#miseriastart

[hardrainsfall]

open to : everyone.  /  location : south santa fe ave.

stealth was part of any survivor’s reason for surviving, taher included. even a man that wasn’t exactly described as graceful as a child had to have some ability to move safely on the open road these days. some of it was trained into him by the others at the library camp, some was just learned on the job. right now, though, not one of taher’s greatest moments. a little tussle with a reaper left him tripping over his own feet (or was it their feet?) and falling on his ass, the snapping jaws above him uncomfortably close to his shoulder. through some maneuver taher wouldn’t be able to figure out the physics of hours later when thinking over it again, he gained the upper hand, flipping the rotted body underneath him and quickly he grabbed for his axe that he forgot that he dropped. uncoordinatedly taher wielded the axe above his head and chopped into the body heavily. once its head was severed, taher stumbled back and knowingly dropped his axe this time. wiping a hand over his forehead and then realizing his face was streaked with dirt and blood, taher made a noise of disgust. suddenly the weight of someone’s stare was on him and his head snapped in their direction. he shrugged and softly smiled, embarrassed.

“i thought that went pretty well, didn’t you?”

[nocshift]

at first it was as if all of neve’s senses had been removed. briefly, she recalled a short story in some clive barker she’d read in high school. something about sensory deprivation and insanity. she remembered never having felt a fear quite like he described. she had a rogue’s gallery of terrifying experiences, but nothing like that. in a second, she felt that preternatural abyss as an all-consuming darkness before the ringing started in her ears. before the stinging between her eyes, which she hasn’t realized she’d been squeezing so tightly (she hadn’t considered that she’d had eyes at all until that moment). something hot lapped at her clammy hands before she opened her eyes and found herself blinded by the light despite the hour being late and the sky crepuscular.

gathering her faculties bit by bit, she reached for the tongue that had woken her and found fur. comforting. she hadn’t realized the threat she feared until it was gone and her hand was on “robocop!” she left out as a grateful croak, throat sore like she’d spent the night close to an air conditioner. groping for her pack and gun, neve tried to remain as silent as the los angeles detritus crunched beneath her every calculated move. the city always had a topsoil of litter. the apocalypse had done to it what it did to all things–stripped it bare and made it more of what it truly was. her footsteps seemed to echo as she stepped on what looked like a few hundred years-old concert flyers. robocop’s ears perked up, alerting her to the presence of someone else. not an echo. not the dead.

“hello?” she called. feeling stupid before the second syllable. like the first to die in a horror movie, the actress’ name buried in obscurity several credits below the bumbling sheriff. clearing her throat, she tried to get her feet underneath her, steeling herself for whatever answered and for whatever they had planned for her. living or dead.

[nevershrinking]

really, one of the worst things about the end of the world was all of the knowledge the human race had lost. the grid was down and the internet was gone. along with the cities, all the books had burnt and now, even radios harbored no new information - just people calling for help, people who were going to find nothing but brigands and ruffians to steal their food, seize their shelters, and take their lives. or worse. 

the human race was starting from the beginning - and no matter how evolved the people still alive once believed they were, they were now no better off than the neanderthals from their history books. “funny how we’ve come full circle, isn’t it?” she murmured, though there really wasn’t anything funny about it at all.

[ofaprotector-blog]

   the man walks up to the other and manages to smile. it’d been a rough night of thinking about . . . a lot but still, he tries to stay positive : tries to not make it obvious that his heart is sunken into his chest during the interaction. “ hey. i , uh . . . just wanted to check up on you. ” - something he often did ; made sure everyone was okay. “ is everything good .. with you? ”

[svntlago-blog]

what’s up y’all, i’m emily ! i’m 21, use she/her pronouns, and i hail from the est timezone ! i’m incredibly pumped to be here, but enough about me — time to introduce this absolute unit of a dumbass, charlie. i was gonna do a real bio, but being lazy is a lifestyle so i’m just gonna attempt to do a summary for y’all instead. buckle up pals !

(  sean teale  /  cismale  /  he/him  )  .  introducing charlie santiago, the host for the connard . they’ll be twenty seven years old , and arrived at hartly one month ago . you’ll always see brass knuckles around wherever he is . 

trigger warnings for maternal death, implied child abuse, incarceration, and mentions of alcoholism and drugs.

hello and welcome to a happy childhood, soon to be ruined !

his dad ran out on his mom when she was still pregnant with him, but the two of them were peas in a pod when he was born and he was such a mama’s boy; some of his most cherished memories were when they would cook meals together, experimenting and all that bc once upon a time she wanted to be a chef and basically ? it was precious.

she died tho sry

eleven year old charlie was shipped off to his mom’s brother, a hard-drinking ex-cop named tony with nothing better to do than take out his frustrations on a kid he never wanted in the first place.

one thing his uncle did love, though, was boxing. charlie was dragged along with him to the local gym nearly every day, watching the guys train and listening on as his uncle offered pointers and encouragement to the fighters.

eventually, charlie found himself in his own pair of boxing gloves, participating in scaled-down training of his own, and he loved it.

after high school, he threw himself into training even harder, knowing that his ultimate goal was to pursue boxing professionally.

making it was the most incredible feeling, and charlie was on top of the world — he was undefeated, raking in cash, and rising as an up-and-coming name in the boxing world.

at least, he was, until a substantial amount of cocaine was found in his bag one night.

it didn’t matter how much he protested that it wasn’t his — charlie was charged, tried, and wrongfully convicted of possession of a controlled substance. he spent over a year locked in a jail cell until he was released, but he spent the whole time keeping himself in shape, provoking fights if only for the practice, and letting his rage simmer until he could get the hell out of dodge.

three days after he was released from prison, the outbreak started. talk about shit timing am i right lmao

he waded through zombieland alone, struggling with the abrupt transition from jail to outside to apocalypse but managing to keep himself alive.

two weeks after the outbreak, charlie found an abandoned german shepherd on the side of the road. he took in the stray, naming her lola and nursing her back to health. she now follows him everywhere, and the two are fiercely protective of each other.

he mainly kept to himself, avoiding big settlements at first until everything had a chance to settle ( at least a bit ). he stumbled upon hartly about a month ago, and decided it was time to finally be around someone other than lola for once.

as for personality, he’s kind of a dick ngl, in day to day interactions he’s curt and rude and usually looking for a fight. deep deep deep down, he’s actually very soft and kind, but he’s learned better over the years than to expose that soft underbelly to people.

that’s all ?? for now ?? lbh i probs missed smth but oh well

wanted connections !

surrogate sibling — he never had a sibling but like ? he should’ve. these two would probably bicker to no end, but charlie would be incredibly overprotective and really want the best for this person ( the best = not getting eaten by a zombie, ideally ). he puts on such a front for the rest of the world that i want someone that he genuinely cares for !!

ride or die / best friend — i beg

opposites — he is dumb and angry and mean so let’s rope a nice lil bean into putting up with his bullshit ! who knows if there are any nice lil beans left in the zombie apocalypse, but if there are, i’d love to subject them to charlie’s particular brand of jackass.

confidant — charlie would rather die than talk about all his mushy feelings, but even assholes need someone to trust with deep shit and good gossip !

fwb / fling — tbh, he basically only cares about his dog, but a guy’s got needs, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ fuck the apocalypse am i right ? this is open to all genders !

exes — like, pre outbreak maybe ?? charlie is still a hot mess. could’ve ended well, could’ve ended badly – we can connect the dots together.

suspicions — for whatever reason, charlie doesn’t trust this person. maybe they’re acting shady ( in his opinion ), maybe they didn’t trust him first, whatever. there’s tension, and in a world full of zombies, that can be bad for business.

enemy — charlie is fucking annoying so i imagine he’s got some of these. enemies are an especially dangerous thing to have when you’re already dealing with being attacked by zombies, so i think this would be an fun take on what happens when “humans vs. zombies” becomes “humans vs. humans”.  

in conclusion plot with me xoxo my discord is emily#8589 or hit that heart and i’ll come to u !

[theayoung]

This was supposed to be sanctuary, and for the most part, Thea believed it. But she’d only been here two or so weeks -- not nearly long enough to trust that Hartly wouldn’t just eventually fall apart like any of the other groups and places claiming to be safe. She organized all of her possessions, meticulously fitting them into the guitar case currently serving as her bag, fingers brushing wistfully over the beat up ukulele residing in it. She plucked out a couple notes, smiling to herself at the tune, before noticing she wasn’t as alone as she’d originally thought. “Yeah, can I help you?” She bit out, hurriedly tucking a flannel over the ukulele, even if it was a bit too late to conceal it now.

[soliitvde]

𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 : anyone !  /  𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 : rogue’s campsite ! 

          “  WELL  !  ”  talia  exclaimed  ,  an  ear  -  to  -  ear  grin  across  her  lips  ,  a  picture  of  pure  joviality  (  though  it’s  not  quite  reaching  her  eyes  )  . “  come  on  ,  give  us  a  smile  !  ”  the  brunette  encouraged  as  she  brought  the  camera  up  to  her  eye  . “  show  us  those  pearly  whites  !  and  say  geotrichum  candidum  !  ”