(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

Re: Mindy

[hit_girl_mindy]

It was one of those days that she was avoiding being swamped with people. Sadly, Azula had not been kidding: people WERE constantly flocking to her, and having time to herself was becoming rare. Finally, there was an uninterrupted amount of time where she could just walk around and take in the scenery...and in doing that, happened upon seeing someone walking pretty unevenly, a car about to hit him.

There was no time to think about it: Mindy was fast, thankfully, and rushed over, pulling the shambler out of harms way, breathing hard. She'd gotten scraping, some concrete in her hands, but brushed this off.

"Dude, what the hell were you-" She stopped when she saw who it was. Oh. OH. The explained the slowness.

"R, right?"

[shambler]

R wobbles over her, towering like a rotting grey giant.

"R," he nodded, more relieved she knew his name than the fact he'd been saved from being a zombie pancake. Roadkill? R hadn't exactly seen a lot of functioning cars back home, therefore not a lot of corpses out there who died by getting run over. The truth was, he barely remembered what roadkill looked like.

He peered down at Mindy, trying to place a face, a name, trying to remember if he'd killed her before. "Thank...you. My....hgh-hero?"

R wasn't too sure about that. He'd probably appreciate it more if he wasn't a zombie: he didn't even have that surge of adrenaline from a near-death experience, the dead boy swaying slightly as he held out his hand toward Mindy.

[hit_girl_mindy]

She'd seen enough of him in the Games to know who he was, at least. It was harder for her to follow all the drama, and of course she didn't want to. It was always more interesting to see what people did rather than see them talk about it, and anyway, what did it have to do with her?

"Something like that. I know you don't move too fast, but at least try to be careful on the road, ok? What the hell were you trying to do anyway?"

[shambler]

R appreciated the concern, really, if only because it was so novel - people hadn't exactly tried to give him safety tips when he was another zombie back at the airport. Granted, "people" by then were running screaming from him, so he guessed maybe it was a moot point. He wobbled where he stood, peering down at Mindy, his curiosity warring with that general funk clouding his mind grey.

"Will...try," R said. Not exactly instilling confidence there. He paused and then seemed to give up on something. It'd be too easy to pretend he didn't hear and wander back into traffic. "Wanted to...leave. Bad...day."

He flopped a hand out at the busy street, to illustrate his point.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"No kidding? Tell me about it."

What was a bad day for a zombie anyway?

She of course was willing to take his hand and move him away from the hustling and bustling, and cringing: because of COURSE, the infamous actual zombie and current winner of the Arena being together was a sight worth remembering.

Damn, she hated fame.

"Let's go somewhere quiet though. I'm not a 'people person.'"

[shambler]

R had no choice but to follow, the bigger zombie stumbling and weaving behind Mindy like a drunk with a death wish. This close, he couldn't help wafting the smell of too much perfume and too much decomposition, a wall of it that sent most of the other pedestrians scattering at a fast-walk. Some of the others were openly staring, snapping pictures because Mindy, the latest Victor, was within five feet of them.

"Better....place?" She'd lead them down a few alleys until R was nice and turned around, his head lolling side to side as he looked around at some trash cans and back doors. The smell of cooking food filled the air.

He wished his stomach could gurgle. It probably smelled fantastic.

[hit_girl_mindy]

So she smelled it. It wasn't an unfamiliar smell: this was just decomposition. She had made a living smelling the fresh stuff, and that should have been enough to turn anyone's head. Of course there were pictures being snapped, because Christ. It wasn't like she didn't have better things to do than pose. Idiots.

She was glad when she got away and, strangely enough, the smells mingling made her chuckle.

"Good. So, R. I saw the games. You're not doing ok, are you?"

[shambler]

R looked dully mortified. Was it that obvious? He was used to zombie reactions being so muted as to look almost invisible, especially to strangers. "Don't...don't think...so."

He shrugged, not sure what to tell Mindy, how much to tell. She wasn't holding her nose around him or anything, a bonus as far as he was concerned, and she was frank in a way he liked. Frank and a stranger and he didn't feel like she'd think he was being stupid about the whole...corpse thing.

"How...get over?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

You might think Mindy would think that, but R had been here longer than her. That was long enough to know how to deal with the crazy shit that was the Capitol and knowing to stay off the road. Him being a zombie didn't stand to reason that he would also be stupid.

No matter what most zombie movies said otherwise to the fact.

Understanding him, however, might take some effort. "What do you mean?"

[shambler]

R needed a minute or so to get his thoughts in order. Being a corpse again meant he had to work around a mouth that stuttered and froze up on words above kindergarten level; sometimes you had to gesture, pantomime, to make up for it. R touched his chest, his hand curled into a fist. This wasn't how he would've wanted to make introductions with the new Victor, admittedly.

"Hurt...here. How...fix?" R asked, hoping she didn't mistake it for love. He looked down at her with a vague, hopeful expression on his face.

[hit_girl_mindy]

This took a little bit of work. He went for his chest and curled it into a fist. It was almost like a gesture to the heart. That idea, of course, was stupid. What would she know about that? Heartache, maybe? These were shots in the dark and they made Mindy feel a little stupid, like listening to someone foreign pronounce something you think you know but can't quite make it out.

"That depends. Mostly on, you know, what made it hurt to begin with.

[shambler]

R can see that look on Mindy's face - this expression of concentration, trying to match his clumsy pantomimes with groans that sometimes, he knows, don't sound like words at all. He doesn't blame her. Most people wouldn't make it this far, much less ask how a corpse feels.

"I...want," R struggles gamely along. "Life. Me...mories. Not...have, so...hurts."

It's a special kind of emptiness, the one you could see in every zombie's eyes and humans like Perry, who stopped caring and thought it would be easier to get eaten by zombies.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Oh." Well shit, now she understood. Now she could see that he was living a life no one could ever really claim to know or understand and, worse off, want to. How easy was it to see him as nothing more than just a stuttering monster, not worth the time. Worse, in the Capitol, amusing?

"Well. We make that here. With people. It takes awhile, but it happens. You remember what happens here, right?"

She had to know exactly how his memory retention worked, for a start.

[shambler]

R's head lolls mournfully. "Some...times. But...gaps. Foggy. Slides...away."

To be honest, it's a miracle he's remembered as much he does, already. Compared to the other zombies, R suspects he must have the most memories rattling around his head now, mostly in coherent order. It's hard to explain to someone who takes that for granted, though.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"So in pieces." Mindy looked thoughtful. "That is hard. Wish there was a way to make it stick. And the Capitol won't just let you be able to remember?"

She wondered. "Maybe you need to make it worth their while."

[shambler]

"Think that's...mind," R said, doubtful. "Not just...body. Maybe harder."

They hadn't exactly turned him into a pure, 100% human in the Arena, either. Just the next best thing. R pursed his lips as he turned Mindy's words over in his mind, his grey face thoughtful behind the muzzle.

"What...do you...mean?" R thought he was following her, but as zombies weren't prone to sweetening the deal, bribery or anything along those lines, he was a little lost here.

[hit_girl_mindy]

So he wanted to feel. That made sense. The poor guy probably had all these lingering thoughts, and no real way to sort them. Shit like this always reminded her how much easier she had things compared to some of the others here.

"I mean that people in the Capitol are always going to want tit for tat. If you're going to get something like that, they might want you to do something for them in return."

[shambler]

R was still struggling along after Mindy. "What...give? Have...not much."

He spread his hands helplessly, showing that he pretty much had the skin he died in. And the hoard of junk in his room? That too, he guessed. Mindy obviously had a better grasp of how the Capitol worked than he did. Better attention to detail. She was definitely old enough to kill, in his world, so obviously she'd been a better killer than he was.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Yeah, that's the question. You'd probably have to ask them about it. You'd probably even need someone to go with you to answer all their questions or whatever. You know, maybe you want to talk to that guy Orc. Wasn't he human for a little while?"

Man, maybe she WAS going to have to keep track of all of this weird drama. At least this was more interesting than who was banging who.

[shambler]

R had talked to Orc. Mostly they had agreed that being back to "normal" had sucked and people had it easy. He hadn't thought about asking Orc about his people skills, though.

"Yes," R wobbled out a nod. "You...done it...before?"

Maybe he could get some tips on How to Be Successful. As Victor, R just automatically assumed Mindy must know something: after all, she'd figured out zombies and traffic don't mix and now this idea of hers.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"I've heard that things might be able to happen," Mindy said, "but you know. Shit like this is bound to have a price, you know? You're really gonna have to ask if you can pay it. About one thing that's always a constant in worlds, people always need favors."

Mindy knew enough about people, crooked and not, to know that much. Of course, she could also just go and see which hihre up she needed to ask, to see if it was possible.

[shambler]

Maybe in Mindy's world. It wasn't ever like that in R's rotting one back at the airport, R's mouth twisting into a little frown as he struggled with the concepts. It seemed more...complicated. More moving parts. R wheezed out a sigh.

"Favors. What...could for?" R tapped his chest. What did Mindy think he could be good for, favor-wise? In her professional opinion as a Living and a Victor?

[hit_girl_mindy]

"I don't think it would be anything good," Mindy said honestly. "That's why I'm saying you'd have to be able to pay the price. In the end, you might not want to. But there's got to be someway we can at least keep your memories. I watched you in the games. You already have some people you trust."

Yeah, she could only imagine what some might want R for. She might ask around, but not of it struck her as being good for R.

[shambler]

R wondered about that: Julie was gone, Perry was...a question-mark because what else did you call someone you personally ate his brains and he didn't know about Howard. Things were weird between them. But Mindy must've thought something was there if she was saying that, R thoughtfully dripping some drool out of his muzzle as he absorbed her advice.

"I think...willing. Don't want...this. How bad...be?" R groaned, thinking he had a sunny outlook on this. Seriously, he was a zombie with maggots in places the sun didn't shine. What's the worst they could ask of him? "Give...arm. If have to."

He wheezed, not sure if he was joking or entirely serious.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy face palmed. This was the same dumb ass thing that Elsa said, and it caused her no end of exasperation. They were brought here by Capitol powers, to maim and kill each other. If they could do that, did tributes really think dong add jobs for them would be a good thing?

"I don't think it'd take much to give them the arm." See, that was a joke, R. "But make sure you're at least talking to the right people. You have to convince them you'd be more entertaining NOT a zombie. Because that just might be why they wouldn't want to change you back."