stateofdecay | Backstory Scenes

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Backstory Scenes

This is a space to post any scenes for your character which are set before October 1st, 2013. Scenes submitted for specific mod prompts such as "first meetings" will count towards a small narrative reward for all involved characters, but all backstory scenes are welcome!

🧟 First Meetings: Share scenes of your characters meeting (or re-meeting) for the first time after the world ended. This can be the first notable one-on-one interaction the characters had rather than the literal first time they met if it's more dramatically compelling!
🧟‍♀️ Other Scenes: What else have your characters been up to?
🧟‍♂️ OOC: Plotting & Scene Requests 
🧟 OOC: Other Chatter

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Edited 2024-09-19 03:19 (UTC)

Big thanks to Marin for these in-comment scene codes!

LATE APRIL, 2012 ▪ GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH ▪ 6:26 PM

Roswell has never been a very talented cook. He’s fine at it. He’s kept himself alive this long, at the very least. But in the short week or so he’s been at Grace Lutheran it’s become clear that that’s where a body is needed, so that’s where Roswell’s been. The nice thing about everything being boxed and canned is that nobody has particularly high expectations, at least.

This guy certainly won’t, if his last few days out in the world resembled Roswell’s whatsoever. Still, he picks out one of the better canned dinners they have left in their pantry – SpaghettiOs with hot dog bits. This is what counts as luxury these days.

It takes a few minutes to heat the meal up on the stovetop, and Roswell is quiet for most of the time. He’s always been a quiet person, and zombie apocalypse living suits him just fine. Now everyone else is quiet too. The church’s fence is far enough away from the building that quiet conversation is no problem, but small talk was never his forte even before the world ended and every topic became loaded. He puts the food in a bowl, and the bowl on a plate, and then he portions out four saltines. After a moment’s thought adds two more, before turning to take the plate to where Emmett is waiting at the breakfast bar.

“Enjoy this. It might be the last bowl of SpaghettiOs you ever eat,” he remarks as he sets the plate down in front of Emmett. He seems to regret it immediately, but just shakes his head at himself instead of trying to course correct whatsoever.

For a moment, Emmett looks as though he's inwardly debating whether or not he deserves to eat one of the last bowls of SpaghettiOs on earth, but—not wanting to appear rude—takes it anyway. "Thanks. Appreciate it," he says, terse but with genuine gratitude for the gesture. Recently arrived, he looks as though he hasn't slept in days. There is blood spatter on the pockets of his chore coat.

Despite the fact that he does not want to talk at all, Emmett is not without small town manners, and begrudgingly attempts to initiate some small talk himself.

"You from around here?" Emmett asks. It seems to him like an anodyne enough question.

“I grew up in Marshall, but—“ He manages to cut himself off before he says he was in the park when the outbreak happened, or that he hasn’t been back to his family home since. It’s at the tip of his tongue, the front of his mind, but he wants to at least try to maintain a sense of normalcy in this conversation.

Leaning his elbows against the counter, he laughs at himself. “I don’t know why I said it like that. I’ve never really left.”

Emmett gives him a nod of approval—oh good, a fellow local, he thinks, as he exhales a little—and tries to think of something relatively normal to say in return. Nothing is normal, though, and the last thing he feels like doing is admitting as much to a complete stranger.

"Also from here. I, uh, left for college, but I came right back. Whole family's—" He grimaces despite himself. "—was here and all. You know how it is."

“Yeah,” Roswell says, fidgeting with a pair of salt-and-pepper shakers shaped like chickens. “I’ve got my younger siblings scattered all over the place, though. Dallas, Milwaukee, Raleigh…” One of them has to be okay, he thinks but doesn’t say. Then he clears his throat.

“You’re not hurt or anything, are you?”

"Nah, I'm miraculously unscathed," Emmett replies, in a mocking tone that suggests he's none too pleased about it. At this point, it still feels to him like divine punishment of some kind—to be left behind while better and more capable people were now rotting in a hole.

He pushes this thought away with a shrug and a renewal of his purposely inscrutable expression. "Guess the universe still has some use for me. You need help with anything?"

He doesn’t press him on it. Roswell also hadn’t been sick or injured when he’d showed up last week, and nobody had pressed him on it either. It’s already occurred to him that this might not be a good general policy, but he doesn’t want to think about what would happen if this guy had secretly been bitten anyway.

“What, right now?” he asks, glancing around the kitchen. There are dishes that need to be done, and he’d been considering taking a more thorough inventory of the food they have left to ration it, but it all seems non-urgent. “I think you can take a beat.”

Emmett looks disappointed despite himself but says nothing; he wants to keep busy so that he's not left alone with his thoughts for too long, but that's far too personal to mention to a guy who he's only just met, so he reluctantly lets it drop.

"All right, suit yourself. But if you need a dish washer later, give me a holler. Thanks for the SpaghettiOs. I'll be sure to appreciate 'em while I still can." Emmett gives Roswell a grateful nod.

Roswell has been here six days and he hypocritically has not taken a beat for himself for this exact reason, and he does notice this in Emmett. Hypocritically, he can’t help but feel like he should discourage other people from coping in this way, but he does get it.

“If the dishes got done while I wasn’t looking, I wouldn’t complain,” he eventually acquiesces as he stands up from the counter to return to the kitchen.

Emmett manages the tiniest hint of a smile. "Well, who knows? Maybe this place has some of those dish fairies I keep hearing about." he says, none too subtle.

“Who knows,” Roswell echoes before leaving him to his meal.

oh the scene code is super cute and clean and sexy

i know doesn't it slap

It's

I wanna drop a line here to get this started in a place that I don't forget to peek back at (Discord).
I currently have one scene in progress with Carter and three planned/ in progress with Ares, so I'd very love more with my girl, but also both.

Carter's been around since about April and Ares has been in Providence Ridge since he was a baby, was a fire figher at Prescott, and has been there from the beginning as a reminder!

I am probably going to pass out sooner than later tonite but will have so much time later, so sorry for being slow, would still luv to plot!

i know i owe you a tag but i'm taking this as permission to make u do a carter/dutch scene as well 😌

oh nooo that's so hard for me (just kidding obviously yes please)
I would love to see them Bond, I can only imagine that process

i started to write this comment uh hours ago and then fell into a reddit-scrolling fugue 🫠 BUT I'M HERE!! FOR SCENES!! i have one with reggie and one with blythe in the works and i'm on vacation next week so let's load 'em up!!!

reggie has been at prescott from the beginning, grew up in providence ridge and already worked at the fire station. i'm down for first meetings or re-meetings or other backstory scenes!

blythe has been at whitney for six months with the theater troupe and likes to ~~get in the way~~ help so plenty of first meetings for him!

hmu hmu i'm here all week

I currently have a scene each for my characters, but would love every and any interactions please and thank you.

Quaid is a Trumbull county local who was at Grace Lutheran Church prior to the drive towards Lundegaard becoming a more permanent fixture, so he's been there from the start just about.

Courtney showed up to Prescott Fire Station in July of last year (w/ Arlo, sup), and has been wreaking havoc and continuing to save people since then! She lived in Danforth pre-zombies after moving from the east coast.

Edited 2024-09-19 04:06 (UTC)

i also made a scene code generator for people who hate editing HTML 😊

i need a scene with blythe and edgar!!! there's too many possibilities here lmao i'll have to...think about it...

omg the icons are CUTE

Would it be funny if Lola took Blythe on a scavenging run and he learned the fine scientific art of finding an unopened unexpired bag of Red Doritos

John joined up w/ the lumberyard crew at Grace Lutheran! They would have met for the first time there!

we're not worthy!!!

Want to throw him and Quaid together to see how that goes? Amusingly is my guess, lol.

Niko has been at Prescott since the beginning, although he did not work there before the outbreak, so maybe we could have him and Reggie meeting early on? She can boss him around.

YES I NEED ONE TOO

maybe smth shortly after the zombie attack that sent them to whitney?

god he would feel like a fucking champ i would love this

oh yes yes yes. i'm imagining like a lull in activity right after day zero and reggie's trying to get him to help clean up. if you've got time to lean you've got time to clean kostopolous!!

LMAO YES

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Backstory Scenes

First Meetings

Other Scenes

OOC: Plotting & Scene Requests

OOC: Other Chatter

First Meetings: Roswell & Emmett

Re: OOC: Other Chatter

Re: OOC: Other Chatter

Re: OOC: Other Chatter

OOC: Plotting & Scene Requests- Lyss

Re: OOC: Plotting & Scene Requests- Lyss

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OOC: Plotting & Scene Requests - LA

Re: OOC: Other Chatter

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Re: OOC: Plotting & Scene Requests - LA

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Re: OOC: Plotting & Scene Requests - LA

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