014 x 410 // video // the man your man could smell like

[dignity_misery]

[The video, unfortunately, begins while the device is in the throes of being chewed on heartily by a teething puppy. Rex has gotten hold of the phone in Carla's... indisposition. He spends a few moments gnawing away at it, but the experience is not overly satisfying to him, and so he picks the phone back up, trotting along across hardwood floors with a click-click-click of claws to nudge his way into the main bedroom.

It's dark in there, and very still, at least until the woman in the bed rolls over with a groan, spilling off the side of the bed to lean over a strategically located trashcan ready to accept the thin stream of bile she heaves up, long hair scooped back from her face in one hand.

Yes, thank you, Rex. Everyone wanted to see that. The mutt sets the phone down on the floor beside the trashcan before sitting down and waiting to be praised for his good deed. Carla does not oblige him, she's buried her face back down into the mattress with an exhausted murmur. All she can be bothered to do is reach over blindly and pat the dog on the head a few times before her hand falls back down limply.]



[[ooc; and then that (wo)man your (wo)man could smell like triggered a migraine in an ex-zombie with a heightened sense of smell. It started on the subway, if you'd like to have witnessed her being debilitated in public. Estelle got her sorry ass home. Nurse Bunny may appear if she wishes o7]]

Comments

[dignity_misery]

Never. I didn't think Australia exported anything other than pirates.

[Most of the civilian population on land was wiped out in the 30s, the seafayers who took their place had done little to stop the cities burning.]

[intheblanks]

Makes a change from importing convicts.

[Thus was founded a great nation. She's pre-empted his question, though there have been throw-away remarks before. It's curiously hard to conceive of.]

It's a big place. There's no civilisation there? Nothing?

[dignity_misery]

Hm.

[She closes her eyes, shifting onto her side.]

Not much, a few big ports, a few religious settlements that end up in the news after they've been wiped out. Plenty of dumping sites.

[intheblanks]

Dumping sites?

[Idle hands brush back the hair that falls across her face, and occupy themselves with fingers catching and twisting in the longer lengths.]

[dignity_misery]

Publicly, it's just trash. Civilian, sometimes industrial. Privately, you'll get shipments of bodies that get picked over for anything salvageable.

[And anything else a corrupt organization might like to hide on a lawless corner of the map.]

[intheblanks]

New Jersey's starting to sound utopic. And hygienic.

[He shrugs. She might feel the shift against the mattress.]

It's a shame.

[dignity_misery]

[One of her hands comes up to cover his, taking it hostage.]

The first few waves of the virus left a lot of empty places.

[Australia isn't the only one, it's just the one that comes up, and the one that's particularly popular with the pirates.]

[intheblanks]

[He relinquishes the tangles he's wound in her hair in turn, smoothing the knots out to let his hand wrap hers.]

Just not enough to run itself into the ground. How did it start?

[dignity_misery]

Too many... conspiracy theories, about who developed it. Nobody really knows. First recorded site was on the French border. Hit everyone, Axis and Allies.

[It's a little amusing to her to be relating high school history lessons to him.]

Started flaring everywhere after.

[intheblanks]

But it was developed. Synthesised. Idiots.

[He tips back, shamelessly taking up Blonde's portion of the bed to lay back and make a study of their ceiling.]

Can't control a virus. If you had a populated Australia people might have learned that with mixy rabbits.

[dignity_misery]

[That makes her laugh briefly. When she had it taught to her, it was done with much more gravity. But that was what it boiled down to.]

People are idiots.

[And the world she'd lived in was a stunted one for it. It had a surface of modernity and civilization, in places, but it was preoccupied with death and disease, mired in crime and elitism.]

[intheblanks]

That's universal.

[Some things have to be. He'll tell her (far more mundane tales) about Melbourne, sometime. Might as well be Narnia.

He laughs, briefly, at least there's a huff of breath that could be taken for it, but then he's silent. A few minutes, at least.]

You're still infected, aren't you.

[It's a guess, however bluntly phrased. She got life back, not a cure.]

[dignity_misery]

[Her hand twitches against his, jerking tight, and she closes her eyes with a frown, expression furrowed against the pillows.]

I was inoculated.

[intheblanks]

Catching smallpox once inoculated you from catching the same strain again. As long as it didn't kill you, first.

[He has the corners of this puzzle, it's just twisting the other pieces to fit.]

[dignity_misery]

[She rolls over, upsetting Rex behind her who gives an agitated little snort, snuffling at her face when she settles herself on the far edge of the mattress. It makes her dizzy, but she just closes her eyes and breathes through it.]

That's not what I meant.

[intheblanks]

I know.

[But he was making a point.]

So I'm wrong. You never caught the virus, you just happened to [He has the good grace to lower his voice, not much more than a whisper.] get killed and carry on completely independently of it. That's a hell of a coincidence in a world with a zombie infestation.

[dignity_misery]

[She bites back the hiss, jerking her head away from the dog's snuffling.]

If I was infected, I'd have ripped your throat out by now.

[It isn't true, just a way to avoid the question at had, and it isn't true. She hadn't killed Barbet, she had wrapped herself up in chains for him and waited.]

[intheblanks]

[He sighs - the argument wasn't really what he came here for, but it's his own instinct for sensing a vulnerability - and pushes himself up to sitting, looking back at her.]

Ever heard of Typhoid Mary?

[dignity_misery]

Shut up.

[It snaps out of her easily.]

I know I carry it.

[She isn't just a carrier. She doesn't need reminding.]

[intheblanks]

No, you don't get to be pissed right now. Not after this long not mentioning what was in your blood. It wiped out countries.

[blonderazorshiv]

[ Blonde doesn't know what they've been talking about, but he can tell when Carla's pissed by the way the tone in the room suddenly changes. As much as he doesn't care whether or not Carla kills someone in the apartment, Chase would be missed and he'd rather not have to clean blood out of his bedsheets.

So he opens the door, one eyebrow raising when he realizes just where Chase is as he leans against the doorframe. ] I need to take Rex out. [ A pause, voice growing a little firmer. ] And I'm going to need my room back.

[dignity_misery]

[She gives the dog a nudge with a faint 'go on', lifting a hand to her forehead. She is agitated, and telling her not to be angry is not a recipe for a level head. But she isn't the cool head in this room, and maybe it doesn't surprise her Blonde's here.]

[intheblanks]

I think we were done.

[Not nearly, but he's not laying out Carla's secrets in front of anyone else, no matter what they're likely to know. And staying to talk her through the point isn't worth ruffling her roommate's feathers over.

Not that he jumps to attention, it takes a minute before he stretches and stands. He doesn't look back at the bed again.]

You might want to take the trash can out if you're taking the dog. By tomorrow it's going to be the only thing you can smell.

[And then he goes.]

[blonderazorshiv]

[ 'Hey Joe, you want me to shoot this guy?' Only the fact that he's pretty sure Carla would prefer to do the work herself keeps him from parroting the question at her, not Chase's presence. Still, Blonde gives him a look that more or less tells the doc not to let the door hit him on the way out.

He doesn't do well with orders. Never has. ]

Thanks for stopping by.

[ Try not to do it again. ]