Quinn Landry (winjunkie) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-02-12 11:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | quinn, rowan, z - 1st tribe - day 06 |
Brief Conversation
Who: Rowan and Quinn
When: Mid-morning, Day Six
What: A little logistical problemsolving
Where: Beside the stream, under the tree.
Rating: G so far, and that's all that Quinn says he's good for.
Rowan had decided to be productive today, humming under her breath while she used fresh climber tree leaves and sap to make cups or other holding containers for people. She used the natural curve of the leaf, split it and curled it around to make it deeper. And she glued the two halves together. It would take a few days to dry, but as it was? They didn't have anything in the way of 'dishes' so a leaf would be awesome. And if anyone found a good place to move too? They could carry easily transportable food with them, too. She whistled while she worked, and made about twenty of the things.
Quinn had found a flat rock with soft moss right next to the stream. It had been an agonizing process but he'd managed to get all the way down onto his back, his arm finally dropping away from his bound broken ribs. He knew his face was still a distorted nightmare, his two black eyes darkening to a near indigo. The swelling was starting to go down though and so he was peering up at the odd canopy overhear, listening to the water and the pregnant woman humming. You'd think she was knitting booties, the way she was working on those...what? Leaf cones? To what purpose. They were alone under the tree for the moment. The ones called Ryan and Helena, Jeri and the other new arrivals were exploring and foraging. He was trying not to let it get to him but a certain bleakness was rising up in him. He didn't want to be the only one sulking over their odd circumstances but he just couldn't believe it. Not to mention that sleeping curled up in a hammock in a tree he couldn't even currently imagine climbing, would be agonizing. "Maybe they won't come tonight," he said out loud, half to himself, half in hope.
"They'll come tonight." Rowan said, without looking up. She was getting used to the damn things, and she didn't want too. If you got used to something, you were less careful around it. That was just the way it worked. She finally looked up at him, and blinked rapidly. "...you look like utter hell. So you're aware, I am not a fan of zombies. If you're a zombie, you might want to back away."
Quinn sighed. "No worries, as long as your brains aren't made of cheeseburgers, you are totally safe from me." He tilted his battered face toward to to give her a stitched up grimace of a smile. His smile vanished and he peered at what she was doing, smearing some free running sap from the climber tree onto leaves and shaping cones. "What are you making?" he asked. He could see that she'd spread out several of them at different angles and depths.
"Well - you're new, so I'll helpfully give you the rundown, even if you've gotten it before - these are climber tree leaves. Climber trees were discovered by Helena, and we sleep in them, because of the laughers. In any case, the leaves and vines, when they're dried, are actually really very hard, but a little more brittle than I would like. A lot like wicker back on our world. The sap is totally inedible, but it's stickier than hell - a lot like wood glue. So I'm using the leaves and the sap to make dishes for us, since it's getting just a big ridiculous not to have them. After that, I'm going to be using leaves and vines to make hanging baskets for a garden up in the tree." Rowan nodded. Like she'd said, she was being productive today. "Hi, I'm Rowan, and this is little Nameless." She patted her tummy.
Quinn pressed his lips into a firm line for a moment, a sure sign indication that he was upset. He'd be pretty pissed off to realize that after twenty five years he'd finally developed a tell. His career was over. "Nice to meet you, Rowan. I'm really sorry that you and Nameless are here. I'm Quinn. Formerly of Las Vegas, Nevada." Helena had explained quite clearly that they had never discovered a way out of this place. The little Asian woman had seemed pretty certain that there was no escape. He was trying not to consider what that would mean for him too closely. In other words, Landry was living in denial. He eyed her cups skeptically.
"I'm not particularly upset that I'm here." Rowan looked around, as though she might spot something that would change that in a rush. Then she looked back to him and smiled slightly, with a little shrug of her shoulders. "I realize I'm an odd one under the circumstances, but this is three quarters of a dream come true for me. A totally clean world, new things to discover every day... personally, I'm not in a rush to get back to our world." She started picking long grass and braiding it, like she had for the cord in her hair, and she smiled a little more broadly at him. "So what did you do for a living, Quinn?"
He was looking at her incredulously. How could she be happy to be here? Granted, he understood thrill seeking pretty well. He was addicted to a few rushs himself and he could get his mind to stretch wide enough to encompase discovery and being the first to understand a new ecology to envelope his own definitions of thrills. After all, being the first is sort of like winning, isn't it? Quinn lived to win. So he chewed on that for a moment. "Isn't it sort of dangerous for both you and Nameless though? Especially climbing around in trees with monsters hoping that you're going to trip?" His brows drew together, making it clear that even though he didn't know her, he didn't want to see anything bad happen to her.
Quinn didn't have too much experience with pregnant women. Some of his mother's friends and coworkers had become pregnant over the years but they usually aborted or they disappeared. They quit the ranch and went back to families is far away states, either never to be heard of again or they returned within a year. Anxious to get back to work. No babies on their hips. Since he didn't keep any female friends so much as he paid for their company, children weren't really a part of his life. He finally caught up with her question, shaking all of his worries, the stuff that was none of his business, out of his head. "I play cards. Poker mostly. What do you do?"
"It's dangerous just to drive on a freeway, especially on a Friday evening." Rowan pointed out with a lazy grin. "But as it is right now, I can climb up and down that tree. Hell, I can climb it quicker up and down than when I first got here." She'd also lost some weight, but she didn't want to tell anyone that. It wasn't the quality of food, she figured. It was the lack of the stuff. They had finite supplies, after all, and more people arriving every day. "But I was a botanist, with a minor in environmental sciences. If we do get back, I'll probably get my Ph.D."
His eyebrows both arched upward and then relaxed as the facial movement awakened a fresh throbbing in his broken nose. "Ow," he muttered under his breath and sighed minimally. "That's really impressive. And I can see why you like it here. All sorts of weird plants." His tone was mild. Quinn wasn't used to the company of overly learned women. It wasn't that he thought women shouldn't be, he was just uncomfortable feeling at a disadvantage. He'd been considering going back for his GED when all of this went down. He'd thought maybe it was time he started to learn a little bit more about his world. The more time he spent in the casinos in Vegas, the more he was starting to feel like less than what he could be.
"It was just something I was good at, so I thought I'd make a career out of it." Ro smiled at him. She looped the end of the cord she was making around her big toe, using it to brace the rest of it so she could make the cord tight and strong. "But it's true. It's an entire world basically dedicated to my amusement in that way." She laughed. "Has anyone showed you where the things we've discovered are edible are yet?"
Quinn shook his head. "No, I haven't really felt hungry yet so I didn't ask." His stomach was actually rolling unpleasantly. He'd had a hard enough time keeping the water down. He told himself it wasn't nerves. He could be as brave as Jeri was being, off helping to gather food, and this pregnant Rowan woman. No, it wasn't nerves it was just a side effect of the painkillers he'd been given. It must be. "I guess I should soon, though." He admitted it grudgingly. Like she was trying to feed him cod liver oil or something ridiculous like that.
"I hope you're prepared to eat a lot of the color purple." Rowan said dryly. "And pink. Instead of the American Health Association Food Pyramid, we have the Pastel Rainbow. In two colors. You don't have to eat now if you don't want too, of course." He didn't seem overly enthusiastic about the idea, but he looked pretty beat up and when Ro was injured she never felt like eating either. She didn't know if that applied to everyone - she supposed she'd ask Thorne when he got back. "We're working on finding more food, of course."
Quinn nodded so that she would understand that he was listening but he just didn't feel up to talking about their food situation. These people had eaten no protein for six days. Just berries and moss? And little under water potatoes. How was that healthy for humans? He didn't see how. His eyes ticked to the side and he found himself watched the way that Rowan's clavicles seemed to cut right through her skin above the neckline of her tank top. That wasn't normal for a pregnant woman, was it? Didn't they typically become round all over? Maybe she had been really skinny before the baby. "Is it just me or do those berries look kind of like long grapes? Do they dry just like grapes? To preserve them?"
"Don't know. They get eaten before I get a chance to dry them." Rowan said with amusement. Though it was kind of worrying. There wasn't enough for more than another couple days, and someone really had to find another patch. Maybe that's what she'd do after she was done building the hanging baskets, or at least some of them. Go 'grazing', as it was. "The more people there are, the more of a strain on food supplies - you know how it is, I'm sure."
Quinn nodded. "Makes sense, anyways. Helena mentioned taking Lauren and looking for another patch of berries. Maybe they'll luck out." The shrink had looked more than a little shell shocked. Almost as bad as that girl, Olivia. She was something he had seen before but tried like hell to stay away from. "I think it might be another few days before I'm up for walking and bending," and he said it with genuine regret. It was the first time that Quinn had admitted they may not be rescued at any moment. It was starting to dawn on him that if rescue services weren't busting their buns to find a pregnant botanist and a traumatized psychologist and hell, some sweet Asian pre-school teacher then no one was coming after him either. Except for maybe the lugs who had laid into him last night, just to finish the job properly. He half wished they would.
"Hm." Rowan looked him over properly this time. "How on earth are we going to get you into the tree?" It was more her talking to herself, but this required thought. If he wasn't up for walking, climbing was going to be a real bitch. "...maybe we could do something like a pulley..." she looked up into the tree, standing and putting her hands on her hips to do it. "Well, there's bound to be a way."
Quinn watched her get up with a bleak expression on his puffy and colourful face. "I have no idea but I don't see it happening without me puncturing a lung." He'd have heaved a sigh by then but he knew better than to try that already. "I don't see any escape from the pain. I'm not exactly a baby to be bundled up and carried up there." He wasn't huge but he wasn't a featherweight either.
"Can you stand on one foot?" Rowan asked suddenly. It was the neatest sensation. Like she knew something important but it wasn't coming, but when it did, all those tumblers fell right into place. Like finding the right key for a lock. It was fantastic. "Three or four of us could haul a vine easily enough with you on it, and if we make a loop on one end you could stick your foot through that so that you have something resembling stability. They're strong. Helena was swinging on them the first day I was here."
His eyebrows rose in disbelief. "What? Like Tarzan or I guess, Jane?" That thought amused him. The little school teacher somehow managed to come across as proper even in these odd surroundings. He could picture it though, and it was fun. "I can stand on one foot though. I've got decent balance." It was a natural skill. He'd never been involved in sports or anything physical, really. He just had developed the balance like anything else he was born with, like his ability to observe and understand.
"That's what I saw, man." Rowan held up her hands in defense, with a slight grin. "Anyway, any way we can get you up there is one less person we have to worry about, so we'll get you up there whether you like it or not." She nodded, apparently the decision made for him. Poor guy. "And we have an actual doctor, so maybe when he gets back he'll have found some natural painkiller or other."
"Jeri's almost a doctor," he added helpfully. He kind of liked the idea of the cute little brunette tending to his valiantly obtained wounds rather than some dude named Hawthorne. Who named their kid Hawthorne?! Quinn sighed. "Just don't puncture one of my lungs, that's my only request." He turned his eyes back the wide canopy. Even next to the stream he was sweating. It wasn't even noon yet but it felt like the strange white sun was burning the moisture out of the plants and earth, steaming them like green beans in a pot. "What I wouldn't give for a mister right now," he mumbled.
Ro looked at him curiously. "I have no idea what that means. Well, I probably do and I'm not thinking of it right now. And I can't guarantee you about the lungs bit. I tend to find child-like glee on popping balloons." She didn't say it to be comforting, but she did have a definite tone of amusement when she said it. "Tell you what, lemme know when you're hungry and I'll round up some food for you."
Somehow, Quinn managed to arrange his battered face into a mark of horror at the mention of popping balloons. "Oof, you're a cruel woman." He said it with a smile and let his head roll back onto the moss-padded rock at his back. "This stuff actually does smell good, dosen't it? Kinda reminds me of...floor cleaner...or something. Lemon fresh scent..." He was fast losing his battle with wakefulness and, as daunting as Rowan was because she was different from all of the women he'd ever known, she was comfortable.
"Just remember you're lazing on top of some of our food." Rowan said dryly. "Not that anyone's going to care if it's squished when they get hungry enough, of course, but at least now you know where some of it is." She eyed him, and noted his fight to keep his eyes open. She grinned slightly. "Why don't you get some sleep? You won't get a lot tonight, and sleep's the best thing when you're injured."
He jerked his chin down toward his chest a couple of times in agreement. The tangy scent of the moss was almost as refreshing as the water had been when Jeri had finally let him drink it. "Will do, boss lady," he said with a smile curving up the less damaged corner of his mouth. She wasn't so bad. Not intimidating at all for a smart chick. Maybe it was the fact that she was knocked up without a ring on her finger. Quinn, for all that he thought every good woman ought to have a better man looking out for her, could respect a single mom doing whatever it took. His own mother had been one of those, after all.