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 was considering Five’s answer carefully when Raylan dismissed it. It took him a second to realize the Marshal was striding away.

“Thank you,” he told Five sincerely before slipping past him to nip at the lanky cowboy’s heels.

“Wh... Raylan what... what are you going to do?”

[fika]

Something about the other man walking away really sets Five's already foul mood on edge. Something about the fact that Raylan was trying to make a point somewhere in his responses without saying it straight.

And all that appreciation of having this house open to him may be all well and good - and beneath the brittle temper and irritation, there might be relief in knowing he can show up without the risk of having another magnet thrown at his head, but that relief is buried deep, deep down.

Instead, Five groans as they both turn away, as they both start heading out, and for all the certainty that whatever they were heading out to do was a shit idea, Five really sometimes can't help himself.

He teleports himself around them, a blur of spacetime, all crooked angles as he peers up, hands shoved deep into his pockets. "Yeah, I'm real curious too, cowboy. What the hell are you two planning?"

[tinstar]

Raylan stops short as his path is suddenly blocked by Five and he blinks at him for a few second, head pulling back a fraction as his brain caught up in processing 'Oh, that's what popping over looks like'. Well, at least the arriving end. He'd be interested to see the leaving end, when he doesn't having something better to be doing.

Raylan took a deep, calming breath through his nose before his weight shifted forward a little as one hand propped on his hip, the other gesturing out lightly at Five as he answered the both of them.

"Look. Where I come from, you have a problem with local power, you take a bottle of your best whiskey and you have a parlay. You don't pop over for a look around, you don't chuck fireballs at the house. You act civil." His divided attention returned to Five with a lift of his finger. "And I ain't sayin' that a quick ride over is a bad idea, but it didn't work out to well from what I can tell. So I'm gonna go grab a bottle of that moonshine and take a walk across a bridge, see if we can't find somethin' out, if you will kindly get the hell outta my way."

[abrightboy]

“Oh no,” Malcolm murmured. “No no no no we don’t know what that person even is. We don’t know if civiliz.... wait. Who threw fireballs at it?” Malcolm asked.