Schlllllick. Schlllllick. Schlllllick. Scritch.

The sounds of a knife scraping up against wood echoed slightly around the clearing where Aidan sat with a sturdy branch in his tanned, calloused left hand and a gleaming, long hunter's knife in his right. His rhythmic motions pushed the blade up against the now-naked branch and caused the separating wood to curl. Rings of tree essence twirled to the ground at the end of every blow, and a pile of wood particles was beginning to form on the ground below.

Cool, bright blue eyes scanned the surrounding area with a sort of nonchalant indifference. The morning was quiet, somewhat chilly, and overall rather relaxing. Aidan stood and stiffened his legs, bending backwards and tensing his shoulders to stretch out his back. He released a held breath with a strained grunt and sat himself back down, sheating the knife and dropping his stick. The young man took a moment to just... exist.

He could smell rain. The taunting scent of a cool, wet forest drew ever near, as it had since early that morning. Aidan had been up for a few hours already, having arisen before the sun to work with his horse a little. He felt very much awake now; actually, it felt closer to lunch time than early-mid-morning. Aidan was a little hungry, now that the thought had drifted in. He could hear water boiling; it appeared he was not the only one up and rolling. But of course he wasn't -- not everyone slept until midday. Nawaji's frame was already moving about the stables and towards the central fire. The man wouldn't have been surprised if she had gone hunting and returned with something, animal or plant. He didn't smell anything cooking as of yet, though.

With a sigh, Aidan rain a hand through his short, dark hair and decided that it was about high time he started doing his job. He stood and maneuvered his way through the camp's tents and tenants, nodding to Lilah as he passed her and her boiling pot. Aidan was now on the search for one man in particular: Rickshaw. The plan for the day needed to be figured out soon; otherwise, everyone would end up hanging around until dark and whoever was tracking them would be twenty-four hours closer to finding their new encampment. Aidan didn't want to deal with that much loss again. The carnage, the destruction.

He shook such dark thoughts from his mind and focused on his self-given task. Find Rickshaw, find Rickshaw, find Rickshaw. First, Aidan approached the largest tent in the upmost northwest corner. He stopped outside and knocked on one of the sturdy poles to announce himself. If the leader wasn't there, Aidan wasn't sure where he'd be. He would need to do some reconnaissance work.

“Slicker” | 22 | Male | Homosexual | Member

M: Vera (Dir.), Lotte (Dir.), Issac (Dir.), Aiden (Ind.), + Stefan (Ind.)

Slicker glanced down at the cards in his hand before his eyes flicked up to study Vera. Vera’s expression was that of a lost child struggling to decide what to do with herself, worriedly eyeing her cards. Seemingly feeling his eyes on her, Vera looked up at Slicker and instantly glared, flipping him off with a grumble. Slicker burst into laughter as he pulled his cigarette from his lips. Vera shuffled so she was leaning as far away from Slicker as possible, holding her cards close to her chest as she glared at the cards down on the ground between them.

“Are you ever going to—”

“Shhhhh!” Vera instantly barked, glaring dangerously at Slicker like a dog about to lunge into him and bite his throat out. “I am think— I am thinking! Do no— Do not— rush me!!” Vera instantly corrected herself on her grammar as she spoke, still not great at English. Whenever she was nervous, she often misspoke the most.

“I’m just trying to—”

“Shhhhh!!”

“You are so bad at—”

“SHHHH!!!”

“Biiiitch.”

“¡Puto!”

Slicker snickered as he finally got Vera to speak in her first language out of frustration, leaning onto his back as he stared at the ceiling of the tent while taking a drag from his cigarette. Slicker took the cigarette out of his mouth and balanced it between his fingers. Humming softly, Slicker closed his eyes and waited for Vera. Vera kicked his foot after a minute of silence.

“Oh-kay, oh-kay!” Vera said proudly after slamming a card down on the floor, pronouncing the words. “You go now, Pretty Boy.”

“Fucking finally,” Slicker chuckled. Slicker placed his cigarette back between his teeth as he sat up, looking at Vera with a wide smirk as he held up one card confidently. Vera seemed to be muttering a prayer under her breath, hoping, no, begging God to let her win. God must either not exist or hated Vera because Slicker placed down the card slowly onto the floor of the tent, his smug aura filling the tent like the smoke from his cigarette with just two words that he uttered from his bloodied lips: “I win.”

“Moutherfoucker!!” Vera swore loudly as Slicker gleefully picked up the buttons the two had been using instead of chips before tossing them up and letting the buttons rain down on him. “You cheat! You cheated!!” This only caused Slicker to laugh more. Slicker had nearly stripped down entirely, reduced only to his dirty and grease stained tank top, his dark brown torn shorts, and his hat, due to Vera’s insistence that he was hiding his cards. “You hid them under your hat, did you not??” Vera yanked him closer by his tank top and lifted up his hat. “Ahaha!!” Vera proudly lifted up a card that had been placed on Slickers matted hair and showed it to him triumphantly. “You did cheat!!”

“Did you actually look at the card?” Slicker prompted with eyes filled with amusement. Vera stopped, slowly flipping the card over to see for herself what the card was before flipping him off in a fit of rage.

“¡Carajo grasiento!”

Slicker, knowing Vera would do her usual routine and believe Slicker was cheating, cleverly placed a joker card which she promptly threw down at him before stomping out of the tent, swearing the whole way to the others.

Slicker sighed happily before sitting up and collecting all the cards Vera had thrown around. Slicker struggled to pull his pants back on for a moment before slipping out of his tank top and pulling on his thin, long-sleeved shirt instead. Gathering his belt and holsters onto his hip, Slicker put on his vest. After dusting off his hat and stepping outside, Slicker properly placed on his black cowboy hat before affixing it snugly to his head. Slicker took his cigarette from his mouth before stamping it with his heel; holding his hand out, he looked up at the sky.

“Huh… looks like it’s gonna rain.” Slicker smiled softly to himself before walking over to the others.

Slicker walked to the rest of his gang while the smell of Lotte’s cooking waffed in his direction as he watched Vera wordlessly hovering beside her, hoping to be helpful while still not wanting to get in her way. Vera often did this as, even though she had been with the group for quite some time, she was very shy at asking if she could help. Yes, she was a very blunt and bold woman, but she also did not want to be intrusive and rude as she had been told many times before. Meanwhile, he could see Aiden and Stefan, both of whom he would have to annoy and speak with later, waiting by the entrance of Rickshaw’s, the group’s leader, tent, but that wasn’t what intrigued him. No, what really caught his eyes and brought a smile to his face was—

“Daisy!” Slicker cried excitedly with a large grin on his face that revealed the gap between his teeth, trotting over to the dog after he pushed past Issac and he patted his lap and invited her to come to him. “Come here, girlie!! Who’s the bestest girlie ever?? You are! Yes, you are!!~” Slicker looked over to Issac with a warm smile. “Hey Issac! How’s it going?” Slicker’s gray eyes scanned Issac before quickly noticing the berries and smiling more. “Did you pick those? Mind if I steal one??” It was already too late for Issac to reply because he had already reached his hand into the bag of freshly picked berries and practically swallowed one whole. Slicker’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Damn, those are good…!”

Nawaji Thunderhawk || 22 || Member || M: William (Ind), Others (Ind), Open

Nawaji's black eyes roamed the area before her. From her station at the stables, she could see others moving around and some coming back. William appeared not too far off to re-stable his mare and check on another before moving off into the tents, leaving the young woman alone once more. She didn't mind; she preferred to spend her mornings in a more... solitary environment, anyhow.

The sharp smell of thyme hit her senses and she realized that the sprig of herbs she'd been holding in her left hand were now being rolled between her thumb and forefinger. She pursed her lips and released a dissatisfied hum before dropping the crushed leaves. Nawaji retraced her steps from the stable to her own tent and threw open the flap, allowing the smells of several freshly-reaped plants to waft outside. Now she was hungry.

The young woman pulled out salt and pepper, of course, as well as a few slices of dried venison, some old sprigs of rosemary, and dried sage. Nawaji set them all inside her metate, pulled the dished stone outside of the tent, and got to work crushing the plants and seasonings together while letting the jerkey soak up a little water on a plate next to her. Once the herb mixture had been worked into a fine powder, she pressed the powder into the semi-rehydrated deer meat and then headed over to the campfire in the central area of the little commune.

Nawaji threw down the venison onto a thinner, disc-shaped rock and placed it as much in the fire as she could without worrying about pulling it back out again; she'd made that mistake before. She pulled out a hunting knife and, every few minutes, she gave the venison a flip. She only needed it to be heated, really, as it had technically already been cooked. It didn't take long.

She pulled the rock out again with short, jerky movements. Once the meat had cleared the flames, Nawaji plucked it off the rock and set it on her little plate to cool. Sitting down with her legs crossed, she hunched over her breakfast and turned her eyes to those around her once more. She did not quite trust them all, but... well, they were her family, now.

Rickshaw "Rifle" Warren || 30 || Male || Leader || Everyone, Aidan

Rickshaw's brow creased as he looked at the maps on his desk. Wolf sat beside him, head resting on the table. The trails got closer and closer to their camp... it wouldn't be long before they'd be up at gunpoint. Soon. We may have to... If they were put at gunpoint, he'd be the only one to come out alive. Imprisoned, but alive. The Pinkertons wouldn't dare kill him, likely preferring him to suffer his fate as permanently living without the rest of them. If they were caught, that would happen. He knew it. He could feel it. And he remembered the last time he was imprisoned... it wasn't a pleasant memory. But it all came back to him.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone rapped on a post outside of his tent, and he- instinctively- knew it was Aidan. He paused, looking down at the maps, eyes narrowed in exasperation. Then, getting up, he opened the tent flap to find his Second in Command surprised that he'd responded so quickly. "What, didja think I wouldn'ta been up? Been so for awhile, now." He smirked at the man in front of him. But he briefly glanced beyond him to see, much to his disdain, the gang members. Lighting a fire. In the camp. He swore under his breath, muttering something about "we're gonna get caught 'cause of y'all" and ducked back into his tent, grabbing his map of Openshaw.

He made it down to the fire swiftly, not caring if Aidan was following. Knowing the man, though, he probably would be. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice his arrival, and he rested his shoulder against the side of the Supply Tent. For a while, he just stood there, watching them wake up.

And then the fire began to smoke.

"Can't leave that goin' too long. They'll see it." He pushed himself off of the tent, looking at each of their surprised faces in turn. Wolf lay down, watching the group in silence. "For those of you who're up- and all of you who ain't- we've got a lotta things to get done. Been low on supplies awhile." Nodding at Slicker and William, he gestured to the stables. "You two are goin' out to town. Take what ya want, do what ya want, but bring back enough for the rest of us." Turning away, he looked directly at Nawaji. "You and Stefan take watch around the camp. You'll be near the horses so we don't lose 'em. Althaus, you can be on the west side, by your tent."

He briefly eyed the man, looking at his current state. He was drunk, but that wouldn't be a problem. Stefan was good no matter what state he was in, and with their reduced numbers, probably the best they had. "Silver can go hunting, and wouldja take Smith with you? She could learn somethin' about it." He nodded at Lirieth, then whistled at Wolf, who joined the two women.

"Lotte."

His eyes turned to her. "We need someone to wake everyone up. You're the best at it. Especially Joseph. We can't have 'em all lyin' around this late." He tipped his hat at the second Althaus, showing he respected her. And he did, of course. "Lilah, couldja tend to the horses?" Running a boot over the hot firewood, he kicked at it, bringing the flames down. It would still leave smoke, but... less so. Less dangerous that way. He nodded at everyone in turn, walking back to his tent, knowing, somehow, that Aidan would follow. After all, he did ignore him, mostly.

He needed to talk to the man in an... urgent manner. Best way to do it was to ignore 'im.