The Universe's Mixer

Winter.

Betty had always liked winter. Well, not always but since as far back as mattered. Winter was a time of of the undead, after the death of autumn and a time when things rested until their lives began anew in spring. Winter was rather like where Betty spent most of her time. Between worlds. Between the living and the dead as the undead. She'd tried to get out of it once, by the piggyback ride into the great beyond only to be cast into this city where she really had no concept of her place.

Was she still a reaper or not? There were no slips of paper currently telling her who to shadow and whose souls to take, so she was left in a sort of limbo. Stuck not knowing her purpose.

Which she was sort of alright with as well. Not much phased Miss Betty Rohmer. New experiences led to ways to beat stagnation and if there was anything she hated it was becoming stagnant. But she did enjoy winter, and being undead. There was no point in missing being living and longing for a new life beyond what she had unless the opportunity came again to jump to it.

She walked along the street, no real purpose in mind other than seeing what might come about, heels clicking on the pavement. Bundled up in a bright red peacoat and a plaid hat, with her hands tucked into the pockets of her jacket, Betty stared straight ahead. Her head moving to and fro, looking for anything that might catch her eye. Or even anyone, for that matter.

Betty wasn't exactly lonely, but she did occasionally wonder after Rube and Georgia. Roxy and Mason not so much. Rube to an extent, he would be fine; but Georgia definitely. She was a good kid, though a bit misguided and attached to her former life.

So she walked along, hoping for something - anything, to catch her attention.

Jesse woke up on his couch, the first thing he saw was snow outside of his window. Falling and falling. Gathering on the ledge where the birds usually sat. There were no birds now. Just piles of white powder. Something that he hadn't ever seen his entire time being in The City.

His body didn't ache or hurt in any way, though he knew that it should. He'd gone through a hell of a thing. Horrifyingly, he remembered all of it. From the time he'd been bitten to biting Zoe. To eating other people. He remembered looking out of his own eyes and not being able to stop himself. He remembered the incredible hunger. He also remembered the gathering of other zombies. How they'd come together and just... existed. It had been a very nice feeling, fitting in. That part of it, he thought, disturbed him more than anything. He hadn't minded being undead. He hadn't minded eating other people. All of it was against his basic nature, and he had liked it.

Everything seemed to be back to normal, though. He didn't have any marks on his body. No scars. Nothing to even suggest that something horrible might have happened to him. Which was strange, considering that he could remember Zoe shooting him in the head. Something like that should have killed him. Put him down, even as a zombie. He'd seen it plenty of times during the course of the disease. But it hadn't ended him.

Even his powers seemed to be back to normal.

It left him wondering.

What had it all been for? Was it the City's doing? Or was it something outside the City's control? And why had his powers been so badly thrown out of whack? Or maybe, was that part of it just coincidence? He already knew how much the City liked to fuck with him, so maybe the timing was just off for that portion of the adventure. Maybe all of this had nothing to do with the City itself, and the entity had planned to fuck with his abilities all on it's own.

He wanted to get to the bottom of all of it. He wanted to know what had gone on. Which meant going outside. Jesse was fairly sure that the general issues with the zombies would be taken care of by now, but there was the issue of the snow. It had been so long since he'd seen it, and wasn't sure how the rest of the city was going to be reacting to it.

But he also had to find Buffy. He wanted to find Zoe too and make sure that she'd been healed.

Staying inside wasn't really an option.

Crews stared at the empty space of his desk. It looked like the one he'd had before, but he hadn't been in an office. In fact, he didn't like being in an office. He liked how open the other space had been, but now he was locked away with only a window to look through. The detective swiveled back and forth in his chair as he stared at the blankness. The blankness of the desk was nice, very nice. This could be a nice distraction.

Someone was working on the door, adding his name to it. He didnt' know he had a partner here, but he supposed this one would be okay. Her name seemed appropriate for the job - Jennifer Government. He wondered if she knew she was getting a partner; maybe, she didn't. That would be an interesting surprise: Welcome back from the undead - here's your crazy partner. Crews smiled at that thought.

He pulled a drawer open and set out a few fruits: a mango, a pomegranate, and a kiwi. Only one seemed appropriate for the snow that was falling, but he supposed somewhere the other two would fit. Now what he needed was a knife, and a bowl. A knife and a bowl seemed just right. Of course, someone to share the fruit with was always welcome.

Mad Sweeney yawned and pulled a bic lighter out of his pocket, flicking it to light a few times before tossing it into the air and catching it again. His cigarette was already lit and pinched between his lips, but his hands required something to play with. The trouble with lighters was that they were difficult to balance, difficult to judge how they'd land.

Within a moment he had dropped the lighter back into his pocket and kicked at a tuft of snow on the ground. There wasn't much, but enough to kick at in disdain.

He was walking through the Botanical Gardens, more people watching than looking at the scenery. Boredom did that to Sweeney. It made him stare at passerby and fantasize about the kind of people they were. About their lives.

Like the man he was currently watching. Tall, dark, handsome by most standards. He was probably an attorney or a doctor. One who made a large sum of money and spent it with abandon. Probably had six or seven women stashed away in various parts of the city... Probably...

Sweeney stopped in his thoughts just long enough to pluck a coin from thin air, from his hoard. He flipped it in the air a few times before letting it rest in his palm. All things considered, things were good.