forum I summon thee @Young-Dusty

Started May 08, 2019 by @amber_is_in_a_loop

tune

Tactful. Charlotte nodded, looking up and down the river for any indication of shallow water. A few yards up, there was a muddy patch. "Maybe there?" she suggested, pointing.

Rick nodded. "Might work. Let's check it out." He hiked through the grass to investigate, testing the ground to make sure it was safe. "Doesn't seem very swampy here, so we shouldn't have to worry about quicksand. That's one thing about this area that's better than back home." He started forward, carefully finding the highest path across.

Charlotte followed. "Quicksand, really?" she questioned.

"Oh yeah, it's everywhere down south," he replied casually, hopping a rivulet of water. "Quicksand, snakes, gators, skeeters, Carburetor Flu–we've got everything but snow back home. It's not so bad, though, once you get used to it."

Skeeters. More slang. "We had snow before the war," Charlotte reminisced. "I think the radioactive imprint is keeping it away."

Rick glanced back in surprise. "Shoot, you mean this area's radioactive? Is it very nasty, or not so bad?"

Charlotte looked up again. "No, don't worry, it isn't bad. Just some unstable weather is all."

"Oh, I see. Yeah, we get that too, but ours is floodin'. We've permanently lost almost all of Florida by now, although I'm not sure how much it has to do with the war. Apparently it was a problem even before then, so I don't know. Folks down there just switched to boathouses and kept right on workin."

Charlotte whistled, impressed. "Great adapting right there. Are Floridians smart?"

"Smart when it comes to runnin' a side hustle. There's a clan down there, the River Runners, that have complete control over the south bay and most of the Mississippi. Nobody gets in or out without paying something hefty." Rick made it to the far bank and hopped up, offering Charlotte his hand. "They're good people. Just don't trust 'em with your money, is all."

Charlotte jumped up after Rick, ignoring the hand he held out. "Understood. I've never actually travelled out of this region, so I'll take your word for it."

Rick turned and headed back towards the road. "It's a good place to be if you wanna safely head overseas. Most of the east coast is rotten with lowlifes so port trade's real low, but the bay's pretty safe. I mean, the west coast's better, and Canada's still got its borders open from what I heard, but if you don't wanna travel five hundred miles then it's your best bet."

Charlotte nodded slowly, processing the information. "Noted, thank you. Is that where you're from, Florida?"

"Mmm, naw, my family's a little further northeast. We're on good terms, though, better 'n some of the other clans. There's one in particular, called the Establishment…." He shook his head solemnly. "You don't wanna tangle with them, lemme tell you. Crazy religious cultists, the whole barrel of 'em."

Charlotte arched an eyebrow. "Charming." They walked, the dust settling in their wake. The sun was beginning to dip into the mountain range ahead, though the heat stayed stubbornly strong.

"Yep, they're….a lot of fun." Rick grimaced and adjusted his cap so that the brim blocked the sunlight. "They hate us, y'know. Can't stand that we like Deorns. We share a border with 'em, and they know most of the men leave all summer to go job-hunting. Lucky for us, the womenfolk are pretty good at defending the home turf by now, and they got the swamp on their side. But even so, sometimes we'd come back in the fall to the middle half of a siege or full out property war. They just never give up until they're plumb beat."

This time, she had to ask. "Plum beat?"

"Huh?" He looked confused for a second. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm usin' too much of the colloquial, ain't I? It's kind of a bad habit. Plumb beat means….uhh…." He squinted. "…completely beaten. Sorry about that. If I get too hard to understand, you just let me know."

"Will do," she told him. "Don't worry. It's refreshing. I haven't left the area in a hot minute, so I like the strangeness."

"Good to hear. Say, did I ask you where you're originally from yet? I seem to have gathered that you haven't always lived here, is that right?"

(JOHN OWEN JONES OML)
Charlotte wrinkled her nose. "I'm from the old City Centre."

(lol)
"Oh, what was that like?…Not very good, I take it?"

(Okay, see you soon.)
She shook her head. "No it wasn't. There were common power outages, food shortages," she said with a small wave to herself, "Not to mention we got it full blast when the war appeared and when some questionable decisions needed to be made, we were the first to be targeted. So no, not good."

"Aw, yeah, I remember now. One of my aunts that married in was from that area, she used to talk about it sometimes. Apparently it was like that in old New York City too. When the army took over, they put up walls and didn't let anybody come or go for months. They were fairly well-defended, but….I heard a lot of people starved that way." He shook his head. "It's like everybody went crazy for a few years. I still don't get how anybody thought a civil war was a good idea."

"My family opted for it. The government was useless," she told Rick. "Not that it justifies the ways, but they had it coming." She said this firmly, confidently.

"Oh, I'm with you there. My dad left the army because they were sending his buddies out to get killed every day and never makin' any headway. That and the main government gent who was organizing the combat went 'n assassinated himself, so nobody knew what they were supposed to be doing. He tells me that the cracks were showin' long before the war started, and he wasn't at all surprised when the draft came in the mail."

"My father was in the first wave of soldiers, back when they thought they were fighting for the something. My sister was recruited quickly after," she said quickly. Would he pick at the point?

He paused, like he might have picked up something in her tone. "It's a terrible thing to have family in combat," he said after a moment. "I'd say even more terrible then bein' in combat yourself." He gazed at the horizon contemplatively. "What about you? When did you get involved?"

(dammit im crying again)
"When–" When my sister turned into a cruel person. "I had no other choice. And you, did you ever fight?"