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

[conning]

Apocalyptic shit. He immediately thinks of Ellie, and from there a thousand different ways the world could end. "Natural disaster or human?"

He waves a hand. "You don't have to answer."

As for this place being better... It's hard to imagine this place being better than home.

[vampirebats]

"Who even knows. People started getting sick and dying, then they started coming back with a fucking righteous hunger." So does it matter if it was a natural thing or a man-made virus? Not like they'll ever really get to know at this point.

He shakes his head. "Usually, it's other people who get more uncomfortable hearing about it. That shit's my normal life now, it's alright."

[conning]

More zombies. Different zombies, more familiar-sounding zombies, but more zombies. He feels like it should be more surreal than it is.

"So it's a recent thing. Or a sort of recent thing."

[vampirebats]

"Sort of. Didn't take long for the world to collapse... There are survivors out there though. All we can do is try to rebuild some sort of society." Nothing like before, but at least they can live still.

[conning]

"So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And Music shall untune the sky."

Neal's recitation is a little distracted. He frowns. "I can't actually remember what that one is called."

Which, apparently, is weird for him. Neal gestures toward the kitchen. "Is that what you were doing before this place? Rebuilding, I mean. Coffee?"

[vampirebats]

"You just had that shit memorized?" Neal might be annoyed he can't remember whatever it's called, but color Negan fucking impressed.

"More or less. We got a nice little set up going back home, communities working together." He nods and heads for the kitchen when Neal motions towards it.

"Hell, yeah. I could do with a little caffeine."

[conning]

Neal shrugs as he retrieves the French press from its spot in the cupboard, reciting again with a far lighter tone:

"If recollecting were forgetting,
Then I remember not;
And if forgetting, recollecting,
How near I had forgot!"

He puts a pot of water on to boil. "Emily Dickinson. I like poetry, memorization. It's like its own kind of puzzle." He makes a softly amused noise. "I would be so useless in an apocalypse."

[vampirebats]

"I wouldn't be so quick to say that. No one's useless, not if they're alive." He gives a shrug of his shoulders, looking Neal over thoughtfully for a second.

"Besides, books, poetry... that shit's still important. People still need to know it, so nerds are useful to have around." He's quick to flash a grin, just to reassure the guy he's just poking a bit of fun. Some people get sensitive about that sort of thing.

[conning]

Neal grins back. He's fine with being a nerd, even if no one really calls him that any more. Now he has tailored suits and an always carefully-modulated voice, intense blue eyes and the knowledge of how to use them. Now he's the charming Renaissance man to Mozzie's bald, bespectacled nerd.

It's kind of nice to have the table turned, in an odd way. There's an element of performance that being the nerd takes away.

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Mahatma Gandhi. I'm done now, I promise."

[vampirebats]

Hey, even with all the tailored suits and pretty words, a nerd's a nerd to Negan. He can appreciate brains, whatever package it comes in though. You need that kinda shit around.

"Jesus Christ, you're like a walking quote book. How do you do it?" Guy must have one hell of a memory.

[conning]

"A half-dozen memory tricks and friend prone to quizzing me on my references." Neal gives another little shrug. "I could also tell you the winning player and winning move of every World Chess Championship from 1948 to the present--I had to lay low for a month and there was nothing else to read. Great party trick, otherwise largely useless."

He fetches the coffee, loading the press as the water starts to simmer. "I've always been good at remembering things."

[vampirebats]

"Excuse the shit out of me, but did you just say you had to lay low?" They come after nerds who memorize chess championships where he's from? Because that's a weird as hell way to start a story.

[conning]

Neal gives him a brief, blank look, confused. "Yes?"

Oh. Oh. "I might have been an art thief in a past life. Allegedly."

[vampirebats]

"Allegedly. Right." He gives a nod at that, letting it sink in. Allegedly an art thief.

That's somehow not what he was expecting from the nerd boy.

"You just gained some definite cool points there, Neal."

[conning]

He grins again. "What would adding that I'm not-so-allegedly a forger, con man, and was a fugitive with a bounty on my head get me?"

The water starts to bubble, and Neal turns off the burner, filling the French press. "Have to keep pre-apocalyptic life interesting somehow."

[vampirebats]

"Wow, goddamn badass hidden underneath all poetry quoting shit, huh?" He reaches over to give Neal a clap on the back, grinning.

"You're gonna have to tell me some stories of this pre-apocalyptic life sometime, dude. That sounds exciting."