Realistic or Modern When Hell Freezes Over

[Steel Tiger]

Farah picked up the peanut butter jar and quickly twisted its lid off. “Thanks.” She said quietly as it mostly slipped out on its own from old habit and manners of course. She had a bit more of a plan rather than to eat the peanut butter straight up and out of the jar itself. Seems like there had not been any utensils to find or perhaps they were just neglected for the moment while searching around for more useful materials and items that may have been lying about. She placed the makeshift torch of sorts that she was carrying about earlier into the fire, partially so, one end was sticking out in case it was needed again.


After Dimitri had taken a cookie out of the jar Farah immediately moved to do so as well. Seeing Dimitri having trouble biting into the thing like it was a block of wood or rock her next attempt would simply to not eat the cookie but rather use it as a spoon for the peanut butter! Maybe more like a chip to dip into some other substance just without the normal eating of the chip it would seem. “Relax..? Guess that is an option if ‘you’re ‘ tired out.” She put an emphasis on referring to Dimitri, although not in a negative tone but more in a bold manner, it was dying down. Quickly taking in a deep breath afterwards, the option or idea of relaxing made her want to keep moving. On the other hand, she didn’t know how much longer she could stay up. The option to rest was faintly tempting but for the most part seemed more dangerous and needing to be avoided.


“Seemed like the common formula of things, yeah.” Her shoulders shrugged somewhat at the mentioning of classics. She gripped onto her shoulder and let out a small brief yawn, trying to hide it with her left hand. She let out a quiet chuckle at thought of shovel man or Dimitri being a princess. Perhaps because they weren’t stuck up enough. She couldn’t rest. Sitting down might help a little though. She sat down on the floor a space near the fire and keeping it to her back as the play went on and ended. “Encore! Or do another..” She tried to chant somewhat her left arm swinging in a slow and cheering manner as if to holler for a sports team or player. Her voice didn’t have the kind strength and authority vibe behind it as it had naturally emitted before.

 

[Shiki Kenju]

Watching Dale's dramatic fight versus a plush toy amused Dimitri, even a bit more than expected. After a long way, encountering only troubles or just facing the pirecing wind, he was happy to sit in a warm room with a people who, at least, are not trying to kill him. He laughed and decided to play along for a bit:


- Oh, brave warrior, you sure saved our sorry asses from the horrendous monster! Now rest among the ones you saved: coward peasant Fire-Keeper and me, beautiful princess Dimitria!


He overheard Fire-Keeper saying that he is "tired-out", and, in reaction to that, he grinned and said:


- You're saying that I am tired? Me? Tired? Well, y'know what, little brat? I am pretty tired, honestly, not gonna lie. All this surviving stuff gives no time to sit down and appreciate the world around you. That sick sad world, yeah. Don't play tough, we're all in the same shit here. Maybe you'll finally name yourself? Me and Dale said our names already, because Dale is a "good and reliable person", ha-ha, and I just don't see a point in hiding our names now. So...

 

[OdysseyImperfect]

Dale wasn't nearly as tired due to a particularly late start in the day and while he didn't really care much about the Fire-Keeper's real name by now, he did care about this setting off another bout of bickering. Before either of them could continue Dale interrupted "It sounds like you two have probably had enough for one day. How about I take first watch so you can get some sleep?" he said as he tossed a few blanket to each of them. A few seconds later Dale moved back to the window sill as he thought "perhaps they'll be a bit more trusting of me after that performance, after all, what threat could a fool possibly pose." before plucking another lemon candy out of the box. He stared down each of the streets, noting the sourness was a bit more tolerable this time, while he began contemplating his next move.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Farah was not trying to killl Dimtri, yet. She was sort of surprised that the shovel man had tried to go ahead and join in upon the play or act of sorts. Peasant? Maybe. Coward? Definitely not. Which she thought would have been explained a bit earlier with a good swing of a burning switch, pulled out through the fire and the flames. She choked back a chuckle none the less as Dimitri picked up or decided to go with the role of a princess. Having originally thought it was just her weirdness and somewhat tiredness getting to her.


As Dimitri went on, she felt nothing but a bit of smirk start to form across her lips. Growing quite pleased, or enjoying the situation somewhat more. “Not playing. Although I do prefer the name Fire-Keeper over brat.” Was her response to Dimitri.She let out the chuckle instead of holding it back this time. Clearly smiling at the situation at hand.


She was then hit with the idea of Dale taking the first watch, and also a blanket. She had been a bit too much out of focus to catch it, as instead it landed upon her and briefly covered up her face and front. Before she pulled it down to mostly cover her lap of course. “Go to sleep.” She glanced over at Dimitri briefly as the words were intended for him. The one she was most worried about at the moment. She was much more hesitant to actually do it herself, especially to be the first one. Dale taking the first watch seemed better than Dimitri taking the first watch in her mind, but she was not particularly comfortable and welcoming about it. So she had yet to lay back and attempt sleeping either. Perhaps, she should have been more worried that it was Dale , blade-man who was taking the first watch but she doubted handling the first watch on her own would have worked better.


There was not much to take of note, up and down the streets. Snow and ice everywhere. The storm itself, seemed to be passing over as the snow was falling less and less frequently and in smaller amounts.

 

[Elephantom]

Joe was trudging through the thick layer of snow which lay on the asphalt road, a blanket was wrapped in his body as he struggled to see in the thick layers of mist. After coming close near this cabin, from where he could see light emitting from the Windows. He walked up the stairs to the porch, standing right in front of the door, before knocking on the door, a little loudly for the wind was whistling out the noise he tried to produce, be then proceeded to speak.


"Anybody got any space in there, I need shelter from the raging storm." He said as he continued his knocking before stopping.


"Weird stuffs going on around this place." He silently muttered to himself. As he waited for an answer from inside the building.

 

[Shiki Kenju]

Finally, Fire-Keeper smiled. A nice change from a pure, cold hatred. Hearing her telling him to sleep and being "bossy" all around was a bit irritating, but Dimitri was fine with it as long as Fire-Keeper wasn't getting too cocky. And Dale kindly suggested to take a first watch! While his behaviour was a bit too nice, suspiciously so, Dimitri wasn't considering Dale as a threat, partially because there was nothing valuable to take from both Dimitri and Fire-Keeper. "Oh well, if he is some kind of a serial killer, I'll be sleeping when he will slit my throat." - thought Dimitri.


- Sure about taking a first watch? Hell, if you will continue in this manner, I'll try to get a citizenship in Caitruvdeamonia for you, so you'll finally have an actual fatherland, ha-ha!


A knock on the door interrupted Dimitri. He then heard a voice, asking for a shelter. Another survivor? Ally or an enemy? Getting up, he readied his shovel and stood near the door, preparing some kind of ambush, for the worst case scenario. Dimitri grabbed the doorknob and looked at Dale and Fire-Keeper, waiting for a sign to open the door.

 

[OdysseyImperfect]

"With more people you could scavenge a much larger area, and it would probably be safer to travel with a group rather than try to trek it out on my own with an entire Dosil citizenry moments away from looting my corpse. On the other hand, if supplies run low I’ll get a smaller cut and with more people there’d be more of a trail for someone to track.” Dale thought before finally registering Dimitri's comment. "I'm fine. Sounds good." he whispered back as paranoia began to worm its way through his thoughts "Why are you even thinking about this?! You know what happens when you get involved with other people, it never ends well. Sure they're acting relatively peaceful now, but they were moments away from stabbing each other earlier and I doubt it would take much to get them right back to that position. There's no way you can trust them to not turn on you. I'm sure Dimitri would get a kick out of turning the tables on the 'filthy traveler' and you still don't know enough about this Fire-Keeper to make any useful predictions. I may as well slit their throats now and be done with it before they -."


Dale's attention snapped back to the present as someone knocked against the door. Moving into a crouch he glanced out of the window as the figure began speaking before drawing his knife and reflexively folding the blade out. Turning back towards the others he noted Dimitri was already halfway across the room as Dale moved to the Fire-Keeper. Shaking her shoulder, he placed a hand over her mouth while giving a shushing gesture before whispering "Someone's at the door." Giving Dimitri a signal to open the door, Dale stood up and moved closer as he examined the newcomer as the door opened.

 

[Steel Tiger]

The storm or at least the worst of it had mostly passed through and by the area. It was still freezing outside by most standards and snow continued to come down from the mostly grey and bleak looking sky that loomed above. Nor the moon nor the sun seemed to show through the dark clouds that hanged and loomed above the area. The wind continued to blow by and through the area, scraping and scratching against the things it touched and ran passed compared to earlier when it seemed to practically cut against the skin with its ferociousness and chill. The door was not large enough to muffle the sounds of a knock or voice nor was it meant too.


The knock on the door had disturbed Farah some but not too much. Seemed liked Dimitri or shovel man was eager enough to check upon it himself and answer such. She doubted someone who knocked on a door in the middle of this storm was going to be a threat, it may be because she was thinking more about resting that she lacked the worry or thought that this person on the other side would in fact be an enemy. She continued to sit in place where she was and looked at the door, staring at it as if it was miles away instead of some number of feet in measurement. If the person was an enemy at the door they would either side with Dimitri or kill him. The last part irritated her a bit, that’s her job. They would have probably heard him a minute go as well.


Farah’s hand was halfway to reaching for that flaming long that was sticking out of the fire place as Dale approached. She was mostly sure it was because of the person at the door that the knife was drawn but she had an instinct to reach for a weapon just in case anyways. It seemed drowsiness was getting to her a little as Dale shook her shoulder, and she felt more distant from herself like a ragdoll held on by a small rope around the neck. Probably not like that, too morbid. She was tempted to bite into Dale’s hand somewhat, mostly because the current situation felt ridiculous and she wanted a bit more ‘feeling’ then tiredness would permit her. Her eyes briefly glared at Dale the blade-man as if to say ‘No duh’. She stayed still and silent for now as Dale went back over to the door.

 

[Elephantom]

"Hello, you do know that I can hear and see so would ya bother to reply, what's happening to the damn people, going batty over this nuke and all... Open the door or give an answer." Joe said again as he started to give another series of knocking, this time, it had a certain musical note to to it, of course, it was certainly minor, not major. He looked at the door then at the whole cabin as he actually squinted his eyes I'm annoyance, he was getting real angry. Worst case scenario, this people were preparing an ambush for him, best case scenario, this people had no intention of opening as they were in a heavy sleep and maybe cut of their ears in the process of sleep-self-mutilation...


However so, it was pretty damn cold out there, snow were falling and it seemed like a bit hail were falling too. He silently cursed under his breath, as he looked at his body, by this time, he looked like a snow zombie of sorts, he started to brush the snow off from his body, before brushing his blanket. Whoever made this cabin, should've installed a roof on the porch, if he ever got his hands on that guy, Joe was the last person he was going to see, but that is if you exclude the other people that were tied up alongside him, damn, now he's thinking crazy again.


"Ya know, even a small word, a confirmation, would be nice cause it's fucking freezing in here! What's gotten into you people!" He said as he rapped another series of knocking on the door, then on the wall, and then on the window. He was getting really annoyed, his facial expression was extremely frowned.


That was, until the door opened, his eyes were greeted by a several lot of feral and primal human beings, wilder than most animals, their face portrayed a series of expressions, which were mostly either primitive or comical. Then again, he was going crazy, either he was imagining things again, of course, why didn't he think of it earlier? They weren't feral human beings, they were feral sentient animals! But then of course, he was being too judgemental, one ought to see something with their own eyes before readily deciding anything about their personality.


"Hey y'all, why do I have a feeling that in getting surrounded by a collage of sharks?" He said, with a slightly dumbfounded expression in his face.

 

[Shiki Kenju]

What a great start. The man, who entered their temporary home, was clearly a bit... weird, spouting nonsense and grimacing. Shill holding on a doorknob and being behind the opened door, Dimitri raised his shovel, ready to hit the man. Who knows what can you expect from a man who greets other survivors like this. To strike properly, though, he needed the stranger to be inside the house, so Dimitri shook his head, trying to tell Dale and Fire-Keeper to somehow place the man in the right position.

 

[OdysseyImperfect]

"This day just gets better and better doesn't it. First I have to deal with these two, now there's an angry weirdo on the porch." Dale thought as he stared at the newcomer. Out of the corner of his eye Dale noted that Dimitri seemed to be preparing for a surprise attack with the shovel as he thought "I suppose I was right about you not being as honest as you appear." Trying to hide a confirmation to Dimitri's plan in a shrug Dale's expression slipped into a practiced smile before he responded "Not sure, I didn't think any of us looked very fishy. Come on in, I'm Dale, a humble traveler of the world." A second later Dale transferred his knife to his left hand before extending his right hand for a hand shake toward the newcomer.

 

[Steel Tiger]

The temperature continued to persist on being the same or roughly the same, pretty cold. The snow fall from earlier began to lessen further and further really by this point it was heading toward a light flurry of snow but the area was already buried in it pretty thickly along with ice. It did not seem like either of these things were going to be melting or going away any time soon for that matter either, and there was no weather channel of sorts to connect to in order to check. The wind continued to whip on by and right through it made a slight detour or curve toward the opened or opening doorway but mostly continued on its way ahead to spread its chill with the rest of the area.


Farah had stopped reaching for the weapon or at least for the moment it seemed. The person did not seem particular threatening or sound like it. Whoever it was just sounded more ticked off and annoyed by the cold than much else. Perhaps she was just losing it for the moment because she was, indeed tired. She stared at the moment at the opened door and man who had walked through it. He said something about being surrounded by sharks. “think divers do that kind of thing don’t they?” She said, sounding half asleep. She needed to get up, and she did indeed do just that.


The others seemed well prepared for a visitor or a violent visitor or possible threat anyways. Who may have walked through that door and who may have not done just that. Either way she felt a sense of jealously that she had not yet prepared a weapon or to strike down the figure. On the other hand, there was a mixed sense of pride and suspicion that she felt for her two partners inside of that room. It took a moment for her to fully realize what had been said, Dale help clear it up somewhat. “We are a bit on edge for multiple reasons. Recently had a couple of fights and are trying to piece somethings together.” She chuckled to herself and began forcing herself to keep focused. “Mind telling us your story before we take a bite out of ya?” She chuckled once more. Leaning against a wall. “Not mandatory, bit of an icebreaker and seems those two already gave off a gist..” She glanced at Dale and Dimitri.

 

[Elephantom]

"As you people can see, it's fucking cold outside, and I'm not a particular invader who wants to steal your candies, ahem, your items and respective limbs. So might I suggest that we all introduce ourselves, excluding Mr. Dale here. Name's 'none of your business', just kidding, it's Joe Hanley." Joe said as he turned on his torch which he pointed at everyone else.


"And by a collage of sharks, I mean a collage of survivors, with defensive and instinctive reactions, and as they say, offense is the best defence. So would y'all be good enough to lower your respective weaponry, I don't want to trust some wack-a-doodle bimbo wielding a shovel, that means you, Mr. Gravedigger." He said pointing at the gravedigger, or what he assumed to be previously a gravedigger. He looked at everyone before entering the cabin and releasing the burden of a backpack and blanket onto the ground.


"Just as they say, stare deep into the Joe, and the Joe stares back at you, hehehe." He said, chuckling a bit as he took a seat on a chair.


"My story, is one that is clouded with mystery and cliche stuff. If you don't mind, eh? I had to desert my post at the war, we were simply overwhelmed by the army. I went off to meek town, became a mechanic, and lived there for what I thought was going to be the rest of my life. While I was in the basement, sulking and cursing my life and supposed roommate. An explosion, or what I thought, was a divine intervention, happened. My roommate was apparently turned into a puddle of mixed fruit jelly, with a more lighter dye. Well, I escaped and have been wandering through this lands, until it started snowing. Fearing that I may catch a frostbite, I took a blanket. And after realizing that it wasn't a struggle for survival, but was actually really stupid. I happened by your cabin, which was brightly lit in this densely fogged up area. And that's where it all tumbles into here." He finished as he looked at all of them. Before pointing at himself and the ground.

 

[Shiki Kenju]

The plan to knock the visitor out was terminated because he casually walked into the house and sat on a chair, everybody being okay with that. Realizing that he was looking kind of dumb, Dimitri lowered his shovel and scratched the back of his head.


- Well, I'm not a gravedigger, but I sure kept them busy for some time, he-he... Uh... my name is Dimitri, glad to meet you! I'd be more glad if you have some food with you, because we kinda don't have any. Yeah. Just so you won't get your hopes high. Anyway, as long as you don't act crazy, you can stay, I guess.


He looked at the Fire-Keeper, who was leaning against the wall.


-Hey, so you won't beat him with a flaming stick and generally hate his guts? That's waaay too kind for you, ha-ha.

 

[OdysseyImperfect]

"A Caitruvdeamon soldier, a Migir traveler, and a Dosil mechanic walk into a house during a snow storm... sounds like the start of a bad joke." Dale thought as he folded his knife back and placed it back into his pocket. Rolling his eyes briefly at Dimitri's comment, he closed the front door before moving back to the window and casually tossing another lemon candy into his mouth. "I suppose there are worse ways to sit out a war. Want one?" he said, offering the newcomer one of the candies as he thought "May as well try to get on his 'good side' if I'm going to be stuck with him for the night. At least this one didn't freak out about the traveler status."

 

[Steel Tiger]

Farah continued to lean up against the wall mostly for support. Her ‘weapon’ or at least the one she had been using thus far was now simply burning away in the fireplace. It was probably a bad idea for her to ask the newcomer to introduce themselves and their story. Mostly because it kept coming back to bite her and possibly tempting to introduce her real name instead of ‘Fire-Keeper’ which was getting quite attached to her. She crossed her arms and took in a deep breath as Joe started introducing himself. She could not help but let out a bit of a chuckle about the wack-a-doodle with a shovel. Mr.Gravedigger was a better and more fitting name than Shovel-Man and she gave Dimitri a small glance as it was brought up. She, somewhat agreed with that notion or had agreed with it before. The person seemed, oddly decent enough or at least joking and humorous at this moment. It was up to the moment that Joe mentioned deserting his post during the war that she was liking him. It made her a little disappointed but some do prefer to live. Understandable enough but still rather disappointing. The mentioning of the remains of the roommate sent a shiver down her spine that definitely woke her up and her left hand gripped at something hidden under her coat.


She shrugged her shoulders somewhat as Dimitri had called her out for earlier. “Nah, it’s going to be just charcoal pretty soon anyways. Hm, which do you prefer Shovel-man or Mr.Gravedigger?” She looked to Dimitri with a bit of a sly smile on her face seeming to enjoy the exchange. “The first one sounds too much like a video game boss, so perhaps the other.”


She briefly turned her attention back to Joe. “For now, everyone has been calling me, Fire-Keeper. Think you can guess or piece together why so go ahead and go with that if you wish.” She shrugged her shoulders somewhat. “As for my own backstory, it has been fun so far to keep that a secret to myself. If only to mess with you guys a little.” She chuckled to herself. Although, looking back at her own current title of ‘Fire-Keeper’ it made her feel too much like a fantasy character or perhaps some kind of weird superhero in a comic such as the ones that were found earlier. Her attention turned back to Dimitri waiting for a response as Dale warmed up to the newcomer more with some of the scavenged ‘supplies’.

 

[Elephantom]

"Candies, I'm partial with kids, but nevertheless, it does fall in the same category of food." Joe said as he accepted the offering from Dale, however it may be, he was feeling of that he was stuck in the most tacky group one could ever find in a dead land. Then again, maybe they are the only guys one could find in the waste land.


He then looked up at the seemingly crackling gravedigger and his unintuitive speech, for neither the restless nor the hasty. Though, he actually wasn't anyone if them so it was quite easy for him to understand.


"I'm still calling you Mr. Gravedigger, cause you're our resident gravedigger." He said as he chuckled, sure enough, for the current moment being, he was the resident gravedigger. A Russian accent sprouted at the end of the accent, it was either mostly a habit or just plain imitation.


"So, I'm not gonna dwelve how there are so many latex gloves and jumpsuits around the east house beyond the backyard, but I'm going to say that I do have some 'eateries'." He finished as he opened his knapsack, before shuffling around it for something. After a few seconds or so, he revealed this items, items he has gathered along while he was in the long run. Most of it was already a bit depleted, but nevertheless, less or more, it all depended on the quality not the quantity, or vice versa.


well, it was only a can of Frank n' beans and a extra large bottle of extremely brackish and dirt-filled water which had a dead frog in it, and it wasn't touched, not even a single bit, by Joe. It's purposes were for more than just hydration, well, let's just not dwell on this subject any longer.


He laid them all on the table besides him. Now the most weird part was, that he had way too much salami and beans, then again he wasn't much of a bean eater, and the can was about only 4 Inches. Smaller the knapsack itself, of course. Unfortunately, he didn't have any water, purified water.


"So this is all i got, all of the are enough for 0.5 days, if we keep rationing it, the water can be used as a breeding place for mosquitoes, if anyone wants them as pet, otherwise, we can scavenge for some purification tablets and some filters at a pharmacy 26 blocks away or so I think." He finished with a triumphant smile.


He passed the water bottle to the fire-keeper.


"I hope it will ease and strengthen your fire-keeping. You can have an army of mosquitoes, and other bloodsuckers behind you. Hehehe." He said, quite humorously, of course.

 

[OdysseyImperfect]

Still retaining the practiced smirk, Dale thought "Even in this frigid wasteland, there are already too many blood suckers out there." as his gaze settled on the can of beans. Moments later his fingers flicked through the knife's tool set before finally unfolding a small can opener. Furrowing his brow briefly, he asked "Either of you want to cook this up now, or do you want to save it for breakfast? I kind of doubt any of you are going to be able to jump right back to dream land after that bout of excitement." as he gave a brief wave of the can opener. A moment later Dale added "Oh, and what else is around this pharmacy of yours?" as he considered how worth while to search out the area or if it was likely to have already been raided.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Farah had tried to keep herself going. The mentioning of ‘eateries’ had somewhat peaked her interest. It would soon seemed to be a bit of a letdown as only a single can of food and some very disgusting water was brought along. It seemed like finding any forms of food inside this house had been a god send in comparison. A brief snicker escaped as that thought had ran into her head. Her eyes quickly shifted about toward the doll that was recently discovered upstairs in one of the rooms. The doll representing the ‘god’ or deity of this country, Dosil.


Rationing it, did not seem like it was going to end well no matter which was it was tossed. It seemed that food would be found sooner rather than later. Seeing as the group’s supply was rather low or perhaps just rather bad quality. She was then passed the water bottle, too which she awkwardly held onto. A dead frog, there was a brief question of whether or not that it had been a pet frog, but that seemed doubtful. Almost as doubtful as running into mosquitoes in this cold weather and it was cold nearly year round in her perspective. Although one does build a tolerance to it overtime and she’d rather not correct him.


“I’d rather wait and save it for a while. Guess, I’ll try and rest upstairs and less our new arrival would prefer one of the few beds.” She glanced over to Joe. “Let’s just try, and head over to some other place we can break into tomorrow. We were somewhat lucky finding some stuff here.. if we really need to we could probably find some restaurant or maybe even a grocery store with some scraps or cans left over and probably some are nearby a pharmacy or that pharmacy.” She said, before looking back at the frog in the bottle. There was an odd temptation to name it, perhaps because of all the names that were thrown about.

 

[Elephantom]

"The chances of us finding any useful item in the pharmacy, are rather slim, we're more likely to find big-ass crates of condoms rather than a single bottle of painkiller or a roll of bandage, or any antiseptic liquid. And we'd better keep the can to ourselves and not gobble it up, we can starve for a day, can we not? Let's save it for tomorrow, and it's dusk right now, eating it would be rather useless as breakfast is pretty much the most important time to get food. As it technically supports us through the day, this is, if we even manage to survive through the day." He said, which was more directed towards Dale. He then started to follow the fire-keeper to the room, lest she get way too much disgruntled. By the way she was looking at the frog, it was pretty obvious that throwing it away wasn't the first thing that came to her mind.


"So, what are you planning to do with that frog there, youngster? I'm pretty sure you're thinking what I'm thinking, right? Breed some mosquitoes, even in this cold weather, mosquitoes survive, and I'm quite sure that they'll breed like that, and I have some pretty good techniques, too." He asked her as he walked up the stairs.


The last thing he wanted was to sprint away from the house with a knife wedged into his butt. But that wasn't really going to happen, was it? In Joe's perception and view of the world, this are most likely to happen, like 90.00% of the time it'll happen to a stranger who stumbles upon a line cabin filled with awkwardly strange people, and there's also 5.00% that everything turns out to be a chainsaw massacre.


"At least the people turn into a purple goo, the worst possible scenario that can happen are these 'pile of goo' reanimating to a 'pile of cannibalistic moving goo', hehehe." He continued with a raspy tone.


"You really don't want that to happen, do you?" He said as he followed her. Yep, nobody wants that to happen.

 

[OdysseyImperfect]

Glancing back at Joe, Dale replied "Suit yourself, I'm a tad more concerned about what's around this pharmacy rather than the building itself. Usually pharmacies have a number of other shops around them, often a few restaurants, grocery shops, and a number of other stores, especially within city limits." while flicking the can-opener back into the handle and placing the can back on the table. A few moments later Dale moved back towards the window as his eyes scanned the streets, to ensure nothing else was stalking towards the house, as he pretended not to listen to the Joe's conversation with the Fire-Keeper.


Once Joe followed the Fire-Keeper upstairs, Dale thought "I suppose technically mosquitos are fairly high in protein, but shoe leather or his 'cannibalistic goo' sound like far better fare. Seems like this guy is just getting weirder by the minute, so I'll just keep an eye on him for a bit." Seconds later Dale quietly moved up the stairs before slipping into a position where he hoped he'd be able to listen without being seen.

 

[Steel Tiger]

The storm had died down outside it seems. As Dale looked out the window, there was no one or thing to be found walking about. On the other hand, there were foot steps outside in the snow, heading down the street. If looked at closely enough it would be clear that the steps were from bare feet.


Farah tried to stay a bit further or out of the conversation as she could. Perhaps it was mostly because she was getting tired out even further by this point and had a reason to actually want the rest. Seeing as tomorrow they would or at least she herself would be headed out onto the streets in order to search for food or medicine if Dale and Joe really wanted to persist and look about for such things. It would probably be useful to have around at some point just in case they ran into someone else that was in need of it or in case an emergency of some sort arose among them. She somewhat admitted to herself, but the first things she wanted to look out for were shelter (which it seems they already came upon, if only temporary), food (which was quite scarce at this moment in time) and weaponry in case they ran into someone else. In case there was another fire to be kept and another enemy to be swatted down. It seemed, Dale could likely handle himself fairly enough, perhaps Joe would fair decently but it was unclear and she should not yet put too much trust in either.


Farah had hardly noticed herself as he had begun walking up the stairs in order to lead the newcomer to their room. Perhaps it was simply because she was getting tired. It seemed that she was asked some question about the frog which came across her mind in delay. “Huh? Oh, nothing about those mosquitoes at all. Oddly I wish to name it for some reason, perhaps because I was staring at it far too long.” She talked on her way up the steps. There was another question about cannibalistic goo. Something that sounded like a fantasy game trope of some sort. She was oddly struck unsure of how to respond to that. It would perhaps seem, interesting or poetic in some way of the goo attacked those who were at fault for the deaths but that would occur only in fiction and even then the thought seemed dark.


Farah made it to the top step and gestured forward. “Should simply be down the hall you can head on straight or take one of the door further down and to the left.” She decided not to mention what was behind the other two doors. Before trying to head back down the stairs toward the ‘living room’ of sorts. “Perhaps they would have a map to check off which places may already have been hit..”

 

[Elephantom]

Joe attentively listened to her words before venturing off to the direction she pointed to, and instead of taking the more crazier and more curvy route, he took the more concisely straight route, because he was always more of a 'straight' type of guy. However, one thought thoroughly lingered in Joe's mind, and that was about one very inordinately misused word, aisle. Whoever decided upon such a name was clearly a premier idiot, or maybe that somebody thought that 'S' was very curvy. Anyways, he decided to avoid that lingering question inside him, or to be more precise, an intent to kill whoever thought that English should have its Latin reminiscent so that it doesn't go extinct into the deep annals of forgotten history, or sport, whichever you prefer.


He dragged his feet along the hallway, as if the world wasn't that dark enough already, but who even cares? Joe was the one person who waited for the apocalyptic intervention with bated breath. Even if it seems morbid to wish for the endangerment of his own city, it was what he felt was quite necessary, if not for the whole damn surviving people, but for his own personal agenda.


In his opinion, the fire-girl was one frothy person with many foamy layers, that you couldn't possibly hope to uncover all the fizz, which was approximately a mile high.


The salesmen was more or less, very Daley, and very sour. Like an Italian mime artist with little sense of spatial navigation and the inability to see things as a whole, or whore, again, whichever you prefer.


Though as much as he thought about the aisle, more questions flooded his minds. What happens to one's bodily fluids when it abruptly turns into jelly? What happens to the pile of purple turd if it's boiled or put into contact with something hot? Well, those questions were to stay in for the long run.

 

[OdysseyImperfect]

Hearing a set of foot steps approaching his position Dale quietly moved back down the stairs and returned to his perch by the window. Taking a moment to enjoy the last of the remaining lemon candies Dale glanced back towards the entrance to the 'living room' as he thought "Even without the full force of the storm it's probably still too cold for me to head out just yet. Perhaps with this many people in the house I won't have to worry about the throat slitting issue. Still, I should probably make at least one 'friend' here before I end up the unlucky sap with a knife in his back or a shovel in his skull." When the Fire-Keeper entered into the room Dale said "I'd meant to ask you a bit earlier, but do you want to take over the night watch after my shift or would you prefer Dimitri or Joe do it? I thought I'd ask you first since you seem to have sharper eyes than Dimitri and, surely, I'm not the only one who finds this 'Joe' fellow a bit strange." while his face shifted into a reassuring smile as he awaited her response.

 

[Steel Tiger]

As Joe went ahead and dragged his feet down the hallway toward and or into the room straight down the hallway a bedroom would be up ahead in wait. A bedroom with indeed a bed though it had been mostly stripped and very little else remaining inside the bedroom. Including the absence of a waste bin or trash can of pretty much any sort. A quiet creak from the second floor or upstairs may also be heard from the ceiling of the house, specifically coming the ‘laundry’ room which had been explored earlier and had a closed door is the source of the odd noise.


Farah had made her way down into the living room once more carrying the water bottle handed to her earlier. It still had the previous contents of a dead frog and whatever dirtiness and so on had been trapped within it. The frog’s was going to get a new name. As she was currently obsessing and trying to decide on one in her own mostly cloudy thoughts. So far ‘Fergio’ was sticking fairly well though some other names starting with ‘F’ or ‘A’ had occasionally popped into mind every now and then but were failing to stick or sound quite as well as ‘Fergio’ had gripped tightly onto the dead frog’s identity.


Farah had been far too distracted to notice Dale as she made her way down the steps. She was way too distracted and somewhat clouded in her thinking at the moment neither of which was helping very much. She very much tried to avoid thinking about the cannibalistic goo conversation that had tried to worm its way in a few moments earlier, it was likely not the best for her sanity. She looked up to Dale as the question was asked and took a brief pause. “Huh? Oh, yeah, I will take over your shift if you want me to. It should probably not be an issue for me. So go ahead, and sleep and such if you’re going to.” She gestured a small wave with her left hand. Seems she would be the first watch or the night guard either way it was a comforting position to be in.