The Scotsman — Roleplayer Guild

Jim Réchar, Lori Gosse, and Garrett Thomas McAdams

A collaboration between @The Scotsman, @Prizrak, and @Little Italy

    Jim looked up at the girl as she approached. His head peeked out of the tent like a cartoon of a  baby experiencing the world for the first time. She spoke and he listened.
"Water?" he gasped, suddenly realising the drought occurring in his body. He shook his head and slipped back inside the cloth house, grabbed his own bottle, then unzipped the door and looked back outside. She was tall and pretty, with the ruffled hair that was becoming more and more commonplace. Jim nodded his head and returned to the dark recesses of the tent.

    "I can only imagine what this guy's thinking, I look like a disaster." Lori's light gray tank top was drenched in sweat making it feel twice as heavy as it actually was. "I'm half tempted to take this thing off. Whatever, focus Lori." Deciding that she should follow the young man into the tent and seek refuge from the sun Lori fetched a spare water bottle from the bag and headed inside. Inside the tent was still hot from the blistering sun but the shade felt nice, and Lori needed to rest. Now that she was no longer focused on walking she noticed that her leg was throbbing in pain, causing her to tremble slightly. "Here you look like you need this." Lori offered up her spare water bottle to the equally exhausted figure in the tent.

    Jim tried to speak the first time, but was rebuffed by his dusty and failing vocal chords. He took a long drink from his own bottle and licked his lips. "I'm good thanks, but you'll need that. We're getting some sun today," he said, his voice thick and gravelly. He took another drink and studied the girl, but he couldn't think of anything. He must've been pretty dried out as Jim didn't normally have much issue with wondering about another's life before their meeting.

    "Are you sure? If you change your mind let me know." Jim nodded his thanks. Instead of placing the water bottle back into her bag Lori kept a hold of it, deciding that she could probably use a drink as well Lori unscrewed the cap and took a long swig before placing the cap back on the bottle. Wiping the excess water off her lips Lori offloaded her pack onto the floor before sitting down alongside it with her arms out behind her, and her legs spread out in front of her bent at the knees. Taking this as an opportunity to relax Lori untied and removed her boots sitting them outside to dry out along with her socks. Her feet didn't stink or anything they just needed to dry off otherwise she'd end up with blisters. She also undid her belt to take some of the strain off her waist before realising that she never fully introduced herself. "I'm sorry I came in here and acted like we've always known each other, how rude of me. I'm Lori, Lori Gosse. And you are?" 

    Jim just watched silently as the girl made herself at home. He wasn't bothered by it, just a little taken aback. What an unusual situation. He noticed as she moved her leg trembled, and when she sat still the shaking died down to very unnoticeable. It's one thing to take your boots off, another to point out they were losing control of limbs. He sipped at his water every 10 seconds or so to allow his body to absorb all the nutrients it could without flooding it. Something he had picked up somewhere. Her voice broke the silence and Jim jumped without the last physical hurdle of actually jerking. His brain got a fright though. "What? Oh, no don't worry." They used to talk about people experiencing the monsoon season in Vietnam and bonding over that. Maybe this brutal sun was the Oregon equivalent. "Well hello  Lori, Lori Gosse. I'm Jim, Jim  Réchar," he said. She looked a lot like Sadie - except maybe cleaner and a lot closer to his age - which was maybe why he was carrying on the openness from the bus trip. In situations like these, he tended to clamp up like a verbal vice, and was anxiously not looking forward to the next meeting of their group. Each second announced another reason why this was all one big, bad idea. "I can understand the short hair, it's excellent for letting the breeze cool you off on ridiculous days like this. I can understand the tank top, again, for the breeze. But I am a little curious why you're wearing BDU's that are a couple body widths too big for you. It seems like those are very anti... whatever you're going for here," Jim said, totally unsure of where he was trying to take that last sentence.

     While Lori understood where Jim was coming from with the clothing that wasn't going to stop her from having a go at him. So in the most serious tone she could muster she answered him. "If you're unhappy with the clothes I can always undress for you."

    "Normally when a girl gets naked for me, they're happy about it," Jim said after sensing the dramatic shift in tone. What had he said that was so bad?

    In a more sarcastic tone Lori responded with. "Something tells me those girls were stripping for someone else and you were hiding in the background somewhere. But who am I to judge, whatever makes you happy."

    The skinny boy knew he had been beaten down. He now knew how to approach this girl though; self-deprecation. "If by background, you mean her cupboard, then I won't argue with you. Never been caught though, and that's the part that does make me happy."

     "I imagine you fit pretty well into a cupboard, but that's beside the point. I'm privy to hiding away in people's cupboards as well." 

    Jim laughed and replied, "The joys of being this stick-like."

    Lori took a minute to compose herself from the grade school mudslinging that just ensued and got back to Jim's question. "No offence meant towards you Jim but unrelenting smartass is my natural state. As far as the clothing is concerned they were my fathers. I figured even though it's hot as hell outside it's bound to get cold, and if I'm wearing them then there's less things taking up space in my bag."

    Jim feigned a hurt look on his face. "If you've claimed the unrelenting smartass, what does that leave me, the good looks? In all seriousness though, it's good. I think you're hiding more from me though, and I think I know what it is, but you can tell me in your own time. I may well be wrong," he said as his finger slowly and subtly rubbed up and down the line that her dogtags traced from the back of her neck, across her clavicle, and down to her chest. "A more important question though, what brings you to a fire lookout tower in Oregon?"

    Lori felt a little unnerved for a brief second, but tried her best not to focus on it too much. "I just needed to see some different sites for a change you know how it is. What about you?" Even after Lori answered Jim's question she still couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling that came over her. Jim was right, she was hiding something and this was a prime example. Underneath her snide tomboy persona, Lori was soft, too soft and it was starting to show. 

    The awful, awful lie struck a chord with Jim. When Damian Holloway gave him the beatdown of a century, Jim told his dad a lie that was basically the exact same. 'No dad, I hit him back, don't worry. It was just one of those arguments that everybody has,' Jim said as his father frisked him for injuries, doubled over from the pain of the broken ribs. He knew pressing her for anything else would be a bad idea. Experience had proven that, and she seemed nice enough to not piss off. "I won't annoy you about it any more, but if there's one person you ain't gotta hide dad issues with, it's this guy," he said, sticking his thumbs out at himself. "I came here because I'm trying to prove something. Don't ask me what, I'll just tell you when I know."

    Lori sighed heavily while she debated whether or not she should answer Jim honestly or not at all. "Maybe it would be for the best if we just didn't talk about it. Okay? Nothing against you Jim, honestly." Lori wasn't happy with the sombre tone the conversation took and she was feeling more uncomfortable now than she was just a few moments ago. It didn't help things any that her tank top was still soaked in sweat making her even more uncomfortable. "I apologise if this bothers you but I need to get this thing off. Soaked, smelly clothes don't really do much to improve your mood." Without waiting for a response from Jim. Lori untied her dads fatigue top from her waist and sat it next to her sea bag before then removing her tank top and placing it outside to dry. Relieved Lori stretched her arms up into the air and took a deep breath as the unrelenting heat evaporated the sweat from her body only for it to pour out of her pores mere seconds later. "I hope Jim doesn't pass out when I go back in there, lord knows I'm about to." Lori took a minute to appreciate herself and headed back inside the tent.

    He knew he had pushed her too far. It had been an issue of his for years at school, annoying kids to the point of physical retaliation. And now he had annoyed Lori, Lori Gosse to the point of verbal rebuffs. "Yeah, no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it so far," he muttered guilty. Guilt was soon replaced by confusion, and then surprise as she started to undress in the little tent. Not a care in the world as she pulled her tank top off over her head and dropped it outside, where the sun no doubt dried it out in mere seconds. The tent was dim, but Jim could see everything fairly clearly. He wasn't unused to women, but they weren't a very common occurrence for him. A nice change. Lori had a tight stomach, one that showed care but was fairly criss-crossed with scars. Like a work of art that had been scuffed in a delivery. It may not have reduced the value, but if you didn't know what had happened it certainly added a little extra  je ne sais quoi. The dogtags that Jim had implied to earlier swung in the air and bounced back off of her black sports bra, and Jim could almost make out a name as she bent near him. Lori seemed extremely comfortable in her skin, and wasn't at all troubled by Jim watching her as she moved, almost seemingly the air parting for her as she wiggled around. Jim had a small affliction for beautiful things. It didn't matter if it were a photograph of a dog, the smell of coffee on a warm, relaxed Sunday morning, or the sight of a girl, stunning anyway but with the added perfection of having the knowledge she was alive, being confident with her actions. Jim loved them all because they were beautiful, and they were works of art.

    By now, Tommy was within a few yards of the tent, and could hear the sounds of disscussion from inside. He was a bit unsure of what to do at first, as one couldn't really knock on a tent, but he suspected that they were here for the same reason that he was, so he took the liberty of stepping up to the flap and peeking in at the two people as he said, "Um, hey, I-" Although, he stopped short, because it was about then that he realized that the girl had removed her shirt and quickly stepped back. "Oh, sorry, my bad," he quickly apologized, not quite sure what he had just walked into. He wasn't exactly sure where these two where hailing from, but in the south, at least, in his home town, it wasn't everyday you introduced yourself to coworkers in such a fashion. Not that he was one to judge, but needless to say, he was a little bit confused at this point. 

    Jim, with the already unusual feeling of baring witness to extravagance, shit himself upon the strangers entrance. Jim was going to die of shock before the snakes or bears got to him.

    "Oh shit." Lori cursed under her breath as she blushed. Not because she was embarassed at being caught in the state she was currently in but because she caught the stranger offguard. So Lori quickly picked up her dad's shirt from off the floor and put it on, buttoning it up as far as she could before following the stranger outside the tent. "Hey, I'm sorry about that. That was sort of a bad time to come in. I should of waited until I had a bit more privacy to do that. Are you okay?"

Tommy had turned away from the tent, his face a shade redder, with one hand on his hip and the other awkwardly scratching the back of his head as he debated on what he should do next. He turned around when the girl emerged apologizing and asking if he was okay. As she spoke, he took a brief moment to study her face and her general appearance, now that she actually had clothes on. Her short hair suited her, he decided, and he could tell by a glance that she either played a sport or worked out, maybe both. He laughed a bit nervously, shaking his head with a smile as he replied, "Uh, yeah, I just- wasn't expecting that. My bad, really." He paused for a moment, dropping his arms to his side before extending one hand toward her as he said, "I'm Garrett, by the way, but everyone calls me Tommy." He figured the best way to put this awkward business behind them was to move on. 

 Lori accepted the handshake and grasped Tommy's hand firmly, squeezing his knuckles together ever so lightly. "Pleasure to meet you Tommy, I'm Lori. Before we move on..." Lori pulled Tommy a little closer to her and leaned in to whisper into his ear. "That wasn't anything you thought it was. I'm not like that." Lori pushed Tommy back away from her and let go of his hand. "Anyway! You here for the fire watch too? I seem to be outnumbered at the moment, interesting."

    Jim peaked out of the tent and decided it was worth his time to chat or fraternise or whatever it was that these nerds were doing. He took the few steps towards the new man and stuck his hand out. "I'm Jim, Jim Réchar. I'm guessing since we haven't been murdered with a fire-axe yet that you're with the Tower Duniway crew too. Welcome to HQ," Jim said, nodding his head backwards to the flimsy tent, and then stuck out his hand.

    Tommy was pleasantly surprised by her firm handshake, nodding in acknowledgement once she had introduced herself. He furrowed his brow slightly when she pulled him close, but a look of realization accompanied with a knowing smile crossed his face in response once she had explained herself. Her accent suggested she was from farther north than he was, which, although he didn't want to stereotype, made sense in his mind. "Yeah, there's supposed to be one other person, right?" he asked, although he turned to look at the boy when he emerged from the tent and spoke. He smiled and nodded politely, gaving his extended hand a firm shake when it was offered. "Garret, but you can call me Tommy. Nice to meet you both. Quite a set up we've got here," he noted, glancing back at the tent baking in the afternoon sun. Jim sounded like he was more from his neck of the woods, which was slightly comforting. Not from Georgia though, maybe a little further west? The accent sounded familiar but he couldn't quite match it to a specific region yet. 

    Lori cracked a half baked smile after hearing Tommy and Jim's description of their tent, before chimming in herself and take a moment to tease the two of them even more. "Lover you call that sun baked tent a headquarters? You could hand out towels at the entrance and charge admittion for a sauna. Not saying that the tower itself would be any better but maybe we should set up tents in the shade?" Lori took a moment to let what she just said sink in before explaining that she was yet again kidding. "Alright I promise I'm done teasing you guys, for now. This isn't normally how I act but I have to admit that you guys are bringing out the worst in me." Feeling sweat pooling underneath the band of her hat Lori removed it and shook her hair out with her hands, before wiping the grease and sweat off on her pants and placing the hat back on her head. "How about we head up to the tree-line there if we're going to socialize some more, otherwise I think I'm going to have to lose more layers." Lori realized she was doing 'it' again but decided to go with it regardless. It was helping keep her mind off of the pain that was afflecting her body. Lori quickly headed inside the tent and grabbed her sea bag and then drug it off towards the shade, not even waiting for a response. "Come on southern boys. I need to sit."

    "Excuse me sunshine, tent, under trees, shade. Ain't my fault the sun's hotter than a Playboy model on a Mexico beach. You're just being horrible to us boys now, and I don't know if I'm gonna stand for it," Jim said, his face half twisted into a grin and the other half pretending to be serious. He watched her stomp off to collect her bag, and then headed for another treeline where the sun was less obnoxious. "Set that shitty damn tent up for me to be bossed around by another woman, hot damn," the scrawny boy complained, kind of for Tommy but mainly to appease the minor tantrum he may have been throwing. Jim returned to his tent and started to pack it up, thinking they would be underway for the tower soon enough anyway. The tent went in a small musette bag hanging from his rucksack, and carried the hulking bag to the shady spot Lori had picked out. "Yeah, you can sit all you please. Nothing we could've been doing in that nice tent, huh," Jim said, placing the bag down and using it as a pillow as he laid down, closing his eyes and enjoying the dry warmth and the noise of the bugs and birds floating between nests and trees, a whole other world totally unaffected by the moving of his tent.

    Tommy held up both hands innocently as he looked between the two, "Hey, I just got here," he protested, an amused half smile gracing his features as he observed the pair's banter. While Lori was certianly not conventional, both youths seemed to be friendly enough, much to his relief, so he wasn't too worried about getting along with either of them. He glanced up at the blazing sun before following them into the shade. Unlike his two peers, he hadn't been out int he sun for very long at all and had yet to feel its effects. From the looks of it, they had most definitely made the walk to get here. he had gotten lucky with his friendly ride. He didn't really interject into their banter, more content to listen and observe rather than actively participate. He set down his overstuffed backpack on the ground, then leaned against the rough trunk of a tree with his arms cross over his chest, taking a moment to get a better handle on his surroundings. 

    "Hey I'm sorry Jim I didn't mean for you to move the whole tent. I just wanted to get out of the sun." Lori felt really bab for upsetting Jim but wasn't sure how to approach the situation to resolve it, so she tip-toed around it. Literally because she had forgotten her socks and boots down by where the tent used to be placed. "Oh damn it." Lori went to get up from where she was sitting when a sharp pain from her leg shot up her back like a hot iron before radiating across her chest. She let out the intital stages of a moan before she stopped herself and moaned through her teeth before falling flat on her back. Now that she was flat on the ground all she could feel was a throbbing pain throughout her entire body originating from her leg. Trying her best to act like nothing happened although something obviously did. Lori tried to mask the pain in her voice. "Uhm.. I left my boots down there. Could one of you guys get them for me?" Lori sat up slightly and help herself up with her arms that were now trembling with pain like the rest of her body. It didn't help that she was getting scared now on top of everything else. 

    Upon hearing Lori's whimper of pain, Tommy turned his head to looked down at the dark haired girl, his brow suddenly furrowed with concern. She was favoring her leg, which led him to believe that the pain origninated there. Maybe she had strained a tendon in the walk and the muscles were spasming because of the heat, or something along those lines. His teammates in baseball sometimes suffered form such things after long runs in the heat. He looked back out at the sizzling asphalt of the parking lot at where her boots lay, about to go fetch them, but Jim beat him to it, the slender boy's expression a mirror of his own as Jim dropped his things at the base of a tree and turned to stride across the lot to where the shoes sat. Tommy walked over to kneel down beside her and tilted his head as he asked, "You alright there, missy? Your leg bothering you?" 

    Luckily for Lori the sweat covering her face helped hide her tears a little bit, but her eyes were still red and irratated. "Thanks Tommy, but I'm fine honestly. Just a cramp." Lori went to stand up again to prove that she was fine but this time the pain was even more severe. Lori fell back down practically landing on Tommy, after she recovered her breath Lori sat up and placed her arm around Tommy to help steady herself. The way the two were sitting seemed rather intimate but that was the furthest thing from Lori's mind at this point, her head hung exhausted alongside Tommy. "It's this heat. It's got to be, don't you guys worry about me." Lori tried to fake a smile but the pain just caused her to clench her teeth in agony, she was doing a very poor job at hiding her condition.

    "Hey, hey, don't try to get up, just sit tight," Tommy said, holding out his arms and catching her when she fell back on him, one hand on her waist and the other catching a hold of her upper arm to help her sit up. He moved so that he could help her rest her back against a tree, standing up to retrieve her water from her bag before sitting down cross legged beside her again and handing the plastic bottle to her. 

    Jim picked up the two boots, gritting his teeth because they were hot to touch after sitting in the sun. He had noticed Lori's leg trembling earlier, and he was sure that was undoubtedly connected to the pain she was currently experiencing. Hopefully this was something that he and the other boy would be capable of helping her with and she wouldn't have to sit there and suffer. He jogged back over the the treeline, partly because he was eager to get out of the sun, but mostly because he wanted to get Lori's things to her. He returned just in time to see Lori collapse again, instinct causing him to lurch forward slightly as she did so, but Tommy had caught her, thankfully. "She okay? You okay?" he asked, first asking Tommy, then asking her, his mind briefly flashing back to his bus ride with Sadie as he set the boots down on the ground and stood in front of the two, looking between the worriedly. 

    It was a struggle for Lori to get sat up but as soon as she did the pain left just as soons as it came on. There was still a faint burning in Lori's right leg and she felt like she had just tumbled out of the backside of a brawl but she was counting her blessings regardless. With the two men standing around her Lori tried her best to deflect their concern. "Guys it's fine honestly. I know the pains I get and I more than likely pulled a muscle, trust me I can handle it. We wouldn't be here if we couldn't handle something like this." Lori still felt awful though so she laid down on her back and unbuttoned her shirt, letting it lay open on the ground alongside her. She also unbuttoned and pulled her pants down just a tad to let the air cool her off. "Hey, I know how this looks but don't get your hopes up. That whole ordeal got my blood pressure up, I'm going to need to cool off otherwise I'm going to burn through more water than I want to." She tried to pass it off as nothing but Lori carried an uneasy tone in her words, she knew there was something more serious going on but if the others found out then she would become a liability. They wouldn't trust her to pull her weight, and she'd find herself on a train back to Pennsylvania and there was no way in hell she was going back there if she could help it. "I know no one asked me for my input but I think it would be wise if we just relaxed for a few hours until the sun starts to go down before we headed up to the tower. The less time we spend in direct sunlight the better."

    Jim and Tommy exchanged a look, the latter saying nothing, simply setting the water bottle down beside her. "Well, it seems like we've got a bit of a wait for the others, so hopefully that'll be plenty of time for you to rest," Jim said, taking a seat in the grass beside his things. Tommy checked his watch, the clock reading 1:00pm. This was the hottest time of day, in his opinion, so it would only get cooler from here. He just wanted to reach the tower before nightfall, knowing that all manner of wild beasts would be roaming the woods after dark. The last thing he wanted was to be swallowed by a bear on day one. What a phone call that would be back home. His parents would never let his younger sister leave the house again. As it seemed like they would be there for a while, Tommy leaned back against his tree and dug through his bag to find one of his books to maybe pass the time. His shyness had crept up on him again, and he wasn't necessarily in the mood now to make any conversation.

    As everyone settled back down, and a somber unease blanketed the trio, Jim tilted his head to the girl. He knew she was obviously having some kind of trouble, and with it being so early into the undoubtedly draining three month escapade, Jim wanted to know the extent of what could go wrong. "Hey, Lori, how are you feeling now?" he asked in his best attempted caring voice. Of course Jim cared, but right now that was not his priority; his priority was ensuring that her illness would not cause the death of him.

    "I'm fine Jim, just tired. Once we get settled in somewhere permanent I need to rest and regain my strength. It's been awhile since I got the chance to rest in this heat so I'm probably just exhausted. Thanks for asking though." Lori was hoping that she deflected Jim's question well enough that he would leave her alone, she was afraid of prying eyes at this point and was trying her best to hide from them. It didn't help that her condition was making that difficult. Lori pulled the brim of her hat down over her eyes like she was resting but she was fully aware of what was going on around her, and Jim looked back up at the kaleidoscopic canopy above him, the fluttering of bird wings causing a new spectrum to birth before his eyes. Even if she wanted to sleep the faint burning in her leg would certainly prevent her from doing so. "Wake me up when we're moving."
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