02: Ground Rules (Backdated to the 19th)

[dirtyredneck]

[[ooc: Backdated to shortly after this mess with Newt gets resolved and they're back inside the Gates.]

All ya'll talking shit about how we all gotta work together 'cause we're stuck here together best listen the hell up. You want to work together? FINE. First you gotta to is tell the rest of us what hell you can do. No more fucking surprises like some seven foot leopard man!

The only way to pool our goddamn resources are if we know what the fuck they are! And if you can do shit like that, then it's a goddamn resource!

I don't care where the hell you picked to hole your asses up, but if you're gonna talk to me and everyone else about how we should kum-by-fucking-ya, then you best be offering up your skills so we can take full advantage of them.

And don't make runs outside the walls alone no more without telling someone where the hell you're gonna be so we know to keep an eye on you! Hell, I don't even go hunting without telling Glenn I'll be out! You got people to rely on so rely on them!

Fucking hell, people!

[Daryl's angry because he cares. And he hates that he cares.]

[[ooc: open to action if anyone wants to be near him while he's making this rant]]

Comments

[shuckit]

If the Walkers actually only walked, Newt would've been fine. Don't yell at him for what's not his fault.

[ look no one bitches at his bff but him, okay? ]

I can run pretty fast for a long time, I can map, and I probably do engineering and tech, but I'm gonna need to practice on stuff first. I can climb and hide pretty well, and fight with a knife, machete or a spear. Good at puzzles and solving problems too.

[ a pause, and thomas exhales slowly, before adding on - ]

If we're putting everything forward, you oughta know - Newt and I only remember about three months of our lives. We might be good at more, but we don't remember it.

[dirtyredneck]

He asked if they sometimes ran and I said they do! The fresher ones with better legs will do it cause they still can. I didn't know these ones were still that fresh!

[Fuck you! He tried!]

The climbing is the shit you gotta worry about! Ain't never seen that before. If the virus is fucking... adapting or whatever the hell it is viruses do, then we got worse things to worry about than runners!

[Daryl heaved a heavy breath. That last part confusing him.]

What the hell happened to you?

[shuckit]

Yeah, well, it's good we know that now, just... Don't fault Newt for it. He's lived through worse than this.

[ he means to say, don't sideline him. Newt's capable, he doesn't need to be treated like a kid. None of the Gladers are kids any more, not really. Never really had the chance to be to begin with. ]

Could be. We won't know unless we can get to, I dunno, a lab or something. But good luck finding anything like that still functioning here, I'm guessing.

[ thomas pauses, thinking over how to say it, which parts. ]

We were part of an experiment to find a cure. The Flare, what made Cranks back home, worked in the Killzone - the brain. They needed to make a brain map, so they wanted to test our minds' reactions to different variables. For that to work right, they memory wiped us.

Put us through Trials.

[dirtyredneck]

That don't make any sense. If it's in the brain, then it's in the blood. Should be able to make a vaccine or some shit off it. That's how it works.

[He knew enough about viruses and sickness to know that.]

And even if they did have to map your brains, couldn't they have just hooked you up to a machine and... scanned it or something? Catscan that shit.

[The hell kid, what kind of cock and bull story did people pull on the two of them?]

They really tell you that as some excuse to torture you?

[shuckit]

It's not. Not with this. Believe me, I--

[ the words freeze up in his throat, and he knows Newt can hear this. He knew he'd been with them, but how he left was complete different. He'll keep it vague enough, for now. ]

I was on the team, before they wiped me. I don't remember much, but there's flashes. Enough I know it wasn't that simple. I've seen the world outside, too. If a cure was that easy, they'd have done it a long time ago.

[ that sure as hell doesn't make it right, but it wasn't just an excuse to torture. a catscan wasn't in depth enough, didn't give enough variables. they'd been trying for over ten years, and not the blood or the scans or anything gave enough to make a cure, and the world outside was dying. that, he does know. that world is still dying, now, but at least the immune aren't being sacrificed in desperation to save something already doomed anymore. ]

It wasn't for nothing. Sure as hell doesn't make torturing and killing a bunch of kids right, but it wasn't just for nothing.

[dirtyredneck]

[That... was a lot more to take in. And Daryl didn't answer for a long time. Had to process it. What it meant for Thomas and how he'd been acting. Kid had a lot of guilt in him. The anger, the snappishness... that made more sense now. He was protecting his friend as much out of love as he was out of personal pain. He'd caused that pain.

And he'd been subjected to it himself.]

That ain't you.

[Daryl said it softly. He'd seen the kid act stupid earlier. Heard him go off. Seen how he was with Newt, with his own. Whatever he was before, even if he was on the team, that wasn't him. The guilt he'd carry. Couldn't help that. But he didn't need to drown in it.]

Newt says he thinks you can be taught to hunt. Better if you learned to trap. Think you can handle that?