He's The Loml 🤍

Adrien hums, listening to her. Seems like she's still spiraling after arriving in town recently. He moves to sit against the wall across from her, their shoes inches apart.

"Sorta? I came in a few days ago with the huge storm. But I'm guessing you're even more recent than that? And to be honest? If having a party is delusional, I'd rather be that than dead."

He shrugs. He knows he's an outlier amongst the people of Oblitus, but he's used to that feeling. And he's happy to share it with others when he can.

"I didn't catch your name," he adds with a friendly smile.

Catie’s eyes narrow as Adrien slides to a stop in front of her, his enthusiasm jarring compared to everything she’s felt since arriving. She folds her arms, glancing around with disbelief.

'Company?' she echoes, almost laughing despite herself. 'Yeah. Sure. Not like I was having a ton of fun hanging out on the floor. By myself. In this creep fucking house.' She shakes her head, almost hesitating but not quite catching herself. 'Just, are we seriously doing this? Having a party while there's all that actual shit out there?' She glances at Adrien, her tone sharper than she intended but held back by a thread. 'I can’t decide if everyone here’s delusional or if I’m just the only one who thinks this whole thing is completely insane.' Her voice drops, anger simmering just below the surface as she forces a smile. "But you—you look like you’re actually having fun. Guess you’re not new here?"

Lucas laughs. "God, I'd love some real Tabasco."

He nods at the suggestion.

"I'll run it by Jim, Cam, and Santi later. Nothing's gonna be perfect."

He looks at her, studying her body language.

"When did you last sleep? Do I need to lock you in a cell so you'll take a nap?"

Anastasia forced a half-smile at Lucas’s grimace, the weight of Cameron’s name still lingering between them like a storm cloud that refused to pass. “Yeah, she’s still here,” Anastasia echoed, her voice softer, more resigned. “Lucky might not be the word I’d use, though.”

She folded her arms, glancing at the supplies between them. The mention of Kina sent a flicker of something painful through her chest, but she pushed it down. There wasn’t room for that now—not when so much needed doing.

Lucas’s weak chuckle at the old joke gave her an unexpected sense of warmth, though—a sliver of something familiar amid the chaos. She allowed herself a real smile this time, brief but sincere. “If one ever does show up, I hope it has coffee. Real coffee, not that powdered crap.”

She crouched down next to him, her knees protesting the movement. “We’ll figure out the rations. We always do. Maybe we set up a system—rotate who gets what, make it feel like less of a gamble.” She paused, exhaling slowly. “Not that anyone’s going to love that idea.”

where: colony house when: Halloween night whom: @ludics Rae

Lucas makes his way through the Colony House, feeling like he can actually breathe for the first time in weeks. There's just so much joy and excitement in the house that it's almost impossible to be anxious tonight. And the drinks he's had help too.

He wipes sweat from the part of his stomach that's visible thanks to the tight (maybe too small) shirt he managed to find for the night. He's not sure what he's looking for now. Ana has disappeared and most of the other people he'd talk to are busy doing other things.

Then he spots Rae, and he can't help but smile at the sight of the man. Ever since he helped Rae in the morgue, he's felt the slightest shift of their friendship. He's not sure how to describe it or how it's affected. He just knows something feels different.

He walks up to the man.

"There you are," he says with a warm smile.

— Warsan Shire

where: colony house when: Halloween Night whom: @purgatored Cherry

Adrien stumbles up to what he assumes is the bar for the evening. He hasn't had a drop of liquor yet, having too much fun just being at a party.

He asks for water, then turns to someone else standing here.

"Hey," he greets, smile wide and excited. "I'm Adrien. Who are you?"

"Not stupid. Just an unfortunate honest answer."

He looks down at the ankle in question. It's still aching, though not terribly.

"It's fine. Becca wishes I'd stay off it for a bit longer, but I've got a job to do."

He nods in sympathy. After helping Rae on the morgue side, Lucas can only imagine how bad the infirmary is hurting.

"I know Ana is trying to figure out what we can do. Hopefully, we can keep the inventories steady for a bit."

"stupid question, hm?" she asked, a wry smile on her lips before glancing down at his foot. "how's the ankle?" she asks in turn before a long sigh makes it way from her lips, wincing just so at the reminder of how many they'd lost. "yeah, we're alright. took a few hits to the supplies from the storm but i think we'll manage."

Lucas returns the look and squeeze. Rae looks better than he did at the infirmary. Maybe it's the setting sun, or maybe it's just the relief after finally crying.

He chuckles. "Well, glad to know I rank above corpses as a conversationalist."

They reach the walkway up to Rae's house and they slow their steps as they approach the door. Almost like they both don't want this to end any sooner.

"Will you be okay on your own tonight? I could stay. Sleep on the couch."

“and you said it anyway,” rae half-muttered under his breath. he gave lucas a look, something between exasperation and fondness, as he squeezed his hand. then he focused back on his house in the distance.

“i guess i could use the help,” he relented. “plus it's hard to hold up a conversation with a corpse.” it would also cut the time in half, logistically speaking. he just hated asking for help...and accepting it. he'd been that way since he was a kid, even before losing his parents.

Adrien hums, looking over the sketch.

"Yeah, it would be hard without a water screw. Though depending on the materials we can find, I could probably jerry-rig one?"

He immediately starts going through his mental catalogue of scraps already at the Chop Shop. There's not a lot that could work right now. Though maybe they can find more?

"Of course, we'd still need a safe place to put it that the monsters wouldn't get to."

"That's a really good idea," she said opening her note book and started writing those down. "I was thinking- and I could be wrong with the area, if we dig deep enough, we might hit water. Wouldn't recommend drinking it, but it could be used as a current to be a back up generator. Sadly that would require a waterscrew in my head, and a tank- so if you have a better idea I'm always ears," she said showing him the sketch.

Lucas shuts the book so Cherry can't read his notes.

"Can anyone vouch for your whereabouts then? It would've been between 10:30–11."

Honestly, Lucas does have bigger fish to fry, but it's his job to help everyone feel safe. If someone is burglarizing other people, that will just make a bad situation worse.

He's not sure if Cherry is the actual culprit. She just has the most priors involving theft, and they did accuse her, so he has to be thorough.

CHERRY SIGHS AS SHE LEANS A HIP AGAINST THE DOORFRAME . her expression scrunches with it . " i mean, yeah, you prolly definitely got bigger fish to fry than me ." charlie would imagine so at least but what the hell does she know about being a cop ? all she's sure about is that someone will probably try to rope her into helping in some way today, and as reluctant as she usually was she knew she'd probably give in for at least a little bit . after all, they all got royally fucked by the storm . so when lucas shoots her an unimpressed look her expression only twists . " who the fuck said that ?" she moves as if to peer at his notebook . " i was workin' yesterday morning !"

where: colony house when: Halloween night whom: @rampents Catie

Adrien stumbles out of a bathroom, shaking his hands to finish drying them. He's having way too much fun for what everyone seems to think Oblitus should be.

He's about to head back to the dance floor when he notices someone chilling on the floor, not really paying attention to her surroundings.

Not one to let someone stay alone for too long, Adrien runs then slides on his knees, stopping right in front of her.

"Hey, there, I'm Adrien. Want some company?"