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Post by mock on May 21, 2008 22:52:12 GMT -5
((Do whatever ya like, I'm just trying to facilitate meet ups in case people are trying to get to them, because we seem kind of scattered, but be wherever you want, it's your thing!))
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Post by dray on May 21, 2008 23:13:20 GMT -5
Six years in Malton... some things had changed, but then again, some things stayed exactly the f*cking same. Take, for example, Fa and Agate, both of whom had stood by Kay and Casey for most of the last six years. In the off moments of over-run suburbs when one or both of them fell to the migratory zombie hordes... well, those were generally temporary tangents. Both of them got up again and were revived again at some point and came back when they had a chance to re-orient themselves to their surroundings (if they weren't so lucky as to be needled by a friendly face.)
Anyways, in the time that they stood together, they did the vast majority of bickering in the odd family dynamic. Not exactly fighting, not exactly hostile. There was one day on the roof when the snow was still melting in the north-facing shadows and Fa and Kay had been up on the over-worn gravel constructing the first of the garden boxes that now supplied them with meager fresh food. One of them had brought the subject up, and Fa had smiled and shrugged, and with that sometimes enraging sort of unassuming patronizing voice: "well it's better to vent than to actually fight. I give him that bone to pick and he doesn't go entirely crazy." And she laughed and scratched the short swatch of dirty hair tied back behind her ears.
But this time the arguing was different. It wasn't about the usual struggle for scavenging or underhanded dealings (or overhanded, for that matter) with the neighborhood. It wasn't about what Casey ought to know; it wasn't about who exactly was giving orders for this or that. It was more about the marks on Fa's neck and where the hell she could shove her precious cure... and though Agate's voice was quiet (in eight years apparently he could learn something useful!) it was thick with resentment, even anger.
"At least think about it," Fa mirrored his hushed tone, "she only knows what it's like on the inside, Agate, she needs this."
"No."
"There's word that they're setting up evac stations on the border, Agate. One or two days in quarantine and then we can get the hell out of here. Can you even comprehend that... that hope? All of us out of Malton and we'll never have to think about it again? Do you remember not having to sleep on rotation? Getting up and moving in the middle of the night because there's too much migration? We won't even have to think about it. Casey can pretend this was all a bad dream."
"Fa, no. You're not giving my kid that needle."
"Look, just think about it, okay?" Her voice softened; it was the 'I want something from you so I'm going to play nice,' voice.
"Think about it yourself," he retorted. He picked up her pack and shoved it roughly in her arms. "Get out and go on your f*cking romp, just leave Casey out of it. There's word but that doesn't mean jack sh*t. For all we know 'quarantine' is a f*cking incinerator, alright?"
"If they wanted to nuke this place they'd've done it eight years ago, buddy," she retorted, slinging the light pack over her shoulders. She scowled, uncertain of the tone of his pessimism. "They didn't keep us alive this long to put an end to us one by one. Just think about it."
She closed the door behind her. Agate, feeling as if the room had just gotten larger and emptier, sat back on a reclaimed chair and heaved a breath of relief. The truth of the matter was that, while Agate was no death cultist, there was much more on his mind than fuzzy and inconsistent reports of salvation. In the past five years (out of... what? Eight now? Eight f*cking years of damnation?) he had been relatively happy. Kin's operation had been something of a success. He didn't have to worry about taking that final dirt nap anymore, and even if it was f*cking Malton, it was still a routine and a schedule and people adapted to that.
He was kind of scared of the repercussions. He remembered life before all of this but it had been so long (two, three years?) that he'd spent inside Malton's boundaries that by the time he got all of those memories back, he'd all but rejected them. This cure-outta-nowhere rankled him. Mortality... he'd already lived with that. Could things really be that much better after evacuation?
Fa hadn't really gotten through to him. Agate was a great guy, helpful, willing to do all of the sh*tty little chores that kept the Cosway chugging along, but sometimes he was as dense as a f*cking rock. Fa had lived in the opinion that it was time to give up thinking about the outside, let alone hoping for salvation... but that had been under entirely different circumstances. She was a woman who kept her ear to the ground and this cure business, when it came up, she'd analyzed it and she'd done a lot of research of her own variety.
It was the real deal. The evacuation... yeah, maybe there was some unfinished business going on there, but she was convinced that this was really the end, one way or another. It was time for a new game plan. Anybody who couldn't see that was just going to get their asses handed to them... and Agate couldn't pretend that this was happy-together-community land and turn a blind eye on the fact that they were living in a hell hole when there was now a legitimate out. He just couldn't.
She was still arguing with the man in her mind when she caught sound of the pelting of a child's feet in the stair-well, and shortly thereafter a holler in a voice she hadn't heard for a while. Fa stood on the landing and scooped Casey up, the girl shrieking in surprise and indignant laughter as the blonde swung her around before setting her down again. "Where d'you think you're going, my dear?" she asked the youngster, and then, looking up the stairway, "Cass, is that you? You still owe me that money!"
Conflict over the cure was pushed aside for now... but it was a topic that was likely to come up again at any moment.
((So, long post of mostly rambling! Summary: Agate and Fa argue over the cure; Agate is against it, Fa is for it. Fa leaves Agate in his room and heads for the roof. She runs into Casey, and hears Cass; calls up to the soldier as she swings the girl around.
I'm'a put these summaries in because I like to ramble and I know that not everyone likes to read small walls of text. XD Feel free to skip to the meat if you get sick of me!))
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Post by Kat on May 21, 2008 23:50:05 GMT -5
"Mom wanted shotties!" Casey crowed, digging in her satchel and pulling out a handful of shells as proof, then shoving them back in. She turned away and started scrambling up the stairway again, looking half-feral as she charged the steep steps on all fours. "Hi Cass!" she hollered before even spotting the gunwoman.
On the roof, Kay sucked in a long, deep breath and hissed it out again between her teeth. She kept her eyes on the crowds below and her hands rested on the shotgun across her lap. She'd looked up for a second when Cass had thundered by and had called a distracted hey, but then had looked out over the city again and not budged even when Mock showed up. It felt to her as if the world was washing over and around her but leaving her unaffected herself. This whole cure business, it felt disconnected. Maybe it hadn't hit her or whatever, but then... maybe it was her contrary spirit at work; maybe it was just because the whole f*cking city was dancing or crying or rioting over this new thing that she felt so profoundly unmoved.
Mock's announcement sent warning bells off in her skull and she frowned. "Mock," Kay stated firmly, "why the hell would you go and do that?" She paused, interrupted again before he could reply, "have you been stuck with this so-called cure yet?"
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Post by kinrrataiyath on May 22, 2008 0:25:37 GMT -5
"Heeeey monster!" Cass called out when she heard the all-too-familiar voice of the Cosway's own anklebiter. The gunshow stopped her downward trot and crouched down on one of the cement stairs. As the quadrapedal tot came racing towards her, she reached into a back pocket and pulled out a small, beaded chain. "Got something for ya."
Cass was not a family person. She did not care for open lines of communication other then to convey orders. She had little use for expressions of hurt feelings and how to remedy them. She was, in essence, the cocky, self-assured, thick shelled sterotype of a soldier. This had not changed in eight years of living in this hell. What had changed, however, was Cass' reaction to the little bundle of energy that had gradually worked her way into the hearts of the entire Malton crew.
Also, doting on Casey allowed her to convinently forget Fa's reminder for the time being. She'd been owing that money going on three months by that point.
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Drake Austin
Free Runner
THROW THE AXE INTO ITS HEAD!!!!
Posts: 210
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Post by Drake Austin on May 22, 2008 4:16:05 GMT -5
Fridges made his way through the lounge to an old sofa lying in the corner. It was hard to believe that this thing was still about. Certainly better then a floor anyway. Fridges slumped himself onto the sofa and let out a large sigh.
Sounded like a lot of footsteps were coming from above. To hell with finding out whose they were. Fridges could quite happily just wait here for a moment.
Fridges took out his wallet and gave the old pictures and quick thumb through before swinging another shot of whiskey and slumping back into the sofa.
“A home away from home" Fridges chuckled out loud.
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Post by dray on May 22, 2008 12:47:54 GMT -5
It was a few moments before Fa had caught up to the two on the next landing, but when she caught sight of Cassandra she gave a friendly nod. Debts weren't a big deal with her; she'd been half joking anyways. Fa knew that even if Cass was a bit of a robot, the very last thing that she was was a flake... so.
She paused briefly on the landing. "Did you say hi to Kay? She was up in the garden." At this point Fa didn't know about the mission that Mock, Simplish and co were proposing, nor did she have specifics on the riot going down just a few blocks away. She'd been one of the few who'd actually received the treatment, but she'd had her way of getting it without shoving and yelling with the rest of a mob.
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Post by werdnari on May 22, 2008 14:40:16 GMT -5
Werdnari slowly rose to his feet as his fit of laughter slowly faded. "I, I'm gonna, go la-y douwn. Shee yo-u, Shoola" he slurred, staggering out the door and entering the stairwell in an eerie parallel to a zombie's lurching gait, only slightly more fluid.
Sula stood in the doorway, watching Werd's awkward locomotion. He'd no idea how long the younger man had been dead for, but he was starting entertain that he'd been dead for possibly years. Hell, from the way Werd had described the redhead's child, she was still a baby! Certainly in the six plus years since Sula had seen the baby she had grown?
Sula sighed as he turned and walked toward the meeting "lounge" area, or at least where he remembered it being. Luckily, he was on the second floor already. He'd dragged Werdnari up enough of those for the past week that his back ached from the mere thought of another flight.
(( I'm going from a stance of "Werd has been wandering as a rotter for six years or so", FYI. ))
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Simplish
Free Runner
Zombies ate my neighbors!
Posts: 192
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Post by Simplish on May 22, 2008 17:14:45 GMT -5
((I leave for a mere eight hours for school, and I come back to an entire story to read up on. WOOT!))
"Most definitely to the roof. Saw Mock head that way and I don't think we'll find anyone else down here."Simp shrugged.
((MUST... RESIST... WILLIAM SHATNER... ACCENT... SCHOOL IS... DRAINING WILL TO... ROLEPLAYABOUTZOMBIESANDACURE!))
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Post by Sarah the Bullet on May 22, 2008 23:55:07 GMT -5
"Meet you there, Simp," Sarah said, leading to the roof.
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Post by Kat on May 23, 2008 1:03:42 GMT -5
Casey flailed to a stop on the stairs in front of Cass, managing to be eye-level as the gunshow crouched. “You got a present?” With the typical acquisitiveness of a six-year old she looked greedily at what Cass was pulling from her pocket. “What’s it?” Casey knew all about Cass and her guns, and honestly, the kid was hoping for a gun of her own. Mom had yet to let her carry around anything more damaging than her little hatchet, but Cass… well! That might be a different story!
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Post by kinrrataiyath on May 23, 2008 3:34:42 GMT -5
The gunshow had toyed with the idea of getting her a gun. A toy gun, at any rate. Had to get the kid prepared for the real world you know. Soldiers start young. However, the thought of facing down an angry Kay after the gift giving didn't really sit well with her. There were few things left in the world that could unsettle the soldier woman's rooted stance. Kay's pint-sized fury was one of those things.
Out of her back pocket, Cass pulled a worn set of dogtags. She had gone to the effort of scratching in Casey's name on one of the tags. It was a shoddy job, but good enough for a six year old. The tags clinked together as she held them up in front of the little girl's eyes.
"Here ya go. Your very own dogtags. Every good soldier needs some. Soon you'll be old enough to take on your own army." Cass reached out to tousle Casey's hair before pushing herself up to her feet. Her knees popped, reminding her that she was getting on in years. Her lungs were taking longer to calm down after the run as well. d*mn, mortal bodies.
"Didn't see her. Where's everyone else?" she inquired when Fa came into sight.
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Post by dray on May 23, 2008 22:33:20 GMT -5
Fa smiled at the present that Cass had given the little girl, amused and a little surprised that the older woman'd gone to the effort. Casey really was a favorite around here!
"Not sure about everyone," the short-haired civilian replied, "it's been kind of hectic since the latest news on the cure went out. I'd wager a guess that some of them are coming up the stairs right now, though," she added, hearing footsteps and voices. Turning to look down on Sarah and Simplish, Fa cocked her head back. She didn't really like Sarah any better than any other resident did, not when Sarah was... well, dead. It unsettled her and she was glad as hell that nobody else in Malton got up to the crazy shenanigans that Sarah did. Right now the bandages weren't really helping the pallid look in the young woman's unusually off-colour eyes. "You looking for a needle?" she asked, more reserved than usual.
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Post by Kat on May 23, 2008 23:57:09 GMT -5
"Oh," Casey said at first, accepting the bits of metal and crouching on the stairs to examine them. She really had been hoping for guns. Peering at the dogtags she now held, scrunching up her nose, she tried to decide what to make of this gift... until she spotted her name carved on one of the tags.
"COOL!" she immediately crowed, jumping up (and probably giving Fa a heart attack). "That's my name, that's my name!" exclaimed the little redhead, proud of herself for recognizing it.
Casey could not read, at least not more than a few nouns she recognized. There was a pile of kids' books in her room and she had started tackling them with the help of her parents, but books took a back seat to learning to shoot a gun, or skin a squirrel, or effectively hide from a zombie. Reading her own name was a badge of honor to the little girl. "Thank you Cass!" Casey did a funny little dance on the steps before bolting off up the stairs again. "I'm gonna show mommy!"
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Post by Sarah the Bullet on May 24, 2008 0:18:05 GMT -5
Sarah walked up the stairs, thinking. She had expected the cure needle to assist, not hinder...
Then she heard Cass and Fa talking furthur up. Cass was one of the few people who she believed was crazier then she was- considering Sarah had joined a anti-phyco group called Black Angel and become the equivilent of a 00 agent for them. As for Fa, as far as Sarah knew, she hadn't changed as much. Still keeping an eye on everyone. Whitch had led to her question.
Sarah made sure Casey had gone at least a floor up when she said dryly, "I took the cure, and looked where it led up. I don't think our experimentation factored in well with whoever made this stuff."
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Drake Austin
Free Runner
THROW THE AXE INTO ITS HEAD!!!!
Posts: 210
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Post by Drake Austin on May 24, 2008 7:03:54 GMT -5
Fridges thought he could here someone coming into the lounge area as it were. At first he didn't have a clue who it was,but then memory kicked in.
" Hey...Sula aint it? The priest who drinks? Still alive aye?"
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