and then there were none. [open and accepting]

[vordic.]

──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Ｖａｌｅｎｔｉｎ ． Ｍｏｓｃｏｖｉｃｉ
─── [| town member // thirty-two // cis-male // bisexual // 6'3ft // tom ellis |] ───
─── [| tags ;; Roden, Adeline || location ;; Front Gate || mood ;; Alert |] ───
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

Valentin nodded at Roden when he was asked to help open the main gate. The man leaned his AR against the fencing of the town gently. He picked up the wiring of the gate, and pulled it open with the help of Roden. Valentin picked up his gun once again, and directed it towards the now obvious girl, who said their name was Adeline. I looked to the side towards Roden with uncertainty in my dark brown eyes. The outsider, Adeline, seemed starved to a fearful measure, but that didn't seem to phase Valentin. Thoughts raced through his head about just shooing off the being, and go on their way for the night; however, he had little to no say in what happens to the outsider.

[coën]

☾ 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒚
──────────────────────────────────────────
female - 27 - physician
located Kingsdale? - tagging Joel - feeling cautious

When the man answered her question, she felt a bit embarrassed. Get it together, Margot. "Oh, thank you. For finding me, I mean.
I must've lost my consciousness," she spoke, as if thinking out loud. "I can't remember everything, but I think that the one who
shot me was just a desperate scavenger. He stole my bag," she clarified, as the man was clearly curious. Her lack of human contact
was probably showing, and when the stranger approached her, the instinctive tenseness returned. However, when he introduced himself
as Joel and offered a hand, she decided to take it, and used the opportunity to pull herself up from the floor. She avoided putting any
weight on her injured leg and instead leaned heavily against the kitchen counter. "Margot," she offered in return, her gaze moving from
Joel to the surrounding room. "Would you happen to have any crutches, or at least something to use as one?" she was determined
to move around instead of being confined to a bed. Or in this case, a couch. "I'd also like to meet this Rory, I imagine this is her house."
She would've asked for some painkillers, or at least some water, but right now she'd be content with simply getting out of this house and
seeing the sky again.

[rookfern]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━ — - -
. sam silverhawk // . 27 years // . male // . pansexual // . location: outside town // . tags: latamer


━ Sam shifted his pack on his shoulders, staring down at the dead mourner that had just come at them. He had been happy to leave the killing to his younger companion. Sure, he knew how to fight off the shrieking brutes, but it was far from his favorite things to do. Latamer, on the other hand, seemed more than happy to cut them down.

He cast an eye at the darkening sky and then at the forest Latamer had pointed out. "Well," He intoned, worrying at his lip with his teeth. He wasn't eager to go tromping through the woods filled with mourners when the sun was nearly set. Killing them off before they became a real problem and tried to invade the town was a good idea, though. He sighed under his breath and gave a small nod. "Hell, why not. Let's try and make it quick, though."

Giving Latamer another glance, he unsheathed the hunting knife on his belt and started for the patch of trees. His fingernails dug into the worn hilt, and he waited until Latamer was in step with him before quickening his pace. He swung his head around, eyes searching the lengthening shadows. He twitched at every little sound. Experience had taught him that anything could be a mourner, and it was better to almost attack a frightened rabbit than leave his back turned to a strange noise.

The cold wasn't helping his nerves, either. Winter was closing in fast, and the crunch of snow underfoot was a constant reminder that things were only going to get harder. "What I wouldn't give for a nice cuppa and blanket right now..." He muttered under his breath, watching his breath swirl out in a whirlwind of white mist. If only the snow and cold weather would slow down the mourners, too; that didn't seem to be the case, sadly.

[Elillium]

xx
𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘳
x..x location: the front gate ╌ tagged: valentin, roden ╌ form ╌ wc: 257
_________________________________________________
x

adeline froze in accordance to the man's command. she kept her hands steadily out at her sides, away from her
weapon. she did not carry a gun, but on her hip she carried a rather large hunting knife, which was safely secured
in a sheath. her weapon was useless at this distance from them, they greatly overpowered her with their guns. she
was not fearful, she was not quite a threat to them. she kept her distance and kept her body perfectly still to
prevent either of the men from thinking she was reaching for something. she looked at them attentively over the
five our six metres that were between them.

who are you? one of the men called out. adeline thought about it for a second. she wasn't exactly sure what kind of
answer the men were expecting, but she knew that the question was intended to separate the intelligent from the
not-so. "i'm alone. i come by myself. i've been hiking from england for a few months in search of somewhere quiet
i could go, far from any city. my name is adeline staedler, i am nineteen. i was raised in germany before the outbreak.
i stumbled upon this place by accident, but i think what you have set up here is brilliant, and maybe i could be a
help to you guys?" she paused for a second, searching in their eyes to see if they were at least paying attention to
her. "i'm not sure how, but i can help" she said once more.

[Elillium]

xx
𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘳
x..x location: the front gate ╌ tagged: valentin, roden ╌ form ╌ wc: 384
_________________________________________________
x

adeline knew she had gotten the man thinking. he paused between the end of her speech and the beginning of his.
she anticipated what his next question was going to be, maybe about how exactly she could help them. she wasn't
sure of what they needed; maybe their people were sick, or starving. she kept her body still, as she thought for a
second about his question: what can you do?

"i can teach, it is important to keep children educated, even during hard times. when i graduated high school i was
set to attend teachers college" obviously she hadn't actually attended the college, the outbreak had happened that
year after she graduated high school. but she had spent most of her childhood with dreams of becoming an early
grades teacher. adeline was particularly intelligent with language, as well as logic and practical skills. adeline knew
that it was important for children to still grow up with some form of education. in her religion it was typical for
children to stop learning at ten or eleven years old, and after that they worked for their families. she had been
privileged enough to have enlightened parents, who valued education as much as they did farming. with farming, she
had another thought. "if it is food, that your people need, i can help you. my family was mennonite, a traditional
religion." she thought that maybe they had at least heard of it, and would be able to understand how it could be
helpful. if she had grown up without the use of technology, she could survive now without it. "i can help your people
grow food out of nearly nothing, even in the winter months." she thought for a second. "i can scavenge, make use out
of the things that grow naturally here, and turn them into crops that could feed hundreds" she thought back to the
small german town she lived in, where everyone farmed for each other. "i can teach your people how, also. it is not
hard to learn. that way they can all be productive"

she hoped that she appealed to the man, maybe her skills would be useful to them. she hoped that they didn't already
have great farm, and that she hadn't just wasted her breath only to dissatisfy him.

[Elillium]

xx
𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘳
x..x location: the front gate ╌ tagged: valentin, roden ╌ form ╌ wc: 391
_________________________________________________
x

adeline watched the men look at each other, trying to rehearse answers for his next possible questions. as she stood
there, perfectly still, she began to think. she had survived at least six months now completely by herself. she didn't
even know if she actually needed anyone's help. but at the same time being alone was really starting to become tiring,
pacing forward for days, days turning into weeks, weeks turning into months. but then again, she had only been traveling
because she was seeking asylum. somewhere safe and secluded, far away from any city or mass populous. maybe,
subconsciously, she had actually been searching for a place like this. something bigger than just a farmhouse, but just
as safe.

his next question as a bit of a shock to her, but she knew it shouldn't have been. obviously, the man was just looking
out for his community, and the meant not allowing murderers inside. still, the thought of it brought a lump to her
throat. she sighed discreetly before she began talking again. "one," she said, "just one." she knew it would be hard for
them to believe, but it was the whole truth. adeline had been traveling alone since about six months after the outbreak.
"it was my friend, back in england still. it was in the first week of the outbreak, her and i were traveling to the northeastern
coast so that we could take the last ferry across the river to get here." she paused again, her stomach began to feel sick
with guilt when she thought about it. "only one day our car ran out of super, (gasoline/petrol) and we were stranded on
the highway. one of the grievers, the monsters, came out from the woods and attacked us. i wasn't hurt, but she had
been bitten all across her forearm. she asked me to shoot her before she turned into one of them so i did" she paused,
looking to see in the men's faces if they needed any more detail. "so she sat back in the passenger seat of the car, and i
shot her through the windshield with her own gun." she thought for a second. "i left the gun with her, i didn't want it. i am
unarmed." she stopped, quietly praying in her head, hoping that the men believed her.

[vordic.]

──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Ｖａｌｅｎｔｉｎ ． Ｍｏｓｃｏｖｉｃｉ
─── [| town member // thirty-two // cis-male // bisexual // 6'3ft // tom ellis |] ───
─── [| tags ;; Roden, Adeline || location ;; Front Gate || mood ;; Alert |] ───
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

Valentin listened intently as the two conversed, his dark eyes staring harshly at the young girl. He deeply concerned the towns current food supply, and to allow another inside would be another mouth to feed. Valentin stepped aside himself once Roden did to let the girl inside. Valentin lowered his gun finally, and slung it over his shoulder. He grabbed his walkie-talkie and prepared himself to make a quick announcement to the rest of the guards over it about switching every hour for tonight's meeting. Valentin quietly waited for the girl to move along before speaking into the speaker. His eyes darted back to Roden with a hint of anger yet concern in his pupils.

[rookfern]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━ — - -
. sam silverhawk // . 27 years // . male // . pansexual // . location: outside town // . tags: latamer


━ Sam tensed, his grip growing white-knuckled around his knife as Latamer fired off a few shots. No doubt every mourner in a nearby radius knew exactly where they were now. He muttered a short-winded curse and watched as a small mourner fell from the tree. His throat clenched at the sight of its mangled leg and the fact that it was still crawling at them with an inhuman fervor. Sam glanced to Latamer, waiting for the younger man to fire off the last shot. The youth seemed to have stilled, though, lost in his head.

"damnit, kid..." Sam hissed under his breath and shouldered past Latamer. Forcing down the bile in his throat, he landed the killing blow on the miserable creature. He wiped the leftover muck off his knife blade and toed the dead mourner with the tip of his shoe. Now he realized why Latamer had frozen; the thing had been just a kid when it had turned. Forcing a harsh breath through his nose, Sam jerked his head up and glanced around. "We've gotta get moving. Don't want the other mourners to get the drop on us."

[sinensys]

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

it was getting colder. riah knew that it wouldn't be long before the cold snuck in, idly creeping creeping - a vine as deadly as the poison ivy. but a bigger thing on riah's constantly whirring mind was the mourners: how would they react when the frost would begin gnawing on the mourners' bones like some starved and frightened beast? how would they react when the cold would start to truly pinch the nose and any uncovered skin? and just how much would the snow interfere with scavenging and hunting, when riah would consider taking their dog hunting? well, there was some snow now, but it didn't seem like it was here to stay.

but riah wasn't gonna stay in kingsdale all day either; they had better things to do than sit around. it was darkening, and so riah figured now would be the time to go out and search that shack they saw last time but didn't get to explore. they weren't the most comfortable wandering in the night - once the eyes adjusted - when there were the sounds of bats, owls, pine martens, and badgers, but they hadn't done anything else useful the whole day. they really couldn't afford to just sit around; no one really could.

so maybe riah should have planned, but oh well. it was too late to weep over that. no, now it was time to be outrageous, which suited them just fine, honestly. there's nothing wrong with being a little outrageous in a ridiculous time like today where people became mad beasts - halfway between zombies and werewolves, honestly. might as well. and if riah died, then they died. to hell with it. there's really not much to look forward to anyways.

riah left their small home, leaving the napping britanny dog dubbed stark to lie in their bed. riah didn't envy him at all (maybe a little). they wandered leisurely towards the gate, slinging their rifle over their shoulder. maybe they ought to have brought someone with them, riah idly thought. yeah, that'd be a good idea.

[Elillium]

xx
𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘳
x..x location: the front gate ╌ tagged: valentin, roden ╌ form ╌ wc: 501
_________________________________________________
x

adeline's hands dropped gently to her sides. "thank you," she nearly whispered as she walked furtively through the
opening the men made as they stepped aside. she didn't say anything, and despite her curiosity, she did not ask
any other questions. after weeks on the soft, mossy forest floor, the hard concrete street below her as foreign.
her boots clicked with every step she took farther from the men. she had eventually walked far enough to be
alone in the dark, deserted street. she couldn't help but feel out of place. it had been a long time since she had
been in any form of civilization.

she gawked at the buildings, which were almost untouched. adeline stopped, at the end of the street, she noticed
that she was now in the back corner of the facility. she could begin to see the line of fencing and barbed wire
glimmer as it reflected the moonlight. in front of her was a large, open plot of land, at least three hundred square
feet of empty yeard, which she could definitely. beside the empty grass, stood a small house. it was modest and
slightly dirty on the outside. the eavestrough was caked with dead leaves, and some of the window shutters had
fallen off, but apart from that, it was a home. adeline stood at the end of the footpath that led up to the front
door, peering in the windows as if she expected to see someone, sitting watching television, or eating at the dinner
table. but it was empty and dark. adeline knew it was empty by the way the front door had carelessly been left
half open, and a chair had been tipped over at the top of the porch stairs, preventing anyone from getting in.

she approached the porch, picking up the wicker rocking chair and placing it on a diagonal in front of the large
living room window. pushing open the front door caused a long, loud creak, and the house fell silent again. inside
was fully furnished, undamaged by the elements. a lamp had been knocked over, and the curtains off one of the
windows had fallen down, but it was, perfect. adeline set her ruck down by the door, shutting it behind herself
and falling into darkness. her hand instinctively went to the switch on the wall, but no light followed the satisfying
click. she was not surprised, there was almost no possibility that there would be any remaining electricity in the
world. still in the dark, she reached through her ruck to find her flashlight. she pulled it out and headed to the
kitchen, where she rooted through the drawers to find a barbeque lighter hidden behind a tray of silverware. with
the lighter, she walked around to the fireplace, where on the mantle sat a row of decorative candles. she lit them
each, smiling slightly as the living room lit up with warm light. she took a few steps back, flopping onto the couch
carelessly.