SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

Something spiked in his blood when she asked to see his kit, but he nodded it away, willed it away. Revealing what was in his bag - beyond the rations and the medkit that came standard, naturally - wouldn't go very far in the theme of this interaction.

Keep the peace, prevent this whole thing from melting down around him immediately.

"Sure," he said, brightly, "no, yeah. I get that. Here,"

He turned to his bag, then, opening it halfway and reaching inside it, carefully. His fingers brushed it as he retrieved the box, slid it out from the bag, and closed it shut again, taking an extra moment to smooth it closed, giving the appearance of fussing.

Oskar handed the box over, then - glancing on the ground first - sat beside Caedyn, stretching his legs out and tucking the bag behind him.

"How bad is it, doc?"

The Cassowary's impressive body and instincts might lead one to believe it is fully a predator. It is built like a hunter, to be sure, and it is deadly from crest to claw, but make no mistake: the Cassowary's most dangerous asset is its intelligence. It knows that it does not need to chase some meals. That some will simply be brought to it, or left by those that are more careless, less efficient. The Cassowary is not too prideful for scraps. It can wait for another to make the kill, then take what it can after all that energy has been expended, and it is left stronger than both predator and prey.

---

Caedyn could live in that mindset. People had to die, but she didn't have to kill them, now did she? Not when they'd stumble over her feet to kill each other. Stupid Jane. Stupid, Stupid Jane. Oskar had some kind of plan, and she was happy to sit back and see where it led. Best case scenario, they took each other out, and she could just walk away without any worries. She'd clean up, refresh, and rinse and repeat. That was the key to this whole thing. She didn't have to think too hard; just let other people's shittiness drag them down until she could go home.

With that in mind, she sat down back in the grass and let the pair talk, throwing Oskar a glance every once in awhile. The occasional bit of eye contact, and a slight nod. Something to reciprocate his little wink, and let him know that she was with him...whatever he did.

She absolutely wasn't. But if that made it easier for him to get it over with, she could give him a nudge.

Son of a bitch, of course he had to go and sit next to Caedyn. Was he doing that on purpose? Jane bit her lip for a second, about to press out more curses, but then decided to try and contain her frustration for the moment. She'd give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, if only because the guy looked like he couldn't even harm a dayfly.

She took a reluctant step towards the two ground dwellers, then got in front of Oskar and kneeled down on one leg.

Took her all but two seconds to regret that though. God, that stench, what the fuck was that? Her first instinct was to pinch her own nose shut, but she pulled her fingers away immediately, instead rubbing her face in an irritated manner. Like seriously, this was shit she was smelling, she wasn't fucking imagining things. Oskar had just been in front of her seconds ago, standing up and all; she hadn't smelled anything then. So, yeah...of course.

She turned her head towards Caedyn for a second, shooting her a glare while resisting the temptation to hurl some words of disgust into her stupid face. Fucking rank. Just, how much more obnoxious could this bitch get, seriously?

She had other things to do though. The smell was terrible and all, but she'd have to ignore it too. Oskar probably wouldn't move his ass elsewhere if she asked him to, what with the way how he had sat down right there next to Caedyn. Yeah, no way around it. Ugh.

Putting Oskar's kit on the ground next to her, Jane focused her attention on the red carpet of welts all over the guy's legs. Goddamn, what the hell had he been doing? As if those nettle stings weren't enough, his skin was adorned with a whole bunch of scratches as well. Quite an accomplishment, really.

"Jesus, did you go frolicking through those bushes or something? I mean, it's not really serious or anything, but you really gotta try to get your legs fucked up like this."

She reached for the med kit, which opened with a quite satisfying sounding 'click'. Yeah, she loved that sound for some reason, didn't even know why. Even better though, looked like the thing really was packing everything she'd need to treat the guy. She had almost kind of expected it to just be empty or something, like some sort of cruel, twisted prank. Didn't look like it though, unless there was acid inside those bottles or some shit like that. Only one way to find out.

Rummaging through the contents of the box, she quickly lifted her head to look at Oskar. "Could use some of your water here. I mean, I can try without, but if you want to keep those legs, better hand me some of that."

No clue why she was making jokes now, to lighten the mood or some shit like that. Not like she really was in the mood for it herself though. "Really though, gonna need your water bottle. Don't worry, I won't use too much, scout's honor."

His shield was still intact, stretching his teeth out and letting his piercing wink out at her from the corner of his mouth. Oskar's eyebrows drew downwards, one shooting up again immediately, as if fleeing from the expression forming on his face.

"I think," he said, and swallowed - hard, working around a dry throat, "that we should conserve as much water as we can. We don't really know how long this is... going to take."

His smile turned downwards, forming an apology, eyes flicking to the left.

"We should find water."

The words came out cold and flat. "You're both right. Need to save the bottles, but you shouldn't just, like, leave that alone."

She slowly rose from the floor and went to grab her bag. "I need to clean up. I'll help you look."

Simple. To the point. Dramatics could come later. Oskar didn't want to make his move yet, and that was fine. She could wait. She could escalate.

The Cassowary was gonna eat well tonight.

((Caedyn Miller Continued In I've Got No Strings))

Jane frowned a little in response to Oskar declining her request. Who was the medic here? Yeah, technically, she was only a greenhorn herself, but she'd have bet his ass and her own that she knew more about this sort of stuff than him. Eh, she'd let him have his way, not her problem.

"Well, whatever. Your leg, not mine."

Her hands wandered back to the med kit, fished out a single utensil, then went to apply it on Oskar's wounds. Med kit, leg, repeat. She was fully engrossed in fixing up his scratches and welts as best as she could, while completely ignoring Caedyn at the same time. Heard her say something. Didn't matter. Probably just some spiteful shit.

A few relatively quiet minutes later, her work was done. She had to admit, she was pretty damn proud of herself. Had managed to get this done despite everything. Took something to accomplish that.

A smile of complacency lingered on her lips for a few seconds as she observed the new bandages on Oskar's now not-so-bare legs. Then she lifted her head to talk to him.

"There, that should do it. Also, I think we should get moving now, yeah? Like, we've been taking roots for god knows how long now."

She lifted herself to her feet, brushing off some dirt of her dress. They needed to get going, maybe find some people or just go and camp out somewhere. Whatever, as long as Caedyn wouldn't go on her nerves. Or even better, just fuck off completely.

She looked down at Oskar. Hard to not feel bad for the guy, really. Looked delicate like a mayflower, or how that saying went. Probably was too. Eh, checked out, as long as he wasn't too much of a burden to her.

"Better get up now, lazybones. And yeah, I'm still waiting for a 'thank you'."

((Jane Madison continued elsewhere))

He didn't provide one.

((Oskar Pearce, elsewhere.))