Miriam & Henry
Henry, for the longest time, had always seen himself as the unconventionally attractive nice guy. Sure, he had an okay personality for a person who cannibalized in their sleep, but that would only get him so far. For the past week or so he had been hitting up the exercise room in the facility, mainly the treadmills. He had met a bodybuilder named Anthony there earlier in the morning and, despite the age gap and sheer different, the man had been a breath of fresh air into Henry's previous perception of what people at the gym were like. The man wasn't big on running, in fact he could only run about as far as henry could because he did mostly weights, but through the conversation they began having about the zones and common ground they had, it... it was actually pretty nice.
He remembered the conversation.
"I saw you, yesterday." Anthony stated, huffing somewhat to make up for the breathing he lost while speaking. Henry turned his head, drenched in sweat under his arms and on his chest. But he was jogging. He was actually doing it. Henry looked at Anthony for a moment, attempting to form words in his delirious mind before speaking. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"I-" Anthony said back, huffing again to breath. "Saw you..." another pause. "-In Zone two last night... You're the... big one, right?" he questioned. Henry looked forward. This was somewhat embarrassing. "I heard you helped out... on the inaugural run too.." Anthony continued. Shit.
"It's no secret that... I wanna be fit." was Henry's final response. He reached his hand out and slapped the stop button on the treadmill, putting his hands on his knees and heaving for a moment. Anthony himself stopped the treadmill too, less tired but still sweating. He walked over to Henry and put his hand on his back. "I'll tell you what kid," he said, breathing again for a moment. "You cover my ass like you did for them, and I'll be your exercise buddy." he said. Henry looked up to the man in disbelief. Of all the people who wanted to help him, this man, who could be here with one of the few gym bunnies around the gym, was offering to help him instead?
"What do you say?"
Henry didn't even have to think.
It had definitely been and experience for him, and a big reason for him to pursue his goal even more. He had a friend to work with now and a coach of sorts. All he had to do was keep him alive at night. He could do that. He could definitely do that. He'd do it anyways just for being as kind as he was and running with him. Things were looking better, and it had him giddy even now several hours later. Now he was going to the Nexus, planning on visiting the red city again. He had heard tales about something called 'The Ram' that everyone seemed to be having a lot of difficulty dealing with and he wanted to see what all the commotion was about. Just as he entered, one of the kids who got into the little fight the day before was jogging back to his chair, apparently having had his rear handed to him, shouting about weapons of some kind.
"Hey, mind if I tag along?" Henry said, stepping into the Nexus and grabbing a chair. He knew Eli was giving him the middle finger, even if he couldnt see him. "I've heard all this talk about something called and 'Ram', and I'm curious now." Henry said a wicked smile on his face.
He was already feeling hungry.
@SepticGentleman@gingerboi123
Miriam was already in the Nexus from the moment she had woken up that morning. She had eaten, changed, and was wheeled over immediately. She didn't give a damn about real life. She didn't have much left and there wasn't much she could do with it now. The dream world was a different story though. She had been at the foreman's workshop for a while, mainly reviewing schematics and listening to what little the foreman said. The weapons were all very different but also very similar to those of the real world. Swords were the most similar, but the gun's mechanics were a new breed all to foreign to her. It made her want to know what else was part of this strange world.
She had quickly learned that the difference between her REM self and NEXUS avatar was that, in the Nexus, she lacked the ability to throw fire. It was an interesting conundrum because fire in and of itself allowed her to manipulate Aggressors and use their power against them. Now she only had the limited ability to absorb their attacks, which meant that she actually had to fight them now. And because her main method of transportation was turning into smoke, she couldn't use any of the weapons that the foreman had offered her. Which really sucked.
But that had been a little while ago. At this point she had been exploring. Denizens had been especially taking her interest since she had bore witness to how intelligent they were. The marketplace, where few of them resided and interacted, had caught her attention first. Denizen culture was strange to a foreigner like herself. Aggressor bodies were often out on display and they actually fed on their bodies in a way somewhat similar to how Henry had. There had been a few ways they did this, she had noticed. Some in vials and glasses, or right off the bone. She also noticed that their exchange system was heavily focused on bartering, often with communication in their strange language between shopkeepers and the street-roamers. However, every now and again a denizen would produce a vial of fluid that the others often saw as high value and circumvented the bartering process, or took priority. Every denizen she had seen seemed to be masculine in nature, and their community seemed to lack females or juveniles. That would be a case she would have to look into.
She looked over the side of the tent she had been sitting on in observation. Two denizens were conversing in that language of their, every now and again looking up to her, pointing, then continuing to talk. She watched them, playing with her long black hair as the two beings conversed between one another. Many had done this, and it seemed she was known to them for her actions the day prior and her role in the aggressor slaughter had not gone unnoticed. They revered her, but they didn't seem scared of her. It was different.
One of the aggressors below her walked away, but the other remained, motioning for her to come down to her and calling up at her. She gave it a strange look. This was new. She uncrossed her legs and slid off the tent-top, scaring the hell out of the shopkeep who had been unaware of her presence on his room. The denizen who called her down laughed, and then it's friend returned, holding what looked to be three martini glasses with a red liquid inside them. It passed one to the to the denizen that called her down, and then one to her. They lifted their glasses and said "Chokya!", clinking them together. Miriam, seeing this, did the same, raising her glass and exclaiming "Chokya!" herself, clinking them with the other two, who looked her for a moment before their limited facial features contorted. They both shouted "Chokya!" again, and this time more of the denizens around them looked over and exclaimed it themselves.
The two denizens downed their drink, which had the consistency of a smoothie, and she, not wanting to be left out, did the same. Her facial features contorted. It tasted like burnt meat. She looked at the two, who seemed to be watching her and internally sighed, before downing liquid. She looked between the two and gave a half smile and then pointed to herself. "Miriam." she said. The denizens looked to one another and then back to her. One raised their hand and pointed to itself. "Miriam?" it said, sounding unsure. Miriam shook her head and grabbed the denizen's wrist, turning it to point to herself. "Miriam." she corrected. The denizen seemed to ponder this for a moment before it spoke again. "Miriam!" it said, it hand still pointed at her. It tapped it's friend on it's friend's chest to get it's attention and then said "Miriam!" again. It's friend looked at her, then to the other denizen's hand and then raised it's own hand to point at her. "Miriam!"
Pretty soon every denizen that she passed pointed to her and shouted "Miriam!" as loud as it could.
What had she done.
