Sameen I Female I Member I Mentions: the gang

[ Roxie Sweet ]

| Female | Member | Mentions: Ben and Adaline |

Roxie breathed in the familiar scent of the forest. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be out and about in the vast wilderness she loved so much. It was really the only place to go and vent to literally nothing, but she didn’t care as long as it felt like the trees would listen and not tell a soul what she had said. She followed behind Ben and Adaline, feeling a bit out of place. Normally she had always been in the middle of the line, but someone had told her that was just to make sure she didn’t run off. Being at the back of the group didn’t particularly feel right either and she had the urge to cut quickly in front of Adaline, but she held herself back and kept on riding steadily behind them.

She slowly pulled out her gun, an old but new looking carbine repeater that she normally cleaned hoping to get to use it someday. She had had this gun ever since she’d joined the gang a few years ago. She had always kept it loaded just in case there was an attack.

Her horse gave a small snort and she patted him on the head gently to tell him it was alright. Roxie looked around at the trees hoping to see something; a deer, a turkey, a rabbit, anything that would mean that she’d be the one putting food on the table for once. She sighed quietly to herself when she saw nothing nearby and lowered her weapon but kept alert just in case anything did show up. She wanted to be the first to catch something, or at least the first to see something. She glanced over at Ben and Adaline to see if they had seen anything yet.

Slicker | Male | 27 | Member | M: Ollie (Dep), + Everyone (Ind)

“Oh come on, el cerebro!~” Slicker called. “I know you can hear meeeeee! No need to ignore me.” Ollie was so strange it always made Slicker laugh at just how rude Ollie could be sometimes. Deep down, he knew Ollie cared. It was obvious to anyone who had eyes. Ollie was probably just desperate for people to like him, but didn’t want people to think he was clingy. Slicker was always analyzing the gang members and Ollie was a common subject for him. He didn’t know why, but the quiet man was just so interesting to him. What kind of insecurities or flaws could he be trying to hide in his defensive and agitated outward shell? It was a fascinating question. One that Slicker knew he would only be able to speculate. This is because of this unspoken rule that everyone here seems to make: don’t ask about the past. Even despite this simple rule, he swore he knew everyone’s backstory without ever hearing them talk about their previous lives. Their lives before the gang. Ollie was one of the people he felt as though he knew the most about only because of the amount of time he spends with him. At this point, he felt like he knew Ollie better than anyone.

Maybe even better than Adaline.

It was at that moment that he realized Snapple, his horse, was nowhere to be found. Well, he was sure Snapple was close by. She couldn’t have wandered far. Maybe from the hill Ollie was on, he could spot her. Or, worst case scenario, climb the tree to get a better look of the area for his horse. He had owned that horse for… For at least a decade and a half. He hated most horses because of an incident he faced when he was younger, but Snapple? She was the most gentle creature he had ever met. It was a nice change of pace too. To know something that for sure wouldn’t hurt him. When he grew up, he learned that everything, everything, was out to get him. Slicker was glad that as he grew up, not everything and not everyone was going to try and hurt him.

“Soooooo!” Slicker said, as soon as he reached the foot of the tree. He stopped and looked over Ollie’s shoulder before crouching down by him. “Ohhhhh… New book, eh?” Slicker pried his cigarette from his lips with one hand and tilted his head to try and peak at the title. “What’s it on? Is it any good?? Come on, at least tell me what the book’s about why don’t cha?” Slicker glanced back to Ollie with a smirk. “Come on. Go get yerself some food, ‘kay? You can read an’ eat at the same time you know! It’s called using that brain of yours, el cerebro, and multi-tasking.” Slicker gave a fake, dramatic gasp. “I know! So damn challenging! Can even the great Ollie even achieve such a feat?” Slicker stood with a loud laugh, ruffling Ollie’s hair with one hand and putting his cigarette back in his mouth with the other. “I guess we’ll never know if you stay brooding over here, now will we?”

Now where was Snapple? Knowing her, she was probably covered in water or rolling in the mud. That would be so much fun to clean up later.

Vera | Female | 26 | Member | M: Lotte (Dep), Conner (Dep), Adaline (Ind), + Everyone (Ind)

Vera hated talking sometimes. She knew she didn’t talk in the most perfect way possible and that her accent was thick and her English was terrible at best. That’s why it was always so frustrating when she had so much to say. For one, when she sat down and shoveled a forkful of food into her mouth, so much so that she barely could chew properly with all the food in her mouth, she wanted to compliment Lotte. Lotte was the few people Vera wanted to be genuinely kind to, if she was honest. And if she was still being honest, she realized she probably couldn’t interrupt the conversation Lotte and Conner were having. Conner looked to be in a bit of a rough state, but he could have just been in a rush to get over for breakfast. He looked more than a little rough actually. But then again, who was she to judge? Vera’s eyes held heavy bags and her body still lingered with the smell of sweat and Slicker’s cigarettes.

Vera had only been in the group for just under seven months. Not a newcomer, but definitely not as friendly with everyone or even that close to anyone besides perhaps Slicker and Lotte. Then again, everyone was close with Lotte. She was just such a genuinely good person which was almost unimaginable for Vera. Slicker, on the other hand, just made her laugh. It was sad that until she met Slicker she hadn’t laughed for such a long time. Maybe Adaline was a friend as well. Adaline was definitely a smart person. One that you had to be careful with. Vera still didn’t know if Adaline liked her or hated her guts, but even though she specialized less in combat and more in other skills, Adaline held some of Vera’s respect. That was a rare thing for someone in the group to earn. Only four people truly held her respect, Adaline included.

Vera hadn’t realized she had just been staring at her food until she heard Lotte talking to Conner again. Vera still had shovels of food in her mouth which she quickly swallowed down before looking back up between Connor and Lotte. She didn’t want to be rude, but at this point, everyone thought of her as a gruffian so why let down their expectations? Plus, it wasn’t that rude to interrupt their conversation for compliments.

“You made food, right?” Vera asked, her heavy Spanish accent and low pitched voice interrupting the two. Vera waved her fork at Lotte to make sure Conner knew she wasn’t talking to him. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Conner, she just wasn’t in the mood for talking with him at the moment. She stared up at the taller woman for a moment before continuing with a small smile, a rare thing to see with Vera. “Food good. A little salt nice, but very good. You try hard to cook and it show.” The smile quickly faded as she stuffed another pile of meat into her mouth and continued to eat. Despite not showing it too obviously, Vera was super abnormally happy for once. Her shoulders relaxed and not tense, her eyes wide with delight, and she hadn’t picked a fight with anyone just yet today so this was a win-win for everyone.

Adaline I Female I Second in Comand I Mentions: The gang

Adaline allowed her horse to follow Ben's. She loved being out in the outdoors for once with no obligations. If they didn't bring anything back that would be okay, althought of course she needed to bring something back for her gang. She loved her gang, it was her entire life, her family. She had been in the gang for the majority of her life, she had never known anything different. She couldn't even remember the short period she had been left alone, which was good for her.

She brought her mind back on the task at hand, hearing a noise from the forest. She took the repeater off her shoulder, letting go of Bourbon's reins for a moment to make sure the sights on the gun were set accordingly. She had a small scope on the gun, which might be helpful in this senerio.

She was adjusting the sights of the gun, absentmindedly directing the horse. The sights seemed to be lined up correctly and she took one more look through them before being satisfied. She checked that the gun was loaded, then put the strap back over her shoulder, in a place she could easily grab it. She smiled, excited for this hunt trip.

Suddenly Burbon tensed, a split second later she spun around, galloping off. Adaline was caught off gaurd, the horse spinning around so fast that she almost slid right off the side. The mare had obviously been frightened by soemthing from the way it froze and then dashed. Adaline managed to grab the reins, but the horse had decided to go jump over a log. Adaline pulled her to a halt before the log, the mare tossing her head and started to rear up slightly on her back legs.

Blaze Perry l M l 21 l newbie l M: Asta

Blaze walked back to camp slowly, still drenched in water because of his arrogant horse. He noticed Asta’s horse laying next to her tent. She must’ve been finding food for it again. He wasn’t around her much, but she seemed pretty nice so far. Her horse seemed pretty tame; better than his at least. Maybe it had something to do with some breeds being more social than others. He reached out to pet it, but it pulled away and ran off in another direction. If Asta found out he lost her horse, he’d be dead! He ran after it, hoping to catch it looping around back towards camp. The horse managed to run straight into an old wire fence. He approached it slowly, hoping not to spook it. “It’s fine, I’m here to help.” That only seemed to worry it more as it began to panic. The horse thrashed around and twisted in the wire, wrapping it around its ankle in the process. Finally a sickening crack noise emerged and its ankle was bent at an odd position. “Oh-shoot!” Why was he so accident-prone? All the horses he was around seemed to die or run off in one way or another.

He ran back to the camp in a dead sprint. On the way back, he tried to avoid hitting trees, but managed to run into others in the process. Kitchen- kitchen… Where was it? He came back at a different area than he was usually around. He began to jog around the camp looking for Asta. She must’ve found a sack of oats because she was lugging it back to her tent when he found her. “Hey, Asta!” He yelled over to her, motioning in his direction,”Your horse, it-” He hesitated at the last part, struggling to find words.

Asta dropped the sack in surprise, its contents emptying all over the grass. “What?” She ran over to Blaze, worried that her horse had done something really stupid.

“Just follow me, okay?” He ran at a manageable pace back to where her horse had gotten injured. While trying to catch his breath from all the running, he tried to explain. “It…”

She knelt down, examining her horse. Her head tilted up to look at him again, “How.” Her face was in a death glare look and her words came out rough. It was less of a question than a statement with that tone.

Blaze grimaced. “Your horse- er- it managed to run out here. And I followed it… If it just ran off that would be bad, right? Or-” He understood her concern as horse medicare was hard to come by.

“So this is your fault?”

Oh, yikes. She was a little too attached to her horse, huh. “Well, one could say. It depends on how you look at it.”

She laughed a bit at that. “You think horse lives mean nothing, huh? Tell me, how many have you gone through by now?”

“Well…” He counted on his fingers. “I don’t really know how many.”

“They mean just as much as a human’s, you know.” She smiled, making the situation become much worse. “So, what’ll it be? An ankle or a life?” Her blade swished, pointing in his direction as if to say, ‘you’re next’.

“I-”

(I'll add the second part under Asta later. I'm just leaving an opening just in case)