We Are Awakened With The Axe [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

The city has been abandoned.

Its infrastructure has been slowly deteriorating for quite some time, now. Traffic has long since ground to a permanent halt, taxis and trucks rusting by the curbs or abandoned mid-intersection. Most of the ground-floor windows have been shattered. Electricity is spotty, if it can be found at all. The eerie silence is broken only by the wind, the calls of crows, or the gentle collapse of some structure or other. And, of course, the occasional screams.

The city has been abandoned, but it is not empty.

What caused the various outbreaks hardly matters. Viral infection, fungal infection, some new or ancient bacterium suddenly released into the general populace - who knows? What does matter is that the city has become home to thousands if zombies, some slow, some fast, some mindless, some retaining a savage kind of intelligence. And they are all so, so hungry.

There are weapons to be found or improvised, and places to hide if you're lucky enough to come across someplace well-fortified and otherwise empty. Others have clearly had the same idea, leaving hastily constructed barricades in some places. You might even take those as a blessing, if the conspicuous absence of the original builders doesn't bother you. They're probably living on a nice farm somewhere.

One thing is certain: if you don't want to succumb to whatever plagues have ravaged this place, you will have to fight for your survival.

[OOC: usual dream party rules apply; all are welcome to participate, and characters can remember or forget at the players' discretion. Also, usual zombie rules apply: if you get bitten, you'll be turned into the sort of zombie that bit you. Whether your characters deal with comically dim shamblers or the terrifying sprinty variety is up to you.

Finally, let's just go ahead and say tw: violence and gore for the post as a whole, because it's gonna get messy, folks.]

Comments

self loathing forever

[johnny_truant]

"Oh yeah?!" he snarls, and it's so easy to just give over to the rage this time. "Am I, Daniel? How the fuck would you know, huh?"

Sabotage this. Just break it apart. All the things you want Gabriel to know but you can't say to him.

"Compliance means letting myself die." He can't stay sitting, so he gets up, pacing around the tight little space he built for them. Rabid dog in a small cage. "Compliance is giving up over and over and over again. I'm fighting. And it's - it's ugly and it makes people uncomfortable, makes me some kind of fucking monster, and that's what I am. So fuck you, man. You don't know shit about me."

[peacefulexplorer]

He doesn't have a choice anymore; for all his fixed certainty, Daniel takes a step back. And another. And another. And Johnny continues to pace, feral and unhinged, and Daniel raises both hands, palms out, as if that will be enough to erect a barrier between them.

He suggested this. He instigated this. He set things in motion.

"You're not a monster," he says, hoping to god his voice is smooth and steady. "I suggested this, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. I should've known better."

His voice doesn't crack under the strain of the plea he's left unspoken. But it comes close.

"I know you," he says, the words gentle. "I know you. I know you enough. Please."

self-harm followed by intense claustrophobia and horror

[johnny_truant]

"Shut up!" Johnny explodes, and he pivots and drives his fist into the wall, letting out a furious yell. He wants to feel his knuckles break against it but instead the wall shifts to allow him, to swallow his arm up to the shoulder.

He goes abruptly still, other hand braced against the wall.

Right. This. This is what he deserves.

The wall seems fitted around his arm, solid and deep and leaving nowhere for him to go. Alien architectural shapes grow slowly out of the wood and cling to him, claws wrapping around his legs and his waist. It's so much like the setup Zagreus used on him that first dream so many months ago he wants to laugh. He does laugh, high and hysterical.

"Gotta go," he says, turning his head against the wood to look at Daniel with wide, bright eyes. "I'm wanted elsewhere."

The wall's fingers tighten, creaking, pulling him in.

[peacefulexplorer]

Some formless protest tears out of his throat as soon as Johnny swings around to slam hands into the wall, and it ripples up to meet him. Daniel feels something in his chest wrench. The building comes alive, its architecture unfurling to swarm over Johnny like a fly encased in amber.

One hand snaps out before Daniel can rethink the action, fingers tightening around Johnny's exposed shoulder.

"No. No." The plea fractures, his desperation rooted and wild. "Johnny. Please."

He's not sure if he's addressing Johnny or the building that seems intent on devouring him whole.

Even worse, he's not sure he should be mentally separating the two.

Daniel's stomach clenches.

"Don't," he whispers, the word nearly silent but for the hiss and cut of the 't'.

DRR DRR DRR DRR

[johnny_truant]

Johnny rests his forehead against the wall, and the pull slows and stops, just allows him to hover in limbo, Daniel's hand clamped on his shoulder, blades of wood and rust wrapped around him, just cradling him for a moment.

He looks up at Daniel, and the sharpness has left his eyes, the tension in his face has diminished; he blinks up at him with a dull, defeated expression. The house tangles more pieces of itself up around his back: support beams, he thinks with grim amusement.

"I'm sorry, Daniel," he says quietly, and the moment's up, tension snapped; it drags him in, slow, almost gentle, but inexorable, you're safe here, Johnny, safe and always, always welcome.

The wall closes up behind him, leaving Daniel alone in a cold, sealed room.