ONL

🧚🏻‍♀️ The Walking Dead - Year 6 Part 1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Alexander Polawski Location: Administration (A) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

There used to be a time when Alexander was the one to enter the fray head first, either verbally with some witty remarks of his youth or into actual combat. Hell, he could vividely remember the exact moment Thana had thrown all caution to the wind and charged headlong into the entry of Eden while Thalia and himself watched with dumbfounded looks. The exact phrasing just before he had done the same went something like this: "So much for the element of surprise, Blue. Time to go fuck ourselves." before he himself charged the building. Yes, he'd had his moments where he was the one making the breach.

Today it was Thalia who breached the silence, the secrecy, the question Alexander had not dared ask himself. Thalia was good to have like that, amongst everything else she meant to ol' Mugsy. But she wasn't afraid of asking questions.

Alexander stood silently, though focused as Gunny spoke back to Thalia about revisiting the Graveyard, knowing fully well he'd want to take another journey back there. If he worked hard and prayed ever harder, perhaps…just perhaps he could get her a funeral as well? He'd have to ask. Then it was his own turn to be answered, looking at Gunny as he was told the General was in. Probably, maybe, he'd have to check himself. Something never changed then. "Thank you, Gunny. If I get lost, I can always ask Sandra, I mean Rolodex for directions."

It was then that the bombshell was dropped - the accused SOB who was getting the court martial. Upon hearing the name, Alexander's heart sank just a little bit, though he wasn't surprised much to to his sorrow. Hunter, the young soldier with more problems than he probably had. Last night's actions had been pretty rough on the kid, but a court martial? From experience you didn't get sent down that route for usual drunken behaviour, so something must have happened. But what?

Then was not the time to ask, as Gunny briefed them that their work for the day was done and ready to be continued tomorrow. Alexander nodded in accknowledgement that he understood the orders, then caught off guard Gunny's remark about his fall. Pulling the side of his mouth into a sheepish smile, he rubbed the sore parts of his lower back, literay a pain in the ass. "Oh, I appriciate it. Been through worse, so I just hope I wasn't too much of a nuisance for Medic. Now if we're excused, Alexander signing off." He bid Gunny farewell, giving Thalia a friendly look as he made his way out to the hallway. "Got some stuff to sort out, but catch you at dinner? If not, see you around."

All the walking around was slowly but surely paying off, as Alexander's prostethic leg was feeling more and more like an extension of himself, like the leg he used to have. Walking, or somewhat waddling down the corridor at a quickened pace he was, searching for the General for their little plans. He caught the fellow old man as he was locking his door, prompting Alexander to get his attention. "Aeron, glad I caught you before you left. Been a long day, but I'm here as you requested yesterday. Hope I'm not too late to be of help."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel Cooper Location: Streets of CMB (I4) -> Education Center (M) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel had seemingly caught Thana, the wise Athenian keeper of the Hanging Gardens of Mexico Beach, in a moment of mental conundrum. So much he could see from the look in her face as he'd asked her what he thought was a simple and rather regular question. That was perhaps why he watched her fight that inner tug-of-war, reaching for an answer to the most mundande of questions, while they all were in a time most certainly anything but mundane. For a moment felt as if he'd over-stepped his limits of questioning, rethinking the question as if to ask himself that and coming to the conclusion that he wouldn't have been able to answer it either! Had he been wrong in asking her, and had she been offended by his viperous tounge?

The chuckle that emminated from Thana's lips, however, told him otherwise, allowing him to lower his previously raised shoulders as she conceded defeat like a true champion. When she got moving, Nigel followed dillegently like the good assistent he'd been that day. A steward or a servant? He couldn't fault the answer Thana finally gave him, nodding along as she explained what she had actually been doing the past time, or rather the battles she'd fought. "Then your earlier look speaks true the fault in my questions, though I can't blame you really. I'm surprised you managed to pull through getting back on the road, from what you've told me. But, if this is your first night off, better spend it well then?"

Nigel didn't know what she would have liked to do during a night off, seen as tending to the plants was a day-time job. Perhaps he could suggest something, though from what little he'd gathered so far, she'd probably want to spend that time with someone special. No, Nigel would probably meet some new faces if and when he'd attend his activeties…which weren't on the board. Odd. A simple trick of entertainment by the powers that be, or…well, something else logical?

He didn't have much to say, simply following her into the Education Center's interiour after the two elders had passed safely discussing the Plauge of the 1340's, not one of Nigel's favourite subjects but something he'd read his fair share about. Personally the Justinian Plauge was of more interest. The cool air hit him like the projectile of a Roman siege weapon, just as it had done so every single time he'd entered a building the past week. Another thing hitting him was the wall of sound blasting from down the hall, accompanied by Maddoc storming off like a storm past the Pillars of Hercules. Nigel gave a confused look to Thana, slightly concerned at his outburst. Thana seemed collected though, and so he was motioned forward to approach the Professor. "Thanks, might need it. Last time we spoke, she asked some complicated questions about Rome and myself." Nigel said quietly to Thana, before taking a final breath and entering her domain.

Nigel knocked on the wall as he approached, signalling his approach like he knew his own professors preferred it. "Professor, may I have a moment of your time?" he asked carefully, feeling like a school boy again and not the sweaty man he'd become that day. "I was just wondering about the sign up papers, some of which were missing from the board? I'd like to sign up, but I am ill-prepared for how the procedures work here, filing paperwork included…"

🧚🏻‍♀️ The Walking Dead - Year 6 Part 1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Alexander Polawski Location: Administration (A) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Whatever had just transpired within the walls of Administration, Alexander wasn't picking up on any of it. Not everything in its entirerity at least, neither how Nigel the teacher had made a tactical retreat out the front door nor Thalia making a beeline for Gunny's office. To the amputated retiree still going strong, all things considered, he was more than happy to have Sandra be as friendly towards him as she was. Alexander gave a chuckled smile to her, placing his hands at his hips and giving the escaping Nigel a final nod. "Likewise, Sandra. These final days here with you have been most pleasent for an old fella like myself. Now if you would excuse me, got to follow Thalia quickly. See you for dinner then, doll." He told her, giving her another smile and a wave, following Thalia's trail.

Alexander began making his way after Thalia deeper into the Admin building, feeling a sense of joy filling up inside him. The sorrow from the graveyard visit hadn't left him just yet, neither the pain his his nose that refused to give up, however things looked like they were turning out better than expected. As he finally reached Gunny's office, at least what he guessed was, seeing him and Thalia there, he joined the two and stood beside his amputee in crime. They were asked if they had been given enough time. Alexander initially nodded briefly to Gunny, gesturing that they had been given enough time indeed. It hadn't been a funeral after all, just a brief visit. It had been good for him, and probably for the whole group. Closure was in short supply those days.

That's when he saw what Gunny was working with, or rather read the title of it. Court martial? A lump formed in Alexander's throat, reminding him of the many times he'd heard that sentence during way-back-when. Even he had been felt it dangle over him like a noose, but only almost. Instinctively he feared of what he'd done, but realized it probably wasn't for him. But if not him, then who? It was best not to ask, for they'd surely know sooner rather than later either way. Attempting to shake off the feeling of dread, Alexander turned to another subject. "Is the General in now? I've got an appointment with him now after work."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel Cooper Location: Streets of CMB (I4) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel's attempt at stealthily escaping the cluthes of Rolodex had somewhat been less than successful, seen as the elderly queen of a Greek play had spotted him and foretold her intentions with him in an equally poetic phrasing. Leaning up against the wall of the Administration, regretting it quickly as he felt the heat trapped within the building spread through his body. He cared little about it for the moment, needing a deep breath after the escaping the clutches of the lioness. What in the name of Zeus had he gotten himself into?

With the breathing done and the immiediate fear dissapated, Nigel heard Thana recognize his existance once again, warning him of whatever Rolodex was going to do to him. Nigel tried ot laugh it off, the laugh coming out awkwardly, befitting a comedy more than a tragedy. "Is that so…It would seem I need to seek shelter with whoever may protect me then." Nigel responded to Thana's warning, wiping off the sweat as he walked up to her as Ash left. The two of them were close, they looked well for each other. Kinship like that was a rareity those days, and ten-fold something to take care of. Who knew if Nigel would find something like there, finally in a haven of civilisation.

As long as it wasn't Rolodex, he would contend to be a happy man.

Thankfully Thana couldn't read thoughts and ridecule his fears - or could she - and instead suggested showing him the sign-ups for activieties now that they had some time off. "Yeah sure, I'm in for that. No plans for now. Thought this morning something to do would do me good. Either some gaming, quilting or even that Dungeons and Dragon's thingy. I suppose fencing is off the table for now. For the record, what do you usually do after work?"

🧚🏻‍♀️ The Walking Dead - Year 6 Part 1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Alexander Polawski Location: Assembly (P) -> Administration (A) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The coast was clear so to speak, seen as their re-entry into the comforting walls of Camp Mexico Beach went as well as anyone could have hoped for. Ol' Mugsy knew well to enjoy the relative safety of a serious protective barrier between you and the outside world, be it a series of sandbags and fortified foxholes, or the vast ocean surrounding an island. Yes, letting his shoulder slowly down and leaning a little more calm in his seat, Alexander tried to let go the nagging feeling that their luck was soon to run out.

He had been about to turn and say something to Manny in due to the silence that had shrouded them, when the world went to shits. A loud honk of sound blared out front, then the bus stopped entirely. A younger Alexander might have had the ability to react to his instincts and brace for impact, but the impact came in full force. Nose first, Alexander flew into the seat in front, then just as quickly bounced back into his seat. The world was a noisy mess around him with cursing all around and a painful nose plastered on his face. Manny somehow had managed to catch himself, or so he thought, and came with one of his usual quips. "Ouch…you and me both, baby-boomer…didn't these bucket of bolts use to have seatbelts?"

No one appeared to be wounded though, and the bus kept on trucking forwards to the Assembly in due course. Told that dinner would be served in 30 and to report back to their superiors, Alexander shook his senses back and got back out to the scorching steam-heat of the Florida sun. Alexander bid his fellow baby-boomer farewell and "see you at dinner, okay?", and followed after Thalia bee-lining it to first Thana and second Admin.

"I think we're all fine, just a headache. See you at dinner, like she said." Alexander told Thana in passing while she chatted some with Ashton, then made his way into Administration pondering on what the hell had happened with the bus, catching Thalia talking to Rolodex, Sandra, while Nigel the Roman stood still. Too still, stiff, awkward? Alexander gave him a polite wave, before turning to the two ladies. Giving her a smile he took a step beside Thalia. "Good evening, Sandra. Quite the stir out there, isn't it? Gunny's in there?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel Cooper Location: Administration (A) (Inside -> Outside) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

In the coming centures and millenia, perhaps with the proper passage of time and the rediscoveries of the long lost "Camp Mexico Beach Annals: A comedy-tragedy about the life and death of Nigel Sportacus Cooper", then Nigel would have the insight to finally see what had been going on before his very eyes. It was perhaps this reason that he had spent less time socializing with the opposite sex, or he was just thicker than an Egyptian corner stone of a pyramid at the moment. Whatever the cause of this spell was, Nigel didn't register what Rolodex, or Sandra as she called herself, was doing with him.

Nigel, polite yet awkward as he was around most people, was ready to pull back his hand from Rolodex and wait for whatever normal answer she'd given him about the paperwork. The more he attempted to withdraw his hand from her though, the more it felt like a melee more than a greeting. For some reason Rolodex didn't let go of his hand just like that. And what she was telling him about staying late to help him, it took a moment too long for it to clik in his mind. Before he realised the ambush he'd put himself into, Thana had already left him behind after telling him to follow, and he hadn't listened.

Rolodex was wooing him.

Nigel's cheeks suddenly turned a shade of Roman red at this realisation, his eyes shifting between Rolodex standing in front of him and the spot Thana had been just a moment ago. He was trapped. Swallowing hard, Nigel stood perplexed as Rolodex came closer, and closer, and closer to his face, unsure of what to do. "Ehm…I…I don't think this is what paperwork involves…" Nigel said frightened.

Saved by the proverbial bell it would seem, Thalia entered the room and announced her presence just in time. With Rolodex apparently preoccupied by Thalia and her request for the moment, Nigel weighed his options as Alexander the veteran entered. Should he send a warning to the old man, or save his own skin from the shame? He was given a polite nod, to which he slowly returned as Alexander too started talking to Rolodex. That was it, time to make his retreat!

Nigel inched his way back the way he and Thana had come from, hoping to leave the room as unnoticable as possible, using Thalia and Alexander as a ruse. Slowly, surely, Nigel made his way to the door to make his escape, calling out to the trio before leaving quickly. "Seems I must make haste, don't let me keep you occupied! Pax vobiscum!" he bid his farewell, quickly getting back out onto the ever burning streets of CMB, looking as if something big had happened moments earlier. What it had been, Nigel couldn't say, but it was enough for Thana to have left him. He took a deep breath and felt the newly won freedom, much rather having the scorching sun rather than Rolodex's frightening stare. "That…that was not how I expected paperwork to work…"

One good thing about today.

Went on a date today. Not sure if it will lead to anything, but I had fun.

Current Mood in One Gif

🧚🏻‍♀️ The Walking Dead - Year 6 Part 1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Alexander Polawski Location: CMB Graveyard (Bus) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Besides the chattering between the proper members of CMB and their assigned guards, it would seem their whole group fell into a lull of silence after Manny's comment to Alexander. It felt like a deep silence, one everyone either fell into by accident or one people entered for some peace and quiet. Alexander had been in many a times of utter silence before, but this was different, not enforced by someone else or brought forth by fear. It was…cathartic in a sense.

Alexander felt yet a greater sense of inner peace when he felt a hand placed into his own - Thalia's hand. She had accepted his little gesture. Alexander didn't pertrude the silence, only shot her the briefest of look before returning his gaze out the window. When she gave him a squeeze and pulled her hand back, Alexander squeezed it back and returned his own hand to his lap, glad Thalia had taken it. It felt like the proper thing to do, to show her she was one he cared for. One of many he cared for these days, one of a handful he had in his prayers each night before bed. Judith had shown him that. Don't tell, show it.

Slowly but surely the bus had traversed the distance between the graveyard and the gates of CMB - their new home. A trip of that time and length, however brief, had always sent a sense of dread to old Mugsy before. Back when he was alone or was with his handful of loved ones - Thana, Beatrice, Thalia and Manny- anything could happen, just look at what happened to them time and time again after Eden. The fact that this had been a safe travel back and forth the outside almost didn't sit well with Alexander, like he knew something would happen. It always did, didn't it? Listening to Daytona informing them they were almost home told him otherwise.

If then all went well, Alexander would get some work done with Thalia, eat dinner and then look for the General. He had not forgotten their arrangement from the night before.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel Cooper Location: Administration (A) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel kept his distance behind Thana as they now stood in the Administration building, having determined to let his superiour do the talking and making the arrangements for whatever files they had to…well, file. Keeping quiet Nigel took the time to simply gazing around the room and its contents, besides the nail-filing lady and Thana. Now that sweat was rolling less down his face and he could actually see without shielding his eyes, he was paying more attention to the interiour than anything else. Air-condition, the counter and a scene right out of any reception in a typical American small town, Nigel was still wrapping him mind around the normality surrounding him.

It came as a surprise when he was finally spoken to, yet the voice that spoke wasn't Thana's. Suddenly there was a hand extended out to him and a older lady's voice talking to him straight out of Gone With the Wind. Nigel turned around unbalanced and got a good look of Rolodex, catching Thana's look that could only be of pity. Why, he couldn't tell, but having gotten to know her meant his gut was following Thana's look.

Nigel reached out and shook Rolodex's hand, as his ma and pa had taught him, and gave her a friendly, polite smile. "Pleasent to meet you. Nigel Cooper. I've only just arrived, but I assume that was a given." Nigel introduced himself as best he could, unsure of how to proceed thanks to Thana's visual warning. Pulling back his hand and scracthing the back of his neck, Nigel stood sheepisly for a moment, before biting the sling-shot. "So…since I've only just entered this fortified polis, how does the paper work…work?"

🧚🏻‍♀️ The Walking Dead - Year 6 Part 1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Alexander Polawski Location: CMB Graveyard (Bus) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The presence of his dearly beloved Angel with more force grown up inside of her than most people he'd known, with few strong exceptions, went unnoticed by old Mugsy as he looked out the window for a good second or two. Yes he could see her in the edge of his sight and hear her speak to him in her restrained Boston voice, but he didn't respond immediatly. The thoughts that had haunted him during his time in the cemetery, followed him most of his life actually, they had drowned her out.

"Hm?" Alexander mumbled from his absentmindedness , turning around and looking at Thalia sitting in the bus seat and looking as deadpan as she ever did. He didn't judge her though, they all had a lot to process, not the least her. "Yeah, sure thing Angel. Uncle Sam still need us after all." He quiped, stiffling a sigh and straightening himself up in the seat. "Pull yourself together, old man." he'd tell himself, just like Sergaent Jackson would have told him, like so many others in his life told him. Be a man and all that. Judith was the only one who didn't listen to that bullshit, because she listened to him.

As the bus starting up again with everyone seated and accounted for, the thought of therapy crossed Alexander's mind again…maybe it was a good idea after all.

Manny also found his way over to Alexander, sitting beside him and giving the usual optimistic commentary the post-apocalyptic dentist Alexander knew him for. And that smile, that stupid smile of his which somehow helped. Did dentists smile as much as Manny did? Alexander couldn't remember. "I don't know. It is sure a lot better to give them a proper burial. Helps us moving on as they move to God. We can only do our best to, quote; "not fuck up", as my old sergeant Jackson always told us." Alexander said to Manny, taking a deep breath in of fresh air-conditioned air that filled him with new vigour. It was unusal for him to mention someone from his military past, especially by name, but it had happened.

Almost as unusal was for Thalia to thank everyone on the bus the way she did. Alexander turned to look at her again, pulling the side of his lip into a smile and nodding to her compassionatly. "Yeah, thanks everyone, and you…" It was emotional, without any doubt it was for everyone. Losing someone never got easier. Alexander patted Manny on his shoulder and reached the palm of his hand out to Thalia to do as she wished.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel Cooper Location: Streets of CMB (N5) -> Administration (A) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Things were far too lax there? Nigel didn't show it in a massive spectacle of disbelief, but he didn't quite understand what Thana was going on about. The neo-Roman had some trouble seeing how much more stricter the security of Camp Mexico Beach, having been through it himself after having spent as much time out in the undead wild as he had. As they kept walking through the streets of CMB, Nigel couldn't help but compare that experience to someone stepping out of the Nubian Desert into the grand cities of the pharaoes for the first time.

Perhaps that was why he didn't see what Thana saw? He had to admit he'd grown softer those past days in quarantine and within the safety of sturdy walls. Perhaps Thana was right, Nigel certainly knew to what lenghts they themselves had gone in order to keep their own settlement safe. Kept people outside, starving and freezing, their lives dictacted by the dead that followed them…Would he need to harden himself again?

Thankfully Thana quiped back more cheerfully about the children and their training. Nigel had to chuckle in surprise alongside her, giving the black haired kid a second look as they passed. Impressive was the least he could say of the thought that a lone kid could disarm Gregory…whoever this Gregory was, which he couldn't recall. Just like Thana it seemed, they were trained from a very young age. "Well about you I'm not surprised, but those younglings? Sounds like they've recieved the best of both Athenian and Spartan education. My pa' mostly taught me how to smith horse shoes, shovelheads and the like. It would be an honour to teach them if I'm placed in Education." Nigel admitted, hoping to teach them proper sword-fighting techniques and warfare of the Ancient world.

Nigel followed Thana closely as they finally reached their destination - the Administration building, again blessed with the modern marvel of air-conditioning and the less modern shade. Of course it was quite the enviromental change to Nigel's body once he stepped inside, but it thanked him sooner rather than later. An older looking lady sat filing her nails like a certain librarian had done at his campus back in the day. Nigel couldn't place that lady either, and let Thana once again do the talking for both of them. She knew what they were doing after all, he was just her slave.

Voluntary slave…no, didn't sound any better.

Current Mood in One Gif

🧚🏻‍♀️ The Walking Dead - Year 6 Part 1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Alexander Polawski Location: Graveyard -> Bus Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

People were affected by the small ceremony they all had particepated in, however simple and brief it had been so far. All in their different ways, including Alexander himself, they all met death differently. He himself had shed a few tears in silence, some hugged and others did nothing. The stoic stance of Ash made Alexander give him a brief look, imagining what was going through the man's mind, probably the same that had filled his own many years ago in the same situation…

Scenes from many funerals…

…Another humid day in the middle of God knew where, somewhere located in South Vietnam. A military base, an American one to be specific. Rows of soldiers in uniform stood around a single man wearing a cross and the Army's padre uniform, wielding a Bible and sermoning over a casket. Several caskets, strewn with burial banners with the names of the dead, some of which Special Polawski had known personally, some not. All were catholics, now united in death. The priest spoke with a voice that only a mournful, yet comforting father could compare, all the soldiers' eyes and ears paying attention.

Alexander had heard that prayer many times before, both before and then in his military life. He knew one of those guys in the caskets, a guy of Mexican descent and with a temperament that rivalled his own father. But he was friendly to those he cared about, helped Alexander catch up with the squad if falling behind stuck on his vegatation. And just like that, he was gone. The others Alexander didn't care too much about, but he?

"O God, Whose property is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly beseech Thee for the soul of Thy servant Pedro Gonzalvas…"

…With raining pouring down on the funeral procession, the Chicago autumn weather only made the bural attendants all the more somber. The crowd was far from a large one, only amounting to ten-fifteen people at most, a limping young man in a military uniform standing at the front. A single casket was to be put in the ground, the catholic priest wielding a Bible and sermoning over the casket. With the sermon taking its course, Alexander Polawski couldn't take his eyes of the soon-to-be grave of his father. Not a day had passed since he stepped on American soil before he was told his father was dead.

He felt nothing, at least not anything powerful enough to overcome all the other feelings writhing inside him. It was an emptiness that rivalled the body of the man lying in the casket and the prospect of the world having anything resembling meaning. Empty and dark. War or not, it followed Alexander wherever he went.

"O God, Whose property is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly beseech Thee for the soul of Thy servant William Mathis Polawski…"

…The wind blew the usual sea-salted air across the island, though failing to drown out the words spoken around the newly dug grave of their last dead. There were a handful of them, laid to rest in hand-made caskets by someone not trained in the craft, but they would have to do. None of them were of the clergy, so the prayer to the recently deceased should be spoken by the group of survivors most experienced man in this matter. Alexander couldn't do it.

He stood staring at the casket to his wife, now dead and gone with the Florida wind that must be weeping alongside him. How could it not? This was the worst day of his life, and how it could keep on going after he could not fathom. He blocked out those thoughts, all the things penetrating his mind telling him all those terrible things. He couldn't. All he could do was to stand there and weep as their buried his wife and the others taken by the Undead.

"O God, Whose property is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly beseech Thee for the soul of Thy servant Judith Perkins Polawski…"

They were leaving. Atticus told them their time was up and it was time to return to the bus. Alexander blinked the running tears from his eyes, wiping his cheeks and straightening up. Walking up to the bus with the others and lining up like the good grunt on a patrol he'd once been, his eyes drifted back to the gravstones dotting the landscape one last time. Nothing said, nothing done, only a brief look and a deep thought that stuck with him as he handed over the shotgun and satchel of shells to Bass. He didn't know how or when, if it was even possible, but one wish was growing brighter and stronger inside his heart as he entered the bus and sat down.

Could he bury her there, close to him? Would that be his redemption?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Nigel Cooper Location: Hydroponic Garden (T) -> Streets of CMB (N5) Skills: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Atlas. Yeah, Nigel could grow accustomed to being called that as well, why not? Though with a saddened smile on her face, Nigel had perhaps helped drawn Thana out of her saddening vision and back to the realm of the living, if that was what she'd been thinking about. Nigel reciprocated the smile, feeling the pat on his own shoulder like a comforting reasurrance, one he hadn't gotten for a long time beside Erica. Giving her a nod, Nigel agreed and followed Thana back outside. "Works for me. Let's go make the Roman annals proud."

Today had been, all things considered, a good day for Nigel. Besides the enjoyable company of Thana the Athenian, he'd gotten into a certain rhythm - one involving waking up in a comfortable bed, getting dressed in clean and non-tattered clothes, eating two meals so far and doing some important work for the new Magna Gracia colony. He was doing something meaningful, something normal. Again his mind wandered back to the interview and the Professor's question of "normalcy". He smiled to himself. This felt normal. Who knew how normal he'd feel if and when he'd get back into a classroom?

Not to mention, as he though, he'd gotten a new friend.

Nigel followed Thana through the sun-baked streets of Camp Mexico, Apollo pearing down at the mortals hurrying through the heat on their own ways. While Thana went on to tell him more about the Bayou-people and a trade of people that didn't go well, Nigel listened casually while noting the groups of children passing by as well. Nigel had still not gotten used to seeing the younglings running about as carefree as before, and perhaps he never would after what happened in at Spartanburg. "Must have been something serious considering how strict they've been with us. Not that I'm complaining, been fair so far." Nigel commented to Thana, following across the street and walking down the main street alongside her. Main street, down towards the Administration Building - the Conciliabulum he would call it. "From the sound of it, you haven't been in dire need of more hands though? At least not when those younglings will grow up and take our place. I hope they'll be prepared for the world out there though…"

The Rain In The Cycolpean City. (H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu Mythos Roleplay)

Richard Barker

"Yeah, sure thing Detective Garther, since you asked nicely. I'll make sure he comes along, peacefully." Richard told Dirk as the small group of the cop, fake cop and the Italian fella walk off to their set of wheels further down the street. He himself was put on baby-sitting duty for their good doctor, though Richard's harsh comment earlier was more his to-the-face attitude than annoyance.

Turning over to Alonzo, Richard touched the tip of his fedora and nodded to him with his scarred nose. "Being the true gentelman a New Yorker I am, wouldn't dream of anything else. Dr. Scott was it? Barker, Richard Barker. Before you ask, yeah I'm a shamus. Private detective, finding what's bothering people just like you do Doc." Richard introduced himsef to the doctor, flicking the dead ash off his cigarette and turning back towards Jeremy's pile of planks and bricks. So the two last fellas were still inside? That didn't make any sense.

Richard was about to ask Alonzo about that Chinese angle when he had the good doctor shouted in his ear like an incompetent nurse had just stabbed him in the private parts. "What are you flim-flamming about, old man?" Richard asked the doctor, giving him a long face at first as if he was talking to someone else. When he was told someone was trapped inside the house and to get Dirk back, Richard looked back and forth the old house and Alonzo. "I've got a feeling I'm stuck behind the 8-ball here. What the Hell are you on about, doc?"

It was not until he heard a noise from the house - a loud and brief one, something breaking through wood. Was that the sound Alonzo had heard, assuming someone was stuck inside? Richard sighed heavily, instinctively drawing his Colt Police Revolver as he began jogging towards the house, wondering if their promised bad guys had just gotten the jump on Ambroise and James. If that were the case, Alonzo's need for Dirk to return would be too late. "No time if someone's sent Ambroise and James on a permanent New Jersey vacation. James, Ambroise! You hear me in there? What's the trouble?"

Why he couldn't hear or see neither James nor Ambroise could only be answered by the powers that may be, something only a King or follower would know.