and then there were none. [open and accepting]

[desplantcito]

☀ 𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 ☀

☀𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 - 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢/𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 - 𝟷𝟹 - 𝚙𝚊𝚗/𝚊𝚌𝚎 ☀

☀𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝚔𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚗☀
☀𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚍: 𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚛, 𝚖𝚊𝚊𝚛 ☀

Gator swung open the backdoor of the kitchen with a scowl on their face. Their brow furrowed even more as they scanned the scene before them, including most of the food being cooked. Great, the gathering was going on without them AND there was somebody weird in the kitchen so they couldn't speak to Maar. Who let that dope in? They thought they remembered his name was like... Leonard? Leroy? LATAMER! He was new, right? They squinted their eyes at him and tilted their head. At least Maar was talking to somebody besides them.

Speaking of, they jogged over to Maar and tugged on his sleeve, looking up at the much taller man.

"Why didn't you wake me up?? I could have helped!" They signed quickly, their hands jerking between the motions and their lips pursed.

As if they'd been asleep.

They'd really been huddled in the corner of their shed hugging their dog Tripod, switching their radio between channels idley as they forgot what time it was. A few radio stations were automated, so they were still up. Like the old 70's channel that nobody had took down. Either that or someone was hiding in it and pressing replay to entertain themselves. Sadly they never got to listen to those stations too loud, unless they hid under their blankets. She was doing quite enough of that lately since winter was approaching fast.

The government also had a huge tower in the middle of Ireland that put out weather updates and the like for groups trying to survive. But it was pretty boring, no music at all. You'd think people like that would know how important morale was to humans. Although acting like you were psychic because you knew what the weather would be tomarrow was pretty tight.

But they were on neither of those channels, they turned to one that seemed to be filled with static most times. But other times, she recognized the voices that occupied it. Walkie talkies were almost as fun to listen too as the sweet voice of Cher.

A new person and a noise were certainly interesting, they were tired of hearing about the guards shooting random mourners. They wondered if the new person was out there in the gathering now, but they didn't have time to check. They had to cook!

Before waiting for Maar's answer, they grabbed their own thick iron skillet and began pouring recycled grease from a mason jar into it. She looked up at Maar again, eyes squinted but a smile starting to form at the corners.

"Also hi! love you, have you ate anything yet??"

They signed between using their hands for things like grabbing a wooden spoon and dumping collared greens in. They actually waited for that response as they got to work at throwing a few precious spices in. Why not, it was the gathering after all, little bit of pepperflakes never hurt anybody. They also heard Tripod scratching at the door with one of his front paws, but he wasn't allowed in the kitchen since the chicken incident.

They remembered Latamer and waved at him. Nothing to see here.

[roony]

( `★ ⊱ 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄x𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐘 )
xxiage. elevenxloc. outside kingsdale gatexfeeling. scaredxtags. roden, roma, & riah

xxxxmadeline was trembling, but she tried her hardest to stand her ground. she didn't want to be afraid. she wasn't allowed to be afraid. fear played a huge factor in getting people killed. and if she wasn't afraid, then she'd be safe. the brunette let out a shaky sigh, her lips trembling as she fought the urge to rise from her place on the dry soil. but she didn't show her face to the stranger. she only wanted to be cautious. madeline kept light of the idea that if she did turn around and greet the woman, she would shoot her straight in the head, no questions asked. she hadn't even known her for five minutes and she was already certain of that fact.
xxxxthe young girl screwed her eyes shut when she heard the sound of another pair of footsteps crunching the ground. she buried her head beneath her denim jacket, already thinking of a million ways she'd meet her fate. was this person gonna kill her too? were they just as crazy as the lady? apparently, the other woman had lent an ear to madeline's reply, because she answered it without hesitation. there was a painstaking pause after the woman spoke, leaving her to her racing thoughts. she was right: there was no reason that they should trust her as much as she should trust them. but her options were wearing thin. when she asked if madeline was a danger, she released a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding in her lungs. she bit back the urge to offer the woman a snide remark, as that wouldn't have done the situation any good.
xxxx"no, i'm not," she muttered. it wasn't like there was any reason that she should abide by her word, but it was the truth. as long as the rest of them wouldn't threaten to put a bullet to her head, then her answer still stood. madeline took a moment to revert back to the conversation that had played out a few minutes earlier, the voice of a man saying his goodbyes to the woman with the bat. she didn't look back, but the fading footsteps gave her the idea that she was let inside. which made her wonder: would they let her in too? she almost scoffed at the idea. if they allowed a woman with a bat covered in nails inside their camp, surely they would let a little girl in too? if not, then maybe she could use her vulnerability to her advantage. that never seemed to fail her.
xxxxanother pair of footsteps approached, causing her shoulders to tense. it had to be that man, right? the one who was talking to the bat woman? madeline chewed at her lower lip, so harshly it almost drew blood. upon hearing his question, she sucked in her pride. the man seemed friendly enough, friendlier out of the two women in fact, which almost made her want to show her face. after giving it some thought, she found it best to show he face. maybe they would trust he more if she did.
xxxxrising from the ground, madeline stepped out from behind the tree in a very cautious manner. dirt caked her freckled features, her brown hair matted and tangled above her shoulders. a few scratches riddled every part of her pale skin that was visible, and her denim jacket was the only thing keeping her warm. the teddy bear was dropped to her side, but still in her tight clutches.
xxxx"i'm trying to run away," she replied, her tone of voice making it sound as though her answer should've been obvious. "you know those awful things that walk on all-fours, right? well, i'd rather not be their next meal anytime soon." she thought for a moment after hearing the word lost slip out of the man's mouth. suppose she was lost, wasn't she? "yeah, i guess you could say i am," she said, folding her arms over her chest. the sight of the three adults intimidated her, especially the man. granted all three of them were carrying guns, that didn't help her case, either.

xxxxword count ⊱x691

[rookfern]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━ — - -
. sam silverhawk // . 27 years // . male // . pansexual // . location: kingsdale prison // . tags: aaron


━ Aaron sure was talkative, Sam surmised as the man rambled on. Talking without saying a whole lot. Perhaps that was what months of semi-isolation did to a man -- that and the weight of a possible crime on his conscience. Or maybe he had just been mad to begin with. Or maybe he just really liked the sound of his own voice. When the man finally stopped, Sam met the silence with raised eyebrows.

"Sam." He introduced himself, shifting his weight against the wall he leaned on. "Dunno if anyone bothered to tell you, but they're throwing a little shindig out there -- group dinner or gathering, or something or another. Supposed to boost herd moral I think. Keep us chummy with each other 'n from killing one another." Sam paused abruptly, shooting a direct glance at Aaron. He rubbed a hand down the nape of his neck. "Sorry, bad joke in poor taste."

"Haven't quite figured out what I'm doing in here. Crossing an item off my bucketlist: talking to a criminal?" As soon as he said the words, a grimace passed over his face. "Damn, that was bad. Sorry -- again. I just keep digging a deeper hole for myself." Sam huffed and snapped his mouth shut before he managed to stick his foot in any farther.

[ʙʀᴏᴏᴋʟʏɴ]

𝑨𝑨𝑹𝑶𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑩𝒀

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

Aaron stared at Sam for a moment, then burst out laughing. He leaned against the wall of his cell, his hand covering his mouth in an attempt to block out his chuckles. “I thought my jokes were bad. You’ve taken it to a new level.” He said once he laughter had calmed down. “Anyways, no harm done. I know about the gathering; Roden graciously dropped by with some food earlier. I have to say, I’ve had the longest conversations today that I’ve had in months. It’s been nice, having people to talk to again. Even if they are questioning me about a crime I didn’t commit.”

[haru ;]

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

indentationwhy attend the gathering when he could simply do something else? suho mentally smacked himself for not thinking of it sooner, but now he was completely alone without any prying eyes, surely no one would notice if one fifteen year old boy slipped away. he was never one for cosy little get togethers like this anyway. that way, suho could be alone and happy, just the way he liked it. his striking doe-like eyes sparkled, as he quickly departed from the building he had just scaled down from towards the edge of the town, near a thin fringe of trees. the boy had had enough experience pulling off some ninja moves to get past the guards unnoticed, especially when they realised he was supposed to be at the gathering and not loitering around.
indentationhe could pick up voices in the near distance. but suho, being the reckless person he was, felt compelled to see who it was way out here, and instead made his stupidest decision of the day. but by the time he had caught sight of roden's familiar back and register the face of a strange girl [ madeline ] a couple years younger than he was, suho knew it was already too late to back away. he eyed this girl curiously. amongst strangers, on normal occasion he would have been suspicious and prickly, but the sight of this young girl somehow greatly intrigued him into calmness. then she started to speak, and suho was mildly approving of how mature she sounded. like how a child looks towards his parent, he glanced in roden's direction slightly sheepishly, half-knowing he wasn't supposed to be here and the other half anticipating the older man's reaction. was he still considered too young to interfere with matters like these? suho didn't think so — especially if the matter in question involved a kid in his age group. surely he could understand her feelings miles more than three grown adults carrying guns.
indentationand that was why suho's brow furrowed when roden held out a hand to the girl. he would usually never disagree with the only person he remotely trusted in this godforsaken town, but suho knew the last thing a girl like this wanted was to be treated like a child. his mouth had half a mind to open and utter a warning, but it quickly snapped shut again, and his lean form shifted behind the towering adults into full view of the girl's line of sight. hopefully having another kid's presence would settle her a little. and suho was dressed rather harmlessly-looking in a camouflage jacket with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

[sinensys]

⚔⚔⚔ ＲＩＡＨ　ＧＲＡＩＲＥ ! ! ──────────────────────────
─────────────────────　i. scavenger. ii. tagged: roma, roden, madeline, suho. iii. gate.

riah felta little bad; this kid was a preteen and they collectively frightened her. not to mention the fact that she looked rough - like, she'd been on her own for some time now. riah didn't want to know what that was like personally. they crossed their arms, taking a few steps back, letting roden handle it. riah usually dealt more with adults and teenagers than with younger kids. it wasn't as though they didn't try to, genuinely trying to seem approachable, but they just didn't seem to have much luck. although, to be fair, it wasn't a pleasant situation for anyone. they took a few more steps, slowly, slowly, giving space to the clearly harmless child. oh well, riah tried; it wasn't like the child would really try to lash out now.

riah stopped after a solid four metres, watching. suho appeared, practically materialising out of the darkness, to which riah had to give props. the two had gone scavenging before, so riah could appreciate the silent steps, even if he ruined the stealthy surprise by stepping into view. finally roden decided to let the girl in, and instructed those who weren't guards to head home. riah nodded once, a sign of acknowledgement.



♟♟♟ ＭＡＡＲ　ＹＡＳＴＲＩＢＯＶ ! ! ─────────────────────
──────────────────────────　i. chef. ii. tagged: latamer, gator. iii. kingsdale kitchen.

latamer went to washing his hands, and maar returned to the potatoes, chopping them into thin slices to fry them. maar wasn't going to police him on how to cut the vegetables; latamer might have a better idea on what sounds appealing since maar hasn't really had any preferences as of late. maar often found himself stuck between two options and unable to decide even before the outbreak, but that indecisiveness seemed to be fed even more with these harsh times. logically, he knew the right descriptor was "before the outbreak," but sometimes he felt that it should be "before the war," the same way he'd read when he had read war books, both of fiction and not.

a tug on his sleeve; maar looked over to see a furious gator glaring him down. and so, maar replied: a thumb to his chin that would jut out sharply; fingertips of a flat hand to a temple, gently rotating to face the palm forwards; a finger pointed at gator; a pinch by his shut eyes, which open as the pointer and thumb part. i didn't know you were awake, he signed to them. it was true - he didn't know - but he wasn't going to pester. if gator wanted to help, they would, and if not, maar could manage. he already felt bad getting help sometimes, he didn't want to bother people needlessly when he had it all handled. he wasn't that useless (yet).

he ignored the second half of their question since they had spitfired two questions together at once, not letting him respond soon enough. he wasn't upset with them though. it was hard to be upset around the kid; it was hard to be upset around someone who didn't feel the need to carry around baggage but was willing to carry others' around at the drop of a hat. the kid had good intentions, and maar wasn't about to abuse that.

so instead, maar pointed his pointer and middle finger at his eyes, then swung it around to the contents of gator's skillet. it was a warning, watch your pot, with an unspoken not like last time. it was more of a tease than anything, if the lifted left corner of his mouth was anything to go by.

[clarke,]

ＲＯＳＥＭＡＲＹ ＬＯＵ ＡＫＥＲＳ．

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

STATUS. kingsdale guard BASICS. 32yo, female LOCATION. kingsdale front gate TAGS. riah, madeline, roden, theo, charlie

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

"no. are you kidding me?" rosemary burst out, catching herself only at the end of the sentence by pressing her hand to her mouth. "you know the kinds of tests i had to do to get let in here?" she crossed her arms and glared pointedly at roden, her fingers tapping against her forearms angrily. not to throw a fit, but what the hell? roma didn't say anything else, instead she walked off and left the kid with roden and riah. she had the situation under control, but now that child was someone else's problem - someone else's mistake if she turned out to be a psycho. god, shouldn't there be some sort of test? like hi, how many people have you killed? do you like killing people? but no, let's just let them all in. including the tall ass who smirked way too much and snarked back to someone with a gun; now that, that was dumb. who does that? roma ran her fingers through her hair and holstered her weapon again, glancing back at the thin, dirty kid they were going to let in. she rolled her eyes at the way they were babying her, figuring that in the apocalypse, the age of seven was about when you needed to grow up. then again, she didn't have a great childhood and grew up way too young. it only helped her now, though; at least, she thought so. roma took up her spot on the fence line, watching from a distance as the young girl, helped by riah and roden, made her way inside the fences.

somehow, it felt like a mistake. but didn't it always?

too-lazy-to-count-how-many words

[desplantcito]

☀ 𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 ☀

☀𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 - 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢/𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 - 𝟷𝟹 - 𝚙𝚊𝚗/𝚊𝚌𝚎 ☀

☀𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝚔𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚗☀
☀𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚍: 𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚛, 𝚖𝚊𝚊𝚛 ☀

Their eyes drifted from their large pan briefly to watch Maar's signs, sticking their tongue out at the pot comment. I mean, they hadn't burnt anything for a week! That tomato was just tastefully charred if anything.

They tried to ignore Latamer's helpful presence as they swerved around him to check on the rather large pot of beans. They certainly could find them from the smell. It was a thick sulfur-y odor that used to make Gator want to hurl. Now they'd gotten used to them, more out of desperation than anything. They agitated the thick later of scum on the top and scrunched up their face thoughtfully. This batch needed a few more minutes.

Before they forgot, they set to grabbing their apron off of a wooden peg and tieing it around themself. It used to be a normal white apron before Gator doodled all over it with sharpie. Now it was mostly flowers with the occasional Tripod running around.

After that, they set their sights of the pile of plates where the food was layed out. Thankfully the table was parked right outside of the kitchen's large main entrance, she supposed for the sake convenience. Part of her idley wondered if this building had been a small restaurant before the outbreak, but if it was the dining area must have been really of Part of Maar's comment told them to glance over at the collared greens, and they seemed to be wilting just fine.

Gator swerved towards the table by the open door of the kitchen that had all the finished food, and piled on what they decided was a healthy amount for their lanky friend. They spared a glance towards the lantern lit tables and tried to spot somebody who's face they hadn't memorized. Somehow the new woman had evaded their nosey questions, they'd have to find her in the morning.

They entered the room once again, stopping by the collared greens and stirring them with their free hand. Without looking up, they nudged the plate into Maar's arm a bit. Gator then sat down the wooden spoon in favor of using their pinched fingers to repeatedly tap their pursed lips to sign the word "Eat."

They tried to hide their smile as they sat the plate down on the counter service beside him on their way to stir the beans again.

[roony]

( `★ ⊱ 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄x𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐘 )
xxiage. elevenxloc. outside kingsdale gatexfeeling. curiousxtags. roden & riah

xxxxmadeline's shoulders tensed as he outstretched a hand, examining it as though he held a knife beneath his sleeve. the quick movement made her breath hitch, and it took a few moments for her to think over whether or not this guy was worth trusting. who knows, maybe he'd kill her on the spot like that other lady almost did. but if he really wanted to do that, he would've gotten it over with a while ago. she didn't favor the fact that he was treating her like she was no older than five, but it wasn't like he knew her.
xxxxher blue eyes lit up at the idea of sleeping in a warm bed. she couldn't remember the last time she'd been on top of a soft mattress. she had been able to find raggedy old blankets in days past, but that was the closest thing she'd ever had to a bed after the breakout. she tried to conceal her eagerness with a simple nod of her head, her bright gaze finding a way back to the scraggly man's figure. hesitantly, the brunette outstretched an arm, intertwining her small palm into his much larger one. a ghost of a smile crept onto madeline's lips, as though she were showing a sign that she was grateful for the man's suggestion.
xxxxmadeline watched as the man turned himself away from her, ordering the last woman standing to head back home, to what she assumed was their camp. home. that had an awfully nice ring to it. she couldn't recall the last time she'd called anything her home. but it wasn't like this was going to be her next one. skeptical thoughts still did fly around in her mind. something about the man seemed a lot more welcoming, though. friendly, even, if she looked hard enough. madeline assumed that this was her queue to join them, slowly letting go of the man's hand as she trailed behind them like a lost puppy.
xxxxher gaze reverted back to the lonesome trees in the distance, almost smirking at the sight. it was nice to finally say goodbye to that scary place. turning back, she continued to follow the trail leading towards the building with a small bounce in her step.

xxxxword count ⊱x376

[coën]

☾ 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝑫𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒚
──────────────────────────────────────────
female - 27 - physician
located bonfire - tagging Nina, Adeline - feeling amused

Margot's attention was pulled from her thoughts as the younger woman inquired about the shot. She chuckled quietly at the question, for it wasn't a sensitive topic to her in the slightest. It was more amusing now that she looked back at it. With a nod, she elaborated on her story: "It was just some stranger, a scavenger I think. Stole my bag too." This declaration earned another huff of laughter, it was all a bit surreal. Getting robbed in the apocalypse. The items in that bag didn't mean much to her anyway, all of her personal belongings had been left in her apartment. An apartment she never returned to after fleeing the hospital. "Things get a bit hazy after that, but one of the residents here found me bleeding right beyond the fence." The 'nearly died'-part was maybe slightly more serious, but she had lived after all. Being discovered by a generous human from a town with a talented medic instead of a horde of hungry mourners felt like dumb luck.

As people started slowly trickling away from the bonfire, she wondered if it was time for her to leave too. "This feels like a weird question, but would either of you happen to have a couch to crash on? I haven't had a chance to find a place yet," she rambled, picking at the lint on one of her sleeves. After finally finding civilization, she noticed herself not wanting to let go of it just yet. She might've also been afraid that it'd get a bit too quiet at night in the safety of this town, but no one needed to know that.