God Syndrome

The appropriate response would be about the current state of turmoil the world was in, how he’d felt and what he’d experienced when everything first went to hell... but his mind couldn’t help but slip back to a time before that, if he ever was the sentimental type Jeremy would say it was about his first love. In this day and age, however, it was wiser to keep ones mind from sentimental thoughts. “Uhm, probably the moment I realized I can’t save everyone,” it was a good in between choice, it left place for connection and held a show of empathy but it also showed he was willing to evolve, something that was mandatory in a world like this. “--- you don’t need the details but it’s stuck with me.” He’d tell a story of a mother and her kids, something tragic and certainly something that would stay with a person, especially if that person was one who held the image of the golden boy, homicide detective that could do no evil.

— ⛺️ —

Just watching, the man claimed. Victor didn’t really know what to do with that. It wasn’t often that people chose to stick around him - which he much preferred - but the man didn’t seem all that talkative thus far either. Watching. Normally Vic was the observer, the shadow. It was a bit unnerving to have the other man looming over him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. 

He cleared his throat, shrugging the slightest bit and allowing the man to remain as he returned to his task, though when he lingered Vic couldn’t help but pause once again. “It seems you might need something,” he finally said, eyes lifting back up to study him. His face wasn’t particularly familiar, but Victor hadn’t made much of a point of getting to know anyone around the small town. After all, everything was fleeting in this life. One minute he might be speaking with the handsome man before him and the next the guy might be caught beneath a pile of walkers with no chance of survival.

As per usual, he worked best on his own. 

“You never see a man whittle before? Not much of a boy scout then, were you?”

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It was always interesting to see how people handled human contact since the end of the world-- human contact never had been his favorite thing but there was a morbid curiousity within Jeremy, one that drove him to seek the inner workings of people’s minds in the face of danger. At least, that had been his concious mission with his non-work related endevours. 

This man obviously felt imposed by Jeremy’s presence and watchful gaze, he couldn’t help but smirk just slightly at that knowledge which presented itself in the way the other man spoke and paused. He was a loner, perhaps, the man wore the proper attributes but then again, being on ones own was... safer and more practical but that didn’t mean it held some disadvantages as well. Jeremy had seen people who had gone what most consideredmad from being alone in this world.

Jeremy laughed lightly and a bit awkwardly, dropping his gaze and shaking his head a little, as if he were amazed by something-- he shifted, letting his hand come up to rub at his chin and beard. “I don’t need anything man, I honestly was lost in thought and was slightly taken back by you being there,” Jeremy said, words true, two weeks and he still wasn’t used to living people, it shocked him and he really didn’t like it. 

“My dad was the boy scout, actually, taught me what he knew...” a pause meant to seem sentimental and almost sorrowful, Jeremy’s parents had been dead long before anything in the world had changed, before humans reflected the monsters they’d always truly been. “--- it’s sort of comforting to see.” Perhaps he had been too genuine with that one, there were times when Jeremy wasn’t sure if people believed the emotions he implemented to seem normal, he wouldn’t believe him.

It was awkward now. Something he had meant to put in place, not necessarily something he felt. But making his  transition back into any sort of community seem awkward or difficult would be a typical reaction. 

Merrick scoffed, shaking her head. “Absolutely no dice,” she argued back - an instinct, perhaps, left over from days when she would hustle pool at the bar with a friend, or con men into buying her drinks. She’d always been exceptionally good at it - being cute, blonde and young worked to her advantage more often than not - but rarely had someone denied her bet. It was almost a little disappointing. 

“Harder bet, then,” she mused, thinking to herself as she stuck the tip of her knife into the bar counter - again, she doubted they’d say anything to her, but she’d love to watch them try. “I bet you two drink tokens and the next one on me,” she offered, “that I can snake that bottle of tequila off the back shelf before the bartender catches me.” 

It had been awhile since she’d done something that outrageously stupid - she would be kicked out from the bar, at minimum, and maybe banned completely. Her tokens would surely get taken from her, which would disappoint Yale since she normally just handed them over, but it was a rush - high risk, high reward. She liked playing that way. “If I manage, all you gotta do is buy me another round.” 

                                              »»——⍟——««

It was at this point, in a normal, not-the-end-of-the-world setting that Jeremy would try to flash his badge, the one he typically kept on his belt even when he was off duty but that little piece of metal signifying that he had once held some sort of authority was meaningless-- at least in the traditional sense that people even cared about the police. He used it as a power move with people who seemed to be... trouble makers, although this young woman didn’t really seem like that, at least, not like the ones he had met in the past, she just seemed to want some excitement or distraction. 

Jeremy smiled, a little more genuinely than before and less like he was just playing along. His gaze casually swept over the bar and then the bartender, subtly sizing them up before he returned his blue eyes to the blonde and let that smile of his pull over white teeth, more charming and challenging. “I never was that much of a tequila drinker,” the man said casually, using his drink as a method to buy himself some time to decide whether or not he should allow this young woman to subject herself to the possibility of getting caught and repremanded. 

“I dunno, isn’t that a little too reckless?” He questioned, an amused chuckle leaving his lips, Jeremy took another drink and shook his head as if the whole thing was absurd. The last time he’d made any sort of bet was when he had been in college, it had been an experiment, playing out of his character some to see how the people in his class who believed him to be a goody-two-shoes would react. He was successful but made no influence on the people in the way he’d meant to. 

open starter. 

merrick knew that she should have been more serious about ‘the end of the world’, and all that, but it was hard to take anything seriously anymore. they were all one wrong move from dying and eating each others brains out - it was hilarious, in an absolute terrifying way that she couldn’t help but laugh at. 

so while some pretended nothing was happening - ignorance was bliss, or whatever - and others adapted, trying to make themselves useful ( like her sister ), merrick simply thrived. who was going to stop her, really, from sharpening her knives at the bar? it wasn’t like she was twirling them ( at the moment ) and while she normally pawned off her drink tokens, it had been a rough supply run that day and she wanted a break. 

“if i can throw my knife into that board,” merrick challenged to the person at the stool next to her, “you owe me a drink.” they didn’t need to know she had a killer arm on her - and that she regularly participated in sword duels in her current backyard. “if i miss, i owe you one. deal?” 

                                          »»——⍟——««

Typically, Jeremy had only ever drank in a social setting, a group of the other detectives would get together weekly to get drinks and swallow down the pain of the horrors they saw each day. It was a bit different for Jeremy but he still enjoyed the social interactions that came along with pulling one on with the guys. Those days were long gone and upon finding a means to actually enjoy some alcohol Jeremy took the chance, making use of the opportunity to get to know the people of the town. 

He’d been twirling the amber liquor that was in a glass in front of him, untouched, Jeremy was fixated on it when the young woman who had been messing with her knives spoke up. The ex-detective shifted his gaze, letting it lull over to where she sat and moving over her briefly in the same way it would have anyone of interest in one of his cases, analytical and observant, a small smirk tugged lightly at his lips before he finally brought his eyes up to meet hers. 

“No deal,” Jeremy said, leaning back some and bringing his glass to his lips for the first time since he’d gotten the thing, the liquor burned his tongue and throat as he swallowed slowly, eyes turning to inspect the drink once more before returning to the young woman. “you handle those with a familiarity that makes me feel you know what you’re doing--” another sip at the amber liquid, bying time, drawing his answer out. “but I would make the bet that I could make whatever shot you can. if I don’t make it, I owe you the drink.”

Open Starter | @thecatastrophicstarters·

Vic still hadn’t quite decided how he felt about this little town they’d stumbled upon and settled into over the last few months. It felt like an illusion if he really put his mind to it. Within the walls they’d formed something of a community, even complete with a coffee shop. But beyond those walls Vic was intimately familiar with what roamed. He didn’t want to admit that he enjoyed the world out there more than in here…but at least it wasn’t built on a lie that could come collapsing down around him at any moment. At least out there he knew what (and who) he could trust.

Sat on a bench in the middle of town Vic held a stick in one hand, shaving the end of it to a sharpened point with a knife in the opposite hand. It was a crude weapon at best, but one could never be too prepared in this world. The rest of them might be deluding themselves thinking that they were safe here, but Victor wasn’t willing to fully settle.

His eyes didn’t even lift from his work as a shadow fell across it, the patter of footsteps heard long before they’d fully approached. He’d been hoping they might pass without bothering him, but it seemed he wasn’t quite that lucky. “What do you want?”

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Two weeks. 

It wasn’t enough time to even let it register that he had made it to this place let alone get used to the idea that there were living people there as well, a community wasn’t unfamiliar to Jeremy, he remembered the concept rather well but it had been some time since he had been near this many people. What a terrible thing for an extrovert like himself, wandering for so long by himself, surviving and adapting, Jeremy was made for this world, the destruction was something he thrived in but no one here knew that, not yet anyway. 

His first task was to analyze the location, take in its strengths and weakness, points he could use to his advantage and what areas people frequented the most. It was a cop thing, getting to know the community, he’d have to if he was going to find other living people to bring to Fairvale. Jeremy was in his head, out trying to ‘get to know’ as many residents as he could and walking around the town, but as he often did while walking now days, he was drawn out of his thoughts with the slightest of unusual noise. 

The meticulous scraping of metal on wood was what had snapped him out of his thoughts, not typically one to forget his surroundings any other time, but, he had been traveling by himself for so long it was still a challenge to get used to people again... despite how he thrived on such connections, it had been far too long since he’d seen let alone spoken to another human that wasn’t choking out their last words. “Sorry,” Jeremy started, voice lower than he had intended it to be, a little less friendly than he would have liked but times had changed that as well, his overly kind and approachable mannerisms. “--- I was just watching, I don’t need anything.”