Roleplaying

Verit had given the human a grin and a wink when he saw it looking to him with murder in its eyes. The human would be a lot of fun to kill later.

Verit didn't even bother lying down on the bed. Turning his back to the couple as they had their little heartfelt reunion, Verit leaned against the cold metal and slid back to the concrete floor. Propping his elbow onto his knee, he tilted his head back until it hit the bars of his cell, staring out into whatever lay beyond the ribbed skylight. It was too dark for Verit to make out a thing, but he kind of preferred it that way.

"Fantastic," Verit said cheerlessly in response to the words directed at him.

I'll find extra beds, Jett signed, turning and leaving the room.

He wandered down the dark hall headed away from the enclosed infirmary. As he neared the front most part of the building the sounds of panic seemed to be dying away, and through the windows he could see people moving much more calmly. Whatever the scare had been seemed to have proven, in the end, to be a false alarm.

Jett flicked the light to the open infirmary on, and as he began unlocking the wheels of two cots the sound of the front door opening reached his ears. Two men bounced words off of one another tiredly until one called attention to the light and broke off to investigate.

“You up to something, Jett?”

The human turned to catch an eyeful of an emerald green Agoarn standing on three of his four feet, the last bent up against his underside resting on the back hook of a leg. His arms were crossed against his well toned chest and made him look as intimidating as he was powerful.

“Eol,” Jett said, naming the alien in greeting. “Celeste and I are staying in the enclosed infirmary. She has a patient, I have a prisoner.”

Eol smiled, walked over, and took a cot to wheel. The two of them guided the beds down the hall and into the cell lined room where Celeste was back in her chair writing in a small notebook she had fished out of Jett's bag. She looked up and nodded in a small way to the Agoarn who received her greeting with another grin and sparkling eyes. He signed a quick parting to her, tilted his head to Jett, and left without even glancing at the prisoner.

Celeste stood and climbed onto the cot closest to the cell, unwilling to part from her patient. Jett watched the two of them with sharp eyes – he trusted his friend to be smart about things, but he didn't trust her to use force when necessary, and he was beginning to reach the end of his rope when dealing with the ghoul.

Verit had only been silently staring to the outside, dully noting when the human left- by the weakening of its scent- and not doing much else until the human came back. Verit wrinkled his nose slightly, the scent of Agoarn hitting him non too pleasantly. He made no comment, however, and judging by his nose, the source of the smell had quickly exited the area.

For some odd reason, Verit was feeling strangely... Strangely... He gave up trying to find the word he was looking for. Folding his free leg underneath his right, he perched his hands on his upper arms, resting his chin in the crook of his elbows.

Celeste put the notebook underneath her pillow and turned until she was facing the ghoul. She slowly crossed her legs, taking time to tuck her ankles and adjust herself until she was comfortable, then placed an elbow on each knee and rested her chin on a hand, signing to Jett with the other. She already knew he was looking – he always was, he never seemed to miss a single word.

“Celeste wants to know how you're feeling.”

She nodded to back herself up, leaning forward in anticipation. Monitoring a patient was something she never failed to do or did poorly. Much of her time was spent making sure those she healed felt as comfortable as possible (when applicable). Though he was rough and crude, the new ager was no exception to this habit of hers.

"Stellar," Verit grunted in reply. "Never a better day in my life."

The mutt just couldn't resist, could it? Verit hoped they would pass out from exhaustion sometime soon. He was tired of dealing with the incessant hickering. Really, what he needed was to not be stuck in the very place he currently was. Getting into a fight was a gift from above in comparison to rotting in his concrete cell.

Either way, the pain from earlier had made itself scarce at this point- as all pain usually did. And how was he supposed to answer the question, anyway? Numb, numb all over, not a feeling in him save for, again, the very rare occasional spark of pain.

He really hoped at least one of the two's annoyingly limitless amount of patience would run out. Weren't humans, at least, supposed to have short attention spans?

Jett huffed through his nose as he tried to hold back a laugh at Celeste's signs.

“She says she's sure you could think of worse.”

He watched the way his friend studied her patient in such a dedicated manner, unwavering even in the face of his rudeness. It reminded him of how she would pour over experiments on things with poisonous properties – carefully, but with a wonder that was similar to that of a child studying a bug.

He remembered her looking that way at every new thing she encountered when first coming to the Collective. It was what sparked spats between singles looking for partners and partners trying to keep one another faithful. It was what had drawn him to her place of practice for help that he rarely asked for when injured. She knew the scars on nearly every body in the Collective better than anyone else, and it was a reason why most, just as Jett did, felt an incredible urge to protect her whatever the cost, even in the face of something she chose to do like taking on a flesh-eating patient.

Eol reentered the room with three steaming, ceramic cups. They were handmade, glazed with natural ingredients, suggesting a deep rooted craftsmanship. He passed them to the human and mutt and kept the last for himself encircled in his tail. The alien chose to linger at the door, unwilling to intrude on the conversation and atmosphere in hopes of making a quick exit once his business was finished, and he indeed, by Jett's view, had a purpose for being there that transcended his kindly gesture.

“Time?” Jett asked, found to be perching on his cot and pulling deeply from the cup he'd been handed despite its temperature.

The hike back to the shanty town had caused him to loose track of time. There was very little way of keeping perfectly accurate time anymore, and without it or the sun everything seemed to collapse in confusion, just as he felt he was.

“Somewhere between two or three,” Eol answered.

Celeste remained unmoving for quite some time, not even starting at their voices. She had taken the drink graciously without looking up or turning her head, and now had it clutched between her hands, She stared down into the cup with lost eyes, yet her nose twitched like it was present and highly active, searching for something it was unsure of.

I smell lavender, bergamot, sugar... there's something else, though, Celeste signed, turning her head to look at the Agoarn with puzzled eyes.

Slowly, showing his newness to the words, he signed back, White peaches.

White peaches? she replied, face bursting into surprise. Eol!

He smiled at the use of his name, then answered, New black market vendor. Had them in fresh. I thought you'd like it.

Celeste returned his smile with one of an angel's that lit her face into unquestionable beauty. He blushed gently, though his eyes were steady on hers and wouldn't be chased away in embarrassment. The cup cautiously touched her lips, she swallowed, and in a fit of unbridled happiness she squirmed and hugged the tea to her chest. The flushed green on his cheeks deepened, pronouncing his pleasure at her reaction.

This naturally didn't go unnoticed by Jett. He wasn't prone to jealousy, and he felt no need to protect his friend from someone they both trusted and cared for, but he couldn't deny the slight twinge of envy that tugged at his heart while watching their exchange. He wanted to ask the alien to leave or take the drink from Celeste and give it back to him who had brought it. However he felt, of course, didn't change his morals and nature – it would have made all of them unhappy in the end, and it would have been a foolish urge to act on, anyway.

“I'm heading back for door duty. You both know to call if you need anything,” Eol said, nodding to Celeste and then Jett before leaving.

Jett suppressed the need to sigh and drowned it with a mouthful of tea, sitting with the fact that he would always have to deal with Celeste's suitors whether she noticed them as such or not. Undoubtedly, this was the curse of beauty, or so he imagined.

He hadn't said another word, but despite not having changed his aloof posture in the slightest, out of boredom Verit had been paying attention to what was going on behind him. It wasn't like he could understand any of the random hand movements even if he looked and tried- but scent markers told him a whole different world of information. Staying silent for the entirety of what he presumed to be an exchange, Verit snickered lightly to himself upon the Agoarn's departure from the cell.

Verit had smelled the green-skinned, four-legged alien approach, as well as the steaming liquid it carried. He knew sugar off the bat. He recognized most of the uncommon scents mixed into the beverage as well, from something somewhere a long time ago, but had no name for him. He'd merely come into contact with him, never actually learned the word for each. What he did know, however, was that they were a rarity.

Especially the fruity, fresh-smelling one.

Actually, Verit recognized that one from not too long ago... It could have been a day or two earlier, potentially. he didn't know exactly when or what it was, and hadn't bothered to investigate- it wasn't food, after all, and he hadn't smelled any food in the vendor's products to prompt a closer look, either. Food had a distinct smell that he couldn't possibly mistake, and he sure hadn't detected it. He just wrote the new scent off as... Well, a fruit. What else?

Whatever it was, there had to be some ingredient in the drink that prompted a reaction in the mutt- and the mutt's reaction, subsequently, the Agoarn's. For a moment Verit had questioned whether his label of the vendor-produce scent as 'fruit' was correct- he had the suspicion that it was actually a drug. Drugs, after all, wouldn't be out of place in the possession of a black market vendor- or really, anybody. He had heard drugs had quite the effect on species tolerant of them, and had run into his fair share of addicts and under-the-influence'd.

Verit had quickly dismissed the thought, however, because otherwise the human wouldn't have been smelling so differently. Surely, if it was a drug, the effects wouldn't be so varied, he had reasoned.

... Verit thought on it, however, and realized that the mutt already had a reaction even before it had taken a sip of the liquid. Which probably wrote off the possibility of it being a drug. He had scented the liquid too, and he wasn't feeling any different. Though he did notice that the mutt's scent changed into a fever pitch after it had ingested some.

Thus, Verit had decided the scent was probably from a fruit, it had been added into the drink, the mutt probably liked it for some unfathomable reason- he was pretty sure human mutts could consume fruit-, the Agoarn knew the mutt liked it, and the human was jealous.

Keyword- jealous.

Verit couldn't deny in the least that he found it amusing.

Celeste remained unaware of the Agoarn's affections and Jett's smothered envy. She continued savoring  the tea with a blissful expression. She thought it must have been the best tea she'd ever tasted – Eol not only made tea blends, but he also picked the ingredients and specifically made cups to go along with his loose leaf creations. This was, she imagined, one of his best sets ever.

Once finished, she placed the cup on the ground next to one of the cot wheels and flopped onto her back, letting out a fluffy sigh of contentment. The darkness stimulated her mind, and her mind began putting together new medicinal recipes and running through problems, physical and mental, patients had brought to her that she had yet to perfectly combat. A thought struck her, and she turned her head to look at the ghoul.

She knocked on the cell bars and signed his name.

Verit sat up from the bars, and turned to give the mutt an unimpressed glare.

"What do you want?" he said impatiently, ignoring the mutt's hand-waving. He sure hoped this wasn't going to be what was to be expected in the following days. Verit was, actually, already concerned with what he was going to do with himself. It wasn't like there was anything he could do in his concrete cell, which was bare save for the bed. Verit had decided that ripping it up wasn't going to be a terribly good idea, neither was trying to destroy the cell. Restlessness was going to settle in on him sooner or later.

Celeste pointed to the cup below her and made a single motion sign with her hand. She repeated herself again, this time slower, making sure that he saw the movement in its entirety.

Cup.

It wouldn't be necessary to teach him anything complex, just the basics to get him started. The healer was an intellect, too, and she could foresee him picking up rather quickly on pronouns and adjectives as long as he was attentive to his surroundings, which she imagined he would be if only out of boredom. He might not play along, but she would teach him irregardless – he was far from being fully stupid.

Verit just stared at the mutt for a moment before turning his back to it again. What, he wasn't going to knock the cup over with his magical shiny shiny ghoul powers to entertain them. The mutt could just hack it.

Bringing his left hand to his other, Verit absentmindedly cracked his knuckles. It wasn't like there was a reason he did it, not as a threat or otherwise. It wasn't even something he did often. Flexing his fingers once he was done, Verit went back to passively studying his surroundings. Why everything suddenly decided to talk to each other via hand flailing was beyond him. As far as he could tell, all of them were capable of talking and not at all deaf.

Jett sighed and rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand, tired and ready to give up on the day. The ghoul's attitude bothered him, but he was too weary to feel upset about it. The day had been long, and there were still many hours until it was quitting time. Dinner wasn't even close to being ready, and he couldn't miss that unless he wanted to go another day without a meal.

A flash caught his attention, and he saw Celeste signing his name. Somehow, whenever a name crossed her hands, the person it belonged to seemed to fall into her being, or under her spell – Jett likened it to having her fingers ran through his hair. It was a loving, comforting motion that made his eyelids fall and his heart settle.

You ought to sleep, she had said.

He wanted to disagree, and he was about to, but Celeste's eyebrows raised and eyes widened in her famous puppy-stare. Jett had yelled at her the first time she'd used it on him; it made him angry that she could look that adorable, but she hadn't even been aware of her expression. She never knew when she was using it, and that made it all the more effective.

Wake me up for Hand In, he replied.

Then he kicked his shoes off, placed his hat atop them, laid his head on the pillow, and threw a thin blanket over his body and up past his face. He breathed in its musty scent and closed his eyes, drifting into a deep sleep like a bottle floating lazily downstream.

Verit's fingers flew to his jaw, and he touched the ridge of his right jawline in surprise. Standing up slowly, free hand sliding up the bars of his cell, Verit shoved two fingers into his mouth, taking them up to the knuckles as he touched a tooth in the back.

The back molar slid out upon his fingers' contact, and Verit didn't even need to pull for it to come free, root and all. Removing his fingers with the tooth pinched between third and second, Verit put his free hand into his pocket and took a few subconscious steps away from the entrance to his cell, studying the object between his fingers with a frown on his face.

Symmetrical with a smooth surface and a perfectly even shade of white, the pearly wedge resembled more a polished stone than an actual tooth. His fingers were already cut in the few moments he had held it, and small droplets of red trickled down his hand.

"Got me pretty hard..." Verit said to himself, momentarily forgetting the other beings in the room. He didn't actually think a tooth would have come out as a result of the single fist from earlier. Not that he was terribly concerned- it would grow back sometime soon.

Celeste looked up at the ghoul's movements. She stared, eyebrows arching high on her forehead, at the sight of the tooth held between his fingers. When Jett had first brought him in nearly the first thing she had noted was the familiar mark of Jett's classic knock out punch on his jaw. In all of her years as part of the Collective she had seen Jett's fist do damage far worse than knocking a tooth or two out of place, but it still surprised her to see it affect a new age ghoul so drastically – she had always heard that they were highly resilient creatures.

The healer slid off of her cot, touching her feet to the floor and padding towards the cell to stare at the tooth closer. She glanced up to look at her patient's eyes, then put her hand out, palm upwards.

“Might I?” Celeste whispered.

Last Verit checked, his teeth required quite a bit more than a knock in the jaw to dislodge. He distinctly remembered trying to pull one out proving a problem in the past- heck, he'd eaten multiple worse fists and hadn't even bruised.

He turned to the mutt, eyebrow raised in incredulity. Verit held the tooth away out of instinct. "You'll get c-" Catching himself, Verit quickly rephrased his words without a lapse, carefully doctoring his tone of voice back into its neutral unconcerned monotone. "-You sure you wanna?" Letting the tooth fall into the palm of his hand, Verit held it out for display. A thin, hair-like line traced the path the tooth took on its slide down, and red welled into the cut a moment later.

Pulling his hand back before the mutt could make a move, Verit realized he wasn't quite keen on being touched by it again. He didn't know what the feeling was, but he didn't like it. The circle-rubbing or whatever.

Earth is a dangerous place, whether in the hybrid-infested countryside or crumbling, dark cities, but no place is more dangerous or rough than New Chicago. Whether out on the streets or high in the penthouses, no one's truly safe.

The world has become a new place. Some people call it impossible, but others just call it apocalyptic. There's barely a government, and what's left of it is corrupt and dangerous - the people live in factions, gangs, or try to survive on their own, and the only peace between them are through the pacts that have been made. The rich thrive and keep themselves safe, but anyone unfortunate enough to be less than that spends every day hoping to stay alive.

Species:
Ghouls - they're intelligent beings, humanoid in appearance. Their skin rots, and their lifespan is determined by how long their meat stays on their bones.

Zombies - they're dumb and benign unless angered or bothered. They're brainless, so essentially they don't do anything except wander around, bump into things, and (on the occasion) turn into a terrifying killing and flesh-eating monster. These aren't characters, but they can be used by any writer as a tool, the way one would write about a pet or object a character interacts with. If you plan on using a zombie, PM me to clarify what you want to use one for.

Humans - just like us, but now they share their planet with many other species. Many feel cheated out of their home, and most scramble to keep their kind from dying out.

Aliens - there are many, many kinds, and over the years they've adapted to the newness of the world. From tall to small, these creatures come in all shapes, sizes, and origins. (PM me to clarify what kind of alien you would like to be - it has to be your own creation or one that someone else in the roleplay has made up).

Mutts - an alien-human, alien-alien, ghoul-alien offspring.

Hybrids - always different, always weird, hybrids are animal-human-zombie creatures. Whether four legs or two, each species of hybrids are as oddly animal as they are humanoid. Some can talk, most can't, but all have a highly feral nature and are willing to 'defend' themselves quickly through force.

Additional - any species you think should be on this list that isn't. PM me if you have any ideas.

None yet.

THE ROLEPLAY SLOGAN: Falcon hug that piece of beef jerkwad

No godmoding, guys - be cool

Come up with your own, unique charater, but make their personality realistic. No one likes a Mary Sue or an impossible character.

You only get to kill another character, or injure, if you have the writer's permission.

Don't let things that happen in character affect or influence how you treat someone out of character, and please don't use your character as a way to get at another roleplayer. Don't be cheap.

If you want to write a huge post, go for it! Write a huge one! But, before you do so, write up a message in the OOC chat to let everyone else know it might be a bit and to wait to post until you finish.

If you need to write a post that connects directly to a previous post, but you're worried that someone else might post before you can finish writing, say something in the OOC chat and everyone will wait to post until your done, but you only have a 4 hour window to finish up and post.

Always check the OOC before you post, just so you know what's up.

Breaking the rules can end up in being expelled (kicked out, or whatever you want to call it) from the roleplay depending on the offence.

Lastly, if you have any questions, hit me up. If you choose to be an alien, mutt, or hybrid, send me a message giving me more information on your character as well as an example of what your roleplay post might be like so I can get a sense of what kind of writer you are. If I like your moxie, you're in.