🎵whistle while you work🎶(closed)

[load_aim_shoot]

Who: A. Rama Raju, Lanfear, William Gibson, Renny Oldoak
What: wilderness chore bonding time!
When: I'm thinking some time after the ghostly housefire, but it's loose
Where: the forest around Milton

Content Warnings: talk about food/eating/not eating, possible talk of fire stuff. will add as stuff comes up

Comments

for Lanfear

[load_aim_shoot]

It's impossible to pick the worst thing about being trapped here. He has a list, and it rotates. The worst of it, for now: the restlessness, the need to move and do inside of him that's supposed to be turned to running a track, or punching a bag, or weights, or anything to ease it enough to leave him tired. His shoes, even with a couple nails he's managed to find small enough to hammer into his heels, don't get enough traction on the snow to run for long, not unless he wants to be cold, restless and wet on top of it, and nothing he's seen here was made for training in the way he's used to.

Finding firewood isn't quite enough. Splitting it doesn't take up enough of the task. For all he'd mocked the man he'd found cutting wood that was green and new instead of dry and old, he's been tempted himself, if only it would last long enough to make him sweat. Maybe another day. For now, making sure his hands and feet don't slip on the snow-slick branches as he makes his way up this tree takes enough concentration that it will almost do.

The gloves, treasured but not so good at holding a grip, are tucked inside a pocket he's sewn inside the blanket wrapped and tied around him. It's a good day for going barehanded, by the standards of this place; the snow on his fingers is only cold enough to hurt a little. He makes his way, bit by bit, up toward a dead branch caught in the canopy, the excuse he's found for climbing this way, climbs far enough to grasp one end of it, gives a tug—

And only realises he should have looked down after that branch tugs the ones it's caught on, and the lot of them dump their accumulated snow onto whatever might be below. If it's a person, hopefully they're out of the way; otherwise Raju might have some apologising to do.

[lanfeared]

While Lanfear's own irritation at being trapped here primarily stems from being cut off from the One Power, that only means she has to be more deliberate about how she acquires what she needs to endure her circumstances.

Relying on the hospitality of others isn't a position that's unfamiliar to her — and now, she at least has a temporary place to rest her head with the spare bedroom that March is extending to her. Beyond that, she has very little to her name, but there don't seem to be many here who can boast more in the way of possessions. Everyone is scraping by, though Lanfear has already internally decided that it would be much easier to concoct a plan for departing if she could at least channel. Without the One Power, she's as helpless as any ordinary human, and she loathes it.

For now, she's going to make herself useful, or perhaps even indispensable as far as her current host is concerned — and from there, she's going to attempt an audience with Methuselah, especially if she's managed to garner a reputation for being helpful towards others who have been displaced.

March's firewood supply is dwindling, and she decides she can at least procure him more as she sets off away from the house, wrapping her blue cloak around herself. It shouldn't be an errand that demands she remain away too long, and certainly, nothing that would arouse suspicion, but it feels as though she's only just made her way past the initial treeline before something cold and wet splatters down over her, draping her in a blanket of snow.

Lanfear gasps, the sound an audible seizing of breath, and then glances up into the bare, branch-laden canopy, blinking in a somewhat dazed manner that she doesn't even have to work to feign. "What — ?"

[load_aim_shoot]

There's a gasp and a distinctly feminine voice moving up from beneath him, and Raju's eyes go wide. If this were another life, or another place, the mistake might be only mischief, and he could laugh. Or at least feel the little thrill, for a moment, of being caught doing something he shouldn't have before he takes the problem seriously. Maybe during those months in Delhi this would have felt that way. But it had been warm in Delhi, and Akhtar had been there. Here it's only cold. And snow will only make that cold sharper, the wet of the snow melting on her sharper still.

A branch bends a little under Raju’s shifting weight as he leans, trying to get a better look at just how much snow he’s dumped on her simply by not paying attention. Then he goes still, casting a wary look at the branch he’s holding onto. Better not to move too much, maybe, until she’s out from underneath him.

"Madam," he calls down to her, because if ever there was a time for flattery this would be it. “Would you mind stepping aside? I would hate to knock any more snow down there onto you than I already have.”

[lanfeared]

The shock of the cold is more of a surprise than anything else, since, coincidentally, Lanfear has been feeling rather warmer as of late, not immediately feeling the need to bundle herself in more layers as further protection. She isn't attributing that to anything in particular, though, apart from the possibility that she's simply become more adjusted to the chill here in Milton, but the sudden drape of snow over her hair and shoulders isn't necessarily helping matters.

She hasn't even entertained the idea that she could catch a head cold, but now, she's finding that she almost misses the warm desert sands of Falme, the heat that could successfully chase away any chill, the golden rays of the sun on her face and the fresh scents of battle in the air.

"No, we wouldn't want that," she says, more of a mutter under her breath than anything, and then steps to the side while shaking her arms to try and dislodge more of the snow from herself, then lifts her hands to brush off what she hasn't successfully wrung onto the ground.

"One might inquire as to what you're doing up in that tree," she adds, much louder as she finally ventures another look up into the branches.

[load_aim_shoot]

As she's looking up he's looking down, feeling a draft of cold air up the blanket around him as a bit that's come untied hangs off of him. He can risk leaning now to try and see her, and it's a good thing he waited; a little more snow falls down in wet clumps as his movement pulls at the branch under his hand.

"Ah—" He casts a glance upward at the old branch he had been reaching for, broken off from its tree and tangled in the canopy. Maybe not today. Not that getting it or not getting it makes much of a difference, not really, does it? It hadn't been fuel for a fire that Raju had been desperate for. He has to take a moment to let go of the idea anyway. Going on with what he had been doing would be rude. He should be checking on her.

"Firewood," he calls back down, and lets go of the branches he's holding just long enough to slide down a foot or two, grab another branch, let go and slide a couple more feet, catch another, and then on that way. It's quicker than climbing down. The process loosens even more snow, his shoes leaving trails on the bark until he's close enough to the ground to jump the rest of the way. The nails make his shoes better on the snow than they were, but not by quite enough to keep him from slipping a little as he lands.

He catches himself on the trunk of the tree, straightening and smiling as if the landing had been as graceful and easy as he's used to on decent land, without snow. "Are you alright?" he asks, looking her over now that he's close enough to see just how much or little snow had ended up over her. "I can make a fire if you need, the town isn't too far."

[lanfeared]

"That does make more sense," she admits, loud enough for him to pick up on it this time — but even as she peers up into the canopy, rendered bare by winter's chill, she's not anticipating the sight that greets her, as he proceeds to slide down the tree with seemingly little difficulty at all, and even a touch of acrobatic capability in the process.

Regardless of whether there happens to be a hitch or hesitation in his landing, she doesn't pay it any real mind, more impressed and willing to let that overwrite any lingering annoyance.

"You might have an easier time finding it on the ground, but then again, you seem like a man rather used to climbing trees." She says it as a compliment, with an arch of her eyebrow that's tempered somewhat by the subtle upward curving at both ends of her mouth.

"I'd hate to use up part of what you've already collected," she adds, finally lifting a hand to brush more snow off herself, as though his words have reminded her of the fact that she's still somewhat damp. "On the other hand, freezing before I make it back to the house that someone else is generously allowing me to stay in wouldn't be ideal, so... perhaps a small one?"

[load_aim_shoot]

"The wood's drier up there," he explains, knowing that explanation isn't quite as believable as 'I was up there because I wanted to be' and returning her little smile. Then he moves around to the spot on the ground he'd cleared of snow to put his other firewood on and clears more of the ground, takes a moment to rub some of the sting of the cold from his fingers, and starts arranging the wood with quick, confident movements. He's still more used to building a fire inside a stove than on its own and the shape of what he's building now reflects that a little, but the two sets of skills overlap, and he's been practising. "There's plenty of wood in the Community Hall anyway, it's just good to keep it stocked."

The fire there can go out, for a while, without consequences any more deadly than a little discomfort, but Raju doesn't want it to. For the first time, he's found a kind of discomfort he can't ignore, and the cold has been less bitter lately but it's still cold and he still hates—

He focuses on building the fire, and on the conversation.

"You're staying some place else? One of the houses? I always worry when I go into one that someone will already be there. The abandoned ones all look the same from the outside."

For Renny

[load_aim_shoot]

Foraging, Raju's found, is best done when hungry. It makes it feel important, worth keeping his attention on the task. Tins of beans and old vegetables would do well enough if he wasn't so aware that the only stock they have comes from what stores this little town had before all life in it had ended, and that those living here now had been into those stores for a couple months before he... arrived, and that he's been here months after that. There's been no progress at all in figuring out how to go back to a place which, if not home, at least needs him there and makes sense, and in the mean time canned food isn't going to last forever.

He's found traps here and there in the forest which must be meant for rabbits or whatever else it is that manages to keep living here, and studied their construction, and thinks he might be able to try, at least, to figure out how to use one himself, but... another day. Later. For now he makes his way through the forest, the hint of hunger helping keep his gaze sharp, even while part of him is caught up with thoughts of things that he can't have.

How full Raju's pantry had been, after Akhtar. How empty it had been before. Sleeves rolled up against the heat taken for granted, the glare of a bright sun and open sky, the living murmur of so many other people around looking to buy something themselves, the dust kicked up by so many feet. His friend buying vegetables and fruits and the tragic face he makes when Raju says he won't pick any, that anything they buy is so Akhtar will have something he likes to eat whenever he comes to visit, that it doesn't matter what because Raju would eat anything.

How dim the sun always is, here. How quiet and cold it is, walking through the trees and the snow alone.

But it's for the best. It would be worse, wouldn't it, if a man with a family who needed him was trapped in this place too. And Raju was always going to have to leave the city behind and the idea of Raju-the-student and Raju-the-friend behind him with it, anyway.

Raju's gaze is sharp, but only enough to catch on things he might be able to eat; he realises his mistake, how distracted he'd been, when he notices near too late a form in front of him, an odd log or rock, or maybe a person hunched over. He tries to move around it but no matter how nimble he is his shoes don't always have the traction on the snow that he wants, and whether it works will have to be left up to fate.

[cantor]

Renny's unaccustomed to remaining in one place for too long. Even when their finances stabilized, he and his sister would spend afternoons combing over requests from the Adventurer's Guild and marking rumors on maps. But Milton's different. It's a remote village rendered barren under mysterious circumstances, its secrets buried beneath ice and snow. There is no guild to turn to for direction, no ever-encroaching danger spurring frantic treks, no bustle and clamor of a port city. This plane's wilderness is a freezing grave - and the days stretch, ballooned by worries about home, about his friends and family, about what the next step should be.

He's still learning about the strange nuances of this plane. There's so many things similar to Faerûn - the humans, the fauna and the flora - but the differences are what he occupies himself with. If he's to make any progress in discovering a way back home, Renny has to first learn what he doesn't know. And to do that, he needs to survive long enough. Therefore: he needs to figure out his food situation, sooner rather than later. No adventurer can continue without knowing where to gather their rations.

His childhood growing up in an apothecary serves him well, even here. There are some plants he recognizes, to his delight - lichens and mosses, the fir trees bent underneath the snowfall - but there are even more that are a mystery. In the afternoons, Renny goes foraging, careful to pick plants with gloved hands. He's examining a particularly leafy find (curious, its shape reminds him of mothers'leaf) when he picks up movement out of the corner of his eye.

Immediately, Renny straightens up. An animal passing by? No, he catches sight of someone trying to go around and grins.

"Hello!" he calls out, being loud on purpose. All the people he's met so far have been friendly. He has confidence that, if anyone meant ill-will, he would have been attacked by now. "Don't be a stranger, come on over."

[load_aim_shoot]

Raju's head snaps around toward the voice and he stares, half in surprise, half in blank denial. If he's going to trip over nothing in the middle of the forest where no one lives, someone can't be here at exactly the right time and place to see. It's bad enough with Akhtar, who seems to know the forest the same way Raju knows the city, where Raju isn't stubbing his toes tripping over roots, or stumbling over nothing at all.

It's only that walking idly, looking for whatever plants still grow in this frozen place, is so slow. But he has to pay attention.

Nevermind. There's nothing for it now. Raju puts on a quick, tight smile, certainly not embarrassed as he makes his way over and stands looking down at the man, hands in pockets. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. I was..." Looking for food? Not if he doesn't have anything to show for it. Trying and failing, he might as well have been taking an awful stroll in the awful chill here through the awful snow. "...only passing through."

Still, he isn't in much of a hurry to move on; the inside of the Community Hall is just as boring as the outside is cold. He cranes his neck instead, tilting his head to try and get a better look at whatever's held in the man's hands.

[cantor]

That Raju had tripped isn't something Renny comments on. Company makes everything better, as far as he's concerned. A stranger's a potential ally and friend - and if not, then they'd still make for a decent story. He stands up, three feet tall, having to crane his head to properly make eye contact with the newcomer, but he doesn't seem bothered by it. There's so many taller races scattered throughout Toril that you got used to talking to them like this.

"Disturb me?" Renny chuckles. He waves his free hand, the other still holding onto the mysterious plant. "Nature doesn't belong to anyone, much less me. Are you like me?"

Ah. He should clarify.

"An Interloper?"

[load_aim_shoot]

"Ah." It took him a moment to remember what the term means, here. It isn't one that Raju's used, himself. It always feels like a little bit of an insult, even the times it isn't meant as one. "Odd term, isn't it? I didn't ask to be trapped here. I'd go back if I could."

His hands fit in his pockets oddly; he'd been thinking more about not thinking than his posture, automatic on the heels of being seen embarrassing himself, and he'd forgotten that he's wearing mittens. As his awareness of that distracted moment fades, he becomes aware of it. And of the implications of the question; there might be things this man doesn't know.

"You'll hardly see anyone here who isn't," he says, pulling his mittened hands out of his pockets and wrapping his arms around his chest instead, holding the warmth of the blanket closer to him. "The old man who greeted you in the Community Hall when you arrived, I think he was here before. But everyone else is dead, or disappeared. The first crop of us, before I came, found corpses all looking to the east."

[cantor]

It is an odd term, one with interesting implications. 'Interloper' - unwanted, intrusive, something to be defended against. Raju's right. Renny's yet to meet anyone who'd intended to come to this frozen little village. And if there's anything his experience as a bard has told him, it's that titles - desired or otherwise - speak to the giver as much as the receiver.

He slips a hand into a pocket, mirroring the man for a moment, as he twirls the leaf he plucked in the other. Renny raises his brows at the last piece. "Really? I didn't hear anything about the corpses."

It's a horrifying fact but the adventurer in him stirs at it. Wherever there's danger, there's answers and power to be found. Curiosity lights up his eyes, apparent even to a stranger.

"What's so special about the east? Someone must've tried to find out, right?"

for Billy

[load_aim_shoot]

The inside of the Community Hall is warm. As warm as anything gets here. It should be a relief. Raju closes the door behind him and takes a deep breath as he makes his way to the little bed he’s claimed, partly to give a frustrated sigh, partly to feel the way the air inside the building doesn’t hurt his nose and throat going in. A lack of feeling he’s learned to be grateful for.

It’s better than the alternative, being inside, or so he tries to tell himself. And he always spends long enough out there that a part of him is relieved to give up and sit in front of the fire for a while. But he doesn’t feel any better. No progress, again; the same chores day after day, important, but not in any way that’s going to change anything. That’s all that life is, here. No matter what he does, he can’t find a way to change anything that matters. Maybe this place would be a fitting punishment for his failures, if it really was—

Raju’s frowning as he takes off his shoes, tugs his sewing kit from its place between the bedframe and the mattress. This isn’t an afterlife. There’s no proof of that. There’s no point in thinking about it.

He settles crosslegged close to the fireplace, pulls the blanket that’s supposed to be covering his bed from around his shoulders, inspects one of the loops sewn onto it and doesn’t care for what he sees. Well, if he’s fastening the whole thing there of course it would wear faster. Maybe he should have added the other one in a different place.

A few quick, certain movements of his hands later, Raju’s frown eases. This has always been something peaceful, in better— in different days, closer to home. Or, in some ways, maybe just as far away. That doesn’t need thinking about, either. Maybe he’ll check the other straps and loops meant to help him wear something which wasn’t made for it, and then the pocket, and then the neat, oddly shaped hem where he’s cut material from it before. That will keep him occupied for a while, at least. Something useful, something he can do with his hands. That’s what he needs.

[notarat]

Even though Billy may not always be the most social person around, he can't help but go to the Community Hall from time to time. If he is to live in this place - or rather, survive in this place - it's better to make some connections, he thinks. Or at least to see what the people of this place are like, even if his main opinion so far is 'strange.'

Maybe this is yet another example of it. It's not too strange to find anyone sitting near the fireplaces here when warmth is such a precious resource in this place, though it is definitely strange to see the man wearing a blanket, before the other takes it off and starts to work on it.

It leaves him to blink for a moment or two, not even fully realising how much he's just standing there and staring.. It's a good thing the other man seems caught up in his work, really. Keeps Billy from looking like a creeper.

The combination of the familiar activity with the unfamiliar object use for a garment makes Billy slowly approach after a few moments though. It's pretty unobtrusive, like there's something about Billy that just seems very unoffensive, like he blends in with the scenery.

".. may I ask a question, sir?"

Look, he has manners! He knows how to be polite!

[load_aim_shoot]

When Raju looks up he’s smiling, with his eyebrows pulled tightly together. He looks baffled. He is baffled. Sir in that tone, from a man with that accent. The accent is one of the softer ones that Raju’s heard but still, he thinks, an Englishman.

But very few here seem to act the way they should. Especially the Englishmen. And Raju’s hardly going to call it strange out loud when the man’s doing so much to try to be polite. Maybe he’s only been made so hesitant by this inescapable, inexplicable place. Anyone would be.

The bafflement does its part to drive the frustration left in Raju back, as does the expression that takes its place, a wider smile, a friendly set to the skin around his eyes. It’s instinctive to try and meet that kind of hesitance with something reassuring, and Raju pulls his knees up just far enough to set his forearms on, leaning forward as he smiles.

“Why not?” he asks, one hand holding the blanket while the other rolls the needle back and forth between its thumb and fingers, dark thread stretching out between them. “How can I help?”

[notarat]

At least Billy realises why the other is giving him that reaction. Even if he might be from before certain events in history, it's not like Billy is blind to the differences between the colour of their skin. But-- well, he figures that sort of thing matters very little in this place. There's no such thing as society here, let alone British society. (Which, in turn, was a society his own standing wasn't so great in either, making it feel like it matters even less.)

They're just a bunch of people trying to make things somehow work out here together. They are all stuck on the same level. If anything baffles Billy much more than the other's surprise, it's that easy smile on Raju's face. As if being greeted with friendliness on the other's part is the biggest mystery here to Billy. That is what makes him blink and stare in turn, even if it's just for a slight moment before he regains his voice, his expression more neutral again.

"Why were you wearing that?"

It's a bit more of a blunt question, compared to the softer edge his politeness had a moment ago, but Billy is still careful to not put any real judgement into the question.

Even if wearing a blanket around is, you know.. a little strange..

"It doesn't exactly seem practical."

[load_aim_shoot]

Raju raises his eyebrows, letting out a soft, amused breath as he looks down at himself with a wryly embarrassed little smile. Even without the blanket, Raju knows how he looks: There are the trousers which he does his best to dry a crease into, the shirt which he always tries to drape in a way that keeps it from wrinkling, but even the socks are the worse for wear now, the one set of clothes he's had since he came into this place washed often enough that it's started to show. And with the blanket, the same effect again: obviously not made to be worn, with the bottom edge of it an irregular line where he's cut strips and squares away. He's almost used to wearing it now but the question reminds him how little he'd want to be seen in it by anyone back home.

"Or fashionable," he agrees as he looks back up again, a little dry. "I know. But it keeps the cold out, more or less. I suppose I could have tracked down a proper coat someone else came here with and taken it for myself. But what good would that do when they came to take it back? I can wrap this well enough, and I've cut some off the bottom for these straps, see here? It works. We have to do what we can in this place, don't we?"

Raju's answer is matter of fact, responding to the question's non-judgemental tone, but he takes a moment to look the other man's clothes over anyway, comparing. "Have you not had so much trouble dealing with this cold? Maybe you're more used to it than I am."

[notarat]

Even though it's not a very big reaction, the man sure does make a bit of A Face at that last remark.. There certainly is an irony in it, after all, and not a particularly good one. Billy doesn't want to know just how much the cold of the Arctic has seeped into his bones at this point, a place he never particularly cared to be in the first place. A cold that has chased him even here. Even now.

He doesn't mention anything about it. Not because he wants to lie to Raju, really. It's more just that he doesn't want to think of it. So, instead..

"I think this cold is tough on anyone."

A very factual statement. Easier to stick to.

Besides, Billy is also thinking about the rest of what the other is saying. He's been modifying stuff? That could be helpful, especially if Raju ends up having more experience with that sort of thing, just like how Billy himself does.

".. I think we can do better than this though." This, obviously, being the blanket. Not that Billy cares about being fashionable, but he does care about being practical. "Have you often sewn before, Mr.."

His voice trails off at the end there, like he's giving Raju a chance to introduce himself. It may be only now that Billy is realising they didn't exactly start out with that-- perhaps he's trying to correct that course mid-conversation.

for Levi

[load_aim_shoot]

Raju's distracted when he comes back into the hall, gaze unfocused, rubbing at his fingers absently. He'd forgotten to put his mittens back on. On the walk back, he'd been thinking. Thinking of...

Well, of nothing he didn't already know, hasn't already seen. There has to be something, some explanation, but he isn't even looking for that any more. It's only still there, in his memory: the boy, the fire. The bone deep knowledge, what happens to a child's life on a day like that one, the kind of life that boy had in front of him—

And the boy gone, the fire gone. The man who'd tried to save the boy with him, his talk about gods. How the whole of it might have been a vision from this place's gods.

Raju scowls. He blows an angry breath out through his nose. He walks with heavy, quick strides over in the direction of the fireplace. There are others who sleep in this building, spend time here. Not as many as he's used to spending his time near, at home. Well, in Delhi. But similar enough. He's well practised at ignoring them, not speaking unless spoken to. It's habit, mostly, even on good days. And today isn't.

[solitarysoul]

Levi is seated against the wall near the fireplace, opened bottle of vodka in his hands. He watches Raju approach...he doesn't read emotions well, but he's pretty sure Raju isn't feeling fine.

He holds up the bottle. "If you need it, you can have some."

[load_aim_shoot]

Raju's step slows. His frown deepens for a moment as he looks over the bottle. He's thinking more about what he smells just now, the details that he hadn't noticed absent in that house during the fire that wasn't one, and whatever's in the bottle smells strong. For a moment, he considers it.

"Best not," he decides, strides a couple steps away and then turns and paces back, stops again, eyes the boy as he keeps rubbing at his fingers. He tries to remember if this is something Levi does usually; ignoring the others living near or not, there are some habits Raju would notice. "Aren't you a little young for that?"

Old enough, at least, that it's a question, instead of something certain. Not that it matters on a day like this, but it comes out of him anyway.

[solitarysoul]

"You sure? I find it helps, just don't drink too much." He's not sure where the line between sanity restored and getting drunk is, but he's passed it before. "I'm 18. That's old enough where I come from."

Not to say that he never drank before then, it was just harder to get.

[load_aim_shoot]

Raju hums in acknowledgement, starting to pace again. "Helps what?" he asks after a moment, impatiently. "There's no... no reason for anything that happens in this place. There's no clues. They just happen. Is that going to help me figure it out?"

The hand that'd just flung itself out in the direction of the bottle pauses, drops. Raju rubs at his palm. He closes his eyes with a sigh. The boy's done nothing but offer a drink. "I'm sorry, I... It's been an odd day."

[solitarysoul]

"Not with figuring it out, no. I wish anything did. With relaxing, with easing the strain on your mind when things get to be too much." He looks down at the bottle, "Doesn't always work so great though. But its the best thing I've found here."

It was important to keep your sanity meter from getting too low. This place seemed to drain it pretty easily.

He nods to the 'odd day' comment. His had been odder than usual too. "The lights, or the fire?"