Fetch the Water from the Well

Who: Zania and Laila
Where: The Stockade, from the well to the main house kitchen
When: Afternoon

After thoroughly exploring the properly, the first thing Zania decided was worth doing was having a bath. With no running water, a shower was completely out of the question, though a bath could be managed with a little work. Or, a lot of work, as Zania was quickly finding out. She'd retrieved one bucket of water and put it on the stove, but that was not near enough to bathe in. Bucket in hand, she returned to the well, her eyes rising to the sky as she noted the change in weather. It looked like a storm was rolling in, but hopefully they'd be lucky and it would remain as simple cloud cover. At least it made her trek a spot cooler, without the sun beating down on her, though after enough trips back and forth she'd need a bath far more than when she started.

Laila had headed out to do some exploring of her own, going first to the barn where the men were apparently rooming so that she could make friends with the horses. Because, while she wasn't a horse expert, she was a competent rider. And horses could cover much more ground than a walking human could. Which meant that they could look into searching for everyone else. Laila didn't like being separated from the entire group; there was safety in numbers and she was a big fan of safety, especially listening to the wolves howling. She hated being penned in. After a while, though, she started to get pretty warm and left the barn. Meandering around, she saw the redheaded girl heading out from the kitchen - Zania was her name, Laila was pretty sure. "Hey," she said, putting herself on an intercept path. "What's going on?"

Zania looked up as Laila spoke to her, a girl she'd only learned the name of once she'd gotten camera access. The ability to see everyone in the house had truly made her aware of her housemates, as well as who all was now missing. There wasn't anything she could do about that though, so she'd gone about figuring what was within her realm of capabilities. "I was thinking a bath would be nice before changing into clean clothes," Zania explained, going around Laila as she continued to talk. "Without running water, a bath is more difficult. I go to the well, get water, bring it in to fill the tub. Some, I heat on the stove. I figure, luke warm water is better than cold." She turned, looking back at Laila. "Want to help?"

"Oh god, I didn't even think about the lack of running water," Laila said, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity. "Because it wasn't obvious or anything." And it's not like they'd been hauling water since the house burned down. But at least then you could just bathe in the stream or the lake. "I'll do what I can," she said, "but I dislocated my shoulder recently and I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting with it. But if I can carry with the other arm then it's all good. Think we could get enough for two?" Because while she was down with helping, but she wanted a little something for herself.

"Sure," Zania said, lips turning up. "Just carry with the arm you didn't hurt. It'll go twice as fast. We've only got one tub, but we've got enough buckets and pots that we can get all the water for two baths." It seemed reasonable enough, and splitting the work would make it so much easier. True, they'd have to get twice as much water, but she could heat water while one bathed and... well, she was sure it was a good idea. "How'd you hurt your shoulder?" she asked, continuing towards the house.

"Um... remember that fucked up scavenger hunt about a week and a half, two weeks ago?" Laila ventured, surprised there was someone who hadn't heard of it. She didn't want to kill the mood but she couldn't really ignore the question, either. So she just left it at that, shrugging her good shoulder as she followed Zania towards the well. "The last clue led to me." She grimaced at the memory, hand going as if to touch her shoulder before she caught herself and lowered her hand. "So," she said instead, "lemme find a bucket."

"Oh," Zania said, nodding. "Yeah." That was the day she'd slept in a box with Dorian and missed out on all the drama. And Drew and Gwil had accused her of being selfish. That still bothered her, only because she hadn't done anything on purpose. Plus, she was fairly certain that one of them had been the ones to leave her those bizarre notes. "There's some hanging from the wall, and beside the stove. I think there's the expectation that we'll be going back and forth a lot." If this was the only way to get water, she was certain that was the case. "I'm still trying to figure out what we should eat for dinner, though it looks like we have a bit of a selection."

"I just hope someone knows how to cook it," Laila said. "I'm okay with a regular stove and a couple freeze-dried things over campfires, but I've never been much of a cook. Be right back." She headed back to the kitchen to grab a bucket, trotting out to rejoin Zania a second later. "All right," she said, kicking away the unfamiliar skirts in irritation. "Let's do this thing. Hopefully before too many of the other girls or guys catch sight and want us to haul water for them, too. I'm beginning to see why people had ranked bathing times back in the old days."

"I can cook. Kinda. I mean, I can peel potatoes and carrots and boil them fine. I haven't really looked at what spices we have, but I'm pretty sure we have some salt. Hopefully some pepper. Thing is, I'm not peeling potatoes for everyone," Zania said, heading in and pouring the water into a pot to put on the stove. "I think if we fill the tub with hot water, then get more water, put it on the stove, then more cold water, and by that time, the other's cooled enough for one of us to use, but the rest of the water's there, so there won't be any more hauling back and forth," Zania explained, though she thought she might be confusing. "But yeah, just for us. I can't do this for everyone."

"I'm sure everyone will chip in," Laila said, trying to be optimistic. "After all, we're all interested in eating. Many hands make light work and all that." She nodded to Zania's explanation, able to follow just fine. "Sounds smart," she said. "No sense getting clean if you just have to go get sweaty hauling water again. I'm good to carry a bucket, but I'll have to ask you to do the water-pulling in this well," she said. "I can help, but for stuff like this I've essentially only got one arm."

"One arm's okay," Zania smiled. "At least you're willing to help, rather than hope for people to wait on you." Not that she was implying there were other people who did that. Not at all. "I figure, we're in a place were we'll get along fine, so long as everyone pitches in. We're far better off than we were before. I just have to think of it as a new stage of the experiment, seeing if we can live like this. People once did, right? We'll only fail if everyone sits around and does nothing." Having had to make it on her own, Zania had an idea of just what it took to make things work. She could adapt, and adapting she was doing.

"I'm pretty sure more people will help out since we're a smaller group," Laila suggested. "You know, diffusion of responsibility? The more people there are, the less likely anyone is to help out because it's assumed that someone else will do it. Here, there aren't as many people to take on the responsibility. Plus I think we got a lot of the people who were already volunteering to help out. I think we'll be okay. I've got to say, I'm glad we've got some solid walls around us now, though. Those wolves sound pretty damn close."

Zania agreed with her, certain that the reason people were more apt to help out was because they weren't as sure someone else would do it instead. It was good that people were willing, maybe giving them a sense of community that they'd lost in the house. Zania knew she hadn't been as willing to help out in the house for the exact reason stated. It had felt like someone else always had it covered. "I keep thinking we should go out and check to see what's beyond the walls, but I don't want to risk opening the gate quite yet. If one of the wolves got in, I'm not sure how we'd get rid of it." It wasn't like they had weapons, though there were some bear traps in the barn.