Zephyr Eliades | Loner | Male | M: Hope, Grayson (indir), and Lois (indir)

Zephyr blinked in response to her question, not entirely sure how he was supposed to take it. Just how much did he value his life? The thought had never crossed his mind really. This entire time, Zephyr had been far to engulfed in his obsession with his revenge, that his life had practically been void to him at that point. But then again, It couldn't have meant much, once taking into consideration the individuals he associated himself with. The same people who had caused his mothers demise. "Of course not," He finally managed, recollecting his thoughts as he slipped his gloved hands into his coats pockets to avoid the nervous fiddling of his fingers. "Life is too beautiful, for me to simply throw it away." His expression softened somewhat as he cast his sights over the empty houses. Not long ago, people inhabited these. Probably gathering around the table for supper around this time. Just socializing, and doing whatever it was normal families did. Even before the apocalypse, Zephyr's life had pretty much already been down in the ruts. Although, he had a considerable amount of wealth, it had to only torn his family apart. "If you look past the undead.. past the state of our world, you'll ultimately come to realize the small beautiful things life has to offer." His eyes flickered over to a dim-lit building. It was distanced a fair share from the group and gave them enough of a gap to run, had it ever become necessary. "But if you think of it this way. We've practically been given another chance to restart. The world has been reset." Not wanting to spare another thought on the subject, Zephyr quickly pulled his hand out and waved it dismissively. "The day I die, the world would have lost an amazing human." He scoffed pridefully, his broad chest almost puffing out as he attempted to convince his dwindling mind.

"You keep bringing that red head up," Zephyr observed. It wasn't that he had missed her constant mentioning's of him, but rather, that he had just decided he didn't really care. Nor that it was any of his business. But she had brought him up an unsettling amount of times for him to simply brush it off as some kind of pointless notion. Perhaps now, would be a good learning moment for him. Just a piece of information he could use to piece together his investigation, or start his list of people he intended of getting rid of first. "Is he your irritable ex boyfriend or something?" Zephyr smirked slyly as he turned to look at Hope one last time. This time, solely focusing on her face as he searched it for a reaction. Any at this point. He'd take whatever she gave him. "Hah." He huffed rather dryly in response to her skill sets. "What did you think I'd ask for?" Zephyr asked, raising a questionable eyebrow in her direction now. Either genuinely curious to know, or simply insulted by the fact she probably would have assumed he was looking for something materialistic or physical. "Just consider yourself lucky, kid."— "I'm one of those people you'll rarely come across that want their favors repaid in the form of knowledge.. not in whatever other things your corrupt mind might've wondered to." His arms came behind his head in an expressive stretch when she had mentioned the small man from earlier. "Careful. That midget is gonna be the same person to fuck you up." He joked, when quoting the words he had said before sauntering off somewhere out of sight. "I think I'd like to learn archery though. It could come handy one day." He finally concluded after long lamenting the thought of wanting to learn to drive. They hadn't walked long before Zephyr came to an abrupt stop at a tall building. It's large structure towered menacingly over them as he craned his neck to get a better look. "I'll go in first and let you know if it's safe to go in." Zephyr volunteered but hadn't necessarily waited for her response before he began to move in on the house. His hand coming into contact with the door gingerly. Locked.

Bringing his leg up, Zephyr propelled the heel of his shoe straight through the door before quickly side stepping to avoid any inanimate objects or undead alike. Nothing. Thinking nothing of the silence, he slowly withdrew a lighter from his pocket and extended it into the darkness before moving into it. His form nearly dissolving into it as he proceeded to deepen his perimeter. After scowering what needed to be examined, he eventually came to the conclusion it had been barricaded for awhile now and since hadn't been infiltrated up until today. "I think this is good for now." He called out from the living room as he rummaged through the drawers before coming across a family photo. It appeared to be of a mother and her son. But the faces had long since been faded, perhaps due to the watery substance that had overtime corroded it.

Zephyr Eliades | Loner | Male | M: Hope

Her tensed muscles had almost been too noticeable to him. It was these little things that came natural to him. Being a born manipulator and master of reading peoples conflicted emotions, Zephyr never truly struggled to grasp what the other individual was thinking, let alone feeling. With the slightest change of body language, It was painfully obvious to Zephyr that there was some sort of correlation with her and the redhead, but instead of further instigating and rising more suspicion, he had simply dismissed it with a playful smile. "I'm only just jesting." When it came to cracking jokes, Zephyr wasn't necessarily your go to guy for one. He was so painfully terrible at that them, that he had laughed at just how unfunny they were. Her next comment had momentarily caught his attention, with a vague tip of his head. "Oh?" His eyes continued to eye her face. Just then realizing her acceptable appearance. Beneath all that grime and blood, appeared to be decent, beautiful really, looking woman, but he'd rather be mauled than admit it openly. —Seemingly older than him by a couple of days, but he made no attempt of letting that be known by her. However, what had stricken him the most had been her unusual eye color. His in comparison were a boring dull black, nearly deep pitted in color despite the vague silhouettes of silver. "That's a surprise," He finally added, slowly forcing his eyes from her face and towards the image in his hand of the mother and the boy, Hope had found upstairs. "I mean. Considering you're such a nice girl and what not." There was a considerable strain in the word nice as he casually threw the fluttering image over his shoulder and continued to rummage through the small drawer.

He came to a slow pause at her question. It hadn't necessarily been that he cared who he was to her, but rather that he was more interested of a way in which he could get easy access to the group and their supplies ultimately. "It isn't, but I'd at least like to know more about the person I'm currently with." Closing the last drawer after finding nothing of use, Zephyr finally turned to face her, his palms coming to a rest on the surface of the small table as he relaxed against it. "Who knows, for all I know, you could be some kind of vengeful woman whose been scorned by men," His eyes avoided hers as he nonchalantly eyed the boarded up windows behind her. "You could've saved me, just to live out your twisted fantasy." Of course. None of this really concerned him. Although she had been abnormally tall for a woman, and built generally sturdy, had he really saw fit, he'd easily overtake her and make away with her. Maybe. He couldn't get ahead of himself. There had previously been women in his past who had surprised him. For all he knew, she could've been the epitome of Wonder Woman.

"Unlike a lot of the people you've ran into before. I'm not some brainless baboon who values power over knowledge," He grimaced at his own words. Power had relatively been important to him, that at times it had blinded him. "Plus.. Who can say no to learning something that could potentially save their life in the near future?" He smiled readily when she had offered her personal weapon. Figuring she would have forced him to find his own or make it, this had worked out significantly better. But had also proven to be rather trusting of her, or for someone who claimed to be as mistrustful of others, like her. "You'd really do that?" He murmured, a hidden curiosity lingering in his eyes as his attention was pulled over her unequipped bow. "Aren't you worried I'd turn it on you and take advantage of the distance?" He would have most likely missed considering the lack of training, but it had been worth a try. Plus, unnerving her was oddly satisfying. "I'm sure, that even with the lack of training, I could still land an arrow." Zephyr continued before breaking contact and cocking his head slightly to reveal his neck, his index finger tracing his jugular. "Don't worry. If I ever get out of hand, you have my permission to take my life" He smirked slyly before ending his terrible joke with a scoff into his palm. He had no intention of betraying her trust, yet.

"Now. Let me see your arm." He added, finally returning to the main reason he had coerced her into staying with him.

Calvin Borelson | Newcomer | Male | 22 | Mentions: Atlas, Rowan

Calvin continued to watch the horse munch on the grass. He observed as the horse crunched the tender blades of grass in a somewhat circular motion, it was interestign to witness. He tried to mimick the motion for a second, wondering if perhaps that would help him to chew food faster or better. He stopped his mimicking when he ntoiced movement from the house he had exited. Glancing over his shoulder, Calvin spotted Rowan and his black dog moving towards him. He offered him a little wave and a cheesy grin, returning to observing the horse at its munching.

Calvin glanced over at Rowan as he sat down and poked him with what looked like jerky. He gladly accepted it, tearing off a piece with his teeth and chewing. He subtly copied the horses chewing technique, wanting to see how well it worked. Suprisingly, it had absolutely no effect. It just made his jaw hurt. He scowled at the ground then swallowed and took another bite of the jerky, chewing normally this time. He flinched a little when he heard Atlas's voice, not noting the man emerge from the house until he spoke.

He glanced at the horse, Wyn, giving him a suspicious look. He paused for a second listening to Atlas's instructions, then stood, cautiously moving over towards the animal.

He stopped a little ways away from it's shoulder and reached out, lightly patting the horse once then twice. When the large animal did not freak out, did not try to murder him for simply existing, and just stood there, he relaxed. He moved closer and stroked Wyn on the neck a couple times before tuning back into the conversation Atlas held with them.

"I wouldn't mind learning to use a bow, and yes, I do like to cook." He stepped away from Wyn and moved over to Rowan's side, crossing his arms over his chest in a non-aggressive manner, listening as Atlas observed about the three of them working together.

"I guess you're right, it will be faster." He glanced at Rowan, he wondered if he still felt any agression towards the smaller man. "We should probably check the bathrooms in this house for any medical supplies then head to the next one, unless you already did."

Ataeia Sigebryght - Female - Resident - Mentions: Grayson (Dir.), Louis (Dir.), A Bunch of People I Don't Feel Like Listing (Ind.)

Ataeia trailed her fingers against the ruined paint job of the house she'd chosen to enter, feeling the texture of the rips against her skin as she walked deeper in. A grimace graced her face as she lifted up the collar of her shirt to her face, attempting to cover her nose and block out the terrible stench of rot, seeking distraction in the feeling against her hand as she walked.

She was helping out with the scavenging attempts. It was lucky, that they'd stumbled upon a town like this one -- it seemed mostly untouched by anything but zombies and nature running its course. It was a pretty simple town, too -- just a few houses lined up next to one another, nothing special. It probably would have been quaint, had they stumbled upon it 5 years sooner; somewhere between suburban and rural, nice and green and neighboring some friendly forestry and a small hill. Every house had a lawn and most had picket fences, and varied from one or two stories high, though some may have had basements or attics. The houses were spaced close enough that you could go over to your neighbor and ask for a cup of sugar, close enough that you could sit on your porch and wave at the person across to you, or that you could go outside and see the children laughing and playing in the grass.

Ataeia stopped in her tracks, banishing those thoughts from her mind. It was no use in thinking about it now, she told herself; the houses were empty now, the lawns were overgrown, the neighborhood was deathly silent. Any coziness remaining was simply a grim reminder of what once was, an eerie emptiness coming in the form of unnerving silence.

As she started to move again, her foot bumped into something, and her heart dropped.

What'd happened to this neighborhood was far worse than simple emptiness. It was the death and rot, the reminder of the death of humanity.

She knew perfectly well what it was she'd hit, but she looked anyway. She felt like she had to, almost, though she'd never be sure why. Her movements were slow as she turned to look, the sight causing the stench to feel that much worse. She gagged, bringing up her hand to her face to cover her nose and mouth as she stared down.

It was a corpse. A skeleton, more specifically -- it'd probably been the original house owners, judging by the fact it was mostly decomposed save for some flesh clinging onto its last legs. Maggots swarmed the last bits of flesh, wriggling between gaps in the skeleton's bones. It was in a fetal position, and as her eyes followed the arc of the arm, she noted that it was wrapped around something. The person must've died holding onto that thing, maybe in an attempt to protect it...

All at once, the realization of what it was holding hit her.

Maybe against her better judgment, she crouched down in order to inspect the scene further. Yep, that was what she thought it was -- it was a smaller form, probably something that used to be a child. The bones were snapped and the skull was crushed, but it most certainly was human at some point. Through the space between its bones, she could see a dark crimson stain darkening the floor beneath.

Shakily, she stood up, glancing up from the pair of skeletons to find the bloodstain had taken a path. She followed it, almost absentmindedly, her steps slow and without thought.

She came to rest at yet another corpse. It was completely bones at this point, so clearly it had begun to rot before the others. It was sprawled out across the floor and its skull was smashed in, and lying right beside it was an axe, covered in a thin coat of dried blood. As her eyes trailed across the floor, she found that the child's bloodstain ended beside the skeleton.

Ataeia stared down at the sight before her for a moment, then two. She stared, and then without another sound, she turned and moved on to the next room.

--

It'd been a while before Ataeia ended up leaving the house. It was a fairly big one, and she'd taken a pretty big pause after the first room. Still, she'd gotten a pretty damn good haul -- a medkit, some bottled water, a book (she remembered some of her group members liked books, so she took one), and a toolkit. The toolkit would be pretty hard to haul around, and she doubted most of the things inside would be useful, but she'd bring it back for inspection, anyway. The more, the merrier, she supposed. She'd briefly looked through the closet to see if there were any useful clothes, but it seemed the moths had gotten to them before her, but the rest of her items were more than enough to make up for it.

Ataeia walked through the main room, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the door and where she was walking. She didn't let her eyes wander for a moment, and when she closed the door behind her with a "click", she didn't look back.

As soon as she was outside and the door was closed behind her, she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, taking a quick inventory of what was going on around her. Most people seemed to still be checking out the houses, if judging by the fact that most were missing from the street. As she walked out, setting the toolbox down so she could rest her foot on it and stretching her arms behind her head, she glanced down one side of the street -- most of the people seemed to be gathered up there, though they were in their own separate groups. There was Atlas and the two newcomers of ungodly height hanging around the former's horse, doing... she didn't know, something? Fucking around with jerky, it looked like. Grayson was around that area, too, though a bit closer to her than the others... she'd have to check in with him, in a minute.

Further down was Billie, Jimmy, and Quinn, also probably fucking around. What they were doing was arguably more useless, though, if judging by the pile of inexplicably sharpened sticks lying beside them. She'd have to ask whoever did that (probably Jimmy, if she had to guess -- that man confused the hell out of her) why later, maybe drop off the book she'd acquired by Quinn while she was at it.

Turning to the other side, lowing her arms so she could get a better look, so saw Louis. There wasn't anyone else out on the far side, as far as she could tell -- just him, doing... uh...

Damn, what the hell was anyone in the group doing right now?

Ataeia squinted at Louis, leaning forward in order to get a better look. He seemed to be trying to get the wooden spikes of the fence out of the ground with his bare hands. He definitely could have asked someone else to help him, probably someone with a weapon better suited for the job. Better yet, he could have just...

...

Ataeia brought her hand to her face, pinching the bridge of her knows as her eyebrows went back into their familiar knot. These guys would be the death of her.

After taking a moment to recover, she sighed, pulled her hand from her face, and yelled out an "Aye, Louis!" in an attempt to get his attention. She paused for a moment in order to be sure he was looking before, glaring at him wordlessly, pointing over to where Jimmy & co. were sitting with a pile of conveniently sharpened wooden sticks.

She sighed again and turned away, pulling back and taking a moment to roll her back before picking up her toolbox. It was a fairly pleasant day; warm weather, not a cloud in the sky, not egregiously hot. The area, despite its eerie abandonedness, seemed mainly free from zombies, so she supposed she couldn't blame the group for having their brains turned off for a bit. They'd finally reached some sort of resting point after days of travel and everybody seemed to be talking or cooling off if they weren't already inside and scavenging, so even if it made her muscles feel even more tense than usual, she couldn't really complain. If the others wanted a moment to relax and their leader was fine with it, then so be it, but Ataeia planned on still going on with her work.

Transferring the box to one hand, she gave the town another brief once-over. Ordinarily, she'd check in with an observer, but Louis seemed busy with... whatever he was doing, and she didn't know where Aurora was. She supposed she could settle for the next best thing, then, and talk to Grayson -- he seemed generally unoccupied, anyway.

She headed up to the leader with the simple greeting of "Hey, Spring," setting down her toolbox and standing up straight again. "Found some tools. There's a medkit in 'ere, too, and some bottled water. All of it's probably too heavy to take, so we're gonna have to discard some shit, but..." She demonstratively tapped the toolbox with her foot. "... some of it should be good, at least."

Ataeia looked up at him again, only then getting a good look at his face. He had a certain look in her eye that gave her a bad feeling -- nothing she could quite pinpoint, but it looked... distant. Upset. She frowned. "... Hey, you alright, boss?"