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villainousshakespeare · 4 years ago

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Putting it Back Together Chapter 3

Chapter 1, Chapter 2

Adam/OFC

Rated M (will probably change to E) - Grief, angst, eventual smut, mention of characters dead before the start of the story, blood, slow burn

Summary: Since the death of his beloved Eve, Adam had been barely living, only alive due to a promise he made to her. Then one night he meets his new neighbor, a woman dealing with grief of her own. Will they help each other heal or drive each other crazy?

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For six nights Lilly didn't hear so much as a note of music coming through her walls. Were it not for the occasional banging sounds of large something or others being moved about, she might have thought her surly neighbor had relocated to get away from her. More likely, she realized, was that he had put on head phones to keep her prying ears from his precious compositions.

That being the case, Lilly did her best (which in all honesty was lousy) to put him out of her mind and get on with her life. She continued her late night foraging through her grandmother's belongings, pausing at regular intervals to sob when some unexpected jogger of memory was discovered. By the time she had worked her way through the main bedroom, where she happened upon a collection of love letters that Gran and her ill fated fiancé, Lilly's Grandfather though she had never met him, had written during WWII, she was surprised that she had any tears left. No wonder Grandma Lillian had never married, when she had found and lost such a great love while still in her college years. The paper was well worn, and Lilly could just imagine the older woman returning to read them again and again.

Less romantic but no less special was a photo Lilly found where it had fallen behind a bureau. The picture showed Grandma Lillian, glamorously beautiful in a long, sleek sheath dress and beads, singing on stage in front of a three piece jazz combo. Lilly smiled, naming each of the musicians in turn. The original band had long since gone their own ways professionally, but they had remained close friends regardless. The drummer had taken his savings and invested in a small blues and jazz club not far from here. Grandma Lillian had stopped in their on a regular basis to belt out a tune or two, always to great applause. Lilly's nights there, originally under age and smuggled in, were some of her favorites.

Impulsively, Lilly sprang to her feet. There was no reason she had to stay stuck inside all of the time. Gran would want her to get out and savor life; beyond a doubt she had always done so. Rummaging through her belongings she managed to find a simple black skirt and a red top that she had always liked. She brushed out her long hair with defrizzer until she could tolerate the way it looked billowing around her and applied a touch of lipstick and eye makeup to make her look "less like the walking dead" as Gran would have said. All and all she didn't look half bad. Throwing on a wool coat and pair of boots and putting the photo lovingly in one of about seventy gift bags she had found squirreled away earlier, Lilly made her way out into the cool night air.

It was after eleven, late to be heading out but still relatively early for a Friday in the city. A drifting of clouds obscured and showed the moon at intervals, adding occasional light to the dim streets with their burnt out lights. She would be out of the residential blocks soon and into the more bright and crowded nightlife that teemed nearby.

"It's not wise to be out alone at this hour," a low voice spoke in her ear as a hand descended to her shoulder.

Lillian let out a scream and turned around, bottle of pepper spray pulled from her pocket ready to douse her attacker. Before she could press the button the bottle was knocked from her hand to roll down the street as her wrist was locked in the tight grip of a large, leather encased hand.

"Don't," her assailant said calmly.

Looking up, far up, she confronted a pail face beneath a shock of wild, dark black hair, eyes obscured by sunglasses despite the lateness of the hour.

"Sorry if I frightened you," her neighbor said with a slight smirk, taking off the ridiculous glasses.

How had she not recognized that sinful purr of a voice? She heard it often enough in her fantasies.

"I wasn't frightened," she lied automatically, only to add as he continued to stair at her "well, maybe startled."

"Just imagine if I had been someone else. It might not have been so pleasant."

"Yes, because you are the soul of congeniality," she sniped back.

Slowly Lilly's heart beat was returning to normal, or at any rate as normal as it was like to get with him still holding her wrist. She startled easily at the best of times, and in a dark side street when by herself was far from optimal. He seemed to realize this, and was obnoxiously amused by it. Lilly did her best to glare at him, only too aware that she most likely looked like a little yippy dog.

"Fair enough," he agreed, finally letting go of her hand. "My point still stands though. It's not safe out here. All kinds lurking about."

"Monsters waiting to kill me and gobble me up?" she quipped lamely.

"You'd be surprised."

Bending down, he retrieved her pepper spray from where it lay on the street. He examined it as though he wanted to take it apart and put it back together again.

"Not very well constructed," he said at last, surrendering it back to her. "You'd be more likely to spray yourself by accident? Have you?"

"No!" she said indignantly, putting it back in her bag.

He looked at her knowingly and a tell tale blush spread over her cheeks.

"I did spray a date once," she admitted. "In the back of a cab. I was looking for something else in my purse, I pulled it out, and it went off right in his face."

She could not be entirely sure, but she thought she might just detect the hint of a smile twitch his lips. Well, wonders would never cease!

"Dare I ask if there was a date number two?"

"There was not," she sighed, beginning to walk again in the direction she had been going as he fell in beside her. "As it turned out, he deserved the dousing, though I didn't know it at the time."

"Well then," he said, long stride forcing her to trot, "it was all for the best."

"I guess. He was a broker, had a ton of money but was still rude to the waiter and left a horrible tip. I slipped an extra twenty in while he was in the bathroom."

"Fucking zombies. You're right, he did deserve it."

Lilly walked in silence for a few moments, wondering what on earth was happening. He had never seemed to particularly like her, in fact he had all but run away the previous two times she had come into his presence. So what was he doing now, walking next to her and talking as though he might actually not wish to be anywhere else?

"Where were you going?" she asked when she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Out," he said, jus the one word again.

"Oh, I used to go there all the time!" she said, making her eyes go wide and vacant. "They have horrible service, but the atmosphere is to die for!"

"Sorry, I'm not used to...."

"Talking?" she supplied helpfully as his words trailed off.

"Yeah," he agreed, not seeming to take offense.

Lilly watched him out of the corner of her eye. He was so odd. Handsome beyond question, talented, and clearly intelligent. One would think he would be out with a different partner every night if he wanted. So why did he spend all his time alone in a rundown brownstone? Why was he so closed off? She loved and hated puzzles, and he was one just begging to be solved.

"Where were you going?" he turned the tables on her.

"A club down on Avenue A."

"Ah, going to do what passes as dancing these days?" he said with a curl of his lip. "Grind against someone mindlessly to tuneless music?"

"Well, aren't we the old snob," she mocked him. "No, as a matter of fact it's a music club. Jazz and blues mostly. Small acts, lots of musicians stopping in when home from a tour, that sort of thing. Nothing fancy, but it has character."

"Really?" his interest seemed to be captured as she described it to him.

"Do you want to come?" she asked, careful to keep her voice neutral while she willed him to say yes.

"I suppose it's better than anything else I have to do," he grimaced.

"Wow, thank you so much," she said, pulling a face.

"I... I told you, I'm not good at this. I don't get out much, or see people."

"It's okay," she told him, fighting an exciting flurry in her stomach. "That's the good thing about music, you can just listen."

"Yeah," he agreed, eyes curiously bright as he looked at her.

They walked in silence the rest of the way. Lilly was hyper aware of him next to her, towering over her diminutive height. She did find that she felt more safe with him beside her. Whenever they neared a group of people on the side walk one look at him was enough to move the loiterers scurrying out of their way. She also caught quite a few glances being thrown their way, particularly after he had walked by. He did have a noticeably nice rear view, she allowed. Scampering after him did have an upside she supposed.

They arrived at the club and Lilly smiled at the portly man sitting on the stool by the door. Sidling up behind him, she reached out and pulled his suspenders, allowing them to snap back into place. He spun around, face breaking out into a huge grin when he saw her. The next moment she was swept into a bear hug that left her breathless.

"Lotus blossom!" he grinned at her. "You're looking all grown up! Haven't seen you around here in years!"

"Not all of us are frozen in time, Q," she said with a laugh. "How long have you been wearing those suspenders?"

"Since you were first sweet talking me to let you in," he smiled back. "You and that Gran of yours. Get me in all kinds of trouble!"

"You found enough trouble all on your own."

"True that, but you always added just that extra dash. We were all sorry to here about Miss Lillian. She was a real special lady, and no mistake."

"Thanks," Lilly fought back tears as he swallowed a lump in her throat. "Is Ossie here tonight?"

"You know he'd never miss a Friday," Q rolled his eyes. "Who else would let him play besides his own bar."

"Thanks, Q. Talk to you later."

"This tall fella with you?" he looked her neighbor, once again sporting his sunglasses, up and down protectively.

"Yeah," she said, once again feeling that butterfly sensation.

"Well, alright then. You be nice to her, or big guy or not, I'll take you down."

Adam didn't dignify that with a comment, merely giving the doorman his usual stare.

"Tell the barkeep I'm buying your drinks tonight," Q added as they started in.

"Do you really want to do that?" she asked with a laugh. "You know how I am."

"Damn girl, just try not to bankrupt me," he chuckled.

Lilly laughed and walked into the dark club, sense memory falling over her like a warm blanket. Music, friendly faces, and a handsome man to escort her. What more could she ask for? She just hoped she could keep from saying or doing something stupid for the rest of the night.

***

Adam was convinced that his new neighbor destined to drive him to distraction.

It had never really occurred to him how thin the walls of his home were. If it had realized he would have never bought the damn place. Of course, until she had moved in it didn't really matter. The old woman who had been her Grandmother would never have been so gauche as to interfere in his composing. The granddaughter though...

And what galled Adam most of all was that she had been right. The minute her barked out suggestion came slamming into his creative space he knew that she was dead on. He played the piece, hoping against hope as he came to the end that her contribution would prove just as off as his useless attempts had been. And yet he knew before he struck the chord that it perfectly completed his work. It was humiliating!

After that he made sure to plug in his headphones before turning on his instruments. He didn't want to rude after all, he told himself. It had nothing to do with the streak of embarrassment he had felt at her correction. Adam just didn't want to intrude on her piece.

The way was she was intruding on his. He could hear her all the time. Moving furniture around, cooking in her kitchen, even, to his horror, running her shower. He tried not to think about what she might look like under a stream of hot water, body soapy as her hands slid along its curves. Tried to keep the memory of the taste of her out of his mouth as the vision sprang unbidden into his brain.

It was almost worse when he would hear her crying, which was often. Adam had avoided such open displays of emotion even when he was human. His own tears were only ever shed in private now that Eve was gone. Why then did he feel the urge to break through the walls separating them and wrap the girl once more in his protective embrace?

It must be because he had fed on her, he decided. It was only a few drops, true, but it had still managed to spark something within him. It was such an intimate act, drinking someone's blood. He should have just rinsed it down the drain and been done with it. But it was so sweet, so hot and delicious on his tongue, that would have seemed like a sacrilege.

He was so attuned to her puttering around next door that he was starting to track her movements through the house. It was therefore a start to his system when he heard her front door open and realized that she was going out. At this late hour, with the streets dark and nearly deserted nearby, what was she thinking? Grabbing his coat, glasses, and gloves with a snarl, he was out the door before he could think.

She was not hard to catch. One of his steps could account for three of hers. She made an enticing picture as she ambled down the street, swinging a little gift bag as she walked. Red coat and bright hair caught the light from the moon when it cut through the drifting clouds above. Her skirt displayed a tantalizing stripe of bare leg above a pair of black boots, and he found his mind drifting to how easy it would be to access her femoral artery in such an outfit.

Had she no idea what a tempting target she made? Quickly walking up behind her, he clamped his hand down on her shoulder and growled into her ear, careful to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"It's not wise to be out alone at this hour," he said.

She was predictably flustered by his approached, and he took a kind of pleasure in making her squirm even more. After all, she was responsible for his discomfort over the past week; it was only right she should feel a little back. He was actually rather enjoying bandying words with her, he realized, until she confessed that she was on her way to a club.

Adam could see it clearly in his mind. Her coat over some chair, she would be clad only in the short black skirt and the tight red satin top he could make out underneath. Her hips swaying as her cloud of hair moved around her, she would catch the eye of any man there. Some zombie or other was bound to come up to her, predatory and drunk most likely. His hands would roam her as they danced, on her bare leg, or sliding around her waist, brushing against her breast, her ass, pulling her close to his sweaty body as he ground against her his hardening dick.

"Ah, going to do what passes as dancing these days?" he said with an angry curl of his lip. "Grind against someone mindlessly to tuneless music?"

"Well, aren't we the old snob," she relied, rolling her eyes. "No, as a matter of fact it's a music club. Jazz and blues mostly. Small acts, lots of musicians stopping in when home from a tour, that sort of thing. Nothing fancy, but it has character."

"Really?"

That sounded... not terrible.

"Do you want to come?"

Adam opened his mouth to say no. He never went out, not to clubs or bars or any other place filled with mindless hordes of zombies. But as he looked at her, trying not to let him see how hopeful she was, something inside him softened while another part had completely the opposite reaction altogether.

"I suppose it's better than anything else I have to do."

"Wow, thank you so much."

He honestly hadn't meant to poke her with that comment. It was himself he was frustrated with, not her.

"I... I told you, I'm not good at this. I don't get out much, or see people."

"It's okay," she told him. "That's the good thing about music, you can just listen."

"Yeah."

The comment took Adam aback. That was exactly how he felt. So many people wasted time with needless babble. It was so much easier to just listen. Let the atmosphere and the music take you over and move you. Why didn't more people realize that? The thing he hated most about seeing music live were all the people who insisted on talking over it.

He had an odd moment when she hugged the doorman at that club, fighting back the urge to rip the man's throat open and soak the street in his blood. He managed to fight it back once he saw that the relationship was clearly more paternal than romantic. Not that he cared if she had romantic relationships, of course. He just felt protective over her. Because of the blood.

They entered the establishment and Adam looked around with tentative approval. It was dark, not overly crowded, and those that were there sat and listened attentively to the band playing on the stage. She led him over to the bar, where she leaned in to say hello to the woman working behind it. Evidently she knew this whole place well. Not at all where he would have pictured her hanging out.

"Hey, Ivy," she said, just loud enough to be heard but not so loud as to disturb the crowd.

"Lilly! So sorry to hear about Lillian. We all miss her around here. The usual?"

"Yeah, thanks. Oh, and Q says he's paying for it."

"Oh, big spender," the bar tender laughed. "Hi, I'm Ivy. And you are?"

"Adam," he supplied tersely.

"What can I get for you, Adam?" she asked, eyes flickering to his companion and back.

"Nothing, thank you," he answered.

Ivy moved away to make her drink and Adam sighed in relief. It would be much easier to hold himself back from fantasizing about drinking his companion's blood if she were intoxicated. He tried to not let his relief be tinted by disappointment.

"Adam?" she said, looking at him with a half smile. "That fits, I guess. I'm Lilly."

Lilly, he thought. That fit her as well. She was dainty and pretty, although it was sometimes obscured by her clumsiness. Vaguely he noticed the band had just ended a set and applauded automatically, but his attention was focused on fitting Lilly's name with her person.

"Here you go, sweet heart," Ivy interrupted, setting a pint glass filled with light pink liquid down in front of her. "Don't drink it too fast."

The women laughed and Adam raised his brow in question.

"Cranberry and seltzer," Lilly said with a grimace. "I don't drink. Doesn't interact well with my anxiety meds. I know, it makes me a bit of a drag, but -"

"No," he interrupted her. "I prefer it, actually. I don't drink either. Alcohol."

"Oh, well thanks. Or something."

She looked down shyly at her drink, playing with the straw. Adam gave himself a mental shake. She was a human. A zombie. And an annoying one at that. She had cried on him, pried into his wiring project, intruded on his music. Why was he so fascinated with her? Was it just that he longed to taste her again? But if so, then why did he imagine tasting other things than just her blood?

"My Grandmother used to sing here," she told him out of nowhere. "That's her photo over there, behind the bar. Lillian Bell. The owner was her drummer for a while back in the 60's. She would bring me here to listen to what she considered real music. She was a bit of a snob. You would have liked her."

"I'm sure I would have."

Adam scoured his memory, trying to think if he had ever heard of the woman. He thought he might have, actually. He had a vague recollection of a small woman with a big voice that looked not dissimilar to the photo she indicated.

"That's how I know music," she continued, chewing on the straw and drawing undo attention to her mouth. "I don't sing myself, or play much of anything well, but I have an excellent ear."

"Much to my gratitude," he said, realizing at that moment he did feel grateful to her for her assistance.

"Sorry about that," she turned the shade of her shirt. "It sometimes is physically painful for me to hear the wrong note. Or, I mean... not wrong wrong... I meant... oh gosh..."

Adam let her squirm for a few more minutes before putting her out of her misery. She was rather delightful twisting on her stool, looking for a way out of the trap her mouth had gotten her into. He had the feeling it was not an uncommon occurrence for her.

"It was wrong," he said at last, taking pity. "I was stubbornly trying to force a finish that didn't belong. I can be arrogant that way at times."

"No, not you!" she protested mockingly. "I never would have imagined!"

Against his usual nature and inclination, Adam felt a smile begin to raise the corners of his mouth. She was incorrigible, this woman. He could tell that she was intimidated by him, hell, he had cultivated that in her, and yet she still said whatever popped into her head, fear be damned. She was brave, and that was a rare quality it seemed to him.

"Well, if it isn't my little Lilly!"

Adam looked up to see the drummer from the last group sauntering over. Lilly jumped off of her stool and hugged him warmly, but this time Adam had no fear it was anything other than familial affection. He was ancient, if not compared to Adam than to other humans, easily in his late 80s at least. Still, he had held a steady beat. The musician in Adam had to respect that.

"Ossie, it's so good to see you!" Lilly gushed. "I'm sorry I haven't been by in so long."

"We all know why, Lil," the old man sighed. "Lillian didn't want you to see she was failing, so she made up lies to keep you away. I yelled at her for that, don't think I didn't!"

"I can only imagine," she said with a watery smile.

"And who is your young man, missy?"

Adam inwardly rolled his eyes at the moniker, not so much because it assumed they were together but that he was young.

"My friend," Lilly corrected him hastily. "Adam. He's a musician too."

"Good set," he nodded to the drummer.

"Well, I'm not sure how I feel about that," Ossie looked at him appraisingly. "You can do a lot better than one of us."

"Friend, Ossie," she stressed again. "And while you might be my almost Grandad, you are not my father!"

Adam wondered why it bothered him that she was so quick to disavow any serious connection to him. It must be his pride, he decided. She had seemed taken by him that first night on the roof, and certainly the evening he had knocked her over and she had proceeded to stare at his bare chest. He had rather liked the way her eyes lingered on his muscles, to be honest. But perhaps his churlishness had put her off. If so, good for both of them

"You watch what you are saying, Lilly," Ossie scolded her. "You know your Gran had eyes for no one but your Grandpop. When you find a love like that, you can get buried in the grief of it when it's gone, it and forget to let yourself move on. Don't make that same mistake."

"I have to fall in love once first, before I can move on to a second," she said.

Adam leaned back against the bar. Is that what he had been doing? Getting buried in his grief? Eve had made him promise to live, but was he really holding up his vow to her? It made him nervous to even think about.

"I have something for you," Lilly handed the bag to Ossie. "Open it after I'm gone, I can't deal with crying again tonight."

"You are such a sweet pea," he said. "And that reminds me, I have something for you, too! I was cleaning out my office, and I found some master tapes of one of our old recording sessions. And there's Miss Lillian, singing to make your heart break! You got an analogue player at the house? One of the old type, mind you?"

"I don't know," Lilly bit her lip. "I haven't seen one, I don't think."

"I have one," Adam offered, before he even thought about what he was saying. "We can listen to it at my place."

"Well, you might just be worth something after all," Ossie beamed at him.

Adam looked back and forth between Lilly and Ossie, both smiling at him as though he had hung the moon. Inside where his heart once beat, he felt an ever so slight easing that was almost a pain.

What, he wondered, had he gotten himself into?

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wormtoxin · 4 years ago

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Carrion Flowers

Prologue

(yes, under the cut is some long-form original fiction, and yes, i am embarrassed about it, but it’s fine)

When he hears it was through the eye, he remembers that day on the lake.

It’d been cloudy for a week, but the skinny black kid in the dark suit wouldn’t have known the difference. The curtains had been replaced, and the windows and mirrors shrouded in heavy, black cloth. Pictures of his father in his cap and uniform were everywhere, each adorned with a black satin ribbon.

He hated it. The air was getting stale and hot in his lungs, and the black wool suit was suffocating. He didn’t understand back then why he and his mother had to set out white lillies and wear these awful clothes and shut out all the light. The two of them weren’t dead yet.

His mother wasn’t really meant to travel yet- especially not to a friend’s- but she hadn’t been meant to go the cemetery either. Regardless, she had followed the hearse with the men through all of Paris weeks ago, and she would help her son load his black wools and silk into a suitcase now. They both caught an early train out of the city, then a cab, and he was thankful for the sharp, cold smell of green earth and ozone.

When he arrived at the cabin, a woman he didn’t recognize threw open the door. She wore another black dress, like his mother’s, and they kissed each other on each cheek.

“Madame Stein, my love, je suis désolé,” she said, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Since the funeral, he had seen many of his mother’s friends, but each carried the cold pity of a mourner, veiled beneath formality. With this woman, whoever she was, there was an instant connection. He saw his mother light up with warmth and comfort, and felt himself warmed along with her. His mother pulled him from behind her skirts and introduced him.

“Madame Hyde, c’est Jacque”, she said, and the other woman bent down to hold him tight.

“You’re so grown,” she said, “I haven’t seen you since you were in your cradle”. She stood, and a young boy, about Jacque’s age, emerged from the cabin behind her. He held a hand out for Jacque.

“Je m’appelle Cyrus!” He grinned broadly.

Jacque took his hand and shook it, “One of your teeth is gone”. Cyrus took his other hand out of his pocket, and placed the milk-white baby tooth in Jacque’s open palm.

“I was gonna leave it for the tooth fairy, but I want you to have it!” Mme. Hyde rolled her eyes, and Jacque’s mother stifled a laugh.

“Thanks,” Jacque said, and pocketed it.

“Shall we?” Mme. Hyde said, and stepped into the cabin. The hearth was roaring, and something must’ve been cooking in the heavy iron pot, because the smell was incredible. Jacque and his mother unpacked, and the first night, the two women made apple pie together. Jacque’s mother was rolling the pastry and the butter together when she started to cry, and she cried for a long time while Mme. Hyde held onto her. The butter melted out of the pastry, but they all ate the sweet, buttered, cinnamon apples out of a great wooden bowl, and his mother slept through the whole night for the first time since they’d gotten the news.

It was still raining the next day, so the two Madames sat by the hearth and stitched old clothes while the boys ate porridge.

“Mom, I want to show Jack the lake”.

“Alright dear, but take an umbrella, and lend Jacque your boots. It’s still muddy out”.

Cyrus took Jacque by the arm, and they set out together in the rain. Jacque held the umbrella while Cyrus talked excitedly about the games he’d play at the schoolyard, or facts he’d read about in books.

“Did you know? Sometimes a dragon isn’t actually a dragon, so instead they’re called wyverns,” Cyrus said “Weye-verrns” with the distinctive lull of an English accent, and Jacque wondered how long it’d been since he came to Paris. “They’re only called Dragons if they can breathe fire, and then they’re called ‘True’ Dragons, which I guess makes all the other ones ‘Liar-liar-pants-on-fire’ Dragons”.

“It’s not fire,” Jacque said beneath the hood of his black cloak, “Papa said it’s called ‘radiation’. They call it Wildfire because it spreads”.

Cyrus was dumbstruck. “Wow!! Really?? You must be so smart, Jacque!” Jacque had been praised a lot in the last few weeks by the mourners, but always because he was So brave or So strong or The man of the house now in a way that felt like You poor thing. It was nice to hear smart for a change.

When they got to the lake, it looked so high from the rain that Jacque thought it might spill over. Thick trees blanketed the banks from the rain, allowing only a few heavy drops to spill over onto the moss or the water, each creating a soft plonk.

“It’s pretty,” Jacque said.

“Have you ever skipped a stone before?”

“Um, no”.

Cyrus sorted through the mud for a while before finding a smooth flat stone, and tossed it into the clear water. Instead of sinking, it touched the water and flew, hopping three or four times before finally dropping down into the lake.

“Amazing!” Jacque picked one up and threw it, but it only made a splash. Without a word, Cyrus found another skipping stone, and put it in Jacque’s hand. He held Jacque’s wrist and moved the rock between his forefinger and thumb. Even at his school, Jacque didn’t often touch hands with the other students. They’d throw balls or play hopskotch. And of course, Jacque’s mother held his hand often, to cross the railway or walk to the store, or just to comfort him. But Cyrus’ hands were small like his own, warm, and rough from years of scrabbling up trees or over brambles.

“You have to throw it like this”.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Jacque asked, “You just feel bad for me like everyone else”. Jacque pulled his hand away, and threw another rock straight beneath the surface.

Cyrus picked up another for him. “Am not,” he said, “Momma said you need some cheering up, s’all”.

“You do feel bad for me!” Jacque threw it, and again it failed to soar like the first one did.

“Do not!” Again, Cyrus put a flat, muddy rock in Jacque’s light palm. “And I know you’re sad. What’s wrong with feeling bad for you, anyways?”.

“Am not!” Jacque threw it, hard, but it missed the water altogether, clacking against a big rock on the shore, and ricocheting out towards the boys.

Jacque found himself crying. Hot, wet tears spilled down his cheeks, and he found his breath coming out in little hitching gasps before he knew why. Jacque wasn’t sad. He missed his dad, of course, and he wished his mom wouldn’t cry. But he wasn’t sad. So what was he feeling now?

Cyrus sat next to him in the mud. When Jacque looked up, he realized the rock had hit Cyrus, cutting his eyebrow. Blood streaked down his cheekbone, and his eye had already purpled and swollen shut. Even still, he smiled. Cyrus’ grin was so wide, it showed his gap tooth and curled his other eye up in delight.

“What?” Jacque muttered.

“When my papa died,” Cyrus said, “everybody told me I had to be big and strong for my momma. It took me a long time to cry. I thought I was dead too, because he was. But I felt better when I cried.”

Jacque laughed a little, sniffling. “You wanted to make me cry?”

Cyrus took the sleeve of his coat, and wiped one of Jacque’s tears. As they sat together, and Jacque finished crying, a cloud finally broke. Sunlight reflected from the shimmering surface of the lake. Cyrus’ hair and eye were dark, but in the light, Jacque saw their fiery warmth, each eyelash shining gold. Jacque felt the sun move over him, heating him to the bones.

That was when he first fell in love, Jacque thinks.

Years later, when a dragon had flown too close to Paris, the military police shot it down over the lake. The water was ruined, along with the rest of the countryside, and a few years after that, Cyrus joined the Dragon Corps. Jacque went to University, but they still saw each other often. Cyrus would sneak out of the barracks to visit, and to tell Jacque stories about the latest thing he had seen, or the place he had just been. Cyrus would tell him about being stationed in Italy. Verona had huge open-air cemeteries, he would say. You’re studying cemeteries, aren’t you, Cyrus would ask. I’ll take you someday, he’d promise. Now, this morning, his picture was in the newspaper.

It was through the eye, the newspaper said. That same eye Jacque had hit with his skipping stone, and that bore a mark on its brow from that day at the lake. That eye that shone gold in the sunlight, and that peeked out at Jacque, only Jacque, with a wry delight from beneath the military cap, making his chest ache.

It went through that eye, and lodged itself somewhere in the back of his skull. Jacque keeps rereading it, looking back at that picture. He must be reading it wrong. He feels dizzy, keeps expecting the words to change as they spin, but each time they stubbornly refuse. Pronounced dead at 4:32 this morning. Jacque doesn’t know what to do. Then, all at once, he does.

#carrion flowers #ahahaaaa gay romance #hope someone likes it!

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mercurryblack · 4 years ago

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Chapter 8: Rosario

A certain Garland girl spends a peaceful evening with LLAC’s leader.

❃❃❃

“You’re late, chica.”

Rosario Garland had never been the kind of girl to make others wait. She may not have been perfect, but she prided herself on making sure that she was at least fifteen minutes early when she was meeting with anyone, regardless of the importance of their meeting.

The girl was patient if nothing else, and that trait had proved itself invaluable when she started dating Lillian, who was also an early bird. It had come to the point where it had become a friendly competition— whoever was the last to arrive would pick up a check, and vice versa.

Not that it really mattered, however— she couldn’t recall the last time she had lost to Lillian.

“Of course you’re here already. Why is it that you always come first?” Lillian said, greeted her girlfriend with a side hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Would you prefer it if I came last?” grinned Rosario, nuzzling up to her.

Lillian shrugged. “You know, sometimes I wouldn’t mind if— wait.”

Rosario’s grin widened. “Heh. Gotcha again, Lilly.”

“Okay, I set myself up for that one.” Lillian sighed, her cheeks turning pink as she understood the entendre. Pretending that she wasn’t caught off guard, she coughed loudly and continued. “So, what have you been up to these past few days, Rosa?”

Rosario let out a long breath as she answered. “Ohhhhh, y’know, the usual. I’ve been helping my parents with th�� Dulcinea in my downtime, and making sure Sirocco and Socorro stay out of my room. School’s been drop-dead boring, though. Pbbbllltt.” She blew a noisy raspberry. “I shoulda become a Huntress like Dad used to be.”

Lillian nodded, as the two started to walk. “It’s got its ups and downs. How’s the restaurant doing, anyhow?”

“Pretty well. We got flatscreens installed, so with the Festival upcoming, it’s reached the point where we don’t have to eat leftovers from the day’s menu any longer.” Rosario rolled her eyes. “I know it’s saving Lien, but papa’s got a butt-load of dosh saved up from old contracts. You think he’d be less of a tightwad.”

“Eh, it’s practical. Huntsman mindset and all that.” Lillian shrugged. After a moment, she smirked and gently elbowed Rosario. “Maybe your folks should’ve invested in a McGarland’s franchise instead.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Rosario scoffed, shaking her head. Her brown hair swayed across her shoulders. “Y’know, I asked mamá about doing that a while back, and she said that— word for word— ‘she’d sooner shove her head in a boiling fry vat than ever involve herself with her shit-eating malaka of an idiot brother ever again.’”

Lillian nodded, humming pensively. “This ‘idiot brother’… the same one who tried to take her as his wife? Helios something-or-other?” She asked.

“Apollo, actually, and yeah.” Rosario replied. “I never actually met the guy, don’t really want to. All I know ‘bout it’s that papá found out and beat him up in some ritual fight, and won the right to marry mamá, and they eloped to Mistral City and lived happily ever after, blah blah blah. Just the same story they tell me on every single anniversary of theirs.”

“You swamp clans are a laugh a minute, aren’t you?” Lillian remarked dryly.

“Tell me about it. I’ll take the Dulcinea over being sent away to Laurelboros anyday.”

“If I get another break, I’ll try and pay you a visit over at your place. Who knows what my feminine charms could bring, hm?” Lillian half-jokingly suggested.

Rosario laughed. “Yeah, that’d be a hoot— see how many poor schmucks try and hit on the biggest lesbian in all of Mistral.” She said. “But enough about me, Lilly— what about you? Anything new in your life, my dear Huntress?” She asked, leaning her head sideways and curiously raising an eyebrow.

“It’s been… stressful. You heard about the whole SYBR case in the news, right?”

Rosario nodded. Days prior, the news of the two members’ deaths had flooded the news outlets. While the details of the case still remained confidential, the media hadn’t shied away from the gruesome way in which the murders had taken place. “Yeah, Dad was pretty shaken up about it. He used to be pretty close with Yaara and Berilo— well, all of them, really. They were in the same year, I think.” She bit her lower lip. “What about it?”

Lillian sighed. “Well, we’ve been assigned to help out with it.”

“Yeesh. How’s that going?” asked Rosario, wincing in surprise.

“Right now, the whole thing is shitty. It was done neatly, whoever did it made sure they weren’t leaving any clues.” Lillian pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

“Ugh, we haven’t made any progress since the initial investigation. I feel like dead weight.”

Rosario affirmingly placed a hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder, giving it a gentle rub. “Hey, hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. I’m sure you and your compadres will find out who did it. Who knows? Maybe you just haven’t looked in the right place yet.”

Lillian turned to the Garland girl, her eyes half-lidded and her expression unamused. “Really. Not the right place. In the exact place where they were murdered, Rosario?”

“ … Okay, not my best moment of reassurance, but you know what I mean.” The Garland girl winced.

Lillian rolled her eyes. “Sure I do, cabeza hueca.”

Rosario glowered. “I may be stupid—”

“Yes.” Lillian cut her off, visibly holding back a laugh.

“This is you getting back at me for that “came last” bit, isn’t it?”

“Also yes.”

***

After twenty minutes’ worth of a pleasant stroll, the pair finally made it to the upper cliffs near the base of Haven Academy. It was mainly a residential area, but just behind the pagoda-style houses was a cozy picnic spot overlooking the mountain’s majestic waterfall. Only a select few were in the know, yet it was a popular dating spot among those few.

So it was just as well that they were here now, in the evening when nobody was about to interrupt them.

Lillian had thought it would be a good idea to bring Rosario to a place that wasn’t a restaurant. The Garland girl had more or less grown up in one, so a change of scenery was best for both of them. Undoing a backpack that Rosario had handed off to her earlier on, she tossed a blanket to Rosario, who spread it out on the grass while Lillian undid the cloth surrounding their meal’s basket.

The couple ate their food— a pair of bocata-style sandwiches the Garland had made herself— as they overlooked the city. It made each of them drift away from the issues in their minds; doubts, worries, and problems fading to the back as they took in the serene moment.

Naturally, Rosario figured it was a bit quiet.

“Uh…” She began, attempting to come up with an appropriate point for conversation. “So, Lilly, how’s your training going? The Vytal Festival’s coming up in a couple’a weeks after all, right?”

Lillian coughed on her bite of food. “Oh, yeah, right. Vytal.” She had almost forgotten about LLAC’s prior plans for the festival. For a second, it seemed like only yesterday that she and her team had been drilling for their matches.

“My cousin Robin— she’s in her second year, I think you’ve met— she’s popped around the shop once or twice while you were there. She’s entered her team already, says they really have a shot at the championship.” Rosario continued. “You could probably kick her butt, though.”

Lillian nodded. “I’ve run into her a couple of times. Her teammate… Kogane or something? She went and bought a couple of new Mistrali-styled uniforms for me and Am when we first arrived in Haven, after bawling us out for wearing what she called ‘unfashionable’ Atlesian outfits.” She huffed disparagingly. “Yeah, as if her three-inch heels are any kind of improvement over a tac suit, but whatever.”

She paused, taking a bite out of her sandwich. “Oh, and just so you know, I could kick your cousin’s butt. No sweat. But I doubt it’d happen anyways.”

“Whff’a maffr? Iff’ere—mllpp— s’there a problem?” Rosario asked, swallowing a particularly large bite as she turned to Lillian.

“No… it’s just that I think it’ll be much better for LLAC to not participate in the festival altogether. We promised to help Detective Yuen with solving the SYBR case.” She pursed her lips. “So I think it’s safe to say that we’re not going to be fighting anytime soon.”

Rosario threw her arms up, stunned. “Not going to fight? Are you shitting me? I’ve seen you guys throw down in exhibitions, remember— between that goth’s agility, your sister’s durability, the hat kid’s unpredictability, and your strength, you’re totally fit to win it! You’re one of the best fighters I know, amiguita, no way are they gonna keep you from the Festival!”

Lillian rolled her eyes. “Well, be that as it may, it still won’t change the fact that we’re busy with the murder investigation, and this year’s festival is being hosted in Vale. It’s too far away, no way are we going to get a pass from Detective Yuen to compete.” She replied.

“Man.” Rosario muttered, shaking her head. “That just ain’t right. You talked to the rest of the team about this yet?”

“Not yet, no, but I figured I’d tell them tomorrow. If they agree with me, I’ll talk to Professor Lionheart about withdrawing from the tournament.” She scratched the back of her neck. “And if they don’t… well, I’ll figure something out. But that’s not important right this minute.”

However, the nagging thought of how her teammates might not agree to her proposition stayed in the back of Lillian’s mind. Either way, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Seeing the girl’s troubled expression, Rosario leaned in to rest against the crook of Lillian’s neck. “Okay, I get it. Enough serious talk.” She said, before turning her attention again to the view from the mountaintop.

“I never realized how pretty it is when you get just a little higher up.”

She lived in the area just underneath the cliffs, and had little business anywhere higher, so she’d never paid much consideration to coming to the summit before. Now that she did, she was slightly awestruck by how small Mistral City looked from up on high.

“It’s even prettier when you see it all the way up, right from the academy grounds.” Lillian said, her voice calm.

“Lucky. Means you get to take it in all the time.”

“Well, after a few years there, you’ll get tired of the view and much rather be down in the city proper.” Lillian shifted her shoulder. “But do you want to know about the one view I’ll never get tired of?”

“Sure. Where’s that?” Rosario asked, looking up to face her.

“Here,” Lillian gently placed her hand atop Rosario’s own and stared at the city below them, before turning her gaze to her girlfriend. “Right beside you, Rosa.”

After a moment’s pause, Rosario pulled her beanie down and averted her gaze, trying to hide her suddenly flushed face. It was usually her who threw around corny romantic remarks and double entendres, but when Lillian said something to make her blush…

Well, she could dish it out, but she wasn’t very good at taking it.

“You have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen, you know that?” Lillian said, giving the Garland girl’s cheek a soft brush as she gazed into Rosario’s turquoise orbs.

“Yeah, and you have the cheesiest compliments.” Rosario replied, still blushing. “But thanks, I like yours too. They’re, uh…” She trailed off, too distracted by Lillian’s eye contact.

They lapsed back into silence, looking over the cityscape dotted by lights under a darkening evening sky.

“…Time like this, kinda makes you wish this moment could last forever, doesn’t it?” Rosario asked offhandedly.

“You mean, this moment with your hand on my abs?”

Rosario tilted her head downwards, and noticed that her left hand had indeed found its way onto Lillian’s stomach.

“...You mind?” She asked in a faux innocent tone, glancing back up.

“Hmf,” Lillian smiled, wrapping an arm around Rosario’s shoulder. “Not even a bit.”

Rosario grinned, slowly closing her eyes as she melted into the embrace. “Then, yeah… this is a moment I could live with.”

#team llac #team llac fic #rosario garland #lillian armilde #fanfic #fan fiction #rwby fan fiction #rwby oc #rwbyoc #rwby

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crowstan · 4 years ago

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reacting to my favorite dad n gang: #3

Howdy do, back with part 3! there was a significant delay for reasons, but I am back and that’s what matters. Spoilers for Taking on ANXIETY with Lilly Singh!! | Sanders Sides

-Ok, I haven't started but. Mood. The title is a mood. I will not elaborate.

-Ah jeez, a beeped cuss! How adultery! /j

-I’m ok with cussing

-SNK-

-IT WAS FORK DJHDKJHSKHDIU

-THAT’S the kind of humor I like!

-Intro is still as groovy as ever, which is uh. Idk. I write bad takes I don’t have an opinion on this

-JHFDKJFHSLJFHEKWSF MOOD

-IT DO BE LIKE THAT SOMETIMES

-!! a! all black!! and an excessive amount of eye shadow!! THIS is a Perfect Boy!! /hj

-In al serious I do be looking like that which further concludes that me and Virgil have the same taste in clothes and he is a cis version of me that got released into the local hot topic

-Or an older, more dysphoric me released into a hot topic. They are very similar but one would be seen more often in a hoodie when it isn’t Sweater Weather time. Or I like to think they would be similar at least.

-aaa!! a lil sas!! mood tho lmaoo

-”Sup?” jkfhajhfdsalkdj ok but I do that

-This is just me finding Virgil relatable by the Things I keep picking up lmaoo

-jkashfdkfjshf my literal thought process after doing one thing.

-”yo” he’s. so chill. i wanna be that cool! /hj

-”Hey there princey” wejfhjakfhsdjfhjsdkfhskd same vibes as two friends “flirting” and also acting like they hate each other. except rn they aren’t friends and they maybe do hate each other. anyway, kismessitude vibes kinda??

-I speak romance only in homestuck terms, and if i hear someone say that moirails are platonic one more time or that kismessitudes are unhealthy or ignore auspitism, i will scream

-akhdafjsd that chuckle??? That Gave Me Serotonin. I Can Finally Sleep At Night Without The Thing Watching Me. I Am Fully At Peace.

-ok that was a half joke but?? legit made me a lil happy man. people laughing or chuckling just?? I wanna join them in the Happy Noise regardless of my Happy Status

-AA!! Superwoman!! i like watching her!!

-Ajdskhfsf man i wish my blood pumped, then maybe my hands n feet wouldn’t be cold. but no I get the chest pains and sickness :/

-/j

-O shit I could use this advice!! like legit!! notes time shIT W H E R E ‘ S M Y P A P E R -

-hj, these are good tho n I will try them

-positive self talk?? oh, uh, I draw the line at that, pal /hj

-best to skip over that aha--

-hey!! i have that same pillow pet!! I named my cobb! like corn on the cob!

-”focus on the now” jaskhfjaksfhjkds jeez I thought this was a list of stuff you could reasonably do, not the impossible /j

-ye s she pointed out it may not work for everyone bc everyone’s different!! Nice!!

-I absolutely love it when ppl do that tbh. It’s like the creator is saying “tis ok, you’ll work through it eventually”

-”Ya nasty” jkafhkdahksa me @ my friends, but in a loving way

-”Accept that you have anxiety” JHDLKAFH THE FIRST STEP TO SOLVING A PROBLEM IS ACKNOWLEDGING AND ADMITTING YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

-or ah. the quote was smtn like that at least! I got the vibes down

-”(growls)” jashfkjas mood

-hehe a spook!! there was a spook!! heehee!!

-aa a I accidentally looked at his eyes at the exact moment he winked. I am Dead Now bc eye contact is a Fighting Sign /hj

-hakgfdshak my dad came out here n tossed my hoodie over my head, ungroovy dude :/

-skdfhd m c r ??shit man I legit like a few of their songs-

Overall, a good video!! Had a little bit of stuff I’m gonna try out because, free tips, ya know? I absolutely digged Virgil’s design bc it’s a mood and ideal and I wanna look like that! Transition goals even, if I may. Anyway 10/10, had little plot but made up for it with characters, character design, and learnability.

#sanders sides #ts spoilers #ts spoiler #sanders sides virgil #sanders sides roman #uhh i do not think there are any more tags I can add tbh #the specific reasons was supervising my kid while they were cooking spaghetti noodles #apparently they set them on fire a lot?#no fires happened today tho so I'd say it went well #they are now the most competent child when it comes to cooking #the others have not learned yet #that's why i'm their dad #their families never taught them to cook anything and they're goblins #I say that with love #we're all goblins

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 5 years ago

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I Need to Talk About “Problematic Faves” within TWDG [2/?]

Backstories, the introduction of these characters and the importance of first impressions.

"Nice to meet’cha, I’ll be your disappointment for the evening.”

When I first started questioning why I like David as much as I do, I thought back to when we were first introduced to him in ep1.

He didn’t leave the best first impression since the first words out of his mouth are along the lines of “You’re a real piece of shit.” Plus he, y’know, punches the shit out of Javi for not being there when their dad died.

On one hand, fair enough to be distraught that your father just died and your brother was no where in sight... but, on the other hand, do you gotta get violent?

Maybe it’s just because I’m an only child so I don’t understand how the whole sibling thing works, but punching your brother and then tossing him a beer before saying “I love you” seems.... not good?

But, it’s also very telling in what David and Javier’s relationship is right from the start, and sets an idea for what’s to come throughout the rest of the season.

Say what you will about ANF: it’s a mess, it’s the worst season, whatever. But, when I tell you that it has one of the best openings to a game, I mean it.

Everything about it is damn near perfect. Not only does it start right at the beginning of the apocalypse, but it tells us so much about our main protagonist and his backstory, it establishes the strained relationship he has with his brother and the rest of his family, and it introduces us to the walkers in a different light.

I can’t watch the opening and NOT get chills every time little baby Mariana holds that cup in her hand and says, “Papi’s awake.”

When they go see that Javi and David’s father is up and about after dying, it’s just chaos from there and I love it.

Fight me all you want, but it’s an excellent start to the season.

Unfortunately, ANF couldn’t keep that momentum going, but that’s a whole other discussion for another day.

Back to David, something about the way he was initially presented stuck with me until we finally reunited with him at the end of ep2.

So I thought back to other character introductions, how their backstories came into place, and how it affected their endgame.

A character’s introduction is crucial when it comes to storytelling, whether its subtle or in your face. You don’t want to give too much away, but you want to give the viewer a taste of who this person is and what their importance is in this story in a more subtle but clever manner.

When introducing a character, you have the think about what their endgame is. How is this character going to change over the course of the story? How are the choices of this character going to affect our protagonist, the world around them, and the overall plot.

Knowing these things can help you to sprinkle in little details within their introduction that tie into their endgame.

When we first met Kenny back in s1, he was just this dude who wanted to get his wife and kid back to Florida, hop on a boat, and live the rest of the apocalypse with his family on the water.

He was nice and showed concern over how Lee was doing with Clementine. He has a character design that gives away parts of his past as a fisherman before he tells us anything about it, and his accent [+overall voice acting and dialogue] tell us a lot about his upbringing prior to the events of s1.

We only got that glimpse of what was to come of his character after the walkers attacked Hershel’s farm.

Shaun is stuck under the tractor with walkers pushing against the fence and Duck is grabbed. We as Lee are faced with the choice of who to help first: Shaun or Duck?

Regardless of our choice, Kenny obviously runs to save his son. He gets Duck out of harms way, but when Shaun begs for help, Kenny runs away, leaving him to be eaten by the walkers.

This portrays the possibility of Kenny being cowardly, selfish, or someone who freezes up in moments of danger and runs. It also sets up the guilt that lingers in his [and Duck’s] mind all the way through to ep3 and onward.

When you think about Kenny, without knowing what happens to him in ep3, and you have to take a guess about what tragedy could take place to further his development, as well as bring that guilt full circle, what would you say?

Easy. He loses his family. Of course he does. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like it, but it makes sense that this would happen based on our first meeting with him at Hershel’s farm in conjunction with the themes of the game.

So what does this have to do with him being a “Problematic Fave?”

Uh, everything?

Ever heard of a “tragic backstory?” You don’t think such thing plays into why we loves characters like this?

Kenny the family man has a lovely wife and son. He does everything in his power to protect them, and it’s not enough. He was not enough to save his son, nor was he enough to save his wife.

He lost them both within seconds of each other, being a witness to Katjaa’s suicide and the agonizingly slow death of his son, and he had to keep going in order to survive, even though he had nothing left.

In the beginning, Kenny was a regular John Doe like the rest of us.

He had a job that kept him at sea a lot, he fell in love with a pretty vet and had a child with her. He thought this all would blow over and he could go back to Florida with his family and live peacefully.

Season 1 is Kenny’s tragic backstory.

We got to live this tragedy with him, so when s2 comes around and we’re given his second first introduction in the series, we already have all this knowledge of what has happened to him, what his relationship was to Lee and Clementine, and the assumption that he was already dead.

Season 2 was what cemented a lot of people’s love and hate for him.

I have a theory that those who hate Kenny tend forget that 1st episode back in s1, choosing to solely focus on the Kenny from the meat locker in ep2 and all the negative repercussions that stemmed for our choice there, while those who love Kenny tend to look further back and take everything into account when analyzing his character.

They sympathize with the man Kenny used to be, and are struck by this tragedy of who he became by the time s2 ended.

Kenny from ep1 of s1 is not the same person as the Kenny from s2 ep5, and his journey is not only compelling from a character development standpoint, but a huge factor in why he is the favorite character of so many. Few characters are built up and developed that way he is.

But can we say a lot of the same things about Kenny’s introduction in s2 that we can say about s1? Does it drop hints about what Kenny’s potential endgame could be?

Yes, but it’s not quite as effective as it could’ve been.

One of the first choices you make after meeting back with Kenny is whether or not you’ll sit with him at dinner.

It’s a non-assuming choice, one that shouldn’t warrant any big repercussions, right?

Except it’s the games way of presenting us with the choice of siding with Kenny under a more innocent pretense. It’s a taste of what’s to come.

Based on our previous knowledge of him, as well as his seemingly good nature [one that reminds us of the beginnings of s1], we watch the way he presents himself to Clementine and decide if we want to sit with this old, nostalgic connection, or the new connections.

Will you sit with Kenny, or will you sit with Luke and the cabin group?

Will you side Kenny, or not?

This is what led everyone to believe that the final showdown would be between Kenny and Luke, and they really dropped the ball on what they built up here when they decided to replace Luke with Jane.

Kenny’s part still holds fairly strong, but everything about it isn’t as well done as S1.

And because I know I’ll be asked: as for his introduction in S3..... I don’t consider Kenny or Jane characters as much as I’d say they’re obstacles the writers had to throw in to give the illusion that our choices actually affected Clementine significantly when they really didn’t.

He immediately dies in a car accident after being paralyzed and left to the walkers while Clementine runs away with a crying AJ. This does very little for the story of ANF other than to add fuel to Clementine’s own “tragic backstory.”

So I don’t count it here.

I want to talk about another great character introduction: Minerva.

Minerva is a special case compared to Kenny and other character introductions. We’re not plopped down in front of her like “Hi, I’m Clementine, nice to meet you, Minnie.”

We actually spend two whole episodes only hearing about her, building her character up slow and steady, until we finally meet face to face in ep3.

This complicates our first impressions of her, but only a bit.

The game pretty much tells us Minerva’s backstory:

From what we’re told, Minerva was a sweet, musical girl who didn’t even like killing walkers. She loved her brother and twin sister. She and Violet were in a romantic relationship, and Violet gives us plenty to chew on about how lovely her voice was and how she was such a good friend. Her and Sophie’s “deaths” left everyone at the school devastated to the point where they actually started using their graveyard again.

She almost seems too good to be true, don’t you think?

Then we find out she’s not dead.

It turns out, Marlon and Brody lied about the death of the twins to cover up the fact that Marlon traded them away to the delta in order to save themselves and the rest of Ericson. The truth only comes out after Brody confesses everything to Clementine before her death dealt by Marlon’s hand.

So not only are we told that Minerva was this wonderful person, but that she was traded away with her twin sister to a group of people who, based on our first impression of Abel, are a dangerous threat that’s back for more of them.

Your mind swarms with the worst possibilities of what those people could have done to them, and you even question whether or not they’re still alive.

Until we meet Lilly again and find out the truth: they turned them into soldiers, forcing them to fight in their war.

Keep in mind that this is all apart of Minerva’s “tragic backstory” and we haven’t even truly been introduced to her yet. This is everything that the first two episodes have built up.

We finally get our first glimpse of her in the trailer for ep3.

Everyone goes nuts.

Minerva was so hyped up. Everyone was talking about how good she looked and how they couldn’t wait to meet her and learn what happened from her perspective. Everyone theorized about her role in the next two episodes and how maybe we can enlist her help in getting our friends back and reuniting her with Tenn and-

Then we get actually meet her.

Turns out, she is none of the things the game told us she was.

Not anymore, at least.

She is not our friend or our ally and she is not going to help us get our friends back. She is fully brainwashed into the delta, and that’s the tragedy of Minerva’s first real introduction.

She is a betrayal of everything we’ve been told due to the crime Marlon made of trading her away. We will never get to meet this Minnie we heard so much about.

Instead, we get the husk that remains.

This husk is one of our antagonists for the rest of the game.

Knowing all of this, why do people still love her? Why are there fix-it fics and AUs where Minerva is “saved?”

Because we all wanted to meet the Minnie we heard so much about, but instead, we got Minerva, the brainwashed soldier from the Delta who, under Lilly’s fucked up rule, killed her own twin sister in order to prove her loyalty to the group.

We wanted Minerva to be on our side, to betray the delta for the school she once called home. But she didn’t.

Instead, she became our final antagonist of the whole series.

Minerva, like Kenny, is a tragedy and we like that.

I don’t mean that we like it as in “I’m so glad those horrible, traumatizing things happened to you!” but we like it in a way that it colors these characters gray.

Suddenly, their behaviors are not portrayed the way they are just because they’re the “antagonist,” but because they’re a complex, three dimensional character. The game didn’t hand them to us and say “They’re evil, that’s all you need to know.”

They took the time to flesh these two out in a clever way that got to us, either in a positive or negative light.

We are drawn to gray characters with interesting, albeit tragic, backstories that we can sympathize with.

But, when you consider that this IS the apocalypse, doesn’t everyone have one of these “tragic backstories” in this series? Just like how everyone is actually a “Problematic Fave?” Does this really play into why we like them when it’s not even something unique to their character?

That’s a good point, so in order for us to like a character like this, do they have to have an even more intense, tear-jerking past than the rest in order to stand out?

Well... no.

Nate’s the easy example for this one.

I honestly don’t know what this dude’s about, and I don’t know if I even care, but somehow Nate tends to end up on everyone’s “Favorite Characters from 400 Days” list.

Granted, he is a bit of a refreshing character to run into in this environment, what with him being so laid back, sarcastic, gross, and even sadistic in a way that’s mean to be comedic.

But what do we even know about him or where he came from?

Well, we know that he’s apart of the group that fan-favorite Eddie accidentally shot at, leading Nate to chase after him and Wyatt as a form of revenge. After that, he picked up Russell and headed back to a gas station where that old couple shot at them.

The old man reveals that Nate’s been there before and attacked, stating that he’s here to finish them off. Nate denies this, but asks if Russell and him should finish them off and take all their stuff.

From there, who the hell knows where this dude went.

But that’s all we got.

No “tragic backstory” from Nate, no implications of one, unless we missed the nonexistent detail that his previous group was his family or something. Even then, he doesn’t seem so concerned about the state of the world. He doesn’t have an issue picking up a random kid who could be dangerous. He was bored, after all.

Nate is a character whose backstory has nothing to do with why people love him. He’s an oddball out, in this case.

It’s a different story when talking about how he’s introduced, though. This is where he has most in common with Kenny, Minerva, and all the rest of these “Problematic Faves”: He has a great impression.

Well, assuming that you played Russell’s story before Wyatt’s, I suppose.

Nate’s likable, albeit insane, character isn’t dependent on who he was before or how he suffered. He’s a character who represents those in the world who thrive in times of disaster, choosing to take it as it comes, do whatever it takes to survive, and even get a sick thrill out of doing these problematic things. Odds are, life was boring before and now he truly gets to live. That’s all made clear in how he presents himself to Russell and the player.

And.... I guess it worked? He is the “Problematic Fave” of a handful of people int he community, after all.

Now that we’ve discussed three separate characters and their backstories, how they’re introduced, and how these two things affect their role within the story as well as our feelings towards them, I want to touch on one more thing before I go back to David.

What does all of this say about the people who throw this annoying phrase of “Your fave is problematic” at those of us who find these characters with great backstories compelling?

Do they not care or understand these backstories or what the introductions meant? Do they ignore them so that their perspective seems to be the correct answer? Are they so quick to judge based on the surface level that they don’t bother thinking twice about anything?

Do they feel that this character has wronged them, therefore they find they can’t bring themselves to tolerate them anymore?

Or are they just being a bag of dicks who don’t care about anything other than berating anyone who dares oppose them and their opinions?

Well, yes and no to all of these possibilities.

I’m sure there are people out there who don’t have a full grasp of what made Kenny the way he is in s2 because, well.... they’ve never lost a loved one. It’s easy to say “Get over it” to just about any troubling situation we’ve never found ourselves in. Even if we do feel for this character, sometimes it’s really only surface level because we don’t have a full comprehension of what they went through.

When I took acting back in high school, I had a teacher who could cry on the spot. We all assumed that he was just a good actor who could turn the tears on and off at any given moment, but then he explained how he did it.

He lost his father in a drunk driving accident the same day he gave his last performance on stage as a high school senior. Whenever he needed to cry for a scene, this 58-year-old man would think back to the last conversation he had with his father that morning, and then about the moment he learned his father had died.

Even in moments that didn’t require him to cry, but to develop a character and portray that convincingly, he pulled from that life experience. He also could sympathize with certain characters that we’d consider problematic while the rest of us were barely scratching the surface.

He told us we need to come to terms with any tragedy in our lives and use it not only to create characters of our own, but to understand the ones most wouldn’t give a second glance to, and help relate ourselves to the real people around us.

Since my high school days, I’ve experienced the loss of a longtime dog companion, and the alarming health decrease of two close family members. While I’ve never lost a child, a spouse, a parent, or a sibling, I find that a part of me can’t completely hate Kenny or even Minerva because I get it to an extent.

So it makes me wonder if those who look at these backstories and still brush them off do.

But, there’s another argument to be made here.

Maybe they do understand and that’s why they hate someone like Kenny.

They have lost a loved one before or experienced some sort of trauma. They know about the grief, guilt, and anger that it can lead to. But, they also know it’s not an excuse to be mean, cold, or abusive to loved one.

They know that such trauma can lead to lashing out, but the difference is between someone who knows what they’re doing is wrong, they need help, and they try to get it... and someone who using it to explain away why they’re broken and unfixable.

Some see Kenny as someone who can’t change, or won’t change. That’s how they’ve interpreted him based on their experiences as someone who’s lived through these things, or been around someone who has.

In their eyes, Kenny isn’t redeemable, “tragic backstory” or not.

What about those who felt wronged by a character?

I’ve come to the realization that this why I don’t like Minerva.

She wronged me in the way that I had to watch either Louis or Tenn die because she showed up on the bridge with the illusion that she would take her brother to a better place.

Louis, my favorite character across the entire series, and one that I’ve taken so much comfort in during the more recent darker moments of my life. Tenn, a character that I wanted to watch grow and become what characters like Ben or Sarah weren’t allowed to be come.

Because of Minerva, the only way for both Louis and Tenn to survive is if I let Louis get kidnapped, resulting in him becoming mute due to the delta cutting out his tongue, I have to break AJ’s heart by telling him that I don’t trust him, and I have to watch Violet be devoured alive by a horde of walkers.

I’m not willing to let Louis die, but I also don’t want him to lose his tongue, so in my route, I trust AJ to shoot Tenn and give Minerva what she wants.

And no matter what? Clementine gets bit because Minerva sliced her leg apart, leaving her slow and weaker when trying to get away. I firmly believe that if Minerva hadn’t done that, Clementine wouldn’t have been bitten for the sake of “parallel.”

It’s a situation that could’ve been avoided if Minerva hadn’t showed up, but her will to see and kill Tenn was strong enough for her

People who love Minerva might not see it that way, or if they do, they’re a lot more forgiving than I am.

Believe me when I tell you that I can see this being a reason for the hate towards any character like this.

Like Kenny. Lot’s of Kenny talk.

I know there are those out there who loved Kenny in s1, but by the time s2 ended, they couldn’t stand him because s2 wronged them in their portrayal of Kenny and what he had become. This wasn’t their Kenny.

To finish this segment off, allow me to answer that last question I posed: Are they just being a bag of dicks who don’t care about anything other than berating anyone who dares oppose them and their opinions?

Of course, then there are the children who like to fight. The answer for why these people hate such characters is because they think of themselves as... let’s say, Batman.

This community needs a hero to vanquish anyone who likes or enjoys these problematic characters and it’s a job only they can do! They’re the hero for sending that anon hate to your inbox!

This is an excuse to be a dick and we all know it.

So, what does all of this Kenny, Minerva, and Nate talk amount to?

It helped me in understanding a reason in why I like David so much.

I already knew that I enjoyed learning more about who he was prior to the outbreak, as well as having light shed on his and Javi’s relationship, but not in the way I initially thought.

You see, ANF is different in the way that it feeds backstory to the player- through flashbacks. At the beginning of each episode, we play as Javi in the past before the apocalypse happened.

From there, we get to see what David was like compared to what he is now, but they tell it to us through Javi’s point of view and we have to pick apart his character through that forced perspective.

From the flashbacks alone, as well as ep1′s beginning, I put together that:

David was a single father trying to raise two incredibly young children. We’re never told what happened to his first wife. I used to assume that they ended up divorced, but now I’m more on board with the idea that she’s actually dead and that’s why David has full custody of Gabe and Mariana.

Putting the pieces together now, it makes sense of why he married Kate when they’re clearly not compatible, and why he has these high expectations of her. David’s mother and father are still together, and with family being a big theme in ANF, it leads me to believe that David felt his children needed a mother figure in their lives in order for the family to be complete. He needed a wife.

While I think he did love Kate, and she obviously loved him enough to marry him in the first place, David didn’t love her the way he should have.

Kate tells us that their marriage was fucked up. We clearly see that given how she reacts when she sees David again, as well as when David himself confesses that things aren’t working out between them and that’s why he wants to go away.

They’re always arguing, he has those expectations of her as his wife and she’s fed up with it, and things are just.... not working. Of course they’re not.

He wanted a wife to make him feel more complete, as well as give his children that mother figure. He wasn’t out there trying to find the love of his life. For all we know, he already had that with his possibly dead first wife [note: shoot, add “possible dead wife” to the list of shit David’s got going in his backstory for future reference]. He thought that he could try and change Kate from who she is because he was desperate for this to work.

David and Kate should NOT have gotten married, but I can understand the stress David was under with having to raise two children as a single father while dealing with untreated trauma from being a soldier, his confidence in himself as a normal human-being deteriorating due to his “I’m a soldier and I can’t function here” mentality, working a shitty job while going back and forth on whether or not he should go sign up again, having a strained relationship with an irresponsible brother who lost his baseball career due to a gambling addiction yet still never being around when David needed him.

David marries Kate and things don’t fix themselves.

And then Javi does come around, and David doesn’t know how to act or what to say.

Then his father keeps from them that he has cancer and he’s not planning on getting treatments for it.

When his father loses his battle with cancer, everyone is there except Javier. David’s there holding his hand while his dying father asks for Javi.

I get why David’s upset that his father isn’t seeing him because he’s looking for Javi. Is it selfish to feel jealous or heartbroken when it’s your father that’s dying? Yeah, but it’s a realistic feeling. Most of us have felt some level of this but don’t want to admit it because we don’t want to see ourselves in a negative light. It’s easy to look at David and be like “What a selfish prick.”

But... why wasn’t Javi there? Everyone makes it clear that he should have been there, no excuse. Everyone was there for hours, for days but Javi was no where to be found. This plays beautifully into Javier’s character growth throughout the season, but what about David?

Compared to the “tragic backstories” of Kenny and Minerva, David’s seems... a little mundane, huh?

He has problems focused more in the real world rather than the apocalypse world.

Every bad thing we’ve ever learned about Kenny and Minerva happened after the walkers.

Plenty of people have served in the military and dealt with trauma rooted in their service.

Plenty have either been divorced or lost their spouse, were left as a single parent to raise the kids they love but are afraid they’ll fuck up if they do it alone. How about those who are apart of an unhappy marriage?

Nearly everyone has worked a job they hate and know the toll it can take on your mental health.

Left in the shadow of a more successful sibling, no matter how hard they try to be on that same level and earn that love, too.

A parent with cancer, or another life-threatening illness.

Feeling as though they can’t function because they’re not built to live in such a humanly “normal” world, eager to find where they belong and have a fulfilling purpose.

Everything David has going on prior to the apocalypse is real and relatable, and I like that this is the route they took with him. Rather than having him be like Kenny, who seemed to live happily with very little issue and only began to suffer when the apocalypse came, they took a route similar to Lee and Javier.

“Things weren’t great before.”

That being said, do any of these things justify David’s bad behavior towards Javi, Kate, Clementine, and everyone else? Does it justify the bad things he ends up doing during the events of ANF.

Hell no!

David can be a real prick and amazing backstory/introduction or not, I am not okay with that!

But look.

Listen.

ANF is such a mess. It’s a disaster.

It’s ‘s2 mess,’ but on crack.

I firmly believe that David is one of the better things to come out of it, except he got severely fucked over by just how terrible ANF’s writing could be.

They started off so good. David is established and he has some of the better character moments in the entire game, but it’s all buried underneath the bullshit.

They actually gave us David, who dealt with a lot of “normal” shit to try and find his place and be happy, made him have problems that we can see ourselves having and relate to, making us question ourselves, and then they gave him what he wanted.

David met up with Ava, he found Clint and Joan, and they created a community together where David got to be this leader with a purpose. He got what he wanted at the sacrifice of his children, wife, brother, and parents, something he didn’t even have a choice in.

They had all the right ideas...

I love the different take to David’s backstory. I love the way he was introduced in ANF. I love the way these things managed to weave themselves throughout ANF despite it being...... ugh.

People who hate David, like the one who listed all of those lovely attributes of his in the previous part, think he is nothing but a whiny, selfish, asshole because of the way he’s introduced and portrayed in flashbacks and... I disagree to a point.

He is an asshole a lot of the time, especially when you don’t side with him [heh, sound familiar] but that doesn’t mean he’s not a compelling, relatable character to study and infer about. And y’know what? I like that he’s not Mr. Nice Guy. Someone like him wouldn’t be. He is a person who can nice moments, and he has bad moments. It doesn’t excuse the shit he does, but it at least adds a depth to it that I appreciate.

I’m mature enough to recognize these his bad behaviors, acknowledge them, and infer more about his character without makes excuses and pretending that him having a tough time means it’s okay for him be that way.

I can see what they were going for as far as his endgame, but I’ll talk more about that later.

As for the conclusion of this long winded segment:

A character’s backstory, first impression, execution of developing these small seedling details into an overarching story plays an important role in the growing love of a character, problematic or not. Both love and hate can be stemmed from the maturity and knowledge of the viewer based on how relatable and sympathetic they find these ideas.

[Continued in 3/?]

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jjthebunbun · 5 years ago

Text

Canis’ Route

I’ve gotten a few asks and been tagged in a few prompts that has to do with Canis’ route, so I decided to spend a TOOOOON of time on making one. 😂

BASICS:

Name: Canis De Mila

Age: 24 (Birthday: July 18th)

Height: 5′ 9″ (67 in.)

Familiar: N/A (Though he takes on Mercedes and Melchior as familiars later on in life.)

Favorite Food: Curried Goat

Favorite Drink: Blackberry Merlot

Favorite Flower: Golden Calla Lillies

Star Sign: ♋ Cancer

Appearance: Thin build, Pale Skin covered in Freckles, Curly dark brown hair that falls in front of bright gold eyes. Dresses in bright colors such as Pastel pink, sky blue, cloud white, and antique gold. Canis has bells sewn to his belts, hair ribbons, and on certain articles of clothing he wears when training animals. Canis wears sparse makeup. Golden eyeshadow, if he bothers to wear any at all-- golden nail polish, and very shiny lip gloss. In depth description here.

Personality: Adventurous, curious, compassionate, and a bit reckless. Canis rises to meet every challenge with courage and self-assurance. Regardless of what presents itself, Canis is rarely intimidated, and knows he can do anything he sets his mind to. He has a very bubbly and fun-loving demeanor, as well as a curious nature that often becomes reckless abandon if left unchecked. Canis is very self-aware and knows exactly who he is as a person--- a refreshing yet dangerous trait indeed.

If not The Fool my apprentice would be: The Moon

Keep Reading to see the entire route’s storyline!

Players be warned: Canis’ route will be polyamorous.

BACKSTORY:

Canis has lived in Vesuvia all his life. Though his family is from Nopal, he has never managed to leave the city in order to see them, as his parents worked tirelessly in the Vesuvian palace as animal trainers and behaviorists for the Count’s ever expanding menagerie. Though he has never traveled, Canis is still very knowledgeable and worldly thanks to his studies and unbridled curiosity. When he turned 18 he, too, became a trainer for the menagerie, which is where he officially met Lucio and over the course of his service to the count, fell in love with him. Canis still works in the palace’s menagerie, caring for the animals that would have been all but abandoned since the count’s murder. Canis stays quietly separated from most people day-to-day, for fear that they may discover the secrets he’s tending.

ROUTE:

You meet Canis upon touring the grounds of the palace with Nadia when you first arrive. Canis tells you what his job is, and allows you to sit in on a training session he has with Mercedes and Melchior. Canis attempts to talk to you alone for a moment about the murder you’ve been sent to investigate, but Nadia urges you on. Before you part ways Canis offers you a dog whistle that specifically calls Mercedes and Melchior. Canis explains that he and the dogs are the only one who can hear it. If you should ever encounter any trouble, simply blow it and Canis, the dogs--- or all three will come running.

After choosing to pursue Canis, you get chased through the garden by Lucio’s ghost, and you think to use the whistle Canis provided you a few days earlier. Upon hearing the whistle the dogs are at your side in seconds. Growling at the ghost at first, before recognizing the spector and softening with happy barks and tail wags. Canis arrives soon after, and catches just a glimpse of Lucio’s ghost before it vanishes entirely. Canis offers to help you investigate the grounds, as he still remembers enough magic from when Asra taught him that he can protect you. You make your way to Lucio’s wing where Canis reveals that he and Lucio were romantically involved for some time before Lucio got sick. After Lucio died, nothing was quite the same. Canis feared that his relationship with Lucio would be looked down upon and that he would be unfairly treated now that Lucio was dead... Canis also explains that he knows Julian couldn’t have murdered Lucio, because he was with Julian when they discovered the count’s room was on fire.

You and Canis continue investigating the claims and evidence that would find Julian guilty in order to prove his innocence. At which point you end up in the Red Market where Canis delves into a gambling ring in hopes that the diverse crowd will have different angles and tips about what happened the night of the murder. You and Canis manage to pry vital information from one gambler in particular who claims he heard the courtiers planning to pin the murder on Julian. On your way out from the red market Canis is arrested by palace guards who had overheard Canis stating in the red market that he was with Julian on the night of the murder, thus making Canis an accomplice to murder. It is revealed that Julian has also been captured and they will now be tried and hanged together. You explain what you heard in the market to Nadia who agrees that Julian and Canis must be innocent, but needs a confession straight from the courtiers if that’s the case.

You visit Canis and Julian in the dungeon the morning of the trial. Canis nervously stares at the floor while Julian holds his hand and comforts him. Upon seeing you, Canis is visibly relieved that you’re alright. He explains that Julian doesn’t remember what happened on the night of the murder either, but he does remember that Julian died that night and thus learned about the count’s tie to the plague. It is then you discover the red plague was CAUSED by Lucio, like most every other tragedy in the city. Despite you and Canis warning Julian not to hang in order to rediscover the truth, he explains that Justice must come first this time, to the which Canis averts his eyes and looks forlorn. During the trial you prove Canis’ innocence due to the fact that none of the courtiers recalled that Canis was with Julian during the murder. You also call to the stand all of the courtiers at which point you fool Volta and Vlastomil into negating each others stories and proving that they’re not being truthful. It is at this point that YOU are held in contempt of court, and dismissed with Canis while preparations for Julian’s hanging are made.

You console Canis who finally confesses that he had been seeing Julian while Lucio was sick with the plague. It pains Canis to know that Julian had been convicted of murder simply because he and Canis met at the wrong place at the wrong time. Canis is also devastated that all the misery and pain caused by the plague was entirely Lucio’s fault. Canis begs you to help him exercise Lucio in order to ask him about what happened that night.

You and Canis sneak into Lucio’s wing in the dead of night and successfully exercise his ghost and trap him within a circle so he can’t flee or refuse to answer. Lucio is furious that he’s been tricked, but visibly relaxes upon seeing Canis. Canis seeks comfort in you while you inquire about Lucio’s murder, to the which Lucio explains that the plague was not his choice, that it was a nasty side effect of his ultimate goal, which was to become the devil himself. Canis furiously asks if Lucio regrets anything he’s put anyone through, and upon Lucio’s answer of “what is there to regret”, Canis closes the circle with a blaze of fire, which chases Lucio out entirely. After you manage to calm Canis down, he states that he fears whatever Lucio and the devil tried to do at the last masquerade they’ll attempt to do again at this masquerade.

You and Canis warn Nadia and Asra, who says Julian’s keeping a low profile at his sister Portia’s house until the masquerade is underway, to be sure he survives to help wrangle whatever nasty plan Lucio has for the evening.

Once the masquerade has begun you, Asra, and Canis hatch a plan to place you and Canis in the magician’s realm where you can inquire about the arcana and about the devil himself. However, on your way to the magician’s realm, something drags the both of you away from the magician’s realm and you are instead cast into the hanged man’s realm.

It is the hanged man instead of the magician who explains that the devil, unlike most arcana, seeks to hold control of the mortal realm. Lucio’s death had been the final stage in a ritual that was supposed to make Lucio the Devil, but since most of the Arcana was not at the ritual that was taking place, the spell failed and Lucio instead became a ghost. Interestingly enough, had Canis been at the ritual, it would have been just enough that the spell would have been successful. While exiting the hanged man’s realm in search of the magician’s, you ask Canis why he didn’t attend the ritual. Canis says he doesn’t remember. He only remembers being invited to a private party with Lucio, and running to find Julian with Muriel after hearing word that Julian was imprisoned in the dungeon.

Once more you try desperately to reach the Magician’s Realm, but the Devil himself stops you. The Devil calls into question your faith in Canis, and asks if Canis would abandon the people he had loved for years, why would he bother to be loyal and trustworthy to you. Canis all but clings to you and is clearly shaken to the core now that he believes his negligence is what has caused all of this chaos. The Devil splits the two of you apart and casts Canis asunder. He offers you a deal. Remain in the arcana realms until the masquerade’s end, and no harm shall come to Canis, Asra, Nadia-- everyone that you hold dear. Regardless of how you answer, the Devil strips your physical form from you and you watch through a scrying pool in horror as it enters reality in the form of Lucio, back from the dead, and in the flesh.

REVERSED:

Supposing you received the reversed ending, The Devil ultimately releases you, and the darkness around you shatters to reveal The Moon’s realm. You see Canis speaking with The Moon, and though you can’t hear what they’re saying, Canis’ voice sounds furious and desperate, and after a tense silence the Moon disappears in a shimmering light that encompasses Canis only briefly before vanishing entirely. Canis turns to see you and excitedly embraces you, crying and smiling, and thankful that you’re safe. You ask what happened and Canis feigns confusion and says that he doesn’t remember how he ended up in The Moon’s realm, but he was worried sick that the devil had captured or even hurt you.

You and Canis finally make it to the Magician’s realm where Asra and Julian await you. You recount your interaction with the Devil while Canis presses close to Julian and remains silent. It is in the Magician’s realm that you concoct a plan to pull the Devil back to his realm so that he once again cannot perform the ritual required for him to take control of reality.

Canis remains his chipper, usual self, though he stays close to you, and does his best to keep hold of you at all times. Upon asking Canis about it, he simply says that he’s worried that at any moment you could slip through his fingers again.

Once you, Canis, Asra, and Julian make it to the Devil’s realm, Lucio sits upon the dais of the Devil’s cathedral, having waited “patiently” for you to come stop his plan to merge with the devil. The four of you manage to subdue Lucio after minimal resistance, at which point Lucio desperately attempts to cover his tracks. You ultimately leave his judgement up to Canis. Canis, in turn, praises you for your decision to allow him to take control, and allows Lucio to apologize, grovel, and beg for forgiveness. Canis promises to offer Lucio forgiveness once the Devil has been stopped, and tethers Lucio to a pillar of the cathedral where he can’t interfere.

With Canis and Asra’s help, you manage to summon the devil back to his realm with a ritual similar to the one you and Canis used to summon Lucio’s Ghost. Once the Devil has been retrieved, he attempts to combat you and the others, but Canis silences the fighting by aloud offering the Devil two Arcana: The Moon and The Fool. The Devil hungrily sizes up the offer and when asked to present the Arcana, Canis pulls you forward into the ritual circle, and upon entering, the aura of the Fool can be seen within you, and the Aura of The Moon is now within Canis. As the Devil reaches forward to agree to the deal, Canis takes hold of his face instead of his hand, and explains that thanks to the moon’s sacrifice, Canis now knew how to take control of any Arcana. You realize now that the flash of light that encompassed Canis in The Moon’s realm was, in fact, The Moon being forced to merge entirely with Canis. The exact same thing happens to The Devil, but instead of a flash of bright light, there is an explosion of fire and Canis emerges, having taken control as the new Devil.

Lucio angrily fumes and barks that Canis would force him to apologize before doing exactly what Lucio wanted to do in the first place. Canis kisses Lucio once, and offers a hollow apology and the excuse that he could never bear to lose Lucio-- or anyone else ever again. Canis then turns Lucio to stone with the caress of a single claw before turning to face you. You, Asra, and Julian all shy away from him, which he answers with crocodile tears and frustration, explaining that he thought this would be for the best. No longer did he have to worry about losing the people he cared for most in the world, because now they could no longer be parted and Canis could no longer be blamed for the horrible things that happened because of his lovers. Asra attempts to help all three of you escape, but Canis has since chained all three of you to him, thus tethering you to his realm with him for all eternity.

This route ends with Asra simply being grateful that reality will no longer be lost to the Devil while Canis lavishes splendor and love on both you and Julian and promises to do so until the end of time.

UPRIGHT:

Supposing you received the upright ending, The Devil ultimately releases you, and the darkness around you shatters to reveal The Moon’s realm. You see Canis speaking with The Moon, and as you venture closer, you can hear their conversation. The Moon gives Canis back his memories of that night, at which point Canis exclaims that he remembers why he refused Lucio’s invitation to the ritual. Lucio had confided in Canis that he wanted to become the Devil and live forever. Canis was heartbroken that after all the time they spent together Canis’ only apparent use to Lucio would be to bring The Moon to the ritual so that he could become immortal. Canis wanted to be with Lucio more than anything... But he also didn’t want Lucio to become the devil and slowly become a monster. Instead Canis had fled the ritual, found Asra and Muriel and aided Muriel in rescuing Julian from the dungeons.

When Canis realizes you’re in The Moon’s realm, he excitedly rushes to you and holds onto you tightly, glad that the Devil didn’t attempt to hurt you. Canis also apologizes for refusing to look his problems in the eye and for being a bystander to the mess Lucio had created, simply because he was in love with him. Canis assures you that he knows he can’t hope to keep you, Julian, and even Lucio safe in all this, but he trusts that you know how to protect yourself.

You and Canis finally make it to the Magician’s realm with The Moon’s help. Asra and Julian await you and are excited to see that the both of you have made it out safe. You recount your interaction with the Devil while Canis apologizes to Julian and later apologizes to Asra for remaining so distant since the last masquerade. Both accept the apologies, and state that they’re just glad that Canis has you and is willing to rely on all of you instead of shouldering everything himself. It is in the Magician’s realm that you concoct a plan to pull the Devil back to his realm so that he once again cannot perform the ritual required for him to take control of reality.

Canis walks with purpose at your side, and frequently looks at you and smiles. When you ask him about it, he simply states that he can’t believe how lucky he is to have someone so amazingly courageous and kind as you.

Once you, Canis, Asra, and Julian make it to the Devil’s realm, Lucio sits upon the dais of the Devil’s cathedral, having waited “patiently” for you to come stop his plan to merge with the devil. The four of you manage to subdue Lucio after minimal resistance, at which point Lucio desperately attempts to cover his tracks. Canis begins to retort, but you stop him and remind him that Lucio wasn’t acting of his own accord by the time the plague hit Vesuvia, and that he may not deserve mercy, but he does deserve justice. You can choose to ask canis to forget or forgive Lucio: forgetting him means that you break Lucio’s chains, but Canis forces Lucio to abandon Vesuvia and live in exile. Forgiving him means you break his chains and Canis vows to bring Lucio to justice, but ultimately he is willing to make amends with lucio in due time.

With Canis and Asra’s help, you manage to summon the devil back to his realm with a ritual similar to the one you and Canis used to summon Lucio’s Ghost. Once the Devil has been retrieved, he attempts to combat you and the others. At one point the Devil calls Canis’ faith in himself into question for the second time, but instead of answering with doubt and tears, this time Canis smiles and replies that he simply trusts his loved ones, and that’s good enough for him. With Canis and Asra’s help, you hold the Devil in place in the ritual circle and turn The Devil to stone.

After the events of the masquerade, Canis and Asra have become good friends once more, Lucio was serving time for his actions, though was showing progress in becoming a better person having been freed from his chains, and Julian is arranging for an extended trip out of Vesuvia, since Canis hasn’t ever left the city, and you all could use a vacation after what happened at the masquerade.

This route ends with you, Canis, and Julian mounting horses and excitedly jetting off to the first destination on your journey into the future together.

SO. Would you play my Apprentice’s Route?

#the arcana game #the arcana apprentice #the arcana game apprentice #canis de mila

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batb1tch · 5 years ago

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It’s my boy’s birthday so here are some Jason Todd head-canons 🎉

Probably 3rd to last (Alfred and Bruce) on the list of ‘understanding internet slang’ in the household. He died and just sort of fell behind on the times (including memes, pop culture references,etc..) I know he’s known for making snarky quips and sarcastic comments but I have no doubt his siblings would call him out on his outdated references. It’s likely it’d really piss him off too like, knowledge is really everything to this kid and here he is with a group of teenagers who are always on top of shit (Steph, Tim, Duke, even Dick) and he doesn’t know what they’re talking about the majority of the time. Can’t figure out how to use Twitter or Snapchat and he does not have the patience to learn. It’s a genuine sore spot for him regardless of the humorous side.

Has an inner city accent that will never leave him. Still pronounce “on” like “awn” and frequently drops his r’s (which Bruce acts like he hates but really he finds it endearing.) Drops his “ing”s like “nothing” is “nothin.”

Fantastic chef, learned from the best. Very good at making something out of nothing and making it last. Steph has been showing him how to can things like fruit and vegetables. She’s basically just enabled his doomsday prepping behavior.

Speaking of, if you think Bruce is bad with the backup plans (yes there is always a b c d — z) where do you think Jay got it from? Absolutely anal about planning and contingencies. Has a backup for his backups.

Has a small hoard of books hidden in an end-table back at one of his safe houses. His favorite classics (mostly gifted by Bruce.)

Loves the smell of paper.

Definitely could use them but refuses to get glasses. Babs teases him for his squinting when she gets the chance.

“Just join the club book-worm, promise it won’t ruin your badass reputation.”

Jason ~squinting~ “I’d rather die....again.”

Collects cool bookmarks.

Definitely names his guns.

Favorite meal is literally any Spanish/Mexican dish followed by a good chili dog & a coke.

Can pack away enough food to feed a horse and keep going, not even Bruce knows how he does it. Alfred acts like he’s a pain in the ass to cook for but loves feeding him anyways. “You’ll eat us out of house and home someday my dear boy, good god.”

While we’re at it, he is 100% taller and wider than Bruce. You might think it makes Bruce a bit uncomfortable when standing right next to him (I mean...it does lol) but he absolutely loves when Jay throws his weight around because the malnourished string-bean of a child that he met on the street could now powerlift a small automobile and he is so fucking proud and happy that he grew up to be big and healthy (that he managed to grow up AT ALL mind you) how could he be mad? He probably tears up at the dinner table after Jay fills his plate for 4th time that evening and still intends to stay for dessert because he loVES HIM.

His feet definitely hang off the end of his bed by like, the shins because his room only has a full compared to everyone else’s king/queen. It never got upgraded when he hit puberty (because he was dead) and then he wouldn’t let anyone change it once he came back because that’s his bed “don’t fucking touch it I still fit just fine.” (Even though he’s like 22 and there’s a dip in the mattress that could put the Grand Canyon to shame.)

Still has a picture of Catherine hidden away. Visits her grave on the anniversary and always brings her favorite flowers (Lillie’s.)

His hands get cold really easily and they’re always dry/calloused.

Snores. Loudly.

The Lazarus pit did NoT heal his autopsy scar that shit is there for life and it is big and it is ugly. He doesn’t like taking his shirt off because of it and the look on Bruce’s face when he sees it could strip wallpaper.

Stopped dying the lock of white hair on his head.

Has spring allergies that turn him into a giant snotting watery eyed whiny baby.

He’s claustrophobic and not a fan of the dark. It’s why his helmet has night vision.

(While we’re at it, that helmet has to be the equivalent of like, iron mans on the inside. Definitely has built in comms, scopes, analysis systems, navigation, etc etc. the WORKS. whICH he designed and created himself because he’s brilliant.) (Actually Roy might have helped a little but don’t tell him that.)

Has a work-in-progress bike in the cave that hasn’t been finished for over 2 years and it will never be finished because he uses it as an excuse to hangout and spend time with Bruce. Drives Steph crazy to see it sit there but she gets it.

During his first Thanksgiving with Bruce and Alfred he cried for 15 minutes before dinner (which he’s still embarrassed about to this day) and then ate until he literally puked. He hasnt missed many Thanksgivings since he died.

TERRIBLE at 1st-person-shooters and super pissed about it.

“That’s not even realistic, an HK-416 doesn’t even have a 200 round drum. It’s bonkers! It’s madness Tim!”

“Shut the fuck up Jason you haven’t even been facing the right way since we started.”

(He’ll stick to Space Invaders and Mario fuck you very much.)

Really good at piano. Bruce asked him to start playing seriously when he moved in because “learning a musical instrument teaches self -discipline and versatility” but really it’s because one day during his Robin years Jay sat down and started plinking on the keys to a song he learned at the public youth-center on the “old shitty out of tune” wood one they had and it just happened to be a song Martha used to play Bruce all the time. He wanted to hear it fill the halls again.

Gets in a screaming match with Bruce nowadays and instead of lighting up one of Penguin’s underground casinos (like he might of used to 👀) he’ll disappear for a month to cool down. You can always tell when he gets over it though because he sends the family a postcard from wherever he is in the world. (Alfred puts them all on the fridge.)

Pit symptoms used to (and occasionally still do) include horrific night terrors, black-out rage, and brief moments of hallucinations or flashbacks. He had to relive the period of time shortly after he was pulled out through graphic and warped recollections (typically after not getting enough sleep or engaging in physical altercations.) He really only started to work through this after Ducra had suggested keeping a log and writing down everything he could remember. After a time he was able to piece together the things he had experienced or done (mostly to others) and as awful and horrible as knowing may have been, he could at least start to move on.

The more time he spent with Damian after he came back the more he could remember as well. He will occasionally speak to him in Arabic & not even realize he’s doing it (which scares the pants of Dames, himself, and Bruce.)

He does feel closer to the little gremlin because of it though. Talia likely had him as a baby with her the majority of the time after he was born and Jay was recovering/training, so he spent a substantial amount of time with both of them.

Bruce bought him a kindle for Christmas one of the first years he was back and he was (and still is but don’t tell the old man that) elated.

Occasionally mumbles in his sleep, usually in a variety of languages.

He does smoke, mostly only when he gets stressed out (because everyone reams him for it otherwise.) You’d think it’s a rebellious street kid thing but it’s actually because Catherine used to smoke the same brand and the smell reminds him of her.

His shoe size is a 13.

The time shortly after he crawled out of his own grave he could see ghosts (and I’m talking straight up dead people.) He can’t recall much of this or the time spent actually deceased (even after his dunk in the pit) but even now he’ll see things move out of the corner of his eye or get cold chills or feel like he’s being watched. When he hasn’t slept for like, 4 days and is bordering on manic depressive and harmful behavior, he starts seeing them again. Constantine prob finds him real interesting.

My guess is that he did see Catherine when he died but overall ended up in some sort of purgatory-like state which he can’t recall.

When he blushes it’s the hollows of his cheeks, back of the ears and neck and all the way down the front of his chest. The autopsy scar shows up white against it.

Has those hands that no matter how many times he washes them the oil/gun cleaner doesn’t come out of the cracks. Looks like a mechanic.

Tends to wear thicker work/type clothing like carhart fireproof pants and boots. Obviously his jacket too.

Not a fan of cold weather at all. His nose and cheek get really red and he shivers (as unmanly as that is)

OCD. His apartments are spotless, weapons and ammunition categorized and logged, etc.

Had asthma as a child and sort of grew out of it but sometimes his endurance suffers as an adult because of it.

Has this particular phone case 💀

#jason todd #jason peter todd #dc #batfam #red hood

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twdgfanfiction · 8 years ago

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Chapter 26 - One Month Later

Weeks had passed since their failed attempt and the punishment was going strong. Whilst Omid and Lee were forced outside the walls to work on clearance, Lilly was put outside as well after a week, having been checked on her injuries from the crash by Jack. The day after the escape, Nick was put with Omid and Lee late, after being treated by Jack for injuries to his arms and hands, though the circumstances of those injuries remained unknown to anyone save the doctor. With those four outside, Ellie was returned to her old job in the paddock, although it must have been lonely out there without Alex helping her and keeping her company. Pity sat in his stomach, and he knew that the others weren't faring any better either.

Kristina, because of her amputated leg and injuries, was not able to be put outside with the rest of them, and instead was forced to work in the engineering with Nathan, helping him repair the van that the group had destroyed. Walter was shoved with Gabriel, mostly because he was older than everyone else and Carver was sure he would drop dead before doing any physical work. It was unfair. Walter was just as hardworking as the rest of them, but working in the kitchens would at least keep him safe from the walkers that were shuffling around in the undergrowth a distance from the group.

The exhaustion combined with the hunger seemed to have drained any fight from Lee, and he could see that everyone else was feeling the same, all of them trudging through the snow with fallen faces. The pen was no better for them. Over the weeks, it had been reinforced to prevent them desperately squeezing through the bars or climbing them, and the shutters were given a padlock that only Carver had the key to. It meant more hassle for the guards to locate it, but it also meant that the group couldn't convince anyone else to let them go. No one seemed to want to either, remembering Dwight's smeared body on the concrete. Without the ex-guards to help, trapped in the same place, they all were screwed without outside help.

Luke, who Lee didn't trust in ever since he met him, seemed to have been working hard to develop that trust. Seeing his determination, especially after all the shit they have been through, Lee could see a better friendship between them after a rocky start. The young man came into the Pen after being treated for his injuries, and he looked like death. Still, he believed that Carver wanted to trust Luke, he was his son after all, and allowed Luke to work with Oliver in the school upstairs. Jealousy twisted in his gut.

Instead, Joel, who replaced Tess for the day, watched them work hard, staring angrily at the ground as he fiddled with his rifle. The work was proving too much for even four people, and Lee breathed heavily, his lungs feeling heavy as he gulped in huge breaths. Glancing at his axe, he looked back at the huge trunk and something clicked, moving along the trunk whilst the others watched him in confusion. Without a word, he began chopping the trunk at set intervals, marking the rough bark to keep record of where he was.

With each set mark, he turned to the others and explained. "The tree is too big for even all of us to move, not in our current condition, so why not chop it up into smaller chunks to spread across all of us? We can move each chunk by ourselves, and clear up the trees faster than if we all tried tackling one big trunk."

"That's genius, Lee." Omid smiled, eager to have his workload made easier with the initiative idea, and moved to begin chopping the tree on the mark. Lee carried on with another one, whilst the others followed their leads and began chopping the tree into smaller chunks. When the first one was done, they used discarded rope to tie up the chunks, pulling them to roll the tree parts to the designated spot where the wood would be dumped. Slowly, the pile grew, and the group moved on to the next fallen tree.

No one wanted to talk about Sarah. Nick appeared depressed whenever she was brought up, and Lee knew that Christa and Omid treaded on eggshells around him. He already lost one child, and he's messed up caring for another one. In fact, over the weeks, no one seemed to even think of bringing her up, but her name was spoken as whispers all around the community; and unlike the harsh words for the group, most were scared for her safety, others giving up hope that she was even alive. With the thought of her intruding his mind, he pushed it back, unwilling to break with work to do, and he carried on chopping.

Whilst they got to work chopping up the trees that they had chopped down, Lee glanced over at the tired guard and tried to strike a conversation. "I thought it was Tess that was watching us today."

"She was sent out scouting this morning to find new survivors to bring here. Hopefully, she'll behave enough that they would actually want to go with her." Joel grumbled, leaning against the wall as he looked over the small area that had been cleared, noting the tree stumps removing. "When you finish with the trees, start on the stumps. We ain't got much daylight so I'd hurry about it."

The annoyed tone in his voice caused Lee to quieten, wondering how many bridges the group had burned with the people in the community. Whilst Joel was angered with their plan, as they were stealing medicine from an already depleted supply, some of the other guards were sympathetic for Alex and Dwight's deaths, feeling like it was hard for Kristina and Ellie, but also served as a warning that it was pointless to try and run. Lee feared that their failure not only hurt the group, but stopped anyone else from standing up to their leader. Even Jack was saddened by Alex's death, mostly from his position as the doctor, but he was relieved that Lee didn't rat on him when they got caught.

Over the weeks, the people glared at them, and Christa revealed how many gave her backhanded comments due to Carver giving her allowance because of her pregnancy, moving her from the group into another room inside the building with the onset of winter finally arriving, mostly due to Jack pestering him. She was allowed food that the rest of the community were given, and she remained in the greenhouse, working with Beth and Frank and Omid was thankful for that.

Whilst the labour caused his hands to redden and become painful, the weather wasn't terrible, though the fresh snow crunched under their feet that had fallen during the time. Lee cursed quietly as he nearly slipped, holding onto Omid as his foot hit a small puddle of ice, the smaller man grunting as the weight collided into him. Luckily, they righted themselves, and both continued work as Lilly tied the ropes to the chopped trunks in order to pull them. Holding one end, she passed it to Nick, quietly muttering to him. "Be careful, we don't want you hurting yourself further."

"I could say the same about you," he pointed out, referencing her injuries. "I thought you would be given more time considering your bruised ribs."

"If Alex wasn't given enough time to recover, what made you think I would?" she sighed, before she tried to deflect the worries. "Honestly, I'm fine. If anything, I think I got off lucky..."

With a fallen expression, she carried on work whilst Lee frowned deeply, recalling the incident in perfect clarity. The sight of the blood staining the ground, the screaming and crying, the smug look on Carver's face as he knew he won the battle. It all echoed in his head, and he would give anything to make it all stop. He was unable to sleep, to eat properly, it was just like those first few weeks after Clementine died. If this kept going on, Lee didn't know how long he could handle it for. It was driving him insane. Regardless, he kept working in hopes that it would push those intrusive thoughts out of his head, and he used the rope to pull the heavy chunks, his feet struggling to find a foothold in the fresh snow.

His breath clouded in front of his face as he exhaled. The temperature was definitely dropping, even with the sun rising through the wide mass of trees that made up the forest around them, the light illuminating the community behind them, and gave light to the dark undergrowth that had walkers shuffling in the distance. The ones that were killed over the weeks that Lee and his small group were working outside were piled up, being burned to prevent diseases from spreading from the rotting flesh, the pile of fresh walkers from that morning lying lifeless; milky eyes staring up at the sky. Staring at them, he could hear the groans and growls from the newly arrived walkers ready to feed, sighing under his breath at the thought of spending another day fighting for his life.

Turning around, he noticed that only a few walkers were coming towards them, most likely due to the noise from the falling trees ceasing whilst they finish with the area. Still, it was dangerous to constantly fight them and work, and Carver was not pleased with the progress they were making, causing his teeth to grit in anger at the thought of the bastard sitting in his office whilst they were risking their lives for a community they wanted to leave. With his axe in hand, he moved towards the walkers with Nick whilst Omid and Lilly stayed back, getting on with the work so that they could make some progress that day.

"I got your back." Nick comforted, holding his axe tightly as the walkers split to chase the different targets. Moving back, Lee raised his axe high above his head, waiting for the walker to come close before bringing it down hard, cracking through the top of the monster's skull and causing blood to splatter onto his already dirty jacket, the zipper pulled all the way to try and fight the oncoming cold. The walker fell down with the axe blade still embedded in its head, causing Lee to stumble with it from weakness.

Grunting, his head turned to the approaching walker, pulling his axe with all his strength, and spinning it around so that it connected with the side of the walker's neck, completely severing its head from its body, the head rolling along the ground before it came to a complete stop. With it weakly growling on the floor, its body falling with a dull thud without the brain to control it, the head was powerless as Lee stomped on it, causing the noises to cease as he attempted to wipe the blood from his shoe. The smell of the rotting flesh knocked him a disgusted groan, he turned around to see Nick having dispatched the walkers after him, his face relieved that Lee managed alright on his own.

"We better put these on the pile." He pointed out, before adding with an exhausted sigh. "I don't know how long I can keep doing this, Lee. Between the fighting every day and the lack of food, I'm ready to collapse."

"We'll get through this, Nick. We got to." Lee tried to motivate, but he understood the younger man's worries. He could feel the strength leaving him every day from poor food and overworked conditions, and he was worried what would happen if one day, he was unable to get up anymore.

Nick could only manage a weak smile, before he placed his axe on a stump and grabbed one arm of each walker, pulling them both towards the small pile ready for burning. Lee copied, grabbing the arms and tugging them, grunting with each pull as the weight proved harder than he thought, his stomach growling loudly as it begged for food. Pausing, he glanced out into the distance, wondering if Sarah was running into the same problem as they were, no food or water and running out of energy to keep going. He was worried, even moreso when his nightmares grew more frequent. Shaking his head, he carried on dragging the dead weights, stopping when he reached the pile and throwing the corpses on.

The exhaustion hit him, and he could only let out a loud exhale as his hands held onto his knees, Lee bent over tired whilst he tried to catch his breath back. From behind him, he listened as Lilly and Omid continued to drag the logs along the ground, the snow gathering in front of it and slowing it down, causing them to have to pull the rope harder. Quickly, he heard Lilly yell in pain, straightening himself and turning in time to see her stumbling backwards, her arm pressed against her chest as her face contorted in pain. Nick was by her side, letting her sit down on the stump as he started to address Joel. "She's in no shape to be out here! Look at her!"

"I can't break the rules for you guys, not anymore. I-I'm sorry." By the concerned look on his face, Lee could see that Joel wasn't being strict with them because he was angry with them, and he couldn't bring himself to hate the man for it. Instead, he grabbed the rope that Lilly had dropped and continued to pull the log to the pile.

As he was pulling it, he listened as Lilly tried to stop him. "Lee, it's fine. Just give me a minute."

"In our group, we look after our injured." He brushed off, snapping the sentence at Joel, feeling the want to lash out and rebel building up in him. People have died, Sarah was gone, and those that remained were being treated like garbage. He would not stop fighting against it until he was dead, feeling that he owed his group to try and save them. Nearing the pile, he undid the ropes and shuffled with it, the log rolling awkwardly on the ground, before pushing it onto its side in the pile, seeing it growing and growing.

In a way, he was proud of their work, and wondered if they would ever be realised by the community. Behind him, he could hear a sharp intake of breath, and Nick's voice quietly talking, panic laced in the words as he worried if the woman was going to become worse at any second. "I'm sorry, is it painful here?"

"More now that you're poking it. Just leave it, I'll be better after a break." Lilly snapped, a small pause occurring between everyone before she softly continued. "I'm sorry. I know you're only trying to help."

"It's nothing, but I don't think you can get much longer without someone coming along and spotting us. Joel is already getting into trouble letting this." He pointed out, helping her stand up before she finally nudged him away, straightening herself out on her own. It was a facade. She tried desperately to not let anyone see how much everyone was dragging her down, but Lee saw it happening before. She had the same look in her eyes; tired, downtrodden, it was almost like she was ready to give up and snap, just like before.

He didn't want to make things worse by getting strict on her, but after what she did the last time she snapped, all Lee wanted to do was make sure people were safe and Lilly didn't do anything she would regret. He would have to keep an eye on her. For now, he and Omid carried on with his work, and the other two finally got up to continue the tasks they had. It wasn't long before more of the undead stumbled onto the scene, drawn in by the sound of metal axes hitting the rough bark of the tree, the sounds only small but enough to catch the attention of the nearby corpses.

"Does this shit ever stop?!" Nick cursed, moving to Lee's side to get ready to clear them out, only for his face to drop when more appeared than he thought. "Jesus fucking Christ, look at them all. Why are there so many in this part of the forest, we aren't even close to the highway!"

"They could be coming from Parker's run, couple of miles up north from here." Lilly pointed out, stopping in her job as well as she saw the number of walkers trudging towards them. There had to be close to thirty of them, and there was no way they would be able to fight off all of them by themselves.

Turning to Joel, Lee's voice was urgent as he begged. "Joel, we can't keep going like this! We gotta go back inside or you gotta help us!"

Unsure, Joel moved his gaze from Lee to the walkers that were closing in on them, his face fallen when the gravity of the situation finally hit him. Raising his gun, he nodded at Lee as he obeyed. "Okay, I'll help…"

Grateful, Lee turned back to the walkers, his axe held tightly, and he saw everyone else readying themselves to fight. Few of the walkers closest to them were picked off by Joel's suppressed rifle, the sound of the gunshot quieter to avoid drawing anymore in, and he continued to pick stragglers off whilst the others dealt with the main group. Lee raised his axe high, watching a decaying corpse of a woman shambling towards him, her once blond hair all but fallen out, revealing a chunk of her head missing exposing the skull. She growled harshly, desperate for food, and her sounds quickly died out when Lee's axe embedded itself in the front of her skull, the blade piercing through the forehead and destroying the brain.

Pulling it out, he allowed the body to fall to the ground with a muffled thud, the snow stained a disgusting brownish red colour from the congealed blood. The others around him were faring just as well, Omid stopping a walker from getting too close to Lee by hitting it in the neck with his axe, causing it to fall over. Still not dead however, it weakly tried to get up, and was stopped when Lee threw his axe into its head with the strength he could muster. Blood and brain matter oozed out of the hole in its head, and he winced in disgust as more of its group descended down on them.

Nick and Lilly were standing close to each other, making sure that they had the others back, and the walkers were slowly reduced to corpses littering the ground, the smell proving too much for Nick as he finally vomited, the others moving towards him to make sure he was alright. By his side, Omid asked him. "You alright, man?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's just…. You never get used to that smell." He explained, staring down at the range of bodies on the snow-covered forest floor. "We better get these moved. Don't want anyone tripping over them."

"Joel," Lilly continued, turning towards the guard with a faint smile. "Thank you for helping us."

"What gentlemen would I be if I let a pretty lady get eaten?" he snarked in a deadpan voice, rubbing the back of his neck as he added. "Anyway, I hope Carver doesn't realise…"

"What, that he's an asshole?" Nick snapped, bitter towards their leader. Joel let out a short laugh to that, before composing himself again and returned to his spot leaning against the wall, watching as Lee and the others went on to pull the bodies to the pile. Whilst dragging one of the ones that he killed, he stared down at the frozen face, wondering if any were once people who lived here, or if anyone knew them. The walkers could have come from towns and cities along the highway, and wandered down here. He couldn't help but think of the lives they had before all this started, and he realised just how easy it was to forget that they were once humans themselves. Living, breathing, and could once feel.

Remembering Macon, all those corpses on the streets, and he couldn't stop the pictures of his brother's body trapped under a fallen lamppost, his neck torn open from the blows he gave him with the axe he found. His parents could still have been walking around those streets whilst he was standing there, staring at the dead body, and he hoped that it was the opposite. He hoped that they were resting in peace, just like Bud.

"Lee… are you okay?" a soft voice called out, causing him to snap out of his thoughts and notice that whilst he was thinking, he was just standing there staring at the body. Turning his head, he saw Lilly standing there, a worried expression on her face.

"I was just thinking of Macon." He admitted, continuing to drag the body. "Just looking at these bodies. It makes me wonder if my parents are still there, wandering the streets."

"Your parents were in Macon? Well, did you see them during your runs with Kenny?" she asked, hopeful that at least someone from Lee's past could still be alive.

Lee didn't reply. Instead, he grunted as he lifted the body, throwing it on the pile before moving to grab the next one. Slowly, he confessed. "The drug store we held up in those first few days, you remember it?"

"Yeah… what about it?" Lilly asked, her voice slow as she started to distrust where the conversation was going. He could tell that she was piecing the bits together, Lilly was not stupid, and he decided to give her the final piece to make her see.

"It was my parent's drug store. The bodies your dad hauled out, that was them." That was when Lilly's face fell, and her eyes casted downwards as Lee finished his sentence. It still pained him to remember them, they didn't depart on the best of terms, and that would always be one of his biggest regrets.

After a long pause, he listened as she apologized. "I didn't know. I mean, I could guess it bothered you when I told you back then, but I took your word for it. I just thought they were close friends to you. I'm sorry, Lee."

"Well, they're gone. I wish things were different, but at least I know they aren't suffering. The same can be said for Larry." He watched as she sadly nodded, adding with a soft tone. "He was an asshole, but I know that he loved you more than anything else."

"Yeah, I know." With that, she walked away from him, grabbing another corpse and carrying on with dragging them. His friends working around him, Lee glanced through the thick foliage and trees, trying to think of a way to help them do their jobs without walkers appearing every five minutes because of the noise. That's when it hit him. Noise. Walkers couldn't see very well, so they had to rely on their sense of smell and hearing.

His mind was focused on that piece of information, and he knew that once he was back in the Pen tonight, he would relay what he thought of back to the group, hopefully they would be able to build it up. Until then, he continued with his work, cutting the trees into smaller parts, and went on to begin removing the stumps when the trees from that area were all ready for use. By the time the sun was setting once more, the group was exhausted, Lee feeling like he could lie down and sleep through the rest of the winter. The sky grew cloudy over the day, and fresh snow was falling down in small balls of whiteness, covering the footsteps and the blood splatters from their work as if they were never there, and the temperature dropped significantly.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Lee shivered as they walked down the trail to the main entrance, glancing around at the guards that were keeping watch on the gates, their eyes trained on the group. Staring straight ahead again, he ignored how the mall loomed over them, an imposing air about it that he didn't know before, and he could have sworn that he saw someone looking down at them from the first floor windows. Looking up, he saw no one. None of his group made a comment on it, instead walking through the snow as they tried to stop the cold from biting at them, Nick faring the worst as his thin sleeves offered little protection from the frost.

Finally, they entered the main building, everyone visibly relieved to be out of the cold, but Lee didn't give any thought to it when he spotted Beth making a beeline straight for them. Staring at her, he said nothing as she stared at Omid, a sweet smile on her face as she cheerfully explained. "Christa asked me to give this to you."

Handing out a note, Joel immediately snapped at her whilst Omid took it, looking over what it said as he chided her. "You know it's gonna look wrong to the others if we're passing notes to this group, what are you thinking?!"

"It's a note from a pregnant lady to her boyfriend, it;'s hardly gonna be a detailed escape plan with map included." Beth brushed off, an annoyed look on her face as she carried on. "Jesus Christ, Joel, where's your sympathy?"

"It went when they stole medicine. Did you forget Kaiya needs that medicine, and every other goddamn person in our community because winter is here?! So don't give me that bullshit about sympathy when these guys never gave any for the people they were stealing from!" The sudden ferocity in his voice caught the others off guard, and Lee saw Nick growing angry with the accusations.

"You think we didn't care about the people when we stole those drugs?! We were trying to get away because that fucker in his office upstairs is responsible for my mom, Uncle Pete and all my friends' deaths!" he accused, not caring as more people gathered around when they heard the yelling. Lee looked around, knowing that something was going to go down if he didn't intervene and calm his friend down, and moved as Joel started to close the distance between him and Nick.

"So what, you act like that because you lost your family? I can give you at least twenty other people who have gone through the same thing, and they don't steal shit that others need!" he snapped, jabbing Nick in the chest as he added. "Maybe it's time you grow the fuck up, Nick, 'cause the world isn't gonna give a damn whether you're struggling or not!"

"Fuck you!" With that, Nick threw a punch at the guard, and at the same time Lee ran forward to stop it. Joel moved backwards quickly to avoid the blow, and instead the fist connected Lee's mouth, the force behind it snapping his head backwards as he stumbled backwards. His lip split from the blow, the feeling of blood flowing down his lips and dripping off his chin, some slipping into his mouth as he yelled, the horrible tang of copper on his tongue making him want to spit it out.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Nick!" Beth yelled, immediately by Lee's side as Lilly pulled Nick back, getting in between him and Joel to prevent any fighting, the former shocked from what he did. Checking his face, he could clearly see her lips pulled into a deep frown, her eyes narrowed at the sight as she looked behind her, her voice sharp as she snapped at him. "You fucking gave him a split lip!"

"Shit, man, I'm sorry!" Nick apologized, trying to get to Lee but was prevented by Lilly, who kept him back with a stern look.

"You've done enough." Turning to Beth and Lee, she quietly asked her. "Does he need to go see Jack?"

"No, it's just a small cut. Here." Pulling a rag from her pocket, she dabbed the cut, adding when she saw his wary look. "Don't worry, I grabbed this from my dresser in case I cut myself on the broken bucket handle again. It's clean."

Nodding, he allowed her to finish up cleaning his face, watching as she backed away with the rag stained in blood. With that, she turned to Joel and Nick, and tried to calm the situation down with the injured party taken cared of. "We can't change what we've done, guys, but I know that beating seven bells out of each other is not gonna help things around here. We're in a dilemma with medicine, so maybe it wasn't intelligent to steal it, but we gotta know that these people are just scared, like the rest of us."

A sigh followed her lecture, and she just shook her head with a defeated order. "Just get them to the Pen, Joel. Dinner's almost ready."

"Fine." He grumbled, gesturing for the group to continue walking. Lee followed after them, sparing a glance at Beth whilst he was walking away, seeing her standing there with a frustrated look on her face, before Frank walked up behind her and, with an arm around her shoulders, guided her away to go and get dinner. Looking back ahead, Lee watched as the shutters into the Pen came into view, guards standing in front of it with bored expression, obviously wanting to be anywhere but there.

Spotting the group coming towards them, their expressions changed, and they glared darkly at them whilst Joel paused, waiting as one of them moved to the shutters, opening it up silently and kept it up as he nodded for the group to enter. Slowly, they did one by one, none of them even looking at the guard as they trudged inside, except for Lee. Staring him down, he watched as Joel's fierce resolve faltered slightly as he saw the injuries on his face, a little trickle of blood dripping down. After a moment, he just sighed. "Come on, Lee. Don't make this any harder than it is."

Without a word, Lee obeyed, and walked into the Pen whilst Joel closed it again, the sound of him locking it echoing through the open space. Breathing in, Lee closed his eyes, letting go of his breath, and yet it did nothing to calm his twisting stomach. He was starving. Everyone was. Staring up at the reinforced fence, he wondered if there was any chance of scaling it and just running, before he spotted the barbed wire at the top, the small spikes warding off any attempts. Ignoring it, his gaze shifted over when he heard laughing, spotting Ellie and Walter reading by the campfire whilst Luke sat back in his chair, an arm draped over his abdomen as he listened with a smile.

He didn't know what book they were reading, but it seemed to have everyone in good spirits. Omid sat down beside Ellie, joining in when they read the lines in silly voices, and it caused Nick and Luke to laugh loudly whilst Lilly smiled, a short chuckle coming from her. Standing there, he couldn't help but smile warmly at the group getting on with each other, until he noticed someone was missing from the group. His eyes scanned the area, and he spotted Kristina lounging on one of the shelves, staring at something in her hands that was blocked from his view. Glancing at the group one more time, he walked slowly over to the lonely woman.

She didn't notice him even when he reached her side, instead staring at what was a box with a note attached to it. Confused, he stood there as she finally addressed his presence. "This was found on Dwight's body. One of the guards, she… she found it on him and gave it to me, seeing no point in Carver taking it."

Turning it around in her hand, she lifted the note and began to read it. "Kristina, cara mia, ti amo più di ogni altra cosa al mondo, mi vuoi sposarmi?"

"Wow, what does it mean?" he asked, not understanding the language.

"'Will you marry me?'" She explained, her shoulders slumped and her eyes almost unfocused, almost like she was staring a long distance into the piece of paper. Her lips pressed together in a thin line, her breathing deep as she tried to calm herself down, before letting go of the note as she sighed deeply. "Dwight didn't know Italian before he met me, but he wanted to learn. Made it easier to talk to my father, he said. I guess… he finally wanted to be together properly when we escaped. Oh, Dwight."

She brought the box to her lips, giving it a short kiss as she whispered into it. "Riposa in pace, mi amore."

Lee felt pity for the young woman, placing his hand on her shoulder and offering her a weak smile when she looked up at him, unsure on what else to say to comfort her. Glancing down at the box again, she moved a stray hair from the front of her face, keeping it behind her ear, and he knew that he had to help her think of something else, at least for now to keep her from getting too down.

"I take it your family came from Italy?" he asked, wanting to bring her thoughts from her boyfriend. "Did you grow up there?"

"No, my father came to America in the 50s. He met my mother there, and he had me along with my two brothers." She explained, a soft smile on her face as she gazed into the distance. "I only visited Italy to see my grandparents and family. Once, I brought Dwight with me, and my grandmother had him in her clutches for the whole trip. We even had to sleep in different beds."

She laughed at Lee's confused expression. "Come on, Lee. You gotta know how religious Italian families are. Grandmother wanted us to tie the knot before we did anything. I guess she'd have a heart attack if she saw us whilst we were here."

"That's too much information, but she sounds just like my grandmother." Lee reminisced, chuckling deeply as he explained further. "She was a big woman, and very religious herself. Her and my wife never saw eye to eye."

"You were married?" Kristina asked, curious about his past. "Was it nice?"

"Yeah, it was, but we haven't talked for a while, even before all this start. I don't know if she's even still alive." He felt sadness at the thought, wondering where his wife was.

Kristina watched him with a sympathetic look, before her head turned to the sudden sound of the shutters opening, Lee following her movement as he saw Gabriel coming through with a trolley, Joel and another two guards coming in with their guns ready. Slowly, he stood up, seeing if Kristina needed help with obvious discomfort on her face. Raising her hand to stop him, he backed away instead, walking over with the rest of the group to get their dinner, his stomach growling in want. Reaching the trolley, they all waited in silence as Gabriel grabbed the plates that were sitting on top, passing them out to everyone with a grim look on his face, obviously not wanting to be there anymore than they did.

Nick grabbed the first plate and quickly began to demolish the food on it, the others taking theirs whilst Lee just stood there, finally grabbing his own as he stared down at the food. It wasn't much, just a piece of bread and a cup of water that was given to wash it down. His stomach growled louder in response, not caring what it was as long as it stopped the painful twisting in his gut. Picking up the bread, he bit into it, wincing as it felt as hard as rocks.

"I'm sorry about this, guys." Gabriel apologized, glancing down at his trolley as he added. "There wasn't much else to give you tonight."

"Don't apologize to them, Gabe." One of the guards ordered, glaring at the group as she snapped. "They deserve what they get."

The other guard seemed to not think the same way as his companion, sharing a look with Joel, the latter just ignoring it and waited for Gabriel to finish his round. No one answered the accusation. Instead, Lee just continued to eat, trying his best to stop his blood from boiling at the harsh words. His eyes shifted to the rest of his group; spotting Ellie staring down at the floor, her hand crunching the plastic cup that was empty, and he knew that she was ready to explode. Gabriel saw this as well, taking the cup away from her, and gestured for everyone else to do so. Quickly, they did and he exited the Pen, eager to escape the tense situation with the guards following after him.

Standing there, Joel just gave them a look before closing the shutters once more. Left alone, the group decided to get ready for the night; Nick rubbing the back of his head as he yawned, with Luke beside him whispering words that Lee couldn't make out, whilst Walter glanced at Ellie sympathetically, before he too retired for the night, bidding goodnight to Lilly and Omid as they were already in their beds. Kristina stood by Ellie, moving to place a hand on her shoulder only for it to be shook off violently, the younger of the two just staring at the former guard with a defeated look. Shaking her head, Ellie walked away to go to bed, leaving Kristina standing there as she addressed Lee. "She's losing it, Lee. After Alex dying, and everyone turning against us, I don't think it's gonna end well."

"I know, but what can we do to help her? We aren't in the best position ourselves." He pointed out, feeling helpless to do anything for his friends.

Folding her arms, Kristina thought for a moment before humming. "I don't know. For now, we better get some sleep. See you in the morning."

Watching her go back to her bed, Lee frowned deeply, his voice quiet as he replied. "Night, Kristina."

#twdg #twdg luke #twdg lee #twdg lilly #twdg nick #twdg omid #twdg walter

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 5 years ago

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I'm like you and always go down Louis's romance path/trust AJ, so that means Tenn is always dead. I hate it because AJ is forced to shoot his best friend because he was going to get Louis killed. I see that it is hard on AJ because he loves both of them but saving Louis is better than Louis and Tenn dying because of Minnie. I love AJ's friendship with Tenn and the bridge scene hurts everytime.

I have such a love/hate relationship with the bridge scene.

On one hand, I like how batshit insane Minerva is and I like how much it makes me hate her and the tension and heartbreak it makes me feel...

But on the other hand, FUCK THE BRIDGE SCENE. FUCK MINERVA. FUCK THE WALKERS. FUCK MAKING AJ DO THAT. FUCK TENN’S DEATH. I HATE IT.

In a perfect world, Minerva would’ve just blown up on the boat and we could’ve gotten everyone home safely BUT NO. We gotta game and we gotta have conflict. Which is fair. Even if I hate it.

But really, AJ either making the choice to shoot Tenn [HIS FIRST REAL FRIEND] or doubting himself and watching Louis/Violet be devoured alive by walkers is.... fucked. What else can you say?

And now that I’ve seen Tenn’s ending... I mean, I will always prefer my canon ending, but I can totally see the appeal of having Tenn alive in the end. Especially when thinking about AJ.

That whole day just had to be one of the worst of his life: He had to deal with all that shit on the boat, getting taken by Lilly and then shooting her/watching James die, having the whole confrontation in the cave or almost getting kidnapped by James and that ordeal, then losing either Tenn/Louis/Violet, AND THEN having Clementine get bit and having to cut her leg off and wheel her ass up to the school gates. ALL IN THE SPAN OF A NIGHT AND MORNING.

I mean, the ranch was bad but... I don’t know, man.

But yeah, I feel you, anon. Regardless of who dies on the bridge, that moment is one that will stick with AJ to the end, especially with everything that followed it. I wish we could’ve gotten more of Tenn and AJ together, even just in the background or with Clementine there, too.

#asks #aj night #twdg aj #twdg tenn #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg clementine #twdg minerva

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twdgfanfiction · 8 years ago

Text

Chapter 27 - Kindly Wait For Me

The next morning, Lee was roused by hands shaking him awake, his eyes opening slowly as he groggily sat up, a yawn the only response he had whilst he was looking for the culprit for waking him. Thinking it was Kristina or Lilly getting him ready for another day of hard labour, he rubbed his eyes to clear his vision and get rid of the sleep caked in the corners, his hand rubbing down to get rid of some saliva from his sleep. Coughing, he looked again and realized that it wasn't the women waking him, nor was it Omid or Nick, it was Luke.

"We got problems." He warned bluntly, glancing over his shoulder to the shutters, the rest of the group gathering there whilst Lee removed his blanket, shivering violently as he stood up. It was freezing, and glancing through the fence into the open world, he could see that snow was still falling.

"What's wrong?" he asked, rubbing his arms through his jacket whilst Luke just stared off at the shutters, a worried expression on his face as Lee pressed further. "Luke?"

"The guards came in just now, and they told us that Carver wants to speak to me and you." he explained, turning back to Lee with a concerned tone to his voice. "I don't know what's gonna go down."

Glancing at the crowded group, he spotted Joel standing there, along with another female guard that he spotted a few times. She looked quite plain. Puffy brown jacket, shaggy black hair that was cut messily, and a concerned look on her face as the group grew more restless. Watching this, he listened as Luke added. "What are we gonna do?

"It'll be alright. We haven't done anything wrong since the escape," Lee tried to console, though he seemed unconvincing to the younger man. Truth was, he didn't know if he did anything wrong, since his active role in the attempted escape meant people were growing restless, looking to Carver to change how things were. They were running low on medicine, food was being rationed, and people were scared after all that's gone down since Lee and his group came there.

After a moment of silence, Luke frowned slightly, gesturing for Lee to follow him as he muttered. "I hope you're right."

Following after him, Lee stared ahead as tempers started to fray in the group, Ellie's voice being heard as she accused the guards. "Why should we give Luke and Lee over?! Who's to say that they'll even come back, like my brother?!"

"What happened to Alex was your own fault, Ellie. You guys chose to steal and escape, so Carver had to give punishments out to be fair, be thankful you're still alive." Joel sighed, his grip on his rifle tight as he added. "It's just how the world is now, kid."

"Fuck your punishments, and fuck Carver!" she swore, glaring at the guard when the woman came forward, her eyes as cold as ice as she swore quietly.

"You ungrateful little bitch!" Ellie didn't see the slap coming down, her head snapping to the left from the blow and the sound rang through the air, everyone shocked with the action. Joel, angered by this, grabbed the guard by her shoulder and threw her behind him, his back to the group as he scolded her.

"Al, you fucking idiot," he started, keeping a close eye on the others. "Things are already tense around here, and you're going around slapping people!"

Lee was shocked. Staring at the stunned girl, he saw Lilly coming forward, standing by the teen's side as she just stood there, a hand on her shoulder whilst glaring at the guard being scolded. She didn't give any biting words however, it was too dangerous to keep antagonising everyone around them. Not when they had to live in the community.

"Don't tell me the little shit didn't deserve it!" The woman, known as Al, brushed off. Holding her cheek, Ellie just stood there, glaring daggers at the woman when Lee came beside her, his hand placed on her other shoulder gently, feeling her tense up for a moment. Glancing up, she was shocked whilst muttering. "...Lee?"

"It'll be alright. It's probably just a call up to his office, and then we can go back to work." He attempted to calm her, not sure if it was working when he saw Ellie frown, her glare directed back to Joel. Spotting Nick behind them, Lilly returning by his side, he quickly leaned over to them and whispered. "I had an idea to help with the walkers outside."

"What?" Nick asked, glancing at the guards as he added. "They're starting to get impatient, man, so I'd make this quick."

"Just find something that'll make a lot of noise and put it in another area, that'll draw the walkers away whilst you guys work." Lee explained quickly, before he is dragged by Luke, a desperate look on his face whilst the guards moved for the duo to leave the Pen. Al, who Lee recognized as the lady that found Lilly during the crash and kept antagonising Ellie, followed after them with Joel right behind her. Glancing back, Lee watched as his group watched them go, not knowing if that was the last time they'd see him, and Joel paused, turning around to address the group.

"You'll wait here for your breakfast, and then it's off to work. Those who are working on expansion will wait for me to return." With that, the rest of the guards exited the Pen and the shutters were closed, separating Luke and Lee from their friends. Standing there for a moment, they were then forced to walk to the staircase by the guards, Lee and Luke sharing a nervous look as they glanced at the looming steps.

Unsure, he turned to Joel, who was watching with a concerned expression himself, and asked slowly. "Any idea why Carver would want to see us?"

"Not a clue, but if it's involving him," he paused as he gestured to Luke, who just glared at the guard. "Chances are he's gonna get another chance. You, on the other hand, anything could happen."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." He replied dryly, starting to climb up the stairs when they finally reach the staircase. He wasn't in any rush to meet with their leader, trying to take the steps slowly if not for the guard behind him hurrying him up, pushing him softly with her weapon, receiving a cold stare from Lee before he sped up. His palms grew sweaty as he gripped the banister. His heart was beating incredibly fast, along with his hair standing on the back of his neck, and staring at Luke he could see that the nervousness was getting to him too.

Although he tried to keep a straight face, the bead of sweat rolling down his worn face gave away what he was feeling, his shoulders rising and falling as he breathed deeply in an attempt to calm himself. Looking away, Lee tried to copy his breathing techniques, desperate for anything to calm his nerves, only for him to growl at the futility of it. Nothing was gonna help them.

"This is fucked up. I don't even know what we did wrong." Luke snapped quietly, the situation finally getting to him as he muttered under his breath. "We're so fucked."

"Luke, no offense but can you shut the fuck up?" Lee scolded, not needing the younger man to start panicking on him right then. However, he understood where Luke was coming from, and he had to keep a clear head for the both of them.

Still staring at him, he saw the younger man frown deeply, giving Lee a glare to silently tell him that he didn't appreciate his choice of words. Regardless, his panicking was not going to help. Reaching the top of the stairs, Lee was pushed forward by the guards behind him, gritting his teeth to stop him lashing out in frustration, not appreciating being treated like a criminal. Again.

Glancing into the restaurant when laughter came from it, he spotted everyone inside enjoying their breakfast, some becoming silent when they spotted the two being pushed to Carver's office and began to whisper to each other, the words too quiet for Lee to listen in. Frowning deeply, he turned away, and saw Riley walking down the flight of stairs leading up to the top floor. Their eyes met, and he couldn't help but feel a shiver at how cold her eyes were, a scowl appearing on her face as she made a beeline straight for them. Joel saw this and, moving in front of Lee and Luke, intercepted her with a stern. "You should be inside the restaurant now, Riley."

"Get out of my fucking way." She warned, her voice low and cold as she directed her words at Lee and Luke. "I wanna talk to the fuckers that lost Sarah!"

"Sarah ran away of her own free will, no one forced her to go." Joel sighed, holding an arm out to keep the teen at bay. "You gotta learn to watch your mouth, as well, kid. Not all the guards will appreciate being talked to like that."

The words only seemed to ignite her fury further, and she sharply snapped at him. "Bullshit! If it wasn't for those two, she would still be here! Sh-She could be out there, starving, sick and alone and nobody's doing anything about it!"

Lee swore that she directed the rant more to him than the two guards standing there, her eyes losing its sharp edge, and underneath shows a vulnerability. His gut twisted, knowing that he was the reason all this had happened, and was desperate to say anything to make her better. When he opened his mouth, her cold glare caused him to quieten down. She didn't want his words, all she wanted was Sarah. Honestly, he felt the same way.

"Or she could just be dead." Joel pointed out, though his face faltered a bit when Riley's anger caved in on itself, showing a desperate and grieving teen. "No one can survive out there on their own, not for a month, Riley. I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you differen-"

"None of you know her." She interrupted him, her voice became quiet, almost unsure, as she finished her rant. With that, she moved away from them, not even meeting Joel's gaze anymore, and Lee could see that his hard stare had grown soft. The young teen went inside the restaurant, moving quickly to a table whilst people inside stared at her, unsure what to do with the loud rant that happened just outside the open doors.

Walking again, Lee just stared at the floor with a sorrowful expression on his face, listening as Joel quietly swore. "You know, I'm not even mad at Riley, or you guys for that matter."

"Then who are you mad at?" he asked, turning his head around. "You seemed pretty mad at us last night."

"I'm sorry. It's just, with the medicine and the food, things are pretty tense, and it's not just your group Carver is cracking down on. Everyone is being inspected, along with their rooms, to see if we're hiding anything." Joel explained, following Lee and Luke as they neared Bill's office. "He caught Gabriel with a bottle of rum under his bed and just… went off on him. I mean, Gabriel. The dude is more harmless than a kitten, he wouldn't do nothing to harm anyone."

"All that for some alcohol?" Luke butted in, surprised with the news.

"Exactly. Bill's been cracking down hard. No alcohol, no cigarettes, I had to chuck my pack away when I was watching you guys yesterday." Joel revealed, turning to Al as he asked her. "You been getting searched, yet?"

"Yeah, my room got searched yesterday. Luckily, I already drank the small bottle of tequila I was saving." She smirked, her lips quickly pulling down in a faint frown as she turned to Lee. "Hey, I'm sorry, you know, about before."

"It's not me you gotta be apologizing to. It's Ellie." He brushed off, glaring at the female guard.

Al followed after them, a guilty look on her face as she confessed. "I know, I shouldn't have slapped her. It's just… It's been hard times. Whatever is going on, we're lucky to be alive, and I just saw red when she started mouthing off at me."

"Al has some anger issues. We've been trying to get her help, but everyone's on edge nowadays, after the escape and the execution and all that… It's just not easy right now." Joel tried to defend her, before he turned his head to her. "But yeah, you do gotta apologize to Ellie. What you did was out of line."

"I know, I know. I'll do it when we drop these two off at Bill's office." She accepted, falling silent as they finally reached the door. Pausing, Lee and Luke just glanced at each other, both of them visibly nervous about what was to come. Joel took in a deep breath and, whilst staring at Lee, opened the door, gesturing for them to enter.

Silently, they obeyed, walking into the office whilst Joel kept the door open, muttering to Lee. "Al'll wait out here for you guys. Once Bill is done with you, she'll take you both to where you need to be."

"Alright." And then, Joel closed the door. Inside the spacious office, he felt small, and he felt even smaller when he saw Carver sitting there in his large office chair, scribbling down notes with reports and papers scattered across the large oak desk. Moving by Luke's side, he snuck a look at the younger man, seeing him breathing heavily, unsure what to say. The guy must have felt terrified, especially from the treatment he got during their failed escape. Thinking back, Lee wondered exactly what happened in there, what Carver did to Luke before dragging him outside to see two of his group dead, and another one running away.

Luke was better at hiding what he felt, and Lee was envious of that. Slowly, his gaze moved from the young man to his father, and he kept his voice even as he called out. "You asked for us?"

"I did." Carver simply stated, gesturing for Lee and Luke to sit down in the chairs before his desk. With a frown, Lee obliged, moving over to the desk slowly, carefully, and sat down with a defiant look on his face. Luke was slower, but a look from Carver made him practically bolt for the chair, sitting down whilst staring at the papers on the desk.

The silence was suffocating, only the tapping sound coming with Carver tapping his pen against his desk, pausing as he and Lee held a stare, neither backing down. With a gravelled voice, he began to speak. "I suppose you two are wondering why I'm calling you up here. Well, I'll be frank. A storm is on its way here, and I ain't talking about some fucking spout of bad rain."

He stood up, the chair rumbling as it rolled away, and turned to the window, looking out on the community below. "There's a herd of lurkers coming up from the south. Our scouts had been tracking their movement for weeks, said they came from somewhere in Georgia, Savannah I think."

"So you called us up here so, what, we listen to your problems? Why don't you lie down on the couch, or better yet, we can all have one big crying session, get those emotions really flowing." Lee spat sarcastically, not caring when Carver turned back around, an ice cold glare coming from the leader.

"You think this is fucking funny?" he asked, watching as Lee just shrugged. "Well, there's something that I don't think you'll laugh at."

With that, his hand reached into a drawer in his desk, watched by Lee and Luke as the duo froze, uncomfortable with what was happening. Lee straightened out in his chair, trying to keep his nerve whilst his heart hammered in his chest, not knowing what Carver would pull out of there, his breath stopped when his hand came into view, throwing something onto the table. Confused, it took a few seconds to realise what they were. His mind flashed back to the last time he found them, under the counter in the gas station, the same crack in the lenses. Sarah's glasses.

The world stopped. Lee's eyes widened, and his mouth ran dry, his tongue, once sharp, laid there uselessly. He couldn't think anything through. Eventually, all crashed down in a giant heap, and his teeth gritted together, anger exploding out of him as he loudly demanded. "What did you do to her?!"

"Lee, don't!" Luke begged, standing up when Lee did so, his chair pushed backwards. Carver didn't flinch, and instead adopted an arrogant stance.

"I didn't do anything. A scout came back, injured I might add, with this." Carver repeated, a smug look on his face.

Picking up the pair of glasses, Lee just stared at them, frowning as he tried to process through this conversation. He didn't know what to do. He knew he wanted to escape this place, find Sarah, and just make sure she was alright, but remembering her face and the betrayal in her words, he knew that he was the last person she would want to see. With a defeated look, he just stared up at Bill. "Why are showing me this? Why am I here?"

"Because I believe in second chances. I mean, Luke here knows a lot about them, isn't that right? Chance after chance I give you, and why?" The question was directed at the younger man, Carver standing there with a waiting look.

Staring at the floor, Luke just quietly replied. "Because I'm your son?"

"Wrong, because you're useful, and this builds character. We need strong people to lead this community out of this dark times, and when I'm gone, people are gonna be looking to you to lead them on. It's not gonna be easy, and the little fuck ups you're so fond of making aren't helping."

Turning his attention back to the reports on the table, Carver began to address Lee once more, leaving his son to think over those words. "People here are scared, Lee. You know, your group comes here and then try to escape, it doesn't paint things as good now does it?"

"Maybe that has something to do with your leading?" Lee accused, his eyes sharp and narrow.

"Oh?" Carver looked up, grabbing the back of his chair and sitting back down, his face condescending as he amused the pair. "And what would you do, huh? Hug everyone and tell them that the world isn't gonna kill them if it has the chance?"

"I wouldn't murder an innocent father and throw his children in the Pen!" Lee yelled, standing quickly that his chair fell to the floor. Carver made no move to stand up, he didn't flinch, instead he just sat there, keeping his nerve as Luke got more anxious.

With a serious look, Carver began to defend himself. "I may have made a call with Jason and his kids, but it was the only way. He killed someone."

"It was self-defense! The guy pulled a knife on him, he already stabbed Joel and Kristina! What did you want him to do, just lie down and accept that he was gonna die! He had two kids that are gonna grow up without him or a mother!" Lee replied, angered by his lack of remorse.

"Ok, so you want me to spare someone because of their kids? That ain't how it works here. You know, the guy who Jason killed, he had people who cared about him? His two younger siblings, the youngest around, what, twelve? They're upset over his death. So, where's their justice? If I let Jason live, who is really the winner in that situation?" With a snort, Carver leaned back in his chair, his hands resting comfortably in his lap. "No matter what choices you make, someone always loses."

"So, you're not gonna take responsibility?" Lee asked.

"Oh, I take responsibility, and that's what separates me from you, Lee. You're weak, and not because you were injured, you're weak of character. Standing up to your mistakes, that's what a real man does, not sit there feeling sorry for yourself." The leader scolded, leaning forward as he smirked. "That's why I'm giving you and Luke the chance to change that, prove that you are strong men, ready to help this community. You bring back Sarah and I'll take some of your group out of the Pen. Give them a second chance."

"Some of them?" Luke piped up.

"I'll be honest with you, Luke. Some of them have to stay in the Pen. Ellie for one. She's been causing trouble for the past month, starting fights, sabotaging supplies." Carver explained.

Lee frowned at that, taking a sarcastic tone as he pointed out. "You did kill her brother."

"She stole medicine, and we are in the middle of a shortage. People would want my head if I didn't punish her, and Alex was a weak link."

"So, he had to go." Luke finished, shaking his head as he finally looked back up at his father, a broken expression on his face. "Why, dad? We wanted this place to be a haven for survivors, somewhere safe, and now it's change into this! What would Uncle George say abo-?"

"Don't you fucking say his name in this office." Carver warned, his voice dropping to a threatening growl. "The amount of times you fucked up, Luke, you're lucky you're still here."

Luke recoiled, as if he was struck, before he fell silent. Appalled by this, Lee watched with a shocked expression as the younger man mumbled. "Right. Sorry, sir."

"It's alright, we'll just chalk it up as a lesson learned. Now, you guys will be taken outside the walls, and whoever the fuck is waiting outside that door, Al or whatever, she'll be searching with you two for Sarah." the leader explained, picking up a piece of paper with a tired expression. "You know where Parker's Run is?"

"Yeah, it's the tourist trap a few miles north from here. Why?" Luke asked.

"'Cause that's where we think Sarah might be." The grip on Sarah's glasses tightened. "A scout group won't be too far from there, waiting for you three. They'll have useful information for the search, and you will bring her back if alive, or news that she is in fact dead. Hopefully, it'll calm the people here and we can put this whole mess behind us.

Just as Lee moved to leave, Carver added with a darker tone. "And if you even think of running away, your friends are gonna find out real quick that it's not a good idea."

The tyrant gestured for Lee and Luke to leave the room. As they were walking away, they listened as he added. "Don't mess this up."

"You can count on us, dad." Luke nodded, quickly following Lee as he just left the office, allowing the door to shut behind them. Standing there, he just frowned deeply, the words reeling through his head. Sarah might be alive. It was true, she was probably out there, now with people looking out for her. And all of a sinking feeling hit him, he wanted to go and find her, to say what needed to be said and allow them to move on, but that was if she was even alive. All they had were her glasses, and that was brought hours ago.

He wanted to believe, but doubt was growing in the back of his mind, something he couldn't shake off. It was hard, and his stubbornness pushed all the doubt further into his thoughts, scolding him for thinking that way. Deep inside, he wondered if there was a possibility that he would find her like he found Carlos, and nothing scared him more.

Al was standing there, waiting for them, as when she noticed that they had came out of the office she moved off the wall she was leaning on, an awkward smile on her face as she joked. "Meeting with the principle go alright?"

"Not funny, Al." Luke scolded, rubbing the side of his face before sighing. "Dad's sending us out."

"Out? As in, outside the walls?" she gasped, completely surprised with the reveal. "Man, I thought he was gonna slap you guys on the wrist for something. Why?"

"We're going up to Parker's Run, that's… where we'll be looking for Sarah." Luke continued to explain, keeping an eye as Lee just walked forward, his gaze lowered to the floor. After a few moments, he heard behind him. "Lee, are you okay?"

"We find Sarah, and then what? She wouldn't want to see me, or you, and she sure as hell wouldn't want to come back to this place." He snapped, shaking his head as he futilely added. "What do we do?"

"We cross that bridge when we get there, but we can't just leave her out there." Lee knew he was right, and just nodded as he felt Luke put a hand on his shoulder. "We should leave now. If we wanna reach Parker's Run before nightfall, we gotta hurry up about it."

Suddenly, the walkie talkie on Al's belt crackled to life, spooking all three of them before she unclipped it, bringing it to her face as she clicked a button on the side, speaking clearly into it. "Who's this?"

"It's Bill. Nathan's just called, the van's still pretty banged up so you ain't gonna be able to use it for the mission. Stop outside the paddock, I radioed the guard watching Ellie to saddle up some of the horses." Carver's voice crackled, before the walkie talkie died once more. Returning it to her clip, Al just shrugged and gestured for the two men to follow her, walking towards the stairs that led to the ground floor.

Passing the restaurant again, Lee glanced inside and saw that the people in there before were all gone, save for two that were helping Gabriel clean up. The cook spotted him, waving with a saddened smile, before one of his helpers tripped over a chair, causing him and the other survivor to go to their rescue. Smiling softly at that, Lee turned to watch ahead, keeping his stare as he watched Al, the woman unsuspecting as she just kept walking. She seemed decent besides the outburst this morning, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be watching her. Outside the walls, anything could happen, and she had yet to prove anything to him.

"How long have you been here, Al?" Lee suddenly asked, moving to her side.

"Since the beginning. I used to work here, on a store upstairs, before the dead started eating people." She explained, a short pause coming after before she continued. "Bill wasn't always in charge, not for the first few weeks. We all huddled here, trying to survive, you know, but it was dark times. A lot of people died. Bill came and he set up the walls, the greenhouse, everything."

"You make him sound like an inspiration." He spat, a feeling of rage building up in him.

Al didn't respond to that, rather just finishing the conversation with. "I know you blame him for what happened, but there was no other way around what your group did."

The trio quietened down. Walking down the stairs, Lee spotted someone waiting for them at the bottom, recognizing it to be Riley. Stiffening, he continued down the flight of stairs until they reached the bottom, catching her gaze as the young teen called out. "I heard over the radio. You guys are really going to find Sarah?"

"Yeah, we are," Lee promised, his voice growing quieter as he added. "If she can be found."

"What?" Her sharp voice caused Lee to frown deeper, knowing that she was on a slippery edge. "What do you mean?"

"We only found her glasses. We don't know what it means but… I'm just saying, be prepared if we come back without her." That broke the straw on the camel's back, and Lee grunted as Riley punched him in the gut, doubling over as she tried to hit him again. Luke jumped to his aid, pulling the girl back as she yelled loudly, no words being spat as she just struggled viciously. Being the stronger of the two, he put up a fair fight against the teen, his grip tightening on her upper arms as he tried to calm her down, his voice sharp and loud.

"Riley, calm down!" he ordered, grunting when all he received was an elbow to his side, his grip on her loosened enough for her to squirm out. Backing away from the duo, she just stared at them with a disgusted look, her arms raised to defend herself if she needed to. Her dark eyes were narrowed behind some of her hair that came loose from her beanie, her body crouched and tensed up as she was ready to strike out, keeping her stares on Lee and Luke whilst Al watched in shock.

"Riley, what the fuck?!" she snapped, losing her temper just like before. "We're going out there, risking our lives for Sarah, and you decide you're just gonna punch Lee? What the actual fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Fuck you! I told you, Lee, I told you what would happen if you didn't tell her the truth! Now, you're saying that she could be dead?!" Lee just stared at her, feeling nothing but pity for the young girl as she tried to figure out how to process her thoughts, the emotions running high as she shook her head.

Before any of them could say anything, the young teen ran off, and Lee could only watch sadly, wondering what he could do to help. Al, watching the teen as she disappeared around the stalls, walked up to Lee's side, her voice a softer tone as she sighed. "Riley really cares about Sarah, you know? Back when Carlos was here, they often kept together, mostly because there wasn't many other people their age. When Bill brought in the tests, and Sarah didn't have to do them because of her dad, their friendship went to shit."

"Beth told me about that. Riley went out, and she never came back the same." Lee pointed out, continuing to walk with Al by his side, Luke following after them.

"Don't remind me. A few of my friends lost their kids to those tests…" Al trailed off, sadness shown clearly through her scarred features, lips pulled down in a deep frown as she sighed. "The only friend that kid's had, and she's gone. What she did was out of order, but I kinda understand her pain, Sarah's too. You alright?"

"Yeah, she didn't hit that hard." Lee brushed off, rubbing his abdomen as the tenderness in his flesh caused him to flinch slightly. As they made their way to the paddock, he turned his head to try and see if he could spot Riley again, giving up when it became apparent that she disappeared.

He knew the teen was angry, but he had more important things to worry about then that. Walking briskly down the main room until they reached the door leading to the paddock, he waited as Al knocked on the door, the sound echoing through the open space, and then waited for a few moments before the door opened.

Rather than the guard, it was Ellie that opened the door, glaring heavily at Al as the latter returned the heated stares, neither happy to see the other. When she saw Lee however, her gaze softened, and she spoke in a softer voice. "The horses are ready for you guys to head out. Are… Are you really going to find Sarah?"

"Hopefully…" Lee replied, entering the paddock when the younger woman moved out of the way. Walking over to the horses, he noted that the stallion that kicked Alex was not any of the horses that were saddled up, rather being kept at the other end of the field by the guard, watching as three of its herd were being taken.

Whilst they were walking, Lee shot a stare at Al, waiting for her to apologise to Ellie, and heard her cough nervously. Slowly, she addressed the younger woman. "Hey, Ellie?"

"What?" she snapped, obviously still sore from their encounter this morning.

Al frowned but, with a glare from Lee, held her anger in check as she continued. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I lost my temper and it was not cool of me."

"That's great. Anything else?" Ellie dismissed, turning to Lee as she instead talked to him. "You ever ridden a horse before?"

"Once." He responded, eyeing the large animals as the group neared them. Ellie laughed at that, more at his face rather than his response, as Lee was still wary of the snorting beasts after what happened last time. Despite this, she seemed to not hold any grudge against them for her brother's death, rather to the leader of their community.

"They're not to blame, you know, for Alex's…" she trailed off, her face clearly showing the pain, before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After a moment, she looked back up at Lee and smiled, nodding for him to jump up. Putting his foot in the stirrup, he grunted as he lifted his body off the ground, swinging his leg over and sitting securely in the saddle, readjusting himself whilst Luke and Al saddle up on their horses.

Watching as the horse he was riding shook its head, the mane rustling with the movement, Lee listened as Al explained. "The road that leads to Parker's Run is the one right in front of here, can't miss it. The scout group should be waiting along that road for us."

"Let's head out." Lee replied, kicking the horse into motion as it began to walk, its rider guiding it to the gate separating the paddock from the open space in front of the mall. The guard watching it opened the gate when they saw the trio riding towards them, watching as they rode through before closing it again, preventing anyone else from following through. Riding slowly, Lee could hear the groans of the walkers tied to the front gate, wondering how the horses would react to the situation, before he saw the front main gates being opened.

Nathan did a pretty good job, even though Lee was hoping for a way to escape. Despite their losses, the group were still willing to try again to escape, thinking of other ways, but so far their attempts were futile. The community was on lockdown after news of a herd, bigger than the scouts ever seen, making their way from down south. Thinking about Savannah, he wondered if Molly got out safe, remembering her farewells that day Clementine was kidnapped. Her hat was still under his pillow, safe from harm, and he hoped it stayed that creaking of the gates were loud and grating to his ears, and the moans grew louder when they rode out of the community, the horse switching to a canter that Lee had a hard time adjusting too.

The last time he rode a horse, it was not the best lesson he had, and it ended in the horse and almost himself being eaten alive. Regardless, he figured out most of the works himself. That wasn't to say he was having an easy time riding that horse, and the two survivors behind him were enjoying the view of Lee nearly being launched from the beast. The forest circling the mall and the roads parted for the main road, no buildings or landmarks to be seen for miles down the dusty path. Keeping his gaze straight ahead, alert to any signs of trouble, Lee began to ride down it, and hoped silently that he wasn't too late.

Riding on horse back made the journey a lot easier and quicker, as the trio spotted a small group of scouts flagging them down after around an hour or two. The sun was in the middle of the sky by then, clouds gathering for what looked like another snow storm, or rain if they were lucky. Al had taken lead during their travel, slowing the horse down to a stop as one of the scouts, a short chubby woman wearing a thick jacket with the hood up, walked closer to talk to her.

Whilst they were doing so, Lee decided then would be a good time to talk to Luke, who was looking more down the longer they rode. "How you doing, Luke?"

"Me? Ah, I'm erm, I'm fine. Thanks." He brushed off, surprised with Lee's concern.

"It's just that thing back in Carver's office. Was he always like that to you?" Lee continued, feeling a bit worried for the younger man.

The question seemed to have sparked something in Luke, causing him to glare at Lee as he snapped quietly. "No, my dad was a good man. It's just this fucking world. It chews you up by taking all your loved ones away, and soon you realise that you can do a lot of things and still sleep at night. That's when my dad started turning dark. Uncle George…"

"You said that name in the office. What happened to him?" Lee asked, hoping that he could help Luke.

"It was my fault. I thought I could do more than my dad said I could. I wanted to prove it to him, prove that I was no longer a boy but… I was wrong." He trailed off, looking up at Al as she continued to talk to the scout. "I tried to save an old friend on my own. I thought my dad didn't know a damn thing about me, I could do anything, but we were ambushed by walkers… and George gave his life to save me."

"I'm sorry. I know it's hard, dealing with that sort of guilt." Lee apologised, wondering how long Luke kept that bottled up inside him. A lot of people in their group made their suffering known, even Lee sometimes, but Luke kept everything to himself. This was the first time he was told anything about the young man's life before, and it made him realise that Luke was feeling the same loss and pain they were feeling. "Back when we were talking about that man's execution… you told me that you couldn't feel a thing about it. Is that true?"

Luke didn't answer, instead staring ahead with a thoughtful look on his face, before he just quietly responded. "No."

Lee wanted to continue the conversation, but was cut off when Al turned her body around, looking at the pair as she explained. "We got a problem. The scouts have spotted the herd moving this way, and they'll be on us by nightfall. We gotta get back to Howe's before that, hopefully the herd will pass by."

"That's a lot of ground to cover." Lee pointed out, feeling worry rip at his innards at the thought of being stuck in a herd again. The short woman Al was talking to came forward, catching his attention as she began to speak.

"That's why we're gonna be helping you," she explained, pointing in the direction of the tourist trap as she added. "Parker's Run is a big place, and we got the trailer park close by to think of. It'll be a lot quicker with me and my boys helping you."

"Thank you for doing this." Lee replied, grateful with their help in finding Sarah.

Crossing her arms, the woman smiled softly and responded. "We look out for our own. We should head out now, we're running out of daylight fast."

And so the group set off, travelling down the path as clouds started gathering. Soon, the sun was blocked out by a thick layer of grey, and snow started to fall, small white flakes drifting down as Lee watched them, allowing his horse to follow after the other two whilst he daydreamed. It was freezing, and he wondered if Sarah was keeping warm, remembering the thick ski jacket Lilly gave her the first time they met. Hopefully, she found a place to stay for a while, being out in this world on her own, and he couldn't help but worry about his doubts. The flashback to Carlos' corpse was vivid in his mind.

The blood pooling underneath him, grey eyes and rotten skin, his arm stretched out as he weakly tried to get at Lee to eat him, and how quickly his body stilled when the axe was embedded into the back of his head. Closing his eyes, Lee tried to push those images away. He couldn't think like that. Because of the scouts being on foot, the trio had to ride the horses at a walk, and it was incredibly slow for him. Impatience gnawed at Lee, him watching the trees passing by at a snail's pace, and as the snow kept falling, his impatience only grew. A blast of icy wind hit them, causing Lee to shiver violently despite his leather jacket protecting his from the bite of the frost.

Luke wasn't doing so well. His thin shirt offered barely any protection, and his exposed arms shook with hairs standing on end desperate to retain any heat they could. It felt like hours before the scout stopped, the three pausing behind the group as she stared ahead, Lee following her gaze to see a memorial statue standing in the middle of signs and rest areas. The statue consisted of two soldiers, one of them carrying his comrade over his shoulder, and Lee stared at it as they neared the open space. Whilst he was looking at it, he heard Al grunting as she dismounted, tying the horse up to a signpost as she glanced over at him.

"Best if we dismount now. The horses might see something they don't like and get spooked, plus there's lots of nooks and crannies that Sarah can hide in." She explained, watching as Lee and Luke copied her actions, tying their horses to posts to stop them from wandering off. Hopefully, no walkers come and attack the animals whilst they are defenseless.

"We should split up, that way we can cover more ground." Luke suggested.

Al nodded to that, unclipping her walkie talkie as she replied. "Good idea. I'll go to the gift shop, see if Sarah's there. Why don't you two go to the museum? I'll catch you guys when I'm done looking."

Before they could set off, she quickly called out to Luke, tossing her walkie talkie as she added. "Keep this on ya, so we can communicate with each other. Warn us if you see anything dodgy."

As soon as Luke caught the walkie talkie, she quickly added, tossing a spare gun from the horse's saddle. "Oh shit, I forgot. Here, to defend yourselves. Try to find shit there too, we could always use more supplies."

"Alright. Come on, Lee." Luke obeyed, clipping the walkie talkie to his belt as they set off, gun in hand, walking down a path that led to the museum, the sign pointing down its direction written in giant white letters. Lee glanced up at the sky, noticing the clouds getting darker as snow continued to fall, the wind picking up and biting into their exposed skin. Their feet crunched as they stood in the freshly fallen snow on the ground, leaving footprints as they walked down the path. Shoving his hands in his pockets to protect them from the frost, Lee exhaled loudly, watching as his breath formed mist in front of his face.

It had been a month that he was trapped in Howe's, and being free had its benefits. He was free to walk around, not having to see the stares and bitter words spat at him, nor did he have to do back-breaking work all day. It was almost like a school trip, though he quickly added the fact that walkers were around eating people to his thoughts. That, and he really did not like winter. Similar to his brother, he hated the cold, but he was thankful he hardly ever got sick, but that might change if he is forced to stay in the Pen any longer. At least Christa was safe inside, especially with the baby coming along.

Having spotted her a few times throughout the month-long punishment, Lee's noticed that she was showing heavily, and he felt worry for them both. He didn't know what Carver would do with the baby once it was born, or what he would do with Christa. He hoped that she could still stay inside, otherwise the baby would get sick easily, but he wasn't sure of anything anymore. Whilst he was thinking about his, he heard a crow cawing above them, the black feathered bird soaring above until it landed on post.

Staring at them with its beady eyes, Luke stared at it before he grumbled to Lee. "It's really gone to hell when I look at that thing and think 'dinner'."

"Even if you could catch it, there's not enough on it for a snack." He chuckled, tapping his companion on the shoulder as he added. "Come on, we better get a move on."

"What do you think we're gonna find there?" Luke asked, following after Lee as he continued down the path. The crow remained for a few moments, watching the two men leaving before it took off into the sky.

Listening as his feet crunched the snow below, Lee stared ahead and replied. "Hopefully, Sarah."

"Well, yeah I hope so too but… what if the herd shows up? What are we gonna do then?" he pressed on, not noticing that Lee was starting to lose his cool. His hands clenched inside his pockets, fingernails digging into the skin of his palms, almost enough to start drawing blood. Taking a deep breath, he started to address the young man behind him.

"Luke," he began, his teeth gritting together. "Shut up."

Taking the warning, Luke quietened down and instead continued to follow Lee, walking in complete silence save the wind blowing in their ears. Shivering, Lee moved his head down, staring at the floor slightly ahead of them to try and keep the snow from being blown in his face, his nose and ears losing feeling and his teeth chattering as the temperature continued to drop. Suddenly, something was spotted on the ground, half-covered in snow and almost completely missable. Pausing, Lee stared at it, before he moved closer and kneeled, one of his hands coming out of his warm pocket to brush the snow off.

The feeling of frozen fur caused his eyebrow to raise, and moving more snow off it finally revealed what it was. His breath hitched, eyes widened in surprise and his hand stilled, Luke watching over him with a confused expression as Lee picked the object up. Holding it in his hand, he listened as the younger man asked him. "What is that?"

Staring down at it, he closed his fingers around it, keeping it safe, and replied. "It's Sarah's keychain."

"You sure?" he gasped, looking up at the museum that came into view. "Well, if it is, she could be in there. We gotta be quick if we don't wanna lose her."

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go." With the present safely in his pocket, the duo began to run for the museum, eager to find the teen and to get out of the cold for a while. Thoughts ran through Lee's head, eagerness to hurry and reunite with Sarah but also fear, both for what she would be like to them alive, but also if they were too late. He prayed silently. Reaching the smashed open door leading into the museum, they paused, the broken glass scattered on the floor inside the building.

"Keep a look out. We don't know what we're gonna run into." He warned Luke, slipping through the broken door and out of the freezing snow. Shaking his legs to get the warmth back in, he looked around, frowning at the scene before him. There were corpses lying on the ground, one of them at the end of a trail of blood, slumped against the wall. Moving towards him, Luke glanced up at the large blood splatter on the wall behind the corpse, the red liquid dried, before picking up the pistol in its hand. "No bullets left. He must have saved the last one for himself. I guess not everyone can keep going, huh?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." He replied, recalling Katjaa whilst staring at the deceased man. Thinking about it, he wondered what it would be like if she had survived, along with Kenny, and how they'd react to this place. She was a good woman.

"It's a shame." he heard Luke muttered, tossing the pistol back and walked off to find something. Turning around, he went to search the place for clues, as well as something they could bring back. Moving towards the glass displays, he peered in to see a plastic enactment of the civil war, smiling softly as he read the information boards posted in front of the display.

He didn't give it much thought those past months since the plague began, but he missed teaching, and his students despite some of them being a bit colourful. Looking around the display, he spotted another corpse lying face down, something underneath them catching his interest. Leaving the display alone, he kneeled down by the corpse's side, wincing at the side of a bullet wound going through the back of its head. Pushing it, he grunted as it shifted, revealing a small axe underneath.

Picking it up, he gave it a few swings before mumbling. "Better than nothing."

Keeping tight hold of it, he spotted Luke looking through a closed shutter into the security room, moving towards him as he straightened himself out. "Not much here, but someone has been here recently. There's a roll and a backpack in there."

"Could Sarah have been staying here for this past month?" Lee asked, a deep frown on his face as he looked through the shutters. Luke was right. Inside, a small bed roll was laid out on the floor, the cover left half open, and a backpack was laid beside it, leaning against the wall. Suddenly, the walkie talkie crackled to life, attracting the attention of the men as Lee turned around, watching as Luke pulled the noisy object from his belt, bringing it close to his face as he pressed the button.

"Al, is that you?" he asked, listening carefully as the radio continued to crackle. Quickly, Al's voice could be heard through it.

"Luke? Shit, we're up on the observation deck, near the gift shop but, dude you guys have gotta get outta there! We've spotted the herd, they've came sooner than we thought but they're coming from the museum!"

"What?! Oh shit, you have any idea how long we got?!" Luke asked, obviously scared by the news.

"Not long, you guys gotta get outta there before they plough through! Sarah's not here, did you have any luck?!" Al asked.

"No, and I don't think we're gonna! It's a goddamn massacre here!" he explained, glancing around as he added. "ALright, we're leaving now! We gotta get back to Howe's before the herd do, does dad know?!"

"Yeah, we radioed him as soon as we saw them! We'll be waiting by the horses, but if you guys are not here in time we gotta go!" Lee and Luke shared a worried look, before he walked past the younger man.

Looking around, he called out desperately. "Sarah! If you're here, you gotta come out! It's Lee, me and Luke have come to find you, there's a herd coming and we gotta be out of here before they're on us!"

Waiting a few seconds, his heart hammered in his chest at no response, and he turned around to Luke whilst talking. "Shit, man, we can't leave her to the her-!"

He paused, staring at Luke with shock on his face clearly. Standing there, the young man was pointing the gun that Al gave him at Lee, his face showing how uncomfortable this situation was for him. Unable to think straight, he just stood there with a dumbfounded expression, shortly after spluttering out. "Luke, what the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm sorry, Lee, I really am but dad… he told me to do this." Luke explained, keeping his pistol aimed at the older man as he continued. "Your entire group has fucked up the community with that plan, your plan, and now people are questioning whether Carver should be in charge anymore."

"Luke, I thought we were friends, man! Carver's fucked everything up with his punishments, the executions, shoving kids out there! We did what we did because it would be better out there than staying at Howe's!" Lee snapped, raising his hands at Luke's gesture. "You don't have to do this, Luke. Carver may have been a good dad to you but those days are gone. He's no longer the man you know, and you doing this? It's just playing further in his hands. What good will killing me do?"

"I-I don't know! People will stop questioning and we can carry on like before. Before you came in!" he stammered, his grip on his pistol shaking as he tried to keep his nerve.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! Grow the fuck up, man! You know that after today, nothing will ever be the same! People will keep going against Carver because they need to, otherwise we're all fucked!" Lee tried to reason.

Luke glanced down momentarily, unsure what to do, before he looked back up, a scowl on his face as he snapped. "You don't know that! This will work!"

"Open your eyes, Luke! You're the only one who's gonna lose here! What about Nick? He needs you more than ever because you're the only thing he has left?!" Lee pointed out, his eyes darting between Luke and the gun pointing at him. His heart hammered against his ribcage, his mind screaming for him to run or fight, but he knew that he would die if he did anything. This wasn't the time for fighting, he had to get to Luke through his words.

"No, no, I was a terrible friend to Nick! He almost died because of me! I-I didn't know the trap at the river would have backfired!" Luke rejected, his face falling as soon as he realised what he blurted out.

Lee froze, his eyes staring at Luke as he tried to figure out what he just said. Slowly, he pressed further. "What? Luke, what did you do?"

"I-I…" he tried to excuse himself, before he just fell silent. The pieces started to fall together for Lee, his hands falling down slowly as he realised what Luke was saying. What happened back at the river, he didn't tell anyone save Christa and the group, and they didn't have any time or want to talk to Luke.

With his voice barely a whisper, Lee muttered. "You sent us to that river on purpose. You wanted us to get caught in that trap! Why?!"

"No! I-I, erm, I-" Luke attempted to deny any responsibility, before Lee cut him off.

"How did Carver find the group in the cabin? How, Luke?!" he demanded, his voice a loud bark that caused Luke to recoil, backing away slightly as he kept the pistol held high.

Knowing that nothing would help them, he finally came clean. "It was the radio you destroyed! I wasn't trying to contact Pete with it, I didn't even know if he was still alive… I used it to tell my dad where we were holding up. I'm sorry but I had to. He trusted me."

"We trusted you!" Lee roared, closing the distance between him and Luke before a warning shot stilled him, the smoke rolling off the barrel of the weapon.

Finger on the trigger, Luke took in a deep breath and apologized. "There's nothing I can do, now. This is just how it's gotta be. Goodbye, Lee."

A gunshot rang through the air. Lee closed his eyes as his body flinched, ready for the blow. After a few seconds, his eyes creaked open, looking over his body as his hands searched for any wounds, ready for the sticky blood to cling to his fingers. Finding nothing, he was confused and glanced upwards, that confusion turning quickly to shock as he spotted Luke lying on the floor, blood pooling out of a bullet wound on his thigh. His gun was flung when he was shot, and Lee ran for it, kicking it out of his reach to prevent him from grabbing it and finishing the job, the weapon skidding to a stop against the wall.

Turning around, he couldn't do anything as Luke pressed his hands against the wound, his hands red with blood as he yelled loudly. "F-Fuck! Shit, there's so much blood!"

"Don't move!" A new voice called out, sounding familiar. Lee's blood ran cold, his eyes lifting in the direction of the new voice and he saw the person, his saviour, standing on the steps of the stairs leading upstairs, a smoking glock in her hands. She was afraid, shocked at what she done, but she kept her finger on the trigger as Lee just stared at her.

He had found Sarah.

#twdg #twdg lee #twdg luke #twdg carver #story #au #tablesturned

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