entranceway | video; event day four

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video; event day four

[The device falls from a slack hand, found in a pocket and puzzled over for only a moment before it's dropped. A smear of dirty water smudges one corner of the camera, and someone stumbles halfway into view on the screen.

That someone is soaked through, wearing a white shirt and a dirty, red tie that stands out almost ghoulishly against the pallor of his skin - just a little too grey to be natural. Maybe it's just the cold. He's shivering and gripping his upper arms, viewing the bloody carnage that surrounds him with the wide-eyed bewilderment of a child.

But no matter how you spin it, there is something visibly off about this man. His colour is one thing, but the bluish veins that stand out against his skin and the pewter-grey shade of his eyes paint a very peculiar picture.

He looks more like the bodies surrounding him than anyone who might be watching.

The backdrop paints a clear picture of just where he is, and takes a few shuffling steps forwards, displaying something that looks like uncertainty. His expression works - confusion, worry - then he moves out of shot.]

[[ooc: inviting anyone to come across him in person, or shout at him from the phone! he'll come back and pick it up. all I ask is pls don't shoot him in the head.]]

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[He reasons that it must be the gore covering her that keeps him from being able to smell her. R watches the woman approach, unsure enough of his situation to delay in keeping his distance from her. She reaches out, and his arm comes up in time for her to miss his shirt and hit his wrist instead.

R frowns at her, confused, the expression only shifting his eyebrows by a fraction. No one has ever said something like that to him before. No one is sorry for people like him. He meets her eyes and shakes his head, parting his lips to speak one word.]

Why?

Holy shi-

[ Liv takes one big step back, still holding the knife and looking at him like she just saw...well. A zombie talk to her. ]

Are you...are you alive?

[People approaching him with weapons drawn appears to be the theme of the day. Not an unusual theme, but it's one he can always do without.]

That's.. debatable.

[He almost smiles. It's almost a joke. He's Dead, but he's Different. Julie made him different, and now he - just like M, the other Dead, the boneys... - isn't quite sure what he is.]

I'm not one.. one of them.

[ Liv studies him for a minute, eyes moving over his face. He's not one of them, but he definitely doesn't look...alive. ]

But you're...

[ How to put this delicately. ]

Do you have a heartbeat?

[ There, good job, Liv. ]

Uhm.

[He looks her over in turn while she examines him. Something about her isn't quite.. right. It isn't the gore smeared over her that's keeping him from smelling her, he realises, but... she has no scent of the Living at all.

R frowns, very slightly. That's.. weird.]

... Not the last time I.. checked.

[No heartbeat. He's very Dead.]

[ Interesting. Okay. One thing at a time, Liv. ]

Come on. I'm willing to bet other people will make the same mistake I did, and there may still be snipers around. Let's get you out from the wide open.

[ She isn't sure if her assumption right now is correct, but she doesn't want anyone to shoot first, ask questions later. She's already given him a terrible first impression. ]

[Sniper.

The word makes a connection. He looks up, scanning the tops of the buildings.]

.. Okay.

[She's safe. If he can't smell her, then being around her won't feed the Hunger, and he won't do anything he might later regret. He's been ignoring it lately, but he knows it's still there, quiet for now but ready to emerge howling at the slightest provocation.]

After you.

[ Liv leads him to her house, the one she's taken up residence in for this event, anyway. There's blood splattered against an otherwise pristine white front porch, but they don't stay there long, going inside. ]

I know you're probably confused. I was too when I first got here.

[ Is he what she thinks he is? He has to be, and she reaches out gently, no sudden movements, taking his pulse in his wrist. Or, well, lack thereof. And then she smiles a little; somewhere between relieved and sympathetic. ]

I'm a zombie, too.

[It's a strange mixture of scents and non-scents. The Living - somewhere, he can smell them nearby now and then when the wind changes - and the blood, the half-dead, and then the spaces where the Dead are. She creates one of those spaces as he follows her, eyes on her back, concentrating on his feet so he doesn't stumble.

He nods - yes, he's confused. It's a lot to take in all at once. She takes his wrist and he doesn't flinch, just looks at her hand then up to her face, feeling his arm subtly tingling from the contact. The Dead don't touch, not like this. They might nudge one another by accident, but deliberate contact is rare.

R's expression shifts at her admission, to one of faint confusion.]

... You are?

[It makes sense, and yet it doesn't. She's so... eloquent. As verbose as he would like to be but never manages to reach.]

[ Liv doesn't know why he is the way he is yet, and she can only assume it's because he hasn't eaten. Luckily, there happen to be a bunch of bodies laying around outside. ]

I got scratched, a while ago back home. I was at a party on a boat and then all of a sudden...zombies. I woke up in a body bag.

[ Reaching out, she squeezes his shoulder gently. ]

I don't know if you're a new zombie or if maybe you didn't have anyone to help you when you turned. But when we don't eat it makes us slower. Until we turn into full-on George Romero zombies.You probably just need to eat and you'll be okay.

Not new.

[He's still confused, but he's starting to get the idea. She's not like him, somehow. R is different, slowly inching his way back towards something that better resembles Life, but she's leaps and bounds ahead of anything he can imagine achieving. Were it not for the lack of a sense of Life about her, he'd mistake her for one of them.

As far as zombies go, R is uncommonly loquacious. She has him beaten on that count, too. Is this what a cure could achieve? Could they reach this again?

He shakes his head, one corner of his lips twitching upwards in a spasmodic half-smile.]

Don't.. need to eat. Always this 'slow'.

[As he says it, he realises it's true. He doesn't need to eat. He doesn't even want to.]

[ Well, that isn't what she was expecting, and Liv pulls back for a second, just looking at him in confusion. It never really occurred to her that all zombies would not operate equally, other than for the fast or slow aspects. ]

So, no matter how much or how little you eat, you never...change?

[ Because if she doesn't eat she goes insane, literally, and there's no coming back from going that way. Imagine if eating wasn't even an issue at all. ]

Um.. no.

[It's almost questioning, how he says it, but his voice lacks the appropriate tonal range to make it sound much more than a denial. If he doesn't eat... he thinks about it.]

I just.. get hungry.

[A shrug.]

But... I haven't been, for.. a while.

Oh.

[Huh. Interesting. While she wouldn't want to trade being verbose and functioning for the most part like a normal human, it'd be nice to never have to worry about brains. ]

Sorry, I didn't really think zombies were different from world to world. I didn't even know there were multiple versions of reality where it could go from kind of bad to apocalyptic the way it is outside.

[ She's not sure what she should offer now, but hey, where are her manners? ]

I'm Liv, by the way.

[Awkward smile. If it weren't for the pallor and the general appearance of not looking very alive, R could almost be mistaken for simply being socially awkward.]

I'm R.

[And this is the nicest conversation he's had in a couple of days.

He feels himself shiver again and some kind of long-buried instinct prompts him to rub his hands up his arms. He's still soaking, and still doesn't understand why he's cold.]

Nice to meet you, R.

[ She doesn't even bother to question why just 'R' because he's been through enough without her interrogating him even more. ]

This was a really bad time for the closets to stop working right.

[ She definitely doesn't have any clothes that would fit him, but there are towels, so she tells him to hang on for a second and comes back with a couple of them. ]

I wish I could do something about your clothes. Normally I could, but things are a little...hectic, right now. Wonderland isn't usually like this.

[She's going to have to explain the closet comment to him, but he doesn't get a chance to get the words out before she's speaking again. It's nice, though, just to listen to someone talk, as much as the reminder of Julie stings in a way he had forgotten was possible.]

It's okay. [He smiles tentatively, taking one of the towels. For a moment, he holds it as if he isn't sure of what to do with it, then he decides on attempting to dry his hair off.]

What... [R trails off, letting his gaze wander for a moment.] Usually like?

[ Deep breaths and slow down, Liv. ]

All of this...the house, the zombies outside...it's not a run of the mill day, here. It doesn't even look like this. Usually, we all live in a mansion. Also, I'm pretty new too, so if I don't explain this right and you find out differently, I'm sorry in advance.

[ She's just gonna try and tell him the best she can. ]

Wonderland feeds off of our memories. So...someone here is from the zombie apocalypse and we're living in her world right now, something she went through. But when it ends, we'll be back in the mansion like nothing ever happened.

[It's enough to give him a headache. He doesn't feel any less confused than he was when he first woke up here, but he can appreciate that she's trying to help.

If this place feeds off their memories, it's really pulled in a dud by dragging R into the mix. Everything before a week ago is a hazy, grey blur.]

... Okay.

[Okay. He lets the word out slowly - more deliberate than not - and closes his eyes for a moment.]

Have... have you seen a girl? Sh.. she's blonde, and h.. has blue eyes. Her name is Julie.

I may have seen a blonde girl, but I'm not sure I've caught all of their names yet.

[ She's honestly not trying to be a smart ass, and she cringes a little. ]

Sorry. She might be here, though. You can check on this.

[ Pulling out her device, she shows it to him and starts scrolling through the names. ]

You'll have one of this in a pocket somewhere, or it might show up in the room you pick, when you pick one. But everyone who's here, they're listed on the contacts page.

[It's a device like the thing he's had in his pocket since he woke up here, but as soon as he looks at what she's offering he knows it isn't going to be of any use. He tries to focus on the things he knows are letters, words, but they swim and wobble and refuse to form into anything that makes sense.

He supposes he knew how to read once. That, he thinks, is how he knows these things should be words...]

Can't read. [A tiny smile, almost apologetic.] Forgot.. how to.

Oh. Sorry.

[ She puts her device back into her pocket, but then pulls it back out, scrolling through names. ]

150 people in this place...no one named Julie.

[ Now she does put her phone away and she gives a helpless shrug. ]

People show up all the time, though. I haven't given up hope that people I know will turn up.

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video; event day four

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