Caspian Cadogan | M | 28 | Mafia | Mentions: Verrück (dir.) Nicholas, All cops (indir.)

He couldn’t help but agree with the comment on Nicholas, he was always dominating over the group. Taking special precedence over the criminal inhabitants of the group, as though has always been in charge of them. Caspian had never seen the old geezer before the world had ended, why should he listen to him now? It was all futile anyway, what were they really doing trying to survive. They had no idea if anyone else was alive, not only that if they were supposed to start repopulating, they’d all end up a little…Alabama in the end. So it was useless.

His eyes carried down to Lump as he plodded on beside them, watching the slope that compensated for his missing leg but his tail wagged all the same.

“They’re all living in delusion really, building a fort for enemies we don’t know exist. Eating weird mutant birds, that y’know, could kill us. Nicholas is making himself important, dishing out authority that he had from before. Not that it’s working very well.” Caspian leaned his torso down, crossing his arms over each other and resting them on Verrück’s head, messing up the hair that sat beneath with each step that the other man took.

“At least one of us?” He repeated, tipping his head down to watch Verrück’s head bouncing up and down. “You’re the one that swept me off of my feet, I don’t have much choice other than to sit here. You’re always welcome to clamber on up yourself, I can take you back.” He grinned down, snickering between words. One hand moved to tap gently on Verrück’s head, flicking up a strand or two of hair before flattening it back down.

Wherever this water was, Caspian was just glad to get away from the pigs. They were so…restrictive, even with themselves. Simply coexisting with them was draining, they lacked any sense of excitement, it was so incredibly boring to talk to them. Droning on and on about doing the right thing, they almost sounded like Nicholas. Which, now that he thought about it, was rather interesting.

Verrück let out a sharp scoff, half amusement, half agreement, as Caspian’s fingers tousled his already-messy hair. He gave a slight shake of his head, enough to disrupt Caspian’s attempts at flattening it, but not enough to unseat him.

"Yeah, well, you’re not exactly light, Cas," Verrück muttered, though there was no real complaint in his voice. "If you think I’m about to be the one getting carried, you’ve got another thing coming. I’ll take my victories where I can get ‘em."

His boots crunched against the loose gravel and shattered concrete as they pressed forward, the wasteland stretching before them in all its bleak, indifferent glory. A landscape of ruin, dust, and decay—an endless horizon of the same damn thing, day in and day out. But at least in this moment, it was tolerable. Even with Caspian using his head as a goddamn armrest.

Verrück smirked, tilting his gaze toward the side to catch Lump trotting beside them, still proudly gripping the bucket. "And yeah," he continued, voice lower now, more thoughtful, "this whole ‘civilization’ act they’re trying to pull? It’s a joke. A bad one." His grip on Caspian’s legs tightened slightly, not enough to harm, just a reflexive response to the frustration lingering beneath his words.

"They’re playing pretend, like if they just act like we’re rebuilding something, it’ll somehow become true. But it’s just—" He exhaled sharply through his nose, expression darkening. "It’s just delayin’ the inevitable, really. Trying to tame something that can’t be tamed."

A pause, the weight of his own thoughts briefly settling over him like a shroud. But he shook it off quickly, rolling his shoulders as if physically throwing the feeling away.

"Guess that’s why they don’t like us much, huh?" He chuckled dryly. "We’re not exactly ‘productive members of society,’ or whatever the hell Nicholas keeps mumbling about."

He adjusted his hold again, casting a quick glance upward at Caspian with a smirk. "So, you’re sayin’ you’d rather be back there? With them? Because if I recall, you were the one who got all cozy before I swept you away."

He let the words hang for a beat, then—without warning—Verrück gave a sudden, sharp bounce on his heels, just enough to jostle Caspian in place, a devilish grin stretching across his face.

"Better hold on, sweetheart," he teased, already setting his sights on the path ahead. "I think I see the stream."

And with that, he picked up the pace, Lump eagerly trotting beside them, bucket swinging with each enthusiastic step.

Finntello Terrence / 24 / Male / Cop / M: Blake (dir.) Nicholas, others (ind.)

Nina Krakowiac - F - 22 - Mention(s): Nicholas, // (Open I guess?)

~

Nina jerked out a nod at Nicholas's "instructions", then headed off back to... she didn't really know where, honestly.

Really, if Nicholas had looked up "vague" in the dictionary, he'd probably have been able to come up with that last instruction. Well, if there even was an inact dictionary anywhere, that was.

So she had been dismissed. If she saw something that needed to be done, do it.

Like the stupid wall, did he mean? It was an eyesore that she could most definitely see, and most definitely didn't want to do either. So... maybe not that.

That left her in a strange conundrum. She didn't want to go talk to the ex-cops. Nicholas essentially dismissed her. And the only others that she could stand to talk to (despite one of said people's incessant flirting, which Nina found ridiculously annoying) were fetching water for the stew they'd probably get about five spoonfuls of. Really, how much food could come out of a raven?

Well, it wasn't her problem, at least. She was, in fact, now walking away with zero intention of helping out with the stew. She'd done her job, at least.

Footsteps silent, practically ghosting over the debris that littered what once was probably a street - it wasn't hard to imagine the end of the world had really come, even to a small-ish Virginian town. And here they were. "Rebuilding" in "harmony". Alongside people she didn't trust, who a couple of weeks ago would probably have been glad to shoot her - if they could even see her, that is. Stuck in a strange truce that was supposed to be beneficial to all of them to "rebuild".

The only thing that Nina wondered was how long, exactly, would "harmony" last.