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stitches

This wasn't the first time she'd had to repair an article of clothing, though it had been a while, admittedly. Still, even considering the less than ideal tools, her stitches were even. "No guarantee this patch job will last more than another few days. The material is hella threadbare." It was like trying to sew tissue paper together. You could do it, but...

"Duck tape would be nice. It'd make building shelters or rigging up fishing spears a breeze." Making rope from palm leaves was a long and tedious process. Of course, it wasn't like they had much else to do beside working on useful things within the community.



overdue

He seemed as though he had an inkling of how awful that avoidance had been on her, but it was hard to tell with him. His default emotion whenever he knew he'd messed up was guilt, no matter how large or small the offense. It made it difficult to gauge whether or not he really understood.

"Why were you afraid to tell me?"



fish aren't friends

Cheeks a bit flushed, Peyton gave a resigned sigh. "Okay, so maybe a little hungry," she admitted after a moment.

"I do actually. Have a torch, I mean." She'd been saving it, just in case. There had been fire fairly prevalent since they'd arrived, and She'd managed to always find a flame to build off from. "There's a bunch of fires though, we can just piggyback someone else's."



wanderlust

She shrugged, half smiling as she set about husking another coconut. They weren't the easiest to get into, but there were a lot of them, and she did have an abundance of time.

"I try to keep busy, mostly, but I've also explored a lot of the island. It's really pretty here, I mean, if you get past the whole being stranded here thing." Another half shrug as she tore off a chunk of fibrous outer husk. She was saving it in a pile beside her. "Gotta keep the mind busy somehow.



shaking it up

She chuckled, letting her hands lower again. "I have not, but I've got plenty of time to figure it out, I think." Pale eyes dipped to the coconuts again, then back up as a little smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "I hear it's pretty tasty in coconut milk."

There was a little palm frond woven basket sitting on the rock beside the pool, and Peyton set the urchin inside. There were a few clams as well, and a large snail. "Stuck here, for sure. There's not much by way of grain on the island that I've seen." She was searching the water again, hands on her thighs and stray hairs floating on the water.

"You like to cook, though?"She turned her head to glance at him.

shaking it up

Kade's grin was bright in the midday sun and what was often meant to be a look of cool confidence melted into boyish delight. "I love it. The joke is that I like making people moan and if I can't do it with my hands, I'll do it with my pastries." And despite the fact that it was pretty crude the young baker was incredibly proud of that statement.

Baking was a passion for him. Sexuality was a big part of who he was but at his core was fluffy marshmallow meringue that was unbearably sweet. He had the utter heart and soul of a romantic and would have happily died before letting anyone know about it.

"So yes, I like to bake. Cooking I can do and will do. I'm decent at it. But I'm all about the sweeter things."

shake it up

She'd actually stopped her hunt for sea life midway through him talking, and straightened up to listen, features lost somewhere between surprise and soft amusement. He didn't really seem the type, but then again, she knew better than others that looks could be quite deceiving.

"My cousin likes sweet things. I make him and his fiance a batch of brownies every other month or so." Well, she did, before they'd wound up here. It was a momentary reminder that Otto and Astrid were both back on base, and She and Chance were here.

When was help going to get here?

"I like cooking. It's relaxing." Grinning, she bent again, hand sinking into the water to pry another urchin from the rock.

garden of eden

For a long time she didn't notice him there. There wasn't much on the island that posed any real threat to them, and her heightened sense of awareness in her surroundings had dulled a bit from the relative safety. She carried on, working the cloth up and over a shoulder that was split down the middle with old scar tissue.

Her hair, a little beyond control at this point, was piled up on her head. It left her back very exposed, and the constellation that was usually hidden just below her hair line was clear as day, as was the older ink at the center of her back. A melding of the Sun and Moon symbols, a koi fish just below it, and a rack of antlers framing it on either side.

The sun had turned tanned skin even darker, and the plethora of freckles she had scattered about had darkened, spreading.

shake it up

Kade was more than a little impressed that she seemed comfortable prying urchins from their homes bare-handed. They were pointy little ******** that ostensibly didn't want to be parted from their chosen nooks and crannies. "It's probably a blessing that we have some of us who know how to cook and that we don't mind seafood." Shifting a bit he peered into her basket and nodded like he'd seen what he expected.

"Or coconuts." Again he clacked the odd fruit's shells together before taking a long drink from his again. "Question though: is this the strangest thing I can expect to happen while a part of this ragtag mercenary group? Or is it just...part of things?" He really, really hoped it was strange.

He was doomed to disappointment.

garden of eden

Grabbing his inappropriate thoughts by the throat and shoving them back Kade very deliberately stepped on a bush to make a very large amount of noise. "Woah!" He was trying for shock and surprise in his voice but it came out forced and tight. He wasn't a man starving by any stretch of the imagination but, growing up, he'd been the kid swiping their finger through the icing on the cake.

Old habits died hard.

shake it up

Peyton was fearless!

Well, not really, but it took more than spiked sea life to make her flinch. A small starfish was given a thoughtful hum as she pulled it from the water, but after a moment she'd put it back. That wasn't anything she'd ever heard of as food, and as adventurous as she was feeling, culinarily, that was just too much.

Maybe another day, if she got desperate enough.

"Oh, I think there are plenty of people that don't really life seafood, but after weeks of coconuts any sort of change is probably nice." THin shoulders shrugged.

"And probably not," she'd continue. "I mean, it's not the strangest thing that's happened to me, so I'm sure you'll encounter weirder than this eventually."
She flashed him a grin, though her gaze had dipped to the coconuts. "Think I could get a drink?"


garden of eden

The snap and rustle would result in an immediate slosh of water as Peyton spun on her knees to face the source. Hands, not lifting to try to conserve whatever modesty should could, were instead at her sides, open and ready in what had clearly been an attempt to summon her weapon, though the silent demon had not come to her calling.

They sank back into the water though as she realized who and what it was, pale brows lifting, and after a moment she'd lower to sit on her knees so the water rose up to her collarbone. Not that it hide much, as clear as it was.

"Kade?"

wanderlust

Somewhere there was a rock that had chips in it, tallies for all of the days they'd been on the island. At some point, the tallies had become so numerous that Zane had abandoned the venture.

What was the point anyway?

Knowing how long they'd been there was just asking to end up mentally stir crazy, if they weren't already. "Could be worse I guess. At least we're not alone, but man..." He stretched his arms above his head and laid back, carefully balancing the coconut on his stomach. "Always figured being stranded on an island would, dunno, be more interesting than this."

wanderlust

Not alone yet.

There were certainly less of them now than there had been at the start, though Peyton didn't mention it. If Zane didn't realize, she'd let him go on a bit longer not knowing it. If he did, well, they didn't need to talk about it.

"It's about what I was expecting. There's not much to do, really, beyond surviving." Thin shoulders came up in a small shrug. "It'd be nice if there was a little more going on, though I'd hate to wish for it, and have something awful turn up because of it."

So far, anyways. As time went on, and people continued to disappear, she was sure she'd begin to hope for something, anything, to happen.



garden of eden

A pale brow arched as he stepped out and confirmed that it was indeed him, but left it at that. It placed control of the situation entirely in her hands. Thoughtful of him, but Peyton wasn't entirely sure what to do with that power.

Or rather, she knew what she'd like to do with it, but wasn't sure that she should.

"Everything alright?" She asked, though there was no real concern to the question, only a mild sense of amusement.

wanderlust

"TV ruins expectations."

Though if he were asked, he wouldn't have been able to name any TV show about people stranded on an island. Those types of shows usually bored him.

"Barely any 'surviving' to do it seems like." Most days were boring, even for him and he was someone who liked to be lazy more often than not.

"Yeah, I guess. Though at least then there'd be a point to it all, besides drearily existing." The thought was surprisingly pessimistic for him and he sighed, scrubbing at his face beneath his glasses before he fiddled with the coconut in his lap.

Climbing to his feet took more energy than he wanted but he was up and he waved his husk at her. "I'll catch you later Peyton."

Then, he wandered off to circle the tiny island again.