Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Mon amour."

Petunia 'Coop' Cooper (driveeveryroad) wrote in thefield,
@ 2009-08-05 19:09:00

Girl Time
Who: Coop, Delilah and Analiese
Where: Near the camp
When: Afternoon
What: Getting to know one another better
Rating: TBD

Coop was sweating freely but that was nothing new. The whole day had been one of those. Just turning around or bending over slicked one's skin with sweat. Her dress felt gross and her underwear was even worse. She couldn't wait for her next bath to clean her clothes but she knew she couldn't head off into the water too soon or she'd need another one before she met up with Adnan. She'd brought poor Lucien across the lake from where they were harvesting the sweetgrind to be pounded into flour and deposited him with Thorne. Poor guy had pushed it too hard and had passed out from heat exhaustion. She was sure that meant he'd be done for the day and she was on her own.

As she brought a loosely baled bundle of the grain to the area of camp where they did the drying, she noticed that Rowan, too, had opted to lie down for a while. Sophie was nowhere to be seen but there were other people working with the grain. "Hello," she called cheerfully as she could manage after being so annoyingly overheated. "Brought some more grain to dry." With a relieved sigh, she heaved the bale down next to the others.

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anableue
2009-08-07 03:26 pm UTC (link)

Working with the grain at camp was hot work, as well, though not so much as what Coop had been doing. Still, Analiese was sweating, and she'd appropriated one of Ryan's bits of braided cord to tie her hair back with. "More?" she asked, sounding mildly despairing before she caught herself. "I mean, terrific!" She smiled wryly. There could certainly be worse jobs, and she shouldn't be complaining, even mentally, about this one, she thought. She could sit down, and she had company: Delilah and now Coop.

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tothebones
2009-08-08 12:20 am UTC (link)

Delilah had chosen to hang around camp and ... pound grain, apparently. Which wasn't awful work; she'd done worse. She could only imagine how itchy she would've gotten if she'd gone to actually pick it, so she was satisfied with her choice. She'd been chatting with Analiese, too, and that in itself had been pleasant. She squinted up at Coop as she arrived and smiled. "Take a rest, honey," she said, and motioned to the water bowl the other two girls had near them.

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driveeveryroad
2009-08-08 02:44 am UTC (link)

"Ah, I think I will," Coop said with gratitude as she sank down to the ground. She tucked her skirt around her thighs to prevent herself from being poked withthe dry straw being shucked in the flour making process. "How is it coming?" she asked, curious about the whole process. Considerately, she tooked the smallest sip she could manage to quench her thirst. These ladies had been working hard. She didn't want to use up all of their water. "I don't think Lucien and I will be going back out. Lucien needs a rest and everyone else is too busy." She shrugged her deeply tanned brown shoulders.

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anableue
2009-08-08 04:57 am UTC (link)

Analiese couldn't imagine how Coop wasn't roasting in that dress. Well, she probably was, but if she didn't have anything else to wear, there wasn't much of a choice. She had on her pajama tank top with its thin straps and the matching leggings pushed up to her knees and she was still hot. "Stay here with us," she urged Coop. "We have a lot of this to do, and it's so hot." She wanted to pour the water bowl over her head, but she resisted the urge.

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tothebones
2009-08-08 02:38 pm UTC (link)

"It's coming," Delilah answered Coop's question with a little smile. Her back ached from leaning forward to grind, and she was sweaty all over, which was making dirt and grain particles stick to her bare legs and arms, but there were worse things. "But yes, you should stay. Not that it's any less hot over here, but it's not as much moving around. You guys have done so much today," she added, glancing up at what was left to grind.

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driveeveryroad
2009-08-08 04:57 pm UTC (link)

"Alright," Coop said. "I can help out for a while but when the sun starts to hit about that point," she pointed up in the sky, "remind me that I have to go wash my dress." She settled herself down and pulled some of the dry whear stalks toward herself so she could start to hull them. "I have a date tonight," she said with a hushed excitement. "With Adnan. We're going to have dinner on the beach." She liked Analiese and she'd exchanged some words with Delilah around the camp. They were the closest people to actual girlfriends that Coop could ever want in this place. She didn't mind dishing the details to them.

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anableue
2009-08-08 06:21 pm UTC (link)

"He's cute," Analiese said approvingly. Not only cute but a gentleman. And, apparently, he worked fast. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Here they were, stuck in a place with no modern conveniences, away from their families and friends... why not squeeze in some fun amidst the constant struggle for survival? Some people here would probably frown on that, but Analiese didn't care. "At least you don't have to worry about what you're going to wear?" she joked as she worked on the grain.

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tothebones
2009-08-09 04:23 pm UTC (link)

Delilah looked up at Coop's announcement, blue eyes delighted. That was the kind of thing she liked to see, people connecting the way people did, despite of circumstances. "Ooo, is he the dark one leading all the wood-boys?" she asked, pretty sure that was right. "Not bad." She fully supported hookups in this place; if it kept people sane, then it was nothing but good. A few of the guys had caught her own eye. "Excited?" she asked the dark-haired girl with a little grin.

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driveeveryroad
2009-08-09 04:29 pm UTC (link)

Coop smoother her hands over the red maxi dress. "I used to love this dress." She heaved a sigh. "Now I'd give anything for my jeans and a good cardigan. Maybe a rain coat." She grinned and nodded at Delilah. "He's something, huh? Aaron's pretty cute too but I've never really been into the whole Sun God look, you know?" She flashed Ana a smile because she was a perfect match for colouring with Aaron. "I like my boys tall, dark and mysterious." She wobbled her eyebrows at the two girls. "So yeah, I'm really excited. I was the one who asked him." She chuckled as she hulled the grains into the container to be pounded.

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anableue
2009-08-10 02:56 am UTC (link)

At least Coop had actual clothes, Analiese thought, something neither she nor Delilah had. She wondered what would happen when her thin pajama tank top and leggings wore out. At least she had a cardigan sweater. "Most of the guys here are pretty decent-looking," she said when Coop mentioned Aaron. "Aaron's hot, Kenneth's hot if you like that whole stern older man with a gun thing." She giggled. She'd be too nervous to hit on Kenneth or Cross, either, if he hadn't been attached. Glancing over at Delilah, she teased, "Anyone you think is cute?"

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tothebones
2009-08-10 11:42 pm UTC (link)

There was no way to be down in the dumps with girl-talk going on. Regardless of their situation, there were some wonderful male specimens wandering around. She grinned at Ana's question and pounded a bit more before she answered. "Ryan, the New Orleans blonde," she said in a ponderous tone of voice, faces ticking through her mind. That one didn't even take thinking about. "I agree about Aaron, he is ... very nice. Cross as well, in that big silent way. ... the priest. He has a lovely mouth." She smiled a bit wickedly. There was Rook as well, of course, but she didn't go there. Instead she threw up the silent hope -- not for the first time -- that he was alive and safe and sound.

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driveeveryroad
2009-08-11 05:06 pm UTC (link)

"Cross and Aaron aren't too bad. I tend to be attracted to dark haired guys, though. Dark hair, dark eyes. I feel like Ryan looks a little too young for me." She smiled at Analiese and chuckled. She and Ryan probably weren't all that far apart in age but she was fairly sure he was younger. "And Ken reminds me of my dad, which I can't explain because they look nothing alike and my dad was never in the military." Her grains hulled, she picked up a rock and tried her hand at pounding.

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anableue
2009-08-11 09:53 pm UTC (link)

"Ryan's sweet, too," she told Delilah. "He kept me from gettin' bit any worse than I did when those dogs were in camp." She was still worried she was going to scar; it was too early to tell if it was going to completely fade. To Coop she snickered, "I hear younger guys are terrific, you know... ready to go at any time." This was just fun, sitting around and talking about the guys. Analiese felt less stressed than she had in days. "I can't decide if Ken or Cross is scarier. Not like I'd try to get with either one of them." She giggled again.

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tothebones
2009-08-11 11:46 pm UTC (link)

"He is sweet," Delilah agreed. It was something she liked in people, that they hadn't let the world get them down. Not yet, anyway. But Ryan had always been nice and optimistic-seeming, even in this world. It spoke to character. The comment about him being ready to go made her grin some more. But she didn't offer any comment. On his age either -- especially since she was probably older than Coop -- because it truly was just a number to her. If he was legal and mature, that was enough. "I don't know, I think men like that are truly big teddy bears. You should see my brothers," she said, amused.

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driveeveryroad
2009-08-12 03:35 am UTC (link)

"They're all big though," Coop pointed out. "Sure, Cross is the biggest and Ken has his guns and stuff but all the guys are big. Tall, broad shoulders, lots of muscles. Even Bazzer, he's skinny but he's really tall." She chuckled at Delilah's comment about her brothers. "I have three brothers too but they're all pretty average sized. Shale's the biggest and the oldest but he's only got an inch or so over Rye and he's about fifteen pounds heavier than Forrest." She smiled, talking about her siblings. "They might have been bigger if Mom hadn't diluted them. She's shorter than I am and I have no right to brag about my height."

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anableue
2009-08-13 02:37 am UTC (link)

"They can protect us or somethin'," Analiese suggested when Coop spoke of how tall and big the guys were. She almost wished she hadn't said it after the words were out of her mouth. Coop was a truck driver. She'd probably think Analiese was the worst kind of wimp for that. Maybe she was, but she was also Southern, and Southerners for the most part were a breed all their own. She'd been taught growing up that man was the protector and provider. She sent a sheepish glance in Delilah's direction and then looked back at Coop. "I have three brothers too," she said. "How weird is that? They're all younger, though."

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tothebones
2009-08-16 04:17 am UTC (link)

Delilah smiled warmly at Analiese as she glanced over. She'd been largely raised with the same idea, coming from a pretty traditional Ukrainian family. Or at least, they tried to raise her with that idea. It hadn't really stuck very well. The lessons of her brothers stuck with her better; they were fiercely protective, but taught her to fend for herself when they weren't around. "How strange we are all the only girls," she mused, looking between Ana and Coop. "I have four brothers. All big, though Igor is more refrigerator-shaped, he's no taller than I am." It stung to talk about family; they were probably getting worried by this point, even across continents.

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driveeveryroad
2009-08-16 02:42 pm UTC (link)

Coop smiled, feeling the same sting. She glanced between Ana and Delilah. "They'll all be okay without us," she told them. "They'll be alright and who knows what might happen to us, right? I mean, we were plucked up and send here. Maybe we'll be sent back just as unexpectedly." She shrugged her narrow and suntanned shoulders. She was starting to develope a scattering of freckles on the rounds of hr shoulders but there was nothing she could go about that.

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anableue
2009-08-16 10:07 pm UTC (link)

Analiese would never forget the sinking feeling she'd had when she'd awakened in that sweetgrind field, alone and absolutely terrified. Fortunately, Thorne and Rowan had found her almost immediately. She'd hate to think of having to survive here on her own, like she'd heard Helena had for a few days. "Maybe," she agreed with Coop, although she didn't really believe it. Pessimistically, she thought they'd all die here, although that wasn't a thought she wanted to share with the others. It wouldn't help anything.

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tothebones
2009-08-19 10:41 pm UTC (link)

Delilah had of course consoled herself with the same thought, but she wasn't sure she really believed it at all. People had been here long enough to make children, the kids running around camp were proof of that. Whatever had happened them ... she wasn't at all sure it was reversible. She'd attempted to consult her sticks about it, but they'd been difficult to understand in this place. It was as though they spoke a different language, strange as that sounded. "Maybe," she also echoed, looking down at her work and grinding more.

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driveeveryroad
2009-08-20 12:57 am UTC (link)

Coop just kept a small smile to herself as she focused on the flour pounding for now. The lack of faith that they might see their homes again was more than evident but she wasn't quiet ready to give in to that yet. Her bond with her family was strong and she hoped it would be enough see her back some day. If not? Well, if she forced herself to confront that possibility, she would just try to live well in this place if she could. Love these new acquaintences as though they were the family she left behind. She sighed softly as she worked, dark head down in the bright sun.

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