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Post by Lynn Gail on Feb 12, 2023 22:56:00 GMT -8
It wasn't often that Lynn ventured so far afield. Despite all the dangers and her many close calls with the terrible beast known as 'traffic', she did still mostly prefer life in the city. Even so, though...sometimes a bit of fresh clean air did a body good -- even if that body was crammed full of all kinds of plastic and metal sparky bits now. And besides, sometimes you just wanted to get away from all the noise and get a little peace and quiet to enjoy a peaceful stroll around here or there.
.....or maybe you were just like Lynn was, and you were hopelessly fucking lost.
Not lost in the "Oh god I have no idea where I am!" sense, just lost in the "Hey, haven't I seen that same tree seven times now?" way. The two were closely related -- okay, very closely related but not quite the same. Lynn was just about positive she could manage to go back the way she'd come and, eventually, make it back to home sweet home. Eventually.
For now, though, she wasn't exactly concerned about that. She was, all things considered, enjoying the break from rampant overstimulation from noise and too many things going on that always happened within the city. It was always so distracting, barely gave her any time to think the few thoughts she did have! Out here, though....out here it was different. There was nothing but the wind in the grass and trees, a skyline empty of buildings and long winding trails and dirt roads mercifully almost entirely empty of cars -- only the occasional one chugging along going here there or wherever at sporadic intervals.
And it suited her just fine, really. She wouldn't want to stay out here in a place like this forever, but for a while? It was okay.
Though soon enough her aimless meandering along, picking her way along trails and around trees and through gently-swaying fields of oversized grasses, she nearly ran smack into a fence.
....okay, there was no 'nearly'. She walked right into it, too distracted staring up at a cloud doing a remarkable job of looking like a bird in flight, and with a sudden "Gahwak!" flipped nearly completely over the only slightly more than waist-high barrier. The impromptu tumble sent her spilling ass over teakettle, flipping over almost twice before she landed with a (thankfully cushioned, from all the grass and nice, soft dirt) resounding 'whumpf' and a groaning, wheezed "Boof...."
She only had a few moments to process what had just happened, most of which was spent trying to count whether there were four or five pterodactyls fluttering around her head in her dazed vision, before she was greeted with an unexpected sound.
"Well goodness gracious, missy," came a wheezing, labored voice that positively shrieked of equal parts mild inebriation, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, and other words that ended in -ion. Lifting her still spinning head up, the momentarily addle-brained android beheld the sight of...a farmer, muddied boots, overalls and ridiculous flannel and all. He turned his head aside briefly to belt out a particularly...moist-sounding bought of coughing, covering his mouth with one fist. "You alright, there? Looked like a mighty rough tumble you took there."
"Fine!" came Lynn's quick reply as she tried to force her lungs to remember how they worked and scrambled up first onto her hands and knees, shaking her head to clear away the phantom dino-birds, then hopping up to her feet. "Just fine!" She leaned forward slightly, lifting a hand up to one side of her mouth as she stage-whispered, "I think your fence is possessed, though. It just tried to take my legs off!"
The poor farmer, equal parts too hungover and too lacking in sleep to properly process that, could only blink dumbly. "....wuh?"
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Post by Lynn Gail on Feb 12, 2023 23:15:26 GMT -8
With a deep breath and a shake of his head, the farmer tried to recollect some semblance of sanity and push on. "Lissen, miss, uh..." He immediately faltered at the immense social stumbling block and faux pas of trying to address someone without knowing their name.
Lynn just remained stock still, still leaned forward and staring at the farmer, hand still cupped near one side of her face as if she was going to say more. She never did, though. Just stood there, blinking slowly, as if waiting for something.
"Uh..." The farmer fidgeted in place, shifting his weight uneasily from one foot to the other. Eventually he cracked and he turned aside, with a harsh clearing of his throat that trailed off into another bout of coughing. He hastily reached into a pocket and tugged out a handkerchief, which he promptly obliterated with a goose-worthy blowing of his nose. "...ugh, awful shit..." he wheezed, staring at the suddenly sodden mess of handkerchief. Making a face, he reluctantly tucked it back into his pocket before turning a wary eye back toward Lynn. "....uh, what's yer name, anyway, missy?"
"Oh, right, my name." Lynn blinked dumbly, which seemed to often be her natural way of doing most anything these days. "I forgot we never met before." She nodded sagely, as if that explained everything, while she straightened back up. "Hiya! I'm Lynn!" And she flashed a smile she thought would be wonderfully charming, showing as many of her sharp, sparkly teeth as she could.
The farmer, to his credit, didn't so much as bat an eye at the sight of chompers that would be more at home on a wild animal. He knew a fellah or three at a farmer's market near here who had chompers like that, so it wasn't anything new. "Uh-huh..." was all he mustered up to say in response to Lynn's greeting. "Well, miss Lynn...iffen you don't mind me askin', what're you doin' out here, then? Not that's any of my business to pry, but just on account of you comin' from that way out there..." And he waved a hand, gesturing vaguely at the overgrown fields Lynn had come from.
"Wha?" Lynn turned around, only really pivoting at the waist and neck to look back behind her at the way she'd just come from. Sure enough, there was a fairly obvious trail through the nearly chest-high grass that had been rustled through and half-trampled down. "...oh, wow, I guess I did come from that way, huh?" And she jolted back around, like a retracting spring minus the wobble. "Well, I dunno! It just seemed like a good way to go at the time! Until I ran into your fence."
"...yeah. I think I saw that part." The farmer reached up to rub wearily at his eyes. "You from the city, I take it? What brought you all the way out here, 'specially just a'walkin' like you are? If you don't mind my askin'."
"Oh, I don't mind." Lynn shrugged cheerily. "I was just out for a walk and kind of got lost! So I figured I might as well just wander around and enjoy the scenery until I managed to remember where I was going and saw something familiar."
"Oh, good lordy be..." the farmer slapped an open palm to his face hard enough to make an audible smack sound. "Alright...lissen. I can give ya a lift back to the city, if ya want, but--"
Before he could even finish, Lynn's face brightened up. "Oh, wow, really? That'd be neat! I was probably gonna be out here all day otherwise!"
"....y-yeah. I can imagine." The farmer shook his head, lifting a hand to stifle another horrendous coughing fit as he did. "Can't do it right now, though...got some work to finish up 'round here before I get a free minute."
"Work to do?" Lynn just blinked dumbly at the man, leaning slowly forward again and squinting intently at him. "You suuuuure about that?"
"Wha--? 'Course I am!" The farmer looked indignant suddenly, stomping one boot into the ground and puffing himself up. "What kinda thing is that to ask a fellah on his own property?! I got halfa mind to--"
"Ah, no, calm down, man!" Lynn held up her hands in front of her defensively. "I know you probably got all kinds of stuff to do! But, like..." She lamely gestured at the man at large. "...you look like you're about to keel over just standing here talking, man. Any actual work would probably make you pass out."
"....oh. Yeah. That." And the poor farmer just let out a weak, wheezing cough again.
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Post by Lynn Gail on Feb 12, 2023 23:37:10 GMT -8
"So what's got you so messed up, mister?" By now, Lynn and her new friend -- because he was definitely that by now -- were slowly trudging through the fields along the way toward where he had been headed originally.
"Whole lotta things," he grunted. "Had a bad rainstorm come through a couple days back, and lucky me, I was out in the fields when it hit. Got soaked through to the bone." He grahumphed at the mere memory of it, hunching up his shoulders and giving an involuntary shudder.
"Ooooh. I get it!" Lynn said brightly, slapping one closed fist down in her opposite palm. "You're allergic to water!"
"What? No!" the farmer let out an exasperated groan. "I just spent too long out in the cold and wet, and caught a devil of a cold for my trouble. All over some stupid cabbage and spooked beasts..."
"Wow. Sounds unlucky."
"That's a word for it, alright. Still..." He trailed off, into a terrific sneeze that spiraled into another horrific coughing fit which had him doubled over and nearly send him toppling to the ground. "...work don't stop, just 'cause I'm...just 'cause I'm under the weather," he managed to wheeze out. "Farm ain't gonna tend to itself, an' all that."
"....okay! I have an idea!"
"Oh lord help me..."
Lynn lunged forward, taking several quick steps to get ahead of her new friend, before turning about and planting herself squarely in his path. She placed her hands on her hips and tried to puff herself up to look as strong and tough as she knew she absolutely was. It didn't really work. "I'll lend you a hand, mister!" she said, bearing her gnarly teeth in a lopsided grin. "You tell me what needs doing, and then go sit down and try to get a little rest, and I'll handle all the tough stuff!"
"....uh." The farmer was just left flabbergasted, staring with a wide-eyed, dumbfounded expression. "What? No, lissen here, missy--uh, Lynn--that's real nice of you to offer and all, but I can't just--"
"Nuh-uh!" Lynn leaned forward at the waist, sticking one arm out with a raised index finger, waving it in the farmer's confused face like a mother scolding a misbehaving child. "Nah. No. None of that. You're barely hangin' on just walkin' and talkin' mister farmer man. And I need you to be not-barely hangin' on so you can help me get back to the city later! So!" And she slowly pivoted back upright, her arm still outstretched as it ponderously lifted to point skyward, her unblinking gaze never leaving the utterly befuddled farmer's face. "Leave the physical junk to me!"
The farmer groaned audibly, as his shoulders visibly slumped. "You just ain't gonna let this go, huh?" He knew the look on Lynn's face now. He'd seen it before, as a matter of fact. On his daughters' faces, when they got all stubborn and riled up about helping out with the chores and farm work. "....alright, alright. But look, I ain't in the business of just acceptin' free help or anything, okay? Ride back to the city's a courtesy." He didn't mention aloud that he was doing it out of pity; this girl would probably wander around aimlessly until she met her death somewhere if left to her own devices. "But if you're gonna be so bent on helpin' out around here, I'm gonna pay you for the work."
"Huh?" Lynn just cocked her head to one side upon hearing that.
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Post by Lynn Gail on Feb 13, 2023 0:43:46 GMT -8
The work that needed to be done by the poor cold-addled farmer man -- whose name was Dale or something, as it turned out -- was actually not very hard at all.
Okay, well...it wasn't really complex at all. Physically, it was pretty hard and demanding, though. Which, Lynn supposed, explained why it might be a bit much for the poor guy to handle given his current condition. If she had been sick as he was, and had the bright idea to drink herself to sleep to try and at least get a decent night's shut-eye, she probably would have been pretty out of it and not in the best of shape, either.
But the work itself? Not super hard. Fields that needed plowing, to get ready for next planting season. Some already plowed fields needed to be sowed while the weather was good. Plenty of assorted animals, critters and beasties on the farm needed to be fed and watered and generally tended to. Normally, Dale said, he'd have the rest of his family to help him out so this wouldn't be any real kind of issue. But at the moment, well...they were all out and about, away on errands this and family business that. Left just him around to manage things for another couple days, yet. And he couldn't very well just sit around and do nothing but sneeze and cough his lungs out until they got back. They'd never let him hear the end of it.
So instead, he very carefully and painstakingly explained everything to Lynn. What to do and what not to do, from the very basics of 'what a plow is' to the more complex stuff of 'how not to get chased by a herd of angry chickens'.
Lynn was almost positive he had indeed said 'herd' of angry chickens. But that was silly, because everyone knew a group of chickens was called a bucket.
In the end, though, it wasn't really that hard to get all figured out, even for someone like Lynn. It was going to be physically tough work that'd probably leave her all kinds of dirty, sweaty and exhausted, but...well, she didn't really have anything positive to follow that up with, in all honesty. It was going to suck. A lot. Like a giant vacuum. Still, though, with the sheer amount of work there was that needed doing, it wasn't like she was expected to do everything. Just help out a little here and there, take some of the burden off of Dale's poor shoulders, and he'd consider it a done deal.
So naturally, in all of her infinite wisdom, Lynn decided to go for what she felt would be the easiest job out of everything. As she practically ripped off her 'good clothes' so they wouldn't get messed up from the coming work, she marched her way over to the fields-to-be-plowed in nothing but her trademark (not that it was actually marked for any kind of trade) bodysuit. "Alright, you uppity dirt...get ready to be plowed like you've never been plowed before."
That her certainly overpoweringly threatening statement could be misconstrued as anything but what she had intended it for was entirely lost on her.
Regardless of any such potentially-lewd tomfoolery, she set to work and leapt into action. She immediately regretted her choice, upon finding out just how physically taxing and demanding it was. Even with all her fleshy meat bits not being there anymore and partially replaced by fancy metal robot bits, it was rough! Almost painfully boring and easy to figure out and work through, but physically it was definitely one of the worst things she had ever done. Lynn was a delicate flower, after all! She wasn't used to this kind of labor! She briefly reflected, in a rare moment of clarity and coherent thought as she huffed and puffed her way through the stubbornly unyielding field of dirt and soil, of her past jobs and all the mental discipline and work ethic she'd never developed.
....she had been pretty lucky all things considered. Managing to land one of those prized "if you do it right, you won't really ever have to do any actual work" kinds of jobs. Something to do with computers, she was pretty sure. Boy, that had been nice. She knew that, once upon a time, she had been quite capable about that kind of stuff. She still was, when she could manage to focus on it long enough; but computers and all that stuff just didn't really hold much interest anymore. Too same-y, too much sitting still in one place.
....that said, she might actually prefer that over this kind of work. How long had she been out here doing this, anyway? It was at least somewhere between ten minutes and six hours, by her best guess. Sure, in that time, she had already done the work that would've taken even a burly, scruffy, roughy and tumbley farmer-type like Dale at least all day, if not all of a couple days, to do. But still. How much did she actually need to do, anyway?
As she stopped at the end of the field, she gave an overly-exaggerated sigh and lifted an arm to wipe sweat from her forehead. The rumble of an engine sounded from nearby, as the man of the land brought his battered old farm truck to a halt and hopped out.
"Good sweet Satan," Dale's hoarse voice suddenly croaked as he fanned himself with his hat, looking somewhere between amazed and aghast at what he saw.
"Oh, hey again, mister!" Lynn said cheerfully. Planting her hands on her hips, she turned around to survey her handiwork. It...wasn't exactly clean or professional work. The furrows which had been dug and torn through the earth, turning up fresh new soil, were far from the neat and orderly lines that someone who did this regularly could make. But they would get the job done, she thought.
"....I ain't never seen such work in all my days," Dale muttered, shaking his head. "It's a mite bit...messy. But you sure did what you said you were gonna do."
"Told ya! Just leave it to me!" Lynn said proudly. "....just this once, though. This sucks."
"Yeah. Yeah, you ain't wrong about that, missy..."
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Post by Lynn Gail on Feb 13, 2023 1:35:27 GMT -8
Dale's dumbfoundedness didn't last for very long. There was still a bit more to be done today before he could really in good conscience write off work as 'done' for the day. Sure, the fields were plowed (mostly), but that wasn't all there was to do.
The beleaguered farmer wasn't going to risk letting someone as scatterbrained as Lynn take the reins on the actual sowing and plating of new seeds and crops, though. So he instead pointed her toward something a little harder to mess up, getting them both in his beat up old truck and rumbling across his fields and property. Get the farm critters all fed and taken care of, and that should be that for the day.
Lynn had never really dealt with any kind of animals personally before. Not beyond a few cats and dogs, and the ones at the local zoo, of course. But that was a bit different from seeing things in person. Not that the animals here were all that impressive or out of the ordinary -- just typical farm critter fare, really. But to a scatterbrained, addlepated city girl like Lynn? It might as well have been a magical menagerie of mystery.
As it turned out, though...feeding them wasn't exactly an exciting job. It wasn't anywhere near as physically demanding and taxing as the last chore had been, at the least, so that was nice. Unfortunately for Lynn, though, she hadn't exactly taken the lessons on not upsetting and getting chased by a herd of angry chickens. One wrong step while scattering feed for them, and she was frantically running from an entire gaggle and a half of angry, puffed up clucking fury. The entire ordeal eventually even agitated the farmer's dog, whose barking only served to start riling up the angry feathered fiends even further, and began to make many of the other animals uneasy as well.
It lasted until Lynn had been quite literally chased up a tree, scrambling up the trunk and latching onto a limb with all four of hers.
Thankfully, it didn't take an especially long time for the gathered animals to lose interest in Lynn's shenanigans and move back to the much more important matter of 'food' that she had been in the middle of providing them. It took the frazzled android several more minutes to gingerly climb down from the tree, now being incredibly wary as she slowly crept back over to resume her task of dishing out feed to the gathered herds of farmyard critters.
Dale, for his part, was sitting in a chair on his porch and trying his hardest not to laugh at the sight of it all.
After what felt like another six hours, but was probably barely even one hour, Lynn was finishing up. As she tentatively reached out to pat a particularly fluff-tastic cow, Dale came slowly plodding up next to her. "Well...I gotta tell ya, missy. Can't say as I've ever seen somebody do what you did today. Least not as quick as you did it. Or as, uh..." His lips quivered, threatening to curl into a smirk. "...energetically, for that matter."
"Yeah?" Lynn, in spite of her sorry-looking state -- she was all kinds of disheveled, covered in dirt and mud, bits of grass and leaves and twigs caught all through her hair, and a fine sheen of sweat visible on her face -- beamed proudly. "Yeah!" And she laughed cheerfully, even as exhausted and not overly happy as she was at the moment. Despite everything, it actually did feel kind of good to have done an honest, hard day's work. Had she been planning on it? Not at all. Did she particularly want to do it? Not especially. Would she do it again? Probably not. Was she glad to have done it, though? Not...really.
Dale shook his head. "Well...guess that's that, then." He chuckled quietly, trailing off into a weak, phlegmy cough. "Alright, miss Lynn....you go get yourself ready, then. Reckon I owe you a trip back into the city, like I promised."
"Oh yeah!" Lynn brightened up at mention of that. That was what all this was about. "Sounds good to me!" Then she paused, slowly looking down at herself. "....uh. I don't suppose you have anywhere I could get a shower or something first?"
Dale just sighed wearily, pinching the bridge of his nose.
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