Community Job: Dog handler/Graveyard Overseer (Night Shift)
Reside in: An abandoned bungalow near the junkyard
How long have they been in Redwood?: Newly Arrived
Faceclaim: LaKeith Stanfield
Headcanons:
Aaron has two children he left behind in Ark, and three children in total. He doesn’t know what has happened to them, or any of his family.
He keeps a knife on himself at all times for self-defense. If Redwood had allowed it, he would have kept his gun. He’s still not quite happy with it being taken away.
Throughout the apocalypse, he robbed quite a few people. A fact that he is not necessarily proud of, but something he considered necessary for his own survival
In his free time, he volunteered in an animal shelter, which is where his love especially for dogs originated
Even though he was in a band, he never quite enjoyed the performance aspect of it too much. He really mostly just enjoyed making music with his friends.
His transition was almost entirely DIY.
Biography:
Aaron is a person of his own making, and everybody should remember that.
Born to Azizi and Lela Omari as their ‘daughter’, Aaron remembers barely anything about his life before Ark. He only knows he wasn’t born there through some hazy memories of a dingy kitchen in a one-bedroom apartment and a man, who didn’t seem like he belonged there, coming to visit them. That is all he remembers before his parents joined the small, religious community Ark. With little reference to draw on what a normal life looked like, and his parents wishing to assimilate into their newfound community, Aaron grew up not knowing or even sensing that anything could be wrong with his life.
Until it went wrong. Aaron doesn’t like to talk about what caused him to leave Ark in his early twenties, but he did. Pregnant at the time, he set out on foot to trek to the nearest town and make his way away from the community he’d called his home for the longest time. To say his life was turbulent after he left Ark would be an understatement. Giving birth along the way and practically leaving the baby at the hospital, Aaron traveled down South the West Coast until he reached one, fateful city. Los Angeles.
Life outside of Ark up until that point had been overwhelming, full of things that Aaron didn’t know or quite understand, and it was more because of convenience that he ended up staying. The big city offered the option of anonymity, a place where nobody seemed to care who Aaron had been before, and so, Aaron decided to remain in the City of Angels for a while. His life there had challenges - homelessness interrupted only by occasional stay at a women’s or homeless shelter, the dangers of living on the street, finding work, making money, his own troubles - things Aaron had to figure out mostly on his own. Finding a shred of stability was hard work, and Aaron might not have been able to done it, had he not met Nico.
It was more of a chance meeting, with Nico working at one of the shelters Aaron was frequently staying in, and soon enough, the two became friends. Nico was exactly the jumpstart Aaron needed to gain somewhat of a stable footing in LA. Joining up with Nico’s communities by association, he soon found himself a place among the misfits of LA. Nico helped him figure out many things - his trans identity being one of them - and helped Aaron discover his love and talent for music. Soon enough, Aaron joined up with Nico’s underground indie band “Crossroads’, that was starting to pick up and in need of a new bassist.
The band had just started their first tour across America when the apocalypse seemed to really hit. Through circumstance, the band got trapped in Columbus, forced to stay in lockdown. Things slowly seemed to deteriorate as the virus progressed. Initially allowed to stay in their hotel and then forced into quarantine camps, the band watched as the city seemed to slowly fall and descend into chaos. While they tried to stay together, soon enough they got separated from each other, and so, Aaron was once again forced to set out into the world on his own.
For the most part after, Aaron survived alone. He kept away from most survivor groups, only interacting with them when needed. Among the rubble of civilization, he was looking for a place that was safe, while also trying to find his lost bandmates. And after a long, bothersome trek, he found Redwood. And while he is not quite sure whether he can even trust this place, or whether he will stay, he decided to give it a chance. Because really, what other options does he have?
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Town upkeep. Fancy way of saying he was an over glorified janitor. There were no limits to what kind of maintenance jobs Peter would find himself doing. One day, he could be repairing a fence as splinters filled the gloves on his hands, then the next he could be spending two hours unclogging a toilet. His favorite job details were anything close to the library. He replaced the carpet there a couple of weeks ago with a fresh roll they retrieved from a store outside. Job took him two days. Not because he needed that much time, but because he kept stopping to pluck books off shelves and thumb through them.
Working upkeep reminded him of his early days with Sarah and trying to get through his tattoo apprenticeship. After a day of working odd jobs, he'd go to her apartment, and she'd wipe dirt off his face or pick fiberglass out of his hair before they kicked back on the couch with beers. She'd read or watch her shows, and he'd lay his head on her shoulder and draw. Made the nights he came back to his tent disheartening. Lonely.
"Yeah, I am." Pete wiped the layer of sweat on his face onto his sleeve. He just finished his list of tasks for the day and was planning on going to the bar, but he guessed that'd have to fucking wait. "What issues?" He asked, putting down his box of tools to rest his arm as they discussed. The guy looked familiar, but he couldn't place him in his mind. He figured he must've seen him in his earlier days of admittance.
Aaron had been staring at Peter's face, searching, and honestly expecting, some sign of recognition. A moment of shock, quickly turning into anger - but Peter's face remained neutral, as if he were talking to any regular Redwood resident. Maybe it'd been too long, or maybe Aaron had been a face among many in Peter's life, but either way, Aaron dared to relax just the slightest bit.
"Uhm, it's the pipes, mostly. They keep getting clogged, no matter what I do. I tried using baking soda and vinegar, but it, uh, didn't do anything, really." Even as he was saying it, complaining about such things felt surreal. There were living dead people walking around outside, and here he was, talking about how his shower didn't drain properly. Had been the same when he'd gotten to Los Angeles. He'd figured the feeling of surrealness would disappear eventually, like it had when he'd left Ark, but it never really did. After all that time, Aaron doubted it would.
But feeling perpetually uneasy beat being out there, getting chewed on by walkers and fucked over by people. Maybe not a fresh start in the same way LA had been, but that wouldn't be possible anyway. He was surviving, at least. "I figured that's part of your job, right? The pipe stuff." Aaron dug the heel of his boot into the dirt, feeling it give under his hole. "Aaron. By the way."
Aaron had, initally, taken the job more out of convenience. Going out to the cemetary for a single shift and having nothing to do in the rest of his time had left him feeling antsy. Like he was doing too little. Of course, Redwood had enough work to go around. Same daily tasks as in Ark and probably any self-sufficient community - farming, gardening, food prep, cooking, childcare - and most of them had left Aaron feeling like he'd swallowed a bunch of rocks that'd settled in his stomach. The discomfort had driven him back to familiar territory.
"Hey. I, uh, noticed something in the pasture this yesterday evening." Aaron looked up from his brushwork, running the bristles alongside the horses flank long, easy motions. Him and Leigh were doing the regular morning routine - mucking, feeding, brushing, changing rugs, the likes. He almost felt comfortable talking to her. "I think there were holes in the ground. We should fix them up before we let the horses out." He hesitated for a moment. "Think somebody dug them up?"
It was a strange mix of relief and anxiety that filled her every time she stopped long enough to let herself think. On the one hand, she was safe here. At least from the dead. And from most people that had ill intentions. But on the other, she had given up some of her freedom. She understood the need for rules and walls and schedules, it just felt like a different kind of cage. Or maybe she had spent too long outside.
"I can't get used to the noise," she commented to whomever had walked up behind her as she stared out the gate. Being aware of her surroundings was too ingrained in her now, as it probably was in anyone who'd lived outside the safety of town for as long as she had. "It feels too loud. Makes me anxious."
"You mean the walkers outside?" Aaron stopped, a little bit startled at being suddenly talked to. Making his way outside to the graveyard rarely involved people, aside from the occasional person wanting to be brought out there. Maybe he should have expected it, and living and touring big cities, he wasn't a stranger to small-talk (if this could be considered small-talk), but with how empty it usually was, a sudden visitor still caught him off guard. He blinked, shook his head, and collected himself, fixing his attention on the strange woman staring out the front gate.
He was sure he hadn't seen her before here. A newcomer? Plenty of people came here. Walls attracted people when the outsides were unsafe. That was the reason why he was here. "You get used to it. Eventually. That's what everybody says." Aaron ventured and stepped closer, unsure if his words would provide comfort. "Are you here to head out to the graveyard?"
The feeling of being new never quite left. Or rather it shifted. Aaron got as used to Redwood as it felt he could be. Got used to being surrounded by walls and sleeping in a bed, and being surrounded by people he didn't really know, and was always separate from. Except that Nico and his friends weren't here, and that because of it, Redwood didn't work quite the same.
As a result, Aaron often found himself alone. His company minimal, a small handful of people. One of them was standing across from right now was one of them. "Thanks for agreeing to help me. It's easier of two people do it." Aaron mustered a small smile as he opened the kennel. Artemis limped over, her front paw wrapped up in bandages.
"She hurt it out on a hunt. Pretty bad cut. I have to check on it, to make sure it's not getting infected. Can you hold her? She tends to run away when I go near her paw."
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The problem with Redwood was that everything was connected. It was a small, fenced-in community where everything relied on everybody to do their job. For some that worked. But often enough, Aaron missed the anonymity of the big city. Just another face among masses of people, able to disappear, leaving people and things behind - it wasn't a possibility.
He'd felt it with Ike at the beginning, and now he was feeling it again, incredibly acutely, when he found himself standing in front of Peter. "Hello." Aaron started, slightly awkward. There had been no familiar faces in Redwood until him. And so far, Aaron had managed to avoid Peter, though there was no way of truly avoiding anybody here.
With how things were, Aaron barely remembered the faces of the people he fucked over. But, Peter's face had stuck. "I'm having issues with my house. And you're the town upkeep, right?"
If Ike still had any doubts about the veracity of Aaron's claim, that one piece of fucked-up Biblical lore knocked it on its ass. Barsabbas and Matthias. It made sense, now that Ike was looking at it; Ark couldn't manage to keep as insular and white as it was forever. He just hadn't thought they'd lean so far in the other direction.
"What I could've been before I was ... corrupted?" Ike stared at Aaron for a moment, then laughed, a short harsh hoot that echoed through the precinct building. "Yeah. Shit, yeah, that sounds exactly like what they'd say. How they'd explain me going splitsville." He wanted to ask so much more. About what the Elders were like these days, about if the Word had been changed in its doctrine and discipline, if his sisters were all right. But that was too much to contemplate, all at once, in the face of this beautiful descendant of Barsabbas looking at him with big limpid dark genuine Ark eyes.
Ike shifted his tongue around against his teeth, scraping their sharp edges in contemplation. Then he stepped forward and unlocked the cell door. "Get out," he said, then ameliorated: "I'm sick of this three-day confinement rule. I'm making an executive decision. As one of the corrupted proto-Elders of the god-fucked Ark." He nodded towards the main door. "Go on. Git."
The laugh was a rough one, but it was a good sign. Maybe Isaac hadn't believed him, maybe he'd been testing Aaron, because that was what this was after all, a test -- but his doubts seemed to be dispelled. Aaron, in turn, watched. This was the man he'd been heard so many stories about, cautionary tales told with rue. Ark had lost something that day, and Aaron could see what. The way the Isaac held himself, the authority, the momentary hardness in his eyes, it was Ark.
Then again, it wasn't too. The laugh hadn't been. What he said, and the way he said it, too. It was a connection, one that unsettled him and that he didn't want, but it was there. And for a moment, Aaron thought that would get him kicked out, in that brief period between the command and the addition. "You're letting me stay?" Aaron asked, though it wasn't really a question looking for an answer.
"Okay." He stood. He didn't question Isaac, not wanting the other man to change his mind, even if his instincts told him that he wouldn't. "Thanks. I- Yeah. Thank you." Aaron made his way past Isaac, relieved to to leave the damp stone cell behind him. With one swift look back, he made his way into Redwood.
Lucy found the idea of tending the graveyard more interesting than handling dogs. But she'd hardly done more than inhale to ask more when the jar fell.
"Ah, beans," she muttered, at the same time Aaron was backing up. He looked way tense suddenly, and Lucy couldn't guess why. "Uh, yeah, sure. Follow me."
She headed into the classroom and transferred her armload onto the closest desk. Making a couple of more sensible piles, Lucy nodded and pointed at them. "Okay - you guys stay here." An about face and she led Aaron back to the little janitorial closet.
"Voilà - one broom, one dustpan." She offered him his choice, and kept the other to do her share. "We're lucky this wasn't the glitter bomb," she joked. "The kids really wanna see that one in action."
Beans? That phrase threw Aaron for a moment, took some of the instinctive tension out of him. Quiet, he followed her into the classroom, standing back until she held out the broom and dustpan.
"Glitterb- oh. Yeah. That would have been a bigger mess." Aaron said, still faintly stunned, old instincts riled, before he finally shook it off and grabbed the broom. It'd just been a jar, not really a big deal. They probably didn't have an unlimited supply though.
Aaron quickly got to sweeping up the shards in one big pile, meticulous and careful, making sure to go into all the corners. From experience, that stuff usually got everywhere. "Your lessons must be... interesting. If they involve glitterbombs."
It was astonishing what one little three-letter word could do to run ice water through your veins. God had stopped being that word a long time ago. Ark never had.
"You're lying." Ike didn't move closer to the bars; he stayed where he was, letting the ambient shadows of the dreary precinct building do their work at obscuring his expression. That was an Ark trick, actually; angling your shadow or your light, depending on the reaction you were after. "Tell the truth. You can't be from Ark, they don't allow sons of Ham into the town much less let them live there." And if Aaron truly was conversant in Church Law, he'd understand what Ike was saying without saying. "Now tell me why you'd choose Ark of all places to include in your lie."
Isaac was from Ark. The realization settled in his chest like a block of ice, making his blood run cold. The dread was too familiar, even if Aaron hadn't felt it in years. Being accused of lying while telling the truth didn't make it better - like being walled in on his left and right. And with the cool stone walls pressing in on him, there was no way back. Only forward.
"I'm not lying. I'm from Ark. Like you. Barely anybody knows about that place, no reason to lie about it." Aaron spoke, able to keep the tremors out of his voice despite his nerves. He was sure he'd never seen Isaac in Ark, and that- Isaac. That name had sounded familiar. "Barsabbas. They considered us descendants of Barsabbas, not Matthias, but we were allowed there. We moved there."
Aaron straightened himself out a little, everything falling into place. "Things changed since you left. They told us about you. About what you could've been. Before you were corrupted. I grew up with stories about you. I'm not lying."
"Why does he seem okay to you ? " Colin asked , wondering how Aaron had made that opinion of the man. He , sadly, was not as quick, when it came to first impressions. Okay, was a broad term for a lot of qualities and defaults. He just wondered what Aaron considered being okay. At his question, Colin shook his head. "It kinda comes in waves. Sometimes months pass without anyone coming, others 5-6 arrive within a week. " he remembered his conversation with Ike, how Redwood seemed to attract and bring loved ones together. "How did you find Redwood if you don't mind me asking ?"
That question caught him by surprise. Normally people didn't really ask about the why when it came to positive opinions. "He seemed polite. Willing to do his job." Non-threatening, at least now. Not the type of guy Aaron thought would hold a gun to his head at the next best opportunity. "Do you think he's not okay?"
With people coming in, you had to be careful. Even if the council vetted them. Aaron hadn't quite known what was normal. Out there, you frequently stumbled across other survivors. Made sense that quite a few found their way here. "I didn't find it. Nicki found me and offered to take me back." After some convincing. "How did you find it?"
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"Absolutely always better." Hard to argue with the man's point. He felt scrutinized by Aaron, but the feeling wasn't unknown to Foster. He'd learned to start politely affable, and adjust as needed.
Hands slipping into the back pockets of his jeans, Foster considered over a long exhale. "I think my guess would be as good as yours. But I hope not." Considering what most arrivals would have seen and survived before Redwood.
That wasn't a soothing answer. Then again, Aaron did't trust the guy enough to be relaxed by him regardless. "They likely won't." Aaron concluded, more for himself than for Foster. The people who would be allowed to go out here probably wouldn't be interested in playing games. Some of the unease that'd been festering inside of Aaron remained though, and he dug the tip of his foot into the ground, scratching at it.
"How did you get here?" Aaron asked, after a the few seconds of awkward silence stretched. "Where are you from?"
"Nicki, huh?" Well, that was a good starting sign -- for both Aaron and for Nicki. Ike had been slightly on edge regarding Nicki and people they met outside of Redwood since she'd gone on that gory rampage through the people at that Home Depot, mowing them down without even a thought as to whether or not they'd be potential additions to the town. But. There'd been the Sunfacers that time, whereas this was just one pretty man she met on his own. "You're guaranteed safe with Nicki as your companion. It's a good thing she met you. It's been extra-crispy fried bugshit out there lately."
Aaron's declaration that he wanted to be part of Redwood enough to work for it, Ike accepted without too much acknowledgement. That was baseline. Anybody who had a lick of sense said that, when they were sitting behind those bars. The more interesting part was that foot tapping, and why and when it stopped and started.
Where you from seemed to be enough of a disruption to stop it. "Mmmmm. At least you didn't have too far to come, Columbus to here. Better than Los Angeles." Ike stared at Aaron for a while, then said: "You know Church laws, don't you? I can see it on you. You might come from LA but there was some kind of bond of God on you, Aaron Omari, you can't shit a shitter."
"Yep. Pretty convenient." It didn't feel much like it. Maybe it was being locked up in a prison cell. Things could've turned out differently if they'd been anywhere else. Maybe he'd still be with his friends. Maybe in a different settlement. Then again, maybe he'd be dead.
Aaron didn't break the silence, just turned to look at the grimy cell wall, foot tapping ceaselessly as he waited for the next question below Isaac's scrutinizing gaze. Aaron wished he knew what they guy was thinking about, just what he was assessing when- those words made him turn around instantly. Shit. A cold shiver ran down his back, the hair at the back of his neck standing up straight. Old instincts and heightened senses for danger. Isaac had seen through his lie, through Aaron, so easily. Recognition. That was what he'd implied. Can't shit a shitter.
Aaron met Isaac's scrutinizing gaze. The biblical name probably wasn't a coincidence. It tugged at memory strings, a story he'd been told for most of his life. "I was raised religiously. I guess you too." Aaron had stopped tapping his foot. He'd been caught in a lie, and he didn't want to make it worse. "I was raised in a town called Ark. Not where I was born, but my family moved there. They were big, on faith and Church Law." An understatement, but the truth. "I haven't lived there in a long time. So it's not really where I'm from."
Colin was about to let him go, but then realized that he had forgotten to clarify some things. Some things were quicker to become clear to him than others. Especially the more superficial ones with strangers. "Wait." he spoke as he looked at the ladder. "Come back up. " he asked. "I'm not the most social person and do not really elaborate on answers. You don't have to leave just now, you know ? " he explained.
"Plus I forgot to tell you, you're going to share the night shfit with a guy name Foster. He's also new. Have not yet met him, but was just notified that he would work with us." he informed.
Aaron had been ready to put an end to his shift, get home and catch some fitful sleep, but Colin suddenly called out to him to come back up. It made Aaron pause and then, after a short moment of consideration, he climbed back up. He was unsure of just what to expect, but maybe it was some important info. What he hadn't anticipated was Colin telling him he didn't have to leave. Aaron stood, still at the edge of the ladder, hesitant, not having quite worked out what to make of it. It seemed to be Colin's roundabout way of asking him to stay.
"Okay." Aaron said, staying where he was but making no attempt at getting back down either. "I know about Foster. We met. He seems... okay." Aaron commented. Most of the people here seemed to be okay. Too okay. "There are a lot of new people coming in here recently. Does that happen often?"
"Hey, Aaron," Foster rose to his feet, feeling the error of staying seated in one place for too long. Still, the hand he offered came with a smile. "New myself, actually. Foster."
He brushed the seat of his pants absently, scanning their surrounding by moonlight. "Pretty quiet, so far. Some animal sounds way off and... that completes the recap."
Foster had always had an easy laugh, the kind that invited others to join him. "Both new, and both night shift? What are the odds we're going to get hazed out here?"
Another new person. A coincidence, or was this place pretty open with inviting new people in? Aaron couldn't say he'd talked to a lot of people. Most of his job didn't involve interacting with others, and so far, he'd been wary of others. In spite all of the safety it promised, putting his trust into it wasn't easy.
"That sounds like a relatively normal night. It's better than hearing walkers." The other man seemed friendly, open. It felt strange for someone who was also new, with their memories of the outside still fresh. Was that him not being used to civilization, or was something off? Aaron blinked, offered an awkward laugh.
She flashed a big, cheesy grin. "Nice to meet you right back!" Tipping her head back and forth, like she was weighing choices, Lucy shrugged. "Normal is subjective. Maybe there are Redwoods all over, I have no idea."
Again, Lucy tried to guess the passage of time. "A few weeks? A month-ish? There was more snow when I got here." She probably turned thirty at some point, right? The musing was shrugged off - it didn't really matter. "Yeah, molding precious, squishy brains. What's your gig?"
Looking at her armful of supplies, Lucy considered. "If you can grab something without a Jenga situation, please do."
He noticed a trend, with people being vague about when they got here. Colin hadn't been sure whether it'd been ten or eleven months, and Lucy seemed unsure either. Maybe an effect of being outside of town? While he'd been out there, he'd kept track of little outside of the sun rising and setting. The weather too, when he needed to prepare for winter.
"I work in the graveyard, night shift. And as a dog handler. Are you enjoying it?" She reminded him of the teachers he'd seen in the movies, young and energetic. Nothing like the teachers he'd grown up with. Eyeing what she was carrying, then carefully picked out a couple of items to pile onto his own arms, careful not to make anything fall. Not careful enough apparently. A glass jar that'd been precariously stacked on top toppled, and fell onto the ground with a crash. Aaron tensed as it shattered on the tile flooring, sending shards of glass skittering across.
"Shit-" He muttered, taking a step back, glass crunching below his boots. He found himself tensing up instinctively, as his gaze flicked from the broken glass back up to her. "Sorry. I didn't meant to-. You got a dustpan or something? I'll clean it up."
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Arms full of supplies, Lucy had stood in the doorway to her own classroom, watching the stranger. Undecided between advance or retreat, he'd turned around and made the choice for her.
"Hi." She couldn't wave properly, and so settled for wiggling her fingers. A laugh dismissed his apology. "Nothing to apologize for, dude. Everyone wanders everywhere here."
Closing the distance a bit more, Lucy smiled in what light was available. She just barely resisted the urge to crack a Dad Joke. "Lucy. I'd offer to shake your hand, but I made bad choices about carrying capacity."
Glancing past him into the room, Lucy did the polite small talk thing. "Getting a lay of the land?"
"Nice to meet you, Lucy." She didn't seem to think it was weird, which made Aaron relax just a little bit in turn. So it was a common thing. Plenty of people not used to seeing a bit of civilization again. It was strange what three years could do to you, and how certain things never quite left.
"Yes. I am. It's a bit... weird, seeing a school again. I guess that is normal." Aaron ventured carefully, though it felt teetering a bit too close to the personal for a person he'd just met. He retreated. "You're one of the teacher's, right? For how long have you been here?" He cast another look at the colorful art projects lining the wall. The sight of the building, the desks neatly lined up had given Aaron a sense of uncomfortable familiarity that the colors broke through. He focused his attention back on her.
"Do you want any help?" He offered. "I could help carry."
Aaron's sleeping schedule had been a mess ever since the outbreak. Especially while traveling alone. There was no telling when you'd be woken up from your sleep by groaning biters or sometimes people looking to take from others. He'd slept in the middle of the day from exhaustion or traveled during the night. Redwood had given him some regularity that sometimes still found him waking up in the middle of the night to some imagined noise.
Still, he'd grown slowly accustomed to this new rhythm and as the night progressed and he made his way to the graveyard, he felt surprisingly wired. "Hey. I'm here to release you. Shift's over." Aaron said to the previous shift. A guy he'd never seen, which wasn't surprising. His jobs didn't give much of a chance to talk with people. Better introduce himself. "Aaron, by the way. I'm new here."
