a downright nightmare. Sure her's rode her nerves sometimes and the yelling matches known to occur were epic, but she had never a doubt that they unconditionally loved her and would always forgive her. While usually her tone was full of bravado and excitement it was now noticeably subdued with the sweet softness she would use to calm down an over-excited animal. "I would never say you were delicate, Bazzer. There must be a rod of steel through that spine for you survive not only parents who knew only how to analyze you, but also the death of a sister who obviously meant a lot. No, I'd be broken into little pieces if I lost any of my family and anyone who calls you frail for pulling through that is a downright ignorant fool."
"Well sure," Bazzer relaxed and smiled as if they were just chatting about the weather, "Your family work with animals too then or just you?" he very firmly switched the topic. He wasn't going into the details of his life right now, "That's pretty cool. I've never had a pet or anything, but I read a lot. So...sometimes, I have ideas that work. And sometimes I don't. No guarentees."
Nefertiti got the hint and didn't try to fight the change of topic. "Oh, my nan has a farm! I have a few down in some podunk town in Texas, but most of my family is in the city. Delmar is graduating med school soon and Ebony is a lobbyist and a pregnant one at that." A baby she would never see or take care of, but that wasn't very relevant to her situation was it? Why did family have to come up so often when it was the one thing that could immediately bring her down? She decided to remedy this by a quick ridirect of the conversation of her own, "So what up about your life as a librarian? You leave a special someone back home?"
"Oh yes. Super librarian," he laughed stretching his legs out, "I worked in a lab actually as an preservationist. Basically, I chemically treated old books and manuscripts and things so they wouldn't rot away. Sometimes they had to be restored first so I would work with the restorationists and various other things until they were safe to be archived again so we wouldn't lose that information. A lot of times we'd make a backup of the data too, on microfiche or more commonly, computers," people were always surprised that a librarian would wear a lab coat and work with chemicals as opposed to teaching kids the dewey decimal system. "As for special someones...no," he shook his head, "No one at home. Just here," but he didn't elaborate. It was all still secret. "You? Boyfriend? Girlfriend?"
In response she sort of turned her hand side-to-side in a so-so gesture, " Nothing serious. A few cute men, sure, but I'll be the first to tell you I don't like to be pinned down with commitment. I mean, I'm a one-man type of gal but God forbid someone tell me when it's serious. " Nefertiti elbowed him in the ribs and gave him a cheeky grin, " Who's your special'un? Don't make me guess! There must be 20 people in this camp and you could swing either ways or both ways. There are one or two I can visually appreciate, but I can't say I like 'em until I know 'em. More often then not being gorgeous goes to someone's head. "
"Oh there are quite a few that are nice to look at," he agreed and he included herself in that group. Getting up, he went to check on the skins, "And between you and me, priests shouldn't be that hot. But anyways," he was lifting the skins as he walked around the pile. They didn't seem to be damaged severely. A couple had bite marks in them, but nothing they couldn't use anyways. A couple small rips, but again, nothing substantial. They had gotten there in time, good. There was a lot messed up in other ways, many of the makeshift tools were broken and scattered, but those could probably be replaced or repaired.
She took the ignored question as a probe into a secret. Must be a Big Deal if he felt the need to hide it from her, but then again they DID just meet and she DID have a bad habit of trusting people before distrusting them. After following him around the pile her own assignment of the skins was along the same lines as his. There was certainly damage but nothing catastrophic. The rough leathers had been saved! " Well Bazzer, looks like we did a right good job on protecting these. Could of ended up torn to shreds! " Nefertiti stopped in her tracks and pursed her lips in thought. Racking her brain for any knowledge about skinning was only bringing back unpleasent memories of slit open deer and entrails. Out of curiousity she asked him, " Do you know anything about leather-working? I mean obviously you've cleaned the skins. " her quizzical expression turned to an amused smile when she thought further about his career, " Or did you know how to do that in theory from a book and just applied it the best to your ability? "
"Please," Bazzer rolled his eyes, "I'm from Chicago originally. My parents idea of 'camping' is the Embassy Suites. I've never been this close to a dead animal ever. Or wild animal outside the petting zoo. This is all trial and a lot of error," and quite probably, not the best attempts, but he could only improve. "I worked on a diary from the 1800's and the guy talked about skinning and tanning hides in it. I remembered some, but he wasn't very specific with everything and this is Wonderland...so I've just been sort of guessing." It smelled pretty foul so he figured he was on the right track.
"You know more than me then. My grandpa skinned and hung things on the wall, but it was all a nasty process that I didn't want to be too involved in, especially at 8 years old." Nefertiti chuckled and tucked the front most dreads behind her ear in an attempt to get them out of her face. " How different our lives have been. Almost polar opposites, I'd say. Well, I'm glad to know you now anyway." Suddenly she threw her arms out into the sky and half-turned around. "This place is just one big opportunity. Now I know I probably sound crazy but some people cry and some get angry when things ain't right but me? I try to find the silver-lining, or at least the little things to prevent me breaking down into batshit insanity. I tell myself if I had never woken up here I wouldn't have met all these wonderful people and I wouldn't have had the chance to see a pristine world untouched by men's smog and concrete. It's a Wonderland for sure, but I'm no Alice. I already know we won't be going back home."
Laughing, Bazzer nodded, "Damn straight. You've got the right attitude. I think I'd've liked more notice, maybe bought a tent or something with me, but you're absolutely right. And if you think about it - if we do go back...then what? We've been missing, right? And no one would believe what we've been through, no one would believe in this place. So...staying here might not be the bad thing really. And we're still finding people appearing so whatever is going on, it's not stopping," he shrugged and then scratched his head absently, "You might not be Alice, but this is definitely Wonderland. The place where things are not always as they seem."
Nodding her agreement, Nefertiti started to gather up the leathers into a pile to be properly evaluated. " Well, Bazz, let's get to work on straightening everything out. Can't leave it all a tumble like this. " She shot him a smile before continuing her work. Fighting off the "enemy" and saving the day was a helluva way to bond with someone. Even if he was a bit secretive Nefertiti did like Sebastian. His own attitude and strength got him through a lot already and she admired that. Being dropped off on a foreign planet was almost nothing in comparison.