preseance: (pic#14279469)
ᴇᴜɢᴜᴇɴᴇ ʜɪᴄᴋs ([personal profile] preseance) wrote in [community profile] meadowlark2020-11-11 02:30 pm

@eugene.hicks

Hey, all.

Brought to you by my going home a spell and returning here just about a decade later by my reckoning — what amenities would you say you miss most from home?

Now, for my part. I ain't a man of violence, but if I ever meet the fella or dame that outlawed smoking here I'd sure give them a stern piece of my mind.

For the newcomers, pleasure to meet y'all. If you're still in the process of getting settled, I'm happy to swing by to help get you situated.
notathreat: (21)

@ellie.miller

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-11 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Steak. Venison. Rabbit. Mutton. Being able to hunt whenever.

Not having to pay for shit.


[Money as a concept is a MEGA DOWNER, she's right and she'll say it.]
notathreat: (34)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-12 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
[The shitty stuff's all in the details.]

Me either, but it's nice to get out into the woods for a while. Away from walls.

[The peace of mind that comes with having fresh meat to bring home.]

I got myself a job, ya worrywart.

[When she was younger, the care might've rankled her. Now, she knows enough to treasure it, and even tease him a little bit.]
notathreat: (123)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-13 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Didn't think I'd agree with you at first, considering how useful it is, but yeah. I'd like to turn this shit off sometimes.

[As much as it brings her peace of mind, as much as she enjoys having all the wonder and knowledge of the world at her fingertips, there with just a thought, she's desperately homesick for the quiet of that old farm. She can almost find it in the edges of things here, but it's different, being lonely in a crowd, or on a fire escape.]

Fuck, that'd do it.

[The medics are always and will always been the toughest sons of bitches in any war zone. Killing is one thing. Keeping somebody alive is hard, slow, soul-wrecking work.]

They just needed a bit of extra muscle at this dive. You might like it, they've got live music.

[He's seen her- if they hired Ellie as muscle then they had occasion to see her in action.]
Edited 2020-11-13 23:54 (UTC)
notathreat: (41)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-15 07:34 am (UTC)(link)
Here you go.

Won't be able to talk a lot during my shift, but if you stick around, nobody'll mind too much.


[He's not the first of Ellie's friends to visit, with short hair and the accents of dead cultures. With too many scars, usually so easily healed by the technology of this place. But Ellie's boss had seen her missing fingers and just told her where she could find a doctor.

Ellie sends the map pin over, privately.]
notathreat: (59)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-18 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[Keep a light on for me, he says, and Ellie's glad this is in text because it aches inside her. Gene's been good to her so far, simple company, but it means more to her than she can rightfully throw at him.

It's getting harder to be lonely out here in New Amsterdam.]


Roger dodger.
notathreat: (45)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-20 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
[Ellie spots him, nods back, flashes a smile before getting on with her shift. While her much more heavily muscled partner stays on the door, Ellie stays on the bar, close to the other workers, most of whom are young women.

It's a busy night, and Ellie keeps a sharp eye. Part of the job of the workers on bar is having a playful connection with the customers, of course, but Ellie's job is to keep anyone from getting out of hand. Preserves the other workers from having to do it. Most of the time a hard poke in the side and a shake of Ellie's head is enough to get someone to back off apologetically.

Through the night there are several live musical acts, most of them upbeat and high energy, cover bands of old rock songs designed to get people dancing. But as it draws later there are a few slower songs, more soulful things.

How the trouble starts isn't clear, but one larger man starts drunkenly shoving at another, and Ellie moves to interfere, to put a hand on his arm.

He backhands her. Hard. And Ellie not only dodges back to lessen the force of the blow, but takes his arm, takes his momentum, and just leans the guy into the bar. The impact knocks the breath out of him, but doesn't hurt him too bad. She growls something at him, and by then the other bouncer is there to politely but firmly lead the guy out of the bar.

He's a bit drunk, and it shows. Ellie throws Gene a glance, and a wink. She's fine.

Finally, things seem to be winding down towards closing, and Ellie takes a glass from the bar, heads over to Gene's table to toast him with it as she sits down.]


Can't believe you sat here so long. Sorry about it. You good?
Edited 2020-11-20 06:25 (UTC)
notathreat: (33)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-21 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
[The only reason Ellie hasn't forgotten the tussle by the time they sit down is because of the way Gene's looking at her. It's been a long, long time since somebody's fussed over a bruise this light, and she has to fight down the twinge in her heart even as she leans forward, tilting her head so he can see the light blush of a bruise along her jaw.]

That? Sh'yeah, fine. He wasn't even trying to hurt me.

[Ellie gives Gene a reassuring if crooked smile, brings her glass back to her lips as she takes a seat. It's much more quiet now, the crowd just milling and tired and happy, the musicians packing up.]

Used to get much worse than this on patrol. S'weird, working where nothing's trying to kill you.
notathreat: (7)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-11-29 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
[Ellie smiles back, the lordy hitting something that feels all too much like home. Gene's like that, familiar in all the best ways. Enough for her to double-check her memory and realize that she really hasn't told him much about herself at all. Just that she went to military school at once point.]

Oh, hundreds.

[Ellie breathes out, takes a long drink from her glass, unsure of where to start.]

I was on Jackson group patrols from the time I was fifteen, paired at sixteen, keeping the area clear of hunters and infected. We'd run through the checkpoints, clear anything we came across, report back.

[Ellie pauses, tilting her head.]

Have you ever seen a zombie movie? Something like that, but twenty-something years later.
notathreat: (5)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-12-15 05:33 am (UTC)(link)
[Ellie frowns to herself, trying to figure out a way to describe it that will be both accurate and not sound horrifying. It's impossible.]

I was born about... six years after it hit.

Joel-

[Ellie pauses here, because it's still a lot to say his name.]

He says that everything was fine when they went to bed before the outbreak, but they woke up and the world was going crazy. That millions of people died in one night. If it wasn't because they were infected, it was because the infected got them, or because people were scared, and turning on each other. Millions more every night after that, and more and more infected that just kept hunting everybody else.

FEDRA declared martial law, and set up Quarantine Zones. Work assignments and rations for everybody not military. Most of the Zones fell eventually, though.

[Aside from the details from Joel, it sounds almost like she's reading out of a textbook. She flickers her eyes back up at Gene.]

Sorry. There's no way to not make it sound fucking depressing. But it's just what it is, yanno?
notathreat: (7)

[personal profile] notathreat 2020-12-21 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
[It's a better reaction than some, and Ellie nods, taking a sip of her drink.]

Most things.

[She tries for a smile.]

Seeing how many people there were still freaked me right out.
notathreat: (5)

[personal profile] notathreat 2021-01-02 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
Most, yeah, and it wasn't always clear who was and wasn't.

Was pretty jumpy most of the first week.

[Meaning she's adapted rather well, given that she's sitting here in this bar, and isn't reacting with deadly force to someone taking a swing at her. Or seems to, anyway.]
notathreat: (69)

[personal profile] notathreat 2021-01-03 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
Not my first time adjusting to a safe place after a long time on the road.

[Ellie watches him, though, the way he holds himself, like he's using his whole body to prop up his heart, caging himself in. She knows the posture; she's seen it in plenty of men older than him.

Some younger.]


It helped, having... people, I guess. So early.

[And a lot of people willing to help her break out of the temporary safehouse for a little while.]
notathreat: (7)

[personal profile] notathreat 2021-01-10 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ellie takes another drink, watches him, more of a sober expression on her face. She doesn't doubt him, not exactly, but he's different from what she expected.]

You so nice to everybody you dance with?

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