Eli Palmer @eli-whitetail - Tumblr Blog

maybe it was the metal walls, or maybe it was the way his head was swimming, but palmer's humourless laugh had him screwing his eyes shut tighter, the harsh bark bouncing making the ache in his head spike and lull.

scarring people, brainwashing them, leaning on them with lawyers and tugging skeletons free from their closets ... blah, blah, blah. yeah, they were the big-bads. of course they were. but no one wanted to let their minds flit back to when they'd first arrived in hope county, and how they'd tried to integrate with the locals, how they'd sought to lead them along to see the truth that joseph had seen coming

' that fuckwit got scarred because he refused to listen ... don't sit there and claim that we came in like a steamroller, palmer, you know damn well that we led with a handshake first. '

laying a forearm across his eyes to blot out the industrial florescent light above, john took a couple of deep breaths in through his nose, forcing himself to breath through the pinpricking cold sweat that dotted his brow.

' tch ... if you'd all listened back then, people wouldn't have had to die. '

eli-whitetail

Staying where he was, Eli shook his head slowly and silently hoped that Nick and Kim had gotten below ground before the bombs dropped. And their little baby too - chatter right before the bombs said Kim had gone into labour. There were so many folks he hoped got to safety ...

"A handshake below the barrel of a gun." The Seeds had tried sweetness first, but it was when Joseph took over a sermon of Pastor Jerome's that the valley started to doubt the preaching newcomers. Then John started buying up all the land whether folks wanted to sell or not, and Jacob set up in the old Veterans' centre. Whichever girl had been their first Hope, well the farms in Henbane had all begun growin' those white flowers all of a sudden.

"Listened?" The word was choked out on a laugh that had no humour and Eli looked John in the eye without balking. "You're telling me that you believed you big brother's prophetising without any doubt?"

#justxsayxyes

takenbythebliss

' oh, i'm not too sure about that. a lot of folks here might disagree with you. '

the fleeting smile on her lips was a well-worn one, stitched into place and heavily relied upon over the years; he had always been the eternal optimist, despite being in the proverbial trenches, eli had clung to the firm belief that things would get better.

shifting further along the window-bench, linny twisted around where she sat, drawing one leg up to her, her back against where the wall met the window frame, a cushion behind her back as she faced eli where he now sat across from her.

brows knit in a furrow, linny was glad of the wall and cushion at her back now because her initial reaction was to pull back ... the armoury? jacob's armoury? but, how could that be? she had been thrust into the role of a herald. a trusted leader and a sister to both john and jacob. she had married one of jacob's most trusted chosen ... surely she would have been privy to such information? or at least heard a whisper or two?

' i ... i never knew. ' blowing out a breath, linny did flop back this time, shoulders slouched and hands gripping her ankles as she tried to wrap her head around the depths of had still be kept from her, even in new eden.

' jacob never said. not once. nor did aaron ... h-how did you get away? '

eli-whitetail

How did he get away; it was a question rich in a past of terror. He had been the one to deign the bunkers and know every inch of them. The Seeds had been the newcomers to his home area on leaving the army and offering work he so desperately needed until a well-respected indigenous ranger couple had gone missing.

Wheaty was the one person who linked everything.

The reason he had drawn away from the Seeds. The reason he had found a cause to continue hie fight after his son's death. The reason he had deigned Jacob and his men as enemies. The reason he had begun a force against the Seeds. The reason he had found himself in the Armory again and acquiescing to Jacob's orders and demands. All to keep Wheaty safe.

He had done terrible things over those couple of years; things that even Wheaty had called him out on. But they'd been on the non-existent mercy of Jacob. And he had done things he wasn't proud of.

"He wouldn't have, why would he broadcast that I had been there and gotten away?" Eli had a small self-depreciating smile on his lips, but didn't balk away from Linny's conversation. He had sat across from her in this nook for a reason.

Eli didn't even deign to mention Aaron's name. He had never liked the younger man; considered him a dangerous rogue, a belligerent strong-head and an unadulterated asshole, to be blunt.

"I designed the bunkers, Linny ... there was always a way out."

#takenbythebliss

Continued from here.

"I think you're selling yourself too short, Linny." She was a newcomer here, he knew that more than anyone else here. They treated her slightly different. Wheaty and Kim and a handful of others went out of their way to make sure she was involved, but she stuck to the outskirts naturally.

It took one to know one.

He was the same. He told himself it was easier to keep an eye on the threats that way; to see the dangers before it was too late. Because he hadn't seen them back in the Whitetails before the poor Dep had been tainted by Jacob. But not everyone here knew the truth of what had kept him and a few more alive during the bombs.

"-my failures landed me in the same Armory I designed for what you call the Collapse." His words were quiet, so quiet that the magnitude of his confession was hard to grasp. Only Kim, Nick and Jerome knew of what he and Wheaty and few others had resorted to to survive. Mary too, but she was gone from them now.

"- we all had to adapt, Linny."

@takenbythebliss

#takenbythebliss

justxsayxyes

' well, if they'd listened to start with, instead of fighting, then they wouldn't have been out in the open. ' that was genuinely the nicest way he could muster an i told you so right now ... but maybe the smile he used as a full stop at the end wasn't wholly necessary?

meh. fuck it all - the collapse had come. his job was done for now. he had gotten them to hope county, he'd set up his silos and bought as much land as possible - he had bankrolled their bunkers and it had all led up to this ... the collapse.

laying back down on his cot with a stifled groan, john threw a dirty look to the whitetail, ' your deputy might have downed my plane, but they didn't have the balls to put a bullet in me. it gets a bit hazy, but i remember jacob and a truck. '

and a very bumpy ride to the whitetails ... and a very visceral talk between them about joseph, but eli didn't need to know that.

' i get why i'm in here - but why, pray tell, am i graced with your presence, palmer? '

eli-whitetail

"Well fucking done," At that Eli gave a laugh that held no humour and he clapped his hands, each clap punctuating a word. "You managed to get Jacob out of the mountains."

"Bit hard to listen when you assholed were either scarring people like Nick, brainwashing others or drugging them out of their brains, don't you think?" How the Seeds had managed to devolve from the odd trio who came to Hope County and even tried to partake in a cook-out, to the torturous fuckers they were now, was beyond Eli.

He had been too close to them, too close to Jacob, at the beginning to see the signs.

"Fucked if I know for sure, I think it's your brother's way of punishing me." That was putting it simply; it went deeper than that. He was Jacob's lapdog at the minute and had no choice in the matter. If he obeyed Jacob, then it ensure Wheaty was safe in the Armoury. "I'm at his beck and call and for some reason, he posted me here to guard your room."

#justxsayxyes

“Don’t shoot! I’m unarmed!”

Random Sentence Starters:

It had taken them so dang long to get this far south. The north was still poisoned and perilous, and their journey had been a leap-frog of sorts from old Whitetails cache to the next where the could find replacement cartridges for gas-masks, or better protective clothing. A tic-tack across the state park they had all once loved, but the bombs had ravaged the mountains, lingering over the higher ground without mercy.

The change in terrain from the Whitetail mountains to the Henbane had been obvious and welcome; the sky brighter, air breathable and safe. But the land had changed; vague landmarks echoed at them, changed and damaged over the years, and some places looked completely different. Holland Valley's rolling plains of grasses and arable farm fields were gone and endless sand dunes existed there instead.

Picking the way across for his small group, Eli kept an eye out at the front and Tammy brought up the rear. They had been through too much to get ambushed now. There were signs for a place called Prosperity that claimed safety for anyone. So they followed them, even if they made no sense; the only Prosperity he had known was across the river and that weird Tweak kid had made it into a strange firing-range of a town.

There was movement in the undergrowth of the forested section they came to and Eli raised his old assault rifle just as the woman's eyes met his and her hands shot into the air. "Don't shoot! I'm unarmed!"

The rifle stayed where it was, but his finger wasn't on the trigger. Instead, Eli was scanning this woman up and down and trying to decipher what faction she might belong to. She had regular clothing on; worn faded jeans, scuffed boots and a threadbare sweater. A rifle hung across her back and basket for foraging was on the ground by her feet.