The Field

Who: Kenneth
Where: The island
When: Day 23
What: Running and thinking

Kenneth was running along the beach, feet pounding as the warm sun beat down on him. It felt good to run like this, no pack, no guns, just his knife. He’d left the guns with Bazzer. Well, he’d left them hidden, but Bazzer knew where they were and would make sure no one went near them. Kenneth needed to clear his head and work out everything that had happened the night before. He’d kissed someone for the first time in a long time and for the first time in his life, he’d kissed another man. That he hadn’t immediately fled the lean-to in a panic was fairly impressive, that he was contemplating an actual relationship with another man was downright phenomenal.

( Run, run as fast as you can )

Who: Rook and Delilah
When: night
Where: a bit away from the campfire
Rating: PG

As the day had progressed, Delilah hadn't really improved. She hadn't done much, trying to let her body rest, but it was hard when doing that made her feel so useless. She'd held onto Helena's blanket for as long as she felt all right doing so, then had left it neatly folded where she'd picked it up from. The other woman herself didn't sound so good at the meeting they had. She'd stuck close to the fire as much as possible, hardly awake and aware of anything except how crappy she felt.

Then night had fallen, and the temperature dropped even more. She'd tried laying on the ground, and that just ... no, that wasn't going to work. Fever-achey, Delilah got up and started to wander among the people settling in for the night, until she saw a familiar head poking out from under a blanket. Arms crossed over her stomach, goosebumps all over her bare legs, Delilah stopped and bent down a bit. "Rook?" she said quietly.

Apparently, Rook was going to be out of commission for a while. Sleep tugged at him, but his mind was running at a hundred miles an hour. What did this new leadership mean? There was something innately wrong with this whole situation and it made him sick to his stomach... or it could just be the grazer kebab rising from the ashes like a phoenix and determined to gain revenge for itself.

( You're freezing. )

Who: Everyone
What: The election of a tribal council.
Where: Around the fire pit.
When: Evening of Day 23

It was well after a dinner of grazer kabobs and Sophie's clam soup that Helena, wrapped in her comforter, stood up and commanded everyone's attention. She didn't feel too steady on her feet so she stuck close to Cross's side. With one hand padded with her comforter rested lightly on his shoulder, her level for up and down, vertical and horizontal was measured by his rather relaxed but correct posture. "Everyone," she called out in a more-raspy-than-normal voice and her dark eyes swept over the group. She nodded to Ken, whom she'd spoken to earlier about his role in this part of the election. He nodded back and pulled a basket toward himself.

Bleary eyes mixed with conscious ones all focused on her and she launched in to the speach that she'd been practicing in her head for the past day or two. "I really want to thank all of you who have put your faith in me as your leader. I don't feel like I've earned the distinction but I want you to know that your willingness to trust me is appreciated and...and it just means a lot." She touched her chest above her heart with her free hand. "However, I think that there are a lot of us now," her eyes found Luc and then Adnan in the dancing, shifting shadows of the fire. "And I think we ought to re-evaluate out method of government. Most of us come from Democratic countries. It's a system we are familiar with and I believe that it is a good basis for building our new ruling body from." She coughed into her elbow for a moment before continuing.

( The Light Of Democracy Knows No Illness, Poverty or Ill-Favor )

MOD NOTES: This is a mandatory election, all comments are screened so each character can contribute their vote in secrecy. Feel free to vote exactly how you feel your character would do. At the end, once all votes are in, I'll post the result!

Who: Helena and Cross
What: A little bit of medicine administered
When: Early evening, before dinner
Where: The edge of camp

Helena was seated outside of the lean-to where Jasper was snoring gently in her pile of blankets. So far she hadn't shown any symptoms of the illness that was floating around camp but that still didn't seem to stop her from claiming the day for recovery. No one held it against her. Helena herself was feeling worse and worse as the day wore on and she was sure she was coming down with it now. Still, she was helping Thorne by inventorying all of the herbs that several groups had managed to locate, tying them in bundles to be seen to at a later date. she was happy to see that his notebook was very useful here. Whoever its author had been, she or he must have lived in this region at least for a little while.

Separating the greasy feeling neoheather from the mushy scoops of pink lake algae and the fat bulbs from the burnbutter plant, she was practically in a daze, nearly unaware of any movement within the camp.

( Read more... )

Who: Lucien and Thorne
When: Early Morning
Where: The lake (then the shore)
Rating: G (so far)

( The lake does not equal bed. )

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

( Call A Doctor! )

Who: Rook & [Open]
When: Mid-afternoon
Where: Grazer Island
What: Building lean-tos
Rating: TBD


Rook knew something wasn't right. He'd been sick all morning, throwing up fluids and stomach acid the moment he had shot awake in a cold sweat. Lugging back disc trees in the freezing cold had been a bad idea, and it was evident he was only just paying for the consequences. Still, he forced himself awake, going back to the large pile of wood he had managed to gather in two days. So far it had been useful for avoiding people, for living in his own world. Now it was time to get to work.

Braiding grass through his dazed, semi-conscious state, Rook felt uncomfortably warm despite the cold breeze gusting through camp. His boxers and the bedding that he had wrapped himself in were soaked in his own sweat, and his muscles ached painfully in time to the throbbing of his head. His hands shook and shivered as he tightened each knot. It was a struggle to focus, to remember what he was trying to do, and at times he stopped without realizing. Once he had a decent amount of the rope, he forced himself to his feet. He tore at the trunk of the tree, pulling it apart into long, flexible sticks. Slowly, the frame of the lean-to came into existence as he dug a hole for the base, secured the stick into the ground and bound up the top ends with the rope to form a sort of dome-shape.

( By mid-afternoon... )

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

( sleeping time is now )

Who: Helena and Delilah
When: mid-morning
Where: camp
Rating: G

Delilah? Didn't feel so hot. In fact, she felt more or less like stepped-on crap. She couldn't even really remember who she'd lain with that night, only that she didn't feel like she could get warm at all. And so far the morning hadn't been any different. She had her pillow, yes, but that wasn't the same as a blanket. Gods, why hadn't she kept her apartment colder and just piled blankets up on top of herself? What she wouldn't give for a down comforter. And even though the sun was up, she didn't seem to be absorbing any of it. Someone had made a fire in the middle of camp for breakfast, and even though it had gotten low, the Ukranian shuffled her way over to it, shoulders hunched. She sat down in front of it and pulled her legs up to her chest, tugging her t-shirt down over them like a kid, so she was just a little ball.

She was so disoriented, with the move. Her feet hurt, her sunburn ached, she felt cold and sweaty at the same time. Delilah wondered dully if she was getting some alien disease. Maybe she wouldn't last long here. She propped her chin on one knee and tried not to look too pitiful. Maybe once she warmed up, she'd go find something useful to do. Just a few more minutes ... ( Are you feeling all right? )

Who: Analiese and Adnan
When: morning
Where: near the rock waterfall, then camp
What: discovering a newcomer
Rating: PG

Analiese was mostly in a daze as she wandered over in the direction of the rock pool and waterfall near which she and Bazzer had swam the previous day. That had probably been a mistake, she'd realized as soon as she'd awakened bundled up in her sweater and her blankets still absolutely freezing. Her feet still hurt, sore from the long walk to get to this camp from the sweetgrind fields, and she was sniffly and her eyes kept watering. She had the bad feeling that she was getting sick. While she was cold, she still had an irresistible craving for cold, fresh water, and the little pool where the grazers drank was the best place she'd found to get that.

She rounded the stand of brush and the rock that surrounded the pool, pausing to peer at her reflection in its surface. She'd never imagined looking this horrible. Her hair was an unmanageable mess that she'd finally French-braided and tied with a tough piece of vine as soon as she'd gotten up, and of course she didn't have any makeup; her skin looked pale and blotchy. Well, nobody else had makeup either, she reminded herself, and something like that was the least of her worries. She drank deeply from her cupped hands and then turned around, uttering a little squeak when she saw a man lying on the purple grass a yard or so away.

( what the bloody hell...? )

Who: Alex and Quinn
What: Lunch for the faithful and unfaithful alike doesn't end so well.
Where: At Alex's new church
When: An hour or two after noon.
Rating: G

( Due To Sudden Illness )

Who: Angelica and Open
Where: Current camp
When: 23rd late morning
What: Angelica is sick and trying to hide it for now.
Rating: At least PG-13

( Cold water+severe sunburn+everything else=sick? )

After a very wet evening it merely adds insult to injury when the temperature drops even further. In the darkest hours of the night it dips as low as 8C (46F). Out of necessity, whether you like your neighbour or not, you're forced to get close to them. Body heat and the wakeful people stoking the fire is the only thing to keep a chilly death from hypothermia at bay.

This is more than bad news to many. It's making the notion of being able to freely swim back and forth across the lake seem out of reach. With limited clothing amongst them, there's no dry clothes to change in to. There's no towels, just bedding and if it's used to dry people off, then they have to sleep damp at night. All in all, the night is hard on morale, even with the laughers safely held at a distance.

The following day never gets any warmer than 18C (64F) but the sky is clear and sunny. No signs of rocs and the grazers move about their lives. Several people wake up not feeling quite so well, however. Glassy eyed and warm with fever, people feel lethargic and achy. Unable to get warm. Perhaps everyone has just been pushed too far physically over the past few days. The long walk, the cold water, the limited food. Sun burn and sun stroke. Not to mention the cold nights spent out of doors. It's no surprise that people are beginning to run down.

( Mod Notes - Please Read )