The Field

Who: Analiese and Ryan
When: mid-day
Where: near the campfire

( where'd you get this? )

Who: Ryan and Delilah
When: late morning
Where: the spring

Delilah ... had no idea how to feel. She'd woken up pleasantly sore and entangled in Thorne's limbs. It wasn't as though she hadn't known how she got there. That was the problem, she remembered everything. It was hazy and surreal, but she'd retained it all. Ryan, all the fun she'd had on her own, and then Thorne. Two men in one day, that had never happened to her, ever. She knew it had been the pollen, and it wasn't as though she was committed to anyone or anything, but ... still. She'd left her lean-to as carefully as she could and headed for the spring to clean up. Halfway there she stopped, blue eyes widening as the realization hit her that there'd been absolutely no protection used. She hadn't been on the pill even back home; she'd had bad reactions to it in her younger years. She was a firm believer in condoms and ... oh gods.

Her immediate first impulse was to find Ryan and warn him. Then do the same for Thorne. She couldn't believe she might've gotten pregnant under the influence of flowers, for fuck's sake! Shaking a little, Delilah forced herself to start walking again. She would clean up first, she would think, she would go back to consult the sticks and bones she'd collected, and then she would come up with a plan. Shit. Shit shit shit shit.

( Shit shit shit shit shit shit damn. )

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

( like being stoned )

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: Ryan and Thorne
When: mid-afternoon
Where: headed toward the northwest shore
Rating: PG

After lunch, Ryan and Thorne had walked to the spring to drink some of the cool, fresh water there and then they'd headed off to gather more plants and roots of various kinds that Thorne could use in making medicines. Ryan had finished several airtight medicine vials, so they could collect enough to hopefully make some larger batches than before, since they'd have a way to store it. Ryan had his pillowcase, and he was mostly carrying the things they found, since obviously Thorne's vision was a lot better than his. "Man, it's hot today," he said; he was already sweating in his tank top from the sun beaming down on them with its white-hot light.

( do we really want monkey pets? )

Who: Nefertiti and Ryan
When: early evening
Where: Under the careful watch of a rock
Progress: Completed
Rating:PG for minor cursing

The storm left Nefertiti on edge and generally miserable. Damned if the goat got sick with pneumonia or chill or anything else that might be lurking out here. She had waited out under the brush clutched tight to the baying creature. Also be damned if it decided to run off in fear. Now in the dusk she sat cross-legged under a particularly large rock with her quilt up to dry on the edge above her. It still irked her that the last sugar cube had melted in her pocket. She thanked God that she had never been the prissy sort. This would of been a living hell. Living outside always got dirt so deep into your skin that not even the strongest scrubbing could get rid of it.

( Read more... )

Who: Helena and Ryan
Where: At the camp
What: Talking about plans
When: In the early afternoon drizzle.

Helena carefully picked her way through the debris of the camp. One of the lean-tos hadn't stood up to the onslaught and it lay in a sodden heap off to the side of the soggy firepit. She expected a rebuilding effort would start up again once they got the fire going again. That was the priority. Today, though, Helena had a bit of a priority of her own. "Ryan," she said as she crouched down next to the young man. "I have half a milk melon if you want it." There would be no roasted meat or seafood soup today. Not until they got the fire going. "I have some stuff I want to talk to you about, too." It felt like it had been days since she'd spent any time with Ryan. She wondered how he was adjusting to the island.

( an even trade )

Who: Ryan and Thorne
When: evening
Where: at the edge of camp
What: caring & comfort
Rating: PG

Ryan had been looking for Thorne for a while now. It had been a really bad couple of days for just about everyone, and he knew Thorne would be feeling particularly awful right now. He hadn't seen him at the funeral and he hadn't seen him afterward, and as the day wore on, he'd started to feel more and more anxious about that. He needed to be sure he was all right, so he began searching for him around camp and its periphery, hoping he wouldn't have to venture into the woods where he wouldn't be able to see where the hell he was going. Despite the lightning flickering overhead and illuminating the dark sky, he was always at a disadvantage during the nighttime.

( you can't fix everything by yourself )

Who: Alex & OPEN
When: Day 25, morning
What: Graveside funeral for Quinn
Where: at the newly created cemetery

( Requiéscat in pace )

Who: Ryan
When: early morning
Where: at the fire pit
What: focusing on nothing
Rating: PG

( you realize that sometimes you're just not okay )

Who: Ryan and Delilah
When: morning
Where: headed west
What: exploring
Rating: PG

Ryan had awakened this morning feeling better, and before he started his day's work of attempting to make medicine jars of some sort for Thorne, he'd decided that he was going to try to become more familiar with the topography of this island. So far he could find his way to the spring with no trouble, but he hadn't yet ventured any further than that except for the time he'd gotten lost and hadn't known where the hell he actually was. The day was bright and sunny and was most likely going to be very warm, and it seemed like a perfect day for him to see what there was to see.

He made his way along slowly in a westerly direction, using his hands to feel of any landmarks he encountered, faintly hearing the sounds of camp just behind him.

( finding random things )

Who: Ryan and Helena
When: late morning
Where: near the campfire

( Call A Doctor! )

Who: Ryan and Rowan
When: extremely early morning
Where: their bedroll

( sleeping time is now )

Who: Ryan and Thorne
When: late night
Where: a short distance from camp
Rating: NSFW (explicit M/M sex)

It had been an eventful day, for damn sure. Ryan had spent most of his time during the daylight hours trying to help around their new camp. He was always acutely conscious of pulling his weight, of doing just as much work as anyone else, and he felt he'd done a decent job of that today. He'd braided tons of cord, worked on one side of the fire pit to hopefully make it more usable for his pottery when he got the chance to get back to that, searched for food, brought water in their most water-tight pot to boil. His ambition was to make something big enough to hold a decent amount of drinking water, but he hadn't yet figured out how to do that.

Then once darkness had fallen, there'd been a lot of confusion and two little tiny kids had showed up at camp. Ryan had arrived late for that, being on the other side of the island at the time; he'd gotten caught there without realizing how soon the sun would set, and it had taken him some time to find his way back in the dark. Jasper had brought the children, someone had told him, and she'd been injured but somebody had swam out and brought her back to camp. That was about all he knew about the situation since he'd arrived so late, but he knew better than to think he would have been able to help that much anyway, since he couldn't fucking see.

Once the excitement had died down, he stood on the outer edge of the area where everyone slept, his eyes on the glow of the fire, which was the only thing he could see in the intense darkness. He felt restless and twitchy, worried about things over which he had no control, and he wasn't anywhere near ready to lie down yet.

( something else to think about )

It was closer to dusk than Kenneth liked when the shore of the lake came into view, but the sight and burgeoning darkness sped the feet of the travelers as their destination appeared. So far there was no sound of laughers behind them, which Kenneth was thankful for.

At the beach, it was organized chaos, but the planning that had been done en route was invaluable as they got the heavier things out of the carts. Kenneth was pleased to see they did in fact float, better even than he'd thought. In groups of two and three people, one stronger swimmer to one or two weaker, they held onto the makeshift rafts and made their way slowly across the fifty or so yards that separated them from the mainland.

Kenneth watched nervously, but some of that disappeared as he made out the form of Helena on the opposite shore. She was alive.

By the time the last raft made it across, which left only the heavier clay pots full of resin, collected food, medicine and Bazzer's skins, the laughers were hot on their trail. On Kenneth's orders, the pots were moved into the shallows and he stood guard over them as their strongest swimmers made a second trip across, this time manhandling the heavy clay pots in groups of two, with longer lengths of braided grass they had thanks to Rowan, tied around them to form a sort of sling like carrier. They took the medicines first, then the resin and skins. Food was easier to replace.

Sooner than he wanted, Kenneth saw the glowing eyes of the laughers. He took one shot then grabbed one of the remaining pots and dove into the water with the laughters splashing in the shallows along the bank. He was surprised to see Aaron, Alex and Thorne make a final dash for the remaining pots and swore softly as he saw the laughers lunge forward.

In a blink, he realized that the four of them had gotten away. They'd sacrificed some of the food they'd gathered, but Kenneth would take that. Given the other possibilities? He'd totally take that.

Who: Ryan and Delilah
When: at dusk
Where: temporary camp, on the way east

( I want to be okay, so I usually am )

Who: Kenneth and anyone/everyone leaving on the 20th
When: Mid morning
Where: Heading east
What: Taking a break


There was no way to keep up the grueling pace all day, at least not for most. Kenneth made sure to call plenty of halts, at least as many as he possibly could, but they still weren't making the speed they'd need to get to the safe camp. Fortunately, he'd sort of planned on that, his worst case scenario. If they didn't make it, he'd circle the carts, build a fire and people would just have to stay awake. The Laughers were smart, he hoped if he took down enough of them, they'd just back off. Did Laughers have a concept for unacceptable losses?

Kenneth didn't know, but he did know that would burn through his ammunition, something he'd already decided was worth it to protect those coming with him. He looked around and squinted up at the sun. Sacrificing a blanket, he tore strips of it with his knife then handed them to the closest person. "Soak these with some water and get people to put them on the back of their necks and heads. It might help."

Who: Jeannie and Open
Where: The Field
When: Morning of day 18
What: Weirdest. Hangover. Ever.
Warnings: None yet. Maybe language. Maybe puking, at some point.

( We did nothing, absolutely that nothing that day, what the hell am I doing drinking in LA? )

Who: Ryan and Payne
When: morning, day 17
Where: near the stream
What: ?? (will fill this in later)
Rating: tbd

( a lack of motivation )