eenie meenie miney moe

[thesamurai]

Who: Michonne and YOU
Where: around the mansion
When: June 1
Rating: PG-13 maybe? Probably? Or R, we just don't know. WE NOW KNOW.
Summary: Michonne left for a canon update and is back just in time to not be IT.
The Story:

main entrance/foyer/whatever it's called

[She's going to kill Negan. The same way she killed the Governor, she's going to take her katana and run it straight through his heart. And if he kills her first with that fucking bat, she knows Rick will kill him. Bound with her hands behind her back, she subtly glances down the line of all of them on their knees, feeling rage seize in her gut when Negan gets close to Carl. Clenching her jaw, she listens to him go on and on, and she knows, one look at Rick and she knows, someone's going to die. This isn't a joke, this isn't an idle threat. One of them is about to meet the end of a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

The rage fades to fear, something she hasn't felt since Carl was shot in the face, and she's shaking as Negan counts them down, using a child's rhyme to taunt them all. When he points at her with the bat, Michonne looks at him defiantly, but as he picks she closes her eyes, squeezes them shut for a moment, too afraid to see who it is before needing to know. But then she's on her knees in Wonderland, inside the mansion. She knows exactly where she is, and air leaves her lungs in a loud, guttural cry as she pitches forward, hands still tied behind her back, a sob wracking her frame with her forehead touching the ground. Someone's about to die and she's back here. Safe.

Pulling herself together she clumsily stands, taking a deep breath and looking around. One of her locs has been crudely cut from her head, but aside from that (and her restrained hands), she looks about the same as she did when she left. She just needs a little help with the ropes.]

video message sent from the bar (action optional)

[She doesn't go back to her room just yet, instead she goes where she knows people will be, people she can surround herself with and know she's safe. She settles in with tequila, starting a video message. It's recording for a good minute before she finds her words.]

I left. That's the second time it's happened in less than a year. But, I'm back now, and as per usual, nothing good happened, so. You need me, I'm in the bar.

[She wants to see the people she calls friends, family. Right now though, she just can't make it room to room.]

Comments

Action, Bar

[lightgunhustler]

[Jo doesn't bother responding to Michonne's video-- she'd been intending to head to the bar shortly, anyways, and the broadcast is exactly the inspiration she needs to go to work just a little bit early. She has Jormy tag along with her, rather than leaving him in the room alone, and the Jack Russell terrier trots along at her heels as she enters, looking grim as she makes her way behind the bar itself without pause.

Michonne is here and in one piece, and she should be grateful for that, but she knows that the trip home was in no way a good one, and so she goes about pulling another glass from behind the bar before propping a hand against her hip.]

We've got to stop meeting like this.

[Translation: welcome back, I was worried sick.]

Whiskey? More tequila?

[thesamurai]

[Michonne's had a few by now, so her face isn't set in the hard lines it was a little while ago, and when she sees Jo, it relaxes a little further: confirmation that all the people she calls family are still here. Maybe it's selfish, but she needs that right now.]

Just glad there's still meetings to be had. I'll stick with tequila. Been helping myself to the best there is down there, until everything about what Wonderland is kicked back in to place. Which just means now I don't feel bad about it.

[lightgunhustler]

Tequila it is.

[She frowns a little as she looks her over; Michonne has been here awhile, settling herself back in, and Jo doesn't need to ask to know that a trip home for her had to be harrowing. There wasn't much of a home to go back to, after all.]

You were missed. How long you been back?

[thesamurai]

Only a little while. This was my first stop.

[As far as she's concerned, she knew she'd find family here.]

Figured people could come to me. I've earned the drinks, at least. [She pauses, pulling herself out of any inner turmoil over home at least for a few moments as she looks at Jo.]

You doin' okay?

[lightgunhustler]

Can't say I have any complaints.

[The infected swarming the mansion and all that had ensued has stuck with her, truth be told, but she's not about to admit it out loud-- especially not to Michonne, whose dealings with the undead weren't anywhere near as temporary.]

Earned is right, though. I'll keep them coming as long as you want. Simon can pick us up off the floor later if we go overboard.

[thesamurai]

Well, I'm glad I'm not drinking alone. And tomorrow...being back here won't be so bad. That I ever left at all won't feel real. It already doesn't. I have the memories, but this...this feels real.

[She has no idea how best to explain it.]

[lightgunhustler]

[Jo's not sure whether that should be counted as a good or a bad thing. Their memories were important, their experiences elsewhere were what made each and every one of them who they were--

But some of it, she's sure, it would be easier to dismiss as being unreal, even if they would always know they were trying to fool themselves.]

I think I get it. I mean, Wonderland-- it's my reality, too. [By choice, as much as it can be.] Sometimes you need to distance yourself.

[thesamurai]

What'll happen, is there'll be an event, and that'll be it. Be like I never left.

[She actually smiles just a little, seemingly not that bothered by what she's saying. Home is home, she adjusts each time, and right now, she has people here she wants to be available to, no matter what.]

[lightgunhustler]

[Jo smiles back, reserved but genuine.]

Everything will be back to normal, then. Well. Wonderland normal.

[Which is decidedly different from normal elsewhere, but to be perfectly honest, Jo has never done too well with 'normal.']

[thesamurai]

Wonderland normal is a gamble every time. But at least we know when shit hits the fan, it's only temporary, right?

[That has to count for something.]

[lightgunhustler]

Temporary, and we've got people we can count on.

[It's sappy, maybe, but it's hard not to be when a friend narrowly escapes being stuck somewhere she considers to be far worse than this place.]

We deal with it as best we can. I feel like we do pretty well-- kick a lot of ass, really.

[thesamurai]

Hell yeah we do. And I'll drink to that.

[She raises said drink in a toast.]

To us, because we kick a lot of ass. Wouldn't have it any other way.

[lightgunhustler]

Amen.

[Jo lifts her own glass in response, clinking them together before she takes a long drink.]

I sure as hell know who I can count on when things get rough around here.

[thesamurai]

Always. Never doubt it, Jo.

[lightgunhustler]

[She smiles warmly, and for a moment she doesn't feel like she has to say anything, because there's an unmistakable understanding between them-- they've become family. Whatever happens here, that won't change.]

Right back at you.

[She pushes away from the bar enough to incline her head towards the door to the back room.]

Can I get you something to eat? A burger or something?

[thesamurai]

Burger'd be great. Crispy fries with it?

[She'd normally get it herself, but she's exhausted and more than a little emotionally drained.]

Thanks, Jo.

[lightgunhustler]

You got it.

[She leaves the bottle next to Michonne's place at the bar for her before turning to head into the back.]

Sit tight. I'll be back in five.