August opened his eyes, stared at the brightness that he saw. Where was he? Last he remembered, the lion had been chasing him.. It had pounced on him, and then... And then it had gone dark. Why was he awake? Had he gone blind, was that why all he was seeing was bright white? The deer slowly lifted a leg, but paused when he realised there was something covering it. In fact, there was something covering his entire body, even his head.

He took a moment to gather himself and push himself up into a sitting position. As he moved, snow fell off of him, and his eyes were uncovered. The brightness of the world around him blinded him for a few moments and he winced as his eyes tried their hardest to cope with the overwhelming light. He shook his head, felt and saw snow fall from his antlers. Why was the snow tinted pink? Oh, right! He'd been shedding his velvet when the lion had attacked. Perhaps he was still shedding it?

August looked around at the surrounding area. He appeared to be in a meadow of sorts. Not much different than it had been when he died, then, minus the fact that there was.. a lot more snow now than there had been then. He was still confused about that. How was he even alive? It didn't matter. He just was, and now he had to figure out where he was. The deer stood on shaky legs, slowly shaking them one by one, then his entire body. Snow fluttered to the ground, falling from his pelt. There was still some ice stuck in his fur. He'd have to take care of that later. And his velvet...

He cleared his throat as he began to trot towards an area that looked like it had less snow than the rest. Maybe someone lived near here and could help him out. Who knows what happened to his friends.. He didn't even know how long he'd been out here. How had he not been eaten? Had they searched for him? The thought that they might not have even looked for him made his ears lower, his heart grow cold. Maybe they had left the moment the lion had shown up. He knew he hadn't been the best of friends then, but in his last.. Well, his last moments before death, he'd been trying his hardest to make it up to them. He'd protected them from the lion, even gotten a few hits in! They'd had the chance to run.. But would they have left him behind?

August heaved out a great sigh. This wasn't a nice topic to think upon. He could think about it later, once he had a warm nose and plenty of food. He could hear something in the distance..

"Hello? Is anybody out there?" The deer called out, loud voice echoing slightly.

"SPEECH"

  Welp. Today was a completely normal day in paradise. Snow was drifting, she wasn't in hibernation, and the sky was green! ... what do you mean it isn't green? The bird sighed and lifted her head up. Fine. So she was lying. Could you blame her? She's been bored! The raven has been out of commission for basically a month. There was nothing to do here except for heal and peck at people trying to baby her as her wings healed. Sometimes she wished she died from that fall.

  Cry yawned, perking up as a deer came up... A mauled deer. He looked to be the exact peek condition of health. He was glowing. A fine specimen in beautiful condition. Cry huffed under her breath, rolling her cloudy eyes. Happy opposite day... She mumbled tiredly under her breath, pulling herself to her feet. The raven preened her feathers for a few pregnant moments before hopping down from the tall branch she was on. She skillfully climbed out of the tree, as it quickly became a third nature to her (as walking on these talons had to be second nature, first), slowly hopping over to the deer. She was not much for conversation and only stared up at him.

  He almost seemed blissfully unaware of his own physical state. It was kinda sad, actually. Cry was no creature of mercy, but this was just ... disgusting. What kind of creature left someone in a state like this and didn't finish the job? That was just cruel. Welp. Bambi here seemed to be up and moving just fine. ... somehow. The raven's milky eyes blinked before she raised a brow with the tilt of her head, almost as if she was expecting him to explain himself. It was not every day that someone showed up in such a grotesque condition, after all. He left a pool of blood behind him for crying out loud! The kid just looked .... wounded.

SPEECH

August had felt a little bit stupid when he'd called out. Perhaps nobody was there? It was very cold, after all. And rather empty looking. When the raven approached him, he perked up, glad to see there was, indeed, another animal here. He was a little bit confused as to why it hadn't flown; the last time he'd met a bird of any kind who was interested in him, they had taken great joy in flying around him and resting upon his antlers.

He shrugged to himself and lowered his head closer to the bird. A piece of velvet hung from his antlers close to her face, and he tilted his head back at her. It took him a long moment before he opened his mouth to speak.
"Hello. Do you live out here?" He seemed to be unaware of the fact that she wished he'd explain himself, which.. Made sense. Seeing as he had no idea that he looked as he did. The only thing he knew looked pretty bad was the bloody mess atop his antlers, but that happened seasonally and so he was so used to it, he figured others would be too.
"Maybe you can take me somewhere a little bit warmer? I can't seem to feel very much of my body."


"SPEECH"

☀ — and till the end you're my very best friend

"Oh, goodness, are you okay?" Pierce almost asked at the sight of the other's bloodied antlers, but upon further thought, decided against it. He hadn't known a ton of deer - or animals like them - in his life, but from the ones he had known, he'd gathered that this was... pretty normal. At least, he hoped it was, and he wasn't too worried, since this guy didn't seem bothered by it. Still, the smell of blood and the grotesque sight of all of it put Pierce on edge, probably because, not only was blood a bad sign to everyone, but he had grown accustomed to very bad things happening when he saw blood. Pushing crimson-stained memories aside, the serval offered August a warm smile as he approached. "Hi there! This is, ah, Snowbound. This is our home, yeah."

It was cold, he'd agree on that, for sure, but having lived in a similar climate almost his entire life, he'd sort of adapted. There weren't any real physical changes, but he'd just developed a tolerance, he supposed. "Of- of course!" the slender tom told August without much thought. In his old home, they'd had this thing called "auto-acceptance", and along with that, he'd been, like, deputy, or something - he couldn't quite remember -, so he'd never had to worry about talking to anyone when accepting new members. Plus, even if someone wasn't planning on joining, they usually offered them shelter anyway. He wasn't sure if that was how it worked here - he hadn't really been around enough to know -, but it was kind of too late now. "Here," he went on, pulling a blue scarf from his leather satchel and offering it up to the cervidae, "I have a bunch of these. You can keep this one- it should help with the cold." Pierce paused for a moment, glancing over to Cry for a moment before he fixed amber visionaries back on the newcomer. "I'm Pierce, by the way. Pierce Parker. What's your name?"

"speech"

August probably could've cried when he first spotted the serval. It wasn't nearly the size of a lion, but he knew cats like these would gladly eat him if they had the chance. He'd already been killed once by a big cat, why not a second time? He seemed to stiffen up a bit more, expecting a fight. His expectations vanished as the feline proved itself friendly, at least, for the time being. Of course, he reminded himself, not all animals would just attack on sight.

The name of this place was... fitting. He didn't quite understand how any animals could survive here and be happy; the majority of his body was numb, and he rather thought that was because of the snow, not because of any other factors. Although, he supposed his pelt must've been a lot thinner than one a creature that was meant to live in a place like this would have. Servals weren't one of those creatures, though. He wondered how long the serval had been here.

He stared for at least a minute before he carefully lowered his head under the scarf being held up, manoeuvring his antlers  so that the cloth wouldn't get stuck on them. The deer lifted his head and shook it a bit to get the scarf to fall further down. Hm. It did seem to help a bit to ward off the cold, and it wasn't an ugly shade of blue.. "Thank you. It is nice."

August stared at Pierce as he spoke, hazy eyes looking as though they didn't truly see him. He thought for a moment. "That's a nice name. I am.." At this point he paused to think once more, gaze drifting to the side. What was his name? It took him several seconds before a small 'ah!' left him. "August? Yes, I am August."

"SPEECH"

WHAT A PRIVILEGE IT IS TO LOVE — Jacob was still trying to wrap his mind around the events of the last few days but that didn't justify breaking his schedule. He knew that if he did that, his health would go on in a downward spiral and it'd be difficult to say when he would come out of that. He couldn't afford that right now; there was too much to do, too much to take care of. He had hardly slept, which he was sure wasn't good, but he knew eventually his body would have to give into the biological need for sleep. His mind could only keep him up for so long before his body gave up. He'd ate way too much last night. He'd hardly kept up with it all and it'd been almost uncontrollable. He'd depleted most of what was left from his supplies in the city, which mostly just left him feel guilty and useless. He'd been reliant on those to carry him until they solidified their alliance with the Typhoon and he'd blown it all in one night. He told himself that he'd go out and scrounge some things up to make up for it but that didn't stop him from feeling bad about the whole thing.

Thankfully, he was distracted from his conscious when he heard an unfamiliar voice coming across the wide, snowy landscape. His legs were starting to bother him again but he knew he'd be fine to make it to wherever the little group was. They didn't sound too far away and he could always head back to the tunnels right after this. When he came close enough to get a good view of the group, his eyes widened slightly. The creature before them looked absolutely ravaged and his felt terror twist his stomach as he tried to think of what to do. However, Pierce asked about August's well being before Jacob got the opportunity and the deer didn't seem to be in any sort of pain and he hadn't reacted negatively to Pierce's question so Jacob supposed all was well. After seeing Silentgrave, he honestly wasn't sure what to think about anyone's physical conditions. It was so hard to keep up as a doctor these days with all the strange creatures that came around these parts. "Hi, August. 'M Jacob, i's real nice ta' meet ya'. Would ya' like me ta' show ya' back ta' our camp so ya' can get outta' this cold weather for a bit? We got things ta' eat n' drink back there too, if ya' need anythin'," he offered. —A GREAT HONOR TO HOLD YOU UP

August hadn't heard the wolfdog approaching, but then again, August probably wouldn't have heard anything around him as long as he was focused on speaking to Pierce. He paused for a moment as the canine's words began processing in his head. It was confusing. Was the dog speaking gibberish to him?

He swung his head around to face Jacob, strips of velvet swinging forward when his head stopped. A few bits fell off. August's gaze flicked to the fallen velvet for a good few seconds before he looked back to the dog. He stared. And stared. Then finally, the words made sense to him and he began to speak his response.

"Hello, Jacob. I would like it if you did, it is rather cold out here. Although.." August squinted his hazy eyes for a moment as he tried to figure out whether he was hungry or not. "I don't think I am hungry. Could you instead.. Help me with this bite?" By this, August meant the large, stinking wound on his neck. It looked.. Nasty, to be honest.

"It is beginning to stink. I do not know why."

"SPEECH"

  Sure. Just ignore her. She did not mind. Cry took an intake of breath, her eyes falling shut. The raven yawned, opening her good wing to preen the feathers. Introductions. Greetings. More people show up. These folks running up to their home was coming boringly predictable. The raven tilted her head, staring up at the deer. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Terribly wrong. His eyes lacked light, much like a corpse does. His skin is tattered and broken. Bruised and beat. He simply... just shouldn't be.

  Cry perked up at the mention of the smell. The raven huffed, ruffling herself up. Rot, decay, blood, and lack of life. Dead. The raven cawed out under her breath. To much of the village, she was still a mindless animal. Or... at least she thought that was how they precised her. She was abnormally quiet, and a few citizens did still try to eat her on occasion. Perhaps they would ignore her on this topic as well. But she was set on her theory. This deer was a walking corpse. He was dead.

//If the zombie thing was supposed to be a surprise, ignore Cry! She'll be upset but she'll deal.

SPEECH

/its all good!! it'd be pretty hard to hide smth like that imo

August stared down at the bird. Dead? He looked at her for a long moment, thought over it in his head. "Yes. I was.. Dead. But I am not now. Somehow." He didn't understand how he had just gotten up, but perhaps someone else would. He was a bit surprised it had taken so long for someone to point it out. It was obvious, was it not?



"SPEECH"

The stench of rot and blood caught his nose first. Aizawa had been passing by, checking the traps Jacob had helped him to set up, when he had first smelled it. It was painfully familiar to him now, the metallic scent of blood, but he luckily didn't know too much of the deathly smell that hung in the air. Then the voices drifted over to him. He glances down at what one of his traps had caught before turning away, deciding it would be fine to leave it for a little longer. He doubted anything would come and grab it up when he was such a short distance away. It would only take a second, he hoped.

The growing scent makes his stomach roll, his face scrunching up in discomfort. He stops and peers at what they had all gathered around, quickly taken aback by the sight. It only strengthened the feeling of disgust inside him. He shouldn't have been, but he was still surprised to see the deer up and walking, despite the deep wound in it's throat. They looked just overall sickly. He was suddenly aware that he could have come back like that, a walking corpse, and was for once thankful for his new body.

He clears his throat before speaking in a low, monotone voice. "I'm Aizawa Shouta." he then falls silent again without much else to say. He figures he might as well state his name for future reference, though he isn't sure how to feel about having such a thing walking about camp.

"SPEECH"