The Field

The night wears on, still muggy and damp, for all of our tired, sore tribespeople. In the wee hours of morning and under the cover of darkness a bank of clouds have blown in from the west. Fat with sea water but not quite ready to burst yet the clouds sprinkle the hot praries and the island in much needed cool rain showers. The wind isn't too high but it picks up a little. All of the shelters hold and the ground is so hungry that mud doesn't become an issue. More than anything, it's all a relief from so much hot and uncomfortable weather. The oppresive air lifts.

By sunrise the clouds are hurrying on in the east where they gather in darkness. It's clear to see that the little island dodged quite a storm. The wind continues to be breezy and comfortable. It's a good, sunny day to wash out the soiled bedding and hang garments to dry.

Everyone comes together for breakfast, finding that they're famished even if they can't exactly look everyone in the eye after the experiences the day before. The cloudy feeling in the brain, while not completely dispelled, has been lessened a great deal. Most of the pollen has been blown away but the right look or touch will likely spark off another amorous frenzy. Helena suggests that people can take a second day to recover from the effects if they wish, or they are welcome to resume their work details if they'd rather do that.

Held for things!

Who: Kenneth and Bazzer
What: Pollen affected
Where: a bit away from the tannery
When: Immediately after Helena and Kenneth
Rating: NC-17

( Bazzer is not exactly himself. )

Who: Alex & Jasper
When: Late evening, day 32
What: Alex owes Jasper an apology
Where: her lean-to
Rating: Pr0n for priests! (PG13 again)

( You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals, So let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel  )

Who: Thorne, Ryan and Rowan
Where: Somewhere near camp
When: Evening?
What: Post coital cuddling and chatting
Rating: R for nudity?
Warnings: Threesome

( And threesomes occur )

Who: Aaron and Analiese
Where: At the spring
When: Late afternoon
What: Looking for some relief
Rating: NC-17 for sex in the spring.

( This Just Isn't Normal )

Who: Kenneth and Helena
When: Early Afternoon
Where: Some back route away from the beach and camp.
What: A chance encounter from two people who were hoping to avoid other people.
Rating: PG, pretty much

( What Are You Doing Here? )

Who: Ryan and Delilah
When: morning
Where: on the way to the stream
Warnings: NSFW, baby

( like being stoned )

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: Late morning
Where: Well away from camp, east along the beach
What: The find each other
Rating: Most definitely NC-17

( Magentism )

Who: Helena and Cross
Where: Their lean-to
When: Morning time
What: Waking up in the grips of pollen
Rating: NC17

( too hot for clothes )

Who: Alex & Jasper
When: morning, Day 32
Where: Camp
What: awkwardness!
Rating: XXX for p0rn for priests.(PG)

( 'I... oh... ffffFFUUUUUUCK!' She shrieked )

A restless, still night of oppressive heat falls upon the camp. Across the water, even the laughers seem to be chuckling half heartedly, having to drag their thick fur around. They seem ill-tempered and violent across the water. Near the spring, the grazers and marmites seem equally irritable and combative. There's an unrestive sense to the night, the animals all over the island are moving tonight. People are sweating through their sleeping bags and clothes and are generally feeling soupy.

Everywhere, all over the island, the damp air and oppressive heat is having a nearly wonderous effect on the bushes. Their clustered and numerous buds are opening gracefully, quick enough that the human eye can watch it happen. Each graceful pink throated flour exhales a breath of pale pink pollen as it opens which drifts on scant breezes or coats the ground near the clumps of bushes. As people walk over them it stirs up a cloud of the stuff around their feet and legs.

With so much of this pollen around, it's inevitable that people may inhale it, or absorb some of it into their skin. The poor unsuspecting inhabitants of this tiny island are about to discover that the pollen of these bushes is this world's natural aphrodisiac. It gets people's blood up, one might say, in an amorous and euphoric sort of way. This can be dangerous because it lowers peoples inhibitions. They may be more inclined to fight for what they want. The children are unaffected as it only seems to strike those who've already gone through puberty.

Disasterous for some? Just good fun for others? We shall see.

( Mod Notes - Please Read )

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: after dark
Where: down by the water
Rating: PG for makeouts and dirty thoughts

As predicted, the day had been hot and still and sticky. Adnan was fairly certain he sweated off about ten pounds as he and the men worked on hauling felled trees back to the island. They'd quit a little earlier than previous days, so as not to completely exhaust themselves, and he'd taken on the task of cleaning himself up. He might not have bothered, but for one thing. He had a date tonight. Which was just strange to think about, but undeniable. After washing thoroughly with the soap pods, and again wishing desperately that he had another pair of jeans, he went about setting up.

Adnan dug a small pit in the sand and built a fire in it -- something he was actually pretty good at -- then went to fetch some food to cook over it, including some of the flat bread the girls had made that morning. What he would've given for his mother's advice. But one worked with what they had. There was no way to avoid being hot, and he considered just going shirtless, but decided against it. He chewed on a couple of the mint-brush pods for his teeth, splashed some more water on his face, and then went in search of Coop.

( Or something like that. )

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.

Who: Alex, Kenneth, Helena, Bazzer, anyone else that would like to jump in with an opinion
When: Day 31, morning
What: Discussing what to do with Bazzer's tanned skins
Where: The center of "town" the campfire!

( Decisions, decisions )

Who: Adnan and Jasper
Where: At the nice rock outside her lean-to
When: Breakfast
Rating: G, prolly

Jasper was munching happily on her flatbread, since it was definitely a treat. You never knew how much you missed something until it was in your hand and you could feel it and taste it. And she was also keeping an eye out for that Adnan guy. The guy who had the map that Jasper wanted to see so badly. The kids, happily, were off harassing Kenneth or Helena or someone.

Of course, the moment she did see him and wanted to get his attention, her mouth was full. Brilliant. She chewed, swallowed, and quickly wiped her mouth so that she didn't look all crumby. "Oi! Ad... Adnan, right! Come 'ere!" And she gestured, hoping that would help.

( Coop: Please don't kill Jasper for that title... )

The night is windy, gusting loose sand under carts and into the openings of lean-tos. It moans across the plains in the eeriest way, only made all the more creepy by the laughers on the far bank. There had been no sign of Olivia by nightfall, those who searched for her were relatively certain that she wasn't on the island. Around the fire in the morning it's widely believed she may have drowned while bathing. Olivia never hid the fact that she was terrified by the water, a very poor swimmer. The council asks that all eyes keep an eye on the water, as grave as that sounds, incase she happens to surface.

The winds die down into absolute stillness by morning. The surface of the lake is as smooth as glass without a single ripple. The day is still and hot. Gauzy clouds cover the sky, filtering the sun and insulating the earth. Over the afternoon the humidity builds to the point where you feel wet in the lungs when you draw a deep breath. Air fit to drown in. Any exertion at all brings sweat out on the skin. No one would believe that winter was around the corner today! The only areas of relief are the spring and the lake.

Two things of note are discussed at breakfast. The first is that Sophie and Rowan hand out small and crispy flatbreads with the usual breakfast of milk melon and grazer jerky. They have perfected the recipe of sweetgrind flour, fostriche egg, a pinch of hummabee salt and a splash of ungoat's milk. Two flatbreads per person and a small stack of them packed up for the lumberjacks to take with them for lunch. The second thing is Bazzer's presentation of two cured laugher hides. He proclaims them to be finished and offers them to the Council to decide where they would best be put to use. The debate begins! Shoes or shelter?

( Mod Notes - Please Read )

Who: Coop and Adnan
When: Early Evening
Where: 'Round the bend of the island at an ideal spot for washing and possible privacy.
What: Bathing and general clean-up
Rating: PG for a little nakedness and impure thoughts

Splashing out of the water, Coop picked her footing cautiously. The shore here was sandy but liberally peppered with clams and she'd already cut one toe on one of their serated shells. She had no intention of performing any accidental amputations, and definitely not where no one would hear her bellowed curses.

Not only were there thick reeds in this somewhat dune protected inlet, but there was a thicket of those strange bushes. She'd noticed when she hung her dress off of them to dry, along with the little scrap of a pair of black panties she'd arrived in, that the bushes were budding. Strange time of year to be blooming when everything else seemed to be reaching it's harvest time. Still, nothing in this place was normal or to be expected.

She'd carried the hulls of her soap pods with her, thinking to use them in a composting project she was beginning. She'd woven herself a basket from the long branches of the bushes and planned to fill it with as many food and leaf scraps as she could. Her hope was that after a season, she might have something better to garden with than the rough sand that seemed to make up the majority of the island. Egg shells, milk melon rinds, used soap pods and mint sticks she figured could all be put in. Animal bones as well, if she set the compost a ways away from camp. Composted vegetation plus a healthy shoveling of grazer poop just might do the trick. She knew Rowan had put aside plenty of seeds and planned to sit down with the woman one day soon and discuss a gardening plan of action.

( Cause I'm Coming In )

Who: Helena and Ryan
Where: The long trek around the entire island.
What: They discover something spooky
When: Day 30, late morning to early evening
Rating: TBD
Status: In Progress

Packing a few little things to eat and her filled plastic water bottle, Helena paused at the campfire to wrap a few slices of the grazer jerky and a handful of boiled pesk eggs into her scrap of a pillowcase. She already had some of the leftover flatbread she'd made the other day in there. It had hardened into a sort of stale cracker but she still fully intended to eat it. Meal packed, shoes strapped on and a loosely woven straw hat planted on her dark head, Helena looked for someone to tell that she was leaving. Not far today, she hoped, but she wanted to walk the entire shoreline of the island. There were still plenty of places undiscovered, plenty of items she surely hadn't found. It was time to do a little bit of exploring.

Ryan had grabbed some breakfast earlier, and as he emerged near the campfire from the direction of the stream, he was munching on a hunk of grazer jerky. It wasn't the best thing he'd ever eaten by any means, but he'd learned to be grateful for food of any sort. For the most part, they didn't go hungry now, and that was something for which to be thankful. He could see somebody nearby, and when he got close enough to see who it was, he smiled. "Hey, Helena. How's it goin'?" he asked her.

Helena looked up with a smile. "It's going really well. My head doesn't hurt at all today." She rubbed the back of her neck to demonstrate that her injury was much improved. "I'm just packing up a little food to take on a long walk with me today. I was planning to follow the beach all the way around the island." She shrugged her narrow shoulders inside her faded blue t-shirt. "I just wanted to tell someone where I was going in case I'm not back by nightfall." She cocked her head curious. "Unless you wanted to come along? Get you out of camp today and a beach walk should be pretty straightforward, right?"

( We'll See What We Can Find )

Who: Helena and Rowan, the sexiest ladies of the land
Where: Helena's house
When: Morning
Rating: Probably G

Between stupid dogs spilling her hard-won flour, and having had to find somewhere to store it where it wasn't going to turn to goo from rain or dew or whatever, Rowan had discovered that she was really bloody proud of herself. She'd made flour. Or a rough version thereof. It wasn't perfect but she'd done the best she could, and it was definitely better than just chewing on ripe grain. And Rowan knew the perfect person who could use the first sample.

Of course, finding Helena was another matter completely. Rowan was starting to wonder if she'd gone off with Cross for some Cross-lovin' good times.

( but without the green alien sex )