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riverviewooc2017-02-19 07:56 pm
riverview: test drive meme
Welcome to Riverview's first test drive meme! Feel free to dip your toes in on the test drive meme to try out your character in the setting, play out a mission, and get samples for your application at the same time!
● Reserves are currently OPEN.
● Applications open on March 1st.
● All threads on the test drive meme can count as game canon once the game is up and running.
● TDM threads do not count for Activity Check, but they do count for Activity Bonus Points.
Feel free to use the prompts below or create your own scenario. The setting is built to be flexible, so feel free to make things up as you go.
information resources
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● navigation
If the sky has seemed a little more yellow-green than usual for the past couple of days, there's a reason for that. Meteorologists have been warning of a particularly nasty storm blowing in from the direction of the Delta in the Southwestern part of the Abandoned City.
The Quarantine is about to be hit by a nasty typhoon, and there's a lot to be done. Whether you're helping sandbag the banks of the river, which is bound to be swollen by the storm and flooding, weatherproofing your building, or just huddling indoors for warmth and helping reassure your friends, family, or partner that everything will be okay, it's time to take action!
There's been a lot of talk around the Quarantine about the various predators and monsters outside the fence, and how they've been getting steadily more active, crowding the fences, trying to leap over them, seemingly driven by some kind of mania. There have even been increasing instances of predators that normally mind their own business attacking the fences wholesale, slamming into it over and over as if they're trying to find a weakness.
The good news? The fences have been holding. So far.
The bad news? They won't be holding for much longer.
The Perimeter Guard is in a bad way, and it's all hands on deck. They've also sent out a few of the Perimeter Guard Cadets to post up flyers around the city asking for temporary help in fighting off the beasts. So pick up whatever weapon you're best with, hop onto a truck transport, and head on over to the fences to help drive off the monsters and keep the Quarantine safe.
With a storm rolling in that's going to keep everyone indoors, that might cause power outages, and is just frankly pretty scary, a lot of the clubs, restaurants, and hotels are doing special events to keep everyone's brains occupied and flooded with endorphins.
There are flyers around the city advertising various couples activities: speed dating, dance classes, overnight pool parties, and all-expenses-paid lovers' nights in.
The catch? The great deals only count if you're a twosome. So if you don't have someone to love, hit up speed dating in the indoor courtyard of Riverview's largest mall, or grab the first person you see and take the opportunity.
After a day or two of storm activity, things are definitely not getting better: the rain is torrential, the monsters are attacking with increased energy and decreased rest times, and the distractions are starting to wear thin. Power outages happen off and on, a very rare situation in Riverview Quarantine.
The government has put out an all-points-bulletin imploring anyone with an exploratory spirit to help.
From what government science techs can tell, the storm isn't natural - after all, even the meteorologists were saying that the pressure systems seemed extremely strange. They've managed to narrow the cause to an area in the delta where the storm seems to be originating from, and are broadcasting the general location so anyone with the guts can head out into the storm and try to find the source of it.
Any characters who decide to penetrate the jungle in search of the source will find a device in the shape of a pyramid, with glowing blue edges about a day's walk into the Abandoned City. The pyramid is a malfunctioning weather control device that is causing wild pressure fluctuations and causing the storm as well as making the animals in the jungle aggressive and erratic. Characters can destroy or deactivate the device to end the storm.
This mission can be threaded out however you would like, in groups however large you would like, and more than one team can accomplish the goal.
Whether you're looking for help with a mission or just want to get to know your fellow new arrivals, your character can make a post to the network.
Or you can choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!
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◉ iii. hold your lover close
◉ iv. solution
iii
So all of the things that are being offered up to keep their minds off the oncoming storm are thoughtful, but they're helping Caitlin pull her focus away from her own sense of guilt more than the storm. However bad that storm is going to be, she's been through a lot of things that could prepare her for the worst. She's not worried about the storm.
The problem is that she can't even do most of those things because she's single — single feels less depressing than being widowed, even though she absolutely is — so when she sees a familiar face, a wave of relief rushes over her. This doesn't have to be romantic, right? They can pretend.
Caitlin makes her way over and clears her throat, tucking her hair behind one hear and she offers him a smile when he looks over at her. "Dr. Palmer? Hi, I didn't realize you were here, too. It's good to see you again," she greets warmly.
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"Dr. Snow, it's so good to see you. I just arrived a few days ago ... and I seem to have brought Star City's weather with me," he says, huffing out a laugh.
"Is there ... anyone else that you know here?" he asks, as casually as possible. Because if Cisco or Barry or anyone else is here too, she's probably got this pretend date thing covered, and he doesn't want to impose.
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So, she would've been understanding, if not a little hurt, if he hadn't remembered her name. Because he does, she beams back when she continues, "don't feel too bad. I'm willing to bet you're not the only person who 'brought' bad weather with you," she finishes, looking and sounding amused at the idea.
Caitlin shakes her head in response to his question. If he's trying to be casual, it's working, because she hasn't noticed anything uncomfortable about it. "Oh...uh, no. I don't think so, anyway. I haven't seen anyone yet, until now you." she asks, her eyes shifting slightly away from his face to look around the general vicinity, looking for any of the other Legends or Felicity. They're not still together, she knows that much, but she hadn't gotten the impression that it was a really terrible breakup or anything, either. Then again, she and Felicity aren't that close. Maybe it was. Her eyes move back to Ray's face. "What about you?"
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That feeling of being displaced, or in Ray's case, a little more like useless — well, it had stung. Apparently, it'd hurt him enough to catch the portal's attention, and if he was really being honest here, Ray doesn't mind it. He doesn't even want to go back, not if he can make a real difference here. And with the company safely in Felicity's hands, there's nothing left for him to worry about.
But anyways, Caitlin's answer just now opens up a lot of possibilities, and since Ray's never been a shy person, so he takes a breath and just asks.
"Hey- these fliers everywhere-" He pulls one off the billboard he was just reading, and flips the page towards her and holds it up in front of his chest. "Any chance you'd be interested in doing some of these things with me? Purely platonic," he assures her, "but I promise, I can be very good company."
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A part of her wants to ask what happened to make Ray feel that way, but then she would be opening the door for him to ask her the same question. So...she'd rather not.
Her eyebrows lift with interest when he starts to change the subject and she smiles, cheeks coloring a little as her nose wrinkles with sheepishness. "Confession: I actually came over here because I was going to ask you the same thing," she admits, catching her bottom lip between her teeth for a second before smiling apologetically. "I would love that, is what I'm trying to say. That sounds perfect. Did you have one in mind? I was thinking that the overnight pool party and the dance lessons sounded like fun, but I'm flexible," she offers.
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He wonders too, about her, and what led her to get transported here from Central City. The last he saw the team, they'd worked so well together ... and when it comes to hero stuff, Ray's always loved team-ups more than flying solo. Even if that had been the opposite to how he likes to run companies, until he met Felicity. But that's- Ray knows that's over now. She'd never really been his to begin with, even if he loved her.
When he hears her confession, Ray's open-mouthed grin is back, and he pins the paper back onto the board.
"Well in that case, I... definitely wanted to go to the dance lessons. Maybe we can get dinner after, so we can be all fueled up for the overnight pool party. What do you think?"
The pool party hadn't been something he thought Caitlin would be interested in, so it surprises him a little, but Ray is more than happy to roll with it. Because when it comes down to it, he knows he doesn't know her that well. They'd only worked together once, and even then, most of his work was with Cisco.
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While a pool party is something she wouldn't ever really be all that interested in back in Central City, neither are dance lessons, but she isn't in Central City and if she only lets herself stay in the comfort zone, she'll never stop thinking about Central City, either, which would make this whole attempt to distract herself completely moot. So sure. Pool party with Felicity Smoak's ex-boyfriend. Why not?
"That sounds perfect," she replies with a warm smile. "I was looking at some of the restaurants but I haven't actually been to any of them yet...are there any you've been to that you can recommend or want to avoid...or should we just wing it?" she asks, eyebrows lifted with curiosity. Then, she thinks better of that question. If she's going to try to stick to things she wouldn't normally do in Central City, then making plans ahead too meticulously is out. "Actually, let's just wing it," she says before he can answer. "Dancing, dinner, swimming. Makes for an interesting purely platonic endeavor," she laughs. Because it kind of sounds like a date. ...there's no kind of. It sounds like a date, but she supposes that's the whole point of the things; she and Ray are just circumventing that whole angle, that's all. "Should we go now?"
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He's actually contemplating which restaurants he's actually been too — there had been that one on the first night — when she changes her mind, and Ray is more than happy to agree. "Winging it sounds fantastic. Though, honestly, if you're planning on staying here, I'd love someone to explore the neighborhood with. While I do find eating alone to be awfully under appreciated, I'd much rather try things out. With a friend." He adds that last part on as an addendum, but it's not less genuine.
"Aaaand what? Pfssht. Purely platonic," he repeats playfully. "And you know, we'll just have to pretend the whole time like we're dating. I can't imagine that'd be terribly difficult."
He doesn't mean to imply anything specific besides what his last sentence literally means: that it doesn't take a lot of skill to pretend like you're dating someone. But reasonably speaking, it's also possible to interpret it as him saying that he could easily see them being together.
And since they're going on such a fantastic non-date together, Ray takes a step towards her, pivots and holds up an arm for her to take. "Let's." It only takes him a few steps though, to start talking again. "I think it'd be fun if we came up with some kind of backstory. Like ... how did we first meet? What's your favorite food? How many years have we been together? Hmm ... I feel like three months is a good answer to that last one."
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One thing she does not allow herself to do is read into his comment about how easy it will probably be to pretend that they're dating. He probably doesn't mean anything by it, anyway, so overanalyzing it is just asking to make something that could be a lot of fun into a night full of awkward pauses and unwitting mixed signal interpretation. Nobody needs that. It does, though, make her laugh a little. "We've totally got this," she assures him in a mock serious tone that the little smirk on her face absolutely betrays.
She laughs again, in good nature, when he pivots and offers his arm before happily looping her own through his, her head held high with a genuine smile on her face. Okay, whatever this ends up being, she's pretty sure fun is going to be at the top of her list of descriptors. Already, she can tell Ray is going to be incredibly easy to spend time with. Maybe he's onto something with the ease with which he seems to think they can fake this, after all.
"Ohhh," she says thoughtfully, giving a thoughtful facial shrug. "Okay, we're just going all out, then. You should probably know that the last time I tried to roleplay, Cisco and I nearly got ourselves killed, but this will be decidedly easier, so just kind of bear with me here," she says, only half-joking. "Best to keep the backstory close enough to reality that it's easy to keep straight, so...we met through a mutual friend," she offers lightly. "Favorite food...hmmm, I'm really partial to Big Belly Burger but that doesn't sound very classy..." She pauses. "Three months or three years? Don't confuse me, now," she points out. "I could go for either. Favorite food...let's just go with Thai. It's classier than fast-food, but still accurate. What about yours? Do we live together back home? Or haven't we crossed that bridge just yet?"
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That love of people though, it's what drives him to do what he does. Phones, smart wearables, his nanotech. Everything Ray makes he does to try to make the world a better place, an easier place, a safer place. Wasn't that why he'd poured so much of himself into Star City? Because he refused to believe that it wasn't a city worth saving?
In the day-to-day though, that fondness translates into his expressiveness. Ray doesn't hide a lot. He likes being honest with people and he likes to wear his heart on his sleeve. Which can also make him a little easy to read — unlike a certain moody individual.
"Hold on, killed? You're gonna have to tell me that story during dinner." That's all Ray interjects, as Caitlin starts answering his questions one by one. But he can't help but smile when she mentions the burger chain.
"You know ... I think you should keep Big Belly Burger. Now hear me out. I know Thai is classier, I agree. But. There's just something so ... authentic about someone's favorite food being a fast food chain. Because why would anyone even say that unless it was true?"
And ha, right, he'd said years and then offered months. He's getting ahead of himself, or was it behind himself in this case?
"Three months," he says again. "That way, if we don't know something about each other, we can blame it on the fact that the romance is so new." As Ray talks, he's always gesturing with his other hand — pointing or waving or using it to emphasize points. "Which ... I guess means we're still living in separate apartments. But-" He raises a finger. "There's always a toothbrush for you at my place."
Ray knew going into this that making up their story would be fun, but not this fun.
"And my favorite food? Wow, um. Anything Asian. Sushi, Korean BBQ, god, a greasy egg roll on a Saturday night?" He rolls his eyes like that thought is the best thing to have ever graced his mind.
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"Well I don't know if Big Belly Burger is my favorite..." she objects gently and thoughtfully, considering. It's definitely up there, she'll give it that. "How about if we settle for 'it depends on my mood' but it's one of the two," she suggests. Truthfully, she supposes she's never really put that much thought into it. These days, eating is just a thing she does to sustain life. It's hard to enjoy the simple things when you feel like you're drowning in the complicated ones. But with that in mind, Caitlin tells herself she needs to make sure that she's not doing that tonight. She'll make for pretty awful company if she loses herself in the depths of her own mind, after all, and he's being nice enough to escort her to these couple-y things even though most of them don't seem very couple-y just looking at them on a flier.
She grins a little to herself as they walk arm in arm and Ray goes on explaining his take on their fictional backstory. He's gesturing with his hands and being animated again and okay...that's adorable. "Awww. Thanks, Ray," she coos playfully when he makes mention that there is, of course, a toothbrush for her at his place. "You have a toothbrush at my place, too. And, you don't know it yet because I'm worried it'll scare you away, but I've also cleared a drawer in my dresser for you. But I'll mention it eventually. I'm working up to it," she elaborates with a smirk.
Making up a fake dating history with this man should not be as amusing as it is. Honestly, a part of her kind of doesn't care what they do tonight, because this playful exchange is enough fun to distract her without anything else.
"Oh, okay you want me to keep Big Belly Burger but you get to be classy with Sushi," she teases. "That's fair," she adds with a playful sarcasm as they start to approach the venue. Caitlin notices a couple giving one another a kiss at the door just before the doorman lets them in and her amusement drops. That's a coincidence, right? Because they're a real couple and they just happened to show one another affection before the doorman could actually get the door open, right?
Looking back up at Ray and convincing herself of that because...making up stories is fun but actual physical affection could make this awkward and messy, potentially, and she decides to push forward the conversation, ignoring what she's just seen because it probably doesn't matter, right? "What's our favorite date night? Go out or stay in, for a start?"
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He gasps, melodramatically, when she mentions he has a dresser drawer at her place, but then just laughs when she winks. Honestly, they're having so much fun, and making each other laugh to a degree that any doorman should automatically be letting them into couples events.
Ray sees the couple too, but his mind doesn't go where Caitlin's does. He doesn't know why, but he's not at all worried about this. Maybe it's his privilege, but he doesn't expect anyone to bother them tonight.
"Ohhh date night ... hmmm ..." This time, Ray does incorporate the little bits of information he's learned about Caitlin when he visited Central City into his answer. "How about, I like to go out, but you like to stay in, so to compromise ... we rotate? Friday nights we always stay in. Maybe watch a movie, or cuddle underneath one of those um ... haha oh right, snuggies. Do they make those for two people?" It's a fleeting question, and Ray moves past it as quickly as it came to him. "But either on Saturday or Sunday night, we always go out. Always to a nice restaurant because I insist that you deserve the best."
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iv
The guy lands and Rick only hesitates a moment before rushing past him to slam his machete into one of the creatures that was about to pounce on the guy. And another beast, Rick draws his colt and fires. Then he looks back at the man, blue eyes momentarily wild as anyone who's survived what he has would be, before they settle into something calmer.
"Probably easier by air. But if you're after what I'm after, I think we're close." He says, holstering his pistol again but keeping hold of the bloody machete that's become his weapon of choice.
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He's speechless for a moment and he just stares, as Rick talks, until finally.
"Y-Yeah, I think so too ... Thank you for ... you know, saving my life right then." Holy moly did he just nearly die? Maybe the monsters wouldn't be able to get into his suit, but Ray hasn't come that close since this all starter. He can't be sure. "I'm Ray."
He glances down at the machete, then up at the man, then into the distance where his suit has alerted him to something incoming. This time, Ray is ready. He uses his wrist to aim, and bam a blast of energy shoots out from his arm, and something thunks to the ground in the distance. If he was being really honest, he doesn't hit every shot, but he's pretty pleased he hit this one.
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"Ray." Rick says with a nod, blue eyes intense and assessing as he studies Ray for a brief moment with a look down and then back up. What kind of uniform is this guy wearing? In the end, Rick decides that the man is friend and not foe so he returns the introduction with another nod. "Rick."
The blast of energy gets Rick to duck, flinch, watch wide-eyed and confused. He's never seen anything like that and can't even begin to explain how it just happened. What he does know is that Ray can be an asset as much as Rick can. The dead creature is proof of that. Color him impressed, and pleased that Ray might be an ally and not an enemy.
He stows his questions for the moment and gestures in the direction of the device on the map. "I'll watch your back if you watch mine." He offers.
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But it's hard not to catch the way Rick spooks though, when Ray's energy weapon goes off, and he glances over for a moment before he realizes that of course, even back home, plenty of people had never seen a metahuman, or uh, um, billionnaire vigilante, up close before. Much less one with a suit with energy weapons.
"You got it," he says, with a sure nod. "Let's go."
The jungle has become soaked with the rain that's been pouring down on it, and as they make their way further into the thick of it, Ray sees now why Rick has a machete with him. Having sharp objects to cut through the brush is clearly a good idea.
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As he leads the way through the brush using his machete for what it was intended rather than what he usually uses it for (killing Walkers), he thinks about what he'd seen. Ray, landing on the ground from above. Flying. He'd been flying, right? And then the electric gun. Is it electric? He has no idea about that really.
"You're different." He knows nothing about meta-humans aside from a few comic books he and his son Carl used to keep up with. But the term still isn't forefront in his mind, even now. "Hovering or... flyin'." He thinks it could have been either. Hovering seems more realistic than flying but again, he's new to this.
Rick glances back to Ray and down to the gun before continuing to hack through the brush. "And the gun." There's unspoken questions here, formed as statements of the truth of what Rick has seen just now. He hopes Ray gets that he's asking.
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"Oh uhh-"
Yeah, okay, he gets what's happening here. At least, what he thinks is happening, and Ray's mind is already changing gears so he can code switch into not using jargon in his language. It's never been in this kind of jungle-hacking, storm-investigating, super-heroing context before, but Ray's done his rounds in tech support. He knows what it's like when someone is struggling for the right words to use.
"Flying," he confirms first. "Back home, I'm an engineer- and an inventor. I made this suit, as well as the weapons that come with. And yeah," he explains, gesturing with his hands even though he's behind Rick and therefore the guy probably can't even see him doing it, "it's basically a gun, what I have on my arms. It's like a ... like a gun that shoots pure energy."
That was layman enough, right? Even if it's a little ... unbelievable.
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As he listens, he continues to hack away. It's a startling realization that Ray made the things he did. An engineer. Yeah, that makes sense. But making things like that is a little unreal. "You made a suit that lets you fly and shoot energy?" Even as he says it, it sounds crazy. But he'd also seen it with his own eyes.
One of the beasts leaps at them to the left and Rick draws his colt and fires. His shot is true, hitting the creature right in the brain. Then he hacks a few more times before sheathing both weapons and using his hands to tear at the last bit of the brush.
"Guess that makes you pretty smart, right guy for the job." Because the pyramid in front of them with the malfunctioning device on it is well beyond Rick's expertise. What he can do is make sure Ray is safe enough to give his full attention to it.
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He could also just shrink now, he supposes, but that seems impractical, given the fact that they're constantly being attacked. Right when he finishes that thought, too, Rick shoots and a creature falls.
But the brush gets cleared and as soon as Ray lays eyes on that pyramid, he already wants to get his hands on it too. He nods once to Rick as he steps forward, into the clearing, as if their plan needs no discussion.
"I'll try to be as fast as possible. But I won't have any idea what we're dealing with until I get over there." He takes another step forward, like he's ready to go, before turning back to Rick. "If something happens, and we need to get outta here, yell okay?"
After that, if Rick agrees, Ray walks into the small clearing and kneels down.
"All right little guy. Let's see what's going on."
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He likes the way Ray seems to operate. Rick is a man of few words on a daily basis. But also, back home he and his people use minimal words during a crisis. They've become a well-oiled machine over time where they can speak with looks and hand gestures so as not to attract unwanted attention. With some it comes easier than with others. Ray seems to get it once they get to the pyramid.
He nods at Ray and then puts his back completely to him for the first time as he walks backward behind him to watch their flank while Ray gets to the pyramid. That in itself shows a level of trust that Rick doesn't easily give out so easily.
After a bit, he glances back at the other man. "It look like it's fixable?" He doesn't even think to look at the malfunctioning contraption. He wouldn't know one end from the other. Too high tech for him.
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There is however, a certain innocence to way that Ray already trusts Rick, because he doesn't even give a second thought to his own back when he kneels down and fully immerses himself in the blue glow of the pyramid. And he takes Rick's trust for granted too, because he's still new to doing heroics and Ray ... sometimes Ray doesn't remember the lessons he learned in the boardroom when he's out doing good with other people.
"I hope this blue light doesn't suck out my soul or something," he says, smiling and mostly to himself, when he reaches with a gloved hand to pick it up. What an interesting little contraption. The pyramid itself seems to be some kind of container, but given the way it's vibrating Ray can already tell that what he can see is just a shell. This is definitely tech of some kind.
"X-ray scan, please." And as he holds it up, his heads up display begins to scan the device. A few seconds later, he can see inside. It is definitely tech.
"Gimme a second!" he responds back, not quite a full yell but his voice a little louder since he's lost track of how far away Rick is now, and he isn't interested in pulling his focus away from the pyramid. "I wonder if there's some way to..." He's pushing, poking, turning, trying anything to see if it'll unlock.
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As Ray works, Rick can't help but have half of his attention on the area around them and half on what Ray is doing. That suit of his is some kind of engineering marvel the likes of which Rick has never seen before. It's interesting. He's curious. But watching Ray use it to his benefit, displaying the amazing things it can do is almost a distraction. He has to remind himself to pay attention enough to keep Ray safe enough to work miracles.
Rick knows how to fix an engine or even hot wire a car, but beyond that he's useless when it comes to stuff like this.
Thankfully, he gets to prove his usefulness when two creatures come running into the clearing, all fangs and claws. Rick dispatches them quickly enough. One with the hatchet and the other with his pistol, both head shots cause that's a tried and true method of stopping most anything.
"I think they're gettin' more agitated as time passes." And they both know that this thing is what's causing it. "Not that they'd be friendlies on a good day, but... they're probably not always so aggressive. Most animals I know have a survival instinct." These are just... wild and rabid.
As Rick's said this, he's come closer to Ray again, peeking over his shoulder to see what he's doing.
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i
"Hey, Beanpole. Keep it moving." The man she knocks with her shoulder is not actually moving that slowly. In fact, he's working very hard. As hard as anyone there. He's slowed down a tiny bit, but he's still busting ass. He looks thoughtful and far away, maybe contemplating the things he's left behind. It should be a point for her to empathize on with him, but it just makes her angry. She needs to hold on to the anger. She doesn't have much right now, and something needs to keep her moving forward.