forum at the end of the world (4/4 closed!)

Started October 29, 2020 by @MusicElle-is-here

tune

Name: Jinn Walth

Age: 20

Gender: male, uses xe/xem/xir (and he/him if you get confused) pronouns.
(Though his viewers all believe he's a girl due to appearance, so she/her works too.)

Sexuality: Asexual demiromantic

Appearance: Picrew, Picrew prt. 2 Can describe if necessary.

Personality: Jinn is relatively relaxed, though always carries xir unamused look. Xe's always up for a little fun, so long as nothing conflicts with xir not-so-strong morals. By people who knew xem, Jinn could be described as charismatic and lovable. Often the center of attention and very animated with xir reactions to things. Xe was loved by many, hated by some, though with a certain turn of events, no one feels anything for xem anymore.

Power/mutation: Off The Grid - for 30 seconds, all traces of him, whether mental, physical, or some other way, disappear. Almost as though he never existed. After the 30 seconds, all things reappear. Though, sometimes, it causes great confusion. A consequence to their power is that for 15 seconds after they do this, everyone in a 20 metre radius knows their exact location. So often times, they use their ability to run away or cloak himself in a fight for a short period of time.

Backstory: Before The Event, Jinn Walth was a decently popular streamer, who went under the name Xerne (Zerh-nay). He'd always stream games and do viewer challenges. Since they didn't support his streaming career, Jinn cut ties with xir parents and became more dedicated to his streaming. Though eventually, one day, he started a stream, and play for an hour before stopping. His usual 1k watchers weren't there. Nobody was watching. he cut the stream and called everyone on his contacts list. Even people he hadn't talked to in a long while. No one picked up. he dashed outside, and looked around, the usually busy neighbourhood was eerily silent. No lawnmowers, no children at play, no mailmen, no packages. Nothing. After running around, Jinn found xir neighbourhood park. People who were walking were just bodies strewn upon the ground. Kids in swings hung off the bottom lifelessly, some still held on, as though asleep. Birds and squirrels sat about, unmoving. Xe set out to find what caused this sudden happening. The Event.

(Hope this is alright. :3)

Lindsay shifted, wondering when her family would shut up. They were clearly talking, but why were they talking so loud? The words punctured her skull, seeming to come more from inside of her than outside like they usually did. That was odd. It took her another several moments to realize that these were not the voices of her family. Who were they and why was Lindsay with them?

She sat up, opening her eyes in alarm before everything came rushing back to her. In her sleepy, weakened state she’d almost forgotten the insanity of the past few days. She groaned, an injury in her side crying out in pain. She stifled another grunt of pain as she shifted to take in the others here.

How had the four of them run into each other anyway? It was an odd combination, to be sure. She hardly knew anything about anyone here save their names, and that was only from a rushed exchange while they grouped together to fight off a girl who could somehow…throw fire out of her hands. It was a shock to Lindsay to see that, but something hadn’t felt right since the Event. That was what she—and now the others in her group—had taken to calling the night that most of the population died without any sort of explanation or forethought. And now she was stuck with three near-strangers.

It took Lindsay another few moments to notice that no one was speaking aloud. She wasn’t even sure if everyone was awake. The hastily laid bedrolls reminded her of their near escape from the fire powered girl and her comrades, the only other living people Lindsay had come across in the past few days. If Lindsay and one of the others in the group hadn’t gone for the same store to get supplies, maybe the girl wouldn’t have taken the opportunity and attacked. At least there were two other people who weren’t anxious to see all of the other survivors dead.

She sighed, wondering if hearing the others’ voices in her head was more than just delusion. After all, if a girl could throw fire, Lindsay could possibly have some sort of telepathy. It made sense, or as much sense as anything had since the Event.

For now, at least, she’d formed an uneasy alliance with three other people around her age. Who knew how long that would last? They were only grouped together here for survival, nothing more, and Lindsay had no idea if they would stay grouped together another night. She supposed she should at least give them the thanks she had neglected in the chaos of the past evening. It was too fast-paced and terrifying to really have done much talking besides what was necessary. Lindsay just hoped that the four of them would continue to stay alive.

Amelia had been awake for a while now, staring blankly at the space above her and mulling over recent events. Her thoughts were loud as she recalled the fight, lingering on the look in the flame girl’s eyes when she attacked them… It was insanity. She was lucky she’d found other, seemingly sane survivors, or who knows what would’ve happened. She suppressed a shudder, knowing it would only aggravate the burns on her forearm.

She heard the sounds of someone moving nearby, but didn’t move or offer any conversation until she heard the groan of pain. “Are you alright?” she asked, forcing herself into an upright position and looking at the other girl—Lindsay, if she recalled. “You were hit pretty hard last night.”

Lindsay’s gaze flickered over to the other girl—Amelia. She nodded, her hair falling in choppy waves over her shoulders. “I’m fine, just a bit stiff is all,” she lied, blowing off the question. “That bitch was trying to kill us. So thanks for not letting her, I guess.” Lindsay took a deep breath, running a hand through her messy hair. The oversized black t-shirt she had previously been wearing had been torn to use for bandages, so she was now in a white tank top that had originally been used as an undershirt, with a wide strip of black fabric as a makeshift bandage around her torso. The fabric was stained red in one area from the blood, but otherwise looked fine.

Lindsay also had a few burns from the fire-throwing girl, but most of them were fairly minor. Thankfully, most of the injuries the small group had acquired were pretty minor, like cuts, bruises, and small burns. Lindsay looked down at her baggy jeans, already ripped before the encounter but now singed in one place and slashed open in another from a near miss from the telekinetic. Just another odd thing from the previous day to add to the list. Lindsay’s fishnet tights showed under the jeans, and her beat-up black Converse looked the same as ever.

The nineteen year old nodded, clearly unconvinced but unwilling to force the subject with a near stranger. "You're welcome, although you deserve just as much thanks as I," she responded. She noted the self inventory Lindsay appeared to be doing and decided she might as well stop ignoring her own aches and pains and figure out what she was looking at.

Slowly, Amelia peeled back the top portion of her bedroll and began to examine the state of the rest of her body. She had a few bruises on her legs, mainly her knees and the outside of her thighs from when she fell and rolled over what could've possibly been the most rocky section of the area they'd been fighting in. She felt those more than saw, though, as her worse-for-wear black jeans obscured most of the blotches. She moved along to testing her ribs, pressing lightly in paces and deciding none of them were hurt enough to warrant any sort of half-hearted medical attention. Finally her fingers felt around the area of her burn, and though she winced as the wound throbbed in tandem with her heart, she deduced that it wasn't that big of a deal, either.

That seemed to be the worst of her injuries, barring a few scrapes and cuts that were, for the most part, covered by the sleeves of her abhorrently green turtleneck sweater.

In short—she was lucky. Her outfit looked more worse for wear than she was. Something was bothering her, though—she'd spent a long time looking at the kaleidoscope of colors that was her tattoo sleeves, and yet, it seemed to her they were different somehow now. Brushing off the feeling, she slowly stood up and began stretching, sparing a glance at the rest of the group to see if they were awake yet.

Jinn opened xir eyes slowly, taking in the scenery around xem. Xe looked at the bedroll covering xem, then at the two girls who were already awoken. Xe sat up stretching slightly, only to quickly retract xir arms. They slightly stung. Xe looked over xir arms, eyes catching on to minor burns and bruises. It was then that xe remembered what exactly lead xem there to being with those other three. That girl. The one who volleyed fire as if she was trying to get them to participate in some sick game of dodge ball. Her laugh, it haunted xem still. Her laugh that was only followed by tears.

'Why was she crying,' xe asked xemself, though, it was a question that xe doubted anyone but Lava Girl back there had an answer to.

Jinn turned xir head to the two people who were already conversing next to xem. Neither of their names were something that xe found xemself recalling anytime soon. Only fragments pieced together in xir head.

Lin… Lin…
Lia.. Melia

Nothing came together all the way, and neither addressed each other by name. Xe could only hope that they introduced themselves again, or that they didn't mind nicknames. Xe spoke carefully, a slight smile pulling onto xir bandaged face.

"So.. how're you two? Everything alright?"

"I'm fine," Lindsay said, glancing back at the newly awoken person. "My name is Lindsay, not Lin or Lia, by the way." It only hit her then, as she brushed her hair back from her face, that she didn't remember xem speaking that aloud. That was weird. Maybe she just assumed xe'd forgotten her name. It was possible, or maybe after that fight her mind still wasn't quite right. Or, added a voice inside her head, you can hear people's thoughts.

This wasn't some anime or comic book, real superpowers didn't exist…except they sort of did now? They all fought the fire-throwing girl and had the injuries to prove it, among a couple of other people with her. She had to remind herself that things after the Event were just different, and would probably never be the same again.

"Do you have a hair tie on you?" Lindsay asked, talking to both Jan (or was it Jinn?) and Amelia (or possibly Amanda?). She wasn't sure; maybe they'd follow her example and restate their names. "My hair is becoming a pain in the ass. Maybe I should've let Miss Phoenix back there fry it off because having long hair during an apocalypse probably isn't the move."

Laughter was all Sora heard. Her parents and her brother, laughing at a funny video. She ran to them, with tears in her eyes, but the moment she touched one of them, they all started to fade away. Everything started to change. All around her were lifeless bodies. Some with smiles on them, others with scared faces, and others with no expressions at all. She closed her eyes and when she opened them, she was laying down and now was looking up at the blank spot above her head.

She panicked. She didn't know where she was and who those voices belonged to. It took her a moment before all the memories of the past days started flowing in. She looked at the bedroll covering her and then looked at the others. She slowly sat upright, aware of the injuries she acquired the day before. Nothing big. Just some minor bruises and some scratches. She at first thought that everything that had happened the past couple of days was a strange dream, but her thought was quickly discarded when the group had met the young woman who was shooting fireballs out of her hands.

She realized that she didn't remember the names of the others. She hoped that they would introduce themselves again. She really didn't want to ask for their names and have the risk of embarrassing herself. She stayed quiet as the three talked among themselves.

Well, that was a little odd, Amelia thought, watching the interaction and noticing the flicker of confusion on Lindsay's face. She shrugged, then said, "I'm doing surprisingly alright, considering what we were up against last night. I'm Amelia, by the way, in case you forgot."

At Lindsay's question, she shook her head apologetically. "My hair's too short for them. I can cut it for you, though, if that's what you really want." She was pretty sure there was a pair of scissors somewhere in the emergency medical kit she'd scavenged. "Or you could use some bandages to tie it up."

Noticing another girl slowly sit up, she repeated Jinn's question to her.

Lindsay glanced at the girl who had just woken up. So everyone here was bad with names. Good to know. "I'm Lindsay," she said simply, before running her hands through her long hair again. "Maybe having it closer to chest or shoulder length would be easier." She shrugged, glancing at Amelia. "I just don't want my stupid hair to get in the way of another event like that. Besides, it was due for a cut anyway."

She studied the others in their little ragtag group. Not a bad team, she supposed, though she still knew very little about them. Maybe they had what it took to not only survive the Event, but get in communication with the rest of the world and figure out what the hell was happening. This Event had to be effecting more than just their area of the States, didn't it?

Was anyone truly okay? After what happened, she didn't really know anymore. At least, everyone was introducing themselves again, which Sora really appreciated. Not knowing how to respond to the question Amelia had just asked her moments ago, she just shrugged in response.

"I'm Sora." She paused for a bit, remembering the question Lindsay had asked to Amelia and Jinn. "I think I have a few hair ties remaining." She rummaged through the bag on her side for a bit until she took out a bag with some hair ties. She opened it, took one out, and handed it to Lindsay.

Lindsay gave her a brief smile in thanks, taking it. “Cool, thanks.” She quickly threw her hair into a messy ponytail, hoping it looked all right. “I’m not averse to cutting it, though. Also what was that fire chick on? She was crazy. Like it wasn’t just me, right? Like her whole crew was a bit unhinged.”

"Certainly deranged," Sora said as she nodded in agreement. "What surprised me more were the powers. I don't understand how she acquired her power. Or how any normal human could get powers. I know that it's possible in movies and shows and whatnot, but I never thought it could be a real-life thing."

“Neither did I…but now I guess I’m having second thoughts,” Lindsay admitted. “It was like something straight out a movie. But nothing about this has been exactly normal.” Was this just how life was going to be from on? Lindsay knew that they couldn’t go back to how things had been before, but it was insane to think of this as her new way of life.