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[handleyourshit]

  

This is Rosita.  I'll hit you back when I can.

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[handleyourshit]

Maybe I will someday. I don't know. It's been a minute since I've had the luxury of being whiny.

I guess.

[cactusy]

how long have you been living in zombie hell? or whatever you call them.

[handleyourshit]

Walkers. Rotters. Dead ones. Gurglers, lurchers, biters, floaters. I've never heard zombies though.

Hard to keep track. Four? Five years?

[cactusy]

Do you guys ever take votes on the most badass names for them?

[Because Shaw has opinions, but she's trying to be culturally sensitive here. Maybe joking about not-zombies isn't kosher.]

[handleyourshit]

Sometimes.

Depends on who's around. Some people still like to focus on the fact they used to be people.

[cactusy]

I'm trying to figure out which one you are before I tell you what the objectively best name is.

[handleyourshit]

Somewhere in the middle. I try not to forget they were people, but I also can't forget they're trying to fucking eat me so don't get too attached.

Hit me.

[cactusy]

Lurchers. Paints a good visual picture of how they move, and if you're creamed by one you don't have to be embarrassed over getting got by something called a "floater".

[handleyourshit]

Floaters was pretty specific to the coastal community we found. Personally I don't think it's fair that they can't drown or suffocate.

I always liked growlers. Doesn't quite fit all of them though, and walkers is easier to yell.

[cactusy]

Growlers is pretty badass. Second place. Walkers, middle of the pack.

[handleyourshit]

It's funny how even without society, there are ways to appeal more broadly to a group.

Walkers is that.

[cactusy]

No society at all? Not even little villages or communes or whatever?

[handleyourshit]

Some. They're rare though, and not like cities in the old world.

People tend to group up by mentality now.

[cactusy]

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

[handleyourshit]

Yeah.

But now if you don't like it, you can just leave.

Or stab someone if it's that important to you.

[cactusy]

Not interested in starting a blood feud.

Root might be, but she's as mad at me as she is at you.

CW: cannibalism mention

[handleyourshit]

Well she'll do what she feels she needs to do.

I'm not either though. I went on the offensive because I thought

Well let's just say it's never gone well for me to wake up somewhere I don't recognize with a bunch of strangers. And being eaten has been on the table before.

[cactusy]

I'm way more annoyed about "bite first, ask questions later" than I am about the knife. If I'd landed here without any explanation I might have tried to gut the first person I saw, too.

[handleyourshit]

Oh, so after the first try didn't work you'd just give up?

[cactusy]

If the first try tried to explain what was going on I might have actually listened.

CW: cannibalism

[handleyourshit]

The closest I ever came to being eaten was a group that had put out signs talking about sanctuary for miles and miles on every road around them, every railroad track.

You were met at the front gate by a group of people who claimed they were farmers and council members. Smiling. Welcoming. They had some clothes for you and a little bit of food and asked you who you were, where you were from, and what you could do. Everyone earns their keep, but everyone who does can stay. They answered every question we had, showed us around every building we asked to see.

Then they put us up for the night in a set of temporary shelters. One per room, two only for parents with children. Temporary, they promised. Getting everyone settled.

Then they locked us in, jumped us one at a time, and moved us to railway cars all the way in the back of the compound. They only slaughtered five at a time, in one building that they cleaned up every time just in case anyone ever wanted to see it.

I don't fucking listen to strangers. Ever.

[cactusy]

Ballpark guess, now that you have a couple weeks under your belt. If Rovia hadn't been here, how long would it have taken to convince you?

[handleyourshit]

Depends. Less time if I'd been locked somewhere with a communicator so I could read the network. More if I was injured, isolated, and assured it was for my own good or that of the group.

Definitely not while I thought I still had a chance of getting out on my own.

[cactusy]

You probably would have been locked in Zero for half a day and then turned loose. People handle things weird here.

[handleyourshit]

It might have worked with me.

Terrible decision for most people I know though.