° Open re-arrival

[thesamurai]

Who: Michonne, possibly you
Where: Roof, Grounds
When: April 17th
Rating: R for mentions of violence and most importantly, death of a child.
Summary: Michonne's back. Again. Tell a friend.
The Story:

[ She's back. And for the first time in all of the coming and going she's done in the three years she's been in Wonderland, this is the first time she's not pissed at leaving in the middle of something. As she stands on the rooftop, holding a letter in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other it's the blink of an eye and slow realization when her setting has changed. Alexandria becomes Wonderland, the smell of the dead is almost startlingly gone, and the memory of everything she's built in this place comes back.

I don't want you to be sad after this.

Closing her eyes, she drops her chin to her chest and lets out a breath as her eyes move over Carl's letter to Negan. It wasn't going to work. It was never going to work, hoping that his words might inspire some kind of truce. But she had to try, for him. She had to try and make it right. Staring out at Wonderland, she lets herself have a single fleeting thought, that Carl could come here. That he could come here and have a life and be a kid for a little while. But every time he does show up, he leaves in a matter of days or weeks. Still, she'd do a lot to see him again, to say the things she didn't because she couldn't believe she was losing another child. She'd vowed never to get close again, and yet somehow there'd been Carl and Judith and Rick, and here she is: carrying Carl's letters in her back pocket, grieving when he told her not to.

You're gonna have to be strong for dad. For Judith.

The rooftops of Wonderland have always seemed busy, so when she hears the door open behind her, she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Folding the letter carefully, she tucks it into her back pocket with her own letter and then stands and waits for whoever's arrived to either join her or go do their own thing. Her walkie-talkie is still in her hand, the static lightly hissing.

For yourself.

Later, on the grounds, she sits by the garden she made last summer, the beautiful dahlias a reminder of everyone she's lost both here, gone to their own worlds, and at home. With the letter Carl wrote for her out now, in her hands, she reads it over and over again, face tense and tears right there at the rim of her eyes but not falling. When the letter drops, she looks at the flowers, speaking, not to anyone, just to Carl. ]

We're going. We're going now to make it better. I'm here right now, but there? We're ending it with Negan. And I promise - I promise you - Judith has me. She'll always have me. World's gonna look good. I'll fight for it, for you. For her. We can be how we were. We will be.

[ She doesn't realize it, if anyone overhears, and she goes back to the letter in her hands. ]

Comments

[jivitadana]

[Minato could understand that. This place meant different things to everyone, and if she liked it here, then she should have a chance to enjoy her time here.]

There's a long way to go at home, isn't there.

[Her world was way beyond what Minato could imagine, even with events here from that very world. Having a several day long event was not the same as actually living it.]

[thesamurai]

There's a war.

[ And not just some declaration of one. Not an announcement and no action. So many people have died, so many people are still going to die. ]

It's not finished yet. But it will be soon, one way or another. When I showed back up here, the plan was to finish it in the next two days.

[ Maybe the next time she leaves Wonderland she'll die for real. She has no way of knowing. What a cliffhanger. ]

[jivitadana]

Two days isn't that long, but that sounds like too long to wait, too.

[Minato knew that time was so precious and needed to be managed just right. Two days in a war was extraordinarily long though.]

I hope the plan works.

[thesamurai]

Guess we'll have to see. Wonderland likes to pull me back everytime shit starts to get under way.

[ She doesn't understand it, or why she's gone home and come back so many times. ]

[jivitadana]

How many times has it done that to you?

[Some people never left and some people get shuffled back and forth. He didn't think there was a pattern, but he thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask.]

[thesamurai]

Three or four. I can't remember. About once a year since I got here. Think one year there might have been two, but it blurs together. Last time, I came back almost dead but I'm happy to report I lived. Only for this guy to try and take us all out soon, so. We'll see what happens next time I leave.

[jivitadana]

[All of that did not sound entirely pleasant. Why was it that some people had to suffer through that much?]

But you remembered Wonderland each time when you came back, just not when you were home.

[thesamurai]

Right. Never remember a damn thing a home, but once I come here, all of Wonderland is right there. Like I never left.

[ It's a weird feeling, and she can't think too hard about the time aspect of it, how it moves, how it doesn't. ]

[jivitadana]

I know I can't ask you to not worry about home, but there's some time here to rest, at least?

[Even if she wouldn't feel rested after being here and then returning home, but it was the thought that he hoped counted.]

[thesamurai]

[ Michonne rubs at her face for a second, then nods, letting out a heavy breath. ]

Yeah. Catch my breath before I get back to it, I guess. Just have to wonder how long I'll actually be here this time. Maybe another year, maybe a couple weeks. Who knows.

[jivitadana]

For what it's worth, if you want to stay, I think you should get to. And I like that you're here.

[There was that grit and determination, something so raw and real and strong that he liked about her.]

[thesamurai]

I've made a family for myself here and I'm not ready to leave that for good.

[ She doesn't know what would happen if Rick ever showed. But she does know she has him at home, so she's not really that worried. ]

Being here isn't a constant beating, at least. I like that I'm here, too.

[ Took her a couple years, but finally, she's happy in Wonderland. ]

[jivitadana]

They know you're back, right?

[He imagined that they'd want to see her and that she'd want to see them, though if she needed time to gather her thoughts beforehand, he could understand that too.]

[thesamurai]

Not yet. Just...giving myself a minute before they ask all the normal questions. Before I have to tell them everything that happened.

[ She closes her eyes for a second, not looking forward to it. Maybe it's selfish, putting it off just because she doesn't want to feel that pain again, even for a second. ]

[jivitadana]

Mn, that's okay. It's your return.

[And she could make herself known whenever she wanted.]

You're a lot farther ahead of them then?

[thesamurai]

No. Built my own family of people not even from my world. People from my world come and go within a few weeks.

[ Beth was gone. Daryl might as well be; he's talked to her once. ]

[jivitadana]

[Oh, so that's what she meant. All the more reason to want to stay too. They were people who she'd never see again if she went home, even if she did remember them.]

I understand that. There are people here that are like my family too.

[Since, well, he hadn't had one in over ten years, not until his last year at home and not until here.]

You're included.

[thesamurai]

[ She smiles at him at that, reaching out to lightly squeeze his shoulder before taking a deep breath and letting it out. ]

I should go see them, though. News won't get any easier the longer I put it off.

[ She doesn't want to tell anyone her son died, that she'd just buried him that morning. But she's going to have to tell Regina, at least. ]

[jivitadana]

[Minato nodded and gave her an encouraging smile.]

Good luck. You're allowed to take time for yourself too whenever you need it.

[She could tell her family that she was here and if she needed some distance before she was ready for anything else, that should be allowed.]