Ameriganastan wrote:Her salvation in this situation came from an unlikely source and a tap on the shoulder."Here."
Edwin had wondered down to the river to fill up his canteen. He had no intention of interacting with them. Until this specific instance. Which probably explained the yellow one piece swimsuit he held out for her.
"Lady traveled with me. Forgot this. You're the same size. You can have it."
Claire snickered as Adelaide snatched Bridgette away from the man before she could even respond to his offer. She'd honestly thought the Quebecois was going to jump at the opportunity to see Adelaide naked, but apparently little things like other people being able to see her girl-crush made her much more possessive.
"Don't take it too hard, man, Adelaide and Bridgette there are a bit...attached to one another. Or at least, Adelaide's attached to her and Bridgette's too innocent to know better." She said flatly. Claire was still hesitant about Adelaide. While unlike Mylena she didn't seem to know Claire's past, Claire still had an odd feeling about her that she couldn't quite touch. The girl just didn't seem right, and Claire was self-aware enough to realize just how much that suggested if even she thought something was odd about the girl. Maybe it was the axe. Claire got a bit of a similar feeling from Hilde after all. Maybe it was just their nonsense attachment to melee weapons that bugged her? Claire had never really liked fighting someone without a gun. Perhaps that was what bugged her about the pair?
Shrugging the concern aside, Claire wandered to the edge of the river and paused. Quickly removing her pistol from its holster, she hid it against her chest as she partially ejected the magazine and racked the slide. The round in the chamber ejected into her elbows, and she rammed the magazine back in, recocking the hammer and flicking the safety back on. If somebody grabbed her gun while she was in the water, they'd drop the hammer on an empty chamber. It wasn't much, and she was a bit nervous, but it was unlikely anybody here was going to threaten her. She was just peachy to them. Most of them at least, she still wasn't sure if Mylena saw her as a threat or a challenge or what. But the setup meant she'd at least have the advantage of knowing someone using her own pistol would have to rack the slide first to be a threat. Chances were they'd have their own gun anyways, so it was mostly just paranoia. But paranoia had been what kept Claire alive for so long.
Unstrapping the holster, her shirt, and finally her pants, Claire wadded the pistol in between them so it wasn't visible and set them down on the bank of the river. Deliberately placing the holster below everything so a brief examination would suggest she wasn't armed. Any advantage one could get was an advantage after all.
Initial preparations complete, Claire dropped the last remaining covering on her lower half, then unclipped the last remaining covering on her upper half and dropped them in turn on top of her other clothes. Claire turned, buck naked, towards everyone else so she could throw a half-serious glare at Victor.
"You ain't going to go into another racist tirade if I say 'Geronimo', are ya'?" Claire asked, tone midway between joking and bitterness. Not waiting for a response, Claire turned back towards the river. Taking a pair of steps to bring her feet into the edge of the water, Claire dived in.
She was quite surprised just how much warmer the water in Arizona was even now compared to her native Montana's. It wasn't even a comparison. This water was about as warm as it ever got up there. She had been expecting a shock to the system and a hurried and furious scrubbing session before getting out so she didn't get hypothermia. With this, she might just take her time a little more.
Taking her own suggestion, Claire let herself linger under the water for a little longer, running hands over joints and folds of skin where the time on the road had deposited dirt, grime and general discomfort. The water cleared it away like nothing, just enough of a flow evident in it for Claire to feel the dirt traveling downriver.
Bobbing back to the surface just a little ways out from the shore, Claire splashed a wave of water onto her face, then ran her hands back through her hair. The feeling was indescribable.
Claire let out a loud whoop that almost echoed in the air, unlike what she had expected it wasn't an expression of surprise or discomfort at nearly-freezing water,though. Instead it was a lighter, much more airy, yell. Perhaps one a much more civilized ancestor of the Wasteland barbarian woman would have let out upon successfully hopping on to the back of a wild mustang or hitting a buffalo with an arrow. A whoop that almost sounded as if it came from a fully functional and level-headed human being instead of Claire.
"C'mon in, the water's fine!" Claire yelled in a horrific imitation of a Confederate accent, absently wondering where in the world the expression had come from.
Source:
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