026 》sweet troubled man are you giving or taking?

[thering]

characters: Malcolm, Neal, Negan, Raylan, Doc
location: 1306 Phillips Dr
date/time: day 26 morning
content: the reset Playstation button was pressed
warnings: tbd

After the strangeness of the past two nights they were likely fully expecting to awaken in the same strange, different, not-so-new anymore places they found themselves in in the past two days.

Instead everything seems to have reset, again. The three permanent residents and two guests are back in 1306, exactly where they had been two nights ago. Malcolm was in his own room, Neal was in Doc's and Negan in Raylan's master bedroom. The two displaced cowboys are downstairs sharing one too-small couch, a night of drinking culminating in fighting over couch space and who gets to be the bigger spoon.

The fire in the fireplace had gone out and their Winter 2020 Collection of bespoke lanterns have vanished, but nothing else seems to be awry.

Comments

[vampirebats]

Morning

"What the fresh fuck is this?" Are the first coherent words out of Negan's mouth when he opens his eyes and he's pulled yet another goddamn midnight traveling act. It's not the boarding house. He's back in the cowboy's bed.

He pushes himself up off the mattress, limbs heavy and drowsy still as he stumbles out of the room. "Hellooo? Did I wake up here all by my lonesome?"

God, he hopes not.

Part of him wants to go check the front door, see if he's just trapped in a cage of a new making or not.

Later

Well, once the initial panic has settled down and he's satisfied that everyone's... somehow back in one piece, Negan is feeling listless. He can handle crazy. Goddamn, but has he seen a thing or two in his life, but this place is straining even that.

The lanterns are gone and now it seems like the weather outside is calm enough. It's why Negan's perched himself nearest the closest window. Either lost in thought or weighing the pros and cons of getting out of here, back somewhere to give his hosts some of their personal space back. Eventually, he'll huff out a sigh and turn to look around, see if anyone's around.

"Hey, don't suppose there's a way I could get a drink before I consider freezing my nuts off again, huh?"

Drinking back in the apocalypse was a hell of a bad idea, but here? He isn't sure it matters.

Later

[abrightboy]

Malcolm hadn't been able to sit still all day, moving restlessly around the house with no real purpose.

He hadn't been avoiding Negan, but the others had been around. They hadn't talked. He glanced around when Negan spoke. Nobody in the immediate vicinity.

"I can get you a drink. You're leaving?"

Re: Later

[vampirebats]

"I was thinking about it at least. Not sure how smart it is yet... just having trouble staying in one place after our little midnight walk and lock-in." He hasn't been avoiding Malcolm, really, but there's been a lot of distractions.

And he's not sure how the fuck to politely ask if he's feeling better or if he's going to grab the poker again.

"Or whatever that was. Some freaky shit, right?"

[abrightboy]

"I think it isn't smart yet. Especially to... be alone out there."

He wrung his hands distractedly, glancing out the window by Negan.

"It was... concerning that they decided to drop the pretense that there isn't an... intelligence behind all this." For them to be kidnapped from their beds and returned to them... it was a message that they were not left to their own devices here and that the hidden hand could exert itself at any time. "I think we were originally meant to think we'd been transported to an abandoned town and had to... deal with that. But. Not now. Now we are definitely someone's amusement."

[vampirebats]

"Maybe..."

Guy's right, much as he hates to admit it. "Guess I'm just feeling a little..."

He gives a dismissive wave. Being trapped is never something he likes.

"Something fucked up is going on here. Now we can't even go to sleep without worrying where we're gonna wake up in the morning?" Hopefully none of that shit happens again, but Negan isn't ready to rule it out.

"I just wish we had a clue as to what's having a laugh at our expense, you know?"

[abrightboy]

"That sort of thing happened one time before that I'm aware of. Raylan and I woke up in the lighthouse shortly after I arrived here. I'd only met him once at that point; we talked for a few minutes. But you couldn't... get to the lighthouse from here at that point. That only lasted... a few hours and then we were back where we'd been."

He shrugged expansively, then clamped his hands together in front of him.

"I don't know if it's possible for us to gain access to the 'outside' of this place to see who's messing with us. Unless they grant it."

[vampirebats]

His jaw clenches tight for a moment as he glares off. It's not aimed at Malcolm. He's just-- pissed off in general. At this whole situation.

"There's got to be something we can do, some... way to fight back. I'm gonna go fucking nuts around here if all I can do is bend over and take it."

Morningish

[thering]

When Negan makes it to the door he will pass the commotion over breakfast in and around the kitchen and find a six foot tall shadow just outside the front door. Doc looking at the blanket of snow, hat back in place, lighting a smoke up.

He turns half over his shoulder at the sound of the door opening and reaches down into his long coat pocket, pulling out his cigarillo tin case and flicking it open to offer a cigarette to Negan.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

[vampirebats]

"Hey--" He pauses, brows furrowing at the sight of the man. Hell yeah, he'll take that cigarette. He needs something to calm his nerves a little bit after--

whatever the hell that was.

"Tell me I didn't just hallucinate a bunch of shit?" He doesn't think he's gone totally loony, but he needs an outside confirmation right now.

"Was I gone or did I just have one impressively realistic dream?"

[thering]

"You were gone," Doc confirms. "We all were. If you are inclined to stay," which Doc thinks he is not because he's on the way out and Negan wouldn't have known someone was outside already. "Or at least return, we could share some of our experiences a little later."

This is a free country, last he checked. A man is free to come and go as he pleases, despite Doc's firm insistence and protestations. He knows this door is always open.

He lights Negan's cigarette while he's still got some shelter from the doorway, shaking the match out and flicking it away into the snow once it's lit.

"Unless you went away to that pool surrounded by beautiful women. Then maybe don't bring it up. The boys will get jealous."

[vampirebats]

"I mean, there was a chick, but she wasn't in a bikini." He takes a drag off the cigarette, starting to relax with the confirmation that he's not insane. Okay, he can work with that. Maybe.

And maybe he can stick around for a minute or two. "Share some experiences, huh? Sure..."

Not like they haven't already shared plenty anyway. "Not even sure where to begin. Woke up on the dining room table, away from here."

[thering]

"Don't sound too disappointed now. Look at all this snow." Who would be sporting swimwear in this weather?

Doc isn't referring to those experiences. Thankfully they're sticking to the topic of the last two days.

"Someplace you have been before? Were you with anyone you recognise?"

[vampirebats]

"You're right... next time we blink and wake up somewhere else, it better damn well be at a pool." Or a beach. Fuck, somewhere warm. He'd kill for it.

"Boarding house, yeah. Malcolm was there. Uh, the kid-- Ellie. A couple others." He shrugs his shoulders absently. He's seen Zed around, he thinks, but not sure about the other chick. She seemed new, confused.

Or maybe they had all just been confused. "How about you?"

[tinstar]

Having been up for long enough to get some coffee going, Raylan tilted himself up the stairwell and hollered back. "Come down stairs and find out," he challenged gently. "We got coffee and a bit of shine if you already need to take the edge off. Breakfast will come soon enough."

Now that he was back on familiar territory, Raylan could pretend like nothing happened. It was over food or drink coveration, something for them all to catch up and compare on. He hoped that breakfast would provide that opportunity. Maybe they could make sense of what the hell they just went through.

[vampirebats]

There's something like relief in him at the sound of a familiar voice. He heads down, lips curling up into a smile. "You know, I usually don't... but I might take a splash. Had a-- hell of a night."

Days? Whatever. "You need any help?"

If he's staying and eating, feels like the least he can do. "Pretty handy around the kitchen."

[tinstar]

"I think we all went for a ride," Raylan admitted as he pulled a cup down as Negan walked into the kitchen, pouring him most of a cup of coffee before trading the coffee pot for a bottle of moonshine to add a good shots worth into the mug and sliding it over with a friendly tilt of his lips.

"Are ya? Well, this mornin' the menu is pancakes with eggs because I didn't leave any bacon in the fridge to do whatever magical multiplication that it does. If you can handle cookin' some eggs enough for the lot of us, I can handle the pancakes, we can get some mouths fed, hm?"

Raylan was not above taking the help; he could understand the need to want to contribute, being built with a similar functionality himself.

"Only other job is dishes and we ain't gotten there just yet."

[vampirebats]

"Oh, don't you worry about that. I can definitely handle the eggs." He takes the cup with a thanks and a quick smile before he takes a sip. Then it's all busying himself with getting the eggs out.

"How do you guys take'em? Scrambled, fried?" At least doing something with his hands feels significantly better than sitting around listless and aching for something to do, something that feels like it's going to keep them alive at least.

"Hope we don't get too many weird mornings like this..."

[tinstar]

Raylan smirks and shuffles the pancake in front of him around before flipping it.

"I take mine fried. Henry probably will too, but you could make 'em all scrambled and we'd eat it. Malcolm probably prefers it that way, so you might be tie-breaker. If you cook it, they will come," he said with a curl of a smile. He was happy to give Negan's hands something to do - there was always something that could be done, in a place like this.

"From your mouth to whatever has control over this place's ears. Weird as shit past couple of days, really. Even before our.. what the hell do we call it anyway? Traveling? Temporary additional kidnapping?"

[vampirebats]

"Hey, I can do a mean some of both." He gives a bit of a smile in return and huffs out a sigh. It's maybe slightly relieved, eager to get back to normal as much as he possibly can, all things considered.

"Fuck if I know. Kidnapping feels more like it... could you leave either or were you locked in wherever you were?"

Morning!

[conning]

Neal beat him to the front door.

That's where he is when Negan comes downstairs, anyway--barefoot in fresh pajama pants and a borrowed t-shirt, standing on the threshold with the door open. There's too much snow for him to really want to step past the edge of the doorway--it's piled up pretty high--but the sun on his face and the sound of silence is a relief after the last two days.

Neal might not have answered when Negan shouted, but he hears him come down the stairs. He turns, expecting someone he knows--and then stops, half-closing the front door. "...Are you another cowboy?"

[vampirebats]

"Nah, more the leather jacket type." He doesn't... remember if he saw Neal here before he went poof or not, but he doesn't think so. So, does that mean he's some random displaced dude, or had Negan just been too frostbitten and tired to pay attention?

Either way, he shakes his head and offers up a grin. "I won't complain if you wanna call me one though. Name's Negan. You?"

[conning]

"Neal. I was kind of unconscious before we got taken." He figures he should probably give a reason for the fact that they haven't encountered each other yet. It's a big house, but it's not that big. "I'm assuming that's why we haven't met. Guest or resident?"

[vampirebats]

"Neal. Well, nice to meet you, I guess, even if these are some weird as shit circumstances." More than he'd like them to be, honestly. Still, he gives a quick smile.

"Guest. They were nice enough to put me up when the snow got bad out there. How about you, moving in or just passing through?"

[conning]

Neal laughs softly. Weird as shit indeed. "Staying, actually."

He sounds vaguely surprised at the declaration himself. "It'll be a first. I've never actually had housemates before."

[vampirebats]

"Yeah?" Well, he can't blame him. Being by yourself in this fucking place? Not exactly reassuring or comforting.

"Shit, you're going to be in for an adjustment then. I know I was." Then again, he'd had quite a few 'housemates' back in the apocalypse.

"Before I arrived here, of course. Had to get used to sharing space real fast with others."