#alex!five

[crownleys]

I did another Dreamish AU collab with @disaster-magnet-runner-five! For Sara and Alex’s reunion. They sent me some really fun sketches and I kind of just went ham on them, I had way too much fun painting these backgrounds

[disaster-magnet-runner-five]

i cannot escape it. every time i listen to glass animals i think about alex.

[crownleys]

Did a lil collab with @disaster-magnet-runner-five!! I got to line one of their super lovely sketches for the Dreamish AU. It’s some Sara/Five hug time 

[disaster-magnet-runner-five]

whacking five repeatedly with the vague religious trauma stick to go along with all the tummy aches and gender i give them

[disaster-magnet-runner-five]

Simon and Alex's dynamic, in my post s3 'alex is a critter now' mind, is that video of the old guy talking casually and lovingly about his Chihuahua as he pets it, while it furiously bites the absolute fucking shit out of him

[disaster-magnet-runner-five]

once again borrowing @delucadarling's five for runner five shenanigans

bonus:

[disaster-magnet-runner-five]

absolutely wretched thought. what if I made alex wake up post dreamish so far back that they're still in the fucking bering sea

[disaster-magnet-runner-five]

found this in my drafts from a last year,,, further thoughts about my five being a cryptid

five as not a zomb and not a person and not a monster but something entirely in the middle. unsettling but familiar, a friend-shaped stray cat who can be coaxed into the safety of the township at night sometimes, who will sleep in the comms shack if it's gross enough out but won't bunk up in the runner's quarters. who gets up before dawn to wait patiently by the gates to be let out again, and will run parallel if there's a team going out at the same time, but eventually peels off alone and disappears into the woods without rhyme or reason only to be spotted halfway across the county a couple of days later.

runner five who was tortured by van ark and came back upside down and backwards and who could run their usual tracks in their sleep but doesn't respond if someone calls them by their actual name. knows how to operate a headset, can return orders and give detailed descriptions of empty warehouses and buildings an analyze threats and potential bottlenecks and which doors will go down the fastest but doesn't know how to answer when sam asks how they're doing, or if they're okay. runner five who zombs mysteriously don't seem to notice anymore until they've taken a crowbar through the head and it's too late.

runner five who, months and months later, regularly appears alongside lost runners mid-step; Sam has to calm their nerves when it's a gaggle of newbies, it's fine!, he says, it's not a zomb, don't shoot for the love of God don't shoot. Just follow them. runner five who somehow manages to guide even the most wayward home, who guns down zombies to clear a path with ease. they follow running teams at an abnormally efficient and stable clip despite being injured, and usually won't come close enough to the gates for someone to grab them and drag them inside for medical attention... but always watches the runners scuttle on past the gates before they turn back and disappear into the woods again.

five who isn't truly five anymore, (and can't be relied upon to stay in Abel long or frequently enough to be considered a resident, these days) but exists in a time loop of their own, locked into the only pattern they really know now. every day is a just another run.