(no subject)

[shambler]

Who|| R and [Semi-Open] – PM me if you want to bump into him so I can write a prompt.
What|| R wakes up to realize he’s a zombie all over again and the Cure, in fact, wasn’t a cure after all. He’ll be in a funk. Mostly he’ll be blocking traffic (cue finding him in the District 4 shower, creepy-staring, or else where). Basically R needs cheering up, pep-talks, even the awkward ones telling him he’s better off as a zombie.
Where|| Around the Tribute Tower and Training Center. Also District 4’s suite.
When|| After reviving in the Capitol from Howard mercy-killing him and before the next Arena. Basically a catch-all.
Warnings| Zombie references, depressed zombies.

Prompts in the comments for each character. Heads up I may be slow posting, so a post per day or every other day (so backtag central?).

Comments

Orc

[shambler]

After his talk with Howard, R leaves with his head feeling even more foggy than usual. It’s even more noticeable now that he’s had a taste of Living is like.

He bumps into Orc not long later – he thinks it’s only a few hours later, but it could be easily days. Zombie time-telling is shaky, at best, and when he rounds the corner and nearly breaks his nose against Orc’s massive chest, he has to wonder how long he’s been shuffling around these halls. Hard to tell when you’re in a slump, literally and figuratively. Shuffling back until the craggy rocks resolve into a torso, then a body, R slowly cranes his head up.

“Orc,” he grunts. “Talk?”

He wants to talk, even if Orc isn’t the most talkative person he’s ever met and R’s too talkative for a proper zombie. Talking to Howard’s left him…unfulfilled, empty.

Re: Orc

[paidinbeer]

Orc looks puzzled by R's appearance, and it takes him a moment to process, they hadn't spoken in some time but he was glad to run into him [or be run into] while he was wasting his day wandering aimlessly.

Something they had in common it seemed.

"Yeah, sure man." It wasn't often someone came to Orc purposefully to have a conversation really.

[shambler]

If R was living, he would've probably pulled a muscle in his neck trying to stare up at Orc and his bulk.

He got right down to it: for a zombie, it was blunt, lightning-fast when conversations could take anywhere between weeks to months to get past greetings. R ogled Orc, his mouth hanging loose behind his muzzle as he grasped at words, concepts. "Have....re-gret? This...?"

R flops a hand at himself, his corpsehood, then at Orc, trying to indicate what they both share: they can't be considered conventionally human.

[paidinbeer]

Regrets? He's had a few.

Nodding gently "Yeah...there's this woman. She fixed me for awhile, last arena. But now I can't get to her to make her do it again. And everyone keeps telling me I should just be happy like this."

He sighed, like it was so easy.

"The whole thing sucks. They got all this fancy tech, why can't they make our lives better they way we want instead of what's fun for them?"

[shambler]

R listened, a little surprised to see Orc's story mirrored his own - having a second chance in the Arena and then having it taken away, just because it made good ratings. Shook things up. His mouth had worked itself into a frown by the time Orc finished speaking.

"I...know," R couldn't work out if he was upset or angry. Zombies didn't really do anger and unhappiness was usually low-grade, if it existed at all. He paused to cast about for words, eyes on Orc. "Feel....feel cheated. Not fair."

That was the word, he was sure of it. R punctuated it with a low groan.

[paidinbeer]

"Yeah...cheated." He balled his hand into a fist and firmly punched the wall. Even at low level strength he put a hole in it.

"What gives them the right to mess with us like this huh? I had real skin you know? I had sex like that!"

Ignoring the fact that he had had sex again as a rock creature. It had been great...but nothing like his first time.

"And no one seems to get it you know? They all just keep telling me I'm fine how I am."

[shambler]

R didn't have the reaction reflex to jump and go "oh shit!" at Orc punching the wall. He knew he would've back in the Arena, when he was alive and could feel things like adrenaline coursing through his body. Now there was a grand total of nothing. "Get...you."

Mostly. Except for the sex part. R was a bit surprised Orc had it in him to have sex in the middle of the Arena but at the same time, survivors have a tendency to, uh, speed things up when they think it's the end of the world. R thought about snuggling with Julie in the sleeping bag, the kissing and the stolen laughs, and he felt a twinge of anger starting to form.

Maybe it wasn't as loud and in your face as Orc's, but it was definitely there. R was definitely scowling now behind the muzzle.

"They...don't get. They still...have skin."

[paidinbeer]

"Right! Exactly!" Orc was torn between anger at having to think about his situation, and relief that R understood him.

"It's like...they think it should be just SO easy to act like a normal, decent guy. But It's not that easy! I'd like to see them try to look in the mirror every day like this and still say suck it up."

[shambler]

R can only nod, a jerky motion of his head that was in danger of slinging drool across Orc's rocky feet. "They...can't...know. Im..." R paused, and then tried to get out the multi-syllable word in one go. " - possible."

R wasn't too short what Orc meant about "normal decent guy". He'd seemed okay the few times he'd bumped into him: a little gruff and grumpy, sure, but R operated under the assumption that any friends of Howard had to be, inherently, decent people. Or rock people.

[paidinbeer]

"Exactly." He heaved a massive sigh feeling winded from the small outburst.

"Ya don't know what you've got till it's gone." He muttered rubbing his fingers together hearing the sound of stones scraping over one another.

Hopefully R wasn't expecting anything encouraging out of Orc.

[shambler]

R has to wonder where you even stick lungs inside a metal boy. It was one of those food for thought things. "True. Sucks," R grunted.

Encouragement? Not so much. But someone who intimately understood just how much this sucked and didn't reply with "it gets better"? That a zombie could get behind.

[paidinbeer]

Orc looked back at him puzzled and then a rare smirk crossed his lips. It was dark and sardonic once he agreed.

"Well it sure as hell can't get much worse right? I guess we could both be zombie rock monsters. But at least then we wouldn't be the only ones around right?"

Because being alone was one of the worst things you could be.

[shambler]

R makes a strangled sound deep in the back of his throat. It might have been a laugh withering away. "Good...point. Worst...both worlds."

Sorry, Orc. When R looks at him, he doesn't feel the same dull envy he feels when he looks at living people and wishes he could have soft skin and working blood vessels. Instead he sees segmented rocks and a life that's incapable of touch - or most of the things he daydreamed about. It's just a different brand of suck, basically.

[paidinbeer]

And Orc would not particularly disagree with that on any level.

"Have you seen Howard?" He asked changing the subject. "He hasn't spoken to me since he yelled at me in the arena...I mean he kinda did...I was a zombie at the time trying to eat him and he just screamed at me. But I only saw that part on TV later."

Not for the first time it occurred to Orc just how insane his life was.

[shambler]

R winced. The wince was slow, with a few seconds delay, and a little saggy at the edges, but it was definitely a wince. He hadn't bitten Orc, hadn't even run into him, but he assumed it went down like it always did: someone got infected, someone spread it along. Eponine? The man or the kid he bit?

"Better not...re...member," R said with an unhappy moan. He lolled his head back the way he'd come, flopped a limp hand out and then turned back to Orc. "Saw...him. Talked. Fight."

Maybe not so much screaming, but it was definitely a fight. Words were said (and groaned).

[paidinbeer]

His brow knit in a familiar expression of confusion. It wasn't peculiar that Howard would get into fights with people...at least verbal fights. But he couldn't imagine anyone having the patience to argue with R.

"What were you guys fighting about?" He pressed trying not to appear threatening since he didn't get the feeling R had hurt Howard.

[shambler]

Sadly, it was easy to run circles around R in a fight - maybe Howard had sensed he was easy prey or maybe, just maybe, he cared enough to suck it up and listen to the words between the rest of the groaning. At this point R wasn't even sure. All he knew was the fight left a bad taste in his mouth and this was coming from someone who'd had maggots and rot in there before..

"A...rena," R muttered. This was new territory for him. Zombies didn't have much of a concept for privacy, personal space or even what was appropriate conversation topics. The instinct to lie just wasn't there anymore. "He...killed me. I'm...angry...?"

R didn't sound too sure as he gazed up at Orc. This was anger, right?

[paidinbeer]

It was a good thing Orc was so gullible, because the acting to him was perfect. He just wasn't sure he understood.

"Were you trying to eat him?" Orc suggested guessing at why Howard would kill a friend.

[shambler]

"No!" R blurted. He hung his head. "Not...this time."

He had to give Howard that much - he'd hunted him before with another zombie and then he'd actually ripped a chunk out of him before, back in the same desert he first met Orc. It would've been a logical assumption to make.

[paidinbeer]

Well that just made things more puzzling. Orc's craggy brow knitted and it took him a moment to decide how best to pose his next question.

"Then why?"

Nailed it.

[shambler]

R's shrug was miserable, a flop of his shoulders as his head lolled side to side. It looked listless, even for a zombie. "Said...favor. Because...in pain."

He grunted out an "ugh" at that, starting to get upset all over again. Sure, yeah, it'd hurt especially toward the end, but even that had been novel. His, at least. Now he was back to his natural state of decay, unable to feel pain or anything else.

[paidinbeer]

"So...OK wait..." He rubbed the back of his head making the scraping sound of stones rubbing together.

"So he killed you, because you were in pain and he said it was doing you a favor?"

From the low rumble in his voice he didn't approve.

"Did you actually want to die again?"

[shambler]

If R still had the Cure, he would've been grinding his teeth together and wincing at that sound. Mostly he just stood there and listed to the side, listening as Orc put the pieces together. His head wobbled in a nod.

"Said...favor," R paused and shook his head. "No. Want...life. This. Was...still mine."

R touched his hand to his still heart. He had difficulty conveying the feeling of its emptiness and Orc wasn't exactly the most subtle of people, he'd noticed.

[paidinbeer]

Orc's grumbling turned into a growl and he felt like punching something again.

"He's turning into one of them. Like the Capitol." He snarled.

"What gives him the right to say who should die? Who the hell does he think he is?!" He stomped a foot in frustration and cracked the floor.

[shambler]

"He think...friend," R found himself stumbling, trying to explain Howard's actions despite the fact he was sure they just had a fight. "Thought...better dead...than pain."

R swayed from side to side as Orc stomped, nearly losing his precarious sense of balance. An Avox stared at them and silently slipped away, probably to report the damage to the floor.