and then there were none. [open and accepting]

[ʙʀᴏᴏᴋʟʏɴ]

𝑨𝑨𝑹𝑶𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑩𝒀

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ forty-six ] [ male ] [ located: kingsdale prison ] [ tagged: roden ]

Aaron looked up from his meal, shallowing before he replied. “I wish I did. Not just for my sake, but for Angelo’s too. I didn’t get much time to get to know him, but he seemed like a good person. What happened to him is appalling, and I can’t wait until the culprit is caught so I can personally punch his lights out.” It was clear the man was dead serious, his usual humorous nature calling to the wayside. “He was practically a kid, Roden. Who could possibly be evil enough to kill an innocent kid?” Aaron ran a hand through his hair with an exasperated sigh.

[keating]

↪ ʀᴏᴅᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇʟʏ ✧
Tags: Aaron

Roden looked away for a moment as Aaron spoke before returning his eyes back to the imprisoned man. "That's the thing. Everyone thinks you would be, which is why I can't let you out. Not yet, at least" Roden got up, clearly not going to be able to get any new information from him. If he doesn't know then there isn't much that can be done about it. "If you do remember anything, ask someone to get me and I'll come," he added before turning his back on the man and leaving the cell before people realized he was missing from the gathering.

[ʙʀᴏᴏᴋʟʏɴ]

𝑨𝑨𝑹𝑶𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑩𝒀

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ forty-six ] [ male ] [ located: kingsdale prison ] [ tagged: roden, open ]

Aaron’s gaze returned to the plate in his lap. How was he supposed to prove he was innocent if he couldn’t remember anything? It wasn’t like he could investigate it himself. Even if they did release him from the cell, the rest of the townspeople wouldn’t trust him. That was what hurt the most. There had been several townspeople Aaron had gotten close to before he was imprisoned, and he doubted they would even look at him now. “I just gotta think positive. I’ll find a way to prove I’m innocent.” He said, shoveling more food into his mouth.

[haru ;]

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx███ ⊰ ＳＨＩＮ ＳＵＨＯ . / / ███

indentationsuho had been watching the darkening sky, as he always did, detached from the rest of the townsfolk. he never made a move or word to make his presence known - if roden needed him he knew where to find him: on a rooftop or some other, scaling the buildings and basically flirting with death. as the last wisps of late afternoon clouds were swept across the firmament, suho kicked out his legs and sat right on the edge of a short two-storey building he had somehow managed to get up on without using the stairs, silently surveying the town below him. very soon dinner would be served, but he wasn't feeling very hungry anymore. that was perhaps his biggest problem - he had gotten so used to having an empty stomach that even hunger pangs didn't quite faze him as it used to. as suho's eyes lay upon the figure of roden interacting with a guard and a woman he didn't recognise, the wind picked up and curled his raven-black hair to one side, revealing half of his forehead. suho held a stray strand between his thumb and forefinger. he should get a haircut soon, but he was rather feeling the need now to rebel a little. even for something as insignificant as hair.
indentationautomatically stiffening when roden's hand suddenly went to the gun at his hip, suho subtly leaned forward, fingers clenching around the rough brick of the roof edge. that was a move he always disapproved of. suho never engaged himself in violence if he could help it, even though he would leap into it without a second's thought he quickly averted his eyes and sprawled backwards on the rough concrete, seeing nothing but wide open sky. he should be heading for the gathering right now, but the villagers all knew he was going to be late one way or another.
indentationit seemed that suho had lost track of the time, for by the time he opened his eyes, the sky was already an alarming shade. he sat bolt upright, wincing at how his sore muscles groaned at the effort, and rubbed his face wearily. the boy brushed dust off his jacket and clambered to his feet. from this height, he had a full bird's eye view of the town and could even make out the tiny figures heading to their homes or simply walking down the streets. once again, his gaze somehow found roden, emerging from the cell block a short distance away. mildly intrigued, suho ran his fingers through his messy raven hair. what could roden possibly want from the cells? their only prisoner so far was a man named aaron that he had only heard stories of, but what business could roden want with him? on normal occasion suho would have been immediately suspicious, but this was roden they were talking about and if they couldn't trust their leader, then he couldn't trust anyone at all.
indentationon a whim, suho suddenly swung down from a vertical row of steel piping along the building wall, then touched down on the emergency stairs of a shorter building and leaped his way down to the very bottom. moving his body like this always gave suho a brilliant rush of adrenaline that he welcomed, but this time, he had a mission on hand - to find roden. if the boy was with the older man on the way to the gathering, surely nothing could go wrong.

[clarke,]

ＲＯＳＥＭＡＲＹ ＬＯＵ ＡＫＥＲＳ．

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

STATUS. kingsdale guard BASICS. 32yo, female LOCATION. kingsdale front gate TAGS. riah

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

darkness. it was her first thought as she stirred, having not opened her eyes; she didn't want to wake up quite yet, but knew it must be nearing her shift. roma sighed softly and rubbed her face with her hands, before opening her hazel eyes and sitting up. her house, one that she owned alone, felt eerily empty this morning. she was allergic to dogs, cats, hell, even hamsters, and most people annoyed her - so she was rather short on companionship. the creaking of the door as a gentle breeze brushed it made her think back to the days when people may have come in and out of this house; busy talking about normal life. but the person who had previously owned this house - a blonde haired, olive toned woman and a light brown haired, pale skinned man (whom she had seen in the photos - photos that she had long since discarded) - were likely dead and gone now. she wondered where their baby was - if it had died early on, or if it was somehow, still alive. for whatever reason, the family seemed to haunt roma's thoughts. she felt like she had robbed their life. but at the same time, she would much rather prefer herself to be alive than anyone else. at least she had more of a chance of doing something for society than a baby did. selfish thoughts, but ones she suspected most everyone had.

roma pulled a jacket over her shirt and yanked blue jeans on before lacing her sneakers tightly. she grabbed the pistol on her nightstand and holstered it in the back of her jean. the coolness of the outdoors as she opened her front door caused chills underneath her clothes and she tightly wrapped her arms around her waist, grumbling to herself. it was getting colder, which meant food was getting scarcer, which meant people were getting more pissy, including roma herself. perhaps her only friend, roma noticed riah looking equally as unsettled with the cold and she slowly walked over to her. more a grimace than a smile, the red-haired woman gently brushed past riah to alert her of her presence. "hey," she said quietly, looking up at the sky. "i'm just on my way to the front gate, for my shift. what are you doing out here?"

386 words

[sinensys]

⚔⚔⚔ ＲＩＡＨ　ＧＲＡＩＲＥ ! ! ──────────────────────────
─────────────────────　i. scavenger. ii. tagged: roma. iii. location: kingsdale gate.

riah stood, almost headed towards the gate, but not exactly sure of themselves. riah hated being in that position: doubting yourself was never fun. in fact, riah thought doubting yourself was the worst thing that could happen to you ever, and it was worse than any other physical damage. a weak mind was a weak body, and so you had to stick to what you thought or you'd be tearing yourself down daily. so riah never doubted themselves, only stopping to reconsider, but rarely regret and certainly never doubt. it would be a dark spiral down, and riah couldn't afford that. no one could in this time.

riah stopped when they felt something, looking around. oh. it was just roma. riah gave a mild smirk in greeting, "i can't decide if i want to stick around for this meeting or head out. there was this shack i saw not too long ago that i never actually went and looked at, so," they trailed off with a shrug, hands in their pockets. "'cause i honestly doubt that there'll be anything good said at the meeting. seems to me like it'll be the same old boring stuff we've already heard. i don't need to be reminded that this place isn't exactly a resort, like, i get it, i'm cool with that. there are better things to do that cry over what can't really be fixed yet, if ever, yknow?" they sent roma a mild grimace, shouldering the rifle's strap.



♟♟♟ ＭＡＡＲ　ＹＡＳＴＲＩＢＯＶ ! ! ─────────────────────
──────────────────────────　i. chef. ii. tagged: n/a. iii. location: kingsdale kitchen.

maar had spent the past half hour really preparing for this meal, and he still wasn't even really done. most of the products had been sanitised and prepared for cooking, but now it would be time to actually cook. some things could be taken out for the people to cook themselves - everyone had their own preferences, after all - but some things should not be left for public judgement. for example, if anything needed extra care in cooking, it was the meats; if there was even a chance that the animals had become carriers of the illness, whether the mourners' disease was a virus, bacteria, or a parasite even, they needed to avoid that. and chances were that they weren't going to give up meats collectively, since some people liked it too much and others needed the nutrients to stay alive and possibly healthy.

maar wasn't going to risk it.

there was a bowl of pork marinating in herbs, vinegar, and other spices which he had scrounged from some of the restaurants of kingsdale or which had been given to him by local residents. soon it would be ready to take out and watch over on the grill. there were potatoes that would need to be washed again (just in case they'd been too close to the meat prior to its sanitation). maar wasn't sure how he wanted to deal with potatoes; would people prefer it baked by the fire or fried as hash browns? in addition, there were various vegetables that needed washing and slicing to be served on the side. then there was fish that would need to be cooked as well, although he had already taken some out to get some people fed while they waited for him to get it together and wrap up.

there was a lot to cover, but it would still be a meagre meal since it covered all the survivors. maar wasn't sure how he felt about it. on one hand, it was a lot of work for little reward and bad memories, but on the other hand, it was important. plus there was a tiny voice in the back of his skull that whispered about how great it was to be trusted and relied on with something like this.

maar went back to the potatoes to wash them.

[slaughter beach, dog]

☾ 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒚
──────────────────────────────────────────
female - 27 - physician
located bonfire - tagging Nina - feeling awkward

During her chat with Joel, the sun had begun setting and the town was slowly enveloped in darkness. The friendly man had told
Margot a little about the place and they'd even managed to find a pair of crutches. When he had objected to her moving around
so soon after being shot, she'd stubbornly insisted on it. Getting confined to a couch would've made her restless and she probably
would've ended up wandering out of the house anyway, with or without crutches. A painkiller - which she had hesitated to take
at first, there were better uses for the precious medicine - and a glass of water had taken the edge off her headache, and she
barely noticed it anymore. Her leg still stung, but it was quite manageable when she avoided putting her weight on it. The tight
bandage felt odd around her right thigh and she could feel the stitches pulling on her skin when she moved, but it was definitely
better than bleeding out on a street full of mourners.

Being surrounded by all these people, buildings and the fence was unsettling after spending so long on her own out in the open.
However, she was slowly warming up to the environment, and had even noticed herself smiling at the horses out on the pasture
- they had existed after all, she hadn't been hallucinating. Back before the epidemic, she had loved being around people, and
those feelings were slowly making their way to the surface again; she felt more like herself than she had in a long time. Still,
some of the inhabitants of this town caused her to feel wary, even the man who'd been pointed out to her as the town's leader.
He was a burly, bearded man and Margot wasn't really sure what to think of him yet. He must've been doing something right
though, for the community was still standing and doing relatively well.

Out on the streets, there weren't many sources of illumination, but some of the occupied houses were lit by the flickering flames
of candles and lanterns. She hadn't had time to pick out a house yet, but she wasn't in a hurry either. Just picking out a building
and claiming it as yours felt unfamiliar to her; she knew that they'd been empty for a long while, but she couldn't shake the feeling
that she'd be living in a stranger's house. That scavenger in the woods had taken what little she had and so she didn't even need
a place to store her things. Her only possession was the hunting knife which was still in its sheath, and hanging from her belt.
Margot wasn't too fond of the blade, and hopefully she wouldn't have to use it much now that she was inside the walls of Kingsdale.

The residents had gathered a bonfire which was now casting a warm glow around the square in the darkness of the late autumn
evening. Margot didn't trust herself staggering too close to the flames in her current state, and so she looked around for a place
to sit and rest for a moment. A steady stream of people moved through the doors of the building which seemed to be the center
of this place. Not far from there, she could see a bandaged-up woman sitting nearby the blaze. A bit too close than she would've
liked to go, but maybe sustaining traumatic injuries and feeling lost in the apocalypse would be something to bond over.

Margot staggered closer, feeling mildly embarrassed as her crutches clacked against the hard pavement in the silence that had
previously been filled only by the crackling of the flames. She quietly cleared her throat when she was close enough to speak to
the woman, who was undeniably beautiful in the flickering light of the bonfire. "Do you mind if I sit here?" she inquired softly,
trying not to disturb the atmosphere more than she already had.

[Elillium]

xx
𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘳
xxxxxxlocation: the gathering ╌ tagged: nina, margot ╌ form ╌ wc: 415
_________________________________________________
x

since the powernap adeline had taken on the couch in her new home, she had washed her face, and put her hair into
a half up half down style. she had changed into her other set of clean clothes. now she wore a pair of deep blue skinny
jeans, which had a rip over the knee and thigh of one of the legs, along with a beige long sleeve knit sweater. she had
taken a little while to search through the house, obviously most of the valuable resources had been taken out, like non
-perishable food and any tools or possible weapons, but at the back of the entry room closet, adeline found a stack of
winter jackets from whoever had lived there before. at the bottom of the bin, adeline scored. she had found a small
but thick khaki/olive green winter jacket. she realized that it was actually a girls large, but to her, it was just as well
a women's extra small.

she found a pair of keys to the door of the house in a bowl on one of the end tables, taking them up and putting them
in the pocket of her new jacket. she locked the house door behind her as if anyone was going to root through her newly
claimed territory. she followed the sound of voices and the smell of fresh cooking towards the gathering. at first, she
was daunted by a large number of people that stood around, talking to each other, some laughing. most of them appeared
to be having a good time. they all looked confident in their safety, which calmed some of adeline's rigidness. she looked
around quietly for a place to sit down, or an opening in the tight circle that had formed around the bonfire so that she
could absorb some much-needed heat. finally, adeline found an open pillow, and gracefully swooped down into a cross-
legged position. she shivered as the heat radiated onto her face and chest, instantly surrounded by what felt like a
blanket of comfort.

adeline glanced around to the people around her, before she looked to her right, where a dark-haired woman sat beside
her. adeline gave her a faint smile, realizing that the looked slightly dazed or weakened. "hey, i'm adeline" she said,
turning to face the woman, her face now fully illuminated by the fire. "are you alright?" she asked meekly. adeline
looked up as another woman joined them, simply greeting her with a small smile.

[ʙʀᴏᴏᴋʟʏɴ]

𝑨𝑨𝑹𝑶𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑩𝒀

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ forty-six ] [ male ] [ located: kingsdale prison ] [ tagged: open ]

After he’d finished his food, Aaron began to think. There had to be something he didn’t remember. Something he’d glossed over, or just blocked out of his mind entirely...but what? The only thing he could remember was feeling like he was in a daze, being arrested, and a dull pain at the back of his head. That had been the worst headache he’d ever experienced. At that thought Aaron froze, his eyes widening. “Headache...I didn’t have any memory problems until that headache kicked in. In fact, I can’t remember anything from before the headache started. Maybe it wasn’t a headache at all!” Aaron excitedly got to his feet, pacing around his cell.

[keating]

↪ ɴɪɴᴀ ᴡɪʟᴅᴇʀ ✧
Tags: Margot, Adeline

Nina sat in silence, at first not thinking about much in particular but not minding the peacefulness either. It baffled her more than she'd ever admit that she'd seemingly woken up in the middle of the apocalypse, but as the town's medic has told her, she was more than likely suffering from some memory loss as a result of the impact of the crash and hitting her head on the wheel. She'd received some stitches on her head just under her hairline and going into her scalp a bit where some of her hair had been shaved off, a bandage covering the stitched area so it would be protected from accidentally opening.

From the corner of her eye she thought she'd caught a glimpse of the girl she'd hit-- or thought she'd hit-- standing behind the flames, staring at her just as she did that morning. She turned her head to get a better look, but the girl seemed to have disappeared. She still had no clue as to who she was, or if she even existed. Her common sense told her that she was a figment of her own imagination, but she also didn't want to believe that she was hallucinating. She's not crazy. If they think she is or she acts out in any way, they might kick her out. How is she going to defend herself when half the things she sees and hears aren't real?

She was going to keep it to herself. This would all subside eventually once she gets her memory back. She bent her legs and brought her knees closer to her body, hiding her face and wrapping her arms around them.

The sound of a woman's voice caught her attention as she slowly lifted her face from the gap in between her knees and looked up at the woman who'd just taken a seat next to her. She introduced herself and asked if she was alright before another woman joined them. She was on crutches and asked to sit down. Nina moved over a bit to the left to give room for the injured woman. Realizing she hadn't answered the first woman's question yet, she looked at her and nodded her head. "I'm fine, thank you." She began to feel a bit apprehensive with the sudden new company, but swallowed her nerves and tried her hardest to act normal. Her best chance in staying here was making a good impression on its people, and while she wasn't in the mood to put on an act, she figured she'd at least be polite and hope they'd understand.