Catch all for frames.

[ofstarlight]

hit me with all your characters.
Fire away!! 🔥

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Rick;; the immunity au we all deserved

[postocular]

[ It wasn't supposed to happen like this. None of it was, really.. They were supposed to rebuild, start a new life in the ruins left over by the epidemic, not cater to and bow down to a tyrant. But, like life has shown him in three short years: shit happens. It wasn't anybody's fault, and blame can't really be put anywhere but on himself for not being more careful. Of getting into a situation where his blindside ended up being his undoing. Still, something good came out of it.

Siddiq. Who was out by himself, putting walkers down because his mother thought it would release their souls. Honoring parents was a noble thing to do, right? Carl had wanted to help. Still wanted to help Siddiq not be alone anymore. He could do more help in a group, and he would die by himself, sooner or later. Carl doesn't have any regrets about bringing him into the folds of their group, even though it was a secret at the time.

Even trapped as they are in the sewers, waiting for the fires to die down and Negan and his men to abandon Alexandria, fever burning through him and making him delirious. He was dying, and he could feel it. Through the cramping in his gut to his limbs refusing to work, he says his last goodbyes to his sister, to his parents, putting the final nail in the coffin. Medicine is passed through his lips at some point to help with the fever, though Michonne had to help him drink. It probably won't do anything but delay the inevitable. His dad and Michonne should sleep.. they're tired, and there's not really much that they can do. They're both already at his side.

He passes out at some point, and it's difficult to breathe. Carl is certain that he's going to draw his last breath and then someone will have to put him down. This is it. He wonders what dying will really feel like. If he'll see his mom or if he's going to the other place..

Somehow, Carl wakes up, though his vision is too blurry to see. He can't even move his head, he's so weak, but it still smells like sewer. It hurts to draw breath and it rattles in his chest, but it doesn't.. it feels different. He doesn't know how. Something wet and cool presses to his forehead and Carl can't suppress a wince. Feels good, but it chills him. Wait.. Chills. Those are supposed to help fight fever. He'd stopped having those before things got bad. A tattered, dusty blanket is pulled up to his chest. Someone is still holding tightly onto one of his hands and he tries to squeeze weakly in reassurance, though only his fingers only manage to brush against a work-rough palm.

The next time he wakes up, he can see properly- the ceiling of the sewer still looks the same, but light filters in from the grating above them. It's daylight. The sun must be overhead. He survived the night somehow. He should be dead. The fever is still there, but the cramping in his gut has ebbed... God, he wonders what that means? It at least means nobody has put him down yet. The most he can get out when he opens his mouth to speak is a raspy groan. Everything hurts.. Consciousness doesn't stay with him for long.

When he wakes up again, it's not to the dark, dank stone ceiling of the sewer, but the dark oak of somewhere familiar. There's something soft under him, and he's aware enough to know that he's in a bed at least. Carl feels more aware, and he moves his head so he can look around.

Hilltop? How did he even get there? And when? How long was he out? ]

..Dad?

!!!!!!!

[ringleadering]

[ throughout the past few years, rick had only learned one main fact - nothing would ever make sense again. just when he finally believed he grasped onto some kind of truth, something shifted and turned it all upside down. he never knew what to do with that but he kept pressing forward, regardless. determined to maintain some sense of security for his people but even there he failed.

he failed so violently as he watched his son struggle against the confines of the fever which would take him away from them. the agony of it threatened to finally undo him once and for all but the care he wanted to give carl in his last moments kept him together enough. just barely enough to keep functioning.

michonne and her insistence may have helped as well and he tried to hold onto the strands of her strength to keep them all a float. what had they done before her?

time passed and rather than needing to - pull the final trigger - the change never took place. in fact, carl started to heal, the bite fading little by little in a way it never had before.

what did it mean? what could it mean?

rick stayed by carl's side, not sleeping a wink even when they managed to move to hilltop and into a bedroom. carl needed a bed and somehwere safe but still away from others just in case. a precaution they claimed but they knew what would happen if carl did turn after all.

clutching onto carl's hand, rick downright sobbed when he finally heard his voice.

dad.

the sweetest sound he ever experienced in his life. ]

Carl? How're you feelin'? You remember at all what happened?

[postocular]

[ He squeezes his dad's hand weakly, trying to will the energy to do more than that. It still feels like he was hit by a truck, body sore and unresponsive, but he's still breathing. His lungs don't feel like they're full of glass anymore, which is good.. Carl takes a moment to really catalog how he feels and lets out a breath. ]

Not great..

[ He's alive, at least. A crazy, unheard of thing after what happened, but alive. He wonders what that means for him, now. For all of them. The only person to have survived being bitten.. It still seems surreal. Carl had been ready, he thought. Now he doesn't really know. ]

I-- yeah, I think so? How did we get here?

[ringleadering]

[ tremors worked up and down his body from the stress and depth of the emotions the entire ordeal caused but none of it mattered any longer. carl had woken up against all the odds and he would protect him with every ounce he had left in him.

clutching onto carl's hand, he let out a soft breath. ]

Michonne and I - you're in Hilltop right now. You're safe - we're safe. We've got the time to figure out and you to get your strength back up.

[ before everything started happening again but how many would know about carl? ]