- 𝙹 𝙰 𝚅 𝙸 𝙴 𝚁
| male | tagged; max |
”Aw, come on, I’m sure your David is better than mine.” He chuckled, shaking his head. However, the relatively cheerful demeanour that Javier had began to falter when he was asked if he was still in contact with the family. He shifted his feet awkwardly and cast his glance elsewhere, ”Er...no. I’m, uh...It’s not possible to be in contact with most of them now.” He replied, a frown forming on his lips as he sighed softly. He decided against mentioning the deaths for now without any reason to, he didn’t want to start putting a dampener on the conversation, after all, and there was no reason so far to mention what had happened to them unless Max asked why he wasn’t in contact with them anymore. The baseball player dismissed the thoughts of lost family and instead focused his attention on what the boy was saying. His opinion on camps was incredibly different that what Javier was expecting.
The Richmond leader remained silent to allow Max to have his rant about camps, it was bizarre to think somebody could think so negatively of them. To Javier, you were lucky if you were in a camp with other people and you were given food and a safe place to stay. The mention of parents confused him, though, but he decided against pondering on that point for too long. The activities sounded like they wouldn’t be so bad, either, if it managed to keep people occupied rather than worrying. Although, of course, Javier was thinking of this as a leader of a settlement, not a kid who was sent to one. He supposed differing opinions were to be expected, it could become pretty boring for a kid after all. He knew for sure that Gabe and Mari were easily bored when they were either stuck in one place or stuck in the van when they were travelling; this experience with the two helped Javier somewhat sympathise with Max’s complaints regarding camps, it made sense why activities and bad food would spoil somebody’s perspective on a place, although he also took the state of the world into consideration. Anywhere with walls and food was good enough for Javier.
”Hey, look on the bright side, huh? At least you got food and a place to stay, right? Listen, Max, I know plenty of people nowadays who would kill for something like that. The activities help you ignore it all, yeah? And the food is always a plus, even if it tastes terrible.” He smiled, shrugging his shoulders as he tried to think of the positives of staying in a camp, although he, admittedly, never had to experience one before in his youth. ”Stealing a car, huh? That’s pretty useful, knowing how to do that.” Javier commented before he shook his head, ”It’s not that easy alone. I mean, I’ve never had to deal with it before, but I’ve met people who have.” His thoughts instantly shifted over to Clementine. She must have been the toughest kid he had ever met, that was for sure. He couldn’t imagine what it was like for her when she was alone with nobody but AJ.
”You’re ten?” Javier repeated incredulously, eyes widening before he shook his head and convinced himself to focus on what else was said, besides, he roughly estimated the boy to be a pre-teen. ”Smart is good. Keeps you and other people alive. It’s not hard to outsmart the muertos, though. It’s the people that cause the problems.” His tone was light-hearted but that didn’t make his statement untrue. It wasn’t hard to deal with muertos if they were in small numbers, the biggest threat had to be other survivors. Finally, Max seemed to be finished with explaining the camp he was staying in, and Javier realised it was probably best that he return the favour and explain Richmond. Sure, it wasn’t a camp, but it was close enough, right? ”I’m not from a stupid camp, no.” He shook his head, ”I’m a leader of the New Frontier. Mainly based in Richmond, though. Er, it’s not that similar to a camp but I guess the basics are. It’s a place to stay. We got food, water, medicine, walls. Enough to keep the muertos out, at least. There were leaders before me but it’s just me now.” Javier explained, neglecting to mention the fact that he was responsible for the deaths and disappearances of most of the former leaders.




