Sample/Test threads

[crazywithasword]

Option 1: Action:

[It's a quiet night. One that lets them sit around the fire and just relax for a moment, not hearing anything in the distance. Well, relax as much as they ever can. Michonne sits with her sword over her lap, watching the flames jump and flicker before she turns, saying,] When I was young, we never went camping. My parents were busy, sure, working a lot, but ... it ... it didn't seem fun. All the dirt, all the bugs? [She has to laugh a little. It's funny, isn't it? Almost Karma.] Gotta love the dirt and the bugs. [Of course, that's when something rustles in the woods just beyond the light of the fire.]


~~~
Option 2: Prose:

The road stretches out in front of them almost like a mirage. Michonne puts one foot in front of the other, over and over again. Each time, the end doesn't get any closer. Of course, the end won't get any closer. That's what wakes Michonne up in the middle of the night. "I used to think mirages were only in the desert. That's what they always showed in the movies ... the desert spreading out all wavy?" But the trees and the road seem to be doing the same thing. She takes a drink from her water bottle, draining it dry.

She rattles it. They're going to need more water soon and sky is bright, the air arid. Back in the day, she would have three or four bottles of lotion in the bathroom, different scents for different days. That doesn't just seem like a different life, after all. It was a different life. Now, she barely thinks about lotion at all, except at random times. Movies and lotion. She chuckles just a little, at herself.

Comments

[usandthedead]

[ Rick has to smirk at her story. Because this world, as it is now, it only offers them this: dirt and bugs and jumping at every sound outside of themselves.

He heard that.

Rick slowly stands, his hand on the sharp dagger in its sheath as he looks toward the forest in the direction the sound came from. He points to Michonne and points in one direction while he moves off in another so they're on either side of where the sound came from. ]

[crazywithasword]

[Pulling her sword out of the sheath, she walks nearly silently, countering Rick's movements with her own. They enter the tree line at the same time and she stops again when they hear the rustling again.

There it is. The Walker was once a woman, but is now hardly rotting skin over bones. She seems to sense Michonne first, heading toward her with a shambling walk. Michonne stays still. Waiting. It needs to be closer before she strikes.]

[usandthedead]

[ Rick watches the Walker stumble toward Michonne and doesn't move closer to try to help her out. He has no doubt that she can hold her own against that one. He exhales a slow breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

Just as he turns back toward camp he catches sight of another Walker, this one young, once a teenager, a boy. It ambles toward him and Rick takes the large machete from his holster. But then out of the shadows there's another one.

And another one.

Rick curses under his breath and slams the machete down into the skull of one. He looks over to Michonne. ] There's more. [ He hisses the words as two more come upon him and he uses one walker to push the other one back into the trunk of a tree. The machete slices through the skull of one while he draws his dagger from its holster with his other hand. He brings that dagger up through the jaw of the second walker and then steps back to see how many more there are.

They might have to run. ]

[crazywithasword]

[But if they run, the Walkers will follow them back and they'll bother everybody else. Michonne swings the katana at the one closest and it falls, then she moves toward the other, steps careful, moves methodical as she swings again, taking out the one who just appeared; a man by the looks of it.

Then she counters and they have the two cornered.] I'll take this one. [She kicks it, sending it staggering so she can slice down its back.]

[usandthedead]

[ They risked that chance, yes. But Rick was practical about when to fight and when to run. He had his kids to think about, and did so above everything else. Right now this was still manageable though. It bordered on the edge of being too much.

Rick nods when she says she's going after another one and looks back through the trees. There were a dozen or so more stragglers in this mini herd. If they could dispatch them all without firing a shot, that would be ideal. ]

'Bout a dozen more. [ He pushes at another one, sending it back into another walker. Both of them topple to the ground. Rick leans down to jam his knife in one, the two skulls. ]

[crazywithasword]

[They've handled more, so Michonne isn't worried yet. After the one she targeted and another, she can move closer to Rick and help there. All told, this is a pretty tame bunch and the numbers start to dwindle.]

[usandthedead]

[ As the numbers fall, Rick starts to move with more ease. He leads one to a large bush where it gets tangled in the limbs. He slams his knife into that one. And then another he slams into the trunk of a tree again and again to crack its skull and smash its brain.

He stands there. Waiting. Listening to the sound of their breathing and nothing else. ] Think that's it. You alright?

[crazywithasword]

I'm good. [She wipes her katana on the shirt of one of the dead Walkers and looks around slowly. Then she gives Rick a small nod. See? They're all right.] You good?

[usandthedead]

[ He nods in response. Rick is tired. He's hungry. But he's alive. That's good enough. So he makes a rare joke. ] Wouldn't say no to a juicy steak right now.

[crazywithasword]

[She gives a big smile at that.] When I dream of food, I dream of biscuits snd gravy. You can have the beef, give me the biscuits and pork sausage gravy.