° 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

[thesamurai]

We're killing him. Soon as we can. Then we're taking in the people that were forced into working for him. The women who were forced to be his wives.

[ Y e a h. ]

Then, we're going back to rebuilding. When people talk about a war here, I like to think there's a handful of people who know what war looks like so they know how to cut through the bullshit. This won't be what people think. My experience, when people declare something on a grand scale? Never is exactly what they say. Ever.

[angewiesen]

[History's written by those who win the fight. For all he knows, this other guy could have some way to justify himself for all that he's done. Still, Jean hopes that it's Michonne's people who end up holding the pen when it's all said and done.]

That would mean they're planning to play fair-- which is a damn stupid tactic to take if you're really declaring war. No, I don't think it's gonna be anything we'll be able to prepare for either.

[thesamurai]

I gotta say, it's nice to talk to someone who isn't one track minded. Can't find too many others willing to even entertain this might not be what they think.

[ So, to be able to get this all out without hearing well, we should still prepare anyway has been a breath of fresh air. ]

[angewiesen]

When does it ever go like anyone thinks it will? The most important skill to have is being able to make the big decisions correctly as complications arise, not beforehand.

What we need is someone willing to give orders like that. It's a high pressure job, but it's an indispensable ability.

[thesamurai]

Not sure if anyone here is willing to listen to anyone giving orders. And if they were, if we were ready for something like that, it'd need to be an election or something. A nomination, someone announcing intent, open the floor up.

[ Michonne shakes her head just a little. ]

People come and go too much for that. Someone steps up today, they'll be gone tomorrow.

[angewiesen]

Well, then preparation is even more pointless if we're all going in a dozen different directions when disaster strikes. No one person here is strong or smart enough to win a war on their own.

I don't like relying on people's better natures either. There are assholes here that'd slit their mother's throats for a nickel.

[thesamurai]

So, your opinion, there should be one person, like a president, overseeing everything on our side?

[ She just wants to be sure she's hearing this right. She isn't opposed to the idea, she just has no idea how it would go. ]

[angewiesen]

I don't know. It's a pretty unique situation. Like you said, with people always coming and going. It might be a problem without a good solution. I just lean towards having a Commander around because that's what I'm used to.

[thesamurai]

Most people are, I think. Whether it's military or government. The best we can do is have a group of people willing to step up when we need it. I'll always fight back against whatever bullshit shows up. But I can't do it alone.

[angewiesen]

Well, you've got me. I take orders from Commander Shepard, but even if she wasn't here, I'd probably be doing the same thing. I've picked up the bad habit of wanting to help when things go sideways.

[thesamurai]

Commander Shephard's got a good head, knows what she's doing. Helped me when my world came here.

[ In short: Michonne likes her. ]

You're not from the same world, are you?

[angewiesen]

No. She's from a place that's way more advanced than my world. I can't even comprehend some of the stuff she's done-- space travel and all that. When I first got here, I didn't even know what electricity was.

But she treats me as an able body anyways, and I can respect someone who can look past someone's ignorance like that.

[thesamurai]

Didn't realize your time was so far back in the past. But if it makes you feel better, all this space shit that happens here is new to me, too. We put a man on the moon once, about forty-five years ago or so. Hell, maybe fifty. Haven't done it since.

[ And now, well, they won't, considering the state of her world. ]

You don't know what you don't know. And you definitely don't know what you're capable of until it happens. The ignorant part would be discounting someone before you even see what they can do, how fast they learn.

[angewiesen]

I don't know yet if it's because we're literally in the past, or because we're so focused on surviving it's stymied our technological development. Either way, it took a damn long time to get used to how things are here. And I still don't know how a computer is any different from magic.

Well, she's given me that chance. Hopefully I can meet up to her standards.

[thesamurai]

I won't pretend to understand how all the science and technology works to get computers going. Might as well be magic.

[ She smiles just a little. ]

Pretty sure the only standards are doing everything you can to keep this place from screwing everyone over, best you can.

[angewiesen]

You'd be surprised how many people can fail at that even when they're trying.

[thesamurai]

I see it all the time. Shit goes sideways pretty fast at home.

[ But speaking of that, she isn’t home anymore. She’s back in Wonderland, and there’s an entire family here that she’s built for herself. ]

I should go back in. People here, they’ve wanted me to stay close, threaten to tear apart the mansion looking for me if I’m gone too long.

[ Which makes her smile, certainly not annoyed by that. ]

[angewiesen]

Hey, you go make sure they lasted without you. [He raises a hand in easy goodbye.] I was just checking in. Good to see you in one piece.