~She doesn't think things she doesn't say! She's not a dog!
HEY WANT SOME SKETCHES
I was goin down my list of ideas and I hit one, then I sort of came up with a bunch off of that and it sort of spiraled out of control. OOPS!
But hey, if you had some interest in the cured!AU that's showed up before wherein the ladies get cured of zombie-ism, this will be relevant to your interests!
There are also some other things as well, haha. I guess there's some blood here and there.
JOCKEY NO WHY
Sort of a follow-up to that other comic where Charger felt called by swan boats. FAINT MEMORIES OF WILDLIFE PRESERVATION MINGLING
SHE FAILED HER SWANBOAT, WHYY
WHAT IS THIS "SAD"
jockey tearing out of the room like a cat that knocked over a glass
Charger's face just gets bloodier and bloodier. JOCKEY LOOKING VERY SERIOUS IN THE FIRST PANEL
WHY NOT TAKE THIS SONG AND MAKE IT ALL DEPRESSING, SURE
Me and Jaz were talking up a sad situation where Jockey wouldn't leave her dead friends because THEY'RE FINE REALLY SHE CAN'T JUST LEAVE HAHAHAHA and then i was like WAIT AS A ZOMBIE OR AS A SURVIVOR
EITHER WAY IT'S SAD
infected jockey pacing over other dead bodies, still laughing yet refusing to leave the area or attack anyone for some reason
survivors just WHAT IS THAT JOCKEY'S DEAL
IS SHE DANCING
THE BRIEF APPEARANCE OF THE MALE SMOKER who i drew entirely from memory is it obvious
Smoker finally reunited with her first love, cigarettes. i imagine that smokers would get pretty intense about their cigarettes after being cured, haha. Or most cured zombies would for like, food or what have you. IT IS TIME FOR ZOMBIE FIGHT NOW
Shopkeeper just like darn it this is the fifth time this week stupid zombies
Breaking up a zombie fight would probably be kinda risky since they might turn on you instead, but if you keep bopping em it might get em to just leave you alone since they don't want to deal with it
AND THEN
Jaz mentioned in a post about Charger how as a zombie she has a protective instinct SO makes sense to me that something triggering that as a cured zombie could cause her to lapse back into her zombie thoughts. Jockey of course can't stop jumping on people I JUST WANT TO RIDE YOUR SHOULDERS MAN CMON
The survivor here is just some lady, I didn't mean for her to be anyone specifically. :B She got cut off but she was saying something like "why do they always travel in packs!"
Also she's referring to Charger by her species name, as opposed to the placeholder for her MYTHICAL REAL NAME WHICH SOMEDAY SHE WILL HAVE HONEST. It's pretty obvious what kind of zombie she used to be, after all.
The survivor's understandably rather annoyed at the cured zombies. Most of the survivors at this point are, since it's sort of hard for them to get past the whole "you tried to murder us pretty much every day" part of it. It's understandable they don't want to deal with them, even if they're cured! So survivors just try and stay away from cured zombies, and cured zombies are aware that they have lapses in control and residual zombie feelings, and the survivors don't really treat em so great, so they stay away from them as well. MOSTLY DO NOT INTERACT TOO MUCH WITH EACH OTHER i wouldn't think of it as like hatred or war or anything, there's just sort of tension between both groups
BUT MORE ON THAT IN A SECOND
This ridiculous song was on a fanmix once for Matt Engarde and since Psychopro sort of looks like him WHY NOT IT SEEMS TO FIT
it's so ridiculous
need to stop drawing right next to the margins arrrrgh
A brief glimpse of the boy survivors. I guess David would do a lot of first aid since I'd guess he'd know a little bit about it, wandering around researching in the wild like he did. Tho I guess Ray and Jordan might too, altho I think they'd be more along the lines of WALK IT OFF IT'LL BE FINE BANDAIDS ARE FOR SISSIES which probably wouldn't be helpful
I guess Ray ran into a Witch or something, haha. HE LOOKS WEIRD WITHOUT HIS HOOD BUT I COULDN'T THINK OF A WAY FOR HIM TO KEEP IT ON FOR THIS
Second try for that Butterfly on the Right Shoulder thing, a bit better.
ANYWAY so back to the cured stuff, I was thinking a bit more on how it happened and such. Mostly I was thinking that instead of it going down after the infection has burned itself out, the project got started while the infection was still in full-swing. Remaining organizations/military whatever were pretty invested on finding a cure or vaccine or something to stop the virus, so they snagged some specials to experiment on since they're the hardiest of the zombies. If they didn't get a cure, maybe they'd get new ways to beat them, and if they died in the process, so what? They were zombies, who's gonna care? During the zombie apocalypse who's gonna notice some missing dead specials, right?
So the ladies and some other specials got snagged and were among those that survived the whole treatment/experimentation. Whether or not they got a cure/vaccine out of it idk, but that's basically why they ended up being cured. They weren't caught specifically to BE cured, it was more a side-effect of research they were doing to try and help out survivors. SO THERE YOU GO
HEY IT'S MOUSY!
I wrote a fic where Mousy ran into them when they were zombies, and while normally I don't think she'd survive very long, WHAT IF SHE DID AND BECAME A SURVIVOR IN THE CURED WORLD
After running into zombie Smoker I imagine she'd be fairly outspoken about ZOMBIE RIGHTS and the like, but even if she hadn't met her I bet she'd still have sympathy for cured zombies. Mousy's sort of a bleeding heart that way, altho she says things like this without actually spending a lot of time with cured zombies herself. It's a lot easier to talk about fighting for something than to actually fight for it, haha.
Smoker has no memory of her zombie times and didn't really care for Mousy to begin with so is not expecting to see her again, haha. SHE IS LESS THAN PLEASED especially when Mousy IMMEDIATELY invades her personal space and starts touching and patronizing her.
Smoker is trying to speak words, that's not just gibberish. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW INTELLIGIBLE IT IS TO READ THOUGH. Here's her lines in order:
"Stop touching me already, I'm fine"
"No, I can't remember anything, I was a zombie, you meddling pest."
Mousy however is super happy to see her again and has no idea why how she's talking to her would bother her.
Smoker's lines in order:
"Finally, maybe you can get her away from me."
"Did you bring my notepad" and I actually tried to sound out what the rest of this was while typesetting it AND I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT THE REST OF WHAT SHE SAYS so I just transcribed what I had and left it. WAY TO GO SELF.
"God #$^#it."
"Just because I can't talk doesn't mean I can't hear."
"Great, we get there, I'll tell you to #$%# off myself."
I think Mousy pretty much lost everyone she knew/cared about, another reason why she's so happy to see Smoker again. NOW THINGS CAN BE DIFFERENT until Hunter pops up and spoils the moment. AS USUAL
Being cured sort of messed up their memories and Mousy wasn't particularly memorable to begin with, so Hunter can't remember her at all. This kind of hurts Mousy's feelings since she can remember them perfectly fine, and even invited them to her wedding (mentioned in this fic, altho at that point Mousy hadn't been pinned down or anything), but they don't remember her at all.
Mousy starts referring to Smoker in the third person when there's someone else around that she can actually talk with, which really peeves Smoker off to no end since, as she tries to say, just because she can't speak doesn't mean she can't hear. SADLY NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND HER
Mousy also keeps timidly trying to play up her and Smoker's relationship and to try and get more details about it from Hunter but Hunter just keeps CRUSHING HER DREAMS
Hunter's run into survivors that want to help cured zombies before, thus her one of those comment. I'd guess that while the survivors get the nice/undamaged places, the zombies tend to get already busted down places. Tho considering how many people died at least there's probably a lot of houses available, haha. Conversely with all the Tanks and military around, also a lot of trashed houses.
Smoker's lines in order:
"$#@# you, I hate that word! She's #$^#ing annoying!" (As a sidenote, Smoker has always hated being called a #$%^#, since that was Griffin's favorite word for her (and a favorite word for a lot of people who hassle her), and it's one swear word she always avoids using for people. Subsequently, Hunter rarely uses it around her, but sometimes it slips)
"Maybe I am, she's a pain in the #$% and she can't take a hint."
"Mousy. Mousy! Mousy! Ugh, here."
Hunter keeps making Mousy uncomfortable by saying things outright while she sort of stumbles around her answers, haha. I WASN'T GOING TO SAY ANYTHING
Cured zombies would probably have a tough time working, not just because survivors don't want to be around them most of the time but since so many of them would have disabilities related to their particular infection strain. WELL I GUESS CURED COMMONS WOULD BE FINE
Mousy's so sensitive that Smoker's note just totally wrecks her, haha.
Mousy cries pretty easily which totally weirds Hunter out, she has no idea how to handle people who are crying at all. DEFAULT RESPONSE: SUCK IT UP
For some reason Angie kept coming to mind as a real name for Mousy, so hey, why not. MOUSY CAN BE A NICKNAME OR SOMETHING I SUPPOSE
to try and have SOME people in this thing that actually have real names for once, haha. Tho eh I might still change it later.
GOTTA GET THE OTHERS IN HERE
Smoker's lines in order:
"It's not a nickname, it's a statement of fact."
"It's not a compliment! Christ."
"She's a co-worker and a pain."
"I'll take this to the kitchen."
Mousy thrilled that Smoker has a nickname for her, unable to understand as Smoker says it's not a compliment. STUPID NO TONGUE
Jockey constantly gets into trouble jumping on people, mostly survivors, SO WHY NOT COVER THE BASES. Charger just like siiiiiigh what happened :|
Poor Smoker trying to talk and NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE'S SAYING so she just checks out entirely by taking the groceries to the kitchen for Charger
Mousy hasn't actually worked as much with zombies as she says, she just knows a few things about them. SO WHY NOT LET THE JOCKEY RIDE HER, IT'LL SHOW THAT SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT FOR REAL RIGHT
Jockey can't help it, once on a survivor's shoulders that instinctual drive comes over and she just wants to drag them different directions WHEEEEE THIS WAY WHEEEEEEEEE
I think I mentioned before Jockey being unable to control her emotions, haha. INSTANTLY BROUGHT TO TEARS mostly at the idea of hurting someone, she really doesn't want to hurt people anymore! She was probably really upset at finding out that as a zombie she probably killed bunches of people. SHE JUST WANTS TO RIDE PEOPLE AND IT GETS OUT OF HAND
Charger's remaining hand is all huge and swollen and messed up, so picking things up or closing her thumb to her other fingers is outside her abilities a lot of the time. Add that to the lack of depth perception with the one eye and it's tough.
Mousy's pitying comments set Charger on edge. I imagine that Charger's had her fair share of touristy interns, people that were really into saving animals or whatever until it got hard or they realized how much work it was, then they all bailed. She thinks that Mousy's probably going to do the same thing, sort of not really committed or not experienced enough and easily chased away. >:| as always, haha.
Reconstructing a Spitter face would be TOUGH.
Mousy folds easily to any kind of pressure or questioning so she doesn't even bother to defend herself or argue against what Charger's saying. EASILY CAPITULATES unlike the others
Smoker's lines in order:
"No. No, you'll just get in the way."
"Maybe you can leave me alone so I can finish dinner. You're just as self-centered as before. Thought a zombie apocalypse would change a body."
I couldn't come up with any specific reason for voice boxes to be hard to find I DUNNO ZOMBIE-SURVIVOR CONFLICTS SOMETHING SOMETHING
It actually didn't occur to me until getting to this how not only can Smoker not talk anymore without her tongue, she can't taste anything either. :< COOKING WILL NEVER BE THE SAME FOR HER AGAIN
Mousy's ;_; reaction to this just sort of annoys Charger again, and she wanders off to fix the table probably. HUNTER DOESN'T MUCH LIKE ALL THIS PITYING EITHER
Jockey however FOUND A FRIEND FOR LIFE SHE LET ME RIDE HER YAAAAY
While Mousy rambles Smoker grumbles to herself about how this must be perfect for Mousy, since now she can yap her ear off and Smoker can't respond back or join the conversation. She also struggles for a bit to pronounce "stir" without a tongue and then just rephrases. She was going to write her a nasty note about it until she mentioned the voice box. A VOICE BOX YOU SAY
Also her mention about being the only person Mousy had left made her feel a little bit bad about it, so she just flips to a new page and writes something on that instead.
Smoker's lines in order go:
"Ugh, this must be perfect for you, you get to yap my ear off without me being able to talk back. Same one-sided conversation as ever. God #$%#it."
"Ugh, lay off. You want to help, then st-... st... move the spoon around the pot."
"I swear, that's it."
"A voicebox? You could get me a voicebox?"
"It's for someone else. Give me a minute."
"Keep stirring the pot."
"Hey! You wanna help, pay attention! Keep stirring or let me do it, you're probably doing it wrong."
"You're hopeless."
EATING TIME Hunter eats her food with her hands, as always. Jockey shakes so hard she can't hold utensils straight a lot of the time, Smoker can actually eat without trouble aside from the no tongue thing, and Charger's big beefy hand makes normal utensils hard to use carefully, so she uses bigger stuff like spatulas or whatever.
Smoker's line here is "Jeez, you're scaring her off. Nice pitch, Charger."
You can sum up Mousy with "she tries hard, but she makes a lot of mistakes". SHE DOESN'T MEAN TO GET ON THEIR NERVES SO MUCH BUT SOMEHOW
Charger finally just like LET ME LAY THIS OUT FOR YOU although I'm probably forgetting some things they might want help with, haha. The minor brain damage Charger alludes to is due to the crushed in part of her head, which I briefly looked up. I didn't want her to have too many side effects from it or anything, since MAGIC INFECTION KEPT HER ALIVE BEFORE or whatever, but one of the things mentioned for damage to that side of the brain was a loss of memory/difficulty remembering things or leading, so there you go, a touch of that. I DUNNO
Mousy was totally unprepared for how much stuff they need help with and is overwhelmed and a bit scared. Especially bathroom/clothing stuff, since that makes her super uncomfortable (you are not the best medic, mousy).
But she's determined to do this and be a part of their lives no matter what, so even though she's overwhelmed and nervous, she refuses to back down and run away. SOMEHOW I WILL PUSH THROUGH IT
Charger is still skeptical.
Mousy was going to thank Smoker for being alive, since she's all she has now, but realized how goofy that might sound and took it back. NOT THAT SMOKER CARES SHE'S SO SUPPORTIVE
AND SO MOUSY JOINS THE CURED BAND FOR HIJINX AND WHAT HAVE YOU
Privately Mousy wanted Smoker to say her name first and validate HOW IMPORTANT SHE IS TO HER but nope, Hunter first, haha.
I forgot until I flipped through some other cured shots that I gave Smoker an eyepatch instead of her weird head bandages, I need to go back to that if I go back to this AU at some point.
WALL OF EXPOSITION TIME
LIKE I SAID
perhaps we'll see Mousy experiencing some of the zombie relapses later
Hunter in particular scares her since she's so dangerous. SO AT ODDS WITH HOW CASUAL SHE IS DAILY
Charger is extrapolating from her own vague zombie memories of protecting other zombies to that being her purpose, but she doesn't actually know if that's her strain's goal or if that's just her personally. I feel like she hasn't had much of a chance to talk to other cured Chargers about it, so she bases her thoughts on the strain on her own experiences.
Charger's more freaked out by her own lapses into zombie thinking than she lets on. IT'S A FRIGHTENING LOSS OF CONTROL THAT COULD LEAVE PEOPLE HURT
Charger's talking about her existing arm at the end, not her missing one. I guess she'd get some skin cream or something for all the cracked leathery skin to make it stop hurting. I WOULD HAVE HAD A SHOT OF MOUSY PUTTING IT ON FOR HER BUT EH
MAYBE NEXT TIME
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW
I also posted this at dreamwidth with reluctant ambivalence. Comment here or there, don't matter to me!
I was goin down my list of ideas and I hit one, then I sort of came up with a bunch off of that and it sort of spiraled out of control. OOPS!
But hey, if you had some interest in the cured!AU that's showed up before wherein the ladies get cured of zombie-ism, this will be relevant to your interests!
There are also some other things as well, haha. I guess there's some blood here and there.
JOCKEY NO WHY
Sort of a follow-up to that other comic where Charger felt called by swan boats. FAINT MEMORIES OF WILDLIFE PRESERVATION MINGLING
SHE FAILED HER SWANBOAT, WHYY
WHAT IS THIS "SAD"
jockey tearing out of the room like a cat that knocked over a glass
Charger's face just gets bloodier and bloodier. JOCKEY LOOKING VERY SERIOUS IN THE FIRST PANEL
WHY NOT TAKE THIS SONG AND MAKE IT ALL DEPRESSING, SURE
Me and Jaz were talking up a sad situation where Jockey wouldn't leave her dead friends because THEY'RE FINE REALLY SHE CAN'T JUST LEAVE HAHAHAHA and then i was like WAIT AS A ZOMBIE OR AS A SURVIVOR
EITHER WAY IT'S SAD
infected jockey pacing over other dead bodies, still laughing yet refusing to leave the area or attack anyone for some reason
survivors just WHAT IS THAT JOCKEY'S DEAL
IS SHE DANCING
THE BRIEF APPEARANCE OF THE MALE SMOKER who i drew entirely from memory is it obvious
Smoker finally reunited with her first love, cigarettes. i imagine that smokers would get pretty intense about their cigarettes after being cured, haha. Or most cured zombies would for like, food or what have you. IT IS TIME FOR ZOMBIE FIGHT NOW
Shopkeeper just like darn it this is the fifth time this week stupid zombies
Breaking up a zombie fight would probably be kinda risky since they might turn on you instead, but if you keep bopping em it might get em to just leave you alone since they don't want to deal with it
AND THEN
Jaz mentioned in a post about Charger how as a zombie she has a protective instinct SO makes sense to me that something triggering that as a cured zombie could cause her to lapse back into her zombie thoughts. Jockey of course can't stop jumping on people I JUST WANT TO RIDE YOUR SHOULDERS MAN CMON
The survivor here is just some lady, I didn't mean for her to be anyone specifically. :B She got cut off but she was saying something like "why do they always travel in packs!"
Also she's referring to Charger by her species name, as opposed to the placeholder for her MYTHICAL REAL NAME WHICH SOMEDAY SHE WILL HAVE HONEST. It's pretty obvious what kind of zombie she used to be, after all.
The survivor's understandably rather annoyed at the cured zombies. Most of the survivors at this point are, since it's sort of hard for them to get past the whole "you tried to murder us pretty much every day" part of it. It's understandable they don't want to deal with them, even if they're cured! So survivors just try and stay away from cured zombies, and cured zombies are aware that they have lapses in control and residual zombie feelings, and the survivors don't really treat em so great, so they stay away from them as well. MOSTLY DO NOT INTERACT TOO MUCH WITH EACH OTHER i wouldn't think of it as like hatred or war or anything, there's just sort of tension between both groups
BUT MORE ON THAT IN A SECOND
This ridiculous song was on a fanmix once for Matt Engarde and since Psychopro sort of looks like him WHY NOT IT SEEMS TO FIT
it's so ridiculous
need to stop drawing right next to the margins arrrrgh
A brief glimpse of the boy survivors. I guess David would do a lot of first aid since I'd guess he'd know a little bit about it, wandering around researching in the wild like he did. Tho I guess Ray and Jordan might too, altho I think they'd be more along the lines of WALK IT OFF IT'LL BE FINE BANDAIDS ARE FOR SISSIES which probably wouldn't be helpful
I guess Ray ran into a Witch or something, haha. HE LOOKS WEIRD WITHOUT HIS HOOD BUT I COULDN'T THINK OF A WAY FOR HIM TO KEEP IT ON FOR THIS
Second try for that Butterfly on the Right Shoulder thing, a bit better.
ANYWAY so back to the cured stuff, I was thinking a bit more on how it happened and such. Mostly I was thinking that instead of it going down after the infection has burned itself out, the project got started while the infection was still in full-swing. Remaining organizations/military whatever were pretty invested on finding a cure or vaccine or something to stop the virus, so they snagged some specials to experiment on since they're the hardiest of the zombies. If they didn't get a cure, maybe they'd get new ways to beat them, and if they died in the process, so what? They were zombies, who's gonna care? During the zombie apocalypse who's gonna notice some missing dead specials, right?
So the ladies and some other specials got snagged and were among those that survived the whole treatment/experimentation. Whether or not they got a cure/vaccine out of it idk, but that's basically why they ended up being cured. They weren't caught specifically to BE cured, it was more a side-effect of research they were doing to try and help out survivors. SO THERE YOU GO
HEY IT'S MOUSY!
I wrote a fic where Mousy ran into them when they were zombies, and while normally I don't think she'd survive very long, WHAT IF SHE DID AND BECAME A SURVIVOR IN THE CURED WORLD
After running into zombie Smoker I imagine she'd be fairly outspoken about ZOMBIE RIGHTS and the like, but even if she hadn't met her I bet she'd still have sympathy for cured zombies. Mousy's sort of a bleeding heart that way, altho she says things like this without actually spending a lot of time with cured zombies herself. It's a lot easier to talk about fighting for something than to actually fight for it, haha.
Smoker has no memory of her zombie times and didn't really care for Mousy to begin with so is not expecting to see her again, haha. SHE IS LESS THAN PLEASED especially when Mousy IMMEDIATELY invades her personal space and starts touching and patronizing her.
Smoker is trying to speak words, that's not just gibberish. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW INTELLIGIBLE IT IS TO READ THOUGH. Here's her lines in order:
"Stop touching me already, I'm fine"
"No, I can't remember anything, I was a zombie, you meddling pest."
Mousy however is super happy to see her again and has no idea why how she's talking to her would bother her.
Smoker's lines in order:
"Finally, maybe you can get her away from me."
"Did you bring my notepad" and I actually tried to sound out what the rest of this was while typesetting it AND I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT THE REST OF WHAT SHE SAYS so I just transcribed what I had and left it. WAY TO GO SELF.
"God #$^#it."
"Just because I can't talk doesn't mean I can't hear."
"Great, we get there, I'll tell you to #$%# off myself."
I think Mousy pretty much lost everyone she knew/cared about, another reason why she's so happy to see Smoker again. NOW THINGS CAN BE DIFFERENT until Hunter pops up and spoils the moment. AS USUAL
Being cured sort of messed up their memories and Mousy wasn't particularly memorable to begin with, so Hunter can't remember her at all. This kind of hurts Mousy's feelings since she can remember them perfectly fine, and even invited them to her wedding (mentioned in this fic, altho at that point Mousy hadn't been pinned down or anything), but they don't remember her at all.
Mousy starts referring to Smoker in the third person when there's someone else around that she can actually talk with, which really peeves Smoker off to no end since, as she tries to say, just because she can't speak doesn't mean she can't hear. SADLY NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND HER
Mousy also keeps timidly trying to play up her and Smoker's relationship and to try and get more details about it from Hunter but Hunter just keeps CRUSHING HER DREAMS
Hunter's run into survivors that want to help cured zombies before, thus her one of those comment. I'd guess that while the survivors get the nice/undamaged places, the zombies tend to get already busted down places. Tho considering how many people died at least there's probably a lot of houses available, haha. Conversely with all the Tanks and military around, also a lot of trashed houses.
Smoker's lines in order:
"$#@# you, I hate that word! She's #$^#ing annoying!" (As a sidenote, Smoker has always hated being called a #$%^#, since that was Griffin's favorite word for her (and a favorite word for a lot of people who hassle her), and it's one swear word she always avoids using for people. Subsequently, Hunter rarely uses it around her, but sometimes it slips)
"Maybe I am, she's a pain in the #$% and she can't take a hint."
"Mousy. Mousy! Mousy! Ugh, here."
Hunter keeps making Mousy uncomfortable by saying things outright while she sort of stumbles around her answers, haha. I WASN'T GOING TO SAY ANYTHING
Cured zombies would probably have a tough time working, not just because survivors don't want to be around them most of the time but since so many of them would have disabilities related to their particular infection strain. WELL I GUESS CURED COMMONS WOULD BE FINE
Mousy's so sensitive that Smoker's note just totally wrecks her, haha.
Mousy cries pretty easily which totally weirds Hunter out, she has no idea how to handle people who are crying at all. DEFAULT RESPONSE: SUCK IT UP
For some reason Angie kept coming to mind as a real name for Mousy, so hey, why not. MOUSY CAN BE A NICKNAME OR SOMETHING I SUPPOSE
to try and have SOME people in this thing that actually have real names for once, haha. Tho eh I might still change it later.
GOTTA GET THE OTHERS IN HERE
Smoker's lines in order:
"It's not a nickname, it's a statement of fact."
"It's not a compliment! Christ."
"She's a co-worker and a pain."
"I'll take this to the kitchen."
Mousy thrilled that Smoker has a nickname for her, unable to understand as Smoker says it's not a compliment. STUPID NO TONGUE
Jockey constantly gets into trouble jumping on people, mostly survivors, SO WHY NOT COVER THE BASES. Charger just like siiiiiigh what happened :|
Poor Smoker trying to talk and NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE'S SAYING so she just checks out entirely by taking the groceries to the kitchen for Charger
Mousy hasn't actually worked as much with zombies as she says, she just knows a few things about them. SO WHY NOT LET THE JOCKEY RIDE HER, IT'LL SHOW THAT SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT FOR REAL RIGHT
Jockey can't help it, once on a survivor's shoulders that instinctual drive comes over and she just wants to drag them different directions WHEEEEE THIS WAY WHEEEEEEEEE
I think I mentioned before Jockey being unable to control her emotions, haha. INSTANTLY BROUGHT TO TEARS mostly at the idea of hurting someone, she really doesn't want to hurt people anymore! She was probably really upset at finding out that as a zombie she probably killed bunches of people. SHE JUST WANTS TO RIDE PEOPLE AND IT GETS OUT OF HAND
Charger's remaining hand is all huge and swollen and messed up, so picking things up or closing her thumb to her other fingers is outside her abilities a lot of the time. Add that to the lack of depth perception with the one eye and it's tough.
Mousy's pitying comments set Charger on edge. I imagine that Charger's had her fair share of touristy interns, people that were really into saving animals or whatever until it got hard or they realized how much work it was, then they all bailed. She thinks that Mousy's probably going to do the same thing, sort of not really committed or not experienced enough and easily chased away. >:| as always, haha.
Reconstructing a Spitter face would be TOUGH.
Mousy folds easily to any kind of pressure or questioning so she doesn't even bother to defend herself or argue against what Charger's saying. EASILY CAPITULATES unlike the others
Smoker's lines in order:
"No. No, you'll just get in the way."
"Maybe you can leave me alone so I can finish dinner. You're just as self-centered as before. Thought a zombie apocalypse would change a body."
I couldn't come up with any specific reason for voice boxes to be hard to find I DUNNO ZOMBIE-SURVIVOR CONFLICTS SOMETHING SOMETHING
It actually didn't occur to me until getting to this how not only can Smoker not talk anymore without her tongue, she can't taste anything either. :< COOKING WILL NEVER BE THE SAME FOR HER AGAIN
Mousy's ;_; reaction to this just sort of annoys Charger again, and she wanders off to fix the table probably. HUNTER DOESN'T MUCH LIKE ALL THIS PITYING EITHER
Jockey however FOUND A FRIEND FOR LIFE SHE LET ME RIDE HER YAAAAY
While Mousy rambles Smoker grumbles to herself about how this must be perfect for Mousy, since now she can yap her ear off and Smoker can't respond back or join the conversation. She also struggles for a bit to pronounce "stir" without a tongue and then just rephrases. She was going to write her a nasty note about it until she mentioned the voice box. A VOICE BOX YOU SAY
Also her mention about being the only person Mousy had left made her feel a little bit bad about it, so she just flips to a new page and writes something on that instead.
Smoker's lines in order go:
"Ugh, this must be perfect for you, you get to yap my ear off without me being able to talk back. Same one-sided conversation as ever. God #$%#it."
"Ugh, lay off. You want to help, then st-... st... move the spoon around the pot."
"I swear, that's it."
"A voicebox? You could get me a voicebox?"
"It's for someone else. Give me a minute."
"Keep stirring the pot."
"Hey! You wanna help, pay attention! Keep stirring or let me do it, you're probably doing it wrong."
"You're hopeless."
EATING TIME Hunter eats her food with her hands, as always. Jockey shakes so hard she can't hold utensils straight a lot of the time, Smoker can actually eat without trouble aside from the no tongue thing, and Charger's big beefy hand makes normal utensils hard to use carefully, so she uses bigger stuff like spatulas or whatever.
Smoker's line here is "Jeez, you're scaring her off. Nice pitch, Charger."
You can sum up Mousy with "she tries hard, but she makes a lot of mistakes". SHE DOESN'T MEAN TO GET ON THEIR NERVES SO MUCH BUT SOMEHOW
Charger finally just like LET ME LAY THIS OUT FOR YOU although I'm probably forgetting some things they might want help with, haha. The minor brain damage Charger alludes to is due to the crushed in part of her head, which I briefly looked up. I didn't want her to have too many side effects from it or anything, since MAGIC INFECTION KEPT HER ALIVE BEFORE or whatever, but one of the things mentioned for damage to that side of the brain was a loss of memory/difficulty remembering things or leading, so there you go, a touch of that. I DUNNO
Mousy was totally unprepared for how much stuff they need help with and is overwhelmed and a bit scared. Especially bathroom/clothing stuff, since that makes her super uncomfortable (you are not the best medic, mousy).
But she's determined to do this and be a part of their lives no matter what, so even though she's overwhelmed and nervous, she refuses to back down and run away. SOMEHOW I WILL PUSH THROUGH IT
Charger is still skeptical.
Mousy was going to thank Smoker for being alive, since she's all she has now, but realized how goofy that might sound and took it back. NOT THAT SMOKER CARES SHE'S SO SUPPORTIVE
AND SO MOUSY JOINS THE CURED BAND FOR HIJINX AND WHAT HAVE YOU
Privately Mousy wanted Smoker to say her name first and validate HOW IMPORTANT SHE IS TO HER but nope, Hunter first, haha.
I forgot until I flipped through some other cured shots that I gave Smoker an eyepatch instead of her weird head bandages, I need to go back to that if I go back to this AU at some point.
WALL OF EXPOSITION TIME
LIKE I SAID
perhaps we'll see Mousy experiencing some of the zombie relapses later
Hunter in particular scares her since she's so dangerous. SO AT ODDS WITH HOW CASUAL SHE IS DAILY
Charger is extrapolating from her own vague zombie memories of protecting other zombies to that being her purpose, but she doesn't actually know if that's her strain's goal or if that's just her personally. I feel like she hasn't had much of a chance to talk to other cured Chargers about it, so she bases her thoughts on the strain on her own experiences.
Charger's more freaked out by her own lapses into zombie thinking than she lets on. IT'S A FRIGHTENING LOSS OF CONTROL THAT COULD LEAVE PEOPLE HURT
Charger's talking about her existing arm at the end, not her missing one. I guess she'd get some skin cream or something for all the cracked leathery skin to make it stop hurting. I WOULD HAVE HAD A SHOT OF MOUSY PUTTING IT ON FOR HER BUT EH
MAYBE NEXT TIME
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW
I also posted this at dreamwidth with reluctant ambivalence. Comment here or there, don't matter to me!