It’s about the FLAVOR! First Aid barely looking at photographs when he scavenges, and he doesn’t want to scavenge houses but they’re so versatile with what they might have, and the risk of attacks is so low compared to a store. Just don’t look. Don’t look at the walls, or at the beds. And when you have to, it’s a mercy killing. It’s euthanasia. Everyone has the right to die, he tells himself. It’s his job now.
Vortex doesn’t even care. He thinks the houses are the best; the stories he can come up with for people inside. And Onsalught is practical and says the risks of scavenging a store outweigh the cons, guaranteeing what you need will be there versus not. Brawl doesn’t care either way. He thinks, Vortex is a little too into the houses. He thinks. But what does he really care? They’re all dead now. Just don’t find things you don’t want to see.
Swindle knows spots to go. He likes going for groups of people, really, they have the best to offer, and if you sweet talk em you don’t even need to rob them, they’ll just let themselves be scammed. He likes letting these groups propagate: let them multiply, let his hauls be even more fruitful. And Blast Off- he doesn’t really scavenge. He tends to stay away, fights instead, doesn’t want to think too hard about the insides of these houses or the cars in the parking lots. He doesn’t really care, but if he thinks too long, he might end up caring a little. Cant afford that.
Link to a poll for reactions to getting bitten by a zombie above, and I figured I’d send it your way because it makes really good brain material for thinking about what our poor survivors might do in such a terrible situation.
I gave some simple answers for Combaticons/First Aid in a separate post but I’d love to hear your thoughts on it, if you had any. Bonus points if you’re like “character x wouldn’t do any of the above, they’d do this” etc etc honestly no wrong answers but I love the endless potential. Also, you probably already know this, but any and all characters you wanna study for this would be great, I’m down for anything. Just love your zombie au thoughts ngl.
Ok I spent a few days thinking about this one. And obviously I’m going to go with First Aid first because of course I will.
Drawing inspiration from Delphi, the infected patients pose no threat as we know. Aside from wandering around maybe, and dying. First Aid isn’t shown to be very affected by this- both literally and metaphorically. And even before he found out he was ‘immune’, he and Ambulon took on the burden of care for those infected. (Meanwhile, Pharma- KNOWING exactly how this disease worked, how it infects, how it triggers, what it does to you- hid.). It speaks a lot to how First Aid is. The same sort of, self sacrifice and care and firm badassary without meaning to.
So First Aid would logically get infected in the zombie au. If it was any sort of real life scenario. Maybe he’s a carrier for the disease actually. But, he absolutely would realize he’s infected when he’s bitten. Even if it’s a scenario where only 99% of bites lead to zombification, he would treat it as 100%. He would never risk anyone’s life for even the idea that maybe he could survive.
If he’s fast enough, I can see him severing his own limb. Otherwise, he doesn’t tell anyone. He is infected and he’s going to die, and so he quietly leaves one day under some pretense. He still has one last thing to give everyone else, and that’s hope; hope that he’s okay, and he’s alive out there, even if he’s dead and he knows he’s dead. He gives them that hope. And he goes to die alone.
Vortex never really saw much of a big deal on zombies. ‘Turning’ into one isn’t a change, in his eyes, it’s just sort of… a logical conclusion to his life, he thinks. Any life. It’s not so bad. You live forever, probably, you’re never hungry, you don’t even kill each other- only the guys you want to. And that doesn’t seem so bad. So if he’s infected, he’s the wild card that might not tell anyone, or might tell everyone. Who knows what he does.
Swindle blames someone else. He likes his family, but uh, hey, come on, him? Infected? There’s a 1% survival chance too, and he’s got all these meds stockpiled; come on, as if he’d die? You don’t really believe that, right? And he’s not even infected; it was someone else. Someone else got bitten. He wasn’t bitten, he was scratched. This even his blood. This is just a bruise. Don’t look under his sleeve.
Brawl doesn’t have much feelings of sorrow about the thing. If it was later on in the apocalypse, he’d be remorseful, and even scared. But early on, it’s just… well, that’s that then. He’ll go down fighting. He tells everyone, and then goes out and kills as many zombies as he can before he dies to.
Onslaught is also a contender for chopping off his own limb. Though, this isn’t like First Aid, who knows medicine and knows where to cut, how to cut, what to do; this is, grab a knife, and cut. Of course he’d tell the group. But only because he isn’t going to die. He’s the guy who’s not in denial, he absolutely believes he can beat this infection. The person who fights anesthesia before surgery. That kind of guy. Sort of a flipped mirror of First Aid too; where there’s life, there’s hope.
Blast Off tells a few people. Maybe only one, even. He doesn’t want to die, but he’s- he’s realistic. It’s terrifying, isn’t it? To suddenly realize your mortality. He doesn’t want to die. But maybe that’s all he can do now. He tries to hold it off, but it doesn’t work; and the group can’t decide what to do with him. He asks First Aid, in the end, to help him out. He doesn’t want to die as a zombie; he wants to die human. So Blast Off spends the last day alive with his family, shooting zombies from afar. Before he, quietly, turns in and does the same to himself. First Aid will lie and say he died in his sleep.
