Ben listened as the rain fell around his tent. After a while Ben got bored and decided to go look for Adaline and work up the courage to talk to her. He first went to her tent but he didn't see her in there so he started to look around camp. Before long he found Adaline sitting it the rain, rain water soaked her sleeveless shirts that she was wearing. Ben sat under the tree with her. For a while he said nothing, he just listened to the rain fall of the green leaves of the tree. Ben finally got the courage to say something to her. "Sorry I didn't help you carry it back..." Ben said softly as he looked at the cougar she was skinning.

Ben didn't know what to say, so he said the first thing that came to his mind "Did you like the flower?" He asked in a very nervous voice. He was so nervous that his palms started to sweat and he started shaking very lightly. It was clear that he was super nervous and he was worried he was making a fool out of himself.

Ben looked at the sky while he waited for a reply from Adaline. He tried to calm his panic by breathing in and out. Why was he so panicked? Of course, the one time he finally decided to go talk to Adaline he started to panic. Ben shook his head and sighed. He closed his eyes as he relished in the peace of the rain.

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

Slicker sighed. It was hard being a friend of an asshole. They always use their asshole-ness against you when you’re just trying to be nice. That’s just one problem with them at least. Another was that the asshole friend will most likely be an asshole. And a third problem, or a problem in this particular case of Ollie, the asshole will shove their nose in a book and practically ignore you. Ah, the challenges of trying to be the friend of an asshole! Now, being the man he was, Slicker was going to do what any non-asshole friend would do. The gears in his brain were turning as a smile curved his face. A wicked smile as his eyes twinkled with mischief. Slicker walked to the side of the tree and leaned against it, twirling the cigarette with his tongue.

“Weeeeeeell, my good companion,” Slicker said in his I’m-not-sorry-for-soon-ruining-your-day tone, “I will leave you alone now. But before I do-” Slicker yanked the history book from Ollie’s grasp and took a few steps out of his reach- “I’ll just be taking this with me!” Slicker let the smoke spill from his lips as he took his cigarette out and looked at the words in the book. “Will ya look at that, Ollie? This is a good book! A great book in fact!! The wording is nice, the grammar looks good, and the sentence length variation and all isn’t the best, but it’s got great vocabulary!” It was funny how he pronounced the word vocabulary, as if he was making fun of the word itself. Vo-ca-boooo-larry. Even he chuckled at his pronunciation. “Big fancy smancy words and all. I’m sure reading from this book makes you feel like a big boy, huh?~ Part of me wants to keep it, it’s that good.” Slicker threw Ollie a quick glance as he started to walk back in the direction of the others. “Aaaaand well, if you don’t want it, the pleasure of keepin’ this book would be all mine! I mean, if you’re too busy jackin’ off to all your nice watch and timin’ and schedulin’ that’s fine too, but I for one would love to test if I am smart enough to read an’ eat at the same time an’ all.

“Hmmm… Now that I think about it,” Slicker tapped the book to his chin as if it were his finger to illustrate that he was thinking, “I realize you are missing something. Not just your book, I mean. Hm… What could it be, what could it possibly be?” Slicker stopped doing his thoughtful pose and his eyes widened. He made an over dramatic ‘o’ with his mouth after giving an even more over dramatic gasp. “Oh, I know what you’re missing! Nutrition!! You’re also missing a life, but that’s a problem for another day.” Slicker chuckled to himself before slugging his arm around Ollie’s neck. “How about I cut you a deal? As your self-proclaimed best friend-” Slicker gave a cheesy smile and waved the historical book in his face- “I’ll give you this-” Slicker jerked the book out of his reach again- “if you at least eat some food. Best friends gotta look after each other, el cerebro!~” Slicker took a deep breath in, getting a good smell of the pleasant meaty aroma. “Jesus, the food sure as hell smells great even from here! Two bites. Two big bites of food is my bargain.” Slicker paused for a moment as he started to walk towards the camp, dragging Ollie along with him. “You, being the smart kinda guy ya are, probably see that the best way out of this is to take my deal. You not only don’t have to worry about passing out on the side of the road from lack of food aaaaand ya get yer book back. It’s a win-win-win. I even win because then I get to help my best. Friend.” Slicker paused between the words ‘best friend’ as if he was bragging or teasing him. “Well? Do we have a deal or no, el cerebro?”

Adaline I Female I Second in Comand I Mentions: Ben

Adaline was taking her time skinning the animal, not expecting anyone to join her. She took her time, moving the blade underneath the pelt, but high enough to split the pelt from the flesh. It distracted her mind from other things, even though she constantly kept thinking, from dusk to dawn. Sometimes she felt like the leader of this gang, well when the actual leader wasn't around. Or wasn't giving orders she should say. She was fine with that, she liked her responsibilty and and position. Sometimes she just needed an outlet to not be in her constant state of watching the gang. Something she had never found.

When she had been thinking and not paying attention someone had managed to sneak up on her. Not really sneak... just surprise. Take advantage of her spacing out. She looked over at Ben, surprised he had sat next to her under her tree. She got self concious about her burn scars showing and she looked at her coat. She regretted not wearing it, because now she had bloody hands and clothes and couldn't put it on for fear of staining it badly.

She wasn't expecting him to apoligize about not helping. It was weird for her to hear, not very many of the gang members had picked up simple manners like saying a simple "please" or even "thank you", much less "sorry." When he asked about the flower she blushed slightly, trying to hide it for a moment. She took off the hat she had still been wearing, revealing her only dry spot, the roots of her hair. She didn't really care about getting wet, even though it was technically a health risk.

"No I didn't like the flower." She started, pulling the flower from behind her ear where it had stayed, even after she had tucked it behind her ear. She looked at it, giving a small smile. She then looked over at Ben, who seemed very nervous like she was. She just didn't like to show her nerves. "I love it." She finished, smile widening at her little deception and joke. She looked away from him, blushing slightly. It was easier to see her blush now because her hat was off, which she was thinking was a mistake now. She also regretted it because you could see her scar across her face more clearly, which she hated with a passion.

[ Ollie Bright ]

| Male | Member | Mentions: Slicker and Roxie (Indirect) |

-

“I think I’d rather spend an entire day with Roxie than be anyone's best friend. Never had one, and I don’t think I ever will. Friends just aren’t worth my time and neither are you. Keep the book. I’ll buy another. I thought of going into town to look for some more anyway. I’ve already read and re-re-read everything on my shelf. And eating around you guys isn’t my thing either. You're all noisy and weird. I’d rather not be a part of what you guys are doing these days. From what I’ve been hearing through the walls of my tent, or from Roxie whos always intruding into my tent, that there hasn't been much actual action lately. So I’ve been spending my time making some. Now if you’d let me go, maybe I can go back and start working on my project again.” He said with a rather blank but annoyed tone. “Also, its raining. I would like to go back to my leaky tent where I belong.” Said Ollie. He still wasn’t really struggling against Slicker’s grip and sort of just hung there, not putting up a fight at all.

“By the way, I’m not your companion either. I work alone thank you. And deals aren’t my thing. I don’t deal with people. Life’s not a card game and neither is death. And if you don’t mind, as I said earlier. It's raining and I wish to go to my tent, so bye.” He said, suddenly slipping out of Slicker’s grip and grabbing his book while he was at it before hurrying off towards his tent, mumbling as he went. “Damn rain… damn camp… I’ll be surprised if Roxie isn’t after me now that shes probably sensed that I’m annoyed…” he muttered before disappearing into the opening of his tent and out of the rain.

He slumped himself onto the floor and laid his book next to himself, looking up at the roof of his tent. He still hadn’t repaired the holes, which water was now leaking into his tent. He sighed and looked around. He had already moved all his belongings out of the way of the holes so they didn’t get wet.

“I’ll fix them later… eventually…” He whispered, turning over on his side and closing his eyes.

Ben looked over to Adaline and saw that she was blushing a bit, he also noticed a few scars on her skin, he saw a scar on her face, he didn't care though he knew almost everyone here had scars and he still thought Adaline looked fine with them, he had a scar that he never told anyone about. He winced as she said she didn't like the flower but relaxed again and laughed very softly when she said she loved it. "Don't mess with me like that. I'm glad you liked it though." Ben said with a cute smile.

Ben became a bit more nervous when he realized that he had nothing more to say, he didn't want to just get up and leave because he was really enjoying his time with her even if it was only a few words exchanged between the two of them.

Ben scooted a bit closer to Adaline "Hey... maybe if this rain ever stops we can possibly go on a stroll on our horses, we can go wherever you want... I mean if you want to." Ben said the last part before blushing softly, nervousness clearly hung in his voice and he laughed at his nervousness on the inside. He was a complete nervous wreck around Adaline. It was probably clear to everyone how much he liked her because of how nervous he was around her.

Ben got distracted from thinking about Adaline when he thought of how bad he felt for Roxie. He had just sat there and watched as she was being attacked, why hadn't he just used his bow and arrow the moment the cat jumped onto Roxie's horse? He felt so guilty and decided that the next day he would go and apologize for everything. He knew how mad she was and he could understand why. He hoped that she could forgive him and possibly become his friend again.

Adaline I Female I Second in Comand I Mentions: Ben

Adaline thought about his offer, the thought making her actually kinda excited and happy. She watched the rain, wishing it would end then. She sighed when she realized she had things to do first, she didn't know how to cut any time out for herself. She thought about what she had to do that day, mostly chores and make sure everything was in order. Could she be able to cut away from everything for awhile. She supposed she had planned to anyway for the hunt, the gang could handle themselves for a little bit without her.

"I would love to." She said after pausing for a long moment. She sighed, leaning back on the tree and stopping her skinning of the animal for a moment. Her shoulder touched against Ben's for a moment and she immidiately moved away, looking down at her shoulder and frowning. It had burn scars on it and she was very emberassed. She rubbed her shoulder, freezing as she realized she had just wiped blood all over her shoulder from the cougar.

"I just need to get the saddle off that dead horse, maybe I should bury it, I dunno. We still need food for the camp... I should go track down the few who went to the tavern... no they can take care of themselves..." She mumbled, mostly to herself. She needed to list of all it out, there was so much to do. She looked over at Ben, frowning slightly now. She was trying to figure out the best plan of action on how to fit anything into her day. "Maybe I'll just say 'screw it' for once and do what I wanna do." She said, not really to Ben, but it was about waht he asked. "Ya, y'know what? I'm going to do waht I want to do for once, everyone else does what they want, so why shouldn't I?" She had come to her conclusion, she was going to do what she wanted for once. "So it's a date then." She said, blushing at the words and she looked away.

Evangeline J. Hargreaves

22 | Feminine | Bisexual | Member | M: Stefan, Buddy

The leader she so incredibly cherished merely brushed her off with a slight comment about the poison and how hard it was to quit smoking. He puffed on one of the cigarettes himself, filling the saloon with the stench. It had already been lingering around, most likely from others like him, but it began slithering towards her, curling and unfurling its smoky strands her way. Evangeline had grown up with almost everyone in her family smoking, even the kids. After a while, the stench could get irritating. An existing substance she deemed unworthy of her attention, though Buddy seemed to think otherwise. She raised an eyebrow at Stefan as if to prod and poke his side about possibly taking the cigarette before turning back to the bar. "I have no doubt you would take over the gang, and lead it better than that smoke-infused hog-bag over there. Probably would be a bit of a tyrant though, she teased easily, thanking the bartender as he gracefully handed her the small portion of whiskey. One whiff of it and she winced.

Looking weak, though, was out of the question. Evangeline sipped at it lightly, blinking hard before pulling back to glance at the drink. It hadn't been as horribly as she had expected, but maybe being in a gang with the German Stefan who was a fan of alcohol helped her ability to down some alcohol. She took another slight drink and downed more than the first try. Maybe her endurance really was strengthening, or possibly not being able to finish a small glass in front of Stefan, who was in the process of calling for another round, was taking its toll. She sniffed, instantly regretting it, eyeing Buddy out of the side of her eye. Lord above did the wondrous aroma of that cigarette filled the air quickly. Evangeline cleared her throat and downed more alcohol.

"Ah yes, only the strongest do tend to be able to be alcoholics and call themselves strong." Her eyes twinkled as she glanced at him. "I'm kidding." She raised one eyebrow and kept the other in its place, giving him one of her favorite expressions possible. "I am actually coming 'round to hang out with one of my favorite people. I didn't know that wasn't allowed, sir. And at least I'm not smoking or drinking more than one portion." He gave her a side eye and she snorted lightly. Before she had learned the sullen male's nature, she would have felt intimidated, him being a foot taller than her. Stefan probably wouldn't risk his position to beat her into a tiny pulp, but here's to wishing. She told herself these things as to not feel terrified sitting beside the tall man with brooding features. She considered him one of those main characters in the story-book who had a tragic backstory, lost his entire family, and was actually a huge-hearted softie. She actually didn't know much about him though, what with his secretive and oh-so-mysterious nature and such.

Evangeline finished her drink in one gulp and closed her eyes for a beat before looking up again. Buddy said some words with an air Evangeline would have personally categorized as "passive aggressive". He left with the finality only one who was titled as a leader could have. She chuckled under her breath, smirking at Stefan, who surely didn't care whether the leader had come or gone. Evangeline pushed her glass to the side and waved the worker behind the bar down. A smile was already on her face, always acting as she did.

The bartender came by to ask how they were faring and she asked for another small portion of the whiskey. Evangeline made a point to not look Stefan in the eye, almost positive the German male was smugly smirking at her so called "unalcoholic self." Here she was mocking them for gulping whiskey down their gullets so early in the day, and then she ordered more. In her defense, though, technically her portion equaled a single serving, unlike Stefan who had received two, possibly more to come soon, or later in the day.

Ben grinned widely when she said she would love to, Ben felt her shoulder touch his, he looked over to her but she moved away. Ben nodded and laughed a little when she said that she would just 'Screw It.' He blushed when she said "So It's a date then." Ben looked super happy "sounds good... now only if we could make the rain stop." Ben said with a small laugh. He was glad to have alone time with Adaline outside of camp, where they could talk without any interruptions.

Ben sighed and wished that the rain would stop. He watched the rain in silence for a few moments. He didn't want to make things awkward by not saying anything, but he also did not want to make things awkward by saying something dumb. "So where do you want to for the stroll?" Ben asked in a slightly more confident sounding voice.

Ben got up, even though he hated the thought of going, he did not want to make things anymore awkward. "I'll make sure to come and get you for the walk as soon as the rain stops." Ben said. He started to walk towards his tent, he decided to organize his tent while he waited, it was a huge mess anyway.

Ben put a stack of small stack of books on his desk, some of the books were written in German while others were written in English. He put his holster on the desk next to the books. He put his bow and arrows under the desk, he folded all of his clothes and put them in a small chest that barely fit in the tent. He then made his bed. He looked around at his tent, it looked a lot better than before.

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

“Ah, but mi amour! ¡Mi amoooooour!” Slicker called after the man dramatically as if Ollie was a lady who had broken up with him. He honestly let Ollie take the book back as he stalked back to the tent. Slicker let out a roaring laugh before continuing his act. “Mi amour, how could you? Mi amour, why do you abandon me like this as if we were nothing??” That was one of his favorite words in Spanish. ‘Mi amour.’ There were so many instances where you could use that word. Where Slicker could use that word. Slicker was always creative with small things like this. Especially when he said things in such a goofy voice as he was doing now. “I know you still love me so I will return for you later!~ I will miss you until I see you again, mi amour!” Slicker put his fingers to his lips and made a loud kissing sound as he blew the fake kiss towards Ollie’s tent before cackling like a goddamn maniac. He always loved acting goofy with Ollie because it was fun to laugh about it afterwards.

Now as for Snapple. Where could she be? Probably wandered off somewhere. Then again, even from where Slicker was standing, he couldn’t see her. The palomino pony was always covered in mud and hiding from Slicker in the worst possible ways. In steep ditches, on small islands in puddles, in dense forests, you name it. This little horse always decided to toy with him and it was the funniest thing. Now where could she be? Where could she be? Knowing her, probably hiding somewhere by one of the other horses. Just as he made the connection, there she was, Snapple trotting over from the trees out over by Scamp. Scamp was Jesse’s horse so that meant that Jesse was probably somewhere close by. And would you look at that! Jesse and Diamond as well were both there. Jesse was cool and the two of them got along well. Diamond on the other hand… Well, to be fair, he hadn’t really gotten to know her as well as he had hoped. Either way, Scamp had been playing with Jesse’s hat and that was a site to see. As Snapple trotted over, her trot slowed to a ploppy walk and as she approached the silly horse. The best thing about Scamp and Snapple was the fact that they had the most personality, the most character. They were also the only horses Slicker would ever go near.

“Hey Jesse!!” Slicker hollered as he jogged over to the man. He smiled widely. “How’s the Scamper Mc Damper doing, eh?” As he walked over to Jesse, he clapped him on the shoulder before grabbing his own horse and stroking her neck. “Hey to ya too Diamond.” He turned and tipped his hat to Diamond briefly before turning back to Jesse. “So ya ready for food? Man, I am goddamn starvin’, let me tell ya. I am just about ready to kneel over and die, I am that hungry! But of course someone-” Slicker shot a glare at Snapple as he pet her neck with a smile- “decided to run off again. Lucky for me, Snapple seemed to take a liking to Scamp so his little antics with your hat must have gotten her attention! Speaking of your hat,” Slicker smirked before swiping Jesse’s hate right off his head, “I think this is mine now.” Slicker placed his hands on his hips confidently after placing Jesse’s hat on top of his. “Don’t I look fabulous?~”

While Ollie was an asshole, Jesse was just a cool dude. That was just one reason he liked the man so much. They had so much in common that Jesse was almost as if one of his brothers was actually a nicer, better looking person.