#survivors.starter

[isolvtes]

status: open to all !

location: the rainstorm, any time !

" first one's on me IF you can tell me a joke. " jace proposes, drying the last few sets of glasses behind the bar. " so obviously it has to be funny, if you can handle that. " he grins, thinking he's hilarious. " you know what, i'll settle on amusing, just for you. "

[th-vanity]

"I feel like everyone is being too dramatic about it. Like, it's not like I don't know that it's an important job." Vanity wasn't sure why she cared so much about it, either. So what if she wasn't in charge of the armory? She had never been the hard-working type. Perhaps having turnt thirty only a couple weeks ago made her reflect on 'having a purpose', and all that philosophical bullshit. "And the missing ammo incident, no one was ever able to trace that back to me, so I don't get why people keep blaming me for that one."

She turnt towards the other person, trying to figure out if what she was on the wrong. "I'm asking you honestly: Don't you think I would be capable enough to do it?"

[lennygray]

Killian can often be found in the rainstorm, the place gave him peace. Seeing how it grew-- feeling like how it felt before all of this had a calming effect on him. At the end of his day he always liked to close it off with simply one drink in the place before going back to his room and resetting.

It's a place he can be social, or just listen to other people's conversations. Today was a particularly social day, he didn't feel like being alone. So he ordered himself a drink, took a long hard look around before deciding who he'd strike up a conversation with. Walking over, drinking in hand and a warm smile on his face. "Mind if I join you? Fair warning I am in desperate need of conversation so I will talk to you for hours if you allow me to"

[fcurleaves]

open starter -> limit: none

Lucky couldn't recall ever missing a movie night. Since their inception she was a regular, appearing with a reliability she reserved for almost nothing else. Despite her blase attitude regarding her job at the library she was a voracious reader as well, and that paired with her love of film meant that, at her core, Lucky was a lover of stories.

And these days her own story had gotten more complicated.

The massive lecture hall was empty, the projection screen blank. Dark brown eyes stared, unfocused, into its depths while she drew a finger absently along the handle of her knife, still sheathed in its holster around her thigh. Lucky never used to carry a weapon, but since the rescue she didn't go anywhere without that knife. She was early, and she knew the hall would fill with people soon enough, but that fact did nothing to assuage her nervous system when she felt a presence over her shoulder. Her breath hitched and her fingers tightened around her knife; she whipped around to face her attacker, shunted from her reverie in a way that left her heart thundering against her rib cage. It was a split-second of panic. Her wide eyes took in her new companion and she deflated at once, releasing her weapon and using that same hand to swipe a bit of hair out of her face.

"Holy fucking shit, you scared me."

[ofherbalisms]

open starter ! time + location: the hospital, 19:00

    𝑨 𝑻𝑨𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑬𝑫 𝑨𝑵𝑫 grey rag dipped into salted water, and then wiped gingerly at the small wound on the other's leg. Typically the herbalist would not have gotten involved in anything medical, but his herbal delivery to the staff had been slow to be accepted, and there were a few cuts and bruises hanging out, waiting to get treated. He certainly was no doctor, but herbal medicine had practically become his third career. If someone would have told him twenty years ago that he'd wind up growing rosemary for a living, he would have laughed at them. From behind his tactical military uniform, even the dead roaming the earth was more plausible than him becoming some full-time gardener. And, yet, here the man was, squatted down and dabbing some potent tincture of homegrown rosemary, oregano, and garlic onto their wound. It smelled more like a steak seasoning than medicine, but it would get the job done.

"You know, in my day, we got told to rub some dirt into cuts like these," he murmured playfully, though he did not crack much of a smile. Despite his intensity, he was quite gentle in his movements, and adjusted his pressure in harmony with their grimaces. "I know it stinks, but this'll help decolonize the bacteria. I don't know how to do stitches so... you'll just have to deal with it. Wash it every day, twice a day, preferably with saltwater if you can get your hands on it." He paused, wrapping a clean rag around their wound. "All jokes aside... keep dirt out of it. Maybe you'll live." Reuven's shoulder lifted in a shrug, and then he rose back to his full height with a grunt. "If it starts leaking green and, or, you start puking, you should probably come back. And, uh... Yeah. I think that's all." Another pause, as he wiped his hands. "How'd you get that anyway? Pretty nasty gash."    

[fcurleaves]

closed starter for @slavghters

The sun was not quite below the horizon, but the sky had turned gray as steel and snowflakes were beginning to fall. Lucky watched her own breath emit in clouds of vapor, dancing yellow in the lights of the nearby barn and ignited by the setting sun. Her gait was slow but intentional; if the other haunts were empty, there was one last place Jack might be. Lucky herself didn't spend much time at the barn - the greenhouses were more her speed - but she didn't dislike animals and she certainly didn't dislike Jack. That said, she hadn't seen much of her since their rescue attempt. The details of that night were fuzzy - some details - but Lucky recalled Jack telling her to be careful. She hadn't listened, had she? At least not well enough.

The days and weeks that followed were spent recovering, and by now Lucky had done just that. She still limped a bit and leaning over was uncomfortable, but she'd managed to survive her first sojourn into the wild and that wasn't nothing. The library wasn't a taxing place to work, so she was back to it quickly, and to the untrained eye she was the same as she'd always been. Perhaps that was why she'd avoided Jack - her eye wasn't untrained, and the thought made Lucky want to disappear.

Ahead, Jack leaned on the fence, scratching Lucky's personal favorite cow Mary on the forehead. At a distance she couldn't make out what Jack was saying, but that didn't matter. "She said, 'Fuck off, I wanna go to bed,'" Lucky said as she approached, smirking. Her hands were buried in her coat pockets, so she settled for leaning her whole chest on the fence rail next to Jack, scrunching her own nose when Mary lifted her giant wet one to sniff her. "Their winter coats are in already."

[fcurleaves]

closed starter for @ofherbalisms

A thin stream of smoke drifted from the pipe on her end-table. In the early days she would have tried to conceal it - cracked a window, lit some incense - but twelve years with little to no consequences had made Lucky complacent. It was probably the reason they stuck her in the room at the very end of the hall, come to think of it, but she didn't mind in the slightest. She'd grown very attached to her living quarters; they weren't much smaller than what she'd had pre-outbreak, and rent was nonexistent.

She gingerly rocked onto her left side and seized the pipe, not bothering to hide her wince. Her injuries were healing quickly, but the stab wound in particular had been deep and it still gave her grief. From her position on the bed, propped against a few pillows, she lifted the hem of her sweatshirt (her favorite - three sizes too large, gold in color with 'UC Grandpa' across the front). The stitches had recently come out but the scar remained, maroon against her skin. She stared down at it and traced it with her finger, but the sound of a closing door and subsequent movement in front of hers made her look up. Reuven's familiar hulking shape hovered in the threshold, and Lucky's face split into a smile.

"It's not mine, officer," she said as she took a puff. "Got it from the creep next door."

[fcurleaves]

closed starter for @heartxsighs (iya)

Lucky looked down as she walked, trying to avoid patches of ice. When it was warm the snow liked to drip from the kitchen roof as it melted, creating mini skating rinks under the eaves. Lucky wasn't much of a skater when she had ice skates on, let alone when she didn't, and she had no interest in eating shit during this particular delivery. Her arms were wrapped around a basket of carrots - an offering from the greenhouse, and also from Lucky herself. She shoved her elbow against the door and pushed it open, but not before a cold drop of melting snow fell from on high and slid directly down her collar.

"Whoo!"

Her voice bounced off the walls, as good an announcement of her presence as any. "Iya! I brought you some carrots."

[fcurleaves]

closed starter for @slavghters (gabriel)

It was well before noon and Lucky hadn't yet entered the library. For days it had been a struggle to stick to her routine, to open up the doors with Zeynep and spend hours in crypt-like silence. She should have been used to it by now, but she didn't have to think too hard to know why it suddenly grated on her. The greenhouses weren't much better in the noise department, but her feet carried her there anyway (the Rainstorm wasn't open yet, and this was the next best thing). She entered, shaking snow from her boots, the surrounding greenery easing her frayed nerves with every passing second. The warmth of the space prompted her to peel off her layers, and she draped her coat over the crook of her arm as she moved through the rows of plants. She didn't know what she was looking for or even why she was there; still, Lucky's wide brown eyes darted about each time she ducked under a leafy overhang, and when they landed on Gabriel in a corner she couldn't bite back a sigh of relief.

"Morning, Reevs. Need help with anything? I'm playing hooky, don't be a narc."

[fcurleaves]

closed starter for @killiansterling

Lucky slammed her empty glass on the bar with more force than necessary. It wasn't on purpose but it earned her a few looks, all of which went unnoticed. She didn't know how many drinks she'd had nor how long she'd been there; she did recall tramping to the Rainstorm in a pleasant, heady fog, but everything between then and now was a blur. What did register, though, was Killian's solid presence beside her and the distinct lack of liquor in front.

"Just...hold on a minute." She held up a finger to Killian - they'd been talking - and heaved herself into a kneeling position on the bar stool. It was crowded tonight, and there were several pints of beer sitting idle, waiting to be distributed. Lucky leaned over and swiped one, dragging it in front of her and taking a long, deep sip. When she lowered the glass a white mustache of foam tickled her upper lip, which she licked clean before facing Killian again.

"Anyway, then we climbed through the kitchen window. Turns out the door was unlocked, but we didn't know that..." A giggle bubbled out of her. "Sneaking through windows is cooler though, right? Didn't we do that once? You and me?"

[fcurleaves]

closed starter for @bulletsfm

The sun was setting earlier and earlier as winter crept forth. The library wasn't short on light sources, but the stacks were shadowy even at midday; and now, with the light waning outside, Lucky had to squint to read the titles on the shelves. It might have been that her eyesight was failing, but what was she going to do? Make an appointment with the sanctuary optometrist (who didn't exist)? With a muttered curse she resolved to bring a flashlight the next time she had to reshelve. She only had a few more books to put back as it was - she supposed she could suffer through it.

Her gait retained a barely perceptible limp as she pushed the cart ahead of her, rounding a corner and diving back between the stacks. The rickety metal thing was just as stealthy as Lucky was, which was not at all, but that didn't seem to matter; she still almost crashed headlong into Santiago when she rounded another corner, leading her to believe that he was just as lost in his thoughts as she'd been lately. That didn't stop her from reacting, though.

"For fuck's sake, didn't you hear me coming? And isn't it a little late for you to be skulking around here, Jeebs? You're not technically in college anymore, you know."