Watch that your match doesn't hit that bridge

[tinstar]

characters: Raylan, Doc and Malcolm
location: 1306 and then, the Chasm
date/time:Afternoon of day 20
content: Bridge building and possibly bad ideas


If there was one thing that Raylan had that didn't get enough love, it was redneck ingenuity. Ever since he'd seen the chasm and what lay beyond, Raylan was plagued by the best part of humanity, curiosity. People had yelled across the crack, thrown things, god knows what else, but Raylan failed to see a single attempt to cross it. He was sure he wasn't the first to have the idea - not with as many smart people around, but he had the goods to act on it. The wood that he'd collected with Max and with Doc separately, hadn't been a small amount of boards, some of which came with their own nails. A little destruction of a framed wall or two gave up little chunks of 2x4 that he figured would work well for support and several hours in the garage with Malcolm had produced a 'bridge' that was about 14 feet long. He wasn't sure it was long enough but they could see.

"Okay, set your end up on that bucket," he instructed Malcolm with a nod at the reinforced wood that they'd nailed together, lifting his own onto his carefully placed bucket. Malcolm had been a big help, making things move more quickly than he could have alone and he'd well put the man to work holding and hammering. "We just gotta see how much it bends under weight."

He hadn't really laid out what the glorified gangplank was for but that didn't matter, right? Didn't matter that he was going to cross the chasm into unknown territory.

"How much do you clock in at?" he asked Malcolm with a jut of his chin. "We can start with you then go onto me. I figure I got at least a good twenty pounds on ya." No, he really didn't.

Comments

[abrightboy]

Malcolm still had a little of the nervous energy that the argument had brought to the surface, shifting from one foot to the other, wringing his hands as they decided who would do what, but once Doc took the far end, he looked at Raylan.

"So we're taking the rope?"

[tinstar]

Raylan scoffed a sound at Doc's little joke, though it didn't quite make it to his face and he nodded at Malcolm. "If you're happy with the knots, we'll take front end, let Doc take back end and hope."

He picked up his side of the rope and wrapped it around his wrist a few times. "Doc can call start since he's holdin' the back end. Gonna be real weird at the start."

[thering]

When the other two gentlemen have stepped away from the plank a bit, Doc picks up his end and shifts it so it's pointing straight across the crevice. To give it a hard shove and just keep pushing when the momentum picks up would be easy, but a surefire way to send it flying off their side of the cliff. Making it a controlled, slow and steady extension across is going to take strength and a few long minutes of hands staying plunged in the snow.

Should be fine though. He trusts them. Staying crouched, he waits until they give him a nod or some other recognisable signal before he breathes out a sigh and gets ready to go.

"Let's keep her nice and steady. We go on three." And assuming there aren't any hesitations or protests, he counts them down. "One... two... three."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm mirrors what Raylan does on his own side, glancing back for Doc's signal, then following their lead.

They manage to get it reasonably lined up and moving steadily, only catching now and then on bumps on the ground or on rocks.

[tinstar]

It wasn't as hard as he thought it might be, lifting the end of the bridge up once it was hung over the edge, but it was an interesting way to go, letting a little bit of rope out as Doc pushed. He nodded a little bit at Malcolm now and then, adding, "Alright, slow, slow."

The further they got, the harder it got, forcing him to turn his feet into the snow for better leverage as his shoulders worked. But it looked like it would make it, if they didn't fuck it up.

"Almost there, keep goin'."

[thering]

As expected, starting her off was easy, but once they reached the halfway mark - took a lot longer than he was expecting; 14 feet's a hell of a lot longer when you're pushing behind it - he's finding he needs to hold it down as much as he needs to push.

It approaches dangerously close to the edge and he's trying not to focus on that,

"Just lift a lil' higher," he says, trying his best to ignore the big gaping hole in the bottom half of his vision and eyeing up how it's holding at the other end. Once it finds some perch on the other side, a hard push gets it firmly across with a foot to spare on either side, and he can heave a sigh of relief. He's probably going to feel it in his knees tomorrow.

"Well that was easy."

[abrightboy]

Once its seated, Malcolm loosens his grip on the rope a little, looking back at Doc then over at Raylan.

“I hope the last foot of ground on each side is stable. The shadow man won’t be a factor if the edge of the hole crumbles and brings the bridge down with it.”

[tinstar]

"Yeah, it coulda done with another couple feet on each end," Raylan agrees as he unwindes and drops the rope, chewing the inside of his lip as he surveyed his work. Not too shabby though, if he did say so himself, to eyeball it so well.

Finally, he looked over at Malcolm before looking at Doc and shifting to face them a little more fully with his body. "The edges should hold. How long we supposed to give him to cross? However much daylight is left?"

God it felt stupid to put this up and then just walk away from it. It felt even more stupid to stand around arguing about crossing it when they were going to start losing light soon.

[thering]

"Seems alright so far." They haven't seen anything crumble or crack off while they've been here and Doc's stood right at the edge, albeit with his back turned to the crevice. He thinks it's fairly solid, for a medium-term solution for getting across anyway.

"If it doesn't come over in the next few minutes it probably won't be coming over at all, but. We can wait it out." Maybe it'll only come when they leave. No one knows for certain.

[abrightboy]

"I don't think he's not come over here yet because he can't," Malcolm said. "But maybe he'll cross if he thinks it might stop us from going over there."

[tinstar]

"Shoulda brought a bottle of moonshine," Raylan says lowly, hands on his canted hips as he stared across at the house holding the figure at the window. "He ain't gonna come across on his own. He ain't gonna cross at all."

Raylan looked over at Doc. "Let's go talk to Five then, see what he knows and if that figure wasn't out of the house when he got lobbed back over like a tennis ball then I'm comin' back and I'm crossin' this damned bridge." The bridge was gestured at with a finger before he turned on his heel and started back towards town.

[thering]

"You should go with him," Doc suggests to Malcolm. "I've already spoken with Mister Five when I was tending to him; he won't appreciate me interrogating or coddling him. I can stay a while, keep an eye on things. If anything happens, I'll come running." Malcolm can trust that Doc won't try to cross over on his own or provoke the figure in the house.

He figured also that Raylan needs the space. And he, too, would likely go for a wander. Doc always finds things to keep himself busy with and he's hardly at home.

"I'll see you at the house-" It's not really home, honestly. He hasn't had a home in a very long time. He's actively trying not to think of it as home. "-a little later if you two don't come back."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm wasn’t sure Doc’s reason not to come was really the reason, but he wouldn’t push. Raylan was striding away and someone really ought to go with him. Malcolm gave Doc a nod and jogged to catch up to Raylan, falling into step beside him.

[tinstar]

Raylan glanced over his shoulder at the sounds of foot falls behind him, step stutting for only a moment as he turned further to see Doc back by the bridge. It made sense but for some reason, Doc staying behind annoyed him. Like he was getting out of the suffering he was putting Raylan in by being a reasonable person.

"He stayin' behind to watch just in case then? Maybe for the better. Still don't think anythin's comin' over."

[abrightboy]

“Me either,” Malcolm agreed. “But I think he’s largely going to make sure nobody tries to cross the other way, either.”

Raylan wasn’t the only one in their group impulsive enough to try it.

“And he implied he’d annoy Five by... I don’t know. Hovering.”

[tinstar]

"Might not be a bad idea," he admitted. Didn't that mean it's not a stupid idea if more than one person looked at it? Not particularly and he knew that well enough.

"If Five is annoyed by hoverin', he may not appreciate bein' questioned, but if he's there..."

And it wouldn't take them long to get there, Raylan leading the way in to glance around for the small guy that had been camped out on the couch.

[abrightboy]

“Any information is helpful,” Malcolm noted, staying at Raylan’s elbow and letting him maintain the lead.

comin' in hot, fellas! summoned from plurk c:

[fika]

The assumption of Five's annoyance is a painfully accurate one; it was something intrinsically consistent in this old man turned thirteen year old menace.

As it happens, they will catch Five on his way out - the camping was over, as it were - with the retrieval of his blazer, moving stiffly across the living room, having teleported himself inside seconds before.

He isn't surprised to see the residents of this house stride through their own front door, exactly, but there is a notable lack of enthusiasm across his youthful face, purpling bruise across his cheekbone.

"Huh," a quiet note - the mother hen wasn't with them. "Just grabbing my things."

[tinstar]

Coming or going, it seemed no one could really tell and Raylan didn't care much either way; he was just glad that Five was here and hadn't been missed completely. Kid or not, if what Raylan had heard so far was true, the guy had balls. Something to be respected, if nothing else.

Five was about to get a lot less enthusiastic from here.

"Nah I'm glad we caught ya," Raylan started, tone light and affable as he led in with a long, boney index finger that gestured as he talked. "Henry told us a bit about what you did, but - and forgive me, I know we haven't met properly, Raylan Givens, nice to meet you - but I had some additional questions. Details really," he continued like it was inconsequential as he ambled to a stop, off hand set onto crooked hips. "So I was hopin' we could ask a few questions, get an understandin' of whatever 'rules' you mighta come across."

If there was one thing Five was right about, it was the fact that there was no mother hen here. Raylan was not that kind of man.

[abrightboy]

“We understand you sustained your injuries trying to cross the chasm and engage the.... man over there,” Malcolm clarified. “Can you tell us exactly how you crossed and what happened subsequently?”

[fika]

Raylan is markedly correct - the enthusiasm withers and dries out completely by the time the cowboy stops talking, green eyes flicking back and forth between the two men.

For a moment, he considers blinking the hell out of there, a slow sigh pushed shallowly against the ache of broken bone.

His stare does sharpen when Malcolm mentions the man, and if Five's tension was passive before, it's taut as bowstring now and if he could throw hands with tall, dark and mysterious, he would. "The man — "

"— That asshole wasn't there when I tried." He leans himself on whatever the nearest solid object is. "And gee, what happened? I made it to other side and got swatted off by nothing. Punchline of a shit chicken joke."

"And why do you want to know, exactly? Getting a slingshot ready?"

[tinstar]

Raylan looked over to Malcolm with something of a look, a victorious sort of 'I told you so' look before returning his attention to Five. Oh, he saw the annoyance, the anger and the frustration, all of which he was honestly glad to see. He ignored the slingshot jab; he didn't have time to start casing out this little kid, he had more important things to do.

"So you popped over and were knocked back. Immediately? All the way to the other side, I'm guessin'? It show up after? Come out at all?"

When someone asked for 'details', what one would get back always varied. Some people just weren't geared to offer the level of detail he was looking for on the outset.

[abrightboy]

“Did you recognize the sort of force that pushed you back?” Malcolm added. “Was it magic?”

[fika]

“No one showed up, alright?” It really didn’t look like he was going to be leaving until these two got whatever answer they came here looking for.

Which is fair, if you take the irritation and the irrationality of pain aside. Five takes a beat, with a set jaw and a grind of teeth, and forces himself to think critically. Alright. Fine, they were after details, for god only know what reason. He could guess, though. They were stuck trying to figure this shit out as much as him. As much as everyone else.

So if they wanted to test the immovable force out themselves? Far be it for him to stop them with cryptic bullshit.

“That’s right. Popped on over, simple spatial displacement,” his smile is quick and serrated, mouth popping at the consonants. Simple teleportation! No big! “Something shoved me off seconds later and yeah, I cleared the whole damn thing.” Talk about express delivery, right? His attention is split between the two of them again. "I don't know what it was, on account of it being invisible. And I don't know enough about 'magic' to be able to tell you if someone was screwing around with it."

Another sigh, head tipping back to blink bleakly up at the ceiling. "Like I said. No one was around on that side. I saw the mystery man the next day."

A long, drawn out beat. “My advice? For whatever you two - or three - are currently planning? Don’t. You'll live longer.”

[tinstar]

Raylan's expression stayed carefully schooled as it was, attentive hazel eyes in half moons under the faint squint he wore during times of curious nature as he took in the snap of an answer. Oh, this one was interesting. It was hard to tell yet if it was a response to the general air that they both came in with or the one that Raylan carried around, or if it was because of the broken ribs and light battery.

His own lips curled up in an echo of the humor that clearly wasn't there, an answer to the passing smile. Oh yeah, sure. No big deal. Blessed thing about the country was that some things could be taken as is - He understood the idea and didn't feel any need to understand science he'd never use. Science, not magic, made clear by the rest of Five's answer.

"No mechanical means, no offerin' of good will, no slow and easy." Raylan gestured at Five like that explained it all. "Popped right on over!" Wasn't that a neat fact. Despite the casual, affable tone that the words came with, there was an underlying tension that suggested it was anything but. There was a Point under there.

Raylan looked back at Five. "Thanks for the information. Hope the couch wasn't total shit, and its open to ya next time you need a night or two to look less like shit. I got a bottle of moonshine to get." Well. Half a bottle.