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Neutral
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Hannah huffed aas he spoke. She stopped herself from glaring at him. He did have a point and she knew that, but it didn’t change how condescending it sounded to her. Sighing quietly, she gave his hand one last glance, most of the blood had been cleared away. She sat back down next to him, watching the sky around them. “Maybe, but how would I have known that? I don’t really come around this way too often” she told him, but nodded.”And who knows, maybe I was hoping it was somebody alive. You surely must know how lonely this world gets” She looked over at him, barely surprised at his last comment. She thought for a moment, staring around at the state of the world around them. Not everything was going to be okay, no matter what somebody says. She paused, hesitating, before speaking, her voice quiet. “Don’t be naive, I knew how screwed you were from the moment I first met you. But that’s not special to you, we’re all completely fucked in this world. A year ago, life was perfectly fine and now look at it. Loved ones infected, killed, homes and memories destroyed, a fight among people just for survival. This isn’t the same world anymore. Why bother fighting each other when at the end of the day, we’re all fighting for the same thing; to survive another day” Hannah stared off into the city as she spoke, her face clear of much emotion. She had known for a while that eventually, it was going to be a brutal fight for survival. But they had all known that. You could see it in their eyes, even the ones who refused to admit it, deep down, they knew. There was no denying it, it was inevitable by now. “Things are only going to get worse if we begin turning on each other, killing one another. Let’s not be those people” she told him, getting up. Walking back to the door, she turned, looking back at him. “Come with me, I wanna show you something” |
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Lightbringer
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Grayson watched her closely, waiting for a glare or a blank stare to only be disregarded by the fact that Hannah never did such a thing. He furrowed his eyebrows slightly, taken aback by the fact that there was no generic Hannah reaction. He clenched his jaw slightly as she spoke, sitting beside him, and for a moment Grayson fell silent, thinking for a few seconds before looking at her next to him. "You have no idea how much I know about loneliness," Grayson hummed slightly, taking a quick glance at his hand. He winced slightly, gently placing his hand on his bent knee.
Grayson had looked down at the ground, soon hearing Hannah's response. He wanted to make a snarky remark, but he would prevent himself from doing so. She wasn't wrong, for once, and Grayson nodded in agreement. For a moment, he would never think he would literally be nodding in agreement with a woman who tried to literally kill him, but hey, God works in mysterious ways, right? If there even is a God.
Grayson chuckled. "So you can be reasonable," he laughed, shooting her a bit more of a playful glance. He looked up at the sky, shifting his weight slightly as he then shook his head. Grayson sniffled slightly, taking a moment to rethink his next words, though what he was about to say went without barely any thought. "You're not gonna turn your back on me now, are you?"
Grayson noticed the silence between the two, but instead of it being tense, there was a sense of peace. Like a truce, a peace treaty, mindfully created between the two without much saying. Grayon looked at Hannah after starting out to the city below, only to hear Hannah speak and then rise to her two feet. Grayson raised his brows, "Ah so you won't turn your back on me," he muttered softly before looking up, seeing her walk back to the door.
Grayson slowly got up slowly, trying not to put any pressure on his hand as he rose, following Hannah. "Better not take me to some dungeon you have hidden away," he whispered softly, though still audible enough for Hannah to hear. |
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Neutral
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Hannah was silently relieved when he got up and followed behind her, even more relieved when he wasn’t just using this as an excuse to come up behind her and kill her while her back was turned. It would have been what she would have done, although that probably just said a lot about her. She made her way over to the entrance of the roof, slowly picking her way down the half-crumbled staircase, the concrete splintering and crumbling off in little pieces when she stepped too close to the edge. Hannah slowly made her way down as the light didn’t sit correctly for the stairway to be lit and the last thing she wanted was to slip. Keeping her guard up, she stayed quiet as she exited onto the ground floor, knowing the closer it got to sundown, the higher chances of them running into any infected along the way, which after the night they’ve had, would not end well. The tension between them had, fortunately, begun to fade and of course, she knew she had to watch what she said around him, doubting he had much patience left for her after everything she’d done and said to him. She certainly knew that if he really wanted to kill her, it wouldn’t be a problem for him. By the time she had pushed her mind out of her thoughts, she glanced around, muscle memory having helped lead her straight to where she wanted to go. The little lake she’d found tucked away amongst the trees was her go-to spot, even if it were man-made, the breakdown of society and regrowth of nature, everywhere, had made it into a gorgeous place. The risk of infected there was incredibly high, especially at night, but it was well worth it to see the moonlight reflecting off the clear water, the drops of rain sliding off the deep green foliage that surrounded the water. Hannah stopped at the path that led straight towards the lake, turning back to him. “If you want to go, you should go now before it gets dark, I can’t imagine you’re really wanting to spend more time that you have to, with me” she told him. |
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Lightbringer
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Grayson followed behind her, keeping a slight distance. For all her knew, this could be some sort of trap, but it wouldn't harm him to at least take a peek at wherever she was going and taking him. Of course if he followed that meant something at least, so maybe this wouldn't be too bad. He sighed softly at the thought.
Grayson followed her down, but kept his distance for a different reason - the crumbling stairs. Small bits of concrete would crumble off of the side with each step near the edge, but Grayson would simple take lighter steps if that was the case. Plus with Hannah in front of him, Grayson could already see what the deal was going to be before he even had to deal with it. He carefully placed each his foot down on each stair, making his way down slowly but surely.
When they reached the ground and the outside, Grayson was slightly confused. He assumed there was going to be some sort of confrontation and that this was all just a play, but for a moment, he could put his trust into her. Odd, isn't it? He looked down at the ground, before noticing the sun setting below the horizon. The infected would be lurking around, though the two definitely knew how to defend themselves, and it was a point that was made very recently and under harsh circumstances.
Grayson was stopped in his tracks for a moment before beginning to move, still keeping a distance but closer than before. He was walking behind her, keeping a close eye on Hannah in case this was a trap. Maybe he was leading her to some place dark and gloomy to just kill him because he was his wife's murderer. Or maybe it was just some place nice, and luckily, it would be the latter.
Grayson furrowed his eyebrows slightly, noticing the lake come into view. It was nestled away from the others, though some probably knew of it. Maybe not, considering he had never really been here before. The light from the remaining sunlight peered through the canopies of the great trees around them, the foliage reclaiming what was once theirs. "Romantic," he muttered under his breath, though very jokingly.
Grayson looking down at the water, the light reflecting off of it. He looked around for a moment, but his attention was soon back to Hannah as she spoke. "I mean you seem to be okay right now, I say we just don't piss each other off, yeah?" Grayson proposed, holding a hand out for shake as some sort of truce. |
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Neutral
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Hannah heard his comment about the lake and couldn't fight the chuckle on her face. She could definitely see how it had come across that way, although it wasn't really the intention behind her bringing him here. It was meant as a peace offering, or a threat. Either way, it depended on how he acted in these next few minutes. Either they'd be walking out together or, she'd be walking out alone, Hannah was fine with either option really. But after the amount of stress she'd put him in and vice versa, she really hoped it was the former option. Glancing down at his extended hand, she watched him for a few moments before softly grabbing his hand, giving it a gentle handshake as she nodded. Without hesitation, she used her grip on his hand to pull him closer to her, her other hand grabbing onto the collar of his shirt as she let go of his hand. "But one wrong comment and I swear to god, you won't be surviving it" Hannah hissed at him, giving it a moment to sink in before letting go, stepping back away from him. Moving off from where he was, she made her way down towards the edge of the lake, sitting down on the small rock ledge above the water. Letting her legs slide over the edge comfortably, about a metre between the rock ledge and the water's surface. Hannah was half waiting for some other threat to come back to her in respect to her own, but she was curious to see if he'd retaliate to her after his so called truce offering. But it didn't matter all that much to her if he did or not, either way, she was bound to get a laugh out of it. Glancing back over her shoulder to see where he was still standing, she glanced around them. It was slightly surprising how lucky they were to have not seen any infected just yet. From what she could tell by the times she'd been here, the infected were a slight fan of the water. Multiple times having been caught off guard by one lurking underneath the water, the shadows allowing it to stay hidden from her, but the lack of infected she'd seen since the sun set was unnerving. "What now, pretty boy?" Hannah asked him, biting back a smirk at the nickname she'd stuck to him. |
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Lightbringer
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Grayson heard the soft chuckle emit from Hannah after his comment. To be fair, it came off as some sort of cheesy high school date that nobody has any idea what they're doing. Grayson then felt the soft grip on his hand.
He smiled before he was taken aback by the sudden change in pace. She grabbed the collars of his shirt, which Grayson chuckled slightly. Unexpectedly, to be honest. Grayson was never sure of how to think of Hannah, to be honest. Either she was a bullet coming out of a gun or she was the nicest thing on planet. The latter was something Grayson had barely even encountered.
"Don't worry," he said, throwing his hands up, "I don't think there will be any use for excessive violence between us anymore." He stated. Or so he hoped. It was ridiculous. One night of knowing each other and they were at each others' throats like there was no tomorrow, and honestly, Grayson thought they wasn't going to be.
That's when his mind drifted back to her.
His Hannah.
A reminder of her beautiful and soft hair, her delicate skin, the way her eyes sparkled in the right lighting. Grayson sighed softly, slighting hanging his head before he was pulled away from his thoughts as the other Hannah spoke to him, recalling the nickname that had now stuck.
Pretty boy.
"Well you ugly fart," he exhaled, "I don't... know," he trailed off. To be honest, he wanted to go after the bastard that did this. That killed Hannah for no apparent reason. Whatever it took. He didn't believe that Hannah - a woman who had tried to kill him multiple times already within just twenty-fours of meeting would be a great candidate to have with him, but hey, you never know.
"Have you ever chased after someone?" He asked, looking at her. "And not like love, but I mean like, gone after someone because you feel such a hatred towards them that it just burns you from the inside out?"
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Neutral
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Hannah smiled gently as he agreed with her, before stepping back once more. It was good to see him coming to his senses and realizing he would never beat her. Except for that one time that he did actually beat her, but she got her revenge. Even if it was when she took things too far to get said revenge. She stared at him before bursting out with a short fit of laughter as he retaliated to her nickname with one of his own. Which only resulted with making him look like a child trying to insult another child. Which also wasn't that far from the truth. But as he told her he didn't know, she smiled once more, before turning back to watch the treeline around them. Just in case. She stayed quiet for another few moments, her eyes flicking in his direction as he began speaking once more, frowning she stared at the water as she listened. Hannah waited a few moments after he finished speaking, before turning back to him, a serious look on her face. "Depends, who we going after?" she asked him. But his words did remind her of a time, Elijah's sister. Hannah's former best friend, who betrayed her so badly Hannah ended up ruining her life. Out of many atrocious things, that was one of very few that she regretted, it had made her feel better for a while, but when she realized she had literally ruined her life because of something petty, it made her seriously rethink it. "It has to be someone who deserves it, trust me buddy" she added, a subtle warning thrown into her voice as she stood up once more, walking over to where he was. Hannah thought for a few moments, before sighing. "You wanna go after the slut's murderer, huh?" she asked, forgetting how mad he had gotten over her nickname for his lady until she had already said it. Whoops. |
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Lightbringer
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There he watched that smile grow on Hannah's face. A shit-eating grin, as he mentally would call it. Grayson was rather amazed by how this girl function. Seemed like violence was the only thing she could resort to. A menacing woman with a face that could either be your friend or your enemy. With a scoff, Grayson realized he had been both.
A friend and an enemy who she also kissed. Sorta suspicious in his opinion, but hey, Grayson knew that eventually this friendship (or whatever it was) was going to bite him in the ass at some point. Especially considering she has the same name of his dead wife.
Grayson licked his lips with a small sigh as she questioned who they were going after. He was aware that she probably didn't care enough to help him, but Grayson would take what he could get. The man shifted his weight slightly, and he glanced to the water. His reflection seemed so unlike him, and Grayson had looked back up towards Hannah from the water before she had spoke again.
He grunted softly at her last remark. As much as he wanted to just drown her right now, he didn't feel like having to explain why his wife was killed and then Hannah was killed. That would definitely leave him on his own, but to be honest, he would do anything to capture the fucker that did this.
With a long sigh, Grayson nodded. "Yeah," he said softly, looking at her as she had moved closer to him. It was obvious. Who else would he want to go after. "And even if we bring this up to Elijah, I can guarantee he'd send you with me. I get it though. This is my fight, not yours, but I figured bonding wouldn't hurt so much," he stated, muttered his last sentence but it was still audible.
Grayson would want to be reasonable about this. Leave Will in charge of the group, and take a few extra people in case they find out there was another group. Or maybe just himself was enough. Grayson was in fact capable of killing, and he had done it before, but he wasn't sure if this would all be worth it. If he would feel a satisfaction in killing whoever did it.
But since he was already stick and stone on this choice, he didn't care.
"So are you with me or not?"
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Neutral
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Hannah shrugged, waving her hand around for a moment. "Pfft. I can convince Elijah to let me do anything" she muttered quietly. It wasn't completely true, but it wasn't wrong either. Elijah generally was incredibly lenient with her, as they had already seen. If anybody else had been in the argument with Grayson as she had last night, he would have sent them away in seconds. But it was only because it were Hannah that he had let her get away with it, plus it probably wasn't the best timing with the dead girl that he'd brought with them. She gave him a childish look. "If it means I can hurt someone, it is my fight. Plus, you know, I can imagine I would get along with this guy" she muttered the last few words quietly, almost unsure of whether she should even say them. Insulting his dead girlfriend was exactly what got her lightly stabbed the night before, and almost thrown off a building today. It was becoming a rather bad habit of hers, but for some reason, she couldn't help but want to aggravate him. It had been a while since she'd had a good fight. "Fuck yeah I'm in" The two made it back to Elijah's setup within half an hour, with only a few close calls with any infected. Grayson had wandered off somewhere while Hannah had gone to find Elijah, if only to convince him to let her go off with him on his ridiculous quest to find his girlfriend's killer. "Wife. Not girlfriend" Elijah muttered to her under his breath. He wasn't awfully confident that by letting Hannah go with Grayson, that she'd even come back alive. The two has barely known one another for two days, and from what Hannah had told him, already tried to kill each other numerous times. If he allowed her to go, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't kill the other one. The concern about the pair actually finding the killer wasn't too big, they were both smart. "One condition. You promise me you won't fucking kill him in his sleep, yeah?" he told her, giving her a serious look. His seriousness was only met by a shrug and a wave of her hand. "Yeah, yeah, fine. No killing him. Only light mutilation" she responded. Elijah sighed, rubbing his temples with his fingers firmly. He had to trust that Grayson wasn't going to let her kill him. Elijah knew they were both damn good fighters, which could help them, or tear them down. He didn't doubt for a second that the moment he walked away, Hannah would forget everything he just told her, but he couldn't take care of her forever. This time, if she made a mess, she was going to have to deal with it, and try not to get herself killed in the process. "Fine. You can leave in the morning, or whenever the fuck you guys plan to do this" |
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Lightbringer
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Grayson had been half expecting some sort of rude answer, but to his surprise, it was a "fuck yeah" and for that, he chuckled. Ew, he thought. Laughing with Hannah? Pfft. Grayson would never, but here was, laughing at the woman who attempted murder on him. He huffed afterwards. Although he knew that Hannah might not be joking about 'getting along with the guy,' he couldn't help but imagine her simply turning on him.
Grayson and Hannah made their way back, Grayson making his way back to the group. They had buried his wife nearby, leaving an abundance of flowers on the grave, most of which were withering and slowly decaying. He stood over the freshly dug grave before he felt a familiar warm hand on his shoulder.
"You don't have to do this, Gray." Will stated. Grayson looked up from the grave and to his best friend.
"I need to." He exhaled softly, shifting his weight. Grayson didn't know what he was getting in to, to be quite honest. Who knew if there was some other group lurking out there, and who knew if the person who did this was even still alive. Grayson was going to get revenge, no matter what.
"Gray-" Will paused for a moment, as if stopping himself from saying things that may tick Grayson off. "Grayson, you're smarter than this. You're leaving a group - a family - behind for someone you don't even know is still alive. What if you die? We'd never know. Or what if you kill him and you get nothing out of it? You're better than this." Will stated with a sincere tone.
Grayson crossed his arms over his chest, sighing softly. "I don't plan on dying, Will."
"Neither did she," Will said, pointing down to the grave but still holding contact with Gray.
Grayson shook his head and stormed away, his brows furrowed. He grabbed his pack from inside, said a quick few goodbyes, and made his way towards Elijah's.
Grayson looked towards Hannah then Elijah, relaxing a bit more now that he was away from the tension between him and Will. Grayson leaned against a crumbling wall, hearing Elijah say that Hannah and him would go whenever they wanted. Grayson finally made his presence known after that, looking towards Elijah first.
"Thank you." He said.
Grayson wasn't sure if he was thanking Elijah for letting Hannah come because Grayson maybe liked her, or if it was because he could have someone else to commit more tension and chaos with. Whatever it was, he was grateful, and Grayson then looked at Hannah.
"When are we doing this thing?" |
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Spring 
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Light Rain Moon: 
