The Tempest

[Chevi]

"If I fainted you would have looked. Turn around or close your eyes!" 

Lucius laughed, shaking his head as he turned away to clean his hands with the rest of the water. Leave it to the woman to stay awake out of sheer prudishness.

"Thank you. I'm...sorry, for my choice of language. It was most unlike me." 

"Oh I think it was exactly like you" Lucius chuckled, glancing at her over his shoulder. She was properly dressed now, so he turned back around. "Nothing wrong with that. You're welcome. Let's just... stay here tonight. Tomorrow we can move, and fix up the shack."

@Sara

[Sara]

"It's really not like me. I'm...decent." She muttered. She heard her brothers swear, and her parents, but she was for obvious reasons, never allowed to do it in the company of others. Nobody wanted a girl with a mouth like a sailor...she chuckled at the irony. 

She arched a brow at his suggestion and glanced around their meagre camp. She was cold already - although that might have been the shock more than anything - and they still had a few hours until sunset. "I should at least go back and get the blanket to wash it. Then one of us won't be freezing tonight." She muttered and sighed, "And the jugs for the spring. So we're not parched. I can go." She offered, with absolutely no intention of doing so, sitting resolutely still on the ground. She'd just been stuck by a fish hook - let him trek back to the shack.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"It's really not like me. I'm...decent." 

She wasn't. She liked to think she was, but Lucius did not want to argue with the woman whose back he'd just tortured.

"I should at least go back and get the blanket to wash it. Then one of us won't be freezing tonight. And the jugs for the spring. So we're not parched. I can go." 

"You can stay." Lucius sighed, knowing full well she was not going to go. "You can take the sails again, I'll be fine. I'll go wash, and get some water." The blanket they just found needed a thorough was, and wouldn't dry before the night anyway. Lucius made sure the fire was burning high before he headed back to the spring.

@Sara

[Sara]

"Aren't you the perfect, domesticated woman." She muttered as he got up and yanked the comb through her hair hard enough for it to ache. She wasn't angry at him, and he didn't deserve her spite, she was just in pain and miserable. She added an additional, muttered; "Sorry." As he sloped off to the spring.

As he was gone Ovinia let herself cry. Ugly cry, big blossoming tears that soaked her cheek and the scratchy, awful tunica she had to wear as she folded her head in her knees. Everything hurt and none of it was getting better. As it turned out, the high of finding the shelter was only a fleeting one as reality crashed and burned and she realised just how...fucked they were. Very, as it turned out. And that was without her wound getting infected or any more serious accidents. Which seemed likely.

By the time Lucius returned Ovinia was sat close to the fire, hair neatly braided for bed but wrapped up so just her face was exposured, in the sail. Her cheeks were blotchy red and she was sniffing. "I roasted some figs but they were vile." Probably because one shouldn't put figs directly on a fire. 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Lucius left Ovinia to her own devices. He went down to the spring and washed, and then held the bowl under the flowing water and filled it. Returning to the fire, he found Ovinia wrapped up and looking spectacularly miserable.

"I roasted some figs but they were vile." 

A laugh bubbled up, but Lucius bit it back as he sat down next to her, and offered her the bowl of water.

"Figs are just fine as is. Don't worry, you'll learn. I won't let you starve. Now, get some sleep."

One more night in the open. Tomorrow, they would fix up the shack.

@Sara

[Sara]

And sleep she did. Just about. Ovinia spent most of the night tossing and turning, trying to find a comfortable position and then waking up again as she naturally rolled to her back - causing the stitches to catch on the grass or sticks that had worked their way into her perch. She woke up groggy and miserable to embers in the fire pit and the sight of a sleeping Lucius in the hazy morning light. Cocooning herself back in her sail, she shuffled to the fire and stoked it as she'd seen him do - adding more sticks and leaves and haphazardly prodding it with a stick. Whatever she did seemed to work as it caught again and fresh black smoke drifted up in great plumes, making her cough. 

She considered waking him but the cold that was whipping them from the winds would do that soon enough and she enjoyed the peace without his irritating little comments. Instead, she decided to make herself useful. Her back and arm protested at the thought but she wasn't sure she could cope with another night somewhere without walls and so she set off at a hurried pace back towards the shack. The wind was biting as she made her way there, with grey clouds overhead as far as the eye could see, and she made slow time. By the time she arrived, she was exhausted again and settled into the small room to start picking up detritus, depositing it into a pile in the corner to be swept out of the room. It only occurred to her then that she should have probably said good night and good morning to her company.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Lucius had been too exhausted to spend another sleepless night. He fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as he lay down, even without a blanket. My morning he was shivering; the sky was clouded and the wind picked up, but at least he had slept a few hours. Sitting up, he found the fire smoking and trembling in the wind, but no Ovinia anywhere.

With a sigh, Lucius picked up their few belongings, placed some embers in the clay pot, and headed across the island to the shack. He gave a wide berth to the spring, in case Ovinia was bathing again, ready to accuse him of spying. But instead, he found her at the shack, doing... whatever she assumed passed for cleaning.

"Looks like the weather has taken a turn. Let's get this place fixed up, shall we?"

@Sara

[Sara]

"Good morning Lucius." Came the terse reply as she carried on her tidying.

She added, swiftly after: "If there is a storm I'm going to throw myself in the ocean." She muttered dejectedly as she moved her pile of rubbish to another pile of rubbish she was forming in the corner. "I'm not staying on that beach getting soaked to the bone. No thank you." If Lucius couldn't tell, she was already in a foul mood and cleaning the shack wasn't helping her mood much. Not that what she was doing was really cleaning more...organising the piles of mess that had been deposited here by the seasons and occupants past. 

"How are we going to fix this place up?" She glanced up at him as she gathered shards of broken pottery into the crook of her arm, "Do you have any idea how to fix that?" She pointed up to the gaping hole in the roof.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Good morning Lucius. If there is a storm I'm going to throw myself in the ocean. I'm not staying on that beach getting soaked to the bone. No thank you." 

"Cheerful." Lucius noted. He did not relish the prospect of a storm either, but he really hoped she was only joking.

"How are we going to fix this place up? Do you have any idea how to fix that?" 

"Sure." he nodded. "There are plenty of broken planks down on the beach. It's just a matter of tying them down securely. Maybe I'll use some of that." He nodded at the planks left from what once had been a bed. "If you are done cleaning out the debris, you can start on the walls. Moss is great for plugging up the holes so the wind doesn't blow through, for now."

[Sara]

"Do you build many shacks on your ship, Lucius?" She bit back with an arched brow, not trusting his ability to do actually do construction work one iota. She glanced up nervously at the hole in the roof and then looked at him with unease. "Won't the planks just fall down on us if there's a storm and no-" She backed herself up so she was sat between the bed planks and him. "I need a bed." Which was the most ridiculous thing she could have said in this scenario but she meant it. The floor of the place was just compacted dirt and she was tired of waking up with her back aching. Surely she could fashion some sort of mattress out of grass?

"And I will get to that after I'm finished." She mumbled as she moved more and more detritus into her pile in the corner. it was mostly sticks and leaves and sand blown in from storms past, but it was perhaps the most amount of actual cleaning Ovinia had ever done. Still, when she was satisfied (for now) that it was enough and the floor was clear of everything she could move (he'd have to deal with the fallen branches), she started pushing it with her feet out of the door. Her back still hurt too much to bend down and carry it. She cast him a glance, softer this time. "Are you sure you're not too injured to be lugging planks and fixing this? It can wait another day..." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Do you build many shacks on your ship, Lucius?"

"You think ships maintain themselves?"

"Won't the planks just fall down on us if there's a storm and no- I need a bed." 

"Not if I do it right. And that is not a bed." he pointed at the pile of planks. "We can make a better one, with moss and grass and... softer things." he trailed off. "Two beds." Definitely two.

"And I will get to that after I'm finished." 

Ovinia was now nudging debris towards the door... Lucius let her do it. Instead, he picked up the planks and took them outside, once again going up to the roof from the back of the shack. He'd have to try and scavenge some rope from the beach, but for now, he tore some creepers off the nearby trees.

"Are you sure you're not too injured to be lugging planks and fixing this? It can wait another day..." 

"You might, but the weather might not. I'm fine." Lucius noted cheerfully, working on fixing the roof. It would just have to hold for the windy weather until he could make it sturdier...

[Sara]

"We can't make two beds if you steal all the planks for the roof." She offered with a smug smile of her own and set her foot down on the pile. "I'm saving these, you can go and scavenge for others down on the beach." 

Which he seemed to accept as he made his way to the back and up the creepers trailing up the side of the building. She was outside now, with half of her pile of trash and eyed him uneasily. "So long as you promise me you're fine. If you couldn't tell, I don't think I'd make a particularly good nursemaid or medicus if you push yourself too much." Ovinia wasn't exactly known for her bedside manner to those she didn't like. And she was determined not to like the crude, irritating man currently hoisting bits off of the broken roof. 

She ducked back into the shack (not that she could much escape him there), to kick the rest of the rubbish out of the building before smiling, satisfied at herself. If she had a broom she could clean it properly, but it would have to do for now. Moss. She needed to get moss. She set off at a slow amble along the shoreline, within shouting distance of him, glancing back every few moments to make sure he hadn't accidentally decapitated himself on the roof. When she saw the mop of dark hair pop up she hated that she was relieved. She called out to him as she knelt to pick some of the moss off of the rocks. "You never told me your second name...You know everything about me and I know nothing about you." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"So long as you promise me you're fine. If you couldn't tell, I don't think I'd make a particularly good nursemaid or medicus if you push yourself too much." 

"I'll be fine. If nothing, then out of sheer dread of that prospect" he grinned. She insisted on keeping the pile of planks that once constituted a bed. Lucius groaned, and went to pick up some other planks from the beach. Ships must have been wrecked around here on the rocks before, because it was not hard to find some to work with.

Ovinia walked out to get moss, and Lucius worked on covering the roof with a new layer of planks, and securing them with a large amount of creepers and some tactfully placed rocks. It was not going to be the prettiest roof in existence, but it was at least sturdy.

"You never told me your second name...You know everything about me and I know nothing about you." 

"It's Flavius" he shrugged. "My grandfather was a freedman. Although he claims we have some very high Etruscan ancestry. Bring that moss over when you have some."

@Sara

[Sara]

Ovinia quirked a brow, her lips pursing in thought. "A freedman but high Etruscan ancestry?" She gave him a wry look, "Then I suspect your great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents weren't particularly pious people, nor did they keep their slaves very well." She knew of at least two friends of hers whose husbands had bastards with their slaves. Imagine that, living in the same house as the girl your husband bedded and sired a son off of. She wrinkled her nose at the thought.

"Lucius Flavius..." She said as she wandered, slowly, back towards him with an armful of moss, "Lucius Flavius...Lucius Flavius. You know," She offered and placed a hand firmly on the curve of her waist, eyeing him suspiciously, "That is exactly the sort of name I'd say was my own if I wanted to pretend to be somebody else...and had limited imagination. That's your real name?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

 "A freedman but high Etruscan ancestry? Then I suspect your great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents weren't particularly pious people, nor did they keep their slaves very well." 

She had made a spectacular jump, and Lucius was not at all surprised. Many people in Italia claimed Etruscan ancestry; most were patricians who wanted their families to be as ancient as possible. But you didn't need to be a patrician to belong to an old family. "Not even close."

"Lucius Flavius... Lucius Flavius...Lucius Flavius. You know. That is exactly the sort of name I'd say was my own if I wanted to pretend to be somebody else...and had limited imagination. That's your real name?" 

Lucius looked down at her from the roof, rolling his eyes. "Why? You'd prefer to be stranded here with someone more mysterious?... Or do you just honestly thing that you can tell anything about a person from their breeding?... You think if you were stuck here with a patrician who knows exactly nothing about living off the sea, they would at least be safer to be around? Give me that moss."

 

[Sara]

"Look whose jumping to conclusions." She gave him a smug smile which rapidly turned into a grin. He was infuriating, but he also managed to make her smile. Even if it was in mocking. 

"I'd rather be stranded here with somebody less mysterious who spent more time talking to me and less time brooding." She offered and then rolled her eyes, "And most patrician men your age have been in the military as a tribune. Which means I'd wager they'd at least be as helpful as you. And probably more polite." She stepped forward and stretched on her tip toes to pass him the moss with her good arm. "Who would you rather be stranded here with?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Look whose jumping to conclusions. I'd rather be stranded here with somebody less mysterious who spent more time talking to me and less time brooding."

"I'm brooding?!" Lucius blinked, staring down at her as he leaned over the edge of the roof to take the moss. She had a decent amount. It would be a good start for insulating the roof nicely. Also, big words from a girl who spent the past two days throwing him murder glares.

"And most patrician men your age have been in the military as a tribune. Which means I'd wager they'd at least be as helpful as you. And probably more polite." 

Lucius scoffed, stuffing moss into the cracks on the roof between the planks. He had laid them so they had overlap; that was easier filled this way, and less likely to leak. "You think a military man would be more polite?"

"Who would you rather be stranded here with?" 

Anyone.

"Someone who can cook?" he grinned. "More moss? If I do this right, this roof won't leak. Hopefully. Might not be a fully laid out legion camp with fortifications, but it'll have to do."

[Sara]

"A patrician military man would be more polite to a respectable young woman. Married young woman." She corrected quickly and still kept the smug look on her face as she handed him more moss until her stash was depleted and she huffed away to collect more, throwing back at him as she walked away; "You'll eat your roasted figs and you'll be grateful!" 

Speaking of food, she was starving but was in no way going to ask him to climb down from the doing the actual manual labour to cook her something and starting a new fire. If she attempted either she was likely to cause an injury worse than the one he stitched up last night. Instead, she distracted herself on her moss gathering exercise and returned to him a few minutes later with more bounty. "I'm impressed." She gave it a once over from her vantage point and then her smile became a little more genuine and a little softer. "You're good at this. The practical work." She held up another few clumps of moss before stepping away. "And I just poke this in the gaps in the walls? Delightful. A home filled with the smell of rotting moss." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"A patrician military man would be more polite to a respectable young woman. Married young woman. You'll eat your roasted figs and you'll be grateful!" 

"Aye domina" Lucius grinned. She'd learn better. About the figs, anyway. As for the patricians... she operated on the premise that they were polite when in company. He was not going to point that out.

"I'm impressed. You're good at this. The practical work. And I just poke this in the gaps in the walls? Delightful. A home filled with the smell of rotting moss." 

Lucius chuckled at the compliment and decided to just take it. The roof felt sturdier now and well insulated, so he clambered down, and looked for more plants to shore up the walls. "Well if we are lucky, it won't rot. Moss can grow under the worst circumstances just fine. Kinda like some people."

@Sara

[Sara]

"You should go into poetry or oratory Lucius." She smirked as she jabbed clumpfuls of moss in the holes in the planks, finally an advantage for her slender fingers over his. "Were you referring to me growing under the present circumstances or yourself?" She tilted her head to the side and studied him just for a moment before her smirk grew into a grin and she turned back to the task at hand.

"Did they teach you how to construct beds in your time on the ships? And lamps?" She asked as she moved closer to him to jab more moss in the holes. The wind was whipping up outside but it wasn't howling. Yet. "Otherwise you're going to be very uncomfortable on the floor and we're going to be very dark." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"You should go into poetry or oratory Lucius. Were you referring to me growing under the present circumstances or yourself?"

"Both?" Lucius asked diplomatically with an amused smile. Clearly, they both had things to learn. Ovinia probably had more of them. He moved over to take a look at the door, which needed to be fixed, to close properly and stay closed if needed.

"Did they teach you how to construct beds in your time on the ships? And lamps? Otherwise you're going to be very uncomfortable on the floor and we're going to be very dark."

"I'm gonna...?" he sighed, shaking his head. Her pile of boards was not going to be much better. "Well, ideally we'll only use this shack for sleeping, and shelter. The fire will need to stay outside. As for a bed... we better start gathering more moss, or other... comfortable materials. We have the sail and the blanket for warmth. It won't be very comfortable, but it could be worse."

@Sara

[Sara]

"Beds." She corrected with an upturned face, enormously unimpressed. "Plural." And she moved over to the door to join him, narrowing her eyes in frustration. 

"Well, why don't we divide the tasks, rather than you storming about. I will wash the blanket," Having never washed an item before in her life, "And gather moss and grass in the sail, and find some food and gather the water. You fix the door," She kicked it for emphasis, "And patch the holes, and build that bed frame." She gestured to her pile of planks, "And make sure the roof doesn't blow off and...start the fire." That seemed fair, if not more burdensome for her. He wasn't the one who'd been stabbed with a fishhook repeatedly yesterday. "Can you cope with that list?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Beds. Plural."

"Sure." As if two feet of distance was going to make any difference in the close space of the shack. But she needed some semblance of her world of propriety, so he gave her that much.

"Well, why don't we divide the tasks, rather than you storming about. I will wash the blanket. And gather moss and grass in the sail, and find some food and gather the water."

Well, that was quite the workload for someone like her, but at least she was taking initiative. It was going to take him some time to fix up the door and the walls anyway. And make sure they wouldn't blow down in a storm.

"You fix the door. And patch the holes, and build that bed frame. And make sure the roof doesn't blow off and...start the fire. Can you cope with that list?" 

"Can you?" he arched an eyebrow. "... sure. I don't think that kinda bed needs a frame, but... sure. Whatever. Just be careful."

Fixing up the shack took up most of the morning. It was already afternoon by the time Lucius was content with the result, and fairly confident it wouldn't all blow down. Which was important, because the wind was picking up. He'd almost forgotten how hungry he was, and looked around, wondering where Ovinia had gone.

@Sara

 

[Sara]

Ovinia was in absolutely no mood to speak or see Lucius by the time she eventually made it back to the shack. Slung over one shoulder was the sail, full of moss and grass and softer leaves (it didn't occur to her that they'd dry and go hard). Over the other was the blanket, absolutely soaked through and dripping salt water. As was Ovinia. Every inch of her was soaked; her hair was dripping rivulets of water on the sand as she trudged back towards the shack, and she was shivering. 

She spied Lucius and no fire. She was furious. Which just looked comical given her 'drowned rat' look. "You couldn't even build a fire?!" She choked and threw down the bag of moss and the drenched blanket. Pre-empting the question she glared at him. "The waves are big today." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Ovinia returned in a... state. Lucius stared at her as she dropped the sail - she had been successful in her gathering mission, apparently - and the soaked blanket. The latter Lucius took and laid out on the rocks, weighing it down thoroughly because of the wind.

"You couldn't even build a fire?!... The waves are big today." 

He tried to bite back a laugh, but it bubbled up anyway. "Oh I wish I could have seen that..." he grinned at her, imagining Ovinia trying to do laundry in the stormy sea. She did not look amused at all. "Alright, come on. Let's get you dry." Her dress was already inside the shack with their other few belongings. Lucius took the embers to a nearby cove among taller rocks, somewhat sheltered from the wind and far enough not to set the shack on fire. "Did you find any food?"

@Sara