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 Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:45 am
Alex's heart lifted, because if Yin didn't have any plans for the small creature, that meant Alex got to keep it! He was pretty excited about that, and his face lit up like a scarelings who just opened up a pantry overflowing with candy. His horrible night, morning, and hangover were almost forgotten in a wave of elation. He felt like he should say something, but all he could come up with was a happy, "Thanks!"
The smell didn't bother Alex or anything, but it was a little odd that something that looked and acted very much alive, and was indeed warm to the touch, would smell like death. He supposed it could have just spent a lot of times near dead things, and the smell had rubbed off on it, but it was still very strange. He was going to have to go on to the web later and see if he could figure out what type of creature this thing was.
Alex thought that it seemed like a reasonable offer for Yin to hunt for food and for the zomboil to make it into something more edible, but then he asked about the kitchen and he frowned. "No, I don't, actually. But..there are things I can make without cooking them, I'm sure..maybe.." Well this was turning rather discouraging quite quickly.
The little creature in Alex's arm was begging to squirm a little bit again, as though it were finished cuddling and would like to be put down now. Alex was a little afraid if he put it down, it would run away, though, so his thoughts turned back towards where he was going to keep it. "Maybe you should...go back to hunting or cleaning or whatever you want to do. I'll uh...see you later?" he knew he sounded hopeful, like he was afraid Yin didn't want to spend any more time with him this weekend then he had to now after the whole picture fiasco. But for now he needed to find something to keep this, well, thing, in.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 12:59 pm
"Perhaps you should ask your mother for recipes along that line, he suggested, watching the creature as it was seemingly taken with Alexander. "She has prepared some rather tasty raw dishes." Even if raw was not his preference he did not mind it, as proven by his rather steady diet of raw rat. Raw, unseasoned rat. Yes, this idea was sounding better and better. There was only so much raw, unseasoned rat that any one person wanted to consume.
Well, that was a dismissal if he had ever heard one, tone of voice aside. He glanced away and nodded before he turned and headed off rather quickly, going back to where he had left his prey. More creatures had been brought in, and a few zombies were starting to gather around. They nodded to him and he stayed back for a moment, watching how they worked. It appeared that one was purely in charge of gutting the creatures and collecting their innards. Others were skinning the creatures and then two were waiting to take the skulls from their bodies and crack them open to collect the brains. He snatched up a pair of small animals and sat next to one of the men, Quentin perhaps, and went to work. He did not attempt to start a conversation, not knowing where to even begin, and deciding that if he stayed silent he might learn a few things. Listening was a good practice.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:38 pm
Alex nodded. "Ya, I think I'll do that. And well..maybe the school has a classroom that's set up like a kitchen. Who knows? With all of the different clubs and things..." Ya, he was just rambling now, delaying having to go and look for a kennel. Just then, he saw his dad emerge from the woods with a carcass in hand, and while Yin turned and left without a single word to Alex about whether they would see each other later, Alex shambled off of the deck, waving a hand in the air while holding the little creature to his chest with the other.
His dad dropped off the carcass long before he turned and started walking towards Alex. As his dad noticed the animal Alex had in hand, he frowned. "I thought you were with your Mom. When did you catch that?" He pointed at the creature, and Alex just smiled.
"Yin found it, and he brought it up to the house! I think it likes me, so I'm going to keep it." His dad's frown deepened slightly.
"Did you ask your mom?" He rumbled and Alex looked down at the ground, scuffling his feet into the dirt.
"No, not yet...but I will! And I'll take it back to school with me, so it'll only be in the house for a day. I'm sure she'll be ok with it." Why wouldn't she be? She had allowed Alex his other pets when he had been living at home, though he was pretty sure she was more then happy to have gotten rid of them when she sent them to stay in Alex's dorm.
"Plleeeeease, dad?" He looked up at the big zombie, eyes pleading. His dad answered with a grunt, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Kennel is in the shed. Don't forget to tell your mom." He gave Alex a no nonsense look at the last, then turned and shambled off, whether to help with the cleaning or go back and hunt some more Alex had no clue, nor did he really care. He got a new pet! Victory!
He spent the rest of the morning making his way to the shed, finding the kennel, putting the little creature in it, and smuggling it upstairs to his (and Yin's) bedroom where he placed it just inside the door. He was worried it would cry, or make some type of strange noises once it was confined, but it actually seemed quite content to be in the zombies house, and had curled up into a ball and gone to sleep.
With a happy smile, Alex made his way back downstairs and to the kitchens, getting back to work as his mom commanded, though she asked where he had been for so long and he eventually had to tell her about the new pet. She was quite unimpressed, but she didn't tell him to take it back outside and release it so he assumed that was permission to keep it.
Things were starting to look up.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:58 pm
What did zombies talk about? Surprisingly...not brains. At least, not all the time. Most of the conversation was impossible for him to follow, with names being flung about such with wild abandon (to the mantodae at least) that it made his brain hurt. Occasionally a name of one of the cousins Alexander had been with, or even Alexander's name, would enter a tale and he would perk up and listen intently, but as most of the talk seemed to revolve around hunting the younger family members had not yet earned tales of legend. Well, not positive ones at least.
He had finally finished up skinning something his second creature when one of the head-poppers took the skull off of the pigimp he had brought back. "Here, you killed it so you should take it in," he said, gesturing to the beheaded body.
Yin nodded, simply glad he had not had to skin the creature, and picked it up. As he walked off he could hear one of the zombies that had come back after he had remark "Alexander's friend killed that? By himself?" He grinned to himself, and made his way back to the backdoor of the kitchen, having to balance the body carefully to knock this time.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 3:54 pm
Alex had long since fallen into the routine of answering the door to collect the carcasses that were being brought inside. He had no idea what was going to be done with so much food, but in a house full of zombies...ya, it probably wouldn't exactly last a long time.
As the door was being knocked on yet again, Alex put down the knife he had been cutting strips of meat with, wiped his hands on the ever present towel, and made his way to the door. When he opened it, Yin was on the other side, holding a fairly large pigimp body.
"Here, I'll take that." He said, holding his arms out to collect the body from Yin. He would have just let Yin do it, but he had to take it back into the big fridge, and he didn't think that was the weremantis's favorite place to be. "How is everything going out there? Is there much left to bring in? I found a kennel for that thing you brought back earlier, and it looks like I'll be keeping it." He beamed happily, though he was really going to have to look up what 'it' was and find out if 'it' was a girl or a boy so he could stop calling it, 'it'.
Alex's mom's voice rang out, "Alex, once you put that away, you can leave if you want."
This was great news to Alex, who was getting a little bit tired of chopping meat and mixing ingredients and spices into bowels. He was sure he'd heard a couple of his female cousins snickering about him behind his back, and his aunts, while friendly, were a little overbearing to be around for lengthy periods of time.
Whether Yin wanted Alex to or not, he took the carcass off of the other boil and slowly shuffled it into the fridge, hoping that Yin would still be waiting by the door when he got back so that he could finally go outside. and stay out there.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 4:16 pm
"It seems to be going well, more are returning from the hunt and it looks as if there will be food enough to feed an army." Alexander seemed to really be enjoying the creature that he brought back to him, which was all well and good, though he did not quite understand it all.
As Alexander's mother had released Alexander from his duties he lingered by the back door, wiping his hands off on his shirt after deciding that it was dirty enough that it really did not matter if he dirtied it farther. Alexander finally did return, and to Yin it seemed as if he was fleeing the kitchen at a slightly faster pace than usual (a fast amble rather than a slow shuffle), though he could have been imagining it.
"I believe they are getting close to finishing with the carcasses out there, so should we go back or is there something else that we should be doing?" He wanted to help out if he could, it helped him feel like he was not encroaching upon the family quite as much as he actually was.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:57 pm
Alex was fairly relieved to see that Yin was still at the door. As much as the zomboil would have liked to go upstairs and check on the little mini pet in his kennel, he also really wanted to just get out of the house and away from all of the female company.
Maybe hanging out with Yin was really starting to rub off on him.
"Too many..ghoulish things going on in here, outside, please?" He hissed quietly while passing Yin so that he could shamble down the back steps. "I mean, I guess it's nice to learn a new skill and all, but just...how would you like to be trapped in a kitchen all day with my female relatives?" He asked, in a much louder tone now that he was out of the kitchen, as he moved along to where the ever growing group of zombies who had been on the hunt were returning.
"I'm fine with going to help out with whatever is left to be done. After that...who knows. Lunch time more then likely, and some large group activity to pass the rest of the afternoon." He shrugged, since he hadn't been outside to hear what the conversations had been like or what the talk of the day was.
"Did anybody mention..well, anything about what might be going on today?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:00 pm
Yin did not even try to repress a shudder at the thought. "No," he said vehemently. "No, I would not like to be trapped with your female relatives. Do you even need to ask Alexander?" The very idea was slightly stressful, which made his tone a bit snappish. Rhetorical questions? What were those?
Lunch would probably be good, both the taste and doing something that was potentially safe. "Mostly they were speaking about hunting. But I did hear them mention something about forming teams. Some of them seemed quite adamant that they wished to be on your father's side, but I am unsure of what the teams were for." He was fairly unconcerned, while large groups were not his favorite situation, he no longer wanted to be alone. Not when he did not know where Alexander's sisters were.
By that point they were almost to the group, and Yin began looking around to see if there was something that needed done, and spotting a gutted magiban that was unattended and snagged it, able to begin the work of skinning it while meandering at Alexander's slow place to wherever the zomboil decided to settle down. It was simply easier to stick by the zomboil's side in such a large group of strangers.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:47 pm
If it was a game where everyone wanted to be on Alex's dad's team...
Oh no...
He groaned inwardly. It sounded like they were thinking about playing brute ball, a game which Alex wasn't overly good at (mostly because they refused to let him be QB, which he argued about every. single. game.)
But maybe Yin had misheard, and it would be something else entirely...like capture the severed head or something. That was always an enjoyable game, and Alex usually got to be one of the few to guard the head, thus not really don't much of anything until the end of the game.
He did notice with some chagrin that Yin was still being a little bit short and cold with him, which he could completely understand, but it was..starting to get to Alex a lot. Even though his own mood had improved by miles since his hangover that morning, he could feel that good mood starting to dissipate in a cold feeling of shame and regret for what he had done. Would Yin ever treat him the same way again, after this? He could only hope so....
Alex didn't actually do anything helpful once reaching the group, just standing around and talking, laughing with different family members and finding out that , yes, they were indeed thinking about starting up a game of brute ball after lunch. Alex eventually did settle down, with Yin beside him, and then some of the zombies took off towards the shed to grab some folding tables so that the food for lunch could be served outside.
He sat in awkward silence with Yin, who was busy skinning a magiban, anyways, but still chatted to whatever cousin stopped by to sit and have a few words. He noted with some satisfaction that Justin and Michael at least still looked fairly worse for wear from the night before.
Eventually plates upon plates of food were brought out of the kitchen and to the tables. Alex hadn't, as he had initially planned, had a chance to sneak much food for himself in the kitchen so he pushed himself up and went to line up and fill up a plate, getting jostled nearly to the end of the line by the mad rush of zombies swarming for a meal.
Seriously? He helped make half of that food sitting there! They could have at least thanked him for it by letting him get first choice.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:14 pm
Thankfully Yin was rather accustomed and somewhat enjoyed staying in the background and not talking too much. Especially not around strangers, and he was content to simply focus on the task at hand and let Alexander be with his family. Eventually food began coming out of the kitchen, being set upon tables that some of the others had set up. Alexander got up to go over to the table, but Yin made his way to the kitchen, lurking in the doorway unwilling to go into the kitchen until one of the aunts came out with more food.
He asked her if he could carry it with a polite bow and she agreed willingly enough, passing the platter over to him. On his way back to the table he managed to pop a piece or two of the meat, cut into thin strips into his mouth, and a couple of the zombies parted enough to let him near the table so he could set it down.
Then it was back for a new platter, once again waiting at the doorway. Once again sampling the food. This was obviously the best and easiest way to get fed. After a couple of more trips the line had died down, and the food was now all out of the kitchen so he joined at the end of the line, until he finally reached the partially decimated plates. He still got a good selection to eat, and plenty of it. He then spent a moment locating where Alexander had gone off to, not surprised to see some of the same boils from before near him and wandered over to join them, though in a decision to steer clear of the ghoul from before he sat rather opposite of Alexander as far as the small group went.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:03 pm
It took some time, but Alex was able to fill up a plate of food and sit down, and was surrounded by his family friends in the moments afterwards. He had most of his plate of food consumed before Yin even joined them. He wondered what had taken the weremantis so long to finally join the group, but shrugged it off mentally. If he wasn't going to talk to Alex, then Alex didn't know what he could even say to him anymore.
"You gonna play brute ball with us, Yin?" Justin asked, while Alex finished off the remainder of the food on his plate and set it to the side, waiting for everyone else to be done as well. "Olivia normally plays as a reciever cuz she's so much faster then a lot of us, but she's sitting out this time. You should take her place! You're probably way faster then anyone else here." He finished.
Alex hadn't heard that Olivia wasn't going to play until just then and was a little surprised to hear so. She was normally right in there with the boys. Why was she suddenly deciding to be less of a tom boil? It was a mystery to Alex, and would likely forever remain that way.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:14 pm
Yin glanced up from devouring his food somewhat reluctantly. "Bruteball?" That word definitely sounded familiar. "If it is a speed based position I may be a good choice...if you are sure that I would not be taking anyone's spot." Yes, a speed based role with this group? It would possibly be unfair, but who really knew? There may be some zombies that were naturally quick.
And of course, that was if he even figured out what he was doing long enough to do something quickly. "I am afraid you would have to teach me the rules however, or just give me the basics as to what I should do. I have heard of bruteball but never played it myself, nor have I seen a game be played." He resumed eating, by now somewhat accustomed to incredulous stares when he admitting to not knowing something that they all considered to be common knowledge.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:07 pm
Alex decided, since his cousins were all staring at Yin like 'seriously, this guy doesn't know what brutball is?' that he would step in and answer Yin's questions. Really, he was getting rather used to it at this point, and since the weremantis didn't even know who Jack was until this weekend, nothing could surprise the zomboil anymore.
"It's definitely an advantage to be fast for that position, which is why if you play, you'll be one of the first to be picked for a team. Basically you just run, and catch a ball, and try very hard not to get tackled by the opposing team, who will be trying to knock you down before you carry the ball through the goal posts. I'll talk you through it, if you decide you want to play. The reason everyone wants my dad on their team is because he's normally the running back..though he doesn't run, because he doesn't have to. He's an unstoppable force. Ten people could jump on him and he'd still be going. Most of the game is just trying to keep the ball away from him." Alex grinned, as his cousins all nodded their agreement.
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Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:11 am
Yin probably still had a few surprises up his sleeve, he was like a magician.The weremantis didn't know Jack.Yin contemplated the rules as he ate, currently in the middle of a rather rare rib and enjoying ripping the flesh from the bone. There was some dark pleasure to it, but he tried to pay attention. "The rules sound simple enough, and I imagine that I will learn throughout the game." He glanced over at Alexander's father, and could understand why the male zombie would be advantageous to have on the team. But at the same time he almost wished to be on the opposing team, to see if sheer speed could stand a chance against a team with sheer muscle. "If if is that difficult to win against your father is there not a way to even the sides? It would seem that the game would not be as interesting if it is not a true competition?" He kept eating, wanting to be ready for when the game was going to the begin, though he somehow doubted that he needed to rush to avoid getting left behind by the horde. A tiny part of him in the back of his mind marveled at how full he got at each meal. If he stayed here for too long he would likely put some weight on. He hoped that Miss Xiu-Ying was feeding Princess Eva well. Seu: 50,991 Ramen: 34,893 (I'm claiming that that other third stems from family member based things)
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:43 pm
"Usually there are just two team captains, and they choose who will be on which team. Whether or not it's an even playing field will come down to them. Justin's dad...I mean, Uncle Jeremy, will probably be one team captain and my dad will be the other..Uncle Jeremy is probably the closest to being at the same level of awesome as my dad." Alex gave Justin a sly grin at the last bit, and Justin laughed.
"Right right, we'll see by the end of the game who's dad is more 'awesome'." The other zomboil shook his head, still chuckling a little to himself.
So with that it was just a matter of waiting. Waiting for everyone to finish eating, for the dishes and tables to be cleared, for the makeshift goal posts to be set up, for Jeremy and Alex's dad to flip a coin and decide who would get first pick. Alex sat with the group of zomboils plus Yin and just waited. Traditionally, for whatever reason, it was always an unspoken rule between the two adult zombies that their son's would go on their own teams, so Alex knew he was going to get to sit back and wait for a long while before having to join his dad's side. He was interested to see, however, that Yin was one of the first asked to join Jeremy's team.
Interesting...
Soon enough, the zombies were divided, and positions were being handed out.
"Dad, seriously, I can throw, just make me QB this once, please?"
"Defensive tackle, Alex. You're good at it."
"Come onnnnn." They basically had this same childish argument every time they played. Alex's dad always won.
Alex sullenly joined the defensive line, sitting on the ground with cousin's and uncles and eyeing the other team curiously. They had a good team there. A lot of the bigger zombies for defense, and a few of the faster ones for offense. And Yin....jack damnit, they were going to win, weren't they? It would be an interesting game, anyways.
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